The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1916-09-18
B. c. Taber, May 6, 1886.

of the host. The following is the guest
list:
B. C. Taber, May 6, 1886.
Asaph Buck, August 81, 1874.
A. e. Connable, October 16, 1851.
A. e. tombstone. June 5, 1856.
H. B. Blood, September 15, 1885.
H. r. Miller, March 81, 1899.
Sam G. Westcott, June 3, 1853.
H. A. Kinnaman, October, II, 1916.
George S. Tucker, January %, 1856.
S. H. Johnston, April IL, 1870
T. S. Paul, December Z, 1855
II. w. Huiskamp, October %, 1859.
Ben B. Jewell, November /, 1856.
w. B. Collins, May -, 1843.
l.. A. Hamill, July %, 1861
H. A. Heaslip, January 1, 1854.
Captain Daugherty's birthplace was
Chillicothe, Ohio, but he has lived in
Keokuk for seventy-five years. He
read during the evening, the follow
ing interesting account of Keoxuk in
the early days:
There have been many vast and
varied changes in the history of Keo-
kuk and Lee county and the great
state of Iowa since my first arrival,
February 1912, at the small village of
Keokuk, Iowa Territory, then called
the Point" by old timers and by the
Indians, Puchechetuck. meaning the
same.
On the oldest maps Keolsuk was
spelled Keokuck, and Iowa was
spelled Ioway.
It was in the latter part OF Janu-
airy, 1912 that my father started from
Terre Haute, Indiana, with two or
three covered wagons, with his bache-
lor brother and an old time bachelor
friend. Joseph Wiley; also man
named Starr and wife, who expected
to stop at Nauvoo, Ill. My father had
been to Keokuk the previous year
and left the family at Terre Haute for
the winter. We had rough trip
clear across the great state of Him
OILS. which was then a vast wilderness
and only very sparsely settled, trails
for roads and the prairie grass as
high as the horses backs, and we were
often compelled to go until late in
the night to find farm house to stop
at. l only now remember one of the
little towns we passed through; it
was Bloomington, ILL.,, then a mere
struggling village strung out on
long, muddy road or street, with a
few stores and shops scattered along
1t.
Reach Mormon Town.
We finally reached the Mississippi
river at the then booming Mormon
town of Nauvoo, when Joe Smith, the
Mormon prophet, was at his zenith.
Nauvoo then claimed a population of
1900 inhabitants. AS the river was
rough, the little ferry could not cross
so we spent part of the day sight
seeing. They were as busy as bees
working on the great Mormon temple.
1t was all enclosed. The models (of
wood for the twelve oxen which sup
ported the baptismal fount were all in
place; also the fount; all of which
was soon after replaced by oxen cut
out of a stratum Of solid white lime
stone rock taken from quarry just
below the city of Nauvoo.
After the wind fell in the afternoon
sufficiently to be safe we crossed over
the river to Montrose on the little
primitive flat boat ferry propelled
by two horses, one on either side,
working a treadmill which furnished
the power to turn the wheels and
propel the boat.
We arrived safely in the straggling
village of Montrose, where we found
the little colony all in a hustle. There
was a wharf boat, several shops and
saloons, as I recollect it, on the river |
front and few dwellings back from
the river and quite a large sized
hotel which formerly, I believe, had
been used as a trading post by the
Northwestern Fur Co.
The Arrival in keokuk.
We arrived In Keokuk the same |
day and camped with our teams at my
uncle's house located at the top of
Johnson street hill, now Second and
johnson and now occupied by the