City of Rock Island - Historical

Before European settlers arrived in the 1830's, Rock Island – at the junction of the Rock and the Mississippi Rivers – was the site of numerous Sauk and Fox Indian Villages. The great Sauk warrior Black Hawk lived here when the U.S. Army secured the upper Mississippi for white settlers. Ft. Armstrong, built on what is now Rock Island, served as both a trading post and military installation, attracting more white settlers and eventually leading to the fall of Black Hawk and migration west by the Sauk and Fox Indian nations. The Hauberg Indian Museum at Black Hawk State Historic Site houses archives and artifacts collected by turn-of-the century Rock Island resident John Hauberg. They are displayed in life-like displays depicting the Sauk and Fox Indians' daily life throughout each of the four seasons.

Growth of the Ft. Armstrong post came about due to its strategic location in a shallow area of the Mississippi River. This allowed riverboats large and small access to the growing community in and around Ft. Armstrong. Within a few years, the trading post became a thriving and growing frontier river town of several hundred families. The original city plat was filed on July 10, 1835 and named Stephenson; it was renamed Rock Island in 1841.

Rock Island's economy prospered in 1856 when the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad (the first to be robbed by Jesse James) built the first railroad bridge across the Mississippi. The railway brought industry to Rock Island: lumbering, pottery, manufacture of farm implement and railroad supplies, among others.

River towns of the mid-19th century were known to be raucous, often unrefined and even downright rough-and-tumble communities. Rock Island was no exception. Riverboats brought all kinds of new settlers from gamblers, snake-oil salesmen and carpetbaggers to families, industrialists and young entrepreneurs. And all had a hand, in one way or another, in contributing to the development of Rock Island into a robust center of commerce, industry, wealth and residence. The legacy of those earliest settlers remains today, evident in the city's still exciting attractions and leisure activities, and renovated elegant homes and storefronts.

Near the bustling downtown, some of the residential neighborhoods, which continue to undergo extensive renovations, include grand homes dating to the 1850s. These elegant structures were mostly custom-built for and by the community's wealthiest citizens; smaller houses were also built and sold to local citizens, almost in the same manner as modern-day "tract" or production housing developments. Even the simplest homes, though, were built of the era's finest quality materials: virgin American lumber, stained glass, solid brass fixtures, and gas and electric lighting fixtures of etched glass. Most importantly, homes were constructed with expert craftsmanship and attention to detail from the foundation to the rooftop. Most of the neighborhoods that surround downtown are remarkably intact. Over the past ten years, much has been done to remove veneers of siding to reveal wonderful details and restore the quality of place that makes these neighborhoods the best historic neighborhoods in the Quad Cities.

Augustana College moved to Rock Island in 1875, further expanding the influence of Swedish immigrants in the community. As the years have passed, Augustana College has grown from one all-purpose brick structure to an extensive campus of beautiful buildings, where about 2200 students walk the hallowed halls each year. Other ethnic and cultural migrations to Rock Island have included Germans, Irish, Jews and African-Americans, who all settled in distinct neighborhoods.

William Jackson

Rock Island's first

Park Commissioner

Nineteenth century prosperity brought about active business and civic associations, including the Citizen’s Improvement Association. This group of some 100 influential businessmen began to exert pressure on the City Council to pave roads and sidewalks, demolish undesirable buildings and enhance the appearance of the city. Their successes led to the brick paving of city streets and the hiring of the city’s first park commissioner. The beautiful community parks are still a source of pride in Rock Island and Rock Island enjoys a reputation for excellent city services to this day. The extension of the trolley car lines to the bluff top opened up huge tracts of land for development in early 20th century Rock Island.

Joining the bluff top development in a famous stone mansion on 20th Street was a crooked lawyer named John Patrick Looney, who used bribery, extortion and violence to manage gambling, prostitution and illegal liquor in the Tri-Cities. One of Looney’s strongest weapons was his newspaper, the Rock Island News, which was actually a scandal sheet used to attack many prominent citizens and politicians. Looney’s two decades of crime had a bloody ending in 1922, when Looney’s 24-year old son, Connor, was killed in a street shoot-out; at least eight violent deaths that year were linked to Looney and his gang. Looney was apprehended three years later in New Mexico, tried, convicted and sentenced to 14 years at the State Penitentiary in Joliet. It took Rock Island many years to overcome the violent legacy of John Looney. This notorious man was immortalized in the 2002 movie The Road To Perdition, in which the John Rooney character (played by Paul Newman) is based on John Looney.

