BookReviews and Notices 427 CHARIAITJ. BanNEs,Life Narratiues of AfricanAntericans in Iowa,by Katrrna Sanders 428 SarrvA. I(rrr Crnrpsn, Cahokia:Mirror of theCosmos, by Terry A. Bamhart 429 lowa-Portraitof theLand,by Lori Vermaas 430 PAULA.JoHruscaxp, Tle Natureof Nebraska:Ecology and Biodiuersity,by John The Riseand Fall of the BoosterEthos Pearson 431 SrrpHsNIR. GRausARo,no., Minnesota, ReaI and Inugined: Essays on theState in Dubuque/1850-1861 andlts Culture, by KristinElmquist 432 PATryLopw, Indian Nations of Wisconsin:Histories of Enduranceand Renewal, by PatrickJ. Jung 434 MARKDIEDRICH, Ho-Chunk Chiefs: Winnebago Leadership in an Eraof Cisis, TnaornyR. MaHomsy bv Edward I. Pluth Brons WnrrINGYouNG, ObscrLre Belieoers: The Mormon Schism of Alpfuus Ctiler,by BarbaraHands Bemauer ON THE AFTERNOON of July 18, 1855, the citizens of Du- 436 Frovn, Writing thePioneer Woman, by JaneSimonsen ]eNul buque, Iowa, and "distinguished" railroad 438 EnasrusF. Braort, Ham,Eggs, and Corn Cake: ANebraska Tbrritory Diary,by Ryan excursionists from Roenfeld across the region gathered at a "barbeque picnic" on a hill 439 BIonNGuNNan Ostceno, ro., America-Americ a Let ter s : A N onu e gian- Ameican above town to celebrate the completion of the Illinois Central FamilyCorrespondence, byJames S. Hamre Railroad to Dunleith, Illinois, the town just across the river from Srs\,TNE. WoopwonrH, WhileGod ls MarchingOn: Tlu ReligiottsWorld of Ciail Dubuque. The picnic was the culminating event of a "railroad WarSoldiers, by Gardiner H. ShattuckJr. festival" to mark the "new birthday" of their "beloved city of Damsr D. Rrw, Housesftom Books:Treatises, Pattern Books, and Catalogs in AmeicanArchitecture, 1738-1950, A History anda Guide,by Fred W. Peterson the mines." Boosters proclaimed that Dubuque, having become Kttr,rngnrvD. ScHutor ETAL., EDS., Strangers at Home:Amish and Mennonite the western terminus of the system, stood at a critical moment Womenin History,by RachelWaltner Goossen in its history. Now was the time for all citizens to put aside their 445 FnaNGnacr, CarryA. Nation:Retelling the Lrfe, by KathleenM. Green differences to implement a booster policy that would make Du- 447 METANTESUsAN GusrersoNl, Women and the Repttblican Party, 1854-1920,by buque the great emporium and metropolis of the Northwest.' MichaelLewis Goldberg Like boosters across the urban West in the mid-1850s, Du- M9 MARvLtrrHERr WrNcsRD, Claiming the City: Politics,Faith, and thePower of Place in St.PauI, by Bill Silag buque's leaders understood that the approach of the railroad al- 450 RrnsccaCoN ARD,Benjamin Shnmbaugh and tle IntellectualFoundations of Ptfulic tered the dynamics of regional development and thus raised the History,by PagePubram Miller stakes in the competition among towns for reg"ional hegemony. 453 MARKNEUZIL, Vieuts on theMississippi: The Photographs of HenryPeter Bosse,by As a result, boosters intensified their efforts to exhort towns- PatrickNunnally people to support a booster system of improvement and rail- 454JormE. Hnt-lwas,Keokuk and the Great Dam,by Joln O. Anfinson road companies working together with city government to pro- 455 Droucto NoplN VamEs,Barrios Notefios: St. Paul and Midwestern Mexican Communitiesin theTzuentieth Century, by EverardMeade mote town development. As the cost of these efforts outstripped 457 Jorn C. SKrppER,MeredithWillson: The Unsinkable Music Mnn, by fohn E. Miller 458 Maxrwr, Saaingthe Heartland: Catholic Missionaies in RuralAmerica, by frrrnw 7. DtLbuqueExpress and Herald,13, 14, 17,18,19,20,22, and27 July 1855;Robert Philip I. Nelson F Klern, ed., Dubttque:Frontier Riaer City (Dubuque, I9U), 130-34;George 461 LyNwooDE. Ovos, Tfu FamilyFarmers' Aduocate: South Dakota Farmers Union, Nightingale to GeorgeWallace Jones, L5 May 1856,George Wallace Jones Pi- 1,91+-2000,by Kimberly K. Porter pers, StateHistorical Societyof Iowa, Des Moines 462 DoUGLASFlnnrs& ChangtngWorks: Visions of a LostAgiculture, by Douglas Hurt THE ANNALS OF IOWA 61 (Fall 2002).O The StateHistorical Societv of Iowa.2002. 380 Tns ANruars oF IowA The BoosterEthos in Dubuque 381 tantly. He stood firm in his belief in a political economy of autonomous actors, unfettered by government policies or re- straints of any kind, investing their own capital without incur- ring debt, securing contracts with a shake of the hand, and ex- changing goods and services for cash or short-term notes among acquaintances. To Bonson, patronage, nepotism, and personal arrangements, rather than creating potential conflicts of interest, insured economic actions by friendship, mutual trust, and self-interest.

FOR BONSON, and to a lesser extent the Langworthys, the path into the booster ethos lay through the realm of local poli- tics and the adjacent culture of the bench and bar. In Dubuque, the power broker at the intersection of these two realms was George Wallace Jones. From his arrival in 1836, two years after GeorgeWallace lones. From the State HistoricalSociety of lowa,Iowa City. Bonson and the Langworthys, Jones had been a core member of the "fathers of the bar" elite that shaped the structure of the lo- cal bench and bar and dominated Dubuque's Democratic Party. leagues' achievements. Such events cultivated impartial profes- Although he did not practice much law, as a Democratic Jones, sional behavior as well as solidarity and civility among men one Party member, was part of a powerful group that also included knew personally but against whom one competed intensely. Stephen Hempstead, Wamer Lewis, Thomas S. Wilson, and Pe- Through such close interactions, members of the core group ter Engle. That group controlled most of the town's litigation of town lawyers and judges forged deep friendships and, as and regularly received appointments to judicial or public office. "brethren of the bar," became a "sort of a family to itself."tn Jones was also an influential member of the "old guard" who For Jones,of course, such involvement was also politics. Be- controlled entrance to the local bar by selectively sponsoring cause members of the bar formed a pool of skill and knowledge newcomers, distributing cases, and strucfuring partnerships." that provided Dubuque and northeastem Iowa with its political Known as "the General," was skilled in cultivating cama- Jones leadership for a generation, understood that in predomi- raderie and fraternity. \Mhen he was home during court terms Jones nantly Democratic Dubuque, the course of town politics-and or recessesfrom Congress, he participated in "mock debates" the cliques and factions within the party-was shaped by inter- and "moot tribunals," and threw "awfully fashionable parties," actions among members of the local bar. appointments "levees," and "dances" where lively conversation, singing, Jones's as territorial judge in 1833 and then as territorial delegate to roustabouting, "indulg[ing] . . . freely" in the "flowing bowL," Congress in 1835 enabled him to build a power base by giving and even "frolics" were often the order of the evening. Like him access to patronage in territorial offices, which he distrib- other bar members, he also gave and attended "blow-outs," uted to "friends" and associateswho supported him. He almost "oyster suppers/" banquets, and excursions to celebrate his col- ended his public career in L838 by serving as a second in the

13.A. T. Andreas,Illustrated Histoical Atlas of theState of lowa (Chicago,1875), 14.Lincoln Clark to Julia Clark, 21,February 1855, Lincoln Clark Papers,Hunt- 424,365-46,368;Edward H. Stiles,Recollections and Sketches of NotableLawyers ington Library SanMarino, CA; Stiles,Recollections and SlJonathan Cilley in Washington, D.C., but patronage saved him: in 1841 his "friends" repaid his efforts on their behalf by getting him an appointment as clerk of the territorial court. jones used this po- sition to reenter politics and, through his efforts to keep the General Land Office in Dubuque, acquired sufficient claim to the office to be appointed surveyor general in 1845, from which he acquired the title "General" Jones.Fearing a Whig victory in 1848 would end his tenure as surveyor general, Jones ran for and was elected U.S. Senator, defeating fellow Dubuque bar member and former Iowa Supreme Court Justice Thomas S. Wilson by a single vote in the state legislature.'u For twelve years, Dubuque politics was shaped by Jones's efforts to control local patronage. He reinforced his use of pa- tronage with an aggressive social agenda and the sheer force GeorgeWallace lones hostedregular socialeaerfis of his personality. The "Chesterfield gentleman" of the Senate for his friends and supportersat his "princely and Washington society, established himself in Dubuque Jones residence"on ltilien Aaenue.From the Stqte His- as the "the mark and model" of local society by building a torical Societyof lowa, Iowa City. "princely residence" along Julien Avenue on the hill above the town in L84T.Invitations to dinners and soireesat Jones'shouse were much sought after. Attendance at his levees or open nents charged,"Jones' tool[s]" or "sycophants."At leastone of houses-where Jones, "full of flattery, buncombe, and stori-es," his supporters went so far as to name a son after him. It is fair to "facile courtesy," and excessive "bowing and scraping" pre- say that Jones'ssupporters surrendered their political and social vailed as the "pet of women" and the "idol of 1nsn"-y7ns 1s- autonomy in refum for personal loyalty to the man who gave quired for his supporters. Jones viewed politics as a continual them a politicalidenfity and career.'' negotiation and exchange among male political "friends." FIe Almost every local Democrat'scareer was shapedby the worked tirelessly for his friends and expected them to do so for nature of his relationship with Jones.The careersof Thomas him with unquestioned loyalty.'u But his supporters were more Rogers,William Barney,Caleb Booth, Warner Lewis, Ben Sam- than mere "friends;" they were "Jones men" or/ as his oppo- uels, John I. Dyer, Lincoh:rClark, and Richard Bonsonwere sup- ported by Jones'spolitical tacticsand shapedby the rise and fall of his power.'u Those who remained loyal rose and fell with 15.John C. Parish, GeorgeWallace lones (Iowa City, 7972),157-70,31-35; An- dreas,Ilhrstrated Historical Atlas of lowa,365. 1.6.Stiies, Recollections and Sketches,96; Augustus L. Chetlain, Recollectionof 17.John J. Dyer to GeorgeWallace Jones, 21 March 1850,George Wallace Jones SeaentyYears (Galena, 1,899), 38; Parish, GeorgeWallace lones, vir, 32; Virginia Papers;Lincoln Clark to JuiiaClark, 1.5December 1852,3 January and 5 April Clay-Clopton,ABelle of theFifties: Memoirs of Mrs. Clayof Alabama,Couering 1853,Lincoln Clark Papers;Parish, George WaIIace lones,280. Socialand Political Life in Washingtonand tlrcSouth, 1853-66 (New York, 1905), 18. Andreas, IlhrstratedHistorical Atlas of lowa, 366; Stiles, Recollectionsand 80-81;Josiah Corzett, "My Recollectionsof Dubuque, Iowa, 1846to 1.890,"268, Sketches,819, 4I5, 824,161'43; William J. Barney,Diary, 6, 8, 18, 19,23,26, and StateHistorical Society of Iowa, Iowa City; JaneTaylor to JohnTaylor, 7 Decem- 31January and 24 and27 February1846, State Historical Society of Iowa, lowa ber 1.857,John W. Taylor Collection, New-York Historical Society,New York City; W. J. Bamey to GWJ, 21 February 1849,George Wallacejones Papers; City; Robert Wiebe, "Lincoln's Fraternal Democracy,"in john L. Thomas,ed., Childs, History of DtftuqtLeCounty, 838; Richard Bonson,Drary, I-25 December AbrahamLincoln and the American Political Tradition (Amherst, }lA, 1986),19-27. 7852,1,7,and 8 October1853. 384 THg ANNRTS OFIOWA TheBooster Ethos in Dubuque 385

