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 59
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494
HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
material influence in favor of the C., I. & N. The passage of the Land Grant Act for the four lines projected across the State, one of which, the Iowa Cen- tral Air Line, was destined to become the formidable competitor of the C., I. & N., paralyzed all intended benefits and induced a politic course on the part of the Galena Company which tended to keep both rivals in the field, and ren- der it doubtful whether one or the other would receive its friendship and support. A more frank and decided policy would have prevented many heart- burnings and much rankling ill-feeling, and would have doubtless been better in the end for all concerned. Neutrality, whether of governments or corpora- tions, is very likely to be somewhat partial, like that of England in the late civil war. Relying, accordingly, on their unaided resources, the Directors pushed forward the grading, and, in May, 1857, opened the road to De Witt, twenty miles distant. By December following, the locomotive reached the Wapsipinicon. The work was pushed by Mr. Smith in the face of great difficulties. In July, 1858, its whistle was heard in Clarence, forty-seven miles from Clinton ; in December, 1858, the road was open to Lisbon, sixty- four miles : and, in June, 1859, the long and eagerly anticipated completion to Cedar Rapids, eighty-two miles distant, was accomplished. For that era of railroad building, it will be observed that the work was performed with remark- able expedition, as well as with, for that time, rare skill and thoroughness. It will also be observed that the work steadily progressed during the worst times following the financial explosion of 1857. Besides the difficulties naturally arising from this cause, the Directors had to encounter the fierce opposition of the Iowa Central Air Line, rejoicing in its magnificent land grant, supposed to be 1,250,000 acres, and really aggregating upward of 800,000, as well as the luke- warmness of the Galena Company. But, though not a dollar of State or county aid was received, the road was steadily built, principally by Boston capital, supplemented by hard knocks, perseverance and thoroughly united and well- directed individual effort. Few who appreciate the obstacles met and over- come, the abysses of mud, the flooded country in fall and spring, the heat of summer and the cold of winter to be endured with inadequate protection, and the constant financial stress of 1857-60, will grudge the men who built the " road to the Rapids " a proper recompense for their courage, capital and labor.
On March 17, 1860. the Iowa General Assembly resumed the land on the proposed route of the Iowa Central Air Line, that company having totally failed to comply with the land-grant requirements, that sixty miles of iron should be laid within three years from the passage of the Act. However, the Assembly, singularly enough, did not resume the land granted to other railroad corpora- tions which had also defaulted in meeting the conditions of the Land Grant Act. On the 26th of the same month, the Assembly hastened to confer the same land subsidy on the Cedar Rapids & Missouri River Railroad, coupled with a con- dition requiring the latter road to build a " plug," by January 1, 1861, from a point of intersection with the C., I & N., within the corporate limits of Clin- ton, to Pearl street in Lyons. This action poured oil on the flames in adding to and aggravating the rivalry and jealousy already existing between the two cities, and was beneficial to neither. The prospect of a plug connection was not considered sufficient to add materially to the development of Lyons, while Clinton citizens were positive that it would interfere with the growth of their city. The plug connection was for years vigorously opposed by the Clinton City authorities, who refused to grant a right of way, and by Iowa & Nebraska Directors, who refused it a connection with their line.
495
HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
Upon the Cedar Rapids & Missouri Company breaking ground within the city limits of Clinton, an injunction was served, restraining them from continu- ing the work. The injunction forbidding the plug, was, for some years, on the ground that the charter of the C. R. & M. Company did not permit them to build a road within the corporate limits of Clinton. The charter was amended, and at the June term of the Supreme Court, 1868, Judge Dillon dissolved the injunction. The iron was laid to the junction of the C., I. & N., whose fran- chise extended to Second avenue, but nothing was done with the plug until, in 1869, the Clinton Institute took charge of the line, and for some months administered the affairs of the " line" with great enterprise and punctuality, and electing a full board of officials and promulgating a burlesque time-table and map of the road, as elaborate as if issued by a trunk line, providing for sleepers, palace cars, through trains, emigrant trains, and giving a list of a dozen impor- tant " stations," including places for refreshments, between Clinton and Lyons.
The Institute Company, after administering the road with such eminent success, turned over to the Chicago & North-Western, whose engines and cars had been used for rolling-stock, a dividend of several hundred dollars. Sub- sequently the plug, of course, became an integral part of the Midland exten- sion of the Northwestern. It is safe to record that, in proportion to its mileage, no railroad, even the Erie, was productive of so much controversy, litigation and excitement.
