USA > Iowa > Des Moines County > Burlington > The semi-centennial of Iowa. A record of the commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the settlement of Iowa held at Burlington, June 1, 1883 > Part 4
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United States burned their cabins, and drove them back across the river.
But when the war with Black Hawk was ended by the capture and submission of that great Indian chief, General Winfield Scott, and thirty chiefs of the confederated tribes of the Sacs and Foxes, with Keokuk at their head, signed a treaty which ceded to the United States all that portion of Iowaknown as the "Black Hawk Purchase." This purchase was the eastern part of Iowa. It was fifty miles wide, and extended along the Mississippi river from the line of Missouri on the south to the "Neutral Ground" on the north.
This treaty was signed at a great council held at the spot where the city of Davenport now stands, on the 15th day of September, 1832, in the presence of more than one thousand Indian chiefs and war- riors. It was ratified on the 13th of February, 1833, and was to take effect on the Ist of June following-thus fixing the date of this Semi- Centennial.
The first day of June, 1833, was fixed as the date when the Indi- ans were to quietly remove from the ceded territory and leave it op- en for settlement by the white man. The news of this treaty brought settlers from every quarter, eager to cross the river and find homes in this beautiful and fertile region; but the soldiers of the United States kept guard on the western shore and forbade their entrance in- to the land of promise. All along the Missouri border and the east- ern banks of the Mississippi they gathered and waited impatiently for the end of May. At the hour of midnight, when the Ist of June, 1833, began, the "army of occupation" passed over and took pos- session, and the tide of emigration, mightier than the flood of waters which it crossed, first reached these shores.
I will not pause to describe that scene, which some of you beheld, nor to tell of the toils and trials which followed, and which many of you shared. This was the beginning, and marks in our history this day as the semi-centennial of the founding of Iowa. By subsequent treaties the Indian titles were gradually extinguished. The white settlements followed in the steps of the retiring red man, until, in 1853, the last band of Sioux passed across our northwestern border.
From the admission of Missouri into the Union, until after the "Black Hawk Purchase," Iowa was under no civil government. It has been said she was "a political orphan." But that is only a fig- ure of speech. Her "Great Father" in Washington sent his troops to look after and defend her, until she was old enough to take lessons in the science and art of government.
In 1834 the Territory of Michigan was extended west of the Miss- issippi river, and the territory now comprising Iowa and Minnesota became part of it. After the admission of the state of Michigan, the territory which was left was organized in 1836, as the Territory of Wis- consin. General Jackson appointed Henry Dodge, the honored father of an honored son, its governor. The second and third ses- sions of its legislature were held at Burlington. Two years later, on the 3d of July, the Territory of Wisconsin was divided, and all that
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part of it west of the Mississippi river became the Territory of Iowa. Its first governor was Robert Lucas. Its first capital was Burlington, whose citizens piously assigned its legislature to old Zion church as an appropriate place for its sessions. The contrast between that fam- ous old building and the new Capitol at Des Moines, now growing to completion in proportions of matchless beauty and grandeur, strikingly illustaters our progress since then. From this last Territory, in 1846, the young state of Iowa emerged, and took her place in the fair sis- terhood of the Union. Her place then was on the frontier. Now her place is in the center, and the western line of the republic is on the shore of the Pacific Ocean. Less than fifty years ago this terri- tory, now called the state of Iowa, contained but 10,531 inhabitants. At the last census the population of the state numbered 1,624,620 people. Fifty years ago Iowa contained nothing but scattered Indian villages, and here and there an Indian trading post. Now the state contains such cities as Burlington, Davenport, Dubuque and Des Moines. Then there were no roads here, except Indian trails across the prairies. On the Ist of January, 1881, there were in Iowa 5, 235 miles of railroad, all except 891 miles constructed since the close of the war, at a cost including equipments of about $90,000,000. Our railroads and our two great rivers form an unrivalled system of trans- portation for the vast and increasing products of our agricultural and mechanical industries. Iowa is the twenty-ninth state of the Union in age; it ranks the fifth as a railroad state, and the second as a corn producing state. Its annual crop of corn is over 230,000,000 bush- els; of wheat, over 36,000,000; of oats, over 41,000,000 bushels. In 1879, the corn crop of Iowa was over 275,000,000 bushels. The val- ue of its annual crops of grains is over $123,500,000. The average annual value of its farm animalsamounts to over $106,000,000. This is only a part of its income. The value of the property in the state is estimated at about $1,200,000,000. These figures are eloquent, and tell of a marvelous and unparalleled progress in a short space of fifty years. And this immense wealth, with its vast income, is gen- erally diffused among the people; so that we have no collossal for- tunes here, and but few homes filled with squalor and poverty. This is the legitimate condition of a free people-let it be one of their highest duties to check all tendencies that would change it.
