USA > Iowa > Davis County > History of Davis County, Iowa, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, etc. > Part 38
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"The charm of a prairie consists in its extension, its green, flowery carpet, its undulating surface and the spirit of the forest whereby it is surrounded; the latter being of all others the
*Captain Basil Hall.
335
HISTORY OF DAVIS COUNTY.
most significant and expressive. since it characterizes the landscape and defines the form and boundary of the plain. The eye sometimes surveys the green prairie without discovering on the illimitable plain a tree or bush or any object, save the wilderness of flower and grass, white on other occasions the view is enlivened by the groves, dispersed, like islands, over the plain ; or by a solitary tree rising above the wilderness. The resemblance to the sea, which some of these prairies exhibited, was really most striking. I had heard of this before, but always supposed the account exaggerated. * *
" In spring, when the young grass has just clothed the soil with a soddy carpet of the most delicate green, especially when the sun, rising behind a distant elevation of the ground, its rays reflected by myriads of dew-drops, a more pleasing and more eye-benefitting view can- not be imagined. You see the fallow deer quietly feeding on the herbage; the bee flies hum- ming through the air; the wolf, with lowered tail, sneaks away to its distant lair, with the timorous pace of a creature only too conscious of having disturbed the peace of Nature; prai- rie-fowls, either in entire tribes, like our own domestic fowls. or in conples, cover the surface; the males rambling, and, like turkeys and peacocks, inflating their plumage, make the air resound with a drawled, loud and melancholy ery, resembling the cooing of a wood-pigeon, or still more, the sound produced by rapidly rubbing a tambourine with the finger.
*
*
"On turning from the verdant plain to the forests or groups of high-grown timber, the eye, at the said season, will find them clad also in the most lively colors. The rich under or brushwood stands out in full blossom. The andromedas, the dog-wood, the wood-apple, the wild plum and cherry, grow exuberantly in the rich soil, and the invisible blossom of the wild vine impergnates the air with its delicious perfume. The variety of the wild fruit trees, and ot blooming bushes is so great, and so immense the abundance of the blossoms they are eov- ered with, that the branches seem to break down under their weight.
"The delightful aspect of the prairies, its amenities, and the absence of that sombre awe, inspired by forests, contribute to forcing away that sentiment of loneliness which usually steals upon the mind of the solitary wanderer in the wilderness, for, although he espies no habitation, and sees no human being, and knows himself to be far off from any settlement of man, he can scarcely defend himself from believing that he is traveling through a landscape embelished by human art. The flowers are so delicate and elegant as apparently to be distributed for mere ornament over the plain; the groves and groups of trees seem to be dis- persed over the prairie to enliven the landscape, and we can scarcely get rid of the impression invading our imagination of the whole scene being flung out and created for the satisfaction of the sentiment of beauty in refined man."
The origin of prairies is a problem not yet elearly solved. It is estimated that about seven-eighths of Iowa was prairie when it was first settled, though very much of this area is now covered with forest trees. The prairies are not always of level surface, but are frequently quite broken and hilly, even, as some portions of Davis county verifies, and so are the forest surfaces; and, as already shown in this chapter, the soil of the prairies varies in variety, as do the soil of the timber surfaces. The Drift, the Alluvial, and the Bluff soils underlie the prairie surfaces; and not infrequently all these soils are found to compose a single scope; a portion of which may be clayey, another gravelly, another sandy, and still another loamy. Geologists tell us that the prairies of Iowa are not confined to
336
HISTORY OF DAVIS COUNTY.
regions which are underlaid with any formations especially peculiar to them, but extend over various formations, from those of Azoic to those of Cretaceous age, inclusive, which embraces nearly all kinds of rock, such as the common lime stone, friable limestone, magnesian limestone, clay, clayey and sandy shales, quartzite, etc.
