Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015 https://archive.org/details/iowahandbookfor100park PAKKRR, 1>I('KI!XSI ' ^ ' ! ■ * V’ ^JflM lytfirSifTr ArjAMAtvM-: o]li li I N lIAXroCK B r X A ;mviLiixT ' JUiS MDINF^ THE IOWA HANDBOOK, ) ' FOR 18 5 6 . WITH A NEW AND COKRECT MAP. BY NATHAN II. PARKER, AUTHOR OP “lOWA AS IT IS,” “SECTIONAL AND GEOLOGICAL MAP OF IOWA,” “MINNESOTA HANDBOOK,” ETC. BOSTON: JOHN P. JEWETT AND COMPANY. CLEVELAND, OHIO : II. P. B. JEWETT. NEAV YORK : SHELDON, BLAKEMAN AND COMPANY. M DCCC LVI. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by NATHAN H. PARKER, In the Clerk’s OfiSlce of the District Court for the District of Iowa. UTHOm’ED BY THE AMERICAN STEREOTYPE COMPANY, PHCENEX BUILDING, BOSTON. ANDOVER; PRINTED BY W. F. DRAPER. PREFACE. The extensive sale of his former work, “ Iowa as It Is,” with the continued demand for that work, and the still expressed want of a cheaper and more condensed hand- book on Iowa, has induced the author of these pages to place them before the public, as a cheap, concise, and reliable Handbook, with statistics brought down to the present time, [To those who desire a more extensive account of the State, the author earnestly recommends “ Iowa as It Is,” also his Sectional and Geological Map of Iowa.”] That this work may aid in the advancement of his beloved State, and assist in the development of the for- tunes of those whose enterprise leads them to seek, in her fertile fields, a sphere of action, worthy the largest capital and the highest genius, is the earnest desire of The Author, Clinton, Iowa, August 17, 1856. (hi) CONTET^TS. CHAPTER I. Advantageous Geographical Position of Iowa, CHAPTER II. The Climate. — The Seasons. — Prairie Fires. — Health. — Superiority of Iowa over other Prairie States. — A Hint to the Emigrant regarding Location, . CHAPTER HI. The Soil. — Its adaptation to the growth of Wood. — ■ Enormous yield of Agricultural products. — Superi- ority of Iowa as a Fruit-growing State, CHAPTER TV. General Appearance of the State. ^ — River Scenery.— Prairie Views, CHAPTER V. Rivers and their Tributaries. — Lakes, Springs, and Wells. — Timber Lands of Iowa, . . , . CHAPTER VI. Mineral resources of Iowa. — Lead, Coal, Iron, Copper, Limestone, Clays, Quartzite, Marble, and Gypsum, 1# (v) CONTENTS. vi CHAPTER VII. Tour through Iowa. — Glance at Iveokulc, Fort Madison, Montrose, Denmark, Keosauqua, Bloomfield, Corydon, Leon, Mountain-Air, Clarinda, Sidney, Glenwood, Council Bluffs, 40 CHAPTER VIII. Western Iowa. — Geography, Climate, Health, Settle- ments, etc., . . . . . . . . 52 CHAPTER IX. From Council Bluffs to Demoine City. — Mississippi and Missouri Railroad route. — Influence of this road upon the country anticipated. — Demoine City. — The State Capitol. — Jasper and Powesheik counties, . 56 CHAPTER X. Johnson County. — Iowa City. — Her Schools, Churches, and Business statistics, 62 CHAPTER XL Davenport and her surroundings. — Her Churches, Schools, Manufactories, and Business statistics. — Mississippi and Missouri Railroad. — The great Railroad bridge, 67 CHAPTER XII. From Muscatine to Oscaloosa. — Muscatine. — Her Busi- ness statistics and Railroad connections. — Wapello. — Black Hawk the Warrior. — Columbus City, Wash- ington, Lancaster, Sigourney, Oscaloosa, Eddy\'ille, Ottumwa, and Fairfield described and statistics given. 72 CHAPTER XIII. % Fairfield to BurKngton. — Fairfield, Mount Pleasant, and Burlington ; statistics, etc. — Burlington and Missouri River Railroad, 81 CHAPTER XIV. Tour from Lyons to F ort Dodge. — Lyons and Cfinton. — The Iowa Land Company. -Dewitt, Tipton, Cedar Rapids, Marion, Vinton, Toledo, Marietta, Nevada, Boonsborougli, Homer, and Fort Dodge described, . 87 CHAPTER XV. Tour from Fort Dodge to Dubuque. Kossuth county. — The Soil of Northwestern Iowa. — Webster City. — The Counties of Hardin, Franklin, Butler, Brewer, Black Hawk, and Buchanan. — The towns of Cedar Falls, Waterloo, Independence, Delhi, and Dubuque. — Business statistics of Dubuque, .... 99 CHAPTER XVI. From Dubuque to Osage, and return. — Scenery on the Upper Mississippi. — Newly discovered Mineral re- gion. — Description of Lansing, Wawkon, Decorah, Osage, St. Charles, Bradford, West Union, Ell^ador, Garnavillo, and Gutenburg. — General appearance of Northeastern Iowa, _. , , . . . 112 CHAPTER XVII. Council Blufis to Sioux City. — Towns on the Upjier Missouri. — Sioux City. — Future prospects of West- ern Iowa, . 126 vni CONTENTS. CHAPTER XYIIL Jackson County. — Her Railroads, To\ms, Churches, and Schools. — Future prospects, etc., . . . . 131 CHAPTER XIX. Railroads in Iowa. — Their present condition and future prospects. — The Iowa Land Grant, and its influence upon the State. — Pubhc Improvements. — Des Moines Improvements. — Caution to Settlers, . . .134 CHAPTER XX. Best Routes to and through Iowa. — Emigrant Route to Kansas. — Immigration mto Iowa. — A "Word to Capi- talists. — Mechanics and Housebuilders wanted West, 146 CHAPTER XXI. General Remarks on Agriculture. — Osage Orange Hedge. — Cost of opening a Farm. — AYool-growing and Stock-raising, . . . . . . .157 CHAPTER XXII. Education and Rehgion. — Churches, Colleges, and Com- mon Schools, ........ 166 CHAPTER XXIII. List of Iowa Post-oflices, alphabetically arranged, and divided into Counties, together with their Newspapers, 173 CHAPTER XXIV. Table of Pistances to and through Iowa, by River, Rail- road, and Stage routes, . . . . . 181 IOWA HANDBOOK. CHAPTER I. ADVANTAGEOUS GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION OF IOWA. In this ever-changing, busy, utilitarian age, one of the most familiar sights is the emigrant Per- chance he comes from the starved and oppressed ranks of the trans-atlantic countries, perchance from a distant or a neighboring State, — the cap- italist, with means for developing the rich resources of some heretofore valueless location ; the farmer, with heart true and hands strong, to carve a for- tune from the rich soil of some prairie State. With all classes of emigrants, the gaze is to the ivest- luard — to more fertile fields, more genial skies. In contemplating the Western States, by a casual glance at the map of our country, the mind is instantly impressed with the advantageous geo- graphical position of Iowa. Her territory lies between two of the largest rivers of the globe, both navigable for many hundreds of miles above her territory, and making, on the other hand, an ( 9 ) 10 IOWA HANDBOOK. open highway to the ocean within the tropics. / Bounded on the north by the parallel 40^ 30', on j on the south by 43^ 30', thus giving her the most I favorable latitude in the temperate zone, she has ' an area of 56,000 square miles, being upwards of 200 miles wide from north to south, and more than 300 miles long from east to west. Again, Iowa is situated midway between the two great oceans of the world, in the most fertile valley on the globe, with an immense tract to the westward, yet to be settled and converted to the purposes of civilization ; on the east, she is connected by all the great high- ways with the Eastern States, teeming with wealth, and rejoicing in an enterprising population, whose invention and energy know no limits. With these features in the geography of Iowa, with the resom'ces within her boundaries, with the energetic population within her borders, who shall calculate her future ? CHAPTER II. CLIMATE. This State, occupying three degrees of latitude, must have some variations of climate. In the northern part the winters are cold and dry, but short. Spring comes on early, so that the farmer commences his work in the month of March, seldom as late as April. In the southern portion of the State the winters are more mild, and spring somewhat earlier. The climate is free from the sudden changes of New England, and from the long drizzling rains and foggy weather of portions of the Middle States, and those States within the influence of the great lakes. The springs are delightful — air clear and brac» ing, gradually changing from winter’s chilliness to summer’s warmth. The summers are free from the long scorching rays of a more southern sun ; and our bluff homes and upland dales are contin- ually fanned by the cool breeze, sweeping over the prairies, bearing health and rich perfume from the green verdure and brilliant flowers that clothe the earth like a fair vesture. The autumns my pen cannot describe; the ( 11 ) 12 IOWA HANDBOOK. poet’s can but poorly. The American autumn has always been the theme that tourists and poets “ most do rave about ; ” but here, in this latitude, within the boundaries of this State, Earth puts on her most gorgeous coloring, her brilliant gala dress, to captivate the soul of mortals with her regal beauty, before it is torn from her by the rude grasp of the Winter king. When the summer heat relaxes, the winds grow more strong and bracing, and wild gusts flit fitfully over the sea of prairie green. The yellow aster gleams more brightly in the glow of the autumn sun ; the corn ripens in the fields ; the hardy sons of toil (nature’s truest noblemen) shout the har- vest welcome home.” The wild grasses grow yel- low in the uplands, the forest tree here and there flings to the earth a crimson or a yellow leaf ; yet not in haste do they give up their vestments. No- vember finds all our glorious prairies beautiful in their wealth of changing colors ; and when at last the frost has done its work, the sun, as if in pity for his children, the flowers, Mngers so lovingly and long, kissing the seared foliage and withered sterns^ as if to call them back to beauty and to life, that we almost fancy winter will not come. It is at this season of the year that the prairie fires rage. The immense mass of vegetation, dried by sun and frost, leaves the whole sm’face, except the cultivated fields, and water-courses with the belts of timber which usually sldrt them, covered IOWA HANDBOOK. 13 with combustible material. A single spark of fire, falling upon the prairie at such a time, instantly kindles a blaze that spreads on every side, and con- tinues its destructive course as long as it finds fuel. These fires sweep along with great power and rapidity, and frequently extend across a wide prairie and advance in a long line. No sight can be more sublime than a stream of fire, beheld at night, several miles in breadth, advancing across the plains, leaving behind it a background of dense black smoke, throwing before it a vivid glare, which lights up the whole landscape for miles with the brilliancy of noonday. The progress of the fire is so slow, and the heat so intense, that every combustible in its course is consumed. The roots of the prairie grass and of several species of flowers, however, by some peculiar adaptation of nature are spared. A narrow strip of bare ground, or a beaten road the width of a common wagon-track, will prevent the fire from spreading beyond it; yet cctreless, thoughtless farmers sometimes suffer tall grass to connect their fields of corn and fences with the wild prairie, and forfeit their year’s toil as a penalty for their slothfulness I Health. — - Of the healthfulness of our State, I can say, it is located in the healthiest latitude on our continent. By medical journals it is ranked as second in point of health (North Carolina only being superior), and I doubt not it will be 2 14 IOWA HANDBOOK. firsts when it has a settled and acclimated popula- tion, as free from toil, privation, and exposure as other States. Dr. UpdegrafF, a correspondent of the Ohio Farmer^ thus alludes to our climate, etc. : “ Of all other considerations respecting a new country, the most important is as to It'S) healthiness. “ In this respect, Iowa has the advantage of most new countries. An open prairie country, almost universally rolling, or even hilly, it is more favorable to health than flat prairie or level woodland. The streams are mostly fresh running water, with sandy or gravel beds. The scarcity of timber-land, and the annual fires that pass over the prairies, prevent, to a great degree, the decomposition of vegetable matter ; which is, in most new countries, the great source of disease. With some local exceptions, there does not seem to be any natural reason why this State, even in its early settlement, should not enjoy as high an average of healthiness as Ohio nov) does. Such I believe to be the fact, after making proper deductions for change of climate, mode of life, exposure, and unusual exertion. To observe the exertion and exposure, often reckless and unnecessary, to which most new settlers sub- ject themselves, it becomes a matter of surprise that disease and mortality are not much more usual than they are.” A very common mistake settlers make, is, that of building their houses near some belt of timber, IOWA HANDBOOK. 15 on low ground, or in some narrow ravine, to escape the force of the prairie winds. The high ground is healthiest; and the settler who brings his wife and little ones into a new country, to find a new home, had better build his house on the high prairie, and brave the force of our strong free v/inds, than breathe the miasmatic vapors of the ravines and low grounds. Another cause of sickness, I believe, is the absence of a full supply of fruit. When our State shall have her orchards, and garden fruits growing on each farm, then a great preventive of disease is furnished. CHAPTER III. SOIL. It is known to the scientific fanner, that the soil best suited for wheat culture and cereal grains, and in which the earthy, saline, and organic matters are distributed in the best proportions, adapted to im- part fertility and durability, is generally based on the calcareous and magnesi-calcareous rocks. This condition particularly characterizes the country bordering on the Mississippi and its tributaries, between the 41st and 45th degree of latitude, in- cluding that portion of Iowa which is watered by the tributaries of the Mississippi. In Owen's Geological Report we find the following : “ The prairie country, based on rocks belonging to the Devonian and carboniferous systems, ex- tending up the valley of the Red Cedar, Iowa, and Des Moines, as high as latitude 42^ 31 ', presents a body of arable land which, taken as a whole, for richness and organic elements, for amount of saline matter, and due admixture of earthy silicates, affords a combination that belongs only to the most fertile upland plains. Throughout this district the general levelness of the surface, interrupted only (IG) IOWA HANDBOOK. 17 by gentle swells and moderate undulations, offers facilities for the introduction of all those aids which machinery is daily adding to diminish the labor of cultivation, and render easy and expeditious the collection of an abundant harvest.” Again, in speaking of the physical and agricul- tural character of that portion of the State border- ing on the Mississippi, near the foot of the lower rapids, Owen says : “ The carboniferous rocks of Iowa occupy a region of country which, taken as a whole, is one of the most fertile in the United States. No country can present to the farmer greater facilities for subduing, in a short time, wild land. Its native prairies are fields almost ready made to his hands. Its rich, black soil, scarcely less productive than that of the Cedar Valley, returns him reward for his labor a hundred-fold.” There is no soil in the world, perhaps, where the woody fibre of trees and shrubs grows so rapidly as in the prairie soil. Apple trees bear from one half a bushel to one and a half bushels per tree, the fifth year after plant- ing. I think now of elm trees growing in the streets of Davenport, which were planted seventeen years ago, that to-day a man’s extended arms cannot en- compass. It is estimated, by good judges of these things, that timber increases faster in the State than it is used. To substantiate this, I may say that here we are 2 * 18 IOWA HANDBOOK. careful of wood, and do not waste it in any way ; and, as the State becomes settled, the annual fires are kept out of the young forests and thickets, thus adding much to the growth. Chemical agricul- turists attribute this rapid growth of wood on the prairie soil to the large amount of potassa con- tained within it, and formed by the annual burning of the wild grasses. As a further illustration of the fertility of the soil, I will mention some products I saw exhibited at the State fair. Robert Rawlins, of Washington county, exhibited 8 stalks of corn, 11 feet high, 11 ears, 10 rows on each ear, and 47 kernels to a row, making 88 feet of stalk, 5170 kernels of plump white corn, the produce of a single kernel ! Messrs. Har- row, of Wappello county, exhibited specimens from a field of corn which produced the extraordinary yield of one hundred and sixty-eight bushels TO AN ACRE ! Jerome Parsons, of Jefferson county, exhibited specimens of red-chaff bearded wheat from the almost unprecedented yield of forty- seven BUSHELS TO THE ACRE. Ill JeffersoH couiity, 105 bushels of potatoes were raised to an acre ; some specimens exhibited at the fair measm*ed 9 to 16 inches in circumference. Of beets, some were 27 inches in length ; other specimens, 31 inches in circumference, weighed 17 pounds. Squashes in western Iowa weighed 100 pounds; and, in northern Iowa, a vine, 275 feet long, bore, among others, five squashes, which averaged IOWA HANDBOOK. 19 80 pounds each. I have had apples weighing 24 ounces each, and pears of 28 ounces. I will copy here an article from one of our lead- ing agricultural works, which gives the reader some idea of our products ; and he may then be prepared to understand why, at the late Horticultural con- vention held at Burlington, Iowa, where all or many of the States were represented in fruit spe- cimens, Iowa took the premium on both apples and pears. P. Barry, former editor of the Horticulturist^ gives a glowing account of the size and beauty of specimens of our standard fruits, grown in Iowa. He remarks : I have never been taken so much by surprise as I was in visiting some of the gar- dens around Burlington. Buerrie Diels weighing a pound and a half; Swan’s Orange about as large ; Louise Bonne de Jersey and Vicar of Winkfield, enormous. Some monster Bartletts had been preserved in ice. The garden of W. F. Coolbaugh, Esq., is on the top of the bluff, and contains scarcely an acre — there I found pear trees, beautiful pyramids, all on quince roots, about seven or eight years old, now eight to ten feet, or twelve feet high. The early varieties were of course gone, but I found on the trees Beurre Diel, Beurre d’ Anjou, Vicar of Winkfield, Glout Morceau, Beurre d’ Aremberg, and others, all nearly twice as large as good specimens grown in Ne\‘^ York. The trees were remarkably vigorous, and 20 IOWA HANDBOOK. hung full of fruit — what a sight ! Ail this with- out any special manures or cultm’e of any kind; the ground was merely kept clean.” At Dr. Tal- lant’s, a fine tree of the Brandywine pear was seen, which had borne specimens weighing a pound. In the collection of A. Hillery, the specimens were estimated to range between eighteen and twenty- five ounces, “ and were as fair as wax- work.” Western cultivators, as we have before remarked, have gone thoroughly and extensively into the cul- ture of fruit. One nursery at Burlington, that of Comstock & Avery, contains in various stages of growth some six hundred thousand apple trees. At the Bornological meeting there, more than ten collections from that region contained from forty to eighty varieties of apples each. CHAPTER IV. GENERAL APPEARANCE OF THE STATE. The scenes on the banks of the Mississippi, as well as on those of the Missouri, which are some- what similar, form a distinct feature in our land- scapes. As the traveller approaches the Mississippi from the east, he does not find, as perchance he may anticipate, on approaching the source of one of the two largest rivers on the globe, elevated peaks rising in majestic grandeur to meet the clouds, mountain torrents shrouded in foam chafing their rocky chan- nels, deep and narrow valleys hemmed in on every side, forming as it were little worlds of their own, cavernous gorges giving exit to pent up waters, contorted and twisted strata, affording evidence of gigantic and violent throes ; but fecdures less bold, though not less marked, in their character. In a few instances, the hills or bluffs along the Mississippi rise boldly from the water’s edge, and present their step promontories so as to change the course of the river. These promontories, crowned with castellated rocks, that rear their bas- tions high above the summit of the hill, look like some old feudal castle, deserted and left for (21 22 IOWA HANDBOOK. the ivy to creep among its broken stones. This occurs at Dubuque and farther up the ]\Iississippi. But^ more generally, on either bank of the river is seen a series of graceful slopes, swelling and sink- ing as far as the eye can reach, — the luxuriant sward clothing the ground, even down to the water’s edge. In some instances the heavy forest covers aU these lovely slopes with timber of the finest quality, the oak prevailing. Again, these beautifully rounded bluffs revel in their carpet of green, dotted here and there with clumps of trees, that would baffle the skill of the landscape gard- ner to imitate, now crowning the grassy heights, now dotting the green slopes with partial or isolated shade. These slopes, and the rich alluvial bottoms that intervene, furnish the sites for the numerous cities that stand along the banks of the Father of Wa- ters, like gems in the great sea of commerce. From the hilltops the intervening valleys wear the aspect of cultivated meadows and rich pasture - grounds, irrigated by frequent rivulets, that wend their way through fields of wild hay, fringed with flourishing willows. On the summit level spreads the wild prairie, decked with flowers of the gayest hue, its long undulating waves stretching away till sky and meadow mingle in the wavy blue. Here, now, where less than twenty years ago the red man fought his battles with his sanguinary foe, and chased the bison and the elk, monarch of IOWA HANDBOOK. 2 ? all this glorious scene, are the prairie farms and prairie homes of Iowa. Rich from teeming wealth of soil, and waving in the breeze, stands the grain in these fair fields, while Art and Nature combine to render beautiful the homes of her noble sons of toil. As the traveller advances, he meets with lots of heavy timber sldrting ail the numer- ous streams that find their way to the rivers that intersect this beautiful State. Not alone on the water-courses does the timber lie, for frequent groves dot the extended landscape on every hand, like islands in this sea of green. Art, Science, and Manufactures gather their busy multitudes here, and take possession of these sylvan scenes. The ear of the traveller is greeted by — - — “the mill-stream’s fall, The engine’s pant along its quivering rails, The anvil’s ring, the measured beat of flails. The sweep of scythes, the reaper’s whistled tune. Answering the summons of the bells of noon. The woodman’s hail along the river shores. The steamboat’s signal, and the dip of oars. #•*#*** Broad on either hand The golden wheat-fields glimmered in the sun, And the tall maize its yellow tassels spun. Smooth highways set with hedgerows’ living green. With steepled towns through shaded vistas seen ; The school-house murmuring with its hive-like swarm The brook-bank whitening in the grist-mill’s storm. The painted farm-house shining through the leaves Of fruited orchards bending at its eaves. Where live again, around the Western hearth. The homely, old-time virtues of the North ; 24 IOWA HANDBOOK. Where the blithe housewife rises with the day, And well-paid labor counts its task a play, And, grateful tokens of the Bible free, And the free Gospel of Humanity, Of diverse sects and differing names the shrines. One in their faith, whate’er their outward signs. Like varying strophes of the same sweet hymn Lrom many a prairie’s swell and river’s brim, A thousand church-spires sanctify the air Of the calm Sabbath, with the sign of prayer.” CHAPTER V. RIVERS AND THEIR TRIBUTARIES. — LAKES, SPRINGS, AND WELLS. No State in the Union is more bountifully sup- plied with water than Iowa; being bounded on the east by one of the finest rivers in the world, the Mississippi, and on the west by the Missouri ; the interior of the State being traversed in every direction by noble, and in many cases navigable, streams, many of them running parallel to each other, from twelve to twenty miles apart, skirted v/ith timber of from one to five miles in width. Our rivers have not the rapidity of the New Eng- land streams,' nor the depth and sluggishness of those of the South ; but are clear, fresh, and healthy, of gentle current, and capable of fur- nishing water-power for all purposes. The rivers that are directly tributary to the Mis- sissippi are the Upper Iowa, Turkey, Maquote- ka, Wapsipinnicon, Cedar, Iowa, Fox, Checaqu© (commonly called Skunk), and the Des Moines. Those running into the Missouri are Floyd’s, Lit- tle Sioux, Inyan Yankee, Soldier, Boyer, Nishna- botna, Big Tarkeo, and Nodaway. 8 ( 25 ) 26 IOWA HANDBOOK. “ The untold power of these waters is being utilized for mechanical purposes ; and but a short time will elapse ere the thunder and clatter of the ten thousand wheels of machinery W’-ill break upon that solitude which once echoed only to the har- vest-song or the notes of the sweet warblers of the forest. Extensive works are already commenced upon more than one of these rivers which will stamp our greatness and convince the world that ‘ progress ’ is our watchword.” Beside the numerous rivers and small streams, we have many inexhaustible springs, pure and cool, gushing from the earth. In one day’s travel through the county of Jackson, where I did not pass over more than twenty miles, I found more than that number of springs bubbling up in the meadows by the hillside, or in the farmer’s Idtchen, yielding always a full supply of the coolest and softest water. In Winnesheik county, near Deco- rah, are springs gushing out from among rocks far above the level of the Iowa river, that afford water power sufficient to run flouring and saw-mills which are capable of doing an extensive business. Much of the water obtained by digging is im- pregnated with lime, but is most pure and refresh- ing. Those who become accustomed to the pecu- liar life that this water seems to possess, find what is termed soft water insipid to the taste. The lakes of Iowa are numerous in the northern por- tion of the State, and are filled with the finest fish. IOWA HANDBOOK. 27 Theii’ beauty forms no inconsiderable object of in- terest to the traveller. Timber Lands of Iowa. — Depending upon, to a> certain extent, and connected with, the water-courses are the timber lands of Iowa. According to the most reliable estimates, at least one4enth part of the State of Iowa is timber lomd. Of this, a considerable portion is of inferior quality ; and the supply of the fairest growth of timber, such as is found in Ohio and northern Wisconsin, is comparatively small. Yet along the sti’eams there are thousands of acres covered with an excellent growth of oak, walnut, ash, lime, maple, hickory, elm, and cotton-wood. These varieties differ in diiferent localities. Along the Iowa and Cedar Rivers there is a large amount of oak of all varieties, and the valley of the Des Moines is abundantly supplied with walnut and other valuable timber. I have seen on the banks of the Mississippi as fine a growth of oak as could be desired; trees three and four feet in diame- ter, standing in a body, miles in length, and three miles in width. The Pvlissouri has heavy timber aU along its banks. Hickory and walnut are abun- dant on the Iowa, Skunk, Cedar, and other rivers. Besides the full-grown timAer, there are thousands of acres of a vigorous young growth, that has at last conquered the prairie fires, and is now rapidly coming to maturity. In addition to these, there 28 IOWA HANDBOOK. is a vast amount of locust being cultivated. This grows here with a rapidity that is seldom equalled elsewhere. I have seen trees at the age of ten years that would make eight posts of sufficient size for fencing. Thus, there is an abundance of tim- ber for present purposes, and it is believed, by those best informed, that, notwithstanding the constant demand, the supply is every day increasing, both from natural and cultivated sources. The unequal distribution of the wooded land is a greater objection than its actual quantity. Some- times the prairies are from twenty to forty miles in width, thus maldng timber inconveniently distant These, however, are rare cases, and, at the worst, are bearable, compared to the lifelong drudgery of woodland pioneering. The large amount of coal that is now discovered in the various sections of the State obviates, to a great extent, the limited supply of timber land. The rapidly-increasing facilities for intercommu- nication are also fast equalizing the advantages of different localities. It is not the economy of nature that any one spot should monopolize all natural advantages ; but some portions of Iowa appear to combine as many as are often found harmonizing. The portion of Iowa most deficient in timber is north of latitude 42°, especially on dividing ridges. North of this latitude, between the head- waters of Th*ree and Grand Rivers, there are dis- IOWA HANDBOOK. 29 tances of ten or fifteen miles without any timber ; while between the waters of Grand River, the Nodaway, and the Nishnabotna, the open prairie is often twenty miles wide, without a bush to be seen higher than the v/ild indigo and the compass plant. 