History of Linn County Iowa Part 67

"The attention of the early pioneers being drawn to the manufacturing resources of the county, the present site was early chosen as most suitable for a city, as the swift current of the river at this place would afford, in all probability, a valuable and extensive water-power. In 1841 the town was laid out, and within a short time thereafter the improvement of the water-power was commenced. The land lying along the margin of the river and commanding the water privileges was soon purchased by Messrs. N. B. Brown, George Greene, H. W. Gray, and others, who early commenced the construction of the dam and the building of those mills and manufactories which have since been the pride of the city and which have contributed so much to its permanent growth and development.

"N. B. Brown, Esq., has added an attractive feature to the city by erecting a costly and elegant hotel on North Commercial street, which, when finished, will be one of the finest west of Chicago. In addition to these, the building of the mammoth machine shops of the Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Minnesota R. R. Company is shortly contemplated. This will involve an expense of several hundred thousand dollars, for which purpose fifty thousand dollars have been appropriated to the company by this city and towns.h.i.+p.

"... As to educational interests Cedar Rapids has maintained a high position among her sister cities of the state. It is generally conceded that Iowa is the banner state of the Union, regarding her system of free schools and the advantages derived therefrom. This city has no less than thirty-five thousand dollars in school buildings, including the one recently built in West Cedar Rapids. The schools are cla.s.sified and graded under the latest improved system, and are presided over by an able corps of teachers, chosen with special reference to their attainments and adaptation to impart instruction. James E. Harlan has at present the entire superintendence of the schools, and by his efficiency he is maintaining the high reputation which the schools have before sustained. Over thirteen hundred pupils are in constant attendance, and the number is yearly increasing.

"... The Young Men's Christian a.s.sociation deserves even more than a pa.s.sing notice. The rooms of the a.s.sociation are in Mansfield's Block, over the postoffice, and are opened each morning and evening through the week.

"... The Young Men's Library a.s.sociation is also a pleasant feature of the city. The enterprise has established a choice and well selected library, consisting of historic, scientific, poetic and biographic works, chosen from the best authors in the land. The library rooms are in charge of Miss Mary Thompson, a lady of rare grace and culture, who takes delight in entertaining her guests and exhibiting the many works of interest that adorn the shelves of her library.

"... The social, moral and religious elements blend here in sweet harmony, and much of the refinement and culture witnessed in eastern cities and in eastern society is equally exhibited here; hence to those wis.h.i.+ng to settle in a place combining the advantages of church, schools and refined society, as well as a place of good business facilities will find Cedar Rapids a desirable city in which to locate. We venture the a.s.sertion that Cedar Rapids, in the future as in the past, is destined to excel, in wealth and numbers, her neighboring rivals, and evermore sit as queen in the rich valley she so beautifully adorns."

The following obituary appeared in the Cedar Rapids _Gazette_ in March, 1909, and gives a sketch of a person who had pa.s.sed through much of what is now the history of a thriving city, and is for that reason made part of the history of the county. Mrs. Brown was at her death the widow of one of the foremost men who ever lived in Cedar Rapids.

"Susan Emery, daughter of Nathan Emery and Cornelia Broadhead, his wife, was born August 19, 1824, at Dingman's Ferry, Pike county, Pennsylvania, and died March 4, 1909, at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, thus having lived 84 years, 6 months and 15 days, a period of time much longer than the average allotted to mankind. A woman in her younger days of a n.o.ble, perhaps an imperious presence, strong in mental and physical make-up; self-reliant and unswerving in the object sought to be attained by her. Strong in likes and dislikes, no truer, more loyal friend among mankind than she. She came of a long-lived, stubborn warrior race. Through her mother, Cornelia Broadhead, she was descended from Daniel Broadhead, a Yorks.h.i.+re Englishman, a captain of Grenadiers, who fought for Charles the Second during the civil wars of England, and by him was commissioned to serve under Colonel Nicholls in the expedition to the new world to wrest New Netherlands from the Dutch, that the same might become a new world kingdom for James, duke of York, brother to the king.

