History of Linn County Iowa

Luther A. Brewer

History
of
Linn County Iowa
From Its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time

BY
LUTHER A. BREWER
AND
BARTHINIUS L. WICK
Members Historical Society of Linn County, Iowa

CEDAR RAPIDS
The Torch Press
1911

Copyright 1911 by
Luther A. Brewer
THE TORCH PRESS
CEDAR RAPIDS
IOWA

TO THE MEMORY OF OUR
HONORED PIONEERS

[INTRODUCTION]

The history of Linn county is covered by the events of only a few years, if compared with the history of communities east of the Mississippi. The space of one life-time embraces all that has happened here since the first white man looked upon our goodly heritage. True, that life has been prolonged beyond the scriptural three score and ten years. Robert Ellis, who came to this community more than seventy years ago, and who was one of the very early settlers, yet lives in a hale and vigorous age on land he "claimed" at that time.

But if the history of the county does not cover many years, it yet is a history crowded with happenings of interest, some of the incidents being more or less stirring.

History is defined as a record of the past. It does not concern itself with the present. It has been the purpose of the editors of this volume to treat somewhat at length of the early days in the county. Those conversant with events occurring prior to the Civil war are rapidly moving on, and it is high time that their recollections of beginnings here were gathered and put in permanent form.

This has been attempted—how imperfectly done no one realizes more keenly than we realize it. But like little Mary Wood of the story, we have done the best we could in the few months given us to prepare the pages which follow. We have done some things which need not be done again by any one who follows us. We have made definite some things in our history as a county that heretofore have been matters of uncertainty. It is felt that the present volume will make an excellent starting point for some future chronicler.

The task of the historian has been an arduous one—far more arduous than can be imagined by any save those who have done similar work. Withal the task has been one of pleasure and of inspiration. The pursuit of knowledge in this instance has really been a delight.

We have been taught many things by our work that add to the sum of the pleasures of living in a day crowded with all the conveniences of the twentieth century. Our respect for the courageous pioneer men and the equally courageous and self-sacrificing pioneer women of our county has been placed high. Nobly did they suffer, enduring privations now undreamed of, and never complaining that theirs was a hard lot. We stand with uncovered heads and with a reverent feeling in their presence.

It is not possible to make due acknowledgments to all those who aided in gathering the material in this volume. Many who came here in the early years of the county have been consulted, and always with profit. The drudgery of the work of making this book has been greatly lessened by their courtesy and their help. We thank them all. Some of them have been credited with their assistance in the narrative itself. In addition to the names mentioned in the text we desire to give thanks for aid and counsel to N. E. Brown, perhaps the best posted man in Cedar Rapids on the early history of the city; to Ed. M. Scott, for most valuable aid in the preparation of the chapter on banks and banking; to Capt. J. O. Stewart and Col. W. G. Dows for appreciated assistance in the writing of the chapter on our military history; to Carle D. Brown, of the Commercial Art Press, who gathered most of the illustrations for the volume; to W. F. Stahl, for aid in giving the history of the United Brethren church in the county. Robert Ellis, Mrs. Susan Mekeel, Mrs. Susan Shields, Mrs. Elizabeth Hrdlicka, Augustus Abbe, J. H. Preston, C. G. Greene, J. S. Ely, Wm. Smyth, C. F. Butler, L. W. Mansfield, and many others have assisted in gathering much valuable material concerning the lives of the pioneers.

Much that has been gathered concerning times far removed from the present, is from "hearsay," hence it has been difficult to be certain as to the correct facts in some instances. Inaccuracies may be found, but these are due to unavoidable omissions, largely on the part of those who have related these happenings and not from any sense of bias or prejudice.

All prior county histories have been consulted as well as the early state gazetteers, Andreas' Atlas, Carroll's History, History of Crescent Lodge, History of the Bench and Bar of Iowa, History of the Courts and Legal Profession, Proceedings of the Linn County Historical Society; and the files of the newspapers published in the county in an early day. It is needless to add that the early city directories have been largely used with reference to the business men of Cedar Rapids in the early days.

References to persons have been confined to mere statements of facts and have been free from undue flattery on the one hand and from anything derogatory on the other. The members of the legal and medical professions have been referred to at some length for the reason that the lawyers and doctors were important factors in pioneer days, both in the organization of the county and in the promotion of the various enterprises in our towns.

Trusting that this history may be of some value in preserving material which ere long would pass beyond reach of preservation, this work is respectfully dedicated to the early pioneers of the county, whose lives and careers the authors have attempted to describe in the following pages.

Luther A. Brewer
Barthinius L. Wick

[CONTENTS]

[ILLUSTRATIONS]

MAPS

[CHAPTER I]
The Birth of Iowa

Iowa is known as a prairie state. Prairie is a French word and signifies meadow. It was the name first applied to the great treeless plains of North America by the French missionaries who were the first white men to explore these regions.

As yet scientists have not been able to explain the origin of the prairies. Different theories have been advanced, but the interesting problem is without satisfactory and conclusive solution.

Agassiz, the scientist, maintained that America is not the "new world." "Hers was the first dry land lifted out of the waters," he wrote; "hers the first shores washed by the ocean that enveloped all the earth besides; and while Europe was represented only by islands rising here and there above the sea, America already stretched one unbroken line of land from Nova Scotia to the far West."

Iowa, also, was born, had a beginning sometime. Just how many years ago this interesting event took place it is difficult to approximate. Prof. Samuel Calvin, state geologist, says that "geological records, untampered with, and unimpeachable, declare that for uncounted years Iowa, together with the great valley of the Mississippi, lay beneath the level of the sea. So far as it was inhabited at all, marine forms of animals and plants were its only occupants."

The soils of the state were produced by the action of the ice in what is known as the glacial period. We are told how by Professor Calvin:

"Glaciers and glacial action have contributed in a very large degree to the making of our magnificent State. What Iowa would have been had it never suffered from the effects of the ponderous ice sheets that successively overflowed its surface, is illustrated, but not perfectly, in the driftless area. Here we have an area that was not invaded by glaciers. Allamakee, parts of Jackson, Dubuque, Clayton, Fayette, and Winneshiek counties belong to the driftless area. During the last two decades deep wells have been bored through the loose surface deposit, and down into the underlying rocks. The record of these wells shows that the rock surface is very uneven. Before the glacial drift which now mantles nearly the whole of Iowa was deposited, the surface had been carved into an intricate system of hills and valleys. There were narrow gorges hundreds of feet in depth, and there were rugged, rocky cliffs, and isolated buttes corresponding in height with the depth of the valleys.

"To a person passing from the drift-covered to the driftless part of the state, the topography presents a series of surprises. The principal drainage streams flow in valleys that measure, from the summits of the divides, six hundred or more in depth. The Oneota, or Upper Iowa River, in Allamakee county, for example, flows between picturesque cliffs that rise almost vertically from three to four hundred feet, while from the summit of the cliffs the land rises gradually to the crest of the divide, three, four or five miles back from the stream. Tributary streams cut the lateral slopes and canyon walls at intervals. These again have tributaries of the second order. In such a region a quarter section of level land would be a curiosity. This is a fair sample of what Iowa would have been had it not been planed down by the leveling effects of the glaciers. Soils of uniform excellence would have been impossible in a non-glacial Iowa. The soils of Iowa have a value equal to all of the silver and gold mines of the world combined.

"And for this rich heritage of soils we are indebted to great rivers of ice that overflowed Iowa from the north and northwest. The glaciers in their long journey ground up the rocks over which they moved and mingled the fresh rock flour from granites of British America and northern Minnesota with pulverized limestones and shales of more southern regions, and used these rich materials in covering up the bald rocks and leveling the irregular surface of preglacial Iowa. The materials are in places hundreds of feet in depth. They are not oxidized or leached, but retain the carbonates and other soluble constituents that contribute so largely to the growth of plants. The physical condition of the materials is ideal, rendering the soil porous, facilitating the distribution of moisture, and offering unmatched opportunities for the employment of improved machinery in all of the processes connected with cultivation. Even the driftless area received great benefit from the action of glaciers, for although the area was not invaded by ice, it was yet to a large extent covered by a peculiar deposit called loess, which is generally connected with one of the later sheets of drift. The loess is a porous clay, rich in carbonate of lime. Throughout the driftless area it has covered up many spots that would otherwise have been bare rocks. It covered the stiff intractable clays that would otherwise have been the only soils of the region. It in itself constitutes a soil of great fertility. Every part of Iowa is debtor in some way to the great ice sheets of the glacial period.

"Soils are everywhere the product of rock disintegration, and so the quality of the soils in a given locality must necessarily be determined in large measure by the kind of rock from which they were derived.

"From this point of view, therefore, the history of Iowa's superb soils begins with first steps in rock making. The very oldest rocks of the Mississippi Valley have contributed something to making our soils what they are, and every later formation laid down over the surface of Iowa, or regions north of it, has furnished its quota of materials to the same end. The history of Iowa's soils, therefore, embraces the whole sweep of geologic times.

"The chief agents concerned in modifying the surface throughout most of Iowa since the disappearance of the latest glaciers have been organic, although the physical and chemical influences of air and water have not been without marked effect. The growth and decay of a long series of generations of plants have contributed certain organic constituents to the soil. Earth worms bring up fine material from considerable depths and place it in position to be spread out upon the surface. They drag leaves and any manageable portion of plants into their burrows, and much of the material so taken down into the ground decays and enriches the ground to a depth of several inches. The pocket gopher has done much to furnish a surface layer of loose, mellow, easily cultivated and highly productive soil. Like the earth worm, the gopher for century after century has been bringing up to the surface fine material, to the amount of several tons annually to the acre, avoiding necessarily the pebbles, cobbles and coarser constituents. The burrows collapse, the undermined boulders and large fragments sink downwards, rains and winds spread out the gopher hills and worm castings, and the next year, and the next, the process is repeated; and so it has been for all the years making up the centuries since the close of the glacial epoch. Organic agents in the form of plants and burrowing animals have worked unremittingly through many centuries, and accomplished a work of incalculable value in pulverizing, mellowing and enriching the superficial stratum, and bringing it to the ideal condition in which it was found by the explorers and pioneers from whose advent dates the historical period of our matchless Iowa."

The last invasion, we are informed, was from 100,000 to 170,000 years ago—somewhat prior to the recollection of the "oldest inhabitant."

[CHAPTER II]
The First Inhabitants

Who were Iowa's first inhabitants is a question of some interest. Archeologists tell us that there have been found in the Mississippi Valley the remains of two distinct prehistoric races. The first human skulls discovered resemble those of the gorilla. These skulls indicate a low degree of intelligence. The first inhabitants were but a grade above the lower animals. They were small in body, and brute-like in appearance.

Next came the "mound builders." There are evidences that these had some degree of intelligence. Copper and stone implements have been found in the mounds. Whether they built towns and cities or tilled the soil is not known. Pieces of cloth discovered in the mounds would indicate some knowledge of the arts. Their number, their size, color, customs—all are lost to us. We know they existed, and that is all. Several of these mounds have been explored in Iowa. They are found in the eastern parts of the state from Dubuque to Burlington. Many interesting articles have been found in them—sea shells, copper axes and spools, stone knives, pottery, pipes carved with effigies of animals and birds. Skeletons and altars of stone were unearthed a few years ago in some of these mounds, and in one were discovered hieroglyphics representing letters and figures of trees, people and animals.

These mounds have also been discovered in the central part of the state, the valley of the Des Moines river being especially rich in them. Sometimes they are in groups, as though built for defense. It has been suggested that probably the conquerors of the mound builders were the immediate ancestors of the Indians.

When on June 25, 1673, Marquette and Joliet fastened their frail craft to the west bank of the Mississippi river where the Iowa enters it in Louisa county,[A] the only people living in what is now Iowa were the American Indians. When these venturesome explorers came ashore and ascended a slight eminence they beheld a scene of rare beauty. As far as the eye could carry they looked over an expanse covered with green grass waving in the gentle wind like the billows of the sea, with here and there a grove of oak, elm, walnut, maple, and sycamore. All was peaceful, calm, and restful; the stillness of the desert prevailed. That the country was inhabited was indicated by a thin column of smoke which arose some few miles inland from a small grove. The travelers soon reached the spot. There they found a small company of Indians in a village on the banks of the stream. The Indians were probably the more astonished of the two parties. They looked with wonder upon the strange beings who had come among them so unceremoniously and unannounced. It was probably their first view of the white man. Recovering somewhat from their astonishment, they made overtures of friendship by offering the pipe of peace.

