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Keokuk

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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a city of Lee county, Iowa, U.S.A., on the Mississippi river, at the mouth of the Des Moines, in the S.E. corner of the state, about 200 m. above St Louis. Pop. (1900), 14,641; (1905, state census), 14,604, of whom 1534 were foreign-born. It is served by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, the Wabash, and the Toledo, Peoria & Western railways. There is a bridge (about 2200 ft. long) across the Mississippi, and another (about 1200 ft. long) across the Des Moines. The city has a public library and St Joseph and Graham hospitals, and is the seat of the Keokuk Medical College (1849). There is a national cemetery here. Much of the city is built on bluffs along the Mississippi. Keokuk is at the foot of the Des Moines Rapids, round which the Federal Government has constructed a navigable canal (opened 1877) about 9 m. long, with a draft at extreme low water of 5 ft.; at the foot a great dam, 1 a m. long and 38 ft. high, has been constructed. Keokuk has various manufactures; its factory product in 1905 was valued at $4,225,915, 38.6% more than in 1900. The city was named after Keokuk, a chief of the Sacs and Foxes (1780-1848), whose name meant "the watchful" or "he who moves alertly." In spite of Black Hawk's war policy in 1832 Keokuk was passive and neutral, and with a portion of his nation remained peaceful while Black Hawk and his warriors fought. His grave, surmounted by a monument, is in Rand Park. The first house on the site of the city was built about 1820, but further settlement did not begin until 1836. Keokuk was laid out as a town in 1837, was chartered as a city in 1848, and in 1907 was one of five cities of the state governed by a special charter.