History of Davenport and Scott County Iowa, Volume I, Part 27

Author: Downer, Harry E
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke
Number of Pages: 1042

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OLD DAVENPORT HOUSE. ROCK ISLAND ARSENAL

OLD PRISON HOSPITAL. ROCK ISLAND ARSENAL

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HISTORY OF SCOTT COUNTY

EXPEDITION FROM ST. LOUIS TO THE ISLAND TO ESTABLISH A FORT.

The Eighth United States infantry, under the command of Col. R. C. Nichols, was sent up the river from St. Louis in September, 1815, to establish a fort at or near Rock island. The object of the expedition was to occupy the country at the mouth of the Rock river, protect anticipated settlers, control the Sac and Fox tribes of Indians and to open and protect a line of navigation by way of the river to Prairie du Chien, which would be established further up the river. From some correspondence and perhaps also from the hostility or lack of friendliness shown by Black Hawk and his party after the war in refusing to attend and sign the treaty at Portage des Sioux, it was thought these Indians would remain unfriendly and endanger the supplying of the posts on the upper Mississippi by way of the river. The post at the lower end of the island, with the swift current and narrow chan- nel of the river in its aid at that spot, was rightly supposed to be able to hold its own against anything that could be sent against it. Col. George Davenport ac- companied the expedition as contractor's agent, all army provisions being then sup- plied through private contractors and not through a commissary department as now. Col. Davenport carried his supplies in keelboats like those that bore the troops. The movement of the expedition was slow and winter came on early. The ice caught the party at the mouth of the Des Moines river, now the southeastern corner of Iowa, and there the expedition halted, built huts or wig- wams to protect them from the cold and there spent the winter. This was where Maj. Zachary Taylor and his men wintered the year before, after their drubbing at Credit island. A very amusing incident which might have become tragic is re- lated of this expedition by Bailey Davenport : "One morning," says Mr. Davenport "during a thick fog the boats were anchored in an eddy of the river for breakfast. While seated in the boats at breakfast two of the officers, Second Lieutenants Bennet and T. F. Smith, of the Rifle regiment, found that they had different opin- ions respecting the direction of the current of the river and entered into a violent controversy on the subject. Finding that this would not make the river flow two ways, they chose their seconds, took their pistols, left their breakfasts and went to shore to fight it out and settle the matter. After exchanging a few shots neither having been hit and having discovered a higher respect for each other's opinions, as is usual when looking through the pistol's medium, they shook hands and went back to their breakfasts." Mr. Davenport adds that there were other duels before they reached their winter quarters.

The post was named "Cantonment Davis." This post subsequently gave way to the name of Fort Edwards and later the town of Warsaw, Illinois, opposite Keokuk, arose on or about its site. But Col. Nichols never reached Rock island to build that fort. During the winter he got into trouble, was placed under arrest and was sent to Nashville, Tenn., for trial and the command devolved upon Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel W. Lawrence, major of the regiment. In the following April, 1816, Brevet Brigadier-General Thomas A. Smith, colonel of the Rifle regiment, arrived at the cantonment with his regiment, took command of the expedition and proceeded up the river. He arrived at Rock island early in May and after exam- ining the country in the vicinity of the mouth of Rock river, fixed upon the foot of the west end of Rock island as the site of the fort which was to be built.

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HISTORY OF SCOTT COUNTY

The troops were first landed on the island on the 10th of May, 1816. They went into camp and at once commenced cutting timber for building store houses and a surrounding abatis for protection against the Indians.

INDIANS ARE APPREHENSIVE.

