History of Warren County, Iowa : from its earliest settlement to 1908; with biographical sketches of some prominent citizens of the county, Part 8

Author: Martin, W. C
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: Chicago : S.J. Clarke Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 918

USA > Iowa > Warren County > History of Warren County, Iowa : from its earliest settlement to 1908; with biographical sketches of some prominent citizens of the county > Part 8

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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY

history of the state its elements of enduring strength. Among the remaining members were merchants, bankers and various other tradesmen. They were a representative group of men and they attacked the problems before them with characteristic pioneer vigor. The convention of 1857 chose for its presiding officer Francis Springer, an able farmer and lawyer from Louisa county. Many were the disenssions that stirred the convention. One of the first was over the proposition to move the convention bodily to Dubuque or to Davenport. The town of Iowa City, it seems, had not provided satisfactory accommodations for the delegates ; and for hours the members gave vent to their displeasure and argued the question of a removal. But inertia won and the convention finally decided to remain in Iowa City and settled down to the discussion of more serions matters.

The constitution of 1846 had prohibited banking corporations in the state. But there was strong agitation for a change in this respect, and so the convention of 1857 provided for both a state bank and for a system of free banks. The matter of corporations was a prominent one before the convention. So also was the question of the status of the negro. The issues were taken up with fairness and argued upon their merits. The convention was Republican in the proportion of twenty-one to fifteen. The delegates had been elected on a party basis. Yet they did not allow partisanship to control their actions as members of a constituent assembly. On the 19th of January they had come together, and for a month and a half they remained in session. They adjourned on March 5th and dispersed to their homes.

That the members of the convention did their work well is evidenced by the fact that in the fifty years that have followed only four times has the Consti- tution of 1857 been amended. Nor did these amendments embody changes the need of which the men of 1857 could have well foreseen. The first two changes in the fundamental law were due to the changed status of the negro as a result of the Civil War. In 1882 the prohibitory amendment was passed, but it was soon declared null by the Supreme Court of Iowa because of technicalities in its submission to the people, and so did not become a part of the Constitution. The amendments of 1884 were largely with judicial matters, and those of 1904 pro- vided for biennial elections and increased the number of members of the House of Representatives.

With these changes the work of the Constitutional Convention of 1857 has come down to us. Fifty years have passed and twice has the convention been the subject of a celebration. In 1882. after a quarter of a century. the surviv- ing members met in Des Moines. Francis Springer, then an old man, was present and presided at the meeting; ont of the original thirty-six members. only twenty responded to the roll call. Eight other members were alive but unable to attend; the remainder had given way to the inevitable reaper. This was in 1882. In 1907 occurred the second celebration. This time it was not a reunion of members of the Convention, for only one survivor appeared upon the scene. It was rather a commemoration of the fiftieth birthday of the Constitution of the state. Only one member of the convention (John HI. Peters of Manchester, Iowa.) is reported to be now living.

The celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of our funda- mental law was marked by a unique feature. There were present and partici-

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INDIANOLA BANKING COMPANY BLOCK

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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY

pated in the program three aged pioneers of the state, a survivor of each of the three Constitutional Conventions. These three conventions met in 1857, in 1846, and in 1844. respectively fifty, sixty-one and sixty-three years ago. On the opening day of the celebration, J. Scott Richman appeared upon the seene. Sixty-one years ago he had come to Iowa City as a delegate to the convention of 1846. Eighty-eight years old, with patriarchal beard and slow step, he came as the only living member of the convention that framed the Constitution under which Iowa entered the Union. On Thursday there came from Marion, Samuel Durham. a tall pioneer of ninety years of age. the sole survivor of Iowa's first Constitutional Convention, that of 1844. His memory ran back to the days of Iowa's first governor. Robert Lucas, for he had reached Iowa from Indiana in the year 1840. On the last day of the program these two old constitution-makers of 1844 and 1846 were joined by a third, John H. Peters, who had come from Deleware county as a member of the last Constitutional Convention fifty years ago. They sat down together at the luncheon on Friday noon and responded to toasts with words that took the hearers back to the days when Iowa was the last stopping place of the immigrant.

Thus the celebration was brought to an end. From every point of view it was a success. Probably never again will the state see the reunion of represen- tatives of all three Constitutional Conventions. Time must soon take away

these lingering pioneers of two generations ago. But the state will not soon forget their services. for they have left their monument in the fundamental law of the commonwealth.

