USA > Iowa > Dubuque County > The history of Dubuque County, Iowa : containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, etc. > Part 85
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Fortunate it was that the streets were clear to a large extent, else the loss of life would no doubt have been great. The air was full of flying missiles, that struck the earth in hundreds of places with great force. The destruction of property was large, aggregating upward of $10,000, but all felt thankful that no lives had gone down amid the wide-spread wreck.
Among the incidents was the death of perhaps one hundred of the European sparrows. One of the trees in Washington Park was blown down, carrying colonies of them to destruction, which were lodged in boxes and the branches of the tree. At 9 o'clock the next morning, seventy-one were picked up from the ground. For the purpose of settling the question whether they ravage grain-fields, as has been asserted, Mr. Reute, the druggist, took a number of them and examined the contents of their stomachs. In every instance only partially undigested insects were found.
The wind played a curious freak with Capt. La Mont, who resided on the hill. He was standing on the porch of his residence watching the progress of the storm, when a gust of wind took his hat off his head and carried it out of sight. He remained on the porch about five minutes longer, and was just going into the house, when he was surprised to see his truant head-gear return to within twenty feet of where he was standing.
When the storm broke, there were about forty persons in the third story of the city hall, attending St. Mary's fair. Most of them were ladies. They endeavored to rush out of the door and down the stairs, but were prevented by the door-keeper. Then they fell upon their knees and prayed loudly and fervently for Divine aid. A spectator says "they prayed as never before." Their prayers were answered, it seems, for none were injured.
J. McNulty and M. O'Neal say, that, when the storm burst, they saw a woman crossing the railroad bridge over the river. She had reached a point between the third and fourth spans, when the gale struck her, and she suddenly disappeared from sight. If she was drowned, her home must have been else- where than in Dubuque.
Mr. E. Stiles, foreman at Carr & Austin's mill, was on his way to his home in East Dubuque, when the storm came, and he sought shelter behind a barn. Fearing his family might be frightened by the storm, he determined to press his way on to his home. He left his place of shelter, and, in a moment after, the wind took the barn and tipped it over the very spot where he had been standing.
At Treasurer Harragan's house the lightning played a curious freak. One of his children was removing a candle from a sewing-machine, when the light- ning struck the leg of the machine, glanced off, and did no further damage.
On Couler avenue fences and trees were blown down, shutters and signs scattered about, grape-vines torn out of the ground. An apple-tree one and a half feet in diameter was broken off about two feet from the ground.
About 7 o'clock in the evening the ferry left the other side. When within fifteen feet of the dock on this side, the storm struck her and carried her half way across First street slough. The wind suddenly changed about this time and carried the boat about three miles below the city. A large number of
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ladies were on the boat. They took it coolly at first, but when they saw the boat at the mercy of the wind, they became nearly frantic, and rushed into the cabin and donned the life preservers. Capt. Yates, after a time, succeeded in calming their fears and landed them safely on this side.
EARLY STEAMBOATING.
The first boat which ascended the Mississippi River above Rock Island rapids was named the Virginia, according to the memory of those conversant with the subject. This boat was 118 feet long and drew 6 feet of water, or once again as much as the packet boats commonly draw. She made an experi- mental trip up to Fort Snelling.
After the first trip of the Virginia, one or two boats annually ascended the river, to carry supplies to the posts and the traders. In 1844, the number of arrivals had increased to forty-nine, and this limited number, in a little more than a dozen years, had expanded to over a thousand, so rapidly did the com- merce of the upper river increase. At length, the little city of St. Paul became the nominal head of navigation on the river, and the numerous settle- ments and towns that rapidly sprang up along the banks soon gave a marked impetus to business and navigation. After the organization of Minnesota as a Territory, a great rush of immigration commenced, and was continued for sev- eral years.
In 1847, the first regular line of boats was brought out by the Galena Packet Company, to run between Galena and Mendota. Rival companies also soon began to put on opposition boats. In those days, the Dr. Franklin, Senator Ben Campbell, Lady Franklin and Menominee were the names of the boats familiar to early comers to the new Territory.
