Davenport Gazette
Davenport, Scott, Iowa
Thursday Morning, Oct 23, 1845

IMMIGRATION
The rapidity with which our Territory is settling can partly be judged by
the interesting communication of our paper of today upon Marion county. The
Burlington Gazette states that the number of emigrants coming into Iowa at
that point, this season, is probably greater than that of any previous
season. The editor states that the two ferries are constantly employed in
crossing teams, stock &c.; and though he has not enquired of the ferrymen,
he supposes the number of teams crossing, to be from twenty to forty daily.

The same can be observed of almost every ferry on the Mississippi. At this
place the ferry boat is almost continually plying. We would not dare hazard
a conjecture as to the number of emigrants that cross here for the back
counties. WhiLe some make this county [Scott] the termination of their
journey, the balance deviate to Cedar, Linn, Clinton, Jones, Jackson and
Dubuque counties.

Speaking of the emigration from Ohio to this Territory, the editor of the
Iowa City Reporter, who is a fellow Buckeye, says:-
"In the streets of Wappelo, we last week met six teams from Pike county in
that state, well loaded with utensils of husbandry, women, children, buckeye
lasses and various other descriptions of household furniture. This company
was bound for the vicinity of this city, where they have friends residing.
They informed us that they were fifteen teams strong, in crossing the
Mississippi, and that there was a large body yet behind. The arrival of a
company of twelve teams was daily expected in Wappelo, from Ross co, O., for
settlement in that vicinity.

"At Hope Farm, we met six more teams from Richland co., in the same State;
and the members of this company also informed us that they crossed the
Mississippi more than twice as strong. They stated, that at the lowest
estimate, they had seen seventy or eighty teams en route for Iowa,
principally from Richland, Summit, Portage, Cuyahoga, Huron and Lorain
counties. [Ohio]

"The are constantly crossing in companies of from three or four, to twenty
teams, with stock, &c, in proportion, at all points along the Mississippi-
Keokuk, Ft. Madison, Burlington, Black Hawk, Bloomington, Davenport and
Dubuque. We can from no very accurate estimate, but from all accounts,
should judge that the accession to our population, during the present
season, must reach several thousand. And what is still more gratifying, is
the fact, that these new comers are nearly, if not quite all of the
agricultural class, which constitutes the true wealth of a country, and upon
the predominance of which depends its prosperity and greatness. They are
thrice welcome. Let them come on, and discourage them not. There is yet
plenty of room. Millions of acres of the richest and most productive soil
that the sun ever shone upon, yet lies waste, inviting occupancy and
reclamation by the sturdy sons of toil, and a generous and warm hearted a
race of men as ever held the plough, swung the axe or cradle, delved the
ditch or reared a log cabin, stand ready to welcome them with open arms. The
Hawkeyes, though rude, perphaps are "human", every inch of them and the
eastern emigrant, so soon as he arrives in their midst, will feel himself at
home."

The Gazette
Davenport, Scott, Iowa
Oct 11, 1849

IMMIGRATION
The immigration to Iowa the present season promises to be very great. Large
numbers of movers have already entered the State at this place, and we learn
that the same is the fact with regard to most of the other crossing points.
They come from all sections of the Union, invited hither by the conviction,
now becoming wide-spread and general, that the advantages of Iowa are
unsurpassed, and that she is destined, ultimately, to take her rank as one
of the foremost States of the confederacy. This immigrating process, which
seems to increase with every annual return of the spring and fall seasons,
must swell our population immensely during the next ten years. It is a safe
calculation to say that under the federal census of 1860 we hall number half
a million of inhabitants.
A natural effect of this continual influx is the extension of the settlement
into the interior of the State. The frontier is daily becoming more and more
distant. A few years ago many believed that hte country lying beyond the Des
Moines was comparatively worthless; but the fact that a heavy population is
already located there, with the manifest assurance that a very short time
must elapse before the whole country is dotted over with farms and
improvements clear to the Missouri river, at once dissipates such an
impression. The lands in this section are described by all who have had
opportunities of forming correct opinions as being equal to any other
portions of the State. The only drawback at present is the want of a
convenient market. Give to this extensive region an outlet for its
productions and soon it will be made to rival the older countries in thrift,
population and enterprise. Sooner or later this outlet it will have. The
chain of rail-road connecting the upper Mississippi with the Atlantic cities
is nearly completed. The next link will be a connexion with the Missouri
river, across Iowa, probably by way of Fort Des Moines. The chain will then
be complete, and the resources of Iowa will then begin to be
developed.--Burlington Gazette.

