The more we share the more we have to share!
During the tranquil years covered by the narrative of Mr. Daniel H. Pearce, and preceding 1855, there was no intimation that Bartlett's ambitious dreams would be more than realized, or that the waving harvests and solemn oak groves that then covered Clinton's future site, were soon to be invaded by the inexorable demands of business, and displaced by the busy haunts of commerce and manufacture, and the solitude metamorphosed into the homes of a vigorous city. It is impossible to decide to whom belongs the honor of the "invention," and to determine the complex causes and interwoven sequence of events that led to such a progress within one decade; though apparently an easier task, it is scarcely less difficult to discern and describe in accurate perspective.
It appears reasonably certain that the idea of establishing a town at Clinton's location grew principally out of the disagreement as to crossing terms, depot grounds, etc., between the solid men of Lyons and the managers of the Mississippi & Iowa Central Railroad. Moreover, the result of the investigations of T. T. Davis, a confidential agent of Erastus Corning, and afterward identified with the Iowa Land Company, was largely instrumental in founding the new city. He examined the proposed site for a high bridge from Lyons to Fulton, pronounced it impracticable, on account of its height and length, and recommended a grade crossing at some lower point between the Albany and Fulton sites.
Many considerations led to the selection of the ground afterward purchased by the Land Company as an eligible place to found a town, notwithstanding the proximity of rivals above and below, so formidable as to challenge to the utmost the energy and forethought of any who might dare to engage in what must then have appeared as a rash, if not absurd, enterprise.
SOURCE: Allen, L. P., History of Clinton County, Iowa, Containing A History of the County, it's Cities, Towns, Etc. and Biographical Sketches of Citizens, War Record of it's Volunteers in the late Rebellion, General and Local Statistics, Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men, History of the Northwest, History of Iowa, Map of Clinton County, Constitution of the United States, Miscellaneous Matters, &c, &c., Illustrated. Chicago IL; Western Historical Company, 1879