History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/3/Counties/Muscatine
MUSCATINE COUNTY was created from territory originally embraced in Demoine County. In 1836, when the boundaries were first established, it included a portion of the present counties of Scott, Johnson and Washington. Soon after the creation of the counties of Scott, Slaughter and Johnson, Muscatine was reduced to its present limits. The name is derived from the Musquetine tribe of Indians which at one time possessed the island in the Mississippi River and the west shore. The county lies on the Mississippi River, includes Muscatine Island and is in the fourth tier north of the Missouri State line. It embraces an area of four hundred thirty-seven square miles.
In the fall of 1833 Major George Davenport, who had a trading post at Rock Island, sent Mr. Farnam down the river to where Muscatine stands to establish a trading post. Farnam built a log cabin in which he placed a stock of goods and opened trade with the Indians. After two years the store was sold to John Vanata. In May, 1834, Benjamin Nye settled at the mouth of Pine Creek. The following year James Casey built a cabin just below the Davenport trading house. Dr. Eli Reynolds soon after laid out a town three miles farther up the river named Geneva. Other settlers located at Moscow, on the Cedar River. In the spring of 1836 Colonel Vanata occupied his claim and laid out a town which he named Bloomington. A few months later J. W. Casey and others laid out a town lower down the river which was named Newberry.
The county was organized in January, 1837. In 1837 a post-office was established at Bloomington and the following year was made the county-seat. By this time about fifty houses had been built and the population of Bloomington numbered about two hundred. Adam Ogilvie opened the first store in 1837 and Edward E. Fay was the first postmaster. The Iowa House was the first hotel, which was opened by Robert C. Kenney in the spring of 1837. On the 18th of August of that year the steamer Dubuque, Captain Smoker, exploded its boiler seven miles above Bloomington where twenty-two lives were lost.
DEVIL’S LANE AND WILD CAT DEN,
Pine Creek, Muscatine County
Seventeen of the dead were buried in one grave in the cemetery at Bloomington. Suel Foster was one of the proprietors of Bloomington, laying out additions. In 1849 the name of the town was changed to Muscatine which signifies “little prairie.”
The first school was taught by George Baumgardner at Bloomington in the spring of 1837. The Methodists organized a church in the village the same year with Rev. Norris as pastor. Judge David Irwin held the first term of court at the house of Samuel Parker in April, 1837, of which John S. Abbott was clerk. When Lieutenant Zebulon M. Pike explored the upper Mississippi River in 1805, he named the high ground which rises from the river at Muscatine, “Grindstone Bluff.”
The first court was held by Judge David Irwin at Bloomington in April, 1837; the next year the county was organized by the election of the following officers: sheriff, James Davis; clerk, J. G. Monroe; treasurer and recorder, Lewis McKee; commissioners, John Vanata, E. Thornton and Aaron Usher.
The first newspaper established in the county was the Iowa Standard published by Crum and Bailey in 1840. Early in the next year it was moved to Iowa City, the new Capital of the Territory and the first number of the Bloomington Herald by Hughes and Russell was immediately issued to take its place. The Rock Island Railroad was the first line built through the county.