Untitled Document

PROPOSALS FOR ROCK ISLAND ARMORY AND ARSENAL

As early as 1839 the feasibility and necessity of establishing an arsenal on Rock Island was pressed by those who were in a position to judge wisely and conservatively. In the autumn of 1840, Major W. H. Bell of the ordnance department, made a special survey of the island, embodying his results in an exhaustive report to the war department, but no action was then taken upon it. lu September, 1841, Congress passed an act providing for a thorough examination of the whole western country to select a suitable site for the establishment of a national armory, which resulted in a report favorable to Rock Island.

In the end, however, Fort Massac, on the Ohio river, was chosen. Residents of Rock Island county became interested, and named a committee which addressed a strong plea in favor of Rock Island to President. Tyler. This committee was composed of John Buford, Joseph Knox, Joseph B. Wells, John Morse and George Mixer. As a result, Quartermaster-General Jessup and Hon. A. C. Dodge recommended the island of Rock Island to the secretary of war as the proper site. In 1845 a commission was appointed by the president and that body made a favorable report upon the suitability of this location for the purpose named. Still later the subject was taken up again and strongly recommened. Secretary of War Jefferson Davis said in 1854:—

"The water power and easy communication by water and by rail concur with other circumstances in rendering Rock Island one of the most advantageous sites in the whole western country for an armory or arsenal of construction." The people of this section must give Mr. Davis credit for using his influence and official power all through the long controversy to pre serve the Island of Rock Island for the use of the government. No decisive steps were taken, however, until the summer of 1861. In the then disturbed state of the country, the residents of Rock Island drew up a petition addressed to the senators and representatives in Congress.

The committee having this matter in hand was composed of the following representative citizens: N. B. Buford, J. Wilson Drury, Ira O. Wilkinson, Ben Harper, Reuben Hatch, George Mixer, J. B. Danforth, Jr., and P. L. Cable. This petition asked Congress to establish a national armory and arsenal on the island, and recapitulated the special advantages of the site for such purposes.

Another committee drawn from the tri cities, Rock Island, Moliue and Davenport, was composed of the following men: Ira O. Wilkinson, N. B. Buford, H. C. Connelly, J. Wilson Drury and Baily Davenport of Bock Island; W. H. F. Gurley, George L. Davenport, and G. M. French of Davenport, and C. Atkinson and P. R. Reed of Moline. This committee memorialized Congress in a pamphlet, containing a map of the locality, upon the claims and advantages of Rock Island as the site for the proposed Western Arsenal and Armory.

In this memorial it was set forth that a new arsenal and armory, for the manufacture, safe keeping and distribution of arms and munitions of war, was a pressing national necessity demanded alike by the then present wants and future requirements of the government, and that the prepoudering growth of the Northwest, as well as the absence of any such establishment within its limits, indicated that such an armory should be located upon the upper Mississippi.

To quote directly from the memorial upon the desirability of Rock Island

"Believing that Rock Island in the State of Illinois, in the eentrality and safety of its geographical position, the facilities it affords for transportation to and from other parts of the country, the cheapness and abundance of its motive power and the materials used in the manufacture of arms, in the supply and cheapness of labor and food, in the healthfulness of the site, and the possession and ownership thereof by the government free of cost or expense enjoys advantages equal, of not superior, to those possessed by any other place in the Northwest for the location of such an establishment—your memorialists would respectfully ask your attention to a brief notice of these advantages." Following this eloquent peroration, are some ten or twelve pages in which the arguments are set forth forcefully and cogently. Included in this pamphlet are extracts from actions of the legislatures of the two specially interested states, Illinois and Iowa, as well as a certificate of the government agent in charge of the island.

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