USA > Iowa > Lee County > The history of Lee county, Iowa, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, &c. > Part 78
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The following persons were elected officers for the second year: J. A. McCormick, President ; F. H. Semple, First Vice President; W. T. Lowery, Second Vice President ; J. Montgomery, Third Vice President; Sabert M. Casey, Secretary ; M. S. Chamberlin, Assistant Secretary ; William G.
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Albright, Financial Secretary ; J. Wilde, Treasurer ; George B. Leidy, Stew- ard ; William A. Young, H. Mittendorf, Marshals ; George Barrows, Sergeant- at-Arms.
The club has been fortunate in the selection of its officers, and to them much of the success of the club is due.
The total number of signers to the Red, White and Blue Ribbon Clubs has been over one thousand six hundred, and the number is steadily increasing. The good that the club has already done is incalculable. The moral tone of the community has been greatly improved, while the temperance sentiment is gradually growing. Working as it does on the principle of moral suasion alone. it is destined yet to continue the good work until the city shall be freed from the curse of intemperance.
The Ladies' White-Ribbon Club of Fort Madison organized January 22, 1878 : President, Mrs. Ellen E. Smith ; Secretary, Miss Emma Frow ; Treasurer, Mrs. Samuel Atlee; Vice Presidents-Methodist Church, Mrs. A. Angear ; Presbyterian Church, Mrs. James Green ; Baptist Church, Mrs. C. R. Beck ; Christian Church, Mrs. Dr. J. H. Bacon; Upper Catholic, Miss Ella Fahey ; Lutheran, Mrs. F. Holzberger ; Lower Catholic, Mrs. Daniel Sher- wood; at large, Mrs. H. C. Weston ; Episcopal Church, Mrs. M. Case ; Executive Committee-Mrs. Arthur Cattermole, Mrs. Mary Wilde, Mrs. Joseph Atlee, Mrs. A. J. Hughes, Mrs. Isaiah Hale, Mrs. N. B. Miller, Mrs. C. J. Montandon, Mrs. Emma Pound.
Officers for 1879 : President, Mrs. Ellen E. Smith ; Secretary, Mrs. Eliza E. Malcom ; Financial Secretary, Mrs. E. C. Tewksbury ; Treasurer, Mrs. Samuel Atlee ; Vice Presidents-Presbyterian Church, Mrs. Cordelia Berry ; Metho- dist Episcopal Church, Mrs. John Wilson; Baptist Church, Mrs. A. J. Hughes ; Episcopal Church, Mrs. J. W. Albright ; Christian Church, Mrs. George Leidy ; Lutheran Church, Mrs. Louisa Schaffer ; Upper Catholic, W. T. Lowry ; Lower Catholic, Mrs. Daniel Sherwood ; at large, Mrs. Mary Wilde. Executive Committee-Mrs. J. W. Frow, Mrs. J. C. Blackburn, Mrs. Anna Miller, Mrs. Clara R. Beck, Miss Maria Newton, Mrs. W. C. Hobbs, Mrs. Jane H. Coriell, Mrs. Sallie Engle.
MORRISON'S PLOW WORKS.
Established in 1864, by S. D. Morrison & Sons, on Front street, and enlarged in 1868. In 1873, the firm was changed to Morrison Bros., and the increase of business in the succeeding two years was such that still larger facil- ities were necessary in the business. In the fall of 1875, the present buildings and grounds were ready for occupancy. They occupy an area of 145x250 feet-the most extensive manufactory of the kind west of the Mississippi River. The annual product is 6,000 plows and prairie-breakers, 3,000 road- scrapers, 500 cultivators and 200. harrows, besides a large amount of special work, as ordered.
The value of the yearly product of the works is estimated at $150,000.
BREWERIES.
In 1844, Garvasius Santo started a little brewery on the lot now occupied by the lower Catholic School building. It was of the rudest character, the building consisting of a shed made with four posts, no siding, a loft, floored
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with poles, on which rested the cooler, and a roof of clapboards. The kettles for brewing were on the dirt floor beneath. The beer manufactured by Santo would not compare with the foaming beverage now supplied by George Schlapp, and it is stated that Santo kept a strainer to free the glasses from the hops which still remained when drawn for use.
Santo sold out to Stephen Girardi, who transferred the establishment to the corner of Second and Pine streets.
In 1845, August Trenschel fitted up a brewery in a frame building pur- chased of Joseph Webster, standing where George Schlapp's brewery is now sit- uated. In 1851, he sold out to Henry Koehler, of whom George Schlapp bought in 1863, and, in 1868, enlarged to its present dimensions. This brew- ery, one of the most complete in the State, consists of a main building, 42x72, two stories high, a brewing, malt and ice house, 80x130, with a cellar in the bluff, of 1,500 barrels capacity.
