USA > Iowa > Jackson County > History of Jackson County, Iowa; Volume I > Part 15
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 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100
102
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY
support of Mr. Kirkwood for the important and honorable position of United States senator, but this time under republican management.
Four pages, with seven columns to the page, was the size of the first issue of the Sentinel. It contained twenty-three and one-half columns of reading matter and four and one-half columns of ads, which even today with all our modern methods in newspaper making and the improved facilities in printing, would compare favorably with many country weeklies. In subsequent issues, however, the advertising increased very rapidly and embraced not only home advertisers but merchants of Dubuque, Galena and Davenport.
From the first issue, the paper met with popular favor and rapidly gained a large subscription list, notwithstanding the country was sparsely populated, and the advertising patronage also showed a healthy increase. While in those early days there were not so many people to read newspapers, on the other hand there were not so many newspapers to be read. As a consequence the territory of a local newspaper was much greater then, and its advertising patrons from other "cities were as numerous in its columns as those of its home merchants.
The paper moved along in the even tenor of its way, all going well until the fall of 1856, when Stephen Swigart's health began to fail him and he withdrew from the Sentinel with the hope that he might be benefited by a change. This, however, did not prove to be the case, for he steadily grew worse, when in Feb- ruary, 1857, he passed away. He was a good printer, an able writer and for his short residence here had gained the esteem and respect of all with whom he be- came acquainted. ' William C. Swigart, the senior member of the firm, continued the publication until 1862, when A. G. Henderson, the foreman in the office at that time, enlisted and went into the army, leaving an edition of the paper partly set up and in which condition the paper remained for two years, or until 1864, when it passed into the hands of Messrs. Tilney and Walworth, who employed Mr. Swigart to conduct the paper during the presidential campaign of that year.
During this war period it was a struggle for democratic newspapers to exist in the North, not that their sympathies went out to the South, nor that they advocated or upheld slavery, but because of their former political alliance with the South they were held in disfavor and patronage withheld. In the face of these adverse conditions, the Sentinel again changed hands and G. W. Hunt be- came its editor and proprietor and continued its publication here until 1866, when the press and material was moved to Le Claire, Scott county, Iowa.
In April, 1868, after a lapse of two years from the time of the removal of the old plant from our city, W. C. Swigart again embarked on the stormy sea of journalism. He purchased new material, and revived the paper under what was termed the "new series." This practically left a two years' interim between the last suspension and revival, and six years' lapse between the ownership of the above in 1862, and the revival of the new series in 1868. This point we desire to make clear, as some are laboring under the misapprehension that the suspen- sion was for a period of thirteen years, when in fact it was but two years.
Since 1868 the issue of the paper has been uninterrupted and it has enjoyed a fair degree of prosperity. In the fall of that year it was changed from a seven column folio to a five column quarto and the name also changed from Maquo- keta Sentinel to the Jackson Sentinel.
In October, 1872, James T. Sargent, who had been employed as foreman and local editor, was taken into partnership, and from that date until August, 1877, it was conducted under the firm name of Swigart and Sargent. Upon the last named date Josiah M. and Willard B. Swigart, sons of the senior member of the above firm, purchased Mr. Sargent's half interest and the firm then became Swi- gart and Sons, and the form of the paper was enlarged to a seven column quarto, and later again increased a column to the page, making it an eight column quarto and one of the largest in size of any of the weekly county seat papers in Iowa. Under the management of Swigart and Sons, the paper rapidly grew in circula-
103
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY
tion from one thousand three hundred to two thousand two hundred, and has steadily held to the latter number for several years past.
In politics the Sentinel has adhered to democratic principles and the support of the party's local and national candidates, always, however, conceding the right of others to their political opinions and eschewing from its columns abusive or misleading statements; originating ofttimes through partisan prejudice. We have long since arrived at the conclusion that political abuse is a poor argument, and is of no avail in convincing an opponent. Honesty and truthfulness in the advocacy of political principles is as necessary for success as in that of any other good cause, and we would rather go down in defeat than succeed under false colors. The great aim of the Sentinel, however, has been the upbuilding and material progress of the town and surrounding country.
