USA > Iowa > Allamakee County > History of Winneshiek and Allamakee counties, Iowa > Part 28
USA > Iowa > Winneshiek County > History of Winneshiek and Allamakee counties, Iowa > Part 28
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Measures are being taken to largely develop the extensive stone quarries around Decorah, and also to bring into market profit- ably its wonderful fossil limestone for which there is a large de- mand for ornamental purposes.
CHAPTER IX.
DECORAH.
Decorah, the county seat of Winneshiek county, the beautiful and famous gem city of northeastern Iowa, naturally comes first in importance in mentioning the towns of the county. It is romantically located in the valley of the Upper Iowa River, and about two miles from the exact geographical center of the county. The Upper Iowa River, being supplied by large, never failing springs all along its course, has a continuous water-power as it traverses a valley of great fertility, and romantic and varied beauty. Into the river at Decorah and its suburbs, flow streams from both sides-generally of cool, spring water. The city is sheltered from the storms of winter and summer by high, wooded hills, usually sloping up from the valley, but in some places stand- ing out in precipices and rocky bluffs, which rise in tower-like masses, adding variety and charm to the picture. Though the hills surrounding Decorah are at their summits from 200 to 260 feet high-one of them thus giving a powerful head to Decorah's water works-the country about is reached by easy grades up the valleys by which the city is surrounded, and yet which are so circling, that the broad valley in which Decorah is located is fully protected, and seems surrounded by hills.
From some of the caves in these hills issue streams of water large enough to operate flour mills with two run of stones.
The most remarkable of these caves is known as Ice Cave. Its entrance is through an opening in a rocky bluff, overlooking the river and facing the city, about half a mile north of its business streets. In this cave ice forms in summer and melts away in win- ter, and many have been the theories and discussions by scientific men on the subject. As you enter the cave you go several rods through its successive chambers, down steep slopes, and at the lower depths of the cave is found the chilly atmosphere from the rocks which, it may be, have during the winter accumulated so much frigidity that they retain it till well through the summer, and freeze the water that comes down through the crevices from
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the hills above; but by the end of summer generally lose their coldness so that the ice melts away as winter comes, before a new store of freezing .chilliness can be garnered up. However this may be the cave is a great wonder to multitudes of people.
Another great wonder which has been more particularly de- veloped within a very few years, is the rich deposit of a fossilifer- ous rock, from which are obtained specimens of surpassing beauty. This region is a delight to geologists, who pronounce it one of the most wonderful in the country.
Add to these and other attractions to be seen on every hand, . the charming and romantic drives that lead out from Decorah, and the magnificent views that reward those who climb the hills, and it is no wonder that the new-comer is delighted. The changeful scenes are so variedly beautiful that even the old resi- dent never becomes tired of them. A visitor to Decorah a few years ago, in writing to an eastern periodical, thus expresses his or her appreciation :
"We know of no locality where the picturesque, the roman- tic, the curious and the rural are so happily blended with the re- finements, the elegancies, and amenities of city life, as in De- corah; nor do we know of any place where persons suffering from overtaxed physical and mental energies, or from billious or pulmonary complaints, can find a more delightful locality for recuperation, recreation, and restoration to a vigorous health; nor are we surprised to learn that many from the east and south are beginning to make Decorah a place of resort. The health- fulness of the climate of northern Iowa, and the peculiar free- dom of Decorah from all malarial elements, makes her one of the best possible resorts for persons afflicted with the billious complaints of the south and the pulmonary diseases of the east."
The continuous fall of the river as it seeks the Mississippi, in the valley hundreds of feet below, not only makes frequent water powers, but prevents ponds and sloughs, with their ma- larious influences, and the water of the large and small streams are unusually pure and sparkling.
The principal part of Decorah is on one side of the Iowa River. A broad tongue of elevated land reaches out into the valley, and yet low enough to be protected by the surrounding hills. On the most elevated ridge of this tongue is Broadway with the Court House and most of the churches, and on Broadway and the streets that cross it and are parallel to it are numerous pleasant resi- dences. Slightly elevated plateaus in other parts of the city also furnish sites for many delightful homes and grounds.