The difference in the prevailing stage of high water then and at the pres- ent time is illustrated by a fact remembered by many. About the year 1856, the Lady Franklin went up the slough nearly to the mouth of Mormon Coolie, blew her whistles and created a commotion among the settlers. The Tisho- mingo was another noted boat of that time. She was regarded as a fast one, and drew so much less water than the others that, by cutting off the corners and slipping through the sloughs, she rarely failed to walk away with the honors. In 1849, 1850 and 1851, the Minnesota Packet Company ran a line of boats up the river twice a week.
In 1852, the nearest approach of any line of boats to the river from toward the east was one from Chicago to Galena, terminating at Rockford, Ill. Between this place and Galena, travelers had to be transferred by stage coach. Between 1845 and 1858, three lines of railroad, terminating at La Crosse, Prairie du Chien and Dunleith, respectively, were completed, and a great impetus was thereby given to the river traffic.
In 1854, the Minnesota Packet Company added three or four new boats to their line. The same year, the Dr. Franklin and Menominee were sunk. In 1856, the Northern Belle and Granite State appeared, and the Ocean Wave was put on the river about the same time. The same year, the Lady Frank- lin was lost not far below this city.
In 1855, the Minnesota Packet Company brought out five splendid new boats, namely, the Northern Light, Gray Eagle, Key City, Itasca and Mil- waukee, names which many of the later comers to this country will remem- ber. All of these boats are now gone, as well as many others which preceded or came after them.
Thomas Hardie DUBUQUE.
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HISTORY OF DUBUQUE COUNTY.
In 1858, the Northern Line, of St. Louis, was established, with a fine array of boats. In 1859, Capt. Davidson established a line between La Crosse and St. Paul, beginning with the Frank Steele and Favorite. From this small beginning grew the magnificent array of boats running from points down the river to St. Paul.
The golden days of river navigation and traffic appear to have been the time dating from the close of the war down to 1872. After the latter year, the railroads took most of the passengers, as well as a large amount of through freight. In 1870, five new boats were brought out by the Northwestern Union Packet Company and the Northern Line. These two companies afterward con- solidated under the name of the Keokuk Northern Line. The Northwestern, Phil Sheridan and Belle of La Crosse were put on the river by the former com- pany, and the Lake Superior and Red Wing by the latter. These boats are still in existence. The War Eagle, a large packet, was burned at La Crosse in May, 1870. That year a great deal of business was being done, the Diamond Jo constituting the third. Besides the five new boats mentioned, the Tom Jas- per, Alex. Mitchell, City of St. Paul, Milwaukee and Addie Johnson, of the Northwestern line ; the Minneapolis, Rock Island, Davenport, Minnesota, Muscatine and others of the Northern line; and the Diamond Jo, Ida Fulton, Arkansas and Tidal Wave of the Diamond Jo line, were all running on the river, as well as a host of raft boats. In 1871, the City of Quincy and S. S. Merrill were put on the river as new packets. The latter boat, then the largest on the upper river, was burnt at Warsaw, Ill., the year following. The com- panies at present operating are stated elsewhere.
DYERSVILLE.
At a distance of twenty-nine miles west of Dubuque, and by the wayside of the Iowa Division of the Illinois Central Railroad, is the flourishing and beautifully located town of Dyersville, situated on a prominent eminence in the western portion of Dubuque County, commanding an extensive view of the surrounding country. The town is nearly encircled by a large belt of forest timber, while the beautiful and undulating prairies beyond, rolling away in the distance, dotted here and there with numerous pine groves, present to the eye of the observer a combination of beauty and majesty rivaled by no country in the West. The adjoining section is well watered; the Maquoketa River, being the principal stream, coursing on its way through the town, affords abundant power. The surface, like that of the counties lying west of the Mississippi River and beyond its bluffs, is high rolling prairies, with no hills. Yet in this vicinity, no considerable portion is level. The soil is of a rich loam, with sand enough to retain moisture in dry seasons, while it never, for any length of time, remains so wet as to inconvenience the farmer from attending to his crops. Excellent and pure water for domestic uses is easily obtained at nearly all points ; and fine qualities of stone for building purposes are readily obtained, while clay in abundance is to be had for the purpose of manufacturing brick.