Thus, it seems clear, that whatever the origin of the praires of Iowa may have been, their present existence is not attributable to the influence of climate, the character or composition of the soil, nor the peculiar character of any of the underlying formations. Hence we are left but one conclusion, that the prairies-"these gardens of the desert, these unshorn fields, boundless and beautiful"-were once, ages agone, the cultivated plains of a civilization, of which the red man is the degenerate relic; and at whose hands the torch was applied to these vast and "unshorn fields " each autumn before the "chase," until the white man's advent, who stayed these annual ravages of fire which prevented the growth of forests. In the language of a State geologist: " It remains to say, without the least hesitation, that the real cause of the existence of the prairies in Iowa is the prevalence of the annual fires. If these had been prevented fifty years ago, Iowa would now be a timbered instead of a prairie State."
In the earlier years of the settlements of our prairie states, much fear was expressed lest the prairie portions of them would not become generally settled, because of the absence of forest timber thereon, for fuel and other economic uses; there being a prevailing conviction that forest trees wonld not grow in that kind of soil. But subsequent investigations have shown that this apprehension is erroneous. A former State geologist* who had given the subject of soil, climate, and forestry much careful study, thus concludes: "If there is really an unfitness of prairie soil for the growth of forest trees, then, at least one-third of our State is worthless indeed. But this is not the case, for personal observation in all parts of the State, extending through a period of thirty years, has established a knowledg of the fact that all varieties of our indigenous forest trees will grow thriftily upon all varieties of our soil; even those whose most congenial habitat is upon the alluvial soil of our river valleys, or upon the rugged slopes of the valley sides." It has been thus demonstrated, that throughout the State very many varieties of forest trees will grow rapidly and thrive on our prairie soils. Orchards and planted groves of forest trees which have for years tested the prairie soil and climate of Iowa, affirm the assertions of the above quotation. While there are some species of forest trees, as well as plants and cereals, indigenous to Iowa, that flourish in some sections of the
*Prof. White, then of Iowa State University.
337
HISTORY OF DAVIS COUNTY.
State better than in others; yet there is a marked uniformity in the compo- sition of the soils throughout the State; and their variableness in different localities and latitudes is the result of elimatic influences, and their barren- nes or fertility, which is noticeable in the bottom or flood. plains of the valleys in contrast with those upon the uplands and hills.
The general surface of Davis county being undulating, its upland soil, as before noted, is of the drift deposit, varying in depth according to the altitude of its highlands, thus also varying in its productive force, whether of forest trees, plants, or cereals. Hence, for agricultural purposes, the county is well adapted. The products best adapted to its soil are corn and grass. Wheat is not a certain staple crop. Oats, flax, and Hungarian grass yield profitably. But the profitable and staple products of the soil of this county are corn and grass. The former yields bountifully; and among the grasses which are grown and yield bountifully are timothy, clover, and blue grass. The latter is a grand success npon the soil of this county, equal to the blue grass regions of Kentucky, and is extensively grown for stock growing and dairy purposes. Timothy and clover also yield finely. In the early days of farming upon the prairie soil of the State, it was proclaimed that tame grasses would never flourish in it; but subsequent experience has long since exploded this erroneously conceived idea; and, to-day, timothy and clover are among the most profitable products of the soil, not only in this county, but throughout the State. A fuller elaboration of these agricultural topics will be made in the chapter on "Agricultural Interests," further on.
THE CLIMATE.
Climate is a condition of the atmosphere-a temperature of the air -- an ethereal substance that floats over the earth. It varies in different locali- ties, to a greater or less degree, in obedience to fixed natural laws-laws which govern the heat and cold, the rain and dronth, the wind and storm. Scientists have learned, in a measure, something of these laws, which, at this day, enables them to foretell with a great degree of accuracy, the chances which will, from day to day, occur in the climatic elements through- out the various parts of the country. It is therefore important that every one should have a knowledge of these laws; not only because they are ad- vantageons in the affairs of life, but also because they indicate to us the at- mospheric conditions of localities through the different seasons of the year. These climatie conditions may be healthful in some localities, and unhealth- ful in others.
