Des Moines

“ Des Moines is the seat of Des Moines College (Baptist) , established in 1865; Drake University (Christian) , founded in 1881; and three other colleges, including two medical schools. It has public parks, and several bridges across the two rivers. The Iowa State Fair is held here. An army post for a regiment of cavalry has recently been established at the city. Des Moines and the surrounding region are underlaid with vast deposits of bituminous coal, a material advantage which has contributed to the rapid growth of the manufacturing industries. ”

“ Left Des Moines with pleasant thoughts of the cordial reception I had met with, and pursuing my way westward over the prairies, reached this village in the evening after a twenty-five miles' ride over a section of the country strikingly beautiful. The soil of the prairie, I am everywhere informed, is almost invariably of the most productive character. No other State, in short, has finer facilities for growing all the cereals of the temperate zone than Iowa. ”

“ Des Moines appeared to Bradley to be very great and very noisy. It was the largest city he had ever seen. He was born in Eastern Wisconsin on a farm, and his early life had been spent far from any populous centre; very largely, indeed, in the timber-lands. He had been in Lacrosse, that is to say, he changed cars there, and Rock River and Iowa City were the only towns he had ever lived in.
He had the preconception that Des Moines was a fine city, but its streets seemed endless to him that cold, clear night that he got off the train and walked up the sidewalk. ”

“ THE IOWA HISTORICAL LIBRARY.
From a frontier fort and a huddle of huts, Des Moines has grown to be a stately city [328] whose corporate limits include fifty-four square miles and a population of nearly 70,000, almost double the population of any other city in Iowa. Her citizens boast that "without riots, booms, or conflagrations" she has steadily grown in strength and stature. Her industries and commerce make the city a hive of activities. Seventeen railroads radiate from Des Moines, enabling the city to become the wholesale and retail jobbing centre of the State. ”

“ Des Moines, Iowa,
October Thirteenth.
Mounted Paul at eight o'clock and rode twenty miles, which brought me to Des Moines. Most of the journey was over prairie land; the sun shone brightly and afforded me an agreeable warmth as Paul stepped out bravely—cheered, possibly by the prospect of entering a large city and resting for a day or two. We know nothing of a horse's prevision. The country along my route is rich in fertility of soil, but its resources are not yet fully developed. ”

“ As they came panting and puffing up the hill the captain of the Reliables saw this, stopped, waved his hand back at his company and said,
"They have beat us, boys; you can go back."
There is one good thing about Des Moines, according to the advertisements they are running in the magazines. ”

“ Having passed the Des Moines river, the whole country bordering on the west bank of the Mississippi, is denominated the Wisconsin Territory, or more commonly here, the Iowa country. It is indeed a most beautiful country. It is said that a little more than four years since, there was not a single white settler west of the Mississippi and north of Des Moines river ”

“ In 1837 the State of Missouri appointed commissioners to run the northern boundary line and mark it. In a search for rapids in the Des Moines River they found ripples near Keosauqua, which they assumed to be the “Rapids of the Des Moines” named in the act of Congress defining the boundary in 1820. But these ripples had never been called the “Rapids of the Des Moines,” until so designated by these Missouri commissioners. The conflict first arose over the disputed territory when Clark County, Missouri, enrolled the citizens within its limits, and placed their names on its tax list. ”

“ Congress [329] has recently provided for the establishment of an army post just south of the city limits, and the War Department is about to expend several hundred thousand dollars in erecting barracks and in the preparation of drill-grounds for troops.
Few cities in the West possess scenery of greater natural beauty than that which greets the eye in and about Des Moines. The junction of the rivers near the centre of the city gives her topography a configuration similar to that of Pittsburg. ”

“ It is a highly notorious geographical object, and a very proper one to govern a national boundary; but the name called for in the act of Congress of 1820, and in the constitution of Missouri, is 'the rapids of the River Des Moines.' Then, and ever since, the great rapid in the Mississippi River has been known by a different name. ”

“ Des Moines river land grant, I, 237, 240, 248, 249, 253, 255, 358; decisions of courts concerning, III, 223, 229, 230, 232, 233, 234, 243; decisions of attorneys-general, 217, 220, 222; extent of, 92, 215, 216, 217, 220, 221, 222, 224, 227; sale of lands, 221, 222, 223, 225; settlers, 165, 226, 230, 232, 235, 240, 241, 242, 243; value of, 246.
Des Moines, town of, location, I, 108, 164; mounds near, 19; origin of name, 33; removal of capital to, 351.
De Soto, I, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 42.
Desperadoes in Mississippi valley, I, 331, 337, 339, 340. ”

“ Like most frontier towns a certain reckless disregard of the sober customs of the Eastern cities characterized the social life. Sunday was a sort of gala day, when horse and foot races between whites and Indians, accompanied by more or less gambling and carousal, were not infrequent. But the garish and reckless life soon gave place to the staid habits of [316] well-ordered communities, and since the Civil War Des Moines has justly sustained the reputation of a "conservative" Western city. ”

“ Segregation never segregated in Des Moines. The most prosperous houses with the high-class patronage absolutely refused to enter the segregated districts, and were always able to command sufficient influence to enable them to defy the police. ”

“ These farms are mostly in a flourishing condition, are fenced and under good cultivation, divided into meadows and fields of every variety of grain. The village is delightfully situated. As an evidence of its prosperity it supported two ably conducted daily papers and three weeklies, three banks and several graded schools. I was now eighty-two miles from Des Moines. The prairie here is gently undulating and the soil composed of vegetable mould and sand. Atlantic, I infer from its busy [435] appearance, has a destiny above that which it has attained. ”

