Burlington Daily Gazette
Burlington, Des Moines co. Iowa
Wednesday, November 15, 1882

Mr. Conrad Geise, the extensive brewer of Council Bluffs, and one of our best and most progressing and enterprising citizens, yesterday broke ground on the hill near his brewery for the erection of one of the handsomest and most costly residences ever built in this city. Mr. Geise held back upon his expensive improvement until he could learn the probable result of the prohibition amendment, but as that has been declared unconstitutional and void, he has at last concluded to build for himself and family a comfortable home in our midst.

Burlington Hawk Eye
Burlington, Des Moines, Iowa
November 23, 1882

H.H. Cohee of Henry County Brings Suit for $20,000 Damages--
The Case Transferred to the Des Moines County Circuit Court.

    The petition in the case of H.H. Cohee, a resident and practicing physician of Marshall, Henry county, Iowa vs. Charles Brown and ten others, a suit for $20,000 damages, was filed with the clerk of the circuit court in this city yesterday. The case was originally brought in the circuit court of Henry county, was transferred to the Lee county circuit court and has finally landed in Des Moines county. The bill alleges that the plaintiff was the owner of valuable property in and adjacent to Marshall, Henry county, that he was in the practice of medicine and enjoyed the friendship, good reputation and benefits of his business and reputation and the esteem of his neighbors. That the defendants combining together did unite and conspire to injure the plaintiff by the circulation of false reports against him; that the several defendants on May 22, 1880, violently and unlawfully entered the home premises of the plaintiff and charged with poisoning horses, burning houses and other crimes, claiming to have interviewed large numbers of people. That they wrongfully seized, threatened and overpowered and by force compelled the plaintiff to go with them against his will to a grove in a grave yard in the vicinity and that they detained him there and prevented others from coming to his rescue; that they proceeded to deliberate upon the plaintiff and placed a rope on a limb of a tree as if to hang the plaintiff or to terrorize him. They demanded of him how soon he could settle and leave the vicinity and should do so in a limited time. They voted and demanded that the plaintiff should leave within thirty days, and if he remained it would be at his peril, and that if found in that locality after that date they would hang the plaintiff. The petition alleges that Mr. Cohee has been greatly injured in his good name, reputation and standing as a physician by reason of these wrongs, wherefore he prays judgment for $20,000 damages, together with the costs of suit.

    In the case of John Wallin, charged with the murder of Emily Forsell, the jury having disagreed, it was continued until next term by consent of parties.
    Barney O'Dare plead guilty and was sentenced to the penitentiary at Fort Madison at hard labor for eighteen months, on the charge of burglary. He was sent to Fort Madison yesterday, accompanied by the sheriff.

Vital Statistics
    The following is a list of births and deaths filed with the county clerk for record during the past week:

Births
    November 7, a son to Adam Vandemark, farmer Franklyn township.
    November 9, a daughter to Frederick Feldman, farmer, Franklyn township.
    October 27, a son to Frank Woods, South Third street, Burlington.
    November 10, a son to John Rusch, butcher, 1204 North Eighth street.
    November 9, a daughter to Harry Harrison Gilson, mechanic, 1217 North Seventh street, Burlington.

DEATHS.
    October 17, Joseph C. Mott, 38 years of age, at 140 North ?ennison street, Burlington.
    November 7, Bartie Quelle, 25 days old, of bronchitis, ??? Foster street, Burlington.
   

Burlington Hawk-Eye
Burlington, Des Moines co. Iowa
Thursday, November 30, 1882

COMMERCIAL AND STATISTICAL
Review of the City of Burlington--Its Commercial Advantages--An Interesting Publication Compiled by J.L. Spaulding & Co.

