of
Muscatine County Iowa
1911
| History of Muscatine County Iowa 1911 | |
Source: History of Muscatine County Iowa, Volume I, 1911, pages 250-257
FRUITLAND TOWNSHIP. The last township in Muscatine county to be organized was that of Fruitland. This occurred November 9, 1887, and was at the time a part of Bloomington townshiP.
The vote for a division was taken in the fall of 1886, and every vote in the north part of Bloomington township was cast for a division, while those on the island were against it. The reason for this is given that the north part was supplied with schoolhouses, while on the island they were yet to be built. The north part did not care to be taxed for that purpose, while the island people believed it to be right that they should help build them.
Among the first settlers of the island were A. Barrows, David Freeman, T. H. Drake, S. I. Foss, Elihu Partridge, Mr. Garnes, H. Corwin and William D. Lawrence. The first trustees of the new township were William A. Dolsen, John A. Miller, and P. F. Parmalee. The township is bounded on the north by Bloomington and Lake townships, on the west by Seventy-Six and Keokuk Lake, on the south by Louisa county, and on the east by Muscatine township and the Mississippi river. Fruitland township is well named, for here some of the finest products of the soil are produced, such as melons, sweet potatoes and the like, which has made the locality famous throughout the country. It has good churches and schools. Of the latter, there are five, which keep open nine months in the year, and have an average attendance of seventy-four, with a cost per pupil a year $2.65. The Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad cuts across the northern tier of townships from east to west. The Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific takes a diagonal course through the township from northeast to southwest, and the Muscatine North & South Railroad parallels it from Muscatine to Fruitland Station, where it swerves more directly south. In this township is the famous Muscatine Island, of which J. P. Walton wrote entertainingly in 1884, as shown by the article below:
THE ISLAND IN EARLY TIMES. The first settlements on the island commenced in 1836. The Sterne brothers built a cabin on the head of the island. There was another near Hershey's lower mill, occupied by Mr. Main. Farther down Adam Ogilvie, William Gordon, Ahimiaz Blanchard, William St. John, Pliny Fay, Governor Lucas and others had claims. There was an Indian camping ground in a grove of jack oak trees near where Charles Barrows lived, about four miles down on the river shore. During one of those early winters the smallpox broke out among the Indians and quite a number were buried on the bank of the river at that place, and for a number of years afterward their remains were annually washed out. The trinkets buried with them were found along the bank for years afterward. Aaron Blanchard lived at the place which was later the home of Elisha Beatty, and his brother and Richard Usher had claims a little farther down. Jerome Walling lived at what was called Walling's Landing, now Port Louisa. All the settlements were along the river, as it was not considered feasible to live farther back.
PRIMITIVE ROADS, FERRIES AND BRIDGES. The principally traveled thoroughfare was along the river bank. The Grandview road crossed the island near where it now runs, but it was little more than a trail, as the slough had to be forded, which could not be done when the river was more than five or six feet above low water mark. At the head of the slough there was kept a ferryboat, probably placed there in 1837; it was pulled back and forward with a rope. I presume it was here in connection with a ferryboat that was run by Stanton Prentiss three miles farther down crossing the river above Blanchard Island. The Prentiss ferry was discontinued in 1840 or 1841. The head of the slough was spanned with a bent bridge, probably in 1840; it effectually turned the north and south travel across the island during low water. The bridge was passable until the spring of 1844, when it was damaged by the ice. We lived on the island at that time but happened to have our team on this side.. We tried to cross on the ice, got our horses in over their backs, but got them out all right. Some of our neighbors went down to the Thornton ford, near the line of Louisa county and crossed over to the island and came home, accomplishing a journey of twenty-five miles to make two. We joined a party that went up in the hollow in the rear of Mr. Foster's nursery, cut some tall red oaks, hewed out sleepers forty-five feet long and repaired the bridge. During the season the energetic men of our city built a dam across the slough for manufacturing purposes as well as a road.. (Banking was one of the privileges included in their charter.) The road was all that was made available and that has been in use ever since. The old bridge was abandoned and carried off by the public. Many of the posts were standing for twenty years afterward.
