USA > Iowa > Marion County > The History of Marion County, Iowa: Containing a History of the County, Its Cities, Towns, & C. > Part 32
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The elevation of the county is somewhat less than the average of the State. The average of the county is not far from 850 feet above the level of the sea, or 406 feet above low water mark in the Mississippi River at Keokuk.
The highest point in the county is about midway between the valleys of Des Moines and Skunk, near the north part of the county where the eleva- tion is about 895 feet above the sea level or 451 feet above low water mark in the Mississippi River at Keokuk. The lowest point is at the Des Moines River at the east side of the county where the elevation is about 684 feet
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HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
or 840 feet above low water mark in the Mississippi River at Keokuk. The difference in elevation between low water mark in the Des Moines River where it leaves the county and the Mississippi at Davenport is 215 feet; and between low water mark in the Des Moines River at where it leaves the county and the point where it empties into the Mississippi River at Keokuk is about 298 feet. The following are the elevations above the sea of the principal points in the county:
Pella 878 feet. Otley 895 feet.
Knoxville 875 feet.
The land in the county, away from the streams, is generally an undulat- ing prairie and has altogether a density of country seldom found in so small a space. At a varying distance from the larger streams rise irregu- lar lines of bluffs or hills, sometimes wooded and sometimes, previous to improvement, covered with a Inxuriant growth of prairie grass, having be- tween them water bottom-lands of surprising beauty and unsurpassed fer- tility. These hills are usually a gentle slope, easily ascended and descended by wagons, and sinking into mere benches moderately lifted above the sur- face of the valley; again they sometimes rise to a height of over one hundred feet above the bed of the Des Moines River. From side to side between these hills the streams meander, with banks varied by hill, meadow and forest. Rising to these higher points the eye often commands views of exquisite loveliness, embracing the silvery course of river or creek, the waving foliage of trees, the changing outlines of hills and the undulating surface of the flower-decked prairie, with cultivated farms, with farm-houses from the log hut of the first settler to the brick or painted houses and barns of the more advanced cultivator of the soil, and the palatial mansions of the wealthy capitalist. A writer of considerable reputation and a close student of natural history says:
"The real beauty of this section can hardly be surpassed. Undulating prairies interspersed with open groves of timber and watered with pebbly or rocky streams, pure and transparent, hills of moderate height and gentle slope; here and there, especially toward the heads of the streams, small lakes as clear as the streams, skirted with timber, somne with banks covered with the green sward of the prairie. These are the ordinary features ot the landscape. For centuries the successive annual crops have accumulated organic matter on the surface to such an extent that the succession even of exhausting crops will not materially impoverish the land."
The " small lakes," so called, have proved to be simply ponds or marshes, which in certain seasons of the year resemble small lakes. The county has less land unfitted for cultivation, by reason of sloughs and marshes, than any of the neighboring counties. According to the report of the Com- missioner of the Land-office, Polk county had 14,596 acres of swamp lands, Boone 27,773, Story 15,640, Marion 6,400. There is probably not a sec- tion of country of like extent in the State which possesses such an exten- sive and well-distributed drainage system as Marion county. There is proportionately such a small area of waste and swampy lands, and the fa- cilities for draining such are so admirable that waste lands arising from this cause are too insignificant to be worthy of particular mention.
The country presented to the first settler an easy task in subduing the wild land. Its natural prairies were fields alinost ready for the planting
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HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
of the crop, and its rich black soil seemed to be awaiting the opportunity of paying rewards as a tribute to the labor of the husbandman. The farms of Iowa at present are generally large, level, unbroken by impasss- bie sloughs, without stumps or other obstructions, and furnish the best of conditions favorable to the use of reaping-machines, mower, corn-planters and other kinds of labor-saving machinery.
RIVERS.
