The History of Clinton County, Iowa: Containing a History of the County, Its., Part 45

Author: Western Historical Co , Western Historical Company
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Co.
Number of Pages: 807

USA > Iowa > Clinton County > The History of Clinton County, Iowa: Containing a History of the County, Its. > Part 45

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The labors of the settlers in procuring a food-supply did not end with the harvesting of the ripened ears. The problem was how to get them ground to flour. Though the pioneers did not have to submit to the privations and make- shifts of those in the interior counties, where they for many tedious months had to prepare grain for baking by pounding it in rude mortar-mills, they many times and oft underwent great inconvenience and labor to procure flour. The first mills were located where the streams, descended from the upper levels to the river valleys, and though they did not grind as close as the improved structures, there are few old residents who will not affirm that the flour therefrom made sweeter and more wholesome bread than any new patent process whatever. Corn fixings, of course, figured largely in the domestic bill of fare, and no one thought himself poisoned by a few atoms of golden meal being mixed with wheaten flour. Many heavy boat-loads of grain were pro- pelled by oars, handled by muscular pioneers, against the swift Mississippi current from Lyons up to Sabula, there to be ground at the custom-mill that for a long time supplied the settlers along the river margin of Clinton County.

SECURITY.

During the county's early days, people dwelt in a security of person, and, except horses, of property that is now (the historian regretfully records) prac- tically too much of the past. Unlike many counties on the south and west, Clinton County was not long or seriously infested by local desperadoes or wander- ing marauders. Highway robberies and burglaries were for many years so rare as to scarcely be dreaded. This was partly due, not only to the fact that sus- picious characters could, where people were so well acquainted, be readily noted and watched, but to there being so little money and so few valuables to tempt rascals. Accordingly, when the men of the scattered pioneer households were at work in distant fields, or gone many miles to market, leaving women and children, guarded only by perhaps a faithful dog, the former suffered no anxiety, and the latter no apprehension. People slept with unfastened doors, without fearing that among the wayfarers might be desperate ruffians, ready for a trifle to become murderers, robbers or incendiaries. Then women alone in houses felt safer, and actually were more secure from insults or violence in the most

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solitary farm-houses, than they now are, even in the suburbs of cities, since the highways have been thronged by the horde of lawless vagrants, furnished by the criminal classes of Europe, and developed by the license of civil war, like the wandering Thugs of Hindostan, to swarm over the country, wherever led by the instincts of rapine or plunder. The short shrift and long rope, or ready bullet, that would then so quickly have avenged any of the crimes that now fill the criminal bulletins, were also a salutary deterrent to desperadoes, who might have otherwise sought to spoil the farmers of Clinton of their val- uables. To this day, burglars give a wide berth to portions of this county. The risk is too great. A little booty would be small compensation for the chance of falling into the strong, and, to criminals, merciless grasp of the yeo- manry, who have what Bret Harte so happily terms " a strict attention to detail, likely to prove unpleasant in a difficulty." Of course, in regard to horses, absolute security could not be hoped for in a new, open, and, in many places, trackless country. But, as elsewhere noted, the evil was as far as possible erad- icated with a summary vigor that proved a most salutary example to not only horse-thieves, but other evil-doers as well. Hence, though a river county, and therefore on the line of travel for the worst possible characters, ever since its settlement, the criminal record of Clinton County has been so comparatively clear. as to bear the strongest testimony, not only to the high character of her citizens, but their energy in preserving order.

ROADS AND TRAVELING.

Before the country began to fill up, the roads were better than they after- ward became. At first, when a farmer started to market with a heavy load, he had the option of the entire prairie for a turnpike of nature's paving. Swampy places could be avoided, and dry and level ridges followed for long distances. The firm sod prevented the wheels from sinking in many places where the soil was saturated with water, and after the heaviest rains there was no mud to impede journeying. But as section after section was occupied, and the roads were crowded into straight lines surveyed for them, they frequently became, especially in the spring, almost impassable quagmires, that have in many places required an amount of work for ditching and grading sufficient to construct an equal length of railroad embankment through similar country.

