USA > Iowa > Jackson County > History of Jackson County, Iowa; Volume I > Part 87
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The day itself was an extremely disagreeable one, the air being filled with flakes of falling snow, and the ground underneath trodden into a liquid sea of mud and slush. Nothing daunted, however, by this unfriendly interference of the elements, our citizens, with that indomitable energy which has ever been one of their most prominent characteristics, set themselves determinedly to work to make the celebration a success-and a success it was in every particular.
Long before noon large numbers of country people came pouring into town, eager to extend a cordial greeting to the citizens of the above named places who, upon this day, were to be the honored guests of our city. Eleven o'clock was the hour appointed for the arrival of the excursionists at the depot grounds, and by that time a crowd of enthusiastic people numbering several hundreds, had assembled eagerly gazing southward for the first appearance of the ap-
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proaching trains. A gun squad had been organized, having in charge the only piece of artillery of which our city can boast, ready to belch forth its noisy greet- ing to the excursionists.
At precisely half past eleven the shrill scream of the Wyoming engine an- nounced the approach of the Davenport train, and in a few moments afterward glided into the depot grounds amid the loud huzzas of the assembled multitude and the booming of the little four-pounder. The train consisted of six passenger coaches, a baggage and a platform car, upon the latter being a squad of the Dewitt Artillery, with one gun, under the command of the captain, whose name we did not learn. These excursionists were also accompanied by a brass band from Davenport, which discoursed most excellent music throughout the day. Four of the cars belonging to this train were borrowed from the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific road, and the remaining two were those of the Davenport & St. Paul. The baggage car also belonged to the same company, and the three were inferior to no cars in the west on any road. As soon as possible after the train halted, the excursionists were transferred to vehicles which had been obtained for the purpose and taken to the various public halls and private residences which had generously been thrown open for their reception.
Scarce had these guests been disposed of when the shrill whistle of another engine announced the arrival of the Midland delegation, who were received with the same noisy demonstrations as their predecessors. This train consisted of three of the Northwestern company's finest passenger coaches, and drawn by a powerful locomotive, the "J. B. Turner," which is one of the most perfect engines to be found upon that or any other road in the country. Its brass orna- ments were burnished until they fairly glistened. These guests were soon dis- posed of in the same manner as the preceeding ones, and the vast crowd which had assembled to meet them returned to town, to assist in carrying out what still remained of the program. The most ample arrangements had been made for supplying our visitors with everything necessary to their comfort, both in- ternally and externally, especially the former. Schrader's new hall, on the sec- ond floor, and the store room beneath, had both been fitted up with tables capa- ble of furnishing four hundred persons with seats at one time, and these tables literally groaned under the weight of everything imaginable in the edible line, provided for the occasion by the good people of this city and vicinity. Never was the proverbial hospitality of our town better illustrated than upon this occasion. Each one of the excursionists had been provided with a ticket to prevent confusion. At I o'clock everything was in readiness, and the corps of waiters being at their posts, the wide doors to both halls were thrown open, and the first brigade of guests, "with turkeys to the right of them, chickens to left of them, and pastry in front of them," began the attack. Fresh brigades of hungry people were brought forward as rapidly as the tables could be cleared, until it is safe to say not less than one thousand, five hundred persons had been supplied, and yet the fragments of this royal feast still remaining were sufficient to have fed a small army.
After dinner our guests spent the brief time remaining to them in looking over our city and forming the acquaintance of our citizens. A temporary plat- form, composed of a couple of dry goods boxes was erected on Main street be- tween the blocks, and from this the Hon. Hiram Price, president of the Daven- port & St. Paul Railroad, delivered a brief impromptu speech to a large number of citizens, congratulating them upon the successful accomplishment of their long deferred hopes in railroad matters, in which he took occasion to say that the time was not far distant when Maquoketa would be a center of a system of railways radiating from her in every direction. At the conclusion of his re- marks he was enthusiastically cheered. At 3 o'clock the excursionists were es- corted to the cars, and were soon speeding on their way home, all, without ex- ception, expressing themselves as highly pleased with the reception given them by the "Timber City." Those of them who chose to remain over night, and not
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an inconsiderable number did so, were invited to Taubman's and Schrader's halls. Good music had been provided, and dancing was kept up until a late hour. It is worthy of note that during the entire day not a single thing occurred to mar the occasion. No drunken rowdies were seen upon the streets, and every one seemed to feel that the good name of our city was to be maintained "re- gardless of expense."
