SECTION VII.
TRANSPORTATION
submitted by Linda Stoddard, February 3, 2011, pages 267-300

To view illustrations in section click here
FERRIES

The first record of any mode of transportation other than the methods of the Indian is that of a keel boat kept at the Indian trading post established by the Frenchman Cote, or by those whom he served as manager. This old point of transfer was located according to story at a point not far above the present site of Rochester, but on the west side of the Cedar river. This was a favorite region for the early settlements and must have been a favorite region also of the Indian, since it was wooded and watered in such a way that it was almost an ideal hunting ground. The boat mentioned was used to transfer skins which were purchased by the traders from the red men and then to bring up supplies and articles for barter in securing the Indian products. How long this continued is not a matter of record, but the points on the Mississippi furnished an outlet for the traders until other and nearer posts developed.

The first ferry was located at Rochester and from records given was operated by George McCoy, afterward sheriff of Cedar County, and whose name appears on the first court records as now found in the office of the clerk of the courts among the most interesting documents of the county. This same ferry was operated afterwards for many years by Cordis Hardman, a son of Col. Henry Hardman, whose history is forever linked with this particular region. The Rochester ferry was at other times under the control of a Dr. Henry and John Dillon. No one now living can tell of these surroundings since they were too young to remember. We say now living, because there are some who were then here who are glad, at this time, 1910, to give as full acounts of remembered events.

At the time Rochester was settled the Cedar was considered navigable and as referred to in the county seat controversy, this plan was worked to its fullest capacity. Steamboats from the Mississippi did occasionally come up the river, and it naturally gave the impression that this might continue, since then water and teaming were the only means of carrying goods to the various points for distribution. The first ferry at Cedar Bluffs was established in 1838. It was called Washington's Ferry. William Fraseur has said that he helped to build the first boat used here. James H. Gower bought this ferry in 1839, which then belonged to Conlogue and Gove. About this time a steamer belonging to the Mormons from Nauvoo, Ill., came to Gower's Ferry, afterward Cedar Bluffs, and purchased a large quantity of grain. Mr. Robert Gower came to this place in 1841 and he purchased the ferry from his brother James. A note of the time makes this statement: "The Red Cedar River is navigable for steam and other boats at all seasons of the year when free from ice. It possesses at this point (Cedar Bluffs) superior advantages for damming and bridging, and the settlement in this vicinity requires both." That reads in some ways like a prophecy, since within the past three years several surveys have been made of this point of "superior advantage for damming," in view of locating a large power plant for the furnishing of electric power to surrounding towns and possibly to the several interurbans already now in operation or proposed. It is an interesting fact to record the early view of this region that now seems destined to furnish a realization of this apparent prophecy.

A construction train on the Rock Island furnished the first railway transportation out of this county. Mr. Joseph Weaver of Farmington township shipped six hundred bushels of wheat to Davenport from Durant station at that time, 1855. In the fall of this year the Western Stage Company opened a route from Durant to Tipton, the county seat, and continued it for three months, for which they received five hundred dollars from the town. The track of the Rock Island was laid through Durant in 1855 and was the first operated road in the county. This is discussed elsewhere. 209  

When the first settlers traveled over this county their way was marked by faint trails upon the higher land or by some more certain means in later years— as a furrow run with a breaking plow to "blaze" the prairie trail. No trees were there to "blaze" beyond scattered patches. One of that early time tells of being lost on the prairie between Tipton and Posten's Grove because of a fog which prevented them seeing the poles put up at points to "indicate the way.210  

Stream courses furnished landmarks, but when men were obliged to cross the wide prairie they must trust to their sense of observation of stars or fixed heavenly bodies. There were impassable swamps or "sloughs," as they were called, that became obstacles to the prairie schooner almost equal to running streams, and often more difficult to pass. Fording was common when smaller streams intervened and ferrying the only means for crossing the others. The Indian canoe was pressed into service on occasions when the original owner served as ferryman at a small price. One authority states that wagons were carried over streams of considerable size by means of the canoe. Stock could swim over and thus the entire "plant" be transported after some delay and not a little danger. The freight wagon appeared as soon as centers of supply became located within reasonable distance. Goods came by river to points along the eastern part of our state, and from distributing points there wagons and ox teams began the task of carrying goods to the consumer. This was a profitable business in these early times, and when we complain about freight rates we are not to be pitied if we consider the rates of our grandfathers. Early routes across the county, both for freight and passengers, were numerous.

STAGE COACHES

The veteran stage driver of this county who lives today, well and hearty, describes the route from Davenport to Iowa City in 1849. When a boy of sixteen he assisted his father in transporting mail and passengers over the prairie when he says: "At that time there was not a tree from river to river." Joseph Albin, as a boy, made the trip over the line mentioned above when streams were crossed by fording or on the ice, when passengers were of great variety, both good and bad, and when the stage carried valuable cargoes of cash sent in from land sales and these required a special detail as guard; when slave drivers came into the state looking for those who were concealed or concealed themselves, although regarded as having no right to do so under the laws of the land. On one journey—and by one journey we mean from the river terminus to the western end of the line, Iowa City—five southern gentlemen boarded the old Concord coach at Davenport to be carried to the capital city. The boy of sixteen did not regard their company with pleasure, and after they tried by various means to make himtell what he knew he says: "I was never so glad to unload any passengers as these five fellows." They passed on this very ride the places where darkies were concealed, and the driver knew it, but he knew how to keep a secret, and while they might threaten him, or flatter him, no intimation was given of what he knew about the region.