The following is a list of the governors of Iowa and the counties from which chosen from 1846 to 1908:

Name

County

Date of 1st election

Years served

Ansel Briggs

Jackson

October 26, 1846

1846-1850

Stephen Hempstead

Dubuque

August 5, 1850

1850-1854

James W. Grimes

Des Moines

August 3, 1854

1854-1858

Ralph P. Lowe

Lee

October 13, 1857

1858-1860

Samuel J. Kirkwood

Johnson

October 11, 1859

1860-1864

William M. Stone

Marion

October 13, 1863

1864-1868

Samuel Merrill

Clayton

October 8, 1867

1868-1872

Cyrus C. Carpenter

Webster

October 10, 1871

1872-1876

.Samuel J. Kirkwood

Johnson

October 12, 1875

1876-1877

** Joshua G. Newbold John H. Gear

Henry

February 1, 1877

1877-1878

Des Moines

October 9, 1877

1878-1882

Buren R. Sherman

Benton

October 11, 1881

1882-1886

William Larrabee

Fayette

November 3, 1885

1886-1890

Horace Boies

Black Hawk

November 5, 1889

1890-1894

Frank D. Jackson

Polk

November 7, 1893

1894-1896

Francis M. Drake

Appanoose

November 5, 1895

1896-1898

Leslie M. Shaw

Crawford

November 2, 1897

1898-1902

Albert B. Cummins Polk

November 5, 1901

1902-

·Resigned February 1, 1877, having been elected United States senator

** Lieutenant-governor served unexpired portion of term for which Samuel J. Kirkwood was elected.

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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY

HISTORY OF IOWA.

Geologists have gone into the rocks, the soils, and the sands of low'a and read the history of great antiquity, namely : ages ago the great valley of the Mississippi was an ocean bed, its inhabitants were marine animals and plants; and when in the evolution of the ages it was lifted above the waters and dry land appeared. Iowa was a tropical country, containing immense tropical forests and flowers. inhabited by stupendous animals and huge reptiles. Of the real condition of those prehistorie days, man now has but the faintest idea. The ages required for the changes alluded to are absolutely beyond conception. The geological records were never mutilated or destroyed by the tooth of time. Professor Calvin says : These geological records, untampered with and unimpeachable, declare that for uncounted years, Iowa together with the great valley of the Mississippi lay beneath the level of the sea. So far as it was inhabitated at all. marine forms of animals and plants were its only occupants. The northeastern portion of Iowa was the first to rise above the sea, and in due course of time the entire Mississippi valley was lifted above the waters. The contour of Iowa was very different in the tropical days of its history from what it is now. More than a hundred thousand years ago the climate changed, the heat withdrew and intense cold pre- . vailed, eansing the tropical plants and animals to disappear. Immense glaciers from the north began to spread out over this region and continued to move sonth- ward as far as St. Louis. A small portion of the northeastern corner of Iowa was not over-run by the glaciers, but was doubtless involved in the low tempera- ture then prevailing. The value of this period to the future inhabitants of Iowa cannot be esimated. Professor Samnel Calvin, State Geologist for Iowa, in the July number. 1899, of the Annals of Iowa, writes a beautiful and interesting article, under the caption of What the Glaciers Have Done For Iowa. Below is the article in full: Everybody knows in a general way that Iowa was once the abode of glaciers and presented an aspect as dreary and uninviting as the central portions of northern Greenland or the ice-locked continent of the Antartic. It may not, however, be so generally known that severe glacial conditions have recurred in Iowa more than once, and that, in some cases at least. the intergla- cial intervals were characterized by a mild climate and, in point of duration, were more than equal to all postglacial time. A consideration of Greenland and Antarctica, in the present condition of frigid desolation, would scarcely suggest that the action of glaciers could be, in any way, beneficent ; but it needs only a comparison of preglacial, with postglacial Iowa to demonstrate the fact that glaciers and glacial action have contributed in a very large degree to the making of our magnificent state. What Iowa would have been, had it never suffered from the effects of the ponderous ive sheets that successively overflowed its sur- face, is illustrated, but not perfectly, in the driftless area. Here we have an area that was not invaded by glaciers. This area lies mostly in Wisconsin, but its edges overlap southeastern Minnesota, northeastern Iowa and northwestern Illinois. In our own state Allamakee county and parts of Winneshiek. Fayette, Clayton, Dubuque and Jackson, belong to the Driftless area. Furthermore, the

