USA > Iowa > Muscatine County > History of Muscatine County, Iowa, from the earliest settlements to the present time, Volume I > Part 10
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Not one of the fifty-four species of mollusks now inhabiting the rivers nor of the twenty-one species in the ponds of this county is found in the loess, and only five of the twenty-six species belonging to the land. Between Iowa avenue and Chestnut, north of Fifth street, in grading lot 2, block 99, a bone was taken from the loess about eighteen inches long, somewhat flattened and about two inches wide, covered from an eighth to a quarter of an inch in thickness with the same material as the concretions. This was near the bottom of the loess. Be- tween Linn and Pine, north of Sixth, on lot 4, block 124, about thirteen feet below the surface, in the loess, nearly the entire skeleton of a ruminant was discovered. It was so completely decayed that little could be preserved except fragments of the jaws with the teeth, the whole covered the same as the bone mentioned above. Dr. Joseph Leidy, of Philadelphia, at first thought this was an undescribed species of extinct deer and proposed to call it Cervus musca- tinensis but afterward he concluded that it was the American reindeer, Rangifer caribou.
Since no stratification is observed in the loess, it could not have been dis- turbed by currents. It therefore must have accumulated in a lake which was subject to little or no change during loess time. The bed of this lake at the close was almost at the top of the highest hills. The top of the bluff along the river was more than one hundred and fifty feet higher along the bluffs than it is now. Supposing the water in the river to have been on a level with the water in the lake, the vast valley between the bluffs, from four to eight miles wide, must have been filled with material similar to that seen along the bluffs under the loess. The loess deposit must have extended some distance into this valley, for it could not have terminated as we see it in the river bluffs. The great river may have been more of a swamp than a river, three or four miles wide. Since the loess was deposited, the river has carried away the material from bluff to bluff, about one hundred and fifty feet deep. The hard Hamilton limestone, the top of which is seen about high water near Pine creek, and low water a mile east of the city, dips below the river to the south and west. The soft blue shale, with its coal and overlying sandstone resting on this, offered but little resistance to the river when it was twenty or thirty feet higher than now, and conse- quently the bluffs are generally remote from the river, where the latter is now confined by the limestone. The space between the present limit of the river
East Side of Iowa Avenue, looking north from Third Street, in July, 1877
View looking south from Tower of old High School, July. 1877
View from Tower of old High School. 1877
AK
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CITY LAUND D DOWN STAIRS
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South Side of Second Street. east of Sycamore. in 1867
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HISTORY OF MUSCATINE COUNTY
and bluffs of sandstone is nearly level and no doubt underlaid by the lime- stone over which the river once washed.
Muscatine Island owes its existence to the character of the rock in the Iowa bluff. Whether the basis in which the drift under the loess rests was excavated in the rocks before the Glacial epoch, during that time or since, certain it is, the rocks were removed at least to the limestone which is below low water, the excavation filled fifty to sixty feet deep with loose material, on top of which is the loess, and since then the river has returned from near the tops of the highest hills to its present place. It is doubtful if this could have occurred without a change of level. It seems the land must have subsided till the highest points were but little above the river.
Some stream, probably the Cedar, reaching into northwestern Iowa, carried the same kind of water into this Loess Lake that renders the Missouri and its upper tributaries so famous. Here the mud gradually settled as it does now in the reservoir in St. Louis from the water of the Missouri. Patches of loess are known to exist at Clinton, Iowa City and Des Moines, and from twenty to fifty miles of the western border of Iowa was in the great Loess Lake of Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri.
After the loess was deposited, the final topographical features of the county began to appear. The river valleys and the picturesque bluffs are newer than the loess. At no very distant day, the river, or a large branch of it, followed mainly the line of Muscatine slough. The Sand Mound, the northern part of which is in the southeastern corner of the county, is no doubt a part of the debris of the sandstones crushed by the glaciers, washed away by the river, or both. The loose material in the river bottoms of the county is alluvium. It is con- stantly being changed along the rivers from side to side. Rivers have a sort of pendulum motion and the banks yield where they strike.
The geology of the county may be summarized as follows, in regard to ages and groups :
Devonian Age, Hamilton Group, seen along the Mississippi from the eastern border nearly to the city of Muscatine, on Pine creek one mile above the mouth, and on the west branch of the same creek, about six miles from the mouth, also on Cedar, near Moscow.
Carboniferous Age, Coal Measure Group, seen along the Mississippi from the eastern border to a point about two miles west of the city of Muscatine, on Mad creek about four miles from its mouth, on Pappoose creek about two miles from its mouth, and on Lowe's run, three or four miles west of Muscatine.