Among the passengers of those days were many eastern capitalists coming out to make investments or to investigate the new country. The land office, collector of the time was Gill Folsom and he intrusted this stage and mail line with caring for his funds on these journeys. Ten hours was the usual time from Davenport to Iowa City. Horses were exchanged at ten-mile stations, and when roads and loads were heavy four horses were used or extra rigs followed. Much the same as two-section passenger trains would do now only on a more limited plan. Seven passengers made a load, and an average of twenty-one passengers was reached, necessitating of course a number of extras all the time.

The stations on the journey are given by Mr. Albin as follows: From Iowa City, toward the river, they came first to Townsend's, then called "Travelers' Rest," and whose original house is found pictured in the chapter on John Brown, and stands in the eastern part of West Branch, on the western slope of the hill at this time. It has been moved from its original foundation, but is on the same farm and close to the road on the journey eastward toward Springdale. The second point where passengers and mail were delivered was Rochester, then, as now, only a little newer and perhaps more alive when the stage came in from either direction. The river was forded here some distance below Rochester, unless in seasons of freshet or ice, when coaches came from either direction to the river and passengers alone were ferried over the stream. Beyond Rochester the stop was the home of the Albins—the middle of the route. From here in either direction the stages were sent out. Centre Grove, in Scott County, was the next atop, and the final before reaching the river, Blue Grass, a station on the Rock Island, as all know who have traveled the line. When Mr. Albin began to help his father in this duty of stage driver he was only thirteen years of age, and this line was continued until 1856 or until the Rock Island was built to Iowa City. His father sold his stock, in part, to the Western Stage Company, referred to elsewhere, that placed a route from Durant to Tipton westward for a short time in 1855.

POST OFFICES

The first post office on this route was two miles east of West Branch. The names settled upon for the post offices here, Springdale and West Branch, was a compromise, it seems, since the locality took its name first from the meetings— Red Cedar and Springdale. When the post offices came to be established Springdale secured the name wanted by both and West Branch found a new one taken from the stream near by. The post offices and postmasters on the stage route across the county as given by Mr. Albin are in this order: West Branch, Mr. Henry was the first postmaster. Springdale, Thomas Wynne, who was sent with a petition from the community to the Governor of Virginia, praying for a change in sentence for the condemned ones after Harper's Ferry.

At Pedee, now only the four corners of a county road, Mr. Burnett was postmaster. At Rochester Wm. Baker was in charge and buildings are still standing then that he had a hand in building. Pleasant Hill, still upon the map under the same name, was under control of Martin G. Miller, father of M. H. Miller, in postal affairs. The last office in the county then on this line was called Lacton, 211   and Mr. Boydston was the official. This point is not now on the map under any such title. It was in Farmington township and near the line.212  

Among the earliest that of "Frink and Walker's Stage Line"—their old four-horse coach—is on record as coming to Tipton for the first time in 1854. This appears to have been an uncommon team in the county seat at that period and caused some stir among its inhabitants. No one in those days could be very particular about his choice of means in transportation of himself or his baggage or freight. He must take what was offered, and in case of emergency assist in transporting himself. One character of this time, Mr. D. P. Clapp, is described in the first chapter of this book by Dr. Parsons, who, as a boy, knew him during the time he came and went on his overland journeys with his freight wagon. He relates something there of his characteristics and from the old history the figures are given concerning his large place in the transporting of goods in those days before any railroad came to this part of the county, where Mr. Clapp was a resident until recent years. He formerly lived where the county jail is now located, and from this house in Tipton made his journeys through all kinds of seasons to Davenport and Muscatine, where the supplies for this vicinity shipped by water before 1854, and then along the railway line in the southern part of this county or across in Muscatine County, until the building of the Northwestern railway in the northern part of the county.

When the Tipton-Stanwood branch was built in 1872, the wagon transfer ceased to be necessary so far as long hauls were considered. Some figures are given for the estimating of the amount of freight hauled by this one man during the years from '53 to '72. During the nineteen years he traveled to and fro his journeys numbered about two hundred each year, and on each of these he carried about one ton of freight, and during this time, therefore, this one freighter delivered to the one point at Tipton about thirty-eight hundred tons, and the distance traveled was about ninety-five thousand miles, or three and a half times about the earth.213  

RAILROADS

At this time in the history of the state the demand for railroads became very urgent and led to the custom frequently practiced in most of the new states of a dangerously loose offer of public support in the form of bonuses in money secured by bond sales, and the levying of taxes through a series of years to redeem the bonds. Cedar county was no exception to this rule, and judging from records both in the county proceedings and books it has cost something to buy this experience. Not that people were insincere in their attempts to secure an outlet for their products and proper mail facilities, but the promoters of these schemes were either not honest or visionary—charity must decide which at this late day. Pertinent to this particular phase of transportation is the following:

So rapidly did the population of Iowa Territory increase that in 1846 she was admitted to statehood. No bands of iron or steel at this time bound her east and west borders together or held her in touch with older settlements to the eastward. Her methods of transportation were of the most primitive. The stage coach and steamboat represented rapid transit, and the faithful ox-team gave slow but sure service. Iowa's fertile prairies were even at this time yielding a superabundance of food stuffs; she had also rich mines of lead and coal; but without an easier, cheaper and more rapid means of transportation these were valueless, except in so far as they were needed for home consumption. Railroads from the far east were now pushing themselves westward, ever westward, carrying to isolated settlements many of the comforts and luxuries of a more refined and less strenuous life. But as yet no line had reached the Mississippi. Still there was railroad talk and there were schemes; but no actual work was done until 1852 when two roads germinated—the "Lyons and Iowa Central," which put its men in the field locating, and the "Mississippi and Missouri," which organized but did not begin operations that year.214  

