Burlington, Iowa

“ He came to Iowa in 1843, locating at Burlington where for thirty-three years he was engaged in the hardware business. He was one of the influential promoters of the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad and treasurer of the company for several years, also serving as director of the Peoria, Carthage & Burlington Railroad and of the first telegraph company which built a line to Burlington. Mr. Foote was one of the organizers and a director of the First National Bank of Burlington. In 1861 be was elected on the Republican ticket State Senator, serving in the Ninth and Tenth General Assemblies. ”

“ The river here is broad and deep, and is spanned by the railroad bridge of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad. Burlington is connected by steamboat lines with important points on the Mississippi, and its river commerce is important. The industries are the manufacture of machinery, wagons, wheels, desks, furniture, lumber, agricultural implements, screens, mattresses, brooms, soap, flour, linseed oil, etc.; pork-packing and the quarrying of limestone found in the vicinity. The extensive machine and repair shops of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad are located here. ”

“ These people have already been waiting more than an hour and a half for you to go up.”
“Father,” said my friend, “there’s a bunch of folks out in Burlington, Iowa, that have been waiting more’n eighteen months for me to go up.”
§ 188 Where Jimmy’s Education Really Was Shy After a twenty years’ absence a gentleman returned to the little New England town where he had been born and where he spent his boyhood. In the neighborhood in which he had been reared he found but one of the original residents remaining, an elderly Irish lady. ”

“ His offer was accepted and on the 3d of December, 1836, an act was passed locating the seat of government at Burlington until March 4, 1839, unless public buildings were sooner completed at Madison. Belmont with its beautiful location was distanced in the rivalry of new towns and, failing to secure a railroad, gradually disappeared; a fine farm only marks the site of the first Capital.
John King, of Dubuque, published the first Iowa newspaper. He came from Ohio to the “Dubuque Lead Mines” in 1834. He was satisfied that the little village was destined to become an important city. ”

“ He was educated in the public schools with a few terms at an academy, and worked on his father's farm until the age of twenty-one when he began the study of law, practicing in his native State until the summer of 1844 when he removed to Iowa, locating at Burlington. Although a Democrat, he distinguished himself the first year of his residence in Iowa by taking the stump against the adoption of the Constitution recently framed by his party and helped to defeat it at the election. ”

“ The largest apple orchard in the State was planted in Mills County by John Y. Stone. The soil of this region seems to be peculiarly adapted to fruit growing. Malvern is a thriving town near the center of the county. The Burlington Railroad was the first built in the county. ”

“ In 1843 his father removed with his family to Iowa Territory, making his home near Burlington, where John W. was reared on a farm. In 1860 he removed to Nebraska and was soon after elected a member of the Territorial Council where he won distinction as a fluent speaker and acquired wide influence in that body. ”

“ John Thompson purchased large tracts of land on each side of Turkey River as soon as they came into market and laid out a town which he named Norway, afterwards changed to Clermont. In 1872 the Burlington and Cedar Rapids Railroad was built into the county. ”

“ The Iowa country will, undoubtedly, soon become a state. Its new towns are springing up rapidly. I stopped at Burlington, where there are more than twelve hundred inhabitants, and where two years since there were only a few log-cabins. How important is it that the gospel should be planted here! The Methodists are beginning to send their preachers to proclaim salvation here. Every where we find them first on the ground. Truly their promptness and zeal are to be commended.—We have not a clergyman in this whole region. Cannot [Pg 106] one be found who is willing to go to the Iowa country? ”

“ Pursuant to this call of the people of the county of Des Moines for an Iowa District convention, delegates from seven organized counties west of the Mississippi met at the Capitol in Burlington on Monday, November 6, 1837, and organized themselves into a "Territorial Convention." As such they continued in session for three successive days. On the second day a resolution was adopted inviting the Governor, members of the Legislative Council, Judges, and members of the bar of Burlington "to take seats within the bar." ”

