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OENEALCGY COLLECTION

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HISTOixV

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Harry E. Downer

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HISTORY

OF

DAVENPORT

AND

SCOTT COUNTY

IOWA

Harry E. Downer

ILLUSTRATED

VOLUME I.

CHICAGO

THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY

1910

1143011 TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER I.

>■' THE STORY OF THE ROCKS.

v^

From creation days — Preparation of the earth for the abode of man by gla- ciation and inundation — The pre-glacial topography — The Mississippi of ages gone — The age of the great ice — Scott county's perfect drainage — A wealth of building stone — The carboniferous strata which have brought wealth — Geological section of Scott county 17

CHAPTER II.

THE EARLIEST DWELLERS.

The central attraction in the museum of the Davenport Academy of vSciences The elusive autochthon — The mound builder's claims to interest — His textile skill — Cotton Mather hazards an opinion — Mound pottery of all kinds — Effigy pipes, especially the elephants — The Bureau of Eth- nology and the Academy of Sciences — Prof. Seyffarth's conclusions.. 31

CHAPTER III.

INDIAN OCCUPANCY.

The mini in Scott county in early days — Later the Sacs and Foxes possess the land — Davenport's predecessors, Oshkosh and Morgan — Morgan or Ma-que-pra-um — The great Sac town on Rock river — Music and dramatic art — Black Hawk's narration of Indian customs — The annual hunting trips — Honor as the Indian understood it — The Sioux took home their scalps 47

CHAPTER IV.

THE WHITE MAN COMES.

Pierre Esprit Radisson, maker of paths, philosopher and probable explorer of Iowa — Marquette, Black-Gown, and Joliet the trader — Indian elo- quence— Pewaria's location — Pike, the Intrepid, visits this locality — Captain Many's experience with the British band — It is easy to spell Wapsipinicon — The Harris family compelled to land 61

6 CONTENTS

CHAPTER V.

WARS AND TREATIES.

A battle of the Revolution fought in this vicinity— A polyglot command no loot and great disappointment — First flag in the Mississippi valley — The fight at Campbell's island— The battle of Credit island— Official re- ports—Treaties made in Davenport— Col. J. H. Sullivan writes of In- dian chiefs — Black Hawk war ends Indian claims 69

CHAPTER VL

THE BARROWS HISTORY.

A history written by a pioneer at the request of other pioneers — Re- ceived on its appearance with great commendation — His own estimate of the gravity of his commission — Some incidents which have been noted since the Barrows history was written — Biography of the histo- rian^The history itself without omission, erasure or comment — A mon- umental work 93

CHAPTER VII.

THE ISLAND OF ROCK ISLAND.

The United States acquires the island by treaty — The expedition to estab- lish a fort — A duel by the way — Fort Armstrong, an outpost in the wilderness — Eflforts to secure an army and arsenal — General Rod- man's plans — Items fabricated at the arsenal — Cost of the plant — Gen- eral Crozier's estimate — Squatters' claims 289

CHAPTER VIII.

THREE BRIDGES TO THE ISLAND.

A railroad on each side of the river made a bridge necessary — Charters on injunctions — Acts of congress and court interpretations — The Rock Island road in partnership with the government — The first bridge to be thrown across the Mississippi — River interests aroused — Abraham Lincoln in bridge litigation — Presidential visitors 325

CHAPTER IX.

IOWa's earliest LIVING RESIDENT.

Capt. Warner L. Clark and his varied experiences — Acquainted with many men of prominence — Has remarkable memory — Pioneer customs — Capt. Clark's home town the first to be platted in Scott county — Description of the pioneer cabin — Indian neighbors — Incidents of Indian life — Why buflFalo fell behind in the race 345

CONTENTS 7

CHAPTER X.

TOWNSHIPS AND TOWNS.

History of the townships from the close of the Barrows history — Their record in patriotism during the days of '6i — The prosperity that has come to the farmers of the county — Rural schools and churches — Township officials — The many small settlements that form social cen- ters in the county — Bettendorf — The village of LeClaire 361

CHAPTER XI.

Davenport's first citizen.

Antoine LeClaire, prominently identified with the city, territory and state — The owner of a half-dozen sections of land given him by Indian friends — Generous to all — Marguerite LeClaire, his wife who shared his pleasure in making others happy — A tribute by Pere Pelamourgues — LeClaire and Davenport — Names inseparable 395

CHAPTER XII.

PIONEER LIFE.

