Iowa Old Press

Dubuque Weekly Times
Dubuque, Dubuque, Iowa
April 14, 1859

GLEANINGS
FROM THE NOTEBOOK OF THE ITINERATING EDITOR.
                    MAQUOKETA, April 5th, 1859.

    Probably no place in the interior of Iowa has suffered more than the financial pressure, than the city of Maquoketa. Two years ago, in expectation of the speedy communication with the Mississippi by railroad - the Iowa Central Air line - the town improved much faster than the country around it. The pressure of the times and the dubious prospects of the Railroad, have wrought a sad change here. Huge buildings commenced a year ago, remain unfinished, several stores and shops have been vacated, and more than one house pleads in vain for a tenant.
   But a brighter day is evidently about to dawn upon Maquoketa. Despairing of securing a railroad at present, the principal citizens of the place have recently formed the Maquoketa Navigation Company, which was incorporated on the 2d of this month. The design of the Company is to raise funds to put the Maquoketa river in a navigable condition; to purchase or construct a boat and some barges; and to do a general freight and passenger business between the city of Maquoketa and some point on the east side of the Mississippi. It is thought by the oldest citizens of this place and vicinity, that the Maquoketa - the two forks of which here unite - is navigable for flat boats from this point to the mouth of the river -  a distance of about thirty-five miles. Should this be found to be the case, Maquoketa with or without a railroad, will rise and become a first-class inland city. Aside from grain, a flat boat would take to market on the Mississippi, the hard and most excellent timber of the country, and bring back pine timber, together with coal, needed for manufacturing purposes. Merchandise, now costing fifty cents for transportation from the river to this city, could then be brought up for ten or twelve cents. But the advantages of such a communication with the Mississippi, are too obvious to need designating.
    The Directors of the Company have just been chosen. They are Ezra Baldwin, R. Perham, Jos. Willey, Jas. Decker, O.D. Cowles, Henry Reigart, D.A. Fletcher, A. Fellows, Thos. Wright.
   Ezra Baldwin is President; D.A .Fletcher, Vice President; A.M. Van Slyck, Secretary, R. Perham, Treasurer.
     The capital stock of this Company is fixed, by the articles of incorporation, at $25,000, with a provision for its expansion whenever occasion requires. The shares are $25 each, and are being taken rapidly, as we understand. Energetic men are at the head of this corporation and they are confident the enterprise will succeed.
    The village of Maquoketa was laid out in 1850 and it received its city charter three years ago. Its population is estimated at fifteen hundred. J.E. Goodenow built the first house on the site of the town. The mam???? hotel owned by him and Mr. Decker is now closed, and he is keeping the Decker House - of which he is part proprietor- hi8s partner being Nelson Lane. It is the ???? first-class hotel in the city. Mr. Goodenow is popular both as a landlord and citizen, and has the name of being one of the best men in Jackson county. Mr. Lane is very attentive and obliging.
    Maquoketa has one banking house, four general variety stores, four groceries, two drug stores, two hollow ware and tin shops, and one of the largest hardware stores (Baldwin & Co.'s) in the interior of Iowa. We also notice two jewelry stores, three shoe stores and shoe shops, one bakery, a woolen factory, a sash and door factory, and three water flouring mills and the same number of saw mills near by.
    Maquoketa has one dentist, seven physicians, and seven lawyers.
    The Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Methodists, and Baptists have large church edifices and those of the first two denominations are neat and stable brick structures.- The Baptists and Presbyterians have no pastor.
    We find an Academy here, Professor Mead, Principal. He is a classical scholar, thorough and energetic with good executive qualifications. If Massachusetts can spare any more teachers as good, let Iowa have them.
    Maquoketa has two newspapers, the Excelsior, Republican, and Sentinel, Democratic. We have made the acquaintance of Mr. Drips of the former paper, and Mr. Swigert of the latter. Mr. S. is Postmaster.

                    ANDREW, April 6th, 1859.

