Home -- Periodicals -- Books -- Research service -- Email "Past 2 Present"

"Past 2 Present"

Fifty Years in Iowa:

being the personal reminiscences of J.M.D. Burrows, concerning the men and events, social life, industrial interests, physical development, and commercial progress of Davenport and Scott County during the period from 1838 to 1888.

Davenport, Iowa: Glass & Co., printers and binders, 1888, 195 pgs.

Table of Contents

Chapter I. The villages of Stephenson and Davenport in 1838...

Chapter II. Buying a Squatter's claim in Scott County...

Chapter III. Scarcity of houses in Davenport in 1839...

Chapter IV. "Brimstone Corner" in Davenport...

Chapter V. The interesting history of the Rev. Michael Hummer...

Chapter VI. "Breaking" a Scott County claim...

Chapter VII. Struggles in the mercantile trade...

Chapter VIII. Servant girls almost as hard to get in the forties as they are now...

Chapter IX. Beginning of the produce trade in Davenport...

Chapter X. A trip North in 1841...

Chapter XI. Hard times and over-production...

Chapter XII. Orders made and countermanded by the Government...

Chapter XIII. My introduction to Daniel T. Newcomb...

Chapter XIV. Opening of 1843...

Chapter XV. Formation of the firm of "Burrows & Prettyman"...

Chapter XVI. More business reverses in 1845...

Chapter XVII. Retrieving the ill-luck of 1845...

Chapter XVIII. Advent of the Germans in Davenport...

Chapter XIX. Arrival of A. C. Fulton and a remarkable stock of goods...

Chapter XX. Mr. Fulton's peculiar manner of dealing in mill property...

Chapter XXI. Burrows & Prettyman buy the Aetna Mill...

Chapter XXII. Historyof the banking business in Davenport...

Chapter XXIII. Change in the firm of Burrows & Prettyman...

Chapter XXIV. Edward Davidson's business venture...

Chapter XXV. Once more in the pork-packing line...

Chapter XXVI. Western flour popular far from home...

Chapter XXVII. More about the banking business in Davenport...

Chapter XXVIII. My first and only experince as a steamboat captain...

Chapter XXIX. The beginning of financial complications that led to a serious crisis...

Chapter XXX. Cook & Sargent resort to unexpected tactics...

Chapter XXXI. Every creek redeemed by Burrows & Prettyman...

Chapter XXXII. Events preliminary to the Cook & Sargent collapse...

Chapter XXXIII. An unparalleled wheat crop in Iowa...

Chapter XXXIV. A sudden taste of adversity...

Chapter XXXV. Cook & Sargent in a strait...

Chapter XXXVI. The storm thickens over Cook & Sargent...

Chapter XXXVII. The Blow Falls at last...

Chapter XXXVIII. Action at law against Cook & Sargent...

Chapter XXXIX. More reverses in business...

Chapter XL. Once more in the milling line, and once more wiped out by fire...

ChapterXLI. History of the establishment of Oakdale Cemetery...

Chapter XLII. A closing retrosepction

Appendix