USA > Iowa > Des Moines County > History of Des Moines County, Iowa, Volume I > Part 43
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"Business was generally suspended. The people entered into the celebration with ardor and enthusiasm. The streets and public places were alive with a count- less throng. The crowds were always good natured; order was universal. None were excited by the inconveniences incident to such an occasion, except to witty repartce and good humor. Never were the people of a city more cordial and sincere in their efforts to make a public festival pleasant to all comers, and no host could entertain a more delightful party of guests.
"The various bands furnished music from an early hour in the morning until late at night, and every one was supremely happy. The day passed without an accident or unpleasant feature. Headquarters were at Grimes' Opera House, where baggage was checked free of charge, and other conveniences were pro- vided."
THE DECORATIONS
At the railway station visitors were welcomed with banners bearing the inscription :
"We Greet You. "Flint Hills, 1833. Burlington, 1883."
At the foot of Jefferson Street ( Steamboat Landing) :
"Welcome to All; Pioneers, Old Settlers and Every One, Thrice Welcome."
On Main Street, at the corner of Division Street, a banner floated in the breeze with two large keys and the inscription :
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"Freedom of the City; Take Possession."
At the railway crossing, Main and Market streets :
"Wilderness, 1833; First Train West, February, 1856; What Hath Time Wrought?"
"One Hundred Trains Arrive and Depart Daily ; Iowa, 6,800 Miles of Railroad ; Railroads Reach Every County Seat."
At the corner of Main and Valley streets a picture of an ox team drawing a prairie schooner, with the words over them :
"Go West, Young Man."
On the reverse, a beautiful residence, with fountains and flowers, and the inscription :
"Fifty Years After."
A banner bore the inscription, "Big Injun, 1833." with the head of an Indian, and on the reverse, "Black Hawk-Peace to His Ashes." Another banner was inscribed, "First Engine in Burlington, J. C. Hall"; and on the reverse a Chicago, Burlington & Quincy mogul locomotive. Other inscriptions were:
"Flint Hills, 1833; (clasped hands) Glad to see you; Shake! Burlington, 1883."
"Shokokon, Flint Hills: After Fifty Years, Burlington, the Orchard City ; We Greet You."
"Burlington at Home; All Are Welcome; We Receive Today."
"Good Luck to All" (encircling an enormous horseshoe).
At Main and Washington streets (telegraph office), Slow Coach, 1833, "The Hawkeye State: Telegraph, 1883."
The Hawkeye Building displayed upon the cornice the original name of the paper, "The lowa Patriot," to which the present name was added September 5, 1839.
The Gazette Building was adorned with flags, evergreens, and a tablet with the inscription, "The oldest paper in Burlington," established in 1837.
On Jefferson Street across Third, upon an elevated structure, was a large star containing the word "Iowa," with the date "1833-1883" on a medallion ; above, "Fifty years, Half a century." On one side, a banner reading, "How time flies !" while the other side answers, "Well! I should say so." The star and dates were pierced, and illuminated with gas in the evening.
At the intersection of Jefferson and Fourth streets a large arch was erected, with evergreens and flags draped around and across. Surmounting the arch was a monument with the inscription "Bunker Hill" and "1776." This also was handsomely illuminated. The Congregational Church bore the legend, "Organ- ized 1838." Four flags floated in the breezy air on the tower.
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Jefferson and Fifth streets: "Iowa the Beautiful; Iowa the Banner State; Iowa, This Is the Place."
"First White Settlements : Dubuque, Buffalo, Burlington, Fort Madison, Keokuk."
Jefferson and Sixth streets: "Our Aids, the Press; Our School System Un- surpassed : Our Guide, the Pulpit; Our Commerce; Our Manufactures; Our Industries."
Third and Valley streets : "We All Rejoice; Fiftieth Anniversary; Our Golden Wedding; Congratulations ; Be Happy with Us."
Third and Washington streets : "Great Seal of Iowa: Our liberties we prize, and our rights we will maintain."
"Garden of the West; Paradise of Health; Education and Progress."
Fourth and Washington streets: "William R. Ross, First Postmaster ; S. S. White, the Founder of Burlington ; J. B. Gray Proposed the Name."
Fourth and Columbia streets: "July, 1836, First Brick House Erected on This Corner." (Southeast corner; first brick laid by hands of Hon. David Rorer.)