2 =^ CHAPTER VI. MINERAL RESOURCES OF IOWA For a knowledge of the mineral resources of Iowa, I am indebted to Owen^s Geological Report of the North-west, a survey made under the di- rection of the government some years since, and to actual observations made during various tours through the State, together with all the late and recent discoveries of minerals up to the present date. At the present time Prof. Hall is in the field, carrying on a new series of observations, under direction of the government of the State of Iowa ; but no report has as yet been made. The principal minerals are lead, coal, iron, cop- per, hydraulic limestone, quartzite, clays, common or mountain limestone, marble, and gypsum. The richest and far the most celebrated lead mines lie in the bluffs back of the city of Dubuque. The following will show somewhat the value and extent of the mining operations : Lead exported from Dubuque in 1854, 4,385 tons. Value $526,200. Ditto in 1855, 5,262 tons. Ditto $631,440, ( 30 ) IOWA HANDBOOK. 31 This city — the oldest white settlement in the State — takes its name from M. Dubuque, a Frenchman, who obtained a grant from the Spanish government for mining lead in this region. It was first settled in 1786. Mining at Dubuque is carried on with very little system. A lode is struck by many months labor at digging, and then a few more persons are put to the work, and the mineral is brought up in tubs to the surface, weighed, and sent to the smelting house, and then shipped. Lead has been found in various places in considerable quantities, in Clay- ton county, on the Turkey River, fifteen miles above the mouth. More or less “ Galena’’ is found in all the principal exposures of rock, in deep river cuts, about the Turkey and the Upper Iowa. Be- tween the Yellow and the Iowa, places are visible where the Indians have dug for lead. On the old Winnebago reseiwe, not far from the Iowa River, and a few miles northwest of the town of Lan- sing, it has been found in small quantities, chiefly in pockets and cavities. A Mr. Tichnor, formerly from PlatteviUe, struck a valuable lode of lead ore on Silver Creek, a small stream running into the Little Iowa, about tv/elve miles west of Lansinc. It is represented as an east and west sheet, in a regular perpendicular crevice, six inches in thick- ness and ten feet in height, with every appearance of continuance. They are raising about four 32 IOWA HANDBOOK. thousand pounds per day. There is quite an ex- tent of country lying directly west of Lansing, where small quantities of lead ore have been found on the surface ; but it has not, except to a very limited extent, been mined for. This is the first regular lode that has been struck, that we have heard of. Copper. — Recently a new discovery has been made of copper ore in the counties of Floyd and Mitchell, which, from latest accounts, promises to be of considerable value. Dr. Dov/ns, of Osage, Mitchell county, is our informant. The extent or quality had not been decided. Iron ore is found in various places in the Des Moines Valley; Owen thought, in some locations, of sufficient productiveness to justify smelting. There are, as yet, no works for working raw iron ore in the State. In a recent tour I have examined the Jackson county iron ores ; they extend over a good propor- tion of the county, but I think will hardly justify working. Coal. — The Iowa coal-field embraces an area of about 25,000 square miles.^ A very good idea of its locality may be obtained by taldng the map of the State, and drawing a line, commencing near the south-west corner of the State, in Fremont IOWA HANDBOOK. S3 county, proceeding up the Nishnabotna, thence to Lake Wattles, thence to the parallel of 43° north latitude, on the west fork of the Des Moines, thence it bends southeast to the head waters of the lower Iowa, following the course of that river at a dis- tance of about twenty miles north until it reaches Cedar county, which it passes through in a south- easterly direction, until it reaches the Mississippi near Davenport. This coal basin is clearly defined on the large “ Sectional and Geological Map of Iowa,” by the author of this work. The Des Moines River runs diagonally and centrally through v/hat is termed “the carboniferous system of Iowa.” This system is called carboniferous because it is that particular division of rocks in which the coal measures are found, and because it contains that series of rocks, of comparatively modern date, which, in their composition, are so largely carbon. Underneath and sometimes between the strata of these rocks are the coal beds that’ appear in vari- ous places in Iowa. The most frequent out-crop- pings are found along the banks of the Des Moines. A basin of 15 feet in thickness has been found in a bank opposite Farmington. When the out-crops are more than four or five feet, they must be suspected as being basins, unless, in the cut of a stream, at some distance, the vein is ascertained to have the same thickness. Ov/en says there is no vein of more than four or five feet in thickness hi Iowa, 84 IOWA HANDBOOK. In the immediate vicinity of the river, where the limestones, which lie below the coal, make their appearance, the coal strata are usually want- ing. This is the case at Bonaparte, Bentonsport, Keosauqua, and Ottumwa. But in these the coal strata may be, and actually are, found in creelis at no great distance from the river ; sometimes even upon the bluiis. The southeast and northwest parts of Van Buren county, the northeast part of Davis, the central part of Y/apello, the southern part of Mahaska, and the southeastern and central parts of Marion, are rich in coal. But other portions of the same counties are not wanting. So far as can he learned from the table, and so far as the obser- vation and knov/ledge of the writer extends, the heaviest beds are usually on the west side of the river. The best beds are also there. Some of these are also on the White Breast, Cedar, and Soap Creeks. The principal exception to this rule is in the southeast part of Van Buren county. Here it exists in great abundance on both sides of the river. It is equal in quality to any found below Marion county. Two veins are worked to con- siderable extent in connection ; the two afford from 4 1-2 to 5 1-2 feet. On the west side of the river, it is said the two are separated by a vein of fire-clay, which thins out, and the coal veins converge as they recede from the river. These veins are shown in the cuts made by the creeks for miles in distance to the west IOWA HANDBOOK. 35 Coal has been found on nearly all the rivers of Iowa. At Davenport, cannei coal has been dis- covered, as well as a good quality of bituminous. The same may be said of Pduscatine. The thickest vein or outcropping found in the State, as far as my observation or information extends, is at Steamboat Rock and Eldora, in Hardin county; some out- croppings there showing a thickness of 14 feet. These places being situated on the direct line of the Dubuque and Pacific Railroad, and being the nearest coal mines to the city of Dubuque, will be speedily and profitably worked. At Demoine City are splendid beds of coal out- cropping on either side of the Des Moines River. The lack of timber suitable for fuel in Iowa need be no drawback to the development and settle- ment of the State, since there is coal enough under- lying all the central and southern part of the State to serve the generations of men for ages to come. PIydraulic Limestone. — Of this stone, lime is formed which will set under water. It is essential for all masonry exposed to the water and to damp- ness, There are several varieties of -it; one is called Septaria. This is found in the form of round or flattened balls of various sizes. This is the kind from which the English prepare the cele- brated Roman cement. Owen says: “ Cement rock is found both above 36 IOWA HANDBOOK. and below the coal, but in the largest quantities above. The reader will find mention of it by consulting Owen’s Pteport^ pp. 112, 127 ; and more frequently still in that part of it which gives the geological structure between Fort Des Moines and Fort Dodge. It is a very common rock in the valley ; probably in every county on the river below Fort Dodge. In many places contiguous to the river, in Davis county, there are strata of it several feet in thickness. The geological structure of the southeast and central parts of Marion county are just the same as in Davis. But, as the series of rocks above the coal show themselves more extensively above Racoon Fork, we accordingly find more frequent mention of it in that region. In some places large quantities of it are wrought into cement, which is quite extensively used in the river improvement. “ It will readily be seen that the demand for this is great, when it is said that $6000 worth, at the ordinary prices, will be wanted for every lock on the river, and when it is also said that in nearly every dwelling in the western country, cisterns coated with this cement will be indispensable as the means of obtaining a supply of pure soft water. The walls and floors of damp cellars must also be laid in cement. And the cement of this valley will be wanted because it is more accessi- ble ; the present demand being supplied, in a great IOWA HANDBOOK. 37 measure, from La Salle, Illinois, and from Lonis- ville, Kentucky; and also because the Valley cement is probably fully equal to that from other places. Gypsum, or Plaster of Paris. This is chemi- cally known as sulphate of lime. The heaviest beds of it in the United States are to be found in Webster county, near Fort Dodge. They are from twenty to thhty feet thick, and show themselves on both sides of the river, for miles ; and they extend back each v/ay an unknown distance. On one acre, with an average thickness of twenty feet, there will be 871,200 cubic feet ; on one square mile, 557,568,000 cubic feet; and on three miles square, 5,018,112,000 cubic feet and 308,031,428 tons. It needs no further remarks to show the reader of these pages the immense value of these beds. The idea that constant culture will not impover- ish the rich soil of the prairie is not to be enter- tained ; the value of this article in agriculture and for other purposes, then, is almost incalculable. The Dubuque and Pacific Kailroad is already surveyed and under contract to within a short dis- tance of these beds, and but few years will elapse before the United States will resort to her youngest member to replenish her worn-out fields, at these inexhaustible beds of gypsum. 4 38 IOWA HANDBOOK. Clays. — Passing by the kinds from which com- mon brick are made, and those used for earthen and stone-ware, the coal measures abound in “ fire- clay.” Fire-proof bricks are wrought of this for the use of foundries, furnaces, and in all cases and places where there is an exposure to intense heat. In the Eastern States, it has sometimes been necessary to import these bricks fi:om England. The cost of them has been as high as ^50 per thousand. It is desirable that fire-places and ovens should be constructed of them ; and where fire-clay is plenty, as in the VaUey, there is no reason why they should not be. But bricks are heavy articles of transport; and, until there are. railroad facilities of carriage, that one item of cost will prevent extensive business in this kind of manufacture. With such facilities, there appears no good reason why this clay should not be worked. And, as to quantity, the Valley can supply the United States, with Cuba and Mexico annexed I Marble. — The best quarries we have seen are at Keokuk and Iowa city. Some of the strata there are highly crystalline — almost saccharine — and take a fine polish. St. Louis has already resorted to Keokuk for building material ; a fact which shows that this marble is superior to any other equally accessible to that city. At the same locality are other varieties which polish weU. IOWA PIANDBOOK. 89 They are crystalline, solid, but full of fossils, and either blue or of a bluish-gray color. Of the lat- ter varieties, enough can be had at Bonaparte, Bentonsport, and Keosauqua. And, very probably, when these quarries shall be extensively worked, the white marble will be found. Not far from Keosauqua there is a good variety of light-gray, compact, granular marble, of which tombstones are wrought by Beacon M. B. Root. It effervesces slightly with acids, and takes a polish. Iowa sent a block from this quarry to the Wash- ington Monument. Ottumwa may expect to find as good varieties of marble as any place, because the lower limestones have the greatest uplift there. A fine quality of white marble has been recently discovered in southern Iowa. Limestone of the best quality is found in various parts of the State, so commonly and in such quantities that scarcely any point is without access to its quarries. Collectively, the minerals of Iowa are of the most valuable order. They constitute one of the many items which render it attractive. CHAPTER VII. TOURS THROUGH IOWA. Having made frequent and extensive journeys through the State, the author proposes under this head to give much information pertaining to partic- ular localities. The statistics of towns, etc., are corrected up to the latest date previous to going to press. Having taken a boat for Keokuk, we glide swiftly down the Mississippi, passing by much of inter- est, and arrive at Keokuk, “the Gate City” of Iowa. As I write, my eye rests on the follov/ing from the pen of a correspondent of a Rochester paper, which expresses just what this city is. He writes : “ Oif THE Mississippi, March, 1856. “ ‘ Away off west,’ where the twinkling of the ‘star of empire’ can be seen by any far-reaching eye, perched upon the farther bluff of the graceful Mississippi, 200 miles above St. Louis, is one of the most attractive and progressive young cities this wonderful age has reared. “ Ten years ago it was exclusively monopolized by a few boatmen, whose occupation it was to (40) IOWA HANDBOOK. 41 ‘lighten’ the Mississippi steamboats over the ‘ Kapids’ extending eleven miles above. Some five years since, as I see by the inaugural address of its mayor, the first wholesale establishment was opened. There are at this time fifty-nine whole- sale houses — three of which sell each between $200,000 and $300,000 in value of goods— -some of which are ‘teamed’ beyond the newly located capital. Fort Des Moines, 200 miles in the interior. Several of these are importers, there being an U. S. custom-house there. “ There are sixty-two retail stores of all kinds. In the entire town, which is one mile north and south by one and a half east and west, there are four hundred and fifty places of business. Among these are steam stone-cutting and sawing mills ; three banking houses ; three daily papers ; fourteen slaughtering and packing houses ; one type and printing-press wareroom ; six steam-engine ma- chine-shops and boiler manufactories ; eight v/agon and carriage ditto ; and two soap and candle ditto. Several of these concerns employ from fifty to seventy hands each, v/hiie one, not specified above, has about two hundred. “ The past season, every inch of lumber and piece of brick that could be procured was placed in buildings ; more than sixty stores and manufac- turing houses were then erected, nearly all of a costly and substantial character, and three or four stories in height. 42 fOWA HANDBOOK. “ It is estimated that five hundred additional dwelling-houses will be in request this spring. The place is lighted with gas. Although the health- iest town on the Mississippi river, the Legislature had the assurance to locate the State Medical Col- lege there (probably from the known fact that M. D.’s dread sickness awfully themselves). “ Two railroads into the interior of the State are being constructed, and will be in operation this season, and are greatly demanded by the wants of trade for the commerce of this beehive of a tov/n, whose inhabitants, as a class, are as energetic, intelligent, moral, and as independent in their resources, as those of any other juvenile of the age that can be named in any part of Uncle Sam’s domain.” To which I will add, further, the bluff upon which it is situated is one hundred and fifty feet above high-water mark, on the Mississippi ; and at the present time contains a population of upwards of ten thousand. Its streets are wide and regular, and are nearly all graded and macdamized. Main street is one hundred feet in width, and is macad- amized through the city, upwards of one mile in length. The advantages accruing from position are threefold : Firsts those derived from the navigation of the Mississippi. The Lower Rapids, formed by a rocky stratum in the river, commencing about two IOWA HANDBOOK. 43 hundred yards above the city, and running north- ward a distance of twelve miles, with a fall of twenty-four feet, render Keokuk the head of navi- gation during a great portion of the year, until the work of improving the Rapids is completed. At present, in time of low water, steamers are obliged to unload their cargoes into “lighters,” which are towed up the Rapids, above which the freight is again loaded into boats ; and thus the city is rendered a wholesale depot, and place of ti’anshipment. The second point lies in the trade of the Des Moines Valley, which Keokuk must inevitably command, situated but two miles above the con- fluence of the Des Moines and Mississippi Rivers. This valley, for a width of sixty mules on either side of the Res Moines River, is unsurpassed, prob- ably, in the world, for agricultural wealth. It also abounds in timber, coal, gypsum, and many other articles of trade, and these will be transmit- ted doAvn the Des Moines to its mouth at Keokuk, thence reshipped to other markets. Of the im- provement of the Des Moines we shall speak at length in another chapter. The third source of business advantages, which Keokuk can claim, lies in its railroads. The Keo- kuk and Fort Des Moines, the Keokuk, Mt. Pleas- ant, and Muscatine, and the Eastern railroads, will soon be built, and wifl afford this city numerous connections of the highest importance. 44 IOWA HANDBOOK. Its public school is held in the largest and hand- somest building which, throughout the State, is devoted to the cause of education. The edifice, when fully completed, will have cost §13,500. This city also contains the Iowa Medical College, a State institution, and a Female Seminary, be- sides two other female institutes, and a number of private schools. Six church edifices : Old and New School Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, Episco- palian, and Catholic. The bluff, on which the city stands, contains the finest of limestone for building and other purposes, and commands a landscape view of v/ild and pic- turesque beauty. Leaving Keokuk by stage up the Des Moines valley, through rich bottom lands, which are not surpassed for fertility in the world, passing through towns and highly cultivated fields, occasionally catching a glimpse of the Des Moines and of the improvements being made in that river by the Des Moines Navigation Company, we arrive at the confines of Lee county. But, before leaving the county, let me speak of Fort Madison, the present location of the State Penitentiary. This town, like all western towns, is rapidly improving ; its present population is four thousand. Montrose is a town of considerable importance on the river, being situated at the head of the Lower Rapids. Denmark is another of the towns of Lee county, and is one of the oldest situated inland in the IOWA HANDBOOK. 45 State, and is inhabited by a thrifty class of people from the Eastern States and Ohio. The county of Lee, which we are now leaving, is one of the most populous and wealthy in the State. Consid- erable attention has been paid, in this county, to wool-growing, as well as to raising fine cattle and horses. Passing through Boston, Charleston, Bona- parte, and Bentonsport, we reach Keosauqua. These are all thriving towns, and the last-named are of considerable importance. In Van Buren county we find the same natural features and a similar agricultural community as in Lee. The principal town and county-seat of this county is Keosauqua, which was settled as early as 1834. Population now sixteen hundred, — -that of the county, fourteen thousand. One newspaper published here ; good public and pri- vate schools ; a fine seminary is being built. Good churches — good society. Among manufactories may be mentioned three flouring-mills, two saw- mills, a wooUen manufactory, paper-mill, manufac- tory for farming implements, etc., etc. The lock and dam being constructed here will furnish water- power that cannot be surpassed. This county is finely timbered. Our informant states that me- chanics of aU Idnds are in demand here. Leav- ing Keosauqua, we pass over the Des Moines Biver through a finely cultivated district, consisting of prairie and bottom land, which yield a rich reward to the farmer for his toil. Entering Davis couxiLy, 46 IOWA HANDBOOK. we find it well watered by numerous small streams running southwest into the State of Missouri, thence to the Mississippi. This county is gener- ally settled by people from Illinois and Missouri. The principal town and county-seat is Bloomfield. Troy, Drakesville, Nottingham, and Mount Cal- vary are post-towns in this county. Appanoose county, next on our route, contains a fine body of land, is but sparsely settled, con- tains considerable unentered land. County organ- ized in 1851 ; county-seat, Corydon. Fine mill privileges abound here. Capitalists will do well to notice this county. Wayne and Decatm* are similar, — the northern portion fine prairie, the southern portion well timbered and finely wa- tered. Coal has been found along the banks of the streams. These counties offer great induce- ments to farmers and capitalists, being yet in their early day of settlement ; many good farming lands at a low price, and fine water-privileges unim- proved. Leon is the county-seat of Decatur. Ringgold county should have been included in the description of the preceding counties. Its county- seat is Mountain Air. It contains within its limits all the elements that industiy and capital require to develop a wealthy, thriving agiicultural and manufacturing district. Taylor and Page counties lie next on our route. Finer timber, better soil, a more delightful climate, are not found in Iowa than this region possesses. When the resources of these IOWA HANDBOOK. 47 counties are developed, no richer or more attractive section can be found throughout the State. Immi- grants seeking homes and cheap lands will do well to look at these counties. Clarinda is the county- seat of Page. We next enter Fremont, which is situated in the southwestern corner of the State, bounded by the Missouri on the west, traversed through the whole length of the county by the Nishnabotna. This county is heavily timbered, and contains within its bounds a part of the great coal basin. The first settlements were made June 30, 1851. The present population is about five thousand. Sidney, the county-seat, is pleas- antly situated west of the Nishnabotna. There are over twenty public schools in the county ; each of the Orthodox churclies have an organization here, except the Episcopalians. There is a card- ing-machine, two steam fiouring-mills, one steam saw-mill, and more needed. This is a growing county. Immigrants going into Western Iowa will do well to look at this county. From Sidney we go north up the Nishnabotna, passing through a most splendid country, fitted by nature to afford all that civilization requires. Most of the land in this county is entered, but can be purchased second-hand for a few dollars per acre. On this route we pass through the flour- ishing settlements of Dawsonberry and Tabor. The latter is a finely located place, settled princi- pally by a colony from Ohio, who took with them 48 IOWA HANDBOOK. their minister and teachers, and thus enjoy most, if not all, the privileges enjoyed by older settle- ments. It is the intention of this colony to estab- lish at some future day a college here. Pursuing our route northward into Mills county, passing through several embryo towns, among the most attractive is the county-seat, Glenwood. The name is suggestive of poetry, but no more so than the beautiful spot that bears it. Hill and dale, clumps of trees, clear springs, and sparkling brooks, characterize this spot. This is a busy lit- tle town, with a population of eight hundred, con- taining three churches, two newspapers, three good schools, two flouring and three saw-mills, driven by steam. There is a demand for teachers, for mechanics, for farmers, for capitalists, — for all in- dustrious, honest citizens. Reader, if you want to find a wide-awake town, or a wide-awake county, right on one of the railroads to which Congress has given a grant of land, go out to Mills county. One of these pleasant mornings, before you are awake perchance to the fact, you will see the iron horse stop to drink at the Missouri, before it takes a leap into Nebraska. We leave this beautiful county, believing at no distant day the lofty enter- prise of its energetic people will unfold the rich resources of this county to the admiring gaze of Iowa’s sons and daughters. Leaving Mills, we bend our course northwest towards Council Bluffs, where we arrive late at IOWA HANDBOOK. 49 night. Morning finds us busy examining this city and its improvements. Meeting v/ith our good friend Johnson, of the Council Bluffs Bugle, we let him tell the story. Council Bluffs. — ■ This place, formerly called Kanesville, is situated about three miles from the Missouri Biver, in a valley, surrounded by high bluffs, and contains a population of near 3000 ; is incorporated as a city, and is fast improving in size and population. It now contains ten stores, four hotels, three broker or banking institutions, any number of men calling themselves lawyers, plenty of physicians, not half enough mechanics or laborers, all sorts in demand. Land Office for the Missouri Biver Dis- trict located here, two newspapers published, but not a good steam flouring-mill in the city or coun- ty. Capital could not be invested in a more pro- fitable undertaldng. No coal banks have as yet been opened near the city, but indications of coal and fair specimens have been found at short dis- tances. There is no doubt but that an abundance exists in this region. There are good limestone quarries a few miles from the city. Just opposite this city, in Nebraska, is situated Omaha City, the capital of the Territory. Either city is in sight of the other. We have fine coaches from the east, which are performing daily service, and always loaded ; from the south, we 5 50 IOWA HANDBOOK. have also fine, commodious coaches, which make a tri-weekly service. The Western Stage Com- pany have a line of four-horse hacks tri-weekly to Sioux City ; we have - a daily omnibus line to Omaha City, and also another line weekly to Fort Calhoun, Nebraska, besides several less impor- tant mail lines from this place, including a monthly mail to Fort Pierre. Our future prospects for becoming a great cen- tral mart of business, commerce, and enterprise, are undisputed. Railroads, etc. — There are three several rail- roads surveyed from the Mississippi River, on a line westward to this place, two of which are already being constructed, and are fast progressing toward this place — one is completed, upon which the cars will soon be running, to Iowa City. It is a univer- sally conceded fact, by those who know, that the Platte valley is the only practicable route for a railroad to the- Pacific. Our city being situated on an almost direct line westward from the great cities of the east, this place will be the great half- v/ay depot for the immense trains that go to, and return from, the Pacific. Our advantages in agri- culture and stock-growing are unbounded — as there are millions of acres of the finest pasture and meadow-land lying to waste, that will not for years be improved, and in the low bottoms we have im- mense beds of rushes, upon which stock will win- ter and keep fat. IOWA HANDBOOK. 51 Real Estate. — Few people abroad have any idea of the yearly advance in lands and city prop- erty in this region. Two years ago, Judge S. H. Riddle purchased a piece of land in the bottoms, which has cost him, to date of sale, $400 ; a few days since, he sold it for $ 18 , 000 , and the great Prince of railroad projects, Farnham, was inter- ested in the purchase. Mr. Geer, living a.bout two miles below town, entered land about two years ago, which he has recently sold for $75 per acre, which cost him only $1.25. These are not isolated cases, but what are daily occurring, and prove the general advancement of property in this vicinity. CHAPTER VIII. WESTERN IOWA. That large, fertile and beautiful tract of coun- try, lying north of the Missouri State line and west of the Des Moines River, is denominated and known as Western Iowa, embracing a large area of the most excellent land that was ever trodden by the foot of the white man ; the largest portion of which is still uninhabited, and may be pm'chased of the Government at $1.25 per acre. Geography, etc. — The face of the country, through this region, is quite different from that of all the prairie regions east, being more rolling, hilly, and rough ; there being less sloughs, mue-holes, and swamps ; streams of water being more pure, clear, and swift, being formed from thousands of springs, everywhere bursting from the hill-sides, glens, and ravines. The altitude is considerably greater at this place than at the Mississippi, on a due line east. Near the Missouri, and all the large streams, high and precipitous mountain bluffs range up and down the streams, whilst the region contiguous is generally very rough and hiUy ; but gradually, as it extends back, becomes more even, and finally just ( 52 ) IOWA HANDBOOK. 