With a population of 1,500 souls, the citizens of Dyersville are full of a spirit of enterprise which promises at an early day to make her one of the fore- most in the ranks of Iowa's live towns.
The first settlements made in this vicinity were during the years 1837-38. About this time William, John, Abraham and Mac Whitesides, with Messrs. Henry Mouncey, Hewitt and others, selected claims. In November, 1838,
V
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Thomas Riggs with his family located in the neighborhood. Later, came Thomas Finn, John Christoph, Hon. Theopolus Crawford, subsequently a mem- ber of the Legislature, and still later, the Rev. William Trick, nearly all accom- panied by families, and emigrating from the counties of Somersetshire and Devonshire, England, in search of homes on the borders of civilization in the new world. Most of them began the battle of life under different auspices and amid different surroundings than they had been accustomed to across the sea, but all manifested a determination to conquer impossibilities almost, if it should become necessary to the founding of new interests and the cultivation of new associations. Lands were then sold, as will be remembered, at a nominal price per acre, and the new-comers purchased farms for themselves, the improve- ments on which were confined to a log house, within rail, "staked and ridered" fences. They were as a rule located at some point contiguous to a spring and " bunch " of timber, without regard to the quality of land settled upon. In con- sequence of this peculiarity, a major part of the most productive and fertile prairie territory in this portion of the county was for many years unoccupied. And it was only when its superior richness was ascertained by chance invest- ments, that it became marketable. Lands previously purchased had been those pre-empted by still earlier pioneers in the wilds of the West. Later vendees had acquired title to their domains by virtue of land warrants obtained from original pre-emptors, at the rate of from 75 cents to $1 per acre.
The Dyer family, to whom the town is indebted for its origin, and for much of its prosperity and success, came to this vicinity in early days. James Dyer, Jr., reaching his adopted home in the spring of 1848; James Dyer, Sr., and Will- iam Dyer, coming in the spring of 1849. They opened farms and began improvements at once, but it was not until several years subsequent that these improvements became the nucleus of the present town. Other families already mentioned had made their advent here at an earlier day, but were, as stated, dis- tributed about the township at points remote from future Dyersville.
The first death to occur in the township was that of Theophilus Crawford, a nephew of the Hon. Theophilus Crawford, which took place sometime in May, 1851, at the residence of his uncle, west of the town. The event cast a gloom over the settlement, but it brought the inhabitants into close communion with the man on the pale horse, and the liveliest sympathy was manifested for the relatives and mourners. He was buried in the grounds set apart for cemetery purposes, about two miles east of town, which have since been used for the interment of all who have come, and, after a brief sojourn in this vale of tears, have gone hence to be known no more forever, and was the first burial of record in this vicinity.
In December following, John Fowels came into this breathing world in a log cabin on Victory, east of Willow street, which is still standing, and the first birth in the town of Dyersville is remembered in that connection.
Weddings were of unfrequent occurrence. Those who came here at first were accompanied by their families. Young marriageable women were luxur- ies ; the settlers were too busy in devising ways and means to keep the gaunt forms of starvation and poverty from their households to indulge those social amenities, out of which crop courtship and matrimony, and it was not until the merry month of May, 1852, dawned upon the community that Cupid winged victims by his unerring dart, and two souls with but a single thought combined or two hearts that beat as one, found opportunity to effect a partner- ship for life.
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The bride was Miss Annie Trick, daughter of the Rev. William Trick, and Malcom Baxter responded, according to the Methodist code, to love, honor and obey the trusting Annie. The ceremony took place at the residence of R. W. Gadsden, on Victory, between Chestnut and Willow streets, and was witnessed by many, doubtless envious, spectators, who united in supplementing the min- isterial benediction with the stereotyped wish that long life and prosperity would be the handmaidens of the couple who had launched their bark on the troublesome tide of matrimony.
In 1850, the settlers held a meeting and decided to locate a town about two miles down the North Fork of the Big Maquoketa. James Dyer presided, it is believed, and earnestly advocated the plan. This was, however, abandoned upon future consideration, and the scheme for a time lay dormant.