In 1866, V. Buechel and Anton Burster started a brewery on Third street, in Webster's Addition, which is still operated by Burster.
KEOKUK. EARLY HISTORY.
May God forbid that a son of Caledonia should ever desert his child or disown his clan.
To Dr. Samuel C. Muir, the author of this beautiful sentiment, belongs the honor of building the first house on the site of this now busy and prosperous city of 15,000 people.
The history of the location, from the time Dr. Muir established a home here for his Indian wife and children, in 1820, to 1836, is fully covered in Isaac R. Campbell's " Recollections of the Early Settlement of Lee County," and the address of Capt. James W. Campbell at the Old Settlers' gathering at Warren Station, in September, 1875, both of which productions are already. presented in these pages.
ORIGIN OF THE NAME.
"July 4, 1829," says Dr. Isaac Galland, in a letter published some years previous to his death, in 1858, " was celebrated on a steamboat lying at the foot of what is now Main street. It was at this meeting, presided over by Col. George Davenport, the name Keokuk was given to the place."
Isaac R. Campbell says : "Up to the year 1835, the settlement at the foot of the rapids had been without a distinctive name. Its various aliases were 'Puck-e-she-tuck,' 'Point,' 'Foot of the Rapids,' etc. It was finally proposed by a number of steamboatmen, while detained here lighting over the rapids, that, it should commemorate the name of the peace chief of the Sac tribe. From this time the name of Keokuk was adopted, and, in 1837, I sold my potato-patch inclosure to Dr. Isaac Galland, Agent of the New York Land Company, and, under his supervision, a city in embryo was formally inaugurated and recorded as 'Keokuk.'"
Whatever the difference between Dr. Galland and Mr. Campbell as to the time when the name " Ke-O-kuk " was adopted, both agree that the honor of so naming it belongs to steamboatmen.
The honor of founding the city is about equally divided between Dr. Sam- uel C. Muir and Dr. Isaac Galland-Dr. Muir by reason of his building the first house, in 1820, and Dr. Galland in laying out the original town plat, in
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1837. In the early part of this year, Isaac R. Campbell sold his " potato- patch on the top and side of the hill" to Dr. Galland, who represented the New York Land Company. This company had been organized for the pur- pose of buying up Half-Breed lands, and was backed by a large capital. The St. Louis Land Company was organized for the same purpose. Both com- panies bought Half-Breed titles wherever they were offered for sale, and, as a natural consequence, there was a lively competition between them. In the end, the New York Land Company secured the inside track, and kept it to the end.
In the spring of 1837, Dr. Galland employed a surveyor named Brattle, who lived at Warsaw, to make a survey of the original town plat, and subdivided it into blocks, lots, streets, alleys, etc. It is said that after the survey was made, Galland refused to pay him the price agreed upon, which caused a good many hard words to be said about him. Galland had a crockery store at Warsaw, and what remuneration Brattle did receive was in goods out of that establish- ment.
The original plat bears the following endorsement :
"Presented to the City Council of Keokuk, November 27, 1850, by I. Galland & Co., through their attorney, Gen. R. P. Lowe.
" Filed for record in October, 1840, and recorded in November, following. "JOHN H. LINES, County Recorder."
The original plat, as filed for record, is dated July 23, 1840. The certifi- cate of the Surveyor is in the words following:
I hereby certify that this plat, with the accompanying notes, is a true survey of the town of Keokuk, situated in Section 30, Township 65 N., R. 4 W., and also Sections 25, 26 and 36, Township 65 N., R. 5 W. of the 5th Principal Meridian, in Lee County, Iowa Territory. ALANSON RIPLEY,
July 23, 1840.
Deputy Surveyor of the Half Breed Reservation.
Orleans, Cedar, Water, Fourteenth.
GRANTS FOR PUBLIC USES.
All the streets and alleys in this town, except the alleys passing through blocks num- bered 13, 25, 26, 23, 11 and 50, and Water street, are hereby declared to be, and forever to be, and to remain public highways forever. Block No. 205 is hereby granted as the public burying ground for the use of the citizens of said town of Keokuk.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto subscribed my hand and affixed my seal, this 30th day of July, 1840.
In presence of ) ISAAC GALLAND, Trustee. [SEAL. ]
M. ALDRICH, ISAAC GALLAND, for himself and other proprietors. [SEAL. ] JNO. W. AYRES.
Acknowledged July 30, 1840, before Robert E. Mott, Justice of the Peace.
