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 45
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HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
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 trysting 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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HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
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 lav 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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HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
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 a 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 a 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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HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
and Christian teachers, who shared the hardships of primitive times in this county, are cherished by those of the pioneers who are still " on this side of the river."
The earliest religious services by a minister of which information can be gained were held by Rev. Mr. Hall, a Methodist, who came over from Albany, Ill., and held services in 1837. He preached at what is now De Witt, in that year.
In June, 1840, Rev. Oliver Emerson, familiarly known as " Father Emer- son," came to Davenport. He was a graduate of Lane Seminary and a class- inate of Henry Ward Beecher. Mr. Emerson was a Baptist in ereed, except that he was an " open communionist." This heresy interfering with his ordina- tion in Ohio, he came to Iowa. hoping that his "unorthodoxy" might be overlooked, and he receive ordination in the church of his choice. He preached to a Baptist society in Davenport a short time, when his views caused a separa- tion. A few persons, members of different denominations, then engaged him to preach to them, and agreed to pay him $15 per month and board him on the "boarding-around " system. An unfinished building was secured, benches put in, and here he labored " on his own hook," for a brief term, being unlicensed to preach and under the pay or control of no ecclesiastical body. Davenport then had a population of about five hundred.
At the close of this labor, he removed his headquarters to Dubuque-though it might be more appropriately said that his headquarters were in the field-and took Jackson and Clinton Counties for his territory. In September, 1840, he preached his first sermon in Clinton County, at the house of Joseph Turner, on Silver Creek, near De Witt. He reached there on Saturday evening, and in the morning T. W. Clark went around among the settlers and gave notice that a meeting would be held, and thus gathered a congregation.
Making his base of operations Sabula, his custom was to preach on Sunday morning at that place, in the afternoon at the house of George Griswold, on Elk River, and at evening in Lyons. He also preached in Camanche and out on the Wapsie, at the Dutton settlement, and at the Alger settlement and at De Witt. Indeed, he ranged over the sparsely-settled country, and wherever he could gather a congregation, on Sabbath or weekday, he "spake for the Mas- ter ; " in the language of another, "preaching at regular though distant inter- vals, and occasionally administering the sacrament." He had been ordained as a Congregational Minister, but was extremely catholic and was welcomed by Christians of every creed. He is everywhere spoken of with love and venera- tion. His face was welcome in every household, "even the sulky, in which he traveled through his circuit, is remembered as a vehicle quite as venerable as the deacon's 'one-hoss shay.'"
From him we gather the following historical items. A Congregational 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 members emigrated to Missouri and the church was disbanded. Services were held as early as 1843, in Deep Creek Township, at the Hunter Schoolhouse. In the fall of 1842, Mr. Emerson removed to De Witt, it being nearer the center of his territory, a Congregational minister having been sent to Dubuque. In the spring of 1843, he married Miss Eliza Bedford, and built him a house there, but in 1847 moved back to Sabula.
In speaking of those early days, he says the people were all poor. Many came without means, and those who did bring a little money with them, soon found their means invested in a cabin, in their improvements and supplies.
Estive WHEATLAND,
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HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
Their first crops, on account of remoteness of markets, brought them but scanty returns, and so all were on a level. The poverty of the people was great. During his early ministrations, he had no salary or fixed compensation. He was welcome to the homely fare of the cabin and the best place to sleep that they could furnish, and, when his " clothes got seedy and worn, they clubbed together and provided him with a new suit."
Cotemporaneous with Father Emerson was Rev. Barton H. Cartwright, who was the first Methodist circuit rider. His circuit was called the Charleston Circuit, including Charleston (now Sabula), Lyons, Camanche, De Witt, and, indeed, nearly all of Jackson and Clinton Counties. His residence was in the timber, between the two forks of the Maquoketa.
The first Presiding Elder was Rev. Mr. Weed. Rev. John. H. Prentiss was also a pioneer minister, and the first Pastor of the Union Grove Congre- gational Church, which he organized in 1838, and which included Fulton and Lyons in its boundaries.
Rev. John C. Holbrook was commissioned in the winter of 1841-42 as a Home Missionary for Pleasant Valley, Clinton County, etc. He supplied the Church at Lyons, and preached in this vicinity. He removed to Dubuque, where he remained about twenty years, thence removing to Syracuse, where he is at present the Secretary of the New York Home Missionary Society.
The first Sabbath school of which any report is found was gathered in Lyons, and was held at the house of Chalkley A. Hoag. Frederick Hess was the Superintendent, Daniel Hess, Librarian, and Margaret Hess (afterward Mrs. John Sloan) the Teacher. This school was discontinued during the winter months. Afterward, a Mr. Goodrich, who was a school teacher, was for a time the Superintendent, and until Father Vincent came, who then became the Super- intendent. Father Warner also gathered a school at his cabin, two miles from town, in 1847.
Other early enterprises in churches and Sabbath schools will be found men- tioned in the history of towns and cities.
From these humble beginnings in church services and Sabbath schools has grown and ripened a plentiful harvest ; and now, scattered over prairie and rear- ing their spires in every town and village, are a multitude of temples of worship, from within whose walls arise the incense of prayer and praise to the Great Architect, whose hand unfolded these rich prairies for the homes of more than 35,000 people.
TORNADOES.
The tornado of June 4, 1844, was, doubtless, severe enough to have wrought fearful damage had it not passed over so thinly-settled sections of Clinton County. It first struck the ground in Springdale Township, near Tipton, Cedar County. It traveled at the rate of from forty to fifty miles an hour, sweep- ing a strip of about one-fourth of a mile wide. It was able to pick up cattle and hogs and carry them to some distance, dashing them to death against the ground. Its form was the usual funnel-shaped outline.
In Clinton County, it tore through the northern part of the infant settle- ment where De Witt now stands. It crossed Brophy Creek at the farm then owned by Mrs. Brophy, destroying her house and severely but not fatally injur- ing some of the inmates. Thence it followed the course of the Wapsie to the place owned by William D. Follett, where it destroyed a house and killed many cattle. Passing eastward, it destroyed some buildings on the farms of Messrs. Schoff and Wood, where some persons were considerably injured. Where Mr. Van Epps now lives, it destroyed the house where Mr. Peoples
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HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
then lived, severely injuring some of the inmates. Mr. P. was so badly hurt that he died within a few days-the only fatality caused by this storm within the county limits. The tornado crossed the river at the south part of Adams' Island, stripping Mr. Adams' farm and dwelling on the Illinois shore. The buildings were completely demolished. and his daughter killed by being carried to a great height and dropped into a tree. where she was afterward found. The storm was evidently a true whirlwind, and its course was south of east. It would have probably been considered and handed down in the annals of the State as a tremendous atmospheric disturbance, had it not been so surpassed by the unmeasurable calamity of 1860. There is a tradition that, before white men came to Iowa, a similarly severe wind traversed the same region as that devastated by the storins of 1844 and 1860.
Sunday, the 3d day of June, A. D. 1860, will long be remembered in the annals not only of Iowa, but of the Northwest, as the day of the most tre- mendous tornado on record. rivaling the cyclones of the Indian Ocean, the hurricanes of the West Indies and the typhoons of the China seas, in the dis- tance that it swept, from Central Iowa to the interior of Michigan, and surpass- ing most tropical storms in the force of the wind. Nothing like it had been supposed possible in Northern latitudes. A belt, varying from twenty rods to a mile in width, was swept literally with " the besom of destruction." Not a fence. not a tree, not a house, and scarcely an animal or human being in its pathway was able to escape or withstand its fury. Death, devastation, almost annihilation, marked its track. So rapid was its approach, so unexpected its visitation, so indescribably awful its phenomena and horrible the ruin it left, that, owing, possibly, to physical and physiological causes affecting the nervous system (except a few gifted with remarkably robust constitutions and well-poised intellects). those who had felt Death pass in so swift and awful a guise seemed dazed and incapable of practical thought or action. Even those who were without its range. but who witnessed its ravages, were often too appalled to render assistance until recalled to the ghastly actuality by the spectacle of car- nage and the groans of the wounded that roused them to the necessity of energetic and prompt action. Fortunately, many saw the terrible meteor's approach, and, by hiding in cellars, root-houses and similar refuges, although buried under the debris or exposed to the open sky, yet managed to escape the fate of many who were borne away on the wings of the blast-some to be hurled mangled corpses to the ground. others to be gently and safely deposited upon the earth.
The first reported appearance of the atmospheric disturbance as a cyclone or whirlwind seems to have been in the western-central part of the State. It was in Hardin County where it first took on the appearance of a tornado, though undoubtedly the storm centers originated further west. To the meteor- ologist who reviews the history of this remarkable phenomenon, it is a matter of great regret that Government signal stations and weather reports had not then been established, so that science could have been advanced by observations of the barometric and electric phenomena that must have coincided with the development of such a terrific meteor. From Hardin County, it reached the Mississippi in less than four hours, having traveled at an average rate equaling that of the swiftest express train. Of course, its rotary velocity was much greater than its rate of forward movement, which varied very greatly, as at some points it comparatively stood still, and then, upon the temporary equilib- rium of forces being destroyed, it again raced forward, as if by its rest endowed with new power.
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HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
In New Providence, Hardin County, only two houses were left, about thirty being scattered in the shape of kindling-wood over miles of prairie. But few people were there hurt, the greater portion of the citizens being absent at a Quaker meeting, at New Bangor, Marshall County, twelve miles distant. During the storm, a Methodist meeting was being held in a briek schoolhouse at New Providence. The building was moved five feet, and all the doors and windows blown out, but no one injured. The inference is that the storm had at that point not as yet, so to speak, massed itself as it did further east, nor yet acquired so great a rotary movement. However, the country was completely desolated, and fully $100.000 damage done around New Providence. At a farming settlement called Pritchard's Grove, six miles further east, the tornado was fiercer, and a number of persons were killed. Here the timber and every movable thing was swept away like dust before a broom.
A small village called Quebec, in the northern part of Marshall County, was absolutely obliterated. not a vestige of the town remaining where it stood, houses and contents being swept in fragments off upon the wide prairies. Many were seriously injured, but no lives were lost, though how any escaped alive seemed a mystery.
At Fort Dodge and Webster City, the outer circles of the storm, terrific hailstones fell, six and seven inches in circumference, shattering windows and injuring stock. Through the fair, but then comparatively sparsely-settled rural regions of Tama County, the storm left a similarly-devastated swath. In Web- ster and Benton Counties, great damage was done. But the fury of the storm or storms was there as nothing compared to what it was further eastward. The area of high wind was much wider west of the Cedar, where it appears to have converged as steadily toward an apex in the country between the Wapsie and the Mississippi, as if the aerial columns had been ordered by a strategist there to concentrate their forces as the German hosts thickened around the sleeping French at Sedan.
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