USA > Iowa > Dubuque County > The history of Dubuque County, Iowa : containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, etc. > Part 44
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116 | Part 117 | Part 118 | Part 119 | Part 120 | Part 121 | Part 122 | Part 123 | Part 124 | Part 125 | Part 126
There was at that time a comparative deficiency of operators in many of the mechanic branches, notably cabinet, chair, brick and shoe makers, tin- smiths, curriers, soap and candle makers, potters, weavers, wheelwrights, coopers, etc., all of whom could have found profitable and constant employ- ment.
The prices paid for articles manufactured by mechanics, indicate their need, as will be seen from the following: Low-post bedsteads cost $10 ; chairs, $18 per dozen ; brick, $10 per thousand, and $3 for laying the same; soap from a shilling to 163 cents per cake ; candles, 182 cents a pound ; tubs, $2; buckets, 75 cents ; wagons, $90 to $100; wheelbarrows, $12 each.
The current prices for necessaries of life were at a proportionately high figure. For example : Mess pork was $25, and prime, $20 a barrel ; flour, $16 to $20; lumber, $3 per hundred. Mineral sold for $25 per thousand, and lead for $5 per hundred.
Rents, owing to the rapid increase in population, were high. Notwith- standing that several saw-mills were in operation, with more in process of build- ing, it required the expenditure of $150 to erect a comfortable log house.
Decency and good order prevailed, however, and public gatherings, as also private " doin's," were attended liberally and passed off in harmony.
But few farms had been improved beyond the range of mining districts. Some settlements were made in Vernon and Taylor Townships, and a colony was established at New Vienna by Germans, where schoolhouses, blacksmith- shops, grocery stores, a mill, tavern, church and other buildings were put up. The colonists belonged chiefly to the Catholic denomination, and were a frugal, industrious people.
Still earlier, James Crawford secured the grove bearing his name.
The absence of ladies who were holding on to a state of single blessedness, was noted in the letter of a recent arrival to his friends at home, as among the melancholy incidents of life in Dubuque County. " If there were any at the East," he wrote, " who desired to change for the ' better,' let them visit the west side of the Mississippi, where they would obtain a husband without delay or price." This great disparity was nowhere more prominent than in the churches, where the attendance of males was greater than females in the proportion of five to one. He closed with the assurance, that, if the fair sex in the old States
382
HISTORY OF DUBUQUE COUNTY.
would venture out into Iowa, a matrimonial change could be effected in which complete satisfaction would be fully guaranteed.
Dubuque, it was insisted, was now to enter upon a prosperous period. The county was in a high state of improvement, and the future city to begin its race with rival organizations in the West. Permanent buildings were to grace the streets ; schools, churches, academies, lyceums and benevolent enterprises were to be established, and flattering prospects would attend the projected reforms of the day ; the population would continue to flow in a resistless tide to this favored land, and business increase in a wonderful ratio.
The vast cornfield between Seventh, Bluff, Eleventh and Main streets was still cultivated by Lorimier & Gratiot. The ground east of Main and north of Eleventh was owned by the Langworthys. John E. Miller owned a house and farm on the site of the fair grounds, and here H. W. Sanford, one of Dubuque's oldest and wealthiest citizens, earned his first money, " harvesting."
The two-story frame, the first built in the State, erected by Edward and Lucius H. Langworthy, at the present corner of Couler and Eagle Point avenues, maintained its distinguished presence and so continued until January, 1880, when it was sold at public vendue for $20.
Claim associations were formed in different parts of the country for the pur- pose of securing to actual settlers pre-emption, and in the event of sales by the Government, without sufficient guarantee, then to protect each other in the right to purchase at Congress prices. The disposition of the lands by Congress was a question, and it was doubtful whether Congress would recognize the irregular claims to lots in the mining districts. On these accounts there was a general alarm, which the claim societies were designed to, in a measure, check, and which had that effect.
It will be remembered that on the 2d of July, 1836, an act was passed by Congress providing for the survey, etc., of certain towns, including Dubuque, and, by subsequent legislation, further provision was made for the appointment of three Commissioners to settle and adjust the title to lots in said towns, etc., which met with the approval of residents in the towns named. On March 4, 1837, a meeting of claimants was held at Dubuque, at which the names of George W. Harris, Stephen Hempstead and James Fanning were recommended to the President as proper persons to be appointed Commissioners. This recom- mendation, however, was not considered, as W. W. Coriell, of Dubuque, George Cubbage, of Mineral Point, and Morton M. Carver, of Burlington, were appointed to the positions, and residents began pre-empting and confirm- ing title to the land they then occupied.
