Official Documents
Joint Resolutions Of The Iowa Legislature
"BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of
Iowa, That the senators in Congress from this State be requested to use
their utmost exertions to procure the establishment, at the earliest
possible time, by the Government of the United States, of an Arsenal and
Armory, for the distribution of arms to the states of the northwest, on
the Island of Rock Island, in the State of Illinois.
"RESOLVED That the Secretary of State be requested to forward to each of
the Sena-tors and representatives in Congress a copy of these
resolutions."
`Approved March 24, 1861."
No session of the legislature of Illinois had been held immediately prior
to this action, but Governor Yates and the other state officers, both
civil and military, ad-dressed a letter to the Secretary of War, urging
the location of the Armory upon Rock Island.
Certificate From The Government Agent
"I, T. J. Pickett, Government Agent for the Island of Rock Island, hereby
certify that the lands owned by the Government on said island are free
from the claims of squatters, and that the only occupants thereon are
eight in number, who hold leases under and acknowledge themselves tenants
of said Government, in which lease it is specifically agreed that the
lessors are to vacate the premises in thirty days from the date of
receiving notice requiring them to leave
T. J. PICKETT, Government Agent.
Rock Island. Ill., Oct. 25, 1861."
Copies of the above memorial were freely distributed among the members of
Congress and laid on the desk of every senator and representative. An act
of Congress providing for the Arsenal and Armory, and making an
appropriation of $100,000, was passed July 11, 1862. In May of the
following year a commission, composed of Major F. D. Callander, Major C.
P. Kingsbury and Captain F. J. Treadwell, was sent by the Ordnance
Department to locate the proposed Arsenal building on Rock Island. Sites
also for magazines on the island were recommended by the commission. The
report was adopted and Major Kingsbury was ordered to take charge of the
work of construction. He arrived in August, 1863, and on the 3d day of
September broke ground for the government building at the lower end of the
island.
From an article prepared by Captain L. M. Haverstick, and published in the
Chicago Inter-Ocean at the time we quote the following, with a few changes
adapting it to our purpose:
"An arsenal merely for the storage and repair of arms was not what the
Ordnance Department contemplated, nor what the country needed at Rock
Island. Therefore in August, 1865, General T. J. Rodman was assigned to
the command of the island, with instructions to prepare plans for an
armory and arsenal combined, where small arms and other munitions of war
could be manufactured as well as repaired and stored. The great scientific
knowledge and long experience of General Rodman peculiarly fitted him for
this work, and the result was an elaborate plan, equal to the wants and
interests of the country."
Source: Historic Rock Island County, pub. Kramer & Company, Rock Island, Illinois, 1908