USA > Iowa > Des Moines County > History of Des Moines County, Iowa, Volume I > Part 10
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65
"Then came Theodore Jennings, who located on land north of the original claim, and Benjamin Tucker and Isaac Crenshaw on the southwest. In the fall of 1832 David Tothero built the second cabin in this region and the first one away from the site of Burlington, southwest of town some two miles or more.
"Before winter set in, twelve or fifteen families located in the surrounding country. The Smiths built cabins two miles below town. The treaty with the Indians did not require them to give possession to the land until June 1, 1833. but no attention was given to that elause by the settlers. Complaint was made to the commanding officer at Rock Island (Fort Armstrong) and a company of
97
HISTORY OF DES MOINES COUNTY
fifteen men was sent down to drive us off. We received notice of their purpose in time to move our effects across the river. They were under the command of Jefferson Davis of the late Confederate States. He was then a lieutenant in the army. I afterwards learned the troops occupied our cabins over night and in the morning they left, setting fire to their cabins. The settlers from the surrounding country had taken refuge on the large island below our claim." White says he returned to the west side of the river about the middle of May, 1833, when he built a cabin made of rails, and covered it as best he could with boards split out of logs. Doctor Ross says he crossed the Mississippi River in July, 1833, and landed a half mile below the mouth of Flint River. The place was called Flint Hills and extended five miles below the site of Burlington. When he came, Morton M. McCarver and Simpson S. White were residing in cabins about twelve feet apart. White says: "Shortly after Ross, came Jeremiah Smith, Jr., and Daniel Strong located on land on the prairie west of town. Smith caused us to lay off some lots, as he said he would purchase a lot if we would sell it to him; if we would not do that he would occupy the ground anyway, as he had come to start in trade. If he could not do it peaceably he would do it forcibly. It was not our intention to lay off a town till we had acquired title, but the positive stand taken by Smith caused us to change our minds. Doctor Ross surveyed the front line of two blocks, which was all the survey made that year. Smith purchased a lot, built a house and commenced business in the fall of 1833. The same fall," says White, "I purchased McCarver's interest in the town and ferry. McCarver then went to Monmouth, where he remained for two years and then returned to Burlington. In the spring of 1834 John B. Gray came to Burlington and opened the first grocery store. During the year 1834 the town was surveyed and many lots were sold." The fact that White caused to be surveyed the front line of two blocks to get a place for Jere Smith to build a store don't show Jere used much force. Mr. Gray is undoubtedly correct in his statement that the original plat as now exists of the city had its beginning in the survey of 1834, but Mr. White's story of Jefferson Davis coming from Fort Armstrong with a squad of soldiers and burning their cabins is one of imagination. All had received notice of the coming of soldiers and had removed their effects to Big Island. The troops stayed in White's cabin one night after he left; but that Jefferson Davis, presi- dent of the late Confederate States, had charge of them, we have only White's statement without his giving his means of knowledge. General Dodge in his address at the commemoration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of Iowa, held in Burlington, June 1, 1883, says : "I may mention as a historic truth the gentle- manly and humane treatment extended by Jefferson Davis, late of the Confed- erate States to the vanguards of America, who first settled Dubuque. Davis was a second lieutenant in the regular army, and was sent from Prairie du Chien by General Taylor, afterwards President Taylor, to drive off the settlers. He left his men on the opposite side of the river (at Jordan's Ferry, East Dubuque), and in person visited our people in their humble cabins. He persuaded them to withdraw till the first of June east of the Mississippi, but wholly unlike Lieu- tenant Gardner, sent here (to Flint Hills), did not burn their humble houses or commit any act of destruction upon their mining property, but treated all with characteristic courtesy and kindness." Besides, to even charge Lieutenant Gard- ner with an act of vandalism in what he did is wholly wrong. These early settlers, Vol. I- 7
98
HISTORY OF DES MOINES COUNTY
