Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1889-02-16
EARLY DAYS IN GALENA.
Old Times on the Upper Mississippi
--RecOllectiOns of a Rock leland PI-

Old Times on the Upper Mississippi
--RecOllections of a Rock leland PI-
Oneer.
Correspondence OF the Argus:
ROCK ISLAND. Feb. 13 In the fall of
1S41 my cousin, E. B Kimball, of Ca
lena, wrote requesting me to come up
and take charge of his unsettled business
there, as he wished to settle in New Or
leans. At that time everything in Rock
Island was at dead stand still. Emf
grants who had settled here and in the
surrounding country had expended all
their ready means. The farmers had
just begun to raise surplus. for which
| there was no der1ard-no market avail>
| able. All that could be done was to
barter or exchang ge one with another-of
the commodity called money, there was
| little or none. Under this state of things
| was only too G ad of an opportunity to
pull up stakes ard emigrate to that eldo-
RADIO, the Lead City of the hills. | dis
solved my business with my partner Sam
uel Andrews, taking bis obligation to pay
the debts of the concern, amounting to
some $1,000 or $4,000. and with our
tS" houoShOiu soOdS my WllO duu SCll
| took passage with Capt. Smith Har-
ris on the steamer Frontier for
our new home il the busy, bustling little
lead city. With me it was not like going
| among strangers as / had lived there In
1888 and '84-was employed in good
mercantile house. We we're we'll re-
ceived by my old friends and soon felt
ourselves at home in our new surround
| ings. OF those old dear friends only
three or four remain; Capt. Smith Harris
and Genl G.. W. Jones. both now over
eighty years old, are of the number.
Galena at this time was the only place
in the state where there was any money in
circulation, as its only product lead, al
ways brough the cesh-hard money. In
the spr.ng season would be seen SIX to
eight yoke of cattle attached to a prairie
schooner winding their way over the prairie
from distant Sangamone county and even
farther south, bound for the lead mines to
engage in hauling lead from the outlying
furnaces to Galena. They generally came
p !rtly loaded with provisions for sale and
for their own use. Their big covered
wagons were their homes while here. !
have often met them out In the country
| oy tuC clOC VI VI
taking their midday meal, In the fall
they would "sucker back home" as they
called it. Their spring and fall return
each way was as regular as the mi
grafton of the birds. Their diversion and
pride was in their long white lashes
and stocks-in seeing who could make
the loudest noise in vending their way
down the long ravines leading into Ga
lena. The crack of these whips could be
heard echoing among the hills mile off
Within year or two after we left
Rock Island, quite number of our peo-
pie emigrated to better their condition
Among the mum ber / recollect are VIM
l.. Lee, Jerry Chamberlin, Henry G
HarklerhOdes, Jas. Butcher, who married
a daughter of old man Lowell, who used
10 write long prosy articles for our whie
paper on the constitution of the United
States; Henry B sh and c. G. Washburn
who was county surveyor here and after
wards major general and governor OF
| Wisconsin. At that time Rock Island
Was in the same judicial and copgres.
sional district as 10 Davies, and many OF
our old settlers used To go up there to buy
their supplies. as Galena was then the
| commercial center of the northwest.
| A few years after. when Galena was in
her decadence, she sent out from heI
rugged hills host of men to al parts ot
the west who became noted in their vari
Gus vocations. 1t was said that at one
| time she furnished most of the brains for
Chicago. Among the more prominent,
would place Judge Drummond. Gen
Grant. John NJ. Douglass, Thompson
Campbell, the witty, talented lawyer, Ed.
Baker, the silver-tongued orator, Russell
Jones and Nathan aud Henry Corwith.
| s. w. Nc.