The log cabin was the palace of the pioneer— Chinked logs, covered with clapboards — Rifle and spinning wheel — Almost anything was a bed- room— Cooking was primitive for sharp appetites — Welcome for the way- farer— Prairie fires and wolf hunts — Amusements for the frontier peo- ple were not lacking — What unremitting toil has accomplished 407

CHAPTER XIII.

TERRITORIAL DAYS.

William B. Conway made first territorial secretary of Iowa — Comes to Davenport and meets Antoine LeClaire and George Davenport — He is governor of Iowa and Davenport is its capital city — A caustic letter to the state council — The indignant reply of the committee — Conway's un- timely death and burial in this city — A valuable citizen 419

CHAPTER XIV.

THE GREAT RIVER.

The glory and majesty of the father of waters — Description of the keel- boat — An early trip from Cairo to Galena — A list of the early steam craft that breasted the currents of the upper river — Bringing down the logs — The ferries which have brought people into Scott county — The long-awaited Hennepin canal 429

8 ." CONTENTS

CHAPTER XV.

LIFE ON THE FRONTIER.

The reminiscences of the uioneer, Judge John W. Spencer — Life among the Sacs and Foxes — When friendship changed to distrust and enmity — Neighbor Black Hawk — Indian agriculture and hunting trips — ^The wars of 1831-33 — Stillman's defeat and the flag of truce — The merciless Sioux — A neighbor who drew the long bow 447

CHAPTER XVI.

LOOKING BACKWARD.

J. M. D. Burrows, merchant, miller, packer, handler of produce, looks back over his busy life and tells some incidents — Davenport a hamlet of 15 houses — A remarkable career — Hummer and his bell — Rev. John O. Foster tells of boyhood days in Rockingham — The view from the Decker home — A relic of Credit island battle 475

CHAPTER XVII.

THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.

The pioneer physicians of Scott county — Their hardships and self reliance

— Many of them practical men of great force of character — Reminis- cences of Dr. E. S. Barrows — Scott County Medical Society — Minutes of the bygone meetings — The society has taken advanced ground while conservative in character — Dr. Preston writes 495

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE SCOTT COUNTY BAR.

The bench and bar of Scott county — Early lawyers, many of them men of great ability — The earlier courts — Supreme court sessions in Davenport — The district, circuit and county courts — Members of the bar of 25 years ago — The present bar — Diverting incidents of the legal record since courts were established — Judge Grant's toothpick 517

CHAPTER XIX.

ADMINISTRATION OF THE COUNTY.

The conduct of the county's business affairs — The county commissioners' court and its work of organization — Road districts and voting places — County judges — Board of supervisors — Officials from earliest times to the present — A record for reference — Growth of the county in wealth and population 547

CONTENTS • 9

CHAPTER XX.

CHURCHES AND PARISHES.

Davenport the city of the diocese of Iowa and the diocese of Davenport — The handsome cathedrals and other sanctuaries of the city — Sketches of the bishops who have directed church work from Davenport — Sketches supplemental to those appearing in the Barnes history — Davenport a city of spires 571

CHAPTER XXI.

THE CIVIL WAR.

Dred Scott in Davenport — John Brown and Coppoc the refugee — The call for troops — Iowa's response — Local enthusiasm — Scott county soldiers in many regiments — Proved themselves the bravest of the brave — Iowa drum beat heard in every portion of the south — The honored dead — Unappreciated eloquence — Littler's firemen — Some clothes 619

CHAPTER XXII.

PATRIOTIC DAVENPORT.

Military headquarters — Camps where soldiers were trained — Minnesota Sioux — Many Confederate prisoners at Rock island prison — The routine of prison life — The soldiers' monument — Oration of General J. B. Leake — Iowa Soldiers' Orphans' Home — First exercises at Oakdale — Company B goes to fight Spain — The roll of honor — Company roster in days of Spanish-American war , 669

CHAPTER XXIII.

CITY OF DAVENPORT.

Always noted for striking beauty of situation — The mayors of the city from

the beginning to the 1910 election — The police and fire departments — A splendid street car service — Water service of equal merit — The parks of the city — What the city owes and owns — A few dollars each way for each man, woman and child 685

CHAPTER XXIV.

A GOOD PLACE TO LIVE.

Every opportunity to grow in culture and usefulness in Davenport — Public buildings provided for all lines of interest — A fine line of helpful institu- tions— Places of instruction and amusement — Hotels, hospitals — Some- where for everybody to stay — A great array of organizations for those who believe in banding together 711

10 CONTENTS

CHAPTER XXV.

THE COMMERCIAL SIDE.

