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

[Pg vii]

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[Pg viii] 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

[Pg ix]

[Pg xi]

[Pg 1]

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:

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

[Pg 3]

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.[Pg 4] They in turn were given a cordial welcome by the Indians, one of the chiefs thus addressing them:

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:

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, 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?

[Pg 5]

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.

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

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:

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[Pg 8] 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:

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.

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.

[Pg 9]

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[Pg 10] 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[Pg 11] 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[Pg 12] 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.

[Pg 13]

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.

[Pg 17]

"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:

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:

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[Pg 19] 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:

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[Pg 20] 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:

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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.

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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.

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[Pg 26] 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.

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 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[Pg 27] 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.

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 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[Pg 28] 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 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.

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.

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.

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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 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.

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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.

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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.[Pg 32] 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.

[Pg 33]

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:

At this session W. H. Smith and Andrew J. McKean were appointed constables for the county. Jonas Martin was appointed road supervisor, his district[Pg 34] embracing all the land east of Marion and west of Big creek and east on the Marion and Davenport roads crossing Big creek. "It was also authorized that as Linn County had no safe place for the keeping of criminals that Sheriff Gray contract with the Sheriff of Muscatine County for the keeping of one Samuel Clews, and that the Sheriff borrow funds to pay for the support and keeping of said Clews while in confinement."

It seems that the board met monthly and the county was divided into three voting precincts as follows: One at William Abbe's, known as Sugar Grove Precinct, with the following judges: William Abbe, John Cole, and John McAfferty; one at Marion, with James W. Bassett, Henry Thompson, and Rufus H. Lucore, judges; one at Michael Greene's, with Michael Greene, James Cummings, and Bartimeas McGonigle, judges.

At this time Ross McCloud was appointed county surveyor and was ordered to make the survey of the county seat and report, which he did, and also to lay out additions, which was done. A county jail was also ordered erected in January, 1840, and the contract for the building of the same was let to William Abbe and Asher Edgerton for the sum of $635.00; the first money raised by sale of lots in Marion was applied on the contract for the erection of the jail.

The first survey was made in 1838, being all of Jones county and townships 84, 85, and 86 north, in range 5, west, in Linn county. This was made public in the newspapers and many settlers came in, taking the best lands that had been surveyed and squatting on the other land which they knew would soon be open for settlement. Linn Grove was an ideal place, and here in an early day a large number settled. The sale of lands in the county was advertised to take place in January, 1840. On account of the difficulties of transportation, the settlers petitioned to have the same postponed until the summer of that year, which petition was granted. George Greene, who had been a school teacher near Ivanhoe and even at that time was a man of no ordinary ability, was asked to see what could be done in changing the place from Dubuque to Marion. Mr. Greene volunteered to go to Washington and lay the matter before congress, or the men in charge of the land department. After some time he succeeded in his mission and won the grateful respect of his fellow pioneers, saving them a great deal of money. Thus, for a time, Marion was a United States land office, and the people of Linn county who had little money to spend could claim their lands without much trouble.

The first court house built in the county was a log structure for the use of the pioneers. This structure was erected during the years 1840 and 1841. As there was no money in the county treasury and as the court house was needed, the settlers donated their labor. They cut the logs, hauled them to Marion, and constructed the building, the roof being of shakes and the floor of puncheons. Among those who helped erect this first seat of justice were James and John Hunter, the Stambaugh brothers, James and Elias Doty, and others. The first case, it is said, tried in this court house was one brought against James Doty for jumping a claim on the west side of the river, adjoining the claim of Robert Ellis, the question being whether or not a man erecting a bark building and claiming the land had complied with the law. The jury was impaneled and a trial had which lasted for some time. When the case went to the jury the judge and all vacated so that the jury could use the small room in arriving at a decision. The jury was out the afternoon and all night, and at ten o'clock the next[Pg 35] morning they reported that they were unable to agree. During all this time they had had nothing to eat, and the water they had to drink was very poor. Upon this jury sat James Hunter, one of the first settlers of the county, who was the only stubborn one to hold out in favor of Doty. He used to tell later that he felt that he could never look James Doty in the face if he should consent to such a verdict as the other eleven had framed up against him. The case was tried at a subsequent term when the jury decided in favor of Doty, to the effect that while he was later than the claimant in making his claim he was a bona fide settler with the intention of becoming a permanent settler.

The next court house built in Marion was a frame structure still standing just west of the present brick building, and now used as a hotel. The present brick court house was erected by George W. Gray, the brick superstructure being built by Peter D. Harman, of Bertram, father of Warren Harman, of Cedar Rapids. Much of the carpenter work was done by that old pioneer, recently deceased, William Patterson, father of W. D. Patterson, of Cedar Rapids.

The first jail was erected in January, 1840, the contract for the building being awarded to William Abbe and Asher Edgerton for $635.00. The building was finished by May 1st of the same year. The first moneys raised by sale of lands were applied on this contract.

At the July session, 1849, the county was divided into three districts as follows: the townships of Washington and Fayette composed District No. 1; Franklin and Brown composed District No. 2; and Marion and Putnam District No. 3. At the July session, 1840, the board of commissioners began to discuss the question of township organizations. A vote of the county was ordered at the next election to determine the voice of the people; the election took place in August of that year and resulted in favor of the proposition.

Lists of townships are as follows: Marion, Franklin, Washington, Fayette, Putnam, and Brown established in 1841; Linn and Rapids, 1843; Otter Creek, 1844; Buffalo and Maine, 1848; Monroe, 1849; Spring Grove, 1853; Clinton, 1854; Jackson, 1855; College, Bertram, Boulder, and Fairfax, 1858; Grant, 1872; and Cedar, 1906.

The first records of the district court held in Linn county are dated Monday, October 26, 1840, Iowa Territory, Linn county. Pursuant to an act of the legislature of the territory, approved July, 1840, the district court of the United States and also for the Territory of Iowa met at Marion in said county on Monday, October 26, 1840. Present: The Hon. Jos. D. Williams, judge of the second judicial district for the territory; W. G. Woodward, district attorney of the United States for the district of Iowa; R. P. Lowe, prosecuting attorney for the second judicial district; H. W. Gray, sheriff of the county of Linn; S. H. Tryon, clerk of the district court; Lawrence Maloney for the marshal of the territory.

The following grand jurors were among the best known settlers: Aaron Usher, Samuel Ross, James Leverich, D. W. King, Israel Mitchell, W. H. Chambers, William Donahoo, Dan Curtis, W. T. Gilberts, G. A. Patterson, Isaac Butler, John Goudy, J. A. Gibson, Joe Barnett, Asher Edgerton, William Chambers, O. L. Bolling, Dan J. Doty, and Joseph Warford. As bailiff of the grand jury served Perry Oxley, one of the best known settlers.

The petit jurors were: D. A. Woodbridge, Isaac Carroll, G. W. Gray, B. McGonegal, John McCloud, Thomas Goudy, J. W. Willis, John Long, J. W. Margrove, Ira Simmons, John Crow, Joe Carroway, Steve Osborn, H. B. Mason, O. R. Gregory, John Nation, Thomas Maxwell, and George Yiesly.

One of the early cases of record is that of A. Moriarty vs. N. G. Niece. One of the early jury trials was that of H. C. Dill vs. John Barnett: one of the first[Pg 36] criminal cases was that of Territory vs. W. K. Farnsworth, indicted for starting a prairie fire; the jury returned a verdict of "not guilty."

The probate docket is a very small volume but is filled with entries of much historical interest concerning the old citizens of the territory. Among a number of entries can be found the following: In the estate of A. Coles, claim filed and allowed November 8, 1842; in the estate of Thomas Gray, claims allowed in 1844; in the estate of J. Barnett, claims allowed in 1843 in favor of Israel Mitchell in the amount of $4.50; in the estate of John Crow, claims allowed 1842, as well as against the estate of Elias Doty, administered upon in 1843 by M. J. Doty and Jos. Crain, administrators. The estate of A. L. Ely takes up a number of pages.

The first default case seems to be listed for the October term, 1840, that of James D. Stockton vs. Stephen Osborn, et al, the claim being assigned by John O. Gray to plaintiff. The next case was that of Thomas W. Campbell and Perry Oxley vs. John Barnett, which was a transcript from J. G. Cole, a justice of the peace. R. P. Lowe acted as district attorney, while Isaac Butler was foreman of the grand jury.

The first entry made by a native of a foreign country to become a citizen of the United States was made by Peter Garron, stating that he was then a resident of Linn county and that he was formerly a subject of Scotland of the United Kingdom of England and Ireland, and that it was his intention to renounce allegiance to Queen Victoria and become a faithful citizen of the United States.

The first divorce action was brought by Dyer Usher against Mary Usher at the October term, 1842, but it seems that the notice of publication was not served as ordered and no decree was granted.

The first decree of divorce granted was that on the petition of Mrs. Parthena C. Hewitt vs. Abraham Hewitt, rendered at the March term, 1844.

Pursuant to an act of the legislature of Iowa, approved April 3, 1868, the county of Linn became part of the second circuit of the eighth judicial district, the circuit consisting of Cedar, Linn, and Jones counties, Hon. S. Yates, of Cedar, being elected judge.

The first term was held at Marion January, 1869, when W. G. Thompson appeared as prosecuting attorney and A. J. McKean as clerk.

The legislature in a few years changed the boundaries of this circuit, making it composed of Cedar, Linn, Johnson, Jones, Iowa, Tama, and Benton counties. It was known as the eighth district of the circuit and district courts. John McKean was judge of the circuit court and John Shane, of Vinton, judge of the district court.

By an act of the legislature the circuit court was abolished and Linn county was incorporated into a district composed of Linn, Cedar, and Jones counties with three judges.

Linn county has had its share of noted trials, and many are the pages which may be gleaned from its musty records to show how treachery, cowardice, and selfishness have here, as in many other places, played their parts. It is not best to uncover many of these pages, as it would perhaps add nothing to the general information or be of any value except as historical relics of a former age.

One of the first murder cases in the county, at least as far as known, was that of Nathan Carnagy who was brutally assaulted by James Reed in Marion in 1847. Reed had been drinking heavily and got into a quarrel with Carnagy about some old trouble. Reed was arrested, tried before a jury, and acquitted.

Another case was that of the killing of Pat O'Connell by Samuel Butler in 1865, the affair growing out of a dispute over some property interests. The parties met on a public highway, a quarrel ensued with disastrous results. The jury in this case also returned a verdict of "not guilty."

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John Akers was murdered in a saloon in Cedar Rapids in 1864 by one Decklots; the jury returned a verdict of "guilty." This sad affair was due to liquor, both parties being more or less under its influence at the time the quarrel began.

There are a number of murder cases of an appalling nature on record; sometimes a conviction and sometimes an acquittal resulted.

On the civil side of the calendar can be found many cases attracting attention, sometimes on account of the charges made, at other times on account of the large amounts of money involved. In this forum magnificent addresses were heard, and no lawyer practicing at the Linn county bar was ever a miser of his eccentricities, whatever they might have been. Most of them had the thread of the attorney in their nature and took to oratory like a duck to water, and most of them in these early pioneer days went in to win the jury at all hazards, possessing the power to stir the heart and to make their personality felt.

Along the American frontier were always found the outlaws; sometimes they outnumbered the honest settler and sometimes not, depending more or less upon conditions. Outlaws preferred to hover on the frontier where courts of justice were unknown and where the sons of toil, busy with making a living, had no time to defend themselves against outlawry. Some of these outlaws had committed theft and robbery and were living upon this borderland of civilization, knowing that it would be perfectly safe under assumed names. Others came here for the special purpose, knowing it was easier to make a living by theft than by honest toil. Thus, the Linn county frontier at an early date was infested with this class of people, and for a number of years the rights of the people had to be protected by associations organized for this purpose, and made up of the best class in the community, until such a time as law and order could be enforced by decrees of court and by penitentiary sentences.

When the first white settler came into the Red Cedar valley there were only two counties fully organized west of the Mississippi, with the exception of the state of Missouri. These counties were Dubuque and Des Moines. They extended from a flag station at Fort Armstrong back into the country forty miles, and from the Missouri line to a line running westward from Prairie du Chien in Wisconsin. It was a large tract of country, and offered secure hiding places for law violators. In this wild country, along rivers where the timber was thick, hiding places for the outlaw were offered, and when settlers did come in the outlaw did not like to remove, and, consequently tormented the actual settler and frequently took by stealth or force such personal property as he wanted.

In the early day the country bordering on the Cedar river was flooded with counterfeiters, and it is stated that this counterfeit money was so well made that it was difficult to tell which was the good money and which the bad and, in fact, at times it seems that the good money was a scarce article. No one was able to tell where this counterfeit money came from, but it is supposed very little, if any, was made here but that it was imported from other places and distributed by "healers" on a percentage basis. While a cry was raised against counterfeit money, only the government could handle such cases and very little was done to start proceedings. Now and then the government attorney would bring a case or two, but as a rule the defendants were generally released by a jury, many of whom were friends of the parties accused.

It was not until horse stealing became prevalent that the people arose in arms against the outlaw and formed associations called "anti-horse thief" associations.[Pg 38] It was a difficult thing at first to prosecute, as the gang was well organized and had a perfect system of stations, agents, signs, and signals. The members of these gangs which infested Cedar, Jones, and Linn counties in the early days dressed better than the honest farmer, were more charitable, and in the day time, at least, were looked upon as the most respectable persons in the community. They were shrewd and cunning in their business transactions, and hedged themselves in such a way as to escape detection and exposure for a long time. These "free booters" and plunderers would move from county to county and from community to community if things got a little hot and they feared exposure. In counties where they were in the majority they would intimidate and scare the actual settlers, even if these knew positively that depredations had been made. And frequently the honest settler who attacked and complained was forced to leave the country instead of the outlaw who had many friends who came to his rescue. Many a man who was known to make a complaint before a grand jury, to a prosecuting attorney, or judge would be trailed by a company of outlaws, threatening letters would be written against himself and members of his family, that his buildings would be destroyed by fire if he persisted in bringing suits or attempted to file an information of any kind against any members of the band.

A few of these men who were at least accused of being members of these various gangs of counterfeiters, horse thieves and other desperadoes may be mentioned.

Perhaps the most noted ones were the members of the Brodie gang, composed of John Brodie, and his four sons—John, Jr., Stephen, William, and Hugh—who came into Linn county in 1839 and were among the first settlers in this county. They were natives of Ohio. Some had lived in Michigan for a time, and before coming here had commenced their career of villainy. On account of some misdemeanor they were driven from Clear Ford on the Mohican river in what is now Ashland county, Ohio, in 1830 or 1831, and sought refuge for a time in Steuben county, Indiana. Here they remained for a couple of years when they became so notorious as to arouse the country against them, and they fled westward in about 1835 and found their way into what was known as the Rock river country, or Brodie's Grove, Dement township, Ogle county, Illinois. In this part of Illinois at this time the country was completely under the control of outlaws and desperadoes, and here the Brodies found congenial companionship.

Early in 1839 the Brodies gang were driven out by an organized society called the "regulators," composed of law abiding people who insisted upon law enforcement. They then drifted westward and located in Linn county. From this time on for a number of years there was scarcely a term of court but that one or more members of this family was arraigned for trial on some criminal charge or other.