however much we admire them, had no business on the west side of the river at the time. They were here in violation of the treaty made with the Indians. White says: "They paid no attention to this portion of the treaty." What they did was calculated to excite the Indians to resentment and bloodshed. One of the canses which led to the Black Hawk war was the violation of the treaty made with the Indians by the settlers. Doubtless Lieutenant Gardner had good reason to believe that as soon as he departed, and before the coming of June, those settlers would be back in their cabins getting ready to plant corn in May. It is presumed Lieutenant Gardner acted under the orders of his superior officer. The pioneer did not care much for the Indian and his rights and the treaties made with them when it conflicted with his own interests. True it is, Mr. Roosevelt in his "Winning of the West," and John Quincy Adams in a learned discussion, say the Indians did not own the land, that they were tribes of wild men frequently at war with each other, one year at one place, in another at a different place ; that if the land had been allotted to them, hundreds and thousands of acres would be set aside to each member; that the demands of civilization were such that it was right to dispossess them of the lands they claimed and give it to the white settlers, who would conquer and make it serve the welfare of the millions to come. But back of all this is, what right has any one man to own the soil as against another man who does not own it? The Government sold to the Ohio Company several million acres of land. This company was composed of George Washington and seven or eight other gentlemen. Is it not true, since the foundation of the Government, it has either chased or driven the Indians off the land? Has it at any time given him any portion except in one instance, and tried to help him dress and keep it and make a home for himself? We call to mind the case of the Christian Indians under the fostering care of the Moravian missionaries. By force they were dispossessed of their holdings, driven from their homes and fields. The policy of the Government has been to dazzle an ignorant people with a few trinkets, and the payment of a paltry sum of money to justify it in taking from them all the lands and push them back, and back, towards the setting sun. The answer of Cain, "Am I my brother's keeper?" has been the answer given by the white man since he first set foot on the Western Hemisphere, with no regard to any rights of the natives he found when he came. The whole conduct of the Government to the Indian has not in it one single atom of morality. It has held to the enforcement of the laws of the survival of the fittest. The struggle has been the man with a coonskin cap on his head and rifle on his shoulder. against the ignorant man with the bow and arrow, who found a living by following in the chase the wild animals. It was cheaper for the white man to kill him than to civilize him, cheaper to stir him to revenge, to provoke him to war, then kill him, than to allot him a portion of the land and instruct him how to cultivate it. Ancient Rome conquered the wild barbarian, but never drove him from his land and allotted it to its citizens. It made him its friend, gave him its laws, fostered his welfare, from which has sprung the grandest of civilizations in the whole world.
Burlington had its beginning in the minds of the two "squatters," S. S. White and Amzi Doolittle. They had crossed the river before the treaty had been made with the Indians, and had determined to be the first on the ground and await developments. Subsequently McCarver joined them, and on compulsion of Jere
a
LOG CABIN ON THE PRAIRIE
99
HISTORY OF DES MOINES COUNTY
Smith commenced to lay out a town and to sell lots. None of them had a shadow of title to the land or lots sold. With Mr. Ross as their surveyor, they made a beginning to lay out the town soon after Doctor Ross came. In November or December, 1833, they employed another surveyor, one Benjamin Tucker, and commenced in dead earnest to lay off and plat a townsite. How much of this town was surveyed and platted by Tucker the records do not show, but things went on without any hindrance, the proprietors selling lots and giving deeds to the same till July 2, 1836, when the Government "jumped" their claim by passing an act for the laying off of Burlington and other towns. Among other things the act provided "That Burlington, in the County of Des Moines, shall, under the direction of the surveyor general of public lands, be laid off into town lots, streets and avenues, and the lots for public use, called public squares, and into out lots, having regard to lots and streets already surveyed, and in such manner and of such dimensions as he may think proper for the public good and the equitable rights of settlers and the occupants of said town, provided the tract to be so laid off shall not exceed the quantity of one entire section. When the survey of lots shall have been completed, a plat thereof shall be returned to the secretary of the treasury, and within six months thereafter the lots shall be offered for sale at public sale to the highest bidders under the direction of the President of the United States ; and provided further, that a quantity of land of a proper width on the river bank, and running with said river the whole length of said town, shall be reserved from sale for public: uses, and so remain forever for public uses as public highways, and for other public purposes." The act thus provided for a public highway along the river front from South Boundary Street to North Street. Our readers will look in vain for this public highway for its full length.