Cheap fuel, transmissibility of electrical power and fine shipping facilities have made Davenport a great manufacturing center — The thrift of the people of Scott county have made it a great banking center — The growth of manufacturing interests and the widening of the field supplied — Coun- try banks springing up, everywhere 753

CHAPTER XXVI.

AT THE COURT HOUSE.

The handsome palace of justice — Tablets whereon the Pioneer Settlers' As- sociation have inscribed those coming to Scott county before 1846 — Full list of names — The county jail — -The Scott County Agricultural Society — Description of the first fair — Baseball when the pitcher over- stayed his time in the box and gentlemen caught fly balls 769

CHAPTER XXVn.

PUBLIC LIBRARIES, OLD AND NEW.

In 1839 the citizens moved for a collection of books — Library progress from that date to this has been along a devious path of hardship and discour- agement— Ladies managed the library for years — Mr. Watkins tells of years of devotion to the ideal of a public library — Andrew Carnegie, a life member, sends by Mrs. Maria Purdy Peck, president of the Dav- enport Historical Association, money for a new building 783

CHAPTER XXVHL

SOME OLD HOUSES.

Some remain and others have given way to better ones — The first frame house in Iowa — The first house in Davenport — Dr. John Emerson's brick residence — Many old residences of strong historic interest — Struc- tures that incite reminiscence — A beautifully written sketch of the hospitable homes of other days 801

CHAPTER XXIX.

THE GERMAN IMPRESS.

The influence of German immigrants upon the social, financial, patriotic, commercial and artistic life of the United States — From the general to the particular — What German-Americans have done for the prosperity, material and spiritual, of Davenport and Scott county — A trip cross- country and what it shows — German organizations. By Adolph Pe- tersen, Editor of "Iowa Reform." 813

CONTENTS 11

CHAPTER XXX.

A FORCEFUL INFLUENCE.

The Germans of Davenport and the Chicago Convention of i860 — The part those who opposed knownothingism played in the party preHminaries leading up to the republican nomination of Abraham Lincoln — The Davenport resolutions of March, i860 — German strength recognized throughout the land — With Bates out of the race Abraham Lincoln the strongest Compromise candidate 839

By F. L Herriott. Professor of Economics, Political and Social Science, Drake University.

CHAPTER XXXL

Davenport's baptism.

Could Rock Island be Davenport? — Would Davenport have been Rock Is- land ? — For whom was Davenport named ? — There seems to be no doubt that Colonel George Davenport was so honored — A life which ranks with the heroes of romance in variety and thrilling incident — One of the founders of the city that bears his name — An Indian ceremony. . . . 849

CHAPTER XXXII.

CLIMATOLOGICAL CONDITIONS.

Being an article based upon weather bureau observations covering a period from 1871 to 1909 — The location of office and instruments — A climat- ological summary — Unusual weather phenomena — Warm and cold pe- riods— Length of growing seasons — Unusual amounts of rainfall — Not- able river stages — Remarkable flood stage 877

By J. M. Sherier, Local Forecaster, Weather Bureau.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

THE PRESS.

The Archimedean lever that moves the world in this part of the world the present press which ably serves Davenport and Scott county — English and German, political and religious — Papers of bygone days which did not fill a wide felt want — The papers of long ago and their news service —The Tri-City Press Club 885

By Ralph W. Cram. President of the Tri-City Press Club.

12 CONTENTS

CHAPTER XXXIV.

THE RAILROADS.

Strenuous efforts to build railroads in Scott county's early years — Agitation to the eastward and westward — The first railroad west of the great river — A. C. Fulton, a man ahead of his times — Hiram Price as pro- moter—The M. & M., C. & R. I., D. & St. L., C. R. I. & P., C. B. & Q.. C. M. & St. P., also the I. & L — Fifty years an engineer 899

CHAPTER XXXV.

EDUCATION.

The foundation laid by early statesmen — A look ahead — The beginnings of schools in Iowa — Those who taught school in Davenport in the thirties — Many years of private schools — Arrival of the public school in the fifties — Latter day schools — Magnificent high school — The special branches — Schools of higher education — Biography of J. B. Young . . 919

CHAPTER XXXVI.

THE SALAD COURSE.

In this chapter may be found almost everything aside from the item the reader is searching for — There are some things that will prove of in- terest to somebody — Other things that everybody knows — Some inci- dents are unusual and others just so-so — There seemed to be a neces- sity for this sort of chapter 963

CHAPTER XXXVII.

CHRONOLOGY.

