USA > Iowa > Cedar County > The history of Cedar County, Iowa : containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, &c. : a biographical directory of its citizens, war record of its volunteers in the late rebellion, general and local statistics, portraits of early settlers and prominent men > Part 34
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DESCRIPTIVE GEOGRAPHY-INDIAN NAMES-TIMBER.
BY JUDGE WILLIAM H. TUTHILL.
Cedar County is twenty-four miles square, composed of Congressional Town- ships 79, 80, 81 and 82 north of Ranges 1, 2, 3 and 4, west of the Fifth Prin- cipal Meridian, and is bounded north by Jones County, cast by Clinton and Scott, south by Muscatine, and west by Johnson and Linn.
Cedar River enters the county on its west side, some nine miles south of the northwest corner, and running in a southwesterly direction, passes out of the county at or near the center of the southern boundary.
The Wapsipinicon River flows through the northeast corner, and both are skirted by large belts of timber. There are also numerous small groves upon their tributaries through the central portion of the county.
These rivers, together with the streams, creeks and spring runs, which meander through the prairies, have peculiarly adapted the county to stock raising, and those who have engaged in the business have found it largely remunerative.
Cedar River, from which the county derives its name, was so called from the fact that prior to the settlement of the country by the whites, large quantities of red cedar were found on its banks, principally in what are now Benton and Black Hawk Counties, much of which was cut and rafted down the river by outlaws from the Mississippi before the Government survey of the Territory.
The Indian name of the river is Mosk-wah-wak-wah, meaning Red Cedar, the literal translation being Moskwah, red : wakwah, cedar or cedar tree .*
The Way-bis-e-pin-e-ka, orthographically modified to Wapsipinicon. has retained its aboriginal name, and translated, would be waubis, white ; pineka, potato ; so that, if rendered into English, it would be the White Potato River.
Wau-bis-e-no-noc, the Indian name of both branches of the small stream in Iowa Township, in English would be White Paps or White Breasts.
Anamosa is a Chippewa word for dog or dog pup. Maquoketa is a Chip- pewa word for high bank. Wakoah is a Saukie word for fox.
*This information respecting the Indian name of Cedar River was given to the writer in 1859 by Antoine LeClaire, of Davenport, who was considered the highest authority upon all subjects relating to the Indians, and was, undoubt- edly, the most accomplished Indian linguist of his day.
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HISTORY OF CEDAR COUNTY.
For agricultural purposes, Cedar is considered one of the best counties in the State. The soil is a deep, black loam, underlaid with clay, and is unsur- passed for richness and fertility. The prairies are high and rolling, supplied with a fair proportion of timber and an abundance of good water. It presents all the natural advantages to secure to its industrious citizens a bountiful harvest and comfortable and happy homes.
Its physical and agricultural character is well described by Prof. David Dale Owen, in his geological survey. He says :
" On leaving the northwestern margin of that portion of the Illinois coal field which, on the west side of the Mississippi, juts into Iowa in the vicinity of Muscatine, a sudden change is observable, not only in the character of the soil, but, also, to some extent, in the climate. The soil which overlies the sandstoncs of the coal measures is of that warm, quick, silicious, porous character, which rapidly advances vegetation, but is apt to leave it in a parched condition during the drouths of Summer or Autumn ; while immediately north of the mouth of Mud Creck, the stiff, dark, calcareous soil, marking the transition to the lime- stones of the Cedar Valley, appears. Though less forcing in its character than the other, this soil is much richer and more retentive, storing up the successive acquisitions and infiltrations from organic decomposition, until the proportions of geinc, humus and other organic principles rise from ten sometimes to even thirty per cent. For wheat and small grain generally, this soil is well adapted."
TIMBER, ETC.
The same authority says :
" Though the valley of Cedar River cannot boast the dense forests of Indi- ana or Ohio, yet, for a provident people, it contains timber sufficient for fuel, fencing and building purposes ; and the absence of continuous forests is well repaid by the facility with which the settlers in the prairie can, in a few years, reduce an extensive farm to excellent order, aided, as in these level meadow lands he has an opportunity to be, in his sowing and harvesting operations, by labor-saving machinery."
The timber consists of White Oak, Quercus Alba ; Black Oak, Quercus Tinctoria ; Red Oak, Quercus Rubra ; Burr Oak, Quercus Macrocarpa ; Hick- ory, Carya Alba ; Elm, Ulmus Americana; White Maple, Acer Dasycar- pum ; Sugar Maple, Acer Saccharinum ; Linden, or Basswood, Tilia Ameri- cana ; Cottonwood, Populus Monilifera ; Oak predominating.
