USA > Iowa > Black Hawk County > History of Black Hawk County, Iowa, and its people, Volume I > Part 45
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By an act of January 25, 1855, the counties of Linn, Benton, Black Hawk and Buchanan were constituted the Twenty-fifth Senatorial District, entitled to one senator. Black Hawk and Buchanan were constituted the Forty-first Representative District, entitled to one representative.
The Omnibus Road Bill, approved January 24, 1855, provided for the appoint- ment of commissioners to locate state roads, as follows: James B. Kelsey and Thomas B. Stone of Linn County and Harrison Bristol of Benton, to locate a road from Cedar Rapids via Bear Creek Mill and Vinton, to Cedar Falls. William P. Hammon of Bremer, Samuel Sufficool of Buchanan, and O. P. Harwood of Floyd, to locate a road from Independence, via Barclay, Waverly, St. Charles and Floyd Center, to the state line, in Mitchell County. John T. Barrick, - Boone and Cornelius Beal, to locate a road from Cedar Falls, via Hardin City and New Castle, to Fort Dodge. By joint resolution approved January 18, 1855, the Legislature of Iowa asked for additional mail facilities in Black Hawk County as follows: From Des Moines, via Nevada, Minerva Grove, Henry Grove and Eldora, to Cedar Falls, in Black Hawk County, in two- horse coaches, once a week. From Cedar Falls, via Hardin City and New Castle, to Fort Dodge, in two-horse coaches, once a week.
RAILROAD WRECKS
At 1.30 A. M., Sunday, May 28, 1899, a passenger train on the Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern Railroad was wrecked at Sink Creek, about four
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miles southeast of Waterloo. There had been a period of heavy rains preceding the disaster and the night of the wreck there had been a particularly violent cloudburst, which washed the foundation from under the tracks. Eight people were killed here on this night and forty were injured.
At 3.00 A. M., Friday, June 19, 1903, six miles east of Waterloo and one- quarter mile west of Raymond at a place called Raymond's Hill, an east bound passenger train collided with a west bound freight train, both trains going at full speed. The result was frightful. The coaches piled up and fell to one side of the track and when the mass of wreckage was loosened it was found that eleven persons had been killed outright and many more injured.
At 10.20 A. M., Friday, September 6, 1907, a north bound passenger train on the Rock Island was wrecked at Norris Siding, three miles north of Cedar Falls. A freight train stood on the siding waiting for the passenger to pass. As the latter approached the siding the engine trucks left the rails and the whole train crashed into the freight. The mail car, the baggage car and the smoker of the passenger were all telescoped. Fourteen people, all in the smoker, were killed and many others suffered injuries.
At 8:15 A. M., Monday, March 21, 1910, a double-header Rock Island pas- senger train, being detoured from Cedar Rapids to Waterloo by way of Mar- shalltown, was wrecked three miles south of Gladbrook, Iowa. The wreck was due to a broken rail. The coaches piled up and telescoped. the first day coach being completely destroyed by the smoker, which in turn telescoped the third car half way. The passengers were caught in this frightful crash and many were horribly mutilated while many of the dead were crushed beyond recognition. Doctors were hurried from Gladbrook, Green Mountain and Mar- shalltown. There were thirty-eight people killed in the wreck and fourteen died of their wounds afterward.' Of this casualty list Waterloo supplied ten victims, among them the following: A. X. Brown, wife and two daughters, Leonora and Eva : Anthony Phillips, George P. Bunt, F. D. Lyman, Mrs. Walter Davis, W. W. Eggers, Mae Hoffman, and Prof. L. W. Parish of Cedar Falls.
Vol. J -24
CHAPTER XIV
WATERWAYS AND BRIDGES
RIVERS AND STREAMS
That the Cedar River and improvements resulting from its presence have played a great part in the development of Black Hawk County there is no ques- tion. The river brought settlers here and the beauty of it gave them the desire to stay and here make their homes. Although the expense of bridging the river and smaller streams has been exceedingly heavy on the taxpayers of the county, there is a feeling that without the splendid waterways the county of Black Hawk would suffer.
