Chapter 10 cont. BETTENDORF It would take no Rip Van Winkle awakening from a twenty years' nap to rub his eyes when he visits Gilberttown and describes Bettendorf.  A very few years of stay would do it.  The steady people of Gilbert raised onions and cultivated pretty flower beds, kept early hours and good habits and were content with quiet life in the eastern suburbs of Davenport, when all of a sudden they awoke in a whirl of industry, with chimneys that smoke and wheels that hum, mammoth hydraulic presses that make steel cars and shears that chew up boiler plate.  The necromancer, W. P. Bettendorf and his associates have worked the transformation.  The town changed in name as well as nature and has become the second in the county.  An army of men are employed in axle works and car works, gas machine factory, automobile works, stone crushers and other industries.  Bettendorf has a mayor and council, is improving the streets and arranging for a municipal septic tank.  The trains of the C. B. & Q., the C. M. & St. P. and the I. & I. interurban stop for freight and passengers.  The street cars of the Davenport system provide speedy and cheap transit.  Suburban homes are becoming plentiful on the bluffs at Bettendorf.  Everything points to a great growth in this city of industry.  Davenport is already looking with covetous eyes and hopes to make this growing suburb the seveth ward of the city at no distant date. 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