During the days before railroads, many men followed transportation as a business, using ox, horse or mule teams. It is amusing to hear, as it must have been vexatious to undergo, how loads of hay, corn or wheat would often " bog," and then wait, sinking deeper and deeper into the mire, until assist- ance arrived in another teamster's cattle, and the doubled force successively hauled the wagons to firmer ground. Old settlers agree that during the " early fifties " the roads were most horrible, but at no time were they much, if at all, worse than during the detestable open winter of 1877-78. As the country has been more thoroughly settled, the rivulets wash both fields and roads much worse, bringing down much debris from the cultivated acres, to the great detri- ment both of them and of the highways.

How difficult and sometimes dangerous it was to travel, even short distances, across the prairies, when they were whitened with snow to dismal monotony, scarcely less depressing and bewildering than the Siberian steppes, it is scarcely possible to now comprehend. Especially as snow-laden blizzards,

" When the long dun wolds are ribbed with snow, And loud the Norland whirlwinds blow,"

obliterated familiar outlines and landmarks, even the experienced resident was

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likely to miss his way and drive miles out of the proper route. Until when, in the sixties, fences became general, such misadventures were not at all uncom- mon. As the direction of the wind was often a guide, people were not seldom disgustingly led astray by its varying several points during their journey. Once a prominent lawyer, E. S. Hart, started during a storm to drive from De Witt to Clinton, and brought up at Camanche, having made lee-way very much as if sailing.

In the severe winter of 1856-57, an adventure, of which H. V. Morrill, of the Lyons and Elvira firm of Gates & Morrill, was the hero, furnished "the boys" at the time with considerable fun at his expense. Having left his wife at a friend's house, near Mill Creek, about four miles west of Lyons, he started about 8 o'clock in the evening, to drive homeward during a severe wind and snow storm. His turn-out was a crockery-crate rigged upon runners, suitable to the irregular track the ground afforded, and, as he was well muffled in buf- falo and bear robes, and the team was good, he expected to very speedily arrive in town. But as he drove busily on, no sign appeared through the driving tempest of city lights or of any of the familiar surroundings. Still he drove on, expecting every moment to be able to take his bearings. Finally it seemed that he must be north of Lyons, and nearing the precipitous bluffs which were then open. clear through to the wide prairies. Fearful of driving over some treacherous precipice, Morrill concluded that it would be wise to bivouac. Accordingly, he bound blankets on his horses and turned them loose. Then he tipped his sledge on its side as a barricade against the icy wind, and rolled himself up under its lee in many folds of warm fur. But the intense cold pierced through them all, so that he was often fain to rise and anticipate the long-distance pedestrians of future years, by walking in a circle to keep his circulation awake. After, as may be imagined, a long and dreary night, morn- ing slowly dawned, and a barn became dimly visible through the snow. Going there, he found that he had passed the night within twenty-five rods of the house whence he had started on the previous evening, having, as may be readily supposed, actually driven in a circle. He was naturally invited to stay to breakfast, and, also, on the story leaking out among his acquaintances, the propriety of treating was delicately but forcibly hinted at.

The best road in the old times was the one which the ice afforded; an unbroken stretch for scores of miles over the congealed Mississippi, sheltered by the high bluffs from the west and northwest winds. A sharp lookout for air-holes was the price of safety, or at least, of comfort, though an adventurous citizen somewhat exalted by potations, once refused to go round half a mile, and, "accoutered as he was, plunged in," succeeding in crossing the dangerous icy pitfall. Caution was also exercised when the ice in spring began to rot and wear away underneath by the action of the swift current.

MAIL ROUTES.

It is probable that the arrival of the mail was, from the first, looked for with just about the same eagerness as now. Human hopes, desires and affec- tions are unchanged from one generation to another, and while, on one hand, tidings then came more seldom, and might, therefore, presumably be more highly prized, the greater intensity of modern business life, and wider spread of interest in the world's affairs, due to the telegraph, has made the morning and evening mail almost as much of a necessity as was once the tri-weekly, or even less frequent one. The first news of importance, of foreign or domestic events, usually arrived in New York papers during the era before

