History, Scott County, Iowa...part of Genealogy Trails

County History

“The wilderness shall blossom like the rose.” Where the rude wigwams stood, and the sons of the forest roamed unmolested in pursuit of games over
their hunting grounds, when the proud Indian chief and his warriors were the only inhabitants of the wilderness, only twenty-nine years ago the spot on which
the beautiful city of Davenport is built—only twenty-nine years since the first white man landed and settled at this place—the last vestige of the red man has been
swept away before the march of civilization, and now we behold through the valley, and over the bluffs, spread out before us in all its rural beauty, the city of
Davenport, extending up and down the river for a distance of three miles with a population of seventeen thousand inhabitants.

Directly opposite Davenport is Rock Island, a place about one third the size of the former, and as it were a sort of attaché to it, between the two cities, there is
an island midway in the river, which is sparned [sic] by the celebrated R. I. and C. Railroad Bridge, connecting the two cities. On the (rocky) island the ruins of
the old fort are still visible, relies of what was once a large fort, and garrisoned by twenty-five hundred government troops, this being in those days beyond the
borders of civilization, the government was obliged to keep a strong force here to watch the Indians.

It may not be uninteresting to you to know something of the history of one of the first pioneers, a very remarkable man, Antoine Le Claire, a descendant
from the French, married a granddaughter of a Pottawattoma chief in 1832. He landed at this place, and was the first white man to settle here. He was for a
long time Indian agent, being a fine linguist, speaking fourteen different Indian languages, he was remarkably well qualified to fill the important station
here Mr. Le Claire has accumulated a very large property, probably he was the most wealthiest man in Iowa. He died on the 25th ult., aged 65 years, and
was buried with all the solemnities and rite of the Catholic Church.
[New York Illustrated News Oct. 14, 1861 - C. Horton -2009]

SCOTT COUNTY was created in 1837 from territory belonging to the original counties of Dubuque, Cook and Muscatine. It lies on the Mississippi River in the fifth tier north of Missouri and contains four hundred fifty-five square miles. The county was named for General Winfield Scott who was in command of the department of which this county was a part in 1832. An account of the earliest settlements and the contests for the county-seat have been given elsewhere. The survey of the public lands of Iowa began in the fall of 1836 and was completed in Scott County, by A. Bent, in March, 1837.

Gue, Benjamin F., History of Iowa from the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth, New York, 1903 [Transcribed by: Candi H. 2008]