regularly laid out and beautifully situated. Part of the city is built on the high grounds or bluffs, rising in some places about 200 feet above the river, affording a beautiful and commanding view of the surrounding country: with the river, and its woody islands, stretching far away to the

The view shows the appearance of the city, as seen from near the South Bluff: the eastern terminus of the Burlington and Missouri Railroad, the Court House, and other public buildings, on the elevated ground in the distance, appear in the central part; the North Bluff and Steamboat Landing on the right

north and south. It has a variety of mechanical and manufacturing establishments. The pork packing business is carried on extensively. It is the seat of the Burlington University, and contains 12 churches, in 1860, 6,706. inhabitants.

The country for sixty miles around Burlington, sometimes called the "garden of Iowa," is very fertile. Near the city are immense quantities of gray limestone rock, suitable for building purposes.

The first white person who located himself in Burlington, appears to have been Samuel S. White, a native of Ohio, who built a cabin here, in 1832, close to the river at the foot of the upper bluff. The United States, according to the treaty with the Indians, not being then entitled to the lands west of the Mississippi, the dragoons from Fort Armstrong came down, burnt White out, and drove him over to the Illinois side of the river. He remained on Honey Creek till the 1st of the next June, when, the Indian title being extinguished, he returned and rebuilt his cabin near its former site.

Mr. White was soon afterward joined by Amzi Doolittle, and in 1834, they laid out the first part of the town on the public lands. The survey of White and Doolittle was made by Benjamin Tucker and Dr. Wm. R. Ross. Their bounds extended down to Hawkeye Creek. White and Doolittle afterward sold out all their lands and removed. The first addition to this tract was made by Judge David Rorer, a native of Virginia, in April, 1836, who had emigrated the month previous. In July of this year, he built the first brick building ever erected in Iowa. Judge R. laid the first brick with his own hands. This building stood on what is now lot 438, the next corner north

of Marion Hall. This dwelling was taken down by Col. Warren, in 1854 or '55. The first location made outside the town, was by a settler named Tothero, whose cabin was about three miles from the river; this was previous to June, 1833. He was consequently driven off by the dragons, and his cabin destroyed.

The town was named by John Gray, a native of Burlington, Vermont, and

brother-in-law to White, the first settler. The Flint Hills were called by the Indians Shokokon, a word in their language signifying "flint hills;" these bluffs are generally about 150 feet above the river. Burlington became the county seat of Des Moines in 1834, under the jurisdiction of Michigan. In 1836 it was made the seat of government of Wisconsin Territory, and in the fall of 1837, the legislature of that territory first met at Burlington. When Iowa Territory was formed in 1838, Burlington became the seat of government. The building in which the legislative assembly first met stood. on the river bank, just north of Columbia-street. It was burnt down soon afterward. At the first court he.d in Burlington, three divorces were granted, one conviction for assault and bat tery, and one fine for contempt of court. The record does not show the grounds of contempt, but from other sources we learn it was a rencounter in open court, in which the tables of the judges, being dry goods boxes and barrels with planks laid across, were overturned. The hero of the occasion was afterward taken prisoner in the Santa Fe expedition from Texas.

JUDGE RORER'S HOUSE.

Dr. Ross and Maj. Jeremiah Smith, who came to Burlington in 1833, were the first merchants. The first church (the Methodist Old Zion) was erected the same year, and is believed to have been the first house of worship erected in Iowa. In this venerable structure, which is still standing, the legislative body have met and courts have been held. The "Iowa Territorial Gazette," the first newspaper, was issued in the summer of 1837, by James Clarke, from Pennsylvania, who was subsequently governor of the territory. The second paper was the "Iowa Patriot," afterward the "Hawkeye," by James G. Edwards, of Boston. The Iowa Historical and Geological Society was organized in 1843, and is the oldest literary society in the state.

The following inscriptions are from monuments in the Aspen Grove Cemetery, at the N.W. border of the city:

Here lie the mortal remains of JAS. CLARKE, founder of the first Newspaper in Burlington, Member of the first Constitutional Convention, Secretary and Governor of the Territory of Iowa. Born July 5, 1812; died July 28, 1850

My Husband and our Father, ABNER LEONARD, minister of the Gospel, born Dec. 13, 1787, in Washington Co., Pa.; died Oct. 30, 1856.

Now with my Savior, Brother, Friend,
A blest Eternity I'll spend,

Triumphant in his grace.

In memory of REV. HORACE HUTCHINSON, late Pastor of the Congregational Church, of Burlington. He was born at Sutton, Mass., Aug. 10, 1817. Graduated at Amherst College; 1839, and at Andover Theological Seminary in 1843. He died March 7, 1846.

Sacred to the memory of REV. SAMUEL PAYNE, Missionary, native of New Jersey, who departed this life, Jan. 8, 1845, aged 38 years, 6 mo. and 17 days. Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: yea saith the spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them. Rev. xiv, 13.

In memory of REV. THOMAS SCHULTZ, German Missionary of the Methodist Church; born July 11, 1821; died March 18, 1848. *Christus ist mein Leben und sterben ist mein Gewin.