The Cedar River is considered one of the most valuable and picturesque in the West: it traverses the entire length of Black Hawk County from the north- west to the southeast. Besides this stream, there is the Big Wapsipinicon River running through Lester Township, in the northeastern portion of the county : Crane Creek flows through Bennington and Lester townships and empties into this latter river. The Black Hawk has its source in Grundy County to the southwest of this county, enters it at the southwest corner of Black Hawk Town- ship, traverses the township in a winding course to the northeast corner, where it enters Waterloo Township and on through that until it reaches the Cedar River, passing through the upper edge of the city of Waterloo; this stream is consid- ered one of the most important drainage channels in the state. Prescott Creek runs through the western portion of Orange Township and discharges its waters into Black Hawk. Miller's Creck, which has as many as a half dozen heads in Eagle Township, runs through Cedar and empties into the river from the west. There are several other creeks which flow into Cedar River from the west, including the Beaver. which is to the northwest and flows through Union Town- ship; Mud, Prairie, Sink and other small creeks and Big Creek, which gives its name to the township of that name, are also from the southwest. La Porte City is located on the banks of this creek. The creeks entering the Cedar from the east and north are: Spring Creek, which runs through the western parts of Spring Creek and Fox townships; there are smaller streams a little farther up the river and then Indian Creek, which rises in Barclay, courses through Fox and a part of Poyner to the Cedar. Elk Run rises in Bennington, runs through Barclay and a part of East Waterloo to the Cedar. There are other small streams, Ellsworth, Poyner and various branches of the larger creeks.
The Cedar River forks about six miles south of the Bremer County line. immediately on the dividing line between Washington and Union townships. The east fork is the larger of the two.
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HISTORY OF BLACK HAWK COUNTY
More description of the rivers and the bluffs along them may be found in the chapter on Geology and Topography.
FERRIES
The Cedar River is at all times shallow in places and easily forded. Slight changes in the depth of the water make this impossible, a condition now over- come by the wonderful system of bridges throughout the county. In the carlier days, however, bridges were too expensive and the settlers were compelled to resort to other means.
According to the county court records, dated October 12. 1853. a ferry was proposed. The record is as follows :
"Now, to wit, this day, Samuel L. May makes application for a license to erect and keep a ferry at Waterloo, across Cedar River at said place, and on proof that the legal notice has been given, by posting up as the law directs ; and. also, the said applicant having filed the bonds required by law in a penalty of $200 and bonds being approved by the court, whereupon the court grant to said Samuel 1 .. May the exclusive right to keep and run a ferry boat or boats on the Cedar River at Waterloo, and this privilege to extend one mile each way, up and down the river from Waterloo, for ten years from this date, if so long the applicant shall attend and cause to be kept in good order, and in all respects comply with the requirements of the law in regard to ferries, and the court prescribe the fol- lowing rates of toll to be charged, and no greater, to wit: For each footman, 5 cents : man and horse, 15 cents; one horse and buggy, 20 cents; two horses and wagon, 25 cents ; two horses and carriage, 25 cents ; four horses and a wagon, 50 cents ; two yokes of oxen and wagon, 50 cents ; neat cattle, per head, 10 cents ; horses, per head, 10 cents ; sheep, per head, 3 cents ; hogs, per head, 3 cents. The said May is to ferry free of charge all persons going to or returning from meetings on the Sabbath and all voters going to or returning from elections held at Waterloo.
"J. R. PRATT, County Judge."
May established his ferry line a little above the present dam.
On April 3. 1855, the county court granted a license to Benoni 11. Butter- field to run a ferry across Cedar River from Tenth Street, Waterloo, just below the courthouse. This franchise extended a mile down the river. On August 23d of the same year Butterfield sold his license to Lewis Hallock for $700. On June 5, 1855, a license was granted to Benjamin Barnes to run a ferry across the Cedar River at or near section 29, township 87, range 11. In 1857 Lake and Bullock established a steam ferry above the dam at Waterloo and operated it for a short time, but the boat was cumbersome, ran over the dam two or three times and finally fell upside down near the livery stable on the bank of the river, which ended the experiment. On August 8, 1854, the county court granted a license to J. R. Cameron to run a ferry across Cedar River opposite the Village of Cedar Falls.
THE COMING OF THE BRIDGES
In the carlier years of the county little was done to promote the building of bridges, nor did the county judge devote much time to the matter. When the
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board of supervisors came into existence and the county judge relegated to the past, the question of bridges became a live one. However, there were many drawbacks. The members from the sparsely settled townships with no large streams to bridge wanted sums out of all proportion to their actual wants, while the really important points were neglected. Thus, in the building of the first bridge at Waterloo, at Fourth Street. This one was constructed by subscription, G. W. Couch being the contractor and principal subscriber, also the firm of Beck and Nauman. It was built upon wooden piers and was opened to the public in 1859, in the month of September. In 1864 and 1865 two spans of the bridge fell and were rebuilt, but soon after, during time of freshet, the entire structure was carried away downstream. After much parleying and hesitation the supervisors voted an appropriation of $2,000 for a new bridge at this point, the structure to be 600 feet long. To add absurdity to their past actions they voted an appropriation at the same time of $3,500 for a 160-foot bridge over Big Crcek at La Porte City. Afterward, the appropriation for the Waterloo Bridge was raised to $5,000, added to which was $7,000 raised by popular subscription in the town.
