Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1871-05-26

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A Sketch Of the Attractions, Re-
sources, Business and Popula-
tion Of our City.
~ J. Q. HOPKINS.
Few towns In Northern Iowa have
succeeded, in the same length Of
time, in building up so large trade
or have become so substantial city
as Independence, and that, too, with
no great fortuitous circumstances
to attract hither manufactures or
other industries, not usually found
where the farming trade is large.
A few other places on the Dubuque
& Sioux City railroad, have grown
larger, and have increased in pop
ulation more rapidly, but none have
received the substantial growth or
the enduring success which have
marked the course of this city from
it's earliest inception. Feeling as
sured that the place is entering up
on a new era, and that the great
natural attractions here presented
offer new and greater inducements
for strangers to settle, and become
part owners with us, we have been
induced to write this sketch, know
ing that such work published in a
home paper, cannot be otherwise
than beneficial to the interests of our
young city.
Before considering Independence,
let us speak briefly of Buchanan
County and more especially of the
country which surrounds and sup
ports our city. This becomes nes-
cessary as the fortunes of Indepen-
dence, always have and will contin-
ue to be allied to those of the sur
rounding country.
If we but briefly consider each of
our topics, remember reader, these
are many to which we must allude.
We will endeavor to give the out
lines. You must fill up the picture.
1t is our design to present sue
cinct account of the past and jot
down the present as it is, without
aiming at rhetoric or "well rounded
periods" We will do our little to
so sketch Independence as it was,
and is, that the contrast may show
whatever of growth and develope-
ment it has attained ,and ifit presents
attractions to those seeking new
homes in the west, we desire to
group them here, in these pages for
our own qualification and for the
benefit of all who choose to profit by
them.
Of course cotemporancous histo-
ry can by no means be complete.
Were We writing simply ofthe past,
the labor of perfecting it would be
comparatively slight, but in these
progressive times when every day
adds fresh page to the volume
every moment and every action, a
new line, we cannot call it complete.
We scarcely take breathing spell
after one great enterprise before
something higher calls our at
tention, and new idea pregnant
with great results is developed, and
new schemes are brought forward
by the great American progressive
mind. 1t shall be our task, then, to
group the past and present together
for the sake of the future, before
they pass into oblivion, or become
vague traditions of a half forgotten
past.
Much of our sketch we should
here state was culled from incom-
plcte records and from notes, made
as they fell from the lips of old set
tiers who have seen our city in all
stages of its growth from infancy to
its present proud pre-eminence-
men who have Witnessed the growth
of the country, for quarter of a
century, and who can, and do speak
from personal knowledge.
Twenty-Five years ago this vast ex-
pansc of beautiful prairie now teem-
ing with all the husbandman can
wish for, and dotted over with the
homes of a thrifty population, these
beautiful woodlands, without which
this country would be almost unin-
habitable, these fertilizing streams
with their life giving waters, were
part of a great wilderness, the home
only of wild beasts, and wilder saw
ages, whose very nature attacked
civilization at every step. Yet at
this early period was heard
"The tread of pioneers
or nations yet to be-"
And the advances of civilization
were soon seen in sparcely inhabit-
ed settlements, and small hamlets,
throughout the northern portions
of this great State. After terrific
raj probation of years, full of Incl
dent and interest, Iowa was in De-
cember, 1916, Admitted into the
sisterhood of states. Then a weak
undeveloped sister, with no position
and apparently no prospect ofprom-
Use, she is now the ''peer of the
proudest." Just four years and
nine months anterior to this event,
is the date of the settlement of
BUCHANAN COUNTY.
William Bennett was the first set
tier. He came to what is now Quas-
queton from Delaware county-to
which Buchanan was then attached
in February, 1912. Bennett was
one Of those lawless fellows of the
baser sort, a combination of specu-
lator and freebooter, types Of which
are found in every new county.
His ostensible purpose in coming to
the county was to secure and i'm
prove the fine mill privilege at
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