53 beatifully rolling as it ascends to higher grounds towards the dividing ridges. The valleys formed by this roughness of surface are immensely rich, of very easy cultivation, and capable of producing to an enormous extent; and, what is a strange peeuliarity, the crops are not materially affected by either flood or drought, the soil possessing the pe- culiarity of sustaining and maturing crops through severe and prolonged drought. The river bottoms are sometimes extremely wide, beautiful, and level; in some places the Missouri bottom is fifteen or twenty miles wide, with an occasional fine, clear lake, well stored with excellent fish. The highest hills are covered with verdure, grass, or timber, and, if cultivated, would produce good crops of various kinds of grain or vegetables. Although the soil is light, and to appearance poor, it is loose and sandy, and very easy to cultivate. The soil on the bottoms and in the valleys is a black, rich sandy loam, and often from five to ten feet in. depth. Throughout the whole region, fine rivers, creeks, and smaller streams of water occur, which afford an abundance of power for mills and machinery ; and the endless number of springs and small rivu- lets furnish an abundant supply for farming uses and stock. Every lake and stream of any size is alive with excellent fish. Climate, Health, etc.- — Our clima.te is one ol 5 * 54 IOWA II A NDBOOK. the most delightful in nature. Our spring usually commences in March, and by the middle of April the prairies are green, with mild, beautiful weather. In May, all the face of nature is covered with flowers, and the foliage of the prairies bends before the breeze like the waves of an enchanted lake, whilst the whole atmosphere is scented with the breath of flowers. At all seasons of the year, a gentle breeze is fanning the prairies, and a day is never so sultry but that a cooling breath comes to moderate the melting temperature. The evening twilights are beautiful, in most seasons of the year, continuing nearly two hours after sunset. Ten months in the year our roads are hard, smooth, and dry. In autumn, the weather, with little ex- ception, is usually pleasant and fine until near December. Winter brings us very little snow, some years not amounting to more than six or eight inches altogether ; the weather through the winter being mostly made up of cool sunshiny days and clear frosty nights. There is nothing, apparently, to hinder this extensive region from being one of the most healthy portions of the United States. High, diy, salubrious, and rolling, with most excellent water and a bracing atmos- phere, consumption was never known to seize a victim here. On the streams the ague and fever sometimes intrudes, with fevers, occasionally, of other types ; but, as the country becomes settled and cultivated, these will disappear and be unknown. IOWA HANDBOOK. 55 Settlement, etc. — The first white settlement in this region was made in this county, in the year 1847, by a large company of Mormons. Having been exiled from Illinois, in poverty and almost destitute, they opened a road from the frontier set- tlement, passing through a country then only in- habited by savages. They planted small colonies at places on the route, severally named Garden Grove and Mount Pisgah ; pushing on to this place, a large number, unable to go farther, selected loca- tions, stopped and commenced opening farms, etc., whilst those who were able proceeded on to Salt Lake Valley. In the spring of 1849, a town was commenced on the site of this city, called Kanes- ville, and two or three stores erected. After this year, the town and population of the county began rapidly to increase, and now Pottawattamie is the most populous county in Western Iowa. For several reasons, this county became hastily settled, and the best locations secured at an early day — one of which is, the excellent market here for everything, and another, the fact that it is directly on the great thoroughfare from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and the certainty of its being the initial point for the great Pacific Railroad, and a great outfitting point for the thousands crossing the Plains. CHAPTER IX. FROM COUNCIL BLUFFS TO DEMOINE CITY. THE RAILROAD ROUTE DESCRIBED, ETC. After a pleasant sojourn in the “ City of the Bluffs,” enjoying the hospitality of J. E. Johnson, Esq. (whose Bugle has ever sounded its loudest notes in proclaiming the deserved praise of this city), I bid farewell to him and the “Mad Mis- souri,” and the plains and bluffs of Nebraska, and hie my way homeward, passing over the usually travelled route to Fort Des Moines. This country is so fully described in the preceding chapter, that I need but mention the principal towns passed through. As will be seen by reference to the map accompanying this work, the M. and M. Railroad from the Missouri passes northeast, through Potta- wattamie, into the tier of counties next northward, continuing in a due eastern line to F ort Des Moines, through the southern townships of Shelby, Audu- bon, Guthrie, and Dallas counties. These counties are each rapidly filling up with a substantial popu- lation, occupying a fine faruiing country. The towns and settlements are new and in their primi- tive days, and many of them will form a nucleus ( 50 ) IOWA HANDBOOK. 57 for larger towns, when the railroad shall have been completed. When the iron horse thunders along these valleys and fertile plains, scaring the deer and rabbit from their lurking-places, waldng wild echoes among these streams and wooded dells, the pion- eer, catching a glimpse of the Star of Empire,” as ‘‘westward it takes its course,” who has, per- chance, left poverty and oppression in some older country, finds his wild prairie farm, which cost him only the trials of pre-emption and $1.25 per acre, the site of a thrifty town, developed by the railroad ; or his fertile fields waving in the summer breeze, ripe for a bounteous harvest, with a ready market almost at his door ; forgets the few years of priva- tion he has been subjected to, and feels that his competency or wealth has been easily gained. Between Council Bluffs and the capital city, the more important towns passed through are Lewis, Somerset, Winterset, and Add, which are respectively the county-seats of Cass, Adair, Madi- son, and Dallas counties. The country along this route is rich in fertility of soil, generally rolling prairie, and the ravines deeper than at the same distance from the Mississippi. The towns and vil- lages on this road are all growing very rapidly, and substantial public improvements are being made at each of the county-seats. Fort Des Moines is the county-seat of Polk county, and a city of probably two thousand five hundred inhabitants. The county was opened for 58 IOWA HANDBOOK. settlement in May, 1846, and now contains a popu- lation of upwards of ten thousand. The fort was erected at an early day, at this place, on the west bank of the Des Moines River, as a protection to our frontier settlements. The garrison was removed in 1846, when the town was laid out. Two newspapers are published here ; there are two banking houses, four churches, one public and two private schools. The public school building, recently erected, cost ^6,000. The last regular session of the Legislature lo- cated the capital of the State at Des IMoines. At a meeting of the commissioners of arrangement, it was decided to erect a new building, for tempo- rary purposes, at a cost of f 40,000, to be raised by private subscription. At the same time, the name of the city of Fort Des Moines v/as changed to Demoine City, omitting the French silent let- ters, and plurality of words. The following is a description of the new capi- tol : “ The building is to be one hundred feet long by fifty-six wide, and three stories high. The first floor is divided into eight or ten committee-rooms, and an office and vaults for the State treasurer. The second floor is divided into rooms for the gov- ernor and other State officers, a supreme court- room and library-room, each of which are twenty- one by forty-eight feet. The third floor is divided into two capacious halls for the house and senate ; the former, forty-eight by fifty-eight feet in the IOWA HANDBOOK. 59 clear ; the latter, thirty-two by fifty-two feet ; both chambers to be provided with an eighteen foot ceiling, and the whole building to be heated with furnaces. The representative and senate halls, be- sides being able to accommodate one third more members than are authorized by the Constitution, will also be supplied with large and convenient lobbies.” The capitol will be built on the east side of the river, that portion of the city which is built on the east side having donated ten acres of ground to the State, for that purpose. This city has re- ceived a great impetus since the location of the capital here. It is estimated that it has increased one half within the last year. When it is consid- ered that in one year, at the farthest, the raifioad from Iowa City will be completed as far as this point, and this remain the terminus, for, perhaps, another year; and, furthermore, that the Des Moines River improvement is contracted to be completed in January, 1858, connecting this city with Keokuk, by a line of boats - that will run, through the time of navigation, without interruption ; I say, when these improvements are completed, we may look to Demoihe City as the largest central inland town in the State. The land office, for the present, is closed here, to be opened when the railroads re- ceive their lands. Polk county, as weU as those adjoining and tliose farther north and west, is high rolling prairie, 60 IOWA HANDBOOK. with a due proportion of timber ; and is well wa- tered with rivers and creeks, the banks of which abound in coal, lime, sandstone, and gypsum, in great quantities. Leaving Polk county, we pass to Newton, the county-seat of Jasper. This county, with Powe- shiek and Iowa, forms an excellent body of farming land — high rolling prairie, watered by numerous small streams flowing southeast to ’the Missis- sippi. Coal of a good quality has been found in each of these counties. A thriving community of farmers occupy the land, and are rapidly improving the rich soil, so recently of the public domain. The towns and villages are all growing up as only western towns know how to, and the prospect of a railroad connecting them with the east gives all these towns a strong impetus. Among the most important are, Newton, in Jasper; Grinnell and Montezuma, in Ppweshiek ; Marengo and Millers- burg, in Iowa. Newton contains a population of about one thousand souls ; has eight dry goods stores, and others in proportion, three churches, three high schools, a splendid hotel in prospect, and any quantity of buildings under way. It is the county-seat of Jasper. Grinnell, in Poweshiek, now two years of age, is a thriving town, settled by a colony from New York. They have the “People’s College” here, an institution of learning founded by this colony. Their public school building cost $6,000. IOWA HANDBOOK. 61 Montezuma, the county-seat of this county, con- tains a population of six hundred, with the usual number of lawyers and doctors. Mechanics and manufacturers are wanted. Lands are selling in this county from three to five and up as high as fifty dollars per acre, according to location. Marengo, the county-seat of Iowa, contains a population of five hundred. A good bridge has been constructed here over the Iowa river, which adds much to the facilities for doing business in this place. CHAPTER X. TRIP TO THE RIVER. IOWA CITY. HER BUSINESS STATISTICS. Iowa City, the county-seat of Johnson county, and the former seat of government of the State of Iowa, is fifty-five miles from Davenport, by the Mississippi and Missouri Railroad, and is the most western city in railroad connection with the east. The town was laid out in 1839. In 1840 the number of inhabitants was 520 ; in 1845, 1,000 ; in 1850, 1,585 ; in 1855, 5,000 ; and now its popu- lation is said to be about 5,500. The population of Johnson county in 1840 numbered 1,491; in 1850, 4,492 ; and in 1854, 8,467. At the last session of the Legislature, a bill was passed, removing the seat of government to Fort Des Moines, in Polk county, one hundred and twenty miles farther west. The former State House is not entirely finished, but is an elegant edifice of stone ; capacious, well adapted to legislative and other public piu'poses, and an ornament to the city. This building, with its extensive grounds, is a grant to the State uni- versity, and will be appropriated to its use imme- ( 62 ) IOWA HANDBOOK. 63 diately upon the removal of the State offices and legislative sessions. The general government gave this University a grant of seventy-two sections of land, which have mostly been sold, — the funds to be appropriated to the support of the school. This institution is well provided with competent professors. The number of students is at present 150. The first session was opened on the first Monday of March, 1855. Besides this infant institution, strong in resources and promises, there is the Female Collegiate Insti- tute, in successful operation. There is, also, the City Union School, with s. principal and three assistants, besides numerous private schools, all thriving finely. There is no town in the State bet- ter supplied with educational advantages, consider- ing its population. There are seven churches : two Presbyterian, one Methodist Episcopal, one Universalist, one Episco- palian, one Baptist, one Catholic. Ail have good stone and brick buildings. The Episcopal church is one of the largest in the State. The amount of goods received here since Jan- uary 1, 1856 (the time the railroad was completed to this point), is immense. Here are about sixty places of business, including dry goods, groceries, and hardware. The aggregate sales of these estab- lishments vary from $25,000 to $100,000 annually. Here are five lumber-yards, making an aggregate 64 IOWA HANDBOOK. sale of 760,000 feet of lumber and 450,000 shingles for the four months ending April, 1856. Here are three banking establishments — Cook, Sargent & Downey ; J. H. Gower, Bros. & Co. ; and Culbert- son & Reno, — all prompt business men, possess- ing an energy and perseverance worthy their young and prosperous city. The U. S. Land Office, for- merly at this place, has been removed to Demoine City. Of the manufactories in this city some men- tion should be made; and, though still in their infancy, some of them are far superior to those in older States. Of this class are : Morrison’s steam flouring-mill, 45 by 60 feet, of stone, grinding forty barrels of flour per day; Love, Gordon & Co.’s steam plough factory, manufacturing nine hun- dred ploughs yearly ; Finkbine & Lovelace’s steam sash, door, and blind factory, with tenoning, planing, and mortising machines, manufacturing $20,000 worth per annum; an iron foundry, owned by Hart & Jones, manufacturing machinery, mill-gearing, etc. Besides these, are wagon-mak- ers, blacksmiths, cabinet-makers, etc., in proportion. There are seven hotels in this place, all crowded, and all, they say, ‘‘ have more business than they want.” The traveller is generally at a loss to know where to stop. I have always been well treated at the “ Park House.” The others may be as good, or better. The tourist from the East may, perhaps, be inter- ested in the market prices of Iowa. In this city, IOWA HANDBOOK. 65 wood sells at $3.50 per cord ; coal is about $7 per ton. Wheat is sold here at present at from 75 to 85 cents per bushel. Farms, improved, near the city, sell for $20 to $30 per acre — -a few miles back, for $10 to $15 an acre. Real estate in this city ranges, for first class city property, from $50 to $1.25 per foot front. Residence lots may be had for from $150 to $600. One daily and two weekly newspapers are pub- lished here, ably conducted and well sustained. The county of Johnson has many thriving towns within its borders, is well watered, and has a fak proportion of timber for a prairie county. The land is well adapted to all the wants of the agri- culturist; is thickly settled, by as thrifty, intelli- gent, and energetic a population as can be found anywhere. The railroad brings everything directly into market, and farmers and manufacturers can- not complain, but daily see their labors rewarded. Passing out of Johnson county, on the cars, we cross the corner of Cedar, then run into Muscatine county. All along this route, unmistakable evi- dence of the value of a rahroad to inland towns is seen. Busy little villages spring up at each station, and the whole district quickly feels the throbbing pulsation of this great artery of com- merce. At Wilton, a branch road from Muscatine taps the main trunk, and gives that place a new impe- tus. Leaving Muscatine county, our iron steed 6 * 66 IOWA HANDBOOK. dashes on over the beautiful prairies and swelling slopes of Scott county, stopping on his way at Durant, Fulton, and Walcott, each young, growing towns, children of the Railroad. With a fierce snort from his flowing nostrils, he emerges from the deep cut in the bluff, and we find ourselves in one of Iowa’s most beautiful cities, Davenport. CHAPTER XI. DAVENPORT AND HER SURROUNDINGS. CHURCHES, SCHOOLS, AND MANUFACTORIES. — BUSINESS STA- TISTICS. MISSISSIPPI AND MISSOURI RAILROAD.-— RAILROAD BRIDGES. Once again our eye rests on the bosom of the majestic Mississippi. Where now stands onr iron horse, Gen. Scott had his marquee, twenty-three years ago, while making a treaty with the Sac and Fox Indians, for their lands in Iowa. The Sac chief asked as a condition that Mrs. Le Claire, the wife of Antoine Le Claire (for many years an interpreter between the Indians and the United States agents), should receive from his hands a mile square of land, at this place, and that her husband should build his house on this spot, which he did during the year. Here they lived until the year 1854, when he (Antoine Le Claire) sold ten acres for depot grounds to the Mississippi and Missouri railroad company, including his house and grounds. Le Claire’s old homestead house is now used as the passenger depot ! Besides the gift of one mile square of land, now covered with the massive warehouses and hand- ( 67 ) 68 IOWA HANDBOOK. some stores of Davenport city, the Sac chiefs gave Antoine Le Claire a township of land at the head of the Upper Rapids, where now is the town of Le Claire, with a population of 1,500. These tracts of land have, as the “ Star of Empii’e west- ward took its course,” so increased in value, that Antonie Le Clare to-day is one of the richest men in Iowa. His public spirit and generosity keep pace with his ample means, and Davenport has always found in Le Claire a public benefactor. Her public buildings, her libraries, and her streets illustrate his munificence. Much has been justly said of the natural beauty of the scenery at and about Davenport. Opposite, on the Illinois shore, is the city of Rock Island, with a background of gently rounded bluffs. Between and above is the beautiful island. Rock Island, connected with either shore by the railroad bridge that spans the “ Father of Waters,” hence giving uninterrupted railroad connection between the Eastern States and Iowa. At the level of the island, which is three miles in length, is Moline on the Illinois shore and East Davenport on the Iowa. These are pleasant manufacturing villages, whose busy hum keeps pace with the thrift on every hand. The city of Davenport is built on the broad bottom lands that here, in some places, are a mile in width ; the residences extending up the beauti- ful bluffs, and over the highest points, out into the prairie beyond. IOWA HANDBOOK. 69 •Perhaps nowhere in the West can be found a more varied and extensive view than is gained from these bluffs, that rise two or three hundred feet above the level upon which the business por- tion of the city is built. Many persons of wealth, attracted thither by the magnificent scenery, have built tasteful and even splendid residences, com- manding a prospect that is seldom surpassed. Davenport, being the northern terminus of the Mississippi and Missouri railroad, has an extensive trade with the interior country ; and, as the rail- road progresses w^estward, this trade will undoubt- edly increase in a proportionate degree. This trade has originated and supported several large forwarding houses, the business of which annually amounts to an immense sum, in the aggregate about ^356,000. An extensive business is done here in grain. Upwards of 454,000 bushels of wheat were delivered dmang the last year, com- mencing with the fall of 1855. The manufactures in Davenport will compare favorably with those of any other city of the same age in the West or Northwest. In truth, the whole of this region of country, including Davenport, East and Upper Davenport, Rock Island, Moline, and Camden, is undoubtedly destined to be a large manufacturing centre for the country west. With every facility which an abundance of coal, water power, and railroad connection with the east and the west can supply, what is there to prevent such a rps>i1t? 70 IOWA HANDBOOK. The following list gives the principal manufacto- ries : Two iron foundries ; two steam-boiler man- ufactories; two for the manufacture of agricul- tural implements ; two for carriages ; six saw-mills, with which are connected planing-mills, lath- machines, shingle-machines, sash and blind man- ufactories ; four flouring-mills ; three furniture factories ; one for ploughs ; seven v/agon shops ; one soap factory; one rope factory; and some eighteen brick-yards. The capital invested in manufacturing is estimated at $2,000,000. A home market is found for everything manu- factured here except flour, of which large quantities are exported. This city is rapidly throwing off the cheap, tem- porary appearance common to western towns in their early growth, and her citizens are erecting fine blocks of buildings, that cost from $50,000 to $60,000. Real estate, in desirable locations, com- mands $200 per foot front. This city sustains five banking-chouses, in which business Messrs. Cook and Sargent are the pion- eers. The Iowa College is located here, also a Ladies’ CoUege, and several private and public schools that would do honor to any city. Here are twelve churches organized, most of them occu- pying handsome buildings as places of wmrsliip. The hotels are large, and offer to the traveller a home at once luxmious and satisfactory. Daven- port, as a river point, has for several years been IOWA HANDBOOK. 71 one of the most important in Iowa. The Mis- sissippi and Missouri Railroad and the Mississippi Bridge have rendered it still more important. The first locomotive in Iowa crossed the Mississippi here, and the first railroad constructed was at this point, connecting it with Iowa City. The crowds that have passed through Davenport, and the amount of freight landed here for the interior, have been enormous ; and, if the capacity of the road was double that of any other in the West, it would have enough to do ! The bridge was unfortunate. One month after its completion it was burned by a steamboat get- ting on fire by catching in the trestle-work, setting the boat on fire, and firing the bridge also. The boat was totally destroyed, and the damage done the bridge amounted to $50,000. The bridge is now rebuilt, and cars are passing daily over the swift flood of the Mississippi’s waters. Bidding adieu to the Bridge City, we glide down the river, among numerous willow-skirted islands and beautifully wooded shores, to Mus- catine. CHAPTER XIT. TRIP FROM MUSCATINE TO OSCALOOSA. BUSINESS STATISTICS OF MUSCATINE. HER RAILROAD CON- NECTIONS. WAPELLO, COLUMBUS CITY, WASH- INGTON, LANCASTER, SIGOURNEY, OSCALOOSA, ED- DYVILLE, OTTUMWA, AND FAIRFIELD, DESCRIBED, AND BUSINESS STATISTICS GIVEN. Muscatine, the county-seat of Muscatine coun- ty, is situated on the Iowa side of the Mississippi, at the apex of what has been termed “ the great bend.” Its site, though in some places rough and broken, is in many respects superior for a city ; and, from the bluffs that rise up from the town, there is one of the most pleasing prospects to be found in the West. The landing on the river is considered by boat- men to be good, and there is ample room for a very fine levee to be built, which a small outlay will ac- complish. A ferry phes regidarly across the river to Illinois, from which large numbers of teams cross to Iowa daily during the season of emigra- tion from the East to the West. The present population is nine thousand. Some idea of the business transacted here can be ( 72 ) IOWA HANDBOOK. 73 obtained from the following statistics. There are tliree steam flonring-mills, capital invested, ^148,000 ; two steam saw-mills, manufacturing at the rate of 130,000 feet per annum, 35,500 feet of shingles, and 16,500 lath ; two planing-mills and fur- niture and bedstead factories ; two sash, door, and blind factories ; one iron foundry and steam-engine manufactory; one plough factory; one barrel fac- tory ; one distillery ; two breweries ; six wagon shops; soap and candle factory; two large pork- packing houses, doing a heavy business. A large quantity of beef was packed here the last season. A new jail, costing ^12,000, is being built. The amount of lumber sold during the last year was over one million feet. There are several dry goods and grocery es- tablishments whose sales per annum are from ^25,000 to $150,000. Among the several for- warding and commission houses, the highest amount collected by any one was $150,000 per annum. Since the opening of the Muscatine branch of the Mississippi and Missouri Railroad, business has increased and is still increasing at this point. The Oscaloosa and Muscatine Road will be completed during the autumn of ’56. “ With railroads completed, projected, and in con- templation, the people have high expectations of Muscatine being an important centre for much of the future trade of central Iowa ; and, if enterprise 7 74 IOWA HANDBOOK. in her merchants and the public spirit displayed by her capitalists are an indication of future pros- perity, we should judge that they will not be dis- appointed.” There are two public or district schools, weU sup- ported and attended. There are sixteen churches and religious societies here. Besides these, there are the Muscatine County Bible Society and the Young Men’s Christian Association, both of which are in a flourishing condition. Beal estate in Muscatine is rapidly on the in- crease. First class business property brings from $75 to $150 per foot front Besidence lots, $15 to $20 per foot. Farms in the county may be had at $20 to $25 per acre for improved, and $9 to $15 for unimproved. Leaving the city, on the road to Oscaloosa, we pass through a weU-cultivated country, finely tim- bered and well watered. Entering Louisa county, we are on the original Keokuk Beserve, purchased by the Government in 1836. Here the Sac and Fox Indians lived, until after the first or Black Hawk purchase of 1832. As we pass over this •beautiful section, with its groves of timber and clear running streams, we wonder not that the red men clung to their hunting-grounds. The Iowa Biver passes diagonally through the county to its confluence with the Mississippi. Its banks are heavily timbered, and the settler finds all his high- est hopes anticipated in the natoal resources of this county. IOWA HANDBOOK. 75 Diverging from the general route, we visit Flor- ence, which is a small town, but lives in history as being formerly the residence of Black Hawk, until the Indian hostilities of 1832. Here repose the bones of his ancestors, while the illustrious chief sleeps a sleep that knows no waldng ” in a dis- tant county. Wapello, the county-seat, is pleas- antly situated on the bank of the Iowa, on the site of Wapello’s village. WapeUo was a Fox chief, who, with his tribe, formerly resided here. The population of this place is now about 1,400 ; that of the county upwards of 12,000. Passing over a finely cultivated country, we reach Columbus City. It is anticipated this place will at some future day become one of considerable impor- tance — it being the junction of the Keokuk and Muscatine and the Oscaloosa and Muscatine Railroads. A newspaper is published here. A superior quality of marble has recently been dis- covered in this county, susceptible of the highest polish. Leaving Louisa county, we pass into Wash- ington. Our way takes us now through smiling prairies, dotted thick with pleasant farm-houses. Washington being entirely inland, the interests of the people are with her agricultural progress and her manufactories. The county contains a fine body of farming land, well watered, and about the usual amount of timber for a prairie county. In the southern part of the county a fine bed of 76 IOWA HANDBOOK. coal has been recently opened. Washington, the county-seat, is a thriving place, containing about 1300 inhabitants. The Washington County Press is published here, and esteemed one of the best papers in the State. Here is a large woolen fac- tory, a carding-machine and fulling-mill, a steam flouring-miU, saw-mill, and steam-boiler manufac- tory ; and numerous other manufactories are in con- templation. Washington College is located here; besides this, there are one public and two select schools. We extract from the county assessor’s returns for 1856 the following items : No. of houses 3902, value $266,601; cattle 11,956, value $217,366; sheep 6155, value $7,068; hogs 20,339, value $41,- 244; vehicles 1552, value $68,939; polls 2224. Total amount of assessment, Washington county, for 1856, $3,930,848. Leaving this county on the line of the raUroad, we enter Keokuk. As a body of land Keokuk is similar to Washington, her agricultural popula- tion and resources alike; it is better timbered. Lancaster is the county-seat, and a thriving place. To the people of Keokuk county, it is what Washington is to the people of Washington county. Sigourney is a few miles north and west of Lancaster. A new paper has recently been started there, called Life in the West. Continuing our journey on the line of the rail- road westward, we enter Mahaska county, passing IOWA HANDBOOK. 