public debt; Rock Island feared that a union with Moline would drive down its property values; and the citizens of the two towns, representing different regions, classes, occupations and ethnicities, widely disagreed on major political issues of the day. Many leaders of Rock Island, a community founded largely by Southerners, remained sympathetic to the Confederate cause throughout the Civil War. Meanwhile, Moline was ardently Republican. The talks of consolidation ceased, although they would later return but were never resolved in favor of the merger. 1860s–1940s After the Civil War, the population of Moline continued to grow. The street grid was expanded to the east and west along the shoreline and to the south up the bluffs. There was a severe housing shortage; few men were rich enough to invest in real estate other than what they could afford to build for themselves, and few incoming workers had sufficient funds to build a home. Nevertheless, Moline's expansion was generally an orderly affair. The street grid remained a set of rectangular blocks, and though no zoning commission or local authority directly oversaw construction, the unwritten code of carpenters, masons, and citizens kept the city a well-planned place. Temperance societies and lyceums joined other reform movements and social organizations in prominence within the community. The quality of life was generally regarded as quite good: "The laboring men of Moline are among the most prosperous to be found in the country. Instead of spending their spare earnings in saloons and dram shops, they carefully hoard them and in a few years a little home of their own is the result." Over time, John Deere expanded operations into other agricultural equipment, and Deere-affiliated factories employed the bulk of Moline's workforce. Soon other Moline-based companies became known around the country for their products. These include Dimock, Gould, and Co., Moline Pipe Organ Co., and Moline Furniture Works, to name a few. In addition, several pioneering automobile companies operated in the city, among them Moline Automobile Company, Moline Wagon Company, Stephens (a marque of the Moline Plow Company) and Velie Motors Corporation. During the last few decades of the 19th century, Moline had continued prosperity, expansion of the city to the southwest, west, and east along the Mississippi river, and a stronger relationship with neighboring communities. Consolidation talks began again with Rock Island, but failed as the two cities quarreled over which would acquire the other. By