THE PROCESSION
At noon the booming of fifty guns from the South Hill reverberated over the city, and announced the fifty years completed since the removal by treaty of the confederated tribes of Sacs and Foxes from this part of Iowa, and the opening of the land to settlement.
The procession formed at the Market House at I o'clock and paraded north to Fifth on Jefferson Street; east on Jefferson to Main Street ; south on Main to Vine Street; (counter marched by file right) on Main north to Division Street ; west on Division to Third Street; north on Third to Jefferson Street; west on Jefferson to Fourth Street; north on Fourth Street to the North Hill Park, in the following order :
FIRST DIVISION
City Marshal Charles O. Streed. Chief of Police J. O. Smyth, Mounted. A Platoon of Police, Uniformed.
Chief Marshal E. C. Blackmar and His Orderly, Master Willie Potter. The Aledo Ladies' Band. Governor of Iowa, Hon. Buren R. Sherman ; Mayor of Burlington, Hon. John Zaiser ; in open carriage drawn by four white horses.
Pioneers of 1833; Old Settlers; Officers of the Hawkeye Pioneer and Old Settlers Association of Des Moines County ; in twenty carriages. A Drum Corps.
SECOND DIVISION
Assistant Marshal James A. Guest. The Orchard City Band. The Independent Order of Odd Fellows. The Ancient Order of United Workmen, Loyal to the Supreme Lodge. The United Ancient Order of Druids.
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THIRD DIVISION
Assistant Marshal Newton R. Derby. The Burlington Brass Band.
The Ancient Order of Hibernians of Ottumwa and Burlington. The Knights of Pythias. The Ancient Order of United Workmen ( State Lodge). Sumner Lodge No. 3 (colored) Masons. The German Mutual Aid Society. The Swedish Gotha Society. The Monmouth Band, from Monmouth, Ill. The Grip Sack Brigade of Traveling Salesmen. The Fire Department.
At least two thousand persons marched in the procession. It was twelve blocks in length.
At the North Hill Park three stands were erected : on the south side, near the southeast corner; on the west side; on the north side; in front of each stand long rows of seats were arranged. At the first stand General Dodge pre- sided.
The following was the order of exercises :
THE PRAYER
By the chaplain of the day, William Salter :
"Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed by thy name ; We praise thee, O God ! We acknowledge thee to be the Lord!
"All the earth doth worship thee, the Father everlasting. We thank thee for this goodly land, that thou hast blessed the settlement thereof, and given to thy servants green fields, and pastures new, and cities fair, and happy homes, and schools and churches. Thou hast rewarded industry and toil, and filled the land with wealth and plenty.
"O Lord, all this store has come of thy bounty. We laud and magnify thy name. We thank thee for the memories of this day, and for the good providence which in fifty years has turned a wilderness into a free and prosperous com- monwealth.
"We implore thy blessing upon this commemoration of thy wonderful work, upon the pioneers and early settlers, and beseech thee to cheer the evening of their days with thy grace and favor, and with glad assurances that their labors are not in vain in the Lord.
"In the midst of our joy and gladness, deliver us, O Lord, from pride, vain glory, and hypocrisy, and may a due sense of thy mercies confirm our hearts in devotion and piety.
"We beseech thee to bless our rulers and magistrates, and help thenr to exe- cute justice and maintain public virtue and order. May vice and wickedness be
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driven away, and the blessings of knowledge, and of religion, pure and undefiled, be universally diffused. Be pleased to ameliorate human sorrow and woe, and give to every one a happy earthly lot in a sober, righteous and godly life. May the State of Iowa be filled with all things true and honest, and pure and lovely, and gain still higher measures of prosperity and honor.
"Be pleased to grant, O Lord, that our history for fifty years may commend the sacred principles of liberty, equality and fraternity to other lands, and encour- age the disenthralment of all nations from oppression and wrong. May there be peace everywhere on earth and good will among men, and glory dwell in our land, and salvation be the portion of our children and children's children to the end of time. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever, Amen."
