The Early Years
The story of Pleasant Hill cannot begin with the incorporation of the town. It must go back through the years to Youngstown and back further to Four Mile. It must go back to detect patters that emerge in the history of the area. The patterns, set in the mid-1800's, continue today.
The main pattern is a theme that can be reduced to one word: Energy. The history of the Pleasant Hill area is linked to the development of energy resources. Timber, from along Four Mile Creek, was the first resource exploited. The people of Fort Des Moines used the wood for heating and cooking as well as for building. The creek itself provided the energy to run the many sawmills along its bank. Later, the wood was used in the baking process for making bricks.
The first big population increase and community development came when a new energy resource was found along the creek: coal. The coal companies not only provided employment, but also the money to develop the community. When the coal ran out, the area found itself energy poor, but the pattern would soon repeat itself.
In the early 1920’s, the new energy resource was electricity. It was the coming of Iowa Power and Light Company (Ipalco) that eventually allowed the Youngstown community to benefit again from energy. Electricity and gas helped to finally form the community of Pleasant Hill. It is this combination of Ipalco and Williams Brothers Pipe Line Company (formerly Great Lakes Pipe Company) that continues to allow for orderly growth.
While the companies that produce energy financed much of the development of the area, the energy of the people provided the toil. From the earliest settlers who cleared the land for farming and started the saw mills to the latest inhabitants who staff the councils, boards, commissions, and volunteer organizations, the energy of the people stands out. It was the people who fought to protect
The Four Mile Link to Des Moines
The City of Pleasant Hill is roughly defined on two sides by natural boundaries. On the south is the Des Moines River, an area which did not become significant in the city’s history until the 1940’s. On the west is Four Mile Creek.
Four Mile Creek received its name from the fact that the point at which the main road between Iowa City and Fort Des Moines crossed the creek was four miles distant from the fort. Most of the early settlers to the Des Moines-Raccoon River area crossed Four Mile Creek on their way to the fort’s protective walls and soldiers. Settlers also used the limestone along the banks of the creek to make cement needed for houses of stone or for caulking between the logs of their cabins.
In February of 1844, Captain Allen of Fort Des Moines granted permission to Peter Newcomer to make a claim of prairie land on the condition that he construct a bridge over Four Mile Creek. Newcomer erected the bridge, the first one in Polk County (near the present railroad bridges by Scott Street). He then chose for his reward land south and west of the Four Mile Creek area near the Des Moines River. The land was still held by Sac and Fox Indians then and was not officially open for others to settle. However, the push of more people would change that.
Indian title to the land in the area expired at midnight on October 11, 1845. At that time, any person was entitled to claim 320 acres. Settlers eagerly waited for the hour to come. Precisely at twelve, an early account relates, “the loud report of a gun…announced that the empire of the red man had ended here forever.”