On July 3, 1862, the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad effected a perpetual lease of the lines west of Clinton, contemplating an early extension to the Mis- souri, in which work those who were foremost in building the C., I. & N. took a principal part. Hon. J. A. Blair, "a host in himself " in railroad construc- tion, became interested with others after the C., I. & N. was completed, and the work of westward extension, though not as rapid as that of the Union Pacific over the level plains, was pushed with equal energy and celerity till, in February, 1867, the line reached Council Bluffs, connecting with the three hundred miles of the Pacific Railroad, then already in operation west of the Missouri. As the Pacific Railway was pushed farther and farther toward the summit of the continent, in the exploit of its construction, with a constantly accel- erating rapidity unprecedented in the annals of the railroad world, its master- spirit, the indefatigable Durant, was largely indebted to the Clinton lumbermen for the material for bridges, snow-sheds and other structures, while the advantage to the lumber interest of Clinton of the market offered by the lines across the State and continent was simply incalculable.
In August, 1862, the Galena Company took possession of the C., I. & N. road under the lease, and continued to operate it until June, 1864, when occurred the consolidation between the Galena and Chicago & North-Western Companies into the present mammoth corporation, radiating from Chicago throughout the Upper Mississippi and lake region. The Clinton Road, of course, passed under the management of the North-Western Company, subject to the terms of the original lease. Since the acquisition of the Midland and other branches within Iowa, all the lines within the State controlled by or belonging to the Company are collectively known as the Iowa Division of the Chicago and North- Western Railway.
RAILROAD PROPERTY AND OFFICIALS.
The railroad buildings were built upon land originally donated for that pur- pose by the Iowa Land Company, and occupying ample space between Eighth and Tenth avenues, the Mississippi River and Third street.
496
HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
The old machine-shop, which had become inadequate to the demands of the company's increasing business, was destroyed by fire on the night of April 5, 1864. A new shop was at once erected, of a much more substantial nature than its ill-fated predecessor. It was built of cut stone laid in courses, the material being the yellow limestone which so plentifully abounds along the bluffs, and is of the massive early Norman style of architecture, at once presenting a. imposing and solid appearance. The building was completed in Decemb. 1864, and, exclusive of machinery. cost about $65.000. The front of the building is carried up two stories and fitted for offices of the Division Superin- tendent and assistants, train dispatchers and operators. The rear is also car- ried to a height of fifty two feet. and contains, in the upper portion, an enor- mous iron tank. with a capacity of 27.000 gallons, which, from its elevation above the roofs of the surrounding buildings, serves the double purpose of a storage reservoir for supplying the works with abundance of water, and a pro- tection against fire that was indispensable before the construction of the city water works. and has ever since then demonstrated its usefulness, notably in the great fire of the present year (1879), when, had the conflagration passed the barrier of the railway buildings. it would have probably involved the entire city. Immediately beneath the tank is a boiler-room, thoroughly fire proof, walls and floor being of solid stone. The machine-shop proper is large, well lighted from both sides and roof. warmed by steam, and thoroughly equipped with powerful machinery of the latest and most approved patterns. Foreman, Harry Harri- son.
The adjoining blacksmith-shop was constructed of brick, 120 feet long, 50 feet wide, and provided with the most serviceable appliances, to enable the swarthy Titans by whom it is manned to turn out an incredible amount of work in a given time. Foreman, R. H. Benson.
The roundhouse is a brick structure on solid masonry from rock foundation, and is built in a circle 330 feet in diameter, iron trusses, walls 22 feet high. and supported by solid masonry abutments on the outside: like the machine- shop, it is heated by steam. The sixty locomotives of the Iowa Division find quarters, from time to time, in this roundhouse. John Smith is foreman.
The car-shops for repairing and building cars and passenger-coaches, under the superintendence of II. L. Preston, are comprised in three buildings. The amount of repairs, besides the numerous new cars turned out in the shops, is enormous and wholly incomprehensible to any one unacquainted with the rapid deterioration of rolling-stock, subjected to the severe wear and tear of the heavy Northwestern traffic. The carpenter-shop, on Eighth avenue, and paint-shop just south of the main track, which so narrowly escaped the fire of 1879, together employ a number of men varying with the volume of traffic, and turn out some very fine work.