But material wealth does not constitute the greatness and grandeur of a state. The true greatness of Iowa does not consist in fertile fields with abundant harvests, in flocks and herds and barns and store- houses, in roads of iron, and cities of brick and mortar; but in the institutions which she founds and fosters, and the sons and daughters that she rears and educates. Fifty years ago in all the bounds of the territory, now known as the state of Iowa, there was but one school house, and that was a ten by twelve feet log cabin. In 1880 there were in the state 11,057 school houses, costing about $9,000,000. There were 11, 084 public schools, 494 of which were graded, with an enrollment of 424,057 pupils, maintained by voluntary taxation and the income from the school fund of the state. These public schools
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are equal to the best in the Union. This is shown by the fact that the ratio of illiteracy in Iowa, is less than that of any other state. In 1880 the amount expended for school purposes, including school houses built that year, was $4,843,098. It is a legitimate function of every free government, essential to the security and stability of every republican state, to provide for the education of all its children. And this is the manner in which Iowa performs that function. The state university is a part, and was designed to be the crown of that system of public education which it has been the policy of Iowa to establish and maintain, in order that the very highest education may be placed within the reach of the humblest child within its bounds. It re- quires brains as well as hands to build up a state. It is the humble and lowly of one generation who are the fathers and mothers of the great men of the next. And it may be that there is some young boy in Iowa to day, the child of such parents, who is beginning to feel stirring in his breast aspirations born of scarce conscious but awaken- ing powers, like the stir and spring of eagle's pinions, who up through our common and high schools and university will find the path to eminence and fame, and with "recorded honors" crown the state, which opened the way before his feet.
When the settlers first came to Iowa, they found here no temples of the living God, except "the groves which were his first temples," and that grander temple whose pillars are the hills, and roof the arch- ing heavens above us. There was no voice to proclaim his existence and everlasting truth except the forms and sounds of nature, which taught the untutored savage "to see him in the clouds, and hear him in the wind"-"for there is no speech or language, where their voice is not heard." Two years ago there were in the state 3267 temples of Christian worship, and 2778 anointed priests and Christian minis-
ters. These churches differ in their dogmatic faith; but they all unite in teaching those two great principles upon which must rest the se- curity and stability of all free governments; accountability to God, and righteousness of life. The church is independent of, and sepa- rate from the state, but there is little hope for the state without the church, in its broad and best sense. Without the conservative and restraining influences of our holy religion, the experiment of self-gov- ernment must prove a failure at last. Notwithstanding all the noble- ness, beauty and loveliness which human character presents, the his- tory of human bloodshed, cruelty, oppression, wrong, crime, and guilt teaches that there are dreadful and destructive forces in human society, and terrible elements in human nature, which must be held in check by conscience or force. There is no other alternative. Un- loose from the consciences of men the obligations which belief in ac- countability to God and the solemn verities of the Christian faith fasten upon them, and these destructive and explosive forces would burst forth, and in the wild whirlwind of unchained human passions, wicked human desires, and unhallowed human ambitions, every free government would perish from the earth, and brute force govern the world. If I can speak one word which will be remembered through
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the fifty years to come-let it be this warning voice-that without re- ligion, liberty is only a beautiful and glorious, but transient dream. Let the sacred star which ushered in the rising of the light of the Sun of righteousness fade from the eyes of men, and our young state, with all her fair sisterhood of states-now walking in the light of freedom- in hopeless blindness, remembering only the light and glory lost, will stumble forward in a dark path to sad, uncertain destiny; "as a child struck blind while playing in the sun, sees the light of heaven no more, but carries the memory of it to the grave."