This is something of a record of the years in Scott county from 1832 to 1910 — Other things have happened but these appear notable, as the list is scanned for items that look worthy of type — It is a collection of short stories somewhat lacking in description but good what there is of them 979

FOREWORD.

And after the book has gone to the printer, the author, editor, compiler or whatever or whoever he may be, carries in a preface his burden of regret to the pubHc who probably expected nothing better, and in dismal remorse tells how his plans have buckled, his roseate visions turned to leaden hue, his budding hopes chilled and filled with April snows. Not in this book. There is a disposition to acknowledge that prospectus plans covered a scope a trifle wide for the binding of any one book or two books, but there is a belief that there is much in this work that will be new to the reader, and that it merits recognition rather for what it con- tains than for what has been omitted. There are plenty of inconsistencies, no doubt, and misstatements, perhaps. But it is a good deal to expect that the writer of history can arrive at truth in incidents wherein principals and bystand- ers are all dead. It puzzles any one who drops into any court of justice to sort the truth from the conflicting testimony of witnesses who saw the self-same thing happen yesterday. How much more diflicult is the task of the assembler of facts for a local history. In any event there is as much amusement in denying as agreeing, and the reader, gentle or otherswise, gets his money's worth.

If there have been matters passed over without mention that are worthy extended notice in any history, let it be remembered that many things have hap- pened in Scott county since Radisson yearned for the red souls of its inhabitants, and that the comparative estimate of values is the sole pleasure of the writer of history and may be exercised by anybody who can find a publisher.

Some expert who has given the matter thought says no man has a right to pen history unless he has something new to tell or a new way of telling the old. There is a third reason, — the same which impelled the Galena hotel keeper to charge the Prince de Joinville $4.00 for playing one tune on his piano ; the same reason which caused the assistant superintendent of a New Jersey lunch counter to ask $1.00 of Bill Nye for that combination of sliced ham and some baker's absent mindedness known on the road as a boxing glove.

Schleiermacher, the great philosopher, draws a distinction between longitu- dinal and transverse views of any series of historical facts. An attempt has been made in this work to combine both plans, with what success the reader, pugnacious or otherwise, may judge.

The opportunity offered by this foreword is eagerly embraced to acknowledge indebtedness. First of all, credit for the finest portion of this work must go to one who has long been gone, — the fine old pioneer, surveyor, linguist, gentleman, Willard Barrows, and in lesser measure to his son, B. H. Barrows, once of Dav- enport, now of Omaha, who generously gave permission for reprinting Willard Barrows' history in these words, "I not only do not see any objection to your using any of my father's material which you can find, but I should be very glad

14 HISTORY OF SCOTT COUNTY

indeed, to see the collection of his historical work in some permanent form," and finally in this connection the writer's personal gratitude is expressed to the pub- lishers of this work for being willing to reprint the Barrows history, complete, unabridged, unchanged, without modification or erasure, an adequate recognition of this masterpiece of local history to which it has been entitled any time these fifty years and which has not been before accorded.

By way of tribute to the memory of another writer gone from earth it should be recorded that had it not been for D. N. Richardson's love for history, his patient untangling of historical problems and his abihty to coordinate seemingly unrelated facts, supplemented by his delightful narration of matters thus ar- ranged, much of Scott county history would have been lost beyond recovery. There are many others, old associates on the Democrat, the Richardsons, B. F. Tillinghast, J. E. Calkins, Ralph W. Cram, whose chapter on the Press is a fea- ture of this work; fellow members of the Press Club, W. A. Meese, of Moline, H. P. Simpson, of the Rock Island Argus, J. E. Hardman and Joe Carmichael, of the Times, Dr. August Richter of Der Demokrat, the most prolific of local historians, Fred B. Sharon, of the Messenger, Adolph Petersen of the Iowa Reform, whose chapter on the German Impress is a notable portion of this his- tory. When this is read, it will be understood by the distant reader why Scott county is sometimes spelled Skat county.

The permission to use any of the copyrighted material in that mine of local history the Half Century Democrat is only an added instance of a generosity which has never failed in an association of twenty-five years.

Thanks are due to Mrs. Maria Purdy Peck for her chapter on the Public Library. Those who know this gifted writer will not fail to identify her with the Mrs. W. F. Peck who took such large part in making library history. Prof. Frank I. Herriott, a resident of Scott county by inheritance, for his father farmed near Durant before the citizens of Iowa called him to be state treasurer, has devel- oped something in regard to the nomination of Abraham Lincoln that has escaped the actual dwellers of Scott county. For this analysis of a hitherto neglected incident in Iowa political history he has our gratitude.

