History of Davenport and Scott County Iowa, Volume I, Part 88

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

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Returning to Malone after the close of the school, Mr. Young met Mr. Gor- ham, the principal of the academy, on the street, and asked him, in case he should decide to return to school, what he would advise him to study. Mr. Gorham re- plied : "Latin, algebra and natural philosophy." Mr. Young asked why he should be advised to study Latin, inasmuch as he was not intending to go to col- lege, and even if he did so intend, he had no money with which to defray the ex- penses of a college course. Mr. Gorham said pretty forcibly, "You are going to college, and you do not need any money therefor. You can work your way through, as I did, and as many others have done." This was the turning point in Mr. Young's life. Up to that time he had intended to go to school only long

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HISTORY OF SCOTT COUNTY

enough to acquire a fair knowledge of the common branches and then engage in business of some kind, he had not decided what. In two years' time he was fit- ted for admission to college. He immediately entered Middlebury college, Mid- dlebury, Vermont, and was graduated therefrom in the full four years' classical course in 1861. By teaching school winters and working on farms summer va- cations he earned money enough to defray all expenses of his preparatory and college courses up to the last term of his junior year. At this point his funds were exhausted and he must either raise some money or relinquish his college course. He went to Malone, asked several wealthy men whom he knew well for the loan of the little money he needed, but nobody had any money to loan a young man who had no security to give, and especially if he were going to squander it in getting an education. Finally through the insistence of a friend he called on William A. Wheeler, then president of the only bank in the town, though he hesitated to do so, for he felt he was not well enough known to Mr. Wheeler to ask any such favor from him. Mr. Wheeler kindly listened to his story, willingly loaned him the amount asked for on his individual note, and vol- untarily offered further assistance in case of need. Thus the way to the com- pletion of his course was now clear. This Mr. Wheeler was afterwards member of congress for several terms and later vice president under Hayes.

Immediately after graduation Mr. Young was chosen principal of Lawrence -. ville academy, St. Lawrence county, New York. He occupied this position until 1864, when he was invited to the principalship of Fort Covington academy and the supervision of the Union schools of that village. He remained in that work for four years. In the fall of 1868 he came to Davenport, Iowa, having been elected principal of its high school. This position he held for ten years. In 1878 he was appointed superintendent of the city schools. He served in this posi- tion until the summer of 1907, when he was obliged to resign on account of old age and failing health. It was with no little sadness that he left the work he had been in so long and which he enjoyed and loved so well. It had been his aim during all his time of service to keep himself and the schools abreast of the times in all the best means and methods known to the profession. Thorough, substantial work in all that goes to develop power and build up character in the pupils was a ruling purpose. During his superintendency the schools more than tripled in number of buildings, number of pupils and in teaching force. The severance of his official relations with the school board, principals and teachers was very pleasant and gracious, marked by resolutions of esteem and respect, a great gratification to him at the end of his educational labors in the city.

A VIEW FROM PROSPECT TERRACE

CHAPTER XXXVI.

THE SALAD COURSE.

IN THIS CHAPTER MAY BE FOUND ALMOST EVERYTHING ASIDE FROM THE ITEM THE READER IS SEARCHING FOR-THERE ARE SOME THINGS THAT WILL PROVE OF IN- TEREST TO SOMEBODY-OTHER THINGS THAT EVERYBODY KNOWS-SOME IN- CIDENTS ARE UNUSUAL AND OTHERS JUST SO-SO-THERE SEEMED TO BE A NECES- SITY FOR THIS SORT OF CHAPTER.

Washington Irving saw Black Hawk at Jefferson Barracks in 1832 and wrote of him: "He has a fine head, a Roman style of face, and a prepossessing countenance."

THE PIONEER BALL.

Franc Wilkie has written of the pioneer ball of Davenport which took place January 8, 1836, at Antoine LeClaire's "big house," which had been built on the treaty site,-"Some forty couples were present consisting of frontiersmen, officers from the Island and others. The music was furnished by fiddles, from which no contemptible strains were occasionally drawn by Mr. LeClaire him- self. Prominent among the merry dancers were G. C. R. Mitchell, A. Mc- Gregor, G. L. Davenport, Joe Conway and last but not least, and by far the lightest dancer in the room, the now portly figure of A. LeClaire. Most of the frontiersmen wore the coarsest species of 'stogy boots,' 'making,' as our informant says, 'a most infernal clatter.' The dresses of the ladies were generally rather more calculated to promote comfort than ostentation. The party danced till sunrise, and then broke up-the gentlemen being, as a general thing, as genial as all the 'punches' they could possibly contain could make them. Joe Conway, eccentric in his cups as well as in his actions, upon reaching the ice to cross the river, found himself unable either to stand still or walk-he very ingeniously therefore compromised the matter by striking a sinuous and uncertain 'dog- trot' and heading for all points of the Island, miscellaneously. It is mistily be- lieved by his companions that he succeeded in reaching it, although somewhat out of his original bearings."