Quaternary Age, Drift, covering all the county except the loess, mentioned above, and the alluvium along the river bottoms.
LAND AND FRESH WATER MOLLUSKS.
The mollusks found in Muscatine county are many and the Professor de- scribes each and every one by its Latin name. These are omitted, it being taken for granted that none but a scientist learned in the dead languages would be
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interested, or able to intelligently interpret one-fifth part of the paragraph. That part, however, which refers to the Unionidæ is given in full, as follows :
SHELL BEARING MOLLUSKS.
The soft parts of the Unionidæ afford an abundance of bait for fishermen. The thick, heavy shells are capable of being made into a great variety of useful and ornamental objects. All our shell bearing mollusks give lime to the soil. Broken shells were used by the primitive men of this county in making their earthen vessels, and shells held an important place with this people as an article of adornment. There is no evidence that our river mollusks were ever used here as an essential article of food. I suppose the chief obstacle in the way of cultivating for the table, especially the Anodonta grandis, so abundant in Keokuk Lake, is the changeable character of our waters. Whether a fine, fat young grandis could ever get the reputation of oysters from Saddle Rock or Far Rockaway is a question for the "coming man" to solve.
PREHISTORIC REMAINS.
Along the bluffs of the Mississippi in this county, generally in the most com- manding positions, are great numbers of tumuli, or artificial mounds of earth. These vary from slight elevations, scarcely perceptible, to mounds ten feet high and fifty to one hundred feet across at the base. No particular order among them has yet been observed, except they are in groups of from fifteen to twenty- five each, or even more. The mounds in a group are usually not more than from fifty to one hundred feet apart. One group of small mounds is on section 14, township 77 north, range 3 west, of the fifth principal meridian. This is on the east bluff of the Cedar and is the only group on this stream that has come to my notice in this county. With the exception of a few mounds on section 22, township 77 north, range I east, all others, so far as I know, are on points of land on the Mississippi bluffs that would have been above the water in loess time.
The exceptions above referred to are in a fine state of preservation and stand on a bottom about eighty rods wide, a few feet above high water, and about forty rods from the Mississippi river. Comparatively little has been done to systematically explore the mounds of this county. Some earthen vessels, stone axes, arrow and spear points and plummet like implements, made of hema- tite, have been taken from the mounds. Fragments of pottery, stone axes, etc., are frequently found along our ravines.
Whatever may have been the chief purpose of these mounds, it is certain some of their dead were buried in them. Human bones, generally almost like ashes, are common in the mounds. It is hardly possible that all the dead were put in mounds, as it is quite certain that many mounds contain each the remains of but two or three persons. When this ancient people flourished in this county, whence they came and whither they went, are questions over which the shad- ows of the past still hover. Some race or races of men lived along the borders of the great Missouri Lake in loess time. Professor Samuel Aughey, of Lin-
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HISTORY OF MUSCATINE COUNTY
coln, Nebraska, has found arrow and spear points in the loess near Omaha, Sioux City, etc., along with the remains of the elephant and mastodon, and F. F. Hilder, secretary of the archaeological section of the St. Louis Academy of Science, in a letter to me says: "About a year ago I had the good fortune to find an arrow head of black chert, very rudely formed, in the undisturbed loess of this city, about six feet below the surface."
Twenty-two miles south of Muscatine, in and around the village of Tools- boro, in Louisa county, numerous mounds, larger than those of this county, have been carefully examined and finely wrought earthen vessels and pipes, also copper axes, awls, beads and a sheet of that metal, marine shells now liv- ing in the gulf, shell beads, and probably charred corn, have been exhumed. In the same vicinity earthworks exist-in one instance, straight for over eighty rods, and in another, circular, inclosing perhaps ten acres. These are nearly obliterated by cultivation. I call attention to these remains beyond this county only because that point appears to have been the center of strength and wealth for this region.
CHAPTER V.
THE MISSISSIPPI.
THE "FATHER OF WATERS" BRINGS TO MUSCATINE IT'S FIRST SETTLERS-EARLY STEAMBOAT DAYS AND A LIST OF CRAFTS PLYING UP AND DOWN THE RIVER- RAFTING AND LUMBERING-FERRY BOATS-TALE OF A FAMOUS RACE-THE DUBUQUE BURSTS HER BOILERS AND KILLS TWENTY-TWO PEOPLE NEAR THIS PORT.
