N O ^^^ _^:*vWa\ v./ /^i^\ ^^ Too o,^ 'V'^'^'*A^'^ ^^^' ^^•^^ < O • •** A •, %,^^ MM. Vc/ /^\ ^-"-^^^^ *^o< _ rt^ o " * «. ■K o FIFTYYEARSIN'IOWA: BEING THE PEKSONAL REMINISCENCES OF J. M. D. BURROWS, OONOERNING THE Men and Events, Social Life, Industkial Interests, Physical Development, AND Commercial Progress OF DAVENPORT AND SCOTT COUNTY, DURING THE PERIOD FROM 1888 TO 1888. DAVENPORT, IOWA: GLASS & COMPANY, PRINTERS AND BINDERS. 1888. ' It ExPLAjSTATOEY. In submitting to my fellow-citizens this volume, containing the recollections of a round half century of life in Iowa, and more particularly in Davenport and Scott County, among the old-time friends and their descendants, to whom I now look for such audience as I may be favored with, it seems proper for me to explain briefly the circumstances that have led me to attempt a task so unaccustomed as the making of a book. About a year ago, after a long life of constant activity and exceptionally good health, I was stricken with heart disease. As usual with that dreaded malady, the attack, in my case, was wholly unheralded and unexpected. It prostrated me com- pletely at the time, and since then I have been unable to per- form any physical labor. Casting about, in this extremity, what I should do to gain a livelihood while life might be granted to me yet a little longer, it was suggested by friends that many persons would read with interest some account of men and events in Scott County, as I knew them, during the pioneer days of the early '40's, together with such personal gossip and reminiscences of business strug- gles, social changes, and other local matters in the later history of Davenport, as I could set down in narrative form. Acting on this idea, I have written the book presented here- with. Much of the writing has been done when the writer was able barely to sit up in bed. Many of the facts have been jotted down regardless of temporal sequence, as they came up- permost in my mind, between spells of physical suffering. The exigency of the circumstances, forcing me into the heretofore untried field of literature, even in this humble form, must stand as my apology for whatever is crude in the story. One feature of the book does not please me, as I read the proofs of the completed work: it is that the narrative seems so iv EXPLANATORY. permeated with the presence of J. M. D. Burrows. Many times his personality has crept in almost without the knowledge, cer- tainly without the intent, of the writer. These instances, which escaped notice while the history was being written, are unpleas- antly apparent to me now. But, as I have been giving my own recollections, mostly of scenes in which I was a principal actor, I hope that my friends will consider these repeated, though oftentimes unconscious, references to self as, at the worst, a necessary evil, rather than as purposely intrusive egotism. The more confidential relationship of reader and writer in prefatory chapters must be my excuse for one more purely per- sonal statement. Every one who knows anything of me and my history, knows that I made several fortunes during my act- ive business career in Davenport. Some may ask, and with reason, " Why did he not lay by a competency against the bar- ren days of old age? " I answer that it was my hope and expect- ation to do so; yet, in the years when prosperity smiled upon me, there were crises in the commercial life of Davenport and Scott County, when the welfare of the community seemed to demand my continuance in business. I continued, and sacri- ficed more than one fortune in my perhaps mistaken, but at least unselfish, loyalty to the interests of the community. Had the right man appeared to take my place at any one of several important junctures in the affairs of Davenport, I should have stepped down and out gladly. As it was, I stood in the breach too long. To this closing explanation, I add the