LYONS-IOWA CENTRAL

The Lyons-Iowa Central was the first and pioneer line in Iowa. When one rides eastward from Tipton and on his left sees an unusual embankment just outside the city limits it does not signify very much to him unless he is introduced to facts concerning its cause. He does not realize that he is close to a scene of vital interest not only to this immediate county but to the counties lying east and west for some distance. In this chapter there is an attempt to incorporate the local and immediate interests with those of the general that one may see the relation of what then was of great moment to this community and the state at large. The following is good, yes, excellent, authority in support of such a plan:

"In the spring of 1853, while in charge of the construction of a division of the Chicago and Rock Island railroad in Bureau Valley, Illinois, I was instructed to make a survey of a railway from Davenport to Iowa City to be followed by a location as early as practicable. Before it was fully completed it was turned over to Mr. B. B. Brayton and I directed to make a survey to such point on the Missouri river as I deemed practicable for the starting of a line of railway to be extended up the Platte valley. My instructions in this regard were liberal. The haste to make this survey was occasioned by the fact that a line was being surveyed on practically the same route by the Lyons Iowa Central railroad company. This survey was being made by a Mr. Buck, a land surveyor living near Lyons. Having occasion to observe some of Mr. Buck's work I saw that his object was evidently to get as near as practicable an air line from one county seat to the next. This was usually followed by a vote in every county in favor of issuing bonds to aid in the construction of the railroad. Under this plan bonds were voted, and, as I remember, issued in Clinton, Cedar and Johnson counties, and voted but not issued in Iowa, Jasper, Poweshiek and Polk counties. The haste in making the Chicago and Rock Island surveys seems to have been to pre- vent if possible the further issue of bonds by any other counties until something was definitely determined. At that time it was thought by parties interested in the Rock Island road that money could be procured from the securities of the road to build across the State of Iowa as soon as the conditions warranted. When I came into the state there was a strong feeling, particularly in Cedar, Poweshiek, Jasper and Polk counties, in favor of the Lyons Iowa Central project, which was stimulated by a railway campaign that put its orators in the field. The head and brains of this project was H. P. Adams, a gentleman I believe from Syracuse, N. Y."215

An article from the Chicago Democrat of February 4, 1854, concerning the "Galena Air Line" (a road then under construction by the "Galena and Chicago Union Railroad," "parent of the railroad system of Illinois") which was then completed to the village of Lane, in Ogle county, seventy-five miles west of Chicago, states:

The whole of the road is under contract and is to be completed to the Mississippi by the first of August next. At Dixon it crosses the main line of the Illinois Central and will furnish the people living on the line of that road, for many miles north and south of that point, direct railway communication with our city. At Fulton City it is said there is a fine point for crossing the Mississippi. The plan of the bridge places it one hundred feet above high water mark, and of course it would be no impediment to navigation. From Chicago to Fulton City the distance is 135 miles. There will be two daily passenger trains and one freight train leaving the city on the first of May next.


The extension of the Galena Air Line westward is called the "Lyons, Iowa Central Railroad." Council Bluffs, on the Missouri, is the point to which several of the extensions of the roads from this city are aiming, and that is to be the western terminus of this road. It is under contract and the money is provided to build it to Iowa City, seventy-three miles. The distance from Lyons to Council Bluffs is 308 miles. It is to be completed to Tipton, fifty miles west of the Mississippi, by the first of October next. This part of the road is to be nearly an air line. Five hundred men are now at work upon the road. The country through which it passes is as fine as any portion of the Mississippi valley and it may therefore be expected to add very much to the business and general prosperity of the city. It is to be completed to Iowa City by the first of April, 1855.


The "First Annual Report" of the Lyons Iowa Central railroad company is a very interesting document. The directors' report to the stockholders states that, "On the 14th day of February, 1853, the company was organized in accordance with the provisions of the law of Railroads and the Right of Way in the State of Iowa." A copy of this law is appended to the report and is signed by George W. McCleary, Secretary of State. The Report further tells us:


By Individual subscribers	$686,300
By Cedar county, in bonds	$50,000
By Johnson county, in bonds	$50,000
By Jasper countty, in bonds	$42,000
By Polk county, in bonds	$150,000
Total	$978,300


There have been prepared for issue, and a mortgage has been executed on the first division of the road for the security of the payment thereof, 800 bonds of $1,000 each, $800,000. The individual and county subscriptions being a basis for the issue to this amount.


Assurances are made, and may be relied on with confidence, that six additional counties will subscribe for stock and authorize an issue of their bonds to an aggregate amount of $500,000, making the present immediately prospective resources amount to $2,278,300.


There is little doubt that the resources already secured, and the progress already made in constructing the road, will induce large individual subscriptions, as further means may be required.


There have been issued to contractors on account of grading and bridging, in bonds of the company, $300,000. The residue of the bonds prepared for issue are in the hands of the executive committee, to be issued for work on the First Division, as progress shall be made thereon. The amount of grading and bridging done, as will appear by the Chief Engineer's report, is about $200,000. Materials for superstructure, rolling stock and iron have been purchased to the amount of $176,500, making the expense for work done and materials purchased on the first division amount to $376,500.


The work is now steadily progressing with a winter force of about 430 men and a corresponding number of teams and implements. As soon as the frost shall be out of the ground, to admit of a vigorous prosecution of the work, a sufficient force will be put on the line to bring that part of the first division as far west as Iowa City into running order as soon as possible.


The work of grading the second division, which extends westwardly to Fort Des Moines, will be commenced and prosecuted as rapidly as additional subscriptions to the stock of the company shall warrant.


The annexed reports of the chief and the consulting engineers are submitted as part of this report.