“ Joseph & Iowa Railroad, more recently named the Linneus Branch of the Burlington & Southwestern Railway Company, and now owned by the Chicago, Burlington & Kansas City Railroad Company, a corporation organized under the laws of Missouri. The latter company claims to have succeeded to all the rights, priviliges, and immunities granted to the St. Joseph & Iowa Railroad Company in its charter of 1857, among which was an exemption of its stock from taxation for 'state and county' purposes. ”

“ For the purpose of temporary government all of this territory was attached to and made a part of Michigan. At an extra session of the Sixth Legislative Assembly of Michigan held in September, 1834, the Iowa District was divided into two counties by running a line due west from the lower end of Rock Island. The territory north of this line was named Dubuque County, and all south of it was Des Moines County. A court was organized in each county, the terms of which were to be held at Dubuque and Burlington. The first court was held in a log house in Burlington in April, 1835. ”

“ HEMMER, FLORENZ M., Pvt. 1st class, 625 Clay St., Dubuque, Iowa. HENDRIX, LESTER C., Pvt. 1st class, 812 S. 13th St., Burlington, Iowa. HEWITT, HOWARD C., Cook, 307 N. Oak St., Creston, Iowa. HICKS, HARRY E., Wagoner, R.F.D. 2, Stronghurst, Illinois. HILL, EARL A., Wagoner, Webster City, Iowa. HOLEMAN, JOE A., Pvt., 1431 Louisa St., Burlington, Iowa. HOLLINGSWORTH, GIBSON, Stable Sgt., 409 Oakland Ave., Council Bluffs, Iowa. HOLMES, CLARK E., Wagoner, Biggsville, Illinois. HOWARD, WALTER P., Mech., 26 Cranston Ave., Newport, R. I. HOWELL, HEALEY, Wagoner, Box 1, South 16th St., Keokuk, Iowa. ”

“ The state Agricultural Society was organized at Fairfield on the 28th of December, 1853. Parsons College was located at Fairfield in December, 1874, in consideration of $30,000 donated to the institution by the citizens. The Burlington Railroad traverses the county from east to west. ”

“ The Permanent Settlement of Iowa. — After the Indian title had been extinguished by the Black Hawk Purchase, settlers began literally to pour into the Iowa country even before they were legally entitled to do so. From 1830 it became apparent that Iowa was destined to be a land of homes and permanent settlements. Towns sprang up with mushroom rapidity, some of which (such as Dubuque, Burlington, Davenport, and Keokuk) have continued to flourish and prosper. ”

“ Wayland, the Missouri commissioners, went to Burlington and conferred with the Governor and Legislature then in session, and it was agreed that hostilities should be postponed and the matter in dispute be referred to Congress for settlement.
On the 18th of June, 1838, Congress passed an act authorizing the President to cause the southern boundary of Iowa to be ascertained and marked. Lieutenant Albert M. Lea was appointed commissioner for the United States and Dr. James Davis was appointed by Governor Lucas for Iowa. No appointment was made by the Governor of Missouri. ”

“ He was one of the most brilliant political writers in the State and a frequent contributor to the editorial columns of the Burlington Hawkeye. In 1861 he was one of the chief editorial writers on the New York Tribune and the author of the famous “On to Richmond” articles. ”

“ It was moved to Burlington in 1837 and used to print the second paper established within the limits of the Territory which became Iowa in 1838 and is reported to have done good service on papers at Osage, Mason City and Ellington before it was taken to Forest City. In the fall of 1869 the village of Lake Mills was laid out by Charles D. Smith where a large mill was built. ”

“ In 1843 he was again elected a member of the House. In 1852 he was elected to the House of the Fourth General Assembly and was the recognized leader of the Whig minority. He took an active interest in the improvement of the school system, the encouragement of railroad building, the promotion of temperance and opposition to the extension of slavery. In 1853 he helped to establish the first agricultural journal in the State and was one of its editors. It was named The Iowa Farmer and Horticulturist and was published monthly at Burlington by Morgan McKenny. ”