When Dr. Galland caused the survey to be made, to which the above papers refer, the only tenements in Keokuk was the ragged row of miserable houses known as " Rat Row." About the time the survey was made, or soon after, several shanties were erected along the beach. A heavy tide of immigration was flowing in, and these shanties were thronged with the moving multitude. Hotel accommodations were limited, and the people were glad to get shelter and accommodation of any kind, and at any price.
The first public sale of town lots occurred in June, 1837. The sale was extensively advertised, and was largely attended. A steamboat came up from St. Louis loaded down to the guards with passengers who came to attend the sale. The rivalry between the New York and St. Louis Land Companies added
1
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interest to the occasion, and excitement ran high, but the sale passed off with- out personal collisions or bloodshed. The sale of lots, however, did not reach the number anticipated by the proprietors of the town, but the price bid for one "corner lot," $1,500, was highly gratifying to Galland and others interested with him.
For several years the business of the town was confined to the levee, and mostly to the four corners at the crossing of Front and Johnson streets and " Rat Row." The growth of the town was slow. Up to 1840, there was no perceptible improvement. At that time, and for several years afterward, the bluffs now occupied by the city were covered with timber.
L. B. Fleak, Esq., now editor of the Sun at Brighton, Washington County, this State, who was here the first time in October, 1838, contributes the follow- ing items in regard to old Keokuk :
" My first visit to Lee County was in October, 1838; my wife accompanied que. We landed at Keokuk and found the water too low to cross the rapids, but the captain of the boat sent Mrs. Gehon, of Dubuque (wife of the U. S. Marshal for Iowa Territory-ED.), and my wife, up to Nashville in a yawl, whilst the rest of us, including Judge Jo. Williams, then on his way to Iowa to take his seat on the Territorial Bench, footed it up.
" When we reached Nashville, Maj. Taylor kindly offered to take all the above named, and Porter, of Michigan, to Burlington, which was the destina- tion of all except Mrs. Gehon and Porter.
" We had a jolly time on the road. The Judge was constantly displaying his ventriloquism until we arrived at the ' Bullard House,' in Fort Madison, where we were hospitably entertained, and had an old-fashioned good time ·of it.
" We remained a day in Fort Madison, when the Major took us on to Bur- lington.
" On our return, we stopped again at Fort Madison, one night. When we arrived at Keokuk, we were detained a half a day waiting for a boat, which gave me time enough to see what I thought was the future of Keokuk, and I made up my mind to make it my future home as soon as I could close up my business in Richmond, Mo.
" In March, 1839, we again left for Iowa, but my wife became blind from sore eyes, and I stopped in Clark County, Mo., until March, 1840, when we resumed our journey, reaching Keokuk on the 8th of that month.
" I had previously purchased for a residence the house known as Dr. Muir's, which stood on the first bench from the river, between the levee and First street. It was a comfortable double house, built of logs and well finished, with other buildings, such as kitchen, roothouse, stable and a large garden. For the possession of this property, I paid a man named Smith six hundred dollars.
" I then opened a boat store on the levee, bought two barges and went into the lightening business.
" The front part of the old 'Keokuk House,' 26x44 feet, and three stories high, was built by Moses Gray, Esq., during the summer of 1839, and subse- quently sold to Dr. Galland. It was built of split-lumber, and was roofed and weather-boarded with clapboards, with partitions made of green cotton-wood boards. I rented it for $200 per year, moved in and opened it as a hotel. Soon after I went into it, a transcript of a judgment against the Doctor for $800 was sent from St. Louis, under which it was sold. I bid it in for the St. Louis creditors for the amount of the judgment. Shortly afterward, I bought the building for $640 in cash.
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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY.
" Two years afterward, an addition of 60 feet by 44 was erected, making the hotel 86 by 44 feet, the second frame house in Keokuk.
" It may be a matter of interest to state that Prince De Joinville and his suite were my guests one day and night. in 1841. They had been to Green Bay to see the man, Rey. Williams, who, it was claimed, was the lost Bourbon. The Prince did not claim him as one of the Bourbon stock, and so left him in quiet at his Green Bay home.
.. I was appointed Postmaster at Keokuk, June 24, 1841, and held the office until I resigned, in 1844. The post office was first kept in the . Keokuk House,' and, when I rented out the hotel. in 1843. I moved the office to the corner of First and Johnson streets, and afterward to a building midway between First street and the levee, on Johnson street.