Across the river is the very pleasant suburb known as West Decorah. Quite a number of Decorah's thriving business men have their residences there. On an elevated plateau, overlooking
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West Decorah, and a part of Decorah, stands, in the midst of ample and pleasant grounds, that important and imposing insti- tution of learning the Norwegian Luther College.
But before we look at the institutions and business of Decorah, let us trace its history as far back as we can; and that is not far. For there are unwritten tales of centuries on centuries in the lim- itless remains of animal life in the fossil rocks, and impressive "sermons in stone" in the rocky treasures that are scattered almost everywhere beneath our feet as we explore the hills and valleys, but let us come back again to the history that has been, or perhaps can be, written.
And how better can we take it up than in the words of Rev. E. Adams, for some years pastor of the Congregational church, De- corah, and afterwards State Agent for the Congregational Society. His Thanksgiving discourse, preached at the Methodist church, Decorah, November 28, 1867, was true to its title, "The First Things of Decorah," an extensive re-production from its pages will be of interest and permanent value. After appropriate and suggestive introductory remarks, Mr, Adams said :
[Since the preceding paragraphs were prepared, it has seemed desirable, as a matter of record as well as for permanent preserva- tion in historical records, to give the Thanksgiving discourse of Mr. Adams entire, and it is therefore presented as follows:]
THE FIRST THINGS OF DECORAH.
Text: 'A Syrian ready to perish was my Father ..- Deut. xxvii; 5th.'
It is interesting and profitable to trace results to their begin- nings, especially if the results are great and the beginnings small. It serves to awaken gratitude and humility; sometimes to inspire new courage for the future. God was mindful of this in his dealings with His ancient people. That people, great and mighty, He raised up from a humble origin until established in the promised land. Here among the things which He appointed for them annually to observe was the Feast of Ingatherings, at which time they were to bring up to Jerusalem the first fruits of the harvest from all parts of the land,-every man with his own offer- ing. It was then that each was to appear with his basket of fruits upon his shoulder, to be given into the hand of the Priest, by whom it was to be set down before the altar of his God, and then he was to say: "A Syrian ready to perish was my Father." This was to remind him of the littleness of his people's origin, when one of his ancestors was a homeless wanderer and exposed to famine. Then he was to recount briefly the dealings of God with his nation through the past to the present, concluding thus :- "And now, behold, I have brought the first fruits of the land which Thou, O, Lord, hast given me." There and thus was he to worship, and then, tarrying yet awhile in the city, as he choose, was he to rejoice in every good thing which the Lord had given
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him and his house, the Levite and the stranger. What a grand thanksgiving time that must have been; the whole city filled thus with grateful offerings and joyful hearts!
Our Puritan fathers, not by any direct command from God, but as a natural result of their heartfelt dependence on Him, fell into very much the same way as, from year to year, when the annual harvests were gathered in, they set apart a day for special praise and thanks, in which, after the public assembly, were the joyous family gatherings of the children and children's children, at the old homestead, where in the midst of the bounties of God, there was good cheer, praise and prayer; and we may add, too, of frolic and glee-a portion in due season for old and young. Hence came Thanksgiving Day, now national, as we are called upon by the highest authority of the land to observe it.
Thus are we convened to-day. The occasion naturally suggests to us a glance at our national origin-a brief review of the course of Providence with us to the present time, till now there is spread out upon this continent a great and mighty people. Especially would it be proper to note the events of the past year, the dis- coveries of science, or achievements of art, the development of our national resources, additions to our literature, the spread of education and religion, forgetting not the bounties of the harvest and such blessings as being found in the narrower circles of our domestic and private life, are particularly calculated to put us in sympathy with the spirit and object of the day. Many a topic here might be found, but not here will we linger to-day.
