HISTORY
OF
Chickasaw and Howard Counties
IOWA.
BY W. E. ALEXANDER.
DECORAH, IOWA
WESTERN PUBLISHING COMPANY.
1883.
PREFACE.
The object of this work is to place upon record in a reliable manner, and in a permanent form what ever incidents of importance may have transpired, within the limits of Howard and Chickasaw counties, since their first settlement. While the publisher does not arrogate to himself a degree of accuracy beyond criticism, he hopes to be found measureably correct, in the compilation, and arrangement, of the almost immeasurable incidents that have been swallowed up in the past, and that enter so largely into the present of the community, in whose interest this volume is written.
Without the aid and assistance of the pioneers, or their immediate descendants, and numerous notes from their carefully written, and well preserved diaries, the task would have been far more arduous and difficult. To the patriarchs of the. past, who have so favored us; as well as to the representative men of the present we tender our grateful acknowledgement. Among those we take especial pleasure in mentioning are J. H. Powers, Jos. F. Grawe, B. A, Billings, L. E. Smith, W. R. Mead and John E. Peck, whose retentive memories, and carefully preserved newspaper files and general records, have added largely to whatever of interest may be found in this volume.
The undertaking of the publisher completed, it only remains to tender to the people of Howard and Chickasaw counties in general, his obligations and acknowledgement, for the uniform kindness and courtesy extended to him and his representatives and agents, during the preparation of these annals, as well as for their liberal patronage, without which this history would have been left buried beneath the debris of time, unwritten and unprepared.
Respectfully,
W. E. ALEXANDER.
HISTORY OF IOWA.
DISCOVERY AND OCCUPATION.
The name Iowa is said to signify "The Beautiful Land," and was applied to this magnificent and fruitful region by its ancient owners, to express their appreciation of its superiority of climate, soil and location. Prior to 1803, the Mississippi River was the extreme western boundary of the United States. All the great Empire lying west of the "Father of Waters," from the Gulf of Mexico on the south, to British America on the north, and west-ward to the Pacific Ocean, was a Spanish province. A brief historical sketch of the discovery and occupation of this great empire by the Spanish and French governments will be a fitting introduction to the young and thriving state of Iowa, which, until the commencement of the present century, was a part of the Spanish possessions in America.
Early in the spring of 1542, Ferdinand DeSoto discovered the mouth of the Mississippi River at the mouth of the Washita. After the sudden death of DeSoto, in May, of the same year, his followers built a small vessel, and in July, 1543, descended the great river to the Gulf of Mexico.
In accordance with the usage of nations, under which title to the soil was claimed by right of discovery, Spain, having conquered Florida and discovered the Mississippi, claimed all the territory bordering on that river and the Gulf of Mexico. But it was also held by the European nations that, discovery gave title, that title must be perfected by actual possession and occupation. Although Spain claimed the territory by right of first discovery, she made no effort to occupy it ; by no permanent settlement had she perfected and held her title, and therefore had forfeited it when, at a later period, the Lower Mississippi Valley was re-discovered and occupied by France.
The labors of the zealous French Jesuits of Canada in penetrating the unknown rigion of the West, commencing in 1611, form a history of no ordinary interest, but have no particular connection with the scope of the present work, until in the fall of 1665. Pierre Claude Allouez, who had entered Lake Superior in September and sailed along the southern coast in- search of copper, had arrived at the great village of the Chippewas at Chegoincegon. Here a grand council of some ten or twelve of the principal Indian nations was held. The Pottawatomies of Lake Michigan, and Sacs and Foxes of the West, the Hurons from the North, the Illinois from the South, and the Sioux from the land of prairie and wild rice, were all assembled there. The Illinois told the story of their ancient glory, and about the noble river on the banks of which they dwelt. The Sioux also told their white brother of the same great river, and Allouez promised to the assembled tribes the protection of the French nation against all their enemies, native or foreign.