The river was free from ice at an unusually early period in the spring of this year ; steamboats began to arrive and business resumed its wonted activity. The streets were filled with strangers attracted thither-some to engage in mining, to embark in mercantile business, to speculate in lots or explore the more northern portions of the Black Hawk purchase.
New stores and warehouses had been contracted for, or were in progress of building; a steam saw-mill was promised for the end of May, and several new smelting-works, it was anticipated, would be in operation-in a word, the gross amount of business in town and county, it was confidently stated, would far exceed the aggregate of the first three years.
Such was the outlook as it appeared to citizens and immigrants early in 1837. And such conclusions found expression only among men who are supposed to reason from correct premises, not from those enthusiastic in vaporings. The prospects were rose-colored, and painted to the East as more promising than
383
HISTORY OF DUBUQUE COUNTY.
any which ever appeared in the land of the Egyptian queen. But the canvas exposed to admirers, and upon which was traced with a master's hand the lim- nings of speculative resource, yielded place to the dark and gloomy times which were experienced by the entire country in the panic that followed. The bright dreams of wealth gave way to actual want. Anticipations, bred of confidence in one's ability to " pull through," retired in the face of realities no pen can describe. The South and West were flooded with money issued by banks at Ypsilanti, Shawneetown and elsewhere, and the " Sand Stone " and " Red Dog" corporations indicated their former existence by thousands of bills, of all denominations, as hopeless of redemption as Capt. Jack, Scar-faced Charley, or one of their more modern counterparts identified with the Utes.
As the price of commodities appreciated, that of mineral and lead dimin- ished; and " houses " that thought themselves secure, found, when it was too late, that they stood on slippery places ; some survived, while others went out of existence and were heard of no more forever. As an evidence of the quality of money which passed in these times, it may be stated that an old citizen, at present the head of a Dubuque City bank, paid $75 in bills published by the Shawneetown Bank, for a common cloth coat at a store on the corner of Main and Second streets.
When the impoverishment consequent upon the dull times was at its height, the Iowa News, in commenting thereon, observed : "No material change for the better appears to have taken place. The true causes of the terrible train of evils which now attract universal attention are said to be overtrading, excess- ive bank issues and the rage for speculation in Western lands. The present troubles will, doubtless, work their own cure, but, in the mean time, pride, with grandeur and opulence, will be reduced to indigence. The best preventive against a recurrence of such times is a return to industry, frugality and perse- verance in the pursuit of our respective callings and professions. Speculation is bad at best. If unsuccessful, it is bad ; if successful, it leads to extravagance and prodigality, and these to ruin."
That the effects of the panic of this year were not more manifest in Dubuque was simply because it was a new settlement with limited liabilities. But, in time, these effects were felt, and bore upon the miner, merchant, mechanic and farmer most disastrously. Mineral fell from $25 to $12 per thousand, and so remained for six years, or until about 1843, before it began to rise in value.
Yet, these ruinous concomitants were but slightly felt as compared with the more prosperous sections, and did not seem to delay the advancement of Dubuque in all that, considering the embargoes, would contribute to its development and prosperity.
In the afternoon of March 25, a meeting was held in the Methodist Church, at which it was determined to incorporate Dubuque, and a resolution adopted providing for the election of five Trustees, on the 1st day of April following. The election took place at Hempstead & Lorimier's store, resulting as follows : W. Myers, T. C. Fassitt, Charles Miller, T. S. Wilson and T. Fanning, Trust- ees. On the succeeding Monday, which was April 3, T. S. Wilson was appointed President; T. C. Fassitt, Secretary ; P. Quigley, Treasurer ; E. C. Dougherty, Assessor and Collector, and P. C. Morheiser, Marshal.
The attention of the Trustees was first devoted to the improvement of the streets and the harbor. The first resolution referred to " removing the obstruc- tion from the slough of the river next to the town of Dubuque, and rendering it navigable for steamboats." The Board also recognized the existence of
384
HISTORY OF DUBUQUE COUNTY.
nuisances that will always infest new and thriving towns. Horse racing was for- bidden ; fines and penalties imposed for violations of municipal laws, which they adopted and which materially improved the peace, prosperity and happi- ness of the community.