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Chicago dailies began to reach Clinton County by rail. As America was more provincial before the war than after she then passed at one bound into national maturity, there was undoubtedly, relatively, a greater interest in foreign affairs than can now possibly be developed. Since the West has grown to be the full- est exponent of the national life, its citizens are not likely to experience anything like a repetition of the American enthusiasm over the Hungarian revolt, or the exploits of "Liberator Garibaldi." Any possible foreign war since the rebellion seems petty by comparison with that colossal struggle. There was probably far more excitement over the news of the Crimean battles and of Solferino and Magenta than there has been over the news of any simi- lar events since, except when the Northwestern regiments hewed their way to the sea. When foreign news arrived by steamer, frequently one would bring the tidings of two weeks' events that changed the map of Europe and affected the price of commodities in the remotest hamlet of Iowa. But now news comes in such light daily installments that is not nearly so impressive as it was then. But it is probable that a larger proportion of financial business and political advices were received in Clinton County previous to the completion of the telegraph line and advent of Chicago dailies, in sealed letters, than there has been since. Accordingly, the post office was the general exchange and forum where neighbors expected to find each other, as a matter of course, upon the arrival of the mail, and, when it was tardy or long distributing, the long hours of waiting were beguiled in discussion and argument, carried on with a zest unknown in these days of ubiquitous newspapers, and enlivened by spicy stories and practical jokes. . The post office, then as now, was a favorite trysling place for swains and lassies, and the corn-colored and fantastic envelopes of the time, decorated with Cupids, turtle-doves, etc., carried as expressive missives as those contained in to-day's artistic covers. Among the other towns on the river between Davenport and Dubuque, it was a great day for those in Clinton County when they knew that Uncle Sam had arranged to give them a mail three times a week. One Mark Westlake, who kept the Ohio House, upon the river bank in Flat-Iron Square, since the Five Points and cholera-nest of Davenport, was the opulent mail-contractor who, for the sum of about $400, furnished a horse and boy carrier for that portion of the route lying between Sabula and Davenport. Six dollars per month was the boy's salary, and for this sum Boy No. 1 arose at 3 A. M., took a cold lunch and, "rain or shine," rode till noon, when, at Camanche, he met Boy No. 2, who, with another horse, continued the journey to Sabula, and returned.

The summer of 1851 was a wet season, and the raging Wapsie for two months held the upper carrier to his end of the route. He made headquarters at the famous Camanche boarding-house of the bustling Madame Aubrey, where the celebrated Uncle Johnny Doolittle (whose name was well deserved), a grey- haired bachelor, made fires and did chores, occasionally presenting his landlady with the deed to a piece of real estate, in order to hold the situation. During that season of high water, one boy was withdrawn and the other carrier made an occasional trip to Davenport by the Illinois shore, or on a friendly steamer, and in those cases continued to Sabula, which town was reached by a horse fer- ry-boat. At one period of this flood, two weeks elapsed with no mail, and the topic of debate in the circles of wiseheads that gathered at Pearsall's store at Camanche, McCoy's tavern at Lyons, at Billy Haun's, at Hauntown, and at Stein's Hotel, at Sabula, was, who should foot the bills of the extra mail-service performed by these extraordinary routes not specified in the original contract. The mail-boy thus left with all the responsibilities of the situation, in order to

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make up his financial deficit, sewed grain-sacks at Burroughs & Prettyman's warehouse, at one cent per sack, till he had earned $6, which the Fagin-like contractor deducted from the lad's salary at the final settlement. But the con- tributions by the citizens for the extra mail service were never allowed either by Government or contractor.

Among the instructions by the Davenport Postmaster was that ten minutes was the limit of time for changing mail. Postmasters would, however, notwith- standing the remonstrances of the carrier, while selecting the matter directed to their offices, leisurely examine, criticise and remark upon the various packages for other offices. Had postal cards then been in use, the mail would probably have had to make up much more lost time. It was not at all uncommon for the papers en route to be coolly opened and the news read and discussed. At other times, it was necessary to wait for a customer to be served, or a game of cards Ito be finished. One day, arriving at Stumbaugh's store at Princeton, the faith- ful Mr. United States official, who now lives in Clinton, found the Postmaster and waiting citizens all swimming in the river, while their clothes were piled on the rocky shore in front of the post office. Standing on the steps, he warned the plashing triflers that time would soon "be no longer," and, after waiting a full ten minutes, reloaded saddle-bags and journeyed on. That happened to be an unusually important mail, and, by the time it had made the round trip to Dubuque, the Princeton folks had held an indignation meeting, lasting several days, and when the boy returned, like " Bill Nye," their "remarks were frequent and painful and free."

