1854-1947
| Wilton History 1854-1947 | |
Source: Henry Wildasin's Revised History of Wilton, Iowa
***Containing a complete reprint of Wilton History 1854-1876 by Rider & Stevenson***1947
HISTORY OF WILTON The object we have in view in gathering the fragmentary scraps of the early history of our town and putting them in print, is to improve the opportunity,while a few of the early actors of the scenes still linger, from whom we may obtain reliable statements and data, to put them in proper shape to be preserved for the distant future, when not one shall be left to tell of the early birth of our town, destined to be so intimately and pleasantly associated with the births and lives of many of today, and of the vastly many more who will follow in their footsteps down the course of time. If perchance a copy of our humble little pamphlet history should survive the waste of a hundred years, and be resurrected from some dusty file, or neglected drawer, to be read on our Nation's second Centennial, we shall be amply repaid for the labor bestowed upon the brief compilation we herewith present to the readers and patrons of the Review.
There is nothing at present in the history of our pleasant little town that is strikingly romantic, as its origin is decidedly modern. Its earliest inhabitants never heard an Indian war-whoop, or barred their doors or cattle yards for protection against wild beasts. On the contrary the shriek of the locomotive, and the booming of the prairie hen greeted the early laborer in his renewed task of converting the luxuriant prairie into beautiful farms and city lots. Muscatine, twelve miles away, was then a city. Moscow, now a desolate village, on the sandy banks of the Cedar river, three miles away, had been making history for a quarter of a century, was then in its prime and glory. The Sac and Fox Indians had relinquished their right to chase deer over these grounds in 1832, and had moved their lodges further towards the setting sun. The car of empire, which earlier, had lumbered slowly across the Middle States, was at this time being propelled by steam at a marvelous speed across the beautiful prairies, towards the then comparatively unknown fastness of the Rocky Mountains; and Wilton was one of its latest stations, springing up in its trail. The name of Wilton is modern, and instead of a native or local origin, is the namesake of a thriving town in Maine.
The history of our lovely State, Iowa, scarcely leads us back into the past a half century, yet such wonderful progress has been made in this brief period that a wilderness of prairie has been changed into broad fields of waving corn and golden grain, and is today the home of over a million of happy and prosperous people.
The organization and settlement of our State being so recent, the history of many of its cities and towns date their existence from a much later day, for as a rule cities and towns follow after the sturdy pioneer; and it is now often recounted by the old settlers how they had to journey fifty or seventy-five miles across an almost trackless prairie to do their marketing at some river town. Muscatine at this early day, was a great center of trade, and many old Cedar county farmers will tell you of teaming over the present site of Wilton, when the tall prairie grass waved in the breeze, and all for miles around was owned by " Uncle Sam."
But this state of things could not last long, for the fabulous wealth hidden in the dark, rich soil of Iowa was alluring thousands from the densely peopled states and cities of the East, and government lands in Iowa were disappearing like the dew of the morning.