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* LOCAL/FAMILY HISTORY DEPT. * DONNELLSON PUBLIC LIBRARY * 500 PARK AVE. * DONNELLSON, IA * 52625 |
Bickle Files:
June 2009
“How Did Lee County Receive Its Name?”
According to two articles in the Bickle files in the Iowa Towns notebook, the
facts show that Lee County was not named for Col. Albert Lea. The first article,
entitled “Vindicating History”, is from the March 17, 1878 Keokuk Constitution;
the second article entitled, “Traced to the Records”, is from The Gate City
dated July 3, 1879. Information taken from each article is verbatim; the full
article may be viewed on page 6 of the Iowa Towns notebook.
“From a correspondence between Mr. Justice Miller and Col. Albert M. Lea, it
seems the latter claims that Lee County was named for him at the first sitting
of the Legislature at Burlington. He says in his letter to Justice Miller: In
1840-41, I visited Iowa with an agent of a company organized by me in Baltimore
to establish a German colony…. The first Legislative Assembly ever held at
Burlington then being in session, I applied for a charter for my immigration
company, and drew it up in the office of Grimes & Starr, where I met the
chairman of the Committee on counties who told us all in the office that he had
put my name down to the first county in the territory, as he then using the map
of the territory made by me for the purposes of designating boundaries. It is
easy to see how the spelling was changed by transcribing clerks, as my mode of
spelling with the final “a” was unusual….
Now the records show that the bill establishing the County of Lee was passed at
the first session of the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Wisconsin, of
which Iowa was then a part, begun and held in the Council Chamber and House of
Representatives at Belmont, Wisconsin, on Tuesday the 25th day of October in the
year 1836. The first section of the bill reads as follows: Section 1. Be it
enacted by the council and House of Representatives of the territory of
Wisconsin, That the county included within the following limits, to wit:
Beginning at the most southern outlet of Skunk River, on the Mississippi; then
in a northern direction, passing through the grove on the head of
the northern branch of Lost Creek; and thence to a point corresponding with the
range line, dividing range seven and eight, and then south with said line to the
Des Moines River, thence down the middle of same to the Mississippi, and thence
up the Mississippi to the place of beginning, be and the same is hereby set off
into a separate County by the name of Lee.
The bill, of which the above is the first section, was approved December 7,
1836….
These facts are taken from the printed journals of the two houses and
substantiate the fact that there must be some error in the story that the
Chairman of the Committee on Counties at the Burlington session in 1840-41 told
Col. Lea that he had put his name down to the first county in the territory,
when Lee County had been established and named at the Belmont Legislative four
years before the conversation.”
In 1879 Col. A.M. Lea wrote a letter to the editor of The Daily Gate stating:
“In regard to the name of Lee County, allow me to say, that although I had been
full impressed since 1841 with the idea that my name had been given it, I am now
satisfied that I was mistaken. I find here, in the library of my friend, Judge
Charles Mason, a copy of the “Laws of Wisconsin 1836”, containing an act for the
division of Des Moines County into two other counties, of which the first was
name “Lee.” Judge Mason and Gen. A.C. Dodge concur in saying that it was so
named for Will E. Lee of New York.
Hon. Alfred Hebard, who gave me the information that the county was named for
me, says that he has always been under that impression. As I would not wish to
be supposed capable of claiming an honor under false pretenses, I hasten to
correct the unintentional error, and to settle the question as to the name. It
certainly was not named for R.E. Lee, who had not, in 1836, been in any wise
connected with this county; and it is now equally certain that it was not named
for me, although I had that year published a map and description of the county,
in which the name of Iowa was first applied to it. Respectfully, A.M. Lea”
~ Researched and submitted by Diane P. Kruse
July 2009
The Passing of the Old Stone Barn”
Information on this landmark is taken from an article on file in the Genealogy
Department, is quoted verbatim, and was written by Albert Bonnell, July 20,
1935, while he was living in Ames, Iowa. According to the article he received a
letter from a resident of Mt. Pleasant stating that the old barn was being torn
down.
“Mrs. Bessie Caldwell of Mt. Pleasant wrote me in regard to the builders of the
Old Stone Barn one mile north of the Dover post office. She said the barn was
being torn down. That was the first I had heard of it. I was sorry to hear that
one of the oldest landmarks in southeastern Iowa was in the passing. I answered
her and stated that I would try to get the Review to reprint an answer I had
printed in the Review several years ago…. Mr. Harris said he would rather print
another letter than to try to find that in his old files. I will give as true a
history as it is possible at this time.
The Bonnell brothers, Calvin D., James H., John W., Sylvanus and William, came
to Ft. Madison in the fall of 1843…. They opened a grocery store at the corner
of Pine and Front Streets. In the spring they also opened a store in Salem.
January 25, 1845 they purchased 880 acres of land in Franklin Township
consisting of the south ½ of Sec. 5, the north ½ of Sec. 8, the SE ¼ of Sec. 8,
and the East ½ of the NE ¼ of Sec. 7, and immediately began the building of the
barn. Mr. Grigsby, a stonemason, was the boss mason…. Some Mormon stone masons
who had begun to trim some stones at Nauvoo for what was to be a temple, also
worked on the job….
The story of the Mormons building the barn and leaving the “Loop Holes” in the
walls for protection is all bosh. The holes were for support of the scaffolds
during construction and to let air into the hay mow inside. The smoke house was
built on the northeast corner to save building one wall, and was used by all for
years after they had divided the land in 1851-52.
J.P. Cruikshank thought the barn was built for a packing house. That is also a
mistake, although they did slaughter 500 hogs one time and smoked the meat in
that smoke house. The lard was rendered at my father’s place, Elm Wood Farm. In
1846 they had 535 acres of wheat and the first strike in Iowa Territory occurred
in July 1846. A Mormon they called “Billie the Goat,” on account of his chin
whiskers, had talked his gang of Mormons who were cradling wheat to strike for
more wages. A Gentile from Charleston or Boston gave the company a tip of what
to expect in the morning. When James H., who was field boss, said “Come on boys,
I guess it is dry enough to cut,” Billie the Goat” stepped out and said they
were not going to work unless paid more wages. My father said: “All right, go up
to the store and Bill will pay you off.” That ended the “First strike in Iowa.”
…. I wish to thank Mr. Harris for the interest he has taken in the matter and I
am sorry to say that I will have to inform the State Historical Society that was
expecting to erect a marker at the barn as one of the landmarks of Iowa that the
barn has been torn down, and they like many others will regret the “Passing of
the Old Stone Barn.”
August 2009
Keokuk's Pickle Factory
“How the Keokuk Pickle Company Manufactures Relishes” from the Constitution Democrat, September 25, 1896 and details this important Keokuk industry and the peculiar and intricate processes of pickles and vinegar. This article will also mention other industries in the Keokuk area in the 1890s that were important during that era.
In the 1890s, the city of Keokuk was situated in the midst of a
thriving agricultural territory. The fields and farming land of three states,
Iowa, Missouri and Illinois, were within easy access and their products were
readily transported both for shipment elsewhere and for conversion into various
other marketable commodities. Because of the location, many of Keokuk’s small
businesses became some of the area’s most prosperous establishments.
Although there were many successful small businesses -- the woodworking mill of
the Henry Schmidt & Sons which sprang up like “a tall oak from a little acorn”;
the flour mill, owned and operated by the Hambleton Milling Company; furniture,
shoe, cigar, canning factories, pork packing plants, and a starch factory (to
name a few) -- the story
about the Keokuk Pickle Company was the most interesting because it made
something that everyone could afford. In 1896 pickles were luxuries, and yet
they were so common, cheap, and delicious that they became the poor man’s
luxuries. Everyone could afford pickles, and nearly everyone was fond of these
spicy relishes. They added zest and variety to the humblest meal or the most
gorgeous feast.
Perhaps it is not generally known but the active town of Keokuk contributed a
large share to the pickle supply of the world. The place were these delicacies
were prepared was situated on the corner of John and First Streets, conveniently
near the railroad depot and the steamboat landings.
A list of the products was a long and varied one. It included pure vinegar and
pickles -- sweet, sour, and mixed. Besides these, other table delicacies were
prepared like dainty white onions, olives, chow chow, sauces, mustards and
tomato catsup. Of all these products, the sweet pickle was the prime favorite.
In addition to the factory in Keokuk, the same company operated a plant in
Alexandria, Missouri. The products of these two plants were shipped to all
corners of the continent.
Information for this article was extracted in part and can be read in full in
the Bickel Volume: Industries, pages 152-3. Also, articles on all the other
interesting and prosperous industries in the Keokuk area during the 1890s can be
read in the same volume. Happy reading. ~Researched and submitted by Diane P.
Kruse
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