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 6
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As I said, I am not one of the pioneers; and yet I came here at a very interesting period in our history, when railroads were just enter- ing this young and sparsely settled State, and in consequence the eyes of investors and home seekers all over the eastern states were turned in this direction. At that time the only public means of travel to the interior was by the old-fashioned stage coach. Now, how different! With six thousand miles of railroad reaching out in- to every direction, covering the entire State with its net work; our then weary miles of uninhabited prairie, now covered all over with highly improved farms; the few cabins given place to large and well furnished farm houses, filled with rich and happy people; the few vil- lages grown to flourishing cities with an intelligent and industrions population. What a wondrous change! What marvellous develop- ment in so short a time!
Nor is the physical growth of our State the only feature for the in- dulgence of honorable pride. Our country is dotted over with evi- dences of moral and intellectual growth. The common school, the college, the church, and institutions for education in every depart- ment of art, science, taste and social refinement of which the older States boast, have a place among us at least as prominent as in those States.
I am sure the world at large will not charge us with undue boast- ing, if we indulge a little honest pride in the achievements of the half century just closed.
But many, indeed all us who have been witnesses of, and partici- pants in these interesting events are admonished that we are not so young as we were, and that we shall soon be called to vacate our places, to lay down the active duties of our. station, and that all these
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growing interests must be committed to other hands. Is it too much to hope in this imperfect and selfish world, may we not at least in- dulge the wish, that when our children and children's children come to celebrate (as they certainly will, ) the anniversary crossing the line of a completed century, a moral order with no abatement in physical progress or intellectual activity may be established here so far in ad- vance of present attainments as to challenge universal admiration; conditions of society in which the comfort, happiness and highest good of each shall be felt to be the ambition, the end and aim and chief desire of all?
. ADDRESS OF DR. J. N. SHAFFER, OF KEOKUK.
Ladies and Gentlemen :- It is my good fortune to be one of the glad and happy number that meet here to-day. I feel the enthusi- asm of the occasion, that would "make the stones cry out" and am proud to address such an audience as this. I have seen crowds in many parts of this broad land; but no assemblage of people any where in the United States has a higher title toall that is noblest and best than a congregation of Iowa people. You are well dressed, good-looking, orderly, and every man, woman and child is proud of the achievements of the past, and the possibilities of the future.
Now, and then! In 1852 I came to Keokuk, and on May 8th took the stage for Fairfield, making the journey in twenty-eight hours. Now, the same trip can be made six times a day in less than six hours. I came with my newly wedded wife to Burlington in April, 1856, and taking a hack at 8 o'clock in the morning reached Fairfield at mid- night. Now, more than a dozen trains cover the distance in less than three hours. It required four days to make the journey from Fairfield to Des Moines on horse-back. The Capital city then had only 600 souls; now, 25,000; then, the crossing of the Des Moines river a rope ferry; now, the bridges connecting East and West Des Moines are as numerous as the streets.
To what are we indebted for this wondrous growth? Under the blessing of Providence, all is due to the blessed Government under which we live. The emblem of it is the flag of our country. Let us revere it and stand by it. Take it (Lifting a flag from the arch over the stand, and handing it to a lad who was listening), take it my boy! Ever honor it, emblem of the Government which will protect you in all lands! Commit to memory the grand words of the poet:
"No summer garb, the wonder of a day, Born but to bloom and then to fade away; A giant oak, it lifts it's lofty form, Greens in the sun, and strengthens in the storm; Long in its shade shall children's children come And welcome earth's poor wanderers to a home; Long shall it live, and every blast defy,
"Till Time's last whirlwind sweeps the vaulted sky."
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ADDRESS OF GEORGE C. DUFFIELD, OF KEOSAUQUA.
Mr. Pesident, Ladies' and Gentlemen :- I presume that no per- son here to-day is so much surprised at being called on to make a speech as myself. I never attempted it, and surely do not feel qual- ified to address this large assembly. But as I am a member of the Methodist church where we are in the habit of giving in our experi- ence, I will try to give yon part of my experience as an "old settler."
