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ANNALS OF IOWA
VOL. Vll, NO. 8. JANUARY, 1907.
JOURNAL OF A MISSIONARY IN JACKSON
COUNTY, IOWA TERRITORY, 1843-'6.
BY WlLLIAM SALTER.
Under a commission from the American Home
Missionary Society "to preach the Gospel in Iowa Territory,
" I left my father's house in New York City, October 4,
1843, and arrived at Maquoketa (then Springfield P. O.) on
the 10th of November. In my journey I visited Niagara
Falls; spent a Sunday in Buffalo, at the home of the Rev.
Asa T. Hopkins, pastor of the First Presbyterian church of
that city; the next Sunday I was at Milwaukee in the
hospitable home of the Rev. Stephen Peet, agent of the A.
H. M. S. for Wisconsin Territory, who discouraged my going
to Iowa, saying that Iowa would not amount to much, as it
had only a narrow strip of good land on the Mississippi
river, and the Great American Desert was west of it,
whereas Wisconsin had Lake Michigan on one side and the
Mississippi on the other, and would make a prosperous
State. The next Sunday I was at Galesburg, Illinois, having
rode over the prairies from Chicago to that place in an
open wagon. The following Monday, at sundown, I reached the
Mississippi and felt the thrill and exhilaration the sight
of the great river and of Iowa awakened in my mind.
On landing in
Burlington the next morning, James G. Edwards, editor of
the Burlington
Hawk-Eye, met me
and took me to his home. The next Sunday I spent at
Keosauqua, on the Des Moines river, and preached in a
blacksmith shop, the Rev. L. G. Bell, a pioneer preacher of
the "Old School," preaching the same day in the same place;
thence I visited Agency, and was kindly entertained by the
widow of the Indian Agent of the Sacs and Foxes, General
Joseph M. Street, and stood over his grave, and that of the
Indian chief Wapello, which were side by side. The next
Sunday, Nov. 5th, I received ordination at Denmark, at the
hands of Asa Turner (Yale, 1827), Julius A. Reed (Yale,
1829), Reuben Gaylord (Yale, 1834), and Charles Burnham
(Dartmouth, 1836).
I came up the Mississippi with Alden B. Robbins, who
then began his life-long ministry at Bloomington
(afterwards Muscatine), and with Edwin B. Turner, who was
assigned to Jones county, and to Cascade, in Dubuque
county, then the farthest missionary post in the Northwest.
Proceeding from Davenport, Turner .and myself spent a night
with Oliver Emerson in his cabin near De Witt. We found him
shaking with the ague. He asked a neighbor who was going
the next day with a grist to McClay's mill, to take us
along. The journey was slow, and we were chilled and weary
with the raw winds of the prairie. Reaching the mill an
hour after dark, we left the grist, and went on to the log
house of John Shaw, who made us welcome, and we soon lost
our chill and weariness in the warm supper Mrs. Shaw gave
US. In a part of the house partitioned off by sheets, we
found refreshing sleep.
The morning showed us that we were upon a gently
rolling prairie, about a mile from the junction of the
South and North Forks of the Maquoketa river, and from the
long stretch of timber between them. Across the road from
Mr. Shaw's was a small log house, banked with sod, the roof
partly covered with sod. Built for a blacksmith shop, it
was used for a school and public meetings. North of it was
the cabin of John E. Goodenow, postmaster, eminent for his
public spirit and generous nature, a descendant on his
mother's side (Betsey White) from Peregrine White, who was
born on the Mayflower in Cape Cod harbor, in 1620. Next
north was the claim of Zalmon Livermore.
