USA > Iowa > Des Moines County > History of Des Moines County, Iowa, Volume I > Part 44
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"The place of the celebration is well chosen. The spot is appropriate to the occasion. The seat of Burlington was first known to the whites as the 'Flint Hills.' The Indians called it Shokokon. Here in the pure salubrious air of these bluffs, Black Hawk often collected his band and held his councils. The officer who first came to assert the sovereignty of the United States over this territory west of the Mississippi with a view to its possession, noted in his report this point as one of the prominent places for occupation. When lowa was first organ- ized into a territory bearing its own name, this was its capital, and here its govern- ment first found 'a local habitation and a name.' This city has always been the county seat of Des Moines County, the mother of all the counties in the southern half of all the Black Hawk purchase. * *
"From the earliest dawn of history the nations have coveted the commerce of Eastern Asia and the Indies, and have tried to discover or make new routes to reach it. Wherever that trade flowed, it was like a Pactolian stream. The cara- vans from the East built ancient Damascus in the desert. The commerce of the Orient enthroned ancient Tyre on her rocky isles, queen of the Levant. It made Venice 'the spouse of the Adriatic,' the bulwark of Christendom against the Mohammedan invasion. It enriched the republics of Italy, and under their pat- ronage letters revived, and the dawn of modern civilization followed the dark ages. Portugal and Holland, one after another, secured and lost it; and when England gained it, London became the commercial metropolis of the world. Columbus was in search of a new route to Asia when he stumbled on this western hemisphere, and 'gave a new world to the Kingdom of Castile and Arragon.' And ever since, the nations of Europe have been trying to surmount the great obstacle which he found in his path, by flanking both ends of the continent in search of a southwestern and northwestern passage. The southern passage was found around the Horn, but the cape lies far beyond the southern cross, and the voyage around it is over Antarctic seas, vexed by wintry storms. At the north- ern end, after the sacrifice of heroic lives, barriers of eternal ice hold the way, and still bar the passage. One bold Frenchman seems yet determined to cut the continent in two, by digging through the isthmus. But the new road to Asia has been found. When Americans cannot find what they want, they make it. A vast system of railroads, all built within the last fifty years, extending from the Atlan- tic, including great trunk lines across the State of lowa connecting with the cen- tral line across the mountains to the Golden Gate of the Pacific, forms a splendid "portage' across the continent, and places lowa in direct communication with the oldest and most populous nations of the globe ; so that now the locomotive, with its 'breath of flame and nerves of steel,' speedier than the swiftest winged ship, brings the commerce of the Orient to your doors and drops its treasures into your laps.
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"When Missouri was admitted into the Union, Iowa was still the home of the red man. The Indians that Marquette found here had disappeared. The most powerful tribes were the two united tribes of the Sacs and Foxes. They had driven out or exterminated the tribes that had lived here before them. The Indians exhibited some noble traits of character. This thought casts an air of mournful romance over their sad fate. But they were fierce, cruel, bloody and relentless ; their highest glory was to destroy and scalp their enemy. They resisted civilization and despised labor. It is these that subdue and transform the earth. In the cycle of human history Darwin's law of 'the survival of the fittest' is the law of Heaven. Man was designed by his Creator to be not only free, but a civilized and enlightened being, and the working out of this design is the law of human progress. It was in obedience to this inexorable law, sometimes harsh in its applications, but always beneficent in its results, that the red man retired from this 'beautiful land,' and left room for labor, freedom and civilization to enter. * *
"In 1834 the Territory of Michigan was extended west of the Mississippi River, and the territory now comprising Iowa and Minnesota became part of it. After the admission of the State of Michigan, the territory which was left was organized in 1836 as the Territory of Wisconsin. General Jackson appointed Henry Dodge, the honored father of an honored son, its governor. The second and third sessions of its Legislature were held at Burlington. Two years later, on the 3d of July, the Territory of Wisconsin was divided, and all that part of it west of the Mississippi River became the Territory of Iowa. Its first governor was Robert Lucas. Its first capital was Burlington, whose citizens piously assigned its Legislature to old Zion Church as an appropriate place for its ses- sions. From this last territory, in 1846, the young State of Iowa emerged, and took her place in the fair sisterhood of the Union. Her place then was on the frontier. Now her place is in the center, and the western line of the republic is on the shore of the Pacific Ocean. Less than fifty years ago this territory, now called the State of Iowa, contained but 10,531 inhabitants. At the last census the population of the state numbered 1,624,620 people. Fifty years ago Iowa contained nothing but scattered Indian villages, and here and there an Indian trading post. Now the state contains such cities as Burlington, Davenport, Dubuque and Des Moines. Then there were no roads here, except Indian trails across the prairies. * *