"Captain Broadhead was made military governor of a portion of New Netherlands, with his headquarters at the old Indian town of Wiltwyck, called by the Hollanders Esophus and after the English occupation named and is still known as Kingston, in the state of New York. Captain Broadhead died in 1670. A grandson, Daniel by name, in 1733 migrated through the wilderness, down through the Jerseys to the water gap and located there. He with his sons refused to be driven out of the country and off his possessions by the savages during the Indian wars and fought for what they considered their own and won out. From this Daniel were descended three revolutionary soldiers--General Daniel Broadhead, a noted Indian fighter and close friend of George Was.h.i.+ngton; Luke Broadhead, a captain and friend of LaFayette, and Garret Broadhead, a captain. John Romeyn Broadhead, the historian, was of this family of Broadheads. From this it will be seen that Susan Brown came from no mean stock. In her younger days she was known to be generous and charitable to any worthy poor. Her giving was of the quiet and unostentatious kind, and to a considerable extent. This trait of character remained with her through her old age. She was a woman of strict integrity, spotless purity, and the world and community in which she lived was undoubtedly the gainer for her having lived in it. In 1852 she was married to her kinsman, Nicholas Broadhead Brown (a pioneer of 1840), coming immediately with her husband and sister, Mrs. Hannah E. Higley, to Cedar Rapids and has remained here continuously from that time, thus making her, with possibly one or two exceptions, at the time of her death, the oldest continuous resident of this city. In laying the foundation and the early upbuilding of this city were a number of potent and conspicuous men and women, such as George Greene, Alexander Ely, Addison Daniels, and others, but none more so than Nicholas B. Brown and his wife Susan."

It is entirely proper to make some mention in these pages of Captain Joshua John Snouffer, who came to Cedar Rapids in 1852 when the city contained less than 400 people. He too had an intimate knowledge of what it meant to be a pioneer.

Captain Snouffer was born in Maryland February 24, 1825, and though he was a loyal citizen of Iowa he never ceased to love his native state, nor did he ever forget its history, its traditions, and its people. He entered the Mexican war where he was wounded in the head on the field of battle on November 9, 1847. This wound troubled him all the remaining days of his life. At the time he was wounded he was first sergeant of a company of dragoons, and on several occasions had commanded a company.

As a member of the firm of W. D. Watrous & Company he was closely identified with the milling industry of Cedar Rapids. He superintended the erection of "the brick mill" in 1875. With J. J. Child he was the joint author of the city's charter. He took an active part in the building of the Iowa & Nebraska Railroad, now the Northwestern. He was a prime mover in establis.h.i.+ng the water works, and was one of those who gave the city its first street railway. At various times he was a member of the city government both as alderman and mayor. He was a skilled parliamentarian, and an honest man in every sense of the word.

CEDAR RAPIDS TODAY

W. I. Endicott, in _The Sat.u.r.day Record_, July 10, 1909:

Cedar Rapids has had a civic existence since January 15, 1849, on which date a town charter was adopted and town officers elected. In 1856, a new city charter was granted by the legislature and under that charter the affairs of the city were conducted until April 6, 1908, when the charter was abandoned and the city went under what is known as the "Commission Plan." Under the provisions of this law all ward lines and divisions were abolished and five men--a mayor and four councilmen or commissioners are elected at large. In the hands of these five men is placed all responsibility for the appointment of the entire city official staff and the management of city affairs.

The new plan is working in a most satisfactory manner in Cedar Rapids and many things are being accomplished under it that were impossible of accomplishment under the old ward system. The improvements under way are all planned with a view to actual necessity and the harmonious building up of the city in all its sections. Modern business methods are in use in the conduct of the city's affairs and unwise or extravagant expenditure of the public money is not permitted. The council meets nearly every day and the citizen who has business to transact with the council is given instant hearing and attention.