By order of the Board, WM. G. HAUN, Vice-Pres.


Lyons, Iowa, Feb. 14, 1854.
The Board of Directors, chosen at the annual meeting, February 14, 1854, were:
Thomas A. Walker, Fort Des Moines, Iowa.
James H. Gower, Iowa City, Iowa, formerly of Gower township.
John Culbertson, Tipton, Iowa.
William G. Haun, Lyons, Iowa.
Derick Adams (N. Y.), Lyons, Iowa.
Hiram A. Tucker, Chicago, Ill.
Thomas Dyer, Chicago, Ill.
Paul B. Ring, Chicago, Ill.
David McCartney, Fulton, Ill.
Thomas T. Davis, Syracuse, N. Y.
Henry P. Adams, Syracuse, N. Y.
Abel Chandler, New York.
S. M. Allen, Boston, Mass.

From the report of Chief Engineer Slack to the Board of Directors, February 14, 1854, the following excerpts, are taken which show the progress of the work and the estimated cost of construction between Lyons and Tipton.


A survey was made early last spring and the fall previous, from Lyons to Iowa City, for the purpose of getting a general outline of the country.


On the third of May, 1853, I was directed to commence the location at the Mississippi river and to prepare it for grading. This was accordingly done, and the work commenced on the first 52 miles to Tipton.


From Tipton to Iowa City four lines have been run, and although a portion of the line next east of Iowa City has been located, and considerable work done, yet on account of the unevenness of the ground, I desire to make a more careful examination before submitting an estimate.


As to directness, there is not one-eighth of a mile lost between Lyons and Iowa City, and for fifty miles east of Tipton there are only ten degrees of curvature, so that this part of your road can be safely run at a high rate of speed.


The total amount of excavation and embankment between Lyons and Tipton is 2.994,404 cubic yards. The paying amount is 1,723,688 cubic yards which are estimated to cost $356,216.10. The culverts and bridges are estimated to cost $34,283.90, making the cost of grading $390,500.00.216 


There were others in the field at this time and the rivalry was somewhat keen judging from the article referred to above in the "Annals of Iowa." It is only necessary to give one extract to illustrate:


"While the Estes locating party were approaching Fort Des Moines those working east of Iowa City were racing with the Rock Island, which was doing effective work between Davenport and Iowa City, on what had been known as the Mississippi and Missouri route, and a great spirit of rivalry existed between the Rock Island men and those of the Lyons party. When the Lyons boys in their rush used any sort of material at hand for stakes, the Rock Island boys taunted and jeered and called attention to the fine oak stakes they were using. The Lyons boys retorted, 'Of course the Rock Island should use something permanent, for it would be years before its track was laid if ever.'"

With jibes and jokes the opposing companies kept the attention and interest of the citizens, who were ready to applaud whichever won the race.


Thus, with varied and interesting experiences, during the years '52, '53 and '54 the Lyons Iowa Central was located to Des Moines; but was destined never to measure its length with iron rails, nor span the navigable streams with bridges "out of the reach of steamboat chimneys!"


That he who laughs last laughs best was fully exemplified in this contest, for the Lyons Iowa Central boys, in June, 1854, were all laid off indefinitely, many of them without recompense for their months of weary toil. What caused this sudden collapse of a project that seemed so flourishing, and was so well boosted financially by the communities through which the road was projected, was not quite understood then by the men in the field, and after a lapse of 55 years, cannot be fully determined now. The little evidence obtainable points to misappropriation of funds by some trusted party or parties, near the head of the company. Mr. Dey, in his interesting letter on the subject, says that one of the board of directors for the road, "H. P. Adams, of Syracuse, N. Y., was a fugitive from justice at the time that he was making his strong campaign through the counties of Iowa, encouraging the issue of railroad bonds," in proof of which he tells the following story:


General Ney, a member of Congress from the Syracuse district, came to Chicago, called at the Rock Island office and while there stated he was in the West for a requisition to arrest Mr. Adams and take him back for trial in New York. This Mr. Adams was the one who had, as I have before stated, the machinery at work for obtaining for his road county bonds which pliant County Judges—as the plan was popular—readily issued. Judge Lee issued the Johnson county bonds, although it was stated that he had pledged himself not to do so.


It was generally believed, after the failure of Adams and his railway project, that with the county bonds he had made his peace with General Ney. At all events this gentleman entered heartily into the railway campaign in Adams' behalf, and being a popular orator, his services were very effective. I recall reading one of his reported speeches wherein he was advocating the advantages of a high bridge over the Mississippi River, a suspension bridge of nearly a mile span, where he used the following figure of speech: "The trains will cross the Father of Waters without detriment to the navigation of that noble stream. There will be no piers or other obstructions. Its abutments will be on the high hills. The good fellowship of the river and the railway will be shown as the locomotive laughs when the steamboat puffs in its face."

As an orator at Tipton, on another occasion, his eloquence not exhausted, he uttered the following tribute to the man whom he had come in to the West to arrest: "Caesar crossed the Rubicon to crush the liberty of Rome, H. P. Adams crossed the Mississippi to make the prairies blossom as the rose." It was said that General Ney went home happy and his clients were satisfied.


Following his reminiscence regarding Adams, Mr. Dey again says:


I think it was in June, 1854, that Mr. Adams, having used all of his resources, withdrew his men from the field, many of his contractors unpaid and his popularity gone. It is possible that Mr. Adams hoped, by getting bonds from all the counties between Lyons and the Missouri River, that he could form a basis that would enlist enough capital to build the road; if so his plans were certainly sanguine. It was generally believed, after his failure to accomplish anything, that it was a cold-blooded scheme to rob the counties and, after getting their bonds, pocket the proceeds and decamp.

