Montebello Township

Montebello Township

This township, numbered 5 - 8, was probably named for Monte Belle, in France (now the practice to write it Montebello). Who had the honor of naming it, we do not know. There were Frenchmen about the fort and along the river when the village on the rapids received this cognomen, but none of its proprietors were French. It was laid out in 1832 by Luther Whitney and William Vance, on the southwest of sec. 18, the place now owned by C. F. Darnell, two miles above the present site of Hamilton.

This township, containing the settlements of John Waggonner, Luther Whitney, Eich and Cheney and others of the period preceding organization, may be called one of the oldest settled in the county. Who made the actual first settlement in the township, may now never be known ; but we can learn of none earlier than that of Mr. Waggonner in 1824 There were several in it, however.before organization (1829), settled along the river and on its contiguous bluffs. Among them, we can recall the names, besides Messrs. Waggonner, Whitney and Cheney, of Wm. Vance, Isaac R. Campbell, John Johnson and Hazen Bedell. Among those of a later period are Oliver and Cyrus Felt, Samuel Steele, John Gordon, John Cochran, A. P. Cochran, Abram Smith, Enoch D. Brown, Frederick Loring, James and Mathew Gray, Dr. Adolphus Allen, Homer Brown, Ebenezer Carrier, H. K. Dickinson, Bryant Bartlett, Austin Wardwell, Gen. R. F. Smith and others.

Messrs. O. and C. Felt, with Major Wm. Smith, of I^a Harpe, came to the county with a stock of goods; and while the latter went to Crooked Creek with a portion, the two brothers established on the rapids at Montebello. The elder Felt died a few years afterward, and Cyrus continued the business. The County Court was held there for several terms, and at that day Montebello was one of the most important points in the county, rivalling Venus at the head ot the rapids, and competing with her for the county-seat. It is now dead and vacated.

We have above mentioned the men of the township previous to organization. Others are also worthy of mention. Of these was Isaac Newton Waggonner. His name stands on the record of the Hancock County Pioneers' Association, as (at that date) the earliest living settler m the county. Isaac N. was a youth of about 15 in 1824, wben his father settled on the homestead at Riverside. He soon took to the water, first as assistant on the keel-boats, then running the river, and as a pilot to steer them, under Captain James White (whose daughter he married), and afterward for many years on steamers plying between St. Louis and the lead (790; mines of Galena and Dubuque. He was first pilot apprentice with Capt. Throckmorton (name of boat not recollected), and afterward with the same officer, on the celebrated Warrior and was on that vessel at the time of the capture of Black Hawk on tlie upper Mi8sissi])pi.

Mr. W. was a pilot on the river almost continuously, sometimes as part owner of the boat he steered, for many years; and he knew as much of the Mississippi sloughs and bluffs, and sand-bars, whirlpools, snags and eddies, and how to manage a steamer in all the vicissitudes of river navigation, as perhaps any other man. who ran its waters.

Later in life he left the river and devoted himself to the duties of his farm and tlie care of a steam mill and shipping house at Riverside. He was a remarkabl}' quiet and unostentatious man, firm in his convictions, and respected by all his neighbors. He died Jan. 27, 1877, aged about 68 years.

Hamilton is now the only town in the township, including Oakwood, a separate survey, but united by act of incorporation. It lies at the foot of the rapids, opposite Keokuk, Iowa, between which, across the Mississippi river, lies the great iron railroad and wagon bridge. It was laid out in 1852, by Bryant Bartlett, Wm. R. Hamilton, Powers Ritchej', Henry R. Dickinson, Sanford Faught, Henry Davis and George Edmunds, Jr. The late Artois Hamilton, of Carthage, was an active proprietor, but we find the record uses, the name of his s^A William R., who was then a young man. Samuel Gordon, resfding at the place, was also interested, having furnished a portidn of the land, but his name does not appear of record. In tlie Kumihon DoUar Monthly of June, 1873, is a notice of the origin of this town, which we reproduce in part in this place:

" The eight or ten square miles of territory - embracing bluff, river-buttom, slough, hill and dale, woodland and sand-ridge - lying opposite Keokuk, the '- Gate " of Iowa, is dignified by act of General Assembly with the title of city - the City of Hamilton.

People abroad might very naturally conclude that it received its name, as all the other twenty odd Hamiltons in the U.S. did, from Alexander Hamilton, one of the Fathers of the Republic; but it did not.

"There is a legend that runneth in this wise: That in the years of the dim past, in the beginning of the embryo city that was to rival the then thriving village across the water, a conclave of the proprietors was held to give the bantling a name. Of these proprietors we can only now name the following: Bryant Bartlett, who had supplied much of the hard labor and a good deal of the gas; Henry R. Dickinson, also a hard worker on the foundation of the city; Samuel Gordon, who had resided on the spot, as child and man, from the time whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary, and who furnished a goodly portion of the land; and Artois Hamilton, of Carthage, who was supposed to hold pretty considerable sized money-bags. Money, ' the root of all evil,' is also considered the root of some good, and in this case was regarded as the 'one thing needful,' so it was decided to give the new town the name of the holder of the aforesaid money-bags, in the hope that the honor might induce him to ' shell out.' Of course other names were presented and duly discussed, - as ' Bartlett,' 'Gordon,' 'Rapids City,' 'East Keokuk,' etc., etc. -But the question of finance outweighed all others, and it received the name it now bears.

"And Mr. H. did 'shell out' for a time, and commendable efforts were made hj all concerned to build up a city. But the fates were against them, and a contrary decree had gone forth. The city would not come. They planned, they strove, they gassed; they planted stakes, they run streets and alleys, they laid out wharves and dykes. In their very desperation they invoked the aid of the Commonwealth, and its august representatives at Springfield came to their aid, and passed an act compelling it to be a city at any rate, - for, said they, the people will come to it afterward. But with an unpardonable lack of discernment and hard common sense, the people still stay away - congregate in other places. And so he of the money-bags, long ago seeing how things were going, - or standing still, rather, - shook the dust off his feet and left in disgust, and the city which once knew him so well, now knows him no more.B^* * * *.» *

''But, seriously, there was^Mfc|rong committed. The place should have been called ' BartleW.' In Mr. Bartlett's fertile brain it was first conceived. He originated the thought. He labored hard, in and out of season, to put it on its legs; not always wisel}', perhaps, but witii a zeal that knew no abatement, an energy that never flagged, and a conviction that seemed prophetic. He struggled against difficulties; indeed he overcame diflSculties that would have disheartened many other men. It was the object of his affections and the burden of his thoughts for twenty years; and they failed in duty to him when they gave it the name of another. We are not aware that he ever aspired to the honor, or desired such a result. Certain it is that he labored as zealously after the naming as before, and for long years continued to cherish the hope of his earlier days. But even his faith at length gave out, and he, too, pulled up his stakes and planted them in another field."

Oakwood was laid out in June, 1S55, by John Morse, Thomas J. Potts and T. Dewitt Carey. It lies a half mile east, and now comprises the third ward of Hamilton.

Besides originating the city of Hamilton, Messrs. Bartlett and Dickinson, b}' their untiring zeal and energy, in conjunction with Henry W. Sample, Esq., of Keokuk, and others, succeeded in establishing a steam ferry between the two points. At that time the