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THE BOOMER.

In the Sun, Andrew Logan, the pioneer printer, told of Scott county's fer- tility to induce immigration. Here is a sample: "We yesterday saw a water- melon, raised about one and a half miles west of the village which measured four feet one way and three and a half the other, and weighed forty, and a half pounds. Another gentleman has a pumpkin vine on which, he says, he counted sixty-eight good sized pumpkins."

The bluff near Farnam and Sixth streets was the target for the soldiers at Fort Armstrong when they wished to test the artillery. The iron mine so planted has probably turned to rust by this time.

TIMOTHY WEBSTER.

In 1868 Allan Pinkerton, the well known detective, published a pamphlet in New York city in which he gives great credit to Timothy Webster for discov- ering and making known to the proper authorities the plot to assassinate Abraham Lincoln when on his way to Washington in 1861. Many old Davenport citizens knew Timothy Webster as J. R. Reed when he was engaged as a detective in ferreting out the perpetrators of the attempts to burn the first railroad bridge. So well did he recommend himself to his fellow townsmen that J. R. Reed was elected alderman of the Fifth ward in 1860, but for obvious reasons failed to qualify for the office. Allen Pinkerton has this to say of his friend Timothy Webster in the pamphlet referred to above: "Timothy Webster, one of my de- tective force, accompanied me upon this eventful occasion. He served faithfully as a detective among the secessionists of Maryland and acquired many valuable and important secrets. He among all the force who went with me deserves the credit of saving the life of Mr. Lincoln, even more than I do. He was a native of Princeton, N. J., a life-long democrat, but he felt and realized with Jackson that the Union must and should be preserved. He continued in my detective service and after I assumed charge of the secret service of the army of the Potomac under Major General McClellan Mr. Webster was most of the time within the rebel lines. True he was called a spy, and martial law says that a spy when convicted must die. Still spies are necessary in war, ever have been and ever will be. Timothy Webster was arrested in Richmond and upon the testimony of members of a secesh family in Washington named Levi, for whom I had done some acts of kindness. He was convicted as a spy and executed by Jefferson Davis, April 30, 1862. His name is unknown to fame, but few were truer or more devoted to the Union cause than was Timothy Webster."

In 1856 the Gazette notes that in one week the sales of one real estate agent were $118,450.

In the Gazette of October 18, 1853, appeared an editorial advocating the estab- lishment of a plant here for the fabrication of locomotives. 'A't that time the suggestion fell on deaf ears, but fifty years later Davenport had the factory.

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HISTORY OF SCOTT COUNTY

THE SECOND BUILDING.

The second building to be erected in Davenport was razed in 1885. It was made of oak, sleepers, rafters, beams, joists and lath. It was a forge shop built for the repair of arms when General Scott's soldiers were encamped here, treaty times. It stood near the LeClaire ferry long after Indians and soldiers had gone. When the ferry was moved to Ripley street the old oaken house went too and was planted near that triumph of architecture, the Davenport hotel, on Ripley street. After it stayed there ten or fifteen years somebody put it on roll- ers and numbered 516 West Second street it did duty as a dwelling until it was destroyed to make room for a better structure.

In an address, February 24, 1860, before the Pioneer Settlers' association Alfred Sanders told of a transient Yankee who bluffed an early Davenport crowd by offering to back himself for $100 for a foot race with any one in the city, until Antoine LeClaire appeared and covered the money and later ran off the stakes, handily.

In the published assessments for taxation, August 8, 1855, these names ap- pear : A. LeClaire, $335,634; Cook & Sargent and Cook, Sargent & Co., $228,- 967; G. C. R. Mitchell, $88,840; G. L. Davenport, $88,320; J. M. D. Burrows and Burrows & Prettyman, $87,790; A. C. Fulton, $83,870; N. Fejervary, $69,- 938; A. Churchill, $47,270. The explanation follows that property was taxed on about three-fourths of true valuation, so that the foregoing figures are a fraction of the real values. In commenting on the list the newspaper man says that Messrs. Burrows, Fulton and Fejervary were heavy owners of land in Mus- catine county. He considered it also interesting to note that Mr. Fulton four years before had been rated as worth nothing, and in 1855 easily $100,000.