Sam Leterel, Christian Gove, James Case, also known as Jim Stoutenberg, McConlogue, Squires, McBroom, and others were members of this gang. McConlogue resided for a time at Cedar Bluffs, later removing into Johnson county where Morse is now located. Stoutenberg resided at times with McConlogue and at times with Squires. A number of others associated with the gang and lived on the borders of Linn and adjoining counties and went by various names. Where they came from no one knew and they dropped out of sight if there was any danger of arrest and conviction.

In 1839 John Goudy and his son-in-law, Thomas McElheny, and a son settled in Linn county, and it was noised abroad that the family was very wealthy. To ascertain whether or not they had money, some time in April, 1840, a man by the name of Switzer was sent to visit the Goudys under the pretense of wanting to borrow money, the real object being to ascertain whether or not the parties kept money and whether or not he could obtain a pretended loan. The loan was declined for some reason or other, but it is supposed that Switzer learned enough[Pg 39] in his talk with the Goudy family to know that they had money and there would be a chance to make a good haul. The gang went up along the Cedar river on the west side and crossed the river about where Goudy's home was. Here McConlogue had some conversation with a person who knew him. About midnight of a day in April the door of the Goudy cabin was forced open and the inmates awoke to find themselves surrounded by five burglars who threatened their lives if they did not give up their money. Old Mr. Goudy replied that he had but little money, only $40.00, and that they could find that in his vest pocket. The vest was searched and the money found. They insisted that he had more and demanded it. The old man persisted that it was every dollar he had, or that was about the house. The leader of the gang then ordered the house to be searched and directed the occupants of the beds to cover their heads at once. In the shuffle for places Mrs. McElheny, a daughter of Goudy, recognized Switzer, who had been there to borrow the money a few days before, and also another member of the gang who was well known by the family. In the search for money a purse containing $120.00 belonging to a daughter, Hannah, was found by the burglars. In an old leather belt used by Mr. Goudy there was also a $100.00 bill which the robbers overlooked or could not find in their hurry to search the house.

They became very angry at not finding any more money, having expected to find $9,000.00 which Mr. Goudy was reported to have had in the house at the time. The robbers on leaving the house cursed every member of the family, and seemed much put out at the haul they had made. Captain Thomas H. Goudy, a married son, lived near his father's cabin. He had been a captain of militia in Ohio and his uniform was hanging upon the wall. The robbers seeing this remarked "a military officer must be a rich man," and his money was demanded, but they received nothing, and after turning over everything in the house and finding only some provisions, they left Goudy and went to the cabin of William F. Gilbert, another prominent settler in the neighborhood, who was also supposed to have considerable money. On the night in question Gilbert had stopping with him three men, the mail carrier who operated a stage between Dubuque and Iowa City, and two others. In the Gilbert house, as in the other house, the cabin consisted of only one room with several beds, and on this night Mrs. Goudy and her children occupied one bed, the strangers another bed, while Goudy and the mail carrier slept on the floor by the fire. The entrance of the robbers was so sudden that before the occupants knew what was going on they were covered with guns and clubs, and their money was demanded. Goudy rallied to defend his home, and so did the mail carrier who slept near the door. Both men were knocked down and the cheek bone on one side of the mail carrier's face was smashed completely by a blow from a club wielded by one of the robbers.

The house was thoroughly searched and the drawer of a box which was supposed to be opened by a secret spring known to no one but members of the family was forced and a $50.00 bill and some $30.00 or $40.00 in change were found and taken. While all the older members were frightened Mr. Goudy's son, during the plundering, arose in bed and recognized a neighbor—one Goodrich, who lived but a half mile distant—as one of the robbers. This neighbor had up to this time been looked upon as a respectable man. It was he who opened the drawer as quickly as though he was one of the family. The robbers secured as their share of the booty this night about $240.00. A young daughter of Mr. Goudy, who remembered well that night, was later married to Judge John Shane, of Vinton, a well known jurist and a most excellent judge.

This wholesale robbery stirred the whole country, and Captain Thomas Goudy especially, being a military man, insisted that now it was high time for the people to arouse themselves and if the officers of the law refused to do anything then the settlers would take the law into their own hands and start something going. Thomas and his father went to J. W. Tallman at Antwerp and[Pg 40] Colonel Prior Scott at Pioneer Grove for advice and counsel, and especially to apprehend one Wallace who was implicated in this robbery. Colonel Scott went among his people and organized a "mutual protective association," the settlers hunted up their rifles and shot guns, and the organization was ready to begin work. Wallace had fled, but pursuers were on his track and he was apprehended in Illinois City in Illinois, ten miles above Muscatine, by a citizen named Coleman and turned over to Thomas Goudy and his party. Coleman's reputation in the vicinity was not the best and he had been suspected of harboring outlaws, but it was stated on account of some difficulty in the division of spoils he and Wallace had had a falling out and hence Wallace's easy capture.

A warrant was taken out for the arrest of Switzer, and when Wallace was returned Switzer was also arrested and a preliminary examination was held before John G. Cole, one of the first justices of the peace in Linn county. Both of the parties were held to bail. Their cases came on for trial at Tipton at the October term, 1841, of the district court.

James W. Tallman, a resident of Antwerp, accompanied by several neighbors, started out to arrest Switzer, a large man and an ugly one. Switzer resided near Halderman's mill. At two o'clock in the morning a posse surrounded Switzer's home. He refused to open the door and they waited till daylight before he was taken in custody. Switzer's cabin was a perfect arsenal, there being guns, pistols, and ugly knives scattered all around.

Later James Stoutenberg, also known as Jim Case, was arrested at McConlogue's as an accomplice and member of the gang. He was taken into the woods near McConlogue's and examined in the court of "Judge Lynch" in order to obtain a confession from him, and he was finally tied to a tree and severely flogged. He was never seen alive again. Some assert that he left the country, and others that members of the party carried him to the Cedar river, tied him to a stone raft and left him to his fate.

McConlogue was also arrested as being a member of the gang in the robbery, but he established an alibi. Being satisfied that he was guilty of helping to plan the robbery, the pioneer settlers, duly aroused, tried him by rules not known in the ordinary law court. He was sentenced to be hanged, but finally it was agreed that this sentence should be changed to whipping, and that each one of the citizens should give him five lashes on the bare back, and if that failed to bring a confession as to the particulars of the robbery and the extent and names of the gang, then he should be whipped the second time until he died. Blows continued to fall upon his quivering and bleeding back until he implored for mercy and promised to reveal all he knew about the robbery and the operations of the "free booters." He admitted having knowledge of the Goudy robbery and that he received as his share of the booty $25.00. He also admitted that Wallace was the leader of the gang at this time and that Switzer was another member of the gang of five men who perpetrated the robbery. The members of the association after this confession let him go, but first applied a solution of salt on his lacerated flesh, followed by an application of slippery elm bark to remind him of the ordeal he had recently passed through, and which he never forgot. At this time McConlogue was under indictment in Johnson county for assaulting a man named Brown with intent to rob him; on this charge he was tried and sent to the penitentiary.

Goodrich, a neighbor of the Gilberts, who had taken part in the robbery and who had been recognized by the latter's son, was also horse whipped and gagged at the same time but he refused to answer any questions and denied having taken part in the robbery. Soon after this he removed from the county and was never heard of afterwards.

McConlogue's admission implicated McBroom, who had been known for some time previously as one of the brightest men of the gang, and who was also supposed to be a lawyer. He was also caught and whipped nearly to death near what is known as Scott's mill, without making any confession, but with threat that if anything more was heard of any attempted robbery of any kind by any member of the gang everyone, including himself, would be swung up to the first oak tree. It is needless to say that he immediately left the country and was never heard of again.

[Pg 41]

William Stretch, an old settler, many years afterwards made a trip down the Mississippi and there in one of the river cities, either New Orleans or Memphis, he met and recognized McBroom who had been so severely flogged on the banks of the Cedar river. McBroom claimed that he had lived an honest life since removing from the Cedar river and he begged Stretch not to say anything about it, at least in his new home. Stretch agreed to this, but investigated to ascertain whether or not McBroom had told the facts, and found that he was a respectable citizen, one of the leaders in that city, and had accumulated a fortune—between forty and fifty thousand dollars.

Another member of the gang, a cousin of the Brodie boys, and in many ways a bad fellow, was overtaken in Washington township, this county, while driving and there shot by a band of what was known as "regulators" or members of the "anti-horse thief association." Seventeen bullets had penetrated his body. Who had a hand in this act is not known, although the members are said to have belonged to some of the first families of the county. When Wilson was caught he was passing through the county with a team of stolen horses which had been brought from the eastern part of the state.

The trial of Switzer, who had been indicted for burglary in 1840, was transferred on a change of venue from Linn to Cedar county. It came up at the October term of the district court, Joseph Williams presiding. George McCoy was sheriff and William Knott was his deputy. The following named persons, all well known settlers, sat on this jury: C. Kline, William Morgan, Elias Epperson, Abe Kiser, Porter McKinstry, P. Wilkinson, J. S. Lewis, John Lewis, William Denny, W. H. Bolton, Peter Diltz, and Samuel Gilliland.

Considerable excitement prevailed at this trial. Switzer was represented by able counsel who put up a great defense. Mrs. McElheny and other members of the family unmistakably identified Switzer as the person who had been there before to borrow the money and who was one of the leaders on the night of the robbery. Switzer tried to prove an alibi, and had a number of people who swore that he had been at another place on the night of the robbery. It is said that the jury was out two days and two nights and during this deliberation Switzer tried to approach Knott by saying that he wanted help and that as soon as Knott found out the jury had found him guilty he asked him to give him some sign by taking a handkerchief out of his pocket. What he would have attempted then is not known. Knott refused, the jury disagreed, eleven standing for conviction and one for acquittal.

During the trial a large grey horse was hitched in front of the building used as a court house, for what purpose no one ever understood, nor did any one know who was the owner of the horse. Switzer had a number of friends who hung around the jury and around the court house during the trial. As the jury came out one of the jurors had a handkerchief protruding from the side pocket of his coat. Switzer recognized the signal. With the nimbleness and quickness of a bare back rider he jumped on to the horse and darted away like a cyclone. Knowing the proposition Switzer made to Knott there seems to be some reason to believe that this member of the jury had given Switzer the sign. When the jury reported they were unable to agree, Switzer's friends started out to find and convey to him the result, but could not find him until the day following, when they found him concealed among some of the timber along Sugar creek.

[Pg 42]

Another warrant was issued for his arrest, but there was some delay in serving this notice and in the meantime he made his escape. In 1852 William Knott was in California and there met Switzer at Carson river in Nevada territory and had a conversation with him. Switzer admitted that he had been in a very tight place when he was under arrest in Cedar county, and he asked Knott to convey his best wishes to the juror who had hung out in his favor. Mr. Knott ascertained that Switzer's morals had not changed any on account of his removal. In 1874 Judge John Shane and his wife visited California, and upon inquiry at Vallejo ascertained that Switzer lived in that vicinity, and although a very dissolute and reckless man and feared by all, he had accumulated a handsome fortune. He also discovered that the sons were following in the footsteps of their father, and that one of them was under indictment for having killed a man.

At the time of the Switzer arrest and trial for the Gilbert robbery a civil suit had also been brought against him for the recovery of the money and a judgment was obtained. Judge Shane consulted an attorney and tried to get a transcript of his judgment in order to collect the same, but for some reason the records could not be found and the judgment could not be transcripted. Switzer died in California in 1877.

One of Switzer's best friends and a hanger-on at the court, a desperado, surrounded by a number of fellows of the same type, was Christopher Burns. He carried revolvers and bowie knives and wore a gentleman's cloak of the old style thrown loosely about his shoulders. The sheriff, his deputy, and a number of men surrounding them also carried arms, and in case the jury had returned a verdict of "guilty" it was Burns's intention, no doubt, to rescue his friend and a bloody battle would have taken place. Burns left the country immediately and was shot by a neighbor in a quarrel on the upper Missouri river in 1845.

The whipping of McBroom, Case, and others, and the arrest of Switzer and his flight put a stop to these outrages, so from 1841 to 1855, while many suspicious persons still lived in the community, they were more guarded in their movements than before, and these desperate acts did not take place, although for many years after this a good horse was not always safe property to keep in the country.

From History of Linn County, 1878

It seems that the first store was located at Westport where there was a barter trade carried on with Indians. W. H. Merritt ran a store at Ivanhoe in 1838, which was located on the government road. John Henry seems to have operated the store at Westport, but whether he bought this from Wilbert Stone is uncertain. It is stated that William, or Wilbert, Stone, sold his store or had one at Westport about 1837 where he did some trading with the Indians. He must have been there as early as 1837 because he sold out his interest to John Henry and removed further up to what became Cedar Rapids, and had been living there for some time when Robert Ellis found him on the west side of the river upon his arrival in May, 1838.

None of the land at that time had been surveyed, so all the rights the people had were known as "squatter" rights, which they sold as any other land, and which would give them the privilege of filing on it when the land would get into the market. Much of this land was handled that way. The southeastern and eastern part of the county were first settled, and then settlements were made along the Cedar river, which would be natural for the reason that people had to use the river more or less in keeping in communication with other places.

It would be impossible to give the names of all the early settlers for the reason that some only remained a short time and moved away again and the names[Pg 43] of these have been lost. A few only can be mentioned to give the reader an idea of where and how certain towns were staked out and buildings commenced. The Linn county lands first came into the market in March, 1843, and not till then, did the settlers come in any large numbers. All were anxious to get free lands. The town sites were laid out as follows, though they were only squatter's rights: Westport in July, 1838, by Israel Mitchell; Columbus (Cedar Rapids), September, 1838, by William [or Wilbert] Stone; Ivanhoe, October, 1838, by Anson Cowles; while the town site of Cedar Rapids was laid out by N. B. Brown and others August 4, 1841. The first plat, however, recorded was by the father of Elias Doty. This was recorded after the land had come into market, when Westport was re-named Newark, and was filed November 12, 1844.

The tide of civilization gradually flowed westward from the Mississippi river. The regular chain of progress is clearly shown, and forms a portion of the history of Linn county. Young men pushed bravely ahead, claiming rights to unsurveyed lands, expecting in a short time a rise in values and big money in their holdings. Many of these men were single and never intended to make this, or any other community, their permanent home. All they wanted was to pick out the best claims, erect shacks, hold them down until men with families came, who had a little money and were willing to pay so as to get a home at once. Many of these young venturesome spirits frequently in six months or a year would pick up from $500.00 to a couple of thousand for a claim, depending somewhat upon the improvements made. At times these squatters would erect fairly good log houses and stables, and dig a well or two, and would also put in a little garden stuff—potatoes and the like—so as to keep the family partly, at least, over winter. Crops and all improvements would go with the bargain. Many of these men drifted farther westward and undoubtedly lived nearly all their lives on what might be known as the border land of civilization. They preferred this kind of life, and whenever a community was settled up it lost all interest for the original pioneer; he wanted and preferred to live among frontier ruffians; would fight if he had to, and would always defend himself against any intruder. These men enjoyed this kind of a life and thrived upon it, and all they cared for was a little money, good times, and the freedom they so much craved and which the frontier afforded.

"While it is true that those who located in this county in the years 1837 and 1838 came from the east, it is also certain that this section would not have been reached so early in this century had the lands immediately west of the Mississippi been unselected. It was, and still is, the desire of genuine pioneers to find a spot beyond the confines of civilization, no matter how crude the outlying stations may be."