The first depot was located at the foot of Fourth avenue, where a frame structure was used both for passengers and freight, until, after the completion of the bridge, a structure, previously used as a coal-house on the island, was moved over to become the old depot on Second street that was for so many years exe- crated alike by citizens and travelers.
In January, 1872, the despised, unsightly old frame passenger-depot that had, nevertheless, for so many years sheltered the traveler from the howling blizzard and dog-day sun, mysteriously vanished, leaving " not a wrack behind." However, no one mourned over the loss of such a relic of the city's antiquity, nor did the railroad company offer a reward for its return, as the present com- modious brick depot, costing about $5,000, had been already erected and
497
HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
occupied at the beginning of the year. There is a legend that there was an assemblage of the Clinton Institute that evening, and that the members took some practice as a hook and ladder company. At any rate, the old depot was pretty much resolved into its ultimate elements.
The first Superintendent of the C., I. & N. was Col. Milo Smith. who was Mffcceeded, upon his undertaking the construction department, by C. W. Bodfish, - "20 served but a short time before he (in 1861) was followed by I. B. Howe, who, until his removal from Clinton, in 1879, was one of its most active and liberal citizens in the promotion of public improvements. Upon his resignation in 1868, on account of ill health, he was succeeded by the lamented John B. Watkins, who admirably administered the Iowa Divisions of the C. & N. W. till his tragic death in October, 1873, in a collision west of Cedar Rapids ; a freight train, during a fog, unable to halt on a down grade, crashed into the Director's car, crushing Watkins between that and the next one, so that he died within a short time. He was succeeded by the present efficient Superin- tendent, J. S. Oliver ; J. S. Mills, is Assistant Superintendent ; G. J. Garvin and P. Helmer preside in the train dispatcher's office, assisted by J. D. Mills, Tracy Barnes and J. F. Watkins.
Additional heads of departments are E. A. Wadleigh, who has been freight and passenger agent almost since the building of the road, J. O. Chap- man, Master Mechanic, and W. C. Halsey, Road Master. The railroad gives employment at Clinton and vicinity, to from five,to six hundred men, disburses over $20,000 monthly to employes, and owns upward of $500,000 worth of property in the city limits. The character of the railroad men, and their high average intelligence, was sufficiently attested by their steadfastness in protect- ing all the rolling-stock that could be concentrated here during the communistic madness of 1877.
THE CLINTON BRIDGE.
The history of the bridge is naturally a corollary to that of the railway using it, as it was from the outset obvious that the business of the railroad com- pany would be measured by the capacity of the facilities for transferring freight across the river at this point. A bridge to connect the railway systems of Illinois and Iowa was therefore a part of the original plan of the Chicago, Iowa & Nebraska Railroad, and the advantages which Clinton presented for the site of the bridge was, as elsewhere remarked, one of the chief inducements which led to founding the town. But as the control of the crossing would confer great advantages on the road possessing it by the power which would thereby accrue to it, of encouraging rival routes on the one side of the river, and excluding them on the other, or vice versa-considerations of railroad policy were involved in the question of location, and became as influential in deter- mining the selection as natural advantages of site. The Galena Company owned one bridge charter, granted by Illinois, and parties in the interest of the proposed Albany & Mendota line, a rival corporation, yet another. The former Company, in 1857, put on a surveying corps, under the direction of accomplished engineers, and caused a very thorough survey to be made of the river between the Narrows, just above Lyons, and a point below Clinton. This resulted in a recommendation in favor of a middle site, terminating on the Iowa shore, about opposite Philip Deeds' present residence, above the paper-mill. A conditional contract for land at this point for railroad and bridge purposes was entered into and another plug surveyed to Clinton. Negotiations between the C., I. & N. and the Galena Companies were meanwhile carried on with more or less vigor, but for some time without much more result than when the Peace
498
HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
Commissioners of the French and Allies amused themselves counting each others steps, so that neither would compromise his dignity by advancing toward the other more rapidly than did his vis-a-vis toward him.
Finally, however, in the summer of 1859, the " pour-parlers " culminated in an agreement between their respective bridge committees to adopt the middle site recommended by the engineers. But by the terms of the agreement, rati- fication by the respective corporations was requisite to its validity. The Galena refused its assent, and thereby lost to it forever the golden opportunity. The whole subject being once more at loose ends, the other charter was speedily secured by interests favorable to the C., I. & N., and the work of construction on the original Clinton site immediately began, to the delight of residents of Clinton.
