Tour Davenport Home at Pioneer Days

Pioneer days hits the Rock Island Arsenal in a little more than a week. 

The two-day event includes tours of the historic Colonel Davenport House.

This morning we bring you a look at the life and death of one of Rock Island’s earliest settlers as we take you Inside the Gates.

Finished in 1834, the Colonel George Davenport House was a showcase, perched on the shore of the mighty Mississippi. But his success was preceded by a series of rarely known twists and turns.

Judy Tumbleson with Davenport House Historical Foundation tells Local 4 News, “He was actually a British citizen and he came to this country on his uncle’s merchant ship, and in helping rescue a crewman that had fallen overboard he managed to break his leg. Not wanting to bring a man with a broken let to sea, he was abandoned here in the U.S. Ironically, decades later the city of Davenport would be named in his honor. But the real shocker is that his given name was not George Davenport at all. His name was actually John King. That’s right, John King. It is unclear exactly when, but King changed his name to George Davenport.

“At that time it was looking like we were going to have another war with the British.  It was probably just a way to protect his identity, so his family didn’t feel like he was fighting against them,” says Tumbleson.

He first arrived on Rock Island in 1816 when the Army built Form Armstrong on the edge of the western frontier. He was no longer in the Army himself, but had a job helping provide supplied to soldiers, and eventually he found a new clientele. 

Tumbleson says, “He had a really good relationship with the Native Americans.”

He would provide supplies in return for trapped furs, ultimately earning enough for his family’s fancy home. 

“The house was built to show investors principally and easterners that this was not a backwards uncivilized territory,” says Tumbleson.

Davenport had become an entrepreneur and began trying to get America’s very first railroad bridge across the Mississippi built alongside his property. His legacy grew as he raised large amounts of money in hopes of luring the railroad.

On July 4, 1845, his family left the island for the holiday.  But Davenport stayed home.  And a traveling gang called the Banditti of the Prairie came calling, looking for that money. According to Davenport’s accounts, he was shot in the leg and then tortured.

“They would use buckets of water to revive him.  They were convinced that the money to raise the railroad was in the house, and they would be able to get that money,” Tumbleson tells Local 4 News.

But the money was not there. It was in the bank. So, the gang stole his watch and $600 in Missouri bank notes. Before dying from his injuries, Davenport gave a description of the thieves and a reward was offered.

“They were caught tried and hanged in downtown Rock Island,” says Tumbleson.

They may have killed the man who settled the land but they could not kill his legacy, which lives on in the house perched on the shore of the mighty Mississippi.