The list of those who have aided in producing this work is long and to every one thanks are due, — to J. B. Young, who patiently collected material for the hitherto unwritten chapter on local education, to J. M. Sherier for his scientific and interesting chapter on climatology, to J. H. Paarmann, curator of the Dav- enport Academy of Sciences and Miss Sarah Foote-Sheldon, corresponding secretary of that institution, to Capt. W. L. Clark, for his interesting interview. Col. F. E. Hobbs, commanding Rock Island Arsenal, Secretary C. A. Steel of the Commercial Club, to city and county officials, the Davenport Board of Park Commissioners, to Miss Grace D. Rose, librarian, Mr. and Mrs. Louis A. Le- Claire, Mr. and Mrs. W. J. McCullough, Dr. C. H. Preston, C. E. Harrison, W. C. Mossman, G. E. Hubbell, Prin. J. A. Hornby, to Supt. F. L. Smart and Secre- tary J. D. McCoUister of the Board of Education ; and finally to the good friend whose name has been omitted and whose neglect shall seem perfectly inexcusable when it shall be made apparent by sober second thought.

H. E. Downer.

CHAPTER I. THE STORY OF THE ROCKS.

FROM CREATION DAYS PREPARATION OF THE EARTH FOR THE ABODE OF MAN BY GLA-

CIATION AND INUNDATION THE PRE-GLACIAL TOPOGRAPHY — THE MISSISSIPPI

OF AGES GONE THE AGE OF THE GREAT ICE SCOTT COUNTY^S PERFECT DRAINAGE

A WEALTH OF BUILDING STONE THE CARBONIFEROUS STRATA WHICH HAVE

BROUGHT WEALTH GEOLOGICAL SECTION OF SCOTT COUNTY.

When the six great creative days were fully ended and the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them, when the evening of the sixth day brought the achievement of the marvelous work, the Book records that the Creator of the universe rested from his labors, saw everthing that he had made, and be- hold, it was very good. From chaos, formless and void, had come through omnis- cient plan and omnipotent will a beautiful planet, fitted for the home of man, a sphere which swung in ether in perfect poise with jarless revolution and with certain and flawless procession. Upon this world which seemed good to its Creator appeared continents, seas, islands and straits. Had there been a spectator upon a neighboring planet when this earth fresh from the creative process took its place in the firmament, to him the western continent would have appeared but an island circled by the sea, the belt of land which was to be in after years the United States but a patch of greens and grays, the magnificent Mississippi valley a blur of color and the state of Iowa an indistinguished item in the har- monious whole. Surely the abiding place of our love and pride is but a speck in the wide-unfolding map of creation, but to us who live in Iowa there is nothing more sure than this, that no fairer spot exists the world around than this small portion of the splendid work that received the commendation of the great Archi- tect, and to those who live in Scott county there is also the surety that nowhere in Iowa has the Creator more kindly planned for his children or scattered in greater measure the blessings of his good will.

For the story of the preparation of the world to be the abode of man from fire mist to finished planet we must go to the geologists and learn of the ages of evolution and gradual change which stretched through time and into a seeming eternity measured only by the stupendous span of the great creative days of the

18 • HISTORY OF SCOTT COUNTY

Almighty. To them it is given to read the book of creation in the everlasting hills, to glean history from eroded valleys and learn in stratifications of the living things which enjoyed life in this region when it was under seas. Under Iowa prairies and by the banks of Iowa streams have been found most illuminating records of the ages when the rocky foundations of Iowa were being laid and of the later ages when this substructure was being covered by glacial drift and lev- eled in prairied sweep from great river to great river. Prof. Samuel Calvin says: "In no part of the world are certain chapters of the Pleistocene record clearer, or fraught with greater interest than in our fair Iowa." This geological eminence Scott county shares with the remainder of the commonwealth, but there is also an especial distinction all our own. Prof. W. H. Norton writes in the report of the Iowa geological survey : "In the diversity and interest of its de- posits of glacial drift, Scott county is hardly surpassed by any area of equal size in the United States. Lost pages of Pleistocene history are here recoverable, and evidence is at hand which may help to solve questions of long dispute in glacial geology."

In its long preparation for human habitation, its endowment with a climate of pleasing and healthful variety, soil of unexcelled richness and water in abun- dance, this favored corner of the earth has passed through a most remarkable ex- perience. It has been under the ice not once but four times. It has been under the sea no one knows how many times. It has been traversed by great rivers. It has been covered by strange tropical forests and through its savannas have roamed animals of strange form and uncouth appearance. As a possible human habitat it is very old.