When the collapse came it was a severe stroke, not only to the locating engineers but to the construction men as well. Between Lyons and Iowa City much if not all the road-bed had been completed. This grading work had been done by a large gang of Irish immigrants who had been brought from New York and Canada for the purpose. These men, with their families, some 2,000 persons in all, were now stranded at Lyons and vicinity, practically helpless and enduring great hardships. The railway company had supply stores at Lyons from which were issued to the graders—in lieu of their wages—groceries, dry goods and miscellaneous articles; but these supplies were exhausted long before the indebtedness was cancelled. It was from these stores that the enterprise was derisively called, and is still known as, "The Calico Road." Many of those "immigrants" referred to as being stranded near the river after the collapse of the proposed railway found homes in this county and those adjacent becoming in later years the prosperous farmers of the rich prairie lands they had helped to dig up for a mythical company that could not pay them for their labor. Local help was also employed. A resident at that time of Springfield Township 217   states that he was employed with both oxen and horses. His pay was four dollars per day for oxen and plow and three dollars for horses.


Oxen were more economical because they could be fed from the prairie nearby. Those who quit work in November, '54, received their pay, others working longer did not. This company secured its supplies in its several camps from local sources, and in the attempt to get paid for his products the farmer sometimes had difficulty. Mr. McClelland, to whom the contractor was indebted, was forced to cross the Wapsie and remain over night to make sure of his pay. He had continued to deliver supplies without receiving any return, and to make sure this time ran the risk of losing his way on the return to his home. As feared, he became bewildered in the stormy night, his horse floundered in the snow, and after leaving his animal in an effort to find his way he was forced to return. This was probably fortunate since he discovered the bed of the creek and finally saw a light at some distance in a grove. He had crossed the stream several times, not knowing it. This was the last of his dealings with the first railroad projected in Iowa.

The bond issues were not so easily disposed of and the explanation follows from the legal records and the authority below:

The counties had resisted the payment of bonds, and were sustained by the Supreme Court of the state; but an appeal being taken to the United States Supreme Court, it was held that although the law authorizing their issue might be questionable, the counties having sold them, and having received in pay thereof the consideration named in the bonds, could not be released from the obligation voluntarily incurred.

The final climax of the bond issue is told as follows by Mr. Gilbert Irish in his "History of Johnson County":

"After years of discussion and litigation a convention of counties was called December 15, 1868. Delegates from Washington. Muscatine, Johnson, Jefferson, Lee, Cedar, and Poweshiek Counties met in the city of Muscatine. After a lengthy discussion the following preamble was adopted:


"'Whereas, the recent decision of the Federal court, involving corporation railroad bonds in this State seems to us subversive of our authority and the dignity of our State courts, and dangerous to the rights and privileges of citizens of the State, if not a positive and unwonted encroachment upon the jurisdiction of the State courts, therefore, Resolved, that this convention recommends to the citizens of the several counties, and citizens interested in this railroad bond question, to pay all their taxes except the railroad tax, and refuse to pay that until all legal and practical remedies are exhausted.'


"Several other default resolutions were adopted, speeches were made by Hon. Rush Clark of Johnson County, Charles Negus of Jefferson, Robert Gower of Cedar and by ex-Governor Kirkwood, who said: 'All will admit that we have a right to make our state constitution and laws just as we please, provided we do not trench upon the constitution of the United States. What value is this right if our courts cannot interpret the meaning of our constitution and laws.'"

Cedar County subscribed twenty thousand dollars worth of bonds and grading commenced near Tipton in June, 1853. A demand was made for the bonds, but rumors of bad management having been heard there was some objection to the issue of any bond until some assurance should be given that the road would be built through the county. Judge Tuthill advised against their issue, but Judge Bissell made the order.

It was in July, 1854, that the Supreme Court of Iowa (Judge Green dissenting) held that the county judge of Cedar County acted according to law in submitting the proposition of making a county subscription of fifty thousand dollars to the Lyons-Iowa Central railroad. This court reversed the lower court in the case. The tax levied was held valid.

Suit was brought against Cedar County by one Clapp, holder of the bonds. Cook and Dillon argued the case for the county. The latter was afterward chief justice of our state supreme court and became a noted writer on jurisprudence.

In proceedings of the Board of Supervisors for 1865 a committee was appointed to find out who the holders of these bonds were and to arrange if possible to purchase them at the best rate that could be secured. Some of the holders then were Sheller and Ryan and H. Sill Howell. 218   This committee never reported so far as the record goes and another was appointed at a later meeting. Nothing seems to have been accomplished by this plan, for we read elsewhere that a meeting of all the counties concerned was held to fight the payment. The record shows that the interest on the bonds was paid at stated times, but not for many years. What the final outcome was is not clear at this date and it will require search of other records to determine.

In the face of this trouble concerning the bonds voted more than ten years before, the board appropriated a sum of seven hundred dollars to aid in the preliminary survey of the Iowa and Southwestern Railway. This was voted upon. How much of it was used is difficult to determine.219   The difficulties of the Lyons road began to be aired very soon in 1854. Papers along the line began to set rumors afloat and the end was foreseen.

The Clinton Mirror, published at Lyons; the Investigator, at Fulton, gave warning of the future of the line. The contractor, H. P. Adams, endeavored to set matters at rest by a letter to the Clinton Mirror, which reads as below:

"Syracuse, June 11, 1854.


