BURRIS CITY.

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To write the story of the rise and fall of Burris City seems almost like delving into the musty archives of ancient or medieval history and tracing the growth and decline of a Babylon or Ninevah. But Burris City was a real and pretentious city of more than a thousand souls, but little more than a half century ago; now, the casual visitor finds only here and there a broken fragment of stone or pottery, a slight mound or depression to mark the spot where once stood this thriving village. Seldom, indeed, has so short a time witnessed so complete an obliteration of so extensive and costly a monument of man's ambition.

Burris City was laid out and platted in 1855, and in the two following years the most of the building was done.

In 1857 Burris City was at the zenith of its glory; there were five or six good stores, a large warehouse, a drug store owned by Dr. B. G. Neal. The Ellsworth Hotel, a brick structure two stories high, was the best hotel building at that time in the county. All the products of the surrounding country found here a ready market; several hundred men engaged in grading the Air Line Railroad were quartered here, many with their families. A sawmill was cutting the native timber into building and bridge material, and the town was humming with industry.

On April 6, 1855, a city election was held and the following officers elected: Lysander Wicks, mayor; J. F. Howard, marshal; Martin Mason, recorder; Chas. S. McLane, treasurer; aldermen, first ward, A. M. Steward; Henry M. Debolt, Jay Martin; aldermen, second ward, Frederick Gruber, C. P. Norton, and S. L. Hauk; aldermen, third ward, A. Moon, J. Moon, and M. Norris.

July 24, 1857, the Burris City Hotel Company was incorporated, with an authorized capital stock of not exceeding forty thousand dollars. Incorporators were: N. W. Burris, J. M. Bloomfield, A. Key, J. T. Burris, B. G. Neal, A. Millen. John Eichelberger, Lysander Wicks, J. M. Albert, R. W. Wilson, and Franklin Bras.

September 16, 1857, The Burris Manufacturing Company filed articles of incorporation, with authorized capital stock of two hundred thousand dollars; shares, five hundred dollars each, with a provision that said company could commence operation after twenty-five shares were taken by as many individuals. Among the stockholders whose names are recorded are James Harlan, Francis Springer, Alfred T. Burris, G. A. Ellsworth, Wm. Baker, Frank Bras, Wm. L. Toole, J. L. Grubb, Jno. R. Sisson, C. R. Dugdale.

The assessment of lots owned by N. W. Burris in Burris City as certified to by J. M. Bloomfield, consists of two thousand, eight hundred and forty-eight lots, ranging in value from three hundred dollars to four hundred and fifty dollars each, and amounting to the aggregate sum of one million, one hundred and fifty-right thousand, one hundred dollars. On the tax books for 1859 the greater part of these lots were assessed to "unknown owners," at from twenty-five dollars to fifty dollars each.

Certificates to the 1855 assessment are as follows:

"I, J. M. Bloomfield, of the City of Burris, Louisa County, Iowa, hereby certify that the foregoing is a true copy of the assessments of the lots in said...

pg 322

... city belonging to N. W. Burris as it appears by record and which was assessed by me. Witness my hand this 27th of May, 1857.
               J. M. Bloomfield,
               Assessor.”

"I, L. Wicks, mayor of the city of Burris, Louisa Co., Iowa, hereby certify that J. M. Bloomfield, which name appears on the foregoing certificate and who with the same as assessor of said city of Burris, was duly elected and qualified and is now assessor and his acts as such is entitled to true credit. I also certify that the signature purporting to be his is Jenuwine. Witness my hand this 27th day of May, 1857.
                L. Wicks
                Mayor
Attest:
M. Mason,
Recorder."

State of Iowa, Louisa County, ss.
"I, John Hale, Clerk of the District Court of said county, do hereby certify that L. Wicks, and J. M. Bloomfield, whose names are subscribed to the foregoing certificate as mayor and assessor of the city of Burris, were on the 6th day of April, A. D. 1857, elected to said office as appears of record in my office. In testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed my name and affixed the seal of said Court at Wapello, this 4th day of June, 1857.
                John Hale,
                Clerk Dist. Court, Louisa County, Iowa."