STRANGE CLIMATIC CHANGES.

Wise as are the geologists and much as they can read in the rocks and run- ning brooks they cannot tell us what changed the climate of Iowa from the warmth and grateful fruitfulness of the Carboniferous period to the frigidity of glacial days which chilled and killed all life, the stricken land with its vernal crown of grass and woods finding burial under ice of such thickness that material brought from the north by the slowly creeping ice sheet was deposited as soil many yards in depth upon the rocks beneath. What disarrangement of ocean currents, of polar winds or aberration of axis inclination or orbit was responsible we do not know, but there is told in the rocks and soil of Scott county the story of fearful storms of ice and snow lasting thousands of years which piled the ice in mountain semblance in a grinding glacier sheet that made soil in tremendous fashion from the material frozen in the stream of ice and the material that lay beneath. And this cycle of growth and destruction was repeated time and again. The creative plan seems to have contemplated the devastating forces of storm, glaciation and inundation in the preparation of the richest soils and most beautiful arrangement of land and water forms in this region most fit for the abode of man.

Scott county long ago attracted the attention of Scientific men through the interest and importance of is geologic phenomena. Within its narrow borders outcrop the stratifications of three great geological series — the Silurian, the De-

HISTORY OF SCOTT COUNTY 19

vonian and the Carboniferous. These formations have contributed greatly to the county's wealth and population through the economic value of the industries arising therefrom, mines of coal and clay, quarries of stone for lime, for building-, for road making and for concrete construction. Even as here within the county appear these three great geological systems, there are also here the borders of the drift of three of the continental glaciers which invaded Iowa. Here are plains o£ alluvium and glacial drift untouched by crumbling erosion. Here are other plains scored and roughened by the action of water, rocky gorges chiseled by rivers in their geologic youth with much rough work ahead, rolling stretches of frontal loess moraines, — all contours which lend variety to the landscape and in- terest to the searcher after the story of the rocks. Here in our county the great Mississippi and its tributary, the Wapsipinicon, aided by the smaller streams which flow to them have dissected the covering of the underlying rocks mak- ing easy the examination of the indurated formations thus exposed and also af- fording opportunity to study the Pleistocene deposits. The opportunities which nature has furnished in gorge and scarp and hillside ledge have been added to by mines and wells and quarries, by railway cuts and the grading of city streets.

In 1852 David Dale Owen told of the geologic richness of this county in pub- lishing the results of his surveys of the Mississippi valley, paying especial at- tention to the fossils of Davenport and Buffalo. A few years later Hall and Whitney gave great space to the peculiar features of Scott county in the published account of their survey. Out of thirty-three species of Devonian fossils listed in their search eighteen were credited to Scott county and six to contiguous Illinois territory. The Academy of Sciences at Davenport has a great collection of the fossils of the county, notable contributors being A. S. Tiffany and Rev. Dr. W. H. Barris. The rich fauna of the submerged era has been described by Barris, Worthen, Meek and Lindahl. Much has been written of the glacial deposits of the county by McGee, McWhorter, Pratt, Calvin, Bain, Leverett and Udden. and of the older formations by Barris, Tiffany, Calvin, Norton, Udden and Keyes.

CONSTRUCTIVE AND EROSIVE FORCES.

The variation in the topography of Scott county, even as elsewhere, is the result of two differing forces, the constructive and erosive. To the former be- long aggraded stream valleys, the uneroded remnants of drift plains and the hills of the lowan frontier or border, of one of the great glaciers which reached no farther south than the northern boundary of Scott county. All other relief forms are due to the action of nmning water, to rain wash or the composite action Icnown as weathering. The lowan frontier separates two essentially different topographies. To the north the surface is modeled, to the south it is carved. It has been decided by geologists that the pre-glacial surface of the county was not dissimilar to its present condition in this respect, that most of the valleys of the streams were cut before the soft yellow loam which everywhere covers the sur- face was laid down, as it descends the hill-sides like a mantle well down to the creek bottoms. In this degree the topography is constructive only, modified by erosive influence where the loess has been dissected by a water course of minor

20 HISTORY OF SCOTT COUNTY

importance. Where this loess is of sufficient thickness the dissection is most intricate.