77 rapidly over the fine rolling prairie, then among the trees that skirt the Skunk, over the clear streams, then through another belt of timber, then over the swelling prairies again ; no longer the wild prairie^ but now converted into smiling fields, waving their rich harvests in the prairie breeze. Mahaska county is conceded to be one of the best, if not the best, cultivated county in the State. Splendid horses, some of the finest in the world, graze leis- urely in the fields. Mammoth oxen crop the rich herbage, sleek cows and white sheep sport in the shade of the giwes, while the large, capacious farm- houses, beautiful grounds, and spreading orchards, present a scene of luxury that few of the older States know. Oscaloosa, the county-seat of Mahaska, is situ- ated in the centre of the county, six miles from the Des Moines River. This town is pleasantly built, the inhabitants displaying much taste in their public as well as their private buildings. The present population is estimated to be 3000. This is one of the largest interior towns in the State, is well supplied with flouring-m_ills, saw-mills, and machine-shops. Four hotels here are all doing a large business, as many pass through here on their way to western Iowa and Nebraska. The Western Stage Company have a depot here, and run a regular line of stages from this city through to Council Bluffs. Real estate commands a high price here, which is evidence of the prosperity of 78 IOWA HANDBOOK. the town. Last spring a lot, without buildings on it, sold for $3,000. A branch of the State Normal School is located here, and is at present in suc- cessful operation. This city, by its railroad con- nections in prospective, is but 1103 miles from the city of New York. The county contains all the elements of wealth within its borders. The Des Moines valley is rich in its fertile soil, beds of coal, gypsum, and stone, offering every inducement capi- talists and agriculturists could seek. - The following is the valuation of land in this county, according to the last assessment : number of acres 290,097, value $1,628,212. The valuation of horses is $206,551 ; cattle $154,303 ; carriages and vehicles, 1,585 in number, $62,997 ; moneys and credits valued at $185,253. The total valuation of taxable property in Ma- haska county is estimated at $2,702,994. Leaving Oscaloosa, favorably impressed with its advantageous position, its beauty and wealth, and the warm hospitality of the people, I proceed to EddyviUe. This road leads through a most beau- tiful section of country, not unlike that passed through in entering Oscaloosa. I am particularly impressed with the intelligence and nobleness of the farmers in this vicinity. EddyviUe is situated on the Des Moines river, in the northwest corner of Wapello county. This is a place of considerable trade, and is rapidly in- creasing in population. Churches, schools, and IOWA HANDBOOK. 79 newspapers are all well sustained, by an intelligent and industrious people. Population 1050. Wapello county was opened to settlement in May, 1843, and organized April, 1844, and is claimed by residents to be, in point of fertility, second to none in the State. The Des Moines River passes diagonally through the county. The water-power, as furnished by that river and Cedar Creek, is abundant, the banks of the streams also being rich in limestone of the best quality and ex» cellent sand, which, together with the extensive tracts of timber, render it one of the most desirable counties in the interior of the State. The next point of importance reached is Ot- tamwa, the county-seat, situated at what are called the Appanoose Rapids, on the Des Moines River, distant twenty-five miles from Fairfield, and seven from Agency City (the old Sac and Fox Agency). By recent surveys it has been ascer- tained that the amount of water passing over the Appanoose Rapids, per minute, is 42,000 cubic feet ; a sufficient quantity to fill a lock 42 feet wide and 150 feet long ; being enough to run 28 pair of burrs, 4 feet in diameter, under a head of 6 feet water. There is a fall of 4 feet at these Rapids, in one mile ; and a dam, 5 feet high, would give 6 feet 10 inches rise and fall. Some large mills and manu- factories have been erected here ; and, when her water power is fully developed, she will become 80 IOWA HANDBOOK. one of the most important manufacturing towns in the State. The population of Ottumwa is 900. Some seven miles further, we reach Agency City, so called from having been formerly the Sac and Fox Indian Agency. This town is beautifully located, and in a very fertile section of country. From this place to Fairfield, we pass over a coun- try under good cultivation, and thickly settled. The traveller, in crossing those beautiful plains now dotted with the dwellings and improve- ments of the “ palefaces,” can hardly realize how recently the Indian here revelled in the pleasures of his camp or wigwam, and that here, but a few moons ago, he hunted the buffalo, ellv, and deer, where now the thriving herds of the honest farmer graze in peaceful quietude ! We all acknowledge this section of country to be unsurpassed in point of beauty and fertility ; yet we thoughtlessly cen- sure the original owners of the soil, because they reluctantly gave up their homes and hunting- grounds to the intruding Anglo-Saxon. CHAPTER XIII. FAIRFIELD TO BURLINGTON. - FAIRFIELD, MOUNT PLEASANT, AND BURLINGTON. -BUSINESS STATIS- TICS, ETC.- — BURLINGTON AND MISSOURI RAILROAD, Fairfield is the county-seat of Jefferson county, and a place of great importance to the thickly set- tled, fertile agricultural region of which it is the nucleus. The citizens of this town and county all appear to be doing well, and what is best of all, are contented. The branch of the State University, and the Female Seminary, at this place, are both doing well. Several manufactories are in opera- tion here, and as many more are mu^ needed. A large steam flouring-miU, an extensive manufac- tory of threshing-machines, two new churches (Episcopal and Lutheran), and a great number of private residences, are under way. Farms near this place seU at ^35 to $40 per acre. Town property is advancing rapidly. Some half a dozen saw-mills have been erected in the county v/ithin the last year. That this is a good agricultural community, set- tled by thinking people, may be inferred from the fact that the Iowa Farmer, the oldest and most ( 81 ) 82 IOWA HANDBOOK. extensively circulated agricultural paper in the State, is published here ; besides which, there are two weeldy papers, well sustained. The present population of this place is nearly 2000. The rail- road will be completed from Burlington to Fair- field early next year, and, once in direct communi- cation with the East, a new impetus will be given to every branch of art and industry. After a pleasant visit with my friend, A. E. Ful- ton, Esq., formerly of the Ledger, I proceed to the county-seat of ‘‘ High Henry.” Mount Pleasant is celebrated for the healthiness and beauty of its location, and the intelligence of its inhabitants. The town is laid out on a liberal scale, and the site almost unsurpassed, for an inland town. There are six church edifices in Mount Pleasant : Congregational, Presbyterian, Methodist, Christian, O. S. Baptist, and Missionary Baptist. Other towns and villages are proportionably weU supplied with churches, all of which are well attended, and in a healthy condition. In point of morality and sobriety, the community of Mount Pleasant is unsurpassed in the State. Mount Pleasant has been named and known heretofore as the point possessing and offering greater educational advantages than any other place in the State, and she has as yet no rival in this re- spect, except perhaps Davenport. The Iowa Wes- leyan University, under the control of the M. E. IOWA HANDBOOK. 83 Church, is a collegiate institute of the first grade, has 150 students, and is in full and successful operation. The Mount Pleasant High School and Female Academy has an average attendance of 100 pupils. There are at present no manufactories of impor- tance in Henry county. Steam flouring and saw- mills, a foundry, and a carding and fulling-mill are much needed, and would prove good investments. Coal, in considerable quantities, has been found on both sides of the Skunk River ; also, inexhaustible quarries of the very best building stone near Mount Pleasant. The Burlington and Missouri River Railroad will be finished to Mount Pleasant prob- ably before this work shall be published. The Muscatine and Keokuk Railroad also touches Mount Pleasant. The Iowa Insane Asylum was recently located at Mount Pleasant, and fifty thousand dollars appropriated for the erection of the building. The soil of Henry is second in quality to that of no other county in the State. The land is well watered, all entered, and rapidly filling up with a highly intellectual and industrious class of citizens. Near Mount Pleasant, you again reach the great iron thoroughfare that places you in connection with almost every city and town in the Union, from Maine to Georgia, and from the Atlantic to the Mississippi. The business over this road, as fast and as far as it has been completed, has been 84 IOWA HANDBOOK. much better than was expected, and of course has given a new impetus to every town and village on the route, and will make a very important improvement in the business of this commercial centre of one of the most fertile countries in the State. The assessor of Centre township, Henry county, shows a population of 4,730 ; Mount Pleasant is in the township, and has a population of 3,246 — a rapid growth, as two years ago it had only 1300. From this place to Bm-lington, you pass over a beautiful section of country. Here you see large farms, properly fenced, and under the best cultiva- tion, divided into meadow, upland, and fields of every kind of grain, with an orchard and garden, next the well-filled barn, the roomy farm-house, which wears an air of hospitality and comfort peculiar to the homes of the generous-hearted farmers of southern Iowa. Burlington, the county-seat of Des Moines county, is situated upon the Mississippi river, two hundred and thirty-five miles above St. Louis, and two hundred and ten miles from Chicago, by railroad. This city was incorporated by the Legis- lature of Wisconsin in 1838, and the charter amended by the same body in ’39 and ’44 ; and, al- though called “ the oldest town in the State,” she is yet in her teens, and, old as she is, she has not yet attained her growth. In 1850, Burlington had a population of 2000 ; in 1854, of 8000 ; IOWA HANDBOOK. 85 and now, in the fall of 1856, she boasts a popula- tion of 16,000! During the past few years, this place has steadily increased in all the essentials that go to make up a thriving city ; and the present prospect is, that it will become one of the most important river points in the State. Among other public improvements may be mentioned the erec- tion of a new market house, to cost ^15,000. The Iowa Historical and Geological Institute, one of the most important institutions in the State, is located in this city. Its object is to collect and preserve, and to open to the public, historical mat- ter of all kinds (more especially that relating to Iowa) ; a general library, maps, charts, drawings, pictures, statuary, and a cabinet of natural curiosi- ties, and to sustain pubHc lectures. The Burling- ton University, a collegiate institution, under the auspices of the Baptist denomination, was located here in 1852 — has an elegant brick edifice, forty- four by sixty-five feet, three stories high. A faculty of eight teachers, and a regular attendance of upwards of one hundred and fifty pupils, shows the school to be in a prosperous condition. Burlington contains thirteen houses of worship ; two large school-houses, costing $4000 each ; two daily and weekly newspapers ; three foundries ; two engine and machine manufactories ; planing-mills ; steam flouring-mills ; sash, do or, and blind manu- factories ; steam saw-mills ; steam shingle manu- factories ; also, coach, wagon, plough, brash, can- 8 86 IOWA HANDBOOK. die, match, and starch manufactories, each driven by steam ; extensive pork-packing establishments ; banking houses ; hotels, and almost everything else found in any city. The Chicago and Burlington Railroad has been in operation a little over a year, and since its com- pletion Burlington has increased fully one hundred per cent, in population, and from Itwo to four hun- dred per cent, in business. (See statistics of this road in the chapter on Railroads.) Her projected railways, east to Indianapolis and west to the Missouri River (each having a pros- pect of an early completion), will give Burlington advantages possessed by but few other cities on the Mississippi River. I heard of a transaction in real estate which is given as a criterion by which to judge of the rapid advance in the value of property : a year ago last winter, three lots on Valley street were offered for twelve hundred dollars, and not sold for want of a purchaser. This spring these same lots were sold for twelve thousand dollars ! CHAPTER XlVe TOUR FROM LYONS TO FORT DODGE. LYONS AND CLINTON. THE IOWA LAND COMPANY. DEWITT, TIPTON, CEDAR RAPIDS, MARION, VINTON, TOLEDO, MARIETTA, NEVADA, BOONSBORO’, HOMER, FORT DODGE. The town of Lyons is situated on the Missis- sippi River, midway between Dubuque and Daven- port. For several years this was but a small hamlet, a river-landing for the residents of Clinton county, containing a few stores, a warehouse, post- office, etc. But within three years it has received a great impetus from the projection of a raikoad into Iowa from this point, and the completion of the Dixon Air-line from Chicago to Fulton, on the opposite side of the river. At this time, Lyons has a population of 2500, and is increasing very rapidly. The following is a list of the business houses : two banking houses, fifty -three stores and groceries, two ” steam saw-mills, one planing-mill, one iron foundry and machine-shop, one broom factory, two newspapers, four hotels, and six land agencies. There are six churches, but no schools of any note ; a respectable ( 87 ) 88 IOWA HANDBOOK. public school is sustained a part of the year. The New School Presbyterians propose establishing an institution of learning here at no distant day. Clinton is located two miles below Lyons, on the Mississippi River. One year ago the town of Clinton was not known on any map of Iowa. It did not exist until August 1, 1855. To-day, its population is 1000. The Iowa Land Company, in July, 1855, purchased the farm which was the site of this city, mowed down the corn fields, laid out the ground into city lots ; and where, four months before, the corn-tassels had w;aved in the summer breeze, the largest hotel in Iowa reared its lofty front. This company, in laying out their town, have made liberal provision for schools, churches, and Libraries, by donating lots to each. They grade the aventies and streets, and plant shade trees along the walks. As a continuation westward of the Chicago, Dixon, and Fulton City Railroad, a line is being built from Clinton through central Iowa, under the name of the Chicago, Iowa, and Nebraska Railroad. The work on this road is progressing rapidly, and the locomotive is already on the track, making its way westward into the Cedar Valley, which D. D. Owen, U. S. geologist, says is the finest body t>f land in North America. According to the last report of the company, dated June 2, 1856, “there are nowin ^Clinton’ IOWA HANDBOOK. 89 three hotels ; several dry goods stores, three grocery stores, two hardware stores, one furniture store, one clothing store, one boot and shoe store, one bank, (another organizing), one church, two doctor’s of- fices, four lawyer’s offices, one warehouse, one newspaper, two livery stables, one drug store, one builder’s shop, two saw-mills, one lumber-yard, one brick-yard, two lime-kilns (one Page’s patent), two stone quarries. “ Sales have also been made to parties who are preparing to put up a large foundry for railroad castings, a car and machine shop, a planing-mill, and another warehouse.” From their advantageous location, and the in- fluences already brought to bear upon this point, Lyons and Clinton are destined to be among the most important places on the Mississippi River. Their interests are one and the same ; being within six hours of Chicago by railroad, and forty miles nearer than any other point on the river to that city, is an advantage not to be overlooked ; and the traveller who visits this point ten years hence-— perchance in his flight westward across the conti- nent — will find, for three miles, a city standing along the banks of the Father of Waters, and reaching up her bluffs, and over into the prairies beyond, whose busy hum v/ill go up from the con- gregated activity of twenty thousand people. Leaving Clinton, on the road to Dewitt, we pass over a pleasant prairie country, a good proportion 8 * 90 IOWA HANDBOOK. under cultivation. The face of the country is rolling prairie, dotted with frequent groves of tim- ber, and watered by living streams whose foun- tains are clear springs. Dewitt is twenty miles from Lyons and Clinton, and is the county-seat of Clinton county. The prospect of a railroad connection with the East has given this town a new impetus. Situated as it is in the heart of a fine farming county, anticipating a speedy connec- tion with the river by a railroadj we look for a rapid growth in the wealth and population of this beautifully located town. The Dewitt Clintonian, a smart, racy paper, is published here. The contractors expect to have the cars running from Clinton to Dewitt this fall. Leaving Dewitt, on the line of the Chicago, Iowa, and Nebraska Railroad, passing through the western tier of townships in Clinton county, we enter the northwestern corner of Cedar. This county is possessed of excellent soil, well adapted to farming purposes. Though not as well tim- bered as some counties in the State, yet it is finely watered, and the farmer need have no fears in fixing on this county as a favored location. Tip- ton is the county-seat, is built on the high prairie, and as an inland town few are as advantage- ously located in point of beauty and healthful- ness. The present population of the town is 1000, that of the county 9000. Raih'oads in prospect- ive are opening up the rich resomrces of Cedar IOWA HANDBOOK. 91 county to a ready market. The Tipton Advertiser, a sensible, well-conducted paper, is published here. The Cedar County Democrat, a new but well sustained paper, is published here. At Rochester, in Cedar county, the citizens offer, to any person who will bring a complete steam saw and grist- mill to that place $1,000 and a good mill-site. Entering Linn county in the southern tier of townships, we pass in a northwesterly direction on the road to Cedar Rapids, visiting on our route St. Mary’s, a pleasant, thriving post-town. A few miles further on we arrive at Lisbon and Mount Vernon, pretty villages, that eventually are des- tined to be united, forming one of the pleasantest inland towns in the State, Pursuing our way, we arrive at Newark, which is now only a post-town, but has a destiny above its present appearance. Look out for the railroad ! Six miles farther, over a beautiful, well-cultivated section, we arrive at Cedar Rapids City, which is located on the Cedar River, seventy-live miles west from Chnton and twenty-nine north from Iowa City by stage-road. This place was laid out in 1842, and has now a population of more than 2,700 inhabitants. The Cedar River at this point flows over a rocky ledge in the river, forming an extensive rapid, which is capable of being improved to almost any extent. With the present imperfect improvements, power sufficient is obtained to drive one hundred and thirty run of stones. The principal man a- 92 IOWA HANDBOOK. factories are eight flouring-mills, five saw-mills, two planing-miils, one paper-mill, one foundry, and an agricultural implement manufactory, one woolen factory, doing a business amounting to ^50,000 per annum, and two sash door, and blind manufactories. There are eight brick-yards, man- ufacturing, last year, 3,000,000 brick. To this may be added eighty-three general stores, aU doing a good business ; one firm (Daniels & Co.) alone do a business amounting to ^90,000 per annum. There are three banking and exchange offices, which do also a land agency business. Three good news- papers are published here. A large amount of grain is exported annually. One firm last year exported, of wheat, 10,000 bushels ; of corn, 7,000 bushels ; of oats, 8,000 bushels. The total value of manufactures in 1855 was $291,000. Capital invested was $129,500. The amount of flour manufactured was 20,000 barrels. This finds its way to various parts of the State, and is everywhere known to be of the finest quality. The amount of lumber sawed in 1855 was 2,200,000 feet, and the timber to furnish this lum- ber was cut from the banks of the Cedar, and in the vicinity. Coal has recently been discovered, ten miles from the city, on the banks of the river, which is of good quality. Society here is good. Four chm*ches are organ- ized. A well-conducted seminary, and four public IOWA HANDBOOK. 93 schools are established, enjoying the full confi- dence of the people. Eeader, Cedar Eapids is a smart place^^' and, when you are searching Iowa for a good location, take a careful survey of this point. The Chicago, Iowa, and Nebraska Eailroad (with Charles Walker, Esq., of Chicago, as President) will at the earliest possible day find its way into the heart of Linn county, conveying all her rich stores directly to an eastern market. From this place northward the railroad is projected to South Bend, Minnesota, to intersect the Dubuque and Pacific, at a point nearly north from this place, Marion, the county-seat of Linn, is situated six miles northwest of this place, and is now inhab- ited by a stirring set of people. The Linn County Eegister is published here. Crossing the Cedar Kiver, we notice two substantial bridges in course of erection. Continuing our course, we pass through a beau- tiful farming district, with pleasant groves dotting the landscape with their refreshing shade ; on every hand, the commodious and in many places even elegant farm-houses, with their wealth of orchard and garden fruits ripening in the sun, present a picture of plenty and comfort, that tells us the pion- eer is now reaping his reward for days of priva- tion and toil. Entering Benton county, which lies next on the west, we find a good body of land, but somewhat 94 IOWA HANDBOOK. new in its improvements, in many parts of the county. The first settlement was made in 1841 ; the present population is 4500. Vinton, the county- seat and largest town, was first settled in 1851, and has a population of 600. It is a thriving, busy little place, and bids fan to be a town of impor- tance. The Vinton Eagle is published here. Benton City, in this county, has 300 inhabitants, and is destined to be a point of considerable busi- ness. Tama county, next on our route, is as fine a body of land as can be found anywhere. It is well tim- bered and well watered. The Iowa River passes through the southern portion of the county. On one of its tributaries coal has been found, which, it is thought, will yield a good supply, and of a fine quality. Toledo is the county-seat and principal town, has a population of 450, and is going ahead rapidly. A first class steam flouring-mill has been erected here within the year. The Toledo Tribune is published here. The present population of the county is 5000. Proceeding onward we enter Marshall. This county is similar in soil and degree of cultivation to Tama. It is well watered by the Iowa, and contains some very fine mill-sites. At this time there are two steam saw-mills and three flom’ing- mills in the county. The population, according to the last census, was 5000. Marietta is the county- seat, and is a growing town of several hundred IOWA HANDBOOK. 95 inhabitants, with the requisite number of stores, groceries, and shops. The recent land grants to railroads extend through the counties we have last mentioned. Every inducement is offered settlers to establish themselves here. The certainty of an outlet for this fertile region, by the projected railroads, will give every class of business a fresh impulse. Stock- raisers, wool-growers, and farmers generally, will not find a better location for their operations than these counties afford. Manufacturers will find wool grown within their own neighborhood, and the water-power for operating with just at hand. Lands will doubtless increase in value here from the conditions of the land grant, and the near pros- pect of a railroad connection with the East. Leaving Marietta, we pass into Story county, which we find as yet but sparsely settled. Pursuing our course westward, we pass over extended prai- ries, dotted here and there with groves of timber. Occasionally a red deer bounds away over our pathway, and seeks the nearest ravine for shelter from our dreaded presence. Our eyes sometimes wander over the sea of bUlowy green before us, for hours, without seeing anything to indicate the presence of mankind, save the worn track or trail across the prairies. As we advance we see broken fields, and the blue smoke curling up from the set- tler’s rude cabin. Bending our course southward we arrive at Nevada. This is the county-seat of 96 IOWA HANDBOOK. Story county — is situated on the Skunk, whieh here is but a small stream. This river extends through the county in a diagonal direction, and the banks are covered with a good quality of timber. The route of the railroad lies through the northern part of the county, which, though but recently or- ganized and sparsely settled, to the present time, is now rapidly filling up. The land here is gener- ally entered, much of it by non-residents. Boone county was first settled at Pea’s Point (now called Flat Bock), in May, 1846, by John Pea, a pioneer of the old stock, a Pennsylvanian by birth, who has lived in every State that inter- venes between his native State and Iowa, when they were wild and primitive forests. He was also an early settler in Missouri. This old man still resides in Boone county, and, with the gray hairs of some seventy years upon his head, sueh are his erect form and comparatively robust constitution, that time seems to have broken its billows over his manly form only as the ocean spends its fury over the immovable rock of its shores. The old gentle- man is still full of adventure and enterprise, and may ere long be one of the freemen of Nebraska. Montgomery McCaU settled near where Boons- boro’ now stands, in the month of February, 1847, and for about a year his family lived nearer the source of the Des Moines River than any other white family. During the winter of 1846 and IOWA HANDBOOK. 97 1847, seven hundred Pottawattamie Indians were encamped in the vicinity of these families. The Des Moines River passes entirely through this county, running north and south. Beds of coal appear all along the banks of the river. The present population of the county is 2000 ; that of Boonsboro’, the county-seat, 450. Passing up the Bes Moines valley, the next town of importance is Homer, the former county-seat of Boone county, which is situated on a high rolling prairie, half way between Boone and Des Moines Rivers. The first house built upon this town-site was in February, 1854 ; and now, August, 1856, there are hotels, school-houses, stores, and all the concomitants of a thrifty growing town, with a population of 400. Fort Dodge, the present county-seat and largest town in the county, is very pleasantly situated on the east bank of the Des Moines River, is the seat of the land office, and the most important town north of Fort Demoine. Webster county is the largest in the State, con- taining 921,600 acres of land, comprising what is shown on the old maps as Tell and Risley, and the south half of Humboldt. The soil is equal in richness to that of any county in the State ; deep and easily worked. The Des Moines and its tribu- taries afford a good supply of water for irrigation, and numerous mill-sites. Along these streams there is an abundance of timber, and on the Des Moines 9 98 IOWA HANDBOOK. and Boone some excellent beds of coal are found. Beside which, near Fort Dodge are gypsum beds (covering a space of nearly sixteen square miles), also iron ore, the best quality of limestone, sand- stone for building purposes, clays, from the coarse material for brick to the fine potter’s clay, and red and yellow ochre. The possession of all these natural advantages and elements of wealth and greatness render this point one of the best in the State for real estate investments, and will secure to it, at an early day, a railroad connection with South Bend on the north, the Capital on the south, with Dubuque and Clinton on the Mississippi, and Sioux City on the Missouri. (See chapter on rail- roads.) CHAPTER XV. TOUR FROM FORT DODGE TO DUBUQUE. — KOSSUTH COUNTY. THE SOIL OF NORTHWESTERN IOWA. WEBSTER CITY. HARDIN COUNTY AND HER TOWNS. FRANKLIN COUNTY. BUTLER COUNTY.- — BREY/- ER COUNTY. CEDAR FALLS, WATERLOO, INDEPEN- DENCE, DELHI, DUBUQUE.