USA > Iowa > Polk County > The history of Polk County, Iowa : containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, &c., biographical sketches of its citizens, war record of its volunteers in the late rebellion, general and local statistics, portraits of early settlers and prominent men > Part 48
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HISTORY OF POLK COUNTY.
Moines. A single arrival of a boat, although it was a small one and was always unloaded and reloaded with great haste in order that it might not be stranded on the return trip, had the effect of filling the hearts of all the people, both in town and country, with unspeakable joy and of temporarly, at least, enhancing the value of all real estate. It is remarked by a gen- tleman who knows, that in those days the sound of a steamboat whistle filled all hearts with gratitude and was the signal for a general stampede to the river; it is even averred that upon the arrival of a steamboat on Sun- day, during church time, at the sound of the whistle the church would be vacated as soon as possible; if the the preacher were almost through with his discourse the audience might possibly wait a few seconds to allow him to conclude, but in most cases the audience, on hearing the welcome sound of a steamboat whistle, beat a hasty march to the landing; that magic sound had, for them, greater charm than the sound of the gospel trumpet; the men grasped their hats and started; they were usually followed at no great distance by the women and children, with the minister bringing up the rear; from fifteen seconds to a half minute was all the time it required to empty an over crowded church building.
After the boat started on its return trip and the water in the river began to abate, the people would again attend church and the editors recommence lampooning the authorities for not hastening the improvements of the chan- nel. Then after the editor of the newspaper had fully given expression to the opinions of his patrons, and fully exhausted his supply of epithets and italics, there would usually be a lull in the tempest for a week or two, when the river navigation question would again be grappled and held up to public gaze in a less intense light. The progress of improvements would be hopefully spoken of and the project of building boats suitable for the river would be advocated and vehemently urged. The following extracts from the Gazette will exhibit some of the phases of the discussion of the question :
APRIL 7, 1851.
" Messrs Hull and Howard, of Lafayette, in this county, have built two flat-boats the present season, one of which is sixteen feet by sixty-three, and the other sixteen by sixty-four. We learn that these gentlemen intend loading them principally with corn. Messrs John Hull, Todhunter and Zachary, of the same place, have built a hull bottom boat ten feet wide by eighty feet long, which will also be ladened with corn and other produce. We learn that they will leave the landing at Lafayette within two weeks. The keel will be brought back by the owners. These are the first boats that have ever been built and ladened in Polk county. It is the beginning of good times in Central Iowa. Let the obstacles be removed from the Des Moines river and next spring we guarantee that scores of flat boats will be built in this part of the country, and the surplus of produce will be readily exchanged for cash."
MAY 5.
" Steamboat Arrival .- The steamer Caleb Cope landed at our wharf on last Saturday evening with a heavy cargo, making the trip from Keokuk in four days. The trade is a profitable one for her owner; the receipts for freight at this point being about eighteen hundred dollars. Should the water remain so high as to admit her passage over the dams she will make a second trip to Fort Des Moines. The Cope is a boat of tremendous power, and well suited for the Des Moines river, in a good stage of water. We hope
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HISTORY OF POLK COUNTY.
that ere long we shall witness more frequently the arrival and departure of steamboats at Fort Des Moines. We shall witness it when the obstructions to the navigation of the river are removed."
JUNE 11.
" The fact is now settled that the Des Moines river cannot be navigated so long as those dams are permitted to remain undisturbed. The fact is settled that they must be torn out. Shall a monopoly of that kind be per- mitted longer to exist? There is now but one voice in answer to the ques- tion, and that declares in emphatic language, No! Let the people take this matter into their own hands; let them prepare their own highway with their own hands. Tear out the dams, clear away the snags, and thereby open up a way into the interior of the State for steamboat navigation. The Des Moines is susceptible of it.
" The people must take this into their own hands, for the party who has had the whole control and almost entire management of the river has de- clared that the work was out of his hands. Citizens of the valley, this is no party question with us, we are all interested in the navigation of the river; we all bear part of the same burdens placed upon our shoulders by the destruction of navigation, and, irrespective of party, we must remove them. Let the citizens of the towns and of the counties along the Des Moines river speak out on this subject. What say you, citizens of Fort Des Moines, Red Rock, Eddyville, Ottumwa and others interested upon this subject? Let us hear from you."