"Dear Sir: I have just returned from New York, and business matters there will soon be in good shape again, and the Lyons road will be built. I regret very much the difficulty we have fallen into. The trouble in New York was caused by the failure of the Cochituate bank. We have a loan in that bank, and with Bryant and Alleo of that bank, of $100,000 made for two years from last fall. When they and the bank failed the paper and the bonds were put into market. This amount was too large to pay in a day or a week, therefore it troubled me to get it arranged; and with the tight money market and all things put together I could not carry it.


"I regret much the course some have taken in passing off goods and in leaving the work as they did; this was all unknown to me, and a thing that would not have happened if I had known their feelings or true situation. Every man within five hundred miles of the Mississippi will get his pay within a short time, no matter what stories or lies may be put into circulation about me or my road. Men who went there to work for me by the month are the first to cry 'Mad dog' and grab all they can and leave; this is all wrong and will be shown so within a few months. I shall spend twenty to forty days in New York, then go west and see what can be done. I remain yours,        "H. P. ADAMS."

When the grade stakes were located to Tipton a big feast was spread on land just east of the present school grounds, which then was. covered with a growth of brush. A great part of the county was at this "barbecue" and speeches were made in relation to the road. Judge Bissell, who had ordered the bonds issued, spoke, saying among other things: "That any man who did not believe these movements sincere and that the road was to be built as planned was the biggest fool that had ever crossed the Mississippi rivah." History keeps repeating itself, according to this.

An interesting relic was found by J. C. Arthur, an employee of the Milwaukee R. R., that contains more than ordinary interest. The relic is a quaintly printed invitation to attend a ball at Tipton on Tuesday evening, June 7, 1853, and reads as follows:

"Railroad Ball. "Yourself and lady are respectfully invited to attend a ball to be given in honor of the LYONS-IOWA CENTRAL RAIROAD at the court house in Tipton, on Tuesday evening, the seventh day of June, A. D. 1853.
"MANAGERS. "Clinton—Wm. E. Leffington, A. R. Cotton, D. P. McDonald. CedarJohn Culbertson, Robt. M. Long, Wells Spicer. Johnson—Jas. H. Gower, W. Penn Clark, F. M. Irish. Linn—Geo. Green, I. M. Preston, D. Dorwart. Muscatine—Jas. Weed, Thos. Isett, Adam Ogilvie.
"Tipton, Iowa, May 26, 1853. "Music by Milo White's band."

When asked if he could remember the ball, Judge Preston said: "I don't remember just what the project was, except that the people of Tipton confidently expected for a long time that they were going to get a great line of road from the Mississippi west." Doubtless this invitation will remind some of the pioneers of Clinton, Cedar, and Johnson Counties of many rich stories.220  

BURLINGTON, CEDAR RAPIDS & NORTHERN/ROCK ISLAND RAILROAD

The first railroad in the county to carry freight and passengers was the main line of the Rock Island. It entered the county at the very southeast corner, where Durant now is located, and was completed to that point in 1855 so that its traffic began. Under the history of Durant the first shipments are described. This arrival of the steam cars made the teaming from the river no longer necessary. This main line strikes this county at the two corners only, the other townon the line in this county being Downey in the southwest corner. It has a double track system with the automatic signal service.

In the beginning the line north and south now known as the Rock Island was known as the Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Northern. It was built by that company in the later sixties and a few years ago was acquired by the present ownership. This is constructed diagonally through Springdale township, giving service to the towns of Centerdale and West Branch.

The Milwaukee controls a line that touches the northeastern corner of the county near the Wapsie. This was formerly called the Davenport and Northwestern, but like all the little roads has been swallowed up by the big ones. The only village on the line in this county is Massillon. This road was built in 1871 just before the line to Stanwood.

GREAT WESTERN

In 1857 two railroad propositions were before the people of this county—the "Great Western," as it was called, to run from Comanche to Iowa City, running almost parallel with the present line of the C. & N. W., and the Chicago, Iowa and Nebraska, or as it is called in the references to it, the Clinton road. A meeting of citizens was called on January 14, 1857, to consider the proposition of the Clinton road. This line at that time had sixteen miles of road in operation, and when this meeting was called was about ready to run trains to Dewitt. The proposal of the Clinton line was as follows: "If the people of Tipton will subscribe the stock sufficient to insure the grading and ties for about fifteen miles of road (from Tipton to the point of intersection), they will run a line through Tipton en route to Iowa City and complete it as fast as the money is paid in on subscription. As soon as the grading is completed the company will lay the iron, put on the rolling stock and run the trains to Tipton." This, in substance, is the proposition made by Charles Walker, president of the company.

The above proposition was after the main line of this road had been fixed eight miles north of the county seat, but the letter of the president stated that this should be no branch line. To quote from his letter:

"We do not pretend to say what is wisest, safest, and best for Tipton to do, but we do say in a kind and friendly spirit that the Chicago, Iowa and Nebraska company intends to build a road through Cedar County to Iowa City and that Tipton may or may not be on the line of that road as she chooses, but we very much desire to accommodate Tipton and to have her co-operation.


"We furthermore say that the road to Iowa City will be no branch road, but as main a road as the line to Cedar Rapids, and that all the trains run on the Iowa City road will be through trains to Clinton and not trains to a junction.


"And finally we say that if Tipton chooses to regard this friendly overture from a company that has shown its energy and ability by work more than by talk; and has to some extent redeemed this part of Iowa from the reproach of its manifold failures, there exists no reason why your people should not have trains arriving and departing daily, long before the falling leaves of the present year.


"If your people choose to consider the contents of this communication, you will please let us know, and act promptly in what you propose to do.


"Signed for president and acting directors.
"To Wells Spicer, John Culbertson and others."220  

On the map which accompanies this section the reader may notice the plan of this road, the proposed to Tipton. It made connection with the main line near the east line of the county, and judging from the events that have followed this was the time for the county seat to get a railroad if ever in its history up to that time.