Fifty years ago I lived in Illinois within fifty miles of this place. My father came to what is now Van Buren county in the fall of 1836, and located his claim. He returned to Illinois, and in April, 1837, moved his family; being the first white family west of the Des Moines river in Van Buren county, which was then an undisturbed wilder- ness.
At that time Black Hawk and Keokuk were there with many of their bands. I was personally acquainted with them. They have frequently eaten at my father's table.
It is not necessary for me to recite the hardships and privations of a frontier life. You have heard many related to-day. i know of them all. I know all about grinding buckwheat on the coffee mill, planing corn from the cob with the jack-plane, and pounding the corn in the mortar. I well remember those days; I was thirteen years old, old enough to carry a rifle and hunt with the Indians, which I very soon learned to do. They were happy days to me. I was lit- tle concerned how the nine children were to be fed, clothed and car- ed for through the winter of 1837, while mother sat by the lard lamp, hung by the log fire, making buckskin breeches and hunting shirts for her seven boys, until the joints of her fingers were swollen double their usual size. I was a happy, thoughtless boy, thinking little of the anxieties and hardships my parents were enduring. But they lived to enjoy what they gave the strength of their years to ac- complish the raising of their large family, and the upbuilding of the material interests of the country. Both died in the eighty-sixth year of their age.
Friends, I am proud to stand here to-day, and feel that I have con- tributed my mite to the greatness of this grand State. The presence of Dr. Shaffer reminds me of the State Agricultural Society, and that he was one of the first to organize it, and for many years its Secre- tary. The first State Fair, held in a small lot enclosed with brush and rails, compares with the last, held at the capital, as the Burling- ton of 1833 compares with this city to-day.
I remember well the first school house west of the Des Moines riv- er. I helped build it, the "Martin" school house, in 1839; made of logs, one log cut out, and greased paper put in its place to give light; puncheons with log legs for seats. George N. Rosser was Master; we had no teacher. The Reams, Martins', Lewis', and Mathies were the scholars; no pupils then.
A friend remarked to me a short time ago that he would like to
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live his life over. I do not know what is in the future, but I am glad that I have lived to witness the unexampled developments of our grand State in the past forty-seven years.
MR. CHARLES J. DODGE, OF BURLINGTON,
Said that it was an unexpected pleasure and surprise to be called upon. It was the first Semi-Centennial, as might be judged, he had ever attended. When he made his advent into Iowa, he came with- out any "Saratoga", and, in fact, with no other than nature's baggage. He remembered quite distinctly when he had taken his gun, in his younger days, and hunted chickens near this very spot. The forest of gigantic trees had disappeared, and in its place could be seen beautiful residences and blocks of buildings. As a speck in the dis- tant horizon developed into a tremendous storm, so has Iowa's small beginning grown into a sublime result. A State ranking first in many gifts and second in few. With such a soil and climate as God had given us, well may we "Hawkeyes" feel a commendable pride in the growth and development of our State. As we judge the present by the past, impossible would it be to predict the future of Iowa. An area magnificent and resources boundless portend an unknown future in all that constitutes a great commonwealth. Young as he is, he could not prevent his heart from swelling with state pride, and he was free to acknowledge it. He hoped to meet all at the pros- pective Centennial celebration, and that they would have a good time then as now. He felt a deep interest in this event, but not be- ing, in truth, a very old settler, he would give way to older men.
MR. JOHN W. BURDETTE, OF BURLINGTON .
He did not know why he was called on by the chairman for a speech on this occasion, for he could lay no claim to being an old settler of Burlington, nor, indeed, of anywhere else. He wasn't per- mitted to settle in Iowa fifty years ago. In fact, when the events oc- curred which this immense concourse of people had met to commem- orate, he hadn't settled anywhere, but must have been prospecting somewhere. And when he did settle a number of years afterwards, he made a mistake and settled in Ohio. But he had endeavored to correct it and settled in Iowa just as soon as he found out it was the place to settle in.
We have every reason for gratitude and honest pride to-day. Pride, not, perhaps, in our own achievements, but in the sturdy manhood, the bravery, the fortitude, the endurance of those who opened up the country to civilization; who, struggling in their hardy courage to maintain a cabin in the wilderness, had planted an empire blessed with all the progress and advantagess of the highest civilization.
