In 1808 the United States established Fort Madison,
the first United States military post on the upper Mississippi River.
The fort was built to protect the government "factory," or trading post,
where area Sauk and Fox could exchange furs and lead for manufactured
goods. The post was also intended to secure the American frontier in
that region. Most of Native Americans in the area were friendly toward
the fort and traded peacefully at the government factory. There were
incidents when the fort was menaced by unfriendly Sauk, Fox), and
Winnebago under the partial leadership of the noted Sauk warrior Black
Hawk. Following the outbreak of the War of 1812 the fort was besieged by
Black Hawk and his allies who were supported by the British agents.
During the siege, the post commander ordered the burning of the factory,
which was outside the fort, to prevent the besiegers from doing so on a
day when west winds might carry burning debris to endanger the post
buildings. Faced with constant harassment, Lt. Thomas Hamilton, the post
commander, ordered the fort abandoned in November of1813. Under cover of
darkness, the men of the garrison slipped away downriver in boats,
leaving the fort engulfed in flames and only the chimneys remained. In
1908 the local DAR chapter erected a monument in the form of a chimney
to mark the site of Blockhouse #1. In 1983 the city received the first
of two government grants to reconstruct a full-scale replica of Old Fort
Madison. Replicas of major buildings were erected in Riverview Park at a
point near the actual site of the historic fort. Today, visitors can
visit the reconstructed fort and watch living history demonstrations.
In 1832 a conflict between the Sauk and Fox and the
United States erupted. The root of the conflict was the controversial
1804 Treaty of St. Louis which ceded the Sauk and Fox lands east of the
Mississippi. A subsequent treaty in 1816 promised that the tribes could
remain east of the Mississippi until the Americans needed the land. By
1829 most of the Sauk and Fox had already voluntarily moved west in the
Iowa territory and the State of Illinois had decided it was time for the
federal government to begin removing the remaining holdouts which
included followers of the Sauk war chief Black Hawk, who never accepted
the validity of the treaties. In 1830 in response to hostilities with
the Dakota, Black Hawk moved his followers west of the Mississippi to
aid the Sauk there. War between the Sauk and Dakota was averted when the
Americans sent General Henry Atkinson with a force of 400 to Fort
Armstrong on Rock Island. Armstrong and the Sauk chief Keokuk forced
Black Hawk to agree not to cross back into Illinois. But in June of 1832
Blackhawk defiantly crossed the Mississippi with almost 2,000 Sauk and
started the Black Hawk War. Black Hawk and his followers never received
the support he expected from other native tribes and the British and the
war ended with the American victory at the Battle of Bad Axe in August.
On September 21, 1832, the Black Hawk War officially came to an end with
a treaty approved at Fort Armstrong. In the treaty the Americans
extracted an indemnity of a tract of land, commonly called the Black
Hawk Purchase, extending along the Mississippi River on the west bank
from the Missouri border nearly to Minnesota.
General John H. Knapp is generally considered the
first permanent settler in Fort Madison. Knapp served with the New York
Militia during the War of 1812 who managed a coal mine and owned a hotel
and store before moving out west in 1830. Knapp passed the ruins of Fort
Madison on a riverboat trip north in 1832. Knapp bought a claim and
built the first building in the area since the destruction of the old
fort and used it as a supply store for the Native Americans. Knapp sold
the store in late 1832 and moved to Quincy where his cousin Nathaniel
Knapp operated a hotel. In early 1833 General Knapp returned to Fort
Madison with Nathaniel. General Knapp built a log house on the exact
site of the old fort using one of the old chimneys for his residence and
erected a new store building and sent for his family who were in
Pennsylvania. In late 1835 General Knapp built a large hotel that could
accommodate fifty people called the Madison House. At about the same
time Nathaniel also built a hotel called the Washington House. Both
hotels prospered due to the influx of immigrants to the area. As many as
100 teams of oxen waited on the Illinois shore waiting to be ferried
across the Mississippi on a flatboat ferry and many of the people
waiting for the ferry stayed at the hotels.
In June of 1835 the two Knapps platted the town of
Fort Madison with the first lots going up for sale early in the year
1836. Fort Madison was incorporated by an act of the Territorial
Legislature of Wisconsin, as Iowa was not yet a state, on January 19,
1838. By 1938, a flourishing town of nearly six hundred inhabitants had
developed, with a large proportion being enterprising merchants,
mechanics, and manufacturers. 1938 saw the establishment of the first
church and newspaper. In 1940 Fort Madison began construction on a
courthouse to stop other Lee County communities from contesting the
decision to make Fort Madison the county seat. Several towns including
Keokuk and West Point were rivals in a contest to where the county seat
would be located. The contest that was finally settled in 1847 when the
Iowa Legislature granted Keokuk and Fort Madison concurrent jurisdiction
making Lee County the only Iowa county with two county seats. The Greek
Revival building with four large Tuscan columns of plastered brick was
listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. The Iowa
State Penitentiary at Fort Madison was built in 1839 making it the first
territorial prison and oldest penal institution west of the Mississippi.
The prison served as a territorial prison for seven years before Iowa
became a state. The original cell block is still in use, and three of
the prison houses are on the National Register of Historic Places.
Fort Madison was a river town
until in 1869 the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad connected Fort
Madison into its system as part of a route between Burlington and
Hannibal. The
real transformation of Fort Madison into a railroad town came almost two
decades later. Prior to the late 1880s the Santa Fe railroad system
concentrated its efforts on rail lines that were west of the Missouri
River. In 1886 the board of directors decided to expand eastward to
Chicago in response to the plans of several eastern lines to extend
their operations west of the Missouri River. To carry out this project
the Chicago, Santa Fe and California Railway Company was incorporated in
December of 1886. In 1887 the decision was made to route its main line
from Chicago to the west coast through Fort Madison. A bridge across the
Mississippi River at Fort Madison for the railroad was authorized by the
U.S. Congress in March of 1887 and the nearly 3,000 foot bridge was
completed by the end of the year.
In 1927 the Fort Madison Toll Bridge, also known as
the Santa Fe Swing Span Bridge, replaced the inadequate single-track
bridge. Rail traffic occupies the lower deck of the bridge, while two
lanes of road traffic occupy the upper deck. It is widely considered the
longest double-deck swing-span bridge in the world. About 75 to 90
trains including Amtrak's Southwest Chief cross the bridge in a typical
day. The mission revival style Old Santa Fe Depot that was built in 1909
is now the home of the North Lee County Historical Museum. The
museum complex, complete with Santa Fe Caboose #235, has exhibits on
railroad history, firefighting lore, the state penitentiary, territorial
and pioneer days, and houses an art gallery.
Preserving the past to build for the future is happening all Fort
Madison. In the downtown area several blocks have been named to the
National Register of Historic Places. The buildings may be old, but new
businesses have taken up residence. Fort Madison’s local architecture
has been highlighted in a self-guided tour brochure that covers nearly
100 Victorian-style homes. The brochure is provided by the Fort Madison
Historic Preservation Commission. For information about the brochure
call 319-372-7661. The Fort Madison community hosts a range of events
throughout the year including historical adventures at Old Fort Madison,
the Simply the Blues Festival in May, and the Tri-State Rodeo in
September.
www.visitfortmadison.com
This web site is maintained by the Fort Madison Area Convention and
Visitors Bureau and has
detailed information about the town, its history, the things to do, and
local events as well as information about the surrounding area.