The natural fruits are crab apple, wild cherry, plum and grape.
GEOLOGY. [ From the report of David Dale Owen. ]
No thorough geological survey of the county has ever been made, continues Judge Tuthill. In the Spring of 1849, David Dale Owen and his party made a somewhat hasty examination of several localities. In his report, he says :
On Section 27, Town 79, Range 2, on the east bank of Sugar Creek, ledges of rugged mag- nesian limestone rise twelve feet above the water level, at the foot of a dam. In this rock I found no well-defined fossils, but the imperfect Terebratula and Pentameri, as well as the lithological character, leave little doubt that it belongs to the Upper Silurian epoch. This inference was con- firmed by observation on the opposite side of the same stream, where these magnesian beds are at an elevation of from fifteen to twenty feet, and have resting on them from fifteen to twenty feet of a white, brecciated, close-textured limestone, similar to the beds of the Upper or Rock Island Rapids of the Mississippi River.
** In juxtaposition with these calcareous beds, in a hollow, not thirty paces from the creek, and at an elevation of twenty-five feet above it, a light, buff, banded freestone, an outlier of the coal formation, crops out.
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HISTORY OF CEDAR COUNTY.
On Section 15, Town 79, Range 2, on the same creek, are solid ledges of magnesian lime- stone, to the height of thirty feet. At this locality, no white limestone was observed overlying it ; only some loose pieces of freestone arc scattered on the slopes. In some of the slabs of mag- nesian limestone lying in the quarry are casts of Cyathophylla, a small Terebratula and an Orthis, not sufficiently well preserved to make out the species.
At the mill on Rock Creek, in Section 14, Town 80, Range 3 (now known as the stone mill), is a similar rock, having, however, a more earthy and arenaceous appearance, and sometimes banded. Therc, the white, brecciated limestone lies about twenty feet above the water.
On Cedar River, half a mile from Rochester, is magnesian limestone like that at Parkhurst, and a variety of freestone is again in close proximity ; and half a mile west of the same place, twenty feet of buff-colored, earthy, magnesian limestone is exposed, with nests of calcareous spar and black spots disseminated, such as are found at the head of the Upper Rapids.
On Rocky Creek, Section 30, Town 80, Range 3, a light-colored magnesian limestone is in place ; and the same rocks form ledges of thirty-five feet above the level of Rock Run, on Sec- tion 27, Town 80, Range 3. At these latter localities, the magnesian limestone is of a much lighter color than usual ; it has, however, the texture and glistening aspect peculiar to the dolo- mite rocks. Only obscure casts of organic remains are found in it.
In digging a well on Section 9, Town 80, Range 3 (on the John Huber place), rock was struck at thirty-two feet and the excavation continued for forty-three feet more; first, through white, close-grained limestone, and then magnesian limestone. The top of the well is about sev- enty feet above the waters of the Cedar. A mile or a mile and a half from this place, on Rock Run, earthy magnesian limestone, with dark specks, is exposed, eight feet above the water.
South of Mason's Grove, porphyritic boulders are scattered over the prairie, of a similar composition to those observed in the Winnebago Reserve, but sinaller, about one third the size.
At the crossing of Clear Creek, on Section 29, Town 82, Range 4, twenty-six feet of buff- colored magnesian limestone, with cavities, is exposed, in a quarry. The lower strata, to the height of fifteen feet, lie in heavy beds, from one and a half to three feet thick. The next foot is composed of layers, of from one to three inches thick ; and over the whole, the beds are much broken and irregularly divided.
In the bed of Cedar River, in Township 80 north, Range 3 west, probably on Sections 34 and 27, limestone, possessing a close, lithographic texture, is found, at a low stage of the river.
On Section 28, Town 81, Range 4, where the south line of the section strikes the west side of the river, above Washington Ferry (now Cedar Bluffs), are ledges of cream-colored limestone, in even, bedded layers, to the height of some thirty-five feet above the river.