Richard Bonson had more success Jones.Those who steered a more independent course or op- balancing an independ- ent course and loyalty to Like posed Jonesmoved in the opposite direction. L:rvariably,the in- Jones. Clark, Bonson got his start in politics as a "]ones man" dependent-minded,while treated cordially by Jonesin public, and made quick gains because of initial influence. set up a reluctant were exiled from Jones'scircle and denied accessto political Jones's Jones Bonson as state office or parry influence. legislator from Dubuque County in 1852. Less concerned than Over the years/ "ex7les"gradually coalescedinto an opposi- Clark about the appearance of dependency, Bonson enjoyed be- ing with other "Jones men" such as john tion faction. Judge Thomas S. Wilson becameJones's first oppo- G. Shields, Judge John King, Ben Samuels, William Bamey, nent when he stood against Jones for the U.S. Senatein 1848 J. George Nightingale, John judge and camewithin one vote of defeating him. That event set off a J. Dyer, Ceorge Williams, William Lovell, Richard Mob- longstanding bitter personal enmity and prompted the emer- ley, Charles Corkery, Thomas McKnight, and Patrick Quigley." Thus Bonson, as a representative gence of a Wilson faction that worked hard to defeat Jonesin of Dubuque's immigrant the electionsof 1852and 1858.As the political feud intensified, culture, interacted with the Main Street culture of the bench and the opposing factions hardened and added key recruits. The bar, led by George Wallace Jones; and both were conscious of independent Stephen Hempstead and Thomas Rogers would the dominant presence of the genteel culture headed by the Langworthys. Through join Wilson's faction; and Dermis Mahony and JosephB. Dorr politics, as well as by forming associa- founded t}:reDubuque Express and Herald "for the purpose . . . of tions, clubs, churches, and other instifutions, the interests and identities of the men involved in Dubuque's fighting Jones."" three distinct elite power in this contestis illustrated by the short-lived subcultures intersected, allowing the town's pioneer entrepre- Jones's promote careerof Lincoln Clark, a New England lawyer who arrived in neurs to establish and a common booster ethos. Dubuque in1.847by way of Alabama. Jonesquickiy took Clark under his wing, choosinghis "friend" as lJ.S.congressman from AT FIRST, Dubuque's booster policy and state and national the Dubuque district in 1850.At first Clark enjoyed the benefits politics were linked. The early booster elite more or less ran of his new status as a Jonesinsider: invitations to parties,levees, Dubuque's city govemment in the 1840sand early 1850s.In ad- strategy meetings, and political caucuses"behind the curtain dition to the Langworthys, that group included a small coterie where great men relaxed."Jones also sent Clark a flood of re- of boosters from the Main Street elite: ]esse P. Farley, a pioneer ports, books, and papers to educate him. Eventually, however, merchant and three-time mayor; Caleb H. Booth, Dubuque's Clark, a proud man, bristled at his dependency.When he pub- first mayoq, who was also involved in lumber milling, mining, licly opposeda railroad bill proposedby |ones,Jones cut Clark and the land warrant business with William J. Bamey; Peter A. off completely,withdrew his support, portrayed him as a sup- Lorimieq, a mineq, smelter, and merchan! Major Richard Mobley, porter of his opponent Thomas Wilson, and ended his career. Dubuque's first and most prominent banker; plus a number of Clark retumed home a year later, humiliated and mortified. Democratic lawyers and politicians, such as Warner Lewis, Placedunder the "ban of oligarchy," he knew he was "finished" George Nightingale, John Shields, and David S. Wilson.'Early politically.'o boosters acted on the premise that city govemment was a "tool

Courseof Hon. GeorgeWaIIace lones, United StatesSenator from the Stateof Iowa 19. Parish, GeorgeWaIIace lones, 34, 180-82, 4446;M. M. Hoffman, "The Wil- (n.p.1852),31-32. sonsof Dubu que,"Annal s of Iowa21. (1935), 237. 21.Richard Bonson, Dtary, l-25 December1852,I,7,and8 October1853. 20. Lincoln Clark to ]ulia Clark, 31 January 10, 13, and 25 February 5 and 21 22.Childs, History of DubtLqueCounty,7\ffi7,838, 850,881; Andreas, lllustrated july 1852,3 January 28 February and L7 March 1853,Lincoln Clark Papers; HistoncalAtlas of lozoa,36G68; Childs, Erontier Riaer City,74,81,9I. FrancWilkie, A Bief Sketchof theLife and Seroicesand a Det'encelsic) of thePublic 386 THr ANNars op Iowa TheBooster Ethos in Dubuque ZgT to promote growth and commerce." The miners among Dubuque vast private capital without any need to consult local or state boosters focused their attention in the 1840s on gaining control goverrrrnent.Yet corporations continued to have trouble secur- of federally owned lead-mining lands and improving their city's ing enough working capital. They also encounteredlegal resis- harbor to enable Dubuque to compete with Galena as a shipper tance to private entities operating on such a broad scile. such of lead to St. Louis.'Requiring legislation and financial support issuesbrought the debateback to government.s from the federal government, both efforts brought Jones's inJlu- The Illinois central Railroad Bill, presented to Congressin ence to bear on local affairs and connected local efforts to the 1850by Illinois senator stephen Douglas, tumed the debatein a formulation of national policy.'n new direction. Jones'sinvolvement intensified, and the booster Jones's involvement in booster affairs intensified when ethos in Dubuque was transformed.The proposed federal gov- boosters across the Midwest ran into strong opposition in Wash- ernment grant of public lands to a private corporation-in this ington to the idea of the govemment undertaking or funding casethe Illinois Central Railroad-was defendedon the grounds intemal improvements. Such opposition was typically voiced that the grant, by enabling the company to build the iilroad, by Democrats, at least until Jones and other westem Democrats would serve the "public good." The act thus transformed cor_ called for a change in public policy. Although they failed to porations into quasi-publicentities. passed in 1g50,the bill es- convince the federal government to pursue harbor and river tablisheda precedentthat capitalistsand entrepreneursacross the improvements, the shift in focus to railroads in the late 1840s West rushed to follow. As "railroad fever,, swept acrossIllinois renewed the debate. and eastem Iowa, Jonesensured that Dubuque would catch the But the emergence of the corporation as a new organiza- "fever." At the last moment, he askedSenatoi Douglas to add an tional framework to build railroads, a necessity given the vast amendment to the bill to extend construction to ttre Mississippi cost of the undertaking, reoriented the debate. Across the Mid- Ty"r opposite Dubuque, thus making Dubuque rather thin west, private corporations were chartered to undertake railroad Galena the terminus of the Illinois central. Recognizing that a projects: the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad in 1846; the connection to the Mississippi River would strengfhen the argu- Alton and Chicago Railroad in 1847; and the Northem Cross ment that the bill served a "national interest,,,Douglas ugr"6d, Railroad in 1848.Jones himself called meetings in Dubuque to apparently without taking into consideration the iesponse of encourage local boosters to buy stock in the Galena and Chi- Galena boosters.Dubuque residentswere immediateiy aware cago Union Railroad. Soon thereafter he organized his own of the implications as Jones's"stock . . . advance[d]one hundred company, the Keokuk and Dubuque Railroad, to build a south- percent"and his "enemiesha[d]nothing left them.,,ru north railroad. The organizational benefits of the corporation Dubuque boosterism and national - politics would coincide were obvious: concentrated management in a board of direc- from the passageof the Illinois central Bill in 1g50to the pas- tors,limited liability to directors and stockholders, and accessto sageof an Iowa Land Grant Bill in 1856.Howeveq,local support for Jones'snorth-south Keokuk and Dubuque Railroad*#,.rt- 23.Einhorn, Property Rules,44; Childs, Frontier Riuer City,67 25. William 24.Childs, FrontierRiuer City,69, 73; Mentor Williams, "The Backgroundof the B. to_Charles.S,Hgmpsleaf, 31 July,1849, Charles S. Hemp- stead P,apers,Chicago^Ogden Chicago River and Harbor Convention, 1'847,"Mid-Ameica 30 Q9a0' 223; H-11tg1tc{Sogietp Childs, Froitier RiaerCity,77;pariih, ceorgewallace Resohiionsof the Legislatureof Iowa, Relatioeto the Completionof the Harbor at lones,36i7,4r-42; Alankachtenberg, TheIncorporition of Amer- ica:Culture and Society_in Dubuque,larumry25,1849,30th Cong., 2d sess.,House Misc. Doc. 14; Portion of theGL.Ided Age (New Uork, SAZ1,4,G7;MasinBray- man Papers, town plan of both Dubuqueand Dunleith,Iilinois, 33d Cong.,2d sess.,Senate ChicagoHistorical Society. theSecretary of War,In contpliartce 26- Parrsh, G,eorgeWa\ace Ex. Doc. No. 1, 1854;Jefferson Davrs, Reportof [yy, ZS,_RobertW. Johannsen,Stephen A. Dotrglns with a Resohrtionof the Senateof the 28th ultinto, the Reportof W. R. Palmer,Re- (New York, 1973),370-12;Hobart C, Carr, EarlyHistory of lowi Railroads(liew spectittgtlrc Improuenrcnt of theHarbor of Drtbuque,March 3, L857,34thCong., 3d York, 1981),39, 53-55; J. J. Norman to George\ryullac" ioies, 17 Februaryig50, sess.,Senate Exec. Doc. 66, 1857 . GeorgeWallace Jones Papers. ANNAIS OF IOWA 388 THg TheBooster Etlrcs in Dubuque 399