One of the most ludicrous incidents that diversified the early history of the county was the laying-out in 1842 of a Territorial post-road from Davenport to Dubuque. Edward Barrows, of the former city, a brother of Dr. Henry Bar- rows, well known to many of the old residents of Clinton, obtained from the United States Government, during Tyler's administration, the commission to establish the route between those two important settlements, by the way of the evidently growing ones of Clinton County. In order to fulfill his commission with proper eclat, Barrows secured a four-horse coach, well filled with commis- sary stores, both solid and liquid, and engaged about a dozen kindred spirits as "assistant surveyors." They went about their task in much the same spirit as that later corps whom Gov. Nye, of Nevada, instructed to survey across the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, then "bridge the ocean, and then return and report." With due form and gravity, the Barrows engineering corps surveyed until well out of Davenport, when they mounted their coach and drove merrily along the emigrant road till they arrived at the wire ferry on the Wapsie, south- west of Camanche, kept by Follett, who happened to be away from home. The Chief Engineer politely accosted Mrs. Follett, a perfect type of the strong- armed and resolute pioneer woman, and blandly informed her that in order to lay out a new Government road it was necessary to drive a stake directly in front of her door where the road would have to pass, at the same time expressing his regret at thus being compelled by official duty to spoil their primitive home- stead and door-yard. At the same time, one of the assistants solemnly pro- duced a stake of a magnitude equal to those at which martyrs were wont to suffer. But, as the lady was busily engaged in making soft soap, she was not in humor to take any of that article from the strangers who proposed such a desecration of her grounds, but, on the contrary, prepared to give them a liberal supply of her manufacture. Dipping a brimming ladleful from the boiling caldron, she stood forth defiant and prepared to slush down with the scalding mixture any rash individual who dared to drive a stake near her door. Of course, a weapon

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with such a scatter compelled a masterly retreat out of its range. After some parley, the insinuating Chief Engineer obtained permission to drive a much smaller stake merely as a guide-mark, promising that her inclosure should be respected by the road. But scarcely had the comedy been finished and the party disappeared than the vigilant Amazon repented even her partial conces- sion, tore up the stake and cast it into the river.

The engineers drove on to Camanche where, on making known their errand, they were received by the settlers with open arms. Summoning a meeting of the neighborhood, the " Commissioners" consulted the citizens as to their wishes concerning the location of the proposed route. After that had been sat- isfactorily settled, and , night of conviviality, the next morning, watched by an admiring assemblage of settlers, the surveyors, with due formality, laid out a road until out of sight, when they remounted their coach and drove gaily along the trail past the future sites of Clinton and Lyons, exchanging greet- ings at the latter place with Elijah Buel, Daniel Hess and the Aikmans, and other neighbors, and thence to Bellevue, where the same farce was essentially repeated. Through Clinton County they followed the romantic road, already well worn by emigrant wagons, following the base of the bluffs, which is now occu- pied by the Midland and C. D. & M. tracks, and superseded by the new boule- vard between Clinton and Lyons. Wherever Barrows and his party were over- taken by night, on their extremely easy journey toward Dubuque, they camped and made the woods echo with merriment. Game was plenty and the larder was well supplied. At the end of thirteen days, they arrived at Dubuque, made and forwarded their report, and the entire party received pay for that time as employed in the arduous labor of establishing a post-route over the emigrant road. The late James Hazlett, afterward an esteemed merchant and lawyer of Lyons, was one of this party of bold explorers, and frequently created mirth by relating it to an applauding group, and having it confirmed by Buel, Hess, or any other "grey-haired sires who know the past " who might happen to be at hand. But the excursionists did their duty, at least, for the mail was event- ually carried over that road, so artistically and scientifically laid out.

EARLY RELIGIOUS HISTORY.

