"N. B. Brown, Esq., has added an attractive feature to the city by erecting a costly and elegant hotel on North Commercial street, which, when finished, will be one of the finest west of Chicago. In addition to these, the building of the mammoth machine shops of the Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Minnesota R. R. Company is shortly contemplated. This will involve an expense of several hundred thousand dollars, for which purpose fifty thousand dollars have been appropriated to the company by this city and township.
"... As to educational interests Cedar Rapids has maintained a high position among her sister cities of the state. It is generally conceded that Iowa is the banner state of the Union, regarding her system of free schools and the advantages derived therefrom. This city has no less than thirty-five thousand dollars in school buildings, including the one recently built in West Cedar Rapids. The schools are classified and graded under the latest improved system, and are presided over by an able corps of teachers, chosen with special reference to their attainments and adaptation to impart instruction. James E. Harlan has at present the entire superintendence of the schools, and by his efficiency he is maintaining the high reputation which the schools have before sustained. Over thirteen hundred pupils are in constant attendance, and the number is yearly increasing.
"... The Young Men's Christian Association deserves even more than a passing notice. The rooms of the Association are in Mansfield's Block, over the postoffice, and are opened each morning and evening through the week.
"... The Young Men's Library Association is also a pleasant feature of the city. The enterprise has established a choice and well selected library, consisting of historic, scientific, poetic and biographic works, chosen from the best authors in the land. The library rooms are in charge of Miss Mary Thompson, a lady of rare grace and culture, who takes delight in entertaining her guests and exhibiting the many works of interest that adorn the shelves of her library.
"... The social, moral and religious elements blend here in sweet harmony, and much of the refinement and culture witnessed in eastern cities and in eastern society is equally exhibited here; hence to those wishing to settle in a place combining the advantages of church, schools and refined society, as well as a place of good business facilities will find Cedar Rapids a desirable city in which to locate. We venture the assertion that Cedar Rapids, in the future as in the past, is destined to excel, in wealth and numbers, her neighboring rivals, and evermore sit as queen in the rich valley she so beautifully adorns."
The following obituary appeared in the Cedar Rapids Gazette in March, 1909, and gives a sketch of a person who had passed through much of what is now the history of a thriving city, and is for that reason made part of the history of the county. Mrs. Brown was at her death the widow of one of the foremost men who ever lived in Cedar Rapids.
"Susan Emery, daughter of Nathan Emery and Cornelia Broadhead, his wife, was born August 19, 1824, at Dingman's Ferry, Pike county, Pennsylvania, and died March 4, 1909, at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, thus having lived 84 years, 6 months and 15 days, a period of time much longer than the average allotted to mankind. A woman in her younger days of a noble, perhaps an imperious presence, strong in mental and physical make-up; self-reliant and unswerving in the object sought to be attained by her. Strong in likes and dislikes, no truer, more loyal friend among mankind than she. She came of a long-lived, stubborn warrior race. Through her mother, Cornelia Broadhead, she was descended from Daniel Broadhead, a Yorkshire Englishman, a captain of Grenadiers, who fought for Charles the Second during the civil wars of England, and by him was commissioned to serve under Colonel Nicholls in the expedition to the new world to wrest New Netherlands from the Dutch, that the same might become a new world kingdom for James, duke of York, brother to the king.
"Captain Broadhead was made military governor of a portion of New Netherlands, with his headquarters at the old Indian town of Wiltwyck, called by the Hollanders Esophus and after the English occupation named and is still known as Kingston, in the state of New York. Captain Broadhead died in 1670. A grandson, Daniel by name, in 1733 migrated through the wilderness, down through the Jerseys to the water gap and located there. He with his sons refused to be driven out of the country and off his possessions by the savages during the Indian wars and fought for what they considered their own and won out. From this Daniel were descended three revolutionary soldiers—General Daniel Broadhead, a noted Indian fighter and close friend of George Washington; Luke Broadhead, a captain and friend of LaFayette, and Garret Broadhead, a captain. John Romeyn Broadhead, the historian, was of this family of Broadheads. From this it will be seen that Susan Brown came from no mean stock. In her younger days she was known to be generous and charitable to any worthy poor. Her giving was of the quiet and unostentatious kind, and to a considerable extent. This trait of character remained with her through her old age. She was a woman of strict integrity, spotless purity, and the world and community in which she lived was undoubtedly the gainer for her having lived in it. In 1852 she was married to her kinsman, Nicholas Broadhead Brown (a pioneer of 1840), coming immediately with her husband and sister, Mrs. Hannah E. Higley, to Cedar Rapids and has remained here continuously from that time, thus making her, with possibly one or two exceptions, at the time of her death, the oldest continuous resident of this city. In laying the foundation and the early upbuilding of this city were a number of potent and conspicuous men and women, such as George Greene, Alexander Ely, Addison Daniels, and others, but none more so than Nicholas B. Brown and his wife Susan."
It is entirely proper to make some mention in these pages of Captain Joshua John Snouffer, who came to Cedar Rapids in 1852 when the city contained less than 400 people. He too had an intimate knowledge of what it meant to be a pioneer.