"But material wealth does not constitute the greatness and grandeur of a state. The true greatness of Iowa does not consist in fertile fields with abundant harvests, in flocks and herds and barns and storehouses, in roads of iron, and cities of brick and mortar ; but in the institutions which she founds and fosters. and the sons and daughters that she rears and educates. Fifty years ago in all the bounds of the territory, now known as the State of Iowa, there was but one schoolhouse, and that was a IOXI2 feet log cabin. *
"When the settlers first came to Iowa, they found here no temples of the living God, except 'the groves which were his first temples,' and that grander temple whose pillars are the hills, and roof the arching heavens above us. There was no voice to proclaim his existence and everlasting truth except the forms and sounds of nature, which taught the untutored savage 'to see him in the clouds, and hear him in the wind'-'for there is no speech or language, where their voice
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is not heard.' Two years ago there were in the state 3,267 temples of Christian worship and 2,778 anointed priests and Christian ministers. These churches differ in their dogmatic faith; but they all united in teaching those two great principles upon which must rest the security and stability of all free governments -accountability to God, and righteousness of life. The church is independent of, and separate from the state, but there is little hope for the state without the church, in its broad and best sense. Without the conservative and restraining influences of our holy religion, the experiment of self-government must prove a failure at last. Notwithstanding all the nobleness, beauty and loveliness which human character presents, the history of human bloodshed, cruelty, oppression, wrong, crime and guilt teaches that there are dreadful and destructive forces in human society, and terrible elements in human nature, which must be held in check by conscience or force. There is no other alternative. Unloose from the consciences of men the obligations which belief in accountability to God and the solemn verities of the Christian faith fasten upon them, and these destructive and explosive forces would burst forth, and in the wild whirlwind of unchained human passions, wicked human desires, and unhallowed human ambitions, every free government would perish from the earth and brute force govern the world. If I can speak one word which will be remembered through the fifty years to come-let it be this warning voice-that without religion, liberty is only a beauti- ful and glorious, but transient dream. Let the sacred star which ushered in the rising of the light of the Sun of righteousness fade from the eyes of men, and our young state, with all her fair sisterhood of states-now walking in the light of freedom-in hopeless blindness, remembering only the light and glory lost, will stumble forward in a dark path to sad, uncertain destiny ; 'as a child struck blind while playing in the sun, sees the light of heaven no more, but carries the memory of it to the grave.'
"But this can never be. That God, who has inspired us with the love of liberty, has given us the consciousness of great wants, and placed in our breasts immortal instincts and aspirations, which only his eternal truth can satisfy. Until the con- sciousness of these great wants, instincts and aspirations is lost, his religion will never lose its hold on the hearts of men. The great fact of that consciousness in the heart of every man will withstand all the assaults of human logic. 'His king- dom is an everlasting kingdom'-this is the best hope that liberty, which is one of its results, will endure. *
"It is thirty-seven years since Iowa entered the Union and took her place with these United States. Ever since then she has kept step with the march of their advance. As a part of that Union she is great, and will become yet greater. As one of its 'broken fragments' none could forecast her gloomy and uncertain future. Iowa has sealed her loyalty to that Union, in the blood of 20,000 of her bravest sons, who now rest in graves filled with nobler dust than that which sleeps on Marathon. Honors! enduring and perpetual honors to the men who died to keep the lofty trust and save the priceless heritage of such a land as this, filling up the measure of its fame with the glories and triumphs of the mighty struggle in which they fell !
