USA > Iowa > History of western Iowa, its settlement and growth. A comprehensive compilation of progressive events concerning the counties, cities, towns, and villages-biographical sketches of the pioneers and business men, with an authentic history of the state of Iowa > Part 20
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When, in the summer of 1853, John K. Cook came into this part of North western Iowa to survey the land for the Government, he had instructions from an association of capitalists and politicians to choose for them a site for a city, to be the metropolis of this part of the northwest. The principal men of the association were Gen. G. W. Jones and A. C. Dodge, Iowa's first Senators, Bernhard Henn, of Fairfield, also a Congressman; his partner in the banking business, Jesse Williams; Daniel Rider, also of Fairfield, and Wm. Montgomery, a Congressman from Pennsylvania, the author of the famous Montgomery Compromise: John K. Cook, who surveyed the land for the Government; and S. P. Yeomans, afterwards Reg- ister of the Government Land Office at Sioux City.
This land office was secured for the infant metropolis by the in- fluence of the men who founded the city, and this and the business and settlement it brought, forced the town rapidly ahead of its many competitors.
Thompsontown, once the county seat, dwindled to a single farm house; Sergeant Bluffs, at first the most formidable rival, was soon outstripped, and the county seat that had been moved to that vil- lage from Thompsontown, was again moved to Sioux City.
Omadi, on the Nebraska side, once thought to be the coming town in this part of the northwest, has been swallowed up by the river, and the main channel is now where the main street was; of St. John, another Nebraska city of the future, only two or three farm houses remain on the town site, that covered one thousand acres; Dakota City and Covington, once formidable rivals of Sioux City, still exist, but only as villages. Sioux City has grown and prospered from the first. The securing of the Government Land Office was followed by the city securing the headquarters for the government expeditions against the hostile Sioux, and afterwards by its becoming the terminus of railroads created by land grant bills.
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HISTORY OF IOWA.
First its founders, and afterwards the leading men of the town, have been tireless in their efforts to advance the interests of the city. To this, even more than to its superior location, is the present prosperity of the city indebted.
The population of the city has more than doubled since 1870. According to the official figures of the federal census taken in June, 1880, the population was 7,367. But to-day we can easily cal- culate upon 10,000 being the correct figures, for not a single busi- ness-house is unoccupied, and although building boomed as never before last season, this winter sees many begging for houses to rent or quarters of some kind in which to locate. The demand for ten- ement houses is greater than the supply, and in many cases fami- lies are crowded into one room, not being able to secure more avail- able quarters.
The population of the county, according to the census, exclud- ing Sioux City, was 7,626, the whole county exceeding the town by 259. The county is divided into twenty-two townships, and the population of the whole county, including Sioux City, according to census figures, is given as follows:
Sioux City-First Ward. .1,707
Second Ward. 2,074
Third Ward 1,786
Fourth Ward 1,800
Sioux City township
480
Arlington township
137
Concord township
340
Banner township
64
Floyd township.
194
Grange township
118
Grant Township.
460
Kedron township
316
Little Sioux township
876
Liberty township
721
Liston township
408
Lakeport township
436
Union township
597
Moville township
117
Willow township 242
250
Rutland township
197
Sloan township.
312
Wolk Creek township
418
Morgan township.
63
West Fork township
286
Woodbury township
594
Total
14,993
Rock township.
What has been said in regard to the city's population holds equally true of the county, outside of the city. Since the census enumeration many families have bought farms and settled in the county. In fact, the tide of immigration to Woodbury, which has never been greater than during the last year, did not set in until
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HISTORY OF IOWA.
after June, and continued until cold weather set in. It is safe. therefore, to estimate the present population of the city and county at 19,000, at least.
SIOUX CITY'S RAILROAD INTERESTS.