Rental office for

U.S. Housing Corporation

houses for World War I

war effort workers.

Rock Island citizens were soon concentrating on the war effort, which had significant impact locally. Like World War I, workers converged here for employment on Arsenal Island and for other war-effort manufacturers. While most communities across the country saw housing construction halt during the major wars, Rock Island continued to grow rapidly, receiving special permission from the government to build housing to stem the shortage locally. Rock Island is unique in that it has hundreds of homes that were built in 1918 and again from 1942-44.

Industries and families adjusted as GI’s returned. Labor unrest was a common occurrence, with long labor strikes at the J.I. Case and Farmall plants in 1945. By September of 1950, 14,000 workers in the Quad Cities were on strike at the same time and labor organizations were competing for control of industries and workers. Tensions calmed by the mid-1950s, when the AFL and CIO merged and collective bargaining began.

Students and other volunteers

sandbagged around

the clock during the Flood of 1965.

Courtesy of Augustana College Library.

- Special Collections

The prosperous late 1940s, 1950s and 1960s saw the creation of a number of institutions still going strong in Rock Island. Don Wooten founded the Genesius Guild in 1956, and free classical summer theater continues in Lincoln Park. Just across the street from the park, Alleman High School, a Roman Catholic school serving the Illinois metropolitan area, was established. The Rock Island-Milan School District constructed several public grade schools, including Earl Hanson, Eugene Field, Hawthorne-Irving and Horace Mann. The consequences of the 1965 flood, where the Mississippi River was above flood stage for nearly a full month and crested at an unbelievable 22.48 feet, resulted in the construction of the levee from 1970 to 1973. The levee forever changed the appearance of Rock Island’s downtown; buildings were protected but access to the river was limited.

During this period, Rock Island experienced consequences of urban blight. As the oldest of the Quad Cities, Rock Island also had aged housing stock. Combine this with a large minority population finding it difficult to get good jobs, and the stage was set for disinvestment in neighborhoods. Rock Island looked to federal relief for these problems, including the construction of public housing, urban renewal and the Model Cities program, but none achieved the security and success necessary. Organizations like Project NOW and the Community Caring Conference were created to empower citizens.

The deep, national economic recession of the 1980s further compounded neighborhood and business disinvestment. Lack of industrial diversity resulted in massive job losses as the farm implement manufacturers closed. Rock Island’s population went from a high of 51,863 in 1960 to 39,684 by 2000.

In 1959, Rock Island’s City Council directed planners to jump the Rock River and annex a tract of land in Rock Island County next to Milan. This bold move has proven prosperous for Rock Island, as it is the only expansion area left to the City. This area, now known as Southwest Rock Island, saw substantial housing construction in the 1970s, followed by increased industrial and warehouse development in the 1990s. Southwest Rock Island is now poised to use conservation land development and innovative design to make the most of stunning topography for cutting-edge housing clusters.

Civic leaders encouraged other innovations in Rock Island, including the establishment of the Development Association of Rock Island and the Arts and Entertainment District. Rock Island has learned to embrace its heritage as an old city, earning Main Street Illinois status and operating one of the most progressive historic preservation programs in the state. Artists renovate downtown spaces, neighborhoods are

forming in unique, downtown lofts,

Quad Cities Criterium is held

each Memorial Day in The District

and tens of thousands of people converge on the Great River Plaza for numerous cultural festivals and great food. Rock Island’s downtown and rejuvenating neighborhoods have certainly been the success stories of the 1990s, and the new century holds much promise.

If you would like to learn more about Rock Island, please see these books:

Rock Island Preservation Commission. Rock Island History: A Companion to the Architectural Walking Tours. 1999. 40 pgs. [Available free at Rock Island City Hall and the Rock Island Public Library or click here.]

Elsner, Bj, Editor. Rock Island: Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow. Rock Island History Book Committee: 1988. 247 pgs.

Tweet, Roald. The Quad Cities: An American Mosaic. East Hall Press: 1996. 106 pgs.

ABOUT ROCK ISLAND