USA > Iowa > Wright County > History of Wright County, Iowa, its peoples, industries and institutions > Part 3
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On May 4, 1846, a second convention met at Iowa City, and on the 18th of the same month and year, another constitution, prescribing the boundaries as they now are, was adopted. This was accepted by the people on August 3, by a vote of 9,492 to 9,036. The new constitution was approved by Congress and Iowa was admitted as a sovereign state in the American Union on December 28, 1846.
The act of Congress that admitted Iowa gave her the sixteenth section in every township of land in the state, or its equivalent, for the support of schools ; seventy-two section of land for the purpose of a university ; five sec- tions of land for the completion of her public buildings; the salt springs with- in her limits, not exceeding twelve in number, with sections of land adjoining each; also, in consideration that her public lands should be exempt from taxation by the state, she gave to the state five per cent. of the net proceeds of the sale of the public lands within the state. Thus provided for, "as a bride for her marriage portion," Iowa commenced "house-keeping" upon her own account. A majority of the members of the constitutional conven- tion were of the Democratic party, and the instrument contained some of the peculiar tenets of the party of that date. All banks of issue were prohibited within the state. The commonwealth was prohibited from becoming a stock-
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holder in any corporation for pecuniary profits and the General Assembly could only provide for private corporations by general statutes. The con- stitution also limited the state's indebtedness to one hundred thousand dollars. It required the General Assembly to provide public schools throughout the state for at least three months in a year. Six months' previous residence of any white male citizen of the United States, constituted him an elector.
At the date of the state's organization it had a population of one hundred and sixteen thousand six hundred and fifty-one, as shown by the census of 1847. There were twenty-seven counties organized in the state, and the settlements were rapidly pushing on toward the Missouri river.
The first General Assembly was composed of nineteen senators and forty representatives. It assembled at Iowa City, November 30, 1846, about one month before the state had been admitted into the Union. The most important business transacted was the passage of a bill authorizing a loan of fifty thousand dollars for means to run the state government and pay the expenses of the constitutional convention. The most exciting feature of the session, however, was the attempt to choose the United States senators. The Whigs had a majority of two in the House and the Democrats a majority of one in the Senate. After repeated attempts to control these majorities, for caucus nominees, and frequent sessions of a joint convention, for pur- poses of an election, the attempt was abandoned. A law was passed at this session for the organization of public schools in the state.
At the first session, also arose the question of the re-location of the state capital. The western boundary of the state as now determined, left Iowa City too far east in the state; this was conceded. Congress had appropriated five sections of land for the erection of public buildings and toward the close of the session a bill was introduced providing for the re-location of the seat of government, involving, to some extent, the location of the state university, which had already been discussed. This bill gave rise to much discussion and parliamentary tactics. It was almost purely sectional in its character. It provided for three commissioners, who were authorized to make a location as near the geographical center of the state as a healthy and eligible site could be obtained; to select five sections of land, donated by Congress, to be sur- veyed and platted into town lots, not exceeding one section of the land so selected, etc. Soon after, by an "act to locate and establish a State Univer- sity," approved February 25, 1847, the unfinished public buildings at Iowa . City, together with ten acres of land on which they were situated, were granted for the use of the university, reserving their use, however, by the General Assembly and state officers until other provisions were made by law.
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When the report of the commissioners, showing their final operation, had been read in the House of Representatives at the next session, and while it was under consideration, an indignant member, later known as the eccen- tric Judge McFarland, moved to refer the report to a select committee of five. with instructions to report "how much said city of Monroe ( the place named for the new capital in Jasper county), was under water and how much was burned." The report was referred without the instructions, but Monroe City never became the seat of government. By an act, approved January 15, 1849, the law by which the location had been made was repealed and the new town was vacated, the money paid by the purchasers of lots being refunded to them. This, of course, retained the seat of government at lowa City, and precluded, for the time, the occupation of the buildings for the state university. The question of a permanent seat of government was not yet settled and in 1851 bills were introduced for the removal of the capital to Pella and to Ft. Des Moines. The latter seemed to have the support of the majority, but was finally lost in the House on the question of ordering to its third reading.