Soon after the appointment of W. W. Chapman as Village Attorney, the jurisdiction of the Board in regard to holding court, imposing fines, etc., was brought into question, and Stephen Hempstead being consulted, insisted that the act of incorporation "empowered the Trustees to hold court and collect penalties for the breach of ordinances." A court was convened August 26, John Plumbe, Jr., being elected to the Presidency of the Board, vice P. A. Lorimier, declined, and Thomas C. Wilson, resigned.
There lived at this time in the portion of the city now known as Dublin, a man named Martin Kelley, who obtained a nickname as singular as its origin was peculiar. A certain piece of land on which he had some claim was being surveyed. In discussing the manner in which the job should be done, one of the surveyors observed that they " must run a diagonal line." Overhearing this, Martin, whose ideas of lines and angles were somewhat mixed, sprang to his feet in a towering passion, exclaiming, "Be jabbers, yez shan't do it, at all at all. Its meself that owns it, dedaligon and all." Ever after, he was known by no other name than that of "Dedaligon."
One day, he and two other fellow-topers were disputing over their cups, which one of the three was the more thoroughly versed in military tactics. To prove their respective skill, all of them agreed to try, but during their maneu- verings Kelley was killed. The particulars of the tragedy are best illustrated in the evidence adduced on the preliminary examination, the following excerpt being the testimony of Hayes, one of the participants :
"Yer Honor, meself and Dedaligon had the broomsticks, and Michael he had the gun, ye see. Misther Kelley, he says, shoulder arms, and we shoul- dered arms at the word of command, ye see. Thin Misther Kelley sez, persint arms, and we persinted, ye see, and Misther Kelley sez fire, and, be jazes, we blazed away. But his was a broomstick and didn't go off, ye sez, and Misther Kelley was shot intirely, yer Honor, an' if Michael is to be hung, yer Honor, its meself that'll be hung in his stead."
The first term of the District Court for Dubuque County was held in the town of Dubuque on Wednesday, May 1, 1837. Present the Hon. David Irvin, Presiding Judge, and Warner Lewis, acting as Clerk. The impression of a quarter of a dollar was adopted as the seal of the court, and among the proceedings was authority granted to Henry F. Landers to maintain a ferry across the Mississippi at the mouth of Turkey River, also to George W. Jones at Dubuque. The Sheriff returned into court the venire facias for a grand jury to be composed of the following persons, who were present in obedience to a summons : Andrew Bankson, Presley Samuels, M. Patterson, N. Carroll, Abram Wilson, James Gillilan, B. B. Lawless, Jesse Yount, S. S. Sartiss, Andrew J. Dinin, Jacob Hamilton, Reuben Estes, Mathias Ham, Rufus Miller, James Miller, Thomas R. Brasher, John Wharton and Lyman Dillon.
On motion of M. McGregor, attorney, Antoine Le Claire was authorized to keep a ferry across the Mississippi at Davenport, etc., etc., which consti- tuted the chief features of the first court held in Dubuque County. Court was held in a log hut, corner of Main and Fourth streets, and among the law- yers in attendance were John Turney, J. P. Hoge and Thomas Campbell, all of Galena.
385
HISTORY OF DUBUQUE COUNTY.
On July 20 of this year, Gov. Dodge was called to hold a treaty with the Sioux and Chippewa Indians for the purchase of their lands, which included the entire pine country on the Rum, St. Croix, Chippewa and Wisconsin Riv- ers. The representatives of the two nations met the Governor at the con- fluence of the St. Peters and Mississippi Rivers, in the Territory of Wisconsin, on the date above indicated, and had a "big talk " with his Excellency prepar- atory to the sale. After Ma-ghe-ga-bo and others had fully canvassed the matter in hand, a treaty was concluded on July 29, by which a large purchase was made of the lands designated. These in turn were taken up by settlers, and "a want long felt," to borrow from the paper of the period, was supplied abundantly.
The first steam saw-mill ever erected in Dubuque County was begun and completed during the summer of 1837, by C. H. Booth, F. K. O'Farrall and P. H. Engle, on Block 404, now occupied by the lumber-yard of Ingram, Kennedy & Day. When the foundations were laid, a contract was executed with William Carter for the supply of lumber and other building material. Mr. Carter proceeded to the islands above the city, where he fashioned the frame which was designed to be 36x60 feet, and rafted it to the city, where it was set up and furnished. The mill was supplied with an engine of sixty-horse power, purchased in Pittsburgh, at a cost of $3,500, and transported to Dubuque on the steamer " Rolla." The firm began sawing in 1838. In 1841, Mr. Carter became a partner in the enterprise, and so continued until 1850, when the firm was composed of C. H. Booth and Eugene Shine, who ran it until 1857, when operations were suspended. The establishment was burned down in 1859, nothing but the smoke-stack left standing as a memento of this pioneer business in Dubuque.