"When the rebellious South arose and in its pride and power cast its challenge at the nation's feet by firing on the flag of .Sumter, Iowa's 'war governor,' plain, honest and great as Cincinnatus, organized and sent more than seventy thousand
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lowa soldiers to join the armies which met the hosts of rebellion, and hurled them back, smitten, crushed, bleeding and conquered to the earth. They fought under Lyon like lions at Wilson's Creek. They were with our own Curtis at Pea Ridge; they were with Grant at Belmont, Donnelson and Vicksburg; they fol- lowed Sherman to the sea, and everywhere in endurance on the march, and cour- age on the field, they were 'heroes among heroes.' They and their comrades not only saved the Union then, but insured its perpetuity for all the future. It is certain that we shall have no more rebellions. The lesson will never be forgotten. There are words and deeds which will not die, but become lofty inspirations to all coming time. Great achievements and heroic acts do not produce their most important results in the direct objects which they accomplish, but in the examples which they afford and the lessons which they teach. Marathon saved Greece more than once.' The sun which rose on Salamis will never set. Demosthenes still thunders his philippics under the shadow of the Acropolis. From the lips of Cicero still bursts that tempest of indignant eloquence upon the traitor head of Cataline. The Light Brigade still marches 'into the jaws of death' at Balaklava. Webster 'still lives' to answer Hayne. Sheridan's ride will turn the tide of many a battle. The 'Rock of Chickamauga' will stand against defeat on many a bloody field. Corse still holds Altoona profanely and righteously whipping the foe. McPherson falls 'leading the front of battle' and dies at Atlanta, but lives for- evermore. And thus the swords which brought deliverance to the nation out of the great struggle of the rebellion, like the flaming sword of the cherubim which kept the gate of Paradise, will guard the Union, and flash terror to every heart that would compass its destruction through all the centennials of the future.
"The union of these states is to us the only hope and pledge of peace, free- dom and dominion. Iowa is a child of that union ; her love and obedience were pledged to it from her birth. Her place in it was the birthright of Heaven. Her loyalty is the obligation of blood and origin. She can trace the sources of her blood to every sister state. The settlers who found homes here had left other homes behind, dear and unforgotten still. Not only the strongest obligations of duty, but the dearest ties of life bind us to our country. And our country is- not Iowa-but the Union of the United States. We are all citizens of Iowa, grateful to God for such a state, and for the unnumbered blessings with which he has crowned it. But with deeper gratitude and loftier pride-with an exulta- tion above the proud Roman boast, we will stand here today, American citizens, under the shadow and protection of the Constitution and flag of the Union. That Union is the great republic of the world ; the empire of a hemisphere ; the latest born but queen of the nations ; baptized in blood and fire, the heir of earth's best heritage of freedom, and a patrimony of the fairest, richest lands beneath the sun. Iowa's place is in the heart of the Union. We stand today in the center of the Mississippi Valley. It stretches from the tropics to the northern lakes, and from the eastern to the western mountain range. The sun shines on no other scene so fair. It is a vast landscape of lakes and rivers-of fertile lands and wooded hills and mountain slopes, where stores of inexhaustible wealth are buried in the earth, and
"'Plenty sits upon the clouds, and drops
Her bounties into the laps of men.'
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"Here, 'life is young' and men are strong, and human hands and brains are building up free and mighty states. Everywhere, by lake and river, mountain, plain and sea, cities which have been 'born in a day,' temples of industry, temples of learning, temples of charity and temples of religion, and the happy homes of a free people stand in the sunlight. The genius of prophecy looks upon the scene, as Baalam from the mountain top looked on the tents of Israel, and exclaims : Here-unless the folly and wickedness of men can reverse the decrees of God- here is the destined seat of empire.
"When fifty years have passed and Iowa's full centennial is come, will that grand vision have faded from the eyes of men, or will it stand revealed a glorious reality? Let the sons still follow in the steps of their fathers. Let the motto, 'In God we trust,' engraven on our national coin in the darkest hour of the nation's greatest trial, be still engraven on our hearts. Let our constitution and laws still ordain, 'Liberty for all, and justice to every man.' Then these states,- with more gigantic strides in the future than in the past .- in peace, liberty, right- eousenss, fraternity and union, will move on in the path of national power, prog- ress and glory ; outstripping the swiftest visions of prophecy, and holding up before the nations the fairest example of republican progress and Christian civil- ization that the world has ever seen."