The elevation of Davis county is so great, and its general surface is so
338
HISTORY OF DAVIS COUNTY.
free from swamps, and other miasmatie generators, that its atmospheric sur- roundings are wholesome-are not breeders of disease and pestilence. Iowa, as a State, lies between the two elimatie extremes of the continent, north and south; not subject to the excessive heat of Missouri in the summer, nor to the extreme eold of Minnesota in the winter. Thus, atmospheric extremes in this county are not characteristic. The abundant and continuons fall of snow, the winter of 1880-81, is an exception in this eonnty; and while the anmial fall of rain is not usually as large here as it is in the same latitude farther eastward, the ground rarely suffers from drouth. The winds of the winter are frequently merry; the prevailing ones being the " Manitoba Waves," which lose much of their " blizzard " character before they reach this latitude. Those of spring are tempered as they glide under the warmer sun rays from a southerly direction: and as the seasons change, so do the atmospheric currents.
There are no preserved meteorological abservations made in this county, showing a continuons record, for any considerable length of time, from which can be aseertained its preeise climatie conditions. We therefore avail ourselves of the observations made by Prof. T. S. Parvin at Musca- tine and Iowa City, covering a period of thirty years-from 1839 to 1869, both inelusive. These observations were made at the former place until 1860, and at the latter point from 1860 until 1870. Of the difference in latitude and longitude between these two points, Prof. Parvin in his pub- lished reports, says: "The difference in latitude is about one tenth degrees, and longitude about five-tenths degrees. I have calculated the means of observation at Muscatine for twenty years, and at Iowa City for ten years, and find that the difference is so very slight that I have not hesitated to re- gard the observations as taken at one point, and use them accordingly." The distance between these two points is some thirty-five miles; While the distance from Bloomfield to Muscatine and Iowa City is nearly the same. about seventy-five miles northeast, or a little more than double the distance between Muscatine and Iowa City. Ilence, the difference between Davis county and Muscatine in latitude, is about one-fifth of a degree, and in lon- gitude about two-thirds of a degree, or thirty-six miles north, and sixty-five miles east, while the difference between Davis county and Iowa City, is eighteen miles farther north, and twenty-five miles less east. Therefore, if the difference in latitude and longitude between Muscatine and Iowa City " is so very slight," double that distance between Davis county and the two latter points, is only a little more than slight, and will give a close approx- imation, to the climatic conditions which prevailed in this county during, the period covered by the following observations, which gives the maximum,
HISTORY OF DAVIS COUNTY.
339
minimum, and mean temperature of each, January and July, and the mean temperature of each year as well:
YEAR.
JANUARY- DEGREE
JULY- DEGREE
Mean temper-
fature of each
year - degree
1839.
60
| 0:32.16
95|58|
75.70
52.02
1840
39
:17 19.50
187 58
73.92
50.63
1841
52
23 20.87
96 56
70.40
48.39
1842
52
10 26.29
94 50
68.36
52.14
1843
50
15 24.97
95.55
70.44
45.07
1844
41
6 22.09
94.56
74.87
47.30
1845
58
6 30.03
98 50
76.05
48.74
1846
56 12 31.22
94|44
72.97
50.06
1847
40 23| 12.26
92 42
69.52
44.63
1848
50 | 8 28.00
85 48
63.98
45.32
1S49
46 24 14.26
59 42
66.48
45.01
1850
46 10 24.40
94 50
74.22
46.52
1851
46 16 23.97
97 44
71.62
47.63
1852
53 |23, 19.60
94 45
72.36
46.65
1853
54
9, 27.05
57146
G8.S2
47.71
1854
55
14 16.16
98 46
76.16
49.99
1855
64
23 24.77
95:55
73.01
47.51
1856
32
26
7.52
93 55
73.51 44.18
1857
41
30'
6.16
97.45
71.21
44.87
1858.