hope that this work — my last — will prove not only interesting to such of my friends and former co-workers as still live to read it, but instructive to the younger generation, as a faithful, if rudely drawn, chronicle of the vicissitudes which we, who are passing rapidly away and out of their memories, underwent to make Davenport what it is. J. M. D. B. Table of CoiN^TEJsrTS. Chapter I. The Villages of Stephenson and Davenport in 1838; a First Glimpse of Iowa Scenery ; the Ferry Primeval and Cap- tain John Wilson; "Citizens 25 Cents, Strangers 50 Cents;" from Cincinnati by Horse and Buggy; Hard- ships on the Way; Some Early Settlers 1 Chapter II. Buying a Squatter's Claim in Scott County; Cuts Drawn for Choice of Halves; the Difficulties of House-Build- ing; Down River in a Yawl; Trials of Early Navigation; an Honest Landlady; a Railroad Journey to New Jer- sey ^ 5 Chapter III. Scarcity of Houses in Davenport in 1839; Two vSmall Rooms a Mansion; Outbreak of the Rockingham and Missouri Wars; Marshalling the Davenport Patriots; Revolt Led by the Knight of the Sheet-Iron Sword; Judge Grant and the Horse-Thief 11 Chapter IV. " Brimstone Corner " in Davenport; Some Early Burying- Grounds; Coffins that Floated; Establishment of the First Newspaper, the "Iowa Sun;" a Remarkable Prize Potato, and How It was Made; Editor Logan's Right- eous Indignation 16 Chapter V. The Interesting History of the Rev. Michael Hummer; His Eccentric Habits and High Temper; How He Fell Out with the Iowa Citizens Over a Church Bell; the Pleas- ing Ballad of " Hummer's Bell." 19 vi TABLE OF CONTENTS. Chapter VI. "Breaking" a Scott County Claim; the First Davenport Vegetable Wagon; Engaging in the Mercantile Busi- ness; Testing a Rockingham Doctor; Sociability of the Old Settlers; the Delights of the Early " Straw Ride." 23 Chapter VII. Struggles in the. Mercantile Trade; the First Store, and Ho'tv It was Stocked; Another Trip to Cincinnati; Rudi- mentary Banking in Davenport; Trade Begins to Pick Up 27 Chapter VIII. Servant Girls Almost as Hard to Get in the Forties as They are Now; a Specimen Hunt for Help when It was Needed Badly; Help, when Found, was Better Then than Now, though 30 Chapter IX. Beginning of the Produce Trade in Davenport; Buying Wheat and Hogs on a Venture; Success Despite the Discouraging Predictions of Friends; I Hire R. M. Prettyman 33 Chapter X. A Trip North in 1841; Trading with the Fur Company; a Perilous Journey Home with Pockets Full of Gold; Nearly Drowned in a Canoe; the Suspected Farmer and the Power of Prayer; a Stranger in the Dark; Home at Last 36 Chapter XI. Hard Times and Over-Production ; Bidding for the Govern- ment Contracts for Forts Snelling and Crawford; Timely Aid from Antoine Le Claire and Colonel Davenport; the. Atchison Brothers and Their Methods 42 Chapter XII. Orders Made and Counternianded by the Government; the Difficulty of Finding Hogs for Market; Another Deal with the Atchison Brothers; Dark Days for the Farm- ers; Success in the End -. 45 TABLE OF CONTENTS. vii Chapter XIII. My Introduction to Daniel T. Newcomb; a Hurried Night Ride to Muscatine; Mr. Newcomb's Hospitality and Enterprise; Some Early Real Estate Transactions in Davenport; the Newcomb Memorial Chapel; Mrs. New- comb 48 ClIArTER XIV. Opening of 1848; an Unprofitable Speculation in White Beans; Low Water in the Fall; to St. Louis in a Flat- boat; a Rough Journey Back; the Mormon Prophet's Assistance 52 Chapter XV. Formation of the Firm of "Burrows & Prettyman;" More Low Water in the Mississippi; Another Trip by Flat- boat to St. Louis; Disastrous Journey to New Orleans ^ with a Cargo of Potatoes; Close of 1843 57 Chapter XVI. More Business Reverses in 1845; the Rockingham Mill Fiasco; the Specious Boom in Wheat for England; the Boom Collapses; Heavy Losses by Burrows & Pretty- man; Our Transactions with Henning & Woodruff; Bet- ter Times Set In 61 Chapter