-— BUSINESS STATISTICS OF DUBUQUE. Forty miles north of Fort Dodge is Algona, the county-seat of Kossuth. This county, as well as Webster, is very large, extending fifty-four miles north and south and twenty-four east and west Algona is beautifully situated upon the east fork of the Des Moines River, also upon the State road leading from Fort Dodge to Mankato, and the South Bend of the St. Peters, forty miles north. A road has been recently opened from this point due east, so that immigrants coming to this sec- tion may land at McGregor’s Landing, and pro- ceed due west 140 miles to this point, or stop at excellent locations in any county east or west of here. Let farmers and mechanics not overlook this county. From Webster and Kossuth, west, is a vast ( 09 ) 100 IOWA HANDBOOK. . uncultivated paradise, some of it unsurveyed, and hardly trodden by the foot of the pioneer settlers ; but it is enough for us to say that it is made up of good soil, and rich in the most serviceable and enduring of natural advantages. By reference to the map of Iowa, it will be seen that the most northerly connection line in Iowa passes near Fort Dodge and Webster City, and ter- minates at Sioux City, on the west and at Dubuque on the east. This is in latitude 42° 30'. Owen, the United States geologist, says of the fertility of this section : “ The prairie country, based on rocks belonging to the Devonian and carboniferous sys- tems, extending up the valleys of the Bed Cedar, Iowa, and Des Moines, as high as latitude 42° 31 ', presents a body of arable, land, which, taken as a whole, for richness in organic elements, for amount of saline matter, and due admixture of earthy silicates, affords a combination that belongs only to the most fertile upland plains.” Throughout this district the general levelness of the smdace, interrupted only by gentle swells and moderate undulations, offers facilities for the intro- duction of all those aids which machinery is daily adding, to diminish the labor of cultivation, and render easy and expeditious the collection of an abundant harvest. The reader may hear bugbear stories of the swamps and sloughs, and see numer- ous “impassable marshes” marked upon certain old fogy maps ; but D. D. Owen, who made a geo- IOWA HANDBOOK. 101 logical survey of this section, under an act of Con- gress, is supposed to be good authority — hear him : “ There are, it is true, limited spots, less desirable for farming purposes, where the ground is liable to be overflowed by adjacent streaius, in times of freshets, and where local geological causes operate to alter the composition of the soil ; or where, from too uniform a flatness of ground near the sources of streams, water stagnates ; these form^ however but a small portion of the ivhole.^’’ The country north of latitude 42^^ is most defi- cient in timber ; but few groves exist, and the belts skirting the borders of rivers diminish in quantity toward the heads of the streams. This disadvan- tage, however, is more than counterbalanced by the ease with which a farm can be brought under cul- tivation, and the abundance of coal contiguous to this region will render the consumption of timber for fuel unnecessary ; however, with proper econ- omy and a little forethought, an ample supply, both of fuel and fencing timber, may, in most instances, be insured. Those who have tried both methods state that it is easier to plant groves of timber, and grow them where you wish, than to get rid of timber already on the ground, where it is not wanted, effectually clearing out the stumps and roots. The writer saw, this season, in Northern Ohio, a field of oats, where fully one-eighth of the crop was lost by the presence of numerous old stumps — neither the plough nor cradle can ap- 102 IOWA HANDBOOK. proach very near the obstacles. Upon this ground, cleared nearly thirty years ago, there was an average of a stump to every square rod I Webster City (originally called New Castle), about twenty-two miles east of Fort Dodge, on the Dubuque road, has a pleasant, healthy, and advan- tageous location, intelligent and industrious cit- izens, is surrounded by an abundance of the first quality of hard wood timber, building stone, and good water power, and, of course, is growing rap- idly. The present population is stated at up- wards of 300. Messrs. Kellogg, Wilder & Co., from Cleveland, Ohio, were about starting the Western Homestead Journal here. Those about to engage in manufactmdng will do well to look at this point. The Messrs. Wilson, town pro- prietors, will give lots to actual settlers and mechan- ics. I advise farmers and stock-raisers to examine Webster and adjoining counties, before going farther west or north. Government land in this district, as in all others in the State, is scarce, and better investments can be made in well selected second-hand lands, at from $2.50 to $10 an acre, than to depend upon entering land from the public domain. Hardin county is next on our route east. The same description of soil as in Webster con- tinues through to the Mississippi, with but little variation. In certain localities the soil is more sandy, and along some of the divides a sand-ridge IOWA HANDBOOK. 103 composed of pebbles and conglomerate stone will be seen; which, however, occur but seldom. The principal towns in Hardin county, and the population of each, may be thus stated : Eldora, the county-seat, 250 ; Hardin City, 350 ; E-ocksyl- vania, 175; Po’keepsie, 200 ; Steamboat Rock, 300. Each of these towns, pleasantly situated on the Iowa River, has advantages which will cause them to increase to a considerable size. Po’keepsie is just half way between Dubuque and Sioux City. At Eldora, Steamboat Rock, and Po’keepsie, banks of coal are opened, where veins from six to nine feet thick are exposed, and coal of an excellent quality is taken out. This coal is used by black- smiths fifty miles distant. The limestone in the neighborhood furnishes a beautiful building mate- rial, easily quarried, and susceptible of a very high polish. It is of that variety known as birdseye marble. The Iowa and its tributaries furnish good water power, which is being rapidly improved. Hardin county was first settled in 1851 ; it now contains a population of about 2500. The Hardin County Sentinel is the only paper published in the county — large and well conducted. * Franklin county, which joins Plardin on the north, the writer has never visited ; nor those still north and northwest. It is represented as being rather low for successful farming ; there are, how- ever, very desirable locations in Franklin. Butler county is young in years, but fertile and 104 IOWA HANDBOOK. flourishing. Clarksville, the county-seat, is situ- ated on the Shellrock River, boasts an excellent water-power, a good supply of timber, and an energetic people. This town has three saw-mills, two hotels, two stores, a school-house, etc. Shell- rock, situated on both sides of the stream, a fev/ miles below, is a new town, laid out within a year, and has now about forty buildings. - A first rate saw-mill is kept constantly running, and still fails to supply the demand for lumber. A grist-mill is being built. Butler Centre, near the geographical centre of the county, has recently been laid out, and is building up rapidly. An cflbrt is being made to remove the county-seat to this town. Cold Water is the name of a village on Cold Water Creek, in the northwestern part of the county, the post-office for which is called Elm Springs. Brewer county was first settled in 1848-9. Population of the county in August, 1856, esti- mated to be 3,500. Waverly, the county-seat, is situated on the east bank of the Cedar River — established in June, 1853 ; and in June, 1856, it contained 600 inhabitants, and is increasing rapidly. Janesville is located six miles below Waverly, on tlfb east bank of the Cedar, and three miles above its junction with the Shellrock. The town is delight- fully situated, being in the midst of a rich and fer- tile farming country, with an abundance of good titnber of every description. The Brewer County IOWA HANDBOOK. 105 Herald is published in Janesville, and the E-epub- lican at Waverly. A body of timber known as “the lower big woods,” embracing some forty sec- tions, lies in the vicinity of these towns, and is a consideration of no minor importance, in a prairie country. There are six streams of considerable size traversing this county from northwest to south- east, which, with their tributaries, afford numerous mill-sites ; and whose banks are rich in an excellent quality of building stone. Black Plawk county lies next south of Brewer. This county possesses native elements of future wealth worthy of note. At Cedar Falls, as well as several other points in the county, the best of water power and eligible sites for mills and manu- facturing establishments hold out inducements to capitalists. A joint stock company, with a capital of $50,000, has been organized, who intend to establish an extensive woollen factory this fall, and other manufactories next season. A new hotel, built of patent brick, eighty by eighty-eight feet, four stories high, to cost $18,000, is being erected. The Cedar Falls Banner is an ably conducted newspaper, published here. Waterloo, the county- seat, is situated on both sides the river, and has a charming site for a town, with a wide-awake population of 500 ; and is improving rapidly. Black Hawk is made up of excellent farming lands, and is settled by a good class of people— princi- pally from New England. J06 IOWA HANDBOOK. Buchanan county, first settled in 1842, now contains nearly 5000 inhabitants. Independence, the county-seat, was located in 1846, and now numbers between 800 and 1000 inhabitants. The Civilian, a brisk and weU-managed paper, is published here. Newspapers are the thermome- ters whereby a man’s facilities and desires for doing business may be judged ; and, from the advertise- ments in the Civilian, I infer Independence has her supply of business houses, and a country surrounding to demand ail she has. The soil of Black Hawk is a deep, sandy loam ; streams rapid, with gravelly beds ; their banlvs rich in timber and building stone. Delaware county is next in our route eastward ; first settled 1 843, it now has a population of 8100. This county is peculiarly adapted to wool-gi'owing, and the facilities for manufacturing have but to be made known to secure their improvement by capi- talists. The prairie is gently undulating, with a favorable admixture of vegetable mould and sand, based upon a porous clay subsoil. Limestone, clay for manufacturing brick, and numerous groves of timber, are among the natural advantages. Delhi, the county-seat, contains about 800 inhabitants, is pleasantly situated near the Maquoketa River, and, of course, is improving. The Delhi Repub- lican is the organ for this county, and its well- timed tones tell creditably for the county. Within a few rods of this towm-plat is a sheet IOWA HANDBOOK. 107 of pure soft water covering about one hundred and sixty acres, containing an abundance of fish. There are several other towns in the county, * which, though small, are points of importance, and centres for well-settled agricultural districts. The names of those towns can be seen upon the map in this work, or in the chapter giving a list of Iowa post-offices. From Delhi to the city of Dubuque, the road leads over a section of country that is strikingly beautiful. It is of rolling prairie, well wmtered, interspersed with groves of timber, while still larger bodies of timber extend north and south, along the banks of the streams. This county is very well settled, as may be inferred from the fact that its population is now estimated at about 20,000. There are upwards of twenty towns and post-offices in this county, besides Dubuque, (See list of post-offices, in another chapter.) Dubuque county contains a most noted mineral region; and, sin- gular as it may appear, though in the very heart of a lead district, the soil is generally of the most productive character, yielding large crops of grain. Few countries in the world possess the combined advantages of a soil rich in fertility, and at the same time underlaid with inexhaustible veins of lead ore. Lead is the great staple of export, as will be seen by the annexed statistics. Copper and zinc have also been discovered, but not in sufficient qiianti- 108 IOWA HANDBOOK. ties to induce capitalists to enlist in the work of developing them. Several valuable lodes or veins of lead were discovered during the past winter. Mineral lots are laid off in almost every conceivable shape, and contain about ten acres each. The city of Dubuque, one of the largest and most densely populated in the State, is handsomely situated upon a natural terrace. The streets run parallel to each other, and, owing to the peculiar soil at this location, are never muddy. This city is more compactly built, and contains a greater pro- portion of fine buildings, than any other place in the State. The city is bounded on the west by a range of high bluffs, which are crowned by the most elegant and costly residences in Iowa, of which are those of Hon. George W. Jones, the Messrs. Lang- worthy (four in number), J. A. Pinto, Esq., and others. From the observatory of each of these bluff-homes the prospect of the city and country is entrancingly beautiful. No other point in the State furnishes a landscape more varied, and magnificent, and grand, than this. No better idea can be given of the extensive and increasing business of Dubuque, than by inserting a statistical table, from “ Iowa, as it is in 1856 : ” Total Tonnage . Value. Imports to Dubuque in 1855 276,099 05 $11,266,845 18 “ “ 1854 97,633 00 4,933,208 65 Increase 79,006 05 $6,333,036 53 IOWA HANDBOOK, 109 Total Tonnage. Value. Exports from Dubuque iu 1855 24,237 15 $3,689,266 58 “ “ 1854 11,736 00 1,573,408 30 Increaso 12,501 15 $2,115,858 28 Lead exported in 1855 5,262 $631,440 Iron, steel, and nails exported in 1855 2,400 384,000 Elour “ 2,640 216,000 Wheat ‘‘ 1,620 81,000 Corn “ 150 1,500 Crossed the Dubuque Ferry in 1854. in 1855. Men, women, and children . 38,400 58,200 Wagons .... 4,300 10,700 Carriages . 2,100 4,300 Cattle .... 9,518 14,210 Sheep .... . 2,708 4,680 Hogs ..... 6,630 16,124 From the 12th of April to the 5th of July, 1856, there crossed the upper ferry, at that city, 812 fam- ilies, consisting of 4,504 members — having in their possession 1,031 wagons, 1,728 head of horses, and 7,722 head of cattle. A separate estimate having been made of sheep, they are found to have reached the high figure of 11,700, and that, too, in less than three months. The number of arrivals at the hotels in Dubuque, in 1855, were 85,045. The amount of public domain sold at the Dubuque Land Office, was 1,610,363 acres. Received at the United States depository during the year, $4,146,550. Total amount of 10 110 IOWA HANDBOOK. eastern exchange sold by banking houses in 1855, $9,212,000. There are nearly two hundred citizens in Dubuque City, whose property is assessed at over $10,000; thirty-seven assessed to be worth between 20,000 and $30,000 ; eight between 30,000 and $40,000 ; fifteen between 50,000 and $100,000 ; and four over $100,000. Who can predict the future wealth of Iowa ? The citizens of Dubuque are now engaged, in right good earnest, in extending the levee out to the islands in front of the city. This is a work of great magnitude and immense cost, but of com- mensurate importance and value to the city. This city possesses some natural advantages, which entitle her to the name of “ Key City,” and which contribute to render her the commercial emporium of northern Iowa and southern Minnesota. 1st. Her mineral resources are superior to those of any other point on the Mississippi, and will ever continue to be, probably ; and, besides the ex- tensive and annually increasing exports of lead, as shown above, she will soon ship an immense amount of this mineral in manufactured articles, when her white and red lead manufactories and her shot towers shall be in operation. 2d. This is the “ Key City,” the most northern city on the Mississippi having railroad connection with the East ; and everything passing north, west, or northwest, must pass through Dubuque. IOWA HANDBOOK. Ill 8cl. There is no other point, within fifty miles or more above, with an eligible site for a large city, with as good roads into the interior ; and prospects now are that Dubuque will ever continue to be the largest city between the two bridges at Rock Island and St. Anthony’s Falls. CHAPTER XVI. 'trip from DUBUQUE TO OSAGE, AND RETURN. SCENERY ON THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI. NEWLY DISCOVERED MINERAL REGION. LANSING, WAW- KON, DECORAH, OSAGE, ST. CHARLES, BRADFORD, WEST UNION, ELKADER, GARNAVILLO, GUTENBERG. GENERAL APPEARANCE OF THE COUNTRY. The tourist who would visit northern Iowa should take one of the regular Galena and Min- nesota packets, at Galena or Dunleith, and register himself for Lansing, one hundred miles nortlwvest, or for Guttenburg or McGregor’s Landing, about fifty miles below. If there is a more comfortable way of travelling than aboard the floating palaces of the upper Mississippi, or a more grand and pic- turesque portion of country to be seen than is be- held on this route, I have thus far failed to find it ; and persons who have travelled extensively on both continents represent the scenery in this section of country as far superior, in point of magnificence and grandeur, to even that of the far famed Rhine. The hills and bluffs and slopes — now precipi- tous and rugged, presenting a castellated front of rock, from two to five hundred feet high, almost ( 112 ) IOWA HANDBOOK. 113 overhanging the water; ageJn sloping gracefully clown to the water’s edge, bedecked here and there with clusters or groves of small oak trees, and flowers of almost every variety and hue — extend along the river on either shore, and are as various as they are numerous. After a very pleasant trip with my namesake, Capt. J. W. Parker, of the Golden Era, I landed at Lansing. The first sight of interest that greeted my eye, was between three and four hundred hardy Norwegians, with their goods and chattels piled up on the wharf, awaiting a conveyance to the country. As near as I could understand them, a large colony have purchased (through their agent) a tract of land a few miles west, and they were then on their way to their new home. They were in good health and excellent spirits, and had not lost one of their number since leaving Norway. From the fact that these immigrants came over in a steamship, as well as from the appearance of a small, well-guarded iron chest in their possession, it may be inferred they are wealthy and industrious people, who will be a great accession to this por- tion of the State. Lansing is the most important town in the State, above Dubuque, on the river. It contains churches, a newspaper office, hotels, stores, &c., and is rapidly increasing ; and will eventually become a city of note, as it is the natural landing for a large section of very fertile country, which is being rapidly filled 10 -*= 114 IOV\^A HANDBOOK, by actual settlers. At the Lansing House you will be well cared for, and will there take a stage for the interior. Yes, there you will find the real, old-fashioned stage-coach, and perchance recognize, ere you return, some of the old coaehes which have been driven west by the locomotive, and in which you have already travelled, in the eastern or middle States. What an “ institution ” the stage-coach is, to a newly settled country, and what a convenience is the accommodating driver! Our load embraced fifteen passengers, a large rear boot full of baggage and luggage, while the front boot contained mail- bags, meal-bags, dogs, jugs, and what not. The road from Lansing to Decorah, for several miles after leaving the river, winds through a beautiful valley; and, when at length you reach the table land, the scenery is most beautiful, — we might say enchanting. To the north, beyond the valley of the Upper Iowa River, are the fertile, graceful hills and green fields of Minnesota, while far away to the south the landscape is checkered with prairies and groves, and on every side the smoke from the humble dwelling of the settler rises in swelling folds, marking the spots where the wanderers from almost every State and every country in Europe are making their peaceful homes. In a drive of fif- teen miles or less, through a beautiful though rough portion of country, w^e reached Wawkon, the IOWA HANDBOOK. 115 county-seat, a place of perhaps 300 inhabitants, in the midst of a good farming country. In the northern part of this county a bed of lead ore has been discovered, b-om which we are told 100,000 pounds have been taken out by Mr. Tichenor, although but little effort has been made to obtain mineral, as yet, most of the time having been occupied in prospecting. Two men from Dubuque had visited the diggings, and were well convinced of their proving valuable, and have de» termined to erect a smelting furnace during the summer. A few miles farther, and we reach Decorah, the county-seat of V/innesheik county, one of the most advantageously located interior towns in the State, containing a population of about 500. This place is situated on the Iowa Diver, and in the heart of a beautiful and fertile section of country. Decorah has a newspaper, numerous stores, hotels, &c. Some idea may be formed of the business and immigration on this route, from the fact that the receipts at the hotels averaged upwards of $60 a day each, in June last ; this, however, was before the removal of the land office to Osage. This town did not fairly commence growing till three years ago. From the Decorah Depublican of April 4th, we learn that it then contained 1,000 inhabitants, three hundred houses, fifteen stores, five banking houses, twenty land agencies, two good hotels, one grist and two saw-mills, a daily mail to 116 IOWA HANDBOOK. Dubuque and St. Paul, a steam plough, fanning-mill, and agricultural implement shop, together with al- most every; appurtenance of a vigorous civilization. We would express our indebtedness to H. K. Averill, Jr., Esq., surveyor and draughtsman, of this place, for numerous elegant maps of different localities, and important items of information. Persons wishing maps made or surveying done in northern Iowa will find Mr. Averill competent and deserving. In passing through this county, near Wawkon, the traveller will see numerous sink holes, which resemble a large bowl set in the ground, with the bottom knocked out. This indentation is from twenty to fifty feet across, and ten to twenty feet in depth to the perpendicular opening, which is said to be sometimes thirty to seventy-five feet in depth. Of other curiosities in this county may be men- tioned a stream of considerable size, which sinks into the ground, and is lost sight of entirely. In another part of the county. Trout Creek, about one- third as large as the Upper Iowa, breaks forth in one large spring from the foot of a perpendicular bluff; and two miles from this is a three-story grist-mill, situated under and driven by a large spring, gushing from a high rock bluff, A\dth fifty feet fall of water. These last-named springs are near Decorah. Thence to Osage is as fine a section of country IOWA HANDBOOK. 117 as can be found, — good land, well watered, well timbered, and an abundance of building stone. Osage is a new town, less than tv/o years old, and containing about 1500 inhabitants; a place of great thrift and enterprise, which is shown by the citizens having secured the location of the county-seat, and the removal of the Tiukey River land-office to their town. The proprietors offer great inducements to persons wishing to locate in a new town, especially mechanics and manufac- turers. Osage contains a well-conducted news- paper, good saw and grist-mills, banking houses, and land agencies, stores, and other business houses and residences to match. The people at and around the great South Bend of the Minnesota River are looking in this direction for a railroad, and are expecting to help construct one to connect with whatever company shall reach forth the longest iron arm towards them. The day is not distant when the agricultural resources of this country must have an outlet, by railroad ; and Mitchell county is favorably situated, and has the proper class of inhabitants, to insure it an early eastern railroad connection. Passing down the beautiful valley of the Red Cedar, we next reach St. Charles, the county-town of Floyd county. Though one of the last coun- ties surveyed, Floyd is all entered, and contains nearly a dozen towns and villages. Floyd county is well watered, and has a good supply of timber. 118 IOWA HANDBOOK. Copper ore has been found in Floyd county, on the Cedar River. More is thought to be where that came from. Bradford, the county-seat of Chickasaw county, is beautifully situated on the east bank of the Little Cedar, a tributary of the Red Cedar, about one mile from their junction and eighty miles from the Mississippi. Its position on the m.argin of the “ Upper Big Woods,” the largest tract of timber in northern Iowa, renders Bradford a favorable loca- tion for a manufacturing town. This town has two steam saw-mills, two water do., one shingle and two lath-mills, two hotels, &c. A newspaper is much needed here, also a steam flouring-mill. Bradford has a population of 350. Chickasaw county was organized in 1853, and has now a pop- ulation of 2000. The Cedar, the Turkey, and the Wapsipinnicon pass through this county, each affording water power for mill-sites, and an abun- dance of timber along their banks. From Bradford, the next point is West Union the county-seat of Fayette. This town is advan- tageously located in the midst of a good commu- nity of farmers, and has a good healthy gi’owth. West Union has a population of 1500, with all the various business houses and mechanic shops usual in towns of its size. Fayette county is well watered and heavily timbered, and the new-comer will do well to look at her soil and study her advantages. In this county, as well as in those IOWA HANDBOOK. 119 adjoining, the traveller will find much to admire and to wonder at, and a hearty welcome among an intelligent, hospitable people. The Fayette Pioneer, published by our old friend John Gharky, is the most valuable “ institution ” in the county, and should be well sustained. We clip the follow- ing from that paper : “ There is no stronger or surer evidence of the advancement of our place, than the increased num- ber of votes polled at our elections. At the April election, one year ago, 184 votes were cast at the town election ; at the last August election, 219 ; and at the late election, 251. Thus it is shown that our march is onward.” Of the morals of the place, he says : We have now lived here two years and a half, during which time we have seen but one drunken man. No spuituous liquor is sold here, except by the author- ized agent, for mechanical, medicinal, and sacra- mental purposes. Gambling is neither tolerated nor practised, and is an evil unknown to most of our citizens. Neither cards or any device for gam- ing can be obtained here. A man fight has never occurred in this place, to our knowledge ; neither has any one been sent to jail during our residence here. Very few lawsuits occur, and our lawyers gain a living by acting as land agents, making out deeds, and transacting other business of the kind, and not by prosecuting and clearing criminals. As a general thing, our Sabbath schools and churches 120 IOWA HANDBOOK. are well attended, and no very bad examples are set before the young. Upon the whole, we will venture to say that as good order prevails in West Union as in any other western town of its size.” Clermont, in the northern part of the county., has the prospect of being the largest town in it. Elkader, the present county-seat of Clayton county, is the next town of importance. It is situ- ated on both sides of the Turkey River, ten miles west of Garnavillo, and upon a bench of land de- signed by nature for a town. Elkader has peculiar and natural advantages which the enterprise and sagacity of her citizens have not failed to improve. There is a gigantic flouring-mill here, owned by Timothy Davis, Esq., and which is a monument to the skill and wealth of its proprietor. There are some half-dozen excellent stores, a hotel, shops, school-houses, etc. The site of Elkader is very beautiful, and, when the town shall have spread over the high table land which is designed to form the principal portion of the place, it will be hard to find a handsomer place. Present population 500. Ten miles northwest from Gutenberg, and in the heart of a prairie as beautiful as a garden, lies Garnavillo, a place of some 500 or 600 people, and until lately the county-seat. It wears an air of health, cleanliness, and contentment, that is very charming, and seems to be in no way dispirited by the loss of the seat of government. IOWA HANDBOOK. 