Meanwhile, John Bailey, John Gould, James Plaister, Henry Popham, Robert Whiting, and others, with their families, had come into the township. They settled first in Dubuque, and were members of the colony of emigrants who made that point their first resting-place from England, whence they started forth prospecting. During the fall of 1849-50, they decided to settle in Dyersville, and employed their efforts in erecting log cabins for their household lares. This was accomplished in the spring following, when they were all included in the bills of mortality of Dyersville.
In the winter of 1851, another meeting was convened, whereat it was con- cluded to lay out the present town, which was accordingly surveyed for the purpose, and residents contemplated a time in the future when their municipal- ity would grow into a city. Events came and passed with surprising rapidity ; houses were erected, the first by George Hyler, on the present site of the Penn- sylvania Hotel, near the depot. It was of frame, a story and one-half high, 16x24 feet, and contained three rooms. James Plaister followed suit, putting up a house on the square now bounded by Main, Chestnut, Victoria and Union streets, similar in all' respects to the Hyler homestead. The next house was the present residence of A. Limback, on the Dyer estate, which was of a more pretentious character, and remained unfinished until 1853.
By 1853, considerable accessions had been made to the settlement. Houses stood far apart on what have since become Victory, Willow, Main and Walnut streets. Judge Dyer resided at the corner of Main and Chestnut streets, with his store further west on the former thoroughfare. The Dyers had partially erected a saw-mill, and were concluding arrangements for the building of a grist-mill. Both were completed, the latter alone surviving, and now known as the Pacific Mills. A man named Collings resided in a yellow shanty across the river, and other settlers had pitched their tents in the same territory. The business portion of the town was on Main street, to which access was had by those across the river, until late in the season, by boats and wading. In the fall, however, Judge Dyer built a bridge across the Maquoketa, the first in the township. Though a rough affair, being constructed of logs and puncheons, it cost $4,000, and remained the connecting link between East and West Dyers- ville until 1869.
- Early in the spring of 1853, Orsemus L. Foote came to Dyersville with his family, from the East, and became identified with the most active phase of an enterprising life, then beginning in the town. He purchased one-half the grist- mill in progress of building, and, procuring materials from a distance with which to begin operations, commenced the erection of the first hotel in the village. The same was completed in the fall, and has for many years answered the demands of the traveling public. Then, as now, it was a two-story brick,
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finished in a manner designed to attract the patronage of the thousand and one prospective residents, whom it was thought would direct their footsteps to Dyers- ville so soon as they came to a knowledge of the many evidences of growth and importance therein existing. The house was built under the supervision of Malvin Simpson, a contractor from Galena, imported especially for the purpose, and cost a round sum for those times.
In the same year, the Methodist Church was commenced, and finished early in 1854. As early as 1849, this sect had been provided with a place of wor- ship by Judge Dyer, who fitted up a room in one of his houses for that purpose, but it was not until the time mentioned that a house of worship was prepared. The building was of frame, quite commodious for the times, and, when finished, was the first church edifice in the township. The Rev. William Trick officiated as Pastor.
During this year (1854), Judge Dyer built among the first brick houses in the town. It was an addition to his store at the corner of Main and Union streets. After standing through the summer it was leveled by a hurricane and ruined. But before another year rolled past Judge Dyer rebuilt the premises which are now standing, a portion of the store of A. Limback, on the very spot of its origin. The post office was established in Dyersville in 1854.
