DAVENPORT PAST AND PRESENT

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 NOTE:  A picture of Black - Hawk ( MA -KA - TAI - ME - SHE - KIA - KIAH) is included in this chapter.  Please gothe Scott County Main Page and click on Pictures/Documents.

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CHAPTER IV

 In the year 1833, there were one or two claims made upon the lands nowoccupied by the lower part of the city.  The claim upon which the city wasfirst laid out was contended for by a Dr. Spencer and Mr. McCloud.  Thematter was finally settled by Mr. Le Claire buying them both out; giving themfor the quarter section one hundred and fifty dollars!  A splendidillustration is this sale of the immense fortunes made in the West, by politicfore-thought, and judicious investment.  This claim laid to the West ofLeClaire's Reserve - the latter terminating at Harrison street. Below this street the city was first laid out.

Having fenced in this portion, Mr. LeClaire cultivated it until it was soldto a Company in 1835.  In the Fall of this year a company was formed forthe purpose of purchasing and laying out a town site.  They met at thehouse of Col. Davenport on Rock Island to discuss the matter.  Thefollowing gentlemen were present:  Maj. Wm. Gordon, Antoine LeClaire,Col. Geo. Davenport, Maj. Thos. Smith, Alex. McGregor, Levi S. Colton, and PhilipHambaugh.  These gentlemen, and Capt. James May, then inPittsburg, composed the company which secured the site, and set in motion atrain of circumstances, whose result is, a beautiful and flourishing city. The necessity of a town between the upper and lower rapids - theunexampled fertility of the adjacent country - the magnificent beauty of thelocation - its freedom from malaria breeding marshes, and facilities fordrainage, the propinquity of immense opportunity for water power, were reasonsadduced for the choice of the location.  Well did they choose, as theevents of the last twenty years have amply established.  In the Spring ofthe next year, the site was surveyed and laid out by Maj. Gordon, United StatesSurveyor, and one of the stockholders.  The spot selected included the areabounded on the East by Harrison street, on the North by Seventh, West by Warren,and South by the river.  It included thirty-six blocks, and sixhalf-blocks-the latter being the portions lying adjacent to Warren, on the West.

The cost of the entire site was two thousand dollars - or two hundred andfifty dollars per share - a price which now would purchase but a veryindifferent building-lot in the least valued part of it.  In May the lotswere offered at auction.  A steamboat came up from St. Louis laden withpassengers to attend the sale, and remained at the levee during its continuance,in order to afford the conveniences of lodging, edibles, and the not lessessential item of drinkables.  The sale continued two days, but owing tothe fact that the titles were simply such as were included in a squatter's claim- and purchasers fearful that such were not particularly good - only some fiftyor sixty lots were sold, and these mostly to St. Louis speculators.  Thelots brought from $300 to $600 each - a smaller sum than the proprietorscalculated upon.  The remaining portion of the site was then divided amongthe proprietors.

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The emigration this year was but small - only some half dozen families comingin.  The first Hotel or "travern" was put up this year, andopened by Edward Powers; and is still standing on the corner of Front street andRipley.  It was put up by Messrs. Davenport and LeClaire, and was called"Davenport Hotel" - in honor of the "city" - the latterreceiving its cognomen from Col. Geo. Davenport, who long previous had been aresident of the Island.  In regard to its appearance, nothing need be said- all here have seen or can see it, while more distant readers are doubtlesslyamply informed in regard to the appearance, character, extent, accomodations,&c., of pioneer "hotels."

The next most prominent evidence of improvement was erected the sameyear by an old sea captian, named John Litch.

It was that vade mecum of civilization - that contemporary, and often pioneerof church and school-house - a drinking saloon.  It was a log-shanty, andstood on Front street, below Western Avenue.  It was long a favorite resortof the politician and the thirsty; and not a few grand social schemes andpolitical intrigues were concocted beneath the genial influence of thesuspiciously genuine liquids, vended by the retired and affable"Captain."

There, listening to the numerous reminiscences of Captain Litch, and growingbalmy under his genial "punches" until life and its projects wereroseate as the cheek of Dawn, might be seen daily many who now stand deservedlyamong our first citizens.  The "Maine Law" then lay unevolved inthe convolutions of Neal Dow's brain.  "Not to drink" would thenbe almost, or quite, sufficient to ostracise any man from a desirable socialstanding; and he who did not produce the bottle and glass upon the advent of avisitor, was deemed lacking in hospitality.  "Take a drink,"entered then as much into a portion of social economy as "take achair" does in the refinements of modern intercourse.  The merchantpreceded his customer's application by the proffer of a "smile" - alltrades were prologued and finished by a resort to an imbition - and in short, noenterprise, civil, social, religious, political, or otherwise, could well beinducted or concluded without the presence of a third party, in the shape of adusky-visaged Bottle.

James Mackintosh opened the first store, in the latter part of October, ofthis year; his stock consisted of a general assortment of Dry Goods, Groceries,Hardware, Provisions, &c., to a value of about five thousand dollars;commenced business in a log house, built by A. LeClaire, near the U.S. House,corner of Ripley and third streets.