Looking backward now to the time when the Sentinel was founded, Maquo- keta was but an embryo village, whose business houses could be counted on one's fingers. It was without railroads, twenty miles from navigation, and dependent on stage coaches for rapid traveling and mail accommodations. Instead of the electric lights or the various illuminating gases now used, the tallow dip or can- dle was then in vogue. The quickest way of conveying a message then was by horseback, at a speed of ten to fifteen miles an hour. Now we can send a mes- sage by telegraph or telephone at the astounding speed of more than two hun- dred thousand miles a second, so the electrician informs us. Then if we had a hurried errand to make, we dispatched the errand boy in posthaste, while now we simply ring the telephone and before the boy could have put on his hat and jacket, we have delivered our message and received an answer. Then it required two days to make the journey to Davenport, Lyons, Clinton or Dubuque; now, you step on the cars after breakfast in the morning and you may remain from six to eight hours in either city, and return home in the evening in time for supper.
When the Sentinel was founded, it took two men two days to print two thou- sand papers on a Washington hand press; now, it takes one man in this office less than two hours to perform the same work on a cylinder press propelled by electric power.
Among the advertisers in the first issue of the Sentinel, we notice the names of T. Lyman & Company, dealers in general merchandise; Dr. O. V. Schrader, physician and surgeon; Geo. D. Lyon, notary public and general land agent, office in the "Air Line Store ;" J. W. Jenkins, attorney at law ; Rufus S. Hadley, attorney ; Densmore & Jamieson, dealers in general merchandise ; Exchange and land office by Jonas Clark; Viall & Northrop, proprietors Maquoketa cabinet and chair factory, two doors north Goodenow hotel; L. E. Howes, painter; J. B. Allen, manufacturer of ready made clothing; Miss S. M. White, milliner and mantua maker; P. Mitchell, wholesale and retail dealer in dry goods, groceries, etc .; Geo. B. Lyon, wholesale and retail dealer in dry goods, groceries, etc .; Alfred Fellows, wholesale and retail dealer in drugs, medicines, paints, oils, etc .; Thos. Wright & Company, manufacturers of woolen goods, Eagle factory ; Goodenow hotel by C. E. Shattuck, corner Main and Platt streets; J. P. Edie, county surveyor; Jonas Clark, wholesale and retail dealer in foreign and domes- tic dry goods and all kinds of merchandise; Leonard and Piper, livery stable; Wm. Briley, boot and shoe store; Thomas Lyle, iron turner and machinist; R. B. Clancy, hardware; Whitney House by I. A. Whitney ; J. B. Krous, saddle and harness maker.
The Goodenow hotel in its ad of the first issue says: "This hotel being half way from Davenport to Dubuque, and thirty miles west of the Mississippi River, is one of the most desirable locations for health, comfort, and pleasure in the West. The prairie furnishes plenty of prairie chickens, the large body of tim- ber deer, and the rivers abundance of fish-with the beautiful country and scen- ery, which makes it a most desirable place for a summer resort."
104
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY
B. C. Wright advertises "the U. S. mail route from Sabula by Maquoketa to Anamosa; a tri-city stage line; leave Sabula and Anamosa on Mondays, Wed- nesdays and Fridays, and arrive on alternate days. Leave Maquoketa and Ana- mosa Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, and arrive same day. The traveling public will find safe and certain conveyance, as good horses, carriages and con- ductors are provided on this route. Landlords will be found at either point."
While the Sentinel has been a success to a certain degree, it was only accom- plished through application to business and unceasing toil on the part of its founder as well as his successors. But this success could only have been attained through the loyal and continued support of its many kind patrons and apprecia- tive subscribers. To them the present publishers desire to return their thanks and hope to have the stanch old friends as well as their descendants stay with us so long as the Sentinel merits their approbation. And as they are carried back to pioneer times when the early settler with ax, beatle and wedge, hewed himself out a home from the great forest of maple, oak and other timber lying along the branches of the Maquoketa, it will bring up pleasant recollections to the many early inhabitants who have seen the town grow to its present magnificent proportions.
In the second issue of the Sentinel, June 8, 1854, C. E. Griffing, the local poet of the community, produces a fifty line pathetic poem on the drowning of Peter McDougal * * * Indian wars and outrages on the part of the red men are reported from many western sections. * Election returns show the rail- road bond issue defeated June 5th by a fear in the northern part of the county, that the county seat would be moved to Maquoketa. *
* The markets show wheat seventy-five to eighty-five cents, flour three dollars per hundred weight; corn, twenty-five cents; oats, twenty cents; white beans, fifty to sev- enty-five cents ; potatoes, twenty cents ; butter twelve and one-half cents; eggs, six to seven cents ; beef on foot, four dollars to four dollars and fifty cents ; pork, fresh, three and one-half cents to four cents. Nine loads of emigrants arrive.
GEOLOGY OF JACKSON COUNTY, IOWA.
