Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Dubuque

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DUBUQUE, a city of the United States, capital of a county of the same name in Iowa, situated on the right bank of the Mississippi, 155 miles west of Chicago. The business portion occupies a terrace at no great height above the river, and the rest of the city is picturesquely arranged on the bluffs behind. Several of its fourteen churches, besides a so-called cathedral, are edifices of considerable pretensions; and the building erected by the United States for the custom-house, post-office, and other Government purposes is constructed of marble. The principal educational institutions are the high school and a theological seminary for German Presbyterians. As a port of delivery, a railway junction, and the centre of the lead region of Iowa, Dubuque has an extensive and varied trade, and engages in a large number of manufacturing industries; of lead alone it exports from 10,000,000 to 20,000,000  annually. The name of the city is derived from a French Canadian, who received permission from the Spanish Government to carry on mining in the vicinity, and settled on the spot in 1788. The first real settlement was in 1833; incorporation as a town was obtained in 1837, and a city charter in 1840. Population in 1850, 3108; in 1873, 22,151.