North Iowa times. [volume] (McGregor, Iowa) 1867-current, 1868-01-08
Iowa In the Olden Time.

zinger-lS5O." 1t shows what Iowa was
seventeen years ago. Comparing it with
the map of Iowa now, we see what vast
difference there is between the Iowa of the
olden time and the Iowa of the present
day. There were then only forty-nine
counties organized in the State. Half of
the State was wilderness, inhabited by
the Winnebago, Sac and Fox, and Potta-
wattomie Indians. West of Winneshiek
and Fayette counties, and extending in a
southwesterly direction is the neutral
ground" of the Winnebagos. West of
Boon and Dallas is the 'Late Sac and Fox
country West of Madison and Clarke
as far as the Missouri, is the ''Pottawotto-
mie Country" embracing the now popu-
lous counties of Union, Adair, Adams,
Cass, Montgomery, Mills, and Pottawotta-
mic. A few people than inhabited the
southern tier of counties west of Davis,
but there was not town west of the then
hamlet of Garden Grove in Decatur coun-
ty.
Even some of the now considerable
towns and cities on the Mississippi river,
were then unknown. Lansing, the now
hourishing river town of Alamakee coun-
tv, is not down on the map. McGregor, a
city already, and soon to be a great one,
was an undiscovered country to Mr.. L..
Matzinger. Sabula, jackson county, is
unknown to this old map also-now a
place of great trade and prospects. We
see here no sign of Clinton, now beauti-
full and enterprising city, which supports a
fue semi weekly journal, the biggest saw
mill in the country, n steam fire engine,
and other metropolitan institutions.
| Go off the river, and even in some of the
organized counties of the interior, there
are no towns. There is no sign Of viii
lage in Black Hawk, which now are the
fierce rival cities of Cedar Falls and Wa
terloo, each a magnificent place to every
body except the inhabitants of the other.
There is no town west of Vinton in that
part of the State. Marshaltown, now the
busiest place in central Iowa, except Des
Moines, is non est on the map. So with
all the other places in that neck of woods
which one invariably thinks of when hay
ing his mind on that part of our State
Of course there is no Iowa Falls, or Edo
ra, or Fort Dodge. Even Cedar Rapids is
not in existence in 1850, according to Mr..
| Matzinger.
In short, the Iowa Of 1850, compared
with the Iowa of 1867, is but small pota-
toes There were then less than 100000
souls in the State. At this hour, there can
not be less than one million.
But we have still an older relic Of the
same kind, namely, ''Newhall's Map OF
Iowa." published in lS4l. The then Ter
ritory of Iowa extended from Missouri up
to the British Possessions, embracing much
more than the territory now included in
the States of Iowa and Minnesota. New
ertheless there appear but eighteen organ
lied counties-Clayton, Dubuque, Jackson.
Clinton, Scott, Muscatine, Louisa, Des
Moines, Lee, Van Buren, Henry, Jefferson,
Washin gton, johnson, Cedar, Linn. Jones,
and Delaware. Parts of Buchanan and
LAFAYETTE are marked out, but they are set
down as without population The -popu-
lation of the organized counties is 43, us,
all told. Van Buren, is the most populous
of any. 1t has 6,l66 inhabitants. Lee
comes next, with 6,O96; then Des Moines,
with 5,546 then Henry, with 1854; next
Dubuque, with 3,056 then Jefferson, with
I2,7sO: next Scott, with 2, 1893 next Mus
catine, with 1912; next Louisa, with
1915; and SD on to Delaware, which in
1910 only contained l4l souls !
In towns, Burlington and Dubuque were
ahead They contained a population Of
l 200 each. In those days Bloomington
was the name of the town which stands
where now is the city of Muscatine.-
Blooming gton then had population Of $50.
I.wa City had go Fort Madison, eco
Davenport SIS. Rockingham then want
ed the county seat of Scott county. 1t had
a population Of $50 souls, nearly $50 more
than it now has, We suppose. Davenport
has quite shaded all growth out of Rock
ingham.
In this old map, Iowaville, in the north
western corner of Van Buren, county, is
the farthermost village towards the setting
sun in Iowa. Near where the large and
growing city of Ottumwa now is, were the
Indian villages of Appanoose, Wappello,
and keokuk, famous chettains in thvse
times of the rapidly decaying aborigincs.
Now the Daily Courier says there will be
at least 10000 hogs packed at Ottumwa
this season There are TIVE daily papers
there, and thousand other evidences OF
civilization which would make the pap
pooses of the Indian villages of twenty-six
years ago stare, were they now to come
upon the scene Of their early days.
| What magnificent growth may we see
here, by com pairing this map OF Iowa in
lS4l, with the map of Iowa in 1857
What wonders have that quarter Of GEN.
tury worked in material prosperity and in
civilization round about us In that part
of the now State of Iowa which was will
derness only quarter of century ago
there are now not less than ninety news
papers, and five hundred thousand of as
splendid men, women, children and babies
as ever blessed the world withal. There
is the fine capital of the State itself-Des
Moines-with its daily papers, railways.
street railways, schools, colleges, and its
churches there are Marshalltown, and
Fort !. re. and Cedar Falls, and Water
loo, and Decorah, and Independence, and
Ottumwa, and Oskaloosa, and Pella, and
Knoxville, and lndianola, and a hundred
eth fine towns of from thousand to
three thousand inhabitants which were ut
terly unknown only twenty five years ago
There too is Council Bluffs, city already,
and fast growing into metropolitan proper
tions, which was not even an Indian vii.
Iage quarter Of century ago. Here we
find nearly dozen colleges and institu.
tions of learning, where but few years