BY SAMUEL CALVIN, PH. D., STATE GEOLOGIST OF IOWA. (Furnished Expressly for this Work by Request.)
Topography .- Compared with the average of the counties of Iowa the surface of Jackson is rather rugged and picturesque. Two causes combine to produce this result. In the first place the county is located just within what was the eastern margin of the earlier Keewatin ice caps ; it is possible that this margin, in at least cne case, passed through the northeastern townships; and so the drift mantle, which in some parts of Iowa has effectually blotted out every surface trace of the preglacial rock cut valleys, is here comparatively thin or entirely absent. The deep trenches, therefore, cut in the indurated rocks by processes which began be- fore the earliest ice invasion, are still open and are bounded by steep rocky cliffs, in some places more than one hundred feet in height. In the second place the picturesque features of the topography are due in no small degree to the fact that two heavy, dolomitic, cliff forming limestones, the Galena and the Niagaran, occur within the limits of the county. To the Galena limestone we owe the scarps and precipices along Tete des Morts Creek and near Gordons Ferry ; while the bold, steep rocky cliffs in other parts of the county, especially along the Maquoketa River, along both its branches and all the smaller tributaries, are due almost wholly to the presence of the Niagaran limestone. Rocks weaker than the dolomites mentioned, rocks like the Maquoketa formation, which lie between the Galena and the Niagaran, under exposure to the weather form more or less gentle slopes and give rise to topographic features less rugged, less picturesque.
105
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY
The difference in altitude between the highest and the lowest points in the county amounts to about six hundred and twenty feet. Savage mentions a point in section 6, Prairie Springs township, which has an altitude of one thousand one hundred and ninety feet above tide; the lowest point is on the edge of the flood plain at the southeast corner of the county, where the elevation is given as five hundred and seventy feet. The total relief for the whole of Iowa, measuring from low water mark at Keokuk,-four hundred and seventy-seven feet above tide, -to the high point on the divide near Allendorf,-about one thousand six hundred and forty feet above tide,-does not exceed one thousand two hundred feet. The relief in this one county is more than half as great as for the entire state.
A road map of Jackson county serves as a good index to the character of the surface. Ridges and valleys,-topographic forms and not land lines, control the location of the highways.
Drainage :- Jackson county is well drained. Outside the flood plains of the Mississippi and the lower course of the Maquoketa there are no lakes, no exten- sive marshes, no boggy depressions such as occupy large areas in the north central parts of the state. The whole surface of the upland has been carved, trenched and dissected by flowing water, and a fairly mature type of erosional topography has been developed. The whole drainage is controlled by the master stream, the Mississippi. This determines the level to which the stream valleys may be cut, the level below which corrosion cannot advance in any part of the county. For the greater part of the area the surplus waters are carried off by the branches and numerous tributaries of the Maquoketa River ; but along the eastern border of the county there are a number of small creeks which discharge independently into the Mississippi. Of these Tete de Mort Creek, Mill Creek and Pleasant Creek are among the most important.
Geological Structure :- The geological formations represented in the area under discussion, and their stratigraphic relations, are indicated in the following synoptical table, which is a slightly modified form of the table given by Savage in his report on the Geology of Jackson County.
TABLE OF GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS.
GROUP
SYSTEM
SERIES
STAGE
Recent
Unnamed stage. Represented by soils, alluvial deposits, etc.
Quaternary
Pleistocene
Kansan, weathered and eroded drift.
Carboniferous
Pennsylvanian
Des Moines, sandstones and shales. .
Gower, evenly bedded dolomite.
Silurian
Niagaran
Hopkinton, fossiliferous dolomite.
Ordovician
Cincinnatian
Maquoketa, shales and shaly limestones.
Mohawkian
Galena, heavy-bedded dolomite.
Cenozoic
Peorian ? Represented by loess.
Paleozoic
In the synopsis given above two formations appearing in the table of Pro- fessor Savage are omitted-namely, the very doubtful Devonian of the middle Paleozoic, and the Iowan of the Pleistocene. There is a reasonable doubt as to the presence of either of these formations in the county ; if they are present, they are relatively unimportant. On the other hand, some of the terms have been changed to bring the sheme into better accord with more recent opinion and practice among geologists. All shemes of classification are more or less artificial at the best ; the formations themselves remain fixed, unaltered, unalterable ; but, with the growth of knowledge, the artificial classifications are subject to frequent change.
