The history of Clinton County, Iowa, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns &c., biographical sketches of citizens, Part 36

Author: Western Historical Co
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Chicago : Western historical company
Number of Pages: 812


USA > Iowa > Clinton County > The history of Clinton County, Iowa, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns &c., biographical sketches of citizens > Part 36


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


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173622


3:918


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675837


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591617


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Clinton


57337


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89297


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16821


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39159


26756


550041


11741.


446300


894656


303744


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20


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3238


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93691


50187


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17968


310161


217090


1580260


107577


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55


39066


103631


351120


12337


367643


451365


Calhoun


26618


7051987


26996


11010


10


2993


73182


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15035


115:51


116003


131597


87172


9:275


5378


53' 9


150


10656


62127


2115569


221618


30993


56405


13643


345707


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1603090


Dubuque


187831


98561


8211


7169


817


12:39


50484


1763140


10555


344551


1024541


146244


49240


634135


67118


25115


Des Moines


143665


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643322


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9:618


1636132


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57652


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9989


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179:01


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133758


911439


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1296480


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10162


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9:013


1437807


73:51


2842859


8718


269657


13574


334469


2316405


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57005


33216


45826


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141183


53


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24063


1130930


6127


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6242€0


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153674


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113263


7155


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12596


353698


1439586


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117689


103:5


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2405187


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367396


1361376


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191265


167178


159737


246140


259 169


42175


80280


8991


131670


112175


654679


1813465


61


910


21185


3561365


281510


2208392


977316


24307


8216508


2265252


Woodbury


44179


57097


33007


218975


490371


3072


91647


298209


Worth


4892.


45957


32157


15243


23092


410187


14647


3530


122291


4445


161557


396506


Washington


Wehster


225176


97238


55"52


15.884


41616


61744


469879


70910


391051


1439


14193


73265


2832211


15701


453320


2035264


Winnebago.


17389


30625


12121


30354


162281


5


270


28:13


1374


917911


733342


11


52425


7491


207493


1327


45109


140219


Wright


Wapello.


35516


32387


289:57


8939


150203


13629


196166


135173


157535


1617


10089


281821


4134


135176


288685


63491


1736S


16159


57035


2143791


11570


293590


1455319


Totals


12627850 8410435


93549051 3690711


42669731


69189


759277


4700176 |136284542 982994


29144352 $131536747


Elyjech Bull


HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.


BY L. P. ALLEN.


PREFATORY.


" Upon the world's great battle-field the brave Struggle, and win and fall. They proudly go, Some to unnoticed graves, and some to stand With earth's bright catalogue of great and good."


Less than half a century has passed since the extinguishment of the Indian title and the pioneer entrance of the white man to these fertile lands, now bearing the rich fruits of civilization. Less than a half-century has witnessed the wonderful transformation of a vast area, redeemed from a " howling waste," over which a few savages roamed, into a populous and wealthy State, environed and bisected with railways, teeming with an intelligent, industrious and thriv- ing population, dotted with prosperous cities and villages and with a future outlook that can only promise as rapid and wonderful a growth in wealth and population for the next half century. Measured by the historian's work, whose chapters record meridian lines of time by cycles, and whose ranges are eentu- ries, and who writes of the rise and downfall of nations ; whose story is of con- quests and " feats of broil and battle," the compiler of the history of a peaceful conquest of a single county in a State in the line of civilization where " Westward the course of Empire takes its way," may seem to be an humble task. Nevertheless, the faithful gathering of the facts connected with the early settlement of this county, and the dangers, privations and hardships encoun- tered by the hardy pioneers who advanced the standards of civilization across the " Father of Waters" is a work that is worthy of attention, and one which, we trust, will meet with a cordial reception. If this work is ever to be done, the time is opportune. A true history can only be written from "actual facts." The preserved facts are meager and not easily found. The pioneers are rapidly passing away, and the few yet remaining must soon be "gathered to their fathers." The difficulties to be overcome in the preparation of the work have been beyond the anticipation of the compiler, as "forty years " have warped the memories of the " Old Settlers " who remain. Effort has, however, been made to verify dates and statements by such records as are obtainable, and to corroborate by cumulative testimony. Errors will doubtless be found, but we believe that, in the main, the history will be found to be accurate and authentic.