It was soon discovered that the band was a portion of the Illinois tribe. Marquette had enough acquaintance with the language of this tribe to enable him to hold an intelligent conversation with his hosts. He told the Indians who their visitors were, and why they were there. He expressed the great pleasure he and his companions took at meeting some of the inhabitants of that beautiful country. They in turn were given a cordial welcome by the Indians, one of the chiefs thus addressing them:

"I thank the Black Gown Chief [Marquette] and his friend [Joliet] for taking so much pains to come and visit us. Never before has the earth been so beautiful, nor the sun so bright as now. Never has the river been so calm or free from rocks which your canoes have removed as they passed down. Never has the tobacco had so fine a flavor, nor our corn appeared so beautiful as we behold it today. Ask the Great Spirit to give us life and health, and come ye and dwell with us."

This was an eloquent speech and demonstrated the sincerity of the welcome.

Marquette and Joliet were then invited to a feast which meanwhile had been made ready by the squaws. Afterwards Marquette wrote a description of this banquet, and it is of interest to reproduce it here:

"It consisted of four courses. First there was a large wooden bowl filled with a preparation of corn meal boiled in water and seasoned with oil. The Indian conducting the ceremonies had a large wooden spoon with which he dipped up the mixture (called by the Indians tagamity), passing it in turn into the mouths of the different members of the party. The second course consisted of fish nicely cooked, which was separated from the bones and placed in the mouths of the guests. The third course was a roasted dog, which our explorers declined with thanks, when it was at once removed from sight. The last course was a roast of buffalo, the fattest pieces of which were passed the Frenchmen, who found it to be most excellent meat."

The Frenchmen were so delighted with the beauty of the country and the hospitality of the Indians that they remained with their friends six days. They explored the valleys, hunted and fished and feasted on the choice game they captured. The natives did all they could to make their stay one gay round of pleasure. They welcomed the coming guests with genuine hospitality, and when they could keep them no longer speeded them on their way in the true spirit. Six hundred of them escorted Marquette and Joliet to their boats and wished them bon voyage.

This discovery attracted but little attention at the time in Europe, and many years passed before what is now known as Iowa appears in history.

THE MOUND BUILDERS

The Mound Builders, from what information we have been able to obtain, must have lived in the Mississippi valley and at one time or another way back in some remote age they must have resided on what later became Iowa. Chronology is not definite as to when or how the Mound Builders arrived in the new world. It is merely speculation when one says that traditions point to a time two or three thousand years ago when the Mound Builders resided in the Mississippi valley and lived in villages and towns. It is true, that in various parts of the old world records have been found of other races which have preceded the races of which history has any definite record. As the North American Indians had no written language prior to the arrival of the Europeans, their traditions, consequently, go back but a short time at best.

It is true that there have been found on the American continent various bones of animals which no longer exist, and there have been found relics of a race of men who were far different from the Indians as the whites found them on their arrival. In North America these pre-historic races have been called Mound Builders, and they have been the first inhabitants of the vast plains of what later became the United States. Still, it may be possible that the Mound Builders may have driven out or exterminated some other preceding race of people, who had dwelt in this country for ages before the Mound Builders made their entrance into what is known as the New World. Who knows?

B. L. WICK

In Johnson's Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, page 125, one finds the following: "Remains of the Mound Builders are spread over a vast extent of country. They are found on the sources of the Alleghany, in the western part of the state of New York, and in nearly all the western states, including Michigan and Iowa. They were observed by Lewis and Clark on the Missouri a thousand miles above its junction with the Mississippi. They lined the shores of the Gulf of Mexico from Texas to Florida, whence they extended through Alabama and Georgia into South Carolina. They are especially numerous in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and Texas. Many of these remnants were evidently designed as works of defense or as large towers in war. No inconsiderable number appear to have been formed as sepulchre monuments or as places of burial for the dead, while others seemed obviously to have been constructed as temples or places of worship or sacrifice."

While Linn county and Iowa have not as many mounds of as much interest as, for example, the Circle Mound in Ohio, still there are a number of mounds found in eastern Iowa and a number in Linn county which would appear to have been constructed by Mound Builders, or, at least, by some pre-historic race long since extinct. Some mounds found near Palo would indicate that they must have been constructed a long time ago, for even trees of large dimensions have been found growing on top and around these mounds. The remnants certainly give evidence in places as though they had been constructed for religious purposes, which evidently is true of nearly all such remnants which have recently been discovered in Yucatan and Mexico.

Some stone implements and ornaments have been found in some of these mounds. These implements are all flint spear and arrow heads and have been worked with much care and skill. Some pottery has also been discovered, at times ornamented and at other times very coarse. Some copper implements have been found of a kind and quality as discovered in the copper region of Lake Superior, which, undoubtedly, have been worked by the Indians and perhaps by the Mound Builders. No bones have so far been discovered to indicate that the Mound Builders had the use of any domestic animals. Very seldom have human skeletons been found, which might attest to the fact that these had been dug ages and ages ago. No tablets of any kind have been discovered, which might indicate that the Mound Builders had at no time a written language.

Science has held that the Mound Builders were an agricultural people and compared with the Indians much more civilized, and that the Mississippi valley was densely populated until the arrival of the Indians. Whether the Indians exterminated them or they were driven away, or they voluntarily removed from this part of the country is still a debatable question.

"If it is really true that there were pre-historic peoples, then the oldest continent would be, in all probability, the first inhabited; and as this is the oldest continent in the formations of the geological period, and as there are found relics of man in England in identically the same strata as are shown in Linn county, why may we not reasonably expect to find relics of man—relics as old as any—in Linn county? If man once existed here, why may he not have always existed here? It is certainly unreasonable to think young Europe should alone have early relics of man.

"What place the Mound Builders are entitled to in the world's history, since they have left no relics but mounds of earth, which mounds are probably funeral pyres or places of sepulchre, we can simply conjecture. We believe some rude carvings on slabs have been exhumed at Grand Traverse, Michigan, Davenport, Iowa, and Rockford, Illinois. These carvings may have reference to the sun, moon and stars; we believe the savants favor such an interpretation. As to where he lived, careful geological study of his mound may some day determine. He was a link in the chain of man's existence; tracing it to its source we may discover some hitherto unknown facts regarding man's origin, or the ancient history of America. This continent may have been more intimately connected with Asia than is at present considered....

"Compare the average life of these nations with the age of the Cedar valley; compare historic age with Cedar valley, whose channel has been cut down through the rocks between one and two hundred feet. Look at these old Devonian rocks, with their fossils as fresh as of yesterday. Look at the clay soil that overlies the rocks. Has it been changed in fourteen hundred or in six thousand years? Now look at those mounds that are on the crests of so many ridges, and say how old they are! Forests of giant trees have come and gone over them, how many times? Those mounds were built by the people known as the Mound Builders. What of their life? What of their age? What of their history? We have the mounds, and substantially the mounds only. But these mounds are an interesting study of themselves. We have not observed these mounds only in the valley of the Cedar river, above and below Cedar Rapids; our observations find them in positions as follows:

"LOCATION OF MOUNDS NEAR CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA

"No. 1 has eleven mounds, situated on the crest of a divide. The general direction of locations is from north to south, or south to north. The correct location, I believe, is from south to north; that is, they point to the north. These mounds are now raised about three feet above the level, and are uniformly thirty feet in diameter. Counting from the south, the sixth and seventh are generally within a few feet—come very near touching each other; the others are as near as, may be, two diameters apart. These remarks will apply to No. 2, No. 3, No. 5 and No. 6. No. 2 has eleven in a line (as No. 1,) and then three mounds to the east appear to be parallel, and may have had the remaining eight removed by cultivation. No. 4 is on the bottom—second bench land; are a little larger in size; the others, to make out the eleven, may have been destroyed by cultivation. No. 7 has eight in position, and then a valley intervenes, and the three additional, making the eleven, are on the ridge next to the north. No. 8 has twelve. They are on the crest of a divide which passes around the head of a deep ravine, and follow the divide at the angle. Most of these mounds (No. 8) have been lately opened, but we think no relics were found. We have been careful to find the place that the earth composing the mounds was taken from. Generally, the banks of a near ravine indicate, by their shape, the place. Under the strongest sunlight, in a mound cut through the center, we could detect no indication or difference in the clay to show that it had been removed or disturbed, or that there had been any remains in it to discolor the clay in their decomposition.

"Let it be observed that the mounds are substantially north and south in line of location. They are eleven in number, uniform in size, and, I believe, cover every ridge in the vicinity of the rapids of the Cedar having the direction sufficient in length on which the mounds could be placed. They are built in the locality the least likely to be disturbed, and in the shape and of the material the most enduring. There certainly was intelligence displayed in their location and in the selection of the material of which they are constructed, as well as in the design of their form and positions. There may have been more mounds than these, but these are all that are left—all that are left of that race which might have sent from their number emigrants to people the new land, to the far west, the last continent, fresh and vigorous from the ocean, the newest born, the best then adapted for man's material and mental development."—History of Linn County, 1878, p. 319.

J. S. Newberry, in Johnson's Cyclopedia, says:

"From all the facts before us, we can at present say little more than this, that the valley of the Mississippi and the Atlantic coast were once densely populated by a sedentary, agricultural and partially civilized race, quite different from the modern nomadic Indians, though, possibly, the progenitors of some of the Indian tribes; and that, after many centuries of occupation, they disappeared from our country at least one thousand, perhaps many thousands of years, before the advent of the Europeans. The pre-historic remains found so abundantly in Arizona appear to be related to the civilization of Mexico; and the remains of semi-civilized Indian tribes now found there are, perhaps, descendants of the ancient builders of the great houses and cities whose ruins are found there."

Researches concerning ancient mounds have been carried on in a most scientific manner by Dr. Cyrus Thomas. His chief work and research have been embodied in a monograph of over 700 pages and found the 12th Report of the government publications.

Major J. W. Powell, whose studies of this subject have been considered authoritative, in his Pre-historic Man in America has the following to say:

"Widely scattered throughout the United States ... artificial mounds are discovered which may be enumerated by thousands and hundreds of thousands. They vary greatly in size. Some are small so that half a dozen laborers with shovels might construct one of them in a day, while others cover acres and are scores of feet in height. These mounds were observed by the early explorers and pioneers of the country.... Pseud-archeologists descanted on the Mound Builders, that once inhabited the land, and they told of swarming populations who had reached a high condition of culture, erecting temples, practicing arts in metals and using hieroglyphics.... It is enough to say that the Mound Builders were the Indian tribes discovered by the white men. It may well be that some of the mounds were erected by tribes extinct when Columbus first saw the shores, but they were kindred in culture to the peoples that still existed.... Pre-Columbian culture was indigenous, it began at the lowest stage of savagery and developed to the highest and was in many places passing into barbarism when the good queen sold her jewels."—J. W. Powell, quoted in Larned, Vol. I, p. 45.

Thus scientists do not agree whether or not the Mound Builders were closely akin to the Indians. However recent investigators seem to agree with Thomas and Powell that the early inhabitants were much like the later denizens of the American prairies in their mode of life and means of subsistence, in their weapons, arts, usages, and customs, in their institutions and physical characteristics, they were the same people in different stages of advancement.

John Fiske, one of the scholarly writers on American history, has the following to say on the early races in the United States:

"Whether the Indians are descended from this ancient population or not, is a question with which we have as yet no satisfactory method of dealing. It is not unlikely that these glacial men may have perished from off the face of the earth, having been crushed and supplanted by stronger races. There may have been several successive waves of migration of which the Indians were the latest."—Fiske's Discovery of America, Vol. I, p. 15.

"The aboriginal American, as we know him with his language and legends, his physical and mental peculiarities, his social observance and customs, is most emphatically a native and not an imported article. He belongs to the American continent as strictly as its opossums and armadillo, its maize and its golden rods, or any number of its aboriginal fauna and flora belong to it."—Ibid., p. 20.

An Iowa investigator, C. L. Webster, some years ago examined several mounds on the banks of the Cedar river near Charles City and "found the skulls small which would show an extremely low grade of mental intelligence."—American Naturalist, Vol. 23, p. 1888.