Leaving Mr. Turner to preach in the schoolhouse, I
went horseback to Andrew, where a Congregational church had
been organized by Oliver Emerson, the pioneer missionary of
the whole region, Dec. 26, 1841. The meeting was held in
the upper story of the log court-house. Deacon Samuel
Cotton and family were there, and gave me a cordial
greeting. He was a descendant of John Cotton, the first
minister of Boston, Mass., and possessed the sterling
qualities of his Puritan ancestry; Mrs. Cotton was of the
Bemis family, from "Bemis Heights," Saratoga, N. Y., where
Burgoyne's army was defeated in 1777. Their house was six
miles north of Andrew, but the distance did not prevent
their regular attendance upon public worship, and I often
shared the shelter and comfort of their home. In my first
sermon in the county I showed that the early churches in
the land of Israel were edified and multiplied by "walking
in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy
Spirit, " and I urged the duty of building up Christianity
in the same way in Iowa Pure and faithful churches, active
in Christian service, are the saving salt of any community.
A Methodist brother, a Justice of the Peace, greeted me,
saying that he welcomed all preachers, "no matter what
their tenements were."
I preached from the desk where sentence of death had
been pronounced in the first judicial trial for murder in
the Territory, the previous year. The case grew out of a
dispute about a land claim. Before the execution of the
sentence, John C. Holbrook came from Dubuque, and preached.
The prisoner was brought into the court-house in chains,
and cried out in his anguish," Oh, what would I give to
restore to life the man I killed," and "many a manly cheek
was wet with tears, " said Mr. Holbrook in his report of
the scene.
At Andrew I made the acquaintance of Ansel Briggs,
mail contractor on the route from Dubuque to Davenport .and
Iowa City, afterwards the first Governor of the State
(1846-'50), a native of Vermont; of Philip B. Bradley, a
native of Connecticut, clerk of the County Court, member of
the Territorial legislature (1845-'6), of the State
legislature (1846-'9, 1878), also prominent as an adviser
of Governor Briggs. Nathaniel Butterworth and his gracious
wife made me welcome at their primitive hostelry. They were
natives of Massachusetts.
Returning to Maquoketa, I took Brother Turner sixteen
miles west on his way to Jones county. Much of the country
was taken up by settlers, and their cabins and clearings
showed industry and thrift. Reaching a cabin towards dark,
we asked if we could stay for the night, but the house was
full. It was some distance to the next house, growing
darker the road blind, and we felt in a quandary, when an
old man, learning who we were, said that his minister at
Crown Point, N. Y., (Stephen L. Herrick) told him of a band
of missionaries going to Iowa, and that he must look out
for them. "You stop here," he added, and we were relieved.
After supper, and a feast of soul with thanksgiving and
prayer to "Jehovah Jireh, " we found sound sleep on the
cabin floor.
The next morning the old gentleman's son, Lorenzo
Spaulding, offered to take Brother Turner on his way, and I
returned to Maquoketa, and began a visitation of the people
from cabin to cabin. I purchased a horse with saddle and
bridle and saddle-bags, and, as winter came on, accoutered
myself with gloves of deerskin, scarfs, legging, and
buffalo overshoes. In a circuit of six miles I found fifty
families, some from New Hampshire, Massachusetts,
Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, more from New York
than any other one State, and some from Canada. They
represented every variety of religious opinion. A Methodist
preacher (John Walker) had an appointment in the
settlement. Charles E. Brown had preached his first sermon
in Iowa the previous year, in the house of John Shawl He
organized a Baptist church, August 31, 1842, but left the
field in November following, finding the cabin he had put
up on the prairie in the summer not suitable to winter in,
and he moved to Davenport. A man of excellent spirit, he
was welcomed back to Maquoketa in 1847. Subsequently, a
pioneer preacher in Howard county, he was a member of the
House of Representatives from that county ( 1878 ) . His
son, William C. Brown, has gained eminence -for efficiency
in railroad management in Iowa, and is now Vice President
of the N. Y. Central.
In my circuit I found six Presbyterian and
Congregational families, and called them together on
Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 30, for conference and prayer with
reference to forming a church. They were divided on the
question of government. Accommodation was necessary. The
election of two elders to serve for two years was finally
agreed upon, and William H. Efner, M. D., and Thomas S.