But this can never be. That God, who has inspired us with the love of liberty, has given us the consciousness of great wants, and placed in our breasts immortal instincts and aspirations, which only his eternal truth can satisfy. Until the consciousness of these great wants, instincts and aspirations is lost, His religion will never lose its hold on the hearts of men. The great fact of that consciousness in the heart of every man will withstand all the assaults of human logic. "His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom"-this is the best hope that liberty, which is one of its results, will endure.
I have already reminded you that the first white man whose eyes ever beheld these shores, which the Indians call the "Beautiful Land," was a Christian missionary. That was a blessed omen, but it is a bet- ter omen still, that three thousand Christian ministers have found a place in Iowa within the semi-centennial of its first settlement. The power of that Christian faith which they teach is the mightiest force that ever influenced the condition and affairs of men. The fairest forms of our modern civilization-its beneficent, benevolent and free institutions, and our American system of civil liberty, are its offspring. The heralds of the cross, who are leading on the victorious armies of our God, are moving in the vanguard of the triumphal march of the world's progress. That faith teaches us to see the hand of God in our country's history, working out the beneficent results which we enjoy to-day. It adds the sanctions of conscience to the duties of patriotism, and to the guilt of treason to our country, the aggrava- tion of thankless impiety toward Heaven.
It is thirty-seven years since Iowa entered the Union and took her place with these United States. Ever since then she has kept step with the march of their advance. As a part of that Union she is great,and will become yet greater. As one of its"broken fragments" none could forecast her gloomy and uncertain future. Iowa has seal- ed her loyalty to that Union, in the blood of twenty thousand of her bravest sons, who now rest in graves filled with nobler dust than that which sleeps on Marathon. Honors! enduring and perpetual honors to the men, who died to keep the lofty trust, and save the priceless heritage of such a land as this, filling up the measure of its fame with the glories and triumphs of the mighty struggle in which they fell!
When the rebellious south arose and in its pride of power cast its challenge at the nation's feet by firing on the flag of Sumpter, Iowa's "War Governor," plain, honest and great as Cincinnatus, organized and sent more than seventy thousand Iowa soldiers to join the armies
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which met the hosts of rebellion, and hurled them back, smitten, crushed, bleeding and conquered to the earth. They fought under Lyon like lions at Wilson's creek. They were with our own Curtis at Pea Ridge; they were with Grant at Belmont, Donnelson and Vicks- burg; they followed Sherman to the sea, and everywhere in endur- ance on the march, and courage on the field, they were "heroes among heroes." They and their comrades not only saved the Union then, but insured its perpetuity for all the future. It is certain that we shall have no more rebellions. The lesson will never be forgot- ten. There are words and deeds which will not die, but become lofty inspirations to all coming time. Great achievements and hero- ic acts do not produce their most important results in the direct ob- jects which they accomplish, but in the examples which they afford and the lessons which they teach. "Marathon saved Greece more than once." The sun which rose on Salamis will never set. Demos- thenes still thunders his philippics under the shadow of the Acropolis. From the lips of Cicero still bursts that tempest of indignant elo- quence upon the traitor head of Cataline. The Light Brigade still marches "into the jaws of death" at Balaklava. Webster "still lives" to answer Hayne. Sheridan's ride will turn the tide of many a battle. The "Rock of Chickamauga" will stand against defeat on many a bloody field. Corse still holds Altoona profanely and righteously whipping the foe. McPherson falls "leading the front of battle" and dies at Atlanta, but lives forevermore. And thus the swords which brought deliverance to the nation out of the great struggle of the Re- bellion, like the flaming sword of the cherubim which kept the gate of Paradise, will guard the Union, and flash terror to every heart that would compass its destruction through all the centennials of the future.
