Iowa
Old Press
Postville Review
Postville, Allamakee co. Iowa
April 24, 1914
Some Allamakee History - Some Clue As to Who Carved the
Words On the Famous Paint Rock.
Some months ago Mrs. Sam Hoesly of this city received a letter
from her former pastor, Rev. A.D. Gregg, who was pastor of the
Presbyterian church at Frankville some years ago, but is now
located at Sarcoxie, Mo. As this letter contains a clue that may
clear up some early Allamakee Co. history as to who carved the
letters on the famous Paint Rock, we publish that portion of the
letter pertaining thereto, it bearing the earmarks of reliability
and doubless settles a question that has caused considerable
cogitation for many years. Here is the letter:
"On my way home from Kansas City on Monday, Dec. 8, 1913, I
found the clue to one of the great mysteries of Northeastern
Iowa. Up above Waukon Junction, along the Mississippi, there is a
rock known as "Paint Rock." On this rock, up above the
tree tops, a number of words have been chiseled in large letters,
so that one can read them from quite a distance. The question has
been for many years, "Who carved those letters on that
rock?"
"Above Fort Scott, on the 'Frisco railroad, a gentleman got
on the train. He came down the car aisle looking for a seat, and
said to me, "is this seat taken?" and I said, "No.
Sit down and we will have a visit." He sat down, and during
the conversation I learned that he was Rev. W.S. Bailey, a
District Superintendent of the M.E. church, living at Fort Scott,
Kansas. That his grandfather was Colonel of the regiment which
captured the famous Indian chief, Blackhawk. That his father
enlisted in the army under his father, Col. Bailey, and was
appointed Indian agent at the Old Mission on the Black River in
Wisconsin.
"His brother was the first white child born in that region.
He was born at Old Mission, and had his first bear fight at
Boscobel. A bear came into camp, and being a boy five years old,
thought the bear was a dog and set his two dogs on it. The bear
killed one of the dogs and doubtless would have killed the boy
and the other dog had not the father came up and killed the bear.
"A party of which Mr. Bailey, then a boy, was the Mascot,
was returning from a reconnoitering expedition to Baraboo and
Thakaresia and camped just back of Eagle, or Paint Rock. the
Indian guide and scout of the party, a half-breed Winnebago, C.C.
Stone [or G.C. Stone] was lowered by ropes over the edge of the
cliff, and Mr. Bailey was with him and helped him chisel those
letters in that rock sixty years ago. Rev. Mr. Bailey understands
the Indian language and could make valuable additions to the
history of northwestern Wisconsin and northeastern Iowa.
Tearing Down Hardin
If future generations are to know that at one time there was on
the map, four miles east of Postville, a thriving village called
Hardin, it will be necessary to soon erect a monument to mark the
spot and perpetuate its memory. Time was when Hardin was a strong
competitor of Postville in the business field. Back in the days
when McGregor was the marketplace for a wide scope of country to
the west, Hardin was possessed of a saw mill and grist mill, two
churches, a hotel, several stores, a two story brick school,
blacksmith, wagon and carpenter shops, a postoffice of cours,
lawyers, doctors, etc., and a fair representation in most every
avocation, all of which went to make up a thriving village of the
pioneer days, and just as it was bidding fair to become a
metropolis of the then far west, circumstances smote it a blow
that started its decline and ended in its death by slow degrees.
And today the few houses that remain are the homes of farmers and
the city blocks are cultivated fields.
The circumstances which killed it was that of the railroad
following the ridge instead of the ravine when the Milwaukee was
extended west from the Mississippi. This placed Luana two miles
to the south and Postville four miles to the west on the railroad
and the inevitable was Hardin's lot.
And this week Henry Welch has bought the properties just south,
just north and across the road west of his home, and part of the
agreement is that the houses on each of the three properties are
to be torn down. Verily, Hardin is mostly a memory of bygone
days.
[transcribed by S.F. August 2005]