ADDRESS AND POEM BY JOHN W. DU BOIS, OF FAIRFIELD
President of the Old Settlers' Association of Jefferson County, a Pioneer of 1838
"Fellow Citizens of Iowa, and Old Settlers of the Black Hawk Purchase: Permit me to extend to you, and to your presiding officer, my lifelong friend, the best wishes of an old pioneer for this kind reception.
"It has been many long years since I first saw Burlington. I remember among my first acquaintances Charles Mason, Shepherd Leffler, Wesley Jones, F. J. C. Peasley, S. B. Wright, who are dead. I am glad to behold a goodly number of early friends who still survive. There are ladies here who ministered to the wants of a dying sister, the only one I had on earth, the wife of E. H. Thomas. I have no words to express the obligations I am under to you.
"I would that I had time to speak of the life and times of the Sac chieftain, Black Hawk. The historian writes him down a savage. This term savors of prejudice, and perhaps does injustice to him. It may be characteristic of a sav- age to hold in veneration the graves of his kindred, to watch with the eyes of an eagle the interests of his tribe, and defend with Spartan courage his home, the wigwam of his wife and children ; but I have seen white men that boasted a Chris- tian training, who gloried in these attributes.
"We dwell with pleasure on the memories of our life upon the frontier. In our rude cabins the music of the spinning wheel was heard, and in rough verse my mind still lingers upon the picture in the olden time."
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THE MUSIC OF THE SPINNING WHEEL
The poet writes that music The passions will allay, The coarser, rougher frailties, That men bring into play ; But the music of the early days That o'er our hearts would steal,
Was the music in our cabins, The music of the spinning wheel.
From early dawn 'till dewy eve, Across the puncheon floor, The patient wife of long ago Her bound stepped o'er and o'er ; The roll in fingers deftly held That lay beside the reel, Drawn out so long and very smooth By the music of the wheel.
Dear maidens of these latter days, We write you of the past ; From seed sown in the long ago The harvest's come at last ; The toil and care of mother dear Should cause your heart to feel That there is a world of meaning In the music of the wheel.
My Hawkeye sons of noble form, Who listen to my rhymes, Think of a mother's care for you Back in the early times, When in linsey-woolsey jacket, With your elevated heel, You gave the schoolboy's racket To the music of the spinning wheel.
ADDRESS BY DR. WILLIAM R. ROSS, OF LOVILIA, MONROE COUNTY
"My first visit to 'Flint Hills' was in July, 1833. I selected my claim west of and adjoining White and McCarver's claim. I then returned to Quincy, Ill., hired three or four men, and sent my father with them to build a cabin for the recep- tion of my goods, which I landed here the last week in August by steamboat, consisting of dry goods, groceries, drugs and medicines.
"In the fall of 1833 I sent a petition to the postmaster general to establish an office at 'Flint Hills,' which was done in the spring of 1834. I was commis- sioned postmaster and carrier for 'Flint Hills' to the nearest postoffice in Illinois,
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once a week at my own expense, until a regular route was established by the Government.
"I obtained license at Monmouth, Ill., and was married under a sycamore tree on the east bank of the river, December 3, 1833. (The bride of that occasion, Matilda, daughter of Col. William Morgan, subsequently chief justice of Des Moines County, was introduced, and in her venerable age bowed to the audience in grateful appreciation of the respect shown to her.)
"In the fall of 1833 I had two cabins built on my claim west of this park, which were occupied by my family in March. 1834; also a cabin for a school- house, and for preaching, which was occupied by Mr. Phillips, whom I hired to make rails and fence the ground for pasture and garden.
"In 1834 I had rails made and fenced 160 acres, and put eighty acres in corn on what is called the Judge Mason farm. I also had forty acres in corn on the John Pierson, Sr., farm.
"In the spring of 1834 I received the laws with instructions from Governor Mason, of Detroit, Michigan Territory, to notify the people to hold elections to fill the different offices of Des Moines County, which had been established the winter previous by the Legislature of Michigan Territory. I was elected clerk of the court, treasurer and recorder.
"In the fall of 1833 I surveyed the town. In January, 1834, the citizens met to name it; John B. Gray, of Vermont, proposed Burlington, which was ac- ceded to.
