USA > Iowa > Linn County > History of Linn County Iowa : from its earliest settlement to the present time, Volume I > Part 70
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
It was her enstom (a custom that the "Blasting at the Rock of Ages" ought not to minimize) to read a chapter from some book of the bible every morning to the scholars before commeneing the further duties of the day, and that chapter which speaks about bearing false witness was the one chosen for this morning, a very fitting prelude too, to the further developments of the day. We were more prompt than usual in taking our seats after school was called this morning with an evident desire to impress the teacher as being very attentive to our studies. but at the same time keeping one eye in the teacher's direction. so as not to miss any of the movements of the teacher in case the anticipated fun was thrust upon us. Lowell Taylor, the boy who couldn't keep still if he had to, was bubbling over with mirth (every school has them) and was severely reproved for not keep- ing quiet and for disturbing the whole school by his anties. After delivering to Lowell this short lecture on disobedience she went to her desk to get her bible and as she lifted the lid out jumped the prisoner and such a screech as she let out seemed to almost freeze the marrow in your bones and sent the cold chills chasing up and down your spinal column as with one bound she made the first row of seats and in a jiffy was elean to the farther end of the room, perched upon the rear desk with her skirts tneked snugly around her shaking limbs and terror pictured in every line of her face.
In this position she remained impervions to all efforts to induce her to come off her high pereh, until a second ehase had been made and the intruder ejected from the room.
By recess time she had again settled baek in the old well beaten path and assumed her usnal calm and dignified way, her reason, which had been so suddenly dethroned by the advent of the harmless monse, was again gaining mastery of the
ODDS AND ENDS OF HISTORY AND REMINISCENCE 485
situation. With the return of reason eame the tangled threads of suspicion, that perhaps she had been the victim of a designing bunch of scholars and that a huge joke had been perpetrated on her. With this object in view she began a systematic search for evidence and among the girls she struck a responsive chord. They were ready to convict any one in order to exculpate themselves. They gave the whole plot away and every last one of them persisted in their innocence so clo- quently that the teacher was fully convinced of my guilt. She therefore pro- ceeded to relieve her pent up feelings by putting into action several of her "suffragette" ideas about personal liberty. She restrained me of mine for the next two weeks during the noon hour.
EARLY DOCTORS IN THE COUNTY
The following extraets from a paper read in December, 1910, before the Iowa Union Medical Society at its meeting in Cedar Rapids, by Dr. H. W. Sigworth, of Anamosa, himself a pioneer physician in Linn county, is of interest :
I left northeastern Linn county thirty-four years ago.
In 1856 I commenced the study of medicine in Pennsylvania. After that I was a tramp schoolmaster, farmer, student at Wisconsin university, and U. S. soldier. I graduated from Rush in '63. After looking for a location in Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin, I located at Waubeek - think of it -in Waubeek, in Maine township, in 1863.
I had tried it a month at Fairview, in Jones county, before going to Waubeek. By the way, old Dr. Ristine made his first start in Iowa in the same historie town of Fairview before locating in Marion.
Northeastern Linn county at that time was very much on the frontier. There were no bridges on the Wapsie from Quasqueton to Anamosa, but at Central City ; now there are five. At Waubeek we had a postoffice but no regular mail earrier. Any one going to Marion took the mail sack and brought back the mail.
Our first mail route was on Friday morning. It left Quasqueton horseback, making Paris, Central City (which was formerly called Clark's Ford), Waubeek, Necot (Perkins), Anamosa. Saturday it would return over the same route.
The earliest doctor of whom I can get any word of locating in this territory was Doctor Ashby at Paris. When I eame in 1863. Doctor Patterson was at Cen- tral City. Dr. Lanning was at Paris. Ile sat next to me at Rush in 1861 and 1862. Dr. Stacy lived out the Anamosa and Quasqueton road at Valley farm. I never met him. He sent me my first case of fractured thigh in June of 1863; a boy, eight years old, who lived in a sod house with a board roof, two miles north of MeQueen's (now Hill's Mill), now owned by Coquillette. The splints were made with an axe and pocket knife out of an old eradle found on the roof of the house. Extension on the ankle was by the top of an old shoe with strings through the foot-piece of the Liston splint. Results all right.
