Benjamin Shambaugh – Some Interesting Facts – Volume II.

On another post, we give you the full story of Iowa City’s noted historian – Benjamin F. Shambaugh. So here, on this page and on two others (see links below), we’d like to share some of his writings that focused on Iowa City’s first years of existence – 1839-1841. From the very limited transportation options getting into the city to the very first businesses that opened their doors, here’s a brief overview of Iowa’s new capital city – from the pen of Shambaugh…

In 1921, the Old Settlers’ Association of Johnson County took a number of Benjamin Shambaugh’s writings and combined them into one 19-page article – **Some Interesting Facts About The Early History Of Iowa City And The Old Capitol Building** – publishing it in their 1921-22 Yearbook. Here on this page and two others, we offer you the full article – complied by subject and with some pictures and commentary along the way. Here are links to the other two pages: Volume I and Volume III.

As Benjamin F. Shambaugh continued his writings on the early days of Iowa City, he would, like all good historians, quote other authors who had come before him. Here (below), Shambaugh references one of Iowa’s first “celebrities” – John B. Newhall from Burlington – who wrote two highly-popular volumes in the 1840’s – Sketches of Iowa City in 1841 (see below), and A Glimpse of Iowa in 1846. Newhall – who made a visit to Iowa City in May 1840 – gives us the best overview of what Iowa’s new capital city looked like – one year after its humble beginnings…

Here’s how Newhall described 1840 Iowa City with a population of 700…

I counted, even in the middle of last May, rising of 100 buildings, and saw and heard the busy workmen engaged on half as many more … a spacious city hotel, three or four brick buildings, and several others in progress, ten dry-goods, grocery, and provision stores, one drug store, one saddlery, two blacksmiths, one gunsmith, three or four coffeehouses, four lawyers, three physicians, one church, and one primary school. Read more about John B. Newhall’s ‘Sketches Of Iowa’ classic here.

While Iowa City – in 1839 – had been chosen as Iowa’s new capital city, one of the growing concerns that needed to be addressed was…

How do we move people, supplies, goods and merchandise in and out of Iowa City?

You see, in 1839-1840, with Johnson County (see map above) literally sitting on the edge of the wild, wild west, wilderness trails and rivers were vital to Iowa City’s existence. Here, Shambaugh tells us more…

Click here to read more about Lyman Dillon (below) and “Dillion’s Furrow”.

Click here to read more about The National Road and early ferries across the Iowa River.

From the beginning, a license was needed to open a general store in Iowa City. The first merchant’s license – as distinguished from a license to sell alcohol – was granted on October 7th, 1839 to Edward Foster for $20. Other city records indicate that there was a Charles Foster involved as well – possibly a brother to Edward? Foster sold goods from a log cabin just north of Capitol Square (see map above), perhaps the one later identified as Iowa City’s first post office. And, speaking of Iowa City’s first post office…

According to Shambaugh – prior to stage coaches, the delivery of mail into Iowa City would happen at the hands of Johnson County pioneers who had business in nearby Bloomington (Muscatine). As reported above – Johnson County pioneer F.M. Irish brought the mail into Iowa City in his hat or in his pocket handkerchief! Read more about mail delivery in Johnson County here.

As we discuss elsewhere, Iowa City’s first “hotels” were, many times, taverns as well. Asaph Allen and George T. Andrews built two claim cabins on Johnson County land near, what is today, the southwest corner of Brown & Gilbert Streets, placed a covering between the two cabins, making it into Iowa City’s first hotel/tavern. Walter Butler, on the other hand, built the City Hotel on the corner of Clinton & Washington Streets, applied for his tavern license, and then, in 1841, added Butler’s Hall (see below) next to his City Hotel. Read more here.

