Book Reviews 674 MARG' ANDERS'N, ]' The American Census:A socialHistory, by samuel p Hays 677 MtcHaEr place MaRrorur,eo., A of Sense:Essays in Searchof the Midwest, by JamesH. Madison 678 Ntcous pr Down in Davenport: Frvirls, An Accountof t]yley Louisiana,by ThomasAuge 680 Ronrnr M' urr-Ey Caaalier .in suirs*ii: GeorgeArmstiong CusteranT the WesternMilitary Frontier,by paul L. Heiren The SocialResponse of Antebellum 68r uARyCLAyroN ANDERSoN aNo AlaN R. WoolwonrH, EDS.,Through !ak91aEyes:_Narratiae Accounts of the MinnesotaIndian Wor'fi-ISAZ, Elites to RegionalUrbanizatron by Herbert T. Hoover 682 THovesVTNNUM, WiId people, JR., Riceand the Ojibway by RobertJ. Gough 683 serrv McMuxxv,Families and Farmhousls in Nineieenti-iiitiii'a*rriro,, VernacularDesign and SocialChange, by Julie noy TrrraorsyR. Mauoxry 686 joHw leii.ef- A. Jaxlr, Ronrnr W BesrnN. eNb ocjucr-es K. Irfifi: Common Housesin America'ssmall Towns:The Atlantic seaboard'to-ihLe _ MississippiVaIIey, by Allen G. Noble BETWEEN 1835 AND 1858 a small group of entrepreneurs, 688 M. JoHrv CoccEsuar-iel.rn Jo ArvruENrsr, vernacularArchitecture in led by town founder Antoine LeClaire, guided Davenport's Southernlllinois: The EthnicHeritage, by Gerald M;rh;i; 689 CHanrEsE.onsrn, Jx, The Material aazii oi tneirriarttii-iiii"t economic development from a small frontier outpost to a sig- Plantation:Historicar Archaeology in the south Carorimaiiiiio"t, nificant regional entrep6t with metropolitan ambitions.l Not by RonaldL. F. Davis. 691 surprisingly, this economic elite sought, at the same time, to BARBARABrvrNc Lor.rc,Des Moines and polk County:FIag on the prairie, by KeachJohnson give their economic status a social dimension. While LeClaire 693 JuonH srelaNprR, Grandplans: progressiaism Business and.-----'social change and his associateswere establishing their businessesand for- in Ohio'sMiami Valley,1,890_1929, by Miureen Ogf" 694 popurar mulating and achieving their local economic goals, they also R'BERTL. GaNaeoNla,ert and Reiigionin EuanfericarAmerica, . 1915-1940,by ErlingJorstad worked to define themselves as a distinctive social group and to 696 BnvcEE. NEr_sor.r, public GoodSchools:The Seattle SchoolSystem, acquire social control over others in town. After arriving in the 1901-1930,by Caroll Engelhardt 697 wavruED. R^lsuu-ssEN.,Taking"the people: early and mid-1830s, they had gradually emerged, through Llniaersityto the -seuenty-fiae - - - -'r Yearsof CooperatiaeExtension, by Kathlrine JellsJn competition, as the relative winners in the local economy. As 699 JeNrr PoppEruorrcxBreadlines , xrrrjo)ip in wheat: FoodAssistance in the winners, they were quick to translate their economic power GreatDepression, by David E. Hamiiton into 7ol - HrrgnvA. WALLACEaruo wrLLrav L. BRowN,Corn and ItsEarly Fathers, social leadership: they were "in," others were "out"; they con- peter by SaraR. Petersonand A. peterson trolled, others followed. Gradually, local society became differ- PaeRLarRc,T9w1.rd a WeIt_FedWorld, Z9? Pq" by Roy V. Scott entiated into groups performing various functions 7o4 HistoricMissouri: A pictoriar Narratiae,uv Wittiain E. parrish and dif- 706 C'rpnonoE. Cmnr, ro.,Minnesota ferentiated by wealth, occupation, J*, in i centuryof Change:o -The '- stateand institutional affiliation, Its Peo_pleSince_1900, by patrickNunnally 708 ^ experience, and origin. Those who came from similar social srEvrru,J.Krrr-lon,,Hy armar'petersen ot' Minneiota: The poriticsof prouincial Independence,by peter T. Harstad environments and who had achieved similar levels of wealth 709 ANNEBosANKo Gnriru, one woman'swar: LettersHome from the women,s pooled their economicresources through partnershipsand joint Arnry Corps,1944-1.946, by Nancy Dem investment ventures, formed institutions and private clubs, and Book Notices 711 MeRy BoyruroruCowony no., The Checkeredyears: A BonanzaFarm Diary, 1884-1888,by SaraBrooks Sundbere 1.1described Davenport's early economic development and the elite's eco- 7 | | RoaeRr Twovsr,y, io., Louissuiliaan: The papers, patricia iubtic by Eckhardt nomic strategies for controlling it in "Down in Davenport: A Regional per- 712 Canor GonveN, America'sFarm Crisis,by Earl M. Ros'ers spective on Antebellum Town Economic Development," Annals of lowa (Summer 1990), 451-74. THE ANNALS OF 50 (Fall 1990). @The State Historical Societv of Iowa, 1990.