On the day after the landing General Smith sent messages to the Sac and Fox tribes to meet him in council but they refused to come. There were supposed to be living in the vicinity of Rock island at that time about 11,000 In- dians belonging to these two tribes. After making the troops of the Eighth regi- ment, which had been accompanied from Cantonment Davis by his Rifle regi- ment, as safe as possible, General Smith left the regulars in the hands of their commander, Colonel W. Lawrence, and went on to Prairie du Chien with his rangers, there to re-occupy the fort at Prairie du Chien and establish a fort which was then named Fort St. Peters, now known as Fort Snelling and located in the vicinity of St. Paul, Minn. The Eighth infantry, commanded by Colonel Law- rence, went ahead with the work of erecting the fort that had been ordered built on the island, and soon Fort Armstrong, named in honor of President Madison's secretary of war, became a reality. The Quaker gun battery on the very foot of the island marks the site of the western one of the three blockhouses that oc- cupied corners of the old fort. The interior of the fort was 400 feet square ; the lower half was of stone and the upper half of hewn timber. The tim- ber and stone were procured on the island. At three of the angles, the northeast, southeast and southwest, blockhouses were built and these were provided with cannon. One side of the square was occupied by the barracks and other buildings. These were built of hewn timber with roofs sloping inward as a protection against their being fired by the Indians and that they might not furnish a safe lodging place for the enemy in an attack. The fort was placed on the extreme northwest angle of the island. Its northwest corner was but 200 feet from the landing of the present government bridge. Its whitewashed walls and towers are described in contemporary letters as being very imposing and making a strikingly picturesque feature of the then savage landscape. The fort was fin- ished the following year.

DESCRIPTION OF THE FORT.

Governor Ford, in his "History of Illinois," gives the following description of Fort Armstrong as it appeared in 1831 :

Fort Armstrong was built upon a rocky cliff on the lower point of an island near the center of the river, a little way above; the shores on each side, formed of gentle slopes of prairie, extending back to bluffs of considerable height, made it one of the most picturesque scenes in the western country. The river here is a beautiful sheet of clear, swift-running water, about three-quarters of a mile wide ; its banks on both sides were uninhabited, except by Indians, from the lower rapids to the fort ; and the voyager upstream, after several days' solitary progress through a wilderness country on its borders, came suddenly in sight of the whitewashed

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HISTORY OF SCOTT COUNTY

walls and towers of the fort, perched upon a rock, surrounded by the grandeur and beauty of nature which, at a distance, gave it the appearance of one of those enchanted castles in an uninhabited desert, so well described in the Arabian Nights' entertainments.

After General Smith had gone up the river and the troops had finished the abatis and commenced getting out timber for the fort, the Indians pretended to be more friendly and began visiting the island in their canoes in great num- bers. The following incident is taken from a letter written by the Hon. Bailey Davenport and published in the "Rock Island Argus:"

AN ATTEMPTED MASSACRE.

One day a small party came over to dance and after the dance the colonel in command gave them presents. In a few days after, and while a large num- ber of the soldiers were out cutting timber, a large party of warriors, headed by the Ne-ka-le-quat, came over in canoes and landed on the north side of the island and danced up to the entrance of the encampment and wanted to enter and dance in front of the commander's tent. About the same time a large party of warriors was discovered approaching over the ridge from the south side of the island, headed by Keokuk. The colonel immediately ordered the bugle sounded to recall the soldiers from the woods and had all under arms (about 600) and the cannon run out in front of the entrance, ready to fire. The Indians were ordered not to approach any nearer. The colonel, tak- ing the alarm before Keokuk's party got near enough to rush in, saved the en- campment from surprise and massacre.

The Indians evidently knew that the erection of the fort was intended to compel a compliance on their part with the treaties which had been made and that, when white settlers came, they might have to leave their homes. Speaking of this, years afterward, Black Hawk said:

We did not, however, try to prevent their building the fort on the island, but we were very sorry, as this was the best island in the Mississippi and had long been the resort of our young people during the summer. It was our gar- den (like the white people have near their big villages), which supplied us with strawberries, blackberries, plums, apples and nuts of various kinds; and its waters supplied us with pure fish, being situated in the rapids of the river. In my early life I spent many happy days on this island. A good spirit had care of it, who lived in a cave in the rocks immediately under the place where the fort now stands, and has often been seen by our people. He was white, with large wings like a swan's but ten times larger. We were particular not to make much noise in that part of the island which he inhabited, for fear of disturbing him. But the noise of the fort has since driven him away and no doubt a bad spirit has taken his place.

The cave referred to was in the face of the limestone bluff at the northwest corner of the island. At high water the floor of the cave was covered and boats could enter. This cave was closed by building the abutment of the bridge across its entrance in 1870.

