The City of Walcott was originally platted in 1854. The first passenger train route west of the
Mississippi River started in 1855 and helped Walcott grow. William Walcott, who was a director of
Chicago and Rock Island Railroad, donated $500 in 1855 for the construction of a school building,
with the stipulation that the fledgling town along the railroad tracks near Davenport be named after
him.
Long before Walcott was even a vision to William Walcott, it was a great expanse of open prairie
inhabited by the Kaskaskia Indians. The Kaskaskias were later driven out of the Quad Cities area by
the renegade Mesquaki tribe. This tribe, a splinter of the Canadian Iorquois, was America's largest
Indian nation.
In 1857, much of the Walcott land was sold for as low as 75 cents an acre, enabling many German and
Scotch-Irish immigrants to settle in the area. Many of the Scotch-Irish worked for the railroad
builders and settled on the farmland south and west of the town. While they contributed much to the
early development of Walcott, around 1871 they began to move farther west. Most of the German
settlers were from Schleswig-Holstein, northern Germany, and some came from eastern and southern
Germany. By 1910, nearly nine-tenths of the farmland in Scott County was owned by
German immigrants or their descendents.
A petition for incorporation was signed and presented to Judge C.M. Waterman of the District Court
at Davenport on June 5, 1894. At that time, the total population was 354 people. The election was
held on July 7, 1894, and of the eighty-one votes cast, fifty-four were in favor of the
incorporation. The result of the election was approved and filed by the District Court on July 14,
1894.
Long before most small towns thought of supplying their citizens with water, Walcott had plans for
an efficient and adequate water system. Walcott was the first rural Scott County community to build
a water system and water tower. The installation was completed in 1897, and provided the citizens
of Walcott with inexpensive water service, good drinking water, and improved fire protection. In
1914, the first sewage disposal system was built. Lagoons for the sanitation system were installed
in the late 1960's and three cells were added to the lagoon system in 1975.
As early as 1897, the people of Walcott banded together to provide an organized way of fighting the
terror and destructiveness of fire. In those early days, the department consisted of a small number
of volunteer firemen and two hand pulled hose carts. In 1931, the town built a fire station and
city hall. Today, that same building houses the Fire Department and
City Hall.
The Walcott Savings Bank was organized in 1894 with a capital stock of $30,000. On April 1, 1904,
the Farmers Savings Bank began business with at capital stock of $25,000. In 1911, Walcott was
declared the richest town in the USA in consideration of the bank deposits for its population of
300, according to Dunn & Co. in the Bankers' Journal of New York. During the depression year of
1931, the two banks were consolidated and Walcott Trust and Savings Bank was formed.
The original town was expanded in 1962 to include Highway 6. Additional ground was annexed in 1973
to include the Interstate 80 interchange area and the French and Hecht Building, which currently
houses FirstCo Inc. In the early 1990's, quadrants adjacent to and near the Interstate 80
interchanged were also annexed in. The annexation of the area near Interstate 80 has increased the
area's valuation significantly. Many businesses, including the World's largest Truckstop, Iowa 80
Truckstop, is located within city limits.
In 1997, Walcott joined in a sister city partnership with Bredenbek, Germany. Bredenbek is located
in northern Germany. Since then, residents from Walcott have traveled to Bredenbek and residents of
Bredenbek have visited us in Walcott. In May of 2001, we had a student from the University of
Applied Sciences for Public Administration in Kiel come to Walcott for
practical training. Buergermeister Hans-Werner Hamann, Bredenbek, helped to arrange the training with us.
Walcott, population of 1,528, is a town of distinctive character and culture, because of the people
who have made their homes here. They brought with them the special characteristics and
personalities of their mode of living.
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