The purpose of discovering the great river about which the Indian nations had given such glowing accounts, appears to have originated with Marquette, in 1669. In the year previous, he and Claude Dablon had established the Mission of St. Mary's, the oldest white settlement within the present limits of the state of Michigan. Marquette was delayed in the execution of his great under-taking, and spent the interval in studying the language and habits of the Illinois Indians, among whom he expected to travel.
About this time the French government had determined to ex-tend the Dominion of France to the extreme western borders of Canada. Nicholas Perrott was sent as the agent of the government to propose a grand council of the Indian nation, at St. Mary's.
When Perrot reached Green Bay, he extended the invitation far and near ; and, escorted by Pottawatomies, repaired on a mission of peace and friendship to the Miamis, who occupied the region about the present location of Chicago.
In May, 1671, a great council of Indians gathered at the Falls of St. Mary, from all parts of the northwest, from the head waters of the St. Lawrence, from the valley of the Mississippi and from the Red River of the North. Perrot met with them, and after grave consultation, formally announced to the assembled nations that their good French Father felt an abiding interest in their welfare, and had placed them all under the powerful protection of the French Government.
Marquette, during that same year had gathered at Point St. Ignace the remnants of one branch of the Hurons. This station, for a long series of years, was considered the key to the unknown West.
The time was now auspicious for the consummation of Marquette's grand project. The successful termination of Perrott's mission, and the general friendliness of the native tribes, rendered the contemplated expedition much less perilous. But it was not until 1673 that the intrepid and enthusiastic priest was finally ready to depart on his daring and perilous journey to lands never trod by white men. Having implored the blessing of God upon his undertaking, on the 13th day of May, 1673, with Joliet and five Canadian-French voyageurs, or boatmen, he left the mission on his daring journey. Ascending Green Bay and Fox River, these bold and enthusiastic pioneers of religion and discovery proceeded until they reached a Miami and Kickapoo village, where
Marquette was delighted to find a "beautiful cross planted in the middle of the town, ornamented with white skins, red girdles and bows and arrows, which these good people had offered to the Great Manitou, or God, to thank Him for the pity He had bestowed on them during the winter, in having given them abundant chase." This was the extreme point beyond which the explorations of the French missionaries had not then extended. He called together the principal men of the village, and informed them that his companion, Joliet, had been sent by the French Governor of Canada to discover new countries, to be added to the dominion of France ; but that he, himself, had been sent by the Most High God, to carry the glorious religion of the Cross ; and assured his wondering hearers that on this mission he had no fear of death, to which he knew he would be exposed on his perilous journey.
Obtaining the services of two Miami guides, to conduct his little band to the Wisconsin River, he left the hospitable Indians on the 10th of June. Conducting them across the portage, their Indian guides returned to their village, and the little party descended the Wisconsin, to the great river which had so long been so anxiously looked for, and boldly floated down its unknown waters.
On the 25th of June, the explorers discovered indications of Indians on the west bank of the river, and landed a little above the mouth of the river now known as Des Moines, and for the first time European trod the soil of Iowa. Leaving the Canadians to guard the canoe, Marquette and Joliet boldly followed the trail in-to the interior for fourteen miles (some authorities say six), to an Indian village situated on the banks of a river, and discovered two other villages, on the rising ground about a half a league distant. Their visit, while it created much astonishment, did not seem to be entirely unexpected, for there was a tradition or prophecy among the Indians that white visitors were to come to them. They were, therefore, received with great respect and hospitality, and were cordially tendered the calumet or pipe of peace. They were informed that this band was a part of the Illini nation, and that their village was called Monin-gou-ma or Moingona, which was the name of the river on it stood. This from its similarity of sound, Marquette corrupted into Des Moines (Monk's River) its present name.