THE GOOD OLD TIMES. When we first moved to the island in 1842 we found Mr. Magoon, William Gordon, George Martin, A. Blanchard and Abijah Winn settled along the river, all striving to get rich raising corn at ten cents a bushel, in store pay. Corn would not bring money at any price. Ahimiaz Blanchard raised forty acres of oats. They were the largest, heaviest oats we ever saw. He sold them at eight cents a bushel. They were cradled by hand and thrashed with a chaff piler.
RACING--SHEP SMALLEY, RINGMASTER. In the fall of 1842 the sporting community built a mile race track on the ground west of Mr. Hopson's farm, where they had several horse races. They were making preparations for a big one, but there came an early fall of eight inches of snow, which prevented it. After that, the road in front of Mr. Gurley's was used for the race grounds. Almost every Saturday during the summer and fall a crowd of men and horses would come down from the city and run quarter-mile races. Shepherd Smalley was considered the king of the track. He was taken as authority on the horse and on all disputed points of pedigree. He had three of the finest thoroughbreds in the west, which he imported from Kentucky.
FISH BY THE HUNDRED ACRES. In the spring time there was another pastime that was generally indulged in, that of spearing buffalo fish. I have seen in the shallow waters, where the river overflowed the prairie lands, schools of buffalo fish that would cover a hundred acres. I think there were at least ten tons to the acre. Some of them were of immense size. Fifty pounds was no uncommon weight for a buffalo fish. The buffalo fish had a habit then of gathering in the sloughs in the fall and feeding with their backs out of water. They would make a noise very similar to a hog grunting, which could be heard on a still evening for one hundred yards. They were a good mark for sportsmen.
A HUNTER'S PARADISE. In those early days Muscatine Island was the hunter's paradise. Wild geese were more abundant than wild duck are now. I recollect being one of a party of three that killed fifteen in a single day. In the winter of 1843-44 the snow in the big timber was marked all over with wild turkey tracks. They could be seen in flocks of hundreds; they were feeding on pin oak acorns. During the winter deer would drift in from the high prairies. One could see a dozen any day without much trouble. In the low grounds or in the timber could be found species of wild hog. They resembled the pictures of the wild hogs of India--tall, long-legged and thin. A hog that would stand three feet high would be no more than six or eight inches through. They were armed with immense tusks and were the worst wild animals we had to meet. I have seen very valuable dogs killed by them. Their flesh was yellow, oily and strong. Where they came from the earliest settlers could not tell. They disappeared probably about 1845. Wolves were very abundant. The island with its level lands was a fine chasing ground. The greyhound was the popular dog for these hunts. John Vanatta and Robert Davis each had a large pack. On almost every fine Sunday during the winter they could be seen riding or running across the island.
TALL GRASS AND PRAIRIE FIRES. In the autumn the island was covered with an immense growth of grass. I have been hunting cattle in the low ground where the grass was so high that I would have to stand upon my horse to see over. I could only tell where the cattle were by the shaking of the grass. A cow bell was a very useful thing in those days. In the fall after the frost had killed the grass some of the most terrific prairie fires could be witnessed. We recollect seeing one start near Keokuk Lake and run across on a west wind to the river at a rate of five or six miles an hour; in many places the flames were thirty feet high. In order to protect our fences we had to plow furrows twenty or thirty feet apart and burn between them. We then had rail fences, and if the fire touched them they were sure to be destroyed.
THE TRAIL OF THE SERPENT. Snakes were abundant. A party of four of us in a single day killed snakes enough to reach a distance of three hundred yards. It was during high water and they were driven to the high grounds. The trees along the Sand Mound were a favorite resort for them. Almost every tree had one or two snakes hung upon it somewhere. It would have been unsafe for one to have gone there without a good club and a pair of sharp eyes. We boys were on the war path that day. Many of these snakes were six feet long and some of them quite venomous.
