Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-04-18

A steamboat landing was erected here
ct great expense by driving a pole into
the river bank. Soon afterward Audu-
bon visited the place, and with prophetic
eye foretold the great future in store
for st. Joseph. 1t is the first instance
on record where the prophetic eye has
been utilized in that way.
Robideaux laid out a townsite here
and then called together the old hunters
and trappers 20 name the little town.
Mr.. Robideau1I had provided large
barrel of something to shatter across
the bow of the newly christened craft.
Each trapper suggested name, but
each name seemed to be distasteful to
Joe, till Charlie Stewart, the ''Old Zip
Coon of history, suggested, with his
eye on the key, that it be called st. Jo-
seph in honor of Mr.. Robideaux.
KNOCK her head in" said Joe. and
the barrel was busted quicker than a
New York Sunday law,
General good feeling prevailed, fol-
lowed by remorse and Apollinaris water.
The streets We're named while the gen.
eral good feeling was in the act of pre-
vailing. They we're named for the sons
and daughters of whom Joseph had re-
peatedly found himself the parent.
Among them We're Messanie, Angel
ique, Sylvanie, Charles, Edmund, Felix,
Francis, julie, Fareon, Michel, Rosine,
Antoine, Louis, Fouline, Auguste, Isa-
belle, Iodine, Fouberg, Robideaux, AL
fonse and Poisson. The streets were
the first to give out, for Joseph still had
his culver full Of names.
Robideaux built q big brick store,
which was known far and wide as the
great building of the western country.
II is nQw q modest Sausage factory IA
NOUS for It's manufacture of the tooth
some black -apd-tan sausage of Missouri.
Joseph has long since passed on to that
eternal hunting ground where the coon
skin cap is entirely superfuous. His
portrait now hangs in the board of trade
auditorium of the prosperous city.
st. Joe in 1859 became the starting
point of the famous pony express, dar-
ing enterprise, which no one but an
American would have deemed possible.
There was a Wall street scheme at that
time for obtaining a subsidy of ten mil
lions of dollars from the government fol-
carrying the mails overland from New
York to San Francisco for a year. Viii
liam II. Russell, backed by Secretary Of
| War Floyd, thought the scheme was
not warranted in the interests of econ
omy. He also offered to bet $500, 900
that being all he had with him at the
time, that he could put on mail lin,
that would cover the l $50 miles between
st. Joe and San Francisco in ten days.
The Wall street boys took the bet, ant
the big go-as-you-please race agains
time began. Nh. Russell bought 300 o
the toughest and fleetest ponies he coul,
find, and hired 125 men who could rid
on horseback without painful regrets Oh
the following day. The relays wer
made at ten to twenty miles apart. Eacl
rider had to cover sixty miles, and al
low himself two minutes to skip from
one horse to the other with his saddle
bags of mail.
April 6, 1860, the pony express started
A gun fired ON the steamer Sacramento
in the bay at San Francisco, was tn
signal. Billy Baker, mounted OF tn
restless little hornet Border Ruffiar
made a little cloud of dust, and, as tn
echo of the big gun died away, swift a
the telegram raising the salary of tn
operators along the line, he sped towar
the Sierras.
All went well. The first rider mad
, twenty miles in forty-nine minutes
Everything ran smoothly, notwithstand
ing the Indians and the deserts, till tn
{ courier reached The Platte. 1t was
case of Damon and Pythias, SO far d
t high water went. and the treacherou
} river was more than bank full of ic
r water rushing over its uneasy bed c
quicksand. He only thought of his Ell
ployers, however, and plunged in. TIL