Colonel J. M. Griffith, who was an important factor in developing the East Side, came from the East in the Fall of 1850, and, after looking over the field, concluded to invest. He rented a store on Second Street, paid one hundred dollars for rent in advance, to secure what he wanted, went away, returned …
Few men have been better known at home and abroad than Hoyt Sherman. From the beginning to the end of his days he was loyal to the city of his adoption, and gave to it the full benefit of his business talent, excellent judgment, conservatism and wise counsel. He was a man for emergencies. Many …
One of the most unique and noted characters of the very early days in Polk County and Des Moines was Cave J. McFarland, the second Judge of the District Court, who stands out the most prominent in the judicial history of the state of any man connected therewith. A native of Ohio, he came to …
Late one day in the last week of October, 1851, Samuel N. Dyer sailed into Raccoon Forks in a prairie schooner, with his family, and tied up for the night at the Marvin House, on Third Street. The next morning, he went house hunting, and found a small vacant dwelling on Walnut street, where Vorse’s …
A conspicuous person among the early settlers was Cyrus A. Mosier, or Cy., as he was better known among them. He came here when eleven years old, with his father, early in 1848, who, in November of that year, entered several tracts of Government land in the northwestern part of the present city. One tract …
Known from the Atlantic to the Pacific, along the great western trail of civilization, was Colonel — everybody called him “Colonel” — Edward Foster Mills Hooker, descendant of an English family, entitled by Royal decree to wear the heraldic arms of Thomas Hart Hooker, founder of the city of Hartford, Connecticut, and cousin of the …
The pioneers of Polk County who are still living have a vivid remembrance of Judge Curtis Bates, who was a prominent factor in civic affairs in the early days. It was little known that he was a Yankee, born in Connecticut, as he always preferred being considered a Buckeye, for he went to Trumbull County, …
A very prominent man in Des Moines in the early days was Ira Cook. He came to Davenport in 1836, with his father, a small boy, worked fourteen and fifteen hours a day helping his father start a farm, and plant by hand what he declared was the first field of corn in Scott County. …
If the early settlers who helped to build the town, few were better known, though very quiet and unostentatious, than Samuel Green, or Sam., as he was familiarly called by old-timers. Having thoroughly learned the foundry business in New York, he came to Des Moines in March, 1857, the first practical foundry-man in town. He …
A notable character among the pioneers was Dr. James Campbell. He was a hustler from the start, and had a hand in everything going on about The Fort — politics, trade, real estate, amusements — everything which made up the wild, bustling life of that early period. He was a man of many eccentricities and …
Passengers on the Winterset Branch of the Rock Island Road, just after leaving the city, pass a narrow space between the high bluff and the river, barely wide enough for the track, known as “Newcomer’s Point,” named from Peter Newcomer, one of the very earliest settlers in Polk County. It was an important landmark in …
An active, zealous promoter of the growth and prosperity of Des Moines was John H. Given. Its development was his constant desire and incentive to action. Very few men were more widely known in Polk County in the early days, or were more helpful to the betterment of the community. He was one of the …
In the very early days, very little attention was given to Christmas as a public holiday. From 1846 to 1850, the town was small, the people poor, their chief purpose and labor being to secure a living and establish homes. If the day was observed at all, it was with dancing parties and frolics by …
Of all men prominently connected with the history of the state and of Des Moines, none stand out more conspicuously than General Nathaniel B. Baker. Born in Hillsborough, Merrimack County, New Hampshire, in 1818, he received a liberal education preparatory to entering Harvard University, from which he graduated in 1839, when twenty-one years old; studied …
One of the best known men in Des Moines, and it may be said from Chicago to Sundown, is William H. Quick, or “Billy,” as he is best known. Though not a pioneer of civilization, he was the pioneer of what has become an important part of the business life of the city and country …
Prominent among those who tramped down the weeds and brush at Fort Des Moines — in fact, all over Polk County — in the very early days, and helped materially to transform the scene first presented to him,in 1846, of a row of whitewashed log cabins strung along the Des Moines and ‘Coon rivers, and …
Although not a pioneer, according to a strict construction of the code, Levi J. Wells came early enough to be entitled an “Old Settler.” He hove into Des Moines in 1856, with intent and purpose to do something, but there was little or nothing doing. The town was small, times were hard, and money was …
The pioneers were patriotic as well as public-spirited and industrious. The first Fourth of July celebration of the town was in 1846, less than four months after the town had a legal existence. The soldiers had left, taking away all the cannon, but cannon improvised from logs, and blacksmiths’ anvils,were utilized to make a noise, …
My reminiscences of pioneers and old settlers — the pioneer claims a little distinction because he was “first in” — has been confined mostly to the men, but the wives and mothers should not be forgotten. While they did not build houses, business blocks, churches, and schoolhouses, make laws, and lay the foundation of civic …
A pioneer of Des Moines who took an active and influential part in the formative period of the town was Major William McKay, a graduate of a Kentucky military school, hence his title. He came in February, 1846, while the soldiers were here, and while Fort Des Moines was under military control, but considerably relaxed, …
Thirty years ago, a very dignified and prominent individual in Des Moines was Colonel J. N. Dewey. How he acquired the military title, I never learned. He was not a Kentuckian, nor was he ever in the military service, except by implication. By profession, he was a civil engineer, and in the early ‘Fifties, did …
Of the pioneers of Des Moines who came early, grew up with the town, and became prominent factors in civic affairs was William W. Williamson, or Judge, as he was more familiarly known, a Kentuckian by birth. On learning, through the newspapers, in 1848, that the Capital of the state was to be removed from …
Born in Brookville, Franklin County, Indiana, May Seventeenth, 1842, James S. Clarkson was literally raised in the printing office of his father, Coker F., who published the Brookville American. He began setting type in the office when he was so small, boxes had to be piled up for him to stand on and reach the type boxes, and there he acquired an education in one of the best practical schools in this or any other country.
One of the pioneers who became prominently identified with county and city was William H. McHenry, Sr., who, as his name indicates was of Irish descent. His ancestors settled in Maryland long before the Revolutionary War, becoming quite prominent. Fort McHenry was named for them. He came here in August, 1848, from Indiana. There were …
Going over the roster of those prominently identified with the growth of Des Moines, very few so impressed his personality upon it as Michael H. King, or “Mike,” as he was universally called. He came here in 1856, at the age of twenty-four years. His first job was as clerk in the store of R. …