The early history must necessarily be largely narrative of a personal or biographical character, as the history of a few individuals is the history of the county at that date. The records of the county, of cities and towns, have been consulted, as well as the early records of churches, societies and incorporations. The files of newspapers in existence have been pored over, and the " Old Set- tlers " have been interviewed and diligent effort made to glean all possible facts.


A


324


HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.


NAME.


Clinton County was named in honor of De Witt Clinton. a most worthy namesake, a prominent literary and public man in the State of New York, and one of the prime movers and most efficient advocates of the scheme for build- ing the Erie Canal. He was twice Governor of that State, held many offices of public trust, and was a proficient classical and belles-lettres scholar, a man of incorruptible integrity and stainless purity of character. He died in 1828, at the age of 59 years.


DESCRIPTIVE GEOGRAPHY.


Clinton County embraces an area of about seven hundred and fifty square miles, composed of Congressional Townships 80 north, Ranges 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 east ; 81 north, Ranges 1. 2. 3, 4, 5. 6 and 7 east ; 82 north, Ranges 1, 2. 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 east, and 83 north, Ranges 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 east, and is bounded north by Jackson County, east by the Mississippi River, south by the Wapsipinieon River and Township 80 north, Range 2 east, being the boundary line between Clinton and Scott Counties, and west by Cedar and Jones Counties.


The county is about thirty-six miles long, east and west, by about eighteen miles north and south. Being in a latitude where the heat of sum- mer is modified by the cool breezes from the north, and vet far enough south to escape the rigor of the extreme northern winters, its location is healthful and desirable.


The Mississippi River forms the eastern boundary line, and flows in a bend sweeping around toward the cast, nearly midway on the eastern boundary of the State. Being due west from Chicago, it is the nearest point in the State between that great commercial entrepot and the Mississippi. Thus, geographical position made it the gate to the interior, and the initial point for the first railroad enterprises which were projected westward to reach the Mis- souri River. Its western boundary is the Fifth Principal Meridian of the Sur- vey of the State, which is 91° W. longitude, and extreme eastern point 90° 35' W. Its approximate latitude is 41° 50' to 42° 05' N. The 42d degree of N. latitude divides the northern tier of townships from the tier to the southward.


*GEOLOGY.


The rock underlying the soil or drift deposit of Clinton County is the Niag- ara limestone. In some earlier geological epoch, it was either deposited at a uniform level with the surface of the sea, or the water receded from it, leaving it dry. It was never greatly disturbed by earthquakes or upheavals, so that it now remains in nearly horizontal strata. Its chemical composition is a car- bonate of lime and magnesia, with a small amount of silica and alumina, col- ored yellow by the hydrated oxide of iron. At a later period, it was submerged and then cut and worn into an uneven surface, by deep channels and fissures, through which numerous streams found their way, oftentimes cutting entirely through the formation.


The Niagara limestone belongs to the upper part of the Silurian of the English geologist. It has a wide range in this country, covering a large part of Wisconsin, the upper part of Illinois, and extending east to Western New York, being prominent at Niagara Falls, from which it is named.


In this county, it is very rich in fossils, which, owing to the softness of the rock, are generally preserved as casts, and only occasionally found in per- fection.


*The Ilistorian is indebted to Prof. P. J. Farnsworth, M. D., for the chapter on Geology, and for other valuable scientific data.


325


HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.


Certain strata appearing at the river at Lyons, and in places in the north- ern part of the county, are almost entirely made up of casts of the pentamer- ous ; in other strata, encrinites or sea-lilies are abundant. Othoceritites are found everywhere, and many specimens of trilobites and fragments of them appear, some of them being of large dimensions. Also, corals of many varie- ties are found, characteristic of the formation.