"In the winter of 1833-34 I wrote to Rev. Peter Cartwright on his route north, at a quarterly conference twenty miles east of Burlington, to send me a preacher. He licensed Barton G. Cartwright, who came to my house on my claim, in March, 1834, with an ox team and plow to break prairie through the week, and preach for us on Sunday. He and Mr. Ritchie, of Illinois, broke and planted on my prairie claims, afterwards owned by Judge Mason and John Pierson, Sr.
"On the return of Peter Cartwright from his northern trip he was accom- panied by Asa McMurtrey and W. D. R. Trotter, of Rock Island, and Henderson River Mission, who crossed the Mississippi to my house, and with Barton G. and David Cartwright held a two days' meeting in my pasture on this hill, and organ- ized in May a class of six members, and appointed me class leader, the oldest in Iowa.
"In 1834 I boarded Zadoc C. Inghram, who taught a school in the log cabin on my claim, the first school in Iowa.
"I fenced the block east of the public square, and built a huge log house which was occupied by my family in the spring of 1835, where the first postoffice and the first court was held.
"In 1837 I commenced the foundation of Old Zion Church, and built the house, which was free for every order to preach in, and was occupied three ses- sions, 1838-39-40, by the Legislative Assembly of Iowa Territory, and by the Federal and District courts."
ADDRESS OF GEN. GEORGE WALLACE JONES, OF DUBUQUE
Grasping the hand of his old colleague, and holding it up, General Dodge said : "In early days the pioneers always estimated a workman by his chips. Here. ladies and gentlemen, is the hand that chipped Wisconsin out of Michigan; that
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chipped Iowa out of Wisconsin ; that chipped for us 640 acres of land covering this original town at a mere nominal price; and to the same hand more than any other man or representative we are indebted for our railroad grants."
General Jones said :
"Ladies and Gentlemen : I thank you all here for your cordial greetings, and for the kindness and hospitality always extended to me in your goodly city, and particularly upon this joyful occasion.
"I have been familiar with the site of Burlington since the year 1827. In early times, when we traveled principally by water, I was here very frequently, and made the acquaintance of some of your pioneers.
"I have a distinct and most pleasant recollection of my first electioneering visit to this city and county. I came as a candidate for your suffrage to elect me delegate to Congress from Michigan Territory, in the month of September, 1835. I visited Augusta, Fort Madison and other neighboring precincts. I has here on the day of the election, in October, 1835, and of some two hundred or more votes polled there were but six against me.
"I was also a candidate for delegate to Congress from Wisconsin Territory, in October, 1836, and was again honored with an almost unanimous vote by the first settlers of this county.
"I will not refer to subsequent honors which many of you aided to bestow upon me, but will say that I labored faithfully, and I hope not without success, to promote your interests both under the territorial and state governments, and that I shall always be grateful to you.
"The lateness of the hour, and the many gentlemen who are yet to follow me, forbid that I should occupy more of your time."
ADDRESS OF SOLOMON PERKINS, OF NORWALK, WARREN COUNTY, THE FIRST SIIERIFF OF DES MOINES COUNTY, IOWA
"I am not in the habit of making speeches, but I will endeavor to tell you how I got into Iowa. I was born February 1, 1801. In November, 1832, I crossed the Mississippi at Oquawka. I wandered in my travels down to 'Flint Hills,' where I remained some three days, and then went out and staked off my claim, consisting of some three hundred and twenty acres; this land had not been surveyed, and I stepped it off, putting up stakes at the corners. Then I went back to 'Flint Hills.' White, Doolittle and MeCarver had built a ferry boat, and I helped to launch it into the river and to put the oars on it, and I was one of the first to cross the river in it, being then upon my way back to Warren County, Illinois.
"On the following Ist day of June, 1833, I returned to my claim to settle upon it. In April or May before the soldiers had been ordered to burn and throw down all the cabins on the Iowa side of the river, because the time for settlement by the whites had not arrived; but they did no damage to my claim because it was farther out, being some five miles from Burlington (township 69 north, range 3 west).
"The next thing I did was to build, with my brother-in-law, Joel Hargrove, another ferry boat, at what was called Lower Burlington. It made MeCarver very angry at us, and he would threaten us. Hargrove being a Kentuckian, made
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