by the Illinois Central Bill and by the founding of the dermined Meanwhile, Dubuque boosters worked to thwart renewed Chicago and Rock Island Railroad in Davenport in 1851, the efforts by Galena boosters to repeal Jones's amendment to the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad in 1851,and the Peoria Illinois Central Bill. Dubuque boosters observed with satisfac- and Oquawka Railroad in Burlington in 1852.Some locals, such tion-and some trepidation-the Illinois Central's determina- as Linioln Clark, argued that Dubuque should build a road tion to crush Galena boosters' resistance to "the corporate be- runrLing west from Dubuque. suggested, however, that Jones hemoth." Perhaps taken aback by this display of corporate Iowans supporting each of the competing railroads-including power over local interests such as their own, Dubuque bdosters to (and thus literally at cross his own, which ran perpendicular proceeded to form their own railroad company.r" purposes with) the other newly proposed railroads-join forces In April and . early May 1853 Dubuque 6ooitu.s called a series advocate a variety of land grants crisscrossingthe state in the io of railroad meetings to organize a riilroad company. George "national interest." In the spring of 1'852,boosters from Burling- Wallace Jones and his "old friend,, Lucius Langwbrthy en_ ton, Davenport, Dubuque, and even Keokuk rushed to Wash- thralled those in attendance with visions of Dub-uque as the D.C., to lobby for the Iowa Land Grant Bill in Congress. ington, eastern terminus of a road that stretched across Iowi and then Becausethe contradictory plan reflected local jealousies rooted Nebraska Territory, through the south pass of the Rockies to in obvious local interests, they were unable to argue convinc- san Francisco. spite fn of a vigorous debate about the political ingly that the grant fulfilled a "national" interest. They also and economic feasibility of such a company, the Dubuque and faced strong opposition from supporters of Galena. Harsh criti- Pacific Railroad Company was chartered on May 16, f gSg, un_ cism from Thompson Campbell, Galena's U.S. congressman, der Iowa's Articles of Incorporation. Jones,two ouiside investors, debate that highlighted the local, touched off an emotional and some of Dubuque's most committed boosters-Lucius rather than national, interests behind the bill. As a result, the Langworthy, H. W. Sanford (land speculator), Jesse p. Farley Iowa railroad bill failed to pass." (then mayor of Dubuque), F. S. Jesup, Robert Waller (a friend of Richard Bonson), and Platt smith-*ere appointed to the board. Smilh,,a lawye1, was elected to organize a^d.r-r^ the company.,o THE FAILURE of the initial effort to acquire a land grant had Dubuque boosters were determined to maintain local conlrol three immediate consequences: it finished Jones's Keokuk and over the Dubuque and Pacific Company. This set them apart Dubuque Railroad; it focused Jones's and other Dubuque from boosters in Davenport and Burlingion. There, Chicagoans boosteis' attention on securing the promised connection to the and New Yorkers w91e glanled majority control of the Illinois Central; and it convinced some Dubuque boosters that Chlcago and Rock Island Railroad, the Burlington and Missouri they needed to organize their own railroad company and secure River Railroad, and, somewhat later, the peoria and Oquawka. per_ from Congress a land grant extending to the west." Dubuque boosters pursued the first part of this new strategy by courting Illinois Central officials with offers of land and capital to ensure 29. Thrs_storyis told in the Mason Brayman papers,general correspondence, construction of the railroad to Dunleith, Illinois. They also in- Jr-rne.1852-August 1854, Historical society.5ee arso Charlls Hemp- stead Papers,Chicago Historical-Chicago society; Mahoney, proaincial vited railroad officials to visit Dubuque. Liues, zlg-i9; and the tollowing lettersin New York office, In-Letters,Illinois Central Coliec_ tion, Newberry Lrbrary, Chicago: Henry s. wiltse and william y. Lovell to Kobert Schuyler,March 1851;H. W Sanfordto RobertSchuyleq, 21 August 1851;Citizens of Gaiena,Petition to ChangeTerminus of the Road to GalEna, 27.Childs, Frontier Ria e r City, 77-7 8; Mahoney,P r ou in cial Liu e s, 236-39. 16 April 1852;Nicholas Dowling to Robert Schuyleq,5 June 1g52;H. W. San_ Lincoln Clark Papers;Childs, ford George 28. Lincoln Clark to Julia Clark, 6 June 1852, fo wallace Jones,29 May 1852;and Georgewallace iones to Illi- FrontierRiaer City, TB;Thomas S. Nairn to GeorgeWallace iones, 9 January nois CentralRailroad Board of Directors,June 1g52. 1851,George Wallace Jones PaPers. 30.Childs, Frontier Riuer CitV,711r 390 THr ANNals or lowa TheBooster Ethos in Dubuque 391 haps Dubuque boosters' frustrations about goverrunent control move/ smith asked the mayor (a railroad director) to formallv of mining lands or their awareness of the vagaries of the mar- ask the county judge (a friend of the railroad) to cail for an eleJ- ketplace explains their commitment to maintaining ownership tion to vote on a public referendum on the question. He then and control over local economic development. Or perhaps the launched_a campaign of public meetings with "great tark about scaleof their efforts and doubts that the river would be bridged a railroad to the Pacihc." Not surprisir,gty,voteis approved the at Dubuque protected them. In any case, they imagined Du- proposal by a 5 to 1 ratio in town and 4 to 3 in the county. Con- cluding buque as a mostly locally owned regional economic center run that Dubuquers had decided that "we a.e [r,owi a rail- by and for the benefit of all townspeople. Comrnitted to defend- roadpeople," Smith rented an office on Main Streei printed up ing this ideology of the "way of the town," a hallmark of what letterhead,a1d got down to the work of being a "railroad man.,,,', would later be called the "old middle class," they bristled at the he was ^ .,|l.though :l:ce-ssful in gaining an electoralmajority, thought of their town becoming just an outpost or stop along a smith's requestfor public funds unwittingly interjectedtro o.r- road controlled by outsiders. Hence, the efforts of the directors luque and Pacific's business strateg"yinto a divisive political of the Dubuque and Pacific Railroad, from its establishment in debate on public policy that undernrined boosterr' to 1853 through its reorganization in 1864 and its subsequent de- foster unity. This was particularly troublesomebecause, "ifo.t,until a mise in the late 1870s, to maintain control became a symbolic land grant bill was almost assured,smith was unable to use struggle of local resistanceagainst national economic forces." evidence of construction progress to rally support behind the The firm's local agenda, however, made it difficult for many railroad' Nor, smith gradually realized, co"ia' n" depend as Dubuquers to view it as anything more than a particular self- much as he had on George Wallace jones to unify Dubuque interested group of investors, as opposed to a coalition of indi- Democratsbehind the railroad.It was apparentthaiJones,s po- viduals representing a broad public interest. Platt Smith would litical power had reached its apex. The iallout from the failed effort to acquire quickly discover this when he launched a three-pronged strat- a land grant in 1852,the perception that Jones egy to acquire capital from townspeople to build the first 30 was serving his last term in the u.s. senate,the passageof the Kansas-Nebraska miles of the line, putting the company in a position to be able to Act, and the rise of the Republicanpuity 1Io*u fulfill the obligations of a federal land grant. First he passed the elected a Republican goverrror in 1g54)weakened lb^ei,s'con_ hat among the directors and received promises for $500,000. trol over the party and invigorated a variety of factilns. The ris- Then he "got up the stock subscriptions" among the people of ing power of other Democrats,whigs, and Republicansinter- knew, ."y Dubuque and surrounding counties. Smith howevel, that i".l:9 1 dynamic into booster affairs. As the suppressed stock subscriptions and promises to pay often took months to political ambitions of others,including Richard Bonson una tr," generate cash, and neither would bring in enough to meet the Langworthys, were given new life, ttreir commitrnent to act for exorbitant cost of railroad construction. Therefore, he resusci- the public good and support a boosterpolicy weakened. tated an old idea once tried to support harbor improvements: he asked the city and county goveffunents for public funds. Smith proposed that the city and county kick off the stock subscription OPPOSITION to the Dubuque and pacific Railroad'sagenda qygryy. drive by buying $100,000and $200,000of railroad stock, respec- :u*" A group_of longtime opponents of George lriunu." tively, with public funds. Before others could question the Jones,led by David s. wilson and limes Burt, fileda lawsuit

31. Wiebe,Tlrc Opening of AmericanSociety, 299; Platt Smith to C. B. Raymond, 32.Andreas, Illustrated Histoical of roya,367;Dubuque County a. Dubttqrte and Pacif-c llly 25 January 1858,Dubuque and Pacific Railroad Company, Dubuque Offtce, Railroad,4Greene 6; Richaid Bonson,'Diary,19 rrauyi"J +-u"a e p Out-Letters,1856-1861, Illinois Central RailroadCollection, Newberry Library; Jr-rne1853; Plan Smith to Jes.se Farley,23 August 1g57;Dubudu" u"Jpu"ri" REort of theDubuque and Pacific Railroad Company (Dubuque, i858), 19. Railroad,Illinois Cenhal Collection. TheBooster Ethos in Dubuque 392 THEANNALSOFIOWA 393

against the railroad in Dubuque district court' They charged the river, nor the formation of a Board of Trade could mediate tliut rtutu law prohibited the city and county, just like the state the directors' differences." government, from holding stock in private corporations' By Shortly thereafter, Lucius Langworthy resigned from the issuing bonds to buy railroad stock, the city and county were Dubuque and Pacific board. Then, to force the railroad depot allowing a majority to illegally tax a minority. matter, he formed a land company and petitioned the city coun- platt smith successfullydefended the railroad in both the cil to grant city land at Seventh Street to either the Dubuque and district and state supreme courts. He argued that since the con- Pacific Railroad Company or the Dubuque and Westem Rail- stitution permitted iounties and cities to issue bonds for extra- road Company, which he intended to establish. Responding to ordinarily costly bridge and road projectsand, becauserailroads a request from an ad hoc people's committee formed to agitate were, by implilation, "roads," such a use of public funds was the depot issue, the new Board of Tiade tried to draw the sides legal. By sanctioningthe use of public funds to pursue boosters' together by calling for * series of public meetings. The meetings, gJulr, DubuqueCounty a. Dubuqueand Pacific Rnilroad tumed the however, backfired by only deepening the antipathy between Iorporation into a quasi-public-policy-makingentity. The ruling the two sides. Supporters of the Dubuque and Pacific Railroad transformed the political economy in towns and cities across faction opposed Langworthy's petition on the grounds that Iowa and further west. The promise of public funding gave life such a grant did not, like a railroad grant, provide public ad- to a variety of companies and intertwined booster policy and vantage, and thus would increasepublic debt solely for private localpolitics." gain. The Langworthys, irked by the criticism, ignored further Mor" opposition camefrom within the board of directors.in mediation by the Board of Tiade. On September 10, 1855, they a discussionabout where to locatethe depot and what route the formalized their opposition to the Dubuque and Pacific Rail- road should take west out of Dubuque, the north-south split road by incorporating the Dubuque and Westem Railroad among mining interestsquickly surfaced.on one side, Richard Company. Although local papers took the formation of another railroad company as Bonsoir,Richaid Wal1er,J. Emerson,and probably H' W' Sanford evidence that Dubuque was now a true advocatedthat the depot be locateddowntown near lower Main railroad city, the Dubuque and Pacific saw the Langworthys' street,with the line pioceeding west via Couler valley and cat- railroad as a threat and rushed to begin construction-with the fish Creek valley, *h"ru they owned land. on the other side, help of yet another loan from the city." Meanwhile, as Lucius Langwoithy, JesseP' Farley,and others argued for a de- progress was made in pursuit of an Iowa pot uptowri, with tracks going west.out through Langworthy land grant bill, local land values began to rise. Boosters rushed ilollow. Dennis A. Mahony, editor of the DubuqueExpress and to buy land in the city around the proposed depot sites of the Herald, rebuked the directors for "split[ting] up into selfish two railroads, and then established land companies that paral- leled cliques and coteries" and for acting for their own self-interest the support for the two roads. In May L855,James, Lucius, without regard for the "interests of the people'" But neither and Solon Langworthy incorporated the Dubuque Harbor Im- Mahony,s public criticism, the hastily organized rajlroad festi- provement Company, or the Seventh Street Company. In re- val to.blub.ut" the arrival of the Illinois CentralRailroad across sponse/ Richard Bonson, Jesse P. Farley, and several "friends" associatedwith the Dubuque and Pacific Railroad began buying