Under the law, the mayor is paid a salary of $2,500 and each of the councilmen $1,800 annually, and they devote full time and attention to the work of the city. The city's business is divided into departments and each man is in charge of and responsible for a certain department.

The mayor is head of the department of Public Affairs and as such, exercises a general supervision over all phases of the city business.

Then there are the departments of Accounts and Finances, the department of Public Safety, the department of Streets and Public Improvements, and the department of Parks and Public Property. The men elected have first to be successful in a wide open primary and then in the regular city election secure a majority of all the votes cast. In the election of 1908 there were 48 candidates for councilman and nine candidates for mayor on the primary ballot. From these names the two who received the highest number of votes for mayor and the eight who received the highest number of votes for councilman were declared the nominees and their names appeared on the ballot at the regular election, the names appearing in alphabetical order on both the primary and regular election ballots, and without any party or other designation.

In 1908 the council accomplished the sale of the old city hall site and the purchase of May's Island for park and public buildings purposes.

This island has an area of about six acres, and lying in the Cedar river in the very center of the city, forms an ideal place for a civic center. The city offices are now occupying temporary quarters on the island and as rapidly as possible the low places are being filled with dirt from the various excavations for business buildings, and from other sources, so that what was once a munic.i.p.al disgrace, is being rapidly transformed into a place of beauty, to say nothing of forever setting at rest any possibility of divisive strife between the two sides of the river.

THE CITY'S a.s.sETS

The public improvements of the city of Cedar Rapids represent expenditures running into the millions of dollars. Few cities of like size are so thoroughly or excellently paved. On the first of January, 1909, the city had three miles of asphalt, twenty miles of brick, and five miles of macadam paving, or a total of twenty-eight miles. There are now under construction, or already completed on contracts carried over from 1908, two miles of brick and one mile of tar treated macadam, giving Cedar Rapids at the present time thirty-one miles of paving.

The contracts let for 1909 will add more than five miles to that total, so the city will have approximately thirty-six miles of paving at the end of the present year.

Sidewalks are practically all of cement construction and laid under city supervision. On January 1, 1909, there were more than 102 miles of walk in the city, and of this more than ninety-six miles were of cement, nearly four miles of brick or stone and only about two miles of wooden construction. The contracts let for this season will represent the construction of about eight miles of walks, giving the city a total of 110 miles of sidewalks.

Cedar Rapids has two systems of sewers, sanitary and storm water. Some of the storm water sewers are of large size, being seven feet in diameter, and one--the Vinton ditch sewer, is even larger.

Cedar Rapids has an excellent fire department, equipped with the best of apparatus. There are five stations--one central station and four outlying hose houses.

In the matter of parks the city has made a most promising start. There are now in the city twenty-eight parks, counting large and small and not including any street parkways. Of this number Bever Park, Ellis Park, Daniels Park, May's Island Park, Riverside Park, and Whittam Park are considerable tracts, while George Greene Square, opposite the union station, with its beautiful display of flowers and rich green lawn, is one of the show spots of the city. Bever Park, the largest of the parks, in the woods to the east of the city, was the gift of James L.

Bever, George W. Bever, and John B. Bever, as a memorial to their father, Sampson C. Bever, who was one of the pioneers of the city.

Bever Park is flanked one side by picturesque Vernon Heights and on the other by beautiful Ridgewood, forming an almost continuous park of great extent and beauty. Daniels Park is the newest of the city parks.

It is located on the Old Marion Road and has been transformed into a beautiful floral park, with well-arranged walks and driveways.

Riverside Park is the close-in park, being located on the bank of the river south of Eleventh avenue, and this has been made a play park, with plenty of out-door gymnasium apparatus for the children and young people. Ellis Park, located on the river bank above the city, is one of the most beautiful and attractive of all the parks, and when adequate means of reaching it are installed, it will without question be one of the most popular parks in the city. The river with its excellent boating facilities, gives a charm to Ellis Park that is denied the other breathing places of the city. The city of Cedar Rapids is spending more than twenty thousand dollars each year on its park system, and it is money well spent. There are about two hundred acres in the park system, and a conservative value of the park grounds and improvements is well over $300,000.