Among the distinguished visitors from abroad we have to mention the following : Messrs. Sykes, Pearson, Dunlap, officials of the Northwestern Railroad ; Colonel W. H. Shaw, president of the Midland; Ezra Baldwin, C. M. Bald- win, Chas. Magill, David Joyce, Ira Stockwell, S. D. Leland, W. M. Bently, Judge Leffingwell, Lyman Ellis, Captain H. Gates, T. R. Beers, editor of the "Mirror," of Lyons, W. J. Young, C. R. Shattuck, Judge Thayer, of the "Age," Messrs. Palmer and Clark and several others of Clinton, R. H. Shoemaker, editor of the "Observer," Dewitt. E. A. Russell, editor of the "Gazette," D. A. Richardson, editor of the "Democrat," the Hon. G. H. Parker, the Hon. H. Price, president of the Davenport & St. Paul Railroad, Messrs. Donahue, Krause, Wilkins, Woeber, Andrus, Ackley, and a host of others from Davenport, whose names we did not learn. G. W. Hunt, editor of the "Express," and F. S. Dunham, of Monticello, and the Hon. John Russell, of Jones county, state audi- tor elect, were also in the city.
We should have liked to have given a more detailed account of the celebra- tion, but the hurry and bustle of going to press immedately on the heels of so much excitement, prevent us from doing so.
ADDRESS BY MRS. MARY GOODENOW-ANDERSON AT THE OLD SETTLERS' MEETING,
AUGUST 22, 1906.
To those who meet today greeting, to those who have passed on from mortal ken-a longing to again clasp hands and look into eyes that responded kindly and lovingly. It is hard to be quite satisfied with less than all. Life is not just the same to any of us who face vacant chairs, empty places. Memories however dear and sweet come shining through the mists of regret and the today, no matter how full. lacks something of entireness.
One by one our dear ones join the silent majority. Shall we call them dead ? There is no halting in the great law of universal compensation. We say "the body perishes ;" not so, only the form changes. The study of natural law teaches that no particle of created matter can ever be destroyed. If we could look upon what we call death rightly, separate it from the judgment and repugnance of the temporal senses, would we not see that the processes of decay are as beautiful as those of new growth, and but links in the chain of all life. Why this fear? If the great Orderer of the universe takes care of each atom of matter will he suffer the spirit to perish ?
Since we love we must grieve. Even to those who trust the future most im- plicitly the void seems awful, yet so far as we may, let us remember to our hearts easing, that what we call death is only change, and holding our love close to our hearts, pick our stepping places with care, lest we stumble and lose our hold on so sacred a thing. 'Tis not wise or natural to live on regrets. The yesterday with all their dear associations, holding as they do the record of so much that is heroic, worthy, and, as always, the record of frailties and limitations, are our lessons for today.
The pioneers, like all people of all times, were interdependent. The broad rich prairie waiting his developing hand begot a broadness of heart and character. The noblest kind of education was going on in each furrow turned, each seed dropped into the fructifying earth. Those log cabins. Those patient workers. What hearthstones were laid. What virtues amplified and fortified. Always the home instinct, suffering all, overruling all. Emerson tells us that "the world
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globes itself in a drop of dew." Every man's country globes itself in his hearth- stone. All the principles of true government have here their inception.
Let each family be rightly regulated and governed and we'd need no laws, could have no wars. "Here as in nations, each must stand in right relations to the others. If any trespass on the peace, all suffer." The best citizen is he who respects and rights of others. Benefits must be mutual to be just. This genera- tion's turmoil over capital and labor shows us how fatal it is to ignore a basic law and shows too, how far the men of the nation have departed from primitive broth- erhood. Too much liberty breeds license, too much luxury breeds selfishness. Into Maquoketa's log cabins the lust of greed had not crept. To safely shelter and feed the wife and children, to stand as a wall of strength between them and danger was the husband's province. What of the wife? How passed the hours? Per- haps a bride standing in the cabin door with hand shaded, tear moistened eyes, away to the horizon's glorious sweep. Wealth of prairie, wealth of promise, but oh ! the loneliness of it all, the hungering for one's kind, through the days of sun and shower, through the star-lit silent night, a silence broken only by a bird's plaint screech, or a wild beast's bark or howl. Then came motherhood. With quick indrawing breath, I try to think what it meant to that heart and life. The flood gates are open. Maternity deluges the woman with an ecstacy. The little form lies through the night hours close to the tremulous heart, while every hour of the day seems shortened and electrified with the wonder and joy of it ; all latent powers are aroused, the woman is vitalized, energized. The world has an awak- ened force to deal with, the unknown quantity has solved the equation.