Here the voyagers remained six days, learning much of the manners and customs of their new friends. The new religion they boldly preached, and the authority of the King of France they proclaimed were received without hostility or remonstrance by their savage entertainers. On their departure, they were accompanied to their canoes by the chiefs and hundreds of warriors. Marquette received from them the sacred calumet, the emblem of peace and safeguard among the nations, and re-embarked for the. rest of their journey.
In 1682, LaSalle descended the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico, and in the name of the King of France took formal possession of all the immense region watered by the great river and its tributaries from its source to its mouth, and named it Louisiana, in honor of his master, Louis XIV. At the close of the seventeenth century, France claimed, by right of discovery and occupancy, the whole valley of the Mississippi and its tributaries, including Texas, as far as the Rio del Norte.
In 1719, Phillipe Francis Renault arrived in Illinois with two hundred miners and artisans. The war between France and Spain at this time rendered it extremely probable that the Mississippi Valley might become the theater of Spanish hostilities against the French settlements ; to prevent this, as well as to extend French claims, a chain of forts was begun, to keep open the connection between the mouth and the source of the Mississippi. Fort Orleans. high up the Missouri River, was built as an outpost in 1720.
The Mississippi scheme was at the zenith of its power and glory in January, 1720, but the gigantic bubble collapsed more suddenly than it had been inflated, and the company was declared hopelessly bankrupt in May following. France was impoverished by it, both private and public credit was overthrown, capitalists suddenly found themselves paupers, and labor was left without employment. The effect on the colony of Louisiana was very disastrous.
While this was going on in Lower Louisiana the region about the lakes was the theater of Indian hostilities, rendering the passage from Canada to Louisiana extremely dangerous for many years. The English had not only extended their Indian trade in-to the vicinity of the French settlement, but through their friends, the Iroquois, had gained a marked ascendancy over the Foxes, a fierce and powerful tribe, of Iroquois descent, whom they incited to hostilities against the French. The Foxes began their hostilities with the siege of Detroit, in 1712, a siege which continued for nineteen consecutive days, and although the expedition re, suited in diminishing their numbers and humbling their pride, yet it was not until after several successive campaigns, embodying the best military resources of New France, had been directed against them, that they were finally defeated at the great battles of Butte des Morts, and on the Wisconsin river, and driven west in 1746.
The Company, having found that the cost of defending Louisiana exceeded the returns from its commerce, solicited leave to surrender the Mississippi wilderness to the home government. Accordingly, on the 10th of April, 1732, the jurisdiction and control over the commerce reverted to the crown of France. The Company had held possession of Louisiana fourteen years. In 1725, Bienville returned to assume command for the King,
A glance at a few of the old French settlement will show the progress made in portions of Louisiana during the early part of the eighteenth century. As early as 1705, traders and hunters had penetrated the fertile regions of the Wabash, and from this region at that early date, fifteen thousand hides and skins had been collected and sent to Mobile for the European market.
In the year 1716, the French population on the Wabash kept up a lucrative commerce with Mobile by means of traders and voyageurs. The Ohio river was comparatively unknown.
In 1746, agriculture on the Wabash had attained to greater prosperity than in any of the French settlements besides, and in that year six hundred barrels of flour were manufactured and shipped to New Orleans, together with considerable quantities of hay, peltry, tallow and beeswax.
In the Illinois country, also, considerable settlement had been made, so that, in 1730, they embraced one hundred and forty French families, about six hundred "converted Indians," and many traders and voyageurs.
In 1753, the first actual conflict arose between Louisiana and the Atlantic colonies. From the earliest advent of the Jesuit fathers, up to the period of which we speak, the great ambition of the French had been, not alone to preserve their possessions in the West, but by every possible means to prevent the slightest attempt of the English, east of the mountains, to extend their settlement towards the Mississippi. France was resolved on retaining possession of the great territory which her missionaries had discovered and revealed to the world. French commandants had avowed their intention of seizing every Englishman within the Ohio Valley.