The first settlement of whites in Iowa had been at Dubuque, where Dubuque and his followers worked the mines at that place. This at one time was a great center of attraction, but as the government restricted settlers from coming in, they were driven back until treaty arrangements were made with the Indians, who were the owners of the land upon which the mines were located. These men who first came as miners early saw the exceeding beauty and fertility of the Iowa lands, and thus news was spread among the people of the east before the Iowa lands were thrown open for settlement. Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois were by this time pretty much settled up, and so was Missouri and nearly all the land adjoining the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Thus it was that as soon as the word came from the government that part of Iowa was thrown open to settlement adventurous men and brave women soon began to cross the Mississippi and to settle in various parts of what was then so well known as the Black Hawk land. There were no roads in those days, not even trails, and consequently a person did not dare to venture out on the prairie, but he generally followed some stream so that he could find his way back to the starting place, at least.

[Pg 44]

Most of the people who came west to settle had no idea of where to locate or of the condition of the Iowa lands. They were bold, fearless, and determined, as well as resolute, and they pushed on until they found a locality which suited their fancy and here they pitched their tents and lived in their wagons until suitable log cabins were erected.

Prior to 1829 there was not even a ferry established at any regular point on which to cross the river into Iowa; even the miner, Dubuque, when he wanted to re-cross to the Illinois side had to borrow an Indian canoe. The familiar Du Bois, who came early into Illinois in Joe Davies county, trading with the Indians, had no other means of crossing the river than in Indian canoes. By the latter part of 1829 one John Barrel was commissioned to maintain a ferry at Rock Island, which at that time was within the confines of Joe Davies county, which extended for miles and miles along the river, like Dubuque county on the west side of the river. Col. George Davenport also obtained a permit to run a ferry from Davenport across the river, the ferry charges being fixed by the commissioners so that there could be no hold-up. The following charges were made, which must have been pretty high for the people of small means in those days:

To avoid paying this ferry charge a great many of the settlers started early in the spring and would cross the river on the ice and thus save this additional expense. William Abbe and his family, and many others who settled in Linn county, at least those who were familiar with the ferry charges, crossed on the ice.

George Davenport established a trading post as early as 1831 at the mouth of Rock creek, and another on the east side of Cedar river just above Rochester a short time later. Thus, gradually, there extended a system of small stores in the bayous, creeks, and rivers where trading was carried on mainly with the Indians. The settlers who came generally followed these trails and would be helped and advised where to go and where to find the best roads, and also as to whether or not the Indians in the immediate vicinity of the stores were hostile or friendly.

Block houses had also been erected near these frontier stores for protection in case of Indian outbreaks.

Another trading point was that of Rockingham which was laid out as early as 1835, and in the early forties considered one of the best villages in the territory. It was to this place the early settlers came up to 1841-42 to trade, as well as to Muscatine and Davenport.

The settlers who came late during the summer of 1838-39 were unfortunate in case they were unable to get enough hay for their stock, for the winters were very cold and there were no provisions or food to be purchased, and many a family along the Cedar river in Linn and Cedar counties during these years endured some severe trials. Money was scarce, provisions of all kinds high, and no trading posts nearer than those at Davenport, Muscatine, and Rockingham. It is said that Robert Ellis and Philip Hull came to William Abbe's on their way to Muscatine to get provisions in the fall of 1838. William Abbe gave them $15.00—all the money he had—and with tears in his eyes told them to buy what they could, for that he did not know what would become of his wife and children when that was gone, for it was all the money he had in the world. They were absent about two weeks, and brought back as much provisions as they could buy with what money they had, and by hunting during the winter they got along and helped William Abbe. In the forties William Abbe secured government contracts, and then became a well-to-do man. Robert Ellis was a partner with Abbe many times in supplying the outposts with provisions.

[Pg 45]

Many families during the latter thirties and the early forties experienced some hard times in Iowa. To make the situation and surroundings still more difficult the creeks and sloughs between the settlements were treacherous quagmires in which wagons going for or returning with provisions were sure to settle in up to the hubs, and when once in the mud there was no way to get them out except by unloading or by going to the nearest store for help, which would be many miles away. Sometimes the assistance of two or three additional yoke of oxen was secured to pull out the wagon.

The winters of 1837-38-39 and 40 began early, snow falling to the extent of a foot or two as early as the latter part of October, and it increased as the winter advanced. There was no thaw in January, and the settlers were completely shut in until about the middle of April. Then the snow all melted away and the streams were swollen so as to be impassable. Thus it was impossible to get to any place for food or for provisions until way into the summer. Consequently the settlers experienced many hardships, and much of the stock died from sheer starvation. As early as possible in the spring the settlers would unite and start off for Muscatine, Dubuque, or Rockingham for provisions, and on their return would help the needy settlers who had no opportunity to get away. Sometimes these journeys were undertaken on foot, when two or three would start off with knapsacks to get the necessary foods and medicines, and would return as soon as possible.

It is wonderful what the old settlers endured—how they walked a distance of 100 miles in less than two days. Robert Ellis walked from Michigan to Iowa; he walked to Dubuque, Muscatine, Davenport, and Burlington many times, while it is said of William Abbe that he walked easily 60 miles a day without being very much exhausted. Then, again, when roads were impassable for wheeled vehicles they would ride horseback, leading sometimes one horse to be used as a pack horse to bring back provisions.

To show with how much difficulty the early settlers toiled to get a foothold in Linn county, it might be well to state the story of the life of Edward M. Crow, who, as a young man, in 1837 came into the county to a place near where is now located Viola. He was only 21 years of age, and came west from Chicago, having previously come from Indiana. He stopped first in Illinois and having heard of Iowa, came here in search of cheap land. He was accompanied by James Dawson and James Gillilan, the latter owning a team of horses. They constructed ferry boats of their own on which to cross the river. The other two parties got tired and left. Crow later found Dawson in Illinois. They travelled over much of Iowa, back and forth, mostly on foot; sometimes together, sometimes setting out in different directions alone. Finally, both Dawson and Crow united in Jones county, staking out a claim in Linn county in July, 1837. Returning to Fox river, Illinois, again in quest of provisions, they did not come back to Linn county until in August of that year, when Ed and Garrison Crow and James Dawson began their settlement, erected a cabin and cut some hay for the winter. They were without food, and had to make another trip to the borders of civilization for provisions for the winter. The monotonous months of winter rolled by, Crow's party subsisting by hunting as best they could.

A number of settlers came into Brown township during the early years, such as Jacob Mann, David Mann, his brother, William P. Earle, Asa Farnsworth, and many others. John Crow, father of Ed Crow, John Lynn, O. Bennett, Charles Pickney, Benj. Simmons, Solomon Peckham, and Alexander Rhotan were emigrants who settled here in 1838. All those who came that year and have been[Pg 46] definitely corroborated, or who were there as real settlers, were the following: Samuel C. Stewart, Peter McRoberts, John Afferty, William Abbe, Israel Mitchell, Will Gilbert, J. G. Cole, Hiram Thomas, Joseph Carraway, Jacob Leabo, John Henry, J. Wilbert Stone, Osgood Shepherd, wife, father and several children, Robert Ellis, O. S. Bolling, Mr. Ashmore, W. K. Farnsworth, Robert Osborn, Thomas Campbell, Perry Oxley, Will Vineyard, James Hunter, J. J. Gibson, Robert Deem, Michael Donahoo, William Chamberlain, Mr. Williams, Mr. Evans, J. B. Sargent, John Sargent, A. J. McKean, John Scott, H. W. Gray, S. H. Tryon, Anson Coles, Andrew Safely, Rev. Christian Troup, D. S. Hahn, Hiram Bales, Asher Edgerton, Peter Roland, John Stewart, J. E. Boyd, Philip Hull, John Young, Mr. Granger, L. H. Powell, John McCloud, Mr. Kemp, Listebarger brothers, and many others.

The Hoosier Grove settlement was made in 1838, being in Putnam township; Isaac and Abner Cox and John Holler, and several others, settled here that year.

During the year 1839 Otter Creek was settled by Stevens, Michael Greene, Bart McGonigle, Henry Nelson, William Chamberlain, Dr. J. Cummings, Will Sullivan and Perry Oliphant.

Dyer Usher and Joel Howard ferried people across the Mississippi near Muscatine in the summer of 1839. These men died near Covington a few years ago. Usher always claimed that he was on the site of Cedar Rapids as early as 1836 and located west of the river two years later. The young men could make no money in a new country, and while they took claims they frequently left for civilization to earn a little money. So it might have been that Usher was a bona fide resident of Linn county, while he could get no employment nearer than Muscatine.

A number of persons settled early around Cedar Rapids in the timber a few miles from town. William Knowles located on what is known as Mound Farm in 1839 and gave this up to the Brodie family, consisting of parents, five sons and three daughters. The names of the sons were Hugh, John, William, Steven, and Jesse. Rev George R. Carroll speaks of the family as having an unsavory reputation. The family removed further north when some of them at least were accused of being notorious horse thieves.

Joel Leverich next became the owner of Mound Farm, a person who had somewhat of a history in the early days of politics in the county. In 1843-44 this property was purchased by George Greene.

A number of people lived along the trail between Marion and Cedar Rapids. Among those well known not already mentioned may be named Ambrose Harlan, Dave Woodbridge, J. E. Bromwell, J. P. Glass, Rufus Lucore, John and Will Hunter, Thomas Hare, Will Willis, and many others.

We quote the following from directories and gazeteers published years ago. These statements may not be correct in some details, but the facts were obtained from some who were doubtless familiar with them.

Thus Wolfe in his Cedar Rapids and Kingston directory of 1869 speaks of John Mann, of Pine Grove, as the first settler in Linn county, he coming in 1838, and of the first marriage in the county as that of Sarah Haines to Richard Osborne, in 1839, and the first death as that of Mrs. Haines, an elderly lady who died from an accident in July, 1838.

He further speaks of the first store in Westport as that of Albert [should be John] Henry in 1838. It is thought that Stone also carried on some store or trade with the Indians before this. He speaks of the second store as being operated by W. H. Merritt in 1839. This should be 1838, as is seen from Merritt's letter to S. W. Durham, found in another portion of this volume.

The first claim of land in Cedar Rapids was made by William Stone, in 1838, who built a cabin on the banks of the river on Commercial street, now First street. Is this the Shepherd cabin, and was this so-called first tavern erected[Pg 47] and occupied by Stone, who later was compelled to vacate it and give up his claim? Mr. Wolfe also speaks of the first saw and grist mill built by Brown in 1842, the second flour mill built by Alex Ely in 1845, and the first woolen factory erected by Brown in 1845. Miss Legare built a saw mill in 1851.

As late as 1869 Wolfe speaks of eight flour and saw mills being operated in and around Cedar Rapids. He speaks further of two woolen factories and the steam bakery of I. H. Shaver & Co., and of the Fish paper mill, manufacturing 300 tons of paper annually. The directory speaks of the American Express Company having an office here as early as 1859, with W. B. Mack as the first local agent.

The editor also mentions that the learned professions were represented by ten clergymen, thirteen doctors, and about fifteen lawyers.

He also mentions J. Bell's stage line running daily between Iowa City, Solon, Western, and Cedar Rapids, and also of a line to Vinton.

The following as seen by a traveller may be of interest. It is from A Glimpse of Iowa in 1846, by J. B. Newhall, Burlington, Iowa, W. D. Skillman, publisher, 1846:

The modern traveler speaks of broad meadows, of rich corn fields, and of large manufacturing interests. This traveler of sixty-five years ago speaks of timber which has disappeared and of maple sugar orchards which makes us wonder what they were like.

From Bailey & Hair's Iowa State Gazetteer, 1865, we gather these facts:

[Pg 49]

In Guide, Gazetteer and Directory of the Dubuque & Sioux City Railroad, Dubuque, Bailey & Wolfe, 1868, we read of Cedar Rapids:

[Pg 51]

William Abbe, we believe, was the first white settler to locate a claim within the boundaries of Linn county. He came as early as the summer of 1836, from near Elyria, Lorain county, Ohio, seeking a location, coming via Rock Island. He followed the Red Cedar river as far as the present site of Mount Vernon, where he staked out a claim adjoining a little creek, which to this day goes by the name of "Abbe's Creek." He returned to his home in Ohio and in the winter of 1837 he again crossed the Mississippi with his family on the ice as early as February of that year, according to his daughter's statement, and in April reached the location he had selected the previous year on Abbe's creek. Here he erected one of the first cabins in the county, being about 12×14 feet square, and covered with birch bark, having no floor. In this little cabin the family lived all summer. In the fall he erected a large double log house with three large rooms and an upstairs which was reached by a ladder from within. On this creek the family lived for five years where Mr. Abbe owned four hundred acres. He disposed of this farm and removed a short distance south of Marion where he purchased another farm where he lived till he removed to Marion.

William Abbe was born in Connecticut April 19, 1800, being of English descent. When a young boy he removed to the state of New York. He was married to Olive Greene in 1824 and by her had four children: Lucy, Lois, Andrew, and Susan. Lois Abbe died young, Lucy Abbe died many years ago, Andrew Abbe passed away at San Juan, California, in 1902, and Susan Abbe-Shields now resides at Hollister, California.

William Abbe brought his wife and children to Linn county in 1837; his wife died in 1839 and was buried in a cemetery located near the farm on which he settled, about two miles northwest of Mount Vernon. He married a second time on September 13, 1840, his wife being Mary Wolcott, also from Ohio, and by her he had two sons, born at Marion: Augustus Wolcott Abbe and William Alden Abbe. William Alden Abbe died several years ago; his widow and one child, a daughter, reside in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Augustus Wolcott Abbe, an old soldier, resides in Toledo, Iowa, and has a family of eight children.

Mrs. Susan Shields was born in 1830 and was about seven years of age when she came to Linn county. She was married to John Harman March 16, 1848, who died shortly afterwards, and she later married John Shields, a resident of Vinton, Iowa. In an interesting letter on early Linn county days she writes as follows:

This interesting letter from a real Linn county pioneer more than seventy years of age gives only an idea of the hardships of pioneer life, and what this woman has endured as a daughter and wife of the first settlers.

William Abbe's widow, Mary Wolcott, continued to reside in Marion with her family until August 27, 1861, when she died, universally respected by all who knew her.

Mr. Abbe was an old time democrat and as such was in the state senate session, having the honor to appoint Robert Ellis postmaster of the senate, as a reward of friendship and good will. Mr. Abbe also was a justice of the peace for some time, was appointed commissioner to locate state roads, had the contract for the erection of the first jail at Marion, and was otherwise a very useful citizen. He was also master of the first Masonic lodge at Marion, and one of the best known and best educated men in Linn county up to the time of his removal to California. For a number of years Mr. Abbe was the only person in the county having ready money, loaning the same to his friends for the purchase of their claims. He held government contracts for the delivery of meat and provisions to the Winnebago agency at Fort Atkinson and to the troops at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, and at other places, and thus was acquainted with many of the military officers in the Black Hawk war and with the Indian chiefs and braves of the Winnebago tribe, as well as the Sac and Fox Indians. It is said that William Abbe conversed freely with the Winnebago Indians, and frequently acted as an interpreter when matters of importance came up between members of the tribe and the white settlers; he was always a friend and protector of the Indians and frequently helped them in securing their just rights when they had been robbed by the white free-booters, hunters and trappers.

[Pg 53]

William Abbe was a kind and generous man, and his home was always open to the people who came into Linn county at an early day to seek homes. It is also said that Mrs. Abbe was an excellent cook and many of the old surveyors would ride several miles out of their way to get a meal at the Abbe homestead, for the latch string of the Abbe home was always out.