At the next session, that of 1853, a bill was introduced in the senate for the removal of the seat of government to Des Moines and, on the first vote, was just barely defeated. At the next session, however, the effort was more successful and January 15, 1855, a bill, relocating the capital within two miles of the Raccoon fork of the Des Moines and for the appointment of commis- sioners, was approved by Governor Grimes. The site was selected in 1856, in accordance with a provision of this act, the land being donated to the state by citizens or property holders of Des Moines. An association of citizens erected a building for a temporary capital and leased it to the state at a nominal rent.
PROIIIBITION OF SLAVERY.
The passage by Congress of the act authorizing the territories of Kansas and Nebraska and the provisions it contained, abrogating that portion of the Missouri bill that prohibited slavery and involuntary servitude north of thirty-six degrees, thirty minutes, was the beginning of a political revolution in the Northern states, and in none was it more marked than in the state of Iowa. Iowa was the "first free child born of the Missouri Compromise," and has always resented the destruction of her foster-parent.
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UNDER A SECOND CONSTITUTION.
In January, 1857, another constitutional convention assembled at Iowa City, which framed the second state constitution. One of the most pressing demands of this convention grew out of the prohibition of banks under the old constitution. The practical results of this prohibition was to flood the state with every species of "wild-cat" money. The new constitution made ample provisions for home banks, under the supervision of our own laws. The limitation of the state debt was enlarged to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars and the corporate indebtedness of the cities and counties was also limited to five per cent. of the taxable property.
On October 19, 1857, Governor Grimes issued a proclamation declaring the city of Des Moines to be capital of the state of Iowa. The removal of the archives and offices was commenced at once and continued through the fall. It was an undertaking of no small magnitude. There was not a mile of rail- road to facilitate the work and the season was unusually disagreeable. Rain, snow and other unfavorable conditions increased the difficulties; and it was not until in December that the last of the effects-the safe of the state treas- urer-loaded on two large "bob-sleds," drawn by ten yokes of oxen, was deposited in the new capitol. It should be added, in this connection, that during the passage over hills and prairies, across rivers, through bottom lands and timber, the safe, belonging to the several departments, contained large sums of money, mostly individual funds, however. Thus Iowa City ceased to be the capital of Iowa.
CHAPTER II.
WRIGHT COUNTY-INTRODUCTION.
Prior to 1854-seven years before the great Civil War-no represen- tative of the white race (save a few hunters and United States soldiers ) had ever traversed the prairies and beautiful valleys of what is now Wright county. A little over a half century ago, the scene presented in this section of Iowa was made up of the native prairie landscapes, which are ever a feast to the eye. This was then, and had been for centuries, the hunting ground of the Sioux and Sac and Fox Indians, who, later, became at times very hostile toward the first settlers in both Iowa and Minnesota. Then all was as nature had created it. The prairie flowers, on every hillside and fertile valley, bloomed in all their native sweetness, the wild rose sent forth its rare and delicate fragrance. The autumn was as beautiful then as now, but the scenes were far different, for the red man tilled no fields and the wild grass, smitten by the early frosts, made fit fuel for the endless prairie fires that annually swept over this county, consuming all in its pathway, even to the very water's edge. The wild grass has gone; the underbrush along the Iowa and Boone has long since given way to more profitable vegetation. The dusky warrior's rude cabin has given way to the large, modern farm houses, with their electric lighting systems, running hot and cold water, and other conveniences. The wild shrub has gone with the Indian, and the orchard and vineyard have come as an evidence of civilization. The trail of the deer and antelope has been exchanged for the great steel highways that cross and re-cross Wright county. Then, the wintry storm drove the frightened, suffering elk and bison to their hiding places; now the blast of winter drives the farmer's stock to a comfortable shelter. About three score years ago, not a furrow had been plowed here; where the wigwam of the savage Sioux then stood, now may be seen many prosperous towns and cities. The Indian trailed along the Iowa and Boone rivers, but now the swift-flying express and long freight trains carry the products of the soil and the descendants of a nobler, more useful race of people-the white race.