THE OXFORD FLATS.

"The work on the new engine house on Brady street above Fifth street is progressing finely, and it will be a remarkably good institution. The cistern which is underneath it is capable of holding hundreds of barrels of water. The roof is to be surmounted with a cupola and bell. It will be completed next month." From the Democrat, July 25, 1857.

Jefferson Davis was a lieutenant in a cavalry regiment at Fort Crawford in 1828. He was a lieutenant of an infantry regiment in the Black Hawk war. After the war he was sent with a detachment of soldiers to Dubuque to re- move squatters who were occupying land belonging to the Indians. He was also sent against squatters at Flint Hills now Burlington and burned their cabins, under orders from his superior officers.

THE PENNSYLVANIA HOUSES.

The multiplicity of hotels bearing the name of the Keystone state has been puzzling to late comers to Davenport. The first Pennsylvania house, which was opened in 1850, was situated on Second street west of Main and was fairly popular in early days, suffering several enlargements. The next Pennsylvania house was a much more pretentious affair and was located on the corner of

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Fourth and Iowa streets near the Burtis house. This Pennsylvania house was of stone and five stories high, had a frontage of 64 feet and a depth of 130 feet, boasting 120 rooms. One of the features of this hotel was a well, 150 feet in the solid rock which cost $1,000. The third Pennsylvania house was on Iowa and Third streets, northeast corner, an unpretentious affair which was razed to make way for the Y of the elevated road. Another early hotel on Third street east of Perry street had a curious history. It was first a convent, then a dwelling, then a hotel, the Worden house, afterward the Ackley house, and the American house, and finally was incorporated with the Central house to make the Downs hotel, now the Saratoga.

STATE OFFICERS.

Among the officials of the state government who have resided in Scott county have been Ansel Briggs, the first governor, Nicholas J. Rusch, Matt Parrott and Benjamin F. Gue who have served in the chair of lieutenant governor. W. C. Hayward is the present secretary of state, and there never was a better one. John Herriott was treasurer of state and A. S. Kissell superintendent of public instruction. Judge James Grant served as speaker of the house of representa- tives in 1852. William S. Coles was the first state binder, and later Mr. Par- rott held that office. J. H. Harrison served on the state pharmacy board. George Metzgar was custodian of public buildings and property. Drs. Henry Hatthey and George E. Decker have been members of the state board of health. Charles Francis is engineer to the board of health. Dr. R. J. Farquharson was secretary of that body from 1881 to 1885.

The first temperance society was organized in 1838 after a series of addresses by Rev. Asa Turner. Rodolphus Bennett, the first mayor of Davenport, was its first president.

The Davenport Lyceum which met in Pere Pelamourgues' church was an important factor in the social life of early days. The critical editor of the Sun deplores the level of its divinations and comments : "Our Lyceum is becoming the subject of ridicule to many persons in our village. No subject, they say, can be discussed but such as will tickle the fancy of weak females. Our Ly- ceum, it is true, converts what should be a hall of science into a room to pane- gyrize the ladies; and indeed, we have heard the most fulsome eulogies passed upon their character in order to acquire the approving smiles of those present. If courtship is a science, then indeed is our Lyceum a most excellent school."

A. H. Davenport of LeClaire used to tell of calling upon Major Gordon, one of the incorporators of Davenport, to borrow some money. "Help yourself," said the major, pointing to an inverted tub in the corner of the room. Mr. Daven- port lifted the tub and found his friend's available wealth, some fifty or sixty dollars.

In 1849 a river improvement convention was held in Davenport in which four states and one territory were represented. One resolution recommended

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HISTORY OF SCOTT COUNTY

a plan of improvement devised by Major Robert E. Lee, and asked that he be given charge of the work on the rapids.

From August 1, 1856, to the close of the year 1857 over 1,300 houses were erected in Davenport; two miles of street were macadamized, four and a half miles of gas main laid, 250 street lamps erected and twenty miles of sidewalk laid.

An unpleasant condition occurred in 1858 when the city council provided by ordinance that certain offices in the fire department be filled without direct. vote of the firemen. The latter rebelled, refused to attend fires and held meetings of protest. The council was firm. Mayor Sargent was almost mobbed when he appeared at a fire but was protected by the same firemen who had been un- friendly. After that matters quieted down and peace reigned.

Scott county was constituted December 21, 1837, from the counties of Du- buque and Cook, with a little from Muscatine county.