THE FIRST LEVEE. During the high water of 1844 the road near where Musser's mill now stands was impassable for a long time, probably two weeks, and a large amount of valuable land was overflowed on the island and on the west side of the slough. It was decided to build a levee in connection with the dam to connect with the high ground near Hershey's lower mill. A subscription paper was circulated. The subscribers generally paid in work, most of them coming from the west side of the slough. There were a great number of drift logs floated out on the top of the bank during the high water. These were gathered and placed endwise to each other and covered over with earth dug from a trench, it being considered safer to roll in the logs than to dig up the earth. This levee was to be two feet wide on top and one foot above high water mark. It was never fully completed; at all events the first high water washed it all out.
THE FLOOD OF 1851. I think the high waters did little damage until 1851, when the water swept over the entire upper end and west side of the island. The high ridge of ground where the two-story brick schoolhouse in Musserville now stands was eighteen inches under water. A large raft of lumber got the better of its operators and fetched up against a grove of trees out on the island two miles from the river. We don't think there were 2,000 acres of land on the entire island, beside the Sand Mound, that were not overflowed.
THE SECOND LEVEE. In 1850 congress donated all the swamp lands along the Mississippi, not sold, to the different states to reclaim them. Our county took advantage of that law and set surveyor G. W. Bumgardner to selecting the overflowed lands and returning the same. G. W. Kincaid was given the contract to build a levee, to be paid for from the sale of these lands. He threw up considerable earth, but the pay not coming as fast as he required, the work was suspended. Louisa county availing itself of the same act, secured considerable money in that manner, gave a contract to Mr. Thompson, who built a much better levee for a distance of four miles above Port Louisa than was built in Muscatine county, but it was of little value. Muscatine county never finished her portion of the levee and never closed the gap. After the high water of 1851 subsided, the low price of these fertile lands invited emigration and a more effective levee system became needed.
THE THIRD LEVEE. J. w. Walton and myself prepared a bill and got our friend, Hon. Royal Prentiss, then living at Port Louisa, to get it through the legislature, taxing all lands subject to overflow for levee purposes. During the existence of this law a very substantial levee was built in Muscatine county and the gap below it and that of Louisa county was nearly closed. When the levee was completed to within a half mile of Louisa county the commissioner, William Hoyt, changed its course to the bank of the river where it is now built, to the Sand Mound, crossing a deep pond requiring a bank twenty-three feet high, a hauling of earth by teams of three hundred feet and leaving out some valuable land. Dr. James S. Horton, the owner of the lands on the south side, applied to Judge Dillon for an injunction. This application brought on quite a contest. It was late in the fall. If the levee was built to the Sand Mound, Mr. Carmichael, the contractor, could work his teams all winter on the high bank, making the big fill; if it ran along the river bank he would have to stop when frost came. Mr. Hoyt, Carmichael, or some one else, conceived an idea of getting a general affidavit, which was circulated as a petition. Over forty signed it, supposing they were signing a petition. Dr. Horton had five or six affidavits. It was during the first term of Dillon's administration. The injunction was not granted. Dr. Horton appreciating the difference between a judge running over the whole state of Iowa and one running in a single district where forty votes might change the election, appealed to the supreme court where the injunction was granted. Winter had set in and the ground was frozen so that work was stopped. During the winter some of the citizens living on the upper part of the island, thinking they had levee enough to protect themselves, got the levee law repealed.
THE FRESHET OF 1870. Very little trouble was experienced on the upper end of the island until the spring of 1870, when the high water broke through the levee where Musser's mill now stands. At this time the low grounds on the northwest side of the railroad track were quite well settled up. The water was held in cheek by the railroad, giving the inhabitants time to get away with most of their effects. The railroad bridge was washed out and trains delayed for several days. There were little or no crops raised that season on fully three-quarters of the best part of the island and no traveling by team to and from the city for a month or six weeks. Immediately afterward the Musser Company commenced building their mill in the gap of the levee made by the high water, the county and individuals assisting in filling up the gap.
