The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-03-01
HISTORIC ROCK ISLAND
SCENE OF ARSENAL FIRE PLACE
 OF GREAT INTEREST.
Striking Situation Attracts the Eye 4 of the Traveler-Memories of In 7. dian and Civil Wars-Place E Where First Locomotive ls Crossed Mississippi.
Washington Post

MI w dSuAuStOn fOSt.
 While the Middle West. as rule. is comparatively barren in historic interest and presents little to catch the eye of the traveller, passing over its long levels oy train, Rock Island, H., where part of 1ne countrys greatest arsenal and man. niacSory of military implements was burned the other day, forms a notable exception. The person who fails to find something of interest at Rock Island must be very dull being. First of all, 1t IS among one of the most remarkable natural wonders of the Mississippi Valley; historically 1t was one of the stations of the jesuit priests and Canadian voyagers on the old route from Montreal to New Orleans, then the seat and center of the Black Hawk war, the site of old Fort armstrong, and during the civil war a place of detention of hundreds of Confed- crate prisoners. To the anthropologist the name arouses interest, for 1t was in the Rock Island district that some of the most remarkable remains of aboriginal man ever discovered in America were Found; to the zoologist it is full of mean ing on account of Its peculiar molluscan fauna and the civil engineer remembers thatit was here that the first locomotive ever operated In the territory beyond the Mississippi was transferred across the Father of Waters.
 In its southward course the Mississippi wtdens out at Rock Island to such an ex- tent that persons travelling by boat gain the impression that they are in some in- land lake or sea when this point is reach ed. Davenport, Ia. lies on the west bank, and the towns of Rock Island and Moline, Ill, on the east, and between the two, lying midway in the river, is the cele- ,brated island. Unlike the islands that one meets farther South, which, composed of river alluvium, are constantly appearing Iand disappearing at the rivers caprice, Rock Island rises as a high. bold bluff or ridge, of limestone three miles in length Aand of a goodly width. Doubtless long a fn nil .riod, when the United States as far South sas the Ohio river lay submerged under a vast ice field of glaciers as Greenland is today, the great Wisconsin glacier grinding Its way in a southwestrly direc- ton, met and opposed the great Min inesota ice sheet moving from the north- west to southeast as pr. McGee has tBhown was the case and in the battle royal which took place between these seiants two channels were carved out of lthe limestone. leaving Rock Island as q tsort of buffer territory in between.
 Black Hawk War.
 At all events, it first became known to lAmericans along about 1894, when the Sac land Foxes ceded their lands along this part of the river. The military advant- lagesiat once caught the eye of the crafty white man. and, as a result, Fort Arm strong. named in honor of the Secretary fof War of the tmA was erected on the ssite how occupied by Lhe arsenal. Black Hawk, the chief of this tribe. refused,
 
 the chiefs who signed away their birth right, were drunk at the time, and as result of his refusal, and the machinations iof the Prophet Elskwatawa, the brother sof Tecumseh, a long and bloody war fol- flowed, which terminated in August 27, 1882, with the capture of Black Hawk and his sons and their detention in Fortress fMonroe
 The war had ended and Black Hawk had departed, but Rock Island continued leading history maker of the West. It iattracted everybody and everything. On the south of the island Is large and very curious cave, which the Indians had for meriy held !n awe and veneration, and 1t was here that, according to local tra- dition. the shades of the Indian warriors Killed in battle with the whites, gathered nightly to perform their war dance Time went on. and the war whoop of the h. idians was silenced forever by the shrin whistle of the locomotive. and in the ex- lcitement attending the first railway enter lprise beyond the Mississippi people forgot about the cave and its ghostly inmates.
 In lS53 the Chicago. Rock Island and Pacific Railway was completed from Chi- rag0 to the east bank of the river op- lposite the island There was then, of lcourse, no bridge, and the engineers and gcontractors who continued the construc- fion and extension of the road from the Svillage Of Davenport on the west bank Dn toward the setting sun needed a loco- axnotive and cars. How to get one across the liver was the question. It was then frozen krom bank to bank, and after some discus sion 1t was decided to bring one over on khe Ice. A track was accordingly laid ecross the river from Moline. around to the southern point of the island to Dav- enport, and late in February in the pres ience of a vast gathering of settlers, the frst locomotive to invade the great trans Ehississfppian domain reached Davenport In lsefety. Later, in 1856, the first bridge across the Mississippi. connecting the is- Hand with both banks, was finished, the first train crossing the bridge in April, ,aS56.
 Confederate Prisoners Story.
 When the civil war came on a consid- Rrable part of the military establishment which from the day of the building of Fort Armstrong down to the present had been growing and expanding. was chosen as one of the three princlpal places of detention for Confederate prisoners, aHtI at one time during he war the number Of Confederates wAthin the walls of Rock Island numbered several thousand. At the last Confederate reunion held in the South, Georgia veteran an ex-member ot famous Confederate regiment, at- tracted some little attention by a rather peculiar button or brooch which he wore lon the lapel of nis coat. The object seemed to be of mother-of-pearl, was carved in peculiar shape and inscribed with some five or six letters that might have stood for almost anything He had, he said, been a prisoner ;n Rock Island penitentiary, having been captured with a number of others during the latter part of the war. While there he and some ten other daring and deter | mined men entered into plot to kill their | guards and effect their escape from what he described as a death-trap of disease | 6Qualor and poor food. Realizing that | they had great distance to travel before | reaching Confederate lines, il was plain to them that they could not employ any code or pass words, this might result in their discovery. They decided, there fore, upon the adoption of some unmis- takable mark or object by meaHs of which they could recognize one another after gainglng the outer walls and start ter immediately upon leaving the prison and the object of this badge was to en- able them to recognize each other with certainty in case they met after their escape.
 Carved Peculiar Buttons. The matter at first seemed difficult, but by good fortune there happened to be one of their number who had a decided great many trinkets, such as scartpins 1 and cuff buttons. out of peculiar variety | of muscle shell found i'll the waters about the island and nowhere else, many of which he had given to the prison officials ! and guards It was decided that he should l make a set of buttons which could be | worn as watch charms or pins, and bear | ing i've or SIX letters, signifying certain | things known only to the conspirators l but which, could readily be interpreted | to mean something else of a pious and | lofty nature in case they were questioned | by the prison guards or those whom they |