The New International Encyclopædia/Dubuque

DUBUQUE, do͞o-būk′. A city, port of entry, and county-seat of Dubuque County, Ia., 167 miles west-by-north of Chicago, Ill., and 200 miles northeast of Des Moines; on the west bank of the Mississippi River, and on the Illinois Central; the Chicago Great Western; the Chicago, Burlington and Northern; and the Chicago, Milwaukee and Saint Paul railroads (Map: Iowa, G 2). It has communication by boat with other points on the river, and is connected with the opposite shore by three bridges, one of which, 2000 feet long and 56 feet above high water, cost $135,000. Dubuque is built on and at the foot of picturesque bluffs. The business district occupies the lower level, and is regularly laid out with broad streets. The city has a public library; a fine United States Government building, including the post-office, custom house, Federal courts, etc.; seven asylums and hospitals; and many educational institutions, among which are several Roman Catholic colleges and academies, Wartburg Seminary (Lutheran), the German Presbyterian Theological School of the Northwest, and the Iowa Institute of Science and Arts. Dubuque is an important market for agricultural produce, and the centre of a large wholesale and jobbing trade, and of the lead and zinc mining industry of the Northwest. It has railway repair shops, enamel-works, flouring and lumber mills, pork-packing houses, iron and brass foundries, breweries, and manufactures of boots and shoes, carriages and wagons, agricultural implements, hardware, leather, furniture, toys, notions, bricks, oils, engines, boilers, steel ship-hulls, barrels, brooms, pearl buttons, sashes, doors, blinds, etc. Some war vessels for the Federal Government have been constructed at Dubuque. The annual income and expenditures of the city amount to about $660,000 and $560,000, respectively; the principal items of expense being $30,000 each for the fire and police departments, and $100,000 for schools. The oldest city in the State, Dubuque was named in honor of Julien Dubuque, a French Canadian who settled here in 1778. The first permanent settlement dates from 1833; four years later it was incorporated as a town, and in 1840 it was chartered as a city. Population, in 1880, 22,254; in 1890, 30,311; in 1900, 36,297.