“ The Des Moines Valley Railroad was completed from Keokuk to Des Moines, a distance of one hundred and sixty-two miles. Its gross earnings for the year were $710,240. Its entire land grant was estimated at 464,023 acres, of which 100,000 acres were reserved to secure it’s building into Fort Dodge. ”

“ A new city charter, embodying what has become known as the “Des Moines Plan” of municipal government, was adopted in 1907. It centralizes power in a council of five (mayor and four councilmen) , nominated at a non-partisan primary and voted for on a non-partisan ticket by the electors of the entire city, ward divisions having been abolished. Elections are biennial. Other city officers are chosen by the council, and city employees are selected by a civil service commission of three members, appointed by the council. ”

“ Men helped each other. Two friends would run in two directions and each fire a gun when the terminus was reached. When the sun came up a new empire had come into being and the order and industry of the white man had displaced the listless, unprogressive life of the savage.
The rush of the settlers into the region about Des Moines ahead of the surveyor's chain led to the development of an institution of peculiar interest in Western history. Not only was it unique, it was also a striking instance of the spontaneous growth of an institution of government. ”

“ In the day time the town perfectly filled with teams, fitting out making up companies, loading up, and preparing to cross the river. I have been told that the ferries were four weeks behind, we had our passage engaged for this morning but it has rained all day and all we have done is to load up. I have not seen or heard of any of the Troy Grove [16] people ...
We crossed the Des Moines 10 miles below the fort, and should have crossed some distance below at Red Rock had the road been fit to travel, and feed to be had. Our cattle have lived on grass a most of the time since crossing this river. ”

“ The Des Moines River flows through it in a southeasterly direction for a distance of forty-five miles, having numerous tributaries and borders of excellent timber, dividing the county about equally between woodland and prairie. Coal and building stone are abundant as well as water power. The first settler in the county was Abel Galland who took a claim near where Farmington stands, in 1832.
The first white man who built a cabin where Keosauqua now stands was John Silvers who took a claim in 1835. ”

“ DES MOINES COUNTY as first established in 1834 embraced nearly one-half of the territory of the future State of Iowa. But in December, 1836, the counties of Lee, Van Buren, Henry, Louisa, Muscatine and Cook were created from territory within its limits. ”

“ Lysander W. Babbitt, a young man with the expedition, was so fascinated with the beauty of this region, that in the spring so 1842 he, with two companions, went into the Boone valley where they spent several months hunting and exploring. They traveled nearly to the headwaters of the Boone, then crossed to the Des Moines and camped where Moingona stands. There they found the ruins of an Indian village, near which they made claims. ”

“ Ottum'wa, la., county-seat of Wapello County, is on Des Moines River, 85 miles southeast of Des Moines. Surrounded by a fertile country, it has a large trade and manufactures agricultural implements, mining tools, iron and steel specialties. The city boasts of 40 churches, 14 schools, 10 banks and 60 factories. It is served by four railroads, and is in the heart of Iowa's coal-fields. Population 22,012. ”

“ In 1848 he came to Iowa and, having studied law in New York, he began to practice in Des Moines, also carrying on real estate business. Finding no newspaper in the place he, at the urgent request of Judge Bates, purchased a printing outfit at Iowa City and transporting it by wagon to Des Moines issued the first number of the Iowa Star in July, 1849, using for a printing office a double log cabin on the banks of the Raccoon River, formerly one of the fort buildings. ”

“ Among its chief buildings are the new State house, the State arsenal, university, and opera-houses. There are coal-mines in the vicinity, and the manufactures and other industries are varied and rapidly increasing. Pop. 104,052 (1917) .
Des Moines, the largest river in the state of Iowa, rises in the S.W. of Minnesota, and flows in a south-easterly direction till it falls into the Mississippi about 4 miles below Keokuk, after a course of 300 miles.
Desmoncus, a genus of tropical American climbing palms, scrambling by means of stout hooks which are modified leaflets. ”

“ The voyageurs reached the Mississippi only to suffer ignominious discomfiture.
In ante-bellum days the subject of slavery made life and politics keenly interesting in Des Moines. Many stanch Southerners and not a few abolitionists generated an electrical atmosphere. The first resident Governor, James W. Grimes, who later brought Iowa fame in the United States Senate, spoke out strongly against the arrogance of the slaveholders and the border outrages. The city was on John Brown's "underground railway," and the spiriting of slaves through the town gave zest to public discussion. ”

“ On the 25th of June, 1873, the State Convention of the Republican party was held at Des Moines, and in its platform gave special attention to the demands of the farmers in relation to the transportation problems. It declared for the protection by law of the interests of the people in the granting of all franchises by legislation. ”

“ Honey Creek, ordinarily a small stream coming from the prairie south and west of the town of Boone, winds its way through the forest in a westerly direction emptying into the Des Moines not far from the railroad bridge which was first built across the river near the coal town of Moingona. The banks of the river here rise to a great height. The grade of the railroad, down the valley of Honey Creek, descends rapidly and not far from the Shelly cabin the track crosses the creek on a bridge of considerable elevation. ”

“ Peru is in the vicinity, and contains about 500 inhabitants. The New Purchase, as this district of country is called, is divided into two counties, Dubuque, and Des Moines, and contains a population of 8 or 10,000. The whole Wisconsin Territory is estimated by its legislature, now in session, to contain 30,000 inhabitants. ”

“ The army entered the State and the people showed their sympathy along the line of march by contributing food for its subsistence. A stop was made at Des Moines where the people furnished supplies generously and thousands visited the camp and conversed with the men. The ranks were found to contain men of almost every trade and of many of the professions, who had been unable to find employment, most of them had families and were seeking work. ”

“ In 1839 Iowa City was selected as the site for the seat of government of the newly created Territory of Iowa. The legislature met for the first time in 1841 and continued to hold its sessions here until 1857, when Des Moines, on account of its more central position, was made the capital. ”