JUNE 25.
" The papers published at Keokuk express the belief that the commis- sioners will make a contract soon with a company in New York for the completion of the work as far up as Fort Des Moines. The Keokuk Dis- patch intimates that the Governor will have to convene the Legislature to give the Commissioners power to enter fully into the arrangement. If that be the case, we must confess that we have but little confidence in the matter.
"To place improvements in the hands of companies was strongly and bitterly opposed by the members from this district. While the Whigs urged the adoption of such a plan before the people last summer, the Dem- ocratic candidates raised the usual cry of monopoly, and opposed the doc- trine in toto. We say, then, when we are told that those men are to meet and empower the Commissioner to place the improvement in the hands of the companies, we have but little faith in such an arrangement being made."
AUGUST 1.
" During the past week we were at Ottumwa, and had a conversation with Mr. Gillaspy, who appears to be sanguine in the hope that a contract will be let to a company to complete the improvement to this place. We presume the fact will be ascertained within a very short time, and, unless arrange- ment is made with the company, we think the Commissioner had better turn his attention to tearing out the dams instead of putting in others."
AUGUST 8.
" The prospect of carrying out the improvement to completion as far up as Fort Des Moines is flattering to its friends. We learn that Mr. Bangs, one of the company that bid for the contract, is now with the Commis- sioner making an examination of the river, prior to entering into a binding contract. The question as to the extent of the grant of lands has been re-
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HISTORY OF POLK COUNTY.
terred to the Attorney-General, who will give it a thorough examination and decide upon it at an early day.
" Gen. Van Antwerp, the Commissioner, has, we learn, made a contract with Messrs. Bangs Brothers & Co., for the completion of the locks and dams at Thomas, Bonaparte and Bentsport, by the first of October, 1852.
" As finally winter comes on apace and the river freezes up, steamboat navigation, like the steamboats themselves, is laid up and the public mind of Fort Des Moines can turn its attention to other things, such as ferries and a proposed change in the name of the town; as witness the following: "JANUARY 22, 1852.
" The Town Council has finally concluded a bargain with Mr. Scott for his boats, rights and privileges in the ferries across the Des Moines and 'Coon rivers at this place. It is proposed, we understand, to run these fer- ries free of charge to citizens of this and adjoining counties who visit this place on business, and tax all foreign travel a small sum, say about one- half the usual rates, to defray the expense of keeping the boats, tackle, etc. in repair. It is contemplated to build a ferry house on this side of the river, that whoever may be engaged to attend the ferry shall have a com- fortable place to protect him from the inclement weather, and hence be deprived of any excuse for leaving his post. This is a good idea, and will remove the cause of general complaint heretofore, that persons had to ' hol- ler' and wait a long time, in wet and cold, for the ferryman, who had gone where he could be sheltered from both. We hope to see this plan carried out."
JANUARY 29, 1852.
"The Star of last week suggests that the name of our town be changed to Des Moines. The change would certainly be an improvement. It would save much time; it looks better and sounds better, and, beside, 'Fort' is to one far off always suggestive of Indians and rudeness. And why not make it Desmoines, all written together and pronounced in English. If written separate there are and ever will be two ways of pronouncing the name, the French, Day Moin, and the English, as by most now."
While the navigation of the Des Moines river remained so uncertain and railroads were regarded as doubtful, Fort Des Moines, of necessity, could not amount to much as a trading point. The pioneer town, like the present capital city had men of enterprise and business capacity. It even then contained some of the very men who still remain as its most honored citizens, and who afterward contributed chiefly to the success of its business enterprises, but so long as its only outlet consisted of a tortuous wagon-road to Keokuk it could not become a business center and afford a market for the agricultural products of the surrounding country.