This may go to show that the early inhabitants were different from the nomadic Indians that the first whites saw as they landed on the bleak shores of New England in the eleventh century.

Most writers on this subject are led to believe that we have conclusive evidence that man existed before the time of the glaciers and that from primitive conditions he has lived here and developed through the same stages which may correspond to the development of primitive man in Europe and Asia. Whether the first settlers in Iowa then, were Mound Builders, or Indians, or some other race may never be known, for a certainty. It is enough to say, that man existed and lived on what has become known as Iowa many, many centuries ago, and he left few if any remains which can testify to his stage of development or to his mode of living. This is no doubt true, that man existed in Linn county countless ages ago, but whether it was a different race, or simply the Indian race at a different stage of development may never be known and thus will always remain a mystery.

INDIANS

When the first white settlers located in Linn county the Red Men still occupied the land, and even after treaties had been fully ratified, Indians were slow to give up these choice hunting places along the Red Cedar and the Wapsie. It is needless to say that the rights of Indians were not protected and they invariably were set aside and driven away as fast as possible. Still nearly all of the early settlers were very friendly toward the Red Men, and in return received many favors from their hands. Of course, the Red Men were jealous of the whites, who gradually kept coming in and drove the Indians away. The Indians who most frequented this part of Iowa after the settlement by whites were the Sac and Fox and Winnebagoes. The Winnebagoes were a remnant of a warlike tribe, and at one time in Wisconsin were very powerful. These joined with the Sac and Fox in the Black Hawk war and were driven across the Mississippi river after the signing of the treaty of peace.

LEWIS FIELD LINN

The pioneers in this county from necessity had to be friendly with the Indians. Many of the early settlers were able to speak the Winnebago language, such as the family of William Abbe, the Edgertons, the Usher family, the Crows, and many others. The Winnebagoes lingered around in this part of Iowa in the thirties and forties, when they were finally removed to Minnesota, much against their own wishes. But the Indians, rightly in this respect as in many others, were not considered, for the white men ruled and looked out for their own selfish interests and did not consider the side of mercy, justice or the rights of the weak as against those of the strong.

The Winnebagoes were considered a hardy race and respected by the whites, who showed them many favors. While the Winnebagoes had fought in the war of 1812 under Tecumseh and had sided with Black Hawk, perhaps reluctantly, in the war of 1832, they were rather friendly toward the whites, although they very much objected to disposing of all their lands east of the Mississippi river by the treaties of 1825 and 1837, when they were removed to Iowa. In Linn county they remained for a longer or shorter period of time along the rivers such as the Cedar and the Wapsie, and especially around Cedar Lake, along the Palisades, in Linn Grove, Scotch Grove west of Cedar Rapids, and in other places where there was much timber. While they were at times heartless and cruel, their relations on the whole with the early settlers in Linn county were those of friendship, and they showed the whites many favors in the early days when the scattered pioneer families were unable to acquire sufficient food during the winter months to subsist upon. The Indians always helped the whites, and frequently went out hunting, bringing back a deer, fowls, or prairie chickens, which they divided among their own people and the whites. They early became fond of the dishes made by the white women, such as hominy, honey cakes, johnny cakes, and other delicious dishes found in the homes of the early settlers on the frontier. In no instance has it been reported that any white woman was ever assaulted by any Indian in this county. In many of the cabins of the early settlers there could be found only women and children, the husbands having left for the river towns to bring back provisions, and this fact was frequently known to the Indians. The early pioneer women used to say that they feared the rough border ruffian more than they did these traveling bands of Indians, who never assaulted anyone or ever carried away property by stealth, as the border ruffians were frequently accused of doing.

The story of the Winnebago tribe of Indians can not be passed without some notice. The name Winnebago is said to mean "the turbid water people," and they are closely related to the Iowas, Otoes, and the Missouri tribes. They used to call themselves the Hochangara, meaning "the people using the parent tongue," thus, perhaps, intending to convey that they were the original people from whom others sprang. They are first mentioned in the Jesuit Relations of 1636 and 1640. It is said that they were nearly annihilated by the Illinois tribes in early days and that the survivors fled back to Green Bay in 1737 and that they resided on the banks of Lake Superior but once more drifted back to Green Bay and towards Lake Winnebago, stretching southwest towards the Mississippi river. On one of the islands in the lake which bears their name they made their abiding place for a number of years and here they buried their dead and dwelt in peace around their fire places.

In 1825 the population was estimated to be 6,000. By the treaties of 1825 and 1832 they were compelled to cede their lands to the government, certain tracts of land being reserved on the Mississippi river near what is now known as La Crosse. Here they suffered from several visitations of smallpox, which plague is said to have carried off nearly one-fourth of their number.

From 1834-35 they were removed to Iowa and lived along the many rivers in the northeastern part of the Territory as far as the banks of the Cedar and the Wapsie rivers. White settlers came in, driving the Red Men out: hunting became poor and the Indians could not subsist and they were again removed to the Blue Earth reservation in Minnesota in 1848. On account of the Indian outbreaks in 1863, committed by the Sioux tribe, and in which the Winnebagoes took no part, they were again removed to the Dakotas, where several hundred perished from cold and hunger. There are now only about 1,200 under the Omaha and Winnebago agency in Nebraska, and about 1,500 in the state of Wisconsin.

The Sac and Fox were also the early neighbors of the whites in this county. The Fox was an Algonkian tribe, first found on the lakes, and who were driven south by the Ojibwa where, for self protection, they united with the Sacs and have been since known as Sacs and Foxes. They were always friendly to the British, joining them in the Revolution as well as in the war of 1812. After the Black Hawk war they were removed to Iowa and from here removed again to the Indian Territory from 1842-46. Many of the tribes kept coming back to their old hunting ground and finally they were permitted to remain on the Iowa river and provision for them was made by the legislature. About 400, known as the Muskwaki, are still found, survivors of some of the early wanderers in eastern Iowa in the early thirties. The Sacs and Foxes and the Winnebagoes were always on friendly terms with the whites and were sworn enemies of the Sioux.

Mrs. Susan Shields, a daughter of William Abbe, was on intimate terms with the Winnebago Indians, who used to gather at her father's home on Abbe's creek frequently. She learned to speak the Winnebago language, and remembered seeing many wigwams, or tepees as they were called, at the lower end of what is now Cedar Rapids. She speaks of the Indians as being kind to her and that her first playmates were Indian girls of her own age. Her brothers also played with the Indian boys and they learned to ride Indian ponies and to shoot with bows and arrows. No trouble ever arose among the young of both races in these days; rather the white boys were envious to see the liberties granted the Indian boys and how they were permitted to roam any place at pleasure, never having any chores to do.

Robert Ellis understood more or less of the Indian jargon, and still speaks of his many escapades among the Sioux, the Winnebago, and the Sac and Fox. At one time, about 1839, some 300 Winnebagoes were camped on what is known as McCloud's Run. It was late in the fall and very cold; word came in the night that the Sioux were coming to exterminate the tribe. At once they broke camp and forded the river near the mill dam, first getting the women and children across. The white settlers were frightened. By nine o'clock the next morning the camps were up on the west side of the river and the gay young bucks had brought in thirty-eight deer which had been shot during the early morning, which were served to the hungry lot who had worked all night. While the Sioux had been in the neighborhood no attack was made upon the Winnebagoes at this time.

Mr. Ellis also relates that he and two friends camped one night on the Cedar above Waterloo, where they were hunting. One morning in mid-winter a party of Sioux came to the cabin. They could do nothing but invite the Red Men in and offer them provisions and anything they had. While the Indians kicked against the whites killing their game, the friendliness of the whites seemed to satisfy them, and they left their new found friends in possession of their camps. After this discovery by the Sioux Mr. Ellis and his friends made a hasty retreat, not wanting to meet their dusky companions again when they might return in larger numbers.

Mr. Ellis relates another incident of his life among the Indians. He came to an Indian camp near Quasqueton on his way to Ft. Atkinson and had to spend the night in the camp. Unfortunately nearly all of the Indians were drunk and insisted on killing every one. The squaws, who were sober, and a few of the old men, got Mr. Ellis to help, and all the drunken bucks were tied so they could scarcely move. Mr. Ellis then retired, and in the morning all were sober and untied, and then the squaws and the old men who had been sober started in to get gloriously drunk. Mr. Ellis wanted to hire an Indian to show him the way to West Union, but the Indian shrugged his shoulders and replied, "wolf eaty you." Mr. Ellis started out alone afoot over the snow covered prairie on a cold winter day and finally reached a cabin late at night, nearly overcome from cold. He still believes he would have perished if it had not been for the words of the old Indian which kept ringing in his ears all day and which added courage to his exhausted spirits.

At one time a large number of Muskwaki Indians were camping near Indian creek, and as the winter was severe and snow deep the Indians were out of food. They came to the home of Susan Doty, who gave them the best and only thing she had—hominy—which she warmed on the fire and gave to the Red Men, who expressed their thanks by grunting and continually asking for more, till the entire supply was exhausted. From that time, when the Indians returned from the hunt with a deer or two Mrs. Doty was always remembered with a good share of game.

When the Indians lost ponies they would go to the old settlers like Usher, N. B. Brown, the Hunters, Oxleys, or Dotys, asking them to assist in catching the thieves. One day Usher and Brown came to Doty's with an Indian chief who had lost his pony. Hunter was also called in, and off the party started in pursuit of the horsethief, who was caught near Viola and who made himself scarce at once, for he was branded as an outlaw by the Indians, who would shoot him at sight. The Indian was more than happy in getting back his pony. These men who were willing to help the Indians were sure to get anything they cared for which could be procured by the red brother. A white man who would help an Indian to recover stolen property was forever a friend of the Indians of the tribe.

The Indians in Linn county during the thirties and forties dressed in skins, lived in tepees, and owned ponies; all wore government blankets and had guns, also procured from the government. The men and women dressed much the same. The women carried home the game, looked after the tepee, made maple sugar, which was traded to the whites for sugar, flour, and woolen goods. Flour especially was much relished by the Indians. The localities much frequented by the Indians were along the Red Cedar and Wapsie rivers, Cedar lake, Indian creek, the Palisades, Linn Grove, Scotch Grove, and Prairie creek. In these places they would remain for weeks at a time, when they would all pull up and leave on some hunting trip, not returning till in the fall or spring of the year. Where they went to no one knew, and where they came from no one inquired. But the Red Men in early days in this county were all treated with due courtesy by the whites, who, in turn, were spared by the Indians. The best of feeling always existed among the whites and Indians.

The Sioux very seldom came into this part of Iowa. William Abbe and Robert Ellis were the agents for the government in supplying the Winnebago Indians at Ft. Atkinson with food, thus these men were well acquainted with the Winnebagoes, who, in turn, were on terms of friendship with the Sacs and Foxes. The Winnebagoes, like the other tribes, became addicted to the use of fire water to such an extent that they would sell their guns and ammunition for whiskey. One of the early experiences of W. H. Merritt as a young store keeper at Ivanhoe was to clean out the store single-handed of a crowd of drunken Indians who intended to take possession of the store for a sufficient length of time at least till they could consume the large quantity of whiskey stored therein, but they had not figured on the courage of the young man who later distinguished himself during the Civil war. Young Mr. Merritt drove out the intruders and saved the store, as well as the property of the company for which he worked.

Many of the old settlers tell stories of the quantity and variety of food these wandering tribes of Indians were capable of consuming, which seemed to be beyond the comprehension of the white man. Mr. Ellis relates how he and William Abbe were notified to forthwith procure beef cattle for an Indian conference at Ft. Atkinson. These men promptly drove a large number of young cattle to Ft. Atkinson from Linn county, and the Indians consumed in a very short time rations which were expected to have lasted for several weeks.

Others have left records of straggling bands of Indians who were fed at some pioneer cabin and consumed quantities of food at a sitting several times more than the ordinary white man could eat in a week. But then it must be remembered that these Indians did not have their regular meals three times a day, by any means. They seemed to go for days and for a week without eating much of anything, and when a feast was set before them they did full justice to the repast.

The Indians had an abnormal fondness for sweets. The making of maple sugar, especially in Wisconsin, had been one of the industries of the aborigines; a little was always made in Iowa. The season for sugar making came when the first crow appeared; this occurred about the first of March, while there was yet snow on the ground. As a substitute for sugar the Indians were very fond of honey, and it was said by the early settlers that the squaws could smell a bee tree further than anyone else. These bee trees were claimed by the Indians, and woe to the white man's son who by stealth or otherwise would encroach upon the Indian's rights in this regard.