" During the time I kept it at the latter place, my store was robbed, but the mail-matter was not molested. There was $22,000 belonging to the United States, lying in an old pine desk, in the store-room, when the robbery took place. It had been handed to me by Maj. Stewart, Army Paymaster, for safe- keeping, and I had gone home and forgotten it. When we caught the burglar. I asked him why he did not open the desk and take the money ? He said he did lift the cover, but thought no one was d-d fool enough to leave money in such a place.'
The burglar proved to be a man named Kilgore, a somewhat suspicious character that had been in the vicinity for some time as wood-chopper, etc. He was arrested a few days afterward, a short distance below Alexandria, Mo., and brought back. After a preliminary examination, he was sent up to the Peni- tentiary. at Fort Madison, for safe-keeping. But he did not remain there long before he managed to make his escape. In effecting his escape, he nearly killed a man in the prison employ, by fracturing his skull with a blow from a musket. Hle eluded capture, and was afterward seen in St. Louis, by Capt. James W. Campbell and another man, the last of whom tracked him to his stopping-place. which he marked with a piece of chalk on the window. Campbell hunted up some police officers and tried to persuade them to arrest Kilgore, that he might be returned to Iowa, but they were afraid to undertake the job, and so he got away, and was never afterward heard from.
In July, 1841, the population of Keokuk was estimated at 150; in 1846, at 500, an increase of only 350 in five years. At this time, says Henry D. Bartlett, the Hardin House corner was occupied by a long, narrow, two-story frame building, with the roof sloping one way, that was known as the " Shot- Tower." It was used by R. B. Hughes & Co., for offices, sleeping-rooms, etc. This year (1846), Lyman E. Johnson built a small brick house on the east side of Second street, between Main and Johnson. The site of this first brick house in Keokuk would be in the rear of the present Graham Block. West of Second street, for several years, there were but very few houses of any kind. Second street was "away out in the suburbs "-too far away from the business center of town to ever amount to anything-so thought the people who lived and did business under the hill. The square bounded by Main, Johnson, Second and Third streets, was inclosed, and used as a pasture, by Capt. Holliday. Henry D. Bartlett cut the timber and made the rails that fenced it, and is still wait- ing, but without hope, for his pay.
In 1847. the population was 1,120. a little more than double what it was in 1846. In 1848, it had increased to 2,118.
In 1849, when A. Wolcott came to engage in the business of packing pork, says Col. Parrott, he selected the corner of Main and Third streets as far
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enough away from the center of business and population to relieve the people from the stench that necessarily arises from such establishments. The corner is now a busy one, and is occupied by D. H. Annable as a clothing-house. The business has extended along Main and Johnson streets nearly a mile beyond Wolcott's old place, and there are now more business houses on Main, between Tenth and Twelfth streets, than there were in the entire town when Wolcott commenced operations in 1849. Speaking of pork : The first hogs seen in Keokuk were brought in a keelboat from Fort Edwards, by Dan Hine, about 1841.
In March. 1849, the business had increased from the few business places on the levee on Front street, as enumerated in the beginning of this chapter, to twelve or fifteen dry goods stores, three iron stores, three boot and shoe estab- lishments, three saddlery and harness shops, three clothing houses, six black- smith-shops, four wagon-makers, two gunsmiths, one hat manufactory, one coopering establishment that worked thirty to forty men, four hotels, one surgeon dentist, seventeen physicians, twenty-two lawyers and two printing offices. From occasional preaching in one of the seven buildings that made up " Rat Row," five religious societies-one Methodist, two Presbyterian, one Baptist and one Catholic-had been organized, and religious services were held every Sunday. A lodge of I. O. O. F., with fifty members, had been insti- tuted (in 1848), and also a division of the Sons of Temperance. In Septem- ber, 1848, a brass band, with a Mr. Downing as teacher, was organized, and, in 1849, was in full blast and ready to provide music for all publie occasions.
The first Postmaster in Keokuk was John Gaines, but he was never regu- larly appointed. Mails at that time were brought from Warsaw, Ill., in a skiff.
The first regularly-appointed Postmaster was L. B. Fleak, whose commission from President Tyler was dated June 24, 1841. He served until June, 1844. when he resigned. There was a hot contest between W. S. McGavic and John Ainsworth, for the vacancy, but Henry J. Campbell and others, without asking his consent, secured the appointment for Ad. Hine, who was away most of the time, running on the river. He made John B. Russell, who afterward started the Dispatch, his deputy. Hine says all he knows about being Postmaster is that, some years afterward, he was called on to pay some hundreds of dollars, of which the office was found to be short when his successor took possession. This shortage was attributed solely to carelessness in keeping accounts.