     A commercial and statistical review of the city of Burlington, a publication containing one hundred and sixty pages, compiled and edited by J.L. Spaulding & Co., has just been issued from the press and is ready for distribution. The review is thorough in every respect and from a commercial point of view, treating mainly of the business interests of the city as they exist to-day, and incidentally of their progress and development in the past, and their advantages, opportunities and probable growth in the future. The publication contains several handsome engravings, among them being the Grand opera house, the club house of the Burlington Boating association, and a number of business blocks and manufacturing enterprises. There is a thorough review of Burlington's commercial and manufacturing interests and a notice of generous length of every leading business house in the city. Our merchants and business men and others interested in the welfare of Burlington should see that the publication meets with an extended circulation abroad. In it is found the following history of Orchard City which should be cut out by the reader for future reference:
     Half a century ago there was not a single mark of civilization within the state of Iowa, if we except the trading post of Julian Dubuque, located on the site of the present city of Dubuque. The pioneer who, in 1832, stood upon the Illinois shore of the Mississippi, opposite the mouth of Hawkeye creek, and looked across the great Father of Waters to the land of promise, would have seen an unbroken forest sweeping from the topmost heights of "Flint Hills" down to the water's edge, with, mayhap, a column of smoke rising from the wigwam of the Indian, who yet lingered about the heritage he had lost.  But could this pioneer, as he stood there, have lifted the veil of futurity and watched the changing kalideoscope of fifty years, he would have wondered as he gazed. He would have seen at first a log cabin or two; in a little while more of them; then the primitive tavern and the country store; the sound of the woodman's ax in the little clearing and the crash of the falling timber would have reached his ears. Years flit by; the scene changes. A comfortable residence takes the place of the cabin; a hotel supplants the tavern; more stores are built and the surveyor's stakes mark the outline of "a city." Blocks of warehouses rise, and the school and the church show the rapid changes. It is near fifty years; a score of lofty spires pierce the air, and domes of schools and colleges, and residences embowered in flowers and foliage. Massive blocks of brick and marble line the broad paved streets, and gas lights twinkle in long lines that meet in the distance; and there reaches his ears the sharp clang of a thousand hammers, the signals and deep throbs of passing steamers; the thundering of long trains of passenger and freight cars; the scream of the locomotive; the din, the roar, the continued noises of the busy industries and driving commerce of a great city. The city of Burlington is situated upon the right bank of the Mississippi river, 1,668, miles from the mouth and distant by rail to Chicago 267 miles, from St. Louis 212 and from St. Paul 358 miles. Its site is generally hilly, with a margin of low land extending along the Mississippi and along the valley of Hawkeye creek. From this margin rise the somewhat abrupt hills to the height of 200 feet to the level of the prairie which stretches out toward the west. The lower portion of the city is given up to business and manufactures, and the residences nestle among or crown the hills. These commanding eminences known in early times as "Flint Hills," marked the location of the enterprising pioneer as the site of a great city and hither he came as soon as the Indian claim to the territory was extinguished. Without mentioning the temporary huts built for the American Fur company in 1829, the first settler was Sam. S. White, who erected a cabin within the limits of Burlington, and David Tethero built another three miles out in 1832. From there were driven as trespassers by United States troops, sent from Rock Island in the winter of 1832-33 and the huts burned. White spent the winter and spring in Illinois, and on the first day of June following, the day fixed by the government for taking possession of the new territory, White was back as a permanent settler. He built the cabin on Front street, between where Court and High streets were laid out, just below where the Sunderland mills now stand. This cabin was afterwards removed to the Keeler lot near the bridge across Hawkeye, and finally served as piling for the bank of the creek. Soon after White's brother-in-law, Doolittle, joined him, and in 1834 they laid out the original town calling it Burlington. The name was given by John Gray, a Vermonter, who was a friend of White, and he called it in honor of Burlington in his native state. James Hilleary, a citizen of Des Moines county, now residing some nine miles from Burlington, says, that when he landed in Burlington on the 11th of November, 1833, there were but three log cabins in the place. To show the manner of life in those days we will state that James Hilleary and his brother, Alexander H, came from Harrison county, Kentucky, to Quincy, Illinois, in 1832, and to Des Moines county in 1833, settling three miles from Burlington in a cabin 12x24, built of split logs. The first frame houses were built for White and Doolittle in the summer of 1834, by Lyman Chase; the first carpenter in Burlington, Henry Moore, said to be the oldest settler, is still living in the city, came to Burlington in 1834, worked on these houses, and afterward carried on prosperous building business for many years. One of these houses was built on Water street, near the gas works, and the other on the northwest corner of Court, and was built by Judge David Rorer in July, 1836. It stood on the lot now occupied by Mrs. Bodemann and Dr. W.W. Nassau. Isaac Leffler built a one-story brick house on the side of South hill, near Division street, in the same year. In 1838, Dr. Samuel Ross built a brick house on Fifth street, near Washington street, part of which is included in the residence of Hon. H.W. Starr, and the oldest brick building in Burlington.
