History of Davenport and Scott County Iowa, Volume I, Part 43

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

USA > Iowa > Scott County > Davenport > History of Davenport and Scott County Iowa, Volume I > Part 43

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I found that the man whom I had engaged to put up my house had betrayed me. The money I had left with him to purchase lumber he had applied to his own use, and there was nothing on the ground but the naked frame which I had purchased in the fall. The first thing to be done was to find shelter for my wife and child. I succeeded in renting two small rooms, just finished, about twelve feet square, at the corner of Third and Ditch (now Harrison) streets. The rooms were very small and inconvenient for a family of seven persons. We were

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obliged to go out of doors from one room to get into the other. They had been built for offices, but in those days we had to do the best we could.

In about two weeks I had my house weather-boarded and shingled, and, put- ting down loose boards for a floor, moved in at once and then finished it, a room at a time. I found the little town a busy place, every one anxious to secure a home. Some settlers, besides myself, came in that spring and a number of houses had been commenced, and the inhabitants of the little town were as active as a swarm of bees. But the great excitement was the Rockingham war, and a few weeks later the Missouri war. I served in both, like a true soldier and patriot. The Rockingham war was tedious, lasting about two years, and four pitched battles were fought, with varying success. The contest was for the county- seat, which Rockingham had and was loth to give up. She had been the empo- rium of Scott county, outnumbering Davenport in population and business. But two years made a change. Davenport had grown materially, both in population and capital, while poor Rockingham had reached her growth, some of her citi- zens deserting to the enemy and at the last election, sixteen of her people voted for Davenport. As an inducement for the people of Scott county to vote for Davenport. the citizens offered to build the court house and present it to the county, free of all expense, promising it should be equal to the court house across the river, at Stephenson, Illinois ; and it was a facsimile.

In the early summer we were called upon by the governor to volunteer to march to the Missouri line and drive the Missourians from our sacred soil. There was no necessity to repeat the order. We were all fighting men in those days. The war between Rockingham and Davenport was suspended for a short time and we all united to resist this invasion of our territory by the miserable Missourians. Davenport was selected as headquarters for Scott county. The day appointed for us to meet was a lovely, spring-like morning. Nearly every man in the county was present to be enrolled. Our colonel, Sam Hedges, made us a patriotic speech, but what a sorry lot of soldiers he had to drill! Not having any guns, many came with pitchforks, scythes, hoes and clubs. One man had a sheet-iron sword, six or seven feet long. Many were drunk, and all were noisy and disposed to jeer and make fun of our officers. Our colonel could stand this no longer. All who were drunk, and those improperly armed, were ordered out of the ranks. We who remained were getting hungry, as it was then dinner time, and asked for rations, when we were informed that we would have to furnish our own blankets, whiskey, and hard tack, which the government would refund at some future day. This we objected to. We were willing to shed our blood for our beloved territory, and if necessary, to kill a few hundred Missourians, but we were not going to do that and board ourselves.

At this juncture, we saw approaching in solemn column, our fellow soldiers who had been discharged. They were led by the man with the long sheet-iron sword. They charged on us, and it makes me blush to say that, notwithstanding we were three to their one we were badly defeated and scattered in every direction. The knight of the sheet-iron sword made for our colonel, and nothing but the colonel's superior fleetness saved him. As he ran he informed us that we could go home ; nothing more would be done until he received further orders.

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At this time congress was in session, and, becoming alarmed at the Civil war impending, interfered. The poor barbarians of Missouri, hearing of the hostile demonstrations being made in Davenport and other river towns, withdrew from our territory. A few months later the supreme court met and decided in our favor, and all was peace.

Meanwhile, our little village was growing and the contest between it and Rockingham for the supremacy had been resumed. During February of this year (1839), the first Protestant church was organized-the Presbyterians. During the summer, the Congregationalists and Baptists organized. Neither of these congregations had any church building but held services in carpenter shops and warehouses. The Catholics had organized in 1838, and erected the first church building in the town.

In May 1839, hearing that it was court week, and as it was raining hard and I could do no business, I thought I would attend court. There was a small frame building on Ripley street, at. the corner of the alley behind Lahrmann's hall. It had been built for a carpenter shop and was used by the Presbyterians for church purposes and there court was held. I found the little room crowded and Judge Grant, then "Squire" Grant, just arranging to defend a horse thief. The judge worked cheap in those days. I overheard him whisper to his client: "If you don't give me $5 before I commence, I won't defend you."