It was not till 1854, when the then Mississippi & Missouri River Rail- road, now the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, was completed to Iowa City, that the citizens of Des Moines became assured of railroad communication, and, in anticipation of it began to found business houses and warehouses, which gave it the appearance of a trading point of some pretensions, and the settlers throughout the surrounding country began to view it as the coming market of Central lowa. The river, however, remained the chief hope of the people, and they continued to repose confidence in the naviga- tion company until a later period. Steamboats continued to occasionally arrive, until finally the State, in order to evade the further rapacity of the contractors and guard the treasury from the frequent and exorbitant de-
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HISTORY OF POLK COUNTY.
mands of the River Company, finally parted with its title to one of the most liberal land grants and received, by way of a consideration, an old wooden scow and the assurance that no future claims would be presented. Then it was that the Des Moines river, as a channel of trade, was entirely, re- luctantly and finally abandoned, and the people turned to iron rails as the forlorn hope. The iron rails did not come without concession, sacrifice and agitation, and as early as 1848 and 1849 the agitation began in Polk and the surrounding counties.
In one of the first numbers of the Iowa Star appeared a lengthy edi- torial, agitating the project of building a railroad from Chicago to Rock Island and from thence, by way of Des Moines, to Council Bluffs. In another column was a report of a railroad meeting held in Madison county, in which, among other things, were the following resolutions:
WHEREAS, Measures are now being taken for the purpose of soliciting Congress for a grant of lands to the State of Iowa. to be applied in the construction of a railroad from Rock Island by the way of Iowa City and Fort Des Moines to Council Bluffs on the Missouri river; and
Whereas, Madison county lies on a direct line from Fort Des Moines to Council Bluffs; therefore,
Resolved, That the citizens of Madison county feel a deep interest in the construction of said road, and that they highly commend the measures taken to forward said work.
Resolved, That they will always be found co-operating in such a laudible enterprise.
Resolved, That the adaptation of Madison county to agriculture and manufacturing should place it conspicuously on the list of intermediate points to be taken into consideration, on said route.
Resolved, That the chairman of this meeting appoint eleven individuals of said county, as delegates, to attend the State railroad convention, to be holden at Fort Des Moines on the second Monday of December, 1849, and that said delegates be authorized to fill all vacancies which may occur in their number.
The above resolutions were unanimously adopted by the said meeting.
Notwithstanding these early overtures made successfully to Congress, and the local agitation of the subject, it was many years before the railroad came, and Des Moines had to divide with such places as Eddyville, Oska- loosa and Iowa City, the credit and profits of unimportant and inland trad- ing points, and such were Eddyville, Iowa City, Oskaloosa and Des Moines until near the close of the pioneer period. Keokuk, Burlington and Mus- catine were the great market places of this part of the State, with the prefer- ence largely in favor of the first; once in a while an individual of more than ordinary adventursome turn of mind, started with a drove of cattle or hogs to points as far distant as Chicago or St Louis. In one case three gen- tlemen entered upon the hazardous enterprise of buying a drove of fat cat- tle and driving them to Chicago. They crossed the Mississippi river at Burlington, and from there followed a direct route to the City of the Lakes, arriving there at the expiration of nineteen days. They could find no mar- ket even in Chicago for their cattle at that time, and so they were compelled to butcher them themselves, and then sold them on the hook at prices rang- ing from two and a half to three and a half cents per pound. The men made money by the operation-the total expenses of the trip amounting to ninety dollars. Notwithstanding this venture was a fortunate one the gen- tlemen did not repeat it, and as fatted stock became more plentiful, the stock driving business was engaged in by various persons of a speculative turn of mind who bought up the surplus cattle and hogs and drove them to the leading Iowa or Mississippi river towns where they were usually sold or shipped to St Louis. As before remarked, Keokuk was the favorite trading point for such dealers. The stock dealer of pioneer days was not
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HISTORY OF POLK COUNTY.
at all such a character as his successor of to-day; the disposition, equipment and furnishing of the pioneer stock dealer and the present one form a marked contrast. The basis upon which operations of this kind were carried on in those days, forms, also, a marked contrast with the basis of such operations in this day of quick returns and small profits. The dealer bought his stock and gave his note for the purchase price. After he had accumulated a drove sufficiently large he started for the market, and this, owing to the great dis- tance and the slow movements of the fattened stock, often required weeks for the round trip. There was indeed one circumstance which expedited business. In the language of one who knows, " the hogs were good travel- ers." After disposing of the drove and returning, the stock dealer again made the round of his circuit and paid for the stock. If his venture proved a fortunate one, he could pay all his bills and have something left as a com- pensation for his trouble; if not, some of the stock raisers had to wait until the drover made another trip. The money which the drovers thus circulated through the country was principally bank bills on the State banks of Ohio and Indiana.