106
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY
The Galena Limestone :- The Galena limestone is the lowest and the oldest of the formations found in Jackson county. So far as Iowa is concerned, it is best developed in and around Dubuque. The castles, towers and precipitous cliffs of the Dubuque region are due to the Galena. Its total thickness is about two hun- dred and thirty-five feet. Owing to its southward dip, the lower beds of the formation, one after the other, descend below the level of the river as it is traced toward Jackson county. Only the uppermost beds are found within our area, and these are limited geographically to the northeastern part of the county. The total thickness of the beds of Galena limestone exposed in Jackson county is about sixty feet. Chemically it would be described as a double carbonate of calcium and magnesium, and it would be classed mineralogically as a dolomite or magnesian limestone. In color it is yellowish, and in texture it is granular and subcrystalline. Its typical characteristics are better displayed in its lower, thicker beds. Toward the top the formation becomes impure and more earthy, the beds are individually thinner, and they are separated by shaly bands or partings. Varying phases of these upper beds of the Galena may be studied in Tete des Morts township. Expos- ures occur in the west bluff of the Mississippi at the north line of the county, and for some miles below. The formation is seen along Tete des Morts Creek from St. Donatus to the Mississippi flood plain. It occurs in the banks of a few of the smaller creeks south of the Tete des Morts. Some parts of the Galena, where the beds are of manageable thickness, are quarried and furnish a very durable build- ing stone. The lower, thicker, more highly crystalline beds may be used in the manufacture of lime. It is not probable that lead or zinc ores occur here. If any exist, they should be found at horizons lying beneath the lowest beds naturally exposed in the county. The Galena limestone affords comparatively few fossils, mostly in the form of internal casts, but those which can be identified are character- istic Mohawkian types.
The Maquoketa Shales :- The Galena limestone is followed in ascending order by the Maquoketa Shales, belonging to the Cincinnatian Series. The Maquoketa constitutes by far the most variable and versatile of the geological formations of Iowa. It varies greatly at different horizons in any given section, and again it varies in different localities at the same horizon. The Maquoketa of Winneshiek and Fayette counties present a number of phases wholly unlike anything seen in Jackson. In Jackson county the most constant phase is a bluish gray, unfossil- iferous, plastic clay shale which, according to Savage, attains a thickness of from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet. Above the plastic clay phase, however, there are usually some calcareous beds more or less indurated, ranging from twenty to thirty feet in thickness, sometimes almost barren, sometimes very fossilifer- ous. The fossiliferous phase of the Maquoketa has been cut into by the road passing through sections 21 to 24, Van Buren township, northeast of Preston. It is seen to even better advantage in some ravines one-half mile south of the road in sections 28 and 29, Fairfield township. At scores of other points it may be studied and its fossils collected. The plastic clay phase of the Maquoketa may be studied in the lower part of the valley of Mill Creek, in the neighborhood of Bellevue.
As to geographical distribution the Maquoketa is found in normal relations along the eastern edge of the county, where the Mississippi and all the streams, large and small, directly tributary to it, have eroded their valleys down through an ancient tableland of Niagaran limestone and exposed the underlying shale. With the exception of a few miles in the extreme northeast, the formation may be looked for in the bluffs facing the Mississippi along the whole length of the river front in the county ; and it may be traced in the walls of all the tributary valleys for some distance back from the master stream. A unique island or "inlier" of Maquoketa, surrounded by Niagaran limestone, occurs in Fairfield and Van Buren townships, with the town of Preston near the center of the area. A fold or upwarp of the strata brings the Maquoketa in this part of the county above its normal level.
7.1
BURT'S CAVES AND NATURAL BRIDGE Nine miles northwest of Maquoketa
109
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY
Some of the more indurated calcareous beds of the upper part of the Maquo- keta are quarried for building stone near Bellevue and at a few other points in the northeastern townships; the plastic shaly phase of the formation might be used in the manufacture of a variety of clay products. An excellent grade of pottery has been made from Maquoketa clays at Colesburg in Delaware county, and at Edgewood in the same county this clay is used in brick making.