The large cooper-shop, to which reference has been made, was owned by R. B. Hughes, father of Mrs. George H. Williams, wife of United States Attorney General Williams during the last years of the administration of President Grant. The shop stood on what is now Second street, near Johnson. It was the largest cooper-shop west of Cincinnati at that time, and was considered a great advan- tage and benefit to the interests of Keokuk. On the night of the 3d of Janu- ary, 1848, the shop caught fire and was entirely consumed, with all its contents, including 400 barrels, a large amount of cooper-stuff, the tools of the workmen, etc. The cellar contained about 400 bushels of potatoes, 150 bushels of beans, 100 bushels of onions and some other stuff that had been stored there for pro- tection against the frosts of winter, which were completely roasted. The loss was about $3,000. But Hughes was not a man to be cast down by such trifles, and, almost before the fire was extinguished, he set to work to rebuild, and in just seven days' time, another shop occupied the place of the old one, ready for use-an evidence of enterprise rarely surpassed. The new shop was dedicated with a grand ball on the night of Monday, the 17th of January, which was largely attended by the citizens of Keokuk and adjacent communities.
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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY.
Kate Williams was a dashing belle, then, and little did she or any one else at that ball imagine, as she " hoed it down" to the tune of "Fisher's Horn- pipe." or other dancing-tunes of the puncheon-floor period, that the time would come when she would be a kind of reigning queen in the circles of court society at the nation's capital. Nor more did she dream, as she climbed the bluffs at the city of her girlhood's home, that, in less than half a century, she would be in position to command the use of landaus or other finely-fashioned and gorgeous means of conveyance in which to make " calls" among thie families of Senators, Cabinet-officers and foreign ministers in the avenues of the "city of magnificent distances." " Fortune is a fickle jade."
The city was incorporated under an act approved February 23, 1847. The first election for city officers was held on Monday, the 3d day of January, 1848.
Three wards were established. The First Ward included all that part of the city lying between the Mississippi River and Second street, and was bounded on the southwest by a line drawn from the river to the center of Sec- ond street, between and parallel with, and at equal distances from, Main and Johnson streets.
The Second Ward included that part of the city lying between the river and the center of Second street, and was bounded on the northeast by the line aforesaid.
The Third Ward included all the remainder of the city between the center of Second street and the northwestern boundary of the city.
The voting-place in the First Ward was at the Rapids Hotel : in the Second Ward, at the American House; and in the Third Ward, at I. G. Wickersham's office.
Candidates for city officers were plenty. For Mayor, the Register announced the names of Col. William Patterson and E. C. Stone. Col. Patterson declined to be a candidate. A citizens' meeting was held at the Baptist Church, on the evening of the 28th of December, to select a candidate. The name of William A. Clark was presented, and, there being no opposition, he was declared to be the choice of the people for Mayor. P. D. Foster and John W. Ogden were nominated for Aldermen in the Third Ward. and Capt. William Holliday and H. Bassett were nominated for Aldermen in the Second Ward. The following was the result of the election :
For Mayor, Capt. Clark, Whig, received 175 votes, and E. C. Stone, " Possum Whig," 87 votes ; majority for Capt. Clark, 86.
James Mackley and William C. Reed were elected Aldermen from the First Ward; Herman Bassett and William Holliday, from the Second Ward ; and John W. Ogden and John M. Houston from the Third Ward.
The first meeting of the City Council was held January 10, 1848, at the Mayor's office, with the Mayor and all the Aldermen present. J. W. Ogden was appointed Clerk pro tem. The Mayor read his address, after which the Council proceeded to elect a Clerk, Assessor and Marshal : A. V. Putman, Clerk : L. E. H. Houghton, Assessor ; and D. Murray. Marshal, Collector and Treasurer. Messrs. Ogden, Holliday, Houston and Reed were appointed a committee to report resolutions for the government of the Council, after which the Council adjourned to meet the following Monday.
The first ordinance passed by the Council was at the meeting of Monday, January 17, 1848. It was entitled " An ordinance relative to the Clerk of the Council of the City of Keokuk."
There was a great deal of business to claim the attention of the city fathers, and they continued in session on Tuesday, the 18th, Wednesday, the 19th, and Thursday, the 20th, both morning and afternoon.
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Monday was occupied in getting the city machinery in motion ; Tuesday, S. Haight & Co. were granted the privilege of placing a wharf-boat at the foot of Main Street. The first tax levy for city purposes was § of 1 per cent.
A room was rented from L. E. H. Houghton at $4 per month, for the Mayor's office. The width of pavements was established at fifteen feet on Main street, and twelve feet on the other streets.
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