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HISTORY OF SCOTT COUNTY

ISLAND MENTIONED AS ARMORY SITE.

After the completion of Fort Armstrong, in 1817, there is nothing of much importance connected with this frontier post to be recorded till the breaking out of the Black Hawk war in 1831.

Under the act of congress, passed in 1841, the secretary of war selected Brigadier General W. K. Armistead, Surgeon-General Thomas Lawson and Lieutenant Colonel S. H. Long as a board to select a suitable site on the western waters for the establishment of a national armory. Their report upon Rock island was as follows:

This beautiful and interesting island derives its name from the circumstances of its resting upon a bed of rocks, consisting of limestone in horizontal strata, well adapted to the purposes of building. It stands in the Mississippi at the foot of Rock island rapids. Its length is about two and seven-eighths miles and its greatest breadth four-fifths of a mile. It contains about eight hundred acres of excellent land, still the property of the United States. The surface of the island is generally waving and is pervaded by a broad valley passing centrally and longitudinally two-thirds the length of the island. With the exception of a few acres cleared at the head of the island (the site formerly occupied by Fort Armstrong now used, in part, by the United States as a depot of arms of the western country and a large garden with other improvements occupied by George Davenport, Esq.), the island is covered with a dense timber growth. The island is bounded for the most part by precipitous cliffs or abrupt and rocky hill slopes, its surface rising ten to twenty feet above the reach of the highest freshets. The width of the channel on the south side of the island varies from 150 to 300 yards, while that on the north side, which is the main channel of the river, has a width varying from 420 to 700 yards. * Building materials of all kinds are to be had in abundance from Rock island and in this vicinity. Sawed lumber, consisting of white and black oak, black walnut, yellow poplar, ash and cherry tree is prepared in this neighborhood and afforded at prices varying from $12 to $20 per thousand, board measure. Pine lumber is pro- cured from the Wisconsin, Black and St. Croix rivers and can be afforded at about the same rates.

The woodlands of this part of the country occupy about one-sixth of the entire surface, the remaining five-sixths being prairie. The growth of the wood- land is generally scattering and consists of white, red and bur oak, black and white walnut, yellow poplar, wild cherry, sugar tree, maple, linden, red and white hickory, yellow birch, dogwood, etc. The soil is generally rich, and in places where it has been cultivated gives evidence of exceeding fruitfulness. Corn, wheat, rye, oats, flax, hemp, tobacco, apples, pears and other fruits, potatoes, turnips, radishes and culinary roots and vegetables are produced in great abun- dance and perfection. Bituminous or stone coal is found in abundance in this neighborhood. It generally occurs in the river hills at different elevations from five to thirty or forty feet above their bases, and in veins from three to four and a half or five feet thick. Lead is obtained in abundance from the mines of the upper Mississippi and Wisconsin rivers, and iron ore is said to abound in many parts of the country. Articles of subsistence of all kinds for man and

VIEW OF ROCK ISLAND ARSENAL

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HISTORY OF SCOTT COUNTY

beast are abundant and these are remarkably cheap, especially those used in the neighborhood.

The site is remarkably healthy as evinced by the reports now on file in the office of the United States surgeon-general, in relation to the health of the troops stationed at the various military posts of the United States and covering a period of more than twenty years, during which time the number upon the sick list at Fort Armstrong was proportionally less than at any other post in the western country.

THE BOARD FAVORS FORT MASSAC.

This board or examining committee finally made its report to the war de- partment and recommended Fort Massac on the Ohio river as the best site for the armory, but Surgeon-General Lawson of the committee did not agree with his confreres and did not sign their report. He made a separate report of great length in which he recommended a point of land on the Mississippi between Carondelet and the mouth of Des Peres river as the best site for the armory.

The people of Davenport, Rock Island and Moline were determined to have the western armory and arsenal located on the island, if anywhere. Meetings of the citizens of the three cities were held at stated times and the matter thor- oughly discussed, and about this time a committee of the citizens of Rock Is- land county, composed of John Buford, Joseph Knox, Joseph B. Wells, John Morse and George Mixter in behalf of the citizens of Rock Island county, Ill- inois, memorialized John Tyler, president of the United States, in the words following :

The undersigned, a committee acting in behalf of the citizens of Rock Is- land county, Illinois, would respectfully lay before you the following facts and considerations in favor of your selecting Rock island to be the site of the western armory.