WISCONSIN, IOWA & NEBRASKA RAILWAY

The Wisconsin, Iowa and Nebraska Railway was projected in 1854 from the Mississippi to the Missouri and the first twenty miles was constructed and put into operation that year. In 1848 the road was extended sixty miles and put into operation from De Witt to Lisbon passing then along the line now the right of way of the C. & N. W. The history of the towns along this line is found under its proper heading. The increased traffic on this line led in 1890 to plans for doubling its tracks and removing the abrupt curves and heavy grades. In 1891 this double track had been completed through Cedar County. No expense has been spared by this company to provide all modern equipment and safety appliances for the security and comfort of the traveling public. In 1908 the automatic safety block system was installed across this county. This road has about twenty-five miles of double track line subject to taxation by this taxing district. The taxing value of all lines being submitted to the Board of Supervisors by the Executive Council of the state.221  

Trains	West	Stations	Trains	East
2	1		1	2
Passenger	Freight		Passenger	Freight
P.M.	A.M.		A.M.	P.M.
4:05	8:30	Clinton	10:45	4:00
4:20	8:50	Comanche	10:32	3:40
4:35	9:10	Low Moor	10:20	3:25
4:45	9:25	Ramessa	10:10	3:10
5:05	9:50	De Witt	9:50	2:45
5:20	10:10	Grand Mound	9:30	2:20
5:40	10:30	Calamus	9:13	1:55
5:50	10:45	Yankee Run	9:04	1:40
6:05	11:05	Lowden	8:52	1:25
6:25	11:35	Onion Grove	8:31	1:00
6:55	12:20	Mechanicsville	8:03	12:20
7:15	1:05	Lisbon	7:42	11:55
7:23	1:20	Mount Vernon	7:36	10:50
7:45	1:45	Bertram	7:15	10:50
8:15	2:25	Cedar Rapids	6:45	10:10
P.M.	P.M.		A.M.	A.M.

NOTE.—Trains will meet and pass at stations indicated by full face figures. Train No. 2 West, No. 1 East, have right of road against all other trains for one hour after their own time at any station as per table. After that time the right of the road belongs to the other trains. Train No. 2 East has right of road against No. I West, for one hour after their (its) own time, at any station as per table. After that time the right of the road belongs to No. I West. 221   M. SMITH.

TIPTON-STANWOOD LINE

The Tipton-Stanwood line as organized is now a part of the Northwestern system, having been taken over from the Tipton Railroad Company in 1872. The latter company was organized in 1858, about the time the C. & N. W. main line was built, with officers in the county seat and a capital of two hundred thousand dollars. The grading to Stanwood was begun in 1859 and completed in 1867. This was the end of the proceedings until '72 as mentioned above. Meantime a move was made to construct a line from Wilton to Tipton to be known as the Muscatine branch of the Tipton line. The line was finally to run to Muscatine and in due time the road was graded from Wilton to the Northwestern, which was in the future to extend to Anamosa in Jones County.

Mr. Geo. Dutton, who now lives in Tipton and goes and comes at will over the C. & N. W. as a pensioner of that road, ran the first train into Tipton as engineer. He also ran the first work train into Boone on the main line. During his active service, while going up the State Centre hill, a heavy grade before double track was laid, his engine blew up and he will carry the scars of the accident so long as he lives. His fireman was killed outright. Only one man in Iowa has been longer on the pension rolls than he has.

When one rides from Tipton to the stone mill he passes the Tipton-Wilton grade of this road. It is another vision of the past when men had almost secured the lines of transportation that are still under discussion. Over almost this same route, at least in the same general direction, the interurbans of the future are surveyed. Surely there isn't much that is "new under the sun." It was Thanksgiving day, 1872, that the first train of cars came to Tipton, almost twenty full years after the first suggestion of a road had come before the people. Tipton is now on a branch line and regrets the past events that made the main line of the C. & N. W. run nine miles to the north. An old atlas of 1872 locates the proposed line to Wilton and suggests the alternative of a line to Muscatine.

It was in 1871 that the line from Clinton to Elmira as it now runs was begun and grade completed and was then known as the Clinton and Southwestern. Track was laid that same year for some distance out of Clinton. Simply a beginning was made, for thirteen years elapsed before this present line was completed to Elmira, the present junction of the main line of the Rock Island and the Davenport-Clinton line. The story of the branches, piecemeal construction, and final disposition is all found carefully preserved in the memory of Mr. A. Russell, the worthy and efficient roadmaster of this division. He states that the track was laid in sections, commencing in 1871 as mentioned by the company known as Clinton and Southwestern, being laid then to McCausland and continued afterward to Noels, another station on the line. Not until 1884, when the old B. C. R. & N. obtained it, did it reach the county seat. September of '84 it reached Tipton and in November of that same year reached Elmira, making an outlet to the west by rail.

DAVENPORT, IOWA AND DAKOTA (D. I. & D.)

The branch running from Bennett to Davenport was first constructed under the name of the D. I. & D., which translated means Davenport, Iowa and Dakota. This was graded in 1888 to some point north of the Clinton line and crossed that line at some distance east of Bennett about north from Sunbury, as one may observe in passing that way an old abandoned grade branching off near the latter town. This line lay unused for the two years 1888 to 1890, no rolling stock being available and none was needed since the road went nowhere and had no reason to use cars.

B.C.R. & N.