In April, 1823, Daniel Smith Harris, a lad of fifteen, left Cincinnati on the keel boat Colonel Bumford for the LeFevre lead mines, now Galena, where he arrived June 20th, following, after a laborious voyage down the Ohio and up the Mississippi. It came about in the evolution of things required for specific purposes that the keel boat was constructed. This boat was built to go up stream as well as down. It was a well modeled craft, sixty to eighty feet long and fifteen to eighteen feet wide, sharp at both ends and often with fine lines, clipper built for passengers or traffic. It had usually about four feet depth of hold. Its cargo box, as it was called, was about four feet higher, sometimes covered with a light curved deck, sometimes open, with a "gallows frame" running the length of the hold, over which tarpaulins were drawn and fastened to the sides of the boat for the protection of the freight and passengers in stormy weather. At either end of the craft was a deck eight or ten feet in length, the forward or forecastle deck having a windlass or capstan for pulling the boat off bars or warping through swift water or over rapids. Along each side of the cargo box ran a narrow walk about eighteen inches in width, with cleats nailed to the deck twenty-eight or thirty inches apart to prevent the crew from slipping when poling up stream. About the time the keel boat Colonel Bumford was passing St. Louis, the Steamer Virginia departed for the upper river with a load of supplies for the United States military post at Fort Snelling. She arrived at Fort Snelling, May 10, 1823, the first boat propelled by steam to breast the water of the upper Mississippi. She was received by a salute of cannon from the fort and carried fear and consternation to the Indians, who watched the smoke rolling from her chimneys and the exhaust steam from her escape pipe with a noise that simply terrified them. The Virginia was scarcely longer than the largest keel boat, being about 120 feet long and twenty-two feet beam. She had no upper cabin, the accommodation for passengers being in the hold in
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the stern of the boat, with the cargo box covering so common to the keel boat of which she herself was but an evolution.
AN EARLY RIVER PANORAMA.
What did the young steamboat man see in his voyage from Cairo to Galena in 1823? In his later years, in speaking of this trip, he said that where Cairo now stands there was but one log building,-a warehouse for the accommoda- tion of keel boat navigators of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Cape Girard- eau, St. Genevieve and Herculaneum were small settlements averaging a dozen families each. St. Louis was built almost entirely of frame structures and had a population of about 5,000. The levee was a ledge of rocks with scarcely a fit landing place on the whole frontage. Alton, Clarksville and Louisiana were minor settlements. What is now Quincy consisted of one log cabin only, which was built and occupied by John Woods, who afterward became lieutenant gov- ernor of the state of Illinois and acting governor. This intrepid pioneer was "batching it," being industriously engaged in clearing a piece of land for farm- ing purposes. The only settler at Hannibal was one John S. Miller, a black- smith, who removed to Galena in the autumn of 1823. In later years Hannibal was to claim the honor of being the birthplace of Mark Twain, the humorist historian of the lower Mississippi pilot clans. The last farm house between St. Genevieve and Galena was located at Cottonwood Prairie (now Canton), and was occupied by one Captain White, who was prominently identified with the early development of the northwest. There was a government garrison at Keokuk which was then known as Fort Edwards, and another at Fort Arm- strong on Rock Island. The settlement at Galena consisted of but a dozen log cabins, a few frame shanties and a smelting furnace. If Mr. Harris was look- ing only for the signs of an advancing civilization, the above covers about all he saw on his trip. Other things came to his notice, however,-the great river flowing in its pristine glory unvexed to the sea ; islands set like emeralds in the tawny flood; the trees and bushes taking on their summer dress of green in the warm May sunshine; prairies spreading away in boundless beauty, limited only by his powers of vision. Later, as his craft stemmed the flood and advanced up the river, he saw the hills beginning to encroach upon the valley of the river, narrowing his view; and later the crags and bastions of the bluffs of the upper river beetling over the very channel itself and lending an added grandeur to the simple beauty of the banks already passed. His unaccustomed eyes saw the wickyups and tepees of the Indians scattered among the islands and on the low- lands, the hunters of the tribes changing the firelock for the spear and net as they sought to reap the water of its harvest of returning fish. It was all new to the young traveler who was later to become the best known steamboat man of the upper river; the commander of a greater number of steamboats than any of his compeers and who was to know the river in all its meanderings, and in all its curves better than any other who ever sailed-Daniel Smith Harris, of Ga- lena, Illinois.
THE BOATS OF OTHER DAYS.