PRESENTATION OF A HICKORY CANE FROM THE "HERMITAGE" TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE CELEBRATION
By Hon. B. J. Hall
"General Dodge: Pardon a moment's interruption before proceeding to the regular order of the day. We all recognize in you the fitting master of cere- monies on this anniversary ; but, for the moment, we must insist you shall not have all things your own way. In this semi-centennial celebration, when our citizens, the old settlers and the new, have met to illustrate and commemorate the beginning and the growth of our young but noble state, no one could have been called upon to preside in whose life and character could be found more that was illustrative of the splendid spirit and noble purposes of our people, and their institutions, than in yours. To you, more than to most men, it is the pride and consolation of all who have known or know you-and who is there who does not know you ?- to turn with profoundest regard and admiration for a life of activity, energy, statesmanship and purity. To whatever station you have been called, whether on the field, in the Senate, or as the private citizen, you have faced the duties of the hour, and left undone nothing which it was in your power to accomplish. It is impossible to calculate the extent of your usefulness and influ- ence in helping to realize the great actualities which present themselves before us today. The origin, organization and formation of the government of our early state; the protection and fostering encouragement granted it by the Federal Government ; the policy of its laws and the humane character of its institutions, owe a debt of gratitude to you, that none of us can express, much less repay. Remembering that when you first gave your services to your country, it was to defend this western frontier from the cruel and relentless savage, and reclaim these fair plains for the civilization that now possesses it, under the administra- tion of that immortal statesman and warrior, who now sleeps in the shade of the Hermitage, one of your friends and admirers has begged through me to tender you this beautiful staff, cut by him from the precincts where sleeps the immortal Jackson. Please accept it as an emblem of purity, strength and power. It is straight as the line of honor, which is capable of no deviation; of white clear hickory, its quality is to endure, and resist all enforcement but that of duty. And may you live long to be supported by it. But to you, better than all such physical aid and support, will be and must be the consolation you experience when, in Vol. J -24
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surveying that wonderful past, resting behind us in the last fifty years with all its marvelous growth and splendid development, you are conscious "that of much of this you have been a part, and all of it you have seen."
To which General Dodge rejoined :
"Acceptable, as unexpected, is the gift of which I am the honored recipient.
"If the motives of the friendly donor whose name I cannot imagine, and the language of my Ciceronian friend, Hall, were not so kind and complimentary, I would say that it is cruel at this juncture thus to surprise and embarrass me. *
"Having reached the steep declivity of human life and being now on its rapidly descending grade, I accept this cane with a deep sense of gratitude to all through whose friendly hands it has come to me, and I shall use it as the staff of my declining years. I came here poor, I shall return home rich."
ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE DAY, TIIE HON. A. C. DODGE
"Ladies and Gentlemen : Never to me was the performance of a duty more pleasing than that with which I am honored by my fellow-townsmen upon this occasion. In their name and my own I extend to you the hand of friendship and offer you warm greetings and a most cordial welcome to the City of Burlington. Your presence in such large numbers upon this occasion is a source of pride and heartfelt gratification to us, and we sincerely hope may be equally pleasant to our visitors.
"The day we celebrate is big with the destiny of Iowa. Deserving forever to be remembered is that Ist day of June, 1833, for it decreed that millions of freemen should find within her borders happy homes; yes,
" 'That spot of earth supremely blest, A nearer, dearer place than all the rest.'
"lowa was born of the religious zeal of Marquette and Joliet, under the aus- pices of France. Beyond dispute, they were the first white men whose eyes ever beheld the Upper Mississippi and the land we inhabit, the significance of whose name is 'none such,' or 'this is the place'-Iowa.
"The more southern portion, however, of our magnificent valley was first seen by the brave but unfortunate Ferdinand De Soto, a representative of Spain, a Castilian by birth, and greatly distinguished as an officer under Pizarro, at the renowned conquest of Peru.
"More than a century before the advent of the pious French missionaries, the brave but misguided De Soto (1541) led upwards of six hundred steel clad warriors from Tampa Bay, Fla., to the Mississippi. They came sword in hand, through gloomy swamps, quagmires and almost impenetrable everglades, seeking springs whose waters it was represented would restore the beauty and activity of youth, and mountains containing the precious metals, such as he had seen in Peru and Mexico. Sorely pressed by sickness, starvation and Indian enemies, who contested his advance by all the means known to savage warfare, the doomed
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man and his little band finally reached the shores of our great river; not, how- ever, to find in its sands the long sought gold, but a grave beneath its turbid waters, in which, by his own selection, in full uniform, he was appropriately buried May 21, 1542, below Memphis, Tenn. Except to afford Moscoso, suc- cessor of De Soto, and his few forlorn followers, less than half their original number, an avenue of escape to the coast of Mexico, the discovery yielded no immediate benefit to Spain.