Marion county is so well supplied with living streams of water and they are so well distributed over the county that the people could not possibly make an improvement upon the arrangement if they were al- lowed the privilege and endowed with the power to make a readjustment of the system of rivers and creeks. Many of these streams have fine mill- sites, and by reason of the water-power thus made so accessible, the early settler was spared many of the hardships and inconveniences experienced by the pioneers of other sections. These mill-sites, even to the present day, constitute a very important factor in the further development of the material resources of the county.
Des Moines River-The Des Moines River is the principal stream of the county, as it also is of the State. It enters the county from the west about one and a half miles from the north boundary line. It flows in a southeastern direction and leaves the county about ten miles north of the southeast corner. In section 28, township 77, range 20, the river once made a large curve to the southwest, forming a long peninsula. In 1847 the river at this place became blocked with ice and drift and the river was forced to cut a new channel. This place is known as the "cut-off." This we believe is the only important change which has taken place in the chan- nel of the river in modern times. The average width of the stream in Marion county is more than one hundred yards and its waters are of a crystal clearness when not disturbed by freshets. Many mill-sites may be found along this stream within the bounds of the county,.but few of these have thus far been improved. No county in this or any other State has better facilities than this for flouring-mills, or the propagation of any kind of machinery. The available water-power along the Des Moines River in Marion county alone, were it utilized, would furnish a remunerative occu- pation for all the able-bodied men in the county. It has been but recently that the full value of the Des Moines River for water-power begun to be appreciated and at some points (as at Ottumwa, for instance), is become to be regarded as the foundation of future municipal wealth and greatness.
The custom of adopting Indian names for rivers had its origin in the precedent laid down by the first settlers of America. The wisdom of this plan has gradually become more and more apparent, as by use the ear be- comes accustomed to the sound and the eye familiarized with the sight of these names. By following this custom our language becomes greatly en- riched, and each successive generation is reminded of a people once numer- ous and powerful, but now so weak and abject as to be virtually eliminated from the family of nations. These names have invariably a pleasing sound when the ear becomes accustomed to them, and their adoption is a most befitting tribute to a nation which although savage possessed certain char- acteristics which make the story of their misfortune the most remarkable
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HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
to be found on the pages of history and the most pathetic which has been wrought by the stern vicissitudes of time.
The Des Moines River furnishes an exception to the rule, as it is of French rather than Indian origin. For a time it was thought that the word Des Moines was an Indian word, but this theory is no longer held by anyone who has taken any pains to look up its etymology.
According to Nicollet the name Des Moines, which has been attached to the largest river, one of the first counties organized and the capital of the State, is a corruption of an Indian word signifying " at the road." He re- marks, " but in the later times the inhabitants associated this name (Revere des Moins) with that of the Trappist Monks (Moines de la Trappe) who resided on the Indian mounds of the American Bottom. It was then con- cluded that the true reading of the Revere Des Moins was Revere Des Moines or River of the Monks, by which name it is designated on all the maps."
The older settlers have doubtless noticed quite a change in the spelling of this name in later years, the approved way of spelling in former times having been Demoin.
From an article written by Judge Negus, of Fairfield, published in the Annals of Iowa, some ten years since, entitled " The River of the Mounds," we make the following extracts. We devote considerable space to this sub- ject as it certainly deserves more than a passing notice. The Des Moines River is not only the chief river of the county but of the State, and there is no citizen of Marion county but will be interested in its history:
" Nearly every State has some one particular river which especially at- tracts the attention of its citizens; on which their minds delight to dwell; about which they bestow their praise. Iowa has the beautiful river Des Moines, on which her citizens delight to bestow their eulogies. More has been said, done and thought about this river than all the other rivers in the State. In beauty of native scenery, in productiveness of soil, in mineral wealth, and in the many things that attract attention and add to the com- fort of man, the.valley of the Des Moines is not surpassed by any locality in the world.
