Ferrilll's art tells history of Dallas City

Connie Ferrill’s art showing Dallas City history is on display in Fort Madison.

Connie Ferrill, a lifelong resident of Dallas City, is the February featured exhibition artist at the Gallery Depot in Fort Madison, Iowa.

In a way she may be considered an art historian of the community. Her feature exhibition portrays her love of the river town's history with over 30 pieces of work. She is an acrylic painter with a style akin to the Grandma Moses folk art style. She is a self-taught artist living over seven decades of small river town history.

Her great uncle, Dud Butler, was the inspiration for many of her paintings. Uncle Dud was the editor of the Dallas City Review newspaper and had many stories of the territory prior to the installation of the railroads in the 1880s. The river was the only means into and out of Dallas City prior to the railroads.

There was a continual procession of boats landing at the South Bend area. Thirsty river boat lumber crews would use Front Street downtown as a place to “relax and have a good time.” The other citizens of the town would close their blinds and lock their doors when the river boat crews landed in town.

Due to the low water rapids between Ft. Madison and Nauvoo (named Commerce at that time), larger boats would sometimes be stranded until the water level rose. President James Polk and Vice-President George Dallas were stranded at the island directly across from the South Bend area. It was decided to name the island after the President and the town after the Vice-President. Thus, Dallas City was named due to politicians waiting out the water level.

The Keokuk dam was built in 1912, eliminating the water problem, but also covering many of the previously established waterfronts upstream.

Included in Ferrill's exhibition are many works portraying the architectural developments of Dallas City. The Burg-Black mansion was built by Louis Burg. He was paid $5,000 by the planners of the city to locate his buggy factory on several lots of land, also donated to him on the east end of the city. The factory buildings were built behind the large home.

The last of those remaining factory buildings housed the Riverview Supper Club until a fire snuffed out the history several years ago.

The Dallas City High School was built in 1896 and served the town as the school through five generations. The three story castle was built by folks of primarily German descent, who wanted it to look like a “castle on der Rhine.” Connie spent over two months traveling back and forth to the old school to get correct perspective and shadowing for the painting.

Many people are interested in the Southern style mansion in between Dallas City and Pontoosuc. The Stucco Hall was built in the 1850's by Charles Nettman, a silk manufacturer. He had major plans of developing several businesses in Pontoosuc. He was killed upon returning from Austria with his fortune in tow, when the ship he was on burned and sank.

The Stucco Hall has an altered look today from the one depicted in the painting. In the 1960's Idol Rashid of Ft. Madison completely renovated the building adding a large porch across the front and installing white columns in the Southern tradition. Today the building is a bed and breakfast.

Several other anecdotes of time captured in paint await the viewers for the exhibition this month. Many of them were captured with the help of photos taken by Phil Allen, who owned the Dallas City Enterprise. Topics of the Doodle Bug train's last run at Dallas City, Logan's Grocery in Lomax, and the Button Cutting factory await gallery viewers.

A reception for the artist was held on Feb. 17. Climax Molybdenum is the sponsor for the exhibition.