34. Childs, FrontierRiuer City, I78; DtLbuqueErpress and Herald,7 June and 6 andPacific Ra.ilryad,4 Greene 6; MichaelA' Ross' 33.Dthtrqtre County a' Dubuque and 10July 1855. ,,Casesoi Shutt"."d Dreams:Justice Simuel FreemanMiller and the Rise and 35.Dtrbuqtte Express and Herald,26 and 27 August, and 3 and 10 Septem- rati a MississippiRiver Town," Annalsof Ioyo 57 (1998),7t3-15,230-39; Ju1y,7 ber 1855;City CouncilMinutes, 18 August 1855,October 1855, Wahlert Memo- OiU"q","r and pacijii RailroadReport,1857; Alan Trachtenberg, Tle Incorporatiott rial Library LorasCollege, Dubuque; Childs, Frontier Riaer City,135-38. ofAmerica,4. 394 THEANNarsorIowa TJrcBooster Ethos in Dubuque 395

land around Jones Street in order to dredge the harbor, fill in more railroads would be built and more improvements made. sloughs, extend streets, and make improvements. They became Such a "liberal" "railroad policy," which "encourage[d] the con- informally known as the Jones Street Improvement Company. struction of roads in every possible direction," would secure for In January 1856 they met to formally incorporate themselves as Dubuque "a trade that will in time be as important and valuable the Dubuque Harbor Company. The directors included Charles to us as was that of the whole North-West to St. Louis," making Gregoire, brother-in-law of George Wallace Jones, and two the former "city of the mines," the great "rnarket" of the region.tt members of the Dubuque and Pacific Railroad board; other di- rectors were stockholders of the Dubuque and Pacific Railroad, THIS BOOSTER POLICY OR SCHEME was firmly rooted in including both associates of the Jones faction and Yorkshire the premise that local boosters would pay for friends of Richard Bonson. With even the cautious Bonson con- it and control it. Its success hinged on two things. Boosters, organized vinced that "the Harbor Improvement will make a great deal of in com- panies intricately intertwined by conflicts of interest and money," the inside call for a subscription drew a rush of inves- per- sonal connections, had to clarify the interaction among various tors, including George Wallace Jones and many other "Jones companies and the city government, gain popular men." All of them watched in amazement as shares soared in support, and muffle local opposition. But first they had to secure passage value in anticipation of the passage of the Iowa land grant bill of the Iowa Land Grant Bill. Without it the that would essentially capitalize the Dubuque and Pacific Rail- scheme was doomed. Rising land prices were the yeast that would make road and secure Dubuque's fufure. In between the two oppos- the whole structure expand and generate profits. Having learned ing companies, a third company, the Dubuque Central Im- from their experience in 1852,as well as from attending several recent provement Company, run by Robert Waples, Jesse Farley, and regional railroad conventions, that they needed Franklin V. Goodrich, each of whom had interest in the Lang- to speak the language of "national interest" to convince worthys' company, began to operate informally in early 1856 out-of-state con- gressmen to vote for a federal land grant, George Wallace and was incorporated in July 1857.'u Jones and others made the final push for the passage of a federal Thus by early 1856,as land values appreciated, three sets of land grant for Iowa in the spring of 1856, booster companies with competing but interlocking directorates But by then the national and regional and stockholders stood poised to secure public lands and funds political climate had changed. The completion of three railroads to the Mississippi, from the city council, the state of Iowa, and the federal govem- combined with the beginning of construction ment. They also sought public and private monies through west of the riveq, had created a growing bipartisan, albeit stock subscriptions in order to make public improvements that sectional, consensus among northem Democrats and Republicans would further appreciate the value of lands held privately by in support of us- ing public land grants to fund the building a transcontinental their respective companies, as well as by individual directors of of railroad. This broadened support for each company. With the profits generated, the directors would a land grant bill. That win- ter in Washington, Thorington become rich, and through reinvested capital and prosperity, James of Davenport and George Wallace Jones submitted to the House and Senate respectively bills that would give the state of Iowa four grants of land to be 36^._Dttbuq-ueElpress and Herald,25 Augrut 1855;Cig Council Minutes, 1 July 1855;Childs, Frontier Riaer City,758; History of DubuqueCounty,532; Dubuque used to fund railroad construction stretching across Iowa. The County Incorporation Records,County Recorder's Office, Dubuque Cor:nty Burlington and Missouri Railroad, which citizens had subscribed Courthouse,Dubuque; "Articles of Incorporation,"2 January1856, and Min- for orrly on April 7,1856, would begin in Burlington; the Missis- utes,Board of Directors,Dubuque Harbor Company, 1 April, 1856,State His- torical So_ciety,of Iowa, Iowa City; Richard Bonson, Diiry 1 January 1856; Thomas S. Wilson to George WallaceJones, 4 March 1856,George WaUu." 37. DttbuqueErpress and Herald,1 March 1856;George Nightingale to George Papers. Jones WallaceJones, 15 May 1856,George Waliace Jones Papers. 396 THEANNals oF Iowe TheBooster Ethos in Dubuque 397 sippi and Missouri Railroad in Davenport; the Cedar Rapids The meeting voted to reject Langworthy's resolution, and the and Missouri Railroad in Lyons; and the Dubuque and Pacific bill in the state legislature passed after a brief debate, thus open- Railroad in Dubuque. Construction of all four lines was to pro- ing the way for the Dubuque and Pacific to begin construction.3e ceed weshaiard to points on the Missouri River. After much less Most Dubuque residents rejoiced at the passage of the bill, debate than in 1852, the bills passed the House and Senate.On but the task of clarifying local arrangements and muffling local hearing the news in May 1856,Dubuque lawyer George Night- dissent still remained. Concerned that the "public good" was being sacrificed for ingale wrote to his friend George Wallace Jones,"we feel here in private gain, local populists charged in the Dubuque that your untiring vigilance in our interests has made DubuqueHerald nnd ExVressthat the Dubuque Harbor Company and other "piratical "threatened us what we are and what we expect to be." As a result of Jones's companies" to rule the city" efforts, he continued, "things look brighter for our beloved 'city and destroy "existing interests" through "broken promises and of the mines,' every day add[ing1 to our importance, wealth, violated compacts." The company's directors demanded to and improvement."t* know who was responsible for this "base slande1," but to no Six weeks later, the debate shifted from Washington to the avail. In mid-May, the Dubuque and Pacific Railroad responded Iowa statehouse.Almost everyone expected the special session by increasing its board to 13 members and stipulating that one of the Iowa legislature to accept the federal Iowa Land Grant of the new directors be a representative of the city and county. Bill. Governor James Grimes, however, first wanted to clarify Dennis Mahony, editor of the Dubuque Expressand Herald, ex- which companies would receive the land grants and upon what pressed outrage that the directors were trying to deprive the terms. Iowans and Dubuquers were divided on those issues. city and county-who owned a majority of the stock-of "all Jones's power was still sufficient to ensure that Dubuque and voice and control in the management of the road." In response, Pacific supporters, such as Richard Bonson, dominated the the city stipulated that any company that received a grant from Dubuque delegation. hr a last-ditch effort, however, the Lang- the city had to permit an agent of the city to examine their books worthys tried to disturb the unity of the delegation. A group regularly to determine if they were indeed using public funds of Galenans also sought to disrupt the proceedings from the "solely for the purpose of construction."'" gallery, but the Dubuque delegation quashed their effort. The city goverrunent did still possess real power. It owned Meanwhile, supporters back home staved off a rearguard tracts of "public land" along the river acquired from the federal challenge by the Langworthys. After most Dubuque and Pacific goverrunent a decade before. It could generate revenues from supporters had left for Iowa City, the Langworthys called a property and sales taxes. And it could call elections. Thus it public meeting "to discuss the railroad interests of Dubuque." maintained the critical power to capitalize the railroad and har- At the local meeting, Lucius H. Langworthy, director of the bor improvement companies by floating public bond issues, Dubuque and Western Railroad, presented a resolution to run contracting out work in return for grants of city-owned land to the federally funded line from a depot on Fourth or Fifth Street the companies, as well as simply granting or selling land. The out through Langworthy Hollow. Major Mobley, speaking for city-as mediator, watchdog, and a source of capital-was the the Dubuque and Pacific, argued that citizens had already effec- linchpin of the booster system. The various improvement and tively chosen the Dubuque and Pacific route. He expressedcon- fidence that the board would act in the "agricultural, manufac- turing, and commercial and social interests of northem lowa." 39.Wiiliam Salter,The Life of lamesW. Grintes(New York, 1876),80-82; Dubuque Etpressand Herald,l and 11july 1856. 40.Dttbuque Express 38. Parish, CeorgeWaIIace lones, 4&49; Charles Mason, Diary, 6 April 1856; nnd Herald,21March and24 May 1856;Richard Bonson, Diary, 25 March GeorgeNightingale to George WailaceJones, 15 May 1856,George Wallace 1855;Minutes, Board of Directors,Dubuque Harbor Com- TonesPapers. pany,25 March 1856;Minutes, Dubuque Cify Council,15 October i855. 398 TssANNalsorIowe TheBooster Ethos in Dubuque 399 railroad companies issued bonds to support improvement and capitalists floated debts to build new banks, hotels, and busi- construction projects and contracted with the city to improve ness blocks. In downtown Dubuque, 163 buildings were fin- city lands near those held privately by the companies. Lr return, ished or under construction in 1856. The core of the city was the city would grant the land to the company outright, or the essentially rebuilt. Major Mobley built a new two-story bank companies would purchase the land for cash or comPany bonds building on Main Street. Robert Waples "bought up all the land with a mortgage on company land as collateral. In addition, of and house[s] he could-pay[ing] but very little cash down." course,the companies paid taxes on the land. Businessmen expanded their operations. Even the cautious As city policy and the operations of private companies be- Richard Bonson borrowed heavily from Major Mobley to stimu- came even more elaborately intertwined, everyone in town be- late his business and at year's end "was ten thousand ^i.i.g came more interdependent. As more residents equated private better off than I was one year ago." The Dubuque and Pacific and public interest, more funds funneled into the booster sys- Railroad went into debt to hire the lawyers and engineers who tem. In the expansionary environment of 1856, each element of would determine the road's route through the county. Then the this booster system rapidly took on a heavy burden of debt: the railroad hired contractors, builders, and common laborers. Fi- city govemment to support the railroads; the railroads to build nally, there were supplies: the iron and wood needed to build (now made more urgent by the land grant stipulation that they the road. Along the proposed route, the various improvement must complete 75 miles of track by December L, 1859, and 30 companies would fill in and improve lots. With all this activity, miles each year after that for five years); and the land companies Dubuque rode atop a remarkable boom in 1856, and its popula- to buy land and make improvements. As long as