In December D.C. Eldridge also opened a large stock of Goods.  Many maywonder where consumers were to be found for a "large stock of goods"in a place or less than a dozen families.  It will much astonish such, aswell as many others, to learn, that in the Spring of the next year (1837) thesum total of daily sales averaged ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS, of whichthirty-three per cent. was cash.

This apparent discrepancy of sales and buyers is explained, when it is knownthat from the town opposite, and a long distance up and down the river, peoplecame here to trade.

Lumber was, at that time, brought from Cincinnati, and almost everything elsefrom a distance.  Flour and sixteen dollars per barrel, Pork at sixteencents per pound, were brought from Cincinnati.  Corn was imported from theWabash River, and brought two dollars per bushel.  The farm now occupied byMr. McManus was bought by Dr. Hall, and paid for in this latter comodity, - thecost of the farm was five hundred bushels of corn.  The Ferry also datesits existence from this year - it being a flat-bottomed craft, technicallytermed a "mud-boat."  This in 1841 was superseded by an immenseimprovement in the shape of a horse-boat - which in time gave way to steam - thewhole being crowned by the two magnificent and commodious steamboats constantlyemployed in transferring a wide deep stream of freight and passengers from shoreto shore.

Our lady-readers may, perhaps, be interested in knowing that the pioneer inconjugal love, cutting teeth, chicken pox, and baby talk, in Davenport, was ason of Mr. L.S. Colton, who first looked upon the light in the Fall of thisyear.  The feeble wail of the first baby in Davenport has been echoed not afew times since, and daily grows wider and deeper in its volume, like the tinyspring-streamlet, widening eventually into a broad river.

It will naturally be supposed that the character of social life was in somesort like the country - rather destitute of refinement.  A gentlemanrelates a circumstance connected with a prominent politician of this State, andwho has had the honor frequently of saying "Mr. Speaker" in the hallsof National Legislation, that perhaps was the counterpart of a thousand othersof the time.  In the fall of '35 this gentleman, while passing up theMississippi on a prospecting tour, made the acquaintance of the politicalgentleman at Burlington - where the latter came aboard the boat.  He was atthat time candidate for territorial delegate from Wisconsin.  He hadscarcely gotten aboard before he ostentatiously displayed a pair of pistols, andwhich he occupied himself in handling, loading and fixing in various shapes, atintervals, during the passage to Galena.  Arriving there, he solicited ourinformant to land, and proceed with him to the hotel.  With his wifeleaning upon his arm, the latter, followed closely in the wake of the candidatefor Congressional honors.  As they reached the door of the stopping place,the opposition candidate happened to step out to the threshold.  Ourpolitical hero confronted him in an instant, and as he drew both his pistols, heremarked, without preface-

"You are a G--d---- bully, sir! take your choice!"

The other, however, declined a choice of the extended pistol-butts, and"made himself scarce"  Both however, relieved their iratetendencies, soon after, by a street fight, at Mineral Point, in which neithersuffered according to the extent of the wishes of his antagonist.  Theeffect upon our informant, and especially upon his wife, may easily by imagined. It may however, be well to state, that the political gentleman alluded tois everywhere known for his courtesy and gentlemanly urbanity in every phase ofhis social life.

The first law office in town was opened by A. McGregor, Esquire, in April.

The first Religious discourse was delivered by Rev. Mr. Gavitt, a methodist,in the Spring, in the house of  D. C. Eldridge.  Preaching from anEpiscopalian the same Spring.

Religious services were held semi-occasionally at the house of Mr. LeClaire,in which a priest from Galena officiated.  For there amusements, oursettlers had at this period, besides preachers, steamboat arrivals, which everybody went down to see, horse racing at the upper end of the present site of thecity, which all, from the carpenter on the roof, to the merchant behind thecounter, left to witness; sleigh-rides to the neighboring places, followed by adance, to which all went; balls at home, and wolf hunts.  There was thenquite as much, or more, positive enjoyment than now, for the reason that socialcaste was not there recognized, and all went in simply for enjoyment.

The pioneer ball was held in Mr. LeClaire's house, Jan. 8, 1836.  Someforty couples were present, consisting of frontiersmen, officers from theIsland, and others.  The music was furnished by fiddles, from which nocontemptible strains were occasionally drawn by Mr. LeClair himself. Prominent among the merry dancers were G. C. R. Mitchell, A. McGregor, G.L. Davenport, Joe Conway, and last but not least, and by far the lightest dancerin the room, the now portly figure of a. LeClaire.  Most of thefrontiersmen wore the coarsest species of "stogy boots,""making" as our informant says, "a most infernal clatter." The dresses of the ladies were generally rather more calculated to promotecomfort that ostentation.  The party danced till sunrise,  and thenbroke up - the gentlemen being, as a general thing, as genial as allthe"punches" they could possibly contain, would make them.  JoeConway, eccentric in his cups as well as his actions, upon reaching the ice tocross the river, found himself unable to either stand still or walk - he veryingeniously, therefore, compromised the matter by striking a sinuous anduncertain "dog-trot" and heading for all points of the Islandmiscellaneously.  It is mistily believed by his companions that hesucceeded in reaching it - although somewhat out of his original bearings.