Nearly the whole little settlement at that time was about the foot of Ripley street, which was called "Brimstone Corner"-I suppose on account of the hot style of preaching indulged in there, in those days.

I found a number of the little band which I had left there in the fall in per- fect health, had gone "to that bourne from which no traveler returns." The first ten years I passed in Davenport, there was much more sickness than now. Ten per cent of our population died each year in those early times, which was attributed to the breaking up of such large tracts of prairie, producing a miasma which caused fevers, etc.

Our first burying place was in a corner of a field on the Cook farm, on the north side of the Rockingham road, nearly opposite the west end of the present Davenport City cemetery. This was used but a short time. The next burying place was at the corner of Sixth and LeClaire streets. It was a miserable section and was soon abandoned. I officiated as pallbearer on two occasions while we buried there. The first was the burial of Judge Mitchell's father. It being early spring, we found the grave half full of water and had to wait until it was bailed out. But the water came in so fast that the coffin was nearly covered before we could fill the grave. The other was a Dr. Emerson, who died in the LeClaire House, and was the owner of the celebrated slave, Dred Scott.

Our next burial place was the present Davenport City cemetery. The writer and a few other gentlemen, not considering this location desirable (it being too near the rapidly growing city), nor the extent of the grounds sufficient for the purpose, and seeing the need of a city for the dead, combined to secure one that would be a credit to the city when we were dead and gone. It resulted in Oak- dale, particulars of which will be given hereafter.

About this time, the first newspaper was established in Davenport. It was called the Iowa Sun. Andrew Logan was editor and proprietor. He worked

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hard to bring the town into notice, with his puffs and marvelous stories of our prolific soil. On my claim was a little piece of ground, some four or five acres, which had been broken up and fenced before I bought. That I immediately planted and raised the best garden in the county. The two lads, my brothers, Lewis and David, seeing the wonderful accounts in the Iowa Sun of the produc- tions of other parts of the county, determined to outdo them. We raised in those days that king of potatoes, the Neshenocks. It was a large potato, with numerous prongs. Selecting some half dozen of the largest, the boys fastened them together with dowels, or wooden pins. When I came home at night they brought it to me.

"See what we dug today !" they said. "Don't that beat anything the Iowa Sun has published ?"

I replied, "I think it does. What a monster !"

I was completely "sold." I said I would take it up in the morning and give it to Mr. Logan. The next issue of the Iowa Sun did full justice to the wonderful production, defying any other soil to produce its equal. The editor said if any one thought it an exaggeration, the skeptic could call and see the monster, as it was hanging up in his office, where he should keep it a few weeks on exhibition, after which he proposed to try its eating qualities. About two weeks later, dur- ing which time the prize potato had been examined by hundreds, our fellow citi- zen, John Forrest, took hold of it, and noticed that one prong was wrong end foremost. So he pulled it apart and the trick was exposed. Had the boys not made that mistake the potato would doubtless have been cooked before the joke was discovered. It created a vast amount of fun and a big laugh at the expense of the Iowa Sun. It is said that Mr. Logan abstained from eating potatoes for over a month.

After the discovery, Mr. Forrest hastened up town to my store. He said: "Burrows, they have a big joke on you down town about that big potato." He then told me what had occurred. I told him I was "sold" with the rest, for I knew nothing about it. He advised me to keep away from Logan for a few days, or I would lose my scalp.

In looking over the "Annals of Iowa" to refresh my memory, I saw an article on the Rev. Michael Hummer, who was a very early settler and, I believe, taught a private school or academy in Stephenson, now Rock Island city, Illinois, in 1838. In the spring of 1839 he received a call from the Presbyterian church in Davenport, just organized, to preach for them for six months, which he accepted. He was a very talented man and was considered. for years, the ablest clergyman in the state ; but he was very peculiar. He possessed a high temper and did not hesitate to show it if occasion required.