In some of the layers, small hemispherical concretions run in the joints of the strata, as well as through the substance of the rock itself. The best of the slabs approximate in character, although of too course a texture, to lithographic limestone. The lowest layers have very much the aspect of the beds observed on the west side of Clear Creek. A north and south crevice traverses the rock at this place, containing some calcareous spar and ferruginous clay ; but no me- tallic ores have been discovered, the crevice being filled with tumbled wall-rock intermixed with red clay. The strata have a southerly dip of 3º. A corresponding wall of rock is also on the opposite side of the river, which would form solid natural abutments for a bridge.
A quarter of a mile lower down, near the middle of Section 34. Township 81, Range 4, there is a fine quarry of heavy beds of subcrystalline magnesian limestone. This rock, which is of the Upper Silurian period, dips southiwesterly under the thin bedded limestone above the ferry. These latter appear, from their chemical composition, to belong to the Devonian system, although no evidence was derived from organic remains, which are very scarce at both localitics. Some well known Devonian forms arc however found in the debris of the river near by.
In Hickory Grove, on the southeast corner of Section 34, Township 80, Range 4, both mag- nesian limestone and white limestone lie within two yards of each other. The latter containing Spirifer euruteines, Gorgonia retiformis and stromatopora polymorpha.
The inferences to be deduced from the foregoing observations are, that all the rocks, as well those referable to the Upper Silurian as to the Devonian periods, have been subjected to disturb- ances subsequent to the carboniferous era. These disturbances have been chiefly dislocations, through which the strata have been displaced more by abrupt vertical depressions and elevations than by prolonged arched waved movements.
That the subcarboniferous limestone, which forms a zone around the coal measures and occu- pies the Valley of the Mississippi between latitude 40° and 41º is lost to view in Cedar County.
The calcareous beds, which constitute a conspicuous feature of the lower coal measures of the Des Moines Valley, are not traceable here.
The Devonian rocks consist chiefly of close-textured white or gray limestones, sometimes brecciated, or of argillaceous limestones, both varieties containing a much smaller percentage of magnesia than the adjacent dolomitic rocks of Upper Silurian date. The former are no great thickness, probably not exceeding seventy feet, upon which Judge Tuthill makes the following comment :
" In the subsequent geological survey of the State, by Professor James Hall, in 1855-56-57, and by Dr. Charles A. White, in 1866 to 1869, Cedar County seems to have been somewhat
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HISTORY OF CEDAR COUNTY.
neglected by them ; but both agree in the conclusion that some three-fourths of the rock forma- tions of the county are Devonian, of the Hamilton group, thus placing them above and of a later formation than the Upper Silurian, as stated by Prof. Owen."
Doctors, we know. will disagree, but in this case the difference of our learned Professors is really unimportant, the Devonian being the geological formation that immediately overlies the Upper Silurian, and, as both are below the carbon- iferous coal measures, we must in either case give up the idea of finding coal in Cedar County in paying quantities; and it will perhaps be good policy to give up also the dream of native silver, which some of our enthusiastic Roches- ter* friends have indulged in, for Dr. White says :
" To most persons, it will doubtless seem superfluous to offer any remarks in relation to silver in Iowa, yet considerable local excitement has been caused by the alleged discovery of silver in Cedar County. These reports were believed in by many to be true, especially when silver or a metallic compound resembling it were shown as the product of the rock reported to contain it."
This rock is of the Devonian age, and consists of more or less irregular layers and concretions of carbonate of lime. occasionally having fine crystalline specs of iron pyrites disseminated through it.
A number of specimens of this rock have been obtained both by personal selection and from persons interested in knowing the facts in the case. These have been carefully analyzed by Prof. Emory, and the result is that no trace of silver has been detected in any instance.
EARLY SETTLEMENT.
The carliest settlements made in Iowa were along the Mississippi River. In 1833, miners from the east side of the Mississippi, at Galena and the adjacent district in Wisconsin, were permitted to cross the river and settle upon the land included in the Black Hawk Purchase. The gelena section around Dubuque was the first great center of attraction, but as soon as the settlers commenced raising mineral the United States appeared, by an agent, and assumed direct control of all the mineral-bearing lands, requiring the miners to take ont permits for lim- ited privileges, and to deliver the ore to a licensed smelter, who paid the Gov- ernment a royalty on the lead manufactured. These restrictions became so exacting and so hard to enforce that the Government abandoned them, in 1846, and put the lands into market.