While the Indians were called cruel and merciless during the Black Hawk war and later, the pioneers of Linn county found them friendly, hospitable, devoted and loyal friends. Many instances have been cited how the Red Men risked their own lives even to assist their white friends. While they never forgave an injury, they never forgot a deed of kindness.

A SCENE ON THE CEDAR RIVER AT CEDAR RAPIDS IN THE FIFTIES

RESIDENCE OF ISAAC CARROLL IN 1839

[CHAPTER III]
Iowa Historically

We take the liberty of quoting here a chapter from "The Louisiana Purchase," by C. M. Geer, in The History of North America, Vol. VIII, edited by Guy Carleton Lee, and published by George Barrie & Sons, Philadelphia, 1904. It gives in brief space the more important historical facts connected with the formation of the State.

"The governmental experiences of Iowa before its admission into the Union as a State were many and varied. Its discoverers were the missionary priest Jacques Marquette and the explorer Louis Joliet, who were living at St. Mary's, the oldest settlement in the present State of Michigan. On May 13, 1673, with five Canadian boatmen, these two men left on an exploring expedition, and on June 25, 1673, landed near the mouth of Des Moines River.[B] By right of discovery France claimed jurisdiction over the country thus visited until 1763, when the Territory was ceded to Spain. On October 1, 1800, it was ceded with the rest of Louisiana Territory from Spain back to France. On the 30th of April, 1803, it was in turn ceded to the United States by France as a part of the Louisiana Purchase.

"These changes of government had little effect upon what was to constitute the future State of Iowa, because the Indians remained in almost undisputed possession. Although discovered and claimed by France in 1673, no attempt at settlement was made until 1788, when Julian Dubuque, a Canadian, obtained from Blondeau and two other Indian chiefs a grant of lands. This claim was twenty-one miles long and extended from the Mississippi westward nine miles. The grant was confirmed, in a qualified way, by Carondelet, Spanish governor at New Orleans. Dubuque engaged in mining and trading with the Indians, making his headquarters at the place which now bears his name. The question of the validity of his claim to this great tract of land came before the United States Supreme Court in 1854, and the decision of that body was that his grant was only a temporary license to dig ore.

"In 1799, a trading post was established on the Mississippi within the present territory of Iowa. This settlement and the one at Dubuque were abandoned, so that Iowa was practically an unknown and undesired country at the time when it came under the control of the United States in 1803. It was at that time Indian territory, occupied by the Sacs, Foxes, and Iowas, with the still more warlike Sioux on the north and east.

"On the 31st of October, 1803, a temporary government was authorized for the recently acquired territory. By Act of Congress, approved March 26, 1803, Louisiana was erected into two Territories and provision made for the administration of each. The upper part was known as the District of Louisiana and included Arkansas, Missouri, and Iowa. This was placed temporarily under the jurisdiction of the Territory of Indiana. On July 4, 1805, all this northern district became the Territory of Louisiana, with a separate Territorial government. The legislative power was vested in the governor and three judges to be appointed by the President and Senate. This condition continued until December 7, 1812, when the Territory of Louisiana became the Territory of Missouri. In 1821, Missouri was admitted into the Union, and this admission of Missouri carried with it the abolition of the government of Missouri Territory, so that for a time Iowa was without any government. It is a question how much law remained in force in Iowa after the admission of Missouri. It is probable that the only civil law in force was the proviso of the Missouri bill, which prohibited slavery north of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes north latitude. No provision was made for that portion of the Territory of Missouri until June 28, 1834, when Congress attached the present State of Iowa, together with other territory, to the Territory of Michigan.

"On July 3, 1836, it was included in the newly organized Territory of Wisconsin. On June 12, 1838, the Territory of Iowa was constituted by Act of Congress. This Territory included 'all that part of the present Territory of Wisconsin which lies west of Mississippi River and west of a line due north from the sources or headwaters of the Mississippi to the territorial line.'

"From the time of the purchase in 1803 up to the date of the organization of the Territory in 1838 there had been a gradual increase in the knowledge of this land and a growing appreciation of its value. There had been parties of hunters and trappers who made temporary settlements on the banks of the Mississippi in the period from 1820 to 1830. It was not till steam navigation was established on the Mississippi that there grew up a demand for Iowa lands. Southeastern Illinois and northwestern Missouri were settled and the pioneers naturally looked to the equally desirable lands in Iowa. Various exploring expeditions also contributed to a desire to settle in the territory. Lewis and Clark added to the knowledge of its western borders by their expedition in 1805. Pike in the same year traversed another part of the Territory, and these explorers brought back accounts of its great fertility and of its desirability for settlement.

"The government established a broad strip of neutral ground between the Sioux in the north and the Sacs and Foxes in the south to keep these tribes at peace, and in 1830 acquired lands on the Missouri to be used as Indian reservations. Here and there in the Iowa Territory were white men who had gained the friendship of the Indians and lived with them. There were trading posts of the American Fur Company and miners at Dubuque, who were licensed by the government to work at that point. Iowa remained the home of the Indians until the close of the Black Hawk War, when General Winfield Scott, on September 15, 1832, concluded a treaty of peace with the Sacs and Foxes, by which the Indian title was extinguished to that part of land known as the Black Hawk Purchase. This was the eastern part of Iowa and extended along the Mississippi, from Missouri on the south to the 'Neutral Grounds' on the north, and westward a distance of fifty miles. It contained about six million acres and was to be surrendered by the Indians on June 1, 1833. This gave the first opportunity for the legal settlement of Iowa by citizens of the United States.

"June 1, 1833, was fixed as the day on which the Indians were to be removed from the Black Hawk Purchase and the lands opened for settlement. The would-be settlers came in large numbers to the banks of the Mississippi, ready to cross and get the choice of the land. United States troops kept guard on the western shore of the river and prevented any persons from entering the Purchase before the appointed time. At precisely twelve o'clock, midnight, June 1st, there was a wild rush of settlers from East and South and the settlement of Iowa was begun.

"There was a rapid increase in population until the separate Territorial government was established, June 12, 1838. The first capital was Burlington, and the place of meeting of the legislature was in a church. Robert Lucas was appointed Territorial Governor, and William B. Conway, Secretary. The Territorial Legislature met on November 12, 1838. Burlington continued to be the seat of Territorial government till 1841, when Iowa City became the capital.

"The Territory of Iowa had a heated dispute with the State of Missouri over the boundary line between the two. Missouri's northern boundary was the parallel of latitude passing through the rapids of the river Des Moines. There were two rapids, eight or ten miles apart, and the dispute was as to which of these was meant, Missouri insisting upon the northern and Iowa on the southern one. Each government tried to enforce its authority. In the attempt to do this, Governor Boggs, of Missouri, called out the militia; then Governor Lucas, of Iowa, called out his soldiers. Five hundred men were under arms. On the petitions of Iowa and Missouri, Congress authorized a suit to settle the controversy, which resulted in a decision favorable to Iowa.

"Further treaties were made with the Indians by which additional land was gained for settlement. A large tract of land was opened to settlers on May 1, 1843, and on the preceding night there was a rush of land seekers similar to that which had occurred ten years before; over a thousand families settled in the newly opened lands within twelve hours.

"The very rapid increase in population led to a demand for statehood. On July 31, 1840, the Territorial Legislature passed an Act by which it called for a vote of the people on the question of assembling a constitutional convention. In August the vote was taken, resulting in the defeat of the proposition by a vote of two thousand nine hundred and seven to nine hundred and thirty-seven. Another vote was taken in 1842, resulting in the same way, but on February 12, 1844, the suggestion of a constitutional convention met the approval of the majority of the electors, and without waiting for a Federal Enabling Act a Constitution was adopted by a convention which met at Iowa City, October 7, 1844, and finished its work November 1st of the same year. This Constitution was submitted to Congress by the Territorial delegate.

"Here again there was the effort to balance a northern and southern State. Maine had been admitted into the Union in 1820, and Missouri in 1821; Arkansas in 1836, and Michigan in the next year. Now, it was proposed to admit Florida with Iowa. At this time Florida was much below the required population. The Congressional debate on the subject was a long and interesting one and brought out clearly the growing jealousy between North and South. This feeling was especially strong at this time because of the probability that several southern slaveholding States might be formed from Texas.

"There was furthermore a dispute of considerable importance over the general boundary of Iowa. The Constitution submitted to Congress by the Territorial delegate provided that the boundary should be as follows: 'Beginning in the middle of the main channel of Mississippi River opposite the mouth of Des Moines River; thence up the said River Des Moines in the middle of the main channel thereof, to a point where it is intersected by the old Indian boundary line, or line run by John C. Sullivan in the year 1816; thence westwardly along said line to the old northwest corner of Missouri; thence due west to the middle of the main channel of Missouri River; thence up in the middle of the main channel of the river last mentioned to the mouth of Sioux or Calumet River; thence in a direct line to the middle of the main channel of St. Peter's River, where Watonwan River (according to Nicollet's map) enters the same; thence down the middle of the main channel of said river to the middle to the main channel of Mississippi River; thence down the middle of the main channel of said river to the place of beginning.'

"An amendment was proposed in Congress which substituted the following in place of the boundary as given above: 'Beginning in the middle of St. Peter's River, at the junction of Watonwan or Blue Earth River; with the said River St. Peter's running thence due east to the boundary line of the Territory of Wisconsin in the middle of Mississippi River; thence down the middle of the last-named river with the boundary line of the Territory of Wisconsin and state of Illinois to the northeast corner of the state of Missouri in the said River Mississippi; thence westwardly with the boundary line of said State of Missouri to a point due south from the place of beginning; thence due north to the place of beginning in said St. Peter's River.'

"Of especial interest was the attitude taken by Samuel F. Vinton, representative from Ohio, in regard to the admission of Iowa. He believed that the Western States should be small in area in order that the West might not be deprived of its share in the government of the nation. It seemed to him that the policy so far pursued in the West had been wrong because the States were so large that they were sure to contain two or three times as large a population as the Atlantic States. There was at the time a provision under consideration that Florida might be divided, when either East or West Florida should contain a population of thirty-five thousand. Vinton contended that if Florida was to be divided, there should be a provision for dividing Iowa, because it was safer to give political power to the West than to the Atlantic States, for the West was the great conservative power of the Union. He stated that though the spirit of disunion might exist in the North and in the South, it could not live in the West, because the interests of the West were inseparably connected with both, and it would hold the two sections together, because it had no prejudice against either North or South and, what was of greater importance, the West was a grain growing country, and so must look equally to the manufacturing North and the cotton growing South for its market. Therefore the West must be conservative whether it wished to be or not. Vinton believed that instead of five there should have been at least twelve States in the old Northwest, and that to partly offset this injustice, small States should be formed west of the Mississippi. After considerable debate in the House, the bill for the admission of Iowa passed that body and was transmitted to the Senate, which it passed March 3, 1845.

"After a vote for admission, the constitution was submitted to the people of Iowa, who made serious objections to it. One objection was directed against the small salaries to be paid, which, it was feared, would result in getting only inferior men for official positions. The restrictions on banks and corporations proved an unpopular feature. The limitation placed upon the extent of territory claimed by Iowa was unsatisfactory to many, though the State would still have an area of forty-four thousand three hundred square miles. This reduction of area was the greatest objection, so that when the vote was taken many who were in favor of statehood voted against forming a state of such reduced area, and the Constitution was rejected by a vote of seven thousand and nineteen to six thousand and twenty-three.

"The governor called a special session of the legislature, and a bill for the re-submission of the constitution was passed over his veto. This was defeated by the people in August, 1845. On January 17, 1846, an Act was passed which provided for a new constitutional convention. This body came together in May and adopted a new constitution which did not differ greatly from the earlier instrument. The boundaries given in it were a compromise between those originally asked by the people and those granted by Congress. The matter was actively discussed in Congress when the new constitution with the changed boundaries came before that body, but the arguments were essentially the same as those previously advanced. An exciting campaign followed in Iowa, and the constitution was adopted, August 3, 1846, by a small majority. On the 4th of August the president signed the bill which settled the boundary question in accordance with the second constitution, and an Act was passed December 28, 1846, by which Iowa was admitted into the Union."