'After fulfilling his appointment with the Presbyterian church of Davenport, the Rev. Hummer accepted a call to the Presbyterian church in Iowa City. While occupying that position he was sent east to solicit aid for a church they were about to erect. Among other donations he procured a church bell which was brought out and properly hung in the church steeple. After some time he and the congregation falling out, in his imperious style he claimed possession of the bell as his property, which claim the church contested. The Rev. Hummer left Iowa City and went to Keokuk. After a good deal of wrangling he appeared in

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Iowa City, one day, with a wagon and ladder and, going to the church with the aid of his ladder he succeeded in getting into the steeple and, unfastening the bell, lowered it into the wagon. The citizens immediately took the ladder down and drove his team away with the bell, which they hid in the Iowa river, leaving the Rev. Hummer to his meditations in the steeple. So many persons have in- quired of me about this affair that I thought it would be interesting to weave the facts into this narrative. I copy from the "Annals of Iowa:"

The future historian of Johnson county will, doubtless, devote at least one chapter to that talented but most unscrupulous individual, yclept the Rev. Michael Hummer, with whom, in the minds of the oldest inhabitants of Iowa City, his bell is so inseparably connected.

That bell, famed both in caricature and story, as the highly prized jewel of Hummer, so singularly abducted and so secretly and securely concealed, was the subject of some hastily written versicles entitled "Hummer's Bell," that at the time attained considerable popularity, not so much, perhaps, from any intrinsic merit of their own, as from the incident that gave rise to them.

The first copy of the brochure was given by me to Stephen Whicher, Esq., who, upon his own volition, had a number privately printed and circulated in which, greatly to my annoyance, several changes and interpolations appeared, totally at variance with the original; and as it is extremely doubtful whether a correct and perfect copy can, at this time, be found, I have thought it might be sufficiently interesting, as one of the reminiscences of former years, to have "Hummer's Bell," like the fly preserved in amber, embalmed in the pages of the Annals of Iowa.

A part of the first verse was the improvisation of the Hon. John P. Cook, the legal vocalist of the day, who, upon hearing a ludicrous story of the bell's departure, broke out in song to the infinite merriment of the mem- bers of the bar present and, in his sonorous and mellifluent tones, sang the first six lines, to the well known popular air of "Moore's Evening Bells." Stephen Whicher, Esq., who made one of the merry company, carefully noted down the fragmentary carol and, meeting me soon afterward, earnestly solicited me to complete the song, as he termed it. His request was immediately complied with and in a few moments the whole versified story of the bell was tol-d in an im- promptu production, of which I append a copy, verbatim et literatum, from the original manuscript now lying before me and which has never been out of my possession :

HUMMER'S BELL.

Ah, Hummer's bell! Ah, Hummer's bell ! How many a tale of woe 'twould tell Of Hummer driving up to town, To take the brazen jewel down. And when high up in his belfre-e, They moved the ladder, yes, sir-e-e;

Thus, while he towered aloft, they say The bell took wings and flew away.

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Ah, Hummer's bell! Ah, Hummer's bell ! The bard thy history shall tell;

How at the east, by Hummer's sleight, Donation, gift and widow's mite,

Made up the sum that purchased thee, And placed him in the ministry.

But funds grew low while dander riz ; Thy clapper stopped, and so did his.

Ah, Hummer's bell! Ah, Hummer's bell ! We've heard thy last, thy funeral knell; And what an aching void is left- Of bell and Hummer both bereft.

Thou, deeply sunk in running stream,

Him in a Swedenborgian dream.

Both are submerged-both, to our cost,

Alike to sense and reason lost.

Ah, Hummer's bell! Ah, Hummer's bell ! Hidden unwisely, but too well;

Alas, thou'rt gone! Thy silvery tone No more responds to Hummer's groan. But yet remains one source of hope, For Hummer left a fine bell-rope,

Which may be used, if such our luck, To noose our friend at Keokuk. W. H. T.

I was well acquainted with Mr. Hummer when he lived in Davenport and always had a great deal of charity for him, as I always thought him non compos mentis. When he left Iowa City he moved to Keokuk and, after creating a great deal of excitement in propagating his views on spiritualism, which he em- braced in his latter days, he became so unpopular that he went to Missouri, not far from Kansas City, since which time I have lost track of him but have been told he is dead. The celebrated bell, I understand, has been recovered from the sands of the Iowa river and is now in possession of the Mormons, at Salt Lake.