Brick structures began from this date to be the rule. In the succeeding year Henry Popham erected one on Water, between Union and Chestnut streets. The ground floor was used for commercial purposes, the upper story being devoted to the occupation of a Masonic Lodge. Others followed in its wake, and the town by this and other means began to assume the appearance of a miniature city. It was during the year 1855, that the cholera swept over the township, and, for many years, left the impress of its visitation in the memories of the inhabitants, if not upon the town itself. It first made its appearance in the hotel, where a guest named Buck, a physician from La Crosse, was attacked. This was early in July. He had registered at the house in company with his wife and child. Nothing was thought of his remain- ing secluded in his room, from which he emerged after two or three days, evi- dently having been seriously ill. Soon after the cholera attacked one more of the guests, also a boarder, who was employed in Judge Dyer's mill-with these cases the existence of the disease was publicly announced, and its origin traced directly to Buck, who had left for the West in the mean time. A panic followed the promulgation of the news, the like of which had never before been witnessed by the people, nor equaled since Dyersville was settled. Those who were able to do so left the vicinity, while the bulk of those who remained, nearly paralyzed with terror, were scarcely able to care for themselves and became easy victims to the scourge. Six deaths occurred in one day, among them the wife and child of the absent Buck, to whose immediate agency the cause of this dire calamity was due. Those who remained exempt from disease or fear, cared for the sick and buried the dead, and no sooner had one corpse been consigned to mother earth than the turf was turned to receive additions. Among those who remained, and, by their efforts and office, mitigated the horrors of the plague, were Judge Dyerand the Rev. William Trick, who, at all hours and under all circumstances, responded to the calls of the afflicted, and sought, in kindly endeavors, to nurse the sick one back to life, or console the last moments of the hopeless. The dead were buried in the cemetery already referred to, and those who survived, through chance, the dispensation of Providence, or the treatment administered by Drs. Jones, Cainer and Warmoth, and some still live, recur to the scenes of gloom
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with which the summer of 1855, was shadowed as among the most wretched their experience ever gave birth to.
This had the effect of depressing business, retarding improvements, and discouraging the settlers from all effort designed to the accomplishment of defi- nite objects. The epidemic raged three weeks, and during that period a liberal percentage of the inhabitants had gone the way of all flesh, or betaken them- selves to more congenial parts.
When the Illinois Central road was completed to Dunleith, and the Iowa Pacific was well under way in the direction of Sioux City, the residents of Dyersville thought they saw in these enterprises an assured way to the promised land of prosperity and happiness. But the cholera placed an embargo upon their hopes, which ceased to be a part of their daily life, and they were resolved into a condition of despondency equaling that which Moses suffered on the summit of Pisgah. But little was done in 1856, either of a public or private character. New farms were opened in the township, but the town itself remained almost without any tangible evidence of active co-operation in carrying forward the work of improvement. The Methodist congregation, however, began the build- ing of their present church edifice, and continued thereat until winter put a stop to the work, which was resumed the following spring, and completed at a cost of from $12,000 to $15,000. The Catholics also prepared a church for occupation, which was about all that was undertaken. These, however, gave an impetus to building which manifested itself in 1857, when the boom which had been gathering for two years previous to the epidemic materialized with great benefit to the town and township. The Iowa Pacific was completed to Dyersville in April, and, on May 5, the first train of cars halted at the depot, then the terminus of the road. It produced wonderful results. New residents made their appearance and became objects of interest and speculation to those who had come before. They came by cars, by stage coaches which connected with all points in the West, by carryalls, wagons and on foot. The hotels were crowded, and the merchants enjoyed a run of patronage that enabled them to put money in their purses. Property rose in value, and lots were sold in eligi- ble portions of the town for $10 per foot. At the end of the first five months after the road was completed the merchants are reported to have carried the heaviest stocks of goods west of the Mississippi River, some of them invoicing as high as $40,000.
During these times, the Clarendon Hotel, begun a year or more previous, and designed as one of the most complete and elaborate establishments of the kind in the West, was completed. Judge Dyer began its erection under an impression that when finished it would hardly be sufficiently extensive for the rush of travel that would storm its outer walls. As time progressed this impression was somewhat dissipated by the facts; these hopes were revived, however, when Dyersville became a railroad center, only to lapse and disappear entirely when the terminus of the road was changed to points further west. It was a monster frame building, on the southeast corner of Water and Union streets, in its day one of the most elegantly furnished and appointed in Iowa. But diminished patronage finally caused its suspension, and it drifted into the realm of oblivion, but is yet remembered for its architectural excellences, and the promise of long life, usefulness and wealth it held out to the owner, as also to Dyersville. A portion of the premises still remain to guide the anti- quarian, affording shelter to a pair of coopers and a coffin-maker, who carry on their several trades within the walls that once echoed to the sounds of feast- ing and the strains of sweet music.
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