Cordova History

Gager's Blacksmith Shop

Winona Landing

More about the Maredosia (Marais d'Ogee) Slough--a Paradise Lost

In the fall of 1836, two men on horseback set out from near Geneseo in search of new land. Amiziah Rathburn had traveled from McDonough County to the home of Dr. Thomas Baker who lived on the Green River near the present Geneseo. He and Dr. Baker set off to find new unsettled country and proceeded to the Archibald Allen Trading Post on the Mississippi. After spending the night there, they traveled north to a wide bend in the river, where gently sloping land and the existence of a small log fort captured their interest and they decided to stake out their claims side by side.

The fort had been erected by soldiers from Ft. Armstrong in 1833 and would give them shelter while building their first cabins. The blockhouse stood high on a rocky ledge overlooking a wide expanse of water and an island to the northwest. The following spring, Amiziah Rathburn returned to Dr. Baker's home in a Pennsylvania Schooner which contained the family's household furnishings. The wagon, painted blue was built high at each end and low in the center and was drawn by four yoke of oxen. Following the wagon came several head of horses and cattle.

John Marshall of Hopewell, New Jersey had just come to the Rathburn home, and he accompanied Mr. Rathburn on his journey. He had ridden west from New Jersey to locate land for his parents and other relatives to settle on. Late that year, he returned to Hopewell and persuaded his father William Marshall Esq. and the Cools to come to the newly found home on the Mississippi River and the following year a caravan of wagons (twenty people in all) headed for Cordova. William Marshall Esq. and his wife Catherine, were accompanied by their children who were all adults. They were John, Jonathan, George, W. C., Charles B. and the youngest and only daughter, Rebecca.

Also in the caravan was Catherine Marshall's widowed sister, Elizabeth Cool and her children - Jared, Jonathan, Elijah, Mary and the teenager, Isaac. Joseph Rue Sexton and his nephew John S. Phillips were also among the group. The trip took 53 days to travel from New Jersey to the Mississippi River.

In May of the following year, another caravan arrived from Hopewell. John and William G. Marshall and their sister Mary Ann and her husband Andrew S. Ege came to the new settlement to establish themselves and to make arrangements for their mother and the rest of their family to follow. Their mother was Charity Golden Marshall, widow of John marshall (see FAMILIES) who had been a brother to William Marshall Esq.

The first white children born were Charles Baker and Josephine Rathburn in Cordova.

Charles Baker and Josephine Rathburn Forsythe

The 1840s were busy years as new settlers arrived and homes were built. Two churches were established - the Methodist and the Baptist (See Churches). John Marshall was postmaster and established the post office in his home on the corner of Main Avenue and Third Street. A small hand powered ferry was operated between Princeton,Iowa and Cordova by Israel Atherton. Homes were built in the village and country. Farmers raised hay and small grains. It was reported that over 20,000 bushels of wheat were raised in 1845.

During the 1850s, Cordova topography afforded a natural access to the river front where steamboats could pull in close to shore and readily load and unload produce and materials. A Diamond Joe warehouse was built of native limestone on the riverbank between Main and Second Avenue.

Diamond Joe Warehouse; later the Cordova Button Works

Cordova's Coronet Band

The 1860s marked the beginning of the Civil War. Eighty-two men went off to war; seven died of disease or wounds. With the men off to war, the community continued to build for the future. The two story stone school was built in 1863 of native limestone. Growing prosperity and urbanization was evidenced by the formation of the first of several fraternal organizations, the AF & AM Cordova Lodge #543.