History of the Quad Cities

The Quad Cities area is booming with cities on both sides of the Mississippi River offering great opportunities for its residents. The history of the Quad Cities is rich. In its earliest days, it was inhabited by a variety of Native American tribes included the Sauk and Fox.

Native American Inhabitants

One Sauk man, named Black Hawk, left his mark on the area by gathering a group of about 1,000 followers and planned an attack on the American troops. There were a few skirmishes, but Black Hawk was eventually captured. This event would become known as the Black Hawk War. Eventually, in 1832, the Sauk and Fox ceded their land to Illinois along with a 50-mile long strip of land on the west side of the Mississippi.

Immigrants

Throughout the 1800s, immigrants flooded the area, coming from a variety of nations. However, German immigrants were dominant and even created their own schools and newspapers. With the opening of a new John Deere factory in Moline, Swedish and Belgian immigrants were attracted to the region as well.

This early time period in city history was also largely dominated by the steamboat industry. In 1854, the first railroad came to the Quad Cities and by 1876, there were three major railroad lines.

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