52
S 29 96
89 52
78.80
49.62
1859
50
13 24.10
97 46
72.33
47.37
1860
48
26. 213%
94 50
71.68 47.76
1861
39
18 13.85
97 47
69.00
47.02
1862
38
23 13.48
95 56
73.36
45.77
1863
59
0 25.97
94 49
71.45
46.22
1864
55
26
15.89
94 55
75.97
47.80
1865
46
10: 20.45
91155
69.33
50.20
1866
47
14
20.67
94 60
77.12
47.65
1867
45
IS
17.86
92,55
73.32
47.96
1868
50
16 13.37
9653
80.79
48.01
1869
48
14/ 26.02
86 52
70.86
The greatest mean temperature of any one year was 52.14.
The least mean temperature of any one year was 44.18.
The average temperature of the whole period of thirty years was 47.56.
2
Max.
Min.
Mean.
Max.
Min.
Mean.
340
HISTORY OF DAVIS COUNTY
The following are the number of days of rain and snow, for the same period of thirty years:
Rain, days,
Snow, days.
Quantity of rain
and snow, re-
duced to water
in inches.
1839
83
18
1840
84
17
1841
82
17
1842
57
20
1843
61
25
1844
53
13
IS46
72
17
1847
54
21
1848
74
12
20.29
1849
77
14
59.27
1850
72
13
49.06
1851
101
20
74.49
1852
73
21
59.49
1853
65
13
45.78
1854
71
12
23.35
1855.
74
20
28.38
1856
66
21
38.17
1857
80
19
39.52
1858
111
15
51.28
1859
80
26
32.65
1860
69
21
25.10
1861
66
22
47.89
1862
65
31
44.78
1863
74
21
33.75
1864.
92
20
51.57
1865
6S
24
45.34
1866
79
26
43.37
1867
66
28
42.18
1868
76
21
46.00
1869
The average number of days of rain per year for the whole period of thirty years, 74.8.
The average number of days of snow per year, for the whole period of thirty years, 19.4 The average quantity of rain and snow, reduced to water per year, for the whole period, in inches, 44.27.
The average quantity of snow per year, not reduced to water, in inehes, 33.23.
The greatest quantity of snow was in 1867, 61.97 inches.
The least quantity of snow was in 1850, 7.90 inches.
The greatest rainfall in the history of the State, was on August 10 and 11, 1851, from 11 P. M., to 3 A. M., or 4 hours, there fell 10.71 inches.
1
.
14
1845
341
HISTORY OF DAVIS COUNTY.
The earliest snow, ever known in the State, until 1881, was October 17, 1859.
The latest snow fall was April 29, 1851.
The greatest fall of snow in any one day, was 2012 inches, December 2Ist, 1848.
In 1863, there was frost every month in the year.
In 1858, the Mississippi River did not freeze over at Muscatine. It remained closed, on an average, 67 days in each year, during the freezing period of thirty years.
Through the courtesy of Miss Mary Hamilton, observer for the Iowa Weather Service at the Bloomfield Station, we obtain the observations from her reports of the rainfall, and climatic temperature in Davis county for the years 1879, 1880 and 1881, as follows:
Rainfall at Bloomfield, from April 1, 1879, to January 1, 1880:
DAYS. 0)
0
May
6
5.98
June.
10
6.44
July.
4
1.93
Angust
5
2.76
September
7
2.66
October
4
1.35
November.
7
4.76
December
6
1.29
Total
49
27.17
Rainfall, and the highest, lowest and average temperature, each month, for the year 1880: Latitude, 41 degrees, - minutes.
Longitude, 95 degrees, - minutes.
Elevation in feet above low water mark of the Mississippi River, 130 feet.
RAIN.
TEMPERATURE.
MONTH.
Days.
Inches.
Highest.
Least.
Average.
Jannary
7
2.73|62º1
22º
40.84 0
February
3
0.71 63
13
38.20
March .