" The banks of this great water-course and the surrounding country bear the marks of having been the home of a numerous people, centuries in the past, and that the people were possessed of many of the arts of civilized life. But of what race of people they were, and of the acts and scenes which have taken place in this beautiful valley we may imagine, but prob- ably never know. Of their habits and customs they have left some marks; but still there is wrapped around these evidences of their doing a mystery that is hard to solve.'
The writer then proceeds to give an account of the first discovery of the river by Europeans:
" About sixty leagues below the month of the Wisconsin, on the west bank of the Mississippi, for the first time they (Marquette and Joliet) dis- covered the signs of human beings. There they found in the sand foot- prints of a man. Following these tracks they discovered a trail leading across the beautiful prairie and leaving their boats in the care of their companions, themselves alone pursued the unknown path, to ascertain whose feet had made it. After walking about six miles they discovered an Indian village on the bank of a beautiful river, and three other villages on a slope at the distance of a mile and a half from the first. This stream
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HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
was what is now known as the crystal waters of the river Des Moines, which at that time was called by the natives Mon-in-gou-e-na or Moingona." The writer then proceeds to speak of the mounds:
" These works bear the marks of great age and from facts gathered con- cerning them we may deduce an age for most of these monuments of not less than two thousand years. But by whom built and whether their an- thors migrated to remote lands under the combined attractions of a more fertile soil and a more congenial clime, or whether they disappeared before the victorious arms of an alien race, or were swept out of existence by some direful epidemic, or universal famine, are questions probably beyond the power of human invention to answer. These mounds are numerous in Iowa, and especially in the region of the river Des Moines and the lower rapids of the Mississippi.
"In Wapello county there is a chain of mounds, commencing near the mouth of Sugar Creek, and extending twelve miles to the northwest, at a distance between reaching as far as two miles. The one nearest to the Des Moines River is one hundred and forty feet in circumference, and is situated on an eminence, the highest point in the vicinity. The second mound lies directly north of the first; at a distance of about one- fourth of a mile. This mound is two hundred and twenty-six feet in circumference. In May, 1874, a party made an examination of the larger mound, and upon digging into the center of it they found a ledge of stones at the depth of four feet, which bore all the marks of having passed through the fire. They also found a mass of charcoal, a bed of ashes and calcined human bones."
Cedar Creek is a small tributary of the Des Moines, flowing into the latter stream below Otturawa. Speaking of a bluff on this creek the writer 88y8:
" At the first settlement of the country, the bluff on the north side, from the bank of the creek, for some thirty feet or more high, was nearly per- pendicular and mostly composed of a solid sandstone, and then for several feet more, gently sloping back was earth and rock. This location must have been a place of attraction and visited by those who had some knowl- edge of the arts of civilization, long before Iowa was permitted to be set- tled by the whites, for when this place was first seen by the early settlers of the country, at a point on this bluff most difficult of access, near the top, there was discovered, bedded in, and firmly bolted on to the solid sand- rock, an iron cross, the shaft of which was about three feet and the cross- bar eighteen inches long. A short distance from this place, a little north- east, on the summit of a high ridge, there is a series of mounds which give evidence of having been built by human hands many years in the past."
The writer then proceeds to speak of some mounds located on one of the chief tributaries of the Des Moines.
" Sac City, the county seat of Sac county is situated on a beautiful bend of the Raccoon River. Within the limits of this town there are found eight mounds, arranged in a general direction from northeast to southwest, but without regular order, the distance between the extremeties in that di- rection, being a little less than eight hundred feet, and in the transverse direction less than one hundred feet. Two of the mounds are elliptical in shape, and the others are circular. The two elliptical ones are located farthest north; one of them is ninety feet in diameter east and west, thirty feet north and south, and two feet high. The circular mounds range from sixty to eighty feet in diameter and from two to six feet high. These
1
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HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
unds have been dug into, but no human bones or works of art have n discovered."
dr. Negus says further, that he had understood that mounds abound ng the whole valley of the Des Moines but that he has been unable to n any authentic information with regard to any except those specified. d he taken the necessary steps to find out, he would have ascertained fact that within the bounds of Marion and Polk counties there were ginally numerous vestiges of this prehistoric race and that especially in county north of Polk there were quite a number.