Do you think you know what love is, You who have never been a mother ? Do you think you know the ecstacy of love, By loving any other ? 'All other love has some small grain of self, Mingling with warp or woof ; Asks something ere it gives it's all And needs replenishment and proof. But baby, since you came into my life, I know all other love led up to thee ; And I was grandly crowned, when was vouchsafed The crown of motherhood to me.
I so often compare in my mind our city of today, with its luxuries and priv- ileges, with those log cabin times and later on. Are we better, are we happier ? "I'd love to be a girl again," says the song, and I echo it. The days were never long enough for the good times on tap, always hated to go to bed, but when once asleep it seemed like death to awake. Mark Twain said, "the most dangerous thing a man can do is to go to bed. More people die there than with their boots on." We must have shared an unnamed fear, for this going to bed was a court of last resort. We were as one big family. The unhampered conditions begot a fellowship and freedom that can belong only to new settlements. I for one, would be glad to turn back the page again, eat my salted potatoes and my sweet salt pork, (my mouth waters) build houses in the wet sand piles over my bared feet, pick up goose feathers from the dew wet grass to make my pillow as big as some other girl's, and later on the fullness and sweetness of unfolding years.
If any living being has had a fuller, jollier, more blessed life than I, I've yet to learn of it. I am thankful to the very bottom of my heart that I was born and lived the life of a pioneer, to feel that I am part and parcel of this fruitful soil, that every cell of my body has been fed on this prairie ozone, that I can carry with me in life and all beyond the hallowed memories of parental environment so unselfish, so devoted, so sweet and strong with the essence of truest manhood and womanhood.
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Shame to us who do not, at least prayerfully try to live in some degree worthy of such examples. The last night's sleeping time is coming to us, can we not live each day so that each night's sleepy time will find us trusting and asking.
As night and dew steal soft o'er tired day, So may sleep's wings fan weariness away, And cooling shadows brood o'er toil and heat, While dreams sweet mystery your dearest joys repeat, Why should we fear the pulseless rest that comes, When care and pain their round of work have done?
Like little children "lay me down to sleep,"
Trusting a risen Lord "our souls to keep."
MAQUOKETA TOWNSHIP RECORD FIFTY-NINE YEARS OLD.
(Sentinel.)
J. A. Patterson, clerk of Maquoketa township, has laid before us the well preserved record book of the proceedings of the board of trustees of that town- ship for fifty-nine years. The township was originally organized as Harrison township and the first meeting recorded in this book was April 14, 1845. The township had evidently been incorporated for several years. At this meeting G. D. Berry appeared as clerk and assessor, Daniel Branscom as overseer of poor, Morris Hilyards as supervisor of roads, Amaziah Jaynes, Jonathan Moore, fence viewers; George Watkins, John Corbin, Jas. Farrell, trustees. Mr. Hill and S. W. Dunbar were also appointed road supervisors. Bridgeport was also an important hamlet at this time on the river. The present township name was taken in 1846 and then there came to the front as township officers, D. Whit- more, J. E. Goodenow, Elijah Eaton, Samuel Dexter, Elial Nims, Erastus Gor- don, David Chandler, Alfred Wright, Wm. C. Grant, H. G. Haskell, David Bently. What is now South Fork was then known as Apple township and a school district laid out in 1846 by the officers of these two townships covered the present Maquoketa city district and several square miles more of territory that has since been returned to country districts. This record undoubtedly contains more names of men prominent in the last fifty years' history and de- velopment of Jackson county than any official record of which we have any knowledge. The book is in use at present and there are blank pages enough left in it for ten or fifteen years more. Some of the proceedings are very nicely written up.
SOME LOCAL HISTORY FROM OLD FILES OF THE SENTINEL-MUCH OF INTEREST FOUND THAT MUST BE BRIEFLY TOLD-OLD RESIDENTS WILL
REMEMBER EVENTS-NEW ONES WILL BE INTERESTED.
