62 PUBLIC PARKS OF IOWA 



The lower Des Moines was like a pool of excellent stock which had 

 trickled from the east on account of hard times in 1837 and other con- 

 siderations, and from the south on account of slavery and poor prospects 

 for better homes. This accumulation of good character in the lower Des 

 Moines remained until the removal of the obstruction of Indian posses- 

 sions, immediately to the west, in 1846. When that was released the 

 population rushed as if by gravity to Ottumwa and west in Iowa. The 

 region was scoured out by the emigration to California in the gold days 

 of 1849 to 1856 and actually sprinkled the whole west with its repre- 

 sentatives. 



This, is the key to the remarkable fact that more than seventy men 

 and women, once of national reputation have lived in this region, and for 

 the characterization by the late George G. Wright as "The Keosauqua 

 Group of Famous Men," later corrected and expanded by the writer as the 

 "Van Buren County Group of- Famous Men." 



Among the facts and names worthy to be observed in the history of 

 the river ascending from Croton to Eldon, are the following: 



CROTON Site of one of the dams and locks of the navigation era. 

 A hostile cannon ball fell here, the only one on Iowa soil and the one that 

 reached farthest north of any in the Rebellion. It was fired in the Battle 

 of Athens, Missouri. 



SALUBRIA Site of the Free Thought Colony founded by Abner Knee- 

 land, of Boston, 1838; his residence is still in good preservation, though 

 erected in 1840. Mr. Kneeland was the last man imprisoned in America 

 for blasphemy, he having been among the first to question the divinity 

 of Jesus Christ from a Boston pulpit. He mortgaged his library in 1839 

 for two hundred dollars ($200.00), establishing the rank of his collection 

 of books in this then sparsely settled region. 



FARMINGTON First County Seat of Van Buren County, point of as- 

 sembling of Iowa Militia for battle against Missourians in the "Missouri 

 Boundary War," 1836. John F. Dillon opened his office here as a phy- 

 sician but decided to become a lawyer. Numerous excellent buildings ex- 

 tant since 1840. Across the river is "Big Duck Marsh" and "Big Duck 

 Creek." 



PLYMOUTH An extinct town adjacent to Farmington, once the site 

 of a lock and dam for navigation and of a large flouring mill. 



PALASTINE South of the river; an extinct town extensively ex- 

 ploited in early days as a prospective city. No vestige of it remains. 



"M'CRARY RESIDENCE" South side. A conspicuous pre-war brick 

 dwelling facing the river. 



BONAPARTE Site of a lock and dam in navigation system, and of 

 the Meek Mills which supplied Iowa and the west with woolens and wool 

 products from 1837 to 1870, and with saw-mill and grist-mill products 

 much of that time. The dam was the subject of the famous "fish-way" 

 case. Excellent old buildings. Charles E. Pickett was born here. 



NAPOLEON Extinct town across the river south of Bonaparte. 



BENTONSPORT Site of dam and lock. Once exensive mills, includ- 

 ing paper mill which made the paper for the Gate City and other Iowa 

 journals, 1856-1866. Once home of Captain Hancock and other early Iowa 