On February 14, 1853, the Congress passed an act which provided that the land bordering on the Mississippi River in front of the city reserved by the act of July 2, 1836, for a public highway, and for other public uses, together with the accretions which may have formed thereto in front thereof, to be disposed of in such manner as the corporate authorities of said city may direct." But it was further provided in the act of 1853 "That the grant made by this act shall operate as a relinquishment only of the right of the United States in and to said premises, and shall in no manner affect the right of third persons therein, as to the use thereof, but shall be subject to th: same." The Mississippi River is a great public highway, and the object of the reservation was for the purpose of leaving an approach to the highway for the full length of the city's river front. In Cook vs. The City of Burlington, 30 Iowa 94, the Supreme Court in construing the above provision of the act of Congress held, that by virtue of the act the strip reserved was dedicated to the public use and that, after the sale of the lots abut- ting thereon to individuals, the act making this dedication assumed the character of a contract which could not afterwards be abrogated or repealed. That a relinquishment on the part of the Government to the city of the title to said prop- erty, which it thus held in trust for public uses to which it was dedicated, invested the city with no greater title than it possessed and subject to the same uses and trusts, and held by the same tenure. The court further held the natural accretions from the river made to this reserved strip partook of the same nature of the original reservation, became subject to the same uses and trusts, and held by the same tenure. It was also held, that the owners of lots abutting such reservation
731363
100
HISTORY OF DES MOINES COUNTY
did not, by their purchase, acquire the title thereto, or any part thereof; but they possess such an interest therein, and to the accretion thereto, as that a court of equity will interpose in their behalf, to enjoin an absolute conveyance of the prop- erty for private purposes by the city, or any other diversion thereof from the uses and purposes for which it was dedicated. The court also held that the laying down and operating a railway track on a part of a street is not an obstruction of its free uses, nor incompatible with its original dedication. The question whether the city has the power to grant to a corporation the right to so occupy a street as to wholly dispossess the public of its use was not in the case.
The original survey of the city made by the Government included all that territory bounded as follows: "On the north by North Street, on the west by West Boundary Street (now Central Avenue) and Old Boundary Street ; on the south by South Street ; on the east by the Mississippi River," including in all 908 blocks. Prior to the 19th of January, 1836, all that constituted the town was some log cabins and a few log houses used for stores, located in White and Doolittle's staked-out town. On the date above mentioned, the Council and House of Rep- resentatives of Wisconsin Territory passed an act entitled, "An act to incorporate the City of Burlington." It gave the electors power to elect a mayor and board of aldermen, and prescribed their duties; provided for the election of a city recorder, treasurer and city engineer. Among other things, it provided, "That when, in the opinion of the council, it is expedient to borrow money for public uses, the question shall be submitted to the electors of Burlington. The nature and object of the loan shall be stated and a day fixed for the electors of the city to express their wishes, and the loan shall not be made, unless a majority of the votes given shall be in the affirmative." I cannot give the date when the first elec- tion of city officers was held, but I find the first meeting of the board of aldermen was held in the law office of David Rorer on the 29th of April, 1837. One of its first acts was an order to fix the boundaries of the city, which it did in accordance with its charter of July 19, 1836. When first incorporated it included only that territory embraced in the first plat, and conveyances of lots in this survey are described "according to the original survey of said city."
On June 10, 1845, the Council and House of Representatives of Iowa Terri- tory passed an act which repealed the former charter, and enacted one in lieu thereof. Various amendments were made to this charter until the city became incorporated untler the general law for the incorporation of cities of the first class. The election for the abandonment of the old special charter rights took place January 11, 1875, at which were cast :
For abandonment 061 votes
Against abandonment 127 votes
By this act, almost every semblance of the old "New England town meeting" was blotted out and the people of the city left to the mercies of the State Legis- lature to determine for them what they wanted.