land values tion soared to more than 15,000.An excited Lincoln Clark, for- rose, city revenues would benefit from increased taxes, continued mer congressman and now a "railroad man," wrote to his land sales would generate revenues to help build the railroad, daughte4, promising to keep her "informed of the rise and pro- and higher profits would help retire private indebtedness while gress of our westem Gotham!"" encouraging all involved to accrue new debt to deepen their investments to meet the ever-expanding needs of a growing THE BOOM did not last, however. No sooner had most Du- metropolis. Interwoven by overlapping directorates with nu- buque businessmen gone into debt to foster economic develop- merous conflicts of interest, this booster system of railroads, ment than financial rumblings in the East the foundations improvement companies, and goveffunent attracted capital that shook of Dubuque's booster system. Early in 1857 the railroad stoked an upward spiral of speculation and appreciating land price of stocks leveled off and then began to drop. Eastern values. Boosters in Dubuque rightly believed that the entire fu- banks tight- ened credit, cut off new loans to the ture history of the city was at stake."' West, called in debts, and began to limit the westem All through the summer and fall of 1856, in the midst of the currency they would accept in pay- ment for obligations. By mid-spring, the boom, anything seemed possible. Driven by ever-rising land credit squeeze had be- gun to draw specie from the West to the East, leaving westem prices, investors went into debt to local banks to buy land and economies with only rapidly depreciating currency. Inflation itocks and bonds that would be sold again for a quick profit' soared, money supplies shrank, and land and Instead of using profits to retire debt, investors took on ever stock prices plummeted. Land sales stopped. Companies and individual more debt to buy more land and stocks. Many individuals, the Langworthys included, purchased or built new houses. Other 42. Childs, Frontier Riaer City, 149-50, 1,55;History of DubuqueCounty, 530; Conzett, "My Recollectionsof Dubuque," 249, 261;Richard Bonson,Diary, 1 4L.Exlibits and DoumtentsRelating to the Dubuqueand PacificRailroad Company january 1857;Lincoln Clark to Catherine Clark,29 December 1856,Lincoln (New York,1857), Appendix D; Mahoney;Proaincial Liues,245. Clark Papers. 4OO THE ANNALS OF IOWA TheBooster Ethos in Dubuque 401 investors alike found themselves with unmarketable depreci- strapped themselves, were indifferent, inaccessible, and unwill- ated assets,no revenue, and heavy debts.'3 ing to lend a hand. To Smith, their blas6 attitude about the com- By late spring 1857, the pressure in the East tfueatened to pany's impending failure indicated a willingness to let it fail so bring down the entire edifice of the booster system-the railroad they could pick up what was left of the company and run it and improvement companies as well as the banks, businessmen, themselves. hrfuriated and deeply aware of how his own, the and local goverrrrnent that supported them. As local bankers felt company's, and Dubuque's self-interest were now intertwined, pressure to meet obligatiors back east, they called in loars from Smith pondered the consequencesof such a course for Dubuque: individuals who were forced to pursue those who owed them or \Atrhatis to be done?. . . Our road can be sold on executionif we do assets,if they could, in order to pay' Thou- liquidate depreciated not meet our liabilities. . . . In the meantime property and business sands of individuals and businesses faced bankruptcy. They de- in Dubuque will drop and languish-our fine new hotel will remain layed liquidation by promising to pay from their remaining assets vacant-improvement companiesmust stop-the salesthey have ---€ven as interest on outstanding debts and taxes due on land or made will fall through, one line of daily boats will do the business housing continued to bury them deeper in debt. As taxes went done by two. . . . the property of Dubuque which is now assessedat unpaid, soon even the city government was starved of revenue ten millions will not be worth five. Businessmenwill fail. . . . the and unable to pay its employees. The relative simplicity of the railroad will . . . fail. . . in a few days unlessrelief comesimmedi- chain of debt that tied Dubuquers to each other and to national ately. Dubuque will be set back ten years and will probably never capital markets thus enabled the pressure to strike with alarming recover.nn speed at the pillars of the local booster system-the Dubuque The only solution Smith saw was for the Dubuque directors and Pacific Railroad and the Dubuque Harbor Company. Again to save the company and Dubuque by averting, delaying, or the future of the city was at stake. This time, however, the option putting off liquidation. There were only two ways to do this: go was not whether or not Dubuque would become the emporium into their own pockets to come up with more working capital, of the northwest, but whether it would survive at all. or find a way to liquefy their remaining assetsthat would allow By early July 7857, Platt Smith recognized that the Dubuque them to stay in business by temporarily satisfying creditors. and Pacific Railroad Company urgently needed an infusion of Smith desperately called on the "manly vital interests" of Du- funds to allow it to continue to meet its obligations and avoid buque's boosters to save the "enterprise" from being "ruined." two New default. Earlier he and the local directors had allowed Privately he told J. P. Farley that not to "come to the rescue" York investors on the board as trustees. Their purpose was to sell would be the "most foolhardy and unmitigated piece of stupid- Dubuque and Pacific bonds in the New York and European capi- ity and want of foresight that was ever heard of." FIe wamed tal markets. News of poor bond salesin New York and Europe that if the directors did not, he would wash his hands of the left Smith with only two options. He could go back to the New whole matter, and "hope in that event the place will sink," as he York trustees for help and risk losing local control of the com- believed it certainly would.n' pany, or he could go back to the beleaguered local directors. He In September Caleb Booth and Platt Smith undertook a two- decided to go to New York. During his desperate and frustrating pronged strategy. First they approached the directors, as well as two-month-long trip, the financial pressure tumed into panic local banks and the Dubuque Harbor Company, for more contri- with the collapse of the Ohio Life and Trust Company. Smith de- spaired about saving the railroad company's credit. The trustees, 44. Robert Bensonto Abraham Hewitt, 5 and 10 July 1,857,and Platt Smith to J. P. Farley,24 and 25 July and 1 and 31 August 1857,Dubuque and PacificRail- 43.History of DubuqueCounty,53I; Dubuque Express and Herald,27May 1857; road Company,In-Letters; Minutes, Dubuque City Council, 15June 1857. RobertBenson to Abraham Hewitt, 5 and 10July, and Platt Smith to J. H Colton, 45. Platt Smith to J. P.Farley, 21 and 31,August 1857,Dubuque and PacificRail- March 1858,Dubuque and PacificRailroad Company, Dubuque Office, In-Letters. road Company,In-Letters. 402 THEANNALSoFIOWA TheBooster Ethos itt Dubuque 403 butions for a subscription of stock. Since H. L. Stout and Dickey turn, Smith approached the Harbor Company on October 19 Waller, members of the board of the Harbor Company, and Rich- to ask for a major loan, offering a mortgage on railroad lands as ard Bonson, a major stockholder/ were, like others, also stock- collateral. He intended to use the loan to issue more bonds and holders in the Dubuque and Pacific Railroad and had railroad a railroad currency to enable the company to continue operating. bonds among their assets,the Harbor Company felt compelled Reacting to Smith's proposal, Richard Bonson and some mem- to agree.Smith raised more capital by using the company's only bers of the board expressedconcems that currency issued by the assets-stock, bonds, and land-as collateral to issue more railroad would not be able to sustain its value. They feared that bonds. Aware how impossible the "money famine" made it for the loan would never be repaid and that the failure of the rail- anyone to buy goods and services or pay creditors, Smith de- road could drag down the Harbor Company with it. As a pre- cided to issue Dubuque and Pacific Company certificates-in caution, they asked permission to check the railroad's books.o' effect, IOUs-to pay workers, contractors, and creditors. He Liquidity remained the core of the local economy,s pre- hoped the certificates would circulate as currency with no pres- dicament. More and more local businesses tried to survive by sure of redemption on the company. But no sooner had he un- giving IOUs. The local newspapers did so for a while but found dertaken these first steps than another wave of pressure hit. that few people would accept them except for a ring of close When people stopped accepting company certificates, and as associatesand friends in the booster system, among whom the promises to buy stock and bonds went unfulfilled, the company IOUs circulated like a transferable personal note or bill of ex- found itself back where it started. Richard Bonson remarked change. Devoid of cash like everyone else, the city issued IOUs that he had "never new [sic] so tight times for money." Facing as a kind of city scrip that they paid to workers and creditors, increasing public pressure, Smith had no choice but to go to the hoping the scrip would circulate until the city could redeem banks-not to ask for loans, but to try to mortgage what he them with cash. But cash-strapped city workers started selling could from railroad and even his personal property to stay the city scrip at a discount and then petitioned the city to make afloat.ouWhen even the banks hesitated, Smith played the only up the difference, causing the scrip to fall in value to only about card he had left. fifty cents on the dollar. When the city's efforts to susiain the Most Dubuquers considered the Dubuque Harbor Company scrip's value---either by funneling it through city banks or by --on the basis of its land holdings, capital improvements, capital issuing treasury notes on the city's good name---came to noth- assetscontributed by its directors, stocks and bonds, and mini- ing, it was clear that the city, like most local banks, lacked the mal debt-to be "very wealthy"; sounder, in fact, than most people's confidence to sustain the value of its scrip. Even so, the banks in town. Indeed, several weaker banks had already failed, city continued to_issue "city scrip" in payment to city workers and Major Mobley's bank tottered on the brink of failure. The for another year.4E Langworthys, cautious as ever, protected themselves by limiting the currency they would accept, curtailing any further loans, and renegotiating their limited obligations in New York. Their actions 47. PIatt smith to John Duncombe,26 october 1857,Dubuque and pacific Rail- tightened the vise on the local economy. With nowhere else to road C_ompany,In-Letters; Iowa Credit Report Ledger 31,Ii. G. Dun and Com- pany Collection; Minutes, Board of DireCtors,Dubuque Harbor Company, 5 !911"*U". and 19 and22 October 185| Richard Bonson,Diary, 5 Septembeq,9, 46. Minutes, Board of Directors, Dubuque Harbor Company, 5 September 12,14, 15, 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, and31 October, and 23 Novemberi852.' Bonson,Diary ST.tlg_fgllowing proceedings, L857;Richard 5 September,9October, and 23 November1857; 18 Petitions to CltI Council in Dubuque Ciry Platt Smiih to JesseFarIey, 27 and 29 September and 26 October 1857,Du- Council,Wahlert Ltbrary,I,oras Coliege: H. A. Jordan,4 Aigust 1g5Z Sheet buque and Pacific Railroad Company, In-Letters; "Source Material of Iowa Comrnissioner's Men, 10 August 1857;John Hurley, 16 Oc-tober1g57; and History: Mahony-SmithLetters on the Dubuque & Pacific Railroad,1857," Berry and Plater,October 7857. See also Minutes,Dubuque Citv Council.29 lozualounml of History 54 (1956),335-60. September,26 Octobet,and 19November 1857. 404 THE ANNALS oF IowA TheBooster Ethos in Dubuque 405