Mr. Abbe rode horseback a great deal and would be gone for weeks at a time, and while he was away the family lived quietly at home awaiting for days for his return when provisions were frequently scarce and when the snow drifts generally were large. During the first two seasons there were very few crops grown, and consequently the father was kept busy earning a livelihood, the family subsisting mostly on the chase. He traded provisions with the Indians, at times bringing home large quantities of honey which was used as sugar in sweetening black coffee as well as in place of butter on the hard johnny cake.

His son, Augustus Abbe, born on Abbe's creek in 1841, later a member of the 9th Iowa Infantry, now a retired farmer residing at Toledo, Iowa, tells the following of his father's life and history:

William Abbe will be remembered as one of the most prominent of his day and generation in Linn county, for his kindness, his uprightness, his never wavering from the path of right. Whether amid the influences of the home circle or surrounded by the temptations of the mining camp, he was always the same sturdy, upright citizen, wanting to do right and helping his fellow men who were more unfortunate than himself.

One of his old and true friends, speaking of his long deceased friend, expressed words of deepest feeling which can be only expressed in the well known stanzas:

While a great many are now of the opinion that William Abbe was the first actual settler within the confines of Linn county, a number are still of the opinion that Daniel Seward Hahn was the first settler. He came here, accompanied by his wife, Parmelia Epperson Hahn. John J. Daniels, an old settler in Linn county, and a son of Jeremiah Daniels, who came to Linn county in 1844, was pretty good authority on the subject of the early settlers. In a number of conversations had with him on this subject and from what he wrote for the Annals of Iowa, Vol. VI, p. 581, and for the Iowa Atlas, 1907, it is gathered that he was of the opinion that Daniel Hahn was the first actual settler, at least the members of the Hahn family, of whom there are a number still living in Linn and adjoining counties, claim that their ancestor, Daniel Hahn, should be awarded the honor. In the Annals of Iowa Mr. Daniels has the following:

This, Mr. Daniels says, was the statement made to him and others in the lifetime of Daniel Hahn.

This may be true, that in the early day very little, if any, social intercourse was had among the early settlers and no one paid any attention to time or place,[Pg 56] and it might be that Mr. Abbe, Mr. Hahn, and Mr. Crow might have settled at the same time, one never having known that the others had located here.

Quoting from Mr. Daniels's articles, the following might be stated:

Thus it would seem that William Abbe in point of time was the first actual white settler to locate a claim and later to settle on this claim with his family, within the confines of Linn county. True, hunters and trappers may have been here earlier, but no actual bona fide settler, as far as we have been able to ascertain. The testimony of Mrs. Susan Shields, a daughter still living, would seem to suffice as to the time when the great river was crossed and as to the time the family came to Linn county.

[Pg 57]

The county seat of Linn county was established at Marion by a board of commissioners consisting of Lyman Dillon, Ben Nye, and Richard Knott. As the years rolled by the question arose as to the removal of the county seat to Cedar Rapids, where it seems that it was needed, being what was then known as the commercial metropolis of the county. The people of Marion insisted that that city was the center. While there was more or less feeling in the county over the county seat fight, the legislature of Iowa in 1850-51 created the office of county judge, which was designed to and did succeed the former legislative bodies of the several counties of the state. The judge had the same powers possessed by the board of supervisors which controlled the affairs of the county later. Among the rights and privileges peculiar to the office was that most important one of submitting to the people the question of raising money for the purpose of repairing and erecting buildings for the use of the county officers. (See Code of 1851.)

In 1855 James M. Berry was county judge, and a shrewd fellow he was. In pursuance of the law, and what he thought his duty, Judge Berry took steps to erect a jail and a fireproof building for the use of the county officers. These buildings were contracted for by a firm at Mt. Vernon, Ohio, in the spring of that year. Then the people arose in arms as to the high-handed methods of Judge Berry. Political questions were lost sight of in the court house struggle. Speakers were employed pro and con. Judge Berry's term of office expired January 1, 1856, and a successor was to be elected in August of 1855. Marion put up Judge Berry for re-election, while Cedar Rapids put up Rev. Elias Skinner, a well known Methodist preacher who had traveled about the county and who was well known by everyone as an aggressive fighter and a man who believed in what he did and would have things his way if possible. The canvass was in the aggregate with Judge Berry at 1,233 votes, while Skinner showed up with 993 votes, the judge being re-elected by a majority of 240 votes, thereby affirming by a referendum vote his policy.

Reverend Skinner is still living at Waterloo, and not long ago the writer had a conversation with him about this the most famous fight that has ever occurred in Linn county over the removal of the court house. Mr. Skinner just laughed and said he put up a good fight, but the other fellow had the votes.

In 1871 another court house fight was had, but the board held that because of many names of voters being on both petitions these petitions were defective.

In the spring of 1872 another petition was brought out for the re-location of the court house and an endless number of names were again filed pro and con. Much money was spent on both sides; again the Cedar Rapids faction was beaten, some preliminary steps were taken for an appeal but the appeal was stricken from the docket.

Another attempt was made by Cedar Rapids for a change of location of the court house a few years ago, and again the petitioners lost out, and that case has been pending on the court docket but no action has been taken, so that it has for the fourth time been lost, much to the surprise of the citizens of Cedar Rapids and to the satisfaction of the people of Marion and a large portion of the northern part of the county who have always stood out for Marion in the fights on the re-location of the county seat.

[Pg 58]

While it may have been charged at times that Iowa was slow in getting in touch with railway builders, it must be borne in mind that the first railroad to be built in the United States upon which a steam engine was used was constructed in 1829; but very little was done until about 1833-34. By 1835 there were not over 100 miles of road in active operation within the confines of the entire country. Up to 1841 not a mile of track had been laid in any of the following states: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan. By the end of 1848 there were only twenty-two miles of tracks laid in Illinois, eighty-six in Indiana, and none in Wisconsin or Missouri.

Traffic so far had been exclusively by river, lake, canal, or in wagons. Much money had been expended in opening up rivers for steamboat traffic and more or less had been voted to build roads and dig canals. But over such a large stretch of country it was impossible for the nation to do much.

As early as 1837 many citizens of Iowa and others began to agitate for a transcontinental line of railroad to run from the Atlantic states to the Pacific, and for a grant of land by congress for this purpose. Asa Whitney, of New York, an able and public spirited man, had written much in the papers proposing such a project. There was of course at that time more or less speculation as to just where such proposed railroad might pass. The southern senators proposed a road through St. Louis and across Missouri to Kansas. There was a spirit of rivalry at this time. When Chicago began to get its growth the far-sighted people of that city saw that it would be in the interests of Chicago to have the line go directly west and through Iowa, and thus cut out a dangerous rival.

The Chicago press henceforth always favored a direct route through Iowa. As early as 1838 G. W. Jones, then delegate in congress from Wisconsin, secured an appropriation of $10,000, which was expended in making a survey from Lake Michigan through southern Wisconsin.

Now the people of Iowa became active. They wanted a railroad from the lakes west, and this could only be secured by public or state aid. The legislature of 1844 joined in a petition to congress asking a grant of public land to the Territory of Iowa to aid in the construction of a railroad from Dubuque to Keokuk. The grant was to consist of alternate sections extending five miles in width on each of the proposed roads or its equivalent in adjacent government lands.

During the winter of 1844-45 a convention was held at Iowa City where nearly all the counties of the territory were represented by wide-awake young men in the interest of this railway promotion. Several proposed lines were agitated and as some of these lines did not start at any place and went to no place many of these projects failed.

The first grant of public lands in Iowa for transportation was not for railroads but for improving navigation on the Des Moines river. It was made in 1846. Strong then was the prejudice against railway promotion, and little faith did the public men in congress put in this so-called wild speculation.

The people of Iowa were so enthusiastic in the way of railway building and in the promotion of enterprises that they even ignored old political standards. It would appear that when the subject of the training of the candidates was looked into it, it depended more on what use such person would be for the work of getting a railway grant than how he would vote on the tariff or on the rights of South Carolina.

The following letter, written May 28, 1848, by W. H. Merritt to S. W. Durham, an old friend and fellow democrat, shows plainly the attitude of one of the leading men of the party, then living at Dubuque, but who had formerly resided at Ivanhoe and hence was one of the early men in Linn county. He mentions Preston (Colonel Isaac Preston), and gives his reasons for not wanting him. The[Pg 59] Leffingwell mentioned was the well-known W. E. Leffingwell, who formerly resided at Muscatine, then Bloomington, and later removed to Clinton county. He was an eloquent lawyer and a popular man. He was later defeated by William Smyth for congress in this district. Bates and Folsom were both prominent Iowa City men, and well known in political circles for many years. Judge Grant was the noted jurist of Davenport, and was a well-known railroad promoter who had much influence in early years in Iowa.

In this letter Mr. Merritt suggests George Greene as a candidate from Linn county. There is no doubt that if at this time Mr. Greene had been selected, he would have carried the district and made an enviable record as a statesman, and no doubt on account of his judgment and his keenness in business, he would have obtained from congress such favors as would have amounted to much good for Iowa in the first stages of her statehood. The letter does not show whether or not Mr. Greene had consented or would consent to such a course, although it has been stated that he most likely would have consented to have made the canvass. For congress the whigs nominated this year, 1848, D. F. Miller for the first district and Tim Davis for the second district. The democrats nominated for the first district William Thompson, and for the second district Shepherd Leffler. The whigs were strong, the total vote for president at the November elections being, Cass, democrat, 12,093; Taylor, whig, 11,144; Van Buren, free soiler, 1,126.

Leffler was elected, and Miller on a close vote contested the election of Thompson before congress. The committee on elections declared the seat vacant. Leffler, who was elected after an exciting canvass, was a native of Pennsylvania, who came to Iowa Territory in 1835. He sat in the first constitutional convention in 1844, and two years later was elected to congress by the state at large, and hence in 1848 he had the inside track. In 1856 he was again a candidate but was defeated by Tim Davis, his old whig opponent of 1848. In 1875 he was a candidate for governor against S. J. Kirkwood, and was defeated. He died at Burlington in 1879. He had been one of the trusted leaders of his party for many years.

The letters from W. H. Merritt and George Greene show what interest these men had in the railroad enterprise.

[Pg 61]

Mr. Merritt was a man of ability and prominent in the democratic party up to the time of his death. As candidate for governor in 1861, against S. J. Kirkwood, with four other candidates claiming to run on the democratic platform, Mr. Merritt received 43,245 votes out of a total vote cast of 108,700. This testifies to Mr. Merritt's popularity among the people of Iowa.

The following is a report of the railroad meeting held at Marion in 1850 in which nearly all the public-spirited men of the city took part:

The getting of a railroad into Cedar Rapids then was the much talked of scheme, and many people believed that this would also end in failure as many other paper railroads had ended before. But the men at the head of this company were men who had a standing in the financial world and were in touch with the big banks of the country. They did not rely on the taxes voted or on empty promises, for if these failed they would still go on with the work. It is needless to add that this company, like all others, got as much tax as possible and changed the location of the route according to the amounts of bonuses offered. When the road entered Cedar Rapids it was the beginning and the end in the long struggle for railroad supremacy in the county, and decided for all times the supremacy of the river city over the county seat. The latter without a railway could do nothing more than sit down and wait till such a time as some company saw fit to extend a line across the state through other points.

For the air line known as the Iowa Central Air Line, the citizens of Linn county voted in June, 1853, the sum of $200,000 to aid in the construction of the road. In 1856 congress voted a grant of land to the state of Iowa to aid in the construction of four roads across it, including one on the line of this company. The legislature in extra session conferred the land on this road in case it was completed. A contract was let to a New York concern to complete the road to Marion, a distance of eighty miles. On account of the financial crash in 1857 the contractors failed to raise the money and to go on with the work. While the people were sore over this failure another company began building from Clinton west and had completed forty miles during the year 1858. It came as far as Lisbon by the end of this year, and this was the first railroad station within the borders of Linn county.

The Dubuque and Southwestern was extended through to Cedar Rapids in 1865, just six years after the Northwestern road had laid its track to the river and had trains running. This caused Cedar Rapids to become at that early day a sort of railway center, and opened up a new territory towards Dubuque. It was not a success financially till it was absorbed by the Milwaukee road in May, 1878.

The following letter from one of the first employes will be of interest in this connection:

One of the most important occurrences in the county was when on June 15, 1859, the first railroad made its entrance into Cedar Rapids and once and for all made the town the chief city in this part of the state.

This was accomplished after many failures and after much money had been expended for surveys and in other ways. The following from men still living, who remember the affair, will give the reader an idea as to how jubilant all were on the day of this celebration:

George C. Haman was at that time running a drug store at about the same location he has now. The corner of First avenue and First street was then occupied by what was called Greene's hotel, and Mr. Haman occupied a store room in the south side of the building. He remembers distinctly the big celebration held in honor of the first train to arrive.

Mr. Haman said, as near as he could remember, that the town of Cedar Rapids had a population of about 1,500 people at that time and a big celebration was inaugurated and carried out. People from the surrounding country came to town to see the train come in, and the Indians on the reservation at Tama almost turned out enmasse to see the great piece of machinery that they had heard so much about but had never seen. The day was a great holiday, much of the regular business being suspended and the people turned out in their best clothes to celebrate what was to them the greatest day in the history of the city.

The train pulled into the city to the tune of hundreds of voices, that contained but little harmony but plenty of volume. Arms, hats and handkerchiefs were waved in accompaniment, displaying a due appreciation for the beginning of what was to make Cedar Rapids the beautiful and prosperous city that it is. A railroad was what was needed and it was now theirs.

The terminal of the road was about where the packing house is now located, and it was a couple of years before an extension was made, the track being laid as far as the location of the cereal mills, which at that time was an enterprise yet to come.

Mr. Haman says that one incident is fixed indelibly on his memory, and that was the big dance that was held that night. He was obliged to remain at the store during the day and did not get to see the train come in, but he attended the dance which continued until sunrise the next morning. He was a single man and as was the custom had his lady friend with him and was obliged to send her home in an omnibus, the then prevailing means of transportation about the city, as it was time to open the store and he did not have time to accompany her home. The dance was held in what was known as Daniels hall, located where the Masonic Temple now stands.

Another who has recollections of the great event is Emery Brown and it was in conversation between Mr. Haman and Emery Brown that these facts were collected. The road was extended to Cedar Rapids from Clinton, where connection was made to Chicago. There was no bridge across the Mississippi river at that time and the trains were ferried across the river by means of a large, flat ferry boat.

[Pg 65]

In order to secure the railroad the town was obliged to give $100,000 to the railroad company. Stock was issued in payment. James L. Bever was another man in business here at that time and he made it a point to purchase all this city stock he could, which proved to be to his advantage. The road was later leased by the Northwestern and finally purchased.

With reference to this road a Linn county biography offers the following:

[Pg 66]

A vigorous Old Settlers' Association has been maintained for several years, the meeting being held at Marion. Following are lists of the officers since its beginning in 1891 to date, of the members and the death roll:

Names preceded by a star note those who have died since joining the association.

[Pg 77]

[Pg 82]

The following may be of some interest, especially as to the names of the persons mentioned by S. W. Durham as proper persons with whom to consult on matters bearing upon the political issues of the day. It also shows how they fought for postoffices then as they do now, and how careful and shrewd these old fellows were in getting in touch with their constituents. According to a letter from the assistant postmaster-general, Dr. Brice is not deserving of the office, and George Melton is recommended. This was referred to S. W. Durham, as well as the change of the name of the postoffice from Lindon to Springville. It was signed by fifty-eight citizens of Springville. A. C. Dodge was born in 1812, the son of Henry Dodge. He was in congress until the territory became a state, and with G. W. Jones became one of the first two senators from Iowa. Mr. Dodge remained in congress till 1855 when the democratic party lost control of the state and a union of all the other parties elected James Harlan to succeed him. Senator Dodge was later minister to Spain. He died in 1883, having won the respect and confidence of all political parties. The letters show how carefully the friends of Dodge kept him in touch with political conditions in every township in his district.