There have been discriminated in Scott county three topographic areas of different ages, the lowan area, the IlHnoian plain and Kansan upland. The lowan area is one of extreme geological youth. The Illinoian plain is but slightly older, the original plain persisting even to the master streams, its edge being merely nibbled by erosion. From an inland view-point, the channel of the Mis- sissippi disappears from vision and the eye sweeps a level range that takes in the corresponding plain in Illinois as a part of an undivided whole. According to the map of the United States geological survey one may travel from the Green Tree tavern north and west fourteen miles to Walcott and not have changed his elevation above sea level more than twenty feet in traversing the distance. The Kansan upland is of greater age and shows more deeply the effects of erosion, the streams having wider valleys and the hills the rounded summits which tell of age and the wear of the elements.

The fourth glacial invasion, which was called the lowan, reached the northern boundary of Scott county and the topography of the northern portion of the county was caused by this glaciation, the southern extension of the lowan drift plain and its frontier in the northern row of townships being marked by the charac- teristic formation known to geologists as paha. These are boat shaped hills composed of water-laid sand and silt and in part of glacial deposit, the whole molded into characteristic shape by the ice, the longer axis trending northwest- southeast. Sometimes the paha assume the form of long, low swells ; sometimes they are individuated into separate hills several of which may be strung along a common axis. As the composition changes from loess to sand the form changes to the irregular hills of Butler township, and the long sandy ridge of the Wapsi- pinicon plain in Princeton township. Below this region of the paha the county may be considered as at one time c(!)vered by an approximately level plain of glacial deposit which was deeply eroded in places and still later covered by the fairly uniform mantle of yellow loess or loam of which mention has already been made.

The report of the Iowa geological survey for this county, written by Prof. W. H. Norton, has a paragraph telling of the appearance of things in the far-distant days before the coming of the first glacier : "A very slight investigation suffices to show that the pre-glacial topography was widely differ- ent from that which meets the eye today. Rivers ran hundreds of feet below the present surface. Hills relatively high stood where the level prairie now stretches to the horizon. Were the cover of drift removed from the underlying rocks, their surface would be found rugged and hilly, deeply scored with manifold ra- vines, and trenched by river valleys deeper than that of the Mississippi, and as wide. But it is scarcely practicable to draw the details of that ancient sur- face. For the most part we must rely on the records of the wells which have been sunk in the past few years. It is a familiar fact that the well driller finds the distance to rock far from equal even from the same level. In one section the drill grinds on the native rock within fifty feet from the surface ; a mile or so away, rock is only found within 300 feet from about an equal eleva- tion. These deep depressions, now plastered over with glacial mud, were cut

HISTORY OF SCOTT COUNTY 23

by running water. They are not local discontinuous pits. They join and form continuous valleys cut out by ancient rivers. Accordingly the deepest drift wells are not found in clusters but in lines."

AN ANCIENT PRE-GLACIAL RIVER.

Perhaps the most interesting statement in Professor Norton's paragraph has to do with the ancient, pre-glacial river bed larger than that of the Mississippi as we know it. The credit of the discovery' of this long choked water way has been given to two scientists who approached it from different quarters and traced it with comparative corroboration — Udden and Leverett. This stream seems to have left the present bed of the Mississippi at the mouth of the Maquoketa river, to have come past Goose lake and Brophy's creek to the valley of the Wapsi- pinicon, thence across Scott county in broad and generous fashion by Durant and Wilton, on through Muscatine county and to the Mississippi channel again near the present location of Fort Madison. The magnificent valley of this noble pre- glacial stream is occupied by an unambitious affluent of the Wapsipinicon called Mud creek, a stream of a few rods width at its mouth and having a depth of a few feet. This broad and spacious valley is bordered by hills with the gentle slope, indicating age. They are loess covered, as is the flood plain. Near Durant the ancient watercourse occupied a valley from two to three miles in width and the town is located on an island where the river divided. Three miles from Du- rant is found the almost imperceptible divide which separates the territory now drained by Mud creek from the valley of Elkhorn creek a tributary of the Cedar river. To the observer who follows the course of this ancient river it becomes easily certain that the two creeks which occupy this river valley never created it.

Some have surmised that in this channel there once flowed the river which in bygone ages was the forerunner of the Mississippi. At one time the Illinoian glacier encroached upon the present soil of Iowa and this river may have been pushed over from its former bed which at that time lay to the eastward of the Mississippi channel as we know it. Later the lowan glacier crowded the stream back to the eastward and the Cleona channel, as geologists call it, was filled by glacial deposits from this later invasion. This supposition lacks entire confirmation, as the records of deep wells which have been sunk in that region furnish proof that the ancient river bed antedates the Illinoian glacier by a great length of time. It is to this deep channel of this ancient river that Scott county owes its richness in Pleistocene history, for it is in such deep valleys where glaciers must deposit and where they can least erode that the record of glacial days has been laid down. Perhaps it will be well to take from scientific sources the sequence of events in Iowa during the age of the Great Ice.