[CHAPTER IV]
Iowa and Her People

"In all that is good Iowa affords the best."

Thus a few years ago wrote one of our state's most distinguished citizens.[C]

And his utterance found a ready response in the hearts of the men and women of our fair land, so that today the expression is an axiom. Every Iowan believes firmly in its truth.

There is no fairer land under the benevolent sun. Here plenty reigns, and prosperity has her home. Cheerful industry has redeemed the land that once was the home of wild animals and untamed savages. Iowa's waving corn fields; her meadows of luxuriant grass; her hills dotted with magnificent houses and barns; her landscape made more picturesque by the presence of fattening herds; her school houses and higher centers of learning on almost every hill; the smoke from the busy industries of her thriving cities and villages; her soil the most fertile of any known; her waste land less than that of any other equal area; her percentage of illiteracy the lowest; her mineral resources abundant; her numerous streams affording water power inferior to none—all these things and more rightly tend to make Iowans proud of their State.

Now, as a half century ago, Iowa offers "to the lawloving and the temperate; to the enterprising, the vigorous, the ambitious, a home and a field worthy of their noblest efforts."[D] She throws open to the world her exhaustless stores of wealth, her golden opportunities, and says: "Behold your reward."

N. H. Parker, writing more than a half century ago, drew this glowing picture of the future Iowa:

"As the immigrant mother leads her sons and daughters into the undeveloped paths of wealth—as civilization elevates a race out of the sloughs of semi-barbarism—as national prosperity exalts a land—or as science raises the human intellect from darkness into dazzling light—thus Iowa, with rapid strides, ascends the precipitious sides of prosperity's mountain range, bearing her sons and daughters to loftier, and still loftier peaks, and revealing to their gaze still wider and richer vistas. And the summit of this range she will never reach; for her onward progress cannot be stayed, until her arterial streams are dry—until the agricultural life-blood in her veins has ceased to flow, until her great metallic heart has been emptied. Upon the topmost summit, then, Iowa will never stand, for through countless ages yet to come, her progress—that must be forever onward—must be upward also."[E]

The people of Iowa do not stand still. Not satisfied with present achievements, they go forward, doing well to-day the tasks that are theirs, and striving earnestly to make the future better and more glorious than the past.

We can not do better here than by quoting a toast to the future of Iowa given some years ago by O. J. Laylander, a loyal son of the state:

"In the few minutes allotted to this toast scant justice may be awarded so worthy a theme. We love you, O Iowa, lusty child, resting in the mighty arms of the Missouri and the Father of Waters, laughing beneath the warm kisses and the love tears of gentle May; crying aloud to all the world: 'See how I grow! How strong I am! How happy and healthy and beautiful!'

"Iowa is glorious now. The great, green carpets, fresh from the springtime cleaning, shimmer in the glorious sun. The broad, black belts of loam await with open pockets the hiding of the golden grain. Living, glowing mines of gold stud the prairies' endless velvet folds. The countless castles of the farm are bound into great bundles by the sounding wire. Above every door that opens upon honest toil is inscribed in letters of gold the motto, 'Rich, rich, rich.'

"Such is Iowa today in its wealth of land and stock. Each year the unfailing field fills the bins to bursting and grows the meat for millions.

"Material Iowa, with great leaps, has gone forward in the world's race. Manifest destiny was misread by even the wisest of our grandfathers. Even thirty years ago no prophet dared choose the gorgeous hues necessary to a true picture of the Iowa of to-day.

"Yet not alone in industrial lines has Iowa set the pace for the states. In politics she has crowded New England off the stage, and bold Ohio sits quietly at her feet. In literature and in arts she stands unashamed. Comfort and culture walk hand in hand, and happiness is a perennial contagion.

"Some fifty years ago there came to Iowa a sturdy boy. Today he calls his own one thousand billowy acres which have risen in value in steps of ten until one hundred thousand dollars would not tempt him to yield his title. One June afternoon he sat on his piazza in sweet reverie. He reviewed the wonderful development of the grand old state, and sent his imagination in search of greater possibilities. From the hedge the thrush poured forth a song of love. The humming bees thrust their honeyed tongues into the flowers on the trellis at his side. The south wind was heavy with fragrance brushed from the blooming bushes. All nature conspired to steal the old man's senses and soon reverie gave way to sleep and dreams, and this, they say, was the dream: He dreamed that it was the year nineteen hundred and forty-one, and he was celebrating his hundredth birthday. He had seen comfort and culture become as common as the summer sun. Literature and art had countless country devotees. People had ceased to hurry, and worry was unknown: and then he dreamed that he died, and sought admission at the golden gate. To his amazement he was halted and informed that he was at the wrong place. Greatly grieved, he parleyed with the guard: 'I never wittingly did a human soul a wrong. I was rich, but it was not my fault. Why must I, who have always tried to do my duty, go to hell?' 'No one said anything about hell,' was the reply. 'To the annex—the second gate to the right. You Iowa people complain so much about celestial conditions and make so many comparisons with Iowa that we have concluded to colonize you a few thousand years and send you all back to Iowa.'

"That the future of Iowa shall be such that if you shall not wish to come back, you shall at least wish to stay as long as possible, is my sincere desire."[F]

Calhoun made the assertion on the floor of the United States Senate that he had been told that "the Iowa country has been seized upon by a lawless body of armed men." Senator Ewing, of Ohio, and Senator Clay, of Kentucky, had received similar information, the former asserting that he would in no way object to giving each rascal who crossed the Mississippi to the westward one thousand dollars if by that means he might get rid of him. And these distinguished statesmen were not alone in this view. To many in the east the first comers to the territory were "land robbers," "idle and profligate characters," "fugitives from justice," "lawless intruders," and worse. They were squatters "who feared neither the laws of God nor man."

Doubtless those who made these assertions were honest and sincere. They believed that only the most desperate characters, the outcasts of decent communities, had the hardihood to explore this terra incognita. They could not comprehend how persons living in settled communities, and surrounded with many of the comforts of life, could be so fool-hardy as to leave all these things for the sake of making a new home in a wilderness inhabited only by wild animals and wilder and more dangerous Indians.

But there is another side to the picture. Personal observation is always more to be depended upon than hearsay testimony. One of the most trust-worthy of the early writers on Iowa is Lieut. Albert Miller Lea. He had spent some years in the "Ioway District"; he had made a tour of observation across the state; he had most excellent opportunities for observing and studying the character of our first settlers. His testimony cannot be impeached, for he was a man far above the practice of deceit. In his Notes on the Wisconsin Territory, particularly with reference to the Iowa District or Black Hawk Purchase, published in 1836, he gives this vivid and truthful picture of our early inhabitants:

"The character of this population is such as is rarely to be found in our newly acquired territories. With very few exceptions, there is not a more orderly, industrious, active, pains-taking population west of the Alleghenies, than is this of the Iowa District. Those who have been accustomed to associate the name of Squatter with the idea of idleness and recklessness, would be quite surprised to see the systematic manner in which every thing is here conducted. For intelligence, I boldly assert that they are not surpassed, as a body, by an equal number of citizens of any country in the world.

"It is a matter of surprise that, about the Mining Region, there should be so little of the recklessness that is usual in that sort of life.... This regularity and propriety is to be attributed to the preponderance of well informed and well-intentioned gentlemen among them, as well as to the disposition of the mass of the people."[G]

Two years later another personal observer says: "He who supposes that settlers ... who are now building upon, fencing and cultivating the lands of the government are lawless depredators, devoid of the sense of moral honesty, or that they are not in every sense as estimable citizens, with as much intelligence, regard for law and social order, for public justice and private rights ... as the farmers and yeomen of New York and Pennsylvania ... has been led astray by vague and unfounded notions, or by positively false information."[H]

These people knew the pioneers, and their testimony is entitled to credence. As a class even the "Squatters" were not idle, or vicious, or ignorant. They were young men, strong and hardy, full of courage and adventure. "There was not a better population on the face of the earth," is the testimony of Senator Benton. "They made roads," says Prof. B. F. Shambaugh, superintendent of the Iowa State Historical Society, "built bridges and mills, cleared the forests, broke the prairies, erected houses and barns, and defended the settled country against hostile Indians. They were distinguished especially for their general intelligence, their hospitality, their independence and bold enterprise. They had schools and school houses, erected churches, and observed the Sabbath.... The pioneers were religious, but not ecclesiastical. They lived in the open and looked upon the relations of man to nature with an open mind. To be sure their thoughts were more on 'getting along' in this world than upon the 'immortal crown' of the Puritan. And yet in the silent forest, in the broad prairie, in the deep blue sky, in the sentinels of the night, in the sunshine and in the storm, in the rosy dawn, in the golden sunset, and in the daily trials and battles of frontier life, they too must have seen and felt the Infinite."[I]

No greater tribute has ever been paid to the pioneers of our state than that given by a distinguished native of the state, Hon. Robert G. Cousins, on Iowa Day at the Trans-Mississippi Exposition at Omaha on Sept. 21, 1898. The following extracts from that masterly oration are worthy of preservation here:

"I have asked five of the ablest and most noted Americans what they regard as the chief thing or leading feature of the Trans-Mississippi region and they have invariably answered, 'Its men and women.' The other day I met one of the oldest settlers of eastern Iowa—one of those original, rugged characters whose wit and wisdom have lightened the settlers' hearts and homes for many a toilsome year—one of those interesting characters who never bores you and whom one always likes to meet—a man whose head is silvered and whose countenance is kind—and I asked him what he regarded as the principal feature of our Trans-Mississippi country, and he replied: 'Well, I'm no scholar, but I've been round here nigh onto sixty years and I reckon 'bout the most important thing is the folks and the farms.'

"Iowa became a separate territory, with the capital at Burlington, in 1838, and was admitted into the Union in 1846, and has been in it ever since. It makes little difference whether it was first settled by the whites at Dubuque for mining purposes in 1788, or, for trading purposes, at Montrose, in 1799, or opposite Prairie du Chien, in 1804 or 5, or in Lee county at Sandusky in 1820, or on the lower rapids at what is now known as Nashville, in 1829; or whether the first settlements for general purposes were made at Burlington and Davenport in 1832. The main fact is that it was well settled—not by dyspeptic tourists nor by invalids who had come west out of curiosity and New Jersey, nor by climate seeking dilettanti with two servants and one lung—but by the best bone and sinew of the middle states, New England and the old world. I do not know that there were any dukes or lords or marquises or duchesses, but there were Dutch and Irish and Scotch and Scotch-Irish and English and Americans, and they had home rule right from the start—at least they had it in the first school which I attended. The men and women who settled the Hawkeye state were not those who expected to go back 'in the fall,' or as soon as they could prove up on their claims. They were stayers. They were not men to be discouraged by winter or by work. They were men who knew that nobody ever amounted to much in this world unless he had to. Most of them began simply with the capital of honesty, good health and their inherent qualities of character. They built their cabins in the clearings and, watching the smoke curl up in the great, wide sky, felt just as patriotic for their humble rustic homes as e'er did princes for their castles or millionaires for mansions grand.

"To build a home is a great thing. It doesn't matter so much about the dimensions. 'Kings have lived in cottages and pygmies dwelt in palaces,' but the walls of a home always add something to inherent character. In the formation of character there are always two elements, the inherent and the adventitious—that which we bring with us into the world and that which our surroundings give us. Somebody said 'there is only a small portion of the earth that produces splendid people.' Our pioneers got into a good place. They had left doubt sitting on a boulder in the east and packed their things and started for the west. Rivers had to be forded, trees to be felled, cabins had to be built—the rifle must be kept loaded—so much the better, there was self-reliance. Corn and coffee had to be ground, and on the same mill—so much the better, there was ingenuity. Teeth had to be filled, and there was no painless dentistry. Disease and injury must be dealt with, and the doctor fifty miles away. Life must be lightened, lonely hearts must be cheered, and the old friends and comrades far back in the states or maybe away in fatherland, and the cheering letter tarrying with the belated stage coach—hold fast, thou sturdy denizen and gentle helpmate of the rich and wondrous empire, infinite goodness guards thee and the fertile fields are ready to reward.