At Paris, after Lanning eame Drs. Byam, Mrs. Dr. Byam, and my brother, M. P. Sigworth, Fullerton, MeTavish, and Ellis. all of whom I knew, and not one of them alive now.
Where the thriving village of Prairieburg now is was a cross road, the north- east corner lying out to commons for years.
The first doctor to locate there was Dr. Young. Ile drove a little sorrel horse in a light rig with one wheel dished, which made a crooked track, and his dispo- sition was something like the track of his buggy. Following him at this place was Dr. Ellis, who went to that place from Paris.
At Central City after Dr. Patterson came Mitchell, a state of Maine Yankee. At an early date a majority of the people here abouts were from the state of Maine, henceforth the name of Maine township. The Jordans. Friesons, Clarks, Waterhouses, were early settlers from the state of Maine.
486
HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY
Dr. Mitchell was a good doctor and a fine man. Poor fellow, he lost his life by having administered to him by a mistake a teaspoonful of poison when he was to have a tonie.
After his death at Central City the place was filled by Drs. Ristine, Fisher, MeTavish, my son, Dwight Sigworth, and Percy, a scientifie fellow. This field is now filled by Drs. Fisher and Woodbridge.
Waubeek was in the field of Dr. Love, he going northwest to Nugent's Grove at times. Dear old Dr. Love was a splendid man, a first-class diagnostician and a good physician and surgeon. If he lacked anything it was aggressiveness in surgery.
While at Waubeek I had for co-laborers Drs. Phipps, Scott, Bowers, and Grimm. Bowers tried to commit suicide by taking a teaspoonful of poison which made him very sick, but he ultimately recovered. Dr. Grimm was known as the Dutch doetor.
While I was at Waubeek when the river was high I had a stable on the north side of the river and I used to eross in a skiff to feed my horse and attend to calls on that side.
The north side of the river was all woods for three miles in those days, and my practice was largely on that side. I used to go into Delaware county, and I had a large slice of Jones county. And may I say it, there are some families in that county which have had no doctor but a Sigworth for forty-four years. After fourteen years I sold to Dr. Crawford and then in four years he sold to Dr. Woodbridge, who in ten years moved to Central City. At the present time Dr. Ward is in Waubeek.
The practice in those days was franght with a great deal of difficulty and inconvenience. Swimming the river on horseback was one of the experiences which I did not like. Many times have I been wet while fording the streams with my feet on the dashboard of the buggy, my attention being taken in guiding my horse to an opening in the timber or a safe place to land.
Those were the days in which we drank brandy mixed with sorghum, which was browned in the oven. This served the place of coffee. Grape-nuts, I think, originated from this.
Of all of the forty-two doctors whom I have mentioned in this article I have met thirty-five, and at the present time there are six doctors on this field.
THE OLD MILL OF CENTRAL CITY
One of the land marks of the county is the old grist mill on the banks of the Wapsie at Central City. For a history of this mill, as well as for other interest- ing matter relative to the neighborhood, we are indebted to E. S. Wetherbee, editor of the Central City News-Letter, which paper in its issue of May 2, 1907, eon- tained the following sketch and reminiseenee :
There are in the history of every city or hamlet many incidents of early times which are interesting to the present day generation, and are often worth recording. otherwise they are apt to pass into entire oblivion. But few remain of the early settlers of this community to tell the story of those early days. Although not one of the first, yet being among the very oldest of those yet alive and living here is Mr. James Outing, and it is to him we eredit the data of the contents of this article. [Mr. Outing died about a year after this interview.]