Sixty-one years ago there was often heard the question in the Eastern and Middle states, "Where are you emigrating to?" The reply was "way
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out West." For Iowa was then considered very far west, and it had only been been eight years since it was classed among the territories of this Union.
It will be the aim of the writer to portray in the following chapters some of the more important events which have transpired within this part of Iowa from its settlement to the present time. The "first settler" and his hardships will be treated; the virgin sod will be turned into well-tilled fields; the forest will be cut down; the log cabins built and torn down in a few years, to be replaced by brick and frame structures; mills and factories will be erected; villages, towns and cities will be built in all sections of this goodly county; ·school houses plentifully provided for the education of the young, and church spires will be made to point heavenward, by a hardy, frugal and enterpris- ing class of citizens.
CHAPTER III.
GEOLOGY, TOPOGRAPHY AND NATURAL FEATURES.
The technical study of geology finds no place in a work of this char- acter, but, before going into the topography and natural features of Wright county, it may be said that the sub-strata of this county is about the same as other parts of the Mississippi valley, though void of the lime rock found in many other sections of Iowa. What is known as the "Wisconsin drift" covers a large portion of this north-Iowa prairie country. Its geological age is not nearly as old as other parts of the state. The rock formations are lower and softer, showing that there was water covering this county long after it had receded in more eastern portions of the state, where the rock formations are harder, and, in cases in the extreme northwest, are abso- lutely flinty and quartzlike, as found at Garretson, above Sioux City. The average reader of local history is more interested in knowing something concerning the topography and natural features of a county than of its un- derground formations.
SOILS OF THE COUNTY.
It has been said that if one knows what kind of a soil a country has, he may readily determine the character of the people of that country. The soils of Wright and Hamilton counties are nearly all of one sort, both being prairie, of the blackest, richest type. There are some alluvial benches along the course of the Boone in both counties, but these are not continuous and are of a limited area. In the vicinity of the morainic hills the soils are lighter, conspicuously so in some places. The only hindrance so far has been the imperfect drainage, characteristic of all north-central Iowa. This defect, however, is now in course of rapid correction. Great public ditches stretch from marsh to marsh and pass straight down the low valleys of nat- ural drainage, offering to the adjoining farms outlets for tiles, which will soon, in perfect network, reach every undrained field.
Along the larger streams, notably along the Boone, the steep banks show exposures of unweathered drift. These were originally, and are still, largely covered with native forests. Such localities should be preserved as
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woodland, to furnish a local supply of building material and wood for fenc- ing, fuel, etc. Blue grass will generally follow the forest in succession and make the less steep declivities fairly good pasture lands; but, even so, the cattle treading the grass, it naturally burns out in the summer, weeds cover the face of the ground, and the whole valley becomes a waste, useless to men and unsightly in the extreme. Such lands are better for wood lots than for any other purpose.
CONCERNING FORESTRY.
The state department of geology has written the following on the sub- ject of forestry for Wright and Hamilton counties :
"White men seem to have entered Wright and Hamilton counties by the rivers. The migration, like that of birds in spring, was by the way of woods and thickets. The narrow valley of the Des Moines was filled with the densest kind of forest, not less in the smaller, but no less chasmlike, val- ley of the Boone. While all the level ground above was marsh and prairie, these deep furrows were dark with trees, among which wound in transpar- ent clearness, amid the boulders, not without music, the fairest perennial rivers, confined by the vegetation to a restricted, but slowly changing, chan- nel. Among these trees and by these streams the pioneers built their cabins, cleared away a few acres where the alluvium was broadest and highest, and shaped their dwellings from logs. They never dared occupy the bare fields above them. Storm-swept in winter and fire-swept in autumntime or in spring-the prairies seemed impossible of occupation.
"It is a curious fact that the fires which year by year mowed the vast plains, seem seldom to have entered these deep and narrow valleys-prob ably in winter these received more than their share of snow; old residents tell how the valley of the Boone seemed sometimes in its upper channel almost filled with driven snow. The snows in such cases lingered longer here in spring and so defended from fire the vegetation of such protected stronghokls. Did the fires sweep these prairies late after the frosts of autumn, still in the river canyons the vegetation remained longer green. Besides, the mists of the river perhaps dampened, at least a little, everything day by day quite up to the valley rim.