SHEPHERD'S TAVERN
Erected in 1838, Looking West. The First House in Cedar Rapids. Present Site of Y. M. C. A.
COURTESY CARROLL'S HISTORY

"Ah, pampered people of the later generations, when you imagine modern hardships, think of the courage and the trials and the ingenuity of pioneers when there were no conveniences but the forest and the axe, the wide rolling prairie and the ox team, the great blue sky, the unsolved future and the annual ague! Complain of markets in these modern times and then think of your grandmother when she was a blooming bride, listening through the toilsome days and anxious nights for the wagon bringing home the husband from a distant market with calico and jeans purchased with dressed pork sold at a dollar and a half a hundred, and maybe bringing home a little money, worth far less per yard than either calico or jeans. Maybe it is all for the best, human character was being formed for the development of a great and loyal and progressive state to shine forever among the stars of the federal union....

"Civil government in Iowa proceeded with its rapid settlement. The pioneer became a model citizen. He knew the necessity for the laws that were enacted. He did not feel oppressed by government. He had experienced the losses of robbery and larceny and knew something of the embarrassment and inconvenience of being scalped. There was no hysteria about trusts and combines because they had practiced combinations themselves for mutual protection. If any one would learn the true genius and exemplification and philosophy of self-government, government of and for and by the people, let him study the records of pioneer life, the institutional beginnings, and the evolution of their laws. It would be worth our while on some suitable occasion when time permitted to talk over the interesting incidents attending the administration of justice in the early days of Iowa, the incidents of its territorial legislatures, the birth and growth of its statehood and the character of its officials. But the greatness of our state is not contained in any name. Its official history is the exponent of its industrial life and character. Its greatness is the sum total of its citizenship. In order to be just, John Jones, the average citizen, must be mentioned along with our most illustrious officials. Somebody said that the history of a nation is the history of its great men, but there is an unwritten history which that averment overlooks. The growth of a state is the progress of its average citizen. The credit of a commonwealth is the thrift of its John Jones and its William Smith, and the character, prosperity and patriotism of the individual citizen is the history of Iowa.

"The population of 97,000 which she had when admitted into the union had increased to 754,699 at the close of the Civil war. Of these about 70,000, almost one-tenth of the population, were in the war—a number equal to nearly one-half of the voters of the state. Who made the history of Iowa during that great struggle of our nation's life? John Jones, the average citizen, whether he carried a musket helping to put the scattered stars of state back into the constellation of the Union, or whether he toiled from early dawn to lingering twilight in the fields or in the shop. The best civilization is that which maintains the highest standard of life for its average citizen.

"Since the Civil war the state of Iowa has increased in population to almost 2,225,000 of people, and most of the time has had the least illiteracy of any state in the Union. Doubtless for that we are indebted to many of the older states, whose enterprising and courageous citizens constitute so large a portion of our population. With but a century of statehood and with an area of but 55,475 square miles, the state of Iowa produces the greatest quantity of cereals of any state in the Union. As long ago as the last federal census, taken in 1890, it produced more corn, more oats, more beef, more pork than any state in the Union. Not long since I was introduced to a gentleman from New York city. He said, 'Oh, from Iowa—ah—let me see, that's out—ah—you see, I'm not very well posted on the geography of the west.' 'Yes,' I said, 'it's out there just across the Mississippi river. You can leave New York about noon and get your supper in Iowa the next evening. It might be worth your while to look it up. It's the state which produces more of the things which people eat than any other state in the Union. It has more miles of railroads than your state of New York, more than Mexico, more than Brazil and more than all the New England states combined.'

"The value of Iowa's agricultural products and live stock in round numbers for the year 1892 was $407,000,000, to say nothing of her other great and various industries and enterprises. She produced that year 160,000,000 pounds of the best butter on earth of the value of $32,000,000. The Hawkeye butter ladle has achieved a cunning that challenges all Columbia. The Iowa cow has slowly and painfully yet gradually and grandly worked her way upward to a shining eminence in the eyes of the world. The state of Iowa has on her soil today, if nothing ill befalls it, ninety million dollars' worth of corn. The permanent value of land is estimated by its corn-producing qualities. Of all the products of the earth, corn is king and it reigns in Iowa.

"Industry and nature have made the state of Iowa a creditor. Her soil has always been solvent and her system of farming does not tend to pauperize. She is a constant seller and therefore wants the evidence of the transaction to be unimpeachable. She has more school teachers than any other state except the Empire state and only three and six-tenths per cent of her population are illiterates. The state of Iowa has yielded the greatest dividends on her educational investments. She has become illustrious on account of her enlightenment. She has progressed further from 'primitive indifferent tissue' than the land even of Darwin himself, and in her escape from protoplasm and prejudice she is practically out of danger. Marked out in the beginning by the hand of God, bounded on the east and west by the two great rivers of the continent, purified and stimulated by the snows of winter, blessed with copious rainfall in the growing season, with generous soil and stately forests interspersed, no wonder that the dusky aborigines exclaimed when they crossed the Father of Waters, 'Iowa, this is the place!' Not only did the red men give our state its beautiful and poetic name, but Indian nomenclature runs like a romance throughout the counties and communities. What infinite meaning, what tokens of joy and sadness, of triumph and of tears, of valor and of vanquishment, of life and love and song there may be in these weird, strange words that name to-day so many of our towns and streams and counties: Allamakee, Chickasaw, Dakota City, Sioux, Pocahontas, Winneshiek, Keosauqua, Sac, Winnebago, Tama, Nodawa, Competine, Chariton, Comanche, Cherokee, Waukon, Muchakinock, Washta, Monona, Waupeton, Onawa, Keota, Waudina, Ioka, Ottumwa, Oneska, Waukee, Waucoma, Nishnabotna, Keokuk, Decorah, Wapello, Muscatine, Maquoketa, Mahaska, Ocheyedan, Mississippi, Appanoose, Missouri, Quasqueton, Anamosa, Poweshiek, Pottawattamie, Osceola, Oskaloosa, Wapsipinicon.

"Ere long some westland genius, moved by the mystic inspiration of the rich and wondrous heritage of Iowa nativity, may sing the song of our legends and traditions, may voice in verse the wondrous story of his illustrious state. Maybe somewhere among the humble homes where blood and bone and brain grow pure and strong, where simple food with frugal ways feeds wondering minds and drives them craving into nature's secrets and her songs—somewhere along the settler's pathway or by the Indian trail where now the country churchyards grown with uncut grasses hide the forms of sturdy ancestors sleeping all in peaceful ignorance of wayward sons or wondrous progeny—somewhere where rising sun beholds the peasantry at early toil and leaves them in the mystic twilight ere their tasks are done, where odors of the corn and new-mown hay and vine-clad hedges by the shadowy roadside linger long into the night-time, as a sweet and sacred balm for tired hearts—somewhere, sometime the song of Iowa shall rise and live, and it will not omit the thought of that gifted son who said: 'Iowa, the affections of her people, like the rivers of her borders, flow to an inseparable union.'"

[CHAPTER V]
The Geology of Linn County

BY WILLIAM HARMON NORTON, PROFESSOR OF GEOLOGY IN CORNELL COLLEGE

It is said that a certain county in Kentucky, underlain by limestone, always goes democratic; while a county adjacent, underlain by sandstone, is as invariably republican. Certain it is that a deal of politics, economics, and history depends at last analysis more or less upon the processes past and present which belong to geology and physiography. The rocks, the minerals they contain, and the water they store, the hills and valleys into which they have been carved, and the soils to which they weather, largely control the industries, locate the cities, and outcrop even in the social, intellectual, and moral life of the people. The metropolis of Linn county, for example, owes its name and place to the rapids of the Cedar, and the rapids find ultimate cause in the fact that some millions of years ago nature stopped laying a softer rock upon the ocean bed and deposited upon it one of more resistant texture. In the eastern part of the county the Chicago & Northwestern Railway runs for very good and sufficient reasons where once rested the edge of a long tongue of glacial ice, and west of Cedar Rapids its route is determined by the course taken by the turbid floods issuing from the melting glaciers. The streets of Mount Vernon and several of the main highways of the county do not lie with the points of the compass but follow the direction of flow of ancient ice-streams. The distribution of forest and prairie is due to geologic causes. The values of farm lands are markedly affected by the same influences, and we can even point out a little area which differs from its surroundings in its inhabitants and in their literacy, language, architecture, manners, and morals, primarily because it belongs to what geologists classify as the deeply dissected loess-covered Kansan drift sheet.

The inductive history of Linn county, reasoned out from what we have learned of the lie of the land, the shapes of hills and valleys, the soils and subsoils, and the underlying rocks, is a wonderfully long one. The first chapter that has been opened to inspection in the geologic record of our area is that of the deepest rocks probed by the first deep well drilled at Cedar Rapids. At a depth of 2,150 feet from the surface—1,417 feet below the level of the sea—the drill encountered a hard red siliceous rock which may be taken as the equivalent of the Sioux Quartzite, which comes to the surface at Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and at Baraboo, Wisconsin. This well known building stone is used in a number of the business blocks and private residences of Cedar Rapids, as for example in the old office building of the Republican. Belonging to the Algonkian, an era so remote that its age must be reckoned in scores if not in hundreds of millions of years, the quartzite at the bottom of the deep well tells of time inconceivably remote when Linn county was part of a wide sea floor on which red sands were washed to and fro and finally laid to rest in thick deposits of sandstone. Tilted and folded and hardened by pressure, the Algonkian rocks were uplifted from the sea to form dry land of mountainous heights. After the lapse of ages the old land sunk beneath the sea, and again and again with intervals of uplift and subaerial erosion there were laid upon it sea muds, impure limestones, and thick sandstones during a long succession of geologic aeons. Samples of these deposits can be seen in the well drillings preserved in the Y. M. C. A. at Cedar Rapids and in the collections of Cornell College. For many millions of years Linn county was thus sometimes land and sometimes sea, but neither land nor sea was tenanted by aught but the humblest of living creatures. These ancient deposits concern us because they are the aqueducts by which artesian waters of purest quality are brought to our doors from their sources far to the northward in other states.

INDEPENDENCE SHALES on C., R. I. & P. Ry. below Cedar Rapids

BLUFF AT KENWOOD PARK

EXPOSURE OF BRECCIATED LIMESTONE IN MILWAUKEE CUT AT LINN JUNCTION

"THE BLOW OUT," PALISADES

A FIRST SETTLER, NEAR MT. VERNON

PALISADES

The most recent of the formations which are pierced by the drill, but which do not come to the surface within the limits of the county, is the Maquoketa shale, reached in the eastern townships at a depth of somewhat more than 300 feet. This impervious bed of altered clay stops the descent of ground water, which thus is stored in large quantities in the overlying limestones and supplies some of the important wells of the county such as that of the town of Mount Vernon. At the time when these sea clays were laid, eastern Iowa was under sea, but so near was the low lying land to the north and east that vast quantities of mud were brought in by its rivers forming deposits nearly 300 feet in thickness.

THE SILURIAN

With the lapse of ages physical conditions changed and Linn County was covered with a warm shallow coral sea in which were laid the massive limestones which now form the country rock in the eastern tier of townships. In some of the quarries one may see the ripple marks into which these coral sands were heaped by the pulse of the waves, and one may pick out of the rocks casts and moulds of ancient sea shells, corals, and trilobites, which formed the highest forms of life then tenanting the Iowa seas.

The lowest beds of the Silurian belong to the Hopkinton stage, and are exposed along the Buffalo. At Hill's mill and at Nugent's quarries some layers are crowded with a characteristic fossil—a plump bivalve shell as large as a walnut, which goes by the name of Pentamerus Oblongus. The Gower stage of the Silurian rests upon the Hopkinton and embraces two types of rocks distinct in their appearance and uses. The LeClaire phase of the Gower is a hard, brittle, crystalline, magnesian limestone, or dolomite. Normally blue-gray in color, it is often oxidised to buff. It is well exposed at Viola and on the Cedar river from the Cedar County line to a mile or so beyond the Upper Palisades, southwest of Bertram. The LeClaire forms mounds in places reaching fifty and even eighty or ninety feet in height in which little semblance of bedding structures are to be seen. Here and there the rock is conglomeratic, consisting of rounded masses of the rock cemented by a less resistent matrix. The cavernous recess in the rock wall of the Palisades, misnamed the Blowout, is due to the solution of the weaker matrix and the dislodgement of the rounded masses. The rock may consist also of angular broken blue-gray fragments in the matrix of a buff and friable limestone sand. Again, the mounds, at least in part, may be made up of massive limestone with little trace of structure of any sort. On the sides of the mounds and merging into the conglomeratic or other structures the rock of the LeClaire often is stratified and the layers dip outward at angles surprisingly high. In places these tilted layers may show sharp folds. The rock of all structures is fossiliferous. Even the broken fragments of breccia are porous with moulds of minute fossils which have been removed by solution. The massive rock is largely made up in places of stems of crinoids—stone lilies which grew in the greatest profusion in these quiet waters—and the tilted layers may be made of casts and moulds of unbroken shells of little bivalves. Occasionally the saucer shaped tail and head-shields of a characteristic trilobite are found piled together and unbroken. Coral are very common in this ancient reef rock, a form resembling honeycomb being especially noticeable. And as one floats down stream at the base of the cliffs he can hardly fail to notice large tapering segmented shells, either straight or slightly curved, representatives of the cephalopod mollusks.