We might again extend our vision abroad, and by contrast hold up the cause of national gratitude, setting the prosperous condition, on the whole, of our country, though troubled yet with the burdens and problems of a recent intestine war, with the unsettled condition of the European world: England dis- turbed by Fenian assemblies and Trade Unions; France lowered in the scale of her national greatness, with her people calling for more liberty, to be satisfied perhaps with a little more military glory; Prussia struggling for a united Germany; Spain with her internal corruption and weakness, and so on; each with something to an- noy; the balance of power as uncertain as ever; taxes in some cases enormously oppressive; business generally greatly crippled ; the world looking on, not knowing what a day may bring forth. Here, I say, we might turn, but why not dismiss to-day the outside world for, we will not say a selfish, but a narrower view.
If to us it is pleasant to trace the origin of things, particularly of things prosperous that have started recently from small be- ginnings; and if again this pleasure is greatly increased even to joy and gratitude to God, who in all things is to be acknowleged by the fact that the things passed in review are such as we
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have been familiar with, a part of, or greatly interested in, why may we not find fitting employment for a few moments in so humble a theme as the history of our own town?
This, then, Christian friends and fellow-citizens is what I pro- pose to-day-a task that has been found easier in conception than execution. To write history is a difficult work-a strictly truth- ful history can never be written, for history when made is life, and this life can never be re-produced by the pencil or the pen- only imitations of it. The historian must gather such dry bones of dates, names and facts as come to hand, and clothe them with such semblance of life as he may. To write history, again, while the actors are still living must be, as you perceive, a delicate work.
Expect not then too much! be charitable. Overlook any omis- sions or inaccuracies that may at once appear to you-more fa- miliar as some of you are with the scenes reviewed then am I. It is only by snatches of time that materials have been gathered and arranged. More time and care, I have no doubt would bring to light things just as worthy of notice as those which will appear, and correct some that do appear. All I propose to do, all I can do, is to turn you back to the beginning of our town, to note a few of its first things-more particularly in a few of the first years of its history, which I trust will so present to us the past, the present and future, as to fill us with emotions becoming the day.
We have to go back but a brief period of time. Less than twenty years ago, as the sun rose in the east to look down upon this quiet valley, where now are our dwellings, these streets and gardens and farms, no hum of business broke in upon the stillness of the morning hour.
The natural beauty of the landscape. ere marred by the white man's touch, must have been of exceeding loveliness. No won- der that for the red man here was one of his favorite haunts up- on the banks of this beautiful river, fed by its springs and trout brooks, its bluffs now becoming so bare, then covered with their forest in which were the wild deer, the partridge and squirrel; these vales, now at times bare and dust-covered, filled with way- ing grass, plum trees, fruits and flowers. No wonder, I say, that from the outside prairies the Indian trails centered here, along which these, our recent predecessors of a former race, in accord- ance with their simple patriarchal government, by their families and their tribes, came in here for the burial of their dead; here to hunt and fish; aye, here, too, may we not say, according to their idea of the good and bad spirits above them, to worship also.
Often upon these bluffs, as the hunter's arrow, or in later times, the rifle missed its mark, has he cast upon the ground a bit torn from his blanket, or plucked a bed from his wampum, or scattered a portion of his ammunition, as an offering to appease the Spirit, through whose displeasure the failure had come, or to avert it in future. Here, often, no doubt, were the games and
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sports of the young; here, too, lamentations and sorrows, even as in later times, in burial scenes, as some old warrior, chief, maiden, or child, was called to depart. And here, thanksgivings, too,- doubtless feasts of rejoicing at success of hunting parties. or vic- tory in bloody strife. Yes, up to within the brief space of twenty years ago, this beautiful valley was all full of life, primitive life of nature and man. But now the scene is changed, and we are here! The process has been a rapid one. When and by whom was the the beginning of it? Precisely what white man, as surveyor, or ranger, first looked in upon the home of his red brethren, with the infelt destiny of displacing or possessing, we are not able to say. But in the month of June, 1849, in the midst of the picture we have just sketched, though at the time somewhat faded ont, yet with seventy-five or one hundred Indians gazing upon the specta- cle, their tents still standing,-with the graves of the dead scat- tered about where now run our streets and stand our dwellings, -in this month of June, 1849, could have been seen an ordinary emigrant wagon, with horses detached, and arrangements being made not for a night's camping merely, but a permanent stay. This of course, as everybody is aware, was what is known the coun- try around as the "Day Family," consisting then of nine persons; starting first from Tazewell County, Virginia, the year previous, touching at Cassville, Wisconsin, then for a short time on a claim in the eastern part of the county, near John McKay's, thence to this place. McGregor then was but a landing, but sel- dom landed at. What some of us have traveled as the old stage road, was but an Indian trail, with only two settlers upon it be- tween here and Monona, at what is now Frankville.