Flathers were chosen. Both were of the "New School," which
adhered to the Plan of Union of 1801. Mr. Flathers was born
in Kentucky, but lived from childhood in Indiana. He had
not learned to read, he told me, until he was twenty years
of age, when a passion for knowledge and a zeal for
religion inflamed him, and he went to school and fitted for
Wabash College, with the ministry in view, but chill penury
had compelled him to leave his studies. On the Sabbath,
Dec. 10th' the church was constituted, the elders were set
apart with prayer, and the Lord's Supper administered.
During the previous week Brethren Emerson, Robbins, and
Turner, and Jared Hitchcock, delegate from Davenport, had
come to Maquoketa, and we organized the Northern Iowa
Association, to embrace churches north of Iowa river. I
favored the Convention System (semi-Presbyterian), which
had been adopted in Wisconsin, but the other brethren
preferred a distinctively Congregational organization.
Provision, however, was made to include the Maquoketa
church. For the support of the church, a society was
organized of which John Shaw was the most active and
efficient member. They invited me to preach at Maquoketa
half my time. Mrs. Shaw was a native of Oxford, Mass., of
the Fiske family, of Huguenot stock; she acted the part of
a mother to me, and paid me the fine compliment that she
knew I had had a good mother.
In the Wright settlement, three miles south of
Maquoketa, and at Burleson's, six miles west, I visited the
schools and preached, as I did in every settlement in the
county. Thomas Miles Wright was a native of Connecticut,
had lived in Warren county, N. Y., near Lake George;
Shadrach Burleson was a native of Vermont; Anson H. Wilson,
of Canada; they all encouraged my work. In the Wright
family were several sons, of like spirit with their father.
A daughter was the wife of John E. Goodenow; she had all
the fine qualities of the excellent woman in the last
chapter of the book of Proverbs.
In the neighborhood of Maquoketa were a number of
persons who had taken part in the Mackenzie rebellion in
Canada, 1837; among them was William Current, a man of
bright and active mind, a friend of temperance and
education, but not of religion, because of alleged
discrepancies, contradictions, and unseemly things in the
Bible. I invited him to come to meeting; he said, "No," but
that he would give me some hard texts for a sermon. I told
him to do so, and I would come to his house and preach,
which I did. I explained that the objectionable things in
the Bible are records from the ignorance and coarseness of
former times, that the Bible does not endorse all that it
records, and that the New Testament expressly does away
with much that is in the Old, and I quoted a number of the
words of Christ in the Gospels, in proof that Christianity,
according to the teachings of its author, is an absolutely
pure and holy religion. Returning from that appointment
with my trusty companion, Mr. Shaw, our horses lost the
way, and we wandered round and round on the prairie until a
glimmering light in a distant cabin window relieved our
bewilderment.
Among other settlers from Canada was Samuel Chandler,
but he came to Jackson county by a very circuitous route.
He had been sentenced to be hung as an insurgent in the
"Patriot" cause, but the sentence (upon the intercession of
his daughters) was commuted to banishment for life in the
penal colony of Van Dieman's land, whither he was
transported, via London. He had managed to make his escape
on a Yankee whaler, and now found some of his old friends,
and one of his daughters who had secured the commutation of
his sentence, Sarah, the wife of Jesse Wilson. Mr. Chandler
was a man of firm religious principles, a native of
Massachusetts, a helper in every effort to improve the
country.
The name of our post-office was that of the
postmaster's native town in Vermont, but, being that of
many towns in the United States, letters were frequently
missent, and I joined Mr. Goodenow and Mr. Shaw in a
petition for a change of name to Maquoketa, which was made
by the Postoffice Department, March 13, 1844. The word
Maquo is Indian for bear, an animal that infested the whole
region.
My cramped quarters in Mr. Shaw's house gave me scant
opportunity for consulting my books or composing sermons,
but I managed to write one sermon during the winter,
sitting by the rotary cook- stove, and preached it to a
congregation of thirty who seemed to appreciate my effort.
In my solitary missionary tours the illimitable stretches
of land and sky often inspired thoughts of the Almighty
Maker of heaven and earth and I heard the voices from above
that speak "in reason's ear."