The picturesque rock walls of the Palisades, which rise perpendicular for as much as ninety feet from the water's edge, are due primarily to the great resistance of the LeClaire rock, due to its chemical composition—for dolomite weathers far less rapidly than a non-magnesian limestone—and to the fewness of those planes of weakness called joint-planes. The joints of the LeClaire are distant and vertical. The stone breaks down, therefore, in immense blocks where undercut by the river which leave for ages the scarp behind them as a vertical wall.

Because of its qualities the LeClaire is one of the best lime rocks in the country. The impurities of the clay, the iron and silica which it contains, may run as low as one-third of one per cent. The large per cent of carbonate of magnesia present makes it a cool lime, slow to slack and slow to set, and it is to such limes that architects, masons, and plasterers now invariably give preference over the so-called hot limes burned from non-magnesian limestones. The hardness and durability of mortars made from the LeClaire rock limes approaches that of cement, and after thirty-five or forty years of weathering, joints in mason work seem almost as fresh as when first struck.

The extreme hardness of the rock and the slowness with which it weathers make it specially valuable for crushing for macadam and ballast.

The Anamosa phase of the Gower limestone is typically exposed in the large quarries at Anamosa and Stone City, Mount Vernon and Waubeek. It is a light buff or yellow limestone, with constant, parallel, and horizontal or gently inclined laminated layers. The limestone is soft to work but hardens on exposure. The saw encounters no obdurate materials and the chisel finds the fracture even and regular. Bedding planes are so even and smooth as to be at once ready for the mortar with little or no dressing. Much of the stone can be split horizontally to any desired thickness, while the distant joints permit the quarrying of blocks beyond the facilities of transportation or any possible use. Many layers are so homogenous that they can be wrought into fine carvings.

As a dolomite the stone is far more resistant than a purer limestone. In the Mount Vernon cemetery tombstones of this material, whose dates run back to the forties and early fifties, have been so little affected by superficial decay that the tool marks are almost as fresh as when the chisel left them; while marbles of half their age have broken down into ruin.

The Silurian rocks of the county measure about 300 feet in thickness. They are confined pretty closely to the townships of the eastern tier, but extend beyond their limits up the valleys of the Cedar and Wapsipinicon.

THE BERTRAM LIMESTONE

As the Silurian limestones sink below the surface because of the westward dip, they are succeeded by a bed of rock, named from its outcrop at Bertram, and found along Big Creek as far north as Paralta and Springville. This is a heavily bedded gray rock which weathers almost white. At a number of places along Big Creek it forms picturesque cliffs, and hillsides covered with huge boulders of disintegration. At one point it is seen to overlie the Anamosa beds of the Silurian, and several exposures are known where it is succeeded by the Otis limestones of the Devonian. But as it contains no fossils, so far as is now known, it can not be said to which of the two ages it belongs.

THE OTIS LIMESTONES

The lower beds of the Otis, as exposed at the base of the Otis quarries, along the Cedar south of Cedar Rapids, at Springville, and at Coggon, consist of soft magnesian limestones, fossiliferous with many moulds of small bivalve shells of Devonian age. These pass upward into drab non-magnesian limestones carrying the principal fossil of the magnesian beds in considerable numbers. The upper limestones of the Otis differ within rather wide limits. The most common type is seen at the base of the high cliff at Kenwood on the right bank of Indian Creek—a hard, brittle ringing and thinly laminated limestone. Often it has been subjected to strains under which it has broken, and has been re-cemented with little displacement of the parts. Occasionally it is brown, and highly crystalline.

THE INDEPENDENCE

At the Kenwood cliff the eight feet of the Otis at the base is succeeded by thirty feet of buff shale and clayey limestones—a formation known as the Independence from its discovery in a shaft sunk at that city. The Independence is exposed at many points near Cedar Rapids both on Indian Creek and on the Cedar. On the Wapsipinicon it is well seen at Cedar Bluff (sec. 24 Spring Grove Tp.), at the "Wolf's Den" a mile up valley, and again in the railway cut north of Coggon. In the long cut of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway west of Linn Junction the Independence is seen in one place as a blue clay shale carrying a number of fossils characteristic of the shaft at Independence, but elsewhere the formation is unfossiliferous in the natural exposures so far studied.

Wherever found the Independence contains nodules of silica, which may reach a foot in diameter, and often angular fragments of the same material which may be as fine as sand. The formation is marked by irregularities of deposition, channel cutting by drift currents, lenses of calcerous material, and rapid lateral change in the form and constituents of the rock. All of these characteristics point to the deposition of this formation in a shallow sea near shore.

Indeed, some of the beds were apparently laid in marshes such as are now found along low ocean shores. Thin seams of coal formed in the Independence were once peaty deposits preserved by the presence of water from the decay which returns dead vegetable matter to the air. In 1871 such a seam of coal, not exceeding an inch in thickness, was found at a depth of ninety feet in a well on the farm of Mrs. C. Hemphill, near LaFayette. Pieces of the coal were taken to Cedar Rapids and Marion. A mining company was formed, and without seeking for any expert advice from geologist or mining engineer, and without any tests of the extent and thickness of the seam, a shaft was sunk after the precious fuel. Water was encountered in such quantities that expensive pumping machinery was used, and in all several thousand dollars were wasted in a search which any competent geologist could have told was foredoomed to failure.

THE DAVENPORT LIMESTONES

The sea over eastern Iowa deepened after the deposition of the Independence, for there was now deposited upon its floor limestones in place of shales. The lowest of these, known as the lower Davenport beds, are hard, compact, and of finest grain, and so far as known are unfossiliferous. The upper Davenport is a tough, gray, semi-crystalline limestone which contains an assemblage of fossils of many species. Highest of these are the first vertebrates to appear in Iowa so far as our records go. Fishes which swam over our area left to be imbedded in the limestones their hard enameled teeth and fin spines. The most common of the Devonian fishes was a small shark.

In several other counties the lower and the upper Davenport limestones retain the attitude of their deposition. But everywhere in Linn county they have been broken into bits and re-cemented, forming breccia. These brittle rocks could hardly give way to such immense stresses without causing sharp and violent vibrations to run through the crust of the earth, and we may therefore list great earthquakes as a part of the history of our area in Devonian times.

The best exposure of the breccia beds is that of the cut of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway west of Linn Junction. The brittle lower Davenport has here been broken and rebroken into a mass of small sharp-edged fragments, while the tough heavily bedded upper Davenport ledges have been fractured to large blocks, which sliding on each other have smoothed and grooved their sides. The breccia beds may be seen in the upper eleven feet of the Kenwood cliff, at Troy Mills, and in the cliffs along the Wapsipinicon valley as far down as near to Central City.

THE CEDAR VALLEY LIMESTONES

The Otis, Independence, and Davenport limestones form a group called the Wapsipinicon, from its outcrop along the river of that name in Linn county. The remaining limestones of the Devonian are grouped together under the name of the Cedar Valley. These consist of limestones of various types, sometimes crowded with fossils, and sometimes destitute of any trace of ancient life. They occupy the western townships of the county.

THE CARBONIFEROUS

At the close of the Cedar Valley stage the sea retreated westward from our area, and Linn county became dry land. For long ages its rocks were covered with rich soils supporting a luxuriant vegetation, probably tropical in its aspect. We know that running water channelled this ancient land, for when at last in Pennsylvanian (Coal measure) time the land sunk slowly beneath the sea, there were deposited in such channels clays and sandstones, which perhaps are only remnants of wide sheets of similar deposits now removed by denudation. A mile and a half south of Marion (southeast quarter of section 12, Rapids township) a well twenty-three feet deep penetrated a bed of dark shale which carried leaf impressions of a number of ferns characteristic of the undergrowth of the Carboniferous forests. A third of a mile southeast of Lisbon, and again about two miles south of the same village, at Bertram at the east end of the railway bridge, and on the old county road between Cedar Rapids and Marion, are exposures of sandstone which in some instances contain fragments of the logs drifted from perhaps distant uplands and water-logged and sunk in these ancient sand beds. The Bertram outlier contains many rolled coral fragments and worn bits of shells of the Devonian, included in Carboniferous deposits, much as the same fossils may now be found in the river deposits of the present age in the sand bars of the Cedar.

MESOZOIC AND TERTIARY

For a succession of geologic ages our county, in common with eastern Iowa, seems to have remained dry land, for no deposits of the sea are found upon it. On both sides of the continent mountain ranges of Alpine height were uplifted, and during the immeasurable years worn down, grain by grain, to flat and featureless plains. But no deformations are recorded in our county history and the lands seems to have remained so low that little erosion was possible. We are permitted to conceive that over our savannas in Mesozoic times there roamed monstrous reptiles of strange shapes, such as are known to have existed in adjacent states. In the later ages of this era it is not impossible that during the great submergence which brought the Cretaceous sea over the Great Plains from the Arctic to the Gulf, including western Iowa, our area also may have been inundated and huge swimming reptiles such as are found in the deposits of Kansas and Nebraska may have disported themselves where now our rich farm lands lie open to the sun, while in the air featherless cold-blooded creatures larger than any bird winged their way on leathery pinions.

THE ASTOR HOUSE
Erected by John Young in 1839, Looking South The Second House in Cedar Rapids
COURTESY CARROLL'S HISTORY

During the millions of years which are included in the Tertiary ages Linn county was undoubtedly dry land. On our grass lands pastured a succession of strange and uncouth mammals evolving into higher and higher forms. Among these denizens of the county were probably herds of pig-like creatures, three toed horses little bigger than foxes, and ancestral monkeys swarming in the trees, for such are known to have existed in other states. But these chapters in the history of the county can not be written from any local records.

THE GLACIAL EPOCH

The warm climate of Tertiary times changed slowly to one of arctic cold. The winters lengthened and the summers becoming ever cooler and yet cooler failed at last to melt the winter snows. Vast sheets of glacial ice, such as that which shrouds Greenland today, covered much of the continent. The geologic panorama thus presents our area as buried beneath one after another of slow-moving glaciers hundreds of feet thick. The proofs of their existence are found in almost every cutting which goes below the soil. Any quarry will show the rock deeply rotted and pitted by long preglacial decay. Here and there upon its surface will be found remnants of the deep red residual clays, the subsoils of preglacial times. Upon these clays formed from the decaying rock rest stony clays in which clay, sand, and stones faceted as only glacier ice can facet, are mingled pell-mell together, as only glacier ice can mingle. Occasionally is found the unmistakable track of the glacier left on the underlying rock scraped smooth and marked with parallel scorings, as at the north end of the cut of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway at Linn Junction.

The glaciers also brought from ledges of granite and other crystalline rocks in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Canada the boulders which form a conspicuous feature in some of our prairie landscapes. These, the "first settlers," traveled to their destinations far more leisurely than any ox carts of the immigrant pioneers; for the glaciers can not have moved faster at most than fifty feet a day, and probably at less than a tenth that rate, judging by the rates of motion of present glaciers.

The ice sheets of the glacial epoch plastered the county thick with the stony clays which they dragged along in their basal layers. The thickness of these glacial deposits probably averages from fifty to one hundred feet. Old valleys cut in rock by Tertiary rivers were buried wholly from view, as, for example, one extending north from Prairieburg; and the farmer now plows his corn in fields which lie two and three hundred feet above the channels of ancient rivers. In places the old valleys were left to be re-occupied by the rivers. Such are the reaches of wide valley of the Cedar south of Center Point. In other places the rivers were diverted wholly from their ancient beds and made to flow in new channels which they have not yet had time to widen and deepen to their ancient measures. Such are the narrow rock bound valleys of the Wapsipinicon south of Troy Mills and of the Cedar at the Palisades.

