Promise

The campfires of the departing Sauk and Fox tribes had scarcely cooled before large numbers of seekers of land descended upon the new territory. Territorial officials ordered the land to be surveyed and platted and decreed that squatters who had lived for five years or more in a permanent structure on their claim were entitled to legal possession of the property. The claims of Jacob Calhoun and six other individuals or families fell under this ruling. As word of the government’s acquisition of the territory spread, it attracted not only new inhabitants but a steady diet of unscrupulous land speculators who claimed bogus squatter sovereignty and attempted to peddle their fraudulent claims to unsuspecting newly arrived settlers. To dispose of the newly acquired land, territorial authorities conducted an auction, setting the price at $1.25 an acre with a limit of 160 acres for any one individual, but it also carried the stipulation that any land unsold by a specific date, or land that had been forfeited for non-payment, could be purchased without limit to acreage. A land speculator of a different sort was Thomas Jefferson Courtland, a wealthy Mississippi cotton dealer. From the moment the nattily attired southerner first stepped from his carriage on to the soil of the new territory, he captured the attention of the settlers. And justifiably so. He had a meticulously trimmed beard and silver hair that flowed down the nape of his neck, brushing the collar of the well-tailored white suit he wore. With a bearing that hinted of aristocracy, he was the embodiment of the southern gentleman, a sharp contrast to the rough-hewn and plain clad settler. Courtland had buried his wife of twenty-five years earlier in the year, interring her in a private cemetery adjacent to their Mississippi home. He wished to distance himself from the unhappy memory occasioned by the death of his beloved wife. Impressed with the resources and inherent possibilities of the area, Courtland purchased the 160-acre maximum and hired Gustav Reiner, an early settler with carpentry skills, to build a two-bedroom log cabin home for him. Courtland then left for Mississippi to settle business affairs, procure the items needed for his home in Promise and, most importantly, bring his young daughter, Priscilla, to their new residence. A month later he returned, accompanied by Priscilla, arriving by coach from their southern home. Once the mandated period for limited land purchases expired, Courtland boldly bought an entire section of land that was in default. Holders of title to the land were quick to recognize that given the increasing influx of people, building lots would be in demand. Many who had purchased 160 acres divided their property into individual lots, and these found a ready market. Sales of property and transfers of ownership were a daily occurrence. The original price of $1.25 an acre rose to $3.00, then to $5.00 and continued to escalate until it seemed there was no end to the rise. A few early purchasers of land—unabashed speculators with no intention of living on the land or assisting in the building of a community—disposed of their property at a premium to new arrivals and left the territory. A flood of easterners seeking farm land were not alone in the rush to the new territory. Western European immigrants were well represented among those in pursuit of property. Although some of the more affluent immigrants were able to purchase an entire 160 acres, the majority had left their homeland with little more than the cost of trans-Atlantic passage and were happy to afford a single lot. Thirty-year-old Johann von Gruden was one of the immigrants who, at the urging of his parents, had fled the internal unrest in Schleswig-Holstein and sailed for America, arriving in New York aboard a Hamburg American Line steamer. After spending several months in the country’s mid-section searching for the ideal spot to fulfill his agricultural dream, Johann believed he had discovered what he was looking for in this new territory. He must have been frugal as well as successful back in the old country, or received financial assistance from his parents, for he found it within his means to buy not only 160 acres of land but to later purchase an additional 160 that had been forfeited for non-payment. With his own hands and the simplest of tools, Johann built a cabin. He purchased a team of horses and a plow and readied the land for cultivation, cutting down trees and grubbing out stumps using the crude implements he possessed. Once the territory was surveyed and platted, the growing number of property owners were anxious to have a semblance of law and order brought to the area. Articles of incorporation were filed with territorial authorities and a town was established. An election was ordered to determine those who would govern the town, with a mayor and five trustees to be chosen. Jacob Calhoun was the nearly unanimous choice for mayor. In a brief but spirited speech, Calhoun promised to spare no effort to ensure that the nascent village would grow and prosper. “If we all exhibit a sense of cooperation, work religiously, spend wisely, and exhibit concern for the welfare of each other, I promise you that this town will one day become a community we can be proud of and one that will be the envy of everyone in the surrounding territory.” And from that speech the idea of naming the town Promise was born.