"Next, after the ill-fated De Soto, to discover the Mississippi were James Marquette and Louis Joliet ; they were French Catholic missionaries, were of another race and impelled by totally different motives from those which animated the Spaniard. They came proclaiming 'peace on earth and good will to men'; and surely no missionaries were ever more successful. Marquette, when told that they would be tomahawked by men who were always at war ; that the great river itself was filled with horrid monsters which swallowed up men and canoes, and that the excessive heat would certainly cause his death, replied that, as far as the salvation of souls was concerned, he would be too happy to lay down his life in that cause. De Soto's exploration afforded them no assistance. It was not then known that the two rivers were one and the same. With five men in two bark canoes, and a small supply of Indian corn and dried meat, Marquette and Joliet left the Straits of Mackinaw, May 13, A. D. 1673. Ascending the waters of the St. Lawrence, they worked their way up the Fox River from Green Bay, and overcoming all obstacles, not the least of which was the "portage" (so- called), two miles in length between the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, over which, on their shoulders, they transported their little crafts, and made historic forever the 17th of June, that being the day on which, 'with joy unspeakable,' said Mar- quette, opposite the present City of McGregor, Iowa, they dipped their paddles in the 'Father of Waters.' Great river! Like the ocean!
"'Time writes no wrinkles on thine azure brow, Such as Marquette beheld, thou rollest now.'
"These remarkable men exhibited rare tact and talent in conciliating the savages with whom they came in contact, meeting them for the first time, June 25, within our borders at a noted feast upon the Des Moines. They are unquestion- ably entitled to the glory of the discovery of the upper Mississippi, and of having navigated the same from the mouth of the Wisconsin to that of the Arkansas. This is worthy of special notice, because upon the result of their explorations the destiny of nations and states has been controlled. They were moreover beyond all question the first white men who ever trod the soil of Iowa. Neither fiction, poetry nor history display a heroism more lofty, an ambition more pure, and a faith more steadfast than that exhibited by these brave and disinterested Chris- tian missionaries. *
"In the spring of 1831, the Sac Chief Makataimeshekiakiak ( Black Sparrow Hawk), not appeased with the blood he had aided to shed at Tippecanoe, River Basin, Lower Sandusky, Fort Madison, and many other places, determined to renew on the Illinois frontier the scenes of his early life. Like Pontiac, Bryant and Tecumseh, Black Hawk was noted for his undying hatred of our country- men.
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HISTORY OF DES MOINES COUNTY
"Black Hawk, in April, 1832, in contravention of all the solenin treaties before enumerated, the "British Band" led by Black Hawk and his prophet (who assured the Indians that the bullets of white men could not harm them), and constituting a large portion of the confederate tribe of Sacs and Foxes, crossed the Mississippi, again invaded Illinois and commenced war upon her citizens, sparing neither age, sex nor condition. For many months they successfully resisted in battle or eluded by retreat the troops sent against them. But on the 2d of August, 1832, at Bad Axe, in Wisconsin, they were finally beaten and their leaders soon after captured in attempting flight to Canada.
"The treaty by which the country became ours was concluded at Rock Island, September 21, 1832, and ratified February 13, 1833, but by some cruel and inex- plicable order of government, the rich lands, salubrious clime, town sites, water power and valuable lead mines remained forbidden fruit until the Ist day of June, 1833. At that date, ever glorious day, the officers and regular soldiers, who for many long months had driven back the pioneers, pulled down and burned their cabins, were withdrawn, and the first permanent settlement commenced in Iowa. *
"I may mention as an historic truth the gentlemanly and humane treatment extended by Jefferson Davis, late of the Confederacy, to the vanguards of Ameri- cans who first settled at Dubuque. Davis was a second lieutenant in the regular army and sent from Prairie du Chien by General, afterwards President Taylor, to drive off the settlers. He left his men on the opposite side of the river (at Jordon's Ferry), East Dubuque, and in person visited our people in their humble cabins. He persuaded them to withdraw until the Ist of June east of the Mis- sissippi ; but wholly unlike Lieutenant Gardner, sent here (to Flint Hills), he burnt not their humble huts, nor committed any act of destruction upon their mining or other property, but treated all with characteristic civility and kind- ness.