Rock island is in the Mississippi river, about 300 miles above St. Louis, and 100 miles below Galena. It was the site of Fort Armstrong, and has recently been selected by the war department as a place of deposit for the public arms.

The title to the island (which is about three miles long and from one to three-fourths of a mile wide) is in the United States. The selection of Rock island, then, for a place for the western armory, would obviate the necessity of any expenditure for the purchase of a site, and would save the expense of buildings for an arsenal.

The facilities for supplying the west with arms from Rock island are ob- vious. By the Mississippi and its tributaries it could supply the ten states and two territories bordering upon them. Rock river and the Milwaukee and Rock river canal, the improvements of which will be completed before an armory can be put in operation, will furnished a water communication with Lake Michigan, through which arms can be sent to the states and territories bordering on the northern lakes. We may add that we have often heard distinguished gentle- men connected with the war department express the opinion that there is no point

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in the western states from which arms can be sent to the different military sta- tions with less expense and greater dispatch than from Rock island.

But its advantages for the manufacture of arms furnish the strongest rea- sons why Rock island should be selected as a site for the western armory. It is in the vicinity of one of the richest mineral regions in the world. For satis- factory information on this point we would refer you to the report made to congress in 1839, by Dr. Owen, of his geological and mineralogical survey of the country bordering on the Mississippi above the mouth of Rock river. We would add that since his survey many valuable beds of ore have been discovered.

The country abounds in rich beds of ore of iron, copper, zinc and lead; and in the immediate neighborhood of Rock island there is the greatest abundance of bituminous coal of the best quality.

In its vast water-power Rock island possesses advantages greater than can be urged in favor of any other place. A dam has been recently constructed from Rock island to the Illinois shore, by which a water-power is made that can be used for nearly a mile upon Rock island and for several miles upon the opposite shore. It has been carefully surveyed by distinguished engineers in the service of the United States and of Illinois and pronounced by them all to be the best water power in the western states.

WATER POWER FURNISHES STRONG CLAIM.

From its having this water power Rock island urges a stronger claim than can be presented by any place where steam must be used to propel machinery. And in the magnitude of this power, viewed in connection with the slight expense necessary for its application, it has hydraulic advantages greater than are possessed by any other place.

We would also urge as an important consideration in favor of Rock island that its location is favorable for health. Eminent physicians, acquainted with its locality, unhesitatingly pronounce it one of the most healthy places in the west. A single fact can be stated of vast weight on this point: During the time that Rock island was occupied by the garrison in Fort Armstrong an examina- tion was made of the health returns sent to the war department for seven suc- cessive years, from the different military stations. It was found that Fort Armstrong upon Rock island, was during that period the most healthy military station in the United States.

We need not add that a favorable location for health is an important con- sideration where a large number are to be employed on the public works; and especially is this important in the west where most of the public works are an- nually suspended during what are called the sickly seasons.

From the fertility of the surrounding country and the easy communication with other parts of the United States it is evident that supplies for an armory may be obtained at as reasonable prices at Rock island as at any other place.

We add but one consideration further: In selecting sites for its public works it has ever been the policy of the government to give the preference (other things being equal) to places distinguished for their delightful scenery and beautiful location for public buildings. It was from these considerations that

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the principal buildings of the armory at Springfield, Massachusetts, were lo- cated at an inconvenient distance from the place where it has its water power.

Rock island, elevating its rocky front high above the waters of the Mississippi and looking out upon the scenery of a country described by a distinguished traveler as the most beautiful the eye ever rested upon, possesses peculiar ad- vantages for the erection of public works which exhibit a happy combination of utility with imposing beauty.

We would refer you to the officers of the army who are acquainted with the advantages of the different places in the west which are now presenting their claims for the location of the armory. We are authorized to assure you that the officers stationed upon the northwestern frontier express their preference for Rock island.

