The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1857-07-04
Ottawa.

In treating Of the past We shall be guided
by historic truth; of the present by self
evident facts; and if in speaking Of the fI-
ture we slacken the reins Of fancy and i'm
agination, the future historian may even then
find that we have fallen short of the reality.
Ottawa derives its name from Il tribe of
Indians; bands of whom were scattered
through the country from the Ottawa river
in Canada to the Mississippi; and where this
city now stands branch of this tribe had
their residence The town was orginally
laid out by the board of Canal Commission
ers in S27 but as late as the Black Hawk
war in 1882, there were but two or three
families residing here, and however strange
it may seem to some of you, 1t is not yet
thirty years 'since the Council fires of the
red men were burning here and the young
braves practiced their Indian feats of the
war dance and throwing the tomabawk, or
wooed their dusky maids on the flower
decked ground beneath the oyer-spreading
branches Of yon lofty and branching elm,
but with the other wild denizens of the 70.
rest, they have yielded to the law Of neces
sity and the destiny Of their race, and have
retired before the advance Of the white man
far toward the setting sun. In 1881 the
first court house was built on the spot where
the present one now stands. 1t was built Of
nothing but rough boards. In 1916 the i'm
provement of the hydraulic basin was com
menced and was completed in 1852, creating
a water power second to none in the state.
This improvement consisted mainly IN the
making of a stone wall the length OF the
basin and in the enlargement of the Fox
river feeder. The progress Of Ottawa pre-
yious to the completion Of the canal in 1S4T
IL i,,,t hot as
been rapid-not with sickly and mushroom
growth, but with substantial and enduring
prosperity. In 1649 there were about two
thousand inhabitants and in that year Fox
river was bridged for the first time. Previ-
Gus to that time there were but few build
in-s east of Fox river, but after the building
Of the bridge dwelling houses sprang up as
if by magic. In 1852 the bridge Of the
Rock Island Railroad was built, and in that
wear Ottawa first felt the benefit Of rail
road In 1854 a great improvement was
made IL the building of a blidge across the
Illinois river Daring this time, from S3J
up TO 1854, a new court house was built the
one we now have, and also great many fine
stores. and many other LuiidiDgs that |
might mention did time allow, but as II is
must proceed to the present. The present
finds Ottawa still increasing in prosperity,
its population is..now nearly seven thousand
and is steadily or the increase. Ottawa has
now seven churches Of various den0mina-
tons; twelve wareL ouScs for the receive
inent and shipsent Of grain-a business IN
which Ottawa eycclS; a good rail road depot,
consisting Of freight and passenger house
which has done much to build up the city
in that direction; an aqueduct, the wood
work Of which has been made new this past
winter and spring; new bridge across the
Fox and good bridge across the Illinois
river, that cost some thirty thousand dol
lars, pant Of which was swept away by the
ice but has been rebuilt; four Touring mills
running some fifteen run OF stone; three
planning mills: two saw mills; five iron
fouudrics for the manufacture OF r.apng
machines, plowS, castings and all ether
things belonging to that business large
starch factory six stories high, costing one
hundred thousand dolars, and has capital
of one hundred and fifty thousand, and en-
ploys over 4 hundred men; and last but not
7 least, two large graded school buildings,
three stories high with six departments in
each, the two with their fixtures cost some
twenty-five thousand dollars; also, there
are five branch schools. The citiZens IN
erecting these structures have done noble
work, work which has done and will do
more toward building up the city than any
other enterprise, for it has always heretofore
been urged as an objection to settling in the
town, that We had not schools, but now this
objection is done away by the building Of
these edilices, we have now as good public
graded schools and as GOOD educators as
there are in the state. Since they were
finished the town has grown more than in
any three years previous, and if the people
, had cxerted themselves we might have had
, the State Normal University here, which
would have still further increased the pros
/ perity ef.the city. Hence, with enterprise,
I energy and zeal, the future of this city will
{ glorify itself and the surrounding prairie /;
! like ancient Rome, she is already sending
out colonies to people the far west, and this
| she may continue to do and our public
! schools may educate, prepare and send ont
governors TO rule 'hem.-H. II. y an High
/ School Journal