The assembly met at Iowa City on December 4, 1848. G. W. Jones was a candidate against Judge T. S. Wilson, who lost by a majority of one. Dodge had no opposition in his own party and received the unanimous nomination. The democratic party in this session had a majority on joint ballot. He no doubt had been busy, and had his friends keep him posted on the course of events. This list no doubt was furnished him for the purpose of keeping in touch with the electors and to give him an opportunity to select postmasters in accordance with services rendered. The letters give some the name whig, which would go to show that all the remainder could be relied upon as democratic in their beliefs.

The list has names of a number of men who later became noted lawyers, doctors, and shrewd business men.

The Marion postoffice was not always a plum to fight over, as it has been of late. It was first established in 1839 at the home of L. M. Strong, a farmer and tavern-keeper within the present confines of the county seat. L. Daniels came in 1840 to start the first store, and he in turn became the postmaster for a time till he gave it up to John Zunro, who with Mr. Hoops started a grocery store and wanted the postoffice so as to have people coming in now and then.

Dr. S. M. Brice was located in Center Point about 1840-41, going there from Cedar Rapids. He remained but a short time. Dr. Brice was a whig in politics, and Center Point had always been strongly democratic. He was the first postmaster of the village.

The objections set out in the letter must have been political for he was considered a wide-awake and estimable man in every particular.

[Pg 84]

In 1842 the first postoffice was established in the township known as Brown by Isaac Butler. It was the third postoffice in the county and was known as Springville. Mail was received on horseback weekly. A. P. Risley opened a store in 1845 and became postmaster. He is the person referred to in the letter of Senator Dodge. Mr. Risley sold out and removed a mile east of the town, and with A. E. Sampson laid out a new town called Lindon. A postoffice was secured though not without a fight, and the town of New Lindon assumed the airs of city life. A hotel and blacksmith shop also kept the town alive for the time, but it died like other towns when the railroad was secured by Springville, and the booming town of Lindon has been for many years a good corn field and a rich pasture. Sterling became postmaster at Springville after Risley. He was succeeded by John Hoffman.

While Joseph Greene was postmaster he also acted as the first storekeeper of the town, and it is related of him that he carried his mail in his hat. The following, written by J. L. Enos, in the Cedar Valley Times, may give the reader an idea of the postoffice situation up to the close of the Civil war. He writes as follows:

[Pg 85]

L. Daniels was another of the early postmasters. He, also, was a merchant, and so was Homer Bishop, his successor in office. It was not until J. G. Davenport became postmaster that the postoffice got into politics. In fact it was no plum worth having till about the time of the Civil war. A number of prominent men have since that time held the postoffice—such as Captain W. W. Smith, Charles Weare, Alex. Charles, Geo. A. Lincoln, W. R. Boyd, and W. G. Haskell, the present incumbent.

A. C. Taylor relates how, when he came to Cedar Rapids, he carried on his jewelry store in the postoffice building, his store being located on the alley, in the rear of where the Masonic Temple now stands. The postoffice at Cedar Rapids soon outgrew the first government building, erected in the '90s, and the second was completed in 1909 at a cost of $250,000.

If a person asked for his mail in the olden days more than once a month he was considered too important, and the postmaster would gently remind him that he had no legal right to bother a man more than once a month, at least, about such a small matter as a letter. The postoffice during the past sixty-three years has grown to enormous proportions, till it now takes the entire time of a score of people to expedite the handling of the mails.

[Pg 86]

BY FREDERICK G. MURRAY

Among the first doctors who located in and around Marion should be mentioned S. H. Tryon, F. W. Tailor, and James Cummings. These men came before 1840. They were followed by T. S. Bardwell and L. W. Phelps. Dr. Tryon at least came as early as 1838 and was for many years a well-known public character. He acted as county clerk and held many posts of honor.

Dr. J. K. Rickey bought John Young's claim in Cedar Rapids as early as 1841 and must have been located in that vicinity at that time. What became of him is not known, and whether or not he engaged in the practice extensively is doubtful. There were not many whites there in those early days and it is a question if any had the time or inclination to be very sick. In case they were it was no doubt homesickness, for which a doctor has so far been unable to offer any permanent cure.

The first doctor who came to Cedar Rapids was inclined to blow his own horn. J. L. Enos, the editor of the Cedar Valley Times, has the following to say: "Once when he had returned from Muscatine he claimed to have lost forty pounds of quinine in one of the streams below the Cedar. Constable Lewis once called on him with an execution to secure a judgment. The doctor threw off his coat and prepared for a fight. The constable seeing his opportunity seized the coat and made away with it and found therein sufficient money to satisfy the debt."

Profiting by the example, later comers have avoided fights and have tried to pay their debts.

In the correspondence between S. W. Durham and A. C. Dodge in December, 1848, the following named doctors are referred to: S. M. Brice (whig), Center Point; Ivanhoe, Jno. Evans; Hollenback P. O., Dr. Williams; Cedar Rapids P. O., J. F. Ely.

Thus during 1848 the above named persons must have been residents and practicing physicians in their respective localities. Dr. Brice was the second doctor in Cedar Rapids. Later he moved to Center Point. These men were no doubt slated as candidates for postmasters. Dr. Brice later acted as postmaster at Center Point.

A history of the medical profession in Linn county must be largely made up of a list of names, as the intrinsic work of the medical practitioner is scarcely a fit subject matter for the casual reader.

What seems to be the earliest date in connection with which there is mention of a physician in the county annals is 1841, in which year Dr. Magnus Holmes came to the town of Marion from Crawfordsville, Indiana. Promising to be of great value to the community, Dr. Holmes passed away a short time after his arrival. Dr. Henry M. Ristine, father of Dr. J. M. Ristine, of Cedar Rapids, was a brother-in-law of Dr. Holmes, and came to Marion from Indiana in 1842. Another of the very earliest practitioners was Dr. Sam Grafton, who was located on the Cedar river at Ivanhoe bridge, on the old military road from Dubuque to Iowa City. Just when he came is not known; this was one of the earliest settlements in the county and he had practiced there for some four years previous to 1847, in which year he fell a victim to a typhoid epidemic. Dr. Amos Witter[Pg 87] was one of the first physicians in Mt. Vernon. He passed away in 1862 at the age of fifty-five, having been several years a member of the legislature. In 1886 there was still living in Viola a Dr. S. S. Matson, who had practiced there since 1845. He graduated from the University of Vermont in 1832, the same year in which Dr. Elisha W. Lake, an early Marion physician, graduated from the Ohio Medical College. These two men are in point of graduation the oldest men the county has had. In northeastern Linn the first physician was Dr. Stacy, who lived on the Anamosa and Quasqueton road near Boulder church. He was a brother to the late Judge Stacy, the pioneer promoter of the Dubuque & Southwestern Railroad. Some of the other early practitioners were Dr. E. L. Mansfield, who came to Cedar Rapids or Kingston in 1847; Dr. J. M. Traer, who made Cedar Rapids his home from 1847-51; Dr. J. F. Ely, who came to the same place in 1848; and Dr. S. D. Carpenter, who came in 1849.

Dr. Shattuck, of Green's Mills, now Coggon, Drs. Lannin and Byam, of Paris, Drs. Patterson and Mitchell, of Clark's Ford, now Central City, and Dr. Young, of Prairieburg, were all pioneer doctors in their respective communities. Dr. T. S. Bardwell, who became a leading physician of Marion, settled on a farm in that vicinity in 1840, making his residence in the county date back farther than that of any other medical man except S. H. Tryon.

A rather incomplete business directory of Cedar Rapids in 1856 gives the following as physicians: S. C. Koontz, J. H. Camburn, W. D. Barclay, J. W. Edes, Smith & Larrabee, R. R. Taylor.

A complete city directory published in 1869 gives the names of the following: C. F. Bullen, J. H. Camburn, G. P. Carpenter, J. P. Coulter, J. W. Edes, Mansfield & Smith, Freeman McClelland, John North, Israel Snyder, C. H. Thompson, W. Bollinger, J. C. May. Of these, Dr. Camburn and Dr. Edes were prominent in their profession for many years. Dr. R. R. Taylor was a Virginian, who went to reside in Philadelphia about the time of the Civil war. Dr. J. C. May was a druggist as well as a very popular physician. He was a brother of the late Major May, of island fame.

A medical and surgical directory of Iowa for 1876 gives the first authentic list of doctors in Linn county to which access has been had. A list of fifty is given as in active practice in the county at that time. Only six of these remain: Dr. George P. Carpenter, dean of the profession in Cedar Rapids; Dr. G. R. Skinner, of Cedar Rapids; Dr. T. S. Kepler, of Mt. Vernon; Dr. Hindman, of Marion; Dr. Edwin Burd, of Lisbon; and Dr. F. M. Yost, of Center Point. The last of these, Dr. Yost, class of 1853 University of Pennsylvania, is the oldest living practitioner in the county. His two sons are now associated with him in his work. One other, Dr. J. H. Smith, of Cedar Rapids, has not been in practice for many years but preserves a close relation to his old calling through his presidency of the board of directors of St. Luke's Hospital. The two Doctors Sigworth are still living near their old neighborhood, having retired to Anamosa.

A registry of all physicians practicing in the county was begun in the county clerk's office in 1880-1881. It started with sixty-four names, probably the full number of those in active practice at the time. Since then about 230 additional doctors have been registered, and of this total of nearly 300 about 125 are now practicing in the county.

At Western some of the early physicians were Dr. Crouse, Dr. W. B. Wagner, Dr. Miller, all of whom preceded Dr. J. C. Schrader who removed to Iowa City. Dr. J. C. Hanshay located here in 1863 and Dr. Favour in 1877. Dr. Patterson was the first doctor in Bertram, in 1857. Dr. J. Stricklippe was an early doctor and druggist at Palo, and Dr. J. W. Firkin was the second doctor at Vanderbilt, later known as Fairfax. His son, Edgar Firkin, is now a popular druggist there. Dr. U. C. Roe came to Fairfax in 1864 for the practice of medicine.[Pg 88] He also sold drugs. The business finally drifted into a grocery store, as it seems that the settlers preferred sugar and prunes to pills and quinine.

Among names of note in the early history of these parts are those of several medical doctors whose prominence came along lines outside of their professional work. Dr. John P. Ely's name is prominently connected with the early business enterprises and later growth of Cedar Rapids. The doctor was called in the year he finished his medical studies in New York to the management of commercial and manufacturing interests in this county. The growth of these drew him gradually from the excellent practice for which he at first found time. To the close of his life, however, Dr. Ely kept himself well informed on the progress of scientific medicine. Perhaps the first autopsy in this locality was performed by Dr. Ely in the interests of both science and sobriety, if early annals are authentic, the subject having been in life notorious for his potations.

Dr. Eber L. Mansfield along with a large medical practice found time to build up successful business and real estate interests on both sides of the river at Cedar Rapids.

Dr. Seymour D. Carpenter left the practice after the Civil war and became active and highly successful in the building and financing of railroads in this state and further south. Dr. Carpenter is still living in a hale old age in Chicago.

Dr. Freeman McClelland, a talented graduate of Jefferson Medical College, won for himself enviable popularity and influence through his editorship of the Cedar Rapids Times. The flavor of his writings and rare personality are an enduring remembrance with all who knew him.

Dr. J. T. Headley, the eminent platform lecturer, at present living retired in Philadelphia, is said to have first hung out his "shingle" in Cedar Rapids.

Dr. G. W. Holmes, son of Dr. Magnus Holmes, of Marion, after finishing at Bellevue, went as a medical missionary of the American Board to Persia, where in addition to his other work he became royal physician to the Crown Prince, afterwards Shah of Persia. Dr. Holmes passed away in June, 1910.

Linn county sent a number of doctors to the army during the Civil war. The following list is as nearly accurate as to men and organizations as it was possible to make it:

[Pg 89]

Of those men whose distinctly professional work brought them especial esteem, space will allow for the mention of only a few.

Perhaps for no other one of their brethren did the Linn county profession award so universal preference as to Dr. Henry Ristine. Pioneer, patriot, and public-spirited citizen, he was first and before all a doctor, combining in generous measure the traits and faculties that make an eminently successful surgeon, with culture and genial sympathies. It could be truly said of him that he adorned his profession. His portrait hangs in St. Luke's Hospital along with that of the late Judge Greene, whom he ably seconded in the work of founding that institution. Jurist and surgeon alike believed in the hospital as the workshop without which the doctor could not do his best work, and their efforts accomplished much toward the establishment of medical and surgical justice to the physically afflicted, a form of service that deserves more and more public recognition in every community where moral justice to the criminally accused is so amply facilitated by the courts of law.

Among other well remembered physicians were Dr. J. S. Love, of Springville, Dr. James Carson, of Mt. Vernon, Dr. D. McClenahan, of Cedar Rapids, and Dr. G. L. Carhardt, of Marion. Beginning at an early date and devoting themselves exclusively to their practice till advancing age forced retirement, they all four typically exemplified in their respective communities the life of the family physician. They were, none of them, modern doctors, but they lived not only to see but to rejoice in the day of modern medicine. Long after they had ceased from practice they kept up attendance at medical society meetings, keenly alive to the advancements of medical art and scientific research there discussed. They were resourceful men, and they had labored faithfully and well with the art available in their day, how often futilely none felt more keenly than themselves. The realization that modern methods promised control of much that had baffled them seemed to lighten the burden of their declining years. Their abiding interest and faith in the future things of medicine was an inspiration to their successors.

Of medical organizations in Linn county the oldest is the Union Medical Society, founded as the Linn County Medical Society at Mt. Vernon in 1859 by Drs. Love, Ely, Ristine, Carson, and Lyon. Dormant during the war, it resumed in 1866 and ran till 1873, when its name was changed to the Iowa Union and it became a district society, taking its membership from half a dozen or more counties and centering in Linn and Johnson counties. It still meets twice a year at Cedar Rapids, occasionally at Iowa City for scientific work. Its officers now are: president, C. W. Baker, Stanwood; secretary, F. G. Murray, Cedar Rapids; treasurer, C. P. Carpenter, Cedar Rapids.

The present Linn County Society was organized in Cedar Rapids in 1903. It holds meetings twice a year and is the unit of the State and American Medical Associations. One of its members, Dr. G. E. Crawford, is the outgoing president of the Iowa State Medical Society. Its present officers are: president, Dr. A. B. Poore; secretary, Dr. H. W. Bender; treasurer, Frank S. Skinner.

There are other local organizations at Mt. Vernon and Cedar Rapids. The Practitioners' Club of the latter place meets once a month for discussion and action upon medical subjects of special interest to the members. Its officers are: Dr. H. S. Raymer, president; H. E. Pfeiffer, secretary; G. P. Carpenter, treasurer.

