CHAPTER IX

THE CITY OF KEOKUK

LOCATION AND INDIAN NAME-THE FIRST WHITE SETTLER-MOSES STILLWELL OTHER PIONEERS-AMERICAN FUR COMPANY_"RAT ROW"-HORSE RACING AS AN AMUSEMENT-ADOPTION OF THE NAME KEOKUK-PLATTING THE TOWN-SOME EARLY EVENTS— KEOKUK INCORPORATED-LIST OF MAYORS-WATERWORKS FIRE DEPARTMENT-PUBLIC LIGHTING STREET RAILWAY-THE POSTOFFICE INDUSTRIAL ASSOCIATION—THE RIVER BRIDGE—MISCELLANEOUS COMMENT.

Keokuk, the metropolis of Lee County, is beautifully situated upon the romantic and picturesque bluffs overlooking the Mississipp! River at the foot of the Des Moines Rapids, in the southern part of Jackson Township and the extreme southeastern corner of the State of Iowa. This place was called by the Indians Puck-e-shetuck, which some writers have interpreted as meaning "the foot of the rapids," but Francis Labiseur, who acted as interpreter in the negotiation of some of the early treaties, and who understood the language of the Sacs and Foxes, says its liberal meaning is "where the water runs still."

The first habitation built by a white man within the present limits of the city was the log cabin erected by Dr. Samuel C. Muir in 1820. In an address before the Old Settlers' Association in 1875, Capt. James W. Campbell says this cabin "stood on the right hand corner of Main and Levee, as you ascend the street." Doctor Muir had been a surgeon in the United States army and was stationed at Fort Edwards. He married an Indian girl and when the government officials issued an order that all soldiers having Indian wives should abandon them, he resigned his position as surgeon. Circumstances then compelled him to practice medicine elsewhere, so he leased his claim at Puck-e-she-tuck to Otis Reynolds and John Culver, of St. Louis, who employed Moses Stillwell as their agent to open a trading house there.

Stillwell, accompanied by his two brothers-in-law, Amos and Valencourt Van Ausdal, took possession in the spring of 1828. Dur

ing the preceding winter he had visited the claim and erected two cabins, one of which, near the foot of Main Street, he occupied with his family the first white family to take up a residence at the foot of the rapids on the Iowa side of the river. A little further up the hill he cleared a small patch of ground, where he raised some corn and potatoes in 1828. A short distance below the cabin he built a stone building about 15 by 40 feet, using the stone bluff for the back wall. This building was erected for a warehouse for Culver & Reynolds and was used until it was carried away by the great ice gorge in 1832. Margaret, a daughter of Moses Stillwell, born in 1831, was the first white child to be born in what is now the City of Keokuk.

Shortly after Mr. Stillwell established himself at the foot of the rapids, the American Fur Company erected a row of five houses at the junction of Blondeau and Levee streets and installed Russell Farnham as resident manager; Joshua Palean, Mark Aldrich and Edward Bushnell, clerks. Paul Bessette, John Shook and Baptiste Neddo came as trappers and hunters. The buildings of the American Fur Company were of hewed logs and for many years were known as "Rat Row." John Connolly, John Forsyth, James Thorn and John Tolman were employed by the company as itinerant peddlers and in the collection of furs. Andre Santamont also came with the company's employees and built his cabin not far from where the roundhouse of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad was afterward erected. He was the stepfather of Francis Labiseur, the interpreter above mentioned.

The lease of Reynolds & Culver expired in 1830, when Doctor Muir again took possession of his claim and formed a partnership with Isaac R. Campbell, the firm succeeding to the business established by Moses Stillwell. Doctor Muir died of cholera in 1832 and at the breaking out of the Black Hawk war in that year the American. Fur Company sold "Rat Row" to Isaac R. Campbell and abandoned the field, leaving Mr. Campbell and thirty-four employees as the entire male population. Fears of an Indian attack were entertained, and at the suggestion of Maj. Jenifer T. Spriggs, who had come to survey the half-breed tract, a stockade was built around Mr. Campbell's establishment and a small blockhouse was constructed. The men were organized into a military company, with Major Spriggs in command. Mr. Campbell was elected lieutenant and commissary and wrote to the commandant at St. Louis for a supply of arms and ammunition. The company was furnished with a small swivel gun,

thirty-four muskets and 500 rounds of ammunition, but no attack was made.

Among the white men in Keokuk at this period were William McBride, Thomas W. Taylor, John Gaines, William Price and Alexander Hood, all of whom came in the year 1831. In an article on "Recollections of the Early Settlement," written by Isaac R. Campbell and published in the Annals of Iowa for July, 1867, the writer says: "Horse racing was a great source of amusement to us; in this sport our red friends were ever ready to participate, and at times lost on the result every article they possessed on earth. Keokuk and Pash-e-pe-ho, chiefs of the Sac tribe, were more passionately fond of this amusement than any of their contemporaries. And when amusements of this kind ceased to be entertaining, we called upon our pugilists, Hood McBride and Price, to enliven the scene by a friendly exhibition of their prowess, by knocking down and dragging out a few of the disinterested spectators. We had no prize belt to award the victor, as the science and courtesies of the ring had not then arrived at the perfection they have since. Before this era, civil law, of course, was unknown, and our salutary mode of punishment for crime was by prohibiting the criminal from the use of intoxicating liquors, this being the greatest punishment we could inflict."

For a number of years after the first settlement was made at the foot of the rapids the place was known by various names, such as Puck-e-she-tuck, the Point, Foot of the Rapids, etc. There seems to be some difference of opinion as to when the name "Keokuk" was first adopted. Dr. Isaac Galland says: "July 4, 1829, was celebrated on a steamboat lying at the foot of what is now Main Street. It was at this meeting, presided over by Col. George Davenport, that the name Keokuk was given to the place."

This statement was made in a letter written by Doctor Galland a few years before his death. Isaac R. Campbell says that "up to the year 1835, the settlement at the foot of the rapids had been without a distinctive name. * It was finally proposed by a number of steamboat men, while detained here lighting over the rapids, that it should commemorate the name of the peace chief of the Sac tribe. From this time the name Keokuk was adopted, and, in 1837, I sold my potato patch inclosure to Dr. Isaac Galland, agent of the New York Land Company, and, under his supervision, a city in embryo was formally inaugurated and recorded as 'Keokuk.'

Whether the name was adopted in 1829 or not until some years later, the authorities above quoted agree that the honor of its selection belongs to steamboat men.

In the spring of 1837 Dr. Isaac Galland, agent of the New York Land Company, assisted by David W. Kilbourne, laid out the original town plat, which was filed for record in October, 1840. In his inaugural address as mayor of Keokuk, delivered on April 10, 1855, Mr. Kilbourne said:

"When the square mile upon which Keokuk is located was laid off into streets, lots and blocks, in 1837, the main portion of it was a dense forest; and where Main Street now is, so thick was the timber and underbrush, that it was difficult to make the survey. Then a few log cabins on the river bank, which had been erected and used for Indian trading houses, composed all the improvements. Then the homes of Keokuk and Black Hawk were near, and the graves of many of the tribes were prominent objects upon the bluffs within our town site, over which now stand the houses of she-mo-ko (the white man)."

In June, 1837, occurred the first public sale of lots in the new Town of Keokuk. It had been advertised far and wide and was largely attended. A steamboat was chartered at St. Louis and brought up a large number of prospective buyers. At that time the only buildings were a few scattering cabins-probably three or four-and the old trading house called "Rat Row." Hotel accommodations were not to be had for love or money, and the passengers occupied their state rooms on the boat as bed rooms during the sale. Although the number of lots sold at this sale was not as great as had been anticipated, the projectors of the town found consolation in the fact that one corner lot sold for $1,500, an indication that Keokuk's future was to be one great prosperity.

Shortly after this sale the old Muir property was purchased by L. B. Fleak, who opened a boat store on the levee, bought two barges and engaged in the lightering business over the rapids. In 1839 Moses Gray built the old "Keokuk House," a frame structure, three stories in height, built of split lumber and roofed with clapboards. It was 26 by 44 feet and had partitions made of green cottonwood boards. Verily, in this building the "walls had ears," but such was Keokuk's first hotel. Mr. Fleak rented the house and opened it as a hotel, but soon after that certain creditors of Dr. Isaac Galland, who had bought the building of Gray, secured a judgment against him and the house was sold. It was bid in for the St. Louis creditors by Mr. Fleak for the amount of the judgment ($800), and not long afterward he bought the hotel for $640. A large addition to the hotel was built two years later. Prince de Joinville and his retinue were guests at this hotel soon after the addition was completed.