The Free Public Library is a most valuable a.s.set to the city and aside from the unmeasurable good done in the dissemination of knowledge, represents a money investment of well toward $150,000. The building proper was the gift of Mr. Carnegie and cost $75,000, the grounds and other items and the contents of the library will add another $75,000 to the valuation. It is supported by a city tax and costs about $12,000 per year to operate. Its affairs are in charge of a board of trustees, appointed by the council.

The city owns and maintains five bridges across the Cedar river. Of these bridges four are of steel construction and one--the Second avenue bridge--is a magnificent reinforced concrete bridge of Melan arch design. This bridge is one of the best and most attractive in the middle west. Its cost was more than $100,000.

[The city contracted in 1909-10 a new concrete bridge to replace the old steel bridge on Sixteenth avenue at a cost of $80,000. It is 40 feet wide and 2,600 feet long, and was opened for traffic January, 1910. A new concrete bridge will be contracted in 1911 at Third avenue to replace one of the oldest in the city.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: SIXTEENTH AVENUE BRIDGE, CEDAR RAPIDS]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIRST STREET, CORNER SECOND AVENUE, IN 1869]

The city water works are owned by the city of Cedar Rapids, and are managed by three trustees appointed by the council. The plant was purchased from the water company July 1, 1903, at an agreed price of $473,000. Of this amount, $23,000 was paid in cash and the remainder was put in the form of bonds. In the past six years $158,000 of these bonds have been retired, leaving a net indebtedness against the water plant of $315,000. The net earnings of the plant from July 1, 1903, to July 1, 1908, were $79,952.30, and for the year ending July 1, 1909, were almost $25,000. In addition the city gets free hydrant rental and fire protection. A conservative inventory of the water plant will show a valuation of well over $600,000 at the present time. The water is taken from large wells on an island in the Cedar river belonging to the city and located some distance above the C. & N. W. bridge. It is filtered by the Jewell system and is forced through the mains by large pumps. There are three of these pumps in use, one of two million gallons daily capacity, one of three million gallons capacity and one of five million gallons capacity. The necessary power is supplied by two water tube boilers of 350 horsepower each, and three tubular boilers of 70 horsepower each. The filter system has a capacity of three million gallons per day, and an additional reservoir for the filter is now under construction. There are at the present time 390 fire hydrants and an excellent and satisfactory fire pressure is maintained for all fire alarms. A loop of twelve-inch mains encircles the business district and this loop is supplied by a twenty-inch main direct from the pumps, giving the business section a fire protection unexcelled by that of any city in the west.

THE RAILWAYS

Up to 1849 the village of Cedar Rapids had no formal organization. It was simply a towns.h.i.+p. But the legislature of 1849 granted a town charter and for the next decade the community throve apace. It was during this period of years that Cedar Rapids strove for, and secured, its first line of railway. In the fifties the railway lines to the west left the bank of the Mississippi and pushed their way out into the fertile prairies of Iowa. Among these lines was one known as the Chicago, Iowa and Nebraska, and its purpose was to construct a line of railway from Clinton, across Iowa, to some point on the Missouri river.

Among Cedar Rapids men who were prominently identified with the enterprise and were on the board of directors were John Weare, Jr., William Greene, H. G. Angle and S. C. Bever. The company was organized in 1856, but it was not until June, 1859, that the line was completed from Clinton to Cedar Rapids, a distance of a little over eighty miles, and train service established between the two towns.

Previous to the coming of the railroad, communication with the outside world was maintained by means of stage lines; Dubuque, Clinton, Davenport, Muscatine, Iowa City, and Waterloo being reached by that method. Freight and supplies were brought in by wagon, though in the early days there was some steamboat traffic on the Cedar river as far as Cedar Rapids.