It has many outcrops, especially along the streams. The bank of the Mississippi, from Lyons to the northern line of the county, is a precipitous bluff, from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet above the river. At the base of the cliff another and lower formation is exposed, called the Cincinnati group or formation, consisting of a bluish clay shale, and thin beds of fossiliferous limestone. This stratum is impervious to water and its junction is marked by a line of springs, some of them quite large. It has an exposure of from ten to twenty feet. As we go north, the Niagara has been entirely eroded, or washed away, and this formation caps the bluffs at Dubuque, beneath which lies the galena or lead-bearing rocks of Iowa. In places, there, it has a thickness of from sixty to eighty fect, so that only a small portion of it is exposed in this county. From Clinton, the river bears to the west, and the bluffs trend to the southwest, and are rounded and covered with soil, and raise more gradually to the prairie level. Some of the strata furnish excellent lime, and a very fair quality of building stone, but it is not very durable, being soft and porous, and disintegrates under the influence of air and moisture. It makes a very poor material for roadways, as it soon slacks and falls to pieces when exposed to moist- ure and wear. Streets macadamized with it show nothing but mud or dust in a year's time.


Over this uneven surface, in a later epoch, was again deposited, at a uni- form level, the drift, or the soil and subsoil of the prairie. When the water again receded, it cut numerous channels, sometimes coinciding with those in the bed-rock, at other times not. These great floods have left their marks, so that the surface of the county, especially in its eastern portion, is very uneven. The material of the drift is the same as that over the greater part of the eastern slope of the State and of Illinois. A stratum of clay rests on the rock, then a sandy loam and clay, then the stratum composed of clay and sand, and the accumulated vegetable matter of long ages, making a soil surpassed in depth and fertility by none in the world.


It contains bowlders and gravel of granite, quartz and other primitive rocks, with an occasional module of native copper, showing that the material came from the upper part of Dakota and the lower part of Lake Superior. In many places in the limestone there are found large caves, or pockets, filled with fire-clay, containing carbonaceous materials. This clay is white and pure. unless colored by vegetable matter. These caves are always connected with openings at the surface of the rock, and must have been filled during the period when the water swept over them and vegetation flourished elsewhere, but prior to the " Drift Period," as they are covered by that deposit, and hold nothing in common with it.


The lower bluffs, along the Mississippi, are another formation, called the " modified drift," which is made up of materials that have been dissolved from the original drift and redeposited. These deposits are left on the banks of the present river, at a height of from eighty to a hundred feet, showing that at some not very remote geological period the river flowed at a much higher level, through which it cut its present channel. In these bluffs of " modified drift" are found pieces of wood, land shells and bones of extinct land animals,


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demonstrating that, at some time after the prairies became dry land, the river was obstructed and its bed filled up. Geologists refer to this as the "Glacial" or ice period, when this northern hemisphere had a climate like that of Green- land.


No mineral deposits have ever been found in this county. The Niagara limestone generally shows no indications of such. Another formation of eighty feet or more separates it from the "Galena," which contains the lead. Silver, iron or copper have never been found in such rock. The occasional pieces of lead ore. native copper, iron, and perhaps silver, found in the soil, have been brought from a long distance by the ice and currents, that deposited the other materials of the drift. It is evident that the bed-rock came to the surface, or was in a very shallow sea, for a long time, while the vegetable mat- ter was deposited to form the coal in the lower part of the State; and there are occasional basins, where the carboniferous formation rests on this rock. So that it is not impossible that indications of coal may be found, but there is no probability of anything more, as. generally, the bed-rock is near the surface, and no coal ever existed below that.


We have no space to discuss the question of the origin of treeless prairies. There is no doubt, however, but that the annual fires prevented the growth, or spread of forests. Along the alluvial bottoms of the rivers, trees flourished, and on the then clay soil of some of the bluffs, a hardy race of trees existed. The soil everywhere bears forest and fruit trees luxuriantly, when planted, and protected from fires. Most, or all of the prairie is now cultivated, but many of the old settlers can remember when annual fires swept over the uncultivated land. Oak openings, or groves of thinly-scattered trees of a hardy kind, existed in many places on the clayey knolls, which did not produce much grass. On the moist alluvial bottoms, a thick growth of silver maples, white birch, ash and elms flourished, together with willows, water-oaks and black walnuts. Next to the precipitous banks, especially of the Mississippi, a high, rocky soil was formed, where the hard or sugar maples are found, and a Flora common to high, stony land.


The geology of the county furnishes an interesting study of considerable variety, as we have briefly indicated. There is no promise of mineral wealth, but a deep, rich soil abounds, capable of bringing to perfection fruit and forest trees, and all the grains and vegetables of the latitude.


METEOROLOGY.


From railway surveys, it has been pretty accurately determined that low water in the Mississippi, at Clinton, is 587 feet above the sea level. It is fifty- nine feet higher than at Davenport, forty miles below. The level portions of Clinton and Lyons are from fifteen to twenty feet above low water, and from 150 to 200 feet lower than the prairie, so that the greater part of the county is from 600 to 700 feet above the level of the sea.


From meteorological records kept at Lyons and Clinton, since 1857, the mean yearly temperature of three daily observations, is a little over 45.5 degrees Fah., varying from 45.5° to 45.75°. The lowest recorded temperature was during the last days of December and the first weeks of January, when, for three of the years observed, the mercury fell from twenty-four to thirty degrees below zero, Fah. These were exceptional years, usually 10°, and often zero is the lowest mark noted. July is the warmest month, and in several seasons the thermometer has reached 96°, or even higher. Many thermometers have recorded temperature various degrees above 100°; but, of course, they were


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either cheap and unreliable instruments, or so located that they were valueless for scientific purposes. Many seasons, the July heat has not ranged above 85°. The daily mean recorded from 1860 to 1872, for January, was 21°, for July, 72.6°. Several points of coincident low temperature have been observed dur- ing a period of fifteen years. One occurs about the middle of May; another, usually producing frost, happens during the last days of August, or the first of September. In 1863, the corn was greatly injured by this latter cold snap. Since then, there has not been one so severe. Snow makes its first appear ance in the week of the 20th of October. It disappears, and is followed by a long period of " Indian summer," sometimes lasting into December. Ice forms in the Mississippi in some seasons by the 10th of November, but only in a few sea- sons has it been frozen across before December, when it is almost always frozen over ; sometimes, however, to again open and re-close during the cold days above mentioned, of the last of December and first of January. The Mississippi generally opens by the first of March. Some seasons it has scarcely closed, and in a few the ice has remained until the first of April. The latest frost noted, was May 26, the earliest September 1, except in 1863, when frost occurred in every month of the year, except July.


Generally the climate is warmer than in the same latitudes in the Eastern States, and also more equable. For about half the time observed, March was a fine spring month, the others were cold and blustering. December has about the same record. For some seasons, the fall of snow was very slight. In 1862, 1864 and 1870, the fall was only from seven to ten inches. In other years is has been as much as sixty inches, but it rarely remains long, so that sleighing it quite uncertain. In only two of the years noted did it last for one hundred days. The rainfall, including melted snow, ranges from twenty-eight to forty- eight inches. At Iowa City, 74.49 inches of water are reported to have fallen in 1851, and, in 1854, but 23.35 inches. Probably the amount of rainfall in Clinton County did not vary greatly from the above record during those years. The heaviest rainfalls on record were in August, 1866, and July, 1879, when fully three inches of rain fell in as many hours.


The proximity of the county to the Great Lakes modifies its climate and prevailing winds, as well as the rainfall. It has been shown that the isothermal line passes in a southwesterly direction across the county. While it is on the parallel of Chicago, the easterly winds and storms came from the direction of Milwaukee or Racine. An atmosphere charged with moisture comes with a north-of-east wind, which is precipitated by a cool northwest current. East


winds bear moisture ; northwest winds are dry. Violent winds and rain-storms with tornadoes, come from the southwest, changing to west and northwest. Northwest winds, after the moisture is condensed by them and precipitated as rain, are dry and oftentimes cool. The lowest temperature of winter is usually ushered in by a fierce northwest wind, blowing from one to three days, and called an Iowa "blizzard." There are occasional periods of drought during the latter part of summer. when it is noticed that the upper current of air blows constantly from the northwest. This wind is healthful and stimulating to the human system, and during its prevalence there is always a marked improve- ment in the public health.




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