Only scrip issued by a sound company that people trusted people from starvation." \Alhen the Harbor Company notes would maintain its value and relieve some of the liquidation were printed and signed by the officers on Novemb ei 12, tt.e pressure. Local bankers knew that, except for the Langworthys, company was besieged by requests for loans in currency. Even none of them had sufficient collateral to issue currency to re- Richard Bonson "took one of them today,, as payment and then lieve the local "money famine." Recognizing this, "near all the used another to buy something, thoughhe observed that it was bankers" of Dubuque (except the Langworthys, who refused to the first paper ..ri.e.,.y fre h"ad .rrj ir, 15 years and feared issue bank notes) approached the Dubuque Harbor Company what the result would be.'o on October 14,1857,to ask it to issue paper money. ln a seriesof Rather than placing the notes into general circulation, the tumultuous meetings, the members of the board-including company decided to funnel the notes, as loans, through the Richard Bonson, who opposed the idea-debated how to re- hands of many of Dubuque's prominent boosters. The Ifarbor spond to the "application of bankers and resolutions of a meet- Company quickly loaned the Dubuque and pacific Railroad ing of citizens and business men asking of this company the Company $50,000, although Bonson feared that they would issue of their post notes to relieve the wants of our business." regret it. Even though Bonson complained that the company, Aware of the risks but also aware that without some currency to "influenced" by personal feelings and conflicts of interest, was meet obligations they too would be foreclosed upon, the des- granting loans without proper security or collateral, the direc- perate directors passed a resolution agreeing that they would tors took care of many of their friends. Taking mortgages or "issue notes in sums of 1 to 10 dollars payable one year from stocks in the Harbor Company or Dubuque and Pacific Ra-ilroad date at office of company and that they will loan their credit on Company as security, they loaned $12,000to William G. Stewart securities to their satisfaction . . . from $1 to $500,000as in their (a close friend of Bonson's); $10,000 to Major Mobley (whose judgement they may be justified and at a rate of interest not ex- bank was near collapse); 910,000to Caleb H. Booth u'd Wiiliu- ceeding ten percent per annum to be paid in advance." The Du- J. Barney; $5,000 (later increased to $2000) to George Wallace buque Harbor Company-with no loans from the East or reli- Jones; $2,500 to James Huff; 91,000 to Dennis Mahony (which ance on bond sales,but with assetsof cash on hand, land, and allowed him to continue publishing); ard $500 to J. b. Bush. stocks and bonds-had decided "to go into banking."ae Bonson, even after all his objections, took 96,000. Within days Thus, the Dubuque Harbor Company, founded ostensibly to the company's directors had loaned 946,000on top of the $50,0b0 benefit from the appreciation in land values generated by the loaned to the Dubuque and pacific, for a total of $9O,OOO.ln pro_ building of the railroad, and thus supported entirely by local viding loans to its directors and their friends with collateral in capital and land and immune to outside liquidation pressure, either the Harbor Company or the Dubuque and pacific Rail- now stood as the financial lender of last resort to save the Du- road Company, the directors allowed their friends to pay some buque and Pacific Railroad and the entire beleaguered booster of their debts in order to save themselves. on Novemb.i 21,,th" system. Constructed to promote the economic development of company then put thousands more notes into general circulation. Dubuque, the booster system now struggled to save the city's A few days later, on Bonson's motion, the Dubuque Harbor economy. Most Dubuquers--{ven Ihe Dubuque Expressand Her- Company decided to limit its loans to $150,000.s1 ald, which opposed banking on principle "in all its fsry15//- supported issuing currency because it seemed the only way to "save the business comrnunity from ruin and thousands of 50. DttbttEte-Elpre2s and Herald,28October 185| Richard Bonson,Diary, 20 Octoberand 12and 13November 1857. 49.Minutes, Board of Directors,Dubuque Harbor Company,5 Septemberand 51.Richard Bonson, Drary 4,13,16, 18,20,24, and2Z November1g5| Minutes, 19 and 22 October1857; Richard Bonson, Diary, 5 September,9, 12,74,75, 76, Board of Directors, Dubuque Harbor Company, 13, 14, Ig, 20, ZZ, and.27 17,19,21,23,24,and 31 October, and 23 November1857. Novemberand 1 December1857. 406 THEANNALS oF IowA TheBooster Ethos in Dubuque 407

The economic vise tightening around the city was paralleled Lincoln Clark accepted and began using them to meet some of by the collapse of George Wallace Jones's political power. His his obligations. Dennis Mahony was able to continue publishing need for relief and his use of his house as collateral signaled his his newspaper. William J. Bamey and Company, pressed to the declining power. Jones faced a growing coalition of opponents. wall, "very short in everything" and not "able in some casesto Anti-Nebraska factions led by Ben Samuels and Lincoln Clark pay deposits in currency similar to that deposited," were able to took the rise of the Republican Party in Iowa as a call to break meet their obligations and_protect their assets by paying out ranks from the Jones regime and join Thomas Wilson's men. In "Dubuque Harbor money."" Thus they survived. the midst of the economic panic, the Wilson faction's campaign But even as the Harbor Company currency seemed to create against Jones intensified. Relations between the two increasingly some breathing room, the intense pressure on the company to bitter opponents reached a low point when, during a heated issue still more indicated how many Dubuquers had reached discussion "on the street" in Dubuque, Judge Wilson lost his desperate straits and were yet to be helped by the circulation. temper and "struck at General Jones with his kaine [sic] and Other companies, sensing the pressure, recognized the potential broke it." Although this local version of Preston Brooks's "can- retums on issuing notes. After all, since notes usually depreci- ing" of Charles Sumner in Congress harmed Wilson's chances, ated, a note issued for one dollar and bought back several independent Lincoln Clark, Bonson's close friend William Stew- months later at 75 cents represented a 25 percent return for the art, and Jones's longtime opponent Dennis A. Mahony were company. Following the lead of the Dubuque and Pacific Rail- nominated and ran for the state legislature. A few months later, road, the Dubuque and Westem Railroad issued "construction the state legislature elected JamesGrimes, a Republican, instead bonds" to pay workers and creditors. In December they began of Jones,as Iowa's U.S. Senator.With Jones out of the way, nu- issuing notes, signed by Lucius Langworthy, and continued to merous Democrats "bolted" and formed new factions. Richard do so through March 1858.In November the Harbor Improve- Bonson, feeling the loss of Jones's support, decided to try to go ment Company, also funded by the Langworthys, began issuing it on his own. Drawing some support from a remnant of the notes. The Dubuque Central lmprovement Company issued its Jones factiory he and William Stewart placed forward an "inde- own notes in January 1858.Meanwhile, city scrip still circulated. pendent" slate of candidates. Charging that this so-called in- Within several weeks, therefore, a local economy that had been dependent slate acted in the interests of the Dubuque Harbor starved for cash in October had a city scrip and five circulating Company and the Dubuque and Pacific Railroad Company, not currencies backed by local companies. Although such confusion of the people, J. B. Dorr and Dennis Mahony led an emerging did not prevent locals from trading and satisfying many obliga- courthouse clique to oppose them.u' tions, they could not use any local currency to meet regional or Meanwhile, as people began to use the Harbor money to national obligations-. Outside pressure, therefore, still threatened pay bills, meet obligations, and purchase goods, they got some the entire economy.'o relief from the pressures they were under. On December 3, These regional pressures were highlighted on December 5, Richard Bonson thought he might be able to "collect my debts 1857, when Dubuque residents awoke to the shocking news that with it," and thus avoid foreclosing on friends and associates. Major Mobley's bank had closed its doors. Mobley's failure sent The following day, while the railroad started paFng creditors with Harbor notes, Bonson started payng for lead with them. 53. Richard Bonson,Diary 3 and 4 December1857; Lincoln Clark to Ju-liaClark, 28January and 1 and 18February 1858, Lincoln Clark Papers; Iowa CreditRe- port Ledger31, R. G. Dun and Company 52.Lincoln Clark to JuliaClark, 2 January1856 and 10 February1857, Lincoln Collection. Clark Papers;Richard Bonson, Diary 19 and 26 August and 12,13,14, 15, and 54. Richard Bonson,Diary,2 December1857; Dubuque Express and Herald, 4 and 21 September1857,23 arrd 27 Septemberand 3 and 11October 1859; Dubuque 18 November 1857;Minutes, Dubuque City Council,26 Octoberand 19 No- Erpressand Hera\d,73,22,23, and 29 September1859. vember1857 and 1 February1858. 408 THr ANNals oF IowA TheBooster Ethos in Dubuque 409

holding on a while about putting out any more notes." Jane Taylor, writing to her son John at the Nashville Military Acad- emy, considered the news noteworthy enough to report. Major Mobley has struggled along with his business dilficulties until yesterdaywhen he closedhis doors. Everybody feels a great deal of sympathy for him as he is a man very much respectedfor his kind heart and integrity of character.There have been several more assignmentsduring the past week, among which Stantonand Morgan and Quigley and brothers.Your father thinks they will get through by the utmost economy and vigilance,but, of course,they are making nothing, only buying to sell somethingfrom what has alreadybeen accumulated and savea businessreputation.ss As more and more businesses failed and individuals were forced into bankruptcy and liquidation, hundreds more drifted toward ruin. Continuing pressures from outside creditors com- pelled local creditors to lean more heavily on local debtors. Feel- ing intense pressure,local citizens called a public meeting to im- plore the Harbor Company to "provide for the redemption of our post-notes at Chicago and St. Louis." H. L. Stout responded that they could not. The Dubuque Expressand Herald urged townspeople to accept the harbor money at par to "establish a confidence in the country" and argued that if "eastem creditors" would "take produce in payment of their debts, the demand for eastem exchange will abate, and the commercial community will be reliel'ed." By year's end, even as, in Bonson's estimation, the "Harbor money [was]beginning to pass some bettet," scores of businesses had failed and hundreds of individuals found themselves completely ruined, forced to the wall, or encum- ss$.,$s bered by obligations they could not meet. One ruined bank During thePanic of 1857,the Dubuque Central Improaunutt Company, president, perhaps Major Mobley, caught the sense of shame the DubuqueHarbor Company, qnd the Dubuqueand PacificRnilroad and humiliation that swept through Dubuque by commenting, Co.all issuedcurrency such cts tlrcse notes in a desperateattempt to keep in regards to the 1857 season, that "the bottom fell out, and the Dubuqueeconomy afloat. From Dean G. Oakes,Iowa Obsolete every one was left financially without even a fig-leaf."'u Notesand Scrip(N.p.; Society of Paper Money Collectors,Inc.,1982). 55. Richard Bonson,Diary 5 December7857; Jane Taylor to John Taylor,7 De- cember 1857,John W. Taylor Collection; Conzett, "My Recollectionsof Du- shock waves through the beleaguered town. Richard Bonson, buque,"248. hearing the news, remarked that "everyone feels bad about it." 56. Richard Bonson,Diary, 14 and 31 DecemberIB57; Minutes, Board of Direc- Some company members were so afraid that they "feel like tors,Dubuque Harbor Company,14 December 7857; DrtbtLque Express and Her- ald, 76 December7857; History of DubuqueCowrty, 53I-32. 470 THE ANNALS oF IOWA TheBooster Ethos in Dubuque 417