The Gazette
Davenport, Scott, Iowa
Oct 25, 1849

IMMIGRATION
The immigration into our State the present year has been immense. It was
thought, at the time the tide set for California, that the settlement of our
State must cease until a reaction had occurred, but it seems that Iowa has
populated faster the present than any previous year. The following paragraph
in relation to this subject is from the Burlington Gazette:
It is estimated that between fourteen and fifteen hundred wagons have
crossed the Mississippi at this place within the last five weeks bringing
immigrants from Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, and all of them seeking homes in
Iowa. They have generally gone to the new counties on and west of the Des
Moines river, where we know, they will find lands and other agricultural
advantages equal to any in the world. Allowing five persons to a wagon,
there have crossed, at this place alone, between 7,000 and 8,000 persons. We
are told that the same extraordinary influx of immigrants has taken place at
all other crossings along the river, from Du Buque down to Keokuk.- It is
therefore reasonable to suppose that from 30,000 to 50,000 persons have been
added to our population within the last month and a half- and the tide is
still pressing toward us.

The Gazette
Davenport, Scott, Iowa
Nov 22, 1849

IMMIGRATION
Iowa is peopling more rapidly this than any former season. The California
fever had had the effect to make persons discontented with their homes- to
infuse more largely into Americans that spirit of locomotion for which we
are so widely known as a people. No other nation under the sun would in so
short time have as densely populated a distant country under such
unfavorable auspices we Americans have settled California. That uneasy
feeling which prompts our countrymen to change their abodes and pursuits so
often, to the great scandal of beef-loving Johnny Bull, needed but the
incentive of the almighty dollar to become heightened into a fever,
contagious as fatal. Disappointed, many of them, in reaching the El Dorado
uon the Pacific, and determined to go to some place where their labor would
meet with just appreciation and an ample remuneration, they seek the richer
country, laved by the waters of the great Father of Rivers, and known as
Iowa- one of the youngest and most beautiful of Uncle Sam's daughters. They
are welcome, and so long as they bring with them affections chastened by a
surrender of sordid human nature seeking sudden wealth, they will find a
home and that valued bijou, contentment, upon the arable acres of Iowa.

EMIGRATION WEST
The Indiana State Sentinel states that the number of emigrants passing
westward, over the national road, has been larger, the present season, than
in any former season for 10 years. Hundreds of wagons pass through
Indianapolis daily.

IMMIGRATION
We are informed by Mr. Fimple, that an average of 5 families per day has
crossed the river at this point for the past month or 6 weeks and the number
seems to be increasing. Iowa is filling up with unparalleled rapidity. A
population, enterprising, industrious, and intelligent, are settling her
beautiful prairies and woodlands. Immigration are literally pouring into the
State at every inlet.- Property is advancing, trade prospering and commerce
increasing...Muscatine Enq.

CHICAGO RAILROAD
The Journal has the following paragraph in reference to the prosecution of
this work:- "The workmen on this road are taking advantage of the fine
weather and are pushing forward rapidly. Upwards of 3000 feet were laid on
Saturday. The cars ran over an additional section yesterday, making thirty
one miles completed. The road with fair weather will be completed to the St.
Charles junction in two weeks. The track of the St. Charles branch is ready
for the iron, which is here, awaiting the completion of the same road to the
point where it is to intersect it."