121 There seems to be a never-ending strife, among the larger towns in the northern counties, as to which shall have the county-seat. The Cedar Rapids Times very sensibly remarks upon this sub- ject : One good flouring-mill is worth more to any village than all the county-seats in Iowa. The county business calls men to a -town for the transaction of a peculiar class of business, which usually leaves them with little disposition, and oftentimes with less ability, to purchase their family supplies. A commercial and manufacturing town, on the contrary, draws such funds into the legiti- mate channels of trade, and deposits wealth, and that, in turn, gives influence and power. Court- houses and jails are but the monuments of man’s depravity, while the hum of machinery is the un- mistakable voice of progress, and aids the dawn of that period when all shall win their supply by honest toil, and plenty smile at all firesides.” Gutenberg is the largest town in the county, and the river-landing for an extensive section of coun- try. The present population is 1000; nearly all Germans ^ — only fifteen or twenty Americans in the place, I am told, and one of these few Amer- icans is mayor. The site of Gutenberg is very handsome, strongly resembling that of Dubuque. Its houses are large, well built, and for the most part constructed of stone, of which there is any quantity close at hand. There is a better steam mill there than exists in Dubuque, and some of its 11 122 IOWA HANDBOOK. buildings would do honor to Main street. Business is flourishing — a number of new houses are going up, and every one appears to be making money. All over the county we heard the warmest praises of the German settlers. The prominent American citizens spoke of them as ornaments in every way to the county, and extolled glowingly their intelli- gence, their industry, their patriotism, and the great increase of wealth which they produced. The traveller who first lands in Clayton county, at Gutenberg, and seeks to penetrate into its inte- rior from that point, at first encounters nature in its rough and primitive majesty. He ascends a gigan- tic bluff, step by step, until he attains a mountain elevation. Then at his feet he beholds the Missis- sippi, dotted with lovely islands, and spariding in the sun, rolling on its waste of waters to the sea. Before him spreads the forest, as it was a hundred years ago, beautiful in its grandeur. He journeys through it, and soon smiling farms greet him from the hilltops, and the country grows less rough. Five miles from Gutenberg, he enters upon a most beautiful rolling prairie, which extends far on either hand to within three miles of Elkader. This prairie is high, and is broken into every imaginable variety of hill and dale. It is covered with farms, most of them in the very highest state of cultiva- tion. The other portions of the county are almost equally beautiful, and there is scarcely a foot of it but is susceptible of easy cultivation. The IOWA HANDBOOK. 123 Turkey River, a most beautiful stream, furnishing abundant water power, runs through the county diagonally, from its northwest to its southeast corner ; and upon its banks, and those of its tribu- taries, as well as along the Mississippi, which forms the eastern boundary of the county, there is an inexhaustible supply of timber. Communia, some six or seven miles south of Elkader, is the site of what remains of the some- what famous “ Communia Colony,” an association of Germans formed years since upon the principle of living in common. They have a beautiful place, and it is under the highest state of cultivation The experiment of socialism, however, turned out to be a failiwe, and great have been the troubles of the colony. Many of its members have left it, and those who remain are harassed by an infinitude of lawsuits about the property, which is now of great value. The geologist, mineralogist, or artist will find in this tour one of the most productive fields of re- search, and one possessing more magnificence and beauty of scenery, than in any other portion of the State. His attention will be attracted to the pecu- liar outline of hills that bound the prospect on either side of this majestic river, and the perpen- dicular walls of rock that rise out from the grassy slope, or green copsewood, in massive cliffs, and terrace the heights as with uninterrupted natural battlements. This scenery characterizes the banks 124 IOWA HANDBOOK. of the Mississippi and Turkey Rivers ; and at some points on the Turkey and Iowa Rivers, a hundred miles from the Mississippi, are battlements of rock, one hundred and twenty feet in height. Along the banks of the Mississippi and its tributaries, near their confluence, the surface is rather broken and too uneven for farming pmposes, but will afford a pastoral region of great capabilities, leav- ing little to be desired by the shepherd and stock farmer. From the base of the cliffs there often rise copious springs, cool and clear, which not unfrequently give rise to small streams which fur- nish abundance of delicious trout. The sportsman will find the rivers well stocked with bass, carp, sunfish, pickerel, pike, and catfish, and the prairies abounding in deer, grouse, pheasants, and partridges, while wild geese and ducks frequent the sti’eams in immense flocks. The elevated lands will furnish high, dry pasture- ground for “ the cattle upon a thousand hills,” as well as for the shepherd’s flock, while from the val- leys and bottoms may be gathered grain and hay for winter fodder. Farther interior are found undulating prairies, interspersed with open groves of timber, and watered with pebbly or rock-bedded streams, pure and transparent; hills of moderate height and gentle slope, with here and there small lakes as clear as the rivers, some skirted wdth tim- ber, and some with banks formed by the green- sward of the open prairie. IOWA HANDBOOK. 125 Ijead ore has been found in various portions of this district. In his Report to Congress, made six years ago, Owen says: “ Near the base of a bluff on the west side of the Mississippi, some ten or fifteen miles above the mouth of Turkey River, and just above the French village, from seven to ten thousand pounds of lead ore were obtained from openings in the rock by Dr. Andros. More or less galena is found here, in all the horizontal openings, for the distance of half a mile to a mile.” Lead ore has been found in considerable quantities in the bluff in the rear of Gutenberg. Less than ten years have elapsed since this sec- tion was in full possession of the Winnebago In- dians. How changed the scene! No longer shall these groves and plains be the red man’s hunting- ground ; no longer the deep ravines serve as lurk- ing-places for the wily foe, nor the bluff-side as a battle-field between contending tribes. On these peaceful waters, no longer, “ With tav/ny limb, And belt and beads in simliglit glistening, Does the savage urge his skilF, like a wild bird on the wing, ******* Look now abroad — another race has filled These populous borders — wide the wood recedes. And towns shoot up, and fertile realms are tilled ; The land is full of harvest and green weeds ; Streams numberless, that many a fountain feed, Shine disembowered, and give to sun and breeze Their virgin Avaters : the full region leads Ncav colonies forth, that tOAvard the Avestern seas Spread, like a rapid flame among the autumnal trees.” 11 * CHAPTER XVII. FROM COUNCIL BLUFFS TO SIOUX CITY. TOWNS ON THE UPPER MISSOURI. SIOUX CITY. FUTURE PROSPECTS OF WESTERN IOWA. Having spoken at length of Council Bluffs and Western Iowa, in a previous chapter, I here pre- sent the particulars of a trip up the IMissouri. The first point of interest was Florence, of which so many maps are seen on almost every thoroughfare. The traveller will not see here so much of a town as he would naturally expect. Ferryville, in Iowa, is directly opposite this place. Americus is six miles east, and in the valley of the Big Pigeon River, on the road between Council Bluffs and Sioux City. The largest grove of timber in the county is near. This location possesses many superior advantages for building up a populous town, surrounded as it is by an excellent and fer- tile farming region, with good water, fine timber, limestone, mill-sites, &c. Fort Calhoun, the county-seat of Washington county, Nebraska, is what is known as the original Council Bluffs, and promises to be quite a town. He Soto, a short distance above, is situated hand- ( 126 ) IOWA HANDBOOK. 127 somely in a cove, half surromided by a pretty cres- centic bluff, inside of which are numerous cones rising to a convenient and suitable height above the general elevation — handsome places for resi- dences. The landing is good, timber plenty, a steam saw-mili nearly completed ; and, with the start which it has already got, this must become a flourishing place. Cuming City and Tekamah, in sight from the river, are prettydooldng places. Decatur (that is to be) is a beautiful situation for a town, just outside of the south line of the Indian Reserve, on a handsome piece of table land at the foot of Black Bird bluff; has a good landing, is on the railroad line of the forty-second parallel, is due west of Ashton, has an abundance of build- ing stone and timber near by, is now being laid out in town lots, and is, I am told, soon to be lith- ographed and made ready for improvement. Col. Sarpy and Stephen Decatur have selected this as the point, and will soon have houses and stocks of goods here, and men of their experience and ac- quaintance in the Y/est will not begin a town and fail. Black Bird city, at the mouth of a creek bearing the same name, in Nebraska, has an eligible site, where a number of gentlemen settled and laid out a town, but had to give it up to the Indians for a Reserve. They considered their claim unfairly jumped by the Indians and their agent ; but, as it 128 IOWA HANDBOOK. was but a temporary location, they yielded, with the determination, however, of reclaiming it as soon as the Indians left it. The Rev. IVIr. Hamil- ton has taken it for missionary ground, and will, it is supposed, get another mile square, similar to the one at Bellevue, and thus cut them off entirely. Omadi, at the mouth of Omaha creek (Ne- braska), is a most thriving and prosperous town, only a few weeks old. It has very superior advan- tages — water power of Omaha creek, with one first rate saw-mill in operation, and power for sev- eral more within two miles ; a variety of the best kind of building stone, sufficient to build a city; abundance of good black walnut, oak, cotton-wood, and other varieties of timber ; and more important still is the excellence of the country around for farming purposes. The boat is discharging at this place the greater part of her cargo, among which I notice several ready-framed houses, which it is claimed are much cheaper than others, and can be raised in a day, ready to live in. The next point reached in Iowa is Sergeant’s Bluff City, a new town, that is pleasantly situated on the bluff, but shows still better on paper. In the hands of other proprietors this place might suc- ceed. The bluff from which this town derives its name is three miles above, where Sergeant Floyd was interred in 1804, by his companions, Lewis and Clarke, while on their expedition to Oregon. The main force of the current strikes the foot of IOWA HANDBOOK. 129 this perpendicular bluff, and is gradually wearing it away, and soon the remains of this famed explorer, after quietly reposing in a wilderness grave for fifty “two years, must topple into the turbid stream. This should not be permitted. The Christian and fraternal hand should now exhume the remains from their present perilous situation, and inter them in some permanent and suitable place, with proper memorials. Six miles farther brings us to Sioux City, which, except Council Bluffs, perhaps, is destined to be the largest city above the Missouri line. This place is improving, and, anticipating an early rail- road connection, real estate sells rapidly, in some instances at higher prices than in larger towns on the Mississippi. Nature has designed this point for a town, and the commercial marts of the coun- try demand one. When the two or three railroads projected to this point shall have been completed, one of which they anticipate will be the Great Pacific, and when a respectable appropriation is made for clearing out the snags in this river so that boats may navigate it more than two or three months of the twelve, then, or even long before then, you will see here a model city. We are much indebted to the urbanity and politeness of Samuel T. Davis, Esq., attorney and land agent of this city, for numerous favors, and would re- commend those visiting Sioux City to give him a call. At present prices, and with present pros- 130 IOWA HANDBOOK. pects, I know of no better point for investment on the Missouri Kiver. A regulE^y line of stages has been established between this place and Dubuque. This is the western terminus of the “ St. Paul and Sioux City United States Military Poad,” for the construction of which Congress has appropriated so liberally. This road is completed to the South Bend of the Minnesota or St. Peter’s River, and will be completed to the Missouri, probably, this season. Since Congress granted land to the four gi’eat trunk railroads across the State, rendering certain their completion, which will result in the early development of western Iowa, the people have awakened to the importance of informing their friends in the East of their advantageous location and of preparing for an immense immigration. To this end many farmers will, this year, carefully husband their bountiful crops for the incoming settlers, instead of shipping them below to “ the seat of war.” Those who have eligible town-sites are also preparing to make the most of them. Next spring will show a tremendous rush to vrestern Iowa; and, certainly, no part of the State more richly deserves it ! CHAPTER XVIII. JACKSON COUNTY. HER TOWNS AND RAILROADS. As regards the equal distribution of prairie, tim- ber, and water, there is probably no county in the State superior to Jackson. The timber consists principally of white oak, black walnut, ash, hickory, elm, maple, white walnut, and bass-wood. Water power is plentiful for manufacturing purposes : upon several of the streams are already erected flouring and saw-mills, and others are in progress of erection. The county is also one of the best for agricultural purposes in the State, and second to none for stock raising. The soil is generally rich and fertile, and the varying heights and diversi- fied scenery on the sloping banks of its numerous water-courses, present an abundance of beautiful building sites. The soil in the valleys is always of a rich sandy loam, several feet in depth, and very black ; the ridges are generally second and third rate soil, with a subsoil of clay, or in some instances ferruginous sand, and produce fine crops of wheat. Potatoes and other root crops, as well as vegetables and vines, all flourish luxuriantly. The rocks of the county are what belong to the “ upper magne- ( 131 ) 132 IOWA HANDBOOK. sian limestone” formation; are well adapted for building purposes, and make a superior quality of lime. Iron ore is found in various parts of the county, lying loosely on the smrface, and no doubt, from present indications, it exists in large masses. The most productive beds of iron in the State are in this county. “ Galena” (lead ore) is also fre- quently picked up in different parts of the county, and some mines have been successfully worked in the northwestern section. Bellevue, the county-seat, is a thrifty town, and very pleasantly situated. It has not kept up, in its growth, with many of its neighbors dming the past year or more, but with its present contemplated raihoad connections it bids fair to grow very rapidly. Maquoketa is the largest town in the county, and improving most rapidly. But a few months wiU elapse before this place wiU have a direct railroad connection, through Sabula and Freeport with Bacine, and through Lyons with Chicago. Sur- rounded with an industrious class of farmers, and possessing all natural elements, there seems to be nothing to hinder this from becoming a city ere long. The Jackson County Sentinel and the Ma- quoketa Excelsoir are each published here, and both well sustained and ably conducted. The main railroad line from Sabula to Missouri, and the branch line from Lyons, intersecting the main line at Maquoketa, have each a grant of land, and will, doubtless, be completed at the earliest practicable IOWA HANDBOOK. 133 moment. Sabula is “ looking up,” it would seem, and must become the river town of the county, when the trunk line of railroad has its river termi- nus there. Jackson county has heretofore failed to receive the attention her natural advantages entitle her to ; yet, now and then, a settler goes there, as the fol- lowing figures will show. The population of the county, one year ago, was, as near as could be ascertained, 15,000, while now it is nearly 25,000 ! This county is well supplied with schools. A branch of the State Normal School is located at Andrew, the teachers of which have a regularly organized association ; an academy, conducted by accomplished teachers and well attended, is located at Maquoketa, and common schools are supported in every town and village. Churches of the various denominations are estab- lished in each town in the county. (For names of other places in the county, see post-office list in last chapter.) 12 CHAPTER XIX. PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS. THE DES MOINES RIVER. RAILROADS IN lOAVA. Of public improvements in Iowa, probably — setting aside the railroad — the most important and extensive are those now in progress by the Des Moines Navigation and Railroad Company. This company was organized in May, 1854, with a capi- tal of $3,000,000. They hold a grant from Con- gress, embracing ail the alternate sections of pub- lic lands for the distance of five miles on each side of the Des Moines River, consisting of about 1,000,000 acres of the best land in the State. They have also the right to collect such toll and water rents as they may deem proper for the term of seventy-five years. The improvement of the Des Moines River is to be effected by the construc- tion of slackwater navigation, from the IMississippi to Demoine City, by means of dams and locks, and occasionally by short canals, parallel with but independent of the river. The distance between the dams will be about seven miles, and the aver- age Hft of the locks is ten feet. This company have entered into bonds with the State, that the ( 134 ) IOWA HANDBOOK. 135 locks and dams shall be completed so as to insure the navigation of the Des Moines River from the Mississippi to Fort Des Moines, now Demoine City, a distance of about two hundred miles, by the 1st of July, 1858. It is probable that 600,000 acres of the choice lands of this company will be sold during the next four years, at about eight dollars per acre, one-fourth down, the balance in ten equal annual payments. This company have also a railroad line along the Des Moines valley, which will eventually extend into Minnesota. Particulars regarding either branch of this great work may be had by address- ing the secretary at Demoine City, Iowa. From the tenor of the Governor’s message on the subject, and of memorials from certain mem- bers of this company, it is to be inferred that the company’s title to the lands they advertise is in question ; hence, those who think of purchasing of this company should act cautiously, and thor- oughly examine their titles. The improvement of the Mississippi rapids is also an important 'work. The rapids occur in the river, and are twelve miles in length, terminating at Keokuk and Davenport. The fall on the lower rapids is twenty-four feet, and on the upper rapids about sixteen feet. In either there are obstructions sufficient at times to check navigation, and during low water to entirely prevent the progress of busi- ness. An appropriation of $1,090,000 has been 136 IOWA HANDBOOK. made by Congress for excavating the channel in these rapids, and within the past three years some progress has been made in the work. At the last session of Congress $200,000 was appropriated for the improvement of the lower rapids. The great Mississippi bridge, though not a pub- lic work, is a public highway, and may be noticed here. It connects the Chicago and Kock Island and the Mississippi and IVIissouri Railroads, making one continous line of gauge, without interruption or break, from Chicago to the Missouri River. The cars now run as far as Iowa City. It was com- pleted in April, 1856, so that trains run over the river into Iowa City without change. The entire length of the bridge is 5832 feet, consisting of five spans ; and the draw over the main channel is in length 1583 feet. The circular-shaped draw pier, which stands near the centre of the channel, is forty feet in height, forty-six feet in diameter at the founda- tion, and thhty-seven feet at the top. On each side is a draw pier working on the rotary principle, allowing in all two hundred and forty feet clear for the passage of boats. The lower bridge, over the arm of the river running on the Illinois shore, has three spans. The entire cost of this work was $260,000. Railroads in Iowa. — There is no State in the Union where so many miles of railroad are under contemplation and construction as in Iowa, and IOWA HANDBOOK. 137 none that more fully justifies these enterprises. No State has so great a proportion of fertile soil, none can support a more dense population, nor is there one that is being peopled and cultivated more rapidly than Iowa. Already has she placed the early adventurer on a throne of fortune, thus amply rewarding his courage. At this day, she points to still loftier thrones and richer diadems, held in reserve as the prizes of fearless energy; or, better still, she throws open to the world her ex- haustless stores of wealth, and seems to say, “ Be- hold your reward!” And, as the multitudinous throngs hasten toward these goals of promise — as they crowd with eager steps, and work with un- tiring hands — they find that, far from becoming drained, her resources deepen and increase in pro- portion as they take from them ; not merely keep- ing pace with their accumulating wants, but ever exceeding them. It is even as the province of mind — the realms of intellect — whose boundaries still widen, and whose spheres continue to expand, the farther they are explored. The resom'ces of Iowa are yet undeveloped, unknown. True, we know something of the im- miense veins of lead in the northeastern part of the State, from the extensive and annually increasing revenue our State receives for its exportation ; yet in the interior of Iowa are beds of various minerals, of incalculable value, the extent and even the varieties of which are unknown. 12 * 138 IOWA HANDBOOK. From geological reports and personal observa- tion, we know we have red and yellow ochre, iron ore, signs of copper, and immense beds of plaster ; yet of greater present and future value and im- portance to the State are the vast and immeasur- able beds of bituminous coal, underlying the in- terior of the State, covering an area fully half its size, and larger than many of the eastern States. Who can calculate the benefits that will result from the development of these mineral resources ? or even guess at the distribution through our State of “ that invaluable article, that warms our houses, that drives our locomotives and steam engines ; by which we navigate our rivers, lakes, and oceans ; that propels the machinery by which we weave our fabrics ; that reduces our iron, by which we cultivate our soil, and carry on every conceivable mechanical operation ; that refines oxu metals; that contributes to the production of both the necessa- ries and luxuries of life, and by which we transmit intelligence with the swiftness of lightning to sta- tions the most remote ! ” This mine of wealth is about being opened up to the world. We already hear the champing and foaming of that great thing of iron and fire, with sinews of brass and muscles of steel, whose pathway of iron is the emblem and exponent of the hour, — the noblest couplet of the age, binding kingdoms, and empires, and zones. Already he stands at our doors, with a long train of cars from the East, filled with the hardy sons of IOWA HANDBOOK. 139 toil, who, though subjects of depression and disap- pointment there, are here to be the hope and promise of Iowa. To-morrow shall witness the westward strides of this great civilizer across our prairies and plains, plunging, like the thunder of Jove, through slope and dell, to our western borders, forming a nerve of quickest sympathy, increasing our social intercourse and commercial relations, and binding, electrifying, and harmonizing the re- motest portions of our great State! Experiments in burning coal in the locomotives of the Illinois Central Railroad Company have re- cently been made with great success. The coal used is obtained on the line of that road, where it exists in great abundance. A number of experi- ments were made with an engine, which had been altered for the purpose. The portion of the road used was between Amboy and Wapella, one hun- dred and nine miles. The train consisted of six- teen loaded freight cars, and the coal used was La Salle. The comparative result was as follows : Wood, 5 cords, at $5.75 ..... $28.75 Coal, 52 bushels, at 15 cts. . . . . . 7.80 Saving’ with coal, ..... $20.95 This is a very gratifying result, and the import- ance of this fuel question can scarcely be over- estimated. Below will be found the names of the principal railroads completed, also those in progress and pro- 140 IOWA HANDBOOK. jected; and, although each of them are practicable routes and will be built, probably, within a few years, I cannot speak confidently of each in this edition, not knowing the financial condition of the several companies. Burlington and Missouri River Cedar Rapids and Muscatine, Chicago, Iowa, and Nebraska,! Dubuque and Pacific*!, Dubuque and Bellevue, Dubuque and St. Paul, Iowa Central Air-Line *, Keokuk, Demoine City, and Minnesota!, Keokuk and Montrose or Lower Rapids!, Keokuk, Mount Pleasant and Muscatine !, Mississippi and Mis- souri*!, Muscatine and Oscaloosa!, Philadelphia, Fort Wayne and Platte River Air- Line. Herewith is presented a synopsis of the act of Congress granting land to railroads in Iowa. This act sets apart lands for four different railroads, about forty miles apart, running from the Missis- sippi to the Missouri River, thus crossing our whole State four times from east to west, and averaging nearly three hundred miles each in length. The following is its estimate, showing the quantity gTanted which would accrue for each road to the State, allowing that there would be unsold lands *Each of these roads have a grant of land from Congress^ -which renders certain their completion at an early day. — See Land Bill in this chapter. t Under contract and in part completed. IOWA HANDBOOK. 141 enough within the prescribed limits of fifteen miles on each side the road to satisfy the grants : Routes. Estimated length in miles. Acres granted , Dubuque via Fort Dodge to Sioux City, 295 1,132,800 Lyons City, via Maquoketa, due west to Missouri River, Davenport, via Iowa City and 325 ^ 1,248,000 Fort Des Moines, to Council Bluffs, 290 1,116,600 Burlington, west to moutli of La Platte River, 255 979,200 Total, 1,165 4,476,600 Deduct for Des Moines River grant, wliicli crosses four times, 10x4, 40 156,600 1,125 4,320,000 It is not probable, however, that the actual amount realized by the several companies will ex- ceed one-half the above quantity. Synopsis of the Iowa Land Bill. ^ — Sec. 1. Provides that alternate sections of land, designated by odd numbers, six sections in width, on each side of the railroads from Burlington to a point on the Missouri River, near the mouth of the Platte ; from Davenport, via Iowa City and Fort Des Moines, to Council Bluffs; from Lyons, northwesterly, to a point of intersection with the main line of the Iowa Central Air-Line Railroad, near Maquoketa ; thence on said main line, running as near as prac- 142 IOWA HANDBOOK. ticable to the forty-second parallel across Iowa to the Missouri River ; and from Dubuque to a point on the Missouri River near Sioux City, be granted to the State to aid in the construction of said rail- roads. Sec. 2. Provides that the sections and parts of sections of land which, by such grant, shall remain to the United States, within six miles on each side of said roads, shall not be sold for less than double the minimum price of the public lands when sold ; nor shall any of said lands become subject to pri- vate entry, until the same have been first offered at public sale at the increased price. Sec. 3. Provides that the said lands hereby granted to the said State shall be subject to the disposal of the Legislature thereof, for the pur- poses aforesaid, and no other; and the said rail- roads shall be and remain public highways for the use of the government of the United States, free from toll or other charge upon the transportatation of any property or troops of the United States. Sec. 4. Provides that the land shall not be sold any faster than the roads are completed ; and, if any of the roads are not completed within ten years, no further sale shall be made, and the lands unsold shall revert to the United States. Sec. 5. Provides that the United States mail shall be transported over said roads, under the direction of the Post Office Department, at such price as Congress may by law direct: Provided^ IOWA HANDBOOK. 143 that until such price is fixed by law, the postmas- ter-general shall have the power to determine the same. At a special session of the Iowa Legislature, held in June, this grant of lands was accepted. The bill transfers the rights vested by Congress in the State, to the several companies, with several conditions. 1. The roads must be completed and equipped for seventy-five miles within three years from the 1st day of December next, and thirty miles each year thereafter, and completed by December 1, 1866. In case of failure, the State resumes its rights in the lands. 2. Persons who had settled and improved lands along the proposed lines, at the time the grant was made, are to be secured in their possessions, upon presenting proper evidence of the fact. Not more than three hundred and twenty acres is allowed to a settler, and he is to pay ^2.50 per acre. 8d. The company must signify their acceptance of the provisions of this act within ninety days after its passage. 