Several years ago, the Rolla exploded her boilers on the Mississippi, between St. Louis and Dubuque, and C. H. Booth, with Gen. Jones and wife, were among the passengers who survived the calamity.
On the 3d of August, Alexander Butterworth was married, and his mother, the oldest person in the West, danced at the ball which followed. She was raised in Kildare, Ireland, and remembered the battle of Culloden, which was fought in April, 1747. She was 107 years old at the date of her son's wed- ding, four years of which she had resided in Dubuque, and the citizens, upon the occasion referred to, made the same a subject to be properly acknowledged.
The last half of the year, while it did not fully confirm the predictions made for improvements and progress in the county and city, was attended by no bitter disappointments in these connections. Each day's succeeding experience but strengthened the belief as to the future of both, and rejoiced in the advantages, present and prospective, offered in this favored region."
To those who had been accustomed to the business of lumbering, a superior opportunity for becoming independent was afforded by the treaty with the Sioux and Chippewa. The new purchase abounded in fine timber, exhaustless water-power, etc., and the price then paid for pine lumber was quoted at $50 per thousand. Farmers who had arrived the previous spring averaged their wheat crops at $100 per acre. Mechanics received from $3 to $5 per day, and laborers from $30 to $50 a month. New mines were opening almost daily, and new leads being discovered in those already worked. It was not to be wondered at, then, that the population increased, lands held at firm prices by pre-emptors, and difficult to obtain from the Government, which was, in fact, the case.
The second session of the Wisconsin Legislature convened at Burlington on the 6th of November, 1837, at which Dubuque County was divided into
386
HISTORY OF DUBUQUE COUNTY.
Dubuque, Clayton, Fayette, Delaware, Buchanan, Jackson, Jones, Linn, Ben- ton, Clinton and Cedar Counties, and from this Legislature Dubuque County practically dates its birth as a several sovereignty.
The new arrivals this year included, among others, A. Simplot, F. Christ- man, R. Nolle, John Perry, D. A. Kumbrell, C. Pelan and wife, John Christ- man, A. S. Martin, W. Rebman, S. D. Dixon, F. Emerson, J. Christman, James Taylor, J. B. Taylor, James Crawford, S. Hugle, A. D. Anderson and wife, C. J. Cummings, Bishop Loras, J. B. N. Burgeoise, S. D. Dixon and wife, Mrs. G. W. Cummings, Mrs. H. Simplot, Mrs. J. P. Quigley, Mrs. P. Christman, Mrs. N. Simpson, Mrs. Benjamin Rupert and two children.
The year 1838 was marked by a degree of prosperity, says an early histo- rian, unequaled since the settlement of Dubuque. Farms in the vicinity began to be improved, though they were few in number. The inhabitants, believing that the climate was unfavorable to agriculture, were not readily con- vinced that the soil was adapted to cultivation. Observation had shown that mining regions in other countries were generally sterile and unproductive, and this conclusion seems to have been associated with Dubuque County. People were unable to realize that overlying rich mines of ore was a prairie soil of unsurpassed fertility.
The mines yielded their richest treasures, and the broad Mississippi bore away on its current more than six million pounds of lead. Immigration com- menced early and continued to swell the number of the population in both city and county. Both were properly governed, the latter by regular officers, and the town by a Board of Trustees elected annually, who, with the President, made, as has been noted, laws and provided for their enforcement.
Politics assumed a prominence rivaling that of the mines and agriculture ; in fact, they became the grand staple commodity. To be a reliable Democrat of the Jacksonian school, unchangeable as the leopard's skin, was the air-line route to political preferment, in spite of the popularity which attached to the reputa- tion of a dyed-in-the-wool Clay Whig. After a time, however, the Democ- racy became the dominant party, and to add to their power, it is said, the waters of the Mississippi contributed in a most mysterious manner.
The year previous, Leroy Jackson had erected a brick residence, the first of the kind in the county, and this year, the number was increased by the addition of two, put up by James and Edward Langworthy. Reading-rooms were opened, stores established, societies organized, and other aids to the pro- motion of pleasure and profit created and contributed. Mail facilities were vastly improved, and friends congratulated themselves with the knowledge that, though separated by miles of country, the time had arrived when they might indulge a reasonable familiarity. Merchants procured their supplies at St. Louis, though some of them proceeded to New York via Pittsburgh, and pur- chased from " first hands."
