The Davenport Daily Gazette
Davenport, Scott Co, Iowa
Thursday morning, 14 December 1865, Vol. XL, No 289, page 2 of 2, column 1

Contributed & Transcribed by Stephen D. Williams, March 2006

IOWA CITY NEWS. BY FRANK FOREST. [For the Gazette.] TUESDAY, Dec. 10, 1865. TO THE END OF THE ROAD AND BACK.   On Wednesday last we made a trip to Kellogg, the western terminus of the M. & M. R. R. The first station west from Iowa City is Oxford, some nine miles. The Post Office formerly bearing that name has been changed to the euphonious name of Medora; why we were not advised. Within the last year two or three houses have been added to this flourishing village(?) One man, (son of Erin,) runs the whole institution--post office, water-tank, hotel, store--store of private praties [sic] and bacon--Mayor, Clerk, policeman, preacher, doctor and lawyer. It is an immense town, occupies all the ground it stands on. Homestead is next; some twenty miles west of Iowa City. The Post Office bears this name. This is one of the several flouishing [sic] villages composing the Amana colony, and the past year seems to have added several new buildings to its former number. Five miles farther west is another small village, and some three miles south of their main manufacturing town north of the Iowa river. The country surrounding these colonies presents a high state of cultivation, and plainly shows that abundant yields from its soil rewards the frugal and master husbandman. We want more just such enterprising people. A more independent class of people do not live on Western soil than those composing this colony. They are indedependent [sic] in the true sense of the word. They produce their own material from which they manufacture their own cloths, wearing apparel, leather, boots and shoes, flour, and wares of various varieties, the surplus of which they sell and exchange for such articles not manufactured by them.   The next town is Marengo, the Iowa county seat. It contains, say 1,500 inhabitants, and is located on the bottom of Iowa river. A much better site could be found for a town, high and dry all seasons of the year, just south of the depot of the M. & M. R. R. We see Marengo is extending her boundaries to the depot already, with new buildings. We were told that perhaps there is no place on the road, where so much travel stops as here. Marengo is the nearest point to Cedar Rapids road, and a daily line of four-horse coaches run from this point to Blairstown, a station on the Cedar Rapids road, and distant nine miles from Marengo. This line is owned, we are informed, by John W. Porter, of this city, a son of the late Col. Kimbal Porter, so long connected with the Western Stage Co. And, by the way, Mr. P. also runs a daily line of four horse coaches from this city to Cedar Rapids, distance 25 miles, which is also largely patronized by the travelling public.   The country about Marengo is fast developing in an aggricultural [sic] point of view--fast assuming the appearance of those older localities, back in the track of the Star of Empire where the industrial hand has plied itself for fifty years or more. Marengo is distant thirty miles west from Iowa City.   Next we come to Victor, twelve miles west of Marengo. It is a thriving little town brought into life by the railroad. It contains about one hundred and fifty inhabitants. There has been some fifteen new buildings erected the past season, among them a grain elevator some seventy-five feet long, by thirty feet wide. This town is pleasantly located on undulating prairie, and is supported by a vast and rich scope of farming country. It is written upon the wall that Victor will be a thriving, healthy business town.   Brooklyn is the next station and town upon the line of the M. & M. Road. It is seven miles west from Victor, and forty-nine miles west from Iowa City. It is a town of some years growth, and long a station of the "Western Stage Co.," is situated in the east part of Poweshiek county, and contains about a thousand inhabitants. It is finely situated on a high ridge of prairie, partially skirted with a large scope of timber. A half mile south-west from the main town at the base of the ridge upon which it is located is the railroad station. Here is a good public house, warehouse, lumber yard, besides several other business places, all of which make quite a little "burg" by itself. Some nine miles (we think) south-west from Brooklyn is Montezuma, the Court House town of Poweshiek county, to which place a daily stage runs upon the arrival of the Eastern train.   Eight miles westward is Malcome! This was the terminus of the M. & M. road some four or five months before reaching Grinnell. The town (?) is located on the broad prairie, and is so expensive [sic], that a single glance of the eye can hardly enable the mind to comprehend its magnitude. As the dashing train neared its stopping point we looked and gazed, and looked again to behold its centre and circumference. Its centre was an oaken post, and its circumferance [sic] the broad prairie, with no structures to mark the abode of man! But away over the hill, we were told, stood the lonely domicile of Mr. Postmaster Malcome, from whence came the little "miss" to hang the miniature mail bag upon the outstretched arm of the signal post and to receive the one dropped by "Mc." The business of the Malcome post office must pay enormously. The mail received contained "one" letter, addressed "in the stat uf Nu York to Biddy O'Rorrark & hur thra childrin were Mavill post ofis is in shitocky County, from Barny O'Rorrack.   Any one desirous of making themselves immortal by building up a town, can have the opportunity at Malcome. Grinnell, eight miles west of Malcome, and sixty-five from Iowa City, is a thriving town of some 1500 inhabitants or more. It was planted by our worthy Member of Congress, Hon. J. B. Grinnell, whose name it bears, than whom a more active and energetic citizen Iowa does not contain. Here is located the Iowa College, founded by Mr. Grinnell, in a flourishing operation, under the presidency of Rev. George F. Magoun, one of the ablest, and most eloquent divines and orators of the West, besides he's a ripe scholar. Prof. H. W. Parker, connected with the institution from the first, we believe, still maintains a popular hold upon the College. A National Bank is also in operation here. A spirit of enterprise and go ahead exists in this town, excelled by few. It is bound to become an important place on the line of the M. & M. Road. The road stopped here about a year and a half which gave additional impulses to its life and growth, which still continues in a healthy pace.   About three months ago the M. & M. road was extended twelve miles farther westward, to a point on the south branch of Skunk river, in Jasper county, and within nine miles of Newton, the county seat. The new station at the present terminus of the road is named "Kellogg," in honor of Judge A. A. Kellogg, a prominent citizen of Jasper county, and the owner of a fine farm adjacent thereto. Kellogg is of three months growth, and already contains about twenty buildings, occupied by about a hundred inhabitants. There is a public house, kept by Ben. Manning of Newton, where passengers can dine, while the coaches of the Western Stage Company are making ready to convey them toward the setting sun. Here also is a regularly established postoffice. There seems to be considerable conflict of names. Manning first called the place "Manning's Station." some of the people thereabouts call it "Jasper City." The Railroad Company call it "Kellogg," and Uncle Sam calls it "Kimball," the name of the postoffice. It seems to us, that it would be better, and more convenient, should the place bear the same names as that of the postoffice, or vice versa, Kimball, or Kellogg, or