The Union of these states is to us the only hope and pledge of peace, freedom and dominion. Iowa is a child of that Union; her love and obedience were pledged to it from her birth. Her place in it was the birthright of Heaven. Her loyalty is the obligation of blood and origin. She can trace the sources of her blood to every sister state. The settlers who found homes here had left other homes behind, dear and unforgotten still. Not only the strongest obligations of duty, but the dearest ties of life bind us to our coun- try. And our country is-not Iowa-but the Union of the United States. We are all citizens of Iowa, grateful to God for such a state, and for the unnumbered blessings with which he has crowned it. But with deeper gratitude and loftier pride-with an exultation above the proud Roman boast, we all stand here to-day, American citizens, under the shadow and protection of the constitution and flag of the Union. That Union is the great republic of the world; the empire of a hemisphere; the latest born but queen of the nations; baptized in blood and fire, the heir of earth's best heritage of freedom, and a pat- rimony of the fairest, richest lands beneath the sun. Iowa's place is in the heart of the Union. We stand to-day in the center of the Mississippi valley. It stretches from the tropics to the northern
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lakes, and from the eastern to the western mountain range. The sun shines on no other scene so fair. It is a vast landscape of lakes and rivers-of fertile lands and wooded hills and mountain slopes, where stores of inexhaustible wealth are buried in the earth, and
"Plenty sits upon the clouds, and drops IIer bounties into the laps of men."
Here "life is young" and men are strong, and human hands and brains are building up free and mighty states. Everywhere, by lake and river, mountain, plain and sea, cities which have been "born in a day," temples of industry, temples of learning, temples of charity and tem- ples of religion, and the happy homes of a free people stand in the sunlight. The Genius of prophecy looks upon the scene, as Baalam from the mountain top looked on the tents of Israel, and exclaims: Here-unless the folly and wickedness of men can reverse the de- crees of God-here is the destined seat of empire.
When fifty years have passed and Iowa's full centennial is come, will that grand vision have faded from the eyes of men, or will it stand revealed a glorious reality? Let the sons still follow in the steps of their fathers. Let the motto, "In God we trust," engraven on our national coin in the darkest hour of the nation's greatest trial, be still engraven on our hearts. Let our constitution and laws still ordain, "Liberty for all, and justice to every man." Then these states,-with more gigantic strides in the future than in the past,-in peace, liberty, righteousness, fraternity and union, will move on in the path of national power, progress and glory; outstripping the swiftest visions of prophecy, and holding up before the nations the fairest example of republican progress and Christian civilization that the world has ever seen.
1717864
After the prolonged applause which followed the oration, and a hearty vote of thanks to the Orator, the Aledo Ladies' Band dis- coursed excellent music; their fine appearance and graceful execution of many popular airs won universal encorium; General Jones show- ered upon them a profusion of compliments, and declared that he had witnessed a great many festive occasions in various parts of the world, and had never seen the like. On his motion three hearty cheers were given them. The Band is composed as follows:
1st Eb Cornet-Lou Elliott. 2d Eb Cornet-May David. 3d Eb Cornet-Ada Wade. 4th Eb Cornet-Kate Willetts. 1st Bb Cornet-Carrie Chamberlin. 2d Bb Cornet-Anna Batson. 3d Bb Cornet-Carrie Rose.
1st Alto-Lenore Boyd. Baritone-Lillie Crabbe. Tuba-Lou Rutledge.
Cymbals-Jennie Hudson.
Tenor drum-Bertha Boyd. Bass drum-Nettie Gilmore. Manager-Prof. E. D. Wood.
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ADDRESS AND POEM BY JOHN W. DU BOIS, OF FAIRFIELD.
PRESIDENT OF THE OLD SETTLERS' ASSOCIATION OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, A PIONEER OF 1838.
Fellow Citizens of Iowa, and Old Settlers of the Black Hawk Purchase :- Permit me to extend to you, and to your presiding of- ficer, my life-long friend, the best wishes of an old Pioneer for this kind reception.
It has been many long years since I first saw Burlington. I remem- ber among my first acquaintances, Charles Mason, Shepherd Leffler, Wesley Jones, F. J. C. Peasley, S. B. Wright, who are dead. I am glad to behold a goodly number of early friends who still survive. There are ladies here who ministered to the wants of a dying sister, the only one I had on earth, the wife of E. H. Thomas. I have no words to express the obligations I am under to you.
I would that I had time to speak of the life and times of the Sac Chieftain, Black Hawk. The historian writes him down a savage. This term savors of prejudice, and perhaps does injustice to him. It may be characteristic of a savage to hold in veneration the graves of his kindred, to watch with the eyes of an eagle the interests of his tribe, and defend with Spartan courage his home, the wigwam of his wife and children; but I have seen white men that boasted a christian training, who gloried in these attributes.