Following the opening of Edward Foster’s business, a number of other pioneers were quickly approved – with Robert McKee being licensed to open a general store in a small log cabin near the northwest corner of Clinton and Burlington Streets; while Charles Drury was approved for another general store as well…

**The General Store.** In the 1800’s, *general stores offered a place where people could find food and necessities that would have otherwise been difficult to obtain*, with merchants simply selling items they could obtain and resell. These general stores, mercantile’s, or emporiums, served rural populations of small towns and villages, and the farmers and ranchers in the surrounding areas. In addition to merchandise, a general store was, also, a meeting place for isolated people to socialize and do business.

Christopher Henry (C.H.) Buck opened a store in a log cabin on the east side of Dubuque Street between College & Burlington, calling it Buck Grocery.

Buck’s became well-known to Iowa Citians, and could be picked out by the pair of deer antlers that hung over the front door. Interestingly, prior to the 1850’s, the term “grocery” actually meant a drinking establishment such as a tavern or saloon, and since ole’ C.H. wanted to pay a lessor annual license fee – (i.e. “a tavern or grocery” license cost more than a “general store” license) – he found a loophole in the new Territorial law that said he could still be called a “grocery” – paying the “general store” license – if he would sell alcohol “in quantities of a gallon of less”. Sneaky, huh? So, at Buck’s, you could buy your general store items like coffee, sugar, gun powder, etc., and also pick up a one-gallon container of whiskey! Cheers!

As we discussed earlier, while there were a few rough trails that allowed some land transportation between Iowa City and the major ports on the Mississippi River – primarily Dubuque, Burlington and Bloomington (Muscatine) – the cheapest way to move most goods in and out of Iowa City prior to the construction of Territorial roads was by small, flatbed boats carefully making their way up and down the Iowa River…

Many old settlers remembered the first frame (as opposed to log) “store room” of Wesley Jones, located in the mid-block of Washington Street – just south of Capitol Square (see map below). One historian says…”Wesley Jones was the first real merchant to establish himself in the county,” as he and his brother Harvey advertised that their goods came “from the east.” So, for the Jones brothers, after the arrival of their stock on a flatbed boat, it was unloaded at river’s edge on the west end of Washington Street before being brought by horse and wagon to their store three blocks away.

With flatbed boats being the best way to get products in and out of the city, the construction of boats became a “lively” trade in the early 1840’s.

Records indicate that the Jones brothers, as security against financial risk, entered into a business partnership with John Powell, and when the Jones retired, Powell took over the general store, building the brick buildings on Block 84 that became known as the Powell Block – which stood in that same location until urban renewal swept it all away in the 1970’s.

While the Iowa River was the cheapest form of transportation in Iowa City’s earliest days, it was also, by far, the most treacherous. It was the merchant – John Powell – who commented truthfully about the great dangers of bringing stock up and down the river…

“About a mile above where the river leaves the county altogether are the Buttermilk Falls – a place of danger in low water to the flat-bottomed craft of that pioneer merchant and the first boatman to successfully navigate this tortuous stream.”

As we discuss elsewhere, despite the dangers, the good people of Iowa City – throughout the 1840’s – truly hoped that the Iowa River could still be the transportation answer they were looking for. And on June 20, 1841 – that hope was strengthened…

But alas – despite all the promise The Ripple brought to Iowa City in 1841, by the mid-part of the decade, land transportation into Iowa City via cities located on the Mississippi River had become the way of the future…

In the 1840’s and early 1850’s, St. Louis was the gateway to Iowa City – with both freight and travelers coming west to St. Louis on the Ohio River and then north on the Mississippi to Bloomington, Burlington or Dubuque. By the mid-1850’s, the railroad made Chicago the new gateway to the West. Read more here.

So, there you have it. Over its first decade (1839-1849), Iowa City grew from just a handful of settlers to a population of around 1,250. And through it all, Iowa City not only served as Iowa’s capital city, but it also became a thriving business community led by entrepreneurs who brought a variety of new trades into the city…

In closing, allow me to share with you a business directory – from the mid-1850’s – which offers a partial list of the many retailers and businesses in Iowa City…