s93 .,11 THE ANNALS OF IOWA D0lL1l1 lt1 ULuellport 3

intermarried with each other's families. Through such strate- aware of the inefficienciesof the steamboatsystem and, given giesthey began to define themselvesas the town,s socialelite. their lack of investment in that system, their relative lack of Initially, the dynamics of this local process of social devel- influence in further developing transPortation to and frorn opment followed the early course of the town,s economic town. Possessinga locational advantage in their trade with Chi- development as, first, a local depot and then a market town or cago, and suspectingthat eastern goods would be cheaperin subregional central place. Located across the river from Rock the Windy City, Davenport's elite quickly abandoned the Island, Davenport was founded in 1832 by Antoine LeClaire steamboat system and agreed to contribute to financing the to and George Davenport, Sr. It quickly emerged in the next dec- construction of the Rock Island Railroad from Chicago ade as the dominant market town along the Great Bend in the Davenport. trade shifted to . At first the town remained a simple depot for Soon after the railroad's arrival in 1854, of the signifi- the sparsely settled hinterland, a stopping-off point for immi- the east, and Davenport, suddenly the railhead an economic boom. Produc- grants into lowa, as well as a steamboat stop along the line cant artery of trade, experienced and corn soared, land values rose, between St. Louis and Galena. As more settlers entered the tion and export of wheat expanded, wealth increased, and the backcountry, however, merchants from New york, Cincinnati, money in circulation of travelers and immigrants coming into town and St. Louis arrived in Davenport to supply ihem. Within a number dramatically. The town's population also rose few years,the sale of farmers'produce into the market at Dav- increased quickly, reaching fifteen thousand within three years.The town enport signaled the town's integration into the regional econ- flooded with entrepreneurs from Chicago and the East omy centered at St. Louis, where merchants increasingly was also seeking to establish both merchant stores and small industries. bought merchandise,sold produce, and banked. In 1g41 Dav- As they did, they put the older factories out of business, com- enport became a supplier of wheat and produce in the regional peted against local merchants, and subsumed local sovereignty marketplace. By mid-decade it had become a significant export io the control of metropolitan managers. A financial crisis center for hinterland production, and a few years after that, it ensued, and after the civil war the railhead functions followed achieved self-sufficiency in flour production. As the center of the roads farther west. As a result, Davenport's economy re- wheat production in the valley moved north into Davenport,s treated to its local central place function, stripped of its local immediate hinterland, the town's role in the regional economy dynamics of development and compelled simply to respond to began to expand, then change. While towns downriver faced metropolitan directives.2 relative declines in the produce trades, activity at Davenport This new broader range of economic strategiesand actions surgedfrom 1851 through 1853.As it did, merchantsand cipi- shifted the pattern and dynamics of social development in talists flooded the town, setting in motion a strong population Rather than focusing entirely on consolidating local increase. town. power within a known society according to a presumably_local Once Davenport merchants had consolidated their local pto."rr of social development, Davenporters were compelled to control, they found themselves competing across their hinter- interact with a broader range of people from acrossthe region' lands with merchants and entrepreneurs from other nearby In some casesthese contacts occurred within the town itself market towns. Members of the burgeoning local elite conse- through interactions with newcomers who came to Davenport quently had to balancelocal economicactions against the con_ to make a new life. But they also came while visiting friends or stant need to formulate strategiesof action that would main_ tain, expand, or redefine the town's economic role within the R. Mahoney,Riaer Towns in the Greatwest: The structure of Pro' regional system. 2. Timothy In particular, as the volume of trade to and aincialllibanization in theAmerican Midwest, 1.820-1870 (New York,1990), from town increased, local merchants became increasingly 246-49:idem, "Down in Davenport,"457-74' JYb IHE ANNALS OF IOWA Down in Dauenport 597 conducting business throughout the region or through corre- AT EVERY STAGE in Davenport's development, the mer- spondence or the newspapers. Either way, these en-"counters chant and professional elite stood at the center of decision mak- provided the information that shaped their broader socialstrat- ing and action in dealing with the region. In Davenport, as in egiesof action in the larger regionar society.on the one hand, many other western towns, the members of the elite were gen- as members of Davenport's elite encountered other entrepre- erally among the first people to arrive in town. Amid the buoy- neurs and business leaders from around the system, they ant first wave of settlement and with limited competition, they acquired a better idea of who they were socialry" within that became established very quickly. Their initial advantage ena- broader network of relationships ind acquaintances. on the bled them to stay ahead of those who continued to arrive year other hand, as regional interactions became more important and routine, after year. As a result, members of the pre-1845 cohort of the local elites and other townspeople shifted their social elite persistedat much higher ratesthroughout the period than concerns from dealing primarily with each other to deal- ing with any other group in town. Of the twenty-seven merchants and different waves of newcomers or with the towns- people's professionals who were among the first settlers and persisted diverse social responses to regional economic and social developments. until 1845, twenty-two were economically or socially associ- ated with Antoine LeClaire. Of those, sixteen increased their Local social development paralleled the town's economic wealth by 1850 and four others persistedbut had lesssuccess development.Both were graduilly cooptedby a discontinu'us, (seetable 1). Especiallyfavored by successwere |amesBowling, externally defined-process. Social gro,rp, no longer evolved from Iohn M. D. Burrows, Ebenezer Cook, Ambrose C. Fulton, those present but were assembledlayer by taye".Uy groups of newcomers' Charles Lesslie, George Davenport, , and James Each group arrived in connection with some epi- sode of regional Thorington, as well as LeClaire. Thirteen of the members of this interaction and stayed to become a part of cohort persistedpast 1860, some of them amassingimpressive town society. But rather than expending the energy .,.."rrury to fathom fortunes; and those thirteen were one-third of all the merchants local social reality, ne*.orrre* mereiy set to work within and professionals who remained in business from 1856 to a more general, impersonal framework that served to maintain 1861. In a town where persistencerates for annual cohorts of social order. They took their places amid a variety of zubgroups arrivals was fifty percent or less per year, these rates indicate whose attitudes and expectations were affectej by different significant staying power. Nevertheless, they are not much dif- experiences Lo:l| society,then, became a grab bag of groups who ferent than figures for comparable groups of established mer- arrived at different times and acted aJcordini to different chants and professionalselsewhere during the same period.a experiences,attitudes, and criteria. Rather than evJlv- ing out of a known social environment, local sociai develop_ ment becamemore impersonal,more credential_oriented,more guage of social order. See FredericCople JaheaThe Urban Establishment: diverse,and harder to understand. Townspeople Upper Stratain Boston,New York,Charleston, Chicago, and LosAngeles thus became (Urbana, lessbound IL, 1982),5;Eric Monkkonen, America Becomes Urban: The Deaelop- by common cultural ideals or expectationsthan by ment of U.S.Towns and Cities,1790-L980 (Berkeley, CA, 1988),24-3A, 127; common location. Davenport's elite employed various strate- Don Harrison Doyle, TheSocial Order of a FrontierCommunity: lacksonoille, gies locally to deal with these social deveiopments, , 1825-1870(Urbana, lL, 1978),62; Kathleen N. Conzen,"Community but ulti- Urban History, mately they were forced Studies, and AmericanLocal History," in ThePast Before Us: to yield control to larger regional ContemporaryHistorical Writing in the UnitedStates, ed. Michael Kammen forces.3 (Ithaca,NY 1980);Stuart Blumin, The Emergence of theMiddle Class (New York,1989), 298-310. 4.DaaenportGazette, 1-30 1845;Scott County, Iowa, Tax Lists,1849, 3. In their attempts to-understand nineteenth-century July American urban socr- 1853,1854, 1858, 1860, selected from a completerun of taxlists, State His- ety, social and urban historians have largery ignored the evolution of these toricalSociety of lowa, Iowa City, Iowa; Doyle, TheSocial Order of a Frontier new regionally oriented local societies und ih""i. efforts to.r"u,"l n"*'iun_ Community,97; DaaenportCity Directlry,1854, 1855, 1856, 1858. rhT ANNALS OF IOWA Dotutt ttt Daaettqort