(Sentinel Souvenir, 1854-1904.)
The Mormons were subjects of newspaper interest in May, fifty years ago, says the Sentinel, when Elder Smith at a conference in Utah to devise means of protection from the Indian depredations, rose to remark: "I tell you in a coun- try like this, where women are scarce and hard to get we have great need to take care of them. Chief Walker himself has teased me for a white wife; and if any one of the sisters will marry him, I believe I can close the war forthwith. I am certain that unless men can take better care of their women, Walker may supply himself on a liberal scale, and without closing the war either. In con- clusion, I will say, if any lady wishes to be Mrs. Walker, if she will report her- self to me, I will agree to negotiate the match."
In the issue of June 22, 1854, much ado is made over opening Japanese ports through the diplomacy of Commodore Perry.
The Maquoketa Academy, which occupied the site of the present high school, with Jerome Allen, A. M., principal, showed an attendance of one hundred and
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thirty pupils. This was taken from an advertisement in this June issue. In those days one dollar and a half per week covered board, room, etc.
The July issue, 1854, of the Sentinel, shows that Asiatic cholera existed in Chicago, St. Louis, Galena and other points, causing loss of life and prostrating business.
Best crops of wheat ever raised assured, and corn, oats and potatoes all growing finely. Buyers offering one dollar a bushel for wheat.
The political campaign is on, the democratic ticket is Curtis Bates for gov- ernor; Stephen Hempstead for congress; Joseph Birge, of Canton, for state senator ; Thos. Smith, of Canton, P. B. Bradley, of Andrew, for representatives ; E. K. Johnson for joint representative of Jones and Jackson counties; W. A. Maginnis for prosecuting attorney ; W. P. Johnson, of Bellevue, for clerk of courts ; Jas. McClellan, of Sabula, for surveyor. .
A communication from the head waters of the Yellowstone River appears in the issue of August 31, 1854, in which the vast herds of buffaloes are men- tioned, towit : "On Sunday the buffaloes were reached. They were before and on each side of our party. For miles ahead it seemed one vast droveyard. They were estimated by some at five hundred thousand-two hundred thousand is considered a very low estimate. Six of our hunters dashed into the herd, se- lected a number of the fattest and shot them. The great herd was troublesome and in our way for some days, several of our extra horses and mules got lost mingling in the herd and we could not find them again.'
A great drought exists in 1854 in the States of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Ken- tucky, Pennsylvania and New York and crop losses are placed at one hundred million dollars. Everybody in these states are advised to save what they can to avoid distress. In Iowa it is different, and in the Sentinel, August 31st an item "Doings about town" says: "Merchants all gone east .- Thermometer standing at one hundred .- Water and musk mellons in abundance .- Stages rat- tling about the streets .- Camp meeting over .- Hotels crowded .- Farmers speculating on prospective good prices for their abundant crops .- Railroad work about to commence .- Building going on briskly and property advanc- ing .- Emigration from the east increasing .- Town healthy, and no public amusements by which our citizens could while away an hour.
SEPTEMBER, 1854.
Discussion of Kansas-Nebraska Territory and slavery occupy editorial col- umns.
Mr. Trout buys the Bagley farm for three thousand dollars, and is soon offered four thousand dollars for it.
Mr. John Halley, a new comer, calls at the Sentinel office and says: "I have traveled over northwestern Ohio, when it was nothing but a dense wil- derness. I am an old hunter. I have killed, in twelve years, one thousand, four hundred and sixty-four deer, twenty-eight bear, eighty-five wolves, seven hun- dred and twenty raccoons, four thousand turkeys, one hundred wild cats, besides an abundance of smaller game which would be impossible to estimate."
"Monday a man named Barger shot his wife in Bellevue, killing her in- stantly. He is under arrest. The murder was premeditated and one of the most horrible and cold blooded it has ever been our fate to record."
OCTOBER, 1854.
Evidently the currency was bad in those days, to judge from a Sentinel editorial, which advises farmers not to accept for crops or land, any of the shinplasters from Maine, Georgia, Michigan, and Indiana, which are brought here by unknown parties. Accept nothing but legal tender or metallic coin. "When they find you thus determined, the yellow boys will soon take the place of the greasy rags now forced upon the public."