I will mention one little incident that occurred in 1840, showing the diffi- culties and hardships of those very early days. Female hired help was not to be obtained. I assisted my wife all I could-probably did as much house work as she did. She was not strong and was unaccustomed to such work. In July my son, Elisha, was born. We had no help but had been looking for a girl for months. Mrs. John Owens and Mrs. Ebenezer Cook, one living a mile above and the other a mile below our house, took turns in taking care of my wife and the child, one during the daytime and the other at night; but they had to neglect their own families to do so. I knew this state of things could not last and determined to find help at any cost. Having no clerk yet in my store I was

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obliged to lock it up and with the key in my pocket rode three days all over the county, in search of a girl.

The first day I went up to LeClaire, canvassing Pleasant Valley thoroughly, but with no success. The next day I rode through the southern part of the county and Blue Grass, as far as there was any settlement, but all in vain. On this trip I was told there was a family in Walnut Grove where there were two grown daughters who, it was understood, sometimes went to nurse sick neigh- bors. I determined to go there and, on leaving home the third day, told the ladies that if I did not get back that night they need not be alarmed, as I would not return without help. When I reached Walnut Grove, at about 11:30 in the morning, I found the coziest and neatest farm house I had yet seen in the terri- tory and Mrs. Heller, with two full-grown, healthy looking daughters, all as neat as wax. The house was better furnished than any I had seen. The window- curtains and bedspread were as white as the driven snow. The floors shone like silver. I introduced myself and made known my business. I told Mrs. Heller my situation was desperate-that I had come for one of her daughters and would not go away without one. She said she would leave the matter altogether with their father, who was at work in the field, half a mile away. She invited me to sit down and wait until he came in to dinner, which would be in about half an hour. But I said: "My business is too important to admit of delay. I will go to the field." I found Mr. Heller cradling wheat and not a stranger, as I supposed, for when we met we recognized each other, having been on a jury together a few months before. I told my story in as few words as possible. He hung his cradle on the fence and we went to the house, as it was about dinner time. He said he would like to help me out of my trouble ; that they were work- ing hard to open a farm and he was not able to do much for his daughters, and whatever they earned they had to clothe themselves with; but they never had gone away from home except to help sick neighbors sometimes. He knew from what he had seen of me that I would treat them well, and he would be glad to have one of them go with me to relieve me. When we arrived at the house he told his daughters what I wanted and that it would please him if one of them would go with me. The youngest one spoke up and said, "I will go," and I was happy. She returned with me and lived in my family seven years, until she mar- ried. My wife and myself always looked upon her as a sister or a child. She married one of the most respectable men of the day, an owner of a good farm and a member of the state legislature. They are both living in Davenport at the present time. That young woman is now (in 1888) nearly seventy years old.

The times were very hard then, and for some years after. Our land had just been brought into market by the government and all the money in the country went into the land office. Some of our best farmers paid fifty per cent for money to enter their lands and were kept poor for years paying interest. Mean- while they used all the money they could get hold of to break, fence and stock their farms, spending as little as they could with the merchant, and what trading they did was generally on a year's credit.

No one can realize the difficulties of doing a produce business in those days. We had no railroads. Everything had to be moved by water and, of course, had to be held all winter. To keep up with the rapid growth of the country and

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provide for the surplus required not only money and credit but, what in those day's was more important than either, nerve.