In the settlements about Andrew I found two
interesting families, recently from Pennsylvania. They had
been brought with their teams and belongings from Pittsburg
to Bellevue by steamboat for twenty dollars a family. They
were warm-hearted Christians, of Protestant Irish stock
David Young was of pronounced anti-slavery sentiments, had
been a "New School" Presbyterian, but liked the
Congregational way, and became an active member of the
church at Andrew. He built a mild on Brush creek, which was
swept away in the freshets of 1844, a year of high floods
in the Mississippi valley. Sixty-one years later, I met his
son James, at Maquoketa, and he recalled my visits in the
old house and the family prayers and worship together, of
which he said his mother spoke with fond recollection to
the end of her days. At a cabin on Farmers creek I was
advised not to speak on religion in the next cabin, or I
might be put out, as the occupant had told a Methodist
preacher who called there, that he would throw him into the
fire if he spoke a word on the subject. It was a rough
region. Nature appeared ill-shaper in Rocky Hollow." Coming
to a large log house I found a friendly Scotch family
living cheerily, no floor but mother earth. Mr. Sage was
away at mill, but his wife made me welcome, and called in a
few neighbors to whom I preached. She told me she had heard
Thomas Chalmers and Edward Irving in Glasgow. A little
distance north' was another Scotch family (Alexander), but
there was trouble between the two families over their
respective claims. They were the only Presbyterian families
I found in this visitation, and it grieved me to find them
at odds. I was perplexed on being informed that a member of
the Andrew charge had fallen into shame. It was made my
duty to seek the recovery of the woman to a correct life,
and I was relieved to hear profession of sorrow and
purposes of amendment. I at once spoke to her husband, who
was out at work but he turned upon me with abuse, and
threats to the church One family that attended my services
were used to tokens on sacramental occasions, and would not
come to communion without them. While visiting at their
house a young man, seventeen years of age, called, who said
he was on a pedestrian tour. He had read Captain Cook's
Voyages and Peter Parley, and told me that he knew a little
Latin and Greek, and had learned the Hebrew alphabet from
the 119th Psalm. He had walked from his home thirty miles
west of Philadelphia and was still westward-bound.
I spent the last week of 1843 at Bellevue, making
acquaintances, and preaching in the schoolhouse, and in the
house of Alexander Reed, three miles south, where one said
it was a "divilish" sermon. Bellevue is beautifully
situated. When Wisconsin Territory extended to the Missouri
river, 1836, it was proposed as a central site for the
capital, in rivalry with Dubuque. The town was discredited
by a sanguinary mob (April 1, 1840), or "war," as it was
called, several persons being killed on both sides, and the
county seat was removed to the geographical center, the
people voting 208 for Andrew, 111. for Bellevue. The Dyas
family, who said they were the first family to make a home
in the county, gave me a hearty welcome. They had lived in
Galena and were warm friends of the Rev. Aratus Kent,
pioneer missionary there. Many of the first settlers about
Bellevue had worked in the lead mines, and had been in Col.
Henry Dodge's battalion in the Black Hawk war. William A.
Warren, sheriff of Jackson county, was a native of
Kentucky, came to Bellevue in 1836, had served in the Black
Hawk war, took an active part in the Bellevue "war," was a
member of the Constitutional Convention of 1857, and I
resumed my acquaintance with him in July, 1864, at
Stevenson, Alabama, where he was U. S. quartermaster, and I
was in the service of the Christian Commission, and he gave
me his kind offices. As sheriff of Jackson county, he had
collected taxes in coonskins at fifty cents, and sold them
in Galena at seventy- five cents.
At Bellevue, Thomas Cox and John Foley were at home
for the Christmas vacation from the Territorial legislature
of which they were members. On their return to Iowa City,
Colonel Cox was elected President of the Council He had
been an influential member of every previous legislature of
the Territory but one. He promoted the removal of the
capital from Burlington to Iowa City, and gave the name to
the new capital. He was also one of the surveyors who
selected the site on the Iowa river, and laid out the town.
He invited me to visit his family, which I did later. Mrs.