Beyond this, westward, were but two white families, by the names of Reams and Button. The head of this Button family was suspected of horse-thieving, and was, at an early date visited on this business by a deputation of nine men from Linn County, anxious that justice should be extended, even to the farthest lim- its of the country then known. No evidence was really found against him; but upon the hint that his absence would be as good as his presence, he soon left, selling his claim to a man by the name of Johnson, of whom the farm was purchased by its present occupant, Mr. Jacob Jewell.
But to return to the inmates of our emigrant wagon. The first thing, was a covering for the head, and then more per- manent arrangements for the winter. A temporary cabin, 16x16, to serve ultimately as a stable, had already, by way of anticipa- tion, been partially erected by some members of the family who selected the site, and this was soon so far completed as to admit of moving in, and the same night was a tavern opened on the same premises, where from that day to this the hospitalities of the "Winneshiek House" have ever been extended. In that first sea- son, when by the presence of surveying parties, horse-thief hunt-
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ers, or the rush of travel on Indian trails (!) the accommodations within were somewhat straightened, the guests, in the mild even- ings of our autumnal climate, of course could find a welcome bed on the green grass, just outside, and ample space for horses as they stood tied to Indian stakes. No need then for the old sign, -"Room for Man and Beast;"-it was all room, and all the room there was was apparent to every one. Before winter, however, a more commodious building was erected, the main part 20x25, with a wing attached. This was made of logs, shingled, lathed and plastered,-really, for the time, quite an imposing structure. This is the building known as the "old log house," and which made its disappearance but a few years since.
In this connection it may be proper to say that the present "Winneshiek House" was built in the years of 1854-5. The frame was hewed from the native timber, the lath and shingles obtained at Lansing, while the siding is of the pine that once skirted the banks of our river, got out at what was known as Car- ter's mill, at Plymouth Rock, Considering its size and the diffi- culty at the time of obtaining and collecting material, no wonder that it was two years in building; completed December 24, 1855. The "Decorah House," as it was originally built, was finished prior to this in 1854, and since enlarged at different times to its present dimensions. An allusion to the "Tremont House," fin- ished in 1857, and burned last winter, (1867,)-gives us a glance at the hotel business among us; commenced in that first log house, though perhaps there is another that some one will say onght to be named-"The Central House."
Almost coeval with this branch of business commenced another, which now appears in the history we have commenced. I allude to the improvements of our water powers. In the same season of 1849, there came a man with his family, who, the year previous, on an exploring tour through this region, had seen such visions of mill-wheels, mill-stones, of saw mills, turning-lathes, possibly of woolen-mills even, in connection with the curves of our river, and the adjacent springs that he had already made his claim and put up his cabin to the square-a man, who, endowed by nature with more than ordinary mechanical skill, has been following up his visions every since, one who is still frequently upon our streets, the fruits of whose labor all of us are reaping more or less, one of those by whom the world is more benefited than is by the world acknowledged. . This man, as, of course, many of you know, was William Painter, a native of Green County, Ohio.