    In our notes on Maquoketa, no mention was made of the famous "Maquoketa Timber," one of the largest belts in the northern part of the State. It stretches from the confluence of the two forks of the Maquoketa, near the city of Maquoketa, almost to the northwestern boundary of Jackson county, at a distance of about twenty-two miles, and its average width is from eight to ten miles. It produces an excellent quality of lumber for which a good market will be found should the new enterprise of navigating the Maquoketa succeed- which is not unlikely.
    The village of Andrew figures somewhat conspicuously in the history of  Jackson county. The county seat was located here in 1841 - the year before the place began to be settled - and the first term of the Court was held here in the spring of 1842- or just seventeen years ago. The county seat remained here until 1849 when it was removed to Bellevue, which place it still claims it. - The County Jail is still here, and at "this present," contains but five "birds" - the moral plumage of which is more or less soiled.
    A Normal School building was commenced here ten or eleven years ago, but being daubed with untempered morter, it never went fairly up - as a school house. It is now used for a blacksmith shop. The school was started about the year 1849, and was kept for three or four years in the Methodist Church, and then abandoned. We now find here, in the educational line, a very large brick school house, in which something like one hundred children were taught last winter. At present it is occupied by a select school of thirty-five members.
    The Presbyterians, Mr. Wallace pastor, have a brick edifice, and the Methodists, Mr. Boatler, pastor, have a wooden house. Mr. Stewart is pastor of the "Union" church.
    The physicians of Andrew are Joseph Cowden, A.S. Carnahan and C.I. Dawson; the lawyers, P.B. Bradley and J.Y. Blackwell.
    Andrew has three general variety stores, kept by L.H. Warriner, J. & J.H. McMurray and Johnson & Keek; one hotel, R.Cobb proprietor; eight or ten mechanic shops and one brickyard. There are two saw mills and a grist mill within a mile or two of the village. Brush Creek, the nearest stream, is one mile off. The village is surrounded by timber.
    Andrew was selected originally for the county seat, because of its geographical position, it being within a hundred rods of the center of the county. Some of the citizens are sanguine that the county seat will ere long return to its first home. Andrew has about three hundred inhabitants, and at present is not growing.
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                    BELLEVUE, April 8th?, 1859

    With the exception of Cedar Rapids and McGregor, we have found on place in twelve hundred miles travel in Northern Iowa, that made more improvement in 1858 than Bellevue, the seat of Justice of Jackson county. During that year, among the more substantial additions to the town were a Presbyterian church, a lime-stone structure of liberal proportions, and an ornament to the place; a block of three story stores, by Messrs. Reiling & Nieman; a three story warehouse, by J.A. Westen; and an elegant brick dwelling by Charles Barrall, A. Woods, Samuel G. Smith, Thomas H. Davis, Sylvester Farrall and G.W. Lewis. In addition to these improvements a large number of wooden buildings were erected. Several other buildings are now going up - mostly in the western part of the village.
    Bellevue is delightfully located on the right bank of the Mississippi, upon a plateau about thirty feet above the level of the water, and is surrounded by an ampitheater of hills or bluffs, which rise at some points to the height of of nearly three hundred feet. Seen from their top on the north side, the village has an exceedingly beautiful appearance. Let no stranger, visiting the town, fail to see it from that point, which also presents a commanding view of the Mississippi Valley.
    Settlement was commenced here in 1836 at which time the site of the village was selected for the Capital of Wisconsin Territory, of which Iowa was then a part; but a difficulty between the commissioners and the proprietors of the land, prevented Bellevue from being thus highly honored.
    Nineteen years ago the first day of this month, the great battle between a gang of horse thieves and murderers, and the citizens of Bellevue, was fought near the center of the town, the villains being attacked in a house where they had collected and bidden defiance to law and order. The ringleader of the band, Brown, and three or four other desperados, were killed; others were wounded, the rest were captured, publicly whipped, and sent down the river; and since that time Bellevue, we are told, has been a peaceful village. It now has more than a hundred thousand inhabitants, and is growing rapidly. It has eight general variety stores, kept by B.W. Seaward, Lange & Claussen, J.A. Weston, Kilborn & Woods, Hyler & Co, E. Cole & Co., Wm. Anderson and A. Ramharter; one grocery kept by J. Steiniger; three meat dealers; one bakery; two drug and book stores, W.C. Pace and J.S. Graham proprietors; one hardware, hollow ware and tin shop, by Hughey & Brother; three ware houses owned by E.G. Potter, J.A. Weston and J.C. Fory; one banking house, Hall & Stiles proprietors; three cabinet shops, two wagon shops and four blacksmith shops.- Bellevue presents a good opening for a foundry.
    We find here one of the best flouring mills in this part of the State, the property of E. G. Potter. It stands near the mouth of Mill Creek, in the southern part of the village. The water falls twenty-two feet. John Foley, father of the Postmaster, took up the mill site in 1882 while he was a resident of Dubuque. The mill was completed by Potter in 1843, and since that date has been one of the celebrities of Jackson county.
    Messrs. Hays & Potter have a steam saw mill house and Mr. John Gammel is building a flouring mill on Mill Creek, one mile above its mouth.
    The principal hotels in Bellevue are the Jasper House, A.H. Goodrich proprietor, and the Sublett House, G.W. McNulty, proprietor. We are stopping at the latter, and find Mr. McNulty has a large, a Hibernian heart. His house is full, an indication alike of his popularity and of the life of the town. When the bell rings there is a rush for the table, as there was two years ago, at every village in Prairie Land.
    The church organizations of the place are Episcopal, George C. Street, rector; Catholic, J.F. Brazille, pastor; Congregational, T.H. Canfield, pastor; Presbyterian, J.P. Conkey, pastor and Baptist. Most of them have good houses of worship. Bellevue has one large public school.
    The medical men of Bellevue are L. Miller, J.W. Cowden, P.L. Lake, and J.S. Graham; the legal fraternity, Joseph Kelso, Spurr & Darling, Booth & Graham, Frederick Bangs, Maginnis & Cowles, and F.A. Bettis; the Justices of the Peace, W.A. Warren and W.P. Johnson. Mr. Warren came here in 1836 and was the first Sheriff of Jackson county, when it embraced Jones and Linn counties. He has held office many years in the county, and never came before the people without coming off victorious.
    The town Board of School Directors are Dr. J.W. Cowden, President; John Munsey, Vice-President; Chas. Barroll, Treasurer; and N.T. Wyncoop, Secretary.
    The Jackson County Journal is published at Bellevue, Charles M. Beecher, editor and proprietor. It is a well printed  sheet, and is popular in the county. In politics it is Republican. Mr. Beecher is an old acquaintance from Western New York. He has taken much pains to show us the "lions" of Bellevue.
    Several of the county officers reside at this place. The full list is as follows: Joseph Kelso, Judge; R.B. Wykoff, Treasurer and Recorder; John McGregor, Clerk; James Watkins, Sheriff; J.P. Edie, Superintendent of Public Instruction; Thomas C. Darling, Surveyor; J.W. Eckles, Coroner; N.T. Wyncoop, Drainage Commissioner.
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    INSURANCE AGENCY- In another column will be found the statement of the Goodhue Fire Insurance, of which Mr. E.C. DAVID is agent for this city and vicinity. Mr. D. has also the agency for several other responsible Companies and will hereafter devote his time and attention to the Insurance business. He will faithfully discharge any trust in this line that may be constituted to him.

