Eaton, D[eforrester] F., [Carte-de-Visite Photographic View of Council Bluffs, Iowa, circa 1865]

original photograph mounted on card stock, measures 2 3/8 x 4 inches, marked on the verso “Photographed by D. F. Eaton, James’ Block Council Bluffs,” and in contemporary ink “Council Bluffs.”

Rare view taken by pioneer photographer D. F. Eaton, born about 1839 in Vermont, he was the younger brother of the better known E. L. Eaton also a western photographer. E. L. Eaton and his brother Deforrester, left Vermont in the 1850’s and settled in Magnolia, Iowa, eventually E. L. Eaton would set up business in Omaha, Nebraska, where he photographed Mormon immigrants on the trail and later traveled with the Nebraska First Infantry during the Civil War. Deforrester settled in Council Bluffs, the 1865 Iowa State Gazetteer carries this advertisement:

Gallery of Art

D. F. Easton

Photographer

                    James’ Block, -- Council Block

                         Sky-Light and Multiplying Camera

 The town of Council Bluffs where D. Forrester Easton first set up his photography studio was a jumping off point for the western migration and the head of navigation for the Missouri River. This present image clearly shows the horses and covered wagons parked outside of “Blooms Outfitting,” apparently getting ready to move west.  Abraham Lincoln had the foresight to realize that Council Bluffs should be the eastern terminus of the transcontinental railroad, which gave to the town the name “Gateway of the American West.” After Lincoln was elected president he designated Council Bluffs the railroad’s eastern terminus.  Previously more then 30,000 Mormon refuges flooded through Kanesville (the former name of Council Bluffs, named for Thomas L. Kane, a man sympathetic to the plight of the Mormons) in the mid-19th Century on their way to the Great Salt Lake Valley. There were at least 80 communities built in southwest Iowa by the Mormons. Their businesses boomed when the California Gold Rush began in 1849 as stampeeders came through Kanesville (Council Bluffs). Railroad service eventually came to Council Bluffs in 1867 and would be eventually served by seven railroads and become the great mail-handling terminal for the American West. The railroad developed Council Bluffs into a bustling center of commerce. Rare image.                                               $ 2000.00