"An illustration of the extraordinary energy and progress of the Anglo- Saxon and mixed races, now peopling the western states and territories, I refer to the fact that when Iowa was admitted (December 28, 1846), excluding Missouri and Texas, there was west of the Mississippi River a population of perhaps less than two hundred thousand souls (they were in Iowa and Oregon), and not a mile of railway. Now there are 6,000,000 of people residing within those limits, and 32,000 miles of railroad in daily operation.
" 'Wide shall our own free race increase, And wide extend the elastic chain, That binds in everlasting peace, State after state, a mighty train.'"
The orator of the day, Hon. John H. Craig, of Keokuk, being introduced by the president, was received with enthusiastic and prolonged applause, and deliv- ered the following
ORATION
"Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, My Fellow Citizens of Iowa: Let me express my profound appreciation of this honor, and also my thanks for this kind introduction and greeting.
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"This is an event that can come but once in our lives. It appeals to all our state pride. It recalls the traditions of the past. It presents the realizations of the present. It suggests the prospects of the future-Iowa as it was, Iowa as it is, and Iowa as it will be. There is inspiration in the occasion and the theme, but they demand loftier thoughts and more eloquent words than these lips of mine can utter, a strong and vital eloquence worthy to be remembered through the fifty years to come, and not the liasty product of a few brief hours snatched from the importunate demands of professional duties, which I am compelled to submit to your indulgence.
"According to the 'eternal fitness of things' this place does not belong to me. I am not an old settler; I do not belong to the first generation of noble men, who, severing the ties of early life, and leaving the scenes of their early homes, crossed this great river, and here in the midst of hardships, privations and sacri- fices laid the first foundations of the state. Nor do I belong to the latest genera- tion, 'to the manor born,' from whose ranks will be chosen that future unknown orator, whose lips, touched with fire, will speak to the people of his native state, on that day, which we can see in a vision-that day when Iowa will keep her first centennial. But I belong to that middle generation, that followed in the track of those who went ahead and blazed the way-who came when the days of priva- tion and sacrifice were past, to enjoy the labors of those who went before, and to assist and carry on the work ; and although we feel a just pride and claim a share in the splendid realizations which surround us today, yet the chief place belongs to those who came to Iowa in territorial times and made the state.
"To have been the worthy founders of a state like this, is a prouder boast and a better title of nobility than to have 'come over with the Conqueror.' The Normans came to England as invaders, with hostile arms, to subjugate and reduce to serfdom a nation of Anglo-Saxon blood. But the settlers of Iowa belonged to the new order of nobility-the nobility of labor. They came with the peaceful implements of husbandry, to till the virgin soil, and subjugate it to the uses of man. They came bearing with them their household goods, under these genial skies, to build their homes, to light their firesides, to set up their altars, and rear their children. They came to make farms, to create mechanical indus- tries, to found cities, to build schoolhouses and churches, to establish free govern- ment, and thus to lay the foundation and rear the grand and noble structure of a free commonwealth. We now enjoy the fruits of their labors, and rejoice in the progress of the great work which they began. Many of them are not here ; they crossed this mighty river then. But now they have crossed another-the silent river-whose other shore is unseen by mortal vision, and from which there is no return ; their work remains, and their names are held in honored remembrance. Many of them are with us still. Some whose names are a part of the history of the state are sitting here, where I ought to sit with silence on my lips. I cannot speak to you as they could, of scenes which their eyes beheld, of events in which they were prominent actors, and of traditions of which they formed a part.
"One of the most distinguished of these-I had almost said 'the noblest Roman of them all'-in earnest, hearty, eloquent words, has just expressed what needs no words to give us assurance of the generous, open-hearted, splendid welcome which the people of Burlington give us all today. Let me say in your behalf that hereafter, when we shall remember this scene and this semi-centennial celebra-
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tion, we will also remember how here today the citizens of Burlington opened to us, not only their homes, but their hearts. They must have learned the habit in early times. The hospitality which was always found in the humble abodes of the settlers has not lost its place in their elegant homes. There is not a citizen of Iowa here today who does not feel the warmth and heartiness of this welcome, and who does not hope that the growth and prosperity of Burlington may still keep pace with the growth and prosperity of the state.
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