Early History of Algona, IA

CALL, MAXWELL, INGHAM, READ, GILLASPY, HUTCHINS

Posted By: John R. Call (email)
Date: 7/7/2006 at 22:13:11

Early History of Algona, Iowa
By Asa Cyrus Call

In writing up my remembrances of the early history, I must be pardoned for using my own name frequently, as I was at first nearly alone.
On my return from California, in 1854, I stopped at Iowa City and incidentally engaged in entering land and loaning money. But I never intended to make that my home, as I had for several years intended to found a new town, and all through my residence on the Pacific Coast, I had that in view.
I had explored the Upper Mississippi and the west end of Lake Superior where Duluth now stands; and though some fine cities have grown up since then, there was at that time no certainty of them, and a man without any great means had no right to presume upon railroads.
I was determined to find a place where I could get fine lands and as many other advantages as possible. At the site of Algona, I found a tract of good land with a fair supply of timber, some water-power, and near the center of a county; and with those advantages, if I could not make and hold a county seat, it was because I was not the right person.
I made my first settlement in the county in July 1854. At that time there was no settlement north of Ft. Dodge, which was forty miles from us, and no one on the east nearer than Clear Lake, something over forty miles east.
I brought my wife to the new settlement on the 4th of November. In the same month, Wm. H. Ingham arrived. Some others had struck the place, but Mr. Ingham and my brother Ambrose are the only ones who were in the county of those old settlers.
During the winter of 1855, I went back to Iowa City, and got a bill through the legislature to enlarge the boundary of our county, and locate the county seat thereof.
When we came to name our town, it was quite a study to get a name that was suitable. We came to the conclusion that we would not tack city to our name; we thought if it ever came to be a city folks would find it out, and it would only be ridiculous to make it a part of the name. It was finally left for my wife to name the place, and she decided to call it Algona. This was not a pure Indian name, as the Indian word that suggested it was not euphonious.
In 1856, I found that Webster County had a project against Kossuth County. The idea was that this county was so large that it would undoubtedly be divided, and that might endanger their boundaries, and if they could get this county divided about the middle, it would be difficult to change it again. The scheme came to me through a friend in Ohio. To counteract this, I went down into Humboldt County and got McNight to get up a petition to restore Humboldt County as it was, and I went with him to Iowa City, and got the bill through; but when we came to see the bill as it passed, it contained only twelve townships. I was afterward informed that one of the clerks, who is now prominent in Iowa politics got three hundred dollars for substituting the changed bill for the real one.
I remember that the spring of ‘57 was very late, and in order to meet with the commissioners who were appointed to locate the county seat, I had to walk from Algona to Dakota, as it was impossible for a horse to get through. The only way I had of crossing Bloody Run, was to go down it ‘til I found a place where the snow had drifted across the creek and had not yet broken in, and on this bridge of snow, with the water perhaps ten feet deep under me, I ventured to cross.
By the way nobody has ever paid me for my services in locating that county seat. They didn’t even pay my hotel bills. I suppose that each one thought it was the duty of somebody else to do it, and as the state made no appropriation for it, I had the glory for my pay.
When the new constitution was made, Col. Gillaspy, who was in the convention, had a provision inserted, that no county boundaries should be changed, but by a concurrent vote of all the counties interested, and that saved township number ninety to Webster County. That same provision requiring concurrent vote to modify county lines has prevented the restoration of the northern part of this county up to this time.
This was the spring of the Indian massacre at Spirit Lake. The events of that massacre have been recounted so many times that it is not necessary to go into the details.
As soon as we had authentic information that the massacre had taken place and that the Indians had left the country, all of which had taken place before we had any knowledge of it, I knew that we had no occasion for any immediate alarm.
The Indians are not by any means fools. The snow was deep and the waters were all over the bottoms. There was no foliage to conceal them, and as the settlements were all aroused, and as every man was well armed, the Indians would not be likely to attack the settlements that were comparatively strong here. But as we had no means of knowing the extent of the combination, it was not impossible that we might have a long Indian war on our hands, which would last through the summer. In any event to hold the settlements it was necessary to take some measures of safety.
We sent out scouts in every direction; Levi Maxwell, A. A. Call, W. H. Ingham, and others, who explored the whole country and reported that there were no Indians on our river and that we were at the frontier, all the settlers beyond us having fled. In two days we had got up a fort, made partly of four inch plank and partly of logs set in the ground, barricaded with bastions and loop-holes. I considered it entirely proof against any Indians that had no artillery.
Up to the time of this massacre, I had always been afraid of an Indian attack, but after that I knew that we were safe. The revenge of the Indians was satisfied, and also their care for their own safety would take them out of this range. The year before that massacre, there was a large body of Indians came down and camped where Algona, now stands, but, it was a hunting party and though some squads of them were insolent, I did not anticipate a general attack. In fact the Chief of the band took particular pains at my house to restrain his people. It was true that I was always on my guard and permitted no liberties.
I was much struck by the accuracy of this Indian’s geographical knowledge. He made a map on the sand in which he marked every river, from the Red River of the North, the Missouri, and Yellowstone, the Running Water and Platte, and the Minnesota, showing just how it interlocked with the Red River and The Des Moines and the Mississippi. No white man who had studied the geography of the country could mark them down more accurately. He located all the forts and every settlement of the Waseches (white-mans) and where they were cultivating Waheska (corn)•
When his map, was finished, I asked him what there was over farther west beyond the sources of the Missouri and the Platte. But he struck his head; he did not know. I then finished his map by indicating the Rocky Mountains and the Great Salt Lake and marking the course of the Colorado and the two branches of the Columbia, and the Pacific Ocean beyond. I then told him about the Flat Heads that lived on the Columbia and how their heads were distorted. When I got to that he ejaculated, ugh ugh ugh ugh. He had some knowledge of these fellows.
When he went home to his camp, I saw him making out the map as I had made it for him and I presume that those Indians would never forget it.
[When the State of Iowa asked for five lines of road across the state in 1856, it was well known that the north part of the state was indebted to G. W. Jones of Dubuque, who was our member of the Senate at the time, for being left out in the cold, but Jones didn’t want to recognize any thing north of Dubuque.] [Ed.: This paragraph was crossed out]
In 1860, I went to Des Moines and bought an office of Stillson Hutchins, I think that the same press is now in Spirit Lake, and employed John Summers who formerly worked in Des Moines to run the paper for me. The paper was called The Kossuth County Press, and was a Douglass Democrat paper. In 1861, I turned over the office to A. A. Call and he changed the name of the paper to The Pioneer Press, and it was printed under that name until 1865. In that year I sold the office to Lizzie B. Read who changed the name again to The Upper Des Moines.