cohort from those at TABLE1 What differentiated this Davenport towns up and down the river was its share of control of town Wsar-rHor Pnr-1845Couonr or MpRcuerurs wealth. In Galena, Illinois, the top decile of the elite controlled ANDPROFESSIONALS rHnoucg 1860, 42 percent of the town wealth in 1845 and about 54 percent in DavrNpont lowa 1854. By 1860 that figure reached5B percent but then fell back Name 1849 1853 1854 1858 1860 below fifty percent by 1865. In Dubuque, Iowa, the top decile of wealth holders controlled similar shares of that town's M. Bowiing q ??cn g James $ s,s00 $ 10,000$ 10,465 9,egs wealth, 58 percent in 1854, for example' In a less wealthy John M. D. Burrows 27,260 48,607 20,500 inland town like Jacksonville, Illinois, the top decile of wealth Alfred Churchill 14,320 4t,891 holders controlled 43 percent in 1849 and 50 percent in 1860' Cook & Sargent 112 14,948 104,823 22,550 In contrast, the top decile of wealth holders in Davenport, Ebenezer Cook 3,393 74,258 40,440 104,099 17,040 encompassing about half as many men as in Dubuque and John P. Cook 320 44,728 18,555 Galena in the 1840s and 1"850s,controlled 54 percent of the James Dalzell 1,500 5,300 5,700 in 1845 and more than 66 percentin 1853.Given Geo. L. Davenport, Jr. 21,594 40,440 37,750 68,985 R? q?q town's wealth economy, and, until about Duncan C. Eldridge 800 71,237 7,087 the smaller scale of Davenport's of about 10 Nicholas Fejervary 57,062 1856, its less specializedfunctions, a difference Ambrose C. Fulton 8,653 11,608 26,250 36,530 percent in the distribution of town wealth is significant' Samuel Hirschl 72,965 36,130 32,690 bavenport's distinctiveness aPpears even more striking when William Inslee 3,773 2,745 one takes into account the holdings of the most elite of the Antoine LeCiaire 116,290 262,718 257,830 198,1 05 town's elite. Just two men-Antoine LeClaire, the original pro- Charles Lesslie 3,165 5,780 9,400 20,810 20,160 prietor of the land on which Davenport was built, and George Louis A. Macklot 5,084 78,960 13,590 bavenport-controlled 14 percent of the town's wealth in Cilbert C. R. Mitchell 4,320 25,'t05 76,r70 98,636 112,465 1849. In 1865 the same percentageof Dubuque's wealth, by Owens (farmer) John 5,600 10,050 contrast,was controlled by the ten richestmen in town, having Robert M. Prettyman 183 2,500 declined,for various reasons,from 16.7percent in 1860 and 24 Hiram Price 950 11,720 76,938 39,35I 11,580 percent in 1854. The ten richest men in Davenport, however, Alfred Sanders 1,500 2,660 7,430 47 percent of the town's wealth, leaving the other Bezeleel Sanford 5,767 iontrolled members of the top decile only about 12 percent. Among the George Sargent 57,720 15,650 of the early West, therefore, few seem to have been as 736 3,670 5,736 towns William Van Tuyl skewed in terms of wealth, and as divided between persisters Charles Weston 4,600 7,755 and newcomers, as DavenPort, Iowa.5 Christopher S. Whisler 4,500 9,250 9,500 The elite'sspatial domination of Main Streetreflected their Dr. James Witherwax 1,400 8,265 21,056 staying power and economicdominance. Six merchants-John Mean \ q)7 16,191 57,023 56,492 35,204 BuirowJ, Charles Lesslie, iames Bowling, William Van Tuyl, s.d. 8,326 24,507 77,135 60,427 48,565 "Urban History in a RegionalContext: River Towns S

those who were the first to arrive acquired the best locations and gained most of the business.The capital acquired from their successenabled them, after 1850,to build the finest brick buildings in the business district, further enhancing their visi- bility and power and securing their position at the center of the local economy.6

ANTOINE LECLAIRE'S INPUT accelerated this group's quick emergence and their rapid differentiation in wealth and power from the rest of the town's population of about one thousand people in 1845. As owner of the land on which the town was platted, LeClaire controlled the land market, the pri- mary source of capital in the town's economy. Any remaining unsold land probably belonged to LeClaire, enabling him to control the pace and direction of land development. He built a hotel, a business block, several warehouses on the wharf, and numerous private residences, and he worked tirelessly to Second Street,north side,between Brady and perry,looking east, encourage church construction. Later, LeClaire offered the c. 1858.Note the contrastbetween this blockand the pioto o,f lion's share of the donations to encourage the Rock Island Rail- LeClaire Row,just one blockloest, 0n page 604. road to build its line to Davenport rather than to Burlington or Ebenezer Muscatine.T cook, and Bezaleelsanford-remained at the same locations To acquire a store in a good location, downtown throughout the period. As early as 1g3g therefore, often ne- Burrows's cessitated going to LeClaire. His support or lack of support ]ohn store stood opposite the steamboatlanding on the northwest perry could make or break one's initial efforts. Likewise, LeClaire corner of and Front streets.In the next block to could provide housing, capital, and credit, all of which enabled the west were the first stores, later enlarged, of Charles one to expand one's business or practice. And, of course, Lesslieand John Owens. William Van Tuyl,s ,fr", o., ,,center LeClaire, involved with his efforts to build business blocks and the corner in between, had already become,by 7g45,a of housing and provide for construction of churchqs and schools, attraction" in the businessdistrict. Bezaleeisanford,s st're could direct businessto one's store or practice, providing a criti- was around the corner. Meanwhile, Ebenezer Cook started cal competitive boost. Whether termed support or control, businessin the LeClaire House, then a tourist hotel, on the interaction with LeClaire became a necessity in Davenport. northeastcorner of Main and second streets. In 1g51,when Ebenezer Cook exemplifies the elite's relationship with Antoine Leclaire built a businessblock along the north side of LeClaire. For Cook that relationship began the day he arrived in second street east to the northwest corner of second and Davenport in 1836. He recalled that day many years later. "I Brady, the center of activity shifted to that intersection,at the was landed within a few rods of where we now are, and there I center of the zig-zag between the wharf and the LeCraire found a comfortable log house, the only dwelling near on this House. several members of the elite, including william Inslee, relocatedin the new brick buildings put up around this corner 6. Mahoney,Riaer Towns in the GreatWest, 250-54. in the 1852 and 1853 season,thus r"u*"iti.g their control of 7. Antoine LeClairePapers, Putnam Museum, Davenport. For a detailedrem- the local economy. Much like a large game of musical chairs, iniscenceabout Antoine LeClaire, see Dauenport Democrat,30 August 1880. ovz I Hh ANNAI.S OI IO\\A Dournitt Dauettport 603

applied for a contract to supply Forts Crawford and Snelling upriver. When he asked Cook and LeClaire what they thought, they were, as Burrows later noted, "much pleasedwith my sug- gestion, and said they would stand by ms."to Others who apparently also had early business or legal dealings with LeClaire included J W. Parker, Iohn F. Dillon, George B. Sargent, George and Bailey Davenport, Alfred Sand- ers, John Owens, Gilbert Mitchell, Hiram Price, Ambrose C. Fulton, and Charles E. Putnam; all later became eminent men in the town. As in Cook's case,these initial business contacts led indirectly to other connections,most notably with David A. Bur- rows, Robert M. Prettyman, D. C. Eldridge, and Charles Lesslie. The surviving sffaps of LeClaire's PaPersonly hint at the extent of his economic power and potential control over newcomers, t",':;it'i who, in time, becamedeferential associatesand fellow members of a very elite elite. When a Davenport lawyer, in correspondence with others acrossthe region, routinely wrote, as an aside, that AntoureLeClsire "Mr. LeClaire desiresme to communicate his respectsto you," he unwittingly provided evidence of LeClaire's presencein nearly side the river. I made my way to the door, it was opened, and every aspectof Davenport'sbusiness.ll there I found Mr. Le Claire and his worthv wife. . . . I shail In the 1850sLeClaire's contactsbecame a bit more open. never forget, so long as life remains, the heartv welcome I He apparently bankrolled the Cook and Sargent bank through received;the kind and generousmanner in r,r,hichI was taken its rapid rise in the early fifties, and then when it got in trouble, careof, during the time I remained with them, rvhile preparing he supported the bank with additional loans aslong ashe could a home for myself."8Apparently LeClaire provided tne boots before pulling the piug in late 1859,as we will see.He alsosuo- with housing and helped them make a large land purchasejust outside of town. There, Cook's father and brother started a farm. After Cook was admitted to the bar in 1g40, LeClaire 10.l. M. D. Burrows,"Fifty Years in lowa,"in Milton Milo Quaife,ed., The andDaaenport: The N arratiues of W.Spencer and M. becamehis largestclient, providing Cook r.vith prac_ EarlyDay of Rocklsland l. J. extensive D. Burrows(Chicago, 1942), 763-64. tice in land. Soon thereaftet Cook's brother, John, joined the 11,.Antoine LeClairePapers, Putnam Museum,Davenport; J. W. Parkerto firm and also drew off LeClaire'sbusiness to broaden his prac_ ThomasMcKnight, 14 March1838, Thomas C. McKnightPapers, State His- tice,increase his wealth, and become,in time, a real estatespec_ toricalSociety of lowa;History ol ScottCounty, 610, 61'9, 622, 637,924; Dau- May 1915;Edward H. Stiies,Recollections and Sketches of ulator.eCook joined LeClaireto provide enportDemocrat, T5 key support when John No t able Lawy ers and Public Men of Early I owa (DesMoines, 1 9 1 6), 1 88; Wilkie, Burrows launched his mercantile business.In 1g41 Burrows Daaenport,Past and Present,104-5; Obituary for Mrs.G. C. R. Mitchell,Daa- enportDemocrat,24March 1908; Obituary for BaileyDavenport, Daaenport Democrat,g February 1890; Obituary for Williamlnslee, Daoertport Democrat, 8.Proce-edings ol thePioneer settlers Association of scottCourty,Iozua (Daven- LastWili and Testamentof AntoineLeClaire, 1861, Office of the port,1858),31. n.d..1889; County Clerk, Scott County Courthouse,Davenport (in the will LeClaire 9.obituary for Ebenezer Cook,Dauenplrt Democrat, z october 1gz1;Franc refersto "myt'riends [my emphasis]C. E. Putnam,G. C. R. Mitchell,and B. Wilkie,Dauenport, Past and, lysent (Davenport,1g5g), 104_5; History ol GeorgeDavenport (Jr.)"; Burrows , "Fifty Years,"in Quaife,Early Day, 136-37, ScottCounty, Ioa'a (Chicago, 1882), 610, 674--15. I )U-) J. nT\I\AL) UT IL'yvA Dowrtin Dauenport 605