St. Luke's Hospital at Cedar Rapids has already been mentioned. It was founded in 1883. On its consulting staff are Drs. G. P. Carpenter, J. M. Ristine, G. R. Skinner, G. E. Crawford, A. B. Poore, and A. H. Johnson. It has an attending staff of younger men. The hospital has seventy-five beds, having recently added a new and completely appointed maternity department. Mercy Hospital, ninety beds, founded at Cedar Rapids in 1902 and housed in its spacious[Pg 90] new building in 1904, is under the care of the Sisters of Mercy. These finely equipped institutions serve Cedar Rapids, Marion, the railroad systems and their contributing territory with facilities for the best of medical, surgical and maternity work. Few realize the large amount of free humanitarian work they accomplish every year. Together with Linn county's own excellent infirmary north of Marion they represent in a material and public way the present status of medical art, science, and humanitarianism in the county. Personally and privately these are represented by the 125 active practitioners of medicine.

It will be noted that the names of only a few of these have been mentioned and then only incidentally. The scope of this sketch does not allow adequate individual reference to the remainder. Nor is this the place to record contemporary progress. The lives of all the present members of the profession belong not to the past but to the future history of medicine in Linn county. The attached list gives the names of the practicing physicians in Linn county in 1910:

[Pg 92]

In scarcely any locality has the material growth been so fast and substantial during the past seventy years as in Linn county. Old residents who have returned after a period of twenty-five to thirty years mention this fact, and what is true of the cities and towns is perhaps much more true of the rural districts in general.

William Abbe erected a bark cabin for the use of his family the first summer, after he came here, and built a log house that fall for his winter abode. Ed Crow, C. C. Haskins, and others also erected very frail cabins during the first year they lived within the confines of the county. John Henry, it is said, built a small store-building facing the river in the squatter town of Westport in 1838. It was a frame building about 14 x 18, scarcely high enough for any of the Oxley Brothers (who were very tall men) to enter. He also erected a small dwelling house near the store-building, which, if anything, was smaller than the store-building. All the lumber in these buildings, except the window frames and the sills, were cut in the timber adjoining the river; even the roof was cut out of rough boards, with a broad saw. The nails used were brought from Muscatine, as well as a few hinges, and the windows. These buildings were torn down in 1860. The Shepherd Tavern was also a rude log building, as was the John Young house, which was afterwards used as a hotel, with additions added later.

G. R. Carroll, in his Pioneer Life, mentions the first cabin erected by his father, Isaac Carroll, in 1839. It took about ten days to erect an ordinary cabin. "It stood on the east side of the road near Mr. Bower's nursery on the boulevard one and a half miles from the river. It was a very primitive looking structure, 16 x 18 perhaps, with what we called a cob roof, made of clapboards with logs on top to hold them in place. It was quite an agreeable change from our tent and wagons when we entered this new cabin, although there was not a great deal of room to spare after our goods were unloaded and the nine members of the family were gathered within its walls. When the table was spread there was no passing from one side to the other, except as we got upon our hands and knees and crawled under."

Mr. Carroll also speaks of the second house, which was erected the same fall on the same premises. "It was, however, not to be a common kind of a cabin, it was to be a somewhat ambitious structure for the time, in fact it was to be the best house in Linn county, and when completed, it enjoyed that distinction. It was said, that there was nothing in the county that equalled it. The dimensions of this house were 14 x 16, a story and a half high. There were in the walls of this house between fifty and sixty white oak logs, most of them quite straight and free from knots. The ends of the logs were cut off square and the corners were laid up like square blocks, care being taken to cut off enough at the ends to allow the logs to come as close together as possible so as to leave but little space for chinking and plastering when it came to the finishing up. The only boards about the entire building were in the door which I think were brought with us on top of our wagon-box, which was of extra height. The joists above and below were made of logs, the upper ones squared with a broadax. The casings of doors and windows, and the floors above and below, were made out of bass wood puncheons. Slabs were spread out of the logs and then hewn out with a broad axe and the edges were made straight by the use of the chalk line. The gable ends were sided up with clapboard rived out of oak timber three or four feet long, and then shaved off smooth like siding. The rafters were made of hickory poles trimmed off straight on the upper side, and strips three or four inches wide were nailed on the sheeting. Upon these strips shingles made of oak eighteen inches long and nicely shaven, were laid. The logs of the walls in the inside were hewn off flat, and the interstices between were shingled and plastered with lime mortar, the lime being burned by my father on Indian Creek. There were three windows below of twelve lights each, with glass 7 x 9, and a window in each of the gable ends of nine lights, which furnished light for the room above. The fire place was built up of logs on the outside and lined with stone within, and the chimney was built of sticks split out about the size of laths and plastered with clay, both inside and outside."

[Pg 93]

The description of this house gives the reader an idea of one of the most up-to-date houses built before the year 1840. During the past sixty years many commodious farm houses have been erected, having all the modern conveniences installed, such as heating, lighting, together with bath privileges connected with sanitary plumbing. It is said that the late S. C. Bever installed the first furnace in a dwelling house in Linn county, and many people came from over the county to see such a furnace work. Now, not only cities and towns, but farm residences have installed furnaces and other kinds of heating plants, so that which was a novelty fifty years ago is very ordinary today.

The farmers in Linn county early began to invest their surplus money in farm machinery. William Ure drove an ox team to Chicago and brought back a McCormick reaper, which was the first reaper brought into the county, as far as is known. At least it was the first reaper used and operated in and around Scotch Grove. The neighbors said that Ure was foolish and it would surely break him up, but inside of one season it paid for itself. In and around Stoney Point one of the first threshing machines was used; a very small machine which was staked fast on the ground, without a straw-carrier, and operated by horsepower, which was placed on the ground loose and had to be hauled from place to place on a truck. In Linn Grove, Brown township, Washington township, and in other localities, many of these crude reapers and crude threshing machines and corn shellers were seen in operation during the season. Frequently the people who purchased these early machines lost money. The machinery was not always recommended, and sometimes the farmers were not mechanics skilled enough to make repairs when needed. A number got fooled on the first wire-binders and on the check-rowers, as well as on some of the early mowing machines, and many lost heavily in early days on thoroughbred horses and full-blooded cattle. But after all, the spirit of progress was abroad in the community, and in spite of failures, it did a great thing for the people who became interested. The advent of the reaper no doubt changed farming methods in this country. It is said that "the struggle for bread ceased when the reaper was put on the market." At least it placed the struggle for existence on a higher level. Certainly when a machine was invented that could do the work of five or six men and be depended upon, such a machine was worth having, and it soon paid for itself.

The manufacturing of farm machinery in Linn county was not a financial success, as is shown by the failure of the Williams Harvester Works, the Ogden Plow Works, the Star Wagon Works, and many other enterprises, but the spirit displayed by those who were willing to put their money into these untried enterprises, showed the mettle and the ingenuity that many of these early settlers had. People profited by these failures, made a study of the subject, and in course of time these men who lost at times on some investment or purchased machinery which was not suitable to the country, became owners of magnificent farms and up-to-date farmers by long experience.

[Pg 94]

The early corn cribs and granaries were generally built of rails, the kinks filled in with straw or hay. They of course had to be rebuilt every fall, and more or less grain was wasted. The rail corn crib was superseded by long board cribs generally built on the ground without any foundation. These cribs, when empty, were generally blown about the premises and had to be hauled back and propped up before they could be used in the fall. The farmers of Linn county frequently visited in Illinois, and there found models for economical corn cribs. They also read the farm journals, and it was not long until our farmers erected the modern corn crib and granary with gasoline engines, dumps, and elevators. These cribs were substantially built on cement foundations with cement floors, and with a driveway large enough and wide enough to house several wagons and three or four buggies at one time. The early corn crib, it is true, cost little or nothing, but they were a source of expense and annoyance, and much grain was wasted. The modern corn crib, as now erected, is built for a life time, but at a cost of from two thousand to three thousand dollars, which would have been a sum impossible to raise by the early settler, who generally paid the government price on his land by disposing of skins which he prepared during the winter, and who went barefooted in summer for the reason that he had no money to buy shoes and no time to make moccasins for himself or his children.

Thus the early farmer housed his horses and cattle in straw stacks during the winter and in the timber during the summer. Sometime a hay thatched stable was erected for the use of the horses. He milked his cows out on the snow in winter, and expected them to yield a fair supply of milk on a diet of slough hay and dry corn stalks, and would drive them to water to some creek or river once a day, using an ax with which to cut a hole in the ice. These stables would leak in spring and summer and had to be rebuilt nearly every fall. All hay was stacked outside and nearly half of it would rot during the rainy season. But hay was cheaper than lumber and for that reason a man had to figure on putting up enough hay during the summer, and take into account the waste. It was not till after the Civil war that many barns were built, and then only the rich farmer could afford them. Not till the '70s and '80s did the craze for barn building come, and now nearly every farm of any size, and nearly every farmer of any financial standing, has a good substantial barn, as well as machine sheds, all of which improvements may cost from three thousand to ten thousand dollars.

In the early days many farmers were fooled or taken in on the creamery proposition, as many of these small country creameries failed. The people then began to study the cow and the cost of producing milk and butter. True the first attempts were not a success, but the butter and milk of Linn county have during the past twenty-five years made many of the farmers wealthy. It used to be, that if the cows could keep down the grocery bill that was well done, but now, many a farmer gets a monthly milk check of from fifty to seventy-five dollars, which not only pays the grocery bill, but generally the hired man as well. But then the price of butter has increased from six cents to thirty, which makes a difference. The butter has also gradually become a better quality, and is really worth more. It is taken care of now, while in the pioneer days the cream was left out doors during the hot summer and the rancid butter was placed in a shallow slough well so as to be kept cool. It was generally not fit to use and was traded at the store for dried prunes, brown sugar, and dried herring. Thus, while the farmer may not have given the merchant much, the merchant certainly did not give the farmer anything of much value in return for his farm produce.

During the past twenty years no class of people have fared better financially than the farmers, and no class of people have become more enlightened on the subject in which they are engaged than the farmers. This may be due to several reasons. The farm journals have no doubt done much in stirring up a local pride in the vocation of farming. The farm journal has taught the farmer not to be[Pg 95] ashamed of his calling; that while he may be called a "Rube" in some localities, he is an intelligent, up-to-date, wide-awake man, who knows what is going on in the country; is familiar with political questions and interested in the welfare of the country and of the state in which he resides. During the past twenty years the farmer, especially in Linn county, has traveled much. He has attended the county and state fairs where he has seen the latest inventions in machinery. He has attended nearly all of the exhibitions held in the country from Chicago to Seattle, and has come in contact with farmers from other sections of the country as well as with financiers and men of affairs. He has traveled much on land excursions and has learned to study and understand the nature of the soil. While it is true, that these various journeys have taken some time and money, yet they have made the farmer an up-to-date man, familiar with all sides of human life, and he has discovered, after all, that he is one of the most fortunate men in the country, and financially better off than many a city brother who may wear broadcloth and a boiled shirt, but whose bank account is generally depleted. The Linn county farmer has learned during the past twenty-five years to know himself and to understand and respect the class to which he belongs. No one can become a successful person in any line of business unless he is proud of the line of work in which he is engaged. The farmer has learned this secret, and he is not ashamed to tell anyone, that he is a Hawkeye farmer, owning his own farm and caring for his own property. The Iowa farmer has kept up with the procession, and he certainly is as intelligent, as wide-awake, and as shrewd and keen as the merchant, the banker, and the professional man in his business dealings. But he came to Iowa at the proper time, and for that reason he had the advantage of the old settlers who came to New England or to Jamestown. These men came ahead of their time and before things were ripe for such settlement. The bread tools of the Virginia pioneer were the same as those of the Indians whom they despised and wanted to drive out. The first settlers of Iowa came with the advent of the reaper, when a boy fifteen years of age could cut the grain with ease, which several sturdy men had to do before with the sickle and the scythe.

We seem to think that we have had the modern inventions for ages, but the first white settlers in Linn county, whoever they may have been, knew nothing of matches; of stoves as we know them; of the telegraph or the telephone or electric lights. They did not have modern corn cultivators or stirring plows. All these so-called modern appliances have been invented since the advent of the first settler in this county. But it was not long after these inventions came into use, until some enterprising individual or firm introduced them into Linn county. It is said that it was at a Shriner meeting on the old State Fair Ground, which is now Central Park, Cedar Rapids, that electricity was first used in this county, and people came for many miles to watch this peculiar light, which some thought could only be accounted for on the ground that the operator was in close connection with the Evil One. Barnum, with his show, also exhibited electric lights to the consternation of the vast crowds that came to see his circus, and it was one of the chief attractions during the first year. People came many miles to listen and talk through a telephone, and now every up-to-date farmer has an instrument installed in his own house.

In a material way the settlers in Linn county have succeeded beyond the expectation of the most sanguine. Thrift and prosperity can be seen on every hand. The various farmers' alliances, elevator companies, banking companies, creamery companies, old settlers' unions, and all these have brought the men over the county in closer touch with each other and the farmers of the whole county have learned to appreciate the marvelous benefits derived from social intercourse. It has made them broader and more liberal minded toward one another.

The first real census of the county was made in 1840 by H. W. Gray, who found 1,373 men, women, and children here. There were no less than 200 people[Pg 96] who celebrated the 4th of July at Westport in 1838, but these may not all have belonged to the county. There was a rapid influx of people, and by 1845 it has been estimated that no less than 4,000 had declared Linn county their permanent home. The men who came here in the early days knew nothing of luxuries, for it is said that there were not over twenty buggies in the county and not to exceed two pianos. The gold excitement took many of the bright young men away, most of whom never returned. The census of 1850 shows that there were 5,444 people in the county, further demonstrating that the land seekers were still coming despite the fact that many residents must have left for the gold fields of California. By 1860 fully 19,000 residents claimed the county as their home. At the first election in the county 39 votes were cast. In 1875 there were more than 7,000 voters, and this number has gradually increased till the votes cast in 1908 were 6,558 republican, 5,008 democratic, 220 prohibition, and 121 scattering, making a total vote of 11,900. Long ago the farming districts were filled up and the country portions have not grown in population. The demand for pioneers has ceased, and the growth henceforth will be in the cities and towns, and not in the country until such a time as the cities will be compelled to expand or the people congregating therein will be enabled to seek the country to make a living. There may also come a time when the large farms will be divided up among members of the family and when it will pay better to farm on a small rather than on a large scale. If the land can be subdivided into small tracts, as in many parts of Europe, Iowa and Linn county will be able to feed a much larger population and at greater ease than can the exhausted lands of the old countries.

The soil in Iowa is as rich today and will if well cared for produce more today than it did some forty years ago. The farmers will now devote more of their time to make the farms yield more and not in the purchase of more lands as heretofore. What the modern farmer is now up against is better markets, cheaper freight charges, more local manufacturing, and increased commercial conveniences.

For many years after the lands were taken up and cultivated the farmers were unable to get rid of their products. There were no other markets than the local ones. Robert Ellis had tried the experiment of running flat boats down the river and had returned without any profits. Holmes, the Higley Brothers, Daniels, and others built flat boats at Ivanhoe and shipped wheat in the early spring down the Cedar and made a little money. But there was more or less risk, and much labor was expended, and the returns were not always satisfactory. Many teamed and hauled dressed pork, wheat, and barley to the Mississippi river, mostly to Muscatine, but after the driver returned and figured up his expenses and the cost of a few groceries and a calico dress for the wife, he had little left with which to pay interest and tax on the land.