4th. The roads must be definitely fixed and located before the 1st of April, and maps and plots filed with the Governor. The effect of this land grant to raihoads in Iowa is unquestionably a great benefit to the State. The only advantages wanted to place her in the front rank of great commercial, agricultural, and 144 IOWA HANDBOOK. manufacturing States, was the construction of three or four trunk railroads through the State, from east to west, and these great objects are now secure. Congress has come to the rescue, and by its munificence has completed the chain of circum- stances which establish the future destiny of Iowa. With the speedy prospect of the construction of these roads, Iowa will enter upon a career of pros- perity heretofore unknown in her history. Though now increasing in population as fast as any State in the Union, the lack of railroad facilities has operated as a discouragement to the settlement of her western border. With fom* roads, about equi- distant from each other, traversing the State from east to west, bringing the Missouri within eight hours of the Mississippi, hardly a quarter section of land will be out of reach of a ready market. Certainly no farm will be more than one day’s drive from one or the other of these great thorough- fares. The Chicago, Iowa, and Nebraska Railroad is rap- idly progressing. It was commenced last spring, and construction trains are already on the track, and the road will be completed to Dewitt, twenty miles, this season. This road is projected to run up the Cedar VaUey, through the counties of Benton, Black Hawk, Bremen, Floyd, and Mitchell, to the south bend of the Minnesota, connecting in Mitchell with a road from St. Paul, also starting with a western line from Cedar Rapids to the IOWA HANDBOOK. 145 Missouri. The Keokuk and Montrose Kaikoad will be completed and running around the lower rapids this fall. The Burlington and Missouri Kail- road is now completed to, or near, Mount Pleasant, and is being pushed westward with all possible dispatch. The Keokuk, Demoine City, and Minnesota Valley Railroad is contracted to be completed from Keokuk to Benton’s-port, thirty-eight miles, by the 1st of January next. The Mississippi and Missouri Railroad has been in running order from Davenport and from Mus- catine to Iowa City, since the 1st January. The Muscatine and Oscaloosa road is said to be completed to Fredonia, on the Iowa River, west from Muscatine twenty miles. The Fort Madison, West Point, and Bloomfield Railroad is said to have received, during the last days of Congress, a grant of lands for its construc- tion westward to Nebraska City. 13 CHAPTER XX. BEST ROUTES TO AND THROUGH IOWA. Should the traveller or immigrant wish to reach the northern portion of Iowa, his best route from Chi- cago is to take the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad to Dunleith, Illinois ; thence, if he desires to go farther north, the regular Galena, Dunleith and Minnesota Packet Company’s boat, in the upper Mississippi, will land him at any point above (at McGregor’s Landing, or Lansing, if he wishes to go into Clayton county), where stages will be in connection with all the interior towns. If the traveller would go directly west from Dunleith, he will cross the river on the ferry to Dubuque, thence proceed by stage to Fort Dodge, or even to Sioux City on the Missouri. In con- nection with this route are other lines diverging north and south. Should he wish to visit the cen- tral portion of the State, he can take the Chicago, Fulton, and Iowa line, — entering the State at Lyons or Clinton, both towns being connected with Fulton by good steam ferry-boats ; thence he can reach by stage any interior point, daily stages leaving those towns, north, south, and west, with ( 146 ) IOWA HANDBOOK. 147 good accomodations for travellers. The following places are in connection with this point : Dewitt, Tipton, Maquoketa, Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, and Cedar Falls. By river, any point above or below on the Mississippi can be gained. The large upper Mississippi boats run regularly from Fulton to St. Paul — at least two boats leaving daily. The connection with St. Louis below is equally good. Those wishing to reach Davenport, and towns in its rear, wiU take the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad. They will cross the river on the only railroad bridge crossing the Mississippi; thence from Davenport to Iowa City they will take the Mississippi and Missouri Railroads, where will be found stages for all points. At Davenport, packets may be taken for any point above or below. The Iowa State Central Committee, for the benefit of Free Kansas, set forth the most desirable route through that State as follows : Leaving Iowa City, proceed to Sigourney, thence to Oscaloosa, thence to Knoxville, thence to Indianola, thence to Os- ceola, thence to Sydney, thence to Quincy, on the Missouri River, eighty miles from Topeka, the capital of Kansas. An agent has been through the State by this route, and the citizens have ap- pointed active committees. The inhabitants on this line will do all in their power to assist immi- grants. The distance from Iowa City to Sydney, on the Missouri River, is three hundred miles, and 148 IOWA HANDBOOK. the cost of conveying passengers will be about $25. The “ Western Stage Company” will have formed a new Hne of coaches, and will put on all the stock necessary for the accommodation of every immigrant who may come. This can positively be relied on* The traveller wishing to gain the southern por- tion of Iowa will take the Chicago and Burlington Railroad to Burlington, Iowa ; thence by railroad to New London, thence by good stage coaches to Mount Pleasant, Ottumwa, Chariton, Osceola, to Nebraska City. This route is, perhaps, the best one through Iowa to Southern Nebraska and Kansas. Burlington has every facility for forward- ing the traveller on his way, being situated in the best settled portion of the State. It is easier for those who wish to reach any inland point to get a conveyance, for goods or passengers, than at many points where there are fewer teams engaged in such business. Persons wishing to go to western Iowa may take a steamboat at St. Louis for any point in Kansas, Nebraska, or Iowa — there being a regular line of boats running between Council Bluffs and St. Louis ; or they may take stages at Dubuque, Clinton, Iowa City, or Mount Pleasant, a continu- ous line of railroad being established to each of these points. Immigration into Ioava. — It has been said that the grant of lands to Iowa railroads would take up so much of the vacant public lands, that the IOWA HANDBOOK. 149 tide of emigration would be materially checked. This, I believe, has neither had nor will have that effect. The following articles, from Iowa papers, will give the reader some idea of the opinions of the press in Iowa on this subject : “ The most profound ignorance appears to exist in the minds of many persons with regard to the effect the passage of the Iowa Land Bill will have upon immigration into this State. Comparatively few of the immigrants to Iowa locate upon lands obtained directly from the government. During the last year, speculators have visited us and en- tered their thousands and hundreds of thousands of acres of public lands. These they have sold to men in the East, the actual settlers, who are emi- grating in large bodies to take possession of them. “ So far from speculators being a drawback to the settlement of a new country, they are the very men who contribute most to the rapidity of its set- tlement. Lands would be idle and unimproved for years, were it not for this class of men. They come out here and purchase wild lands in vast bodies, and then make a business of inducing farmers and others in the East to emigrate hither and cultivate them. The Iowa Land Bill has taken up but comparatively few of the public lands in our State. The land offices, in those districts where the largest bodies are located, have not been closed; hence, those wishing to enter lands still have the opportunity. Speculators hold vast quan- ta* 150 IOWA HANDBOOK. titles of the public lands in Iowa, and it will still be to their interest to dispose of them, so that we cannot perceive that, even were all the land offices in Iowa to be closed, it would have any apparent effect upon the immigration to this State.” — Da~ venport Gazette, The following will show that this has been so : “ Yesterday morning there was an immense crowd of passengers at the depot, en route for Iowa City. As they passed up Brady street, the number was so large that the procession might have been denominated an invading army. Truly Iowa is being invaded. Farmers are coming in, armed with implements for a pitched battle with the soil of Iowa. Mechanics come pouring in, from all quarters, armed and equipped for a long and active service, in erecting mills, manufactories, stores, dwellings, etc., merchants with goods, and capitalists with the ‘rocks.’ Verily, our State is becoming the frontier quarters of the army of oc- cupation.”-— Gazette^ May 10. “ While in Iowa City, a few days ago, we were perfectly astonished at the rush west. The railroad from Davenport to Iowa City is strained to its ut- most capacity to do the work required. The freight and travel far exceed the anticipations of the most sanguine. From tliree to four hundred passengers arrive at Iowa City daily, two trains a day each way. When coming down from Iowa City to Davenport, we met, in the morning, a train of five IOWA HANDBOOK. 151 passenger-cars, all full, with persons on the look-out for homes in the AVest .” — Mount Pleasant Ob- server. “ During the forty-eight hours ending Saturday morning, the eight trains on the Michigan Southern road brought eighty-one coaches, containing 4,000 passengers; and in the same time the six trains over the Michigan Central took into that city sixty- three coaches, containing 4,662 passengers. Nearly 9,000 passengers arrived in two days .” — Chicago Pressj June, 1854. “Every train arriving westward — every train especially entering Chicago, as a distributing point — seemed crowded with men, women, and children, generally in apparent comfortable circumstances, seeking homes in the West. These emigrants seemed principally from the Eastern States, al- though many were from the more thiddy settled Western States. Of this great mass, so far as we could ascertain, and we made diligent inqui- ries, but comparatively few were going to Kan- sas and Nebraska. They were acting much more wisely — going to the unsurpassed regions of loAva.” — Evansville Journal. “ Mr. McGregor has three boats at work on his ferries, and by the most indefatigable industry is enabled to keep the eastern shore clear of the im- mense number of persons and teams that cross daily.” — Herald. 152 IOWA HANDBOOK. The North-West^ published at Dubuque, says: ‘‘We are informed that instructions have been re- ceived from the Commissioner of the General Land Office to permit pre-emptions to be made upon the odd-numbered as well as the even-numbered sec- tions of land withdrawn from market^ by virtue of the act of Congress making grants of land to the State of Iowa for the construction of railroads. The order of the commissioner, withdrawing the lands from market, said nothing about pre-emptions, and we presumed that the act excluded them, as well as ordinary purchasers. The officers refused to receive pre-emptions within the townships with- drawn ; but the recent orders permit them on this land until the road is definitely fixed. This fact — if made known through the public journals — would turn a large emigration into this State, which is now going to Wisconsin, Minnesota, Kansas, and Nebraska.” The number of passengers over the Chicago and Burlington Railroad, in January, was 2,767 ; in February, 2,251 ; in March, 4,339 ; in April, 5,278. The number of passengers over the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad to Galena and points beyond, in April, was 8,250 ; over the Chicago, Ful- ton, and Iowa Line there were, in April, 1,950. These figures were supplied us by the officers of the respective roads, and may therefore be impli- citly relied upon. OWA HANDBOOK. 153 A Word to Capitalists.— - Here, as elsewhere, it ‘‘ takes money to make money,” but not so much of it. Eastern men, who have been operating in city and village property, in different portions of the State, inform me that they can make fifty per cent more money here, with the same investment, than they can at the East. To illustrate : a gen- tleman of Clinton county invested $1,500, last July, in town lots and suburban property, from which, with some other real estate transactions, he has realized the snug sum of $50,000, in the short period of nine months. At least one-third of this time, business in land was suspended, on account of extreme cold weather. I know individuals and associations, who have erected buddings for sale or rent, and have made a profit of two hundred per cent upon the capital invested. There is scarce a river, town, or city in the State where buildings are not rented for stores and dwellings, for from one-third to one-half their original cost per annum ; and, in a few instances, I know of buildings having paid for themselves with the first year’s rent ! Companies or individuals can purchase lots in almost any town in the State, build upon them, and pay for the lots when they make sale of the property. The reason of this is, a lot with a building is much more desirable than one without, such is the demand for houses. Build- ings of almost any sort, shape, or size, find ready sale or rental. Capitalists cannot fail in making 154 IOWA HANDBOOK. good investments, by building houses to sell or rent. Mechanics Wanted in Iowa. — Our friend Mr. Scripps, of the Chicago Press, speaks thus of the demands of the West: ‘‘ The whole country west, north, and south of us is also filling up very rapidly with an intelligent, enterprising, and highly prosperous population, and thousands of all kinds of mechanics will be wanted to build up the cities on aU sides of us. The rapid- ity with which the resources of this vast fertile country are being developed is also a guarantee that Chicago will continue to grow apace, at least, during the lifetime of the present generation. “We say, therefore, to Eastern mechanics, come West. Fortunes, and certainly a competence, are within your grasp. There is work enough and room enough — always excepting house-room — for all who come. And, as to the matter of house- room, that is exactly what they are needed to pro- vide. The impression prevails to some extent at the East, that the opportunities for making money at the West are nearly all past, and only here and there a fortunate individual can hope for any considerable success. Exactly the reverse is true. There never was a time when judicious investments and earnest, persevering toil were more sure of an ample reward. Let every enterprising mechanic, therefore, who wishes a wide field for his exertions, make his home in the great and growing West.” IOWA HANDBOOK. 155 House-builders, in particular, are wanted. Any thing that adds to the homes of the West is in demand. Lumber, stone, brick, hardware establish- ments, and particularly capital, and men who will invest it in houses, are required. No investment returns as high a per centage as houses. Dwellings and stores, costing not more than $400 to $600, will rent, when completed, for $150 to $300 per year, — thus paying for the investment within two years. One of the greatest drawbacks to the growth of our Western towns is the want of houses for those who came among us to settle. Good mechanics command from $1.75 to $3 per day, and in most places can find work the year through at these prices. Below will be found a statement of passengers over the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad, from January 1st to August 1st, 1856 : January Whole number of Passengers. . 19,493 Passengers going East. 9,316 Passengers going West. 10,176 February 18,971 9,306 9,664 March . 26,770 12,436 14,334 April 32,211 12,839 19,372 May . 35,663 14,802 20,861 June 33,439 15,360 18,078 July , 33,233 14,786 18,447 This is but one of the four roads reaching the Mississippi, along the Iowa line ; the amount of passenger business on this road, however, exceeds that on either of the other three. Another proof of 156 IOWA HANDBOOK. the rapid growth of the West may be seen in the increasing business of the railroads. The earnings of the Chicago and Burlington Railroad in July, 1856, were ^176,282.99; earn- ings same month last year were $127,593.69, mak- ing an increase over last year of $48,689.30. The earnings of this road — 130 miles-— in 1856 (thus far), are per mile $1,032.41 ; earnings of the same last year per mile, $694.95 ; gain per mile in 1856, $337.46. The same calculation holds good with the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad. The in- crease in gross earnings in the past fiscal year — ending April 30, 1856 — ^was $803,623, equal to about fifty-four per cent on the gross earnings of the previous year, while the number of passengers transported is immense. I regret that the size of this work will not permit a more full statement of the business of each of these roads ; but the above will suffice. CHAPTER XXI. GENERAL REMARKS ON AGRICULTURE.- FENCING. Wheat and corn are the staple products of Iowa. The soil is equally well adapted to all the crops com- mon to the temperate zone. Tobacco is grown in western Iowa to some extent, and sweet potatoes are a certain crop, as high up as Clinton county. There is not, at present, half enough apples grown in Iowa to supply the demand ; but better apples than are here produced are not found in the world, as the following testimony, from the judges at the Horticultm’al Convention, will show : “ The fruits exhibited elicited the admiration of every spectator. But the greatest astonishment was visible upon the countenances of every one when they saw the difference between Iowa and Eastern fruit of the same variety — Iowa bearing off the palm. The Eastern fruit-growers ‘came down’ at once, and acknowledged being beat. Why, sir, there were Iowa apples almost as large as your head, and right by their side were apples from New York of the same kind, not larger than a common walnut. The Eastern nurserymen were so much beaten that they urged that the Iowa 14 (157) 158 IOWA HANDBOOK. apples were ‘ two-year olds/ while theirs were but ‘ yearlings.’ This exhibition will result in great good, and give Iowa a fame abroad, as one of the greatest fruit-growing States in the Union ; a fame that she will not suffer to die out, or be taken from her hereafter.” The peaches are very fine ; but in the northern and central portion of the State they are not a cer- tain crop. When, however, frosts and the hard winters allow them to come on in the spring, the growth and quality are equal, if not superior, to any grown elsewhere. On the matter of fencing, it may be said that in very many places — we will say, one-third of the farms in Iowa — there is timber ready at hand to fence ; and where there is not, it has been esti- mated, by those who have experience in the mat- ter, that common board fences are the cheapest and the best for temporary purposes. The fencing material for the prairies of the West is found in the osage orange hedge, which, by actual experi- ment, has been decided perfectly practicable, and besides makes a safe and beautiful fence. I find the following in one of the agricultural journals, which, from several years observation, ap- pears in all particulars true : “ Cost of openinu a Farm in Iowa. — The inquiry is often made as to the amount of means requisite for opening a farm in Iowa. It must be apparent that this must depend upon the size, con- IOWA HANDBOOK. 159 veniences, and comforts provided, and the plan of farming adopted. “ It may be first remarked, that good clay for bricks is found in almost all localities here, by removing the prairie soil, while in and around the surface ; so that brick can be obtained as cheaply as in any other part of the country. There is also good limestone rock in abundance in the banks of nearly all the streams, which is easily quarried, and the cost of such material is moderate, so that build- ing can be done here nearly as cheap as in the Eastern States. It is most usual, however (being generally the most convenient), for settlers to erect frame houses for themselves, which can be built at the following rates : “ A house twenty feet by twenty-four, one story high, plainly and comfortably finished, divided into four rooms, plastered and painted, can be built for from $300 to $350, which is about the cheapest house that can be furnished, that will comfortably accommodate a small family ; although one a story and a half high, twenty by twenty-eight feet, divided into three rooms above and two below, with pantry, plastered and painted throughout, and ready for use, would cost about $450 to $500. There are parties who are willing to contract to furnish all materials and fully complete houses of this description at the prices named, in from four to six weeks — houses of larger dimensions at pro- portionate rates and length of time. IGO IOWA HANDBOOK. “ The digging and stoning of a well, in ordinary- situations, will cost from $50 to $66. It wiU require about $100 to erect the necessary sheds and stables for cattle and horses. Hay and grain are usually stacked out, and are as well preserved as if housed. Good cows can be bought for about $30. A yoke of good working oxen is worth from $80 to $100. Good 'farm horses are worth from $100 to $125. Harness costs about the same here as elsewhere. A proper kind of a breaking plough costs $16. Common stirring ploughs $8 to $10 each. A reaping machine costs about $175, and the same machine may be readily adapted to mow- ing. Threshing machines can be bought at from $175 to $200. It is customary for a number of farmers to join together in purchasing these expen- sive machines, and work them in common, in cut- ting and threshing their several crops of wheat and oats, as well as for cutting their hay. Other neces- sary farming utensils are procured at prices about the same as in the East. “ The cost of fencing will, of course, depend upon the amount. The usual mode employed is with boards or rails, until the hedge is grown. Two boards will generally answer against cattle, hogs not being allowed to run at large. As it is customary in many places upon our large prairies for farmers, by common consent, to inclose all their stock for the first few years (a few acres only being required for this purpose), but a very small amount IOWA HANDBOOK. 161 of fencing is necessary until the farmer can either raise his hedges, or at least have grain for market, when he can get his lumber for fencing at the rail- road stations, with but little loss of time or incon- venience. If one hundred acres of ground be taken up and farmed after the manner heretofore described, a house of the larger size would be required ; four horses ; two breaking ploughs ; two common stirring ploughs ; two cultivators, and two harrows, and other farming utensils in the same proportion. But, if only eighty acres are farmed, a house of the smaller size would answer ; one span of horses, and farming implements in proportion. “ The foregoing statements, touching the subject of farming, have been made with strict reference to facts which have presented themselves to a mind having abundant opportunities for observation dur- ing five years past. The majority of our most judicious and industrious farmers would, doubt- less, consider the estimates quite too low. But the object has been to show what are the reliable results, taking one year with another, under ordinary cir- cumstances, not merely to give the limit of possi- bilities.” Wool-Growing and Stock-Raising. — The Dairy Business. — On this subject, I give an arti- cle extracted from an address delivered by J. B. Grinnell, Esq., of Jasper county, before the Agri- 14 * 1G2 IOWA HANDBOOK. cultural Society in that place, as embodying all that need be said in this brief work : “ It should be our settled policy to furnish for the market those products which can be carried there at the least possible expense. On the basis of this principle in domestic economy, wool-grow- ing stands at the head of all enterprises. The de- mand for wool is not capricious ; the total annual consumption keeping pace with the increase in our population. It may be transported at any season of the year, by a northern or southern route, and, not being of a perishable nature, a late market does not diminish its value. “ A common grade of wool is now grown with profit in New York and New England, where the winters are longer by several weeks than here, and where the farms are worth from thirty to fifty dollars per acre. “ Let facts and figures set this branch of industry in its proper relation. At the East, the ranges for pasture are cut off and the wool-grower must be the proprietor of the soil. Here in Jasper county, with its seventy thousand acres, there are, at a low estimate, and will be for years to come, forty thousand acres, a large portion of which is owned by non-residents, that would afford ample and the best of pasturage for one million of sheep. The experience of the western wool-grower is, that flocks permitted to enjoy a wide range, and liber- ally grained during winter months, will produce IOWA HANDBOOK. 168 one-fourth more wool than the same flocks kept on circumscribed pastures, and without grain, at the East. This product of v/ool would equal that of the present annual clip of V ermont, the third State in the Union in the production of wool. Herding of sheep on the prairies in summer, and feeding corn in the bulk during the winter, is entirely prac- ticable ; and some of the largest shepherds in Illi- nois assure me that their investment yields them from fifty to seventy-five per cent., and that wool can be raised here with more profit at thirty cents the pound than East for fifty cents. The increased weight of the fleece more than counterbalances the assumed freight of three cents the pound, in reach- ing the best market. If, then, an investment in farms East for wool-growing at $30 the acre is profitable, our lands are worth even more for the same enterprise. Consider, too, that the owner of a small farm of eighty acres, cropped with corn for winter consumption, may herd his thousand sheep on non-resident lands, to owner’s benefit rather than to his injury. “ If the plea is, that we are ignorant as to grades and the latest methods, and that there is great risk in the business, the first plea being admitted, and the last, with the qualification applicable to all the most successful enterprises, let us for a moment turn our attention to the rearing of cattle and horses^ which is more generally understood. “With a system, what pleasure and untold 1G4 IOWA HANDBOOK. wealth may be found in this oeeupation ! Railway communication is not necessary to success. Good- conditioned brutes, ready for the harness or the shambles, will furnish their own locomotive con- veyance to the best city markets, or to the railway, at from five to thirty per cent of their value. Ex- perienced graziers inform us that we have but to cultivate hardy winter grasses, and a little corn for the extremest cold seasons, and we have all the advantages of the luxuriant plains of Mexico and South America, where animals are herded with profit for their hides and tallow.” The Hon. Henry L. Ellsworth, a distinguished citizen and large farmer of Indiana, thus expresses himself on this point : “ After a full consideration of the subject, I am satisfied that stock-raising at the West is much more profitable than raising grain. Indeed, an examination of the northwestern States shows a vast difference in the wealth of the grazier over those who crop with grain. The profits of wheat appear well in expectation on paper ; but the pros- pect is blasted by a severe winter, insects, bad weather in harvesting, and in threshing — for there are but few barns at the West — or in transporting to market, and, lastly, a fluctuation in the market itself.” Let me inform the farmers that are, or are to be, residents of the State, that there is a great lack of the products of the dairy in the State, and that no IOWA HANDBOOK. 165 branch of their business could be more profitable. At least one half the grain now raised in the State is exported, while more than twice the quantity of butter requned in the State is imported, and five times the quantity of cheese. The cost of taking a bushel of wheat from any place in Iowa to New York is from fifty to seventy-five cents per bushel, while, in the original owner’s hands, it would not be worth much over one dollar at any season. The cost of making four pounds of butter and six of cheese, which can always be sold at the nearest town for one dollar, would not be half as great as raising a bushel of wheat. The Iowa Farmer says : “We are of the opinion that the dairy offers to the farmer of Iowa a never-failing source of wealth, and, were we possessed of the means, we would rather invest them in that channel than in any other branch of husbandry.” CHAPTER XXII. EDUCATION. School System.