WHEN THE GLACIERS CAME.

First. — An invasion by glacial ice from the north, perhaps an extension of the Kewatin ice sheet whose center of dispersion lay west of Hudson bay. Little is known of the till deposited by this invasion, and it is termed for the present the Pre-Kansan drift sheet.

24 HISTORY OF SCOTT COUNTY

Second. — A stage of deglaciation, the Aftonian, during which the glaciers re- treated, probably beyond the limits of the state.

Third. — A second and more formidable invasion by the Kewatin glacier which pushed the ice front south to the Missouri river. This stage and the drift sheet then deposited are known as the Kansan.

Fourth. — A second stage of deglaciation, the Yarmouth, during which the land left bare by the retreat of the ice far to the south weathered into rich soils of prairie and forest.

Fifth. — A third ice invasion, the Illinoian, entering Iowa from the east and occupying a narrow strip of country along the Mississippi extending from the Wapsipinicon south nearly to the Des Moines.

Sixth. — A third stage of deglaciation, the Sangamon, during which the drift sheet left by the retreat of the Illinoian ice weathered into soil and was covered with peat swamps, savannas and forests.

Seventh. — A fourth ice invasion, the lowan, coming from the north and extend- ing on its eastern margin as far south as Scott county. Southward from the front of the lowan ice was laid down in some manner, at present undetermined, a silt called the lowan loess.

Eighth. — A fourth stage of deglaciation and soil formation, the Peorian.

Ninth. — A fifth ice invasion, the Wisconsin, confined in Iowa to the central portions of the state, and extending as far south as Des Moines.

Of the nine stages just enumerated records of all are believed to exist in Scott county with the exception of the last two, the Wisconsin and the Peorian.

From the deep wells which have been sunk in the Cleona channel came the dense, f^aky bluish-black till which is characteristic of the Pre-Kansan. Overlying this and under the drift of the Kansan are heavy layers of sand and gravel. The Kansan till which overlies the gravel in these wells comes to the surface as the Kansan upland in the northeastern part of the county. It is a mixture of boulders, cobbles, pebbles, sand, rockmeal and clay, the grist of the glacial mill. This dumping of glacial freight is a thorough mixture. In a cut on the line of the Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Northern road west of Davenport. Professor Norton counted these "erratics," and found fifty-one per cent granitoids, thirty- seven per cent carboniferous sandstone and limestone, ten per cent greenstones and two per cent quartzites. In Liberty township nuggets of native copper have been discovered in this glacial drift. Inasmuch as the rate of progress of modern glaciers confined to narrow channels is but a few inches a year the time it must have taken the diffused Kansan ice sheet to bring this consignment of copper from its Lake Superior home to Scott county is a matter to wonder upon.

When this great Kewatin ice sheet retreated from Iowa, Scott county was neglected in the distribution of its largess of gravel. For the making of Scott county roads it has been necessary to go over county lines and import the Kansan gravels in which other portions of the state are rich. The Kansan glacier left to Scott county its fine-ground grist of blue clay which in time bore savannas of grass and forests of trees. These buried soils with their vegetation have been noted by glaciologists at various localities in the county, overlying the blue clay of the Kansan drift and under the yellow clay of the Illinoian.

HISTORY OF SCOTT COUNTY 25

It was only a narrow strip of Iowa which was comphmented by a visit from the IlHnoian glacier. This narrow belt stretches along the Mississippi from the Wapsipinicon to Fort Madison. This invasion from the east left its record in a peculiar and characteristic till which has been brought to light by excavations at Sixth and Harrison streets, at Eighth and Marquette streets in Davenport and in ravines two miles south of Blue Grass.

The latest glacier to visit Scott county hesitated upon the northern thresh- old, giving to the northern tier of townships their peculiar topography and to the whole county the inexhaustible mantle of fine silico-argillaceous silt known as the lowan loess. Near the lowan margin it attains a depth of forty or fifty feet. Along the Mississippi its thickness is perhaps twenty-five to thirty feet and in the interior of the county fifteen to twenty feet. This is the soil which has ranked in fertility with the alluvium of the bottom lands and has constantly produced wealth for its owners. It was laid down in glacial waters in a manner not yet understood.

The drainage of Scott county may be considered perfect, as no portion within county borders is more than eleven miles from one of the master streams, the Mississippi and its tributary the Wapsipinicon. Something more than one- half of the territory is drained by the affluents of the Wapsie, as this river is locally known. Geologists have found much to interest them in <