Van Buren Co Settler in 1837-1838

WARD

Posted By: Volunteer - Rich Lowe
Date: 12/9/2005 at 08:41:55

One of Humboldt's early settlers
By Carolyn Saul Logan

As a boy, my great-grandfather, James Franklin Ward, lived in exciting times - the early 1800s. It was luck that gave me the documents to prove it.

Pat Baker found two obituaries and an account of Ward's life in the archives of the Humboldt museum. They give us a view of scientific and historical events through the eyes of a young boy. What follows is a shortened version of Ward's account of his life, along with some additional information about the events that he describes.

J.F. Ward begins at his beginning, "I was born in Lexington, Scott County, IN, the 22nd day of October, 1826," and then launches into more exciting events. "The first thing I recollect was the fall of meteors; my mother took me to the window and raised the curtain for me to look out. It was a grand sight. They looked about the size of a hen's egg. They struck the ground and bounced up five or six feet, almost like a hail storm."

Young J.F. Ward was seeing a phenomenon that appears just a few times a century - a meteor storm, when meteors shower down in large numbers, sometimes several per second. This particular storm occurred in November of 1833, when J.F. Ward was seven years old. The 1833 Leonid display of celestial fireworks stimulated the development of modern meteor astronomy.

J.F. Ward goes on with his story. "The next thing I remember was election day and there was a big crowd in front of a saloon and a whiskey barrel on end with one of the candidates on it making a speech. At the close of his talk he said, 'This day when you cast your votes, will you vote for a man that has always had an honorable name or a man right from the prison walls?' At that his opponent kicked the barrel from under him and there were about 50 fights before they got through. After the fights were over, they marched around with fife and drum and it ended up in a big thunderstorm."

This may have been the 1836 election, when James was nine years old. Three candidates for that Presidential election were Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, and Daniel Webster. Van Buren won.

William Henry Harrison was, I am sure, the favored candidate for J.F. Ward's family. The proof? They named their youngest son William Henry Harrison Ward. He was three years younger than James and came with him to Iowa in the 1850's, practicing medicine in Des Moines.

In the early 1800s, slavery was an issue for many families and J.F. Ward's was no exception.

"My mother's father lived in Kentucky and was a slave holder. He had 40 slaves, but sold all the bad ones and set the balance free. Several years before the war, he bought land for them, about 25 acres apiece, and started them for themselves. They would come to visit my mother, eight or 10 at a time. They would set my mother in the best room and then the old cook would get up a big supper, which all the crowd enjoyed and had a good time."

"They would tell what they went through when they were slaves and how they fooled the overseer. One of the darkies was sent to do the whipping. The slaves were sent down to the tobacco house to see the one whipped, where they had a post in the center of the house. The darkie would strike the post and the slave would yell every stroke so the overseer thought he was getting a good licking, when it was the post got it all."

James' Kentucky grandfather, Alexander Tucker, died in 1812. In his will, he gives "the black woman Anne" to his wife until 1815. He also leaves to his wife the black girl, Rachel, and a Negro man whose name begins with L., until they are both 25 years of age. He states, "It is also my will that black Lucy and her children be set at liberty to exercise their freedom from this time henceforth." So it may have been black Lucy and her children who visited James' mother.

James goes on to describe his home, a horse that climbed the stairs to the second story, a rabid dog his father pitched out the window on a pitchfork, and his family's experiences with local crooks.

Then, James describes how the family moved on. "The day arrived when we bid good-bye to Lexington. A big Pennsylvania wagon stopped at the door with four horses. We parted with our friends and took our places in the covered wagon to travel over one hundred miles. My mother made me a bonnet that would tie on. After traveling two or three days we crossed a river. The driver put me on the off horse and I held onto the hames. We had got to the middle of the river when the driver give his whip a flourish. It wrapped around my bonnet and the last I saw of it, it was floating down the river and Oh! What a scream."

A Pennsylvania wagon, also known as a Conestoga wagon, was so deep that a man standing on its floor could hardly see over its side. The box was boat-shaped and its outside panels were generally painted blue. The harness was in keeping with the style of the wagon - an immense amount of leather bands, no collars, and hames that were plain and strong.

"The next move we located at Crawfordsville. There my youngest sister was married and they started for Iowa. It was settled I should go with them. My sister's husband bought a fine horse and a saddle to fit me. They had their horse and buggy. I had ridden five hundred miles when we came in sight of the grand prairie. I thought it a wonderful sight and we stopped overnight. The prairie was burning for 40 miles at twelve o'clock, and we had to get out and fight the fire. There were four or five teams and we had a lively time for three hours."

"When we came to the Mississippi River we drove onto the steam ferry and landed at Fort Madison. Our next stop was at Keosauqua. We landed there in the spring of 1837, and I was a few months over 10 years old. I rode five hundred miles on horseback and was glad when we were through."

James describes the mill in Keosauqua and the building of houses that was going on there. However, it was the Indians and the river that fascinated him.

