Battles of Campbell's Island and Credit Island in War of 1812

 

Chief Black Hawk sided with the British
during the War of 1812, fighting two battles
along the Mississippi River.

Black Hawk met with Lieutenant John Campbell of the 1st US Regiment of Infantry on July 18, 1814. Campbell reported the Indians were friendly.  

Campbell said he met a party of Sac warriors carrying a white flag just below the Rock River Rapids. They invited him to Saukenuk for a council, so he traveled about four miles upstream to their village to meet with them.  

There were maybe 150 warriors, plus their women and children. One of the chiefs (most likely Black Hawk) asked if he had presents for them. Campbell replied that he did if they went to war against the Peaus as promised. The chief said he’d made no such promise to his white father. “His father was drunk if he said so.” However, the chief did agree to attack the Peaus if Campbell supplied them with the necessary weapons. 

A Ghost Story from the Old Stone House in Clinton, Iowa

The Old Stone House at Clinton, Iowa
(from a postcard circa 1912.)

The old stone house at 850 South Bluff Boulevard in Clinton, Iowa, was built sometime in 1838 or 1839. In its early days, the home served as a stopping point for mail riders and travelers. Over time, as the civil war approached, the home became a stop along the underground railway slaves traveled on their quest for freedom.  

No one can say how many former slaves sought sanctuary there—100, 200, maybe more. Many stayed for just a day, others it is said left a lasting imprint on the area. 

A 1922 article in the Clinton Herald reported strange goings on around the house. “Haunted!” said Isabel Chatterton. “Yes. By the spirits of terror-stricken black men who were racing their way toward freedom.” 

Reverend Ned Lee the Founder of Davenport's Friendly House

Ned Lee

Fifty-year-old Ned Lee stepped off the train in Davenport on May 1, 1895. He was on his way to Denver, but a quick stopover in Davenport convinced him there was work to be done in the city. So, he stayed.

He started out speaking at local churches. Sunday after Sunday, Lee talked about his mission work and what could be done. After that, he took his message to local businessmen, seeking support for his mission work. The funny thing was the churches embraced his mission work, but the saloon owners gave him the money to fund his mission. Something about Lee convinced them that he was the man for the job. Maybe it was his stories, the scars on his arms, or perhaps the glint in his eye.

Mr. Lee “sought to establish his institution in the heart of the slums,” said a 1906 article in The Daily Times. “His mission was to uplift the hopeless and invade the portions where the other ministers and churches had failed to go.”^[1]

Lee started in 1895, operating as the People’s Union Mission. He organized a Sunday School, then a sewing school to teach young girls ages seven to thirteen the fine art of needlework. To do that, he solicited help from the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union of Davenport. Things went so well that Lee formed a ladies’ auxiliary to the mission on March 10, 1896.^[2]

Morrill Marston Commandant of Fort Armstrong (1819-1821)

Fort Armstrong at Rock Island

Morrill Marston served as commandant at Fort Armstrong from August 1819 to June 1821. After leaving Fort Armstrong, Marston became the commandant of Fort Edwards. His primary duty was to stop boats going up the river and search them for whiskey to ensure it did not get to the Indians.

After leaving the army when Fort Edwards was abandoned in 1824, he began farming near the fort. Unfortunately, Marston drowned in a drunken fit in 1831.^[2]

Fortunately for us, he penned a series of letters on the Sac and Fox customs to Reverend Jedidiah Morse in 1820. In addition, Marston said he talked with four of the principal chiefs of the two nations.

They called the land around Fort Armstrong Sen-i-se-po Ke-be-sau-lee or Rock River Peninsula.^[3] Government agents had been trying to get the tribes to relocate for some time but had no luck. A Fox chief told him they would not leave because their chiefs and friends were buried there.^[4]

Early Breweries in Iowa (1846-1901)

An old time brewery

Here’s some interesting information on early Iowa breweries taken from One Hundred Years of Brewing, published in 1901.

 

The first brewery in Davenport, Iowa, was established by Mathias Frahm in 1848 or 1849 and was later known as the City Brewery. In 1853, Dr. C. H. Dries erected the Pacific Brewery, and in 1857 A. Severance came from Canada and built the Severance Ale Brewery. P & A Lyttig founded the Eagle Brewery in 1858. At about the same time, Messrs. Knepper in Shieley established the Arsenal Brewery.

 

In 1865 and 1866, Julius Lehrkind and his brother built the Blackhawk Brewery, and after its destruction by fire, Mr. Lehrkind founded another plant on Second and Taylor Streets, which he christened the Lehrkind Brewery.

 

The Zoller Brothers built a plant in Black Hawk, which they called the Black Hawk Brewery, in 1892. The City, the Eagle, the Lehrkind, the Arsenal, and the Black Hawk (Zoller Bros.) were then abandoned, and a new brewery was erected on the site of the old Lehrkind Brewery. After the Davenport Malting Company was established, the Zoller Brothers sold out their interests and organized the Independent Malting Company, building the brewery in Second and Davis Streets, which they now conduct.

 

W. H. Decker of Davenport, Iowa, founded the malt house in that city in the early fifties, being the first to engage in the business separate from a brewery in the state. Part of the original building is still standing and is now occupied by the Pittsburgh plate glass company.

 

Former University of Iowa of Iowa Halfback Nile Kinnick dies in WWII (1943)

Nile Kinnick

Iowa Hawkeye fans were stunned in June 1943 when they learned the former halfback Nile Kinnick had died in action.

Kinnick’s parents told reporters they hadn’t heard from him since May 22. They thought he was assigned to an aircraft carrier somewhere in the Atlantic but weren’t sure where. The navy subsequently reported Kinnick’s Grumman F4F Wildcat suffered a catastrophic oil leak shortly after takeoff from the USS Lexington. Nevertheless, he followed protocol and ditched his aircraft in the water about four miles from the carrier. Unfortunately, his body was never found.

When Kinnick enlisted in the naval air corps in September 1941, he told reporters, “I would be lacking in appreciation for all America has done for me did I not offer what little I had to her.

“And I’m going in with both fists swinging.”

Chief Black Hawk's Bones Stolen (1840)

Chief Black Hawk

Special from the Wisconsin Express. March 7, 1840.

“The son of Black Hawk reported that the whites had stolen the bones of his father and requested the governor to try and find out where they were and restore them to him, as they were sacred to the nation. The governor said he would, and if the offender could be found, he should be punished by the laws of the land.”

The same paper reported that the Sac and Fox were unhappy with the distribution of their annuities, especially how they were paid. They had been “paid to the ‘money chiefs,’ who spent it and left none to be distributed to the nation, causing their wives and children to suffer for food and clothing.”

Since Keokuk was made chief, he kept a large bodyguard of warriors “on whom he bestowed many favors, keeping them dressed in good style at the expense of the nation.”