Cox was a native of Rhode Island, of Quaker stock. She came
in her youth with her parents to St. Genevieve, Mo., and
was a lady of gracious manners. Upon the death of her
husband, .Nov. 9, 1844, she sent for me, and I officiated
at the funeral in the presence of a large concourse of
people. The grave was under a hickory tree near the house.
In a few years the land passed into other hands and was a
plowed field. Sixty years later the Jackson County
Historical Society had the grave unearthed, and the bones
interred in Hope Cemetery, Maquoketa, where they set up a
large and smooth-faced boulder, and had his name inscribed
thereon as "Pioneer Law Maker. " By invitation of the
Society, I took part in the ceremony and made a prayer at
the unveiling of the monument, July 4, 1905. A full account
of the life of Colonel Cox, with his portrait, is given in
this volume (pp. 241-269).
On the first day of May, 1845, I officiated at the
marriage of Cordelia, daughter of Thomas Cox, to Joseph S.
Mallard. It was the first marriage ceremony I performed.
They went overland to California in 1849, and were among
the early settlers of Los Angeles. John Foley was a polite
Irish gentleman, had been sheriff of Jo Daviess county,
Ill., and a member of the First Legislative Assembly of
Wisconsin Territory, two sessions of which were held in
Burlington, 1837-'8.
I also visited George Cubbage and preached in his
cabin. He was a native of Delaware, and an intense
Protestant. He had been clerk to Felix St. Vrain, U. S.
agent for the Sacs and Foxes, whom they foully murdered at
the opening of the Black Hawk war. Mr. Cubbage had himself
been a captive in their hands. He taught the first school
in Dubuque, was doorkeeper of the Legislative Assembly of
Wisconsin Territory at Belmont, 1836, and one of the
Commissioners, under an act of Congress, to lay out
Dubuque, Burlington, and other towns, 1837-'8. A few weeks
later I visited every family in Charleston (now Sabula).
They were a friendly people, mostly from New England and
New York; James Leonard from Griswold, Ct., Benjamin
Hudson, from Lynn, Mass., Mr. Marshall, from Goffstown, N.
H. A gray-headed man, learning I was from New York, asked
me if I knew Dr. Joseph McElroy, pastor of the Grand Street
Presbyterian church in that city; I told him that he was an
eloquent preacher, and I had heard him preach. "He is my
brother," he said, and I saw a resemblance in their
features. His name was Hugh McElroy. He came to Iowa in
1838, and made a claim west of Sabula; he had a large
family, and his oldest child was named Joseph. I preached
in the Exchange Hotel at Sabula, and had a larger
congregation than in any place before in the county. A
church was organized there by Oliver Emerson, Dec. 14,
1845.
North of Bellevue, I preached in Mr. Potter's house on
Tete des Morts creek. I found some German families in the
settlement, with Luther's translation of the Bible in their
cabins. Some were beginning to learn English. I regretted
that I could not preach to them in their own tongue. The
new year, 1844, opened with a heavy snow, and I was unable
to fill my appointment for the evening at Andrew, my first
failure of the kind. During the following spring there were
many freshets, and I could not always make my circuit. In
March I visited the people in the Forks. They had made
clearings in the timber, thinking crops would be surer than
on the prairie. One who came to my meeting told me that he
had not heard a sermon for ten years. A young man of the
house where I preached offered to conduct me to a wonderful
cave and a natural bridge four miles away. The bridge is
thirty feet long, about twelve feet wide, of limestone,
solid, massive, covered with deep soil. Cave creek passes
under it. We clambered up the sides of the bridge, and
walked over it. I then turned with admiring gaze to the
arch that from a height of more than a hundred feet slopes
smoothly in a grand curve to the mouth of the cave.
Descending to the creek, we heard the waters madly rushing
through, and saw ice pillars of transparent beauty. A mass
of rock had fallen from overhead, warning us of danger, and
having an appointment at a distance of twelve miles, I
hurried from the entrancing scene. Later in the season I
visited the spot again, in company with Mr. and Mrs.