It required hard work, and plenty of it, to get that first new line of railway into Cedar Rapids. Marion, the old, substantial town and the county seat, wanted the road--and came pretty near getting it, too. The next move in railway construction work for the community was the extension of the new line west, on its way to the Missouri river, a line which is today the main artery of the Chicago & Northwestern system, forming an important part of the great highway of steel connecting the Atlantic and Pacific.

The original promoters of the Chicago, Iowa and Nebraska Railway, living in Cedar Rapids, were anxious that that company should build a branch line up the Cedar valley from this point, and thus tap the rich and rapidly growing territory lying to the northwest of Cedar Rapids.

But the company had no time or money with which to build side lines or branches. Its objective point was the Missouri river and the great beyond. So Judge George Greene, S. L. Dows, and other prominent public spirited men took up the task of constructing a road from Cedar Rapids to Vinton and Waterloo. Burlington capitalists and promoters joined in the work of extending the line from Cedar Rapids southeast to Burlington, and in a few years the embryo of what later became the Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern, the "Cedar Rapids route," with its lines radiating from Cedar Rapids to Clinton, Muscatine, Burlington, What Cheer, Iowa City, Sioux Falls, Watertown, Worthington, Forest City, Albert Lea, St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Decorah, was in existence.

The shops, roundhouses and general offices of the road were located in Cedar Rapids, and everybody took pride and a personal interest in speaking of the inst.i.tution as the "Home Road." The absorption of the Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern by the great Rock Island system, thus giving Cedar Rapids direct connections with all stations on that road, is a matter so recent as to be hardly history as yet. This change has been more in name than in reality. The shops are maintained, as in years past. An even larger army of trainmen and operative employes make Cedar Rapids their home, and the general offices for the northern district make use of the general office building constructed by the Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern Railway Co.

Cedar Rapids' third railway enterprise was the securing of the Dubuque & Southwestern, locally known as the "Slough Sh.o.r.e," from the manner of its entrance into the town. This railway was built and operated by the Farleys, father and sons, of Dubuque, and for many years, with its connection with the Illinois Central at Farley, maintained the only line of direct communication between Dubuque and Cedar Rapids. In the early days some very peculiar railroading was done on the Farley line, and the incidents and happenings, if gathered together, would make an extended volume.

The Dubuque and Southwestern is now a part of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul system, and over its tracks trains now run to Chicago, Omaha, Kansas City, Minneapolis, and St. Paul, as well as to the original sleepy little terminus of Farley.

The last steam road to enter Cedar Rapids was the Illinois Central, a line being constructed from Manchester by the late S. L. Dows. This line opens up to the s.h.i.+ppers and business men of Cedar Rapids direct connections with the Illinois Central, and is of peculiar value in the traffic in southern and tropical fruits and commodities which come by water to New Orleans.

More recently the interurban between Cedar Rapids and Iowa City has been constructed, and with its hourly service it has won a business which makes certain the building of other and equally as promising lines in the near future.

Cedar Rapids of 1909, from a railroad point of view, is the traffic pivot of the middle west. Centering here are four of the largest railway systems of the country--the Chicago & Northwestern, the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, the Rock Island, and the Illinois Central. From Cedar Rapids direct lines radiate to Chicago, Peoria, St.

Louis, Kansas City, St. Joseph, Council Bluffs, Omaha, Sioux City, Sioux Falls, Watertown, Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Milwaukee, the total mileage of the lines entering Cedar Rapids being about 35,000 miles.

Direct service is maintained between Cedar Rapids and nearly 1,750 stations in Iowa, to say nothing of the thousands of stations in other and surrounding states reached by direct train service from this city.

More than 225 railway and interurban trains arrive in or depart from Cedar Rapids daily. Approximately 80,000 carloads of freight are handled annually. The freight earnings are about $3,500,000 and the pa.s.senger receipts are about $1,200,000 each year. Three express companies, the American, the United States, and the Wells-Fargo, maintain offices in Cedar Rapids.