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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY

southern limits of glacial action are fairly well defined, coineiding in a general way with a line drawn from Jefferson City to St. Louis, and along the Ohio river from near its mouth to Pittsburg. East of Pittsburg the glacial boundary eurves to the north and east and at last conforms very nearly to the southern edge of Long Island. South of the line described there are further opportuni- ties for comparing preglacial lowa-or rather what Iowa would have been without the modifications wrought by glaciers-with the Iowa we know today. There is yet one other way of learning about the surface of preglacial Iowa. During the last two decades numerous deep wells have been bored through the loose surface deposits and down into the underlying indurated rocks. The records of these wells show that the rock surface is very uneven. Before the gla- cial drift, which now mantles uearly the whole of Iowa, was deposited, the surface had been carved into an intricate system of hills and valleys. There were narrow gorges hundreds of feet in depth, and there were rugged rocky cliffs and isolated buttes corresponding in height to the depth of the valleys. If the eroded rock surface had not been covered up and protected by the mantle of glacial detritus, the angular, jagged topography indicated by well records as characterizing pre- glacial Iowa, would have been toned and softened, to some extent, by erosion and atmospheric waste. So far, therefore, as topography is concerned, the Driftless area and other nonglaciated portions of the country give a more correct notion of what Iowa would have been if the great ice sheets had not worked their benefi- cent effects upon its surface.

The Driftless area differs from the drift-covered portions of Iowa in a num- ber of important particulars. For present purposes, however, these differences may conveniently be reduced to two classes: First, differences in topography, and, second, differences in the superficial materials or soils.

To a person passing from the drift-covered, to the driftless part of the state, the topography presents a series of surprises. The gentle undulations of the drift give place to sharp contours and high reliefs. The topography is of the most erosional pronounced type. The principal drainage streams flow in valleys that, measured from the summits of the divides, are six hundred feet or more in depth. The Oneota or Upper Iowa river. in Allamakee county, for example, flows between picturesque cliffs that rise almost vertically to a height of from three hundred to four hundred feet, while from the summit of the cliffs the land rise gradually to the rest of the divides, three, four, or five miles back from the stream. Tributary streams cut the lateral slopes and canyon walls at intervals. These have tributaries of the second order. Each affluent indeed branches and rebranches until the whole surface of the drainage slopes is occupied by a palin- ate system of sharp erosion channels separated by rounded ridges. In such a region a quarter section of level land would be in the nature of a curiosity. The straight section-line roads that divide the drift-covered parts of the state into squares as regular as a checkerboard. are altogether unknown; for highways must. perforce. go where they can, and in the Driftless area they wind along the summits of ridges or pursne an even more tortnous course along the stream val- leys. In passing from valley to divide the grades are steep and long; and always, no matter what the direction or purpose of the traveler, the way is sin-

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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY

uous, and the journey is much longer than would be necessary if it were possible to follow straight lines.

Railroad building in such a country is ahnost ont of the question. At all events it is attended with difficulties that would scarcely be appreciated by the residents of the drift-covered portions of the state. For example, the short piece of road between Waukon Junction and Waukon pursues a tortuons journey of thirty-three miles, and yet the two points, measured on an air line. are only about sixteen miles apart. In the thirty-three miles of distance the grade rises nearly six hundred feet, while curves, numerons and sharp, offer fur- ther obstacles to successful operation. The road in question follows the valley of Paint creek, and the trains winding back and forth on the sinnous track grind around the sharp enrves with ereakings and groanings unutterable. This is a fair example of railroading in the Driftless area, a fair example of conditions that would have been met throughout the whole state had it not been for the leveling effects of glaciers. Compare this picture with that presented by rail- ways in the connties west of Howard. Chickasaw and Fayette, where the lines are laid ont on straightaway courses, across valley and watershed, with scarce percep- tible grade, for scores of miles at a stretch. For the matchless facilities with which the highways of transportation, between different portions of our state and neighboring states, are established and maintained, we are indebted. to an extent diffienlt to appreciate, to the beneficent action of glaciers.