The population of the county was quoted at 2,381; of the territory west of the Mississippi, 22,859. An admiring settler of Dubuque borough says that, notwithstanding the town has been settled but four years, it contains two stone churches, a banking-house where the "Miners' Bank of Dubuque " pays specie for its notes, thirty stores, three hotels, a theater, a lyceum, two acade- mies, a reading-room, a printing office, a large steam saw-mill, coffee-houses, billiard-tables, brick mansions, etc., which not alone proves the industry of citizens, but also natural advantages to promote and sustain this astonishing growth.
387
HISTORY OF DUBUQUE COUNTY.
On January 3, a meeting of the constituent members of a literary asso- ciation, formed on the 27th of December of the previous year, was convened at the house of James L. Langworthy, when a constitution was adopted and the following officers elected : T. R. Lurton, President ; John Plumbe, Jr., Sec- retary, and R. Farwell, Clerk.
Regular meetings were held thereafter in the court house, and the benefits that resulted cannot be easily estimated, not the least of which, perhaps, was the evidence it afforded relatives at a distance of the presence in Dubuque of refining influences and a generous stimulant in the cause of education. One of the first acts of the association was to petition Congress for a grant of money or lands wherewith to establish a seminary of learning at Dubuque.
Late in the winter, Sheriff Cummins established the following election pre- cincts : In the town of Dubuque, at the storehouse of W. W. Coriell; in the town of Peru, at the house of Mr. Patterson ; in the town of Durango, at the house of J. Devin ; on the Little Maquoketa, at the house of John R. Ewing ; on the Catfish, at the house of John Paul; on the Great Maquoketa, at the house of Jacob Hamilton ; on the Catfish, at the house of John Regan ; and the elec- tion held on the 8th of March resulted in the selection of James Fanning, P. A. Lorimier and Andrew Bankson as County Commissioners; George W. Har- ris, Recorder and Treasurer; Joseph L. Hempstead, Coroner ; C. J. Leist, Reuben Mayfield and J. La Flesh, Constables.
In February, it should be observed, Gov. Dodge appointed Hardin Nowlin, Supreme Court Commissioner ; Thaddeus O. Martin, Notary Public ; Joseph T. Fales, C. C. Bellows, William Morrow and Charles P. Hutton, Justices of the Peace ; Thomas Child, Surveyor, and David Sleater, Lieutenant Colonel of militia ; and, in April, the election for Town Trustees was held, on which occasion, Alexan- der Butterworth, John McKenzie, Benjamin Rupert, John Plumbe, Jr., and Philip C. Morheiser were chosen-Patrick Quigley and L. H. Langworthy being returned as members of the House of Representatives at the election holden May 7.
On Monday evening, March 26, a public meeting of citizens was held at the court house to inaugurate measures for obtaining from Congress an appro- priation for the survey and location of a railroad connecting Lake Michigan with the Mississippi River. Capt. F. Gehon occupied the chair, and J. Plumbe, Jr., acted as Secretary. The object of the meeting having been briefly com- mented upon by the Secretary and others, T. S. Wilson submitted a series of resolutions, providing for the appointment of a committee consisting of J. Plumbe, Jr., T. S. Wilson, Dr. Lurton, Dr. Finley and David Sleater to draft a memorial to Congress, to generally enlist the attention and assistance of citi- zens of Wisconsin Territory, and, in making acknowledgments to the Hon. G. W. Jones for his untiring diligence, particularly request his attention to the vital importance of the subject in hand. The memorial was drafted, and the con- templated objects arrested the attention of all in the lead-mining region, who argued that their prosperity would be better insured by the prosecution of works opening a more direct communication with the Atlantic cities. That the services of Gen. Jones in this connection, as through his official career, were considered as invaluable, is to be found in the fact, that, prior to the passage by Congress of the bill creating Iowa Territory, a meeting was held in Dubuque at which Warner Lewis, P. A. Lorimier, James Fanning and Judge Prentice were appointed a committee to petition President Van Buren, on the part of citizens, for the nomination of Gen. Jones to the governorship of the Territory. The
388
HISTORY OF DUBUQUE COUNTY.
honor, as is known, was conferred upon " Old Bob " Lucas, and the building of the road was reserved for future generations.
On June 11, the Legislature assembled at Burlington, and remained in ses- sion until July 4, when the act dividing Wisconsin Territory and establishing the Territorial government of Iowa took effect.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.