The two villages eventually combined to become the town of Gilbert.Ĭirca 1900, the town gave William and Joseph Bettendorf 70 acres (280,000 m 2) of riverfront land on the condition that they move their iron wagon business from Davenport to Gilbert. At that time, the residents were predominantly German immigrants and worked as farmers, skilled laborers, and small business owners. The village of Gilbert developed alongside Lilienthal in 1858, honoring Elias Gilbert, who platted the original site. The first European-American settlers established a village they called Lilienthal, after an early tavern and dance hall. The territory was ceded in the Black Hawk Purchase of 1832. The Quad Cities were population 379,374 at the 2022 estimate.īettendorf lies in the original Wisconsin Territory, which the United States bought from the Sac and Fox Indians after defeating them in the Black Hawk War. īettendorf is one of the Quad Cities, along with neighboring Davenport and the Illinois cities of Moline, East Moline and Rock Island.

The population was 39,102 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Davenport– Moline– Rock Island, IA- IL Metropolitan Statistical Area. It is the 15th largest city of Iowa and the third-largest city in the ' Quad Cities'. Bettendorf is a city in Scott County, Iowa, United States.