with him was, in most cases,necessary for persisting success- fully in Davenportin the 1840sand 1850s.12

IN MANY WAYS this group of men who controlled town wealth was similar to most other "core communities" in new towns in the Midwest in the mid-nineteenth century.13Most of the men were in their thirties and forties and hence tended to persist becausethey had a stake in the town's future. From their initial economic activities, we can follow the careersof several of these men who began as lawyers or merchants and later became bankers, real estate agents, and investors, and, finally, investors in railroads and other public corporations. A few Davenporters of this generation, most notably George B. Sargent, Austin Corbin, and John F. Dillon, even went on from their modest beginnings in Davenport to become lawyers, bro- LeClaireRow, including the LeClaireHouse, Iooking east along kers, and financiers in New York.la the northside of SecondStreet between Main andBradi. Throughout the period there were many economicpart- c. 1862. nerships among the members of the original cohort of 1845. ported John Burrows's business. on a broader scale he became In addition to |ohn Burrows, Robert Prettyman, and George deeply involved in the scheme to bring a railroad to Davenport, Davenport, there were also the notable teams of Louis Macklot and providing property, capital, and, when the railroad .,."dud u Austin Corbin, Ebenezer Cook and George Sargent (which later involved depot, even his old house. He was active in business down- ]ohn Cook), George Davenport and Antoine LeClaire, Parker and Thorington, town, either competing with some of his associates,serving as James James john Owens and William Inslee, and Dillon and Hiram their landlord, or providing serviceshe considerednecessari to John Price. Among the thirty men in the cohort, there were spur economic development. He expanded his real estate busi- twenty-seven partnerships during the period. By pooling ness by completing the LeClaire House and running LeClaire their wealth, they succeeded in increasing it (see table 1). Row eastalong the north side of second street by 1g53.He also Consequently, they persisted at a much higher rate than the built the Davenport Hotel on the wharf, the post office block, rest of the population. In time their power enabled them to and several smaller buildings downtown. In 1g51 he went into the wholesaling business on the wharf with his partner George 1.2.History of ScottCounty, 509, 665,925; Willard Barrows,"History Davenport, Jr. (his old partneq,George Davenporl, Sr., had of been Scott County, lowa," Annals of lowa 1 (1863;reprint, Iowa City, 1964), murdered in 1845).The sameyear they built a foundry at scott 58-59,64, 68,74-75;Daoenport Democrat,30 August 1880; [H. A. Porter], street and the wharf. A year later they opened an iion store RockIsland and Its Surroundingsin 7853(Chicago, 7854), 27; Diary of William Barney, acrossfrom the LeClaire House on Seioni Street. J. Dubuque,State Historical Society of Iowa. 13.Kenneth Winkle, Leclaire also broadened his J. ThePolitics of Community:Migration and Politics in interest and control to include AntebellumOftlo (New York,1988), 109-31. the working classesby dispensing contracts, demanding serv_ 14.Stiies, Recollection and Sketches,188; Earle D. Ross,"George Barnard ices, granting loans, building houses, providing office space, Sargent,Western Promoter," lowa lournal of History and Politics45 (1947), 129-30;Obituary for Mrs. extending credit, and hiring workers. clearly Ldlaire hai the GeorgeSargent, Dauenport Democrat,l5 March 1896;Burrows, "Fifty Years,"in Early Day,252; History of Scott power to make or break anyone Quaife, in town. Thus, doing business County,771,; John F. Dillon Papers,State Historical Society of Iowa. Doturritr Daaenport 607

equatetheir own successrvith the town's. Thus, they argued many as fourteen thousand during the boom in 1857. Among effectivelythat they should be deferred to in matters of gov- merchants and professionalsalone, their share dropped from ernmental policy. Not surprisingly, one of their own rvas about haif in 1845 to about 15 percent in 1855 and to lessthan elected mavor everv vear through 1860.15 5 percentin 1858.17 While pursuing a strategyof establishingthemselves as an As more and more people arrived and possibly tried to economicelite, and from that acquiring the power to rule, this challenge the elite, the degree of social interaction among group also pursued a policy of solidifying their social position them actually increased,and relations became tighter. At least as a group apart from the rest of the population. As persisters, fifteen people among this group were friends or kin, and there they could achieve much of the social power associatedwith were ten marriagesamong brothers or sistersor children of the the establishmentand operation of churchesand other volun- group. indeed, ten of the twenty-one richest men in town were tary institutions.Members of the elite played significantleader- related by marriage or kinship, and eight of the ten richest ship and service roles in a variety of Davenport's religious were connected by marriage, kin, or friendship. In each case, denominations. The Cook brothers, for example, played a the social cohesivenessof Davenport's elite exceededthat of major role in organizing the charity work of the Episcopal towns farther eastduring the same period, perhaps indicating church; Duncan C. Eldridge and john Owens were founders of Davenport's Christian church; and Gilbert Mitchell and a defensive strategy to set themselvesapart from the rest of Antoine LeClaire provided key support for the town's Roman the townspeople.l8 Catholic church. As in other towns, the elite was also well rep- That strategy is further suggestedby the rapid construc- resentedin the Old SettlersSociety, one of the few more gen- tion, between 1852and 1858,of an eliteneighborhood north- eral secularsocieties in town.16 eastof the downtown area.That neighborhood was more than The social solidarity created by participating in common just an area in which people of the same socioeconomicstatus religiousgroups and voluntary associationsbecame even more choseto live. Most of the residentsof the forty or so housesin critical as the town began to grow rapidly and this small group the neighborhood were connected by marriage and business of elite men found themselvesthe only socially recognizable ties, so entrance to one parlor undoubtedly brought indirect people amid a constantly changing population of strangers.In though exclusiveentrance to numerous others on the hill (see the early fifties waves of newcomers sought to enter the ranks maP)'tn of Davenport's mercantile community. As they did, the size of To some this development seemedto isolate members of the cohort of 1845 in relation to the number of newcomerswho the elite from the rest of the townspeople.One family moving arrived and stayed for at least a few years decreasedprecipi- up the hill found themselves "too far out of town for informal tously. Although they may have had some viable basis for tight neighborly visits such as [the townspeople] had always control in a town of fewer than a thousand people (two hun- delighted to pay, passers-by halting on the way, neighbors dred families)in 1845,this oligarchy of thirty men found them- 'dropping in."' GeorgeSargent, housed in one of the hill's most selvestrying to control five thousand people in 1853 and as magnificent mansions,made a point of having an annual "open house" to which anyone in town was welcome, but that only 15.Iowa creditreport ledger,voIs. 47,48, ScottCounty, Iowa, R. G. Dun and CompanyCollection, Baker Library, Flarvard University Graduate Schooi of BusinessAdministration !6. For religiousdenominations of the Davenportelite, see Historyof Scott lT.DattenportCity Directory, 1854, 1855, 1856, 1858. C_ounty,732-48; ScottCounty lowan 2 (May 1.978),7; "Scott County Iowa 18. PaulJohnson, A Shopkeep er's Millennium (New York, 1978), 26;Jaher, The CemeteryRecords," vol. 1. (DesMoines, n.d.), 65; Proceedingsof thePioneer Urban Establishntent, 1-1.3, 452-723. SettlersAssociation of ScottCounty, 1,4. 1,9.Dauenport City Directory,1856, 1858. I NE AI\I\AL) UI IUYYA Down in Dauettport MAP