A map of Louisa County, issued by C. R. Dugdale in 1858, shows the Air Line railroad running through the county, also the Keokuk, Mt. Pleasant and Muscatine Railroad running north through Marshall township, just west of the old W. A. Helmick place, to Columbus City; this was said to be under contract and partly completed.

Many persons still living in the county and their descendants have cause to remember this costly "mirage" which they followed as many had done before, and many have done since, to disaster and ruin.

In justice to the promoters of the Burris City enterprise it may be truly said that they all went down together; not one, so far as the records show, but came out of the speculation a loser.

Burris, as it was originally called, was laid out by N. W. Burris in 1855, and contained over five thousand lots. It was incorporated by a special act of the Legislature, approved January 28, 1857, and after this it was known as Burris City.

But for the fatal defect of nature's creation—the lack of sufficient elevation— the location of Burris City was geographically ideal; situated midway between the cities of Burlington and Muscatine, on the bank of the great Mississippi river, and at the mouth of the Iowa river, its riparian advantages were equalled by but few, and surpassed by no inland city in the United States.

But the much vaunted strength of Burris City proved its weakness in the end; the melting snows from thousands of square miles of rolling prairies, joined ...

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... with the abundant spring rains, brought the annual overflow and Burris City, sub-aqueous, aquatic Burris City, like the securities issued by its founder, failed from a superabundance of water.

The exodus of the settlers of Burris City in 1858 and 1859 was as rapid as had been their incoming. The failure of the Air Line railroad, and the overflow of the waters disheartened the promoters and created a veritable panic among the inhabitants; many forsook their houses and in many cases, penniless, fled to more favored locations. Some of the frame buildings were sold to the farmers and others and were cut in sections and hauled away to all parts of the county. The abandoned town site, once valued more than a million dollars, was picked up by piece meal at tax sales, and is now used for grazing purposes.

Sic transit gloria mundi.

[The foregoing article on Burris City was written by Mr. J. R. Smith, who, as a boy, often visited it and traded at its stores.]

The following, from another eye witness, was printed in the Humming Bird, a small monthly paper published in Muscatine. The issue we quote from is dated June, 1874.

"Recollections of Burris City
The City as it was in 1857-8; Its Growth, Prosperity, Decline and Entire Disappearance
by N. Quad

"A passenger on one of our Mississippi packets will see nothing to indicate that a few short years ago a lively and prosperous town of 600 to 700 inhabitants and supporting a city charter with Mayor (Lysander Weeks) and other metropolitan officials, occupied the broad, flat, marshy region embracing about a section of land bounded by a high bluff on the west, on the east by the Mississippi river and by the Iowa on the south, in Louisa County, this State. The most reckless speculator would not for a moment entertain the thought of locating a town there now. Even 'Coal Oil Johnny' could not be induced to purchase the land if it were offered at $10 per acre. Yet we know parties who paid $10 per foot (front) for desirable lots on Second street, and refused an advance on the purchase price. At this time (in 1857-'8) there was considerable excitement in Burris City in anticipation of the 'early completion of the Great American Central Railway,' which was partially graded and on which Burris was to be an important point. Maps were printed and distributed all over the country at an immense expense, showing the city as a second New York in size and importance. It is needless to say that the map was slightly overdrawn. It is said that a drunken man sees 'double.' Taking this to be true, we conclude that fifteen or twenty engravers, all drunk, had each a hand in preparing the stone upon which the map was printed.

"Mr. Nathan Burris, proprietor of the town, was a young man of probably 36 to 40 years, very active, large hearted, and above all, honest in his dealings with his fellow men. He was firmly impressed with the belief that he had 'struck oil'—that the place would of necessity be one of the largest and most prosperous in the Mississippi Valley, and for a time many others were of the same opinion. Vain hope! The town with its large brick hotels, general stores, drug stores, its mill, its printing office, furniture store, carpenter shops and numerous other estab- ...