In the Fall of this year, Rockingham - a now deserted locality some few milesdown the river - was laid out by a company, among whom were Gen. Sargent,Ebenezer Cook, Dr. Barrows, and others, of our now prominent citizens.  Itwas thought a good locality, for the reason that it was opposite the embouchureof Rock River, which was supposed to be navigable.  Gen.  Sargentstates that he once ascended it in a steamboat to the distance of two hundredand ten miles; and hence it was very reasonabley supposed that an importantjunction might be formed with interior towns, and a heavy trade therebysupported.

At the time of the purchase of the Black Hawk district, it was placed underthe jurisdiction of Michigan.

In 1836, Wisconsin was organized, and by an act of the Legislature (which metfor the first time at Belmont,) the "Black Hawk Purchase" was dividedinto two counties.  A line beginning at Rock Island, and extending west tothe Missouri River, divided them - the north one was called Julien Township, andDubuque county, the south one Flint Hill Township, and Des Moines county. The county seat of the former was located at Dubuque.  Davenport wasin the latter jurisdiction.  Soon after the District was divided intoconunties, at which time commenced a notable spirited contest between Davenportand Rockingham for possession of the county seat.  Of this we shall speakin its proper place.

In the Summer of this year, Mr. A. LeClaire was appointed P. M. Mails cameonce each week from the East, via Chicago; and once in two weeks from Dubuquevia Davenport to Fort De Moine, (now Montrose).  Postage at that time wastwenty-five cents.  The P. M. used to carry the mail across the river inhis pocket; and his percentage for the first three months was seventy-fivecnets!  The present P. M., with his two thousand boxes, and half dozenassistants, will easily recognize the difference.  The mortality this yearamounted ot seven - the first of whom was Mrs. Tanneyhill.

In September, a treaty was held at East Davenport between Gov. Dodge, U. S.Commissioner, and the Sacs and Foxes.  The object of the treaty was tosecure possession of the land bordering on Iowa River, and known as"Keokuk's Reserve."  About a thousand chiefs and warriors werepresent, and were encamped during the time just above Renwick's mill.

The land in question amounted to 256,000 acres, and was purchased forseventy-five cents per acre, or $192,000 - a very liberal price compared to whatGovernment had heretofore paid, but "dog cheap" when we consider thatin less than a year every foot of it was disposed of at ten shillings per acre.

CATLIN, in his "North American Indians" thus notices this affair:

"The treaty itself, in all its forms was a scene of interest, and Keokukwas the principal speaker on the occasion, being recognized as the head chief ofthe tribe.  He is a very subble and dignified man, and well fitted to wieldthe destinis of his nation.  The poor dethroned monarch, old Black Hawk,was present, and looked an object of pity.  With an old frock coat andbrown hat on, and a cane in his hand, he stood the whole time outside of thegroup, and in dumb and dismal silence, with his sons by his side, and also his quondam,aid-de-camp Nahpope, and the Prophet.  They were no tallowed to speak, noreven sign the Treaty.  Nahpope rose, however, and commenced a veryearnest speech on the subject of Temperance! but Gov. Dodge ordered himto sit down, (as being out of order,) which probably saved him from a much moreperemptory command from Keokuk, who was rising at that moment with looks on hisface that the Devil might shrink from."

The two tribes staid here nearly a fortnight, amusing themselves and otherswith characteristic games and dances.  One amusement was "smokinghorses."  A party of Ioways came at the time, and wanted some horsesof the Sacs and Foxes.  Such of the latter as had horses to give away,mounted them, and commenced riding at full speed around the Ioways - thensuddenly wheeling would endeavor to ride straight through them, which wasprevented by using small switches against the faces of the horses.  Afterriding a half hour or so, a Sac rider would call to an Ioway to stand out, andthen passing him at full speed, he would bring upon the naked back of the other,with the full force of his arm, a heavy whip of plaited rawhide, raising a"welt" as thick as one's finger.  Then immediately dismounting,he would place the bridle in the hands of the yelling victim, who was thereafterthe owner of the horse.  This ludicrous operation excited much sport amongthe spectators.  It was common custom among the Sacs and Foxes, and someother nations - the compliment being from time to time interchanged.

This treaty was the last ever held in this vicinity.

There were seven houses in the old town limits at the close of the year. Log house of Capt. Litch, ditto of L. S. Cotton, ferryman; frame dwellingpartly finished, and owned by a Mr. Shoals.  It has been since known as the"Dillon House,"  (of which a gentleman since Governor of theState was once hostler).  Log House of James O'Kelly - (a tailor fromDetroit, Mich.) - used by James McIntosh as storehouse; log house of Wm. Allen,used for P. O.; frame building, known as Davenport Hotel, and after as UnitedStates Hotel; log house used by D. C. Eldredge as store.  All these standyet, except Dillon's and Litch's.