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Their imagination never pictured the scene of beauty and rejoicing that greets us to-day; their minds never conceived the blocks of brick and marble, the paved streets and the palatial homes that to- day surrounded their successors; but in hewing the forest, they built up a state permanent in prosperity, intelligence and progress. Truly they builded better than they knew; and we, to-day, rejoice in the re- sults of their labors in which we had comparatively so small a share.
ADDRESS OF J. D. M. HAMILTON, OF FORT MADISON.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies' and Gentlemen :- It is with unfeigned pleasure that I appear before so many of the Old Settlers of Iowa, and mingle my voice with yours in this celebration. This beautiful gar- den situated between two mighty rivers, lining its eastern and West- ern shores, was selected as their home by the "Old Settlers", and consecrated to us as a heritage. It is not strange that we, upon whom rests the prosperity of this inheritance, should meet this day with the true and tried sons of Freedom, and kneel around the same altar. We see with pride the vast concourse of people who have come here to-day. The example of such worthy Statesmen as Dodge, Grimes, and Jones, who assisted in bringing this State into existence, will ennoble and elevate the patriotism of many a young heart. Fif- ty years ago, a few log cabins and a few hundred people! To-day, nearly two million souls, more than half as many as the original thir- teen colonies, with a network of seven thousand miles of railway, and cities full of industrial vigor! How appropriate that we come to- gether in this beautiful city, the Metropolis of Iowa, and celebrate this day! Let us cherish our institutions, uphold our laws, maintain our rights, and hope for a bright future. As the ancient Greek pat- riot erected an altar consecrated to his country, so by our presence here to-day we have erected a similar altar, and lighting upon it the sacred fire esto perpetua we consecrate this grand inheritance to the future.
ADDRESS OF HON. D. M. CLARK, OF NEW YORK, WAYNE COUNTY.
Mr. President, Ladies' and Gentlemen :- Captured on this oc- casion, and introduced as a Greenbacker, (no other one being intro- duced as republican or democrat), I will say in answer to your intro- duction, Mr. President, that we hope to teach the two old parties to work more in the interest of the people, and not spend so much time in legislation for monopolies in the future as they have in the past. But enough on that subject.
Times have changed since I crossed the Mississippi in 1841. Then our mails were carried on horseback generally, sometimes on foot; now, by steam at twenty-five to forty miles per hour. Then, we had
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but few newspapers; now, we read dailies West from the Press of East . ern cities. Many persons here recollect when we cut grain with reap- hooks. Now, a twelve or fifteen years old girl can guide the team with our self-binders, to cut twelve to fifteen acres, and bind the grain in a single day, doing the work of twenty men fifty years ago. Then our mothers spun and wove our clothing from wool and flax; now, a girl in one of our factories will spin or weave more cloth in a single day than our mothers' could in a life time. What a change in Iowa in forty-two years! Then, almost a boundless prairie, with villages few and far between; now, I have ridden by steam to nearly every county seat in the State, and we have about two millions of as intelligent people as are on the globe.
May Iowa steadily improve the next fifty years as she has in the past! Who can imagine the population and wealth when Iowa's Cen- tennial comes round, or what influence she will wield for the benefit of mankind?
The Chairman at the conclusion of Mr. Clark's remarks, adjourn- ed the meeting until 1933.
EXECISES AT THE NORTH STAND. THOMAS HEDGE, JR., PRESIDING.
REMARKS OF THOMAS HEDGE, JR., ESQ.
Fellow Citiznes of lowa :- We devote this day to the pleasures of memory. We are here to repeat and to hand down the story of a be- ginning, to look up the first land marks, to trace the original founda- tion of our State, and to revive the fame of the first settlers, the plant- ers of our prosperity, the road-makers of our progress. Our happy experience proves the truth of the saying, "Happy is that people whose annals are tiresome"; for there was nothing eventful or roman- tic in our origin. It was not a Norman conquest, or a landing of the Pilgrims;
"Not as the conqueror comes, they the true hearted came;
Not with the roll of the stirring drums, and the trumpet that sings of fame.''