An incident peculiar to these times illustrating the status of commercial operations, is related of a gentleman who kept a store in this region of country, and as an adjunct more of necessity than of choice, founded in the scarcity of cash among his customers, he likewise was given to barter in farm products of which the frisky swine formed a leading factor. Mr M. was his name and he carried on quite an extensive trade with the farmers of that section, and was doing a flourishing business. However, as is gen- erally the case with establishments of that kind, there accumulated quite a large amount of old goods, out of style and out of date. Under these cir- cumstances, some merchants would have offered the old goods at " less than cost," or employed a loquacious auctioneer to dispose of them to the highest bidder-but not so with Mr. M. He proceeded as follows: It being a pros- perous year with farmers, he entered the field early as a hog buyer, buying hogs of all sizes and descriptions; bought late and early, and bought con- tinuously for a number of weeks, giving his notes for the purchase-money, as was customary in those days. After he had bought all the hogs in the county which were for sale, and which were old enough to travel, the word was passed around that all hogs thus purchased should be delivered at the county seat on a given day. The hogs came, filling the town and the re gion round about. Mr. M., in the meantime, had employed quite a force of medium-sized boys and vocal men, who, on the given day, were to take charge of the hogs and drive them to Keokuk, Mr. M. accompanying them.
Upon arriving at Keokuk Mr. M. concluded that the St. Louis market was preferable to that of Keokuk, so he chartered a boat, after dismissing all his employes, except a few of the more trusted ones who were in his secret, put the hogs on board, and having given final instructions to the remaining employes, dismissed them and himself set out for St. Louis. Upon the return of the first delegation of drovers there was some consider- able uneasiness manifested by Mr. M's note holders; the former persons could give no satisfactory account of Mr. M., and it soon become whispered about that the latter had probably lost by the transaction.
After a few days the rest of the drovers returned, and upon being ques- tioned appeared to know as little of Mr. M. as those who had preceded.
30
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HISTORY OF POLK COUNTY.
Soon it was whispered around that Mr. M. had failed, and most likely would not return. One by one came the persons of whom Mr. M. had bought hogs, and turned in their notes for goods at the store, and soon the crowd became so numerous that they could not be waited on by the force of clerks then employed; more clerks were employed, and Mr. M.'s estab- lishment was so thronged that it resembled a rush at a savings bank in time of a panic. All styles of dry goods and clothing which had lain on the shelves for years were bought up with avidity, boxes, containing groceries which had not been opened for months, were soon emptied and were heaped up in the rear of the building; all kinds of cutlery, hardware, agricultural implements, jewelry, musical instruments, and toys, were carried off by the wagon-load. In short, there was a pressing demand for everything and anything which farmers could eat, drink or wear, both useful and ornamental, and at the end of a week Mr. M.'s entire stock, including all the old goods which had long been a drug on the market, was disposed of, and the shelves bare.
At this supreme moment Mr. M. returned with a large stock of new goods and his pockets full of money. He pretended to be greatly surprised when he found his store-room empty, and manifested great indignation when apprised of the rumors that were afloat; he even threatened to insti- tute suit for damages against the persons who originated the libel. Mr. M., however, took no steps to prosecute his traducers, nor so much as to discover who they were. It was not many days till his new goods were on the shelves, a good healthy trade had set in, and the proprietor regained his wonted cheerfulness and urbanity. He continued to buy hogs and sell goods for many years, but his customers never again made a run on his store.