Especially would we ask your attention to the minute report made to the war department, last year, of the advantages of Rock island, by Captain Bell, of the ordnance department, who is now stationed at Jefferson Barracks, and we are happy in being permitted to refer you to Captain Bell as a gentleman qualified by his attainments and recent minute surveys to furnish you with ac- curate information respecting the peculiar advantages of Rock island as a site for the western armory.

In conclusion we would remark that while many places, better known than Rock island for their business and enterprise, are having their advantages for an armory presented to you by distinguished and influential individuals, we con- fidently rely upon the assurance given us by the most important acts of your life, that, while you give due consideration to individual opinions you will be governed by a regard to the public interests in selecting a site for the western armory ; and we therefore present the claims of Rock island to your attention as a site possessing unequaled advantages for the manufacture of public arms and the greatest facilities for their importation to the different military stations in the western states and territories.

A STRONG LOCAL COMMITTEE.

By the action of these gentlemen another committee of leading citizens of the three cities-Rock Island, Davenport and Moline-was appointed in 1861, consisting of the following named persons : Ira O. Wilkinson, N. B. Buford, H. C. Connelly, J. Wilson Drury and Bailey Davenport, of Rock Island; W. H. F. Gurley, George L. Davenport and G. H. French, of Davenport; and C. Atkinson and P. R. Reed, of Moline. These gentlemen memorialized congress in an ably pre- pared pamphlet, with a map of this locality, upon the claims and advantages of Rock island as the site for the proposed western arsenal and armory. This me- morial sets forth that a new armory and arsenal, for the manufacture, safe-keep- ing and distribution of arms and munitions of war, are of pressing national neces- sity, demanded alike by the present wants and future requirements of the govern- ment, and that the preponderating growth of the northwest, as well as the absence of any such establishment within its limits, indicate that such an armory should be located upon the upper Mississippi. Coming directly to the claims of Rock island the memorialists say: "Believing that Rock island, in the state of

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HISTORY OF SCOTT COUNTY

Illinois, in the centrality and safety of its geographical position, the facilities it affords for transportation to and from other parts of the country, the cheap- ness and abundance of its motive power and the materials used in the manufac- ture of arms, in the supply and cheapness of labor and food, in the healthfulness, spaciousness and general eligibility of the site, and the possession and owner- ship thereof by the government free of cost or expense-enjoys advantages equal, if not superior, to those possessed by any other place in the northwest for the location of such an establishment-your memorialists would respectfully ask your attention to a brief notice of these advantages." The advantages are set forth in the ten or twelve pages which follow with great force and cogency of argument. In this document we find a report of the action of the Iowa legisla- ture and of the authorities of Illinois on the subject and a certificate of the gov- ernment agent in charge of the island.

JOINT RESOLUTIONS OF THE IOWA LEGISLATURE.

"Be it resolved by the senate and house of representatives of the state of Iowa, that the senators in congress from this state be requested to use their ut- most exertions to procure the establishment, at the earliest possible time, by the government of the United States of an arsenal and armory for the distribution of arms to the states of the northwest on the island of Rock island, in the state of Illinois.

"Resolved that the secretary of state be requested to forward to each of the senators and representatives in congress a copy of these resolutions. Approved March 24, 1861."

No session of the legislature of Illinois had been held immediately prior to this action, but Governor Yates and the other state officers, both civil and military, addressed a letter to the secretary of war, urging the location of the armory upon Rock island.

CERTIFICATE FROM THE GOVERNMENT AGENT.

"I, T. J. Pickett, government agent for the island of Rock island, hereby certify that the lands owned by the government on said island are free from the claims of squatters and that the only occupants thereon are eight in number, who hold leases under and acknowledge themselves tenants. of said government, in which lease it is specifically agreed that the lessors are to vacate the premises in thirty days from the date of receiving notice requiring them to leave. T. J. Picket, government agent, Rock Island, Illinois, October 25, 1861."

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History of Davenport and Scott County Iowa, Volume I, Part 27

Author: Downer, Harry E Publication date: 1910 Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Number of Pages: 1042

Author: Downer, Harry E
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke
Number of Pages: 1042