— A very liberal provision is made for the permanent support of common and academic institutions in this State. By an act of Congress, five hundred thousand acres of land have been set apart for the promotion of the cause of education. Some of these lands have been sold, and the proceeds safely invested for the benefit of schools. Much, however, remains stiU in the market, and will be disposed of as the wants and interests of these nurseries of knowledge demand. There is to-day about $1,000,000 in the hands of the School Fund Commissioners, within the State, which is loaned at ten per cent, yielding an income of nearly $100,000. This amount, distributed among the schools of the Commonwealth, places them upon a footing not surpassed in any new State of the northwest. State University of Iowa. — This institution opened in the spring of 1856, at Iowa City, where it is permanently located. The present building, occupied as the State House of Iowa, together with ten acres of land, upon which it is situated, ( 166 ) IOWA HANDBOOK. 167 has been donated by the State to the use of this university, when the capital shall be removed to jDemoine City, its future location. Besides the central school at Iowa City, there are two branches placed with respect to funds on the same basis as the one at that place. One is located at Fair- field, Jefferson county, the other at Dubuque. Two townships of land, granted by act of Con- gress, July 20, 1840, for the support of a university, have been donated by the State to this institution, and constitute a permanent .fund for its support. It wiU be seen that the following advantages are possessed by this school: 1. It is the people’s institution, and every citizen of the State is inter- ested in it. 2. It is entirely free from sectarian in- fluence and bias. 3. It has an endowment of be- tween $178,000 and $200,000, which places it on a basis second to none in the Union ; and thus the trustees are enabled to sustain a competent num- ber of efficient and educated men in the faculty. 4. Its library and apparatus, when completed (prob- ably during this year,) will be superior to any in the west. 5. It is favorably located, in respect to health, good society, and beautiful and romantic scenery. The following is a list of the trustees, by which it will be seen the board is composed of some of the best men of Iowa : His Excellency James W. Grimes, trustee ex-officio ; George W. Me Cleary, Anson Hart, E. C. Lyon, G. D. Palmer, James PL 168 lOWl HANDBOOK. Gower, Edward Connelly, H. W. Lathrop, M. J. Morsman, John W. Rankin, P. S. Lake, Laurin Dewey, Thomas Farmer, E. C. Bidwell, Amos Witter, Lincoln Clark. The following gentlemen compose the faculty of the university : Amos Dean, L.L. D., president, and professor of history ; G. R. Perkins, professor of mathematics ; Henry S. Welton, A. M., profes- sor of ancient languages ; James Hall, professor of natural history ; Josiah D. Whitney, professor of chemistry ; I. M. Stone, professor of natm-al phil- osophy ; Edward Bendalie, professor of modern languages ; Dr. Franklin Wells, professor of the normal department. There is a normal school connected with the university, to which fifty students are entitled to go free of charge, by receiving an appointment from the governor, superintendent of public in- struction, or from either of the district judges. There are three normal schools established by law : one at Oscaloosa, one at Mount Pleasant, one at Andrew; one only is now in operation, that at Oscaloosa. Common schools are established in every hamlet, and on all the prairies v/here a sufficient number can be gathered together to avail themselves of the rich provision a fostering government has bestowed upon the youth of the State. In the cities and larger towns throughout the State, some of the finest buildings erected have been for school pur- IOWA HANDBOOK. 169 poses. Keolmk, Burlington, Muscatine, Daven- port, and Dubuque, can point to their public school buildings with pride. In ail these cities, and in many others, are well-conducted, genteel schools, free to the youth of those places. Deaf and Dumb Asylum.-— An institution for the instruction of the deaf and dumb has recently been opened in Iowa City. Blind Asylum. — -An institution for the instruc- tion of the blind was organized and put into opera- tion in Iowa City, in the spring of 1853. Academies and Colleges.— -This State is well supplied with academies and colleges, some of which will compare favorably with those in the Atlantic States, v/hile all reflect credit upon the patriotism and enterprise of the Hawkeye State. Vv^e give herein a brief sketch of their condition. The Burlington University is a literary institu- tion of the Baptist denomination, located at Bur- lington, in April, 1852. The college edifice was erected in 1853-4, and dedicated on the 4th of July, 1854. This building is forty-four by sixty-five feet, three stories high, and its style of architecture and economic arrangement reflect great credit upon its founders and architects. Alexander College has been recently established at Dubuque, under the patronage of the Synod of 15 170 IOWA HANDBOOK. Iowa. A new college building lias been erected, sixty by one hundred feet long, five stories high. The Central College of Iowa is situated at De- moine City, and is under the fostering care of the Lutheran church. A college building was erected last year, at a cost of $20,000. The Central University of Iowa is located at Pella, Marion county, and is under the auspices of the Baptist Church. The Dubuque Female Institute is situated upon G, beautiful terrace in the rear of the city of Du- buque, This institution was established three years since, under the patronage of Miss Catherine Beecher. The Iowa College, situated north of Davenport, is under the care of the New School Presbyterians and the Congregationalists. The Iowa Conference Seminary is located at Mount Vernon, Lewis county. The Iowa Wesleyan University is located at Mount Pleasant, Henry county, and is under the control of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The Iowa Medical College is at Keokuk, of which Hon. Thomas W. Daggett is president. The Iowa Female Collegiate Institute is estab- lished at Iowa City, under the auspices of the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows. There is also a ladies’ college at Davenport, under the control of private individuals. The building is situated upon a high bluff, overlooking the Missis- IOWA HANDBOOK. 171 sippi for a great distance. It is very large, and well arranged for the purpose intended. At a recent educational convention, held in June last, at Iowa City, a school journal was established, to be published at Iowa City, entitled the V oice of Iowa.’’ Heligious. — The following statistics, compiled from the latest returns, will give a correct view of the strength of the various religious denominations in Iowa: CongregationaL — Churches, 89 (divided into five associations) ; ministers, 73 ; communicants, 2,677. Baptists. — Churches, 105 (divided into six associations) ; pastors, 66 ; members, 4,100. Presbyterian. — The New School Synod of Iowa consists of four presbyteries. The statistics are not known. The Old School is divided into three presbyteries, of which there were, in 1844, Churches, 171 ; members, 1,833. Episcopal. — The Protest- ant Episcopal Church in Iowa has eighteen churches within its diocese, with a settled pastor over most of them. The number of communicants at the present time is not known. The Right Rev. Bishop Lee, of Davenport, presides over the diocese. Methodist Episcopal. — Churches, 80 ; ministers, 222 ; members, 15,131. Catholics. — Churches, 40 ; stations, 17 ; clergymen, 30 ; religious com- munities, 5 ; academies 5 ; population, 20,000. The Christians, Lutherans, and Disciples have 172 IOWA HANDBOOK. organized churches in various places throughout the State, but I am not in possession of the statis- tics. I have given sufficient, however, to satisfy the reader that both religion and education occupy a good share of the attention of the people already located here. CHAPTER XXIII LIST OF POST-OFFICES IN IOWA, ARRANGED ALPHA- BETICALLY IN COUNTIES. ADAIR COUNTY. Adair, ' MarUn’s, Alconus, Summerset, liolaclay’s, WalitaliAvah. ADAMS COUNTY. Icaria, Quincy. ALAMAKEE COUNTY. Bellows, Lycurgus, Bryson, Markee, Bunker Hill, Ossian, Capoli, Painted Rock, Columbus, Postville, French Creek, Rossyille, GrantUlle, Union Prairie, Hardin, Volney, Ion, 'Waterville, Lansing, Wawkon, Mirror, Wexford. Lybrand, APPANOOSE COUNTY. Centreville, Cincinnati, HibbsAullc, Pleasant View, Iconium, Sharon, Mt. Gilead, Unionville, Moravia, Yv^ells’ Mills. MilKard, AUDUBON COUNTY. Ballard, Dayton, Bear Grove, Hamlin Grove. BENTON COUNTY. Benton City, Parker’s Grove, Beulah, Taylor’s Grove, Burke, Vinton, Marysville, Eagle. Prairie Creek, BLACKHAWK COUNTY. Barclay, Cedar Falls, Banner, Enterprise, Eliza, EUi River, Knox, Laporte City, Sturgess Rapids V/aterloo, Begisier, Gam])aign. [Note.— The .names of all the counties in the State are given — those that have no Post-OlSces named therein are not yet organized. County-seats are in SMALL c.vpiTALS ; ucMspapers in italics, and published in the towns whose names they immediately foUow.] 15 ^ (173) 174 IOWA HANDBOOK BOONE COUNTY. Bellepoint, Rapids, Boonsboro, Ridge, !^Iineral Ridge, Sweed Point. Parkersbiirgh, BREMER COUNTY. Neutral, Jackson Point, Janesville, Wavebly, Herald, Bepublican. BUCHANAN COUNTY. Brandon, Independence, Buffalo Grove, Civilian, Chatham, Pine, Erin, Quasqueton, Frink’s Grove, Williamsburgh. Greely’s Grove, BUTLER COUNTY. Beaver Grove, Elm Springs, Butler Centre, Leoni, Claeksyille, Willoughby. BUENA VISTA COUNTY. BUNCOMBE COUNTY. CALHOUN COUNTY. CARROLL COUNTY. CASS COUNTY. Edna, Lura, Iranistan, Pymosa. Lewis, CEDAR COUNTY. Cedar, Honey Grove, Cambridge, Inland, Gower’s Ferry, Lacton, Harwell, Massilon, Onion Grove, Springdale, Pedee, Tipton, Pioneer Grove, Advertiser, Red Oak, Democrat, Rochester, West Branch. Rosette, Woodbridge. CERRO GORDO COUNTY. Clear Lake, ISIason City. Shell Rock Falls, CHEROKEE COUNTY. CLAY COUNTY. CLARKE COUNTY. Bartletteville, Milford, Glenns, Norris, Hopeville, Osceola, Hickory Grove, Ottawa, Laporte, White Breast. CLAYTON COUNTY. Brookville, Buena Vista, Clayton, Communia, Council Hill, Elkader, Tribune, Elkport, F armersburg, Garnavillo, Girard, Grand Meadow, Gutenberg, Herald, High Grove, Highland, Littleporte, Lodomills, McGregor’s Landing, Millville, Monona, National, Nev/stand, Panther Creek, Sylvan, Strawberry Point, Sodomville, Volga City. CLINTON COUNTY, Boone Spring, Bingess, Brookfield, Camanche, Buena Vista, Charlotte, IOWA HANDBOOK 175 Cherry Wood, Clinton, Begister, Dewitt, Clintonian, Spring Rock, Elk River, Elvira, Grand Mound, Lyons, Mirror, Advocate, Orange, Toronto, Welton. CHICKASAW COUNTY. Bradford, New Hampton Chickasaw, CRAWFORD COUNTY. DALLAS COUNTY. Adell, SliijD of State. Boone, DAVIS Bloomfield, U7iion, Chequist, Del Norte, Drakesville, Eloris, Monterey, Mt. Calvary, Nottingham, Oak Spring, Pulaski, McKay, , Uncle Sam, Wiscotta. COUNTY. Roscoe, Salt Creek, Savannah, Soap Creek, Stiles, Stringtown, Taylor, Troy, Weeping Wil- low, West Grove. DECATUR COUNTY. Decatur, Leon, Franklin, New Buda, Garden Grove, Nine Eagles, Hungarian Turkey Run. Settlement, DES MOINES COUNTY. Albright’s, Augusta, Burlington, Ilawlxcye, Gazette, Farmer, Ed’l Journal, Danville, Dale, Dodgeville, Hawk Eye, Huron, Hartford, Kingston, Kossuth, Limestone, Linton, Middletown, Northfield, Oakland, Parish, Pleasant Grove, South Flint, Yellow Springs. DELAWARE COUNTY. Bailey’s Ford, Burrington, Coffin’s Grove, Cold Water, Colesburg, Coluny, Delhi, Republican, Delaware Centre, Dyersville, Forrestville, Green Hill, Grove Creek, Hopkinton, Hartwick, Mount Hope, Oakland, Orrinden, Plum Spring, Poultney, Rockville, Springbranch, Uniontown, Viola. DICKINSON COUNTY. DUBUQUE COUNTY. Alma, Aspinwall, Buncombe, Cascade, Centralia, Charmingvllle, Cottage Hill, Dubuque, Republican, forth-West, Expr. ^ Her., Farmer, Durango, Epwortn, Evergreen, Fillmore, GlassneUn, Hogansville, Mileray, New Vienna, Pin Oak, Peru, Tivoli, Viola, W eld’s Land- ing. 176 IOWA HANDBOOK EMMETT COUNTY. FAYETTE Clermont, Douglas, Eden, Eldorado, E ayette-ville. Gamble Grove, Illyria, Leo, Le Roy. COUNTY. Linn, Louisville, Mill Grove, Taylorsville, Waucoma, "Windsor, West Union, Pioneer. FLOYD COUNTY. Freeman, Eloyd Centre, St. Chaeles, Gilmantown. Intelligencer. FRANKLIN COUNTY. HARRISON COUNTY. Calhoun, Fontainbleau, Cincinnati, Magnolia. HARDIN COUNTY. Alden, Eldora, Sentinel, Hardin, Pt. Pleasant, Poughkeepsie, Rockwood, Rocks^dvania, Steamboat - Rock. HENRY COUNTY. East Grove, New London, Hillsborough, Rome, Lowell, Salem, Marshall, Trenton, Mt. Pleas.ant, Vega, Observer, AVayne, Home Journal, Winfield. FREMONT COUNTY. Austin, McKissack’s Cory, Grove, DavASonburgh, Osage, Gaston, Sidney, Manti, Tabor. GREENE COUNTY. Greenups, Jefferson, Havana, Kendrick. GRUNDY COUNTY. Parkersburg. GUTHRIE COUNTY. Allen, Panora, Bear Grove, Sentinel, Guthrie Centre, Pennsbury. Pioneer. HANCOCK COUNTY. HOWARD COUNTY. Arnoldville, Lime Springs, Howard, New Oregon, Howard Cen- Vernon tre, Sjnings. IDA COUNTY. New Ida. IOWA COUNTY. Cono, Dayton, Downard, Homestead, Jones, Kozta, Marengo, Millersburg, North English, Prairie Creek, Waubun, MTlliamsburg. JACKSON COUNTY. Andrew, Bridgeport, Bellevue, Canton, Sentinel, Cobb, IOWA HANDBOOK 177 Cottonville, Copper Creek, EmeKne, Farmer’s Creek, Fulton, Garry Owen, Hickory Grove, Higgensport, Iron Hills, Lamonte, Maquoketa, Excelsior, Sentinel, Monmoutli, Newton, Ozark, Folley, Sabula, Solon, Spring Brook, Spruce Mills, Sterling, SulKvan, Summer Hill, Van Buren, Waterford, WicklifFe. JASPER COUNTY. Con, Elliott, EUv Creek, Lynville, Monroe, Morristown, North Skunk River, Newton, Express, Parkersburg, JEFFERSON COUNTY. Abingdon, Absecom, Batawa, Brookville, Blue Point, I)eeds\dlle, Fairfield, Ledger, Sentinel, Germanville, Glasgow, Harmony, Lockridge, Libertyville, Pleasant Plain, Salina, Webster, Walnut Creek, AVooster. JOHNSON COUNTY. Cartharge, Repoi'ler, Copi, Frank Pierce, Hueston, Iowa City, Bepublican, Voice of Iowa, klorfordsville, Newport, Newp’t Centre, Solon, Seventy-Eight, Shuey\dllc, Seventy-Seven, AVindham. JONES Anamosa, Eureka, Bowen’s Pr’rie. Castle Grove, Duane, Fairview, Madison, Monticello, Pierce, COUNTY. Grove Creek, Highl’d Grove, , Johnson, Alarshfield, Massilon, Rome, Scotch Grove, AA'alnut Fork, AVyoming. KEOKUK COUNTY. Butler, Lancaster, Eagle, Olean, Richland, Sigourney, South English, Springfield, Steady Run, AVarner’s Mill, AA^ ebster, AVimer’s Mills. Lifeintlie West, KOSSUTH COUNTY. Algona, Johnson’s Set- Cresco, tlement, Dahcotah, Humboldt. LEE COUNTY. Ambrosia, Big Mound, Camargo, Charleston, Denmark, Dover, Fort Madison, Argus, Plain Decder, Green Bay, Summitville, Keokuk, Med. Journal, Times, Gate City, Montrose, New Boston, Pilot Grove, Primrose, Fr’nklin Cn’lre, String Prairie, AVest Point. 178 IOWA HANDBOOK LINN COUNTY. ^I/VEION COUNTY. Boulder, Begistcr, Cedar Bapids, Alon Dieii, Times, J^Iount Vernon, Farmer, Necot, Democrat, Oak Grove, Central Point, Palo, Porfax, Prospect Hill, Iloosier Grove, St. JuKan, Ivanlioe, St. Mary’s, Lafayette, Spring Grove, Lisbon, Springville, Mapjon, Valley Farm. LOUISA COUNTY. Concord, Port Allen, Columbus City, Port Louisa, ' Courier, Spring Glenn, Grand View, Toolsborough, Harrison, Virginia Grove, Hope Farm, Wapello, Morning Sun, Intelligencer. Palo Alto, LUCAS COUNTY. Argo, Freeland, Cedar Grove, Greenville, CiL\RiTON, La Grange, Mail, Tallahoma. MADISON COUNTY. Bibb’s Ptidge, St. Charles, North Branch, WmiEESET. Peru. MABSHALL COUNTY. Albion, Marshaltown, Le Grand, Mormon Hill, Lafayette, Timber Creek. Mapjetta, Attica, Kxoxwlle, Bennington, Journal, Columbia, MarysUlle, Ely, Newbern, English Settle- Pella, ment, Pleasantville, Gosport, B. Cedar Mills, Hamilton, Bed Bock, lola. Wheeling. MILLS COUNTY. Cerro Gordo, Indian Creek, Cahfornia City, Ingraham, Florence, St. Mary’s, GLEmvooD, Wahoghbonsy. Times, MAHASICA COUNTY. Agricola, Auburn, Beiiefontaine, Blue Creek, Fremont, Gramdlle, Hopewell, Indlanopohs, Nine hlile, OSCALOOSA, Herald, Times, Peoria, Bose Hill, Scott. MONBOE COUNTY. Avery, Albl\, Free Press, Cuba, Gray’s Greek, H’fway Prairie, So\ilia, Lucas, Mantua. MITCHELL COUNTY. Cora, Democrat, IMitchell, St. Ansger. Osage, I MONONA COUNTY. I Asiitox, Preparation. IOWA HANDBOOK. 179 MONTGOMERY COUNTY. Frankfokd, Sciola. MUSCATINE COUNTY. Centre Grove, Fairport, Melj)ine, Moscow, Muscatine, Journal, Enquirer, Pike, Strawb’ry Hill. Sweetlancl Cen- tre, West Liberty. Dresden, Grinnell, Montezuma, Republican, Gazette, Sugar Grove, Victor. RINGGOLD COUNTY. Mount Aik. SAC COUNTY. New Munich. O’BRIEN COUNTY. OSCEOLA COUNTY. PAGE COUNTY. Centre, Nodaway, Clarinda, Tarkio. Hawleyville, PALO ALTO COUNTY. PLYMOUTH COUNTY. SCOTT COUNTY. Allen’s Grove, Fulton, Amity, Le Claire, Big Rock, Le Claire Ce’tre, Blue Grass, Linn Grove, Davenport, Pleasant V alley. Gazette, Princeton, Temp. Organ, Walnut Grove, Der Deniokrat, West Buffalo, Democrat, Walcott. POCAHONTAS COUNTY. POLK COUNTY. Apple Grove, Circleville, Demoine City, Citizen, Statesman, Eckhart, Freel, Hartman, Hopkins Grove, Midway, Polk City, Rising Sun, Saylorville, Summerset. POTTAWATTAMIE CO. Americus, Ghronotype, Big Grove, Macedonia, Council Prairie Flower, Bluffs, Silver Creek. Bugle, SHELBY COUNTY. Shelbyville. SIOUX COUNTY. STORY COUNTY. Goshen, Nevada. TAMA COUNTY. Bucldngham, Red Man, Indiantown, TamaUlle, Kinisaw, Toledo, Ola, Tribune. TAYLOR COUNTY. Grove, Gravity. POWESHEHC COUNTY. Bear Creek, Deep River, UNION COUNTY. Afton, Kings. 180 IOWA HANDBOOK VAN BUREN COUNTY. Bentonsport, Birmingham, Bonaparte, Business Corner, Earmington, Mt. Sterling, New Market, Oak Point, Pameka, Philadelpliia, Pittsburg, Gainesborough, Portland, Home, lowaville, Keosaqua, Union, Lebanon, Lick Creek, Milton, Union. Upton, Utica, Vernon, Mirror, Winchester. WARREN COUNTY. Carlisle, Dorriville, E ort Plain, Greenhurst, Hammondsb’^ Handsome View, Hartford, Indianola, Bepublican, Lynn, Montpelier, Palmyra, Plain ville, Sandyville, Wilmington, AVhite Oak. WASHINGTON COUNTY Amboy, Brighton, Clay, Crawfordsville, Davis Creek, Dutch Creek, Marcellus, WAYNE Bethlehem, Cambria, Pottsville, Richmond, Valley, Washington, Press, Wasson ville, Yatton. COUNTY. CORYDON, Ereedom, Grand River, Warsaw. South Eork, WAPELLO COUNTY. Agency City, Ashland, Blakesburg, Dahlonega, Dorr\dlle, EddyAille, Commercial, Eomitain Sp’g Greene, ChilHcothe, Competine, Cotton Grove, Kirkville, Ottumwa, Courier, Pleasant Lake, Point Isabelle. WEBSTER COUNTY. Border Plains, Dakotah, Cresco, (no P. Homer, O. yet.) Webster City, Port Dodge, Ilomest'd Jour. WINNESHEIK COUNTY Burr Oak, Calmar, Castaha, Decorah, Sentinel, Et. Atkinson, Erank\ille. Ereeport, Moneek, Old Mission, Ossian, Trout River, Winnesheik, WINNEBAGO COUNTY. WOODBURY COUNTY. Eloyd’s Bluff, Serg’nt’s Bluff, Sioux City, Smithland. WORTH COUNTY. Bristol. WRIGHT COUNTY. Notk. —There are 5 monthly, 84 weekly, and 13 daily newspapers in Iowa- [If any papers are omitted in the above list, the author wiU supply the omission in an another edition, if duly notified.] CHAPTER XXIV RAILROAD DISTANCES ON THE VARIOUS LINES, CON- NECTING CHICAGO WITH THE STATE OF IOWA. Chicago and Eock Eailroad. Island From Chicago to Miles. Junction, . Blue Island, . . 6 9 Bremen, . . 8 Mokena, 6 Joilet, . . . 11 Minooka, , 10 Morris, . 11 Seneca, . 10 Marseilles, . 5 OttaAva, 8 Utica, . 9 La Salle, 1 (111. Central E, E. crosses.) 5 Peru, Trenton, . . 10 Bureau Junction, . 4 Tiskibva, . Pond Creek, . . 9 0 Sheffield, . . 10 Anawan, Geneseo, . 7 . 13 Colona, . 10 Moline, , 10 Eock Island, . 3 Total . 181 Mississippi and Missolth RailpvOAd. Prom Davenport to Completed. Located. Miles. ^ Wolcott, ...... 12 Farnam, 17 Durant, ...... 20 < Junction of Muscatine and Cedar liajiids, 27 ^Moscow, on Cedar lliver, ... 30 West Liberty, . . . . 39 Iowa City, 55 ( Centre of Iowa County, ... 85 j “ Pow'esheik County, . . Ill j Newton, Jasper County, . . . 141 I Fort Des Moines, . . . . 174 Council Bluffs, . . . . 310 16 Proposed. ( 181 ) 182 IOWA HANDBOOK Second General Division, from Muscatine to Mouth of Platte. From Muscatine to Slilea Under Contract. Fredonia, or Iowa River, . . .20 ( Columbus City, ..... 22 Located. < Washington, 39 Oscaloosa, 95 Surveyed. Mouth of Platte (21 miles below Council Bluffs), 280 Third General Division, from Muscatine to Cedar Eapids. From Muscatine to Completed. Located. Junction with 1st General Division, ^ Tipton, I Cedar Rapids, . . . . 5Iiles. 12 27 63 Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad. From Chicago to Miles. Oak Ridge, ... 8 Cottage Hill, . . .8 Babcock’s Grove, . . 4 Danby, .... 2 Wheaton, ... 3 Winfield, .... 2 Junction, ... 3 Batavia, . . . .6 Aurora, .... 7 Montgomery, . . .3 Oswego, ... 2 Bristol, . , . .3 Plano, .... 6 Newark, . . . . 5 Somonauk, ... 3 Waverly, .... 6 Earl, .... 7 Mendota, . . . .11 (Crosses Illinois Central.) Arlington, . . .9 Dover, .... 7 From Chicago to Mile.s Princeton, . . . 6 Wyanet, 6 French Grove, . . 6 Nephonset, . 7 Kewanee, . . 7 Galoy, . 8 Walnut, . . 8 Wataga, 8 Galesburg, . 8 Monmouth, . 8 Young America, , 8 East Biu’Hngton, . . 18 Total, . 203 Chicago and Fulton ROAD.* Rail- From Chicago to Miles. Oak Ridge, 8 Cottage Hill, 8 16 Babcock’s Grove, . 4 20 Danby, 2 22 Wheaton, 3 25 * The Chicago, Iowa, and Nebraska Railroad, and the Iowa Central Railroad, are continuations west, into the interior of Iowa IOWA HANDBOOK. 183 From Chicago to iVIiles. From Chicago to Miles. Winfield, . . 2 27 CKnton, . 4 39 Junction, 3 30 Elgin, . 3 42 Geneva, . 5 35 Gilbert’s, 8 50 Blackberry, 9 44 Huntley’s, . . 5 55 Lodi, . 6 50 Union, . 7 62 Coiirtland, 5 55 Marengo, . . 4 66 De Kalb, . Dement, . 3 58 Garden Prairie, 6 72 8 66 Belvidere, . Cherry Valley, . 6 78 Lane, . 6 72 6 84 Ogle, . 8 80 Rockford, . . 8 92 Franklin, . . 7 87 Winnebago, . 7 99 Taylor, , 4 91 Pecatonica, . 7 406 Dixon, . 4 95 Nevada, . 8 114 Sterling, . 14 109 Freeport, . . 7 121 Union Grove, . 15 124 Eleroy, . 8 129 F ulton, . , 10 134 Lena, Nora, . 5 7 134 141 Galena and Chicago Rail- Warren, . 4 145 RO.LD, Apple River, . 6 151 From Chicago to Miles. Scales Mound, . , 8 159 Junction (see foregoing Council Hill, . 5 164 table), Wayne, • • 30 Galena, . 7 171 . 5 35 Dunleith, . 10 181 DISTANCES ON THE VARIOUS STAGE ROUTES THROUGH- OUT THE STATE. Da^tenp’t to Council Blltfs. From Davenport to Miles, IMuscatine, . 30 Iowa City, . 33 63 Marengo, . . 26 89 Sugar drove, . . 46 135 Newton, . 20 155 Keith’s, . . 19 174 Fort Des Moines, . 14 188 Adel, . 24 212 Panther Creek, . . 5 217 Bear Grove, . . 22 239 Indian Grove, . 11 250 Nishnabottany, 15 265 Pleasant Spring, . 9 274 From Davenport to Miles Indiantown, . 4 278 Walnut Creek, . 5 283 West Nishnabottany, 15 298 Silver Creek, 13 311 Keg Creek, 6 317 Coimcil Bluffs, , 10 327 Burlington to Council Bluffs. From Burlington to Miles. London, 20 Mt. Pleasant, . 10 30 Rome, Fairfield, 8 38 15 53 184 IOWA HANDBOOK From Burlington to Miles; Libertyville, 7 60 Agency City, . 15 75 Ottumwa, . 4 79 Eddyville, 15 94 Oskaloosa, . 10 104 Pella, . 18 122 Ft. Des Moines, . 46 168 See preceding table for intermediate dis- tances. Council Bluffs, . 139 307 From Larons and Clinton To Miles. Dewitt, . 20 Maquoketa, Maquoketa, direct, . 20 40 35 Wyoming, . 18 53 Anamosa, 18 71 Marion, 17 88 Cedar Rapids, 6 94 From Lyons to SRles. Dewitt, 20 Tipton, . 35 55 Iowa City, . 25 80 From Lyons to Miles. Camanche, . 6 Princeton, 11 17 Le Claire, . 6 23 Davenport, . . . 15 38 From Lyons to Mies. Sabula, 17 Bellevue, 20 37 Dubuque, . 25 62 Da^rnport to Cedar R.APIDS. From Davenport to MUes. Tipton, . 40 Mt. Vernon, 20 60 From Davenport to Miles. Marion, . . . 13 73 Cedar Eapids, . . 5 78 Da's^nport to Dubuque. From Davenport to Miles. Dewitt, . . .21 Maquoketa, . . 19 40 Andrew, . . . 8 48 La Motte, . . 10 58 Dubuque, , . . 16 74 Dubuque to Cedar Falls. From Dubuque to Miles. Dellii, . . .36 Independence, . 36 72 Cedar Falls, . . 25 97 Dubuque to Iowa City. From Dubuque to Miles. Cascade, . . .26 Monticello, . . 12 38 Anamosa, . . . 13 51 Fairview, . . 4 55 Marion, . . . 15 70 Cedar Rapids, . 5 75 Iowa City, . . .25 100 Ced.arR.apids to Cedar Falls. From Cedar Rapids to Sliles. Vinton, . . .25 Waterloo, . . 30 55 Cedar Falls, . . 7 72 Krokuk to Iowa City. From Keokuk to Jliles. Charleston, . .18 Primrose, . . 12 30 Birmingham, . . 24 54 Fairfield, . . 9 63 Brighton, . . . 12 75 Washington, . . 15 90 Iowa City, . . . 35 125 IOWA HANDBOOK, 185 Keokuk to Keosauqua. From. Keokuk to Miles. Charleston, . 18 Warren, . Bonaparte, . 6 24 12 36 Keosauqua, . 12 48 Bonaparte to Birmingham. From Bonaparte to Miles. AYinchester, . 12 Birmingham, . 3 15 Ottumwa to Cilyriton. From Ottumwa to Miles. Albia, . 25 Chariton, 25 50 RIVER Dl Mississippi Kiyer. From St. Louis to Rock Island. Miles. Alton, . 22 Grafton, 18 Milan, . 24 Yhota, 42 Worthington, . . 52 AY estport. 57 Hamburg, . 62 Clarksville, . 80 Louisiana, Scott’s Landing, . . ^ . 82 97 Cincinnati, . 105 Saverton, 115 Hannibal, . 123 Marion City, . 133 Quincy, . . 143 La Grange, . 155 Smoot’s Landing, . 159 Canton, . 161 Tully, . . . 163 Gregory’s Landing, . 175 Alexandria, . 185 IG* OSCALOOSA TO COUNCIL BlUFFS. From Oscaloosa to Miles. Knoxville, . . 25 Indianola, . . 25 50 Winterset, . . 25 75 Lewis, . . . 70 145 Council BliiiFs, . . 60 205 Faikfield to ICeosauqua, 20 Muscatine to Buelington. From Muscatine to Miles. Grandview, . . 14 Yv^ apello, . . . 10 24 Linton, . . . 9 33 Burlington, . . 19 52 Keokidi, . . .190 Nashville, . . .198 Montrose, . . . 202 Nauvoo, .... 204 Fort Madison, . . 214 Pontoosuc, . . . 220 Burlington, . . . 235 Oquawka, . . . 250 Keithsburg, . . . 262 New Boston, . . . 269 Muscatine, . , . 299 Drury, .... 304 Salem, . . . 309 Buffalo and Andalusia, . 321 Dock Island and Davenport, 334 Dock Island to Galena. From Rock Island to Miles, hloline, . . .3 Hampton, . . 9 12 Le Claire and Pt. Byron, 6 18 Princeton, . . .5 23 Cordovia, . . 1 24 Camanche, . . 10 34 18G IOWA HANDBOOK From Rock Island to Miles. 1 Albany, 2 36 Clinton, . 7 43 ! Fulton, . 1 44 Lyons, . Sabula, 1 45 . 15 60 Savanna, 2 62 Bellevue, . . 18 80 Galena, . 12 92 Galena to St. Paul. From Galena to Dubuque, 24 Dunleith, . . 1 25 Potosi Landing, 14 39 Waupaton, . . 10 49 Buena Vista, . 5 54 Cassville, . . 4 58 Gutenberg, 10 68 Clayton, . 12 80 Wyalusing, McGregor’s, 5 85 . 6 91 Prairie du Chien, 4 95 Red House, . 5 100 Johnson’s Landing, 2 102 J^afayette, . 30 132 Columbus, 2 134 Lansing, . 1 135 De Soto, 6 141 Victory, . 10 151 Badaxe City, . 10 161 Warner’s Landing, 6 167 Brownsville, . 10 177 La Crosse, . 12 189 Dacotah, 12 201 Richmond, . 6 207 Monteville, 5 212 Homer, . 10 222 Winona, 7 229 Fountain City, . . 12 241 IMount Vernon, 14 255 IMinneiska, . 4 259 Alma, Wabashaw, 15 274 . 10 284 From Galena to Miles. Nelson’s Landing, . 3 287 Reed’s Landing, . 2 289 Foot of Lake Pepin, 2 291 North Pepin, . . 6 297 Johnstown, . . 2 299 Lake City, . . 5 304 Central Pomt, . 2 306 Florence, . . .3 309 Maiden Rock, . 3 312 Westerville, . . 3 315 Wacouta (head of lake), 12 327 Red Wing, . . 6 333 Thing’s Landing, . 7 340 Diamond Bluff, . ' .8 348 Prescott, . . J.3 361 Point Douglas, . . 1 362 Hastings, . . 3 365 Gray Cloud, . . 12 377 Pine Bend, . . 4 381 Red Rock, . . . 8 389 Kaposia, . . 3 392 St. Paul, . . .5 397 Pkescott to the Falls of St. Croix. From Falls St. Croix to Afton, ... 14 Hudson, . . . 8 22 Stillwater. . . 8 30 Areola Mills, . . 8 38 Marine, . . . 5 43 Osceola^ • • . 20 63 Falls St. Croix, . 14 77 Missouri Rfvt:r. From Alton to Mouth of Missouri, . 7 St. Charles, . . .34 Mt. Auburn, ... 64 Augusta, . . . .69 South Point, . . .76 Washington, . . .85 Pinckney, . . 94 Hermann, . . 109 187 IOWA Portland, St. Aubert, Bennett’s Landing, . Month of Osage, . Jefferson City, . Claysville, . Marion, . Nashville, Providence, Rocheport, . Boonville, Arrow Rock, Glasgow, . Cambridge, . Iveytesville Landing, Brunswick, . De’witt, . Miami, .... Hill’s Landing, Waver ly, Dover Landing, N D B 0 0 K. Lexington, . . 343 Wellington, . 354 Camden, . 364 Napoleon, . 372 Sibley, . . 379 Richfield, . 394 Blue Mills Landing, . 404 Liberty, . . 414 Wapie City, . 420 Randolph, . 428 Kansas, . 433 Park\411e, . 448 Narrows Landing, . 459 Fort Leavenworth, . . 468 Weston, . 475 Columbus Landing, . . 504 St. Joseph, . . 537 Savannah, . 559 Iowa Point, . . 585 Council Bluffs, . . 789 Sioux City, , . 890 HA 119 139 149 152 162 169 174 187 189 201 211 226 241 249 256 275 287 293 313 319 331 IO¥A AND MINNESOTA LAND AGENCY. Tpie author, since the issue of his former works, has had hundreds of applications for information respecting certain localities in the West: the price of land or of town lots, good openings for manufactories, or mills, stores, or mechanics, or laborers, extra speculations, etc. Con- vinced of the need of such an agency, he has in his recent tours so arranged with reliable persons in various quarters, that he will be enabled to give almost any information desired of the West with promptness. Letters of inquiry are of importance to the applicant only, and a correct reply costs both time and money ; therefore those writing, hereafter, will inclose from $1 to $5, according to the information desired, and the expense to be incurred. Lands bought and sold in every county in Iowa and Minnesota ; taxes paid, and a general agency business transacted. Letters relative to business in Minnesota should be addressed to Nathan H. Parker, care of Snyder & McFarlane, Land Agents, Minneapolis, Minnesota ; those relative to matters west of the Des Moines River, to Parker & Davis, Sioux City, Iowa. Letters pertaining to matters on and east of the Des Moines River to be addressed to Nathan II. Parker, Clinton, Iowa. ( 188 ) mm ; 7S'; ■f 'i ■< ■?/c’ •;il; 'lii]' .*)vj/K‘--. .. ■■^.Ar''''i ,^yi: ' s 4 % ^ x- ■■ ^ ■'t'jis- ■ai, ■■»-■>. f*j 7.' f' ' ■ ‘ ' ^ 'V: ^ ' ,‘;o ?/^.* ''-'■ 'Od . '''.•,>■>0,'; »■,», >,, -,', 4 , ■'_ '^<= ■ T_' ■ v%;iy ,*■- ■7^■‘4^^I;:7VH.| iVi, '■'■ (Tt. fl'*. ,i'. , ■J..l.ji^^.'" 'i v ■. ,‘ „i,--0 S ? f i> :-'-=7.4 ^fj'i'. ; • ‘V"' . f ' -\~ =>IV' ^ o. V- --V'V'.U'O?:. .-SI^Oa' ■■ -U , ■ * c ; 'I' I V i # ■f- I