“ After two years' instruction he left the Academy and engaged in business with his father at Burlington. Later he studied law with C. Ben Darwin, finally took the law course at Albany, New York, and was admitted to the bar. He was a “Douglas Democrat” and in 1860 received the nomination of that party for Secretary of State, but with his party was defeated. When the Civil War began he helped raise men for the First Battery of Light Artillery. ”

“ THOMAS HEDGE was born at Burlington in the Territory of Iowa, on the 24th of June, 1844. He received a college education, graduating from Yale in 1867 and from Columbia College Law Department in 1869. ”

“ He removed to Peoria, Illinois, and when the Civil War began enlisted as a private and served until peace was established, when he returned to a position as a clerk in the Peoria post-office. He afterwards became a proofreader on the Peoria Transcript, and later night editor of the same paper. Here he began to develop a remarkable talent which attracted the attention of the newspaper fraternity and was offered a position on the Burlington Hawkeye. ”

“ It is served by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, and the Iowa Central railways, and by interurban electric lines. The city is built on a fertile prairie in one of the principal coal-producing regions of the state. ”

“ He was principal of the Iowa City high school in 1876. The following year lie graduated from the Law Department of the University and entered upon the practice in Burlington, was elected city solicitor, holding the position six years. ”

“ To the eye of a wearied dweller in a dense city all villages appear beautiful in summer, but Burlington is eminently so when compared with others.
We left the metropolis of the lake for Plattsburgh about noon. On our left, as we emerged from the harbor, were the Four Brothers, small islands swarming with water-fowl, and the bald point of Rock Dunder, a solitary spike rising, shrubless and bare, about twenty feet above the water. Before us spread out the two Heros (North and South) , green islands, which belonged to the Allen family during the Revolution. ”

“ On the map accompanying this little book Lieutenant Lea has shown the territory now embraced in Iowa as it was then, 1835. Very much of it at that time had never been seen by white men. The southern boundary of the “Neutral Grounds” began at the Mississippi River nearly opposite Prairie du Chien and ran southwesterly to the Des Moines River near the south line of Webster County and the strip was about forty miles in width. The Iowa River above the junction of the Red Cedar was called Bison, and the Cedar was laid down as the Iowa. ”

“ To the seekers after new homes, from the old world, or from the Eastern and Middle States of the Union--be they mechanics, agriculturists, or professional men--Iowa offers many advantages. On her soil, with prudence, economy and sobriety, added to good health, no one can fail to acquire a competency, if not to amass a fortune.
We have said thus much of Iowa, because we believe it to be due to her; due to her enterprise, and due to the worthy people who have made her soil their home;--and because, although no longer one of her citizens, we love her still! ”

“ From Cedar Rapids long iron ways, like the spokes of a wheel, reach in all directions to the limits of the state and beyond, and bring every portion of the commonwealth and the adjacent parts of our neighboring states within a few hours ride of Cornell college. It is located also in east Central Iowa, an area of the state the first to be settled and developed, an area surpassed by none in the fertility of its soils, and the wealth which has been produced from them. ”

“ They were probably the first white men who ever traversed the beautiful rolling prairies of that region.
It had now been sixteen years since the western borders of Iowa had been partially explored by Lewis and Clark, and through their reports made known to the country; but so far as is known no permanent settlers had erected cabins in that region, or broken the prairie sod for farms. French and half-breed traders made their trips up and down the Missouri and its tributaries in pursuit of their vocation for many years after this before we find any attempts to open farms or lay out towns. ”

“ ASA C. CALL, one of the first settlers in Kossuth County, was born in Ohio in 1825. He was a graduate of Oberlin College and studied law. In 1850 he went to California remaining several years. In 1854 he, with his brother, Ambrose A., made a journey into northwestern Iowa far beyond any settlement and entered a large tract of prairie and woodland on the east fork of the Des Moines River. ”