The men who first came to the Dubuque region were not long in discover- ing the exceeding beauty and fertility of the lands embraced in the Black Hawk Purchase, and their fame soon spread far and wide. Indiana was pretty well occupied ; Illinois, admitted into the Union in 1818, had received a large rush of immigration ; and, pushing on through these States, adventurous men and women soon began to cross the Mississippi River and to settle in various parts of the famous Black Hawk lands of Iowa. West of the Father of Rivers. there were no roads. When once a pioneer crossed the great river, he left behind, if we may except the few miners' cabins that sprang up at Dubuque, all evidences of the civilizing influences and surroundings of white people. A pocket compass or the North Star were the only guides. Hundreds of the first pioneers to the "Forty Mile Strip" of Iowa had no definite point of settle- ment in view when they left their old homes to found new ones in the far West beyond the Mississippi ; but, bold, fearless, determined and resolute, they pushed on and on until they found a locality to suit their fancy, and then pitched their tents or lived in their wagons-those great, schooner-like concerns of the Conestoga (Pennsylvania) kind, that would hold about as much as an ordi- nary canal boat-until cabins could be reared.
* See chapter devoted to Rochester for a full history of the Rochester silver mining excitement.
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HISTORY OF CEDAR COUNTY.
Previous to 1829. there were no regularly established ferries at any point on the Upper Mississippi, and but little. if any, use for ferries. Dubuque and his men, when they had occasion to cross the river to the Illinois side, used Indian canoes. Dubois, who is said to have come to the Dubuque region about the same time with Dubnque, but who settled on the Illinois side in what is now Dunleith Township, Jo Daviess County, as a trader among the Menominee Indians, used the same means of crossing when he had occasion to visit his con- temporary. December 8. 1829, the County Commissioners of Jo Daviess County, Illinois, granted license to John Barrel to establish and maintain a ferry at Rock Island. At that time, Jo Daviess County, Illinois, extended from the northwest corner of the State to the south line of the north tier of townships in Mercer County, and not far from the present site of Keithsburg. and thence cast along the north line of the military tract to the Illinois River. Until about 1835, when new counties began to be formed out of Jo Daviess, all that region of country, now including nine full counties, and several parts of counties, was subjected to the jurisdiction of Jo Daviess County, so that when the first immigrants to the Cedar River country crossed the Mississippi River they were subject to ferry charges established by the Commissioners of Jo Daviess. Barrel's Rock Island ferry was established December 8, 1829. License had been granted to Col. Davenport for a similar purpose, at the same place, a few months previous. When the ferry license was granted to Barrel, the Commissioners ordered that he be permitted to charge the same rates as those established by Col. Davenport, which were as follows:
Man and horse S 25
Horses or cattle, per head, other than catt e yoke. 373
Road wagon . 1 00
For each horse hitched to said wagon 25
Each two-horse wagon ... 75
Each two-wheeled carriage or cart. 1 00
One-horse wagon.
75
Each hundred weight of merchandise, etc .. 6
" As far back as 1831." says Judge Tuthill. .. Col. George Davenport estab- lished a trading post with the Sauks and Foxes, on the west side of Cedar River, just above the mouth of Rock Creek, which was kept up by him for a period of four years, until its abandonment in 1835. Poweshiek, a noted Fox chief, with a considerable number of his tribe, made his headquarters near this trading post in 1834, and while there encamped was threatened with an attack from the fierce and warlike Sioux, between whom and the Sauks and Foxes there existed a chronic feud. Upon receipt of the startling intelligence, Powcshiek immedi- ately commenced throwing up sod embankments and earthworks to protect his people from the ferocious enemy. who were supposed to largely outnumber the threatened party. A sanguinary combat seemed inevitable : the Sioux steadily approached, and had reached Mason's Grove, their savage paraphernalia and war paint betokening unappcasable vengeance. When lo! the angel of peace appeared in the shape of the United States Indian Agent, whose power and authority being duly and successfully exerted, the untoward affair was speedily brought to a peaceful conclusion.
" The debris and somewhat obscure remains of that primitive fortification, and of the neighboring trading house and surroundings, may be seen to this day in the shape of miniature mounds, fragmentary cmbankments and superficial excavations, and their origin not being within the memory of the oldest inhab- itant of the vicinity, they have excited the curiosity of the speculative. and given rise to various fanciful theories of some ancient and long forgotten settle-
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HISTORY OF CEDAR COUNTY.
ment by inhabitants of an unknown period, attracted perhaps by the rich min- eral wealth of 'Old Cedar.'
