Keokuk, Iowa

From Encyclopediak

Keokuk, Iowa, a city and one of the county seats of Lee Co.. 166 m. s.e. of Des Moines and about 200 m. above St. Louis, on the Mississippi River, at the mouth of the Des Moines, and on the Chicago, Burlington uincy, the Chicago, Rock Island Pacific, the Wabash, the Toledo, Peori. Western and other railways. A railway bridge 2200 ft. long spans the Mississippi at this point another crosses he Des Moines. Keokuk is built for the most part upon bluffs along the Mississippi, and is at the foot of the Des Moines Rapids of that river, around which the Federal Government has constructed a ship canal opened in 1877 at a cost of nearly $8,000,000. A dam across the Mississippi is one of the mos noted pieces of engineering work in the country, providing power exceeding 100,000 horse-power, which is largely utilized for manufacturing purpoes. With its transportation and manufacturing facilities, Keokuk has become an important wholesale and shipping point and a trade center of the surrounding agricultural region. The principal industrial establishments are lumber mills, boot and shoe factories, flour mills, a poultry-packing plant, canning factories, cold-storage plants, gun powder works and manufactories of stoves, tin cans, pickles, cereals, starch and ready-made clothing. Keokuk is the seat of the Keokuk Medical College, and has a dental college, a school of pharnacy and two hospitals. Other importa-it features are a public library, the Union Railroad Station, a Home for the Friendless, a Y. M. C. A. Building, an opera house, St. Vincent's Academy, a government building and Rand Park. A National cemetery is located here. Setthd in 1836, Keokuk was incorporated in 1848, receiving its charter in the same year. Since 1907 it has been one of the five cities of the state which are gc verned by a special charter. Population in 1920, 14,423.