On the final retreat of the glaciers waters from the melting ice swept over the county, leaving deposits of sand on the lower lands and in the valleys. Since the glacial epoch the rivers have cut their beds a score of feet and more below the deposits of glacial floods and in many places, as near the Ivanhoe bridge, remnants of these ancient flood plains are left as terraces or "benches" or "second bottoms." At Bertram the sands deposited by glacial waters near the mouth of Big Creek stand about fifty feet above the level of the river.

THE LOESS

A large part of the county is covered with a deposit of fine yellow silt called loess. Dry, it crumbles into powder at a finger touch; wet, it is somewhat plastic and can be moulded into brick and tile. On the hill and uplands the loess is thickly spread, adding in places at least forty feet to their elevation. Over the lowlands it is thin or absent. This yellow earth has been and is to be of greater value than mines of yellow gold. It is of inexhaustible fertility. It contains abundant mineral plant foods, partly constituent, and partly brought up into it by ground water; and these foods are so finely pulverized as to be of readiest solution and absorption by the roots. In wet weather the loess mantle absorbs the rainfall like a sponge; in months of desert drouth, like those of the summer of 1910, it returns the water to the surface, like a wick, to preserve the crops from failure.

A disadvantage of the loess lies in the readiness with which it washes. The forest which once covered nearly all the uplands protected the soil from wash by means of its mattress of roots and the thick prairie sod was equally efficient where hill slopes were grassed over. But where forests have been thoughtlessly cut down, and steep slopes turned to plow land, it is but a few years until the brown top-soil is all washed away and the fields in spring when freshly plowed are as yellow as a deep cut in road or brick yard. The foot path in the pasture or the furrow of the plow becomes a gully in a single heavy rain, and unless checked soon becomes a gulch scores of feet in width.

By accenting the height of the ridges the loess also adds to the scenery of the county. Our area lies in a part of east central Iowa where the stony clays deposited by ancient glaciers accumulated in long ridges and belts of upland rising many feet above the intervening undulating plains. Because of the alternation of ridge and lowland no part of the state except the valley of the Upper Mississippi has so beautiful and wide and varied prospects. Over more or less of their course the rivers of the county have cut their channels lengthwise in the ridges, thus giving rise to the bold scenery of the Wapsipinicon above Central City, and of the Cedar near Mount Vernon. Some of these picturesque reaches of river and cliff and forest slope should surely be converted into county parks in the near future and preserved for the gratification of all coming generations. Unless this is done we may expect that the forests will be cut down and the hill slopes gashed with countless gullies; while the lichened rocks of the river cliffs fringed with fern and tamarisk will give place to unsightly quarries.

While Linn county was sheeted with glacier ice, no life of any sort was possible within its limits. But during the long interglacial epochs which intervened between the ice invasions, forests grew and animals now extinct roamed over our hills and plains. Among these early inhabitants may be mentioned extinct horses and the giant proboscidians, the mammoth, and the mastodon. These returned to the area after the final retreat of the ice and their remains are found in the peat bogs and river gravels. In the earliest of the interglacial epochs it is quite probable that some of the gigantic groundsloths of South America made their home here, since they are known to have done so in the western counties of the state. No traces of man have been found in the glacial deposits of Iowa, nor have any indubitable evidences of his presence in glacial times been found in North America. Sometime, we know not when, roving tribes of Indians set foot within our area, and geology gives place to archeology. And when the white man appeared, inductive history ends and there begins the history of tradition and written records.

[CHAPTER VI]
Beginnings in Linn County

The Black Hawk war, though confined to the state of Illinois, made an epoch in the history of Iowa. It was the last of the many Indian wars, and was concluded by a cession of much of the valuable lands of Iowa to the government. Reports of the war had stirred up more or less enthusiasm as to the future of the west, and settlers began to come soon after the war had ended. Many of the officers, and others who had taken part in the war, became the government agents and officials in various capacities in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa. The government also, through its representatives in congress, planned great things for the west in opening canals and roads, while rivers were made navigable and steamship traffic opened up.

One must not be led to believe that Iowa was the only part of the west which grew so rapidly. The growth was general, it is true, but Iowa seems to have grown more rapidly than any other of the territories between 1836 and 1846.

Illinois was admitted as a state in 1818; Missouri three years later; next came Iowa in 1846, while Wisconsin, which had been explored in 1639, was not admitted to statehood till 1848; and Minnesota, settled as early as 1680, and having a fort built in 1820, was not admitted to statehood till 1858. Thus, it would appear, that Iowa remained a territory for a shorter period of time than any other of the western states located in the Mississippi valley, but, of course, there is reason for this. It was a prairie state, in the first instance, and on the east was bounded by a great waterway and by a state teeming with an aggressive population, many of whose people soon crossed the borderland even before the government had made proper surveys and thrown the land open to settlement.

Henry Dodge was appointed governor of the new Territory of Wisconsin in 1836, Iowa at that time being a part of Wisconsin. With the exception of a few settlements of white people along Lake Michigan and in the mining region around Dubuque there were few, if any, white settlers. Governor Dodge's work was largely with the Indians, in making contracts and ceding lands to the government. Settlers were coming in constantly and a demand for a survey of the lands was made from time to time. Survey of the public lands in Iowa was begun in the fall of 1836. Great preparations for the land sales were made. These were to take place in Dubuque and Burlington in November, 1838. The settlers who had arrived on these lands for some time prior to its survey arranged among themselves to select an arbitration association, each township making a register of all claims, and choosing one representative to attend the land sales, giving him authority to bid off the lands selected by each claimant.

A. C. Dodge was appointed the first registrar of the land office at Burlington, and George W. Jones the first surveyor-general of Iowa. One of the surveyors-general in the early '40s was no other than Judge James Wilson, of Keene, New Hampshire, a son of a Revolutionary soldier, and himself a lawyer of more than ordinary ability, a judge, and at one time a member of congress. He was appointed by General Harrison, an old friend.

At the first convention which met at Burlington in November, 1837, for the purpose of organizing a separate territory of Iowa, were the following delegates from Dubuque county, which, at that time, included a part of what later became Linn county: P. H. Engle, J. I. Fales, G. W. Harris, W. A. Warren, W. B. Watts, A. F. Russell, W. H. Patton, J. W. Parker, J. D. Bell and J. H. Rose. The convention in its petition to congress asserted that there were 25,000 people in that portion of Wisconsin Territory known as "The Iowa District;" that houses had been erected; that farms were cultivated, and still people could not obtain title to their lands, and asking that the part west of the river be set aside as a separate territory. This was one of the most important conventions held on what became Iowa soil, and congress at once took action to make such provisions as were thought wise and expedient.

Linn county was established by an act of the legislature of the Territory of Wisconsin approved on December 21, 1837. The county was regular in shape, but four townships larger than its neighbors on the north and east, which were created at the same time. The boundaries received at this time have not been altered. The spelling of the name was Lynn, although it was spelled in the body of the act itself Linn; it took its name from Dr. Louis F. Linn, United States senator from Missouri, who was appointed to that office in 1833 and who was a friend and admirer of President Jackson, and much interested in the development of the west.

The eastern part of Linn county, perhaps one-third, had been part of the original county of Dubuque since 1834, the boundary line running from the southeast corner of the county in a northwesterly line a little to the west of the middle in the northern part of the county. Linn county then embraces within its limits two Indian land cessions. The eastern part was acquired from the Sac and Fox Indians by the treaty of September 21, 1832, known as the Black Hawk Purchase; the western part, or the other two-thirds, was acquired by treaty of October 21, 1837. The fourteen counties created by an act sub-dividing Dubuque county into new counties, which was approved October 21, 1837, were as follows: Dubuque, Clayton, Jackson, Benton, Linn, Jones, Clinton, Johnson, Scott, Delaware, Buchanan, Cedar, Fayette, and Keokuk. While most of these counties were established outright the wording of the act relating to Dubuque county implies that it was looked upon as the former county reduced in size, which was not correct, as this land from which these counties were laid out also included much of the Sac and Fox cession made after Dubuque county had been formed and laid out, and which county had not been ceded to the United States government.

These boundary lines were reduced in size later; however the boundaries of Dubuque, Delaware, Jackson, Jones, Linn, Clinton, Cedar, and Scott have remained as they were laid out at the time. The Territory of Iowa was created by an act of congress approved June 12, 1838.

Among the bills passed by the first legislature, which met during the winter of 1838 and 1839, was the following: "An Act to Organize the County of Linn, and establish the Seat of Justice thereof.

"Section 1. Be it enacted by the Council and House of Representatives of the Territory of Iowa, that the county of Linn be and the same is hereby organized from and after the 10th of June next, and the inhabitants of said county be entitled to all the rights and privileges to which, by law, the inhabitants of other organized counties of this Territory are entitled, and the said county shall be a part of the Third Judicial District, and the District Court shall be held at the seat of justice of said county, or such other place as may be provided until the seat of justice is established.

"Section 2. That Richard Knott, Lyman Dillon and Benjamin Nye be and they are hereby appointed Commissioners to locate the seat of justice in said county, and shall meet at the house of William Abbe, on the first Monday of March next, in said county, and shall proceed forthwith to examine and locate a suitable place for the seat of justice of said county, having particular reference to the convenience of the county and healthfulness of the location.

DOUBLE LOG CABIN
Built by Wm. Abbe, Linn County's First Settler

"Section 3. The Commissioners, or a majority of them, shall, within ten days after their meeting at the aforesaid place, make out and certify to the Governor of this Territory, under their hands and seals, a certificate containing a particular description of the situation of the location selected for the aforesaid county seat; and on the receipt of such certificate, the Governor shall issue his proclamation affirming and declaring the said location to be the seat of justice of said county of Linn.

"Section 4. The Commissioners aforesaid shall, before they enter upon their duties, severally take and subscribe an oath before some person legally authorized to administer the same, viz: I, ............, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I am not, either directly or indirectly, interested in the location of the seat of justice of Linn County, nor do I own any property in lands, or any claims, within the said county of Linn. So help me God. (Signed) A. B., etc.

"Section 5. If, at any time within one year thereafter, it shall be shown that the said Commissioners, or any of them, received any present, gratuity, fee or reward in any form other than that allowed by law, or before the expiration of six months after the Governor's proclamation, declaring the said seat of justice permanent, become interested in said town or any lands in its immediate vicinity, the Commissioner or Commissioners shall, upon conviction thereof by indictment in the District Court of the county in which he or they may reside, be guilty of a high misdemeanor, and be forever disqualified to vote at any election or to hold any office of trust or profit within this Territory.

"Section 6. The Commissioners aforesaid shall receive, upon making out their certificate of the location of the seat of justice of said county, each two dollars per day, and also three dollars for every twenty miles going and returning from their respective homes. Approved January 15, 1839."

Two of the Commissioners named in the act, Richard Knott and Benjamin Nye, accepted the trust, meeting at the house of William Abbe, two and one-half miles west of what is now Mount Vernon.

The Commissioners located the county seat in the middle of the county and named it "Marion," in honor of one of the Revolutionary generals. The Commissioners reported to the governor of the territory the completion of their work, and Governor Robert Lucas proclaimed the county of Linn duly established.

For election purposes Linn county was attached to Cedar, Johnson, and Jones, the first polling precinct being located at Westport, which had been laid out by Israel Mitchell with the expectation that this would be the county seat, Mr. Mitchell believing that the county seat should be located on the river, and that that location would be near enough the center for all practical purposes.

In October, 1838, the entire county composed one precinct, and thirty-two ballots were cast for candidates for the legislature. Charles Whittlesey was chosen for the senate and Robert G. Roberts for the house. The first county election was held in August, 1839, when three commissioners were selected at Westport—L. M. Strong, Peter McRoberts, and Samuel C. Stewart. This body had the same powers as was later conferred upon the county supervisors. This commission first sat as a body officially September 9, 1839, in the log house of James W. Willis. Hosea W. Gray was sheriff and acted as clerk of the court until a clerk was duly appointed.

The minutes state:

"The Board proceeded to the appointment of a Clerk. Thereupon it was ordered that John C. Berry be and is hereby appointed to the office of Clerk of the Board of Linn County Commissioners.