The farmer was kept busy in paying taxes and breaking up and fencing more land. To do these things and keep his family was all he could hope to accomplish. The business man who had come here was without funds, and interest rates were high. He could not borrow enough to carry out his scheme of factory building, as he had expected. Saw mills and grist mills were erected so as to supply the local trade with enough materials for building, and enough food to live on, but that was all. The cost of transportation was high, and the cost of anything like luxuries was so great that it was out of the question to purchase any. As late as 1855 there were no markets and no means to ship anything out except by flat boats early in the spring of the year when the water was high. N. B. Brown started the first woolen mill as early as 1848. This was later disposed of to the Bryan family, but the mill never was a real success. There was no demand for the goods and the expense was too high to ship the raw products in and the finished products out. To haul any amount in a farm wagon a hundred miles over poor roads, subject to all kinds of weather, is not a success to the hauler nor to the man who hires him.

[Pg 97]

Even after the railroad was brought to Cedar Rapids the people did not realize that there was any other but a local market for any product. During the early years of the war, from 1862-3, the people awoke to a realization that it would pay to get in touch with a larger market, and the Chicago prices on stuff began to be quoted. R. D. Stephens built an elevator at Marion and began sending corn to the river. Cattle and hogs began to go up in price, and soon the people realized that the railroad was not built to carry passengers only, but freight as well, and that on a large scale.

In 1866 the number of acres assessed was 452,486, and the land, exclusive of towns and villages, amounted to $3,012,754. The assessment for Linn county in 1878 was 449,774 acres, $5,127,133. The actual valuation in 1855 was about three and one-half millions, while in 1900 the taxable valuation of the county was something over twelve millions.

Butter and cheese making were at one time businesses which made the farmers much money, but not till they learned how to prepare good butter and get a market established for it. Soon agents came to Iowa looking over the crops, and presently few towns were without local agents who handled stock and grain on a commission basis.

Henceforth it was the Chicago market and not the local market that governed, and the railroads were loaded down many seasons of the year in hauling train load after train load of corn and wheat and cattle and hogs, the property of the Iowa farmers. Iowa became in a short time the food producing state in the Mississippi Valley and has so remained till this day.

It was the productiveness of the soil, the manner in which the soil was prepared and the prices for farm products that made the land valuable. And it was the outside market that made farm produce worth the price it was for a local market cannot do this. The Chicago market has become the world market on many commodities, and lucky is the person who owns lands within a safe radius of such a market.

[Pg 98]

The rural life of the pioneers in Linn county was much the same as it was in any of the adjoining counties in eastern Iowa. The settlers were intelligent, young, active, and enthusiastic, believing in the future of the new State. The men were able to do nearly all kinds of mechanical work without any help or assistance, while the women were equally dextrous in spinning, weaving, and doing all kinds of house work. They were all clad in homespun and no false standards were maintained by the so-called well-to-do.

Wheat was the product for many years until the pest took it, and Indian corn was grown. It was soon found that wheat was expensive to raise, as seed was high, the cost of harvesting expensive, and frequently a shower or a storm when the wheat was ripe destroyed a great deal of it, so the farmer's summer work at times would be entirely gone. It cost less to raise corn, and in course of time a market was found for it, although it scarcely ever sold for more than 30 cents a bushel.

"In ye olden times" master and servant had no trouble. They ate at the same table, worked side by side during the day, and it was a sort of partnership affair throughout the season from the early spring until the crops were gathered in the fall. During the entire season the hired man had handled scarcely a dollar and he had taken up at the village store on credit in the master's name goods that would not exceed in value ten or fifteen dollars. While it has been often stated that in the pioneer days the men were overworked and underpaid, which might be true in part, still during these formative years, when everything was new, and there were no classes, all settlers were on the same level—socially and financially. It was not long until the hired man had worked long enough to get sufficient money to make a first payment on a farm, and in a few years the renter became a land owner and well fixed.

The scattered settlers during the early years of their residence in Linn county relied on their own ingenuity for everything they needed; thus, they were their own blacksmiths, cabinet makers, carpenters, tanners, stone masons, and shoe makers. They would tan their own leather, shoe their own horses and oxen, make their own crude harness, and get along and be satisfied. While they would depend on the village blacksmith and on the wagon maker, roads were impassable in the spring of the year and a yoke of oxen was not the swiftest means of getting to and from a town twenty-five or thirty miles away. Hence a farmer who had any ingenuity at all, would rather do his own work in a crude way, than have to go to town to get anything repaired which was broken.

Much amusement was also had in the early days in the various communities where men and women enjoyed meeting together at social functions. There were quilting bees, spelling schools, barn raisings, log rolling, debating schools, singing schools, and many other gatherings which frequently ended with a barn dance or a house warming supper, provided by the host and hostess.

The winter season in "ye olden times" was not an easy time of it by any means, for the pioneers went to the timber early in the morning and would stay all day and until late at night, cutting wood, making rails and getting big logs to the saw mills. It mattered not what was the kind of weather, the young man would start off to the timber with the thermometer frequently at from twenty-five to thirty below zero. Sometimes it would be pleasant in the morning when they started out, but frequently a severe blizzard would come up before night, and[Pg 99] many were the frozen hands and ears they would bring home to thaw out late at night, having been out all day in the most severe weather. But as soon as it was over it was forgotten, and the next day or the next week the young man would again repeat the same performance.

While the men were strong, active, and hardworking, the women were equally active, persevering and industrious. The girls always took care of the milk and butter; the straining of the milk was done by the slough well or in a dark mud cellar, with no stone in it, and which always kept caving in until the entire house had to be put on pillars. The wife frequently had the family washing out by sunrise and the hired girl, if the family could afford one, would work side by side with her mistress and would do both inside and outside work if needed. No one was afraid to work: in fact they were all proud of what they had accomplished.

There were not many varieties of dishes on the table in pioneer days, and still the settlers had plenty of good, wholesome food, and were always hungry. Salt pork, johnny cake, honey, and game were the customary foods of the farmer in ye olden times. They scarcely ever tasted fresh meat from spring until fall, unless some of the boys shot a little game now and then. The settlers were companionable, good natured, and contented. They traded cattle, horses, mules, and at times farms, only now and then would trouble arise as one would accuse another of smart dealings, and a lawsuit would ensue. It is related of an itinerant preacher who purchased a yoke of oxen from one of the deacons in the church, that while he was testing the oxen on a hot Sunday driving to church with his family, the yoke squatted down in a mud hole and remained there and it was impossible to move them at all. The preacher spied the deacon coming to church and was not slow in telling him what he thought of him as well as the oxen he had sold him. The deacon was not at all worried but replied, "parson, you must not forget to swear at 'em, that is the only thing they know," and drove on as though not at all offended by the remarks of the preacher.

In the early days the farmers had no cisterns, no wind mills, no deep wells. Rain water was gathered in barrels which dried up in summer and froze solid in winter, so the house wife had scarcely any rain water either summer or winter. The well was generally a ten foot shallow well dug down by the slough, poorly planked, and frequently it caved in; another well was dug much in the same manner as the old one, the new well soon meeting with the same ending as the former one.

There were few, if any, barns in the olden times and straw thatched sheds and stables were universally used. These stables were moved frequently for the reason that the farmers failed to haul out the manure which accumulated, finding that it was easier and cheaper to move the stable than to haul away the manure. Nearly all of the hay was stacked out doors and had to be cut and hauled away in order to be fed to the cattle.

The farmers were slow and backward in many things. They possessed no spirit of restlessness and took things coolly, relying, it seems, on the old adage which says that "he who drives with oxen also gets there." While they early built fairly good houses, they were slow in erecting buildings and comfortable places for their horses and cattle, and it was many years before they began to erect sheds and buildings for their machinery. Wagons without spring seats sold at from $100.00 to $125.00; reapers and mowing machines were very expensive and they were generally only a few of these in each neighborhood. The household furniture was cheap and simple; there were no such things as furnaces or hard coal burners. Mostly old stoves were in use for the burning of wood, and these perhaps were second hand, or at least had seen better days.

The young man in pioneer days generally started out in life with an ox team, a breaking plow, and a wagon. The wages for breaking were from $1.00 to $2.00[Pg 100] an acre, and when he was not breaking he would often be running a threshing machine or working in the saw mill or in the timber getting out logs. When ox teams were used for breaking, it took one to drive and one to hold the plow in the ground. A person generally broke more land than he could fence, and it was no use to sow wheat and not fence, for in those days the law permitted cattle and horses to run at large.

Corn was not cultivated on the new ground to any extent, except that each one raised enough corn for his own use but no more. The corn was generally put in by hand, plowed only once or twice with a single shovel plow pulled by one old nag.

In the early days all the cooking was done by the open fireplace; such an article as a stove was not much known. Corn bread and pork, with rye coffee, formed the average bill of fare at the wayside inn and at the farm house. The boarders actually preferred pork to venison; they got tired of game—it was so plentiful. Many a pioneer farmer could shoot from five to ten deer near his door before breakfast.

In ye olden times nearly everyone would attend church, especially in summer. While many did not belong to any church, yet they were all interested in it. They supported the churches to the best of their ability. The influence of the country church did much in making this a county which still shows the effect of the early training and of the efforts of itinerant preachers and laymen who went from place to place visiting the scattered congregations. Such preachers as Troup, Searles, Ingham, J. Hodges, Hayden, Twing, Maxin, Dudley, Rankin, Boal, Cunningham, Keeler, Phelps, Roberts, Jones, Elias Skinner, Father Emmons and many of the early itinerant ministers did much to build up churches in this county. Then there were a number of laymen in various denominations who maintained in part some of the associations themselves, such as Tom Lewis, Levi Lewis, Chandler Jordan, Henry Rogers, and the Kurtzes, Runkles, Shueys, and many of the early settlers in and around Lisbon. The community around Mt. Vernon was also much influenced by the college atmosphere and by the itinerant preachers who visited the scattered members in Franklin township. These are only a few of many such communities where an interest was kept up in the small country churches where large congregations gathered weekly for meditation and for prayer. Many old pioneer families did much to help the church.

One can converse with the old pioneer now, and he still loves to recall the old times, the old haunts and the wayside places. It was by some rail fence that a rural maiden had whispered to him as a young man, that the pain in her heart no human touch but his own could heal. It was here loved ones had spoken as they chattered away in childish whispers, when he came home from ended labors, and it was here that he took his family on Sunday to the little church where they all bowed silently in prayer, full of the faith and the hope which made his heart strong and his footsteps light. The simple mode of living in Linn county in an early date made strong men and courageous women. They were brought up to withstand the temptations of life and to despise the false veneer of a later generation. They lived up to the ideals of their way of thinking, and left sturdy families who grew up in the simple ways of the pioneer, themselves dutiful sons and daughters of the old settlers who came here in any early day to make homes for themselves and their descendants.

Truly, the pioneers should be remembered for what they accomplished, for well might they sing with the poet:

[Pg 101]

What promised to have been a war to death in Linn county in the early '40s terminated because one of our old settlers, then a young man, said what he knew to be the fact and was willing to back it up with force. The interesting story is as follows: Political dissension had prevailed in Canada since 1820, and an open rebellion broke out in 1837. In lower Canada it began among the French settlers who wanted equality and their rights as Frenchmen, while in upper Canada it was brought about by leaders of the radical party insisting on a democratic form of government. The rebellion was lead by Lyon Mackenzie, a native of Scotland who had taken up journalism in Canada. The spirit of rebellion extended also into the United States, and many so-called filibusters joined the insurrectionists from a spirit of adventure. The papers mentioned in lengthy articles these so-called leaders, one especially being given much notoriety, one William Johnson, who, after the rebellion was put down, lived on one of the Thousand Islands in the St. Lawrence and evaded capture. His daughter, Kate, it was said, brought him food and the soldiers were unable to locate the hiding place of this rebel who defied the government militia.

Robert Ellis met this so-called Bill Johnson at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, in 1842. Johnson asserted with a great deal of gusto that he had escaped from the Islands and was going to make his home among the free people out on the borders. He was accompanied by a woman he claimed to be his daughter who received as much attention as the valiant soldier himself. Johnson drifted into Ft. Atkinson and finally located on a claim two miles above Quasqueton, on the north bank of the Wapsie river. Here he became a sort of feudal lord, told exaggerated stories about his valor, and was surrounded by a number of frontier soldiers who claimed to have fought in the war of 1812, as well as in the Canadian rebellion. For a time Captain Bill Johnson was idolized as no other person in this part of Iowa, and it is certain that his daughter Kate was laid siege to by more than one border hero under the guise of suitor.

It was not long until the arrogant ways of Captain Bill Johnson, who jumped a claim, offended an old settler by the name of Henry Bennett, who resided near Quasqueton, and who was one of the first settlers in that community. Attempted arrests were made pro and con, but the Bennett party was successful and they drove Captain Johnson out of the community, after a sound flogging. He drifted into Marion and put up at the Phillips Hotel, telling stories of Bennett's abuse, how his property had been taken, and how he had been driven out of the county like a criminal. He wanted redress. The good people of Marion believed these stories, and soon a company was organized and provided with weapons of war to surround Bennett and demand restitution. A number of the old settlers of Marion were mustered into this company, such as George Patterson, Col. Durham, and others of the well known residents. It was in the winter of 1843, but that did not keep any of the company away from a forced march to Quasqueton. Bennett had friends and admirers also, and being made aware of the proposed attack he fortified his camp, laid in a supply of food, and had his guns ready. The attacking party demanded restitution, but the old man shook his head and told them to come on. The besiegers had to camp out, while Bennett's followers were well housed and warm. Finally the attacking army ran out of provisions,[Pg 102] and after a council of war in which the peace loving spirit prevailed, they decided to return to the quiet haunts of Marion.

Johnson still kept up his abuse of Bennett and his friends, and when that did not satisfy would resort to tales of his wonderful escapades on the St. Lawrence and how he had evaded the British officers with the assistance of his daughter, Kate. The good people at first entertained him as a guest, and he was always willing to accept of their hospitality, but stories were circulated that this so-called daughter, Kate, was not his daughter at all. But Bill Johnson still remained, having a number of supporters.

One night Robert Ellis entered the Phillips Hotel while Johnson was heaping abuse on the Bennett party and on the courts of Iowa, telling Gen. James Wilson, who was surveyor-general of the territory, the story of his abuse. He said, that the day before he and his crowd had tracked Bennett as far as Delhi where the party escaped, being assisted by William Abbe, a prominent settler of Linn county. This was too much for Ellis, and he replied as follows: "That is not true, as Wm. Abbe drove from Ft. Atkinson with me, and we arrived in Marion today, and we were together all of the time." Johnson was full of "wrath and cabbage." He arose and in a much injured manner said, "You might as well call me a liar as to say that," to which Ellis replied, "If that suits you any better I can call you a liar, because that is what you are, if you want us to believe what you have been saying here tonight. You have been telling lies about my friend Abbe." Johnson pulled off his coat and was about to strike him, when Mr. Ellis spied a hickory stick in the wood box. With that he went after Johnson, who quietly retreated, put on his coat, engaged in conversation with Wilson, and the matter for the time dropped. The story leaked out that this Canadian boaster was nothing but a coward, and there were grave doubts as to whether or not he was the person he claimed to be. Finally so much opposition arose against him that he left Marion—much to the satisfaction of the people of the county for they had seen and heard things which reflected against Johnson's relations with his so-called daughter.