     Dr. Samuel S. Ross opened a general store in 1834, in a frame house on the south side of Court street, and Jermiah Smith opened a store on Front street the same year. Jeremiah Lamson and Jacob Ladd were added to the merchants of the town in 1836. In 1837 the population was numbered at three hundred and in February, 1838, Burlington was incorporated as a city, under a charter from the legislature of the territory of Wisconsin. In this year two weekly papers were started- the Patriot and Gazette. In 1837 a state house was built on South Water street, between Court and Columbia streets, which was destroyed by fire in 1838. Jeremiah Smith designed and erected this building. Zion church was then built for joint use as a place of worship and a legislature, and was used as a state house from the installation of the territorial government in July, 1838, until the removal of the state capital to Iowa City. It stood on the west side of Third street, between Washington and Columbia streets, but in the march of improvement that old time landmark was razed to the ground to make room for Burlington's pride, the opera house. With all its sacred associations this link that bound the present to the past is broken. "Old Zion" is no more. The first school house was built in 1835, on Valley street, near Teedrick's tavern, of which school Benjamin Tucker was the first teacher. Major McKell built the first saw mill within the present city of Burlington in 1837, which sawed only the wood of the country, no pine. The first marriage between the early settlers was that of Dr. Samuel S. Ross to Matilda Morgan, in December, 1833. There being then no territorial government organized, Dr. Ross went to Monmouth, Illinois, for his license and preacher, (whose name has not been handed down,) and brought him to the Illinois shore opposite South Burlington, his jurisdiction and authority to perform a marriage not extending to this side of the river. The bridal company, consisting of ten men and four women, crossed over from the residence of the bride's father just below Bogus Hollow, in a scow, and the knot was tied as they stood on the sand bar on the eastern shore, after which the guests returned to the home of the bride to partake of the wedding dinner. At this dinner they had pork, venison, prairie chicken, corn bread and butter, dired apple pies, milk and coffee. This was the first wedding that was celebrated in the Black Hawk purchase as far as known. General A.C. Dodge, who is still a resident of Burlington, was register of the land office in 1836, and was one of the prominent men of those early days, and has since filled with distinction positions of honor and responsibility under the state national government. Shephard Leffler took a high position as an attorney, and was delegate to congress in 1838. Judge Hall, father of Benjamin B. Hall, was one of the distinguished men of those times, as was W.W. Chapman, who emigrated to Oregon in 1847 or '48 and still resides there. The town of Burlington was incorporated by act of the territorial legislature of Wisconsin on the 29th of April, 1837, and the first town officers were Amos Ladd, president; Thornton Bayless, clerk; Hanson E. Dickinson, treasurer; James Cameron, John Harris, G.W. Kessler, marshals; J. Starr, collector; Thomas S. Easton, John Campbell, engineers; David Rorer, George H. Beeler, Enoch Wade, George W. Kelly, trustees; J.W. Grimes, J.W. Woods, Chas. Mason, solicitors.
     In February, 1838, the city of Burlington was organized under charter from the council and house of representatives of the territory of Wisconsin, dated January 19, 1838. George H. Beler was the first mayor under this charter, and Thornton Bayless, recorder; Charles Mason, solicitor; and the Aldermen Amos Ladd, J.L. Kimball, W.B. Remey, George Temple, J.Lamson, James McKell, N.B. Newhall and D. Hendershott. In 1837 the population of Burlington was 300, in 1839 it had increased to about 1600, in 1845, 3,000 was claimed, though we have no record of an enumeration. In 1850 the population by the United States census was 4083 and in 1855 8,000 were claimed. By the census of 1860 it showed 6706 and in 1870 14,980, while by that of 1880 it was 18,542. The growth of the city since the last census has been rapid, and estimating from the directory of the present year, taken early in the year, and allowing for the increase since that time, we would not put the present population of Burlington at less than 25,000 inhabitants. The growth has not been phenomenal, but always steady and solid, made up of a class of energetic and industrious citizens, who have wrought out its present industrial development. A large per cent of the citizens  of Burlington are of German birth or descent, and they are among her most substantial citizens. If they lack anything of American push and pluck they make it up in German severance, and in many instances it is the old story of the hare and the tortoise.