Among the very first people to settle here may be named Chandler Jordan, who still lives on his farm southeast of town, old "Uncle Joe" Clark, who came in 1839, and other families by the names of Heubner, Crawley, Pond, Tisdell, and others who might be named who appeared here about the same time. For a
ODDS AND ENDS OF HISTORY AND REMINISCENCE 487
number of years the only way of getting across the river, and that only when the water was low, was by fording it somewhere near what is now known as the upper bridge. From this the place received its first name, and whatever honor was attached to it was given Mr. Clark by calling it Clark's Ford.
At that time Mr. Clark owned quite a large tract of land here, comprising all the land now inside the corporation west of Fourth street, the eighty acres lying east of Fourth street being owned by some land concern in Caseade. As did all his neighbors, Mr. Clark farmed in those days entirely with oxen.
The place went by the name of Clark's Ford but a few years, however, for Mr. Clark and a few others conceived the idea of laying out a town, and the Cas- cade men came over and together they laid off the plat, and it was then decided to call it Central City.
One of the first needs of the people of the little neighborhood was a more con- venient way of crossing the Wapsie, and this meant that a bridge must be constructed. Accordingly one was built at the place where the north or upper bridge now crosses the river. It was not what in this day would be called an expensive structure or so very handsome when completed, but it represented much hard work, privations, and expense to those interested in the building of it. The county had but little to do with it, if any, the whole thing being done by popular subscription, and in those times, there not being many to subscribe, the task was indeed a big one for the little handful of people. There was some money raised, but more gave in work, others furnished lumber, a stick of timber, and so on, until finally it was completed and traffic over it was begun in 1857. This bridge did not stand the test long. In the sunnner of 1859 there came a big freshet and the bridge went down stream. With its going out occurred an incident, which, though possibly forgotten by others, yet still remains fresh in the memory of Chandler Jordan. He was on this side of the river and while the bridge swayed and was considered unsafe he concluded to risk it as he was anxious to get home. IIc was on horseback and over he started. When about half way across the bridge began breaking loose, and realizing his danger Mr. Jordan jumped off his horse and started on the run for the shore. The horse also made an extra effort to find solid footing and both succeeded in getting on the opposite bank just as the bridge swung out into midstream and started floating down the river. It was soon re- placed by another wooden structure built by the county and costing about $4,000. This stood for many years but has long since passed away and been replaced by the steel bridge now spanning the river on the same site.
But we started out to write about the old mill. It still stands, and with the exception of the necessary repairs which from time to time have been made, eon- tains the same timbers and lumber it did when built. In the early fifties there came to this neighborhood two men, one by the name of St. John, the other by the name of John Peet, both men of push and ambition. Realizing the tremendous power to be obtained from the waters of the Wapsie, and the ease with which a dam could be constructed where it now is, with the rocky banks on either side, and knowing the great demand for lumber, in the then fast settling community, they begun the construction of a dam with the intention of running a saw mill with it. The work on the dam was begun in 1855 by the two men mentioned, but was not finished until the next year, the work being engineered by old Mr. Bowdish, father of I. P. Bowdish. It was finished in 1856, as was also the old saw mill which stood for many years on the south bank of the river and did a flourishing bus- iness. Like many other old land marks it is gone. But many a stiek of timber and lots of the old oak boards sawed there may yet be found in the older buildings about town.
The country all about here was fast settling up, and one of the principal crops was wheat. It was a long way to market, the nearest railroad station being at Marion. St. John and Peet concluded that a flouring mill would be a paying
488
HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY
enterprise, and began the ereetion of the mill. The lumber was sawed at the sawmill, and the heavy timbers, of which there were many, mostly came from a forty on what now belongs to the Gus Hatch farm north of town.
Mentioning these timbers calls to the mind of Mr. Outing an incident which he threw into this narrative. There was a character who lived here by the name of Henry Hutchins. He was fond of hunting and fishing and would be gone often for a period of several days, no one knowing of his whereabouts. About this time he disappeared, and his absence became so protracted that his many friends began to fear that something had happened to him. It was while a party of choppers was hunting for timbers for the mill on the forty mentioned that one day they found Hutchins' lifeless body and beside it lay his gun with every indi- cation that he had committed suicide.
