Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1902-11-08

IMAGINATION.
Goodness! what change of scenes
on life's stage during the short pc
riod of 80 years. l now constantly
feel that | must take my stand of
1S43. and witness the astonishing
change that has taken place.
Since that day, April the 3rd, 1913,
after being the lone pale face witness
of the retreating red man, L extend
ed my Journey to what was known in
territorial days as Stubb's Eddy. This
is the horseshoe bend formed by the
rising bluff land, where now stands
Lindsay d Phelps saw mill and stores
and dwellings. Within this East Da-
venport horseshoe bend rose in soli-
tude 4 sand and earth mound of "a
sugar-loaf shape. Grass and dwarf
hazel bushes lined its regular and ar
tistically formed sides. 1 had more
than once explored the Mississippi
from its many mouths to the gulf to
its contracted limits beyond the Falls
of st. Anthony, and the East Daven-
port sugar-loaf mound was to me the
greatest curiosity that | noted. Not
many wears since Lindsay and Phelps
removed this mounds remaining
height of some % feet to place an
uninteresting pile of lumber on its
resting place of many thousands of
years, where the whirling waters had
formed it. This mound was not the
only wonder of East Davenport, for
in its south basN was burrowed into
and n one-roomtd habitatiOn was al
most concealed in the excavation, and
within which for many years before
and thereafter resided, as Il hermit.
James X. Stubbs. one of West Points
early graduates, a learned man of eN-
traordinary ability. On rough shelves
overhead rested rare scientific and
other works of ancient authors. Mr..
Stubbs was Scott county's second
magistrate whilst he resided at his
hermit home (Antonio LsClaire be-
ing the first). He held his court in
the rear of James \. Tellfair's saddle
shop on Main street below Second
street. Mr.. Stubs was one of the
class of men that carry their library
and intelligence into the wilderness;
one of the class that the intelligent
world respects and reverences. wheth-
er the inhabitant of an East Daven-
port sand mound or a palace. The
sence from Fort Armstrong, to visit
his once Cincinnati home. He there
made life engagement with the
belle of the town, who broke the con-
tract and threw the young officer
overheard. He felt the fall severely
and returned to our arsenal island to
resign, and to throw off his gray APP
pareI and assume Il bucksl<in garb of
sombre hue. and take to hermit's
cell in the mound at Eddy's bend.
Mr.. Stubbs was delighted to find "a
learned person who would set him
self on one of his split-timber stools
and who took an interest in philoso-
ply and astronomy; then the hermit
would carry his guest into the ether
al world and name the fixed stars
and explain the transit of Venus.
As all well know, the ancierts
placed this class of men in the ranks
of the gods. But Mr.. Stubbs was
earthly. for the county records, Book
\, page 80, say that the United
States on July 8, 1910, sold to James
X. Stubbs so acres of land, which is in
our East Davenport and north of his
mound home.
The old city had its historic brim-
stone corner and the new city had its
philosophers cavern home, and both
possessed their attractions and had
their vOtaries; and as all well know,
the same star of wilderness days now
in 1901 continues to dictate and con-
troll within its sphere.
TO do justice to Hermit Stubbs'
great ability as Il scholar would re-
quire pages, not columns. and would
require greater ability to produce the
pages than Sailor L possess.
Book G.. of records, at page 31G,
says \. c. Fulton, on March II,
1S4S, purchased 100 acres of land be-
tween the hermit's cell land and the
west line of the now waterworks
stand. Within this purchase to Full
ton is located the Cable sawmiH prop
erty. the waterworks, and the Demo
crat farm, together with hundreds of
dwellings extending beyond Locust
street. The whole 100 acres was in
its wilderness state-not mark of
civilization save the wagon tracks on
the Territorial road. | Immediately
and personally dug holes in the sward
of ages and planted some fruit trees
and grape vines on the north side of
the present Richardson dwellings and
built Il tenement house near my Edo
RADIO Spring, which house and two
acres of ground became the property
OF a slave woman who had history.
This spring the hermit and philoso-
pher. Mr. Stubs, greatly appreciated,
as also did two lone deer that the set
tiers would not modest and which
were frequently seen on the sides and
SUBMITS of the East Davenport hills.
Book of Records l., at page 623,
says y. c. Fulton, June 21, 1852,