The following are the pioneer experiences of George R. Crittenden:

    "I came here in 1855. There were nearly 300 inhabitants then (in Waterloo). Among the principal citizens were A. P. Hosford and Edmund Miller. They were running a sort of banking and real estate business. They were both shrewd business men. Then there were Charles Mullan and George W. Hanna, who were the first comers and the original proprietors of the town. John H. Leavitt was here and active in business. He opened a bank in 1856. Previously, he was in the real estate business, which he continued in connection with his banking. B. J. Capwell was here and cut a prominent figure in business. He had a store in a log building and it was a common resort for the people to gather in and talk over matters. J. C. Hubbard, who had the best store in town, was here. He was afterwards county judge. William Haddock came in that year and started the Waterloo Register. The press and material were second-hand and the whole was a modest affair. He sold the plant in 1859 soon after Hartman and Ingersoll had started the Courier. Sullivan Day was here when I came. He was considerable of a man and much of a character. In 1856 he erected a two-story brick house on Sycamore Street, one of the first three to be erected in the town. F. S. Washburn was here when I came and was building a steam sawmill. Farmington Lewis was here, also Joshua Davis, father of Paul Davis, proprietor of the Paul Davis Dry Goods Store, and Dr. J. C. Harper, who was the only physician, as I remember. T. I. Mesick came in 1856 and had the first good store there was in the town. John Mesick, father of Ed. Mesick, also was here, but he lived on a farm before coming to the town. There were others who were quite active in business affairs at the time, whose names I do not recall. L. A. Cobb, who figured conspicuously in his day, came in 1855. Henry and John Nauman were here when I came. Henry was the father of William, George, Frank and Charles, afterward business men of Waterloo. Henry was a young fellow then and was working for Charles Mullan, father of C. W. Mullan. Henry Sherman kept a hotel where the Central House later stood. He was a big man for the times and no one appreciated the fact better than he.

    "There were no superfluities in amusements. A country dance occasionally with some little doings on the Fourth of July and at Christmas time. But we were very sociable people and as I look back it appears to me the youth of the present day have no advantage over us boys and girls of more than fifty years ago. There is more tinsel, pretension, more elaborate, gorgeous plumage; more of formality and less of freedom, but of real youthful, heartful enjoyment and joy of life I really believe that the advantage is in favor of the old new times of the very early days. Everybody went to every gathering from a church sociable to a picnic and were free and easy as our family gatherings.

    "Personally, when I came to Waterloo I came with my father and family. My father owned a farm northeast of town and I farmed it and lived in town, not being married. My father bought a forty-acre tract where the Catholic Cemetery now is located. I also farmed this. Later I went into the grocery and fruit business, in which I continued for several years.

    "S. L. May was an early comer. He kept a hotel in the building on the corner where the Commercial Block now stands, corner of Fourth and Sycamore streets.

    "One of the most important characters in early Waterloo was G. W. Couch, who came here in 1866. He had big ideas and something followed his coming. He built the first flouring mill. His presence inspired confidence. He built the first bridge. Money and work were subscribed for the purpose. He took over the subscriptions, agreeing to build a bridge, which he did. Only a small part of the subscriptions were ever paid. His interest was greater in having the bridge than that of others as better connections with territory on the east side of the river than that afforded by the ferry was in a measure necessary to the success of his flouring mill. In my opinion he did more to boost Waterloo than any other man of the times. H. B. Allen, who was a power and success in Waterloo for many years, came in 1857. Sylvester Bagg, who for many years, later on, was judge of the District Court, came in 1856. Allen, like Bagg, was a lawyer and a good one, but besides that was a shrewd and highly successful banker and general business man. A great many men came in the following fifteen years and too many figured in town, county and city affairs for me to even pretend to name them. There is Horace Boies, whose deeds and accomplishments are known to every one. J. C. Gates, who came in the ‘60s, and A. J. Edwards, who came in the ‘50s. Both of them had been and are still important factors in the business, social and religious life of the city.

    "Following the advent of the Dubuque and Sioux City Railway, now the Illinois Central, in 1860, and for about eight years following, when Waterloo was incorporated as a city and particularly after the location of the Illinois Central shops here in 1864, there was a great increase in population and business. To tell everything would take a volume. I can only assure you that among the several thousand who came in those ten years there were a great many ambitious young men who pushed their own and the city’s interests. Not a few of them are still here, not so young as then, but imbued with much of the early spirit and still in the ring."