When the timbers were all on the ground, hewed and framed, everybody for miles around was invited and came to help with the raising. It was a mammoth job and occupied the better part of a week. Mr. Onting was there from start to finish. The mill was completed and began operations in 1859. St. John and Peet ran it for only about three years when they sold it to E. R. Burns, who ran it until 1867, when it passed into the hands of Hatch & Co .. they paying for it the sum of $16,000. They conducted it for five years when it again passed into the hands of Mr. Burns who owned and operated it until sometime in the latter eighties. Since then it has changed hands several times, but the valuation for many years has not been one-fourth of what it originally was. For a great many years it did a big business grinding thousands and thousands of bushels of wheat each season, the flour being hauled across the country to Marion by teams. As the raising of wheat played out so the value and popularity of the mill depreciated until finally, as now, it was used only as a grist mill. The building is now owned by parties in the east and is being run by T. J. Liddington who runs it and any day may be found there taking care of any demands made upon him. He works alone, surrounded by a vast amount of empty space that was onee filled with piles of grain, machinery, and the several men required to look after the big business .*
LAND ASSESSMENTS
Statement showing total acreage, valuation and average equalized actual value per aere of land in Linn county for 1909 and 1910.
Township
Acreage
Valuation
Average
Bertram
15,816
$ 705.880
$44.63
Brown
22,689
1,226,160
54.04
Boulder
22,275
1.149.447
51.60
Buffalo
14,985
568.850
37.96
Cedar
13,268
1.002,296
75.54
Clinton
20.689
1,256,772
60.74
College
..
22,361
1.350,511
60,39
Fairfax
.22.852
1.451,070
63.50
Fayette
15.463
770,599
49.83
Franklin
20,621
1,222,768
57.92
Grant
22,267
1.030,492
46,27
.Jackson
22,090
1,016,365
46,01
Linn
22,874
1.278,324
55.88
Maine
29,537
1.345.650
45,55
Marion
-16,922
2,779,332
59.23
" Chandler Jordan, mentioned above, died about a year ago, and Mr. Lidington was killed in the mill in the winter of 1909.10 by getting wound up in the shafting, and since then the old mill has stood idle.
489
ODDS AND ENDS OF HISTORY AND REMINISCENCE
Monroe
.22,025
1,044,440
47.42
Otter Creek
22,423
1,206,721
53.82
Putnam .
17,467
786,950
45.05
Spring Grove
22,558
1,086,186
48.15
Washington
18,026
797,423
44.23
Totals
437,208
$23,076,236
$52.78
COMPARATIVE TABLE
Showing actual and taxable valuation of Linn eounty, 1899-1909.
Actual value
Taxable value
1909
$67,148,140.00
$16,787,035.00
1908
64,391,760.00
16,097,940.00
1907
63,806,912.00
15,951,728.00
1906
59,215,180.00
14,803,795.00
1905
57,547,092.00
14,386,773.00
1904
59,404,000.00
14,851,000.00
1903
57,505,160.00
14,376,290.00
1902
51,864,092.00
12,941,023.00
1901
50,501,132.00
12,625,283.00
1900
48,876,016.00
12,219,004.00
1899
48.083,716.00
12,020,929.00
The history of the settlements in Linn county has been a history of struggle, of privation and of endurance. It was not an easy matter to have to go to Musea- tine or Dubuque to mill and market; to travel by night on horseback some fifty miles for a doctor, and equally far to find a drug store. There were no roads passable for a greater part of the year; the rivers were not bridged, and the streams oftentimes were swollen so that the only means of crossing was by swim- ming or by making some temporary raft. The pioneer settler who wandered out over the prairie in a winter blizzard no doubt many times looked for the "smoke that so gracefully curls above the green elms" to indicate that a eabin was near.