XVII. Retrieving the Ill-Luck of 1845; a Big Speculation in Wheat that Paid Enormous Profits; the Rockingham Corn Deal; Corn a Glut in the Market; Selling Out Cheap 66 Chapter XVIII. Advent of the Germans in Davenport; a Sturdy and Industrious Race; Outbreak of the Cholera; Many Fatal Cases; to St. Louis Overland; Hard Traveling on the Home Trip; Some Facetious Young Men, and Who Laughed Last; Seasons of Hard Work 69 Chapter XIX. Arrival of A. C. Fulton and a Remarkable Stock of Goods; Mr. Fulton's Attempts to Revolutionize Local Com- merce; a Great Boom in Onions, and Why it Failed to viii TABLE OF CONTENTS. Boom; Other Schemes Like those of Colonel Mulberry Sellers; the Glorious Conquest of Santa Anna 73 Chapter XX. Mr. Fulton's Peculiar Manner of Dealing in Mill Property; a Rivalry with Some Bitterness; Failure of the Opposi- tion Mill; Mr. Fulton's Serious Illness; a Sick-Bed Reconciliation 78 Chapter XXI. Burrows & Prettyman Buy the ^tna Mill; Mr. Fulton's Successful Real Estate Operations; a Commercial Sen- sation; Wreck of the ^Etna Mill; the Purchase of Ofifer- mann's Island, and Its Subsequent Sale; Some Reverses . 84 Chapter XXII. History of the Banking Business in Davenport; Cook & Sargent's Early Operations; Currency Very Scarce and Unsafe; the Loss of a Trunk Filled with Bullion, and Its Recovery; Hard Times in a Sfcage-Coach; Lost in an Old-Fashioned Blizzard 88 Chapter XXIII. Change in the Firm of Burrows k Prettyman; Young Ed- ward Davidson's Service; Trading Up and Down the River; Success of the New Business Scheme 92 Chapter XXIV. Edward Davidson's Business Venture; Trips Along the River; His Death in Trying to Cross on Moving Ice; Operations of Burrows k Prettyman; Some Successful Investments; Sale of the Pork-House 95 Chapter XXV. Once More in the Pork-Packing Line; the Greatest Pack- ing Season on Record; Every Warehouse and Cellar Filled with Frozen Hogs; Difficulty in Obtaining Ready Money; Financial Troubles Successfully Surmounted; a Profitable Season's Business 98 Chapter XXVL Western Flour Popular Far from Home; from the Shores of the Mississippi to the Banks of the Hudson; How TABLE OF CONTENTS. ix They Liked Davenport's Flour in the East; One Brand at a Premium; Cost of Shipping 102 Chapter XXVII. More About the Banking Business in Davenport; Trouble Over "Wild-Cat" Currency; Cook & Sargent's "Flor- ence" Notes; Burrows & Pretty man Try Their Luck; All Goes Well 105 Chapter XXVIII. My First and Only Experience as a Steamboat Captain; a Late Trip Down River with the Staunch Little " Mary C.;" We Make a Safe Run, and Lots of Money out of It; Incidents Going and C6ming 108 Chapter XXIX. The Beginning of Financial Complications that Led to a Serious Crisis; Cook & Sargent's Efforts to Save Them- selves from Disaster; Calling In Their Florence Cur- rency; How They were Accommodated by Burrows & Prettyman, and Other Friends; Attacks from Macklot & Corbin, and the Press 112 Chapter XXX. Cook & Sargent Resort to Unexpected Tactics; Burrows & Pretty man's Resources Threatened; an Interview in the Bank; Cook & Sargent Force the Issue; a Run on Bur- rows \' Prettyman, and How it was Weathered 116 Chapter XXXI. Every Check Redeemed by Burrows & Prettyman; Differ- ence Between that Course and the Handling of " Flor- ence;" I Mortgage "Clifton " to Help the Cooks; an 111- Advised Step 119 Chapter XXXIL Events Preliminary to the Cook Sz Sargent Collapse; My Milling Operations in 1852-53; Breaking Out of the Crimean War; a Great Boom in American Wheat; My Preparations to Meet It; Opening of the Chicago & Rock Island Railroad 122 X TABLE OF CONTENTS. Chapteb XXXIII. An Unparalleled Wheat Crop in Iowa; Buying It All In at Seemingly Exorbitant Prices; Luck Favors the Specu- lator; the Investment of Sebastopol Causes Enormous Profits; ^100,000 in Sixty Days; Even Disaster Makes Money for Me; Beginning of the End 125 Chapter XXXIV. A Sudden