In the matter of soils our debt to glacial action is even greater than in the matter of topography. In a non-glaciated Iowa we might have moved about from point to point, thongh as compared with present conditions it would have involved great expense, great loss of time, and much inconvenience. But a non-glaciated Iowa could never have taken rank as a great agrienltural state. In an area that has received no glacial tribute the soils are, in general, the result of decay of rocks in place. If, as in the case of Iowa, the area has but recently been elevated from three hundred to six or eight hundred feet above base level. the drainage streams flow in deep valleys. The sides of the valleys rise at a high angle. As fast as the soil is formed it is washed from the steep slopes. Over a large percentage of the surface the rocks are bare, while areas that are not com- pletely denuded have soils too thin for purposes of successful agriculture. Fur- thermore even where such residual soils as are possible to driftless regions accumulate to a moderate depth, they are found to vary with the nature of the underlying rocks from which they are derived; they are completely oxidized and thoroughly leached of all soluble constituents; they are difficult of cultivation. and erops can only be produced at the expense of much labor and by the liberal use of fertilizers. Exceptions to this general statement are found in narrow belts of rich allnvial soils along the stream valleys: but soils of niform ex- cellence. spreading between the two great rivers, and from northern' to southern boundary would have been impossible in a nou-glacial Iowa.

The conversion of a deeply trenched and eroded surface into a gently un- dulating plain, upon which wagon roads and railways, facilitating social and commercial intercourse, may be constructed with a minimum of labor and ex-

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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY

pense, is a service of immeasurable value; and yet this is one of the least of the beneficent effects of glacial action in Iowa. The soils of Iowa have a value equal to all the gold and silver mines of the world combined. In fact it is difficult to find sources of wealth with which our soils may properly be compared. . And for all this rich heritage of soils we are indebted to great rivers of ice that overflowed Iowa from the north and northwest. The glaciers, in their long journey, ground up the rocks over which they moved and mingled the fresh rock flour derived from granites and other crystalline rocks of British America and northern Minnesota with pulverized limestones and shales of more southern regions, and used these rich materials in covering up the bald rocks and leveling the irregular surface of preglacial Iowa. The materials are, in places, hundreds of feet in depth. They are not oxidized or leached, but retain the carbonates and other soluble constituents that contribute so largely to the growth of plants. The physical condition of the materials is ideal, rendering the soil porous, facili- tating the distribution of moisture, and offering unmatched opportunities for the employment of improved machinery in all the processes connected with culti- vation. Even the Driftless area received great benefit from the action of glaciers, for, although the area was not invaded by ice, it was yet to a large extent covered by a peculiar deposit called loess, which is genetically connected with one of the later sheets of drift. The loess is a porous clay, rich in carbonate of lime. Throughout the Driftless area it has covered up many spots that would otherwise have been bare rocks. It covered the stiff, intractable residual clays that would otherwise have been the only soils of the regions. In itself it constitutes a soil of great fertility. Every part of Iowa is debtor in some way or other to the great ice sheets of the glacial period.

IOWA MINING.

The most important mining in Iowa is the coal fields of the state, which embraces an area of not less than twenty-five thousand square miles, extending over thirty-seven counties. The most important, at present developed, is in the counties of Davis, Wapello, Marion, Monroe, Van Buren, Polk, Jefferson, Mahaska, Boone, Appanoose, Dallas, Hamilton, Hardin and Webster. The chief part of the coal field of Iowa is within the valley of the Des Moines river, extending from the mouth of the river to the Humboldt county line. Iowa coal is bituminous and averages in quality with the same class of coal in the middle and western states. The veins which have been worked are from two to eight feet thick. Some Iowa coal is shipped to other states but not as much perhaps, as is shipped from other states into Iowa.

There are large quantities of building stone all along the eastern boundary of the state, and also in some of the central counties. In Marshall and Tama vonnties, there are specimens of marble susceptible of a beautiful polish. Lime- stone is found in Webster. Humboldt. Tama. Hardin, Mitchell. Madison, and several other counties, where lime is manufactured and shipped to various points in the west. Lead was the first substance ever mined in Iowa. Julien

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Du Buque and others were the first to settle in Iowa, where they successfully mined lead in the vicinity of Dubuque. These mines are still very profitable. The gypsum deposits at and near Fort Dodge are equal to any known in the world. The thickness of the gypsum in some places is more than thirty feet. It is usually of a gray color; but large masses of it is white. It is now one of the greatest industries of Webster county.

