Dubuque As Seen By a Stranger-1850

KELLY, PLATTE, DUBUQUE, LANGWORTHY, WAPLE, SINSINEWA, SCOTT, INDIAN

Posted By: Cheryl Locher Moonen (email)
Date: 12/7/2018 at 00:37:02

The Miner’s Express, Du Buque Visitor, Wednesday, Sep 18, 1850, Dubuque, IA, Page: 2

Dubuque As Seen By a Stranger

Dubuque, Iowa, Aug. 23, 1850

I am sitting on a bluff more than two hundred feet high, and taking a bird's eye view of the city of Dubuque and its vicinity. This bluff which stands at the west side of the town, is owned by a Mr. Kelly, at present in your Asylum, and is supposed to contain lead enough to make you and me both rich. The town, at my feet, is about the size of Rome, and contains some 5,000 inhabitants. The streets cross each other at right angles, in most instances, and I can trace them as readily as if looking on a map. There are several handsome blocks before me, or rather beneath me, though half of the town seems built of wood. Four churches I notice, one of which, the Catholic, seems directly below me; and it strikes one curiously, after looking down upon the roof of this edifice, to observe on looking over his shoulder, that the burying ground, belonging to, and adjoining it, is on level with himself.

Just below the city, the great Mississippi is moving majestically down the valley – watering the flowers and shrubs of a dozen islands, that seem to float on her surface, and washing, with one swell, the shores of Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin to the left, rise abruptly before me. But these bluffs are not as high as to intercept my view, and far beyond them, thirty miles to the north, the Platte mounds, “as blue as Prussians” stand up against the horizons to the east, and only distant only some five or six miles, the Sinsinewa (an Indian name signifying “higher ground”) attracts my attention. On the southern side of this mound, stands a Catholic college of some note, and which I am told is their principal institution for this portion of the great valley. Farther to the south, I notice the Galena bluffs, by means of which I can trace the Fevre River, eighteen miles distant. As I look down the valley, I notice on this side of the river, a ravine in which a small brook empties itself into the Mississippi. Near the mouth of this brook, was situated one of the largest Indian burying grounds in this region, and here Dubuque was buried. Dubuque was the first white man to come here to live. He was first to obtain permission from the Indians to dig on their grounds, and said to be the only man who succeeded in making them work the mines. He acquired such a wonderful influence over them, and to receive the title of “The Medicine Man,” which you know with an Indian, means next thing to the Great Spirit. Dubuque lived among them fifteen years, and when “he went to see his brother, the “Great Spirit”, they placed him in a cave and propped him up in a corner, in full dress, with his hat on his head. Mr. Langworthy, one of the most enterprising men of Dubuque, and who takes a deep interest in everything, connected with the town, or its history, tells me that when this cave was opened in 1823, thirteen years after the death of Dubuque, he saw the skeleton still in the corner, and the hat on his skull!

The ledge on which this city stands, at the lowered or southern end, is just wide enough for a single street: thence gradually increasing, the upper portion reaches the width of a mile, when it abruptly narrows again. So when they get the city done, (!) it will be shaped like a half kite, and between three or four miles long. There is evidently a good deal of business done in this place, aside from the mining trade. One store I entered – Mr. Waples, I think – was over 120 feet in length, and seemed full of customers, upstairs and down. Dubuque is laboring under one difficulty, which I hope may soon be removed. Their wharf is difficult to approach, inasmuch as vessels are obliged to sail between islands, where the channels are narrow and crooked. A bill approaching twenty thousand dollars for the improvement of navigation at this point, has recently passed the House of Representatives, and it is confidently expected it will also pass the Senate. It is thought the expenditure of this sum will open a channel between the islands and the Iowa shore, through which the main river will eventually flow, and by which means the passage will be shortened 1¼ miles, even for boats that make no landing here

I must not forget to saw that our former fellow citizen, Dr. Scott, has located himself here, and his friends in Utica will be pleased to hear that he seems to be doing a fine business in Dubuque. But fear you may tire of my medley picture from this bluff, I will “come down,” and if you please I will take you straight to Mount Zion.