The Niagaran Limestones :- Approximately five-sixths of the area of the county is occupied by limestones of the Niagaran series, and by beds of the Hop- kinton stage. The small remnant of Gower limestone in the county, limited prac- tically to section 9 of Brandon township, covers less than a square mile. Savage says of the Niagaran formation that "its massive courses may be seen bordering all the larger streams and many of the smaller water courses in the region outside the Ordovician deposits. They stand in precipitous ledges and steep escarpments, more than one hundred feet in height, at points along Bear Creek in Monmouth township; Brush Creek in Perry; in the vicinity of the 'caves,' in the township of South Fork ; and at a number of other points over the area under consideration." Here, as in the adjoining counties, the beds of the Hopkinton stage resemble the Galena limestone in some particulars ; they are yellowish, granular, subcrystalline dolomite, and they form steep scarps and cliffs. According to Savage they "con- sist for the most part of very heavy layers, two to six or eight feet in thickness, which are but imperfectly separated by planes of stratification. They represent the basal portion of the Niagara limestone, the horizon of Pentamerus oblongus, and the Cerionites and crinoid beds that immediately succeed the Pentamerus layers." In the counties north and northwest of Jackson the basal portion of the Hopkinton stage affords a good grade of building stone. The quarries at Farley in Dubuque county illustrate the quality of the product obtainable from this horizon. Corresponding beds appear to be absent in Jackson county. In this county the best quarry products come from the small area of Gower limestone in Brandon township. Savage tells us that "the stone from this horizon occurs in even layers, two or three inches to as many feet in thickness. The material is a subgranular, yellow colored and fairly durable magnesian limestone. The var- ious layers can be quarried easily, and furnish dimension blocks one foot or more in thickness and flagstones of almost any size desired."
For lime burning the Hopkinton beds are much superior to the Gower. The great lime manufacturing plants operated by Alfred Hurst and Company at Hurstville and other points near the city of Maquoketa all use beds of the Hop- kinton stage. Joiner's lime kilns in section 20 of South Fork township, and the Keystone Lime Company's works at Keystone Mills, south of Monmouth, are other important lime producing plants. All the lime quarries of the county, ex- cepting that at Bellevue, include beds belonging to the Pentamerus oblongus zone, together with some of the overlying beds which are characterized by the curious fossil, Cerionites, and a number of species of crinoids. The large trilobite Illaenus imperator is represented by casts of the head and tail shields. The quarries at Hurstville and at Keystone Mills have furnished large numbers of very perfect casts of all the species of fossils common to the horizons in which the work is prosecuted ; especially is this true of Pentamerous oblongus and some of its many varieties. The quality of the lime produced by the lime manufacturing plants of Jackson county is equal to the best that is made, or can be made, in any part of the world.
The Des Moines Sandstones and Shales :- Leaving out of account the small deposit of shale in section 18, Brandon township, which has been referred with doubt to the Devonian, the formation next in age after the Silurian belongs to the Upper Carboniferous. Sandstones and shales of this later age occur as small out- liers in many parts of Jackson county. These are very much younger than the Niagaran limestones on which they generally lie. Northeastern Iowa rose above sea level after the deposition of the Niagaran, the shore line shifting to the south- ward and westward as the land gradually came up out of the water. As soon as
110
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY
the surface attained any considerable elevation above tide, it was attacked by the agents of erosion and was carved into a dendritic system of stream valleys with intervening ridges. This land stood above the sea during all the time represented by the Devonian, the Mississippian or Lower Carboniferous, and the early part of the Pennsylvanian or Upper Carboniferous. During this interval of uplift the land rose higher and higher, and the shore line retreated farther and farther to the southwest until all of Iowa, all of Missouri, and part of Arkansas were added to the nucleus of the continent. Then a reverse movement began. Gradually the land went down ; the waters crept up on the stream carved surface of the subsiding continent, and sandstones and shales of the Des Moines stage were spread over the uneven surface as far to the north and east as Jackson and Delaware counties. Compared with the whole of the Pennsylvanian, the period of greatest submer- gence was short ; the body of Carboniferous sands and clays was relatively thin ; when Jackson county and all the submerged parts of northeastern Iowa again emerged from the sea, the unconsolidated and feebly resistant materials of the Des Moines stage were rapidly and almost completely removed by erosion. The present Carboniferous outliers are simply remnants that escaped destruction pe - cause of the fact that they were deposited in precarboniferous valleys of erosion, their greater thickness and their position in the old valleys affording a certain amount of protection. The present Carboniferous areas are none of them of any considerable size; geographically they are limited to the southwestern part of the county. One of the most important of these areas occurs in sections 31, 32 and 33, Monmouth township: others are found in the form of isolated patches in sections 17, 18, 20, 29 and 32, of Fairfield. The most northerly of the carbon- iferous outliers reported from this county are seen in sections 9 and 17 of Brandon township. Nearly all the outliers noted lie in valleys cut in Niagaran limestone, the single recorded exception being the deposit near the north line of section 32, Fairfield township, which rests upon the Maquoketa shales of the Ordovician sys- tem. There is an immense difference in age between the two formations which are here found in direct contact, the Maquoketa and the Des Moines.
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.