Kellogg, or Kimball [repeated]. However, the town is known now, as Kellogg, and that postoffice as Kimball. The country from Grinnell to Kellogg is rough and new. The road passes through cuts fifty feet deep, and perhaps 500 feet long. There are some six cuts of similar extent within six miles distance. This is said to be the roughest and hardest portion of the line of road from Davenport to Des Moines. The cost of constructing it from Grinnell to Kellogg, is said to have reached $800,000, and will not fall short of $1,000,000 when completed.   In closing this sketch of what we saw and learned in "our trip to the end of the road," we wish to mention our indebtedness to C. B. McLaughlin, Esq., the efficient mail agent, for courtesies and information concerning the development and growth of the country and towns along the M. & M. thoroughfare. Mr. McL. has been in the service of the postoffice department since very shortly after Mr. Lincoln's first inauguration, and is still retained on an extended lease. He makes a good agent, with whom all concerned are satisfied.   Conductor S. C. Root, also gave us many facts worthy of note. Mr. R. has been a Conductor on the M. & M. road since the advent of the steam horse in Iowa City, in 1856. His long experience adds confidence to his skill and efficiency. The Davenport Daily Gazette Monday morning, 28 August 1865, page 4 of 4, column 3 Change of Time and Reduction of Fare on the M. & M. R. R.   This morning, Monday, August 26th, a change of time will he made in the arrival and departure of trains On the Mississippi & Missouri R. R., and a very material and welcome reduction of fares will go into effect. This morning and hereafter the mail and express train for Kellogg, the western terminus of the road, will leave the Davenport Depot at 8:45, or fifteen minutes before nine instead of fifteen minutes after, as before. The evening mail and express train will arrive from the west fifteen minutes later than now; at 7:15. A freight and passenger train will be run daily to and from Muscatine and Iowa City; arriving from those places at 12:45 P. M., and leaving at 2:50 P. M. This will be a great accommodation to residents of the towns along the road who wish to transact business in Davenport.   The fare is reduced about a cent and a half per mile, and will now be as follows, when tickets are purchased at the various stations;   Davenport to Walcott 65c; to Fulton 85c; Durant 95c; Wilton $1.25; Moscow $1.35; Atalissa $1.60; West Liberty $1.80; Downey $2.10; Iowa City $2.55; Oxford $3.20; Homestead $3.45; South Amana $3.95; Marengo $3.95; Victor $4.50; Brooklyn $4.85; Malcom $5.25; Grinnell $5.50: Kellogg $6.00.   From Davenport to Summitt, on the Oskaloosa branch, the fare is $1.50 to Muscatine, $1.80; Ononwa, $2.35; Fredonia, $2.65; Clifton, $2.80; Ainsworth, $3.15; Washington, $3.50.   Kellogg (formerly known as Manning's Station) is 131 miles from Davenport, and trains have been running to that point for two weeks past. This extension reaches to within seven miles of Newton, and therefore nearly to the heart of one of the finest counties in Iowa. We long for the day when Newton will be reached, and thus Davenport be united by iron bands to one of the most flourishing towns in the interior of Iowa.