Another incident is related by a gentleman who first drove hogs to Bur- lington. He says that arriving at that great center of trade and traffic he sold his hogs for $1.50 per cwt., and was compelled to weigh them on an old fashioned steelyard scales; in order to do that he took the breeching off one of his horses, and from this constructed a sort of cage in which the hogs, one at a time, were suspended while being weighed. In these pioneer days the merchants at the different local trading points would prepare a list of the banks whose bills they would accept in payment for goods, at par, what bills they would accept at a certain discount and what bills would not be received at all. These lists were posted up at a conspicuous place in the store-room, and were revised each mail day. By consulting these lists the farmers could tell before trading just what stores would receive whatever "wild cat" they had on hand and what discount would be made on each bill.
There were persons in every neighborhood who made it their particular business to go on regular trips to Keokuk, Burlington, and other trading points along the Mississippi river, for the purpose of conveying farm pro- duce to those markets and bringing back a supply of dry goods and gro- ceries. In the absence of bridges and improved roads these trips were attended by great difficulties and sometimes dangers. Such trips would sometimes require weeks. There was one thing which favored that kind of freighting, but little of the land was fenced and the teamster had con- siderable latitude, and longitude for that matter, in the selection of his route.
Of the located trading points, next after Fort Des Moines, Oskaloosa was the most popular. Although the latter place was quite a pioneer town, it
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HISTORY OF POLK COUNTY.
having had some three years the start of Des Moines, yet the accommoda- tions to be found at the best tavern there were not always the most elab- orate. It is related that on an occasion they had a very late breakfast at the Canfield House. It happened in this way: The landlord was aware that his supplies were exhausted the evening before, but was not particu- larly alarmed as he expected a fresh supply during the night, his confi- dence being inspired by the assurance of the arrival of his team, which he had dispatched some days previous to Keokuk for the necessary supplies to revictual his former threatened tavern. In vain did he remain awake awaiting the delayed wagon, and "oft in the stilly night" visit his bankrupt pantry. At length light broke forth in the east, and the crowing of the cocks announced the coming dawn; but to the ill-fated landlord appeared no provision wagon, nor was there borne on the morning air any sound of rumbling wheels or clatter of horses' hoofs. The landlord looked wistfully down the divide, but looked in vain. Finally, seized with that determina- tion which desperation inspires, and knowing that his reputation as a land- lord and the future business of his tavern depended on one supreme effort, he mounted a horse and rode to a cabin situated on the outskirts of the town, where he obtained some meal and a side of bacon, and started back on a gallop. The half dozen hungry guests sat in front of the tavern, pin- ing for the flesh pots of civilization, and soon their spirits rose and "their mouths began to water," for far away to the south came the plucky landlord, riding like a knight errant, waving aloft the side of bacon as a sign of relief.
Oskaloosa had some advantage over Des Moines, as it had a famous flour- ing mill long before the latter place, and the store rooms, by reason of be- ing much nearer the points of supply, were usually better stocked and goods could be sold some cheaper.
Sometimes a needy settler would travel a great way to one of these points and then find, to his sorrow, that he did not have money enough to procure the needed article. An instance of this kind is at hand:
A. J. Hasty, E. J. Barker and another settler from Madison county came a distance of fifty miles to Fort Des Moines in order to purchase breaking plows and some provisions. Upon arriving here it was found that, in order to secure the articles, it was necessary for two of the party to remain and dig coal for a week for the plow maker in order to make up what they lacked in money. This was done, two remaining and one returning with the bacon and corn meal for the needy families.
Many other instances might be adduced, but this will suffice.
TRAPPING AND HUNTING.
The sports and means of recreation were not so numerous and varied among the early settlers as at present, but they were more enjoyable and in- vigorating than now.
Hunters now-a-days would be only too glad to be able to find and enjoy their favorable opportunities for hunting and fishing; and even travel hun- dreds of miles sometimes, counting it rare pleasure to spend a few weeks among the lakes and on the wild prairies and woodlands in hunt and chase and fishing frolics, where not half so good hunting and fishing sport are furnished as was in this vicinity twenty-five or thirty years ago. There
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