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... lishments, where are they now? Where are the lawyers, and doctors, the mechanics and laborers, and their wives, sons and daughters? They are scattered like chaff in a gale. They may be found in all parts of the world. But there are many whom we will never meet again on earth. They have gone to a City whose corner lots will never depreciate, whose streets are never muddy and whose skies are ever bright! Among these are the good wife of Nathan Burris, who departed this life in 1858. Our readers must pardon us for the belief that her death was the death of the town whose obituary we feel called upon to write. Her husband's loss weighed heavily upon him. His ambition was gone, his energy had departed, and he walked the streets, not as the active business man, not with the elastic step, the pleasant smile and bow and ready hand for the friends he met, but with a broken down, dejected air, paying little or no attention to those whom he met. He remained at Burris City only a short time after his wife died. After disposing of the greater portion of his property and settling up his business, he went west in the hope of recuperating his health and former physical strength rather than filling his depleted exchequer. From the day of his departure, the town seemed to be on a down grade, and it had grown beautifully less by degrees until in 1868 (I think) the last building—an old warehouse—was removed, leaving nothing to mark the spot where a few years ago were heard the click of type, the ring of the anvil, the blowing of steam whistles, the hum of business in all its branches, and the hurried tread of the crowd that thronged the sidewalk. The locality has no attractions now save for the rattlesnake, crawfish and bullfrog, whose right and title to the place is undisputed, and whose musical accomplishments, so varied and yet so charmingly blended, render it a most inviting spot to those who are haunted by melancholy and desire to commit suicide.

"A levee thrown up at great expense along the bank of the Iowa river to prevent the overflow of the low lands upon which the town was built was washed away by the high waters, and skiffs and flatboats were the fashionable vehicles of the denizens for several weeks, when the waters receded, leaving numerous beds of the finny tribe in the pools on every hand. The Stafford House, built of brick, was kept in good style by Charles W. Stafford, and had one time during the winter of 1857-'s8, eighty-four regular boarders. About forty of these were wood choppers, who worked in the large timber a short distance below town.

"A Guernsey press was purchased by Mr. Burris for Edward Stafford, who had proposed to publish a paper in Burris City, but failed to remove his office from New Boston before a mortgage sale removed it to the type foundry. The press stood in the old warehouse until it was purchased by John Mahin and brought to Muscatine. The Journal was printed upon this press until 1870.

"A sawmill a short distance above town and the Brick Makers at Black Hawk did a good business while the town was being built.

"Our residence in Burris City was of short duration, and our individual experience brief. We engaged to work in the winter of 1858 for Dunlap & Ellsworth, who, like many other sensible men have foolishly done, launched upon the literary sea, a 28-column weekly newspaper, known as the Burris Iowan. The town had at that time about 500 or 600 inhabitants, several dry goods, grocery and drug stores, and nearly every business usually represented in a town of that size. Mr. Dunlap was a lawyer, and Mr. George W. Ellsworth was a druggist, and by the way, proprietor of as fine an establishment of the kind as can be...

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... found in Muscatine today. Neither of the partners knew anything about the business, and Mr. D. being a lawyer, with more brains than money, and a fearful appetite for an article sometimes kept in drugstores, Mr. Ellsworth, as a natural result was compelled to pay all bills and gratuitously furnish fuel to run the editorial engine. Well, the Burris Iowan was born, blessed, buried and cursed, all within two short months. The writer of this article, then a youth of 19 summers, propelled the Burris Iowan, taking orders on the hotel and drugstore for pay, until forbearance ceased to be a virtue, when one day there was a 'strike' and the paper suspended. Previous to this time, however, sometime in 1857, a very respectable paper was printed at Burris, by the Robinson Bros. It was gotten up in good style neatly printed and filled with the choicest matter and newsy. I do not know how long it was printed, but probably not more than five or six months. In 1856-'S7 Ed. Stafford, a man of considerable talent and an immense area of cheek, and in whom few men had so much confidence as 'Nate' Burris, published the New Boston Reporter and Burris Commercial, a 32-column weekly paper at New Boston, Ill., two miles below Burris City."

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