We dwell with pleasure on the memories of our life upon the front- ier. In our rude cabins the music of the spinning wheel was heard, and in rough verse my mind still lingers upon the picture in the olden time.
THE MUSIC OF THE SPINNING WHEEL.
The poet writes that music The passions will allay, The coarser, rougher frailties, That men bring into play; But the music of the early days That o'er our hearts' would steal, Was the music in our cabins, The music of the Spinning Wheel.
From early dawn 'till dewy eve, Across the puncheon floor, The patient wife of long ago Her bound stepped o'er and o'er; The roll in fingers deftly held That lay beside the reel, Drawn out so long and very smooth By the music of the wheel.
Dear maidens of these latter days, We write you of the past; From seed sown in the long ago The harvest's come at last; The toil and care of mother dear, Should cause your heart to feel That there is a world of meaning In the music of the wheel.
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My Hawk-Eve sons of noble form, Who listen to my rhymes,
Think of a mother's care for you Back in the early times, When in Linsey-woolsey jacket, With your elevated heel,
You gave the school boy's racket To the music of the Spinning Wheel.
ADDRESS BY DR. WM. R. ROSS, OF LOVILIA, MONROE CO.
My first visit to "Flint Hills" was in July, 1833. I selected my claim west of, and adjoining White and Mc Carver's claim. I then returned to Quincy, Ill., hired three or four men, and sent my father with them to build a cabin for the reception of my goods, which I landed here the last week in August by steamboat, consisting of dry goods, groceries, drugs and medicines.
In the fall of 1833, I sent a petition to the Postmaster General to es- establish an Office at "Flint Hills", which was done in the spring of 1834. I was commissioned Postmaster, and Carrier for "Flint Hills" to the nearest Post Office in Illinois, once a week at my own expense, until a regular route was established by the Government.
I obtained license at Monmouth, Ill., and was married under a syca- more tree on the east bank of the river, Dec. 3, 1833. (The bride of that occasion, Matilda, daughter of Col. William Morgan, subse- quently Chief Justice of Des Moines county, was introduced, and in her venerable age bowed to the audience in grateful appreciation of the respect shown to her.)
In the fall of 1833, I had two cabins built on my claim west of this Park, which were occupied by my family in March, 1834; also a· cab- in for a school house, and for preaching, which was occupied by Mr. Phillips, whom I hired to make rails, and fence the ground for pas- ture and garden.
In 1834, I had rails made, and fenced 160 acres, and put So acres in corn on what is called the Judge Mason farm. I also had 40 acres in corn on the John Pierson Sr. farm.
In the spring of 1834 I received the laws with instructions from Governor Mason, of Detroit, Michigan Territory, to notify the peo- ple to hold elections to fill the different offices of Des Moines county, which had been established the winter previous by the Legislature of Michigan Territory. I was elected clerk of the Court, Treasurer and Recorder.
In the fall of 1833, I surveyed the town. In January 1834, the citizens met to name it; John B. Gray, of Vermont, proposed Bur- lington, which was acceded to.
In the winter of 1833-4 I wrote to Rev. Peter Cartwright on his route north, at a quarterly conference twenty miles east of Burling- ton, to send me a preacher. He licensed Barton G. Cartwright, who came to my house on my claim, in March 1834, with an ox team and plow to break prairie through the week, and preach for us on Sunday.
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He and Mr. Ritchie, of Illinois, broke and planted on my prairie claims, afterwards owned by Judge Mason and John Pierson, Sr.
On the return of Peter Cartwright from his northern trip, he was accompanied by Asa Mc Murtrey, and W. D. R. Trotter, of Rock Is- land, and Henderson River Mission, who crossed the Mississippi to my house, and with Barton G and David Cartwright held a two days meeting in my pasture on this hill, and organized in May a class of six members, and appointed me Class Leader, the oldest in Iowa.
In 1834, I boarded Zadoc C. Inghram, who taught a school in the log cabin on my claim, the first school in Iowa.
I fenced the block east of the Public Square, and built a huge log house which was occupied by my family in the spring of 1835, where the first Post Office and the first Court was held.
In 1837 I commenced the foundation of Old Zion Church, and built the house, which was free for every Order to preach in, and was occupied three sessions, 1838-9-40, by the Legislative Assembly of Iowa Territory, and by the Federal and District Courts.
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