The first pile for the piers was driven January 15, 1859, and the last span was dropped upon its bearings December 14, of the same year. The grading to connect with the Galena Company's track at Fulton was completed January 8, 1860, and at noon, January 19, 1860, the first train made its passage over the bridge from the Illinois shore to Little Rock Island, where it was received by a salute of twelve guns and the acclamations of a host of citizens assembled on the Island to greet its arrival. This portion of the bridge consisted of seven spans, each 200 feet long, of the McCollum "patent inflexible arch truss," supported by stone piers resting on piles. On the western end, it is reached by a pile-way trestle 1,400 feet long. The total cost of the bridge and approach was about $110,000, and though, possibly, it might be laughed at by the more pre- tentious bridge engineers of to-day, it served its purpose well for many a year, and for that period was a tolerably graceful and very scientific structure, and the best in the West. Up to this time, freight and passengers had, when the river was open, been transferred by the good steamer Commodore, commanded by Capt. Conant, and plying between Fulton and Clinton. When it was frozen heavily enough, loads were hauled across the ice by teams ; but the completion of the bridge from Illinois to Little Rock Island enabled the Company to trans- fer by the steamer Union, through the agency of inclined planes, similar to those used on similar boats made expressly for such transfers, as those between Detroit and Canada. With the exception of a bridge over the main channel, this was the best arrangement that could have been devised at that time, and several loaded cars could be simultaneously transferred. The late Capt. Esta- brook will always be remembered, by those who came in contact with him, for the promptness and celerity with which the Union was handled. The current was so swift between the Island and main land that the ice rarely froze heavy enough to impede the passage of the Union, driven by her powerful engines. But sometimes, during an unusually cold snap, the ice formed so heavily that a lane had to be chopped from shore to shore. Sometimes her wheels became clogged, and with infinite labor, frequently involving many hours delay, was the ponderous craft propelled across the channel. Quite a number of fatal acci- dents happened during the use of the Union, principally caused by men falling overboard and being drowned in the rapid current, or being swept under the ice.
In January, 1864, the bridge over the main channel, between Little Rock Island and Iowa, was begun, and though, owing to the great depth of water, rocky bottom and swirling current, great engineering difficulties had to be sur- mounted, the labor was so vigorously pushed that on January 6, 1865, the people of Clinton not only congratulated each other on the nearing close of the civil war, but also on the fact that they enjoved all-rail communication with the country east of the Mississippi. This bridge is 850 feet long, and consists of three
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HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
spans of the " Howe Truss," besides the draw. Two of the spans are each 175 feet and one is 200 feet long. The draw is 300 feet over all, and is built of iron, on the plan known as Bollman's Patent. The Iowa abutment and one of the piers are founded on rock. A second pier is built upon piles, and a third and the draw-pier rest upon crib work, raised on a bed of hard sand. These cribs are sunk in water frequently over forty feet deep. The long crib is 400 feet long and 44 feet wide, not far from the dimensions of some recent iron- clads, to which the mailed bows increase the resemblance. The small one is of similar shape and is 100 by 44 feet on the bottom. All the masonry is of the most substantial character. The draw turns upon anti-friction rollers, and, when open, leaves two clear openings, each 123 feet wide. In the two cribs are 2,000,000 feet of timber, 50,000 cubic feet of dimension stone and 600,000 cubic feet of rubble stone from the quarries at Clinton. Ten miles of oak-tree rails were also used. The iron draw weighs 325 tons, and, when swung, is supported by iron rods running over the top of the center tower.
The best evidence of the proper location and construction of the bridge is afforded by the fact that during the period since the completion of the structure, hut few accidents have occurred, and these were due to the recklessness or carelessness of the steamboat captains and pilots, between whom and the bridge- men exists an undying feud.
The completion of the bridge was hotly opposed by the steamboat and rafting interest ; but though the contest was carried on with great acrimony, it never assumed an illegal shape. No efforts were made to injure the structure, like the desperate attempts of infuriated raftsmen to burn the old Rock Island bridge with petroleum. An injunction, forbidding the closing of the river at Clinton by a draw, was cleverly evaded by erecting the iron draw upon the long pier, and by an enormous force of workmen hurrying it to completion, so that it was swung into its place on the day that that injunction expired, to the great discomfiture of the St. Louis river-men and their keen attorney, Judge Grant, of Davenport, and the corresponding elation of not only the railroad men of Clinton, but of the citizens generally, who then for the first time felt that their crossing was irrevocably secured.