A remarkable chain of bluff's or hills, called Mineral Ridge, extends the ire width of the north side of Boone county. The surveyors declared t the ridge contained deposits of iron from the fact that their compass dles were deflected when running lines in that locality. This is the son why the elevations were called Mineral Ridge.
An old record says:
Opposite to Honey Oreek in section 18, township 84, range 26, is a row ancient mounds, nine in number, the largest one being in the center and r fifteen feet high."
"here is a township in that county called Pilot Mound, which es its name from an elevation just across the Des Moines River, and carly settlers were so impressed by the peculiar appearance of the and that they held it in great veneration.
An old record says:
A great battle was once fought by the Indians near Pilot Mound, one the elevations of Mineral Ridge, on the east side of the river in this nty. Keokuk commanded the Sacs and Foxes, and Little Crow com- nded the Sioux. This battle must have been fought sometime prior to Black Hawk War. The bones of the slain were frequently plowed up the early settlers in the vicinity of Pilot Mound, and a number of skele- s have been exhumed from the top of the mound. Keokuk is said to e been victorious. Several hundred warriors were engaged on either
"he fact is still further confirmed by investigation at an early day, by . L. W. Babbitt, one of the first settlers of Marion county.
"The first white man who resided in the present limits of Boone county Col. L. W. Babbitt. He had been for a number of years commanding stachment of United States dragoons, and while serving in that capacity frequently crossed the country. During these excursions from Fort Moines to the vicinity of Fort Dodge, he was struck by the beautiful iery and natural resources of the country lying along the Des Moines Ir. He had also noted what he regarded as a particularly favored point : above the present site of Moingona, formerly familiarly known as wh's Bottom, but more recently called Rose's Bottom. At this place he discovered the remains of a former village. The character of these nants of human habitation convinced him that the people who had pre- asly dwelt there were not representatives of the Sioux, Pottawattamiee, and Fox Indians, nor yet of any tribe or tribes of savages known to the lized world. The dwellings were of a more permanent character, and tools used in their erection were evidently of a better quality and a approved model than the Indians referred to had been known to less. There were also found the remains of cooking utensils, which the
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HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
savages were not aconstomed to use and other unmistakable evidences of a prehistoric civilization.
It was probably in part due to desire to investigate these remains of the former village, and partly due to the fact that the surroundings were of such a nature as to make this location a desirable winter quarters that Col. Babbitt, on retiring from the United States service, determined to locate at this point. He arrived there in the autumn of 1843, and erected tempo- rary quarters in which he and his attendants could comfortably pass the winter. Provisions were readily procured at points further down the river, and by reason of his familiarity with the country he had a comparatively easy and covenient communication with the white people who had located in the older settled country to the south and east. Then, too, the country for miles in every direction being entirely new, and many parts of it scarcely if ever before having echoed to the sound of that great instrument of civ- ilization, the rifle, game of all kinds was abundant, of the best quality, and easily obtained. Fish were easily caught in great numbers, and the choicest of fur-bearing animals were numerous. Added to this the further fact that the Colonel had for many years spent his time on the frontier, and by reason of many a solitary march and lonely camp in the solitudes of the wilderness, had accustomed himself to being shut off from the conve- niences and luxuries of civilized society, he doubtless found his temporary home in Noah's Bottom a very pleasant and enjoyable one. In regard to the remains of the former habitations already referred to, Ool. Babbitt, on careful examination and mature deliberation, came to the conclusion that they had constituted the dwellings of a band of half-breeds who were known to have dwelt along the shores of the upper Des Moines in very early days. These half-breeds were a cross between the French and Sioux, and by reason of their relationship with the Sioux were allowed to remain in that region long before it would have been safe for any white people to dwell there. These people, half French and half Indian, were frequently referred to in the Indian traditions; at one time they were quite numerous along the upper Des Moines, and it was probably they who gave the name to the river. Authority has already been cited for the statement that the word Des Moines is a corruption of the French phrase Rivere des Moines, meaning " river of the mounds."