They did not come in search of civil or religious liberty. That they had to their full desire already. They came as come Americans, to gain a living, to establish homes, carrying the axe, the hoe, and the rifle. They were for the most part men and women of faith, of energy, of thrift and common sense, and must have been endowed with foresight and largeness of view to have given so happy direction to our development. The result we are so proud of to-day, and so grateful for, cannot be attributed to accident. An early and con- stant exercise of wisdom and the homely virtues has changed the il-
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limitable waste of fifty years ago to this blooming garden we call "Iowa". Right notions of living, clear conceptions of private and of civil duty have filled our State with prosperous and peaceful homes, and have so multiplied the common schools that the boy of ten years who cannot read for himself his "Robison Crusoe" is harder to be found here than in any equal area of christendom.
But it is no part of the plan or purpose of this Celebration that the sons and daughters of the Pioneers should be detained with remarks from me. Their heirs and successors desire to hear the voices, and look upon the venerable faces of those who still remain, and listen to their reminiscences of the early days. We hope that they will not confine themselves to stories of successes and triumphs in the wilder- ness; the result suggests and proves such things; but that they will al- so tell of those failures, blunders and mistakes, which our exceeding human nature leads us to believe and to hope they made. And if they had any interesting sinners among them who came here in search of that moral freedom which the prejudices of older society denied them in the bailiwicks they left behind them, we beg that their names may be rescued for at least a moment from their comfortable obliv- ion.
We later men of common sort may thus to-day be encouraged in our belief that by the proper performance of our common duties, un- der that beneficent Providence which has given us this goodly herit- age, and caused the sun to shine so constantly upon it from that first June day when the whites came in and passed it, we shall preserve it for our children and their children a land of sunshine, prosperity and peace.
ADDRESS OF EDWIN MANNING, OF KEOSAUQUA.
Mr, President, Ladies and Gentlemen of Burlington :- I am before you to-day to represent in part the early history of the Des Moines Valley. I trust you will pardon any errors you may discov- er, and accept my brief remarks as the best my memory serves me.
In January, 1837, myself and Captain Hall sojourned a few days in this handsome Valley. The "Half Breed Tract" was at that time an attractive point. The old chief, Black Hawk, and his family were then living a few miles below Fort Madison. We gave them a pleas- ant call, and were treated kindly. Our stay in the Valley was short. I made a small investment in "Half Breed Tract", and left.
The outlook was encouraging, and I returned and attended the first Land sale at Burlington in Nov. 1838. Here were assembled the early Pioneers of Iowa to secure the titles to their homes. It was a grand and noble assemblage of the hardy men who had located in the Black Hawk Purchase, and a new and interesting scene to me to witness the harmonious, social, goodly feeling on that occasion. . General Dodge and General Van Antwerp officiated in the Land Of- fice, and sold the lands to the actual settlers. The bulk of the sales
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was stricken off to Dr. Barrett, Sterling and Benedict, who were the money kings of that period. The settlers paid from 25 to 50 per cent to secure their homes. It seemed opportune for both settler and capitalist to meet and arrange terms so pleasantly. It demonstrated that capital and labor were friendly elements, and could work to- gether. This period was practically the starting point for perma- nent homes in Iowa. The Des Moines Valley was held to be the "Egypt" of Southern Iowa, for here the corn never failed to grow.
In the spring of 1841 the roads were new and heavy, and transpor- tation was high from Keokuk to Fort Des Moines. I was in St. Louis, and the Quarter-master gave me a contract to deliver supplies for the post at Fort Des Moines. This I did by chartering a steamer and de- livering by water navigation. Arriving at Fort Des Moines safely, Capt. Allen, who was in command of the port, bestowed the hospitali- ties of his quarters upon me, and sent a carrier to the chiefs and head men of the nation to come in and accept a free ride upon the steam- er. This they did. After which they treated us in return to a fine Indian dance, with war-hoops and the usual antics of some three hun- dred warriors and best men of the nation. This was near the close of the Red Man's career in their native homes in Iowa.
The next advance movement was in 1843. At this date the "New Purchase" attracted large settlements, and in a short space of time the best portions of the Valley were occupied by actual settlers. They conceived a great value in the Des Moines river water power, and in- duced the Legislature to great privileges for dams and locks. A few were made but proved of temporary, value.