THE FLOODS OF 1880 AND 1881. There was no further serious trouble from the river until the spring of 1880, when nearly the whole of the population, including women in some instances, were called out to work on the levee. The street commissioner of the city worked his entire force of men and teams to keep the water from breaking over. There was such an interest felt in the city that it was arranged that should a break occur, all the bells in the city should be rung. (The mayor issued a proclamation to that effect.) No break occurred, but back water flooded most of the low ground on the northwest of the railroad. Very small crops were raised on the island in 1880, the most productive lands lying useless. Following this high water, as has been the case with most high waters, fever and ague set in. A teacher in one of the schools told me that almost every day some one of her pupils went home sick with the ague. While the high water of 1880 prevented large crops from being raised, the high water in the autumn of 1881 destroyed more property than any one before, coming as it did when the crops were upon the ground. Hundreds of acres of corn were flooded. Wherever water stood around it, the wild ducks gathered the corn. Hay stacks were flooded, roads impeded, in some cases the sweet potato crop had to be boated to the city.
THE PRESENT LEVEE. Thinking that the time had come for another levee, in the autumn of 1880 we consulted our representative, Hon. Hiram Price, upon the propriety of getting congress to help us. Under his approval we had a number of memorials circulated, asking an appropriation. We secured more than 2,500 names to these. A series of political events prevented us from obtaining any help from that source. While the measure was before congress, concluding that the island inhabitants would have to help themselves, we got up a petition to the legislature to have the ditch law amended so as to apply to the construction of levees. We quietly circulated this around and got the signatures of forty of the leading citizens interested in the levee. We wrote out an amendment to the ditch and drain law and sent it with the petition to Hon. J. A. Pickler, our member in the legislature. We soon got it through the house. We then wrote to Senator Pliny Nichols, who got it through the senate. Thinking that the way had been prepared for a permanent levee, we concluded to let others do some of the gratuitous work. In the spring of 1882 S. E. Whicher came to our relief. He got the required petition and gave the necessary bonds and the general gratuitous supervision of the work of construction fell upon him.
We now have a successful levee, one that will be of vast benefit to the island, costing in all $80,000. It is twelve feet wide and two feet above high water mark. During the recent (1884) high water we rode over it and found in many places that there was six feet difference in the height of the water on its two sides.
FRUITLAND STATION. Muscatine Island is famous as the melon garden spot of the world, and Fruitland takes equal rank with the island as being a great shipping point for melons and sweet potatoes. In the winter of 1879 Alexander McDermott, one of the leading farmers at that time, called a meeting for the purpose of considering what could be done to meet the desire of the neighboring farmers for a local point from which to ship their products. As a result of this meeting a committee was appointed to wait upon the Rock Island Railroad Company and ask that a station be established near where once stood the old town of Owega, or at a point west of the Island church. The president of the railroad company offered to establish a station at the point where Fruitland is now located and plat a town site on conditions that the farmers pay to the company $1,000 for the town plat and also put up a building suitable for a store and postoffice. At once a stock company was organized to meet the conditions of the railroad company, and in the spring of 1880 a town plat in accordance with the views of the people was made and called Island, which was subsequently changed to Fruitland by the postoffice department. W. J. Fitzsimmons was appointed postmaster and agent for the Rock Island Railroad and the first shipment from the new station was made to Perlee, Iowa, August 14, 1880. The first shipment of melons was in August of the same year. During that year there were about thirty carloads of melons shipped from this point, which gave evidence of the railroad having made a good investment in establishing the station, while it saved the farmers miles of heavy hauling. From this small beginning the melon and sweet potato business on the island has gradually grown until the shipments from Fruitland amount to hundreds and hundreds of cars of melons each year. In the winter of 1898 the Muscatine North & South Railroad passed through the little town, affording increased facilities for handling the immense amount of produce which is annually grown in that district. But the island is not given over entirely to melons and sweet potatoes. Much grain and other produce, small fruits and garden truck have become yearly crops in that vicinity. The first store in Fruitland was owned and operated by James Strouse. The town now has a blacksmith shop, cooper shop, hotel, amusement hall and church, and everything to make a village comfortable and happy. One of the town's chief distinctions is that it has never had a saloon within its limits.
Back to Historical Index Page