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    Fort Dodge: 1850 to 1970
    Fort Dodge: 1850 to 1970
    Fort Dodge: 1850 to 1970
    Ebook170 pages1 hour

    Fort Dodge: 1850 to 1970

    By Roger B. Natte

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    Fort Dodge was founded in 1850 as a military post to police the Iowa frontier. A subsequent land boom created fortunes that were reinvested in the local economy. The town soon earned the nickname Mineral City because of the extensive deposits of coal, gypsum, limestone, and clay. By 1900, the city was a rail center and the world s largest producer of gypsum products. With a highly diversified economy, the city prospered and by World War I was able to claim to have more skyscrapers per capita than any other city in the Midwest and beautiful public buildings designed by some of the nation s leading architects. Between 1900 and 1925, Fort Dodge enjoyed the role as an important political center and the home of two U.S. senators, the director of the U.S. Mint, the solicitor of the Department of the Treasury, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit, and the first presidential press secretary and speechwriter. Sons and daughters of the community went on to establish national reputations in art, music, literature, science, and journalism. Images used in this volume come primarily from the archives of the Webster County Historical Society and were chosen to represent the changing character of the community from 1850 to 1970.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateOct 27, 2008
    ISBN9781439621394
    Fort Dodge: 1850 to 1970
    Author

    Roger B. Natte

    Roger B. Natte is a retired history professor at Iowa Central Community College and has long been active in state and local historical organizations. He currently is director of the local archives and author of a number of monographs on local history.

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      Book preview

      Fort Dodge - Roger B. Natte

      project.

      INTRODUCTION

      Fort Dodge was a community foreseen long before its actual establishment. In 1838, the War Department, in developing long-range plans for American western frontier defense, proposed a series of military posts stretching from Louisiana to the Canadian border. One of those proposed sites was on the upper Des Moines River near what would become the site of Fort Dodge. Even so, the post might never have materialized except for a series of minor incidents between the Native Americans and the newly arrived settlers, which led to a petition to Congress for increased frontier security in western Iowa.

      In 1850, the post was established, first as Fort Clarke and later changed to Fort Dodge because of communications conflicts with a second Fort Clarke in Texas. The new post, meant to be temporary, consisted of just one company of some 80 soldiers and 22 buildings. After 30 uneventful months, the post was abandoned and sold to civilians.

      The future of the little community was given a boost when the federal land office was located there in 1855. The next year, largely due to a western land boom, prices soared from $1.25 an acre to $12, and the population of the community rose to over 1,000, mostly speculators seeking a quick buck but not a permanent home. Nevertheless, land profits served to fuel future investments in Fort Dodge.

      The new community was blessed with natural resources such as coal, limestone, clay, and gypsum. It was coal that attracted railroads needed to insure general economic growth, but it was gypsum that put Fort Dodge on the map. By 1900, Fort Dodge was producing 25 percent of the world’s supply of plaster, and the county was Iowa’s leading producer of clay products.

      By 1900, Fort Dodge was blessed with enlightened community leadership. Influenced by the great World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago, dreams were for a city exceeding 50,000 by 1950. Nationally recognized architects were hired to design the buildings worthy of those dreams. By 1920, Fort Dodge was able to boast of more skyscrapers per capita than any other city in the Midwest, if not the nation.

      The city was the political center of the state. No other could claim three U.S. congressmen, two U.S. senators, the director of the U.S. Mint, the solicitor of the Department of the Treasury, a third-party candidate for vice president, and a leading muckraking journalist who would become advisor for three presidents.

      People of significance who have had Fort Dodge as their home include Karl L. King, leading composers of marches; William S. Kenyon, U.S. senator and circuit court of appeals judge; Jonathon Dolliver, U.S. senator; Libbie Hyman, internationally recognized zoologist; Lorenzo Coffin, leader in agrarian reform and railroad safety legislation; Samuel Arkoff, Hollywood film producer; and Corita Kent, popular artist of the 1960s, among many others.

      Fort Dodge did not achieve the dreams of growth of the earlier generation. Its economy today is essentially based upon being a retail and service center for north-central Iowa.

      One

      HUMBLE BEGINNINGS

      The first white people to permanently stay in the Fort Dodge area were John Lott and his family, who first settled near the junction of the Des Moines and the Boone Rivers. Their presence led to tensions between the settlers and the remaining Native Americans. One incident, the death of Mrs. Henry Lott, an indirect result of Native Americans depredations in 1848, led to the settlers’ demand that the federal government act to provide greater frontier protection.

      In 1850, a company of the United States 6th Infantry was ordered to establish a post near the forks of the upper Des Moines River to police western Iowa. The troops remained for a relatively uneventful 30 months. The post’s sutler or merchant, William Williams, left the sketch above of the post. It consisted of 22 log buildings with no stockade and was located just north of what is now the city square.

      Officers were West Point graduates, most of exceptional ability. Most were from the South, and with the outbreak of the Civil War, all but one joined the Confederate army. Commanding officer Samuel Woods rose to the rank of colonel, stayed with the Union, and was paymaster general for the army west of the Mississippi River. The most notable was Louis Armistead (pictured here), who achieved fame when he died leading Picket’s Charge at Gettysburg.

      The post was abandoned in April 1853, and the site was purchased by the post sutler William Williams. Considered the founder of Fort Dodge, he platted the town and was to become its first mayor.

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