Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1878-01-16
wat0P PoSNer.

let's hear from them. Yours resp'y.
A. w. SMITH.
Water Power.
We are in receipt Of the Moline
Rerie,o. giving an annual summary
of the business of Moline, Illinois,
which is very creditablc showing
for that thriving place.
The Rerie,c says:
The United States Government, in
order to avail itself of the Moline
Water Power, for running the i'm
mense amount of machinery necessa-
in in its great workshops on the Is
land, in 1867 entered into contract
with the Water Power Company, by
which the company coded to the Gov
eminent their portion of the power,
On condition that the Government
would make certain specified i'm
lprovements, develop the power at its
own cost, and give the company in
perpetuity, one-fourth of the whole,
free of rent, repairs, and expenses OF
every kind whatever. The govern
ment also contracted to rent addition
al power to the company at q fixed
price, so that, with the increase OF
manufactures, the power will become
. source of revenue both to the Gov
eminent and the company. Congress
made the necessary appropriations
to carry out the contract, the old dam
from the main land to the Island was
torn out, the reservoir deepened, the
ladjoining banks of the Island raised
and rip-rapped with rock, wall of
the heaviest Joliet stone built longi-
tudinally with the channel of the riv-
er. 2.400 feet in length, 20 feet high,
8 feet wide at the base, and sloping to
feet at the top, with supporting but
dresses of three feet at intervals Of
ten feet, the walls being pierced at
proper distances for gates or bulk
heads. In addition to this longitud-
inal wall is an embankment ], 400 feet
in length, same height as the wall,
with cement core, rip-raped on the
side next the river,thus practically
continuing the wall and making man.
ufacturing sites for q distance of
about 4, 900 feet above the new Gov
eminent dam, along the entire length
of which the present head of seven
feet can be increased to eleven feet,
with the whole volume ofthe Missis
sippi river as feeder.
/ X
Only q few years ago, swampy
lowland and tangled under-brush
herd sway where were laid the foun-
dations of prosperous city.
a
Men small In means but great in
energy and business enterprise, col
lected here, and year by year their
business grew and prospered; Others
came with their wealth, and the city
grew apace. Huge manufactures
arose, and articles made here-com.
bining beauty and utility-wen,
hence making friend and gaining sol
i'd yenown, until foreign countries
; heard of and saw, and sent in orders
for goods made in Moline, until to-
, day, the entire continents of NORTH
and South America can show the re-
suits of the energy, business talent
and inventive genius of our manufac
; tn rers.
And now may not Ottumwa, with
, it's inexhaustible water-power, now
in running order, and with three ant
J one-haD feet more head than Moline
: has, reasonably expect soon to be
come one Of Che greatest manufactur
ing centers in the Union. Our rail
road facilities are as good or better
than Moline, having four roads, The
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, Keo
kuk & Des Moines, st. Louis, Kansa
. City & Northern, and Central o
Iowa. Our supply of timber, Goa
and stone is inexhaustible, and thu
country produces all that is necessary
for the sustenance of a large manu-
fac turingpopulation.