In memory of REV. WILLIAM HEMMINGHAUS, German Missionary of the M.E. Church; born Jan. 26, 1808; died Jan. 24, 1848.

Wo ich bin da soll mein, diener auch sein.
Where I am, there shall be my servant. Jan. 12, 1826.

The view shows the appearance of Keokuk, as seen from the hights above the Ferry landing, on the Illinois side of the Mississippi. The Keokuk, Fort Des Moines and Minnesota Railroad is on the extreme left; the Keokuk, Mount Pleasant and Muscatine Railroad on the right.

KEOKUK, and semi-capital of Lee county, is a short distance above the confluence of the Des Moines with the Mississippi, on the west side of the Mississippi, 200 miles above St. Louis, 1,400 above New Orleans, and about 150 from Des Moines, the capital. It is at the S.E. corner of the state, at the foot of the "Lower Rapids," and being the only city of Iowa having uninterrupted communication with all the great tributaries of the "Father of Waters," it has not inaptly been called the "Gate City" of Iowa. The site of Keokuk is remarkably fine. It covers the top and slopes of a large bluff, partially around which the Mississippi bends with a graceful curve, commanding a fine prospect to the south and north. The city stands

upon an inexhaustible quarry of limestone rock, forming ample material for buildings. A portion of the great water power at this point is used in various manufactories, flouring mills, founderies, etc. The Mississippi, upward from this place, flows over a rocky bed of limestone, called the Rapids, 12 miles in extent, falling, in that distance, 24 feet, making it difficult for the larger class of steamboats to pass. The city contains several splendid public buildings, the medical department of the State University, hospital, some eight or nine churches, and about 13,000 inhabitants.

The plat of the village of Keokuk was laid out in the spring of 1837, and in the ensuing June a public sale of town lots was held, and attended by a very large crowd. One boat was chartered in St. Louis, and numbers came. up on other boats. Only two or three lots, the south-west corner of Mainstreet and the levee, and one or two others lying contiguous, were sold. The corner lot went for $1,500, and a New York company still hold the deed of trust on it to secure the payment.

In 1840, the main portion of Keokuk was a dense forest, and where Mainstreet now is, were thick timber and underbrush. It was so swampy and rough between Third and Fourth-streets, as to be rather dangerous riding, on horseback after a heavy rain. About a dozen cabins comprised all the improvements. In the spring of 1847, a census of the place gave a population of 620. Owing to the unsettled state of the titles, but little progress was made till 1849. From that time until the autumn of 1857 it had a rapid growth.

Keokuk derived its name from Keokuk (the Watchful Fox), a chieftain of the Sac tribe, distinguished for his friendship to the Americans during the Black Hawk war. He often lost his popularity with his tribe by his efforts to keep them at peace with the United States, and nothing but his powerful eloquence and tact sustained him. He was once deposed by his tribe, and a young chief elected in his place. He, however, soon attained his former position. Keokuk was born about the year 1780. He was not a hereditary chief, but raised himself to that dignity by the force of talent and enterprise. He was a man of extraordinary eloquence; fertile in resources on the field of battle; possessed of desperate bravery; and never at a loss in any emergency. He had six wives, was fond of display, and on his visits of state to other tribes, moved, it is supposed, in more savage magnificence than any other chief on the continent. He was a noble looking man, about five feet ten inches in hight, portly, and over 200 pounds in weight. He had an eagle eye, a dignified bearing, and a manly, intelligent expression of countenance, and always painted and dressed in the Indian costume. He supplanted Black Hawk as chieftain of the Sacs and Foxes. He died in Missouri a few years since, and was succeeded in the chieftainship by his son.

The Des Moines River, which terminates at Keokuk, is one of the noblest of streams. Keokuk is the principal port of its valley, in which half the population and agricultural wealth of the state are concentrated. On the banks of the Des Moines stood the village of the celebrated chief Black Hawk, who there breathed his last, Oct. 3, 1840. He was buried near the banks of the river, in a sitting posture, as is customary with his tribe. His hands grasped his cane, and his body was surrounded by stakes, which united at the top.

Iowa is noted for the extent and magnificence of her prairies. These are of great advantage to the rapid and easy settlement of a country. When,

however, too extensive, without a sufficiency of timber, a prairie country has some serious drawbacks. Fortunately, in Iowa, the immense beds of coal partly supply the deficiency in fuel, and the prairie country there is remarkably healthy. It is generally rolling, often even hilly, the streams mostly

fresh running water, with sandy or gravelly beds, which condition prevents the origin of miasma, the great scourge of flat, prairie districts, where sluggish streams, winding their snaky shaped course through rich alluvial soils, generate disease and death from their stagnant waters, green and odious with the slime of a decaying vegetation. The prairie farms of Iowa, large, smooth and unbroken by stump or other obstruction, afford an excellent field for the introduction of mowing machines and other improved implements of agriculture.

The wonderful fertility of the prairies is accounted for by the fact that we have a soil "which for thousands of years has been hearing annual crops of grass, the ashes or decayed stems of which have been all that time adding to the original fer