Go west, young man, go west!”
These are the famous words Horace Greeley supposedly spoke to Josiah Bushnell Grinnell, and go west is just what the preacher from New
England did. Based on speculation that two rail lines would cross in the central plains of Iowa, Grinnell purchased several hundred acres of land
in 1854, and founded a city in his name.
One might imagine a small, isolated town on the prairie growing slowly and quietly. However, this was not the case with Grinnell. During Grinnell’s
first summer, the city’s founders completed a longhouse which served as lodging until residents could build their own homes. Almost immediately,
however, the city was plotted, designating land parcels for private residences, a commercial district, a city park, a block for schools and churches
and an area for an institution of higher learning. By mid summer 1855, the town had 15 homes including Grinnell’s. By the Fall of 1856, the
number had risen to over two-hundred. In 1859, J.B. Grinnell welcomed the notorious abolitionist John Brown and 16 fugitive slaves to stay in his
home while making their escape north.
In 1848, about 120 miles east of Grinnell, Iowa College was founded in Davenport, Iowa. In 1854, the same year J.B. Grinnell founded the city of
Grinnell, Iowa College became the first institution of higher learning to award a bachelor’s degree west of the Mississippi. Town-gown relations in
Davenport were, however, not good. Davenport was a hard-drinking river town. Its citizens’ loose morals and somewhat pro-slavery attitudes
clashed with those of the Iowa College trustees. Matters became even worse when the city threatened to extend the town’s Main Street and
business district into the college campus. When J.B. Grinnell gave Iowa College a financial incentive to move to his new town, it quickly accepted,
and opened its doors to students in Grinnell in 1861. The first class graduated in 1865, and the college was officially renamed Grinnell College in
1909.
With the westward extension of the Rock Island Railroad reaching town in 1863 and the north-south extension of the Central Railroad in 1869, the
town and college continued to grow. By the early 1880s, the city of Grinnell boasted a population of over 2,500. Grinnell’s early years were,
however, not all good times and prosperity. The Civil War claimed the lives of many residents, faculty and students. In 1882 a tornado swept
through town, leaving death and destruction in its wake. Seven years later in 1889, the same year Grinnell hosted and won the first intercollegiate
football game west of the Mississippi, a fire claimed much of the town’s business district. While devastating, these disasters fostered a new period
of building. Many of the buildings constructed after these disasters still exist today.
Over the years, the small town of Grinnell has had many notable residents and companies. One of Grinnell’s first industries, the Morrison Glove
Factory, established in 1856, became the world’s largest producer of gauntlet gloves. The Morrison Manufacturing plant ceased business in
1974. It is now used as an administrative building by Grinnell College, but still referred to as “The Old Glove Factory”. In 1876, H.W. Spaulding
moved to Grinnell and began work as a blacksmith. Much of his work soon became manufacturing buggies. By the turn of the century the
Spaulding Manufacturing Company owned several buildings and became a major buggy manufacturing company. With the popularity of the
automobile, Spaulding switched to making cars before succumbing to the larger automobile manufacturers such as Ford in 1929. Some of the
Spaulding buildings can still be seen along the east-west train tracks west of the business district. The Merchant’s National Bank, designed in
1914 by famous architect Louis Sullivan, is perhaps Grinnell’s most famous existing building. Today, the bank serves as the Chamber of
Commerce, so the interior as well as exterior architecture are open to public viewing. At about the same time the Merchant’s National Bank was
being built, Grinnell resident Billy Robinson brought notoriety to Grinnell and himself when he set a new American continuous flight record
delivering mail from Des Moines to Chicago on October 17, 1914. Tragically, he was killed in 1916 in an attempt to set a new altitude record.
To learn more about the history of Grinnell, view many wonderful images or purchase the book: Grinnell: Jewel of the Prairie, click
here.
|
|