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October 2005: IN THE BEGINNING...
Recently Jane Cady applied for a grant from Parade Magazine (you get it every Sunday if you take the Quad City Times) involving recognition of local historical sites around the country. Part of the application was a 500 word history of the site. She asked me to do it, which I did. It occurred to me that perhaps it would be worthwhile to do a column or two on this subject. You can get a history of our town in Heagy’s works and also McNabney’s (both available at the Crier office or Black’s Store) but I suspect some of you might not have done this and of course some readers are relatively recent Hamptonians and haven’t heard about our towns long and rich history.
The first mention of Hampton, actually the area where Hampton is located, occurred long before the town was even thought of. In 1807, Zebulon Pike was sailing up the Mississippi searching for the source of the great river. This was part of the effort of President Thomas Jefferson to find out what he had in this immense tract that cost him $ 15,000,000. The more famous Lewis & Clark expedition was another part of the effort. Lewis & Clark were successful in finding the source of the Missouri Pike was unsuccessful. Maybe that’s why Pike is not so well known though he did give his name to a mountain out west. Maybe he was looking for the source of the Mississippi when he discovered Pike’s Peak. Pike’s journal recorded him finding a substantial Indian village at the head of what came to be called Campbell’s Island on the south side of the river. They were what the French called Fox Indians. Today we call them by their real name, Mesquakie. Pike describes the site perfectly. If you want to see it, go south on the Bike Path to where the boat launching area is now. The old timers around town can tell you about the arrow points and other artifacts the kids found when the park was a cornfield
It was more than 20 years later before the area received more attention. In 1828 a pair of young men arrived here. They were 17 year old Henry McNeal and Joel Thompson, a little older. Why did they come here? They had been living with their families in Galena, at thus time the largest town in Illinois. They had been working in the lead mines and became dissatisfied, so they set out to “seek their fortune” as they used to call it. The story is they came during the winter. Why did they settle in this particular place? We really don’t know. Perhaps they were exhausted at fighting the rapids. Maybe, this was a bit higher and dryer than much of the shoreline they had passed. Hampton Historian Heagy thought it was because this spot is so beautiful. He lived here as a boy, and when he was finished with his career as president of Rock Island Bank he came back and built a house near the site of McNeal's cabin. The house still stands. It is presently occupied by the Clark family. Heagy named it “Sunset View”.
This area was all government land, going back to the old Northwest Territory, organized after the Revolution. McNeal and Thompson built their cabins, McNeal’s where the Soldier's Monument stands and Thompson’s 2 or 3 blocks north, on the river side of the Galena Trail, now 1st Avenue. The young fellows obtained timber rights from the government which still owned the land. They took advantage of the dawning of a new era—the steamboat era on the upper Mississippi. Technology had finally achieved a steam engine powerful enough to manage the cranky old Father of Waters here on the turbulent Upper River. The place became known as McNeal’s Landing and was a regular fueling stop for the ever increasing river traffic. Next time you walk or bike through or town, pause a moment and imagine a steamboat coming around Campbell’s Island and pulling in what we call the “point” behind Black’s Store. If you have a good imagination, listen in your mind’s ear to the sing -song of the lead man as the steamer approaches through the treacherous shallows. In some places they called him the “gauger” but in these parts more likely the “lead man”. He would be standing on the prow of the boat holding a coil of light rope. The rope was attached to a lump of lead (or some kind of weight). He would whirl the weight around his head and then cast it ahead of the boat. The line was marked at 6 foot intervals, the old maritime measure the fathom; He would call out “markin’on the twine is 2 fathoms, haul it in and throw it again, reading and calling out the depth—markin’ on the twine is 1 fathom. Sometimes it became slurred and sounded like Mark Twain! Next time you go by that spot listen for it. You might hear it. Especially when the sun is just setting into the river.