About Our Chamber |
The City of Manchester's
petition for incorporation was approved by the Iowa State Legislature in the Spring
of 1866, just a year after the end of the Civil War. Thirty years prior to this
date, there was no State of Iowa, no Delaware County, and the site of Manchester
was just prairie land with a few scattered trees. It was on this new land that
a community of shops, schools, churches, homes and industry was built by a primitive
and enterprising people who struggled against the land, the elements, and sometimes
each other to maintain a basic existence. The first formal settlement west of the Mississippi River took place as a result of what is known as "The Blackhawk Purchase". This consisted of a strip of land 50 miles wide along the west bank of the Mississippi River, purchased from the Sauk and Fox Indians following the Blackhawk Wars of 1832 and 1833. Settlement of this area took place very slowly in the decade of the thirties, and it was not until 1836 that the first permanent settler arrived in what is now Delaware County. This gentleman, named Robert Hutson, located a homesite a few miles north of Manchester, in the vicinity of the present junction of Iowa Route 13 and Route 3. Delaware County was originally organized in 1840. At that time it had a population of only 168 persons. Despite its small population, there was considerable controversy involved in the selection of the county seat. Of the three sites under consideration, one was finally selected approximately 6 miles southeast of (what would become) Manchester. A town was platted and it was named "Delhi". In the decade following the organization of the county, the population grew quickly and by 1850 it had increased to 1,759 persons. In this year, Steiner Eiversen purchased a few hundred acres of land in what is now Manchester. This first homesite was located in the area between Main Street (old U.S. Route 20) and Illinois Central tracks. The community itself was not platted until 1855 by a Mr. Burrington, who in cooperation with Mr. Dyer, the founder of Dyersville, was promoting the location of the right-a-way of the proposed Dubuque and Pacific Railroad through this part of Delaware County. The railroad conducted two route surveys through the county, and their selection of the one through Burrington, as the community was then called, was based on a payment of $13,000 to cover the additional construction costs required by development of this route. In 1856 a post office was established at Burrington, however, it was called "Manchester" to avoid confusion with Burlington, Iowa. In 1858, the complication caused by a post office named "Manchester" in a community called "Burrington" was eliminated by renaming the community "Manchester" after Manchester, England. By 1859 the Dubuque and Pacific Railroad had extend its trackage to Manchester, and the following year to Independence. This event, and the agricultural boom during the Civil War, ensured Manchester's rapid economic development. In 1869, four years after its incorporation, serious competition with Delhi for the location of the county seat began, because citizens of Manchester felt the county seat should be located in the most prosperous city in the county. This legal and political battle took 11 years, and it was not until 1880 that the county seat was finally relocated to Manchester. From its origin and through its development, Manchester has served as a supply center for the rural residents in the surrounding area, and as a shipping center for agricultural produce. In the early 1960's the community attempted to realign its economic base with modern economic development. The same enterprise with which early settlers strove for the location of the railroad, and for the relocation of the county seat as Manchester, is evidenced today in the concerted effort of the community to attract industry, and thus keep pace with current economic trends. |