Rock Island

River Navigation The office of the Government engineer in control of the Government improvement along the Mississippi, from the mouth of the Missouri River to St. Paul, together with a number of adjacent natural artificial water-ways, is located in Rock Island. Through its annual appropriations, about $800,000 are spent in the interests of improved navigation in the district indicated. The first Government engineer’s office established for the improvement of the upper river was located in Davenport, in 1866, and was in charge of General James H. Wilson. The office was originally intended to control only the improvement of the Rock […]

Riverside Cemetery The old Moline Cemetery consisted of about five acres, from the north center of the Bill Mills farm, each lot holder being a member of the Association. The association turning this over to the City of Moline, who purchased seventy-five acres more and afterwards ten acres additional, making altogether ninety acres. The. first burial ground in the Village of Moline was where Charles H. Deere’s residence now is, bodies being removed to the present old cemetery, from which a considerable number have been removed to the new part: some interments are still made in the older portion. The

Report of the Commissioners The report of the commissioners was made June 8, 1835. This document ordered “that Charles R. Bennet be appointed to survey the town of Stephenson, in Rock Island County, as soon as practible.” A further provision of the report was to the effect that “one-third of the town lots be offered for sale on the 11th of July next, and that the same be published three times in the St. Louis Republican, the Alton Spectator, the Northwestern Gazette and the Galena Advertiser.” The town of Stephenson was therefore laid out by Charles R. Bennet and the

A Revolutionary Battle at the Sac Village In the spring of 1780 Captain Hesse, a former British soldier, then Indian trader, assembled at the portage of the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers, a body of Menominees, Winnebagoes and Sacs and Foxes, in all about six hundred and fifty Indians, and with fifty white traders came down the Wisconsin River in canoes and thence down the Mississippi River to St. Louis, and attacked that then Spanish post. The British and their Indian allies on May 26th, made their attack, but were repulsed by the inhabitants and the small Spanish garrison. They then

Port Byron Academy The Port Byron Academy was established in Port Byron mainly through the efforts of Reverend A. A. Harper. His son, E. T. Harper was the first principal. The school was started in 1881 in the second story of the building now occupied by Adrian and Witter’s implement store, in the Dorrance Block. It has a strong Alumni, numbering among its members many prominent men and women. Professor M. J. Yolton, a graduate of the institution, is its present principal. The Port Byron Academy is located at Port Byron, one of the oldest towns in Rock Island County,

Port Byron, Illinois In the year 1826 two brothers, Robert and Thomas Syms, located on the present site of Port Byron, and established a wood yard for supplying cord wood to steamboats on the Mississippi River. Their location soon came to be known as Syms’ Wood Yard. They were among the first white settlers in this locality, other residents being principally Sac and Fox Indians. During the year 1828 Archibald Allen, Conrad Leek, George W. Harlan and others came with their families and settled in this township. Archibald Allen traded with the Indians, buying skins and furs. He was afterwards

The Press Of Rock Island County To Henry C. McGrew, a native of Ireland, who came to this country in 1818 with his father, belongs the credit of issuing the first newspaper published in Rock Island County. He came to Rock Island in 1839, and about the middle of August of that year started the Rock Island Banner and Stephenson Gazette, which suspended publication in the. Fall of 1841, when the press and type were moved to Geneseo. The paper was neutral in politics until 1840, when, during the presidential campaign of that year, it advocated the principles of the

Reply from Governor Reynolds “Belleville, May 28, 1831. “General Gaines. “Sir: I have received undoubted information that the section of this state near Rock Island is actually invaded by a hostile band of the Sac Indians headed by Black Hawk; and in order to repel said invasion, and to protect the citizens of the state, I have, under the provisions of the constitution of the United States and the laws of this state, called on the militia, to the number of 700 men, who will be mounted and ready for service in a very short time. I consider it my

Political Divisions The fortunes of Rock Island County have been those of the State of Illinois. In 1541, Ferdinand De Soto discovered the Mississippi River, crossing it somewhere near Memphis; and upon this discovery rested Spain’s claim and title to the “far west.” The country now known as the State of Illinois is shown on the very early Spanish maps as a part of Florida. Spain made no attempt., however, to plant her settlements in the “Illinois.” In 1763, at the close of the French and Indian Wars, Illinois became British territory, and so remained until July 4, 1778, when

Population of the Sacs and Foxes In 1805 Lieutenant Zebulon Pike on behalf of the United States government made an expedition from St. Louis to the sources of the Mississippi River. He says that the Sacs had three villages, one at the head of the Des Moines Rapids, the second on a prairie about two miles from the Mississippi at Oquawka, and the third on Rock River about three miles from its mouth. The Foxes or Reynards also had three villages, one on the Illinois side above the Rock Island Rapids, one at Dubuque and one near Prairie du Chien.