The Elite Neighborhoodin Davenport,Iowa, in 1858

accentuated his desire to be left alone in exclusive society and Antoine LeClaire'sItalianate ffiansion,completed in 1856,on the privacy the rest of the year.2o bluff oaerlookingdowntown Dauenport and the MississippiRiaer. The architecture of the houses, ranging from Greek Revi- val to classical Italianate style, emerged not from the town's expresseda hierarchy of power in town life. The social meaning local context, but from the elite's aspirations to build houses that these houses quickly acquired is evident from the actions that would reflect the lifestyles of elites up and down the river of the mob that marched up the hill during the June 1.859"cur- or back east. William Barney's comment on the Macklot house rency riot" and confronted the town leadersat the doors of their in Davenport was the highest complement he could have paid new houses. Chasing the Cook family out of the front rooms "The to a family. mansion is admirably built and furnished. I with a few bricks and bottles, the mob then forced Cook to have seen nothing so eastern ... since I left Baltimore."2l come to the front door to speak to them. Although he did so, he The local and regional meaning of the neighborhood was was infuriated at the social affront of challenging him at his not lost on the townspeople.On the one hand, the new houses house.22If the recordsexisted, which they do not, further social became symbols of social aloofness. On the other, they meaning might be inferred from the public separation of the elite neighborhood from the town. The social meaning of build- 20.Octave Thanet [Alice French],The Man of theHour (New york, 1905),33; ing Italianate mansions on the hills above the downtown, the Obituaryfor Mrs. GeorgeSargent, Daaenport Democrat, 15 March 1896 river, and the poorer neighborhood along the river plain could 21. Loren Nelson Horton, "Town Planning, Growth, and Architecturein SelectedMississippi River Townsof Iowa, i833-1850" (Ph.D.diss., Univer- not have been lost on residents of Davenport. sityof Iowa,7978),205-6,215-38,259-74,279-80; Diary of WilliamBarney, 12 April i846. 22.Burrows, "Fifty Years,"in Quaife,Early Day,273-75. 610 THE Alruar-s op Iowa Doittttitt Dauertport 61I THE SOCIAL STRATEGIESof Davenport's elite revealmuch early 1854 with the beginning of the construction of the great more than the state of the community in Davenport, however. railroad bridge between Rock Island and Davenport. The job Their actionsreflected a broader uncertainty and nervousness sheetshave not survived, but the cost of the bridge, estimated at about the regional position of the town they had nursed into between two hundred fiftv and four hundred thousand dollars, existence,as well as about their own role in the town and in the suggests that as many as several hundred workers may have region. There was, to be sure, occasional evidenceof interclass been drawn to work temporarily in Davenport. The overall num- friction in town: the charity work of Ebenezer Cook and George ber of laborersin Davenportrose from just over 100 in 1850 to Sargent and the philanthropy of Antoine LeClaire and john 1,113 in 1856 and 1,380 in 1858, after which the number fell Burrows exemplified one kind of class interaction; the street back below 800. lf one includes spousesand families of many of riots of 1855, 1857, 1858, pri- and 1859 revealedothers. The these workers (though many of them were undoubtedly single), mary drama of the 1850s, however,was the effort to directlhe the new arrivals must have increasedthe town's population by at town's energies toward maintaining and expanding its eco- least three or four thousand.2a nomic function in the region, and to push Davenport to the next The demand for housing, food, and supplies soaredwith level of urban development at the center of a subregional sys- the population, touching off a boom in the local economy.The tem. Ironically, the deep pockets of the town's elite may have number of craftsmenand carpentersworking to meet the hous- spelled their doom. Confident in their ability to pursue success- ing demand increased sevenfold from 1850 to 1856, when ful economic expansicn, and buoyed by speculation that was more than half of the seven hundred craftsmen in town were heating up the local economy, thev expanded far too rapidly. carpenters.As suppliesreached town from the north, establish- Hence their social defensiveness seems even more intriguing, ing a lumber trade that would sustain Davenport briefly until given their blatant excessivenessin expansionary activity after the Civii Waa the town was practicallybuilt anew.Annual between 1852 and 1859.23 construction of new buildings rose from 300 per year in 1853 It is not clear how quickly locals became aware of these and 1854to 600 in 1855and more than 1,200in 1856.ln 1857, social tensions, but they certainly must have been aware of the the boom year,one sourcereports that as many as 1,300build- wave of people who entered town just before and after the ar- ings were put up in town. By 1858,when 1,112buildings were rival of the railroad. combined with uncertain changes in the erected,the town contained 2,375 dwellings and about 2,625 structure and organization of the economy, these newcomers other buildings, or about 5,000 buildings for a population of added to the social and economic tension of rapid growth. In some 16,000people.2s 1853 the beginning of the construction of the Missouri and Mis- Assuming that about half the buildings built in any year sissippi Railroad through Davenport drew two or three hundred were dwellings, a comparison of the number built to the esti- men to town, acceleratingthe population increase that had mated annual increasein population revealsthat the economy begun with the gradual growth of the economy since 1g51. As responded to demand better in some years than in others. In the Rock Island Railroad approached Davenport from the east, more laborers flooded into town. still another wave foliowed in 24.Porter, Rock lsland and lts Surroundings,23, 26-27 , 32-33;Fourth Atrnual Reuieu'ofthe Connrerce, Railroads. an,l Manufactures ttf Cltitago,1855 (Chi- cago,1855), 70; DauenportCity Directory,1855, 1856, 1858; Nathan H. 23.August P. Richter, Geschicltte derstadt Daoenport und des cluntu scott(Dav- Parker,The louta Handbook for 1856(Boston, 1856), 136; Wilkie, Daaenport, enport,1917),664-68; HTII E.Downer. History of Dauenport and\cott Ciunty, Pastand Present, 122; Barrows, "History of ScottCounty," I2I, I2S;Daaen- t2wa, (Chicago, years,,, !_yo]2. 7970),1:985; Burron's,'"Fifty in euaife, Early portDernocraf, 30 August1880. Day,273-75; Obituary for EbenezerCook, Dauenport Democrct,7 October 25.Downer, History of D aoenport and Scott Coutrty, 1:19 4, 195,I97, l9B, 200, 1871; Barrows,"History of Scott County," Il2i DauenportDemocrat, 2I 208;Barrows, "History of ScottCounty," 121; Dauenport CitV Directory, November1881. 1856- 57, 27; Wilkie,Daoenport, Past ard Present,325. 672 THs ANruels or Iowa Downin Daoenport 613

