Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 1.djvu/259



who were to hold their positions until a new board should be chosen by the stockholders. One-tenth of the amount of each share was required to be paid in at the time of subscribing and the balance at such times as required by the directors. This was the first bank established in the limits of Iowa.

An act was passed organizing out of the territory embraced in Des Moines County, the counties of Lee, Van Buren, Henry, Louisa, Musquetine and Cook. *

By an act of this session, the permanent Capital of the new Territory was located at Madison. An act was passed incorporating the Belmont and Dubuque Railroad Company and authorizing it to construct a single or double track from Belmont to the most eligible point on the Mississippi River, “The road to be operated by the power and force of steam or animals, or any mechanical or other power.” The company was prohibited from holding or speculating in any lands in the Territory other than those upon which the road should run—or that might be necessary to operate the same. It was further provided that the company should not charge to exceed six cents per mile for carrying passengers, nor more than fifteen cents per ton per mile for transporting any species of property. As this was the first act authorizing the construction of a railroad in Iowa, its provisions may be of interest as a matter of history, although the road was not built.

The site of Belmont, which was the first Capital of Wisconsin Territory when Iowa was included within its limits, was in the southwestern part of what is now the State of Wisconsin. The location of the little prairie village of that day is thus described by one who was there during the first session of the Territorial Legislature:

“The hill overlooking Des Moines cannot compare with the mounds between which the old capital stood, and the plain was at a greater height above the sea than any part of Iowa except portions of the northwest corner. The gem of the three Platte mounds was a perfect cone two hundred

* This county afterwards became Scott.