4
2.22 65
16
46.
April.
7
2.50|84
43
60.33궁
May
6
2.22
89
56
79.16
June.
7
2.47
91
66
79.60
July.
5
4.93
92
66
83.07
August
S
3.53
95
65
83.26
September
5
2.63
84
58
71.10
October
3
0.93
178
35
57.22%
November
3
1.69
60
S
32 .-
December
4
0.70 44
- 14
20.30
Total
62 27.26 |95°
14°
57.59º
INCHES.
April.
342
HISTORY OF DAVIS COUNTY.
FOR THE YFAR 1881.
RAIN.
TEMPERATURE.
MONTII.
Days.
Inches.
Highe t.
Least.
Average.
January.
4
0.52 87°
- 6º
19.3319
February.
6
2 69,
52
10
26.14
March
7
2.30
52
34.643
April
9
2.44
82
27
49.70
May
6
1.75 86
56
76.933
June.
10,
9.31
92
70
80.16%
July.
4/ 2.86|
94
73
85.84
August.
3 0.32
98
74
89 .-
September
5 5.61
195
53
75.29
The average climate temperature, as noted by Prof. Parvin, at Muscatine and Iowa City, for the period of thirty years, ending with 1869, was 57.59 degrees; and the average tem- perature at Bloomfield, for the years 1880, 1801, as noted by Miss Hamilton, was 47,55% de- grees, making 10.03 degrees difference. ?
The foregoing tables will afford an interesting study of the rain and snow fall during the years they cover. Climate has so much to do with the health and prosperity of a country or civie locality, that it is an important study. It is a frequent observation that ague, malarial fevers and other pestilential diseases find their source in low, malarial and unhealthy local- ities, which generate the seeds of disease and death in those who dwell within them. Hence, the importance of escaping sueli localities, which the people of Davis county have so effectually done. These considerations are important, not only in their effect upon the body, but upon the mind as well. "Health and intelligence, intelligence and good morals, good morals and excellent government, are sisters three, withont which neither nations nor men may live and prosper."
There are but few days in the year that the movements of the winds are not observed in this locality. Their healthful importance eannot be over- estimated. They serve to modify the atmosphere, and distribute its heat and moisture. The malaria which escapes from the decayed vegetation of the prairie-a vegetation which has acenmulated for ages upon its wild sur- face and produced the rich black mould overlaying it, is swept away by the. winds; thus keeping the atmosphere in a healthy condition. The prevail- ing winds during the summer are from the south; while the winter winde are from the west and northwest; and during the spring and autumn seasons they are more changeable, coming from all points of the compass, which i :. likely eaused by the equinoctial periods occurring during those seasons, East winds are quite certain breeders of rain or snow.
343
HISTORY OF DAVIS COUNTY.
The rainfall, too, is another health preserving agent in absorbing, and neu- tralizing the noxious gasses generated from decaying vegetation. sinks of filth, and various other sources.