"A few days after we landed, I was out on the porch looking down on the river. I saw 40 canoes, with four Indians in a canoe, with their furs piled in the center. It was quite a sight for me. They were on their way to St. Louis, where they sold their furs and bought American horses, new saddles, bridles, and guns, and in three weeks came back single file. When they got in front of our house, the chief rode out and came up to the porch. There was a lady calling on my sister that could talk Indian, so she came out and talked with him. He wanted bread and meat, but she told him we had none, so he reined his horse back and bowed to her very polite and galloped off after his crowd."

"The next year, after I arrived at Keosauqua, a small steamboat arrived, loaded with goods for the Indians. The owner was Captain Phelps, agent and trader. I thought I would look around the boat, and while I was doing that, the boat started on its way. I rode about eight or nine miles around the bend and I got quite well acquainted with the captain." James was 11 years old when he first met Captain Phelps.

"The next year I and two or three young men went up to the treaty the government bought the land agency. On our way up there, we stopped at Blackhawk's grave. There was a pole in the center, about 25 feet high and a red line running around it, like a barber pole, and the American flag flying on it. One of the boys, Clay Colwell, and his father, was at the burial of old Blackhawk. He said they dug a hole five or six feet deep, laid poles across it and covered it with grass, then with dirt. Then they dug a slanting road down into it and tied old Blackhawk on his pony with provisions to last him through to the happy hunting ground. Then they filled it up. The government graded it up and put up the flag staff and the flag."

"When we got into the village, there were 2,200 Indians, one company of Dragoons, and 500 papooses with whooping cough. I just run down to our tent and covered my head with a quilt and stayed there till next morning and missed a big war dance. There were 500 warriors dancing. I stayed a week and never had the whooping cough yet."

"The interpreter lived in a large hewed log house and the Governor and his 12 assistants boarded with the interpreter. There was a nice lawn in front of the house."

"There was a large platform in front of the Council house, with benches on it for the Governor and his 12 men. They made a speech every day while the council lasted, and it was a week. They got all the flour and turnips they wanted."

"Old Keokuk and his 12 men marched down to the village, four abreast, to counsel with themselves. Old Keokuk had a panther skin on that fit on his head and its tail brushed the ground. There were quills set in the back and stuck out about a foot, and on the quills were bells that rattled every step they took. They were fine looking men. The Governor and his men with their uniforms looked grand."

"Two or three days after I arrived at the village, I thought I would go and see my old acquaintance, Captain Phelps. While I was talking with him, an old friend of his he had not seen for several years came along. After talking some time, the old friend said, 'I must tell you of my adventures with the Sioux Indians.'"

This is the story told by the friend of Captain Phelps:

"There was a war party that came in with a lot of prisoners. I heard a great racket down in the village, so I went down to see what it was about, and there tied to small trees were a dozen prisoners and one girl about 17 years old. I saw by her dress that she must be a chief's daughter, so I started in on a trade for her. It took two hours to make it. I gave the Indian that claimed her seven American saddles and bridles for the girl. I took my knife out of my belt and cut the bark that she was tied with and she stepped out a happy girl. I took her up to my house and had a good supper. After the village got quieted down, I had three ponies, one for her to ride, one for me, and one for provisions and tent. Then we traveled all night and stopped in a grove all day and started again at night and we kept that up until we reached the Sioux village and then there was a lively time."

"Two big Indians gathered her off her pony and run up to the chief's tent and the Indians got hold of my feet and hugged them and carried me up there and put up a tent alongside of the chief's and spread new buffalo robes on the floor for me."

"I stayed there four days and made arrangements to come up every month with goods. In the morning of the fifth day, when I stepped out to start there were 12 ponies loaded with fur, as much as could be belted on them for a present to me, which I sold for four thousand dollars. I made a fortune out of the Sioux. This sale of land will throw me out of a job.

Young James then gets back to his own story.

"That was the last time I ever met Captain Phelps."

"When the treaty was finished up there was two big wagons drove up to the agency, with four big mules to each wagon with 70 boxes of silver. Each box had one thousand dollars in half dollars that was paid out to the Indians. They bought all the horses in Van Buren County and my horse with the balance."

So, with the loss of his horse, James Franklin Ward ended this account of his early life.

What happened next?

Young James went back to Indiana and learned the tinner's trade. He returned to Keosauqua, where he worked at the business. He later moved to Ottumwa with his kit of tinner's tools and a few articles of tinware. Trade in his line was very light, and hearing the whistle of the first steamboat that had come that far up the Des Moines River, he had his whole stock of goods and tools at the river bank when the boat reached the landing.

He arranged with the captain to take him to Fort Des Moines. Mr. Ward made one or two more trips on the river and then set up the first tinshop and hardware store in the new city of Des Moines. He afterwards was located at Winterset and later at Jefferson, IA, and came to Fort Dodge in about 1860, where his father-in-law, Mr. Klinedob, and himself started the first hardware store and tinshop there.

In 1867 Mr. Ward came to Humboldt, then Springvale, and opened the first hardware store and tin shop. He died in 1902 at the age of 78; his son, Charley Ward, carrying on the business into the early 1900s.

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Reprinted with permission of the Humboldt Independent Newspaper, Humboldt, IA

Van Buren Documents maintained by Rich Lowe.
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