Of the early boats stopping at this port Captain W. L. Clark furnishes the names and the steamers that came up from St. Louis in 1827, for the govern-
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HISTORY OF MUSCATINE COUNTY
ment and for traffic at the Galena lead mines and with supplies for the few set- tlers. They were: Red Rover, Captain Otis Reynolds; the Shamrock, Captain James May; the Indiana and Black Rover, captains names not recalled. The captains in 1831 and 1832 were: Throckmorton, steamer Warrior; O'Flagerty, Forsyth, VanHouten. Captains from 1833 until 1836: Cole, Smith Harris, Orin Smith, Scribe Harris, Ben Campbell, Cameron, Clime, Ward, John Atchin- son, George Atchinson, Mark Atchinson and Hardin Roberts; from 1836 until 1842 : Leroy Dodge, Reilley, Littleton, Brock, Morehouse, Pierce, C. Gall, Mc- Allister, William Gabbert Blakesley, K. Lodwich, John Lodwich and Barger.
Several of the commanders above named continued on the upper river until 1850, and three or four until the early '60s. Mrs. Erie Dodge, of Buffalo, Scott county, Iowa, kept a record of early years and noted the following list of names of vessels that plied the waters of the Mississippi: 1845-War Eagle, St. Croix, Fortuna, Mungo Park, Monona, Mendota, Galena, Falcon, Lynx, Uncle Toby, Time, St. Louis, Oak, Sarah Ann, Cecelia, General Block, Osprey, Potosi, Re- veille, Lebanon, La Salle, Confidence, Amaranth, Brazil, Iron City, Iowa Mer- maid, Dial, Nimrod, Otter, U. S. Mail, Herald, Iowa, New Haven, Archer, Jas- per, Ohio; 1848-Iowa City, Uncle Toby, Montauk, Bon Accord, Senator, Red Wing, Pearl, Domain, Clermont, Confidence, Falcon, Piazza, Mondoanna, Mary Blaine, Ellen, Dubuque, St. Peters, Time and Tide, Alexander Hamilton, High- land Mary, Odd Fellow, Ohio Mail, Otter, DeKalb, Eliza Stewart, Kentucky, North Alabama, Dan Rice; 1849-Senator, St. Croix, American Eagle, Dr. Franklin, Bon Accord, St. Peters, Time and Tide, Newton, Wagoner, Otter, Archer, Oswego, War Eagle, Dubuque, Clermont No. 2, Montauk, Highland Mary, Financier, Anthony Wayne, Cora, Kentucky, Red Wing, Bay State Planter, Oregon, Wisconsin, Palo Alto, Saranak, Revenue Cutter, Herald, American, Yankee, Mary Blaine, Domain, Allegheny Mail, Tiger, Piazza, Mag- net, Danube, Minnesota, Caroline, No Name. John P. Robertson, a Davenport boy of long ago, loved the river and kept this list of boats which landed here from 1850 to 1852; Amaranth, Archer, Asia, Anthony Wayne, Bon Accord, Black Hawk, Brunette, Brazil, Ben Campbell, Ben Franklin, Cora, Caleb Cope, Danube, Di Vernon, Diadem, Enterprise, Express, Excelsior, Fortune, Falcon, Fleetwood, Financier, Galena, General Gaines, Golden Era, G. W. Sparhawk, Glaucus, Highland Mary, Iron City, Iowa, Ione, Irene J., H. McKee, Jennie Lind, Lamertine, Lynx, Mendota, Minnesota, Monongahela, Mary Blaine, Mon- tauk, Martha No. I, Martha No. 2, Mary O, Northerner, Nauvoo, Osprey, Ohio, Oshkosh, Oneoto, Ocean Wayne, Pembina, Potosi, Prairie Bird, Red Wing, Robert Fulton, Ripple, St. Paul, Shenandoah, St. Croix, Silas Wright, Swamp Fox, Senator, Time and Tide, Tempest, Tobacco Plant, Uncle Toby, War Eagle, Wisconsin, Warrior, Wyoming. All these boats were built for freight and passengers and the most of them were side wheelers. Trade was immensely profitable. Previous to 1850 there were no boat lines as we have today rep- resented locally by agents. Each captain solicited freight when his boat came
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to land. Emigration was tremendous and freight rates high. Steamboats costing fifty thousand dollars would pay for themselves in a single season.
GREAT RIVER STORIES.