STRONG TEACHING.

"We understand that there was a row in the Sixth ward day before yester- day which was occasioned by the teacher punishing a scholar. The enraged parent proceeded to the schoolhouse and a hand-to-hand, fisticuff, rough and tumble performance took place." From the Democrat, of January 22, 1859.

EARLY SCHOOL.

A man named Prescott built on the corner of Fourth and Perry streets an edifice to be used for a school. It was built to stand with oak taken from the near-by timber. When in 1903 J. L. Mason remodeled the building for a gar- age he found the floors packed with sawdust to mellow the noise of the school below for the inhabitants above.

THE FIRST COLORED SCHOOL.

In December, 1859, before Abraham Lincoln had declared that the colored man was a man and a brother the school board of Davenport moved thereto by the petitions of residents established a separate school for colored children. A room was set apart at No. 3, Sixth and Warren streets, and there the school was taught. It did not succeed and another trial was made in some rooms in the basement of the Baptist church at Fourth and Perry streets, but this school, also, was short-lived.

THE FIRST WHITE CHILD.

Uncle Joe Mounts, who died in 1882 at Blue Grass, always claimed that his daughter Harriet, later Mrs. Harriet Fridley, who was born September 2, 1835, should have been accorded the honor of being the first white child born in Scott county. Mr. Mounts helped set out the first orchard in Scott county on what is known as the Moorehead farm in Buffalo township.

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D. A. Burrows, an early miller, used to tell of hauling bran by the ton out on the ice in the winter and dumping it to go down stream in the spring. There was sale for flour, and the better grades of feed, but bran was a drug on the market. The boilers would not burn it; nobody wanted it, and so it went to the finish.

NOT NECESSARY TO MOVE.

Captain W. L. Clark has this to say of his residence: "Since boyhood I have lived in the territory known as the Louisiana Purchase, state of Illinois, Michi- gan territory, Wisconsin territory, Minnesota territory, Black Hawk Purchase, Iowa territory, and the state of Iowa, and all this time only moved one mile. I might add that I have a friend, 'Timber Woods,' of Burlington, Iowa, whose oldest son was born in Michigan territory, his second son in Wisconsin territory, his third son in Iowa territory and his fourth son in the state of Iowa, and all were born in the same log cabin, standing all the time on the same spot.

JUST HALF MARRIED,

Captain W. L. Clark tells a story of a wedding party in early days who crossed the river from Buffalo to Andalusia in Illinois to be married by the late Daniel Edgington, at that time a justice of the peace and a bashful one. John Cooper and Jane Fay were the young couple matrimonially inclined. The young justice was completely stampeded by the novelty of his first ceremony and after putting a few questions to the bride pronounced them husband and wife. Mr. Cooper who lived many years in Buffalo always claimed he was only half married. The story is also told of a young pair of pioneers who in default of any other author- ity persuaded Colonel Davenport to make them one through virtue of his post- master's commission.

LIKED THE STARLIGHT.

The first ordinance regulating street lamps was adopted at the council meeting of April 2, 1857. It specified that the lamps were not to be lighted on "clear nights." Starlight was plenty good in those days. In 1855 Antoine LeClaire erected street lights as a public benefaction at an expense of from $35 to $40 apiece. J. M. D. Burrows, and perhaps others, did the same later.

THE NEW FAIR GROUND.

"The best way to reach the fair ground is to go out Brady street to Locust, and proceed up the latter about a mile till the Bird farm is passed, when a board enclosure and road leading to it may be seen."

TRI-CITY AMENITIES.

The firemen of Davenport, Rock Island and Moline assembled for a trial of the fire fighting machinery November 14, 1857. Moline threw first water, at the Presbyterian church, 167 feet high. Davenport came next, but a large nozzle and a fateful wind kept them from scoring, while Rock Island won the match. There was a spread afterward at the Rock Island engine house and R. M. Lit-

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HISTORY OF SCOTT COUNTY

tler presented a new broom to be again competed for. The Davenport company was escorted to the ferry and the affair ended in many hurrahs.

HALLET KILBOURNE.

When the railroad had been completed to Walcott from Davenport an ex- cursion was run by capitalists who owned property there August 22, 1855. Those who attended were sanguine and the sale was a success, nearly $12,000 being realized. The auctioneer was a young Davenporter named Hallet Kilbourne. Years afterward he proved a most contumacious witness before a congressional investigating committee and his name went the country over.