Taste of Adversity; Death of Nicholas, Czar of Russia, and Slump in the Wheat Market; a Loss of $200,000 in a Single Day; Distress Among Dealers All Along the Mississippi; Small Disasters Follow the Big One — the Camanche Cyclone with the Rest 129 Chapter XXXV. Cook k Sargent in a Strait; those "Florence" Notes Cause the Trouble; History of the "Currency Riot" of 1859; Ebenezer Cook's House Smashed; the Rioters Visit " Clifton," but Think Better of Their Purpose; an Excit- ing Epoch 132 Chapter XXXVI. The Storm Thickens Over Cook & Sargent; a Note Pro- tested by Macklot & Corbin; No Funds in the Rival Bank; Unsuccessful Efforts to Stay the Impending Catastrophe; a Day of Anxiety 135 Chapter XXXVII. The Blow Falls at Last; "Closed," at Cook & Sargent's; a Mob of Angry Depositors; Desperate Scene in the Bank; Ebenezer Cook's Frenzied Despair; the Missing Bundle of County Orders; Unwarranted Use of Them by the Ruined Bankers; a Forgotten Promise 137 Chapter XXXVIII. Action at Law Against Cook & Sargent; the Mortgage on " Clifton ;" Victory in the Lower Court, but Reversal in the Supreme Tribunal; the Revelation of After Years; a Single Judge Casts the Die from "Sympathy;" Gross Injustice All Around 141 Chapter XXXIX. More Reverses in Business; Mr. Prettyman Retires; the Rebellion Contributes to the Sum Total of Misfortune; TABLE OF CONTENTS. xi Then Came the Fire that Destroyed the Albiou Mills; Not a Dollar of Insurance 144 Chapter XL. Once More in the Milling Line, and Once More Wiped Out by Fire; Close of My Business Career, and Beginning of Days Darkened by Poverty; Sketches of My Two Btaunchest Business Associates, Robert M. Prettyman and James E. Woodruff 148 Chapter XLI. History of the Establishment of Oakdale Cemetery; Diffi- culty to Obtain Money; Present Condition of the Beau- tiful City of the Dead 152 Chapter XLIL A Closing Retrospection 155 APPENDIX. Chapter I. The Mormons 160 Chapter II. The Murder of Colonel Davenport 175 CHAPTER L The Villages of Stephenson and Davenport in 1838 — A First Glimpse of Iowa Scenery — The Ferry Primeval AND Captain John Wilson — "Citizens, 25 Cents; Stran- gers, 50 Cents" -From Cincinnati by Horse and Buggy — Hardships on the Way — Some Early Settlers. On the 27tli clay of July, 1838, I was on board the magnificent steamer Brazil, Captain Orrin Smith, my destination being Stephenson, now Rock Island City, Illinois. When I arose in the morning, the steamer was just landing at Buffalo, Scott County, Wisconsin Territory, now Iowa. The scene upon which I gazed enchanted me. The sloping lawns and wooded bluffs, with the sea of beautiful wild flowers, were a picture of loveliness such as I never had beheld before. The remainder of the trip I spent on the guards of the boat, enraptured with the beauty of the ever-changing scenery. We arrived early in the day at the villnge of Stephenson. Before night my business was accom- plished. My landlord, of the Rock Island House, informed me thnt I would not be ah\e to get a boat until the return of tlie Brazil, some two days later. I will say here, that the Rock Island House was a credit to the town, and a mucli better hotel tlian I expected to find in this then new country. On the next day, after partaking of a good break- fast, I decided to cross the river and examine the lovely 2 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. little hamlet of about a dozen houses, which looked so cosy, nestled under the bluff. At that time, the ferry was run by that veteran. Captain John Wilson, and consisted of two steamboat yawls and a flat-boat. There were several passengers besides myself, and, as soon as we left the shore, the old gentleman began to collect his fares. I noticed that each passenger paid twenty -five cents. I tendered my quarter, when I was informed my fare was fiff/j cents. I demurred, of course, and was surprised, as well as somewhat amused, to be told