Camanche, with five hundred and sixty-seven inhabitants, is the largest town in Clinton county at this time.
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The Iowa Central Air Line Railroad is again revived, as per following item : Work was commenced on section 2 of this road, October 12th. We learn that Messrs. Goodenow and Livermore have taken the contract for grading the sections running through or near Maquoketa. We can now say work has commenced in real earnest.
The county fair was held the 25th and 26th, and the Sentinel makes no issue that week, but writes and prints a glowing account of the successful event in the issue following.
NOVEMBER, 1854.
The Davenport Gazette commences the publication of a daily.
Swigart and Brother are offering good unimproved lands, for two dollars per acre, in this locality. They were offering four hundred acres west of town for two dollars and fifty cents to five dollars per acre. Good time to invest, wasn't it? Still at this early day there were skeptical people who said lands were going high and a reaction must soon take place. E. Baldwin & Son open a mammoth new hardware store. (The business is still continued by Chas. Baldwin, in Clinton.)
A panic has taken place in the financial world and hundreds of wild cat banks are going to the wall. The Sentinel has five hundred subscribers on its books that haven't paid and it publishes the names of a number who have absconded, leaving printer's bills unpaid.
A South Fork correspondent complains of bad roads. (He would say they are some better could he see them now.)
Henrietta, wife of J. A. Bronson, died the 25th, aged twenty-one years.
DECEMBER, 1854.
Representatives Clark and Edie, accompanied by Senator elect Birge from Jackson and Jones counties, leave for Iowa City, the state capital, to attend the meeting of the legislature.
Great enterprise is shown by the publishers of the Sentinel, who produce in ten columns President Franklin Pierce's message to congress.
Lotteries and gift enterprises are freely advertised without any restraint on the part of state or federal authorities.
Building is going on right through the winter, and the three story union brick block will be completed in the spring.
Great battles are reported from the Crimean war, the losses being nine thousand, each side, in the battle of Inkerman. (Fifty years elapse and Russia is again at war, but with a new foe, backed by her own old enemy, the English. Then, as now, the power of the czar was considered invulnerable.) Christmas was made a jolly occasion at S. Burleson's Buckhorn Tavern, where belle and beau, old and young, gathered at the grand ball and feasted at a bountiful table.
JANUARY, 1855.
A remarkable quick trip was made by a New York gentleman to San Francisco and return by water and across the Isthmus of Panama, time forty-nine days.
Edwin Hall died the 5th, of typhoid fever, aged nineteen years.
Mr. Baldwin suggests supplying the town with water, piped two and one half miles from the springs, and use a reservoir for storage. It would cost about two thousand, five hundred dollars he thought, and save much expense of blast- ing and deep digging of wells.
Three physicians advertise their agreed rates as follows: day visits in town, one dollar ; night, one dollar and fifty cents ; day rides, one dollar for first mile, fifty cents each succeeding mile; night riding, seventy-five cents each succeeding mile. Obstetrical cases, five dollars with mileage added; consultation with an- other physicians, five dollars; reducing fractures and dislocations, ten to twenty- five dollars.
Alma Jane, daughter of Aaron and Eliza Truax, died at their home in Bloomfield township, aged eighteen years and three months.
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Professor Mapes, an authority on agriculture and editor of the "Working Farmer", says wire fences have nearly gone out of date. (Could he view the country today he might be amazed at his erroneous opinion.)
FEBRUARY, 1855.
A petition with many hundreds of names on it is being circulated, asking the county judge to permit a vote being taken at the April election for the removal of the county seat from Bellevue to Maquoketa, the citizens of Maquoketa pledging themselves to build and give to Jackson county a six thousand dollar courthouse.
Heavy storm and snow drifted to a depth of ten to twenty feet.
Ezra Millard and Miss Anna C. Williams were married in Dubuque the 6th.
Opening of the new addition to the Goodenow Hotel, including a fine ball- room. (This ballroom is not yet wholly out of existence, but not of use.)
Mrs. Ruth Spaulding died the 9th, aged seventy-two years.
MARCH, 1855.
A union or cooperative store is being earnestly talked of in Maquoketa but the Sentinel opposes it as a detrimental enterprise.
A state prohibitory liquor law is greatly agitating readers of the Sentinel. who talk in strong terms through the correspondence.
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