"Old Times on the Upper Mississippi River"-the recollections of a steam- boat pilot from 1854 to 1863, was written by Captain George Byron Merrick and published in 1909. Of his earlier experience on the Mississippi river he has the following, in part, to say :
"The majesty and glory of the great river have departed; its glamour re- mains, fresh, and undying in the memories of those who, with mind's eye, still can see it as it was a half century ago. Its majesty was apparent in the mighty flood which then flowed throughout the season, scarcely diminished by the summer heat; its glory in the great commerce which floated upon its bosom, beginnings of great commonwealth yet to be; its glamour in that indefinable witchery with which memory clothes the commonplace of long ago, transfiguring the labors, cares, responsibilities and dangers of steamboat life as it really was into a midsummer night's dream of care free, exhilarating experiences and glorified achievements. There were steamers running between St. Louis and Fort Snelling, near St. Paul, from the year 1823 in more or less regularity. The Virginia, Captain Crawford, was the first steamboat to reach Fort Snell- ing, which occurred May 10, 1822. The crowning achievement of Captain William Fisher, of Galena, was the taking of the City of Quincy from St. Louis to St. Paul, Captain Brock being his partner for the trip. The City of Quincy was a New Orleans packet that had been chartered to take an excursion the length of the river. The vessel was of 1,600 tons burden, with length of 350 feet beam and was the largest boat ever making the trip above Keokuk's rapids. Two or three incidents of Captain Fisher's river life, among the many which he related to me, are of interest as showing the dangers of the Mississippi. The following is one which he believed was an omen prophetic of the war of the rebellion. I give it as told to me:
" 'I am going to tell you this just as it happened. I don't know whether you will believe me or not. I don't say that I would believe it myself if I had not seen it with my own eyes. If some one else had told it to me I might have set it down as a "yarn." If they never have had any experience on the river some men would make yarns to order. It is a mighty sight easier to make them than it is to live them-and safer.
" 'When this thing happened to me I was entirely sober and I was not asleep. If you will take my word for it I have never been anything else but sober. If I had been otherwise I would not be here now telling you this at eighty-two years old (the relator told the story in 1903). Whiskey always gets 'em before they see the eighty mark. 'And you know that a man can't run a steamboat while asleep-that is, very long. Of course he can for a little while but when he hits the bank it wakes him up.
" 'This story ought to interest you because I was on your favorite boat when it happened. The Fannie Harris was sold in 1859, in May or June, to go south. She came back right away, not going below St. Louis, after all. I took her
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down to that port. Joseph Jones, of Galena, had bought the bar for the season when she was sold, and lost thirty dollars in money by the disposal of the boat. Captain W. H. Gabbert, who died a few months since, was in command and I was pilot. I left Galena in the evening. It was between changes of the moon and a beautiful starlight night-as fine as I ever saw. By the time we got down to Bellevue the stars had all disappeared and it had become daylight, not twi- light, but broad daylight, so light that you could not see the brightest star, and from II:30 to 12:30, a full hour, it was as bright as any day when the sun was under a cloud. At midnight I was right opposite Savanna. Up to this time Captain Gabbert had been asleep in the cabin, although he was on watch. We were carrying neither passengers nor freight for we were just taking the boat down to deliver her to her new owners. The captain woke up, or was called, and when he saw the broad daylight and that his watch indicated that it was only midnight, he was surprised and maybe scared, just as everyone else was. He ran out on the roof and called out, "Mr. Fisher, land the boat, the world is com- ing to an end." I told him that if the world were coming to an end that he might as well go in the middle of the river as at the bank, and kept on going. It took just as long to get dark again as it did to get light-about an hour. Then in another half hour the stars had come out, one by one, just as you see them at sunset-the big bright ones first and then the whole field of little ones. I looked for all the stars I knew by sight and as they came back, one by one, I began to feel more confidence in the reality of things. I couldn't tell at all where the light came from-but it grew absolutely broad daylight. That one hour's experience had more to do with turning my hair white than anything that ever occurred to me, for it certainly did seem a strange phenomenon. "Was it worse than going into a battle?" I asked. Yes, a hundred times worse, be- cause it was different. When you go into battle you know just what danger is and you nerve yourself to meet it. It is just the same as bracing yourself to meet a known danger in your work-wind, lightning or storm-you know what to expect and if you have any nerve you just hold yourself in and let it come. This was different; you didn't know what was coming next, but I guess we all thought just as the captain did, that it was the end of the world. I confess that I was scared, but I had the boat to look out for and until the world really did come to an end I was responsible for her, and so stood by and you know that helps to keep your nerves where they belong. I just hung on to the wheel and kept her in the river but held one eye on the western sky to see what was com- ing next. I hope when my time comes I shall not be scared to death and I don't believe I shall be. It will come in a natural way and there won't be any- thing to scare a man. It is the unknown and mysterious that shakes him and this midnight marvel was too much for any of us. We had a great many signs before the war and I believe this marvel was one of them, only we didn't know how to read it.' "
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