Matters remained in this situation until 1908, at which time it was submitted to the electors whether they would adopt what is called the commission form of
101
HISTORY OF DES MOINES COUNTY
government for which provision had been made under a law of the state. At an election held on that date the vote was as follows :
For commission form of government. 2,638 votes Against commission form of government. 1,268 votes
The city is now being operated under the provisions of this late law. At the present time is being agitated another change, that of having a general manager. After all that has been done, it is questionable whether in fundamentals any improvement has been made on the old charter government of 1836. The tendency has been since the abandonment of the special charter system to centralize power in the city council; to take away from the citizens their right to vote on many important questions. It is a historical fact that Burlington increased in popula- tion and wealth at a greater rate while it was operated under the special charter system. But to go back to the earlier time of its history: Before its incorpora- tion from the small beginning of White, Doolittle, Ross, Gray, Smith and McCar- ver and their families in 1833, we find that in 1836 it contained a population of 517 people, old and young. As soon as the Indian title had been extinguished people from all sections of the country came to make it their home, and to start in trade and establish themselves in their several professions. The founders of a city are those who come to stay and work.
In the spring of 1836 Thomas Cooper came from Kentucky with his family. He purchased some lots on Front Street from Enoch Wade, on which he built a house of boards which he bought from Daniel Haskell, who had a sawmill located a little south of the west terminal of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad bridge and afterwards known as Dickey's Mill. Cooper moved into this house with his family. This house stood near where now stands the office of the Rand Lumber Company on lower Main Street. In the spring of 1837 Cooper built a double roomed house, on the corner of Front and Columbia streets, on the lot on which afterwards was built the Mccutcheon House. When Mr. Cooper had com- pleted his house he had a house warming, which consisted of a dance by all the gallants and ladies of the town. This was the first dance held in Burlington. The second was the one held by the Indians when they came to interview Governor Lucas. Zach Morgan was the fiddler, and doubtless with pleasure the time sped away until Aurora opened the gates of morn. Cooper soon after opened a dry goods store in the front room of the building. Mr. George Kelly came from Wheeling, Va., and brought a stock of dry goods with him, and finding no vacant room, bought Mr. Cooper's stock and store and commenced business.
Judge Rorer came in the spring of 1836 and opened a law office and from that time made Burlington his home till the time of his death. He took great interest in building up the city in various ways. He bought of Enoch Wade a tract of nine acres, which was surveyed by Johnson Pierson. This land lay west of Front Street, bounded on the north by Spring Branch, which came down from the southwest part of the town and is now known by the name of Bogus Hollow, where Bill Calendine made the false money, and from which it derived its present name. The north line crossed Main Street a little south of where the Bosch Brewery stood and struck the Mississippi just north of where Mr. Wade had a warehouse on the bank of the river. Mr. Johnson Pierson says: "I commenced the sur-
102
HISTORY OF DES MOINES COUNTY
veying of this land early in the morning. Had two chainmen and one axeman, and Judge Rorer served in the capacity of stake or flagman. That the ground was thickly studded with forest trees of almost every variety, such as oak, hickory, elm, ash, linden and sugar maple, and thickly set with an undergrowth of hazel brush, gooseberry bushes, grape vines, requiring the continued vigilance of the axeman to open the way for the chainmen to count measurements. We were engaged four days in making the survey. Front Street had been extended to the bluff ( Prospect Hill), by Doolittle and White, and on the west line of this street is based the survey of this tract making the streets and alleys conform with those of the city proper and the lots and blocks of the same size. On the east side of Front Street and a little north of the Rand Lumber Company's office, Thomas Cooper had erected a dwelling of sawed lumber and with his family occupied it. South of this, in a southeast direction, and immediately south of the west pier of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad bridge, and directly under the northern- most height of Prospect Hill, stood Daniel Haskell's mill, afterwards known as Dickey's Mill. East of where the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy roundhouse now stands, about a half a block, Judge Rorer had put up a comfortable cabin, his first residence in the city. About the middle of August in the same year the judge said to me one day : 'Get your compass and chain and come to my office ; I want to stake off a lot and set pegs at the corners for a foundation for a house I intend building.' As required, I came equipped for the work. We traced the line of Fourth Street to the desired point, on which line as a base I laid off the lot, placing posts at each intersection, then laying off the dimensions or size of the foundation, setting the pegs at each corner intersection. 'Now,' said he, 'I am going to put up a brick house on this lot.' He obtained the brick from Colonel Leffler. John Mower did the brick work, Henry Moore the carpenter work, Jerry White and Jake Arick the plastering, which was the first brick house put up in Burlington, Judge Rorer himself laying the first brick. The house stood a little off the street on the corner lot on Fourth and Columbia ( southeast corner of said street). Colonel Warren afterwards became the owner, Mrs. Shelton taught a children's school in it during the summer months, Zach Morgan lived in it some time ; finally Colonel Warren tore it down and erected a residence on its site, which later became the Nassau home."