The founders of Sioux City had not got fairly settled on their townsite before they began to agitate the question of secur- ing railroads. The location of the town seemed made by na- ture for a railroad center, supposing that nature contemplated railroads when this section of the world was made. The great Missouri, coming down through its wide valley, flows in a general easterly course and here makes an abrupt bend to the south, the first great change in course above Kansas City. The Big Sioux comes down from the north, and at its head the Red River starts on its course north, the valleys of the two streams forming a nat- ural route for a railroad from Sioux City to the British Possessions. The Niobrara coming from the west flows straight toward Sioux City until it joins the Missouri at the first great bend above the city. The Floyd coming from the northeast invited a road from the Minnesota lumber country, and afforded a route into the young metropolis for a road across the State, while the rock bluff that crops out above the town suggests a bridge site and lines beyond the Missouri. All these ideas were urged by the more progressive of the founders of the city, and, though visionary then to a common- place mind, have been either made realities, or are in a fair way to become realities.
Sioux City was fortunate in having as a member of Congress, during the years in which land grants were being given to rail- roads, a citizen active, far-sighted and tireless, the late Judge Hub- bard. It was this gentleman who secured the insertion of a clause in the original land grant bill of the Union Pacific providing for a branch of this road to Sioux City, who secured the change of the land grant from the bankrupt Dubuque & Missouri River road to the Iowa Falls & Sioux City, and finally, in 1864, by the help of the Minnesota Congressmen, procured the passage of a bill grant- ing lands to the amount of 10 sections per mile to the Sioux City & St. Paul road. But in spite of the tempting offers of lands, and in the case of the Sioux City branch of the Union Pacific, of guaran- teed government bonds as well, nothing was done toward building these roads until late in 1867.
Sioux City & Pacific .- John I. Blair, even then a veteran railroad man, in that year agreed to build the Sioux City branch of the Union Pacific if a modification of the line could be secured. What he wanted, and got, was permission to build from Missouri Valley north to Sioux City, a distance of 77 miles, and to build from Missouri Valley west, across the Missouri River to Fremont, a distance of 37 miles. The original bill did not contemplate any such line, but one crossing the River at Sioux City, and running
184
HISTORY OF IOWA.
southwest to a junction with the Union Pacific at Columbus. Mr. Blair having secured the change in the route asked; proceeded to build the road. Besides the land grant and government bonds, the wily railroader secured from Sioux City a tract of land amounting to about 14 acres near the business center of the town, and several thousand acres of swamp land from the county of Woodbury.
The road, under the name of the Sioux City & Pacific, was finished so as to allow the first passenger train to run from Missouri Val- ley to Sioux City on March 9, 1868. The citizens were wild with enthusiasm, and the newspapers flamed with head lines over this connection with the railroad world. The year following the com- pletion of the Sioux City road, the Blair cut-off, between Missouri Valley, on the Northwestern, and Fremont, on the Union Pacific, was built. This gave a connection with the Union Pacific, of which great things were expected; but the bridging of the Mis- souri at Omaha sent most of the business that way, instead of across the river at Blair, where a transfer boat was used. From Blair a branch was started up the Elkhorn Valley, that has grown from year to year, until, at the close of 1SS1, it rested at Long Pine, 250 miles northwest of Blair. Surveys have been made for an extension from Long Pine west to the Wyoming line, and the line seems likely to become in reality, what it is name, a Sioux City and Pacific road.
Illinois Central .- The general joy over securing the first rail- road, took the very practical form of a move to secure other rail- roads. In the Spring of 1869, Mr. Blair and his associates began building from Sioux City east, and from Iowa Falls west, to secure the land grant of the Iowa Falls & Sioux City road. That year the west section was built to Cherokee, and from the east as far as Fort Dodge. Early in the summer of 1870 the road was finished. It was leased to the Illinois Central, a company that has since operated it. The rental paid is 35 per cent. of the gross earnings.
Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha .- Fast following on this road came the Sioux City & St. Paul. As has been men- tioned, Judge Hubbard, in 1864, when in Congress, procured a land grant for this project, but no work was done until 1872, when the franchises having passed to the St. Paul & Sioux City company, the road was built from the Minnesota State line to Le Mars. There connection was made with the Illinois Central, and the right to run trains over that company's track to Sioux City secured. The year following Sioux City voted the company $20,- 000 in consideration of establishing repair shops in the town. Extensive shops were built, and these have since been enlarged until, during the past summer, over 200 men were employed there. In the Spring of 1881, the St. Paul & Sioux City road was con- solidated with various Wisconsin roads and now forms a part of the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha railway.
185
HISTORY OF IOWA.
The necessity of developing a system of roads in Nebraska di- verging from this city, was early apparent to the public-spirited men who made the town the railroad center that it is. In this, as in most other railroad enterprises of the town, the late Judge Hubbard took a leading a part.
After much preliminary surveying and agitation, work was be- gun on a line from Covington to Ponca in the fall of 1876. The road, a narrow guage, was finished to Ponca early in 1877. Grad- ing was done beyond that town into Cedar county, but the com- pany became involved in litigation on account of the bonds issued by the Nebraska counties in aid of the road, and the line passed into the hands of a receiver.
At the time the Ponca line was building some little grading was done on a line which was projected between this city and Co- lumbus on the Union Pacific road. This project rested with the resting of the Ponca line, and nothing more was done in the way of work on the Nebraska lines until the St. Paul & Sioux City acquired possession of the different interests in the Nebraska roads in the fall of 1879.
The winter following material was crossed for extensive work on the newly acquired road, and on the roads projected, and the next spring business began in earnest. The twenty-six miles of narrow gauge track between Covington, on the Nebraska shore opposite this city, and Ponca, was widened to standard gauge, and substan- tially rebuilt. Surveys have been made west of Ponca looking to an extension of this branch to Niobrara. This extension will be built in 1882. if a tax asked by the company be voted in Cedar County, which now seems probable.
In 1880 a track was built from Coburn Junction, on the Ponca line, to the south 52 miles, where the end of a track extending from Oakland to Omaha was met. This track had previously been bought by the St. Paul & Sioux City Company. This line gives a new connection between the lumber country of Minnesota and Wisconsin, and the Union Pacific road. In the winter of 1881-2 the 47 miles of track from Emerson Junction, on the Omaha line, was completed to Norfolk, the railroad center of Northern Ne- braska. A bill recently introduced in Congress during the session of 1881-2, to revive the charter of the Sioux City branch of the Union Pacific, indicates that this line is to be extended from Nor- folk west to some point on the Union Pacific.
The building of these numerous lines by the company in Ne- braska will, at an early day, make necessary a bridge at this city. Soundings were made as early as 1869, and bed rock suitable for the foundation of bridge piers was found at depths ranging from 30 to 50 feet below low water mark. The range of bluffs that comes to the river edge in the west part of the city, forms a con- venient approach on one side, which is all that any bridge site on the Missouri offers. The building of a bridge, which cannot be
12
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HISTORY OF IOWA.
delayed for more than a year or two, will do much to fix the busi- ness of Northern Nebraska at this city. During 1881, the com- pany has, in a measure, prepared for an increase in the Nebraska business by building nearly four miles of side track in the city, and by the purchase of depot grounds, at an expense of $20,000 near the business center of the town. A survey has been partially made between LeMars, where the company's track joins that of the Illinois Central, to this city, and there is good assurance that the company will build this track in 1882.
Right here it may be in order to speak of the company's land grant, some 20,000 acres of which, lying in this county and in Plymouth county, is in dispute, unfortunately, and so cannot be sold to set- tlers until the question between the State and the company is settled. The company has built 573 miles of road in Iowa, which fact has been duly certified by the Governor to the General Gov- ernment, and the land at the rate of ten sections per mile has been turned over to the State in trust for the railroad company. The State has, in turn, certified the land grant of 50 miles of road to the company. The lands for the other 73 miles the State holds, claiming that the road was entitled to it only as sections of ten miles of road were completed, and the showing of the Railroad company was that the last section lacked 23 miles of being ten miles long. The company holds that as the General Goverment has waived the ten-mile point, and certified the lands to the State for the use and benefit of the company the State should certify the lands for the 73 miles of road built to the company. Meantime the State holds the lands in abeyance, and settlement is kept out. It would require only a part of the land thus held by the State to give the company the ten sections per mile for the 74 miles built and un- subsidized. There is also a question between the St. Paul and the Milwaukee companies as to the ownership of about 185,000 acres of land in the vicinity of the crossing point of the two roads. This land is now being sold, and both companies join in giving title, and agree that the company that wins in the courts shall have the money for the disputed lands sold. If this dispute is settled in favor of the Milwaukee Company, it will take all the lands in dis- pute between the State and the St. Paul Company to make good the land grant of that Company.
Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul .- The first spike on the track leading from Sioux City to Yankton was driven in this city Aug. 12, 1872, and the track was finished to Yankton on the 28th of January following. This road is noticeable as the first built in this part of the west without a land grant. The construction com- . pany, Wicker & Meckling, of Chicago, obtained a tax from Sioux City, voted the Sioux City & Pembina road, and it was under this name that the road was built as far as the Big Sioux bridge. They also obtained $200,000 in bonds from Yankton County, and a lesser amount from stations along the route. This was the first
187
HISTORY OF IOWA.
track in Dakota, south of the Northern Pacific, except a few miles built across the line near where Watertown now is, but abandoned after the land grant was secured. It had long been a favorite plan of the public spirited men of this city to build a road north, up the Big Sioux Valley, and the Sioux City & Pembina was or- ganized in 1871 for this purpose. The leading spirit, as in most other railroad projects in these parts, was Judge Hubbard. The year following the organization, taxes were voted in aid of the road by Sioux City township and by the townships in the west part of Plymouth County, and some grading was done. But the financial crisis of 1873 coming on, work was suspended. In 1875 the owners of the track between Sioux City and Yankton began work at Davis Junction on a road up the Big Sioux Valley, and that year completed sixteen miles to Portlandville. In 1878 the road was finished to Beloit, and in December, 1879, the track was laid into Sioux Falls. It was in the spring of this year, 1879, that John I. Blair reappeared on the railroad stage, after several years absence, and bought what he supposed was a controlling interest in the Yankton and Sioux Falls lines. At his suggestion the two were consolidated into the Sioux City & Dakota Railway. In the summer of 1880 the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Com- pany bought Mr. Wicker's interest in the Sioux City & Dakota road, and after a tedious litigation Mr. Blair sold his interest to the same company. The addition of a third road to Chicago by this purchase was hailed with enthusiasm by our business men. The connection, opening up as it does to the trade of the city, the best part of Southeastern Dakota and Northern Iowa, has been a great advantage, while as an eastern connection the new line has done much to bring the freight rate down to a point that enabled our wholesale dealers to compete with those of Omaha and St. Paul. During the past year, 1881, the company has completed its line up the Big Sioux Valley, from Sioux Falls to Flandrau, where connection is made with the company's Southern Minnesota division, and has partly graded a line from Yankton to Scotland, which when ironed, will give our dealers a direct line to the lower Jim River Valley. But the work that promised to be of most ad- vantage to the city is the line surveyed southeast, ninety miles, to a connection with the company's new main line, that during 1881 was nearly completed between Marion and Council Bluffs. This line when built, as it is likely to be in 1882, will not only open up a new section to the trade of our city, but will give a shorter track between Sioux City and Chicago. Some steps have been taken to- ward securing shops of this company at this city, but nothing de- finite has as yet been assured.
Railroad Probabilities. These are the railroad lines to which Sioux City owes her importance as a commercial center. There are besides several roads to get, which may be briefly mentioned: The Iowa Railroad Land Company, the owners of the Maple Val-
188
HISTORY OF IOWA.
ley branch of the Chicago & Northwestern, put a party of engi- neers in the field in December, 1881, to make a survey for a line between Sac City, the terminus of a spur of the branch mentioned, to Sioux City. There is good assurance that a part of this line, at least, will be built in 1882, and that the line will eventually be extended to a connection with the company's system of roads in Dakota. The Wabash, in the Summer of 1881, leased the Des Moines & Northwestern, a narrow gauge road running north- west from Des Moines. Late in the year the company secured an old roadbed and right of way from Rockwell City to Sac City, and there is the authority of the President of the Narrow Gauge Road for saying that it is to be extended either to Sioux City or Sioux Falls. The branch of the St. Paul Road that now extends down the Rock River to Doon, it is hoped, will be extended south to Sioux City, and an effort is being made to have the 20,000 acres of disputed land grant mentioned diverted to the aid of this extension. The St. Paul and the Sioux City & Pacific, together, have planned to extend from Fremont to Lincoln, and this Nebraska line, of the greatest usefulness to Sioux City, is likely to be built during 1882. Most important of all the expected lines, is the Central Pacific. During 1881, this company had a preliminary survey made between Corinne, near its eastern terminus, to the mouth of the Niobrara River. The short and natural route for a road coming down the Niobrara Valley, seeking a Chicago connection, is to cross the Mis- souri River at Sioux City. A letter written by Vice President Huntington of this road to one of our citizens says, that the Cen- tral Pacific will be extended from Corinne to some point on the Missouri River not yet determined on. As Sioux City presents a good bridge site, and is on the most direct route, there is a rea- sonable certainty that she will secure this prize. With the roads already built into this city, neither the Central Pacific, nor any other road, can afford to come within reaching distance of Sioux City and not send in a line.