Excellent clays, for the manufacture of briek and pottery, are found in nearly all parts of the state of Iowa; also large quantities of excellent sand are to be obtained along the Des Moines river, which is now used in great quantities in making cement. There are extensive tile factories in many connties, which is now being widely used in the drainage of farm lands.

Mineral paint is also found in Montgomery county, which has been exten- sively used for painting barns, fences and onthouses.

LAKES AND RIVERS.

Diekinson county contains the largest lake in Iowa, called Okoboji. Spirit lake, lying immediately north of Okoboji, and connected with it, makes a distance of twenty miles that can be traversed by small boats. The lakes are mostly in the northern and northeastern part of the state. Among them are Clear Lake, Rice Lake, Silver Lake, Bright's Lake, Crystal Lake, Eagle Lake, Twin Lake, Owl Lake, Elm Lake, Wall Lake, Swan Lake, Storm Lake, and Lake Gertrude. Nearly all of these lakes contain more or less fish, which in pioneer days were of great value to the settlers. Around some of these lakes are found bodies of timber, ranging from a few rods to two miles wide. Some of them form attractive summer resorts, among which are Lake Okoboji and Clear Lake. In most cases excellent farm land extends to the very bank of the lakes. In Boone, Story, Hamilton, Webster, Green, Calhoun, and some other counties, ponds abound ranging in size from a few square rods to two or three sections. Many of these have already been drained and converted into farm land of the very richest quality.

There are two classes of rivers in Iowa; one class flowing into the Missis- sippi and the other into the Missouri river. The principal rivers east of the watershed are the Des Moines, Shunk, lowa, Wapsipinieon, (usually called Wapsie,) Maquoketa, Turkey, and Upper Iowa. The Cedar, which rises in Min- nesota, flows southeasterly and joins its waters with the Iowa river. The Des Moines is the largest river in the state, and has a length of three hundred miles. There are several rivers flowing into the Des Moines; the Raccoon, North, South, Middle and Boone rivers. All of these are beautiful streams of clear water, and afford a vast amount of hydraulic power. These rivers drain about two-thirds of the state; a portion of southeastern Iowa, west of the great watershed, is drained into Chariton and Grand rivers, and passes into the Missouri in the state of Missouri. The Big Sionx forms about seventy miles of the western

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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY

boundary of the state, and flows into the Missouri river near Sioux City. It drains about one thousand square miles of Iowa territory. Below the mouth of the Big Sioux, the Floyd river, Little Sioux, Boyer, Nishnabotna and Nodaway, all enter the Missouri river. No state in the Union has a better river drainage than Iowa.

TIMBER AND PRAIRIE.

About one-eighth of the 55,000 square miles of Iowa was timber land when the white man took possession of the state. The first settlers went into these groves, which were found along the streams, and cut the timber for fuel, feneing and building, without any regard to the permanence of the supply. By the time the state had a history of twenty-five years, the timber supply was greatly depleted, and no effort was being made to replenish the supply; but in many rases the denuded lands were put into cultivation. Today the best timber of fifty years ago is gone. Farmers have planted small quantities of timber, but it is generally soft wood of an inferior quality; useful only as shade trees and wind-breaks. At the present rate of timber cutting, in a few years Iowa will have lost quite all of its hard woods. The following is a list of the most valuable species of the trees grown in Iowa: Basswood, Prickly Ash, Sugar Maple, Black Maple, Soft Maple, Box Elder, Honey Locust, Wild Cherry, Crab Apple, White Ash, Green Ash, Black Ash, Sassafras, Red Elin, White Elm, Hackberry, Red Mulberry, Sycamore, Black Walnut, Butternut, Shell-bark Hickory, Large Hick- ory, Pignut Hickory, White Oak, Black Oak, Bur Oak, Red Oak, Cottonwood and Red Cedar. Beech and Tulip have been introduced into lowa, but do not thrive well.

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History of Warren County, Iowa : from its earliest settlement to 1908; with biographical sketches of some prominent citizens of the county, Part 8

Author: Martin, W. C Publication date: 1908 Publisher: Chicago : S.J. Clarke Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 918

Author: Martin, W. C
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: Chicago : S.J. Clarke Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 918