Among the early settlers of the county were Christian men and women who brought their religion with them into the wilderness, and who were not willing to abandon the public ordinances of the Gospel, even though no tem- ples, "with groined arch and vaulted aisle " reared their spires toward heaven. But in the settler's humble cabin, or in a brush-covered inclosure, on rude rived benches, with no organ peal or trained choirs, they gathered at the sum- mons carried from house to house that "a preacher is coming," and raised the simple hymns of praise, the devout prayers, and listened to the earnest exhorta- tions of the devoted pioneer ministers, who traveled through heat and cold, through rain and shine, from settlement to settlement, fording swollen streams, miring through treacherous sloughs, and often wandering on the trackless prairies in their peripetatic pilgrimages. The ministers were given a hearty welcome in every home, whether a Christian or " pagan " one, as an old settler expressed it, and in the home of many a settler, whose rough speech and rugged ways did not indicate that they were of Puritan stock, these missionaries found & cordial entrance and a hospitality that made them a kind of oasis for man and beast. On their journeyings they preached the Gospel, brought news of the outer world, ministered consolation in the days of trial, buried their dead and married their sons and daughters. To-day, the memories of those faithful men

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and Christian teachers, who shared the hardships of primitive times in th county, are cherished by those of the pioneers who are still " on this side of th river."

The earliest religious services by a minister of which information can I gained were held by Rev. Mr. Hall, a Methodist, who came over from Alban Ill., and held services in 1837. He preached at what is now De Witt, in the year.

In June, 1840, Rev. Oliver Emerson, familiarly known as " Father Eme son," came to Davenport. He was a graduate of Lane Seminary and a clas mate of Henry Ward Beecher. Mr. Emerson was a Baptist in creed, exce that he was an " open communionist." This heresy interfering with his ordin tion in Ohio, he came to Iowa, hoping that his "unorthodoxy" might 1 overlooked, and he receive ordination in the church of his choice. He preache to a Baptist society in Davenport a short time, when his views caused a separ tion. A few persons, members of different denominations, then engaged hi to preach to them, and agreed to pay him $15 per month and board him on th "boarding-around " system. An unfinished building was secured, benches p in, and here he labored " on his own hook," for a brief term, being unlicense to preach and under the pay or control of no ecclesiastical body. Davenpo then had a population of about five hundred.

At the close of this labor, he removed his headquarters to Dubuque-thoug it might be more appropriately said that his headquarters were in the field-an took Jackson and Clinton Counties for his territory. In September, 1840, } preached his first sermon in Clinton County, at the house of Joseph Turne on Silver Creek, near De Witt. He reached there on Saturday evening, and the morning T. W. Clark went around among the settlers and gave notice th a meeting would be held, and thus gathered a congregation.

Making his base of operations Sabula, his custom was to preach on Sunda morning at that place, in the afternoon at the house of George Griswold, o Elk River, and at evening in Lyons. He also preached in Camanche and o on the Wapsie, at the Dutton settlement, and at the Alger settlement and De Witt. Indeed, he ranged over the sparsely-settled country, and wherever could gather a congregation, on Sabbath or weekday, he "spake for the Ma ter ; " in the language of another, "preaching at regular though distant inte vals, and occasionally administering the sacrament." He had been ordaine as a Congregational Minister, but was extremely catholic and was welcomed b Christians of every creed. He is everywhere spoken of with love and vener tion. His face was welcome in every household, "even the sulky, in which b traveled through his circuit, is remembered as a vehicle quite as venerable as th deacon's 'one-hoss shay.'"

From him we gather the following historical items. A Congregation church was organized at an early day, he thinks in 1842, in Bloomfield Town ship, and was continued several years, but a large number of its member emigrated to Missouri and the church was disbanded. Services were held & early as 1843, in Deep Creek Township, at the Hunter Schoolhouse. In th fall of 1842, Mr. Emerson removed to De Witt, it being nearer the center his territory, a Congregational minister having been sent to Dubuque. In th spring of 1843, he married Miss Eliza Bedford, and built him a house ther but in 1847 moved back to Sabula.

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The History of Clinton County, Iowa: Containing a History of the County, Its., Part 45

Author: Western Historical Co , Western Historical Company Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Co. Number of Pages: 807

Author: Western Historical Co , Western Historical Company
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Co.
Number of Pages: 807