Dr. Carpenter states how they tried to promote a railway from Cascade to Fairfield, held meetings concerning railway extensions, and appointed delegates from various counties to these conventions to discuss the matter fully and to authorize the government to donate land and have eastern people furnish the money. He says: "Dr. J. F. Ely and myself were selected to go to Fairfield; we left Cedar Rapids on December 3 and after a three days' hard and cold travel reached Fairfield; Marion sent Col. I. M. Preston and Dr. Ristine. The convention met in a small school house; all the counties were represented; the Hon. C. W. Slagle, of Fairfield, then a very young man, was chosen president, and I was chosen secretary.... "We departed for our various homes thinking the work half done, but sad to relate Cedar Rapids had to wait ten years longer for a locomotive. These two meetings were, I think, the first railroad conventions held in the interior of the state. Soon opposition claims were started for east and west lines and our project was ignominiously called the 'Ram's Horn.' The next year was quite a stirring one; new people were coming in great numbers and many were leaving, for the California gold fever had broken out. Several outfits left Cedar Rapids, with one of them Dr. Mansfield, my partner, whose place was taken by Dr. S. C. Koontz, a cousin of mine, well known to the old citizens. "That year the first brick buildings were erected; a dwelling on Iowa avenue, near Greene's opera house, and a three-story building on Commercial street by Judge Greene, which for a long time was the show building of the town; we began to put on airs. "In the spring of 1852 a steamboat came to Cedar Rapids; it was a great event and attracted people from near and far; she brought a cargo of freight, among which were the household effects of Mr. Bever and my father, both of whom from that time forward became citizens of the town. This year, also, came Mr. Daniel O. Finch with a printing press and forthwith started the _Progressive Era_, the first paper in the Cedar valley. [The _Era_ was established in 1851.] Ezra Van Metre, a talented young lawyer from Circleville, Ohio, also came that year. Everyone was rejoiced that we had an organ and the editor was overwhelmed with original matter. There were at least a dozen young fellows in the town, myself among the rest, who thought they 'knew it all,' and anxiously rushed into print. The paper changed hands in a year or two, and became the _Cedar Valley Times_, and continued until a few years ago." Dr. Carpenter sold his practice to Dr. Koontz and went into the land business and in politics. Again we must quote what he has to say about the county seat fight which commenced the first few years he was here: