The Panic of 1857 slowed the influx of settlers and even, in fact; caused some already here to move westward to the gold fields of California and elsewhere. The Panic was in part the result of over-extension of credit to farmers. Local banks ran out of money; farmers could not get money to pay their debts; land prices plummeted. J.H. Williams, a merchant in Homer (near Boone Forks), for example, could not collect money from his customers, so he accepted cattle. Finally, he had to give up his store and become a stock raiser instead. He used the town lots he had previously bought for speculation to pasture the cattle he had received in payment of debts (Folman: 1986, pp. xviii-xix).

Barter was common, even in non-depression times. There never was much money. Eggs and butter were exchanged at the stores for salt and matches and saleratus (baking powder) and other essential items.

Patterns of Agriculture and Farm Life

Agriculture was the dominant economic activity of the 1850s. Practically every family was engaged in agriculture, and sons and daughters, working from dawn to dusk, were all needed to provide the family with food and other necessities The farm was an almost complete production unit. Apple and plum orchards, vegetable gardens, hens for eggs and meat, milk cattle, and pigs for pork all contributed to the family table.

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Even the people in the small villages had their orchards, gardens, a dairy cow and chickens, as well as stables for their horses. The back yard of a town lot was a miniature farm.

The extent of self-sufficiency, which lasted many years, may be realized from this diary of William Leuty, son of William and Mary Leuty, Red Rock pioneers:

"Mother used to shear the sheep, card the wool, spin it and weave it into cloth and make our clothes and blankets. She mixed black sheep wool and white to make a gray wool. She added indigo to the yarn to make a lovely blue. Walnut and butternut hulls were also used to color the wool, and she also added a chemical called madden I did not have a store-bought suit of clothes until I was 18 years old.

For lighting lamps, she put goose grease in a dish with a rag for a wick. We also used to read by the light of the fireplace.

My father was an excellent cabinet maker; nearly all the furniture in our home was made by him from native walnut—-corner cupboards, wardrobes, tables, desks, rocking chairs, spinning wheels, and rolling pins. He also made most of the burial caskets for the community." (Walker: 1972, 121).

Farming methods of the 1850's would be considered primitive and haphazard today. Corn and wheat were planted by making a hole in the soil with a hoe, dropping in seeds by hand, then covering it again with the hoe. Hay was mowed by a hand scythe; grain was cut with a cradle and beaten with a flail to thresh it. During the summer, pasture for the stock was obtained from the grasses of the bottomlands and the unfenced prairie lands, a situation similar to the days when the buffalo roamed over the lain!. Tons of prairie and slough grass were put tip for winter supply of hay. Pigs rooted in the woods for their feed.

Farmers were learning what crops and livestock did well in the new environment. They found that wheat was not very successful on the prairie land, especially the first year after it had been broken. The grass roots needed a year to rot before wheat could he grown. Though they preferred wheat flour to corn meal, in time the more profitable corn replaced wheat entirely

In the northern counties of the Greenbelt, farmers learned that the area was not suitable for sheep. Sheep developed foot rot and other diseases in the undrained wetlands. Sheep husbandry was therefore discontinued (Madsen: 197B,57).

Already in the l860's, farmers were talking of getting better seeds and breeds. Perhaps the most substantial advance in cropping was the introduction of tame grasses for hay.

The farmers chief frustration was that they had difficulty in getting their produce to market. Their first marketable produce was fat swine, which they drove on foot to Mississippi River markets, A wagon drawn by oxen generally accompanied a drove of hogs. It carried supplies for the men and transported the hogs that might: have become crippled along the way. Unfortunately, the hogs were bound to lose considerable weight in the long walk to market.

The only source of power was the horse, without which the development of the area would have been impossible. He did an amazing amount of heavy work; he pulled the plow that broke the sod, he hauled the hay wagons, the logs to the sawmill and the lumber back, and the grains to the mills. The horse transported the family to church services, the doctor to deliver the babies, and the funeral caskets to the cemetery.

The family’s horizons wore determined by the distance a horse and wagon could go and return in a day. Saw and grist mills, and rural churches and schools and cemeteries were therefore numerous and closely spaced. Towns were located only two or three miles apart.

Transportation in the 1850's and 1860's

Two types of long-distance transportation were developed in the wilderness’ of the Greenbelt. They were the stage coach and the steamboat, each of which was in operation for only a few years.

For a brief time, about 20 years, the stagecoach was the magic link in bringing people together and in carrying the news.

Excitement ran high one day each week as the stagecoach came into sight, and its horses galloped up to the doors of the stage coach inn. Passengers stepped out—legislators, land speculators, civil war soldiers, family visitors—those who were sturdy enough to withstand the discomforts of the ride, such as the bumpiness, the anxieties suffered while fording the rivers and sloughs and often having to get out and push, the sticky hot or freezing temperatures depending on the season, and the cramped quarters.

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A passenger describes the rigors of the stagecoach,

"One cold January day, the stage from Fort Dodge as usual pulled in at Boone, but the driver did not move. He sat erect with the lines in his hands. he had frozen to death" (Marsh: 1952, 229).

Another passenger wrote,

"About midnight, we travelers reached Port Des Moines. Driving to all the hotels, which were full, we were compelled to put up at the stage house. Since we left Chicago, I had not had one hour of sleep or change of clothing nor had I shaved." (Peckham: 1925, 233).

Town sites near the stagecoach line increased in value. The towns benefitted financially as they provided lodging, meals, livery stables, and black smithing services. Some of the Greenbelt towns with stagecoach connections to Iowa City and Dubuque were Fort Des Moines, Fort Dodge Homer, Hook’s Point, Boone, and Madrid.

The stagecoach, drawn by teams of horses, gave way about 1870 to the railroad, the so-called ‘Iron Horse"

The steamboat had been a dream ever since the Des Moines River Navigation Plan to make the river navigable for big boats had been approved by Congress in 1846. The plan ultimately failed due to mismanagement and corruption. Following the flood of 1851, however, the river was so high that large steamboats could navigate the river The following excerpt from the Knoxville Journal, September 25, 1930, recalls the great event:

"Now came the steamboats! They were mostly of stern wheel class, driven by old-fashioned high pressure engines, and their loud puffing woke the echoes far and wide. Wood was used for generating steam. They stirred up the wildest commotion along the banks for five or six miles. People flocked to their shores to hail their advent.

They came loaded to the fullest capacity with all kinds of goods and merchandise and also passengers. They ran for many weeks, even until August of that year. Scarcely a day but a boat was passing either up or down.

Following are some of the steamboats by name: The Sangarnon, the Skipper, the Alice, the Ed Manning

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the Ad Hine, the Clara Hine, the Des Moines City and the Des Moines Valley.

The steamboats went on to Des Moines, and a few managed to go all the way to Fort Dodge when the river was high. During the Civil War, the steamboats were called to the Mississippi, and after that the railroads came. Steamboating on the Des Moines River ended in the early 1860's.

Towns in the 1850's were Related to Agriculture

The river towns existed to serve the farmers in the adjoining bottomlands. Saw mills and grist mills were erected in most towns; well-known mills included Parmelee Mill at Carlisle, the mill at Elk Rapids, Tyson’s Mill at Lehigh, and Bell’s Mill, Tunnel Mill and Chase Mill along the Boone River in Hamilton County (see Figures 10 and 11).

Nobody could have been more essential to the farmer than the village blacksmith. Not only did he shoe the horses to protect their feet as well as to give them a better footing when pulling a heavy load; he also fashioned the farmer’s plow and other machinery by heating and melting metal in his flaming

Figure 10—The Parmelee Mill, Middle River, Carlisle. 1843-1880

(Archives, Carlisle Public Library)

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forge and pounding it into shape. He repaired the housewife’s leaking kettles and dishpans.

Figure 11 —The Chase Mill, Hamilton County.

(Hamilton County Historical Society)

Every town had livery stables where one could board and lodge his horses or rent horses. A hotel or two in each town was necessary to accommodate those travelers who could not conduct their business and get back home in one day. Livery stables and hotels were vital in those towns which were stagecoach stops.

Small-scale manufacturing in the towns in addition to that done by the blacksmith, included making wagons, barrels, bricks, and brooms. The potteries at Coalport in Marion County and Moingona in Boone County provided pottery cups and plates and crocks for the surrounding villages.

A number of the river villages were later deserted. When better means of transportation became possible, it was not necessary to have so many towns; some died because they were flooded out; others were missed by the railroad. They had been vital in their time and important in the agricultural development of the Des Moines River Valley area. Several of the early towns, both those which have disappeared and others which are alive today are described in the following pages (see Figure 1 for map giving their locations).

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Early Towns Below the City of Des Moines

Red Rock, the earliest of the Greenbelt towns (1843), has previously been noted as an important Indian meeting place, for its historic Red Rock Line as related to the New Purchase of 1842, and for its notorious trading posts.

Following the removal of the Sac and Fox Indians and the consequent end of the trading posts, Red Rock settled down as a much quieter town. Settlers came from Ohio and Kentucky, and other states, and their descendants continued to live in Red Rock through the 120 years of its existence. The town came to include sawmills, a flour mill, two general stores, a doctor, a hotel, a schoolhouse built in 1854, a Methodist Episcopal Church built in 1855, and a post office. By 1870, it had a population of 250.

Goods, even semi-luxury goods, gradually became easier to obtain. William Leuty (who didn’t wear a store-bought suit until he was 18), wrote:

"I remember the first 50 cents lever earned. I pulled weeds for my brother all summer. I took the money I earned and bought a Christmas present for my mother at Harp’s Store in Red Rock, I bought six pressed glass sauce dishes for her. Three of these dishes are still left and have been passed down to my children" (Walker: 1972, 122).

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Harp’s Store, Red Rock. Largest in the area in the 1850’s. (Harold Hastings)

The scourge of Red Rock was periodic flooding. The devastating flood of 1851 was the first to be recorded. Indian tradition proclaimed that the Des Moines River had never before overflowed its banks, and the white man could find no evidence that it had (Briggs: 1924, 207). Already by 1851, occupants had disturbed the balance of nature. By cutting down the timber and plowing the prairie, they had removed the thick carpet of vegetation which had helped to prevent flooding.

In the 1851 flood and those to follow, children were drowned and livestock also, crops were ruined, dead fish and snakes which washed up on the land made an almost unbearable stench, homes were inundated with the filthy waters, and merchandise in the stores was ruined. The people had to move to higher ground for a couple of weeks, and they had no more gotten back into their homes than the waters rose again, and the whole cycle was repeated.

When the steamboats came after the flood of 1851, Red Rock had high hopes of becoming an important river port, but once again it suffered bitter disappointment. The steamboats stopped instead at nearby Coalport where a great meander in the river proved a better landing place.

Red Rock through it all was tenacious in her struggle to survive and prosper Her later role in the Greenbelt will be related in succeeding chapters.

Coalport, in Marion County, was platted in 1857 on a very large meander of the Des Moines River. Its pioneer inhabitants dug coal from the bluffs and sold it to fuel the passing steamboats. In fact, Coalport was the most important coaling station between Eddyville and Des Moines. As such, it was also a landing place for loading and unloading goods, and it became a prosperous little trading center.

William Welch, who had been a potter in his native North Carolina town, opened up a pottery in Coalport, using the good clays found in association with the coal deposits. The quality of his crocks and dishes was widely known, and his pottery was used in a large surrounding area.

The settlers built a Baptist church and a schoolhouse on Coal Ridge, a hill overlooking Coalport. The schoolhouse has long since been removed, but worship services are still held each Sunday morning in the old Coal Ridge Church, which also serves as a community center.

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The funeral at Coal Ridge Baptist Church, August, 1988, of a long-time resident brought back many former neighbors. (Heusinkveld)

When the steamboat era came to an end, people started to move away and Coalport decreased in population from its 1875 high of 879. The final blow came in 1903, when the highest flood ever known swept through Coalport. After the waters receded, Coalport people were amazed to find that they were no longer on the river! The river had straightened its course by cutting through the big meander and the main channel was now thee-quarters of a mile away (see Figure 12). Coalport was cut off from the source of its commercial existence and it faded away.

Oradell, known as Pinchey (a nickname attached to the town because of a certain tight-fisted grocer, who weighed out the groceries very, very carefully) was located in Marion County on the biggest bend ever known in the Des Moines River (see Figure 2). The big bend served as a landing place for goods brought by the steamboats (and after the steamboat era by smaller boats). Though it had a doctor, blacksmith, flour and sawmills, a school and a church, it was especially known for its general store. The store had a huckster wagon, which weekly covered a large route, selling staple groceries in exchange for eggs and other produce.

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Though eight. families still lived in Oradell in the early 1900's, the town has since disappeared. In fact, the big bend on which it. was located had been cut off by the river, so that by 1900, Oradell was two miles away from the river.

Carlisle, in Polk County on the North River, about a mile and a half from the Des Moines River, was founded in 185l,the successor to the flourishing town of Dudley, which had been drowned out by the 1851 flood after a mere two-year existence. The new town was platted back from the river on somewhat higher ground.

Before Carlisle was founded, it. was the site of a sawmill commissioned by the U.S. Government and built by John D. Parmelee to furnish lumber for the buildings at Fort Des Moines. After the abandonment of the fort, the Parmelee Mill, in operation from 1843 to 1880, worked day and night to serve the needs of civilians of a wide area (see Figure 10).

Nicholson’s Flour Mill in Carlisle, built in 1854, was known all over central Iowa for its fine flour. Unfortunately, it burned down in 1875 and never was replaced, It. was a great loss to the community as it was their main industry.

Carlisle was fortunate to he a steamboat stopping place. It was considered a great occasion when a steamboat came down the flyer. When the whistle could be heard around the bend in the river, school would be dismissed so that the children could run down to the river to see the boat, The steamboat carried dry goods and all the things needed on the frontier.

Carlisle’s earliest function was to serve the farmers of the surrounding area. Its later history and changing functions xviii be discussed in succeeding chapters,

Adelphi, about six miles upstream from present-day Runnells, was platted in 1856 and aspired to be the trading center for farmers in the nearby bottomlands as well as to ship their products by river to the ‘Fort,’’ as the new little town of Fort Des Moines was called.

Adelphi prospered for a time, having established a brick factory, a cooper’s shop, a blacksmith shop, a wagon maker’s shop, a lumber company, and a sawmill, It was the largest town in Camp Township, Polk County.

River traffic soon languished, however, and farmers moved off the bottomlands to higher, drier ground. Adelphi went into

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decline. With the building of the Red Rock Dam, the few remaining buildings were moved away.

Saylorville was laid out in 1850 by John B. Saylor, one of Polk County’s earliest settlers. His father, Benjamin Saylor, had received permission from Captain James Allen of Fort Des Moines to enter the land early, providing he would raise provisions for the fort. The father and Sons raised beef and hay for Fort Des Moines and later for Fort Dodge.

Saylorville flourished for a time as one of the leading towns in Polk County. It had stores, schools churches, and a post office. However; it was not able to become the Polk County seat as it had hoped, and later the railroad missed it, and it dwindled away. The post office was discontinued in 1856.

Today, its name is perpetuated in Saylorville Dam and Lake. Furthermore, its location between the new Saylorville recreational area and the City of Des Moines, makes it a desirable place to live. Presently Saylorville is a township of the City of Des. Moines and is an area of luxurious homes.

Polk City, known originally as Big Creek, was laid out by George Beebe in 1850 (though not incorporated until 1875) on the site of a former Indian village named Wauconsa. Its economy rested in large part in utilizing the abundant timber of the area, cherry, butternut, and cedar, in making lumber and furniture. Early settlers built various sawmills and gristmills. The town had an impressive number of trade and professional establishments. It was on the stage coach line from Des Moines to Boone. However, as time went by, Polk City was overshadowed by the growing city of Des Moines and in the early 1900’s began to decline. Its revival as a result of the Saylorville Lake project will be discussed in a later chapter

Madrid (originally Swede Point), the town established by the immigrant Swedes led by Mrs. Anna Dalander, became a very substantial farming area. Its sawmill, established by Eric and Sven Dalander and CJ Cassel, was very profitable; settlers came from 50 miles away to get lumber, and the mill operated day and night.

Madrid, the first Swedish settlement in the Greenbelt, became in time the southern edge of a large area (see Figure 13) where

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Swedish immigrants continued to settle. Language, customs, kinship ties, and church denominations were strongly Swedish,

Dayton, was settled by a number of Swedes, who came to Webster County from Illinois in 1857 and 1868 under the leadership of John Hedien. They found Illinois land to be too expensive and so migrated to the Swedish area of Iowa. Swede Bend, near present-day Stratford was also settled by Swedes (see Figure 13).

The immigrant Swedes had been strongly influenced by the pietist movement in Sweden; they studied the Bible and attended their churches faithfully. The Swedish Lutheran Church of their homeland became the established church in Madrid and throughout the area, An offshoot of the Lutheran Church was the Swedish Mission Covenant Church. The parent church of this new denomination was established in Swede Bend, July 4, 1868. This church was a reaction against the perceived moral decay of the traditional Lutheran Church. Its leader, Hans Bloom, from Swede Bend moved to Des Moines in 1868 and established a church there, which today is known as the Evangelical Covenant Church.

Lehigh, first known as Tyson’s Mill, occupies one of the most beautiful spots along the Des Moines River. It was founded where Oliver Tyson had built a water-powered saw mill and later added a grist mill, Tyson’s Mill served the settlers who in 1849 had established their claims at Boone Forks (area where the Boone River joins the Des Moines).

The area was wild and fearful and beautiful. Jacob Mericle, an early resident reported that he had escaped from a panther seven feet long and that he had killed between 60 and 70 buffaloes.

Sioux Indians, who had managed to escape removal from Iowa, harassed the settlers and stole their goods. Consequently the settlers appealed to the U.S. troops at Fort Dodge for help.

Although the hardships suffered by the Lehigh people were fearful, they were excited about the richness of the area, the splendid hardwoods in the bluffs along the river and the amazing fertility of the flat prairie lands. They did not realize that the coal and clay in their river banks would one day make them very prosperous, as is recorded in the next chapter.

The Boone Forks settlers who numbered about 150, were the only cluster of people in the vast northern area, Their settle-

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ment was astride the boundaries of Yell (presently Webster) and Risley (presently Hamilton) counties. Feeling this division to be a perilous disadvantage, the settlers petitioned the Iowa Legislature in 1851 to combine their two counties. A huge new county named Webster was created, and in 1853, the Legislature named Homer as its county seat.

Of the Boone Forks settlement, Andreas said, "They formed a Republic of their own. Law and justice were administered in their own way. Every man read the code of Iowa and expanded the law to suit himself." (1875, 369). From the beginning they were politically active.

Hook’s Point a thriving, close-knit settlement, also in the Boone Forks area, was founded by brothers Isaac and James Hook, who had come into the land in 1849. Isaac was a farmer-business man. His store was stocked with goods remarkable for those times, woolen comforters, knives, fur caps, shoes, harnesses, glass, ammunition, candy, and sugar.

The merchandise had to be hauled by horse and wagon, first from Keokuk, and in later times from Boone or Webster City. His store was the post office, the stagecoach inn, and general meeting place. (Madsen, 1976).

After a prosperous 30 years of existence, Hook’s Point disappeared almost overnight when the railroad was built one mile south of the town through the present site of Stratford.

Site of old Hooks Point. (Heusinkveld)

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Businesses and residents moved to the new town. A bright red barn with huge white lettering marks the spot where Hook’s Point once was.

Webster City lies in a beautiful horseshoe bend of the Boone River. The site seemed an unlikely one, dotted as it was with lakes, swamps, and marshes, where muskrats built their houses.

Webster City had good leaders, who were strong boosters for the new town. Wilson Brewer led five families, a group of 22 people from their home in Indiana to this spot on the Boone, He served as their pathfinder, always walking ahead of the caravan of covered wagons so that he could find the best trail for them to follow. He platted the town of Newcastle, as Webster City was originally named. Then, he went back to Indiana, passing through Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin to interest others in joining the group. Some came, and the little settlement grew, and its future seemed assured.

W.C. Willson, another early leader, was an entrepreneur. He managed to convince the Legislature, of which he was a member to divide Webster County (really two counties in size) and thus create Hamilton County with Webster City as its county seat. He built mills, hotels, an opera house, small business

Mound overlooking the Boone River burial place of Newcastle founder, Wilson Brewer. (Heusinkveld)

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places, and houses, a total of 133 buildings. Later he succeeded in getting two railroads to lay their lines through the town. Webster City grew and prospered, as a county seat town and as a business center. Population in 1987 was 8,500.

Greenbelt’s Major Cities Established by the 1850's

The cities which became the premier cities of the area, Des Moines and Fort Dodge, both had the advantage of having been chosen as military forts and, as such, became the foci for travel to and from the fort. Both are on the Des Moines River at its confluence with a major tributary--the Raccoon River in the case of Des Moines, and Lizard Creek for Fort Dodge. Both became county seats, winning over strong contenders, Fort Dodge was to become the regional center of a large agricultural area; Des Moines eventually became the economic, governmental, and cultural center for the whole state.

Fort Des Moines was established in 1843 to protect the Indians from the encroachment of whites who might try to enter the area before Indian title to it was extinguished, and then in

Replica of Fort Des Moines No.2. Birthplace of Des Moines. SW. First and Elm Sts. (George Gitter) 

1845 to remove the Indians from the land. The U.S. Government sent a garrison of soldiers to build a fort and also enlisted civilians who, in exchange for permission to enter the land early, would help in that task.

Under the direction of John Parmelee, soldiers and civilians constructed a saw mill at the present site of Carlisle on the Middle River, about one mile from the Des Moines River. They hauled the lumber over the old Dragoon trail from the Parmelee Mill to Fort Des Moines (see Figure 10). It happened that Sac and Fox Chief Keokuk looked on as the soldiers erected 25 buildings for soldiers’ barracks, horse stables, a storehouse, and a hospital. When the fort was completed in the fall of 1843, 99 soldiers were stationed there. (See Figure 14)

Civilians in the fort included a blacksmith, a cabinet maker, and two brothers name Ewing, who operated a trading post. Civilian Thomas Mitchell, who later founded the town of Mitchellvilie, was appointed as sutler (provisioner) for the fort. He was commissioned as well to operate an inn to lodge and feed government and military people going to and coming from the fort (at Apple Grove, present site of Thomas Mitchell Park), and also to build a bridge over Camp Creek.

The fort was in operation only three years, but its establishment had a lasting effect on the fortunes of Des Moines. After its abandonment in 1846, its buildings were sold to private bidders, and it became a little river town, still bearing the name Fort Des Moines. Naturally, it had an advantage over other river towns, in that it had inherited the buildings the Government had built as well as the bridges over Camp and Four Mile Creeks. It benefitted by having roads (rutted trails) made by wagons which had hauled provisions for the fort.

Fort Des Moines almost immediately became Iowa’s gateway to the West." Settlers came from Keokuk and from Davenport and Iowa City to cross the ferry at Fort Des Moines. In the spring of 1850, 1,080 families with teams and wagons and livestock transferred across the river for points farther west. Needless to say, local residents profited by selling produce and small manufactures such as rifles and tools to west-bound settlers. Furthermore, certain land seekers changed their plans for going farther west and settled at Fort Des Moines instead. From1853-56 the Government operated a district land office at Fort Des Moines for the sale of unoccupied western lands, thereby

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Figure 14—Plat of Fort Des Moines.

(Annals of Iowa, October 1899)

serving to increase the convergence of traffic through town; Fort Des Moines’ population continued to increase.

Through the vigorous efforts of its 127 residents, Fort Des Moines managed in 1846 to convince the Iowa Legislature to name it as the county seat of Polk County. Several leading contending towns were Dudley, Saylorville, and Brookline, which since have become ghost towns, and Polk City. The Fort Des Moines contingent had managed to annex four Warren County townships so that Fort Des Moines would be more centrally

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located in the county and thus be more eligible for the county seat nomination. Later, the Legislature ordered Polk County to return these townships to Warren County, but by then the decision had been made and Fort Des Moines was the county seat!

The relocation of the State capital in 1855 from Iowa City to Des Moines (Fort" was henceforth dropped from its name), of course, assured the future growth of Des Moines. Land speculators had been pushing Monroe City as the new site for the capital; Red Rock seemed a likely place, but the havoc wrought by the Flood of 1851 had dimmed its prospects; Bellefountaine, on the Des Moines River in Mahaska County was said to have lost on the first ballot by only one vote. Most of these contenders have since disappeared. Des Moines’ population on the other hand, catapulted from 986 in 1850 to 7,000 by 1865.

Des Moines after it became the capital. (Iowa State Historical Society)

Fort Dodge, the town which was the successor to the military post Fort Dodge (1850-53), got off to a late, slow start as compared to other Greenbelt towns. Fear of harassment from the Sioux Indians who had managed to escape military evacuation deterred settlement of the surrounding prairies. The fort had been abandoned too soon.

When the fort was abandoned in 1853, Major William Williams, who had been the sutler for the fort, purchased the

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land and the 18 barracks on it from the Government. He became the founder for the new town, which he proceeded to lay out in streets and lots.

Fort Dodge’s first impetus to growth was the acquisition of the Federal Land Office. A flood of land seekers swarmed into Fort Dodge, 1,000 of them the day the land office opened, November 1,1855. Twenty-five land agents advertised their services, and more than 20,000 acres of land were auctioned off that first day.

In one of the bitterest county seat fights in the history of Iowa, Fort Dodge succeeded in wresting the Webster County seat from Homer. First, Fort Dodge arranged that Webster County would annex a part of Humboldt County so as to put Fort Dodge nearer the center of the county. (Humboldt County is, as a result, one tier of townships smaller than the surrounding counties). Then, Fort Dodge, with Webster City’s help, called for an election to settle the location of the county seat. As a result of ballot box stuffing (likely both parties were guilty of it), Fort Dodge won.

When Homer disputed the election, John Duncombe of Fort Dodge challenged a Homer attorney, John P. Maxwell, to a wrestling match. After an hour’s bout in Homer’s public square, Duncombe was declared the winner of the match and Fort Dodge of the county seat.

By a pre-arranged agreement with Webster City (as previously noted), the area was restored to its original two counties in 1856. Fort Dodge became the county seat of Webster County, and

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Replica of old Fort Dodge. It protected the Boone Forks people from the Sioux Indians. (Heusinkveld)

Webster City, the county seat of the newly named Hamilton County. Homer; the ousted county seat (and largest town of the area), began its decline and eventual demise. A shift of power from the Boone Forks area to the new centers, Fort Dodge and Webster City, had taken place.

Fort Dodge grew slowly because of its frontier location and lack of adequate transportation. The first breakthrough came when the Western Stagecoach Company extended its line from Dubuque to Fort Dodge, thus providing weekly passenger and mail service. The line continued on to Sioux City, a dangerous route because of sloughs, lack of roads, and hostile Indians. Fort Dodge became the leading marketing town in northwest Iowa.

Excitement knew no bounds in the 1850s when the first Des Moines River steamboats pulled into view. The steamboats brought trade into Fort Dodge for a few years but were abandoned because of the return of low water and also because of Civil War need for these boats. The stagecoach lasted for a few more years, then gave way to the railroads in the 1860's. Fort Dodge waited anxiously for the railroad, and finally the east-west line (later known as the Illinois Central) came to them in 1869.

Summary

By 1865, crop and livestock patterns were fairly well established. Almost all of the people lived on farms. The function of the towns was to provide services for the farmers,

The main source of power was animate, man and the horse. Though farming demanded an incredible amount of muscle and long work days, the farmers, on looking back, said it was a wonderful way of life, as the family worked together in the challenge of wrestling a living from the land.

The farmers’ major frustration was inadequate transportation to get their-produce to market. The ferry, the steamboat, and the stagecoach all helped but did not meet the total need.

A mosaic of small towns had been platted along the river, especially in the area south of Des Moines. Some of these were but ‘paper towns" and never did exist. The location of towns had been something of a gamble, and in instances where poor decisions had been made, the towns were already declining by 1865. Des Moines and Fort Dodge, which were to become the major towns, had already been established and were flourishing.