Holbrook, and my classmate, Ebenezer Alden, of Tipton. The
creek was then dry, and we went several hundred feet into
the cave finding stalactites and stalagmites in profusion,
and seeing subterranean marvels.
On visiting Galena and Dubuque I preached for Mr. Kent
and Mr. Holbrook in their churches. Mr. Kent said to me
that Mr. Peet had told him of his desire and intention to
get me into Wisconsin.
In April, I made a long missionary tour in the
adjoining counties of Jones, Cedar, and Clinton. Near the
Wapsipinicon I found a good settlement of United Brethren.
At Red Oak grove I was entertained by Robert Cousins, an
intelligent and warm-hearted Christian, deeply interested
in Sunday schools and devoted to the use of the Psalms in
public worship. At Tipton I enjoyed the hospitality of
Paterson Fleming, clerk of the court, and of Addison
Gillett, merchant, who had come the previous year from
Hudson, N. Y. I was disappointed, not finding my classmate
Alden; he had gone to Denmark, to arrange for sending Asa
Turner east, to raise funds for the purchase of lands on
which to establish a college. After a dreary ride over the
prairie to De Witt, thirty-five miles, I found Oliver
Emerson shaking with ague, at his request I went to
Camanche to fulfill his appointment for a funeral sermon,
the second time I performed such a service. From Camanche I
crossed the Mississippi, and preached at Albany, Ill. Later
in the month Julius A. Reed visited me. He had been on an
exploring tour in Delaware and Buchanan counties for a site
for the proposed college.
Receiving an invitation from John Lewis, my classmate
in the University of the City of New York, and in Union
Theological Seminary, to attend his ordination at Fairplay
Wisconsin Territory, I crossed the Mississippi at Bellevue
the last day of April, and was two hours in getting over,
the river being higher, it was said, than since 1828, and
the islands and low-lands on the Illinois shore under
water. In his examination by the Mineral Point Convention,
Mr. Lewis stated that when a clerk in a bookstore in Boston
he attended Lyman Beecher's church, and that on several
successive mornings when sweeping out the store, Dr.
Beecher came there and gave him wise and helpful counsel.
Mr. Kent preached the sermon, and I gave the right hand of
fellowship. In obtaining his education Mr. Lewis had been
aided by Christopher R. Robert, the founder afterwards of
Robert College, Constantinople.
My Andover classmate, James J. Hill, arrived at
Dubuque, June 7th, and I went to see him; hitching my horse
to a small wagon, I took him through rushing creeks and
over Turkey river to the field assigned him in Clayton
county. He received a warm welcome at Jacksonville, the
county-seat, from James Watson, whose brother, Cyrus L.
Watson, had preached in Dubuque in 1836, the first Home
Missionary in Iowa; they were natives of North Carolina
Urgent invitations coming to me to visit Mineral Point and
Potosi, I did so, and the church at Potosi gave me a call,
and it was said, "You must come." I referred the matter to
the Home Missionary Society, and the following letter
decided the matter:
Rooms of the A. H. M. S., 150 Nassau St., N. Y.
AUGUST 3, 1844.
REV. W. SALTER:
Dear Brother: I lose no time in saying that the
reasons which seem to have influence with your own mind in
favor of your remaining in Iowa seem sound and weighty. The
" Iowa Band " have awakened a good deal of interest in the
East, and have a character that is drawing around them more
and more the affections and confidence of the good, and it
is very desirable that this character should be sustained.
There would be some misgiving in regard to the results
contemplated, if one of your number should return this side
of the Mississippi; the chain would be broken, the charm in
a measure dispelled, and the brethren there would be in
danger of being disheartened; it would be easier for one
and another to yield to discouragement. You might be more
useful in Wisconsin at once, but I think it would be in
appearance only. You have made a good beginning, getting
acquainted, and acquiring influence' and it would be
difficult to supply your place. Wisconsin can be easier
provided with ministers than Iowa. You have given yourself
to that Territory, and I think you had better say to all
this side the river that you cannot come down or over.