that for "citizens" the fare was twenty-five cents, but for strangers it was fifty cents. I replied, "Oh! that is the way you do here, is it? Where I came from, they treat strangers the best." On landing, I found a beautiful little hamlet of fifteen houses, with a population of about one hun- dred and fifty persons. I did not expect to see any one that I had ever seen before, but I soon met a man whom I had known well in Cincinnati — a car- penter — B. F. Coates. He received me warmly, and introduced me to D. C. Eldridge and several more Cincinnatians. The little town was settled mostly by people from Cincinnati. Tliey all insisted that I should close up my business in Stephenson, and wait in Davenport until my boat returned, and they would spend the time in showing me the most beautiful country the sun ever shone upon. I consented, and Mr. Coates took a horse and buggy, and drove witli me out some five or six miles in different directions. It was just the time of year when the country FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 3 showed to best advantage. The prairies were cov- ered with wild flowers, and the beautiful landscape was unsurpassed. I said to myself, " This shall be my home." On the return of the Brazil, I left, with the inten- tion, if I possibly could, to emigrate. As soon as I returned to Cincinnati, I advertised my place for sale, and, in a few weeks, found a purchaser. I then determined to return immediately, and to make a more thorough examination of the country before taking such an important step. Both the Ohio and Mississippi rivers were, at that time (October), very low, and navigation tedious. I decided to make the trip by land, so purchased a horse and buggy, and was making arrangements for the journey, when I was called upon by John Owens, whom I had never seen before. After introducing himself, he said he understood I intended to make a trip to Wisconsin Territory, and he wanted to go along:. He offered to take a half interest in the out- fit. He was not quite ready to go, and I agreed to wait ten days for him. At last the day arrived, and lo! it was a Friday. Owens said he would not begin such an important enterprise on Friday, and insisted that we should wait until Saturday, which I opposed, on the ground that it was too late in the week. AVe were both anxious to be off, so we agreed to start on Thursday evening, and go two or three miles, which we did, set- ting out about sundown, and driving some three miles. 4 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. We found the roads through Indiana very rough and tedious, a great share of them being what was called "corduroy;" but through Illinois they were excellent, although there was a great want of bridges, and in fording some streams we found it quite dan- gerous. The great prairies of Illinois were a magnificent sight — one vast sea of grass and flowers, and most of them as level as a floor. We passed very few farms. Fifty years ago there were not many settle- ments in Illinois. We crossed a number of prairies, where, as might be said, we were out of sight of land — not a house or a tree to be seen. There was a ijreat deal of sickness on our route. We had to attend our own horse, and, most of the time, sleep on the floor, with a blanket and a pillow for our bed. Ten days and a half from the time we left Cincin- nati, we forded Rock River, and soon reached our future home. At that time, Stephenson, on the Illinois side of the Mississippi, was a considerable town, and a much older and more important place than Davenport Rock Island contained no inhabit- ants except Colonel George Davenport and his fam- ily. Old Fort Armstrong, with its block-houses, occupied the west end of the Island. Mr. Owens and myself spent some three weeks in thoroughly examining the country. One of the best settlements was in Pleasant Valley. The Hydes, Captain Hawley, Moss