The new settlers found Iowa as they had so often heard of it as "a wilderness of prairie land." It was well watered, and along the streams could be found enough timber to ereet fenees and furnish fuel and rails. They generally located in the edge of the timber and along the streams, and hesitated about locating on the prairie till much later. There they found richer land than along the timber. These first settlers came from the far east and south, Ohio, Indiana, New York, Virginia, South Carolina, and the New England states. They came from Mary- land, from Kentucky, and Tennessee. Some walked, like Ellis and Crow. Still others came in canvas covered wagons, in which the family were honsed. They brought enough utensils to cook their seanty meals. The wagon was drawn by horses or oxen, followed by a few cows, an extra horse or two, and several dogs. At night they would camp by the side of some stream or near an oak tree.
Not till the fifties and sixties did the foreigners arrive in any large numbers. As soon as they had been here a short time they wrote home their first impres- sions, and from that time a steady stream of foreign immigration poured into lowa. These early pioneers waited long for railroads, for steamboats, and for good roads. Their produee was cheap and money was searee, while interest was high. But they held on to their claims, ever looking for the brighter day. They possessed courage, hope, and the ability to wait and struggle till the times would
490
HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY
change for the better. While many of the first settlers did not live to see their plans realized, later descendants sing their praises and embalm the memories of those who made the county, the cities, and the towns what they are today.
Truly it can be said of the settlers of Linn county that they were a sturdy class of men and women, of whom their descendants may be justly proud. And the old pioneers who remain - when they reflect on the past and reeall the days of old lang syne - cannot refrain from shedding affectionate tears for those who have gone henee. They call to mind the lines of the poet :
"Two dreams came down to earth one night From the realms of mist and dew, One was a dream of the old, old days, And one was a dream of the new."
Pioneer days in Linn county were days of hardships, often of exposure, but their trials only served to develop the manhood and womanhood of the early settlers who never thought of returning, whose "only aim was to wait and see."
Certainly Kipling's lines apply to conditions as they existed in Linn county in pioneer days :
"To the far flung fenceless prairie Where the quiek cloud shadows trail, To the barn in the neighbor's offing, To the land of the new cut rail, To the plough in the league long furrow, To the gray lake gulls behind, To the weight of half a year's winter. To the warm, wet western wind."
INDEX
ABBE, Augustus: letter from, 53
Abbe, William: mentioned, 10, 92, 102; government agent, 11; mentioned, 32, 33, 34, 35, 44; first settler in the county, 51; member state senate, 52; Ellis speaks of, 147
Abbe, Susan: probably first teacher in Cedar Rapids, 198, 481
Agassiz, Louis: quotation from, 1
Agricultural Association : first in county, 480
Albrook, Rev. J. B .: 209
Alderman, A. B .: gives information as to schools, 200
American Fur Company : 14
Atkins, John W .: superintendent of schools, 418
Attorneys: thoso now practising in the coun- ty, 188
Austin, Leonard: first settler in Spring Grove township, 289
Avery, E. H .: president Coe college, 227
BANKS AND BANKING: history of in the county, 435 ff
Bardwell, T. S .: early Marion physician, 87, 467
Barnes, William H .: Cornell professor, 204 Barry, Justin: writes history of Grant township and Walker, 279
Bassitt, James: comes to county, in 1839, 143
Bates, E. N .: tribute to, 112; lawyer, 178 Beales, Hiram : builds saw mill, 462