Your Iowa brethren would all, I know, give you this
counsel, and, I think, the disinterested everywhere would
do the same. I hope you will by all means stay in Iowa and
lay the foundations. Your communications have all been of
deep interest to us, and you will ever have our tenderest
sympathy and our fervent prayers.
Yours truly,
Milton Badger,
Secretary.
Brother Holbrook wrote me: I hope you will not see it
a duty to leave Iowa. Still I want to see poor Potosi
supplied, and you to decide as the Lord would have you
whether to go there or not. flay He guide you, and make you
useful wherever you may labor." Shortly afterwards I
preached three Sundays at Dubuque for Brother Holbrook he
going East to solicit funds for removing an incumbrance on
his church. Meanwhile I visited Clayton county, to attend
the organization of the church which Brother Hill had
gathered. I met there the Rev. A. N. Wells, U. S. chaplain
at Fort Crawford, a very genial and friendly gentleman, and
of much historical interest. I went with him to Prairie du
Chien. He was a graduate of Union college, N. Y., studied
divinity with Dr. Eliphalet Nott, was a man of his spirit
was the first Protestant missionary at Detroit, and pastor
there twelve years.
In October I rode horseback, via Tipton, and Muscatine
where Brother Robbins joined me, to Brighton, Washington
county, and attended an Association meeting. The church
there was composed of excellent families from the Western
Reserve, Ohio. On returning, I attended a meeting of the
Iowa Anti-Slavery Society at the county-seat of Washington
county. Aaron Street, Jr., and other Quakers from Salem and
Mr. Vincent, a Seceder minister, were active and zealous
members. At Iowa City I visited the capitol, and listened
to some of the proceedings of the Constitutional Convention
then in session; I made the acquaintance of Robert Lucas,
the first governor of Iowa Territory, of Shepherd Leffler,
president of the Convention, and other members.
Through the winter of 1844-'5 I kept up my work at
Maquoketa and Andrew, and in the various settlements of
Jackson county, holding some revival meetings, aided by my
brethren, E. B. Turner, Emerson, and Holbrook, and
sometimes aiding them in their fields. Brother Holbrook
wrote me from Dubuque:
An Episcopalian minister has arrived here, and will
for the winter preach in our old meeting-house half of the
time. Consequently, I shall have some leisure Sabbaths, and
could help you in a protracted meeting at Andrew, Bellevue,
or Charleston. (He had previously aided me at Maquoketa.)
It would be necessary to provide a conveyance for me to and
from the places, as I have no horse, and could not afford
to hire for so long a time. Let me hear from you as I am
anxious to improve the winter. The meeting at Charleston
should be when the river is closed, to admit of the
Savannah people crossing.
We have exchanged our form of government for
Congregational, and expect to build a new meeting-house the
next year.
At Maquoketa we organized a Temperance Society with
one hundred members, and kept the liquor traffic out of the
settlement. We were not so successful at Andrew, though a
society was organized there with fifty members. A subject
of the reformation wrote me a pathetic letter:
ANDREW, FEB. 22, 1845.
FRIEND SALTER:
I have been a wretch for the last year, have sinned
against God and man. I have made one more resolve, one
which I shall never break. I am determined by the help of
God never to taste liquor, that which has been almost my
ruin. I feel that I have been a guilty wretch, but will sin
no more; I put my trust in God, and ask him to sustain me
in my determination.
I write these few lines to you to ask an interest in
your prayers. I want you to call and see me when you are in
town, if you have not given me up as lost forever, as I
have made promises and broken them so often; but this
resolve, Mr. Salter, is firm, is not to be broken. I am
determined once more to be a man, and not a brute. I love
you and all the people of God, and wish you to call and see
your unworthy friend.
Impressed with the necessity of better advantages in
the cause of education, I secured the co-operation of Mr.