This structure was completed and fulfilled its purpose until 1871, when the need was felt for a better and stronger bridge. On August 16th of that year the board of supervisors ordered "That the sum of $8,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary, be appropriated out of the bridge fund to build necessary abutments, and not more than four piers, for a new bridge on the site of the present bridge across Cedar River, in the City of Waterloo; and that the board of supervisors act in committee of the whole to receive proposals, and let the contract in whole or in part for furnishing material and for building said abut ments and piers."
On September 6, 1871, the board realized the necessity of more money in order to have the bridge adequate in size and strength. Not having the authority to appropriate more than $12,000 for any one bridge, and having already appro- priated $8,000 for the abutments and piers, they submitted the question of appro- priating $18,000 for the superstructure to a vote of the people at the general election on the second Tuesday in October, 1871. On September 9, 1871, on petition of the Waterloo citizens it was ordered that the east end of the new bridge be at the center of the county road and that the west end be at the center of Bridge Street, as near as practicable. On December 4, 1871, a canvass of the election proved that there were 892 votes for the appropriation and 912 against it, consequently the proposition was defeated.
On January 3, 1872, the board appropriated $4.700, the limit allowed by law, for the Waterloo Bridge. During that same winter the Legislature amended the law in regard to bridge appropriations and on February 17, 1872, an appropria- tion of $14,000 was made for the proposed structure and A. T. Weatherwax, H. B. Allen and L. A. Cobb were authorized to receive bids for the contract. Work was begun and completed in time to be opened to the public in the fall of 1872. The total cost of the bridge was $28,600. The style of the bridge was the tubular arch type and it served its purpose well for thirty years. It was constructed by the Ohio Bridge Company.
An appropriation of $11,000 was made on December 17, 1872, for an iron bridge at Cedar Falls, the county bridge commissioners to award the contract.
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This contrasts very strongly to the procedure in regard to the Waterloo improve- ments. G. B. Van Saun, A. S. Smith, and E. Townsend were appointed to superintend the building of the Cedar Falls Bridge. It was not very long after this until the board of township supervisors was abolished, and the county board established. This was a very beneficial occurrence for the progress of the county and the towns therein.
In 1887 the Waterloo Fifth Street Bridge was constructed. J. B. Locke had the contract for the stone work, which cost $10.304. C. P. Jones had the con- tract for the iron superstructure, which cost $20,496. The Beaver Bridge, built in 1889 by J. W. Crawford & Son, cost $2,420. In the same year the sum of $2,890 was spent on two bridges over the Black Hawk. The Gilbertville Bridge over the Cedar River was built in 1892 by the George E. King Building Company and cost $24,000. This bridge was repaired in 1898 at a cost of $1,000. The Big Creek Bridge-the La Porte City Bridge-Toledo Bridge Company, con- tractors, was built in 1894 at a cost of $2,100. A bridge over Crane Creek at Dunkerton was constructed in 1894 by the Hannibal Company at a cost of $3.800. A bridge over the Black Hawk, built in 1889 by N. M. Stark & Company, cost $2,225 and the approaches cost $532. The Cedar Falls Bridge over the Cedar, built in 1891 by the American Bridge Company, cost $30,000. The same com- pany removed the old bridge and placed it across the Cedar, between Washington and Union townships, at a cost of $4,000. The Marsh Bridge Company, in 1902-03. constructed the Fourth Street Melan Arch Bridge at Waterloo, at a cost of $74,100, of which sum $29,100 was paid by the city. The same company was paid $11,000 for removing the old bridge and setting up three spans of it on the Cedar Falls and Waterloo road over the Cedar River at the upper end of Cedar River Park and Sans Souci Park, and two spans of it over the Black Hawk on the west side, Cedar Falls and Waterloo road.