Many of those who first came to Burlington were the first to leave. The hum of industry had no charms to hold them where they had located ; they. wanted to be away among the wilds, which lured them westward. They had always lived a frontier life and could not break away from its charms. Among the first to leave the town which they had staked out were Amzi Doolittle and S. S. White. They sold lots and by this means had acquired some money. When, in 1849, Oregon was opened for settlement, they were among the first to make footprints on the "Oregon Trail" across the plains, then through the passes of the Rocky Moun- tains. There was another class, the rough element who were satisfied if they could earn enough to procure a slice of bacon, a corn dodger and a dram of whiskey. They were the sporting element who had little regard for either morals or law.
We copy the following description of Burlington as described in the Hawkeye at an early period : "Burlington is situated on the west bank of the Mississippi, about seven hundred miles below the Falls of St. Anthony, and eighteen hundred miles below its source and something over two hundred miles above St. Louis.
IOWA'S FIRST BRICK HOUSE, BURLINGTON
103
HISTORY OF DES MOINES COUNTY
The city is built on a high bluff bank about two hundred feet above the water in the river, and is cut by a small stream called Hawkeye.
"The space from the landing to the summit and along Hawkeye will afford an ample space for business, manufacturers, etc., for many years to come ; while a more beautiful place for residences cannot be well imagined than the level plain above. The scenery cannot be excelled for beauty. The river, with its woody islands, stretches away to the north and south, until enchanted by distance. and mellowed by the sunlight of our Indian summers, it seems a fairy magic dream- land, too beautiful to be real. Opposite and reposing in the distance are the bluffs on the Illinois side." One living at the present who never saw the natural beauty of the place before the hand of man had disturbed the soil and cut down the trees, can have but little conception of the place on which the city has been built. The beautiful glens through which streams of sparkling water flowed into Hawkeye have been filled, or so mutilated, that hardly a vestige remains indicating what once they were. Bogus Hollow is almost gone, and what is left is an eyesore. Stony Lonesome, which separates South Hill from West Hill, has ceased to be the Stony Lonesome of the past, when Fox Abrahams lived there in his little cottage. It was a retreat which soothed the little man's heart when loaded with the cares of life. The grapevine clambered over the porch of his cottage. The bluebirds made their nests in obscure corners around and about his little dwelling. The robin chirped from leafy bowers. The jay flew from tree to tree and squawked the while. The cardinal sang his sweet notes of joy; while the wood- pecker pounded away, the drummer in this chorus of birds. In the springtime the Johnny-Jumpup sprang from the ground and looking up with its blue eyes, smiled and said: "Look at me. I am the beginning of life after the winter of death. I am the first up in the resurrection." The Sweet William covered the hillsides with a tint of blue. The May apple sprang up, spreading its umbrella of leaves shading its yellow fruit. In limpid pools minnows jumped and sported in play. Such was Stony Lonesome, in springtime, when Fox Abrahams lived there.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.