BOATING BUSINESS.
The first steamboat came up the Missouri to Sioux City in the Spring of 1856. The river route was then the only one open for the bringing in of heavy freight; and the material for a number of residences and business houses, and several stocks of goods came in on this first boat. With the settlement of the country around the city, came a demand from the military posts and mining camps further up the river, for any surplus produce marketed in the city, and orders for goods began to be sent down to Sioux City. The up-river business of the city grew steadily, and new boats were added every year to the carrying trade. The opening of the rich mines in the Black Hills greatly increased this business, and there has been a steady increase in the amount of grain, pork and mer- chandise sent from the city to points further up the Missouri.
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HISTORY OF IOWA.
Sioux City is the headquarters of the Peck line of boats, which line comprises the steamers C. K. Peck, Nellie Peck, Terry, Peni- nah, Meade, and Far West. The Benton line; Coulson line and Kountz line of boats also find much profitable freight at this city. Costly experience has proved to the satisfaction of river men that the winter harbor here is the safest on the upper river, and num- bers of the river steamers are put on the ways at this city for re- pair every winter.
Many of Sioux City's business men are interested in stock rais- ing, mining, the fur trade, and other up-river enterprises, and their connection with the "up-country" forms a bond of union of great help to the trade of the city. Several hundred thousand bushels of corn and oats are sent every summer to points further up the Missouri, and more than half the immense out-put of the pork packing establishment finds a market in the same quarter, while the growth of the wholesale trade of our merchants in these parts has kept steady pace with the growth of this newest portion of the new Northwest.
During the winter of 1878, Congress made an appropriation for the improvement of the river, and the protection of the levee at Sioux City, and has, each subsequent winter, made further appro- priations for carrying on the work. The first systematic attempt to prevent the encroachment of the river on our levee was made during the Summer of 1879, by Major Yonge, of the United States Engineer Corps. The work has been carried on every season since with results, on the whole, satisfactory. The banks on either side now appear to be permanently fixed, and much valuable data has been obtained that will be of use when the improvement of the en- tire river below Sioux City is attempted, by government, as it evi- dently will be in the near future.
THE NEWSPAPERS.
The press of Sioux City has been an important factor in the up- building of the city, and no other single agency has contributed more to make the city what it is. It has ever been said, that a town may be judged by the character of its newspapers. If this be true, Sioux City can make an excellent showing, as no city in the State of its size has as many or as good newspapers as are published here. To-day, it has one morning, two evening and three weekly journals, all well supported.
The pioneer newspaper of Sioux City, as well as of Woodbury County, was called the Sioux City Eagle, and the first number was issued July 4th, 1857, with S. W. Swiggett as editor and proprie- tor. It was independent in politics, and for those days, a sprightly, well conducted sheet. Its publication was continued for nearly three years, when it passed out of existence.
The next newspaper venture was made by F. M. Ziebach. The August previous, he, in conjunction with J. N. Cum-
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HISTORY OF IOWA.
mings, under the firm name of Cummings & Ziebach, began the publication of the Western Independent-independent in politics- at Sergeant's Bluffs, eight miles south of Sioux City. It was reg- ularly published until the following July, when Mr. Ziebach pur- chased his partner's interest in the paper, and removed the mate- rial to Sioux City, which, even then, gave promise of being the metropolis of the Northwest; and on July 22d, 1858, gave to Sioux City its second weekly newspaper, the Sioux City Register. With the change of name also came a change in politics, the Register being the first to champion Democracy in Northwestern Iowa.
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