IOWA MATTERS
    The Waterloo Courier of the 5th chronicles the arrival at that port of the steamer Blackhawk. She was received by a crowd of citizens who gave her three cheers.
    The citizens of Mahaska county, at an election held on Saturday last, voted against rescinding the loans heretofore voted in aid of the M. & M. Railroad Co., by a majority of eight hundred.
    A lad named FRANCIS GAY, living with his grandmother in South Burlington, while flying a kite on Friday last, walked backwards and fell off a plank into a ravine. He died of his injuries on Sunday morning.
    According to a recent census, the Township of Fairfield, Jefferson county, contains a population of 2891. The population of Fairfield. The population of Fairfield village is 2800 (or 2600). The number of acres of improved land in the Town is 10,547; unimproved, 19,163.
    The Davenport Democrat says three former residents of Iowa, named BUTCHER, DALEY and DOWN, were recently hung in Texas by the "Regulators," for complicity in horse stealing. They had employed half-breeds to do the thieving and they would pretend to purchase the horses and run them off into other States. They were betrayed by a disaffected half-breed, with whom they had quarreled.
    A Convention of the Mill Sawyers of the Upper Mississippi assembled at Davenport, on the 5th inst. The Gazette says: "Mr. JAMES PATTERSON of St. Louis was elected President, and Mr. Renwick of this city, Secretary. There is a large number of delegates present, and a large majority of the Mills between St. Louis and Stillwater are represented either by letter or by delegates. In the morning a committee on resolutions were appointed, who reported in the afternoon. A scale of prices was adopted, which will not be ready for publication for several days, as the signatures of parties represented by letter are required. The Convention was entirely harmonious, and the intercourse between the delegates very pleasant.
    DELAWARE COUNTY. - Mr. F. Bates, merchant of Nottingham, passed through our city this morning on his way home from the East. In about a week the citizens of Nottingham will have an opportunity of seeing one of the largest assortments of merchandise ever displayed in that young and lively village. Mr. B. has been spending some time in his old home, Springfield, Mass.
    CLAYTON COUNTY.- By a vote of the people just taken, the county seat is to be removed from Guttenberg to Garnavillo. It was removed from the latter place to the former a year or two ago. Garnavillo is the more central place of the two towns.
    FAYETTE COUNTY - Mr. Clement in his article on this county, gave the probable number of mills at twelve. It will be seen in another column that we have placed the number at forty. We do not mention this by way of blaming Mr. Clement. He did not profess to be exact in the matter and could not be expected to know exactly, with the information then at his command. -- [West Union Review.
    Our statement was that there are more than a dozen saw mills in Fayette county. We were not speaking of mills of all kinds. We are surprised to learn that there are forty. It is a higher figure than any citizen of the county, with whom we conversed, dared to claim. Fayette county is great on water power and mills of all kinds.
   