TABLE2 seemed like such a certain boon to the town economy, had cre- ated unanticipated problems and pressures. PopularroN GRowrn aNo Housrlc CoNsrRucrroN,1g54-1g5g I 854 1855 1856 7857 1858 THE ELITE RESPONSE to these economic and social pres- HousesBuilt* 150 sures was to seek, on the one hand, to establish and maintain PopulationIncrease order and control, while on the other hand encouraging During Year(est.) 1,000 4,000 2,000 2,000 destabilizing expansion and development. Efforts by Ebenezer Ratio: Population/ Houses Cook and Ceorge Sargent, and later John Burrows, to expand 3.3 3.3 6.6 J.l 3.6 the local economy by issuing vast amounts of local currency Souncrs:See note 25 + illustrate the hazards of this dual response. I have estimated the number of houses built during each year by assuming that about Like all western merchants, lawyers, or entrepreneurs half of the reported buildings constructed were ho"uses. turned bankers, Cook and Sargent attempted to provide vital financial services that would facilitate trade, stimulate invest- 1856 in particulat and to a lesserextent in 1g5g, it must have ment, and create a dynamic local economy. Initially they had been very difficult for newcomers to find adequate housine. been very active in land salesand investment, with branch real Many newcomers must have been forced to doubre and tripie estate offices in Dubuque, Rock Island, and Iowa City. They up (see table 2).zoYet newcomers continued to arrive in Daven- hoped increasing land saleswould attract newcomers, increase port becauserents were generally lower than in other towns in farming, and stimulate town economic development. In 1847 the.region, despite later reports that rents soared during 1g56 they focused their efforts by opening a bank and directly and early 1857. Furthermore,after the crash of 1g57 flaftened involving themselves in stimulating mercantile and industrial the economies of several towns up and down the river, Daven- activity in Davenport.28 port, which survived the crash, became a temporary oasis amid ,A BecauseIowa law forbade banks to issue currency, Cook depression. Hence, as one observer noted, poition of our and Sargent were initially compelled to generate profits daily increaseof population is made up of mechanics,and oth- through loans and exchange.At the same time, the capital gen- ers,who cannot go to other placesif they so desire.,,Comparing erated by theseloans was essentialfor the economicand social persistence rates of Davenport's laborers to other towns also development of the town's underdeveloped frontier economy. indicates that workers coming to Davenport tended to leave less Limited capital placed restraints on both town development quickly. Thus, these newcomers still must have been able to and on the bankers' profits. So as both the town and the bank find work in the expanding local economy.2T struggled to break free of those restraints, the bankers' self- It appears, then, that bavenport,s boom was a bit more interest and the interests of the town merged; stimulating the controlled than those elsewhere in the west, that town builders local economy through loans translated directly into personal were generally able to keep up with housing demand, and thus profit for the bankers. thai the town was able to offer suitable jobs and affordable The necessary reliance of Davenport's merchants and housing for newcomers.Not until 1858, when the local econ- investors on eastern capital and credit compounded their prob- omy began to slow down, did unemployment begin to rise and lems. They were routinely stretched to the limit of their credit the ho.usingshortage deteriorate to the breakin! point. Only and deep in debt. Whatever specie (gold and silver) circulated then did it become apparent that the railroad. which had

28. Burrows, "Fifty Years,"in Early Day, 220-21; History of Scott 26.Downer, History of Dauenportand ScottCounty, Quaife, I:I97. County,1,1,4-15; Wilkie, Davenport,Past and Present,104-5; Robert 27.Wilkie, present, Daztenport,Past and 140,325. Swierenga,Pioneers and Profits(Ames, 7958),27, 108, 109, 120, 1.21.. UIA THb ANNALS OF IO\,\A DoiLttritr Dauettport 615 in the West was thus quickly snapped up to send back east to meet their obligatior-rs.The result, .o*,'tr. for manv develop- ing economies, was a heavv burde. of debt a'd a chronic short- age of specie. Such currency shortages decreasedconsumer demand, depressed sales,iowered prices,reduced incentives to produce or invest, and increasedunemployment. profits, land values, gror.r'th and development all stagnated, frustrating the ambitions of farmers, merchants, and bankers alike and makir,g it even harder for them to pav off their debts. some town leaders advocated "fiscar" strategiessuch as import substitution, import boycotts, buy_at_home-campaigns, and other tactics to reduce indebtedness. Bankers in manv statessought "monetary" more direct solutions to the effectsof shortages :"11:".y by simply issuing their own currency. Such "wlldcat" currency was issued as legir tender rvhich the bearer of the note could redeemin specieai the bank of issue.The cur- rency was merely a substitute which preserved the speciein the vault for other purposes, such as loans. By acceleratinglocal exchange, preserving specie,and allowing ihe bank to iquire more, while making a profit, notes initially seemed to be the answer to most of the problems resurting from indebtedness. Soon after opening their bank in 1847,Cook and Sargent set out to find a o''or to pursue what might be carled u l"ocul monetarist expansionary policy of banking despite the Iowa law forbidding banks in the state to issue their o-r, .rrrr"r-,.y. The Cookand SargettBank, built in 1857. First they brought in outside money to circulate. Then in the early 1850s they established a bank in Frorence,Nebraska, Inevitably, however, an excess of currency stimulated from which they could issuenotes through their,,branch,,bank inflation, reducing its value and drawing its circulationback in Davenport. With the support of John Burrows, Robert closer to home. By 1857 pressure on the currency had Prettyman, George Davenport, and, behind the scenes, become acute, although the curre-ncywas strong enough to Antoine LeClaire,they made an outlay of $100,000to issue seeCook and Sargentttrrough the bank panic of 7857. Diffi- $236,000worth of their currency.nuoyed by general economic culties began to arise when more than a few people tried to good times between 1854 a^d 1956, the iu"rrency circulated redeem notes for specie.To avoid paying out in specie,Cook freely and in on other banks or contributed to the town,s vitality, apparently con_ and Sargentwere forced to pay out notes firming expectations paper redeemable at dependable mer- that it wourd in time develop into an in commercial debt entrep6t.2e chants elsewherein the Mississippi vallev or back East. In doing so, they lost two prirnary mealls of accluiringmore spe- cie, which was necessaryto support their own operations. 29. Burrows,"Fifty years," in euaife, EarhlDav, 241_44 Either way, the pressureof redeeming so many notes in circu- IHF ANNALs OF IOI1A uown tn ua1tenport or/

