A little History of Ottumwa. The early settlers were a mixture of people, who came from New England through Pennsylvania and Ohio, and from the piedmont of North Caro- lina and Virginia through Kentucky and Southern Illinois. Some were moderately rich, others poor, some educated, others illiterate, but with all there was the spirit of adventure, keen determination to better themselves as individ- uals and to forge ahead to- gether as a community. The Rev. B. A. Spaulding, first pastor of the Congregational Church and Ottumwas first minister, said of the people attending his services, The congregation assembled was not a company of wild hunt- ers and ruffians with their rifles in their hands, or care- lessly thrown against a tree, but a collection of families from the older states, and The towns first schoolhouse was built in 1850. even the Atlantic shore, whose personal appearance and respectful conduct would not suffer from a comparison with many congregations that I have seen within forty miles of Boston. The original name for the area was Ottumwa, but there was a time in 1844 when the village was called Louisville at the suggestion of the locating commissioners. A sharp fight ensued, and the Ap- panoose Rapids Company, composed of pioneers who laid out the town, was largely responsible for the retention of the distinctive Indian name, Ottumwa, which symbolically, has two meanings: Place of Swift Water and Place of Perseverance or Self-Will. Ten days after the settlers began to mark out claims, the first house was completed. In 1843 tne Post Office was established. In May, 1844, Ottumwa was named the county seat. The first mill was built in 1845. Church life was outstanding in this year, also, with the Methodist Episcopal Church form- ing the first church organization. The next year the first court house was constructed, not long be- fore General Winfield Scott entered Mexico City ending the war with Mexico. In 1848, Ottumwa had a newspaper, the Des Moines Courier, a name which nine years later was changed to the Ottumwa Courier. By 1848 the enterprise of the people and the natural advantages of the town clearly assured a bright future for Ottumwa. A year after the California Gold Rush of 1849, the community saw its first school house, and in 1851, the town was incorporated, with George Gillaspy elected the first president of a board of trustees. Ottumwa was growing. By 1855, there were over 1,000 inhabitants. It was a thriving village with busy streets and an active, wide-awake population. There were eight dry goods stores, two drug stores, a clothing and grocery store, a stove store, tin shop, harness shop, two churches and two hotels; also there was a tannery, saw and grist mill, a carding machine to prepare native wool for clothing, a chair shop, gunsmith shop, three blacksmith shops, four shoe shops, three tailor shops, a bakery and confectionery, a printing of- fice, a newspaper, a land office and a daguer- reotype gallery.
Posted on: Sat, 16 Aug 2014 21:26:16 +0000
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