Dubuque Weekly Times
Dubuque, Dubuque, Iowa
April 28, 1859

GLEANINGS.
FROM THE NOTEBOOK OF THE ITINERATING EDITOR.
    Waukon, April 19, 1859.

    Our last evening at Lansing was spent at a Temperance meeting, where we heard a well written lecture on the Causes of Intemperance and its Remedies, by L.H. Howe, Esq., a young lawyer of that place. Six or eight months ago, a promising young member of the Lansing bar, a man beloved by the whole community, died of delirium tremens. His premature death from the too free use of intoxicating liquors, produced a great sensation. A temperance society was formed immediately. Weekly meetings were held during the winter, and monthly are now held. At each of these meetings some citizens of Lansing usually reads a short lecture, which is followed by other miscellaneous exercises. The result of this movement is that drunkards have been reclaimed, and most of the whisky venders, for want of patronage, have been obliged to abandon their avocation. One of them recently broke into the Post Office there and rifled the mail bags. He was taken to jail at Decorah, Winneshiek county, and with four other "birds" has since taken wing, and is still at large. His name is William Faulkner.
    Waukon is a prairie village, though in the vicinity of timber. It is at the head of Paint Creek, thirteen miles west and six miles south of Lansing. It is young, and glitters like a gem. Almost every house and store is new, or looks new, and is painted white. The large school house and the only church erected, (Cumberland Presbyterian) are of the same color. A large number of houses have picket fences around them painted white, with gardens in front. In short, Waukon looks like a New England village, which the tasteful people had forgotten to build until recently, and were just finishing off the first year's growth. A glance at the town will convince the stranger that he is in the midst of enterprising and refined people.
    The first settler in Waukon was George C. Shattuck, who came hither from Dubuque county in the summer of 1830. He is a native of Ontario county, N.Y., and is a very worthy man.
    The county seat was located here in the fall of 1853 and still remains here - though two attempts have been made to have it removed. Waukon is fifteen miles from the Mississippi river and six and a half miles from the line of Winneshiek county. It is a north and southward direction, it is near the geographical center of the county. There is so much strife to get county seats removed in Northern Iowa that we take the liberty of suggesting that, hereafter, all county buildings be constructed on wheels and thus made portable.
    Waukon has one banker, Walter Delafield; one grocer, Moses Hancock; three general mercantile dealers, W.Beale, W.R. Pottle, and W.S. Cooke; one druggist and bookseller, R.C. Armstrong; one boot and shoe firm, Howard & Hersey; one house dealing in stoves and tin-ware, Low & Bean; two jewelers; two tailors; two blacksmiths; two wagon makers, two cabinet makers, and one harness maker.
    Mr. W.C. Earl has a steam saw mill, with a planing machine attached. He does a variety of excellent work.
    The hotels of Waukon are the Nicholas House, kept by Sylvester Nichols, and the City Hotel, V. Dunlap, proprietor.
    The Allamakee Herald is published at the county seat. It is Democratic in politics. Its editor and proprietor is Frank Pease, Esq. who has kindly made me acquainted with many citizens of this place.
    Waukon has five churches, Baptist, L.M. Newell, pastor; Presbyterian, J.C. Armstrong, pastor; Methodist Episcopal, W.K. McCormick, pastor; and Wesleyan Methodist and Universalist, the last two having no pastor.
    We find here five lawyers, John T. Clark, L.O. Hatch, Richard Wilber, M.M. Webster, and F.M. Clark; and two physicians, J.W. Flint and I.H. Hedge.
    The School Directors of the township are Moses Hancock, President; C.J. White, Vice President; A.G. Howard, Secretary, and William K. McFarland, Treasurer.
    Among the improvements here, fifty rods of sidewalk are being put down; A.J. Hersey is erecting a block of three stores; Shattuck & Woodcock are putting up a large store, with a stone basement and heavy columns in front, and Mr. R.C. Armstrong, the Postmaster, is putting up a two-story brick house. A few smaller houses are being built. The Methodist Episcopal people have just voted to erect a house of worship this year - In short, Waukon is progressing faster, we believe, than any other small village in Northern Iowa. Its population is a little less than six hundred. Most of its growth has been during the last two years. It bids fair to become a smart, though never a great inland city. The country around it is very fertile.
    The people of Waukon are sanguine that the Prairie du Chien and Mankato Railroad which has been surveyed to Otranto, in Mitchell county, a distance of ninety-two miles, will be built in a short time. The right of way has been secured most of the way, and the contracts, we are told, are to be let next fall. This road will leave the Mississippi at Johnson's Landing, in Allamakee county, and run through Waukon and Decorah. At Otranto it is to intersect the road through the Cedar Valley.