"Be all this as it may, it is still the testimony of those who know, and present conditions verify the story, that only along the streams did forests flourish. We say present conditions reveal this fact, for, although nearly all the original forests have been rigorously cut away, yet here and there,
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WRIGHIT COUNTY, IOWA.
in places less accessible, some of the old trees still stand, and these are almost invariably within the trough-like valleys of the streams. Since, by the coming of white men, and particularly by the cultivation of the prairie, especially during the last forty years, or possibly a half century, the prairie fires have ceased, the forested area has been much extended. Young trees of all native species spread out over the margin of the valleys, occupied with thrifty groves the sharp ravines or secondary tributaries, or even nar- row drainage coulees, and, until within recent years, bade fair to show in these prairies a wealth of woodland greater than the past had seen. Within the last two or three decades, however, because of the great increase in the value of agricultural lands in Iowa, the ax has been applied to every wooded slope, as well as to the thickets of the more serviceable and convenient low- lands, and the forest has disappeared.
"The varieties of native trees in Wright and Hamilton counties orig- inally found growing along the streams were as follows: Red cedar, cot- tonwood, aspen, quaking asp, willow, walnut, butternut, hickory, the several oaks, maples, elms, ash, basswood, sumac, cherry, hackberry, etc. The wild fruit trees include the plum, crabapple, cherry, black-haw, while berries are represented by gooseberries, black currants, strawberries, blackberries, rasp- berries (red and black), grapes and elderberries."
ECONOMIC PRODUCTS.
Wright county has no limestone quarries, nor any coal. The quarries of Hamilton and Webster counties have usually supplied these minerals until more recent years, since which time these articles have been brought in by rail from distant places. At one period, Webster City and vicinity fur- nished much of the lime used in Wright county, but not so now. Sand and gravel are found and utilized at various points in Wright county, including Belmond, Goldfield and Eagle Grove township. Gravel is now in great demand for road making, and nothing takes its place for such use. But it is not claimed that Wright county is a section where mineral wealth is obtained. Her wealth is in her grasses and grains.
As to fuel, let it be said that the pioneers of this county built their cabins of logs along the principal streams, and timber for both building and fencing, as well as for fuel, was plentiful for the few who had use for it at that time. The groves planted on the prairies by the pioneer hands were set there primarily for wind-breaks and shelter, but many years since have been utilized as a source of supply of good, clean fuel. Wright county has no
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fuel of local origin except wood and a tract of land covered at one time with peat. The people here depend upon coal, as a general rule, which is shipped in from various mining districts east and south. Along the Boone and Iowa rivers, some wood is still available for cooking and heating stoves. A few of the early homesteaders resorted to burning hay, but this was not as common here as in the northwestern counties in Iowa.
ALTITUDES ABOVE SEA LEVEL.
The following are the altitudes of some of the principal localities in Wright county : Clarion, 1, 168 feet; Dows, 1, 142 feet; Eagle Grove, 1, 119 feet ; Goldfield, 1,108 feet; Woolstock, I,II9 feet; Belmond, 1,184 feet ; Rowan, 1,203 feet. This shows Goldfield, on the west side of the county, to have the lowest altitude, and Rowan, on the east side of the county, to be the highest point in the county.
FLOWING WELLS.