AT THE BECINNING OF 1858, as "money matters" seemed to cept even those, the company began paying creditors in bonds be "coming to a crisis," nearly everyone in town, save perhaps or land deeds. By May 1858, the comPany, having used most of for the Langworthys and Richard Bonson, found themselves in its notes, and sensing local reluctance to accept any more harbor predicaments similar to those felt by Lincoln Clark, as an indi- notes, increasingly used its various Dubuque Harbor notes to vidual, and the Dubuque and Pacific Railroad Company, as a settle mostly out-of-town debts in the hinterland."' corporation. In January Clark saw his problem clearly: "I have a As the value of the currency began to slip in January and great deal of property and but little money [and] this troubles February, and both local and outside creditors stopped accept- me." He could not raise money because he could not sell his ing it, it was apparent that the "swapping cats" scheme had run property for any amount at all. With no cash of any kind, he its course. In mid-February the Harbor Company began reining was unable to pay his mortgage, the interest on his loans, or in its circulation by buying its own notes with cash, stocks, or taxes on his land. Clark later recognized that his "difficulties securities. Through the late winter and spring directors bought were created almost wholly in the winter and spring of 1857just up notes, sometimes with borrowed money, at 70 cents_on the before the dreadful crash burst upon us" when he bought a new abUar, and then burned them. Richard Bonson made his last house and land "mostly upon payments to be made in the fu- transaction with the notes-a loan to Thomas Levens, an old ture." This "created all my embarrassments." So, too, the Du- friend and fellow miner-on June 3, 1858.Although the notes buque and Pacific Railroad was in an "embarrassed condition" were gradually pulled out of circulation and fell out of use as for much the same reasons.Because its property was "shingled other currencies began to trickle back into Dubuque, as late as over with mortgages" and its revenues only paid expenses,it, December 4, L858,Bonson noted that the comPany believed that like everyone else, was stymied by rising taxes and interest that as much as $2\,000 was still in circulation' Stripped of the tem- threatened to consume what depreciated assets it had. Even porary cushion of local solvency that the notes provided, Du- though many individuals and companies in Dubuque managed tuqr" now stood exposed to one final wrenching cycle of_liqui- to escape bankruptcy, most remained encumbered and spent dation. That one would push most residents to the wall and most of 1858, 1859, and even 1860 trying to satisfy, fend ofl compel both the Dubuque Harbor Company and the Dubuque avoid, or make arrangements with their cred_itors,or playing and Pacific Railroad to engage in one last effort to save them- one creditor against another, to remain solvent." selves, as well as the city of Dubuque, from insolvency, default, By early 1858,however, with several different bank notes in and ruin.tt circulation, the game of "swapping cats" or "swapping oats" became harder to sustain. As more people became reluctant to accept any more notes, their value declined. The Dubuque and BY MARCH 1858, the Dubuque and Pacific Railroad was again Pacific Railroad, for example, had used Harbor Company notes desperate, unable to meet any of its obligations. Fearing the to redeem construction notes/ issue more conslruction bonds, woist yet again, the directors sent Caleb Booth to New York to and pay off some debts, thus easing both redemption and liqui- dation pressure against them. In addition, they paid creditors 58,Dtrbuque Express and Herald, L5 December1857; Milo Quaife,ed., Tlrc Early M. Bttr- who refused to take Dubuque and Pacific construction bonds Dny of RockIslahd and Dauenport:The Narratiaes of I W. Spencerand l. .D.' (Chi.ugo, lg42),253; OctaveThanet French),Otto the and with Harbor notes. When, after February, some chose not to ac- rorr [Alice \night otherknns-Mississippi Sforles (Boston, 1891), 105; Platt Smith to E' F. Bishop,12 March 1858,J. M.'NlcKlnley to Messrs.Wood, Light, and Company,15 July Burnell,11 May 1858,and McKinleyto 57. Lincoln Clark to julia Clark, 9 and28, January, i, 8, 15, 18, and 25 February, 1358,]. M. McKinley to Matthew James Company,Out-Letters' 3 and 7 March 1858, and 6 March 1860, Lincoln Clark Papers; Platt Smith to W. J.Ackley, l June1858, Dubuque and PacificRailroad Robert Benson,22February 1858, and Platt Smith to E. F. Bishop, 12 March 59.Richard Bonson, Dtary,27 January 4,6, and 13 February,17,19,70,22, and 1858,Dubuque and Pacific Railroad Company, Out-Letters. 24 Aprll,3 and 17June, and 4 December1858. 472 THEANNALSOFIOWA TheBooster Ethos in Dubuque 41,g try to free some assetsfrom the trusteesin New York, but to no pany boards he couid now easily see,the insolvency avail. They also askedthe state of Iowa of the rail- to bail them out, but for road was d.rlSnnS down the Harbor'Company, political reasonswere refused. \A{ren an"L. a* the Langworthys refused getherwould threaten t.lA coilapse ""i to help tu of Dubrlquet them, Platt Smith vented his frustration: Hard businessmanthat ""or,o-y.., he *ur,^Bo*on concluded that only a changein management Several persons concerned in the Dubuque Western Railroad are would save the,"ua. S-ofo.furig*o._ thy agreed' very shallow, egotistical, windy characters who parade their fulI The "iailroad interests" of Dubuqu" *lr":t"u*ry power before the public in a very disgusting stopped," he observed, manner. To have them and "a changein the officersof the road,, talk, one would suppose that Dubuque was the only place on earth, only "means ryas_lhe of restoring tlie credit of the road.,,So too and that they constituted Dubuque; at any rate, if there was any- the New york trusteesargued ,,road tfrat becausethe does not thing more than what is comprehended in Dubuque it would be pay," it "desirable was to have a better and honester president merely an outside belt inhabited by outside barbarians who owed and Directors in their stead.,,True to their tribute to and derived their light and knowledge from this word, i" ,ori"* f gsq great they forced out the current directors, center. I am sorry to say that a great many very sensible persons ir"a ur," .."o"".i"?r, ,"- stalled men they trusted more, with whom they have here to fore had intimate relations, residing and i"gan selling turrJ, io u._ cumulate capital. By that 40 or 50 miles from this place, are much disgusted with the very fall, the rocard.irectorr, Jr i""tiis,,tot- erable flat about railroad ,,nop"1aJ-io, injudicious course which has been pursued by some of our narrow- matters,,, in""Ulr?, 0", saw little point in meeting minded and egotistical citizens.* 1s they waited ptwerless roitn" nr,ut to play 9ruru out. It end--edin May 1g60when New york By summer's end the Dubuque and Pacific and other debtors tee,Herman.g"lp:\: trus- cameto Dubuque,took over the railroad, pleaded with creditors not to pursue a "legal suit" that would and relieved local directors of their roles. on Au- only "prevent us from raising money to disembarrass ourselves." gust 7, 1860,the local ,,agreed directors -ur,ug"..r"nttJ turn orrl, if," ,oua" In late ]uly, Jesse Farley went to New York yet again to try to to [src] the trustees,,11!hou11fiqh?.Richard Bonson sort out some way of satisfying creditors.u' "it r_*f."a, may be a bitter pill but it is ile best we At that point Richard Bonson, courd posibily [sic] a stockholder in the railroad havedone-think ii will answer.,,Th" io.;-il;ii,",l'J* as well as a director of the Dubuque Harbor Company with in- sentially irrelevant,did,not.meet again until Febru "r_ terest in saving the railroad to maintain the assets of the Harbor ury tAOl,ut which time thev considered electirig Bonson Company, allowed u airecio, a!uir,, himself to be elected a director of the Du- but he saw no p-oi.,tin it and declineH.rj buque and Pacific Railroad. What he found shocked him. The Gelpcke, a1 _r qresjdent of the Dubuque and pacific Railroad, company was being strangled by a tightening noose of rising also purchased the Dubuque and Westem Railroad, foreclosed costs and overdue interest and taxes in the face of declining rev- on its debt to the Dubuqul pacific, and and then foreclosedon enues, depreciating land values, devaluing construction bonds, its creditors "in such u ti'tu.,n". as to cut off all the other bond- sparse stock sales, and no subscriptions. By year's end, it was holders and stock holcters.,, f"u.;, end, the Langworthys apparent that the company would be unable to pay the Harbor sued Gelpcke !f for someshare of U.! pro.""ar, u Company debt, impairing that company's ability to meet its "ra "orifrorr.ir" obligations. As Bonson had feared, and as director on both com- 62. Richard Bonson,Diary,7,25, and 2g June 1g5gand 26 lanuary 1g59;Min_ utes,Board of Directors,Dubuque H"rb.;e"*pany, 60. Platt Smith to 4 Decembe.ig5g. John E. Goodman, 10 May 1858,Dubuque and Pacific Rail- 63. Solon Langworthy, Diary.,16 April 1g59,1 and road,Out-Letters. ber 21 November and 1 Decem- 1860;Richird Bonson,6iury, i, zS,;';trlrl" 61.Platt Smith to Messrs.Cook Bros., 1858,26 January3, 4, 6,8, 19 July 1858,and Platt Smith to M. K. 77,14, Is, and t7 June.14 unaiz oili"i;;4_and Jesup,25 July 1858,Dubuque and Pacific Railroad,Out-Letters; Richard Bon- za,zs,uni:l**. ur*", 29 Novemb,er1tts, u, son,Diary, 26 july 1858. :13ff1il,T#1!f,"0'""r ".ila"#, ireo,q 474 THs ANNels or Iowa TheBooster Ethos in Dubuque 415 was apparently reached. With the outbreak of Civil War two In contrast, the Dubuque Central lmprovement Company months later, railroad construction stopped for four years, and had issued notes directly endorsed by merchants on the back of management quietly closed out both the Dubuque and Western the notes, con{irming that they would redeem all the paper and the Dubuque and Pacific Railroads, reorganizing the latter money at par. But "when the crash carrte," as one observer re- as the Dubuque and Sioux City Raihoad. Its land grant re- called, "the money was not worth the paper it was printed on." mained intact, and Platt Smith and Caleb Booth were retained The merchants who had endorsed the notes "had to redeem to operate the railroad.* them at par as long as any were outstanding, even after they The experience of the Dubuque Harbor Company ended were not worth ten cents on the dollar. It caused the failure of with much the same result in mid-1859. Badly hampered by its many of the stockholders, merchants, and brokers, and even the outstanding loan to the Dubuque and Pacific Railroad, the lo- poor laborer." JesseP. Farley, Robert Waples, Frederick Bissell, cally owned company tried several ways to get some of its in- Caleb Booth, Thomas Rogers, Ben Samuels, and O. P. Shiras, vestment back. Unwilling to accePt any assets of the railroad who had no connection with the Dubuque and Pacific Railroad, company and unable to acquire enough from the directors were among the merchants hit hardesl by the depreciation of through an assessment, the Dubuque Harbor Company could the notes and the failure of the company. By spring 1859, the not pay its bills or redeem its last outstanding currency/ leaving Central Company was in "default" and returning land to the everyone at year's end "down upon the railroad company city.'" about the debt due them." The directors had few choices left. As the panic and its aftermath eroded the structure of the They cut costs, suspended salaries,stopped improvement proj- booster system, the burden of interest payments on the bonds ects, and redeemed what notes they could. Bonson was "out of the city goverrunent had issued to support the railroads, delin- all respect" for the directors, believing they were all "poor busi- quent taxes unpaid, and declining revenues tightened the eco- nessmen." He reported simply that "the harbor is in debt and nomic noose around the city goverrunent. With the railroad and cannot pay." As interest payments and overdue taxes rose, the improvement companies already in disarray, the third and final company finally decided to cash out. In 1859it sold its collateral bulwark of the booster ethos was badly undermined. In mid- of railroad bonds at lower and lower prices, until by early sum- 1858 a lawsuit by Herman Gelpcke forced the city government mer 1860 it had paid all of its debts. Richard Bonson and H. L. to stop issuing any more railroad bonds. At the same time, the Stout were appointed agents simply to settle and collect debts. city "defaulted" on promises to issue bonds for new railroads to When that was done, they did no business that year or the next. the north and northwest. As goveffunent budgets contracted, After that, the directors met briefly twice a year; the minute goverunent policy retrenched to municipal maintenance and book reports simply that "there being no other business," they services." adjourned. So as early as 1861, the Harbor Company, though "quiescent far as public affairs still a legal corporation, was so THE CRASH OF LB57 marked a watershed in the political, in managing its books are concemed." It engaged primarily economic, and social history of Dubuque and scores of towns which "preparatory to final exit from before the public gaze," like it across the West. Founded a generation before, they had did not finally take place until February I,1882.-