Goodenow, Mr. Shaw, and Mr. Current in measures for the
establishment of an Academy at Maquoketa. Mr. Goodenow
offered five acres of his land on a commanding site; others
made subscriptions of material and labor, and,
contemplating a visit East, I proposed to solicit aid from
friends there. After attending a Presbyterian and
Congregational Convention at Detroit in June, 1845, I went
to New York and Boston collected three hundred dollars.
Salter, was the largest contributor; Mace, A. L. M. Scott
(who had been my Sunday School teacher), W.M. Halstead, R.
T. Haines, Calvin W. Howe, Fisher Howe, Bowen & McNamee,
Wiley & Putnam, Wm. Scribner, George Lockwood, S. B. Hunt,
W. A. Booth, C. R Robert, J. A. Robertson, I. Van Cleef,
etc., of New York, and E. P. Mackintire, of Boston. The
Academy was incorporated by an act of the Legislative
Assembly of the Territory January 15, 1846. The money I
collected was expended in the purchase of brick, and in
payments to the contractor (D Jones, of Dubuque). The
building was completed in 1848; and was dedicated with an
address by George E,. Magoun the pastor of the Second
Presbyterian church in Galena Mr. Shaw had previously
written me, April 8, 1848:
Our Academy is completed. I wish you could see it. It
is a splendid building, I think much better than you
expected. I think it will not be long before we shall add
what we contemplated. My subscription is paid and over.
When I signed I did not know any way to pay. The Trustees
have settled with Mr. Jones, so the building is out of his
hands. The dedication of the Academy will be on the 4th of
July next. I hope you will be here certain. Mr. Gale
(founder of Galesburg, Ill.) and Mr. Blanchard (president
of Knox College) will probably be here.
We shall not have the county seat here. It will be for
our benefit. In my mind the evils attending a county seat
are more than the benefits of a court house.
Jerome Allen was principal of the Academy for two
years He was a graduate of Amherst College, and married a
daughter of John Wesley Windsor, pastor at Maquoketa
(1849-'54) he became eminent for his zeal and ability in
the work of education and as a teacher of teachers, both in
Iowa and in the State of New York (Iowa Normal Monthly,
xii, 356)
The property of the Academy, including Mr. Goodenow's
donation of land, was eventually turned over to the public
schools of Maquoketa.
In the fall of 1845 the people of Jackson county were
advised of an approaching sale of the public lands on which
they had made their claims. The United States had delayed
the sale of these lands for several years as in the mineral
district, where lands were subject to rents, and not for
sale in fee simple. That policy was changed. There was much
excitement and anxiety to secure the necessary funds, and
to protect one another in their claims, and there were some
disputes about claims that embittered the future, but
harmony and order generally prevailed, and, becoming secure
in their titles, the people built better homes and made
more permanent improvements.
I now felt somewhat encouraged in my work, and,
looking forward to making a home, I built a little frame
house on a gentle rise of land south of Mr. Shaw's house,
and moved into it. I was there enjoying such opportunity as
I had not had previously for retirement and study, with my
books conveniently arranged, and was especially enjoying a
new book I had purchased in New York, The Life and
Correspondence of Thomas Arnold, when word came of the
serious and probably fatal illness of the pastor at
Burlington, and that he had resigned his office, and I was
requested to come there. I made the journey in February,
and was delayed in crossing Iowa river by running ice. I
found my brother, Horace Hutchinson, near the end of his
days. We had come to the Territory together. He was then in
vigorous health, ardent in his work, his life full of
promise. Now his countenance was changed, and it fell to me
to close his eyes in death. Brother Robbins came from
Muscatine, and preached at the funeral service, which was
held in "Old Zion" church.
After spending three weeks with the church in
Burlington, they invited me to become their minister.
Returning to Jackson county, I reviewed the situation, and,
not without reluctance to leave my friends there, I
accepted the invitation from Burlington, which the
Missionary Society approved. I had preached 326 sermons in
Jackson county, 100 of them in the sod-covered schoolhouse
in Maquoketa, 40 at Andrew, and 186 in other parts of the
county. I now preached farewell sermons at Andrew and
Maquoketa, and early in April removed to Burlington, "not
knowing the things that should befall me there." |