In the year 1841 I saw the amount of wheat and pork was going to be double as much as ever before, and I was very solicitous as to what I should do with it. I saw in the St. Louis Republican that the government invited proposals for furnishing Fort Snelling and Fort Crawford with a year's supply of pork, flour, beans, soap, vinegar, candles and numerous other articles. I considered the mat- ter and could think of no reason why Scott county could not furnish the pork, flour, beans, etc., as well as St. Louis, which had furnished them heretofore. So I decided to put in a bid, if I could find any one to go on my bonds, which were heavy. I interviewed Mr. LeClaire and Colonel Davenport, and told them what I was thinking of. If I could accomplish it and get a contract and fill it from home production, it would be a grand thing for both the town and the county, and be a means of circulating a good deal of money, of which the people at that time were sadly in need. Those gentlemen, always ready and anxious to do anything that would settle up and advance the prosperity of the country, were much pleased with my suggestion and said they would stand by me. I put in bids for both forts, referring as to my responsibility to Colonel Davenport and Antoine LeClaire. As I was going to Cincinnati I wrote to them that if my bids were accepted to address me there, as I wished to purchase in that market such supplies as could not be procured at home. On my arrival I found a communica- tion from the department at Washington, saying that my bid for Fort Snelling had been accepted. On my return home I found that John Atchison, who had been the successful contractor of both forts for two or three years previous, had been in town three days awaiting my return. I got home about dark. My wife told me that Ebenezer Cook had left word that I had better avoid meeting Atchison until I had seen Cook; so after supper I walked down to Mr. Cook's house, about a mile on the Rockingham road. He informed me that Atchison was very anxious to buy me out. He did not care about furnishing the supplies so much as he did for the transportation. The Atchison Brothers owned the largest and most magnificent steamboat on the upper Mississippi, called the "Amaranth." They had been very successful in controlling both the government's and the Fur Company's freight and my success was a great surprise to them. In the morning Atchison made his appearance. I refused to sell, telling him my only object in taking the contract was to make an outlet for my winter accumula- tion. After talking the matter over all day I sold out on these conditions : he to pay me a bonus of $2,500, cash down; I to furnish the flour, pork and beans, for which he was to pay me contract price, less the transportation, and pay me cash down on delivery to his boat, the next June, the time specified by the government. I now went to work hauling my wheat to Rockingham mill and scouring the country for hogs. My cooperage-pork, flour and bean barrels- I had all manufactured at home, giving employment to a number of coopers. This, with the money I had received from Atchison and scattered among the farm- ers for hogs, wheat, beans, etc., gave our little village and the county a decided boom.

About this time there was a prospect of brighter days. Our German fellow citizens began to come to Davenport in large numbers and many of them possessed

VIEW IN CENTRAL PARK

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a good deal of money, which the country sadly needed. They entered large tracts of land, which they immediately improved. This year (1851) the cholera pre- vailed in Davenport and many of the German immigrants had ship fever among them. They came by the way of New Orleans; every steamboat landing at our wharf left some. There was much excitement on account of the cholera. Many of our best citizens were dying. A man would be well at bedtime and dead before morning. Many immigrants could not get shelter and Burrows & Prettyman threw open their pork house and warehouse for use until the immigrants could put up shanties on the prairie. Many men, now wealthy farmers, occupied our build- ings until they could do better; among these I remember M. J. Rohlfs, since then treasurer of Scott county for ten years ; also N. J. Rusch, afterward state senator and lieutenant-governor of Iowa. I always have had a warm feeling for the Germans for their help in settling up Scott county, when help was so much needed. It is astonishing to see what they have accomplished. You can find scarcely a German farmer who is not wealthy. The banks of Davenport contain about $6,000,000 of deposits (which, I believe, is as much as all the rest of the state claims to have), and half of the money is owned by Germans.

In the fall of 1845, after navigation was closed on the river, I found it would be necessary for me to go to St. Louis. Prettyman said our sales had been large and we would be out of many leading articles before spring, and if I could man- age to get them here he wished I would buy some. I told him to make up a list of dry goods such as he needed, about a wagon load, and I would bring them up. I went over to Beardstown, on the Illinois river, by stage, and down the Illinois and Mississippi rivers by steamboat, to St. Louis. In St. Louis, after my busi- ness was transacted, I purchased Mr. Prettyman's bill of goods and shipped them by the river to Keokuk, as the boat was to go no farther. We did not get there on account of ice, but the boat landed us four miles below, at a small town called Warsaw, on the Illinois shore. When we left St. Louis it was dark and I did not see any one I knew on the boat. The first thing I did in the morning, after break- fast, was to take a walk on the guards to get fresh air. I soon heard familiar voices on the deck below and on going down saw seven young men from Pleasant Valley, customers of ours, among whom I can only remember George Hawley and two of the Fenno boys. They had been down to St. Louis with two flat-boats loaded with onions, and were then in a dilemma as to how they were to get home. They wanted to know what I was going to do. I told them I should hire a team to haul my goods, and would ride on the wagon. When the boat landed us I found and hired a team. The boys wanted me to let them put on their baggage. The teamster said it would overload us; but they were so anxious, and being good customers of ours, I told the teamster if he would carry their baggage I would walk with the men.

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History of Davenport and Scott County Iowa, Volume I, Part 43

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