" Another irruption of Indians occurred in the Winter of 1836-7, when a band of some five or six hundred in number, said to be Poweshiek's tribe, giv- ing out that they were pursued by their ancient enemy, the ferocious Sioux, again encamped and fortified themselves against their dreaded opponents, but this time however on the east side of Cedar River, just above Rochester, and near the mouth of Rock Creek, and between the junction of Rock Creek and Cedar River. Their defenses were not earthworks, as in 1834, but a picketed stockade, formed by splitting logs some ten feet in length, and setting them closely together endwise in the ground.
" Whether the location of this block-house had some peculiar advantage, or that its occupants had become intimidated without sufficient cause, has not been fully determined, but the fact gradually manifested itself that no fight occurred ; and after a short sojourn the copper-colored warriors abandoned their protecting walls, and went on their way rejoicing.
" In June, 1835, a party consisting of Antoine Le Claire, Col. George Davenport, George L. Davenport, Maj. Wm. Gordon, Alexander McGregor, Louis Hebert, with some others whose names are now forgotten, started from Rock Island for the purpose of making claims, under what has been called squatters' rights, in the groves north and northwest of the Island.
" They first located claims in Hickory and Allen's Groves in Scott County, and entering Cedar Connty at Posten's Grove, blazed and staked out their claims so as to include all the timber in that grove. From thence they went to and took possession of what is now called Onion Grove.
" It is supposed that this was the first party of white men that attempted to secure a right to the occupancy of any part of the county, but the intention so manifested, not being followed by actual residence, the presumptive right so acquired was, by the squatter law of that day, considered as abandoned.
" There are a number of competitors for the honor of being the first white inhabitant of the county, the most prominent claimants being Robert G. Roberts, Enos Nyce and David W. Walton.
" As the question can only be settled by satisfactory evidence, all the obtainable facts relating to the several claimants are now presented, and justify the conclusion that Col. David W. Walton was that ubiquitous personage-' the oldest inhabitant.'
" Robert G. Roberts, a Pennsylvanian by birth, but who had long resided in Indiana, arrived here in July, 1836, and made a claim on what was afterward known as the Dillon farm. He only remained there a week or two, when he abandoned his claim, and, crossing the river to what was afterward a part of Muscatine County, jumped the claim of some person in that locality. This being an infraction of the 'claim law,' he was speedily notified by the self-con- stituted authorities to quit the premises ; and, neglecting to obey the mandate, was summarily ejected by a party of 'claim regulators' from the Muscatine slough. Disgusted with this arbitrary proceeding, he left Muscatine and returned to Cedar, where he settled in what is now Iowa Township, in August, 1836, and was, unquestionably, the first settler on the west side of the river. The Indians said that his daughter Eliza was the first white woman who crossed the Cedar.
" Roberts was considered a good citizen, honest and upright in his dealings, and, possessing the rudiments of a common school education, was elected as the first member of the House of Representatives of the Territorial Legislature of
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HISTORY OF CEDAR COUNTY.
Iowa, from Cedar, Linn, Jones and Johnson Counties. His principal fault was his natural sluggishiness of disposition-a sort of torpidity, which, by many, was called laziness. This was so fully developed in his system that he could readily fall asleep at the slightest opportunity, and enjoy the sweet pleasure of a sound repose.
" While in the Legislature, a memorial to Congress had been introduced, asking for an appropriation to improve the navigation of the Iowa River, and Roberts was greatly interested in having Cedar in the bill. One day, while indulging in his favorite recreation of a good, sound nap, the yeas and nays were called on a bill subjecting real and personal estate to execution. One of the wags of the House hastily aroused Roberts from his somniferous repose, and informed him that they were now voting on the 'river bill.' This thoroughly awakened our sleeping hero, who, rising at once to his feet and gesticulating wildly, called out in sonorous tones, 'Mr. Speaker ! Mr. Speaker ! is Cedar in that ere bill ? because if Cedar is in that ere bill, I goes for it.'
" This ludicrous mal entendre occasioned a hearty laugh all over the House, and our friend Roberts was afterward known as ' Old Cedar.'
" This cognomen, together with the fact that he was the first person who settled on the west side of the river, in all probability gave rise to the wide- spread belief that he was the first settler in the county. That this conclusion was erroneous, is fully shown by the date of his arrival, which, being in July, 1836, after some fifteen or twenty persons had already made a settlement, effec- tually disposes of his claim to the coveted honor.
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