Upon the question of climatic localities, Dr. Farr, in 1852, presented a very interesting and instructive report to the Register general of England. in relation to the degenerating and destructive results to those of the human race who dwell in the low malarial localities of the world. In speaking of the destruction of the human race through these canses, Dr. Farr says:
"It is destroyed now periodically by five pestilences-cholera, remittent fever, yellow fever, glandular plagnes and influenza. The origin or chief seat of the first is the Delta of the Ganges. Of the second, the African and other tropical coasts. Of the third, the low west coast around the Gulf of Mexico, or the Delta of the Mississippi, and the West India Islands. Of the fourth, the Delta of the Nile and the low sea-side cities of the Mediterran- ean. Of the generating field of influenza nothing certain is known; but
the four great pestilential diseases-cholera, yellow fever, remittent fever and plague -- have this property in common; that they begin and are most fatal in low grounds; that their fatal- ity diminishes in ascending the rivers, and is inconsiderable around the river sources, ex- cept under sueli peculiar circumstances as are met with at Erzeroum, where the features of a marshy, sea-side city are seen at the foot of the mountain chain of Ararat. Safety is found in flight to the hills. *
* As the power of the Egyptians descended from the Thebaid to Memphis, from Memphis to Sais, they gradually degenerated, notwith- standing the elevation of their towns above the high waters of the Nile, their hygenic laws and the hydrographical and other sanitary arrangements which made the country renowned. justly or unjustly, for its salubrity in the days of Herodotus, the poison of the Delta in every time of weakness and successful invasion, gradually gained the ascendeney, and as the cities declined, the canals and the embalments of the dead were neglected, and the plague gained ground. The people, subjugated by Persians, Greeks, Romans, Turks, Mamolukes, beeamo what they have been for centuries, and what they are at the present day. Every race that settled in the Delta degenerated, and was only sustained by unmigration. So, likewise, the population on the sites of all the city-states of antiquity, on the coast of Syria, Asia Minor, Africa, Italy, seated like the people of Rome on low ground under the ruin-clad hills of their ancestors, withm reach of fever and plague, are enervated and debased apparently beyond redemption.
"The history of the nations on the Mediterranean, on the plains of the Euphrates and the Tigris, the Deltas of the Indus and the Ganges, and the rivers of China, exhibit this great fact: the gradual deseent of races from the highlands, their establishment on the eoasts in cities sustained and refreshed for a season by immigration from the interior, their degradation in successive generations under the influence of the unhealthy earth, and their final ruin, effacement or subjugation by new races of conquerers. The causes that destroy individual men, lay cities waste, in their nature, are immortal, and silently undermine eternal empires.
"On the highlands men feel the loftiest emotions. Every tradition places their origin there. The first nations worshipped there; high on the Indian Causasus, on Olympus, and on other lofty mountains the Indians and the Greeks imagined the abo.les of their highest gods, while they peopled the low underground regions, the grave-land of mortality, with infernal deities. Their myths have deep signification. Man feels his immortality in the hills."
344
HISTORY OF DAVIS COUNTY.
There comes to this locality-in fact, to all the western country-in the autumn, a spell of the most delightful weather, one of the most charming periods of the year, known as " Indian Summer." The mellow rays of the snn, and the soft gentle breezes, as they commingle with the golden or cop- per colored haze of the atmosphere, awaken dreams, fairy and delusive. Here this period bears the name of Indian Summer, from the fact that early settlers ascribed this peculiar haze to the burning of the prairies by the Indians at that time. This, however is not the eause, as a similar spell of fine weather prevails in various other countries at this season of the year. In England it is known as " Martinmas Summer," (from St. Mar- tin); in France it is known as "l' ete de St. Martin." (Summer of St. Martin); in Germany, as "Alte Weiber Sommer," (Old Woman's Sum- mer); and along the western coast of South America, as "St. John's Sum- mer." In no portion of the world, however, do we believe this period of
the year to be grander than in our own. It " laps all the landscape in its silvery fold" for weeks; and finally marks the changing season-blends autumn into winter. The splendor of the forest is brief, its gorgeous colors are fleeting, but there is joy in the period and the scene, which awakens the purest communings of the soul with this nature's holiday.
One who has lived a quarter of a century in Iowa, and passed from the Atlantic to the Pacific, says that nowhere between the two oceans can be observed so many magnificent spectacles at the risings and settings of the sun, as in an Iowa autumn: "Golden elonds, 'dark elonds with silver lining,' atmosphere full of delicious, haze-sometimes like floating gold and silver dnst-great bands of rosy light shooting upward to the zenith, mark these grand panoramas and make them so beautiful and brilliant that no one who has been entraneed by their grandeur can ever forget them! It is seldom that these free exhibitions of the sublimities of nature are ever equalled in any land, and we doubt whether they are ever surpassed in Italy."
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