In 1849 Robert Ellis drifted into the gold camps of Sacramento Valley on the American river, and who should he find out there but the daughter of Bill Johnson, now the wife of one of the miners. He learned that Bill Johnson had drifted into Southern Iowa and Missouri, where he assumed his old attitude, expecting free board and considerable consideration, but the pioneers in that community had to be "shown" and cared not much for what Johnson had been; the question was what he was then. A suitor in Mahaska county came to see his alleged daughter, but Bogus Johnson opposed and threatened him with dire disaster if he came within shooting distance. The suitor was not at all scared, having lived on the frontier longer than Johnson. The woman may have regretted the double life she had been living, and perhaps with her assistance—no one knows—Johnson was killed in a quarrel by the suitor, it was alleged, and prosecutions followed. The suitor and Kate after a long trial then drifted to California, and there Robert Ellis found them and heard the story that Captain Bill Johnson, once the terror of this part of Iowa, was a bogus Bill Johnson, and the light haired Kate was not the Kate of story and fiction at all. If it had not been for the obstreperous Bennett on the Wapsie and for the hickory stick in the hands of Robert Ellis bogus Bill Johnson might have terrorized this community much longer than he did.

Another story was also told shortly after Johnson left by one of Johnson's henchmen, an old soldier, which shows the bad character and disposition of Johnson. William Abbe, one of the early settlers, and at one time a member of the legislature of Iowa, being in the employ of the government, having a contract to deliver provisions at Ft. Atkinson, was about to return to his home in Linn Grove, which fact was known to Johnson. The soldier related after Johnson's[Pg 103] hasty departure that he and Johnson had entered into an agreement to blackmail Abbe and get some money out of him by inviting Abbe to remain in the Johnson cabin over night and then to threaten Abbe that he had assaulted the daughter of Johnson while accepting of his hospitality. Johnson was to remain in hiding while the soldier was set out on the trail to watch for Abbe and invite him to the cabin. This was done and the soldier sat out in the timber watching for Abbe during the afternoon and evening, but fortunately Abbe failed to make his appearance as expected and the deep laid plan fell through.

Bill Johnson, whatever he may have been, was certainly an expert in his line and seemed to ingratiate himself into the good graces of many prominent people. He obtained the assistance and help of Governor Chambers, as well as Surveyor-General James Wilson, and many others in the various law suits which he had with the members of the Bennett party. General Wilson, as is well known, was a native of New Hampshire and on account of the personal friendship of Daniel Webster had been appointed to this office by President Harrison. Webster had intended to slate his friend Wilson for Governor of Iowa, but Harrison had appointed his private secretary and former aide-de camp, Colonel John Chambers. Thus General Wilson had to accept the only vacancy left, that of surveyor-general. On his trip over Iowa, General Wilson was accompanied by his daughter, Mary E. Wilson, better known as Mrs. John Sherwood, who later became one of the best known writers and society women on two continents. It was at Marion, according to the report of Robert Ellis, that Johnson first met General Wilson and that the friendship sprang up between them, and it seemed as though Johnson had known a number of Wilson's relatives and a great many of the prominent men in New England. It is thought, of course, that Johnson imposed upon General Wilson and no doubt used the names of parties he had known of in some way to further his own selfish purposes.

The following may be quoted from the History of Washington County. Vol. I, p. 326, as told by H. A. Burrell:

How much truth there is in the above it is difficult to say. It is at least based on hearsay. Colonel Durham knew Johnson well and was one of his friends in the Quasqueton affair, and Robert Ellis also knew him, as well as the members of the Abbe family. Whether Johnson was a Canadian or a citizen of the United States or had anything to do with the war of 1812 is uncertain. At least in Linn county he claimed to be the Bill Johnson of Canadian fame. For that reason he introduced this young woman as his daughter to carry out the story, as the original Johnson did have a daughter who carried news as well as food to him in his hiding.

[Pg 104]

To supplement the above account may be mentioned the following from the "Early History of Dubuque," as written by L. H. Langworthy, and printed in the Iowa Journal of History and Politics, July, 1910:

[Pg 105]

The above tells the story of how much trouble the various communities in Iowa had with bogus Bill Johnson and the various interpretations of the life and character of the outlaw and his alleged daughter. Mr. Ellis still insists that his interpretation of the life and character of this outlaw is as he tells it and no one perhaps knew the principal characters better than he did. Mr. Ellis was the first one who met Johnson in Wisconsin as he was about to emigrate into Iowa. He was one of the actors in the occurrence at the Phillips House in Marion, he was the old friend and companion of William Abbe and knew most of the men in the Bennett party, such as Evans, Parrish, Rowley, and others, and he met in California many years afterwards the heroine who had become the wife of Peck and there had a conversation with both of them. Mr. Ellis is of the opinion that when Johnson suddenly left Marion he went, to Missouri and later drifted back into Mahaska county, Iowa, where he was murdered. It was thought that Kate knew more about the murder than she let on, but living a life as she had lived it would not be best for her to tell all she knew of the various transactions with her so-called father. So far as Mr. Ellis ascertained Kate had reformed and carried herself in goodly repute among the miners of the far west where she was then known, it is said, at times as the Queen of the Thousand Isles. Her husband, it is stated, was a reputable person and had always stood well in the community up to the time of the Johnson murder, and what part, if any, he took in that no one ever knew.

Bogus Bill Johnson is said to be buried in an unknown grave in Mahaska county and no stone has ever been found that marked his last resting place.

Kate, Queen of the Thousand Isles, sleeps in one of the mountain valleys of the Sierras on the Pacific slope and no one knows just when she died or where she was buried. The dual lives of the characters in this drama ended as all such lives do end, in infamy and disgrace.

[Pg 106]

BY FREDERICK J. LAZELL

From the days of the early settlers until now the newspapers of Linn county have been among the most potent factors in the upbuilding of the community. They have been, as a rule, constructive newspapers. Their mission has been to build up, to help their communities grow in wealth and influence. The newspapers of the county have been noted for their sagacity and their breadth of vision, their conservatism and their tolerance. They have exerted a strong and a wholesome influence upon this and adjoining counties. In the state at large their influence for good has not been small.

The old adage that the good die young has not been true of Linn county's newspapers. The best papers today are those which were started in the earliest days of the various towns in this county. They have prospered as their respective communities have prospered. Their publishers and editors have been, for the most part, men with personal and property interests in their respective communities. That is why they have been builders and boosters. Linn county's proud position among the counties of the state, commercially, intellectually, and politically, is largely due to the fact that men of ability and integrity have worked and written and fought for the things they knew would be helpful to their constituents. And this is as true of the weekly newspapers as it is of the daily press. Very few counties in the state have had such an able corps of newspaper writers.

There were some weaklings, papers which were born and soon died. There have been a few freak newspapers. But not many. There have also been many able, brilliant young newspaper men who did good work in the Linn county editorial and newspaper offices for awhile and then left for larger fields of labor. Some of the county's ablest politicians and some of its most prominent business men have occasionally dabbled in newspapering, for the sake of some party or some pet project they were anxious to push through. That was in the earlier days. There has been very little of it in the county of late years.

In the main the newspaper men of the county have been men to the manner born, with a knowledge of the business from the ground up, men to whom the smell of printer's ink is as essential to their enjoyment of life as the scent of the sea to a sailor. If, as Elbert Hubbard tells us, art is the expression of man's joy in his work, then nine-tenths of the newspaper men of Linn county have been real artists, for they have stuck to their papers when they might have made heaps more money in some other line of business. But this love of the work so characteristic among the brethren of the Linn county press doubtless has something to do with the fact that their readable papers are read and quoted by the readers of other papers, from one end of the state to the other.

No chronological list of the newspapers of Linn county has been published, but it is interesting and instructive, and worthy of preservation in permanent form:

1851 The Progressive Era, started by D. O. Finch, in Cedar Rapids.

1852 The Prairie Star, started at Marion by A. Hoyt. Same year the name was changed to the Linn County Register, by J. H. and G. H. Jennison.

[Pg 107]

1854 Name of the Progressive Era changed to the Cedar Valley Times. J. L. Enos assumes control.

1856 Cedar Valley Farmer started in Cedar Rapids by J. L. Enos. This was a monthly agricultural paper.
Cedar Rapids Democrat, started at Cedar Rapids by W. W. Perkins & Co.

1857 The Voice of Iowa, started at Cedar Rapids by J. L. Enos. Later this was called the School Journal.

1863 Linn County Register bought by A. G. Lucas, who changes its name to the Linn County Patriot.

1864 Linn County Patriot bought by Captain S. W. Rathbun, who changes its name to the Marion Register.

1865 The Franklin Record, started at Mt. Vernon by J. T. and J. S. Rice.

1866 The name of the Franklin Record changed to the Mt. Vernon Citizen; passes into the hands of H. S. Bradshaw.

1867 The Cedar Rapids Atlas, started by A. G. Lucas. Lasted three months.

1868 Western World, started at Cedar Rapids. Republican in politics. J. L. Enos, editor.
Linn County Signal, started in Marion by F. H. Williams.
Cedar Valley Times changes its name to the Cedar Rapids Times.

1869 The Slovan-Ameriky, started in Cedar Rapids by J. B. Letovsky.
Linn County Signal moves to Cedar Rapids.
The Daily Observer, started in Cedar Rapids by J. L. Enos and T. G. Newman, father of A. H. Newman.
Linn County Hawk-Eye, started at Mt. Vernon by J. T. Rice. Purchased the same year by S. H. Bauman, and its name changed to the Mt. Vernon Hawk-Eye.

1870 The Daily Observer, which had been started as a democratic paper, changes its name to the Cedar Rapids Republican, and changes its politics to correspond.

1871 The Linn County Pilot, started by C. W. Kepler at Mt. Vernon.

1872 Name of the Cedar Rapids Republican changed to the Daily Republican.
Linn County Signal becomes the Linn County Liberal.

1873 The Lotus, started at Center Point by J. F. Wilson & Co.

1874 The Linn County Pilot moved from Mt. Vernon to Marion by A. Beatty.
The Linn County Liberal moves from Marion to Cedar Rapids and takes the name of the Standard.
The Sun started at Lisbon by J. W. Zeigenfus.

1876 The Center Point Mirror, started at Center Point by T. J. Metcalf and S. M. Dunlap.

1879 The Iowa Staats-Zeitung, started at Cedar Rapids by A. Hunt.
The Iowa Farmer, started at Cedar Rapids by Alex Charles.
The Independent, started at Springville, editions also being printed for Prairieburg and Central City.
The Stylus, started at Cedar Rapids by Ralph Van Vechten.

1882 The People, started at Cedar Rapids by A. J. Huss.
The New Era, started at Springville by J. F. Butler, passing the same year into the hands of C. S. Shanklin.

1883 The Walker News, started at Walker by David Brant.
The Daily Gazette, started in Cedar Rapids by Otis & Post.

1884 The Gazette Company organized in March and takes over the Daily Gazette. In July all the stock purchased by Fred W. Faulkes and Clarence L. Miller.
The Saturday Evening Chat, started in Cedar Rapids by A. J. Huss.
The Linn County Pilot becomes the Marion Pilot, Rev. J. W. Chaffee, editor.

1886 The Linn County Independent removes to Marion.

[Pg 108]

1888 Kvinden og Hjemmet, monthly illustrated magazine for the Norwegian and Danish women in America, with a Swedish edition, Quinnan och Hemmet, started at Cedar Rapids by N. Fr. Hansen.
The News-Letter, started at Central City.

1889 Town Topics, started in Cedar Rapids by Ernest A. Sherman.
The Monitor, started at Coggon.

1891 Saturday Record, started in Cedar Rapids by Sherman & Hatmaker.

1894 The Herald, started at Lisbon by W. F. Stahl.

1893 The Record, started at Mt. Vernon by Lloyd McCutcheon.

1902 Iowa Post brought to Cedar Rapids from Iowa City by Henry Gundling.

1903 The Tribune, established by the Cedar Rapids Federation of Labor.

1906 The Cedar Rapidske Liste, Bohemian humorous weekly.
The Optimus, started at Cedar Rapids by E. C. Barber.

1909 West Side Enterprise, started December 30th by W. I. Endicott, owner and publisher.

Much of the early history of Linn county, and more especially of Cedar Rapids, is interwoven with the history of the Progressive Era, which afterwards became the Cedar Rapids Times. The Progressive Era was established by D. O. Finch in 1851. It was democratic in politics and claimed to be devoted to the interests of Cedar Rapids and Linn county. It was a seven column, four page paper, and rather a credit to the town at that time. Worse papers have been published since.

It was but a short time until Mr. Finch had all the newspaper experience he wanted. Joseph Greene then purchased the paper and ran it until 1854. During this time Ezra Van Metre, James J. Child, Esq., and James L. Enos were successively its editors.

James L. Enos had something to do with nearly every paper that was started during the early days of Linn county. He loved the smell of printer's ink. The types had a fascination for him. He delighted to see his thoughts reproduced in print. In September, 1854, he and F. Augustus Williams purchased Mr. Greene's interest in the Progressive Era. They changed the name to the Cedar Valley Times. They changed the politics of the paper from democratic to the new Americanism of that time. Then came the organization of the republican party. Like other adherents to the American party living in the north, the editors of the Times cast in their lot with the new republican party and warmly advocated and defended the principles on which it was founded.

One J. G. Davenport figures also in the early history of the Times. He had acquired an interest in the paper, and during the campaign he was its nominal editor, although there were not wanting those who declared that he had not the ability to write a three line notice of a church supper, let alone an editorial. Anyway, he made the Times his stepping stone into the postmaster's seat, and his conduct of that office was such that an investigation of his shortages followed. His bondsmen, one of whom was the late J. J. Snouffer, made good the loss, and shortly afterwards Davenport, after some more operations of a minor character and similar nature, left Cedar Rapids.

They were rare old political fighters in those days. Politics, rather than news, was the chief end and aim of the owner of a newspaper. When Greene, Merritt & Co. closed out Davenport, having held a bill of sale on the Times office, the Times was made the personal organ of Colonel William H. Merritt in his campaign against Kirkwood. To do this it had to change from republicanism to democracy, but it waged a hot fight, Colonel Merritt being its editor. However, Kirkwood was elected and in 1862 C. M. Hollis purchased the Times and he made great success of it up to 1866 when he disposed of the paper to Ayers and McClelland.

[Pg 109]

Much might be written about some of the old printers who helped to publish those early Linn county newspapers. There has been a host of them and they have included some notable men. One was no less a personage than Mr. Rosewater, of the Omaha Bee, who once worked as a journeyman printer in the office of the Slovan-Americky. It was when he was on his way to the west. Some of the old printers have long since passed away. One of the latest of them was Stephen M. Jones, who died at Hampton four years ago. Concerning his work here in Cedar Rapids, Captain J. O. Stewart, himself one of the veteran printers of the state, writes interestingly as follows:

Full of interest are those old files of the Times which deal with the beginning of the war period in the history of Linn county. There is the description of a "democratic field day" in Cedar Rapids, October 10, 1860, when Stephen A. Douglas came over from Iowa City and spoke to the multitude. Bands came from Vinton and Mt. Vernon; drum corps from Bertram and Cedar Rapids. A local merchant bought a barrel of good whiskey, diluted it sufficiently to accommodate the capacity of the six thousand who made up the audience, sold all of it and counted the meeting as the best thing which ever had happened in Cedar Rapids. There was a parade of the "Wide-awakes" that night, and the visiting bands remained over to furnish a part of the inspiration. There were big posters, beginning with the couplet

[Pg 111]

That gave the editor of the Times an opportunity to write the first scare head which ever appeared in a Cedar Rapids newspaper. With the true newspaper instinct he remembered that slogan and used it for a sting at the end of the headline. This was the headline the week of the election:

Mr. C. M. Hollis, who was editor of the Cedar Valley Times from 1862 to 1866, gives an illuminating insight into the history of Linn county during the early days of the war: