There were 39,978 head of hogs returned, 1,734 of which were blooded. From 7,409 milch cows, 464,483 pounds of butter and 4,397 pounds of cheese were made. There were, besides, 219,344 gallons of milk sold. EDUCATIONAL. While the question of how to get a living was the foremost one in the minds of the pioneers, the less direct though none the less important one of how to educate their children was not overlooked. Almost cotemporaneous with their own dwellings, they began the building of such schoolhouses as they could, crude and primitive in the extreme, for such only would their appliances admit, and put together without regard to externals. These same pioneer schoolhouses will, in the future, be a theme for the artist-quite equal in every way to those supplied by the peasantry in the old world, with their quaint, simple fashions and unperverted lives. The eye of the connoisseur delights in those realistic representations of still life-the whitehaired old grandfather, whose toil of years has only brought him his cottage and bit of land; the still hard-working "gude wife," with bent body and withered but cheerful old face; the next generation just in the prime of labor, rough, uncouth, and content to have for recreation a pipe and a mug of ale; and the children with rosy cheeks and stout limbs, dressed in veritable costumes their grandmothers wore before them. And no wonder such a picture pleases and charms the jaded senses of the worn-out worldling. But even that is not more fresh and unaccustomed than his log shanty, with its one small room, a window of but few panes of glass, and possibly a dirt floor; and with roughhewn benches ranged round the walls for seats, over which the pupil made a fine gymnastic flourish whenever he felt it necessary to reach his teacher, with his forefinger firmly planted on the knotty word or sum that puzzled him. These are the picturesque features for the artist's pencil. And what “learning" there was must have been a "dangerous thing," for it was certainly "little;" the grading was far from exact; the system was a kind of hit-or-miss affair; but, nevertheless, it was "school," and from the first there was a deeplyrooted prejudice among the Iowa settlers in favor of schools. School for weekdays and a meeting-house for Sunday! this same little pen of a house served two purposes. And could anything except the groves themselves "God's first temples"-be nearer to nature as a tabernacle than was this, where some chance circuit preacher would have for his congregation every man, woman and child in the entire settlement? None of those hypercritical listeners there, you may be sure, who gauge the preacher by his "intellectuality," his "magnetism or his "culture." It was the Word preached-welcome, pure and life-giving always-and not the preacher, which these listeners crowded to hear. If he but had the good Methodist zeal, then he was sure of devout hearers. He did not need to have "traveled," except upon his lone circuit over the prairie; nor did he feel it necessary to use his pulpit in the interest of politics—if he knew his Bible he was qualified; nor did his flock feel called upon to put their hands into their pockets and contribute toward sending their Pastor on a summer vacation to the sea-side or to Europe. All these improvements have come in with better churches and more advanced ways of thinking. That was the old way, and a direct contrast to the new. Now, nothing which the architect's taste can devise is too good for schoolhouse or for church. Look at the plenitude of tidy, commodious buildings in every county, and not designed for double service, either, but dedicated solely to the use of the schoolma'am, who hereabouts is thoroughly skilled in her pro fession. She has had, aside from such education as her means have enabled her to obtain, good practical drill in the normal institutes. She not only knows her text-books, but she knows how to teach. And then, the ingeniously-devised school-book, in which every point of information is adjusted to such a nicety that they are rather works of art and books of entertainment than but the dull means to a desired end. The little flocks of children who run along the country road in their bare feet and sun-bonnets and chip hats, do not have to squirm and twist their uneasy legs all day over a page in the English reader which they cannot understand. They begin their morning's work with a chorus, which puts them all in good humor to start with. Then they come to timed classes, at the tinkle of the bell; they are entertained and diverted as well as instructed at every step. Before there is any possibility of restlessness, they go through a five-minutes round of calisthenics, which put a wholesome quietus upon their muscles and their mischief. Wise play is so mixed with teaching that they never really discover which is which until they find themselves ready to teach school themselves in turn. This is the case of the present compared with the labor of the past. And in this way is the generality of education secured. The ways are smoothed, the tediousness beguiled and the deprivation supplanted by an affluence of aids. In 1854, Gov. Grimes, in his inaugural message said: "The safety and perpetuity of our Republican institutions depend upon the diffusion of intelligence among the masses of the people. The statistics of the penitentiaries. and alms-houses throughout the country show that education is the best preventive of crime. They show, also, that the prevention of these evils is much less expensive than the punishment of the one and the relief of the other." So, with all our new-fangled methods, our ornamental, well-ventilated and wellfurnished schoolhouses, our accomplished instructors with modern notions, we are not extravagant. We are simply taking from the expenses of crime and pauperism and putting it into enduring and beautiful shape. We are helping to sustain the Government by rearing up in every town and in every country neighboorhood a generation of enlightened and intelligent people, cosmopolitan in the sense of schools, if not in that wider cosmopolitanism which comes alone from actual contact with the great world. The following statement is compiled from last annual report of the County Superintendent of Schools, E. S. Burrus: Average compensation per month, female..... Number of persons between the ages of 5 and 21 in county, male..... Average cost of tuition per month for each pupil... 36 43 6,023 6,041 6,829 $1 76 Total amount of money received from all sources for school purposes... $34,546 36 THE COUNTY BUILDINGS. The first public building erected by the county was a Jail, built in 1840, on the site of the present Jail, by Springer & Barnes. The present Jail was built during the administration of County Judge Newman. In 1850, E. D. Rand and H. W. Starr erected Marion Hall, which the county leased of the proprietors and used as a Court House for many years. In 1866, the Supervisors purchased and fitted up Mozart Hall, on the corner of Main and Columbia streets, and thither the court was transferred at its first session in January, 1868. This building, together with a portion of the records and other documents, was destroyed in the fire of June 17, 1873, and Marion Hall again became the temporary county building. At the January term of the Board of Supervisors, in 1879, plans were adopted for the erection of a Court House, on the site of the old Mozart Hall. The building will probably cost $70,000. THE PRESS. INTRODUCTORY. John King, from Ohio, who moved to Dubuque in 1834, and had the honor of being the Presiding Judge of one of the two first courts ever established within the limits of the Territory which afterward composed the State of Iowa, brought a printing press to Dubuque, and started a newspaper, which was the first paper printed on the west side of the Mississippi River, north of the boundary line of Missouri. The first number of this paper was headed Dubuque Visitor, and the motto was: "Truth Our Guide; the Public Good Our Aim." The paper was dated, "Dubuque Lead Mines, Wisconsin Territory, May 11, 1836." On the first page there was an article entitled, "The Worth and Devotion of Woman's Love; on the second page was an article on "The advantages of Dubuque and the surrounding country, by a citizen;" on the third page was an article by Hannah More entitled "Good Housewives ; on the fourth page was a speech of Hon. George W. Jones, then a Delegate in Congress, on the propriety of dividing Michigan Territory into three separate governments, the new one to be called Wisconsin. The paper was printed by William C. Jones, on a Smith press, manufactured in Cincinnati by Charles Mallett. Though Jones was regarded as the publisher of the paper, "the first type-setting in Iowa was done by Andrew Keesecker," who for many years afterward was associated with the Iowa press. There seems to have been a pioneer charm attached to this printing press, for after remaining at Dubuque about six years, it was sold and taken to Lancaster, in the western part of Wisconsin; after having been used there awhile, it was taken to St. Paul, Minn., and, in 1858, it was again moved to Sioux City Falls, a town on the Big Sioux River, in Dakota. On this press was printed the first paper published in Iowa, the first in Western Wisconsin, the first in Minnesota and the first in Dakota. Sioux City Falls about the place, set fire to the among other buildings In March, 1862, after the press had been used at four years, a band of Sioux Indians made a raid upon town, killed a large portion of the inhabitants, and burned was the one in which the old press was used. There being no one to rescue it from the devouring flames, it was rendered unfit for further use as a printing press. Soon after the appearance of the Dubuque Visitor, Dr. Isaac Galland commenced the publication of a paper at Montrose, in Lee County, which was called The Western Adventurer; but this location for a newspaper did not bring to its aid the requisite patronage for support, and the publication was suspended before it had been in existence two years. This office was subsequently purchased by James G. Edwards, who came from Jacksonville, Ill., and moved the material to Fort Madison. On the 24th of March, 1838, Mr. Edwards issued the first number of the Fort Madison, Patriot. About this time, there was much interest felt in the States on political issues, and the two dominant parties were known by the names of Democrat and Whig. The first newspaper issued in the county of Des Moines was the Territorial Gazette and Burlington Advertiser, which was established in 1837. It is a source of increasing regret that no files of this paper, during its early years, and, in fact, up to as recent a date as 1867 are now in existence, so far as the most diligent search and inquiry are able to reveal. If stray copies are discovered among the dusty papers of old settlers by future investigations, we earnestly suggest their careful preservation. A century from this time, even one issue of the old Gazette may be the means of establishing a mooted point in the history of the Territorial days. A vagrant item, or the cursory mention of some trifling fact in