lation ciebacking it times.As long aspeople were conJident gradually wore dor^.n their reservesof notes, paper, by several and specie.3o that they could easilyredeem the notesin their possessionfor In.l858 gold . John Burrowsstepped in to providesome relief. He and silver,the notes would be widely ctculated at their issuedhis own checks,wfuch Cook and Sargentoffered at Dar face value.The erchangevalue of the noteswas thus a direct in exchangefor their currency.\4rlren the pe"rson*f,o ,u."liuJ reflection of a populations confidencein the soundnessof the buftows's checkPresented it to Bunows, he then paid out in issuingbank and the integdty of the bankers-3{ Look and Sargentnotes.This procedure allowed the bank some The dynamicsof this local economicexchange reflected trme to 8et ahead of the redemption pressure, to redeem their local patterns of social intenction, hierarchies, and values. The offn notes on other banks, and to acquire others, so as to satisfv actions of the banke!, Iike those of the merchant, reflected his tnose customels Ptesenting the bills. In time, however, even thil . "character."Public life was but a test of manhood. So, too, com- strategy could_not withstand the pressure. Several times in munity social interaction rested on values of rcciprocity, hiemr- l6rd LooK anclSargent ended the businessday with but a few I chy, and honesty.A loan was more than an economictransac- dollals of coiMnercial.PaPelor speciein the bank.31 tion. It was an ixpressionof confidenceand a test of honesty circulationhad reached and responsibiliryThe web of loans,partnerships, and town some-^_Ll""*jT":C.tand -Sargent's i sjuu'uuu By mid-1858 they had retired $200,000of it, curency mirroredthe familial town communityand its recipro- which they burned in the basement to ensur" thut if;o;Jn;; cal web of social connections within a broader "harmony of still the pressurecontinued, ::":::t T^tf l1t""*1]ation Even- interests.'The soundness of local currengr, then, reflecred rhe out Bunows'snotes at soundnessof the socialbody and rheindividuals within it-a Parlll1"Llllijl1 an aclon burrowsl1lglnt:::PPed,Pa)'rng still bitterlv resentedyears lat€t Never parochial point of view challenged by the real dynamics of theless,because the bank owed , Burro*a $t00,000, hu *u" regonal economicchange.35 forced to continue to suDDortit.r, With so much at stake, Cook and Sargent finally appealed l'ressure emetged from another source - in 1858, when the to Antoine r,eclate for a note of endorsement on paper lrom Daily Derflocratattacked the currencv,sinflationary ;; back east.Leclaire provided the note, sincethe bank,sexisting Prices' rents' and the livelihood of iavenport's "ff".i ciizens, and debt to him linked their economic fates. Leclaire, out of self- urged peopleno longer to acceptor deal in.the itre interest,agreed to givethebanka small,short-term loan, but he sameyeat Austjn Corbin, another local banker,announied ""n"ttcf he demandeda moltgageon the bank and the bankers'housesas was no longer confident of receiUnl specie or commercial paper collateral PerhaPshe realized that the bank was aheady in rcturn for Cook and Sargeninotes.Then, after dis_ doomed and felt he needed at least to try to save a bad invest- counting the currency drastically, h"edeclared that h; wo;lJ;o longer acceptit.33 ment while minimizing any further damage. ln any case, These Leclaire's attemPted bailout was much too little too late. . were critical developments.The noteswere, in fact, sirnPly loans from the bank. Much like loans, which can exceed Caught several times with nothing in the bank against continu- by several times the deposits in a Uank Uecauseit is uni[j; tng demands for redemption, Cook and Sargent we!€ forced to that all depositors would want their money on any single day, the amount of currency issued could exceei tfr" urrio""t'oi "pJl andso'id rmpor. ,*,.- ,". ilJ.r?:#trk;":i#tilnHE.iii,$:-*' st.tbid,24t44,252-ss i:;fixx!,:"fr:Hiz.i.",#::";k iw,"tt:i:";:;;{:,w#,i:. 32.Ibid' 254-55, 2s8-60, 284-85, 282. Wiebe,The Opening of AmericanSociety frcn theAdoption ol the Cansntudorl 33.Ibid.,250-53. to theEoe ol Disniofl lNew York,1984), 281 83. Doiuttirr Dauertport 619