His cabin was built upon the property known as the Butler property, nearly opposite the present machine shop, where, as the fruits of his labor, may now be seen the first well dug in town. In his family was the first birth, his son George Patten, born in the fall of 1849, in honor of which and also because he took the names of two sons of the Day family-George, Patten-he after-
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wards had the present of a town lot. In his milling propensities Mr. Painter commenced immediately in 1849, and what is known as the Spring or Dunning's mill, soon taking into company with him one Aldridge. He brought a small pair of buhrs from Cincin- nati, and set them running by the simplest of machinery possible, in a log mill about sixteen feet square, some of the remains of which are still to be seen. The Heivly power was in his claim, but he did not think it best to commence the improvement of this till his means should be more ample and the country better settled. This power, however, was not long to remain in waiting for soon there came to our town another, the third family, February, 1851, in which there was the same propensity for milling to which we have alluded as a kind of family trait, true to which the descen- dants of this family may still be seen threading our water courses in search of more powers yet to be improved: I allude now, of course, as many of you again know, to the "Morse Family," the respected father of which is still among us, whose cheerful face is often greeted with the familiar title of "Uncle Philip." He with his wife and two children moved in for a time with Mr. Painter, but soon built him a cabin on the back part of the lot on which the Tremont House stood. He built a year or two afterwards, in August and September, 1852, the first frame dwelling in town, which is still standing, and occupied at present by our fellow-citi- zen, Mr. Driggs (now occupied by Mr. Bonestell .- Eds), just west of the Tremont Stand. In his family was the first marriage, as the records have it:
MARRIED .- August 22, 1852, Henry T. Morse to Hannah C. Chase. John S. Morse, Minister. The Mr. Morse now living in Freeport.
But we must not by these pleasing items be drawn down our thread of history too rapidly. In the same season that he came, the the summer of '51, Mr. Morse bought of Mr. Painter a portion of the Heivly water-power and commenced the saw-mill now upon it, he and Mr. Painter building the dam and race together. Mr. Painter built, about the same time, a grist mill, the frame of which still stands within the walls enclosing the present building. About this time the Spring Mill was sold to its present owner, Mr. Dunning, whose family was the fourth in town. Thus com- menced and to the joint labor of these men-Wm. Painter. Philip Morse and E. Dunning-are we indebted for, the first beginnings by way of improving the abundant water-power with which we are favored, the value of which we do not yet begin to realize, but which is being developed from day to day. No doubt their labors at this early date had much to do in making this a point, as well as drawing hither other branches of manufacture, to which refer- ence may be made in due time.
In the same year, July 3, 1851, the first lawyer made his ap- pearance, undertaking to walk out from Lansing, he got lost by the way and stopped the first night at a Norwegian's house six or
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eight miles east of this. Starting on the next morning he came along about noon to the log tavern, and inquired the way to De- corah, rejoicing, no doubt, to be at his journey's end ere he had found it. His name was John B. Onstine. The second of his profession that came was Dryden Smith; the third, A. B. Web- ber; the fourth, John L. Burton; the fifth, L. Bullis; the sixth, E. E. Cooley, who came October, 1854,-and so on.
Mention has been made of houses being built. Of course there were carpenters here at this early date. The first in town was a man by the name of Stevens, who soon left for California, where he has since died. The second was our fellow-citizen Mr. William E. Taylor, who came in November, 1851. He bought the chest and tools of Mr. Stevens, the first brought to town- which chest and many of said tools are doing good service at the present day.
The mercantile has ever been a prominent interest among us. This, too, was started at an early date in the summer of 1851, by Aaron Newell, with a partner by the name of Derrick. They opened their stock of goods-not a very large one; indeed, some say about a wheel-barrow full-in the smoke-house on the Win- neshiek premises. They soon moved for better accommodations to a kind of slab shanty until they could build a real frame build- ing, the first store, and the first frame building, in fact, built in town, advertised and known as the "Pioneer Store," at present owned and occupied by the firm of Goddard & Henry, and by them enlarged to its present dimensions. This was com- pleted in the summer of '52, and was for the time quite a build- ing, furnishing in the second story a public hall called Newell's Hall. Could we but have a few of all the transactions within that hall, of county courts, caucuses and, I am afraid, of dances, too, and all sorts of things, it would give us a pretty good clue to the early history of the times.
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