Belt, A. Sidney: lawyer, 179
Bench and Bar: chatty mention of, 177 ff Bennett, Henry: early settler at Quasque- ton, 101
Benton, Thomas H .: reference to, 19
Berry, James M .: county judge, 56 Berry, John C .: clerk of commissioners, 33 Bertram township: history of, 270
Bishop, Homer : postmaster at Cedar Rapids, 84
Blair building: 232 Blair, John I .: 232
Blair Town Lot and Land Company, 239 Black Hawk: mentioned, 9, 12
Black Hawk Purchase: mentioned, 14
Black Hawk War: 14, 31
Boggs, Governor: of Missouri, 15
Bohemian Element in Cedar Rapids: 121 ff Bottorf, Andrew : lays out Center Point, 290 Bowling, O. S .: came to Cedar Rapids in 1838, 152
Bowman, George B .: founder of Cornell college, 201
Bowman, H. G .: brilliant lawyer, 186 Boulder township: history of, 278
Boye, Nels C .: first Scandinavian settler, 159 Brice, S. M .: postmaster at Center Point, 82
Bridges: the Cedar Rapids, 420 Brodie Gang: 38
Broeksmit, John C .: treasurer ('oe college, 226
Bromwell, James E .: writes history of Mar- ion, 460
Bromwell, James E., Sr .: early settler, 46, 257; makes first coffin in eounty, 466
Brown, Alpheus: school fund commissioner, 196
Brown, N. B .: mentioned, 11; lays out town site of Cedar Rapids, 43; buys por- tion of town, 49; a progressive citizen, 150
Brown, N. E .: speaks of railroad to Cedar Rapids, 64 Bryan, B. S .: 267
Bryan, Hugh L .: 267
Bryan, Michael: 267
Buffalo township: history of, 279
Burke, Thomas: 163
Burkhalter, E. R .: writes history of Coe college, 215 ff
Burlington: first capital of Iowa, 14 Burrell, H. A .: quotation from, 103
Butler, Isaae: first postmaster in Brown township, 84
CALHOUN, Senator : quoted, 18
Calvin, Samuel: quoted, 1
Camburn, Dr. J. H .: an able justice, 189
Carroll, G. R .: his Pioneer Life quoted, 92, 93, 215
Carroll, Isaac: eame to Cedar Rapids in 1839, 152
Carpenter, Gabriel: buys mueh land in Cedar Rapids, 160
Carpenter, S. D .: early physician, 88; quot- ed, 154; writes of early banking, 435 Carondalet : Spanish Governor at New Or- leans, 13
Catholicism in Linn county: 401
Cavanaugh, Mr. and Mrs. Matthew: first graduates Cornell college, 210
Cedar Rapids: townsite surveyed, 43; fig- ured iu eounty seat fight, 57; the post- office in, 84; early schools in, 198 ff ; be- ginnings in, 207; Robert Ellis reaches, 307; N. B. Brown here in 1839, 308; surveyed in 1841, 308; the Listebargers build log house in, 310 ; Rev. Carroll's rem- iniscences of, 310; railroad reaches, 312; ferrics established in, 313; first briek building in, 314; first store, 314; first news- paper, 314; first mayor, 314; first school,
492
HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY
316; Dr. Carpenter's reminisceures of, 317 fľ; early hotels in, 328 ; business of the eity in 1856, 328; sketch of the eity from an early directory, 332; sketch of Mrs. N. B. Brown, 333; Cedar Rapids today, 335; the railways of. 337; manufacturing in. 339; the street railways of, 341; Com- mercial club, 345; who paid the taxes in. fifty years ago, 347; text of incorpora- tion art. 353; first city officials of, 356; second election in, 356; first tax levy in, 357; election of 1851 in, 357; first side- walk ordinance. 357; election of 1853 in, 358; the cemeteries of, 358; election of 1854 in, 358; election of 1855 and 1856 in, 359; officials of the eity from 1857 to 1910, 359; the eity fifty years ago, 365; how the first railroad eame to, 370; some of the early briek houses in. 374; some strenuous days in, 376; Mrs. Roek's rem- iniseenees of. 379; when land was cheap in, 382; first decoration day celebration in, 384; first labor union organized in, 390; story of a mountain howitzer, 391; a fortunate tumble, 392; interesting bit of ancient history. 393; churches and fraternities in, 395; history of Catholic rhmurches in, 402; bridges, 420; some municipal figures, 482
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.