After the Blackhawk Purchase of 1832, settlement of eastern Iowa was opened up to white settlers the next year. Antoine LeClaire, who served as the translator at the purchase, received large tracts of land from grateful members of the Sauk tribe. With this land, he and others founded the city of Davenport, named after Col. George Davenport, a successful fur trader. Other towns cropped up throughout Scott County, newly formed in 1837. Over the next several decades, Davenport and these other towns throughout the county grew and gave rise to successful, interesting citizens of their own. Some were inventors like William Bettendorf, who created the Bettendorf