In the year 1841 I saw the amount of wheat and pork was going to be double as much as ever before, and I was very solicitous as to what I should do with it.  I saw in the St. Louis Republican that the government invited proposals for furnishing Fort Snelling and Fort Crawford with a year's supply of pork, flour, beans, soap, vinegar, candles and numerous othe articles.  I considered the matter and could think of no reason why Scott county could not furnish the pork, flour, beans, etc., as well as St. Louis, which had furnished them heretofore.  So I decided to put in a bid, if I could find any one to go on my bonds, which were heavy.  I interviewed Mr. LeClaire and Colonel Davenport, and told them what I was thinking of.  If I could accomplish it and get a contract and fill it from home production, it would be a grand thing for both the town and the county, and be a means of circulating a good deal of money, of which the people at that time were sadly in need.  Those gentlemen, always ready and anxious to do anything that would settle up and advance the prosperity of the country, were much pleased with my suggestion and said they would stand by me.  I put in bids for both forts, referring as to my responsibility to Colonel Davenport and Antoine LeClaire.  As I was going to Cincinnati I wrote to them that if my bids were accepted to address me there, as I wished to purchase in that market such supplies as could not be procured at home.  On my arrival I found a communication from the department at Washington, saying that my bid for Fort Snelling had been accepted.  On my return home I found that John Atchison, who had been the successful contractor of both forts for two or three years previous, had been in town three days awaiting my return.  I got home about dark.  My wife told me that Ebenezer Cook had left word that I had better avoid meeting Atchison until I had seen Cook; so after supper I walked down to Mr. Cook's house, about a mile on the Rockingham road.  He informed me that Atchison was very anxious to buy me out.  He did not care about furnishing the supplies so much as he did for the transportation.  The Atchison Brothers owned the largest and most magnificent steamboat on the upper Mississippi, called the "Amaranth."  They had been very successful in controlling both the government's and the Fur Company's freight and my success was a great surprise to them.  In the morning Atchison made his appearance.  I refused to sell, telling him my only object in taking the contract was to make an outlet for my winter accumulation.  After talking the matter over all day I sold out on these conditions:  he to pay me a bonus of $2,500, cash down;  I to furnish the flour, pork and beans, for which he was to pay me contract price, less the transportation, and pay me cash down on delivery to his boat, the next June, the time specified by the government.  I now went to work hauling my wheat to Rockingham mill and scouring the country for hogs.  My cooperage-pork, flour and bean barrels-I had all manufactured at home, giving employment to a number of coopers.  This, with the money I had received from Atchison and scattered among the farmers for hogs, wheat, beans, etc., gave our little village and the county a decided boom. About this time there was a prospect of brighter days.  Our German fellow citizens began to come to Davenport in large numbers and many of them possessed a good deal of money, which the country sadly needed.  They entered large tracts of land, which they immediately improved.  This year (1851) the cholera prevailed in Davenport and many of the German immigrants had ship fever among them.  They came by the way of New Orleans; every steamboat landing at our wharf left some.  There was much excitement on account of the cholera.  Many of our best citizens are dying.  A man would be well at bedtime and dead before morning.  Many immigrants could not get shelter and Burrows & Prettyman threw open their pork house and warehouse for use until the immigrants could put up shanties on the prairie.  Many men, now wealthy farmers, occupied our buildings until they could do better; among these I remember M. J. Rohlfs, since then treasurer of Scott county for ten years; also N. J. Rusch, afterward state senator and lieutenant-governor of Iowa.  I always have had a warm feeling for the Germans for their help in settling up Scott county, when help was so much needed.  It is astonishing to see what they have accomplished.  You can find scarcely a German farmer who is not wealthy.  The banks of Davenport contain about $6,000,000 of deposits (which, I believe, is as much as all the rest of the state claims to have), and half of the money is owned by Germans. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Debbie Clough G-erischer G-erischer Family Web Site http://gerischer.rootsweb.com/ Assistant CC, Iowa Gen Web, Scott County http://www.celticcousins.net/scott/ List Manager for: IASCOTT-L * G-erischer-L * D-encker-L Fitzpatirck-L * V-lerebome-L * Huntington-L * Otis-L * Algar-L EIGS-L * Pickens-L * McNab-L * Patris-L - Rankin-L