April 29th, 1859.
    ALLAMAKEE is probably as well watered as any county in this part of the State - though not by so many large streams as some other counties. The Upper Iowa, the largest river which flows through it, waters with its numerous little tributaries, the two northern tiers of townships, and empties into the Mississippi ten miles north of Lansing. Coon Creek, formed by eleven springs, runs four miles, and empties into the Mississippi at Lansing. Village Creek rises in western part of the county, near Waukon, and empties into the Mississippi at Capoli (formerly Columbus), one mile south of Lansing.
    Wexford Creek runs through the township of Lafayette and empties into the Mississippi a few miles south of Capoli, in Paint Rock Slough. Paint Creek has its head waters in Springs at Waukon, and running through Jefferson, Paint Creek, a corner of Taylor and Fairview townships, empties into the Mississippi at Allamakee, or Johnson's Landing. Yellow River runs through the four southern townships, and with its little affluents, waters them abundantly.
    The Upper Iowa and most of its branches are well timbered, largely with oak. The Yellow river is noted for its excellent walnut, linn and elm. There is timber on all creeks.
    Aside from Lansing and Waukon, the principal villages are Bossville, Milton, Dorchester, New Galena, Hardin, (partly in Clayton county,) Ion, Postville, Waterville, and Capoli. The last four or five places mentioned are very small. Rossville has two or three hundred people, a steam flouring mill, a steam saw mill, two stores, and two hotels.
    Milton, which place we may visit on our return, has three water flouring mills on Village creek; several saw mills; two stores; two hotels; a large school house, used for church purposes on the Sabbath; and between two and three hundred inhabitants. - It is four miles from Lansing.
    The lovliest site for a town in Allamakee county is conceded to be Winfield, (Wexford Post office), in Taylor township, on the Mississippi, fourteen miles south of Lansing by land, and about the same distance, we believe, north of McGregor. The levee is natural, with a pretty grade, and the village plat - thirty feet, perhaps, above the river- is as level as a house floor, with a sprinkling of trees to decorate it. The bluffs at that point retreat a considerable distance from the river. Half a mile from the landing is a spring stream, of sufficient bulk for hydraulic purposes, and a fall of twenty-two feet in a distance of forty rods. The proprietors of the town are David Harper, who resides in that place, and E.W. Pelton, of Prairie du Chien. Mr. Harper is Postmaster and one of the two merchants of the village - if village it can now be called. There are not more than half a dozen dwelling houses on the site of the town. Some difficulty in landing there, heretofore, in low water, has delayed its starting. The water has deepened there, we believe, and a large village will be very likely to spring up.
    A plow and wagon shop is about to be erected and other improvements are under contemplation. On so beautiful a site for a village, we should rejoice to see one rise.
    The officers of Allamakee county are Geo. M. Dean, Judge; John A. Townsend, Sheriff; Elise Topliff, Treasurer and Recorder; C.J. White, Clerk of the District Court; W.W. Hungerford, Surveyor; J.W. Flint, Superintendent of Public Instruction, and J.W. Merrill, Drainage Commissioner.