But few accidents have happened in the way of collisions of boats with the draw-piers. Several barges have been sunk, one of them loaded with grain, being completely stove in, and resulting in a heavy lawsuit. The side-wheeler, Minnesota, also splintered her starboard paddle-box and wheel against the bridge. The Mitchell, on one occasion, stuck fast in the draw, with a barge on each side of the channel, and remained a long time perfectly immovable. But as pilots became familiar with the cross-current at the head of the chute, and with the various stages of water, the bridge has proven to be no such obstruction to navigation as its opponents prophesied. Rafts, when there is a fair stage of water, are usually pushed through the west channel. But with a high east wind it takes all a pilot's skill to expeditiously pass the bridge even stern foremost, as most of the larger boats are obliged to do.
Capt. Estabrook, after the Union ceased running, became and remained Bridge Superintendent till his death, in January, 1878. As was appropriate with a citizen so identified with the growth of the town's interests, and socially so popular, his funeral was a public one, held Sunday afternoon, in the Opera House, attended by the North-Western officials, and Masonic and railroad dele- gations from points along the line. Fully 3,000 people assisted in the obsequies. He was succeeded by the present Superintendent of Bridges and Buildings, W. D. Walden.
500
HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
In 1874, the wooden McCallum trusses, on the eastern bridge, having become shaky, they were replaced by Pratt & Post iron trusses. In the winter of 1877-78, the pile-way approach was alsorebuilt. The renovations and repairs on the bridge since it was first erected, aggregate fully $75,000.
For a long time after the building of the bridge, people were not permitted to walk across it, unless provided with a pass. It was a most salutary meas- ure in preventing the free ingress into the city of dangerous characters, and their easy escape after committing crime, into the jurisdiction of another State. It also prevented passing to and fro, except by water, of the habitues of disreputable dens that had grown up on the Illinois side, unfettered by legal supervision on either side, so that nothing prevented the most disgraceful orgies, besides their affording lurking-places for the most desperate criminals. But as the saw-mills of Clinton required more and more hands, quite a number made themselves homes in the settlement of East Clinton, on the opposite side of the river. Of course this indirectly led to a modification of the order, and the permitting of persons to pass over the narrow foot-path, and, after the C., B. & Q. extension, in 1874, reached the other side, foot travel to and from its trains, and those of the Western Union, have made the hundreds of people that have trod the slippery ties since the foot-boards were removed, wish earnestly for the long-deferred wagon and foot bridge.
On the evening of March 22, 1877, an occurrence transpired on the draw of the bridge. that has developed into one of the most mysterious cases in the annals of criminal jurisprudence, resembling somewhat, possibly, the Goshawk insurance case, narrated by Charles Reade, in "Put Yourself in his Place." B. Dickerson, a wealthy farmer from near Traer, Iowa, and his wife, arrived at the eastern end of the bridge by the C., B. & Q. He escorted her, over to Clinton and returned for his trunk. He was met coming back with the trunk on his shoulder, by the bridge watchman at the island end of the draw-span. Since then, Dickerson has absolutely vanished. After his wife became alarmed at his absence, search discovered his trunk broken open and apparently rifled, with papers scattered about, standing on the draw-pier. There was no blood or other sign of violence or a struggle visible. His wife affirmed that he had $1,200 in his possession, and appeared frantic with apprehension that he had been murdered and thrown into the river. The mystery created more excitement than if a homicide had been plainly committed. No "floater " was ever found at all corresponding to that of the missing man. In no previous instance, since the settlement of the county, had a dead body escaped being found sooner or later, at some point below. The theory that D.'s corpse was weighted before being flung into the swift, deep pool below the bridge, led to the river bottom being fruitlessly explored by a diver. The relatives of the missing man were evidently firmly convinced that he had then and there met his death by foul play. Nothing in his pleasant domestic surroundings or tem- perament encouraged the belief that he had imitated Hawthorn's morbid man and deserted his family under such cruel circumstances. No attempt has yet been made to collect a heavy insurance policy on his life, and the case thus far bids fair to remain an impenetrable mystery.
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