In 1851 a Mr. Russell purchased the 245 acres known as the McClellan Heights tract for $2,500. The land is worth more now. A year later A. C. Fulton bought the 200 acres of which he made many additions for $10,000.

PRESIDENT FILLMORE.

President Fillmore just out of office was one of the large excursion party who came from Chicago to celebrate the completion of the Chicago and Rock Island road. Davenport laid out a new street that year and called it Fillmore street. The six steamboats on which the distinguished company of excursionists left for St. Paul came to the Iowa shore, made a landing, and the ex-president made an address. He was accompanied to the boat Golden Era by Ebenezer Cook. On the return from up the river there was a reception at the Davenport hotel at Front and Ripley streets. Judge James Grant was mayor of the city at that time and introduced to President Fillmore Col. George Davenport as the man after whom the city was named.

VAGRANT HOGS.

The people of Davenport were sure in early days that the place could not be considered metropolitan until the stray hogs could be corralled. In the first direc- tory which bears date of 1855 the public spirited publisher says: "Something should be done to rid our streets of the multitudinous throngs of dogs and swine which infest our city." Two years later the editor of the Democrat talks to the point : "If the city marshal will take up two vicious spotted hogs that are annoy- ing the citizens on Iowa street and LeClaire street above Sixth he will confer a favor."

THE BURTIS OPERA HOUSE.

After Dr. J. J. Burtis had created a hotel which was the equal of anything in the west he turned his attention to a playhouse and made something as fine for those days. Indeed it has served the people of the city from that day to this. It was December 27, 1867, that the new theater was opened. There was an address by Hon. A. H. Bennett, a reply by Dr. Burtis, music by Strasser's or- chestra and the Silver band, the Mendelssohn society, Miss Belle Hart, the Turner society, Miss Maggie Rowse, now Mrs. G. M. Christian of Grinnell, Mrs. Jo- hanna Claussen, Mrs. J. S. Altman and J. C. Wallace. The house was crowded and all the performers came in for a share of the honors. The Davenporters who

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HISTORY OF SCOTT COUNTY

attended were sure that there was no playhouse like theirs and those present from Peoria and other neigboring cities wished that this temple of amusement could be duplicated in their locations.

DAVENPORT'S FRENCH SETTLERS.

Davenport was first settled by people from St. Louis and Cincinnati. For some years the settlers came in such numbers from the latter city that Daven- port was known as a Cincinnati colony. Then came the Germans, and in 1854- 56 the French. They received a warm welcome from Antoine LeClaire, himself a French-Canadian, and he saw that they were comfortably located near the parish churches of Pere Pelamourgues and Pere Trevis. Some of the French contingent tarried at Nauvoo on their way to Davenport, where M. Cabet had established an Icarian colony three years after Joseph Smith and his followers had made their hegira to the westward. In 1856 another French contingent came direct from France by way of New Orleans and the Mississippi river. By some slight detour they reached Davenport by way of the railroad and were upon the first train that crossed the new bridge in April, 1856. These families settled in this city, some remaining, others later dispersing to various Iowa settlements of promise. The French aided in the city's prosperity, showing adaptation to con- ditions and turning a hand readily to any line of effort that promised reward.

Fort Armstrong was named for President Madison's secretary of war.

Bailey Davenport used to say that Black Hawk's trip to Malden to confer with his British patrons was an annual event, dating back to the war of 1812, and along down to the Black Hawk war. The British purpose was to retain the Indians as bloody allies. The annual British gifts were munificent. Black Hawk called his tribe the British band.

The John A. Dix was the engine which was brought across the Mississippi river on the ice, the wheels being removed and the engine placed on a large sled which was drawn by oxen over the river up Main street to Fifth, where it was placed upon the track. It was the seventh M. & M. engine to reach Davenport, not the first, as is so often said.

The first locomotive to haul a train in Iowa was named the Antoine LeClaire. When the Rock Island commenced numbering its engines the "Tony" became No. 79. It was landed from a flatboat at the foot of Brady street, in July, 1855, and ran on a temporary track to Fifth. First in the passenger service of the road the old machine was afterward put to pulling freight. In April, 1882, this good old Paterson locomotive was sold to the St. Louis, Ft. Scott & Wichita road and sent to Kansas. When the engineer turned to the southwest leaving the city he turned on the whistle that the pioneer locomotive could bid farewell to the scenes of twenty-seven years before. Some of those who saw the "Tony" land place the location as the end of Fourth street, where the fill for the first bridge can be seen.

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History of Davenport and Scott County Iowa, Volume I, Part 88

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