The Melan Arch Bridge at Fourth Street, Waterloo, is one of the finest in the country, although there are features which might have been added, had it not been for the same old spirit against appropriations. The bridge is built of steel and cement, the steel being completely hidden in the cement, giving the appearance of a solid stone block. The bridge lacks a few feet of being the full width of the street, a thing to be regretted by the city, as it was neglected by reason of the spirit mentioned above. During the construction, in 1902, the work was seriously delayed by constantly recurring freshets. The work of plac- ing the piers was exceedingly difficult. However, the bridge was completed late in the fall of 1903. The city had to pave the bridge, which cost several thou- sand dollars. The structure is 586 feet in length and 60 feet in width.
In all there are eight first class bridges spanning the Cedar River in Black Hawk County. There is one between Big Creek and Spring Creek townships, one at Gilbertville, four at Waterloo, including one at Chautauqua Park, one at Cedar Falls and one between Washington and Union townships. Two of these structures are of cement and six of iron. The two cement Melan arch type bridges are at Fourth and at Fifth streets, Waterloo.
The Fifth Street Bridge was erected in the year 1908 at a cost of $87,000, by the Bartlett and Kiing Company of Cedar Rapids. The dimensions of this structure are 664 feet by 60 with a 100-foot approach on the west end. The old iron and steel bridge which spanned the river at Fifth Street was moved to
Fourth Street bridge.
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Fifth Street bridge.
T
Mullan Avenue bridge. BRIDGES OF WATERLOO
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HISTORY OF BLACK HAWK COUNTY
Eleventh Street, the cost of removal being $14,000. This bridge is 616 feet in length.
The Mullan Avenue reinforced concrete bridge, completed in 1913, is one of the finest in the country. N. M. Stark & Company, of Des Moines, were the contractors. The piers were placed upon a solid rock foundation within a few feet below the river bed. The cost was $93,600, less by over a thousand dollars than the original estimate. This bridge, the third concrete structure to unite the two sides of the city, is the longest of all.
DAMS
The first dam to be constructed, or rather attempted, across the Cedar River was begun by William Sturgis at Cedar Falls in 1845. Owing to the shortage of help and the scarcity of settlers, the project was soon dropped. In 1848 the Over- mans and Edwin Brown, men of wealth, bought Sturgis' claim, including the water power, and erected a dam of brush and logs, which was the first within the limits of the county. This was constructed in 1848.
The second dam to be erected was at Waterloo, by James Eggers, in the sum- mer of 1854. Eggers received permission from the County Court to construct a dam across the Cedar River at the Village of Waterloo, in accordance with an act of the Territorial Legislature of Iowa, approved February 15, 1845, and filed a bond in the sum of $2,000. He located the dam a short distance above where the dam now stands, made it of logs and brush and within two months had it com- pleted, raising the water two feet. This dam is still to be seen during a very dry season when the water sinks to that level. A sawmill was constructed at the same time.
HIGH WATER
The year 1858 has gone down in the history of Black Hawk County as an exceedingly wet year, perhaps the worst so far as known to white men. There are geological evidences of higher water at some remote period and also the Indians told of "big waters" years before the first settlers came to the county. In 1858 the rainfall was heavy throughout the year ; overland transportation was next to impossible, which made the base of supplies on the Mississippi River hard to reach. At Cedar Falls the river was the highest and completely covered Cedar City on the opposite side of the river. A two-story building was swept away and was seen drifting past Waterloo. At the latter place nearly two hundred feet of the Dubuque & Pacific Railway embankment was swept away and the water poured in torrents through two of the ravines on the west side, inundating the lower portion of the town. Below the town the river overflowed its banks to a great extent. Two weeks after the first flood another heavy storm occurred, which created a worse flood than the previous one. Again, two weeks later, an- other freshet occurred.
On July 19, 1858, two young ladies, named Case and Corson, were drowned in the Cedar at Waterloo. On the 20th James Dyer was drowned in the bayou near Cedar City and about the same time another man was drowned while at- tempting to cross the river at Gilbertville. Boats were used in the streets of
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Waterloo and at Cedar Falls. Mail was distributed by boat, a raised platform constructed on Commercial Street to accommodate the mail sacks.
RED CEDAR RIVER
Favored indeed were they who were permitted to view the Red Cedar River in its primitive loveliness. Long before the advent of the white men its wooded valley was the accustomed haunt and the hunting grounds of the red men and village sites of these aborigines as well as those of the mound builders can still be traced.