;;""r;;;.,*",n",,doors on December15, 185e rumors about the legitimacy of the currency scheme,he and in spite of severalpromises to reopen, the bank never did.36 others pointed the finger of blame elsewhere:on city govern- The outcome of this intricate financial strategy r,vasthe ment, on the system, on outsiders.There r,vas,in short, little financial ruin of severalkey members of the elite. several oth- that local people could do. The courseof eventshad been taken ers of the cohort of 7845,even Antoine LeClaire,were severely out of their hands. Regionalconcerns, and the concernsof indi- damaged.As in other towns, one can be certainthat the suffer- viduals to respond to this regionally oriented disaster,over- ing extendedbeyond the big actorsin the drama to encompass whelmed local interaction and the senseof community it had numerous other merchantsfrom the LeClaire group u, *"jl u, previouslv produced.3T hundreds of ton'nspeople and farmers rvho lost the value of Finally, when the bank failed, those most deeply impli- notesheld or depositsat the bank. Ultimately,horvever, the fail- catedfelt unable to continue to live in the town. CeorgeSargent ure was a cohort failure, and it brought an end to its effective left his magnificent mansion in hock to Antoine LeClaire and control of Davenport. Obsessedwith maintaining and expand- left town to work for the Northern Pacific Railroad at Durant, ing a regionaliy oriented position, stretchedout by investments Iowa, and Duluth, Minnesota, befcre landing a job as a stock in railroads and shifting relationshipsthroughout the regional salesman for the railroad back east and in Europe. Ebenezer and national network, it seems, in the end, that Cook and Cook landed a job as a manager for the Rock Island Railroad Sargentsimply let the situation get out of hand. Their actions before he died in 1871. Austin Corbin went east to restarthis took place as part of a euphoric period of specuiationin which career as a financier. Ambrose C. Fulton moved to Chicago. emotion rather than rational calculation ruled. John Dillon went east for severalyears. Several others also left An even more basic cause of failure was the primarv for lobs elselvhere.john Burrows never really recovered;he actors' failure to understand the changing dynamici of thl spent the next twenty years scrapinga living from a variety of regionalcontext for their actions.The arrivai of the railroad was odd jobs. Even Antoine LeClaire never succeeded in fully a major causeof their confusion becauseit sent such mixed srg- restoring his tarnished reputation; after all, he meant less to nals.But a more generailack of caution was nurtured bv a paro- newcomers and had less power now that his cohort had been chial economicperspective. Members of the local elite assumed brought down. His death in 1861,accompanied by the vacuum that local action couid enable thern to avoid the economic in local leadership,the shift of railhead functions to the west, impact of the crash of 7857, a crisis that taught manv other and the gradual declineof the lumber business,marked the end communitiesa hard lessonabout the flow of pou.erin national of an era in the city's history. The impressiveVictorian funeral and regional systems. Ironically', as the situation rvorsened, march in his honor, with the town's eariy settlers marching Davenport'selite, too, began to turn to the systemfor help, and behind the casketthrough the streetsof Davenport, was a sym- used it to displaceblame. When George Sargentneeded com- bolic funeral for their leadership and the localist assumptions mercial paper to continue operating in 1858,he left for Boston bv which they ruled.38 to open a branch and to take some of the pressureoff the local effort to acquire such paper. Likervise, when townspeople 37.Scott County,Iona, Tax Lists, 1858, 1860;Burrows, "Fifty Years,"in rushed the houses of the mayor and John Burror,r,sin the cur- Quaife,Early Day,250-53, 273-75. rency riot of late summer 1859, demanding an explanation of 38.Earle D. Ross,"George Barnard Sargent," 729-32; Obituary for Mrs. GeorgeSargent, Daaenport Dentocrat, 15 March 1896; Obituary for Ebenezer Cook, DapenportDenrocraf, 7 October 1871; Inventory of the Estateof 36. Burrows, "Fifty Years,"in Quaife, Early Dat1,250,259-60,276-g3, Zg4_ EbenezerCook, 1871, Office of the CountyClerk, Scott County Courthouse, Irling "Fifty !6; A. Erickson, Bankirrgirr Frorrtierloiua, 1836-1865(Arnes, 1921), Davenport;Burrows, Years,"in Quaife, Early Day, 284-86; Richter, 50-55, 57, 64-65; August Richter,"A True Historv of Scott County,,,Dauen- "True History of Scott County"; History of ScttttCounty, 609-70; Richter, port Democratand Daily News, 77,19 December 1859,9,22 Januarv 1g50. Geschichteder stadt Dattenport und descourttv Scott,89-90. Down in Daaew)ort 62\ ,;, ,";;^.;; ;;" ,,.,", history or Davenport berore into the local social structure. the Civil War A lessreceptive strategy would be suggestsa number of general observations con_ to establish a screening process that newcomers must go cerning the interplay between local and regional social strategies through before their and actions. regional credentials could be translated The course and relative balince of this intelplay into local reality, and hence accepted. A resistant strategy varied with the frequency of town and regional interactions. would simply seek During periods to keep the doors to local society closed no of slow growth, confident prosperity, and stable matter what stress it was under. By limiting entrance to regional functional arrangements, or local even ielative siagnation or society, the local decline, local social elite would thus restrict their interaction elites might tend to focus their energies o"r-,.orrori- with regional society and, they hoped, continue to exert control dating local social cgntr.ol and clari{ying local locial arrange_ in a situation according ments or strucfures. to the criteria they had established. During such periods the elite, or any other On the one hand, therefore, one could negotiate with oth_ social group in town, would assume that social change ir, to*. ers in the system and reorient paralleled that local society to the broader, more elsewhereand that its meaning was defled on its generalized, impersonal criteria of a regional society, usually own terms. But during periods of rapid gro*th, changing func_ centered at the metropolis. tion, or economic on the other hand, one could sim- crisis, when newcomers froodeJ tJwn or ply retreat from regional society,isolate town society,and townspeople left in droves for other hope opportunities, the structure that locals of local would not mind the social improsion causedby such society could be overwhelmed'or undermined, invalidat- ing local g-hut"gy:Although this strategy often resulted in local society assumptions and making local concerns seem 1 triviar in falling behind the times, it did not always comparison to the more urgent threaten local survi- need to maintain the town socle- val ty's or power. position in the regional system. when the survival of the Some strategies tended to unify and alter town was at stake, local elites the nature of would focus their energy on group accepting, and class interaction in town in a positive way; others screening, placating, compromising with, o."Lrr"r, tended to individualize town society, encouraging individuals rejecting or resisting newcomers. Likewise, tnJy might breech to break free from the restraints local social etiquette of group and clasi control and by encouraging, or helping, in oider to dis_ act in their own best self-interest. In such an atmosphere, what- suade, those ready to leave for other towns. ever collective Further strategieshad been undertaken for the collective afield, local elites might rethink the state of their improvement of the town would, of course, dissolve. Encasing interactions with others-across the system, and thus begin to the internal formulate linear process of social development in any town, regional sociar strategieswith the goal of redeiining therefore, was this web of interactions between locals themselves in a regional context. and out- Merely dlciding tt ui ir,"y siders, needed occurring both at home and across the system. These to reestablish contacts with acquaintancesor friends in interactions also provided the local process of social another city would be an example develop- of such a strategy.In the for_ ment mer and the local social structure with a broader, more imper_ case,their education in social self-awarenu* oi.rr.r"d right sonal, and hence probably their real meaning. at home; in the latter case,it tended to occur acrossthe region. That But in "self- meaning came through clearly when, in the mid_ both situations the local group acquired deeper 1850s,the citizens of Davenport embraced the railroads, only to knowledge, developed a new self_image, and formulated new find out that the railroads did not care much for local strategiesof action and behavior .o...r.,r, on the basis of that new and that locals image. In could do little to alter the priorities of the chi- either case, these strategies could, given the circum- cago decision makers. For a while in the late 1g60s Davenport stance.s,lead to positive or negative consequences. joined other river towns with rail connections to the west ai simplest regionally oriented an . -Th. strategy encountered entrep6t for wood locally was shipments from Minnesota and wisconsrn. to accept newcomers and activery issimilate them although Dubuque and Burlington seemed to benefit more OZ/ THE ANNALS OF IOWA

from that trade.3eGradually the town slipped into an economic eddy in the new system,providing local trade and manufactur- ing, growing only slightly until after 1890.It had becomea pro- vincial outpost almost before the townspeople were aware that Opportunity and Achievement it had happened. in At each stageof Davenport's early history, its people were NorthwestIowa, 1860-1900 compelled to confront regional reality and formulate strategies to get the better of it. Early on thesestrategies were informed by a desire to recreate a complete local economy and society in Wrllrev Srmc their town. Davenport would become, in their view, a micro- cosm, a recreation of economies and societieselsewhere. Their UPON HIS RETIREMENTin 1900, Ciry attorneyCon- community would, they hoped, operate according to the "val- stant R. Marks began to compile material for a history of his ues of the town" in which a "harmony of interests"ruled. That community's pioneer generation.Marks did not count himself would enable them to act independently in the broader sys- among that distinguishedcompany, for his arrival in 1868 fol- tem.aoBut when the intense interaction with the system dis- lowed the pioneers by more than a decade. The people who rupted the process of local development and began to shape a interestedMarks were those who took part in the land rush that peculiar, discontinuously constructed economic and social brought hundreds of young men in searchof new homes to the milieu, a senseof declining control and order set in. And when, upper Missouri in the 1850s.Several dozen of them still lived in after 1858, the entire societywas pushed on its side by the dic- Sioux City nearly a half-century later,and they provided Marks tates of the new regional system, and everyone in town reori- with an unusuallv rich sourceof information about life in the ented their concerns from supporting local reality to surviving old steamboattown. Marks devoted severalyears to collecting amid the new regional one, the character of local life was their reminiscences,which he edited and published in 1906in a altered forever. volume that can be termed a collective biography of Sioux Local analysis that seeks only to discover the nature of City's founding fathers.1 community, the interaction of classes, and the character of As one might expectin a book of its kind, Marks's history social control, will, like the assumptions of early townspeople, is given to a mawkish filiopietism. Like other local histories of only reinforce the false image of continuous communities and the era, Marks offers fulsome testimonialsto the courageand lead to historicaldead ends.It was the actionsof the townspeo- vision of the pioneers.Nevertheless, the book does provide an ple in the regional sphere that mattered. Their responsesto unusually candid portrait of the land speculatorsand town change in the outside worid and the way they translated those boomers of the Civil War era. Marks quotes his subjects at responsesinto local reality were at the center of their historical length, and the pioneers' o\,vnaccounts of the early years are experience.That dynamic was also the primary means of creat- marked by blunt honesty about the pecuniary motives that ing a distinctive local reality. That historical effort continues guided them. In the founders' own eyes,migration to the upper today. Only the assumptions, goals, and expectationsare different. 1. C. R. Marks, Pastand Presentof SiouxCity and |NoodburyCouttty (Chicago, 1904). The notes used by Marks to prepare this volume for publication are available on microfilm at the University of Iowa Libraries, where they are cat- 39. AgnesM. Larson,A Historyof the\Nhite Pine Industry in Minnesota(Min- alogued under the title, "Reminiscencesof Sioux City Pioneers," C. R. Marks, neapolis,1949), 705, 707, L22, 725. comp./ Marks Collection, 40.Wiebe, The Opening of AnrericanSociety, 784. THE ANNALS OF IOWA 50 (Fali 1990). @The State Historicai Society of Iowa, 1990.

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