those columns, may flood a dark question with light. It is not so much the character of the opinions expressed in early papers, as it is the simple fact that dates and cotemporaneous events are fixed by them, that gives the real value to newspaper files as works of reference. The carelessness of publishers, which resulted in the omission of consecutive copies of their newspapers, is one of the many lapses which now occasion regret in the record of the press of this county. There is little difficulty in following the line of successive editors of the Gazette; but that is a mere skeleton of fact, upon which should be placed copious extracts from the columns, to show the character of the paper as an exponent of the then dominant political party, and as the first advocate of this region as regards settlement. We are forced to omit these desirable details. The founder of the Gazette was James Clarke, a practical printer, who was, prior to his coming West, engaged on the Harrisburg, Penn., Reporter. When the Territory of Wisconsin was carved out of that of Michigan, and the temporary seat of government of the former located at Belmont, a newspaper was established at that place by Clarke & Russell, and called the Belmont Gazette. This was effected sometime in the summer of 1836, but the exact date is not obtainable. The establishment of a newspaper in that embryotic place was, doubtless, a part of the scheme entertained by John Atchison, the founder of Belmont, who naturally appreciated the influence of a public journal in furthering his plan of creating a city there. On the 6th of December, 1836, the Territorial Legislature of Wisconsin appointed "Messrs. Clarke & Russell, publishers of the Belmont Gazette, printers to said Territory for the first Legislative Assembly, and ordered that all printing necessary for said Territory and Legislative Assembly be done by them, and that they be allowed such compensation for said printing as is allowed the printers to Congress.' In the "bill to provide for the compensation of the officers of the Legislative Assembly," etc., passed by that Legislature, appears the following item: "To Clarke & Russell, Printers to the House of Representatives, fifteen hundred and eighty-nine dollars and fifty cents; also, Printers for the Council, nine hundred and seventy-eight dollars and ninety-one cents.' 6. The following item also appears in the same bill: To Clarke & Russell, publishers of the Belmont Gazette; to John King, publisher of the Dubuque Visitor; to Daniel B. Richards, publisher of the Milwaukee Advertiser; to C. C. Sholes, publisher of the Wisconsin Democrat, the sum of $75 each, for publishing laws enacted at this session of the Legislative Assembly, in their respective journals.' These items prove two facts: (1) that the Territorial Gazette was first established by Mr. Clarke, at Belmont, which was near Galena, on the east side of the Mississippi River, in 1836; and (2) that the first paper established on the west banks of the Mississippi was at Dubuque, by John King, and was called the Dubuque Visitor. That journal was begun in 1836. The Belmont Legislature blasted the bright hopes of Mr. Atchison, and moved the temporary seat of government of Wisconsin Territory to Burlington. With the transfer of the archives was also effected the transfer of the official paper. In 1837, the Territorial Gazette and Burlington Advertiser succeeded the Belmont Gazette. In 1838, the firm was James Clarke & Co., Cyrus S. Jacobs being the editor of the paper. In November, 1838, Mr. Jacobs was killed in an unfortunate personal encounter. He had, just prior to his death, been appointed United States District Attorney, and had also been elected to the Legislature. The next change in the proprietorship was made either in the fall of 1839 or the following spring, when John H. McKenny purchased an interest. Mr. McKenny subsequently was connected with the Burlington Telegraph, as is shown further on in this sketch, and afterward removed to Minnesota, where he edited the Chatfield Democrat. He died about two years ago. In 1842, Messrs. Bernhart Henn and James M. Morgan became owners. Morgan was a very witty writer and a smart politician, and was commonly known as "Little Red.' Mr. Henn was twice a Member of Congress and declined a third term. Mr. Morgan was repeatedly elected to the Legislature, served as Speaker, and held other responsible positions. In 1845, Clarke & Tizzard were the proprietors. Mr. Clarke was soon after appointed Governor of the Territory, and was succeeded on the Gazette by Mr. Thurston, a lawyer from Maine, who afterward went to Oregon, and was sent to Congress from there. Mr. Tizzard was for eight years Postmaster of Burlington. Mr. Thurston sold out to Dr. Gates in 1847, who early in 1848 sold his interest to Gov. Clarke. In the election of 1848, the Democracy swept the State, to which result the Gazette largely contributed. In 1850, the cholera broke out in Burlington and Gov. Clarke became one of its first victims. A young lawyer of the name of Child took his place. After Iowa became a State, in 1846, the name of the paper was changed to the lowa State Gazette. In 1851, Dr. Harvey, an eminent citizen of Burlington, took charge, in company with Tizzard & Woodward. Dr. Harvey was the editor for five years, and being a man of intelligence and convictions, exerted a wide influence. The Gazette was at this period the State organ of the Democratic party, and the champion of the Iowa Senators, Hons. A. C. Dodge and G. W. Jones, and ably defended these Senators in the great struggle over the Kansas-Nebraska |