When the road was finally obtained by the B. C. R. & N. in December, 1890, the track running from Sunbury north was taken up under the direction of Mr. Russell, who is still in the employ of Rock Island, a grade made to Bennett and connection was now made to Davenport. In 1891, January 19, the first train ran to Davenport. The first man to purchase a ticket for Davenport at the ticket office in Tipton was Reuben Swartzlender. This was six years after the trains had been running to Clinton from Elmira Junction.222   A few flat cars and one caboose composed the rolling stock of the D. I. & D. when it was transferred to the B. C. R. & N.

When the B. C. R. & N. railway was laid through the county in 1884 the business men of Iowa City made use of the first days to come to Tipton on an excursion, and about sixty, including ex-governor Kirkwood were received by the business men. There was no depot yet built, and a delay of three hours due to the incompleted bridge over the Cedar River caused the most annoying wait to the band and citizens lined up to meet the guests.

This was the outlet to the west so long under discussion and known on the map when first projected as the Southwestern. Frequent mention is made of this line for years but not until the track layers came into view did any one become enthusiastic.

The visitors from the University City, through Editor Fairall of the Republican offered the following resolutions which met with approval of course:

Resolved, that we feel greatly rejoiced over the completion of this long desired railway, connecting Iowa City and her sister city, Tipton, and we trust the acquaintance thus begun by its aid will result in closer and long continued business and social relations between the two cities, and further be it


Resolved, that we tender to the people of Tipton and to the proprietors of the Fleming House our heartfelt thanks for their cordial reception and kind entertainment and hope that they give us an early opportunity to reciprocate.

MAIL TRANSPORTATION

In 1854 the mails and stage lines are advertised to arrive and depart from Tipton on a schedule as below: From Davenport, every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. From Muscatine, Monday and Thursday. From Iowa City, Wednesday and Saturday. From Marion, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Dubuque every Friday, also from Fulton City on Friday. From Prairie du Chien, Tuesday.

The departures occurred on alternate days with the arrivals generally.
N. J. Hawley, stage proprietor, and R. M. Long, Esq., postmaster.
Mail lettings are listed at such figures as are supposed to correspond to dis- tance and times of carrying.
From Marion to Tipton, let to Wm. McLeand at $590.
From Tipton to Fulton, let to H. C. Pierce at $300.
From Tipton to Garnavillo, let to Levi Ellis at $604.

Notwithstanding the numberless mail routes complaints were loud about delay. The people complained that more than a week elapsed between mails from the east. It seems that the stage line from Davenport to Cedar Rapids run by Frink and Walker generally carried the mail daily and received no pay for so doing. They sold out to the Ohio stage company and the people lost this accommodation. Stages passed through the town daily but no mails came. The authorities at the capital, who were responsible for the mail service got their share of blame.223  

Alonzo Shaw gives some interesting reminiscences of the early day of transporting the mails when he was engaged in that service. He tells it in his own way in a recent interview: "In December, 1846, I was a successful bidder for the government mail contract covering the territory from Galena, Ill., to Iowa City, Iowa, a distance of one hundred miles. The stops along the line were Bellevue, Jackson, Maquoketa, Tipton, Woodbridge, and Gower's Ferry, the only postoffices on the route. The contract called for one trip each week. I was awarded the route the following year and made the two hundred miles from point to point during the six days. For two years I followed this trail and drew in pay for the service $750 per year. The net returns after paying expenses being about one and a half dollars per day. I averaged the thirty-three and one-third miles each day and always spent Sunday in Galena, although my home was in Tipton. In the home town I kept two good saddle horses. That seems meagre pay for the work but was on a par with" other salaries at that period in our history. There were many pleasant features connected with the rides over the prairies, plenty of time for reflection and meditation. Often I rode fifteen or twenty miles without passing a habitation. There was no house between Maquoketa and Denson's Ferry on the Wapsipinicon, neither was there a building between the latter place and Tipton, except at Bunker's Grove, where Captain Higginson lived.

There was the same lonesome stretch between Gower's Ferry and the present town of Morse, and not even a strawstack between Morse and Iowa City, then the capital of Iowa.

Of course the pleasant summer weather was to be expected and enjoyed, but during the winter I had to experience the severest kind of storms, those that are not common now where there are trees and improvements to destroy the effects of the wild winds sweep across the prairie. I well recall riding one day from Galena to Maquoketa with the thermometer thirty-five degrees below zero. But I was prepared for just such emergencies, being dressed for the weather in buffalo skin overshoes with the hair on the inside, a pair of Indian-tanned buckskin overalls, fur cap and coat.

In 1848 I sold the contract to William and Robert Hanna, who were at that time conducting a saddle and harness shop in Tipton. This was the shop formerly run by Austin Parsons and now by his son." 224 

When the boat "Cedar Rapids" reached that city from Pittsburg its log contained the following, which is of interest to this county. In these times when so much is said about improving our rivers it does seem probable that it is practical in high water as on this occasion.

We read: Left Pittsburg July 5, at dark; * * * arrived at Saint Louis on the twelfth; arrived at the mouth of the Iowa River Sunday morning at eleven o'clock; took large flat of lumber in tow—sixty thousand feet; lay four miles below the mouth of the Cedar all night; five feet of water in the channel of the Iowa up to the mouth of the Cedar; from there up, water rising very fast; arrived at Moscow on Monday; found river too high to go under bridge; took the lumber on board boat and then had to take out of hog chain braces and haul through by steam capstan; left Moscow Tuesday evening at five o'clock; lay all night at Rochester; arrived at Cedar Rapids Wednesday night. The boat carried two hundred fifty tons and is described as being 155 feet long, 26 feet wide, and 3 feet hold. She had but one deck or, as steamboat men call it, is a lower cabin boat. She has a stern wheel 14 feet in diameter, 18 feet long with buckets 15 inches wide.