The next decade brought the River Improvement. In this enter- prise great credit was properly given to General Dodge, then in Con- gress, whose deserved popularity was a strong element in obtaining this valuable grant of lands to improve navigation and create water- powers. It was a grand boom for the Valley for a short time; but the volume of water was found too great to warrant and justify the im- provement, though similar improvements prior to this date had been successful in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Kentucky, and were a prece- dent for us, a guide. After a fair trial it proved to be behind the age, and not suited to the wants of the Valley.
In 1841, the productions of the Valley had become sufficient to re- quire navigation of the Des Moines river. Prior to this date, flats were the only mode of transit to market, owing to the dam obstruc- tions. As I had inaugurated navigation and "run" the first flatboat laden with pork, and sunk it twice, and made money by so doing, it was my province to re-open navigation in the spring of 1851. Giving the mill-owners due notice of my intention, I proceeded to St. Louis and chartered the "Jenny Lind" steamer and barge, to "re-sure" from St. Louis to Des Moines. The high water of that year contributed to my success, and we reached Farmington in accordance with my previ- ous notice. The citizens were surprised at the first sound of the steam-whistle for many years. The only difficulty here was the di- lapidated lock.gates, which I caused to be pulled out and sent adrift.
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This done, the great scarecrow to navigation was overcome, and the river once more free for commerce and trade. This little expedition was matured in my own mind, probably the outgrowth of my early experience in first navigating the river. The Old Settlers will never forget the gala days that followed the opening of navigation in 1851. My first trip rewarded me with a thousand, which justified my insur- ance, and evidenced the value of navigation, and the merchants were not slow to see it.
The next advance movement was the Valley Railroad. The iron horse, steam and nail, soon superceded slack water. The best men in that enterprise saw its failure, and petitioned a transfer of the bal- ance of the grant to the Valley Railroad, which bid fair to be the peer of the C. B. & Q., in all respects; but failing in subsidies equal to the latter, it could not maintain equal progress. One other fatal error in its policy was to ignore western branches. Had it adopted a branch through the southern tier of counties, where the people were clamorous to give their swamp lands to aid it, to-day Keokuk would have been the peer of any city in the State. Failing to do this she must acknowledge that "Flint Hills" has blossomed a Burlington that truthfully may be said is the "Hub" city in Eastern Iowa; her industries of various kinds, her commerce, and her railroad facilities reaching through the State, give her unexcelled advantages in the great traffic of the age. In all this the C. B. & Q. Railroad with her ample subsidies has been one af the strongest elements to aid Bur- lington in her progress to the high rank she takes among Iowa cities.
But there is another and more valued retrospective view to be tak- en that overshadows all others; and that is to recall the memorable names which are interwoven and inseparable in Burlington's prosper- ity and greatness. Most prominent in my memory whom I am pleas- ed to name, are James W. Grimes, Judge Mason, General Dodge, Wm. Salter, Judge Hall, H. W. Starr, Coolbaugh, Gov. Gear, Lyman Cook, E. D. Rand, Browning, Warren, Judge Rorer, A. G. Adams, and many others. Their names will be remembered and go down to posterity for their virtue and integrity of character, that not only il- luminates Orchard City, but the State at large enjoys the heritage of these good mens' acts. With these remarks I close.
REV. W. F. COWLES, OF BURLINGTON,
The founder of the Division Street M. E. church, remarked that it was a snap judgment to ask him to come upon the stand and speak without preparation, and then limit him to five minutes, when it took fifteen to start, and twenty to stop. The men of fifty years ago had no idea that we would have to-day a population of nearly two mil- lions. The preachers were foremost in helping to make Iowa what it is. We need politicians, but must have the preachers to tell them when they are going wrong. Iowa leads in every thing, even the
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largest republican majorities. I am glad my children were born in Iowa, although I am a native of New York. They need never be ashamed of Iowa as she has better schools, teachers, churches and preachers than any state in the Union. Dr. Vernon, the standard bearer in old Rome, is a native of Henry county, Iowa.
ADDRESS OF W. B. CULBERTSON OF BURLINGTON.
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