Flowing over a bottom of white sand, gravel and limestone, the water of the Cedar, prior to the cultivation of the land along its banks, was as clear as crystal the greater part of the year. It abounded with fishes of every known variety of the inland streams of the Middle West, which formed a substantial source of food supply for the Indians. Here and there a stretch of the river was bordered with naked prairie, but for the most part, from its source in Freeborn and Mower counties, Minnesota, to its junction with the Iowa, thirty miles from the Mississippi, the banks of the river were bordered with woodland which in some sections consisted of heavy bodies of timber. The predominating varieties were soft woods, such as the different kinds of willows, basswood. soft maple. red cedar, cottonwood, and elm, but the oaks, hickory and butternut, ash, hard maple and walnut were very plentiful. Shrubbery, including wild gooseberry. currant and hazel bushes, grapevines and haws, supplied food for bird and beast as well as man, in the Cedar Valley, and it is not surprising that Mother Hanna exclaimed when she viewed the Cedar at the present site of Waterloo, that lovely July morning in 1845: "This seems to me to be the River of Life and over yonder is Canaan."
In Fulton's "Red Men of Iowa" the author states that the Sac and Fox name for this river was Mosk-wah-wak-wah, the translation being "Mosk-wah," red; "wak-wah," cedar or cedar tree, the two words forming, as translated, our pres- ent name of the river, Red Cedar.
In the year 1805 Lieut. Zebulon Pike was commissioned by the Government to explore the Upper Mississippi Valley. With twenty soldiers he embarked from St. Louis on August 9th in a keel boat, seventy feet in length. On August 26th the explorers camped at the mouth of the Towa River and Pike describes the stream and vicinity in the following language: "The lowa River bears on the Mississippi southwest and is 150 yards wide at its mouth. In ascending the Iowa thirty-six miles you come to a fork, the right branch is called the Red Cedar, from the great quantity of that wood found on its banks. It is navigable for bateaux nearly three hundred miles. It then branches into three forks called the 'Turkey Foot.' Ten miles up the Iowa from its mouth is a village of Iowa Indians."
It is interesting to note that the Turkey Foot Forks mentioned by Pike are situ- ated in the extreme northwest corner of Black Hawk County and are formed by the junction of the West Branch and Shell Rock rivers with the Cedar. It is apparent that the bateau of the Indian trader, a flat-bottom boat of Canadian origin, had plowed the waters of the Cedar to the present confines of this county. As late as 1846 adventurers cut cedar logs on Government land in Black Hawk County and rafted them down the river and for many years prior to that period
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Frenchmen from St. Louis found the cutting and rafting of cedar logs a profit- able occupation. Lieutenant Pike also mentions another river which passes through the northeast corner of the county. On the 2d day of September, 1805, the expedition reached the Turkey and he says: "Between the Iowa and Turkey rivers we found coming in from the west the Wabisapenkum (Wapsipinicon) River; it runs parallel with the Red Cedar and has scarcely any wood on its banks."
The name is derived from the Indian names, Waubessa (white), and Pinnear (potato), meaning white potato. It is said that the quantities of wild artichokes found along its banks by the Indians gave rise to the name.
On August 22, at the mouth of the Rock River, on the Illinois side, the ex- plorer met the Sac chief, Black Hawk, after whom Black Hawk County was named. Pike was killed in the War of 1812 and in the autobiography of Black Hawk, the warrior says of the young American chieftain : "He was a good man, a great brave, and I have since learned died in his country's service."
In the early days buffalo, elk and deer were numerous in the Cedar Valley. Some bears were to be found, feathered game such as wild turkeys, prairie chickens, quail, ruffed grouse, wild pigeons and water-fowl abounded in count- less thousands ; fur bearing animals, including beaver, otter, mink, muskrats and raccoons were plentiful ; hence it was that the Indians were loath to part with ter- ritory which meant so much to their existence.
In July, 1837. Wau-cosh-au-she, a chief of the Sacs and Foxes, whose band was sorely in need of food, led its members composed of forty men and about one hundred and thirty women and children up the right bank of the Cedar River from a point near the Mississippi where their village was located, on a hunting expedition. They found little game for days and in a report made afterward Wau-cosh-au-she said: "We had to depend on fish we caught in the Cedar to keep our people from dying of hunger." Some of the young men who had been sent in advance to the wooded country between the Wapsipinicon and Cedar, doubtless the section embracing the eastern part of Black Hawk County, returned with the report that the Winnebagoes were hunting there, so the band headed for the mouth of the Otter River. Here they found a band of Sioux encamped and a battle took place in which the Sacs and Foxes were routed, leaving eleven warriors dead on the field and carrying away thirteen wounded, several of whom afterward died, among them their chief. The retreat down the Cedar was hasty and the survivors reached Rock Island on August 8, about six days after the fight.
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