Januaryand 10 and 17 December1859, 6,72, and 14January 1860, 15 January 1855,8 July 1881,and 28January 1882; History of DubuqueCounty,532. 64.Dubuque and PacificRailroad, Out-Letters, 1'864-1867. 66. Conzett, "My Recollectionsof Dubuque," 205; Minutes, Dubuque City 65.Richard Bonson,Diary 18 December1858, 14 and22Janwary,3June, and Z Cor-rncil,10 and 21 March 1859. 21.December 1859,2 12May, and 15 1860;Minutes, 10,17, and January June 67.Minutes, Dubuque City Council,4October 1858. Board of Directors,Dubuque Harbor Company,29 September1858, 14 and 22 41,6 Tne AxNels oF IowA TheBooster Ethos in Drrbuque 477 slowly emerged as central places for their surrounding regions. ban, social, and cultural development in the Midwest and West Boosters firmly believed they could foster local growth and de- for a generation.u' velopment and maintain control over it by husbanding and For those who stayed, the Dubuque of 1861would be a new developing their local resources and encouraging townspeople place. No longer a separate world shaped by boosters' dreams, to do the same. Optimistic that such a policy promised their city Dubuque and other towns like it were but points in a regional a future as a regional entrep6t, boosters threw themselves into system increasingly dominated by Chicago. These places faced speculative improvements, taking on a heavy public and pri- a slow-growth economy and all the limitations on social, eco- vate debt and investing deeply in land during the boom of the nomic, and cultural opportunity that implied. Those who were 1850s.In the process, they conskucted the booster system as a left without anything found no future in such places. For them, framework for public policy-patched together by a merging of the "shattered dreams" of the 1850scast a shadow of stagnation public and private capital through negotiations and exchanges and decline that lingered for years.u" between untested local corporations. They did this on the shaky A core of boosters did remain in Dubuque, in spite of every- foundation of a complex social structure divided into various thing. George Wallace Jones, his career in the Senate over, be- factions. Convinced that their future lay in investing their own came a minister to Columbia until he was recalled and arrested capital and supporting each other, they failed to consider the for sedition in 1862. He was later exonerated and returned to implications of encumbering local capital to debt from outside Dubuque to live out his days supported by friends until his investors. ln the enthusiasm of the boom, they spread their in- death in 1896.Jones survived his adversary Thomas S. Wilson, vestments across multiple directorates. Their objectivity was who remained active in the bar and then in the memorial cul- clouded by conflicts of interest and personal friendships. Rely- ture of the local bar and fratemal organizations until his death ing only on handshakes and promises, they supported each in 1894.Jones's friend Warner Lewis was "ruined" by the panic other in projects beyond their capital base.For a while after out- and, because of his southern sympathies, by the Civil War (his side pressure hit the local economy, Dubuque boosters success- son fought for the Confederacy). Lewis lived out his days as fully used the structure of interlocking directorates and evasive county recorde4,a position his friends acquired for him out of currency-swapping maneuvers to delay the final reckoning. But sympathy. James and Lucius Langworthy both died in early this worked only for so long. In the wake of the financial crisis 1865. Solon and Edward, the orLly Langworthy brothers to sur- o{ 1857, banks, mercantile houses, manufactories, and improve- vive the war years, lived into the 1BB0s,remained active in ment companies fell, hundreds went bankrupt, thousands were business, and cultivated an elite provincial social life, appar- thrown out of work, and the city government and countless ently oblivious that their world based on landed wealth was residents were "haunted" for years by debt. disappearing. Richard Bonson, Platt Smith, Caleb Booth, H. L. By liquidating a decade of investment in farms, businesses, Stout, and Jesse Farley all pursued increasingly local careers and railroads, the Panic of 1,857brought regional development halt to a until after the Civil War. As Platt Smith feared, not only 68.James L. Huston, ThePanic of 7857and theConing of theCiail War (Baton in Dubuque but across the region construction stopped, trade Rouge,LA, DBn, 14-34;Elliott West,The Contested Plains: Indians, Goldseekers, declined, population dropped, and thousands migrated west or nndtlrc RtLshto Colorado(Lawrence, KS, 1998), 100, 115; Ronald M. Hubbs,"No Cash,No Credit,No Jobs:St. Paul and the Panicof 1.857,"Ramsey County His- east in search of new opportunities. Whether they stayed or left, tory 25 (1990),20:27 . the lives of all of the city's residents were forever changed. The 69. Huston, The Pnnic of 1857,24; Franc B. Wilkie, PersonnlReminiscences of crisis also disrupted local social development and discredited Tltirty-FiueYears of lournnlism(Chicago, 1891), 31; RussellL. Johnson,"The the booster ideology. The Panic of 1857 thus marked a turning Civil War Generation:Military Serviceand Mobility in Dubuque,Iowa, 1860- (1999),793; "Cases in local and regional life. 7870,"lournal of Social History 32 Ross, of ShatteredDreams," point It would affect subsequent ur- 207-39. 4I8 TneAruruelsorIowe TheBooster Ethos in Dubuque 4I9

with the Dubuque and sioux City Railroad, a regional manifes- moved to Chicago and became a prominent newspaperman tation of the Dubuque and Pacific Railroad that operated in the and writer. Major Richard Mobley, destitute from his failure in shadow of the Illinois central system. The Dubuque and sioux 1857, moved to Washington and held a series of modest gov- City Railroad, reorganized in 1864 under the control of the Illi- ernment positions, becoming part of the "Iowa Colony" there nois Central, became an institutional vestige of the ord local until his return home in 1878.William Vandever, elected to Con- elite, with a historical connection to Iowans who had gone to gress in the Republican upsurge of 1858, took a company of Du- Washington,D.C., or who became members of a regional bar, buque men into the war and rose through the ranks to brigadier- railroad, and business elite in the 1BZ0s.Booth, Stoui and Far- general. Like so many Iowans, he retumed to find limited op- ley remained active and continued as the local operators, de- porfunities in the "old town," became a "railroad matr," served fending it from a number of takeover attempts through legal in the Bureau of Indian Affairs in New Mexico and Arizona efforts through 1887. h:r the course of fighting, they gruatrulty territories, and entered the mining business in New York before recognized how powerless they were, as a small company in a migrating to Ventura County, California, in the 1870s. FIe was world of systems run from New York and Chicago. Increaiingly elected to Congress in the 1880s.t' convinced that small and locally owned was bette4 they articu- Whether they stayed or left, each member of the booster lated a viewpoint in response to the railroads that wourd con- elite who had experienced the frenetic rise of the "palmy days" tribute to the development of a populist small-town ideology of the 1850s and then the panic and recession of L857 under- acrossthe Midwest during the 1870sand 1880s.'o stood with each passing year the growing distance between Most Dubuque boosters of the 1850sleft the city in search of their city and the "wuy of the town" they had lived in before the a new start. William Bamey, Lincoln Clark, and many others Civil War. In the years to come they would play a central role in migrated to Chicago. Clark struggled unsuccessfully for a few constructing a new national middle class in Gilded Age America. years and then retired to Massachusetts. Barney continued in the law and the land business; he also remained active in the operation of the Dubuque and Sioux City Railroad. Like George Wallace Jones,Dennis A. Mahony was arrested for sedition and imprisoned-a story he told in his wartime book, The prisoner of State. Upon his release, Mahony returned to Dubuque, then moved for a time to St. Louis where he worked as a newspupe, editor. When he died in 1879, he was living again in Dublque. Franc B. Wilkie, who arrived destitute from Davenport to wbrk with Mahony in 1858,followed the Dubuque boyslnto the war in Missouri, became a war correspondent first for the New york Times and then for the Chicago Times. After the war, Wilkie 71. Lincoln Clark Papers;New York Office, Dubuque and PacificRailroad, In- Letters, ,,The October 1867-1,887;D. A. Mahony, The Pisoner of State(New York, 70.Parish, George WaIIace lones,29T303; M. M. Hoffman, Wilsons of Du_ 1853);Wiikie, PersonalReminiscences; Franc ,,Thomas B. Wilkie, Thelowa First:Letters from buque," Annals of Iowa27 (1938),322-34;Theodore S. parvin, S. Wi1_ the War (Dubuque, 1861);Richard Martin, "First Regiment Iowa Volunteers," platt son," Iowa HistoricalRecord 40 (1895),193-204; Srnith to C. B. Ravmond. Palinrysest46 (!965),5-6; Helen Wulkow, "Dubuque in the Civil War Period," 28January 1858, and Platt smith to Robert Benson,z2February igSg,Dlbuque (Ph.D.diss., Northwestern University, 1941); Thornas W Hurm, "DennisMa- and Pacific Railroad, Out-Letters; Reportof the DttbuqtLeanri pacific Rnilriad hony, Iowa Copperhead" (Ph.D. diss., Catholic University, 1966);Snles, Recol- (Dubuque, Con1pany,..1l1nu.ary 1858 1858),i5-i9; Ncru'yorkOffice Dubu.lue lectionsand Sketches,8l9,1,32-34; Conzett, "My Recollectionsof Dubuqwe,"248; and Pacific Railroad, In-Letters, October 1867-1887;Conzett, ,,Mv Recollec- ' Childs,History of DubttqueCounty,850; William VandeverPapers, University of tionsof Dubuque,"237; History of DubuqueCotnrty, BZ&3Z, gT3_75. Dubuque.