The W'right County Monitor, in July, 1878, said concerning flowing wells in this county: "A few years ago, John Beaver dug a well in front of his house to the depth of forty feet without finding water. When at the depth of twenty-eight feet, a small stream of water broke out above his head, and he at once yelled to be drawn up. Before he was fairly drawn up, the whole side of the well was forced in and the hole filled up to the top in a minute's time. A tube was put in the hole and all was filled up with rock and dirt, and a flowing well, that ran an inch and a half stream was the result. The next spring. W. Neese bought this property, and he and J. W. Parmelee got visions of a mill power. About five rods to the north of this well, is a creek thirty feet below the top of the well, and, relying on Beaver's guess at twenty-five feet down, they concluded to created a mill-power. Two six-inch pumps failed to lower the well, so a ditch was dug to run off the water till a dam could be made across the subterranean stream and the full stream raised to the surface. The stream proved to be lower than the creek, and so nothing came of the effort, other than to spoil the well. All attempts to stop the stream were fruitless, and it is still running a volume of ice-cold water that, so far as can be discerned, is at least capable of filling a twenty- four-inch pipe under pressure. At J. J. Parmelee's place ( later the J. S. Braden farm) a well had been bored into a subterranean stream and the operations at Neese's affected the well to a considerable extent, showing con-
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nection. If this stream could be confined and the water forced up about forty feet, the finest mill site in Iowa could be created and one that is not to be affected by drouth or rains. Perhaps sometime the problem of damming up this underground stream may be accomplished. If close to a city, it would furnish a supply of water that is as cold as ice and as pure as though it had been run through a filter."
In November, 1882, Overbaugh Brothers, of Goldfield, completed a flowing well on the old Moore farm in Liberty township. It was eighty- five feet deep, and the water rises three feet above the surface of the ground. They also made another in the same township at about the same date, the depth of which was one hundred and eight feet.
Wright county has probably more flowing wells than any other terri- tory of its size in the country. The number runs up into the hundreds. The west half, including Eagle Grove and Goldfield, is almost entirely sup- plied with water from artesian wells. In the east and northern portion is another district in which they are used in abundance, while in various other parts they are found. The average depth at which "flows" are found does not exceed one hundred feet, making a cheap, lasting and continuous sup- ply of the purest water. Fully two-thirds of the area of Wright county is included within this "flowing-well" basin. For the stock-raiser, these flows of pure water, running day and night, winter and summer, are of an immense value.
Beginning at least as far north as Marshall, Minnesota, and extending in Iowa south and east, in a strip only a few miles in width, through Kos- suth, Winnebago, Hancock, Wright, Hamilton, Hardin, Story, Marshall, Tama, Benton and Iowa counties, we have a region of flowing wells offer- ing a geological fact of much interest. But to speak more locally, it should be stated that these flowing wells are found and universally used in districts near Renwick, Humboldt county, at Eagle Grove and Goldfield; also at Woolstock, Rowan and Popejoy. At the tile works in Eagle Grove the water is found one hundred and twenty-five feet below the surface and flows up in an inch pipe to eighteen feet above the surface. The flowing well at the Rock Island depot at Goldfield has been flowing for thirty-six years and has been admired and drank from by thousands of passengers.
LAKES OF WRIGHT COUNTY.
The state geologists have had much to say concerning the so-called lakes within the borders of Wright and Hamilton counties. They affirm
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WRIGIIT COUNTY, IOWA.
that these two counties are just inside the limits of the old glacier's farthest eastward spread or push. Traces of similar topography extend almost to Ackley and to Hampton, but the high hills of Dows and those about Iowa lake are the most striking evidences of the glacier's pause. It is a remark- able fact that these high hills and lakes generally go together. The deep- est and widest lakes are usually not far away from hills and knobs. That is to say, the lakes hereabouts owe their existence to the same conditions which have been cited in explanation of the appearance of the hills. None of the lakes hereabouts are very deep. They are all marsh-like, only dis- tinguished from a thousand other marshes by the courtesy of the pioneer, who called them lakes to suit his fancy. These so-called lakes, with the exception of possibly one, are all in a straight line from north to south. Twin Lakes, the most northern in Wright county, recently called "Twin Sisters," in contradistinction from the larger Twin lake in Hancock county, are small bodies of water, beautifully situated amid fine morainic hills and knolls. These latter are especially developed southward and from their tops are seen rural prospects of wonderful beauty. The lakes are much vis- ited, but are shallow, not being deep enough to suppress the commoner types of aquatic vegetation, so that rushes appear in islets over their entire sur- face. Perhaps three to five hundred acres are here submerged at the ordi- nary stage of water.
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