From what is known of these Indian half-breeds it is certain that they had nothing to do with the mound-building no matter what may have been their connection with the village whose remains were noticed and studied by Colonel Babbitt.
A former publication says that " fifteen mounds, the work of a prehisto- ric race, dotted the surface of the original site of Fort Des Moines. One of these ancient relics stood where Moore's Opera-house now stands, on the summit of which was erected the old residence of W. W. Moore. Another one stood on the site of the court-house and others were scattered abont in different localities. They are supposed to be the places where the dead of antiquity were buried as bones have frequently been exhnmed from them. The curious reader in search of more minute particulars is referred to a very interesting treatise on the Prehistoric Races written by J. W. Fos- ter."
In the concluding paragraph of the article entitled " The River of Mounds " Mr. Negus draws the following conclusions:
" From the fact that there were a great many mounds in the valley of
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HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
the river of Des Moines and above the lower rapids of the Mississppi, it is reasonable to suppose that the Indian name of Moingona was abandoned and that this river was designated by the French as the river Des Moines, which means the river of the mounds."
It will be remembered that a large part of the country through which the Des Moines River flows was a part of the Louisiana purchase and as. such belonged to the French prior to April 30, 1802. The locality attracted the attention of the French and Spanish traders at a very early day and was probably visited by them long prior to its settlement by the English.
The full, accurate and precise history of the Des Moines River naviga- tion has never been written, and probably never can be. The writer who would undertake the task, wonld, in the very beginning, be met by that problem of the Des Moines River navigation improvement, which seems to have thoroughly bewildered every one who ever attempted to write on the subject. If there be any one living who fully understands just what the improvement company was, what it did and the compensation received and the benefits accruing to the State, he has never spoken, or having spo- ken his words have not been preserved and transmitted. Certain it is the neither the National Congress nor State Legislature understood the prob- lem.
Without the aid of locks or dams, however, boats came up the river as far as Des Moines, as early as 1843 and continued to make occasional trips till 1858. It is said one boat went np as far as Fort Dodge. This matter will be treated elsewhere.
Skunk River-The next river in size and importance in the county is the Skunk. The name came from the Indian word Checauqua, which means Skunk, and it was an exhibition of very bad taste on the part of the carly settlers in translating it. This detestable custom of dropping the pleasant sounding Indian name and the substitution of one which is un- pleasant to the ear and repulsive to the eye may possibly be regarded as an evidence of the etymological researches of the pioneers and as such is credit- able to them; but it is more creditable to their industry than to their good taste. There is nothing romantic or poetical about the name Skunk, but those who think lightly of the river on that account should remember that the Garden City of the West derives its origin from no better source. Chi- cago and Chicanqua are slightly different pronunciations of an Indian word that means the same thing. Skunk River proper is formed by the junction of two streams called, respectively, North and South Skurk, the point of confluence being in the southeastern part of Keokuk county, about four miles from the county line. After leaving Keokuk county it flows through the southwestern corner of Washington, thence through Henry forming the boundary line between Des Moines and Lee, and empties into the Mississippi come twenty miles above the mouth of the Des Moines. The stream which passes through Marion county is the main or south fork and rises in Ham- ilton county. That portion of the stream which lies in Marion county is some seven miles in length and flows in a southeastern. direction. The bed of the stream is sandy and some rock is found therein. The current in the main is very sluggish, though in some places the fall is sufficient to af- ford good water-power. The slope of that part of the channel which lies in Marion county averages between three and four feet per mile. At some points the land slopes gradually away from the stream, thus permitting
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