The colonies of Pennsylvania, New York and Virginia were most affected by the encroachments of France in the extension of her dominion ; and particularly in the great scheme of uniting Canada with Louisiana. To carry out this purpose the French had taken possession of a tract of country claimed by Virginia, and had commenced a line of forts extending from the lakes to the Ohio River. Virginia was not only alive to her own interests, but attentive to the vast importance of an immediate and effectual resistance on the part of all the English colonies to the actual and contemplated enrochments of the French.
In 1753, Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia, sent George Washing-ton, then a young man, just twenty-one, to demand of the French commandant "a reason for invading British Dominions while a solid peace subsisted." Washington met the French commandant Gardeur de St. Pierre, on the headwaters of the Alleghany, and having communicated to him the object of his journey, received the insolent answer that the French would not discuss the matter of right, but would make prisoners of every Englishman found trading on the Ohio and its waters. The country, he said, belonged to the French, by virtue of the discoveries of LaSalle, and they would not withdraw from it.
In January, 1754, Washington returned to Virginia, and made his report to the Governor and Council. Forces were at once raised, and Washington as Lieutenant Colonel, was dispatched at the head of a hundred and fifty men, to the Forks of the Ohio, with orders to "finish the fort already begun there by the Ohio company, and to make prisoners, kill or destroy all who interrupted the English settlements."
On his march through the forests of Western Pennsylvania, Washington, through the aid of friendly Indians, discovered the French concealed among the rocks, and as they ran to seize their arms, ordered his men to fire upon them, at the same time, with his own musket, setting the example. An action lasting about a quarter of an hour ensued; ten of the Frenchmen were killed, among them Jumonville, the commander of the party, and twenty one were made prisoners. The dead were scalped by the Indians, and the chief, bearing a tomahawk and a scalp, visited all the tribes of the Miamis, urging them to join the Six Nations and the English against the French. The French, however, were soon re-enforced and Col. Washington was compelled to return to Fort Necessity. Here, on the 3d day of July, DeVilliers invested the fort with 600 French troops and 100 Indians. On the 4th, Washing-ton accepted terms of capitulation and the French garrison with-drew from the valley of the Ohio.
This attack of Washington upon Jumonville aroused the indignation of France, and war was formerly declared in May, 1756, and the "French and Indian war" devastated the colonies for several years. Montreal, Detroit, and all Canada were surrendered to the English, and on the 10th of February, 1763, by the treaty of Paris-which had been signed, though not formerly ratified by the respective governments, on the third of November, 1762-France relinquished to Great Britain all that portion of the province of Louisiana lying on the east side of the Mississippi, except the Island and town of New Orleans. On the same day that the treaty of Paris was signed, France, by a secret treaty, ceded to Spain all her possessions ox the west side of the Mississippi, including the whole country to the headwaters of the Great River, and west to the Rocky Mountains, and the jurisdiction of France in America, which had lasted nearly a century, was ended.
At the close of the Revolutionary war, by the treaty of peace between Great Britain and the United States, the English government ceded to the latter all the territory on the east side of the Mississippi River, and north of the thirty-first parallel of north latitude. At the same time Great Britain ceded to Spain all the Floridas, comprising all the territory east of the Mississippi and south of the southern limits of the United States.
At this time, therefore, the present State of Iowa was a part of the Spanish possessions in North America, as all the territory west of the Mississippi River was under the dominion of Spain. That government also possessed all the territory of the Floridas east of the great river and south of the thirty-first parallel of north latitude. The Mississippi, therefore, so essential to the prosperity of the western portion of the United States, for the last three hundred miles of its course flowed. wholly within the Spanish dominions, and that government claimed the exclusive right to use and control it below the southern boundary of the United States.
The free navigation of the Mississippi was a very important question during all the time that Louisiana remained a dependency of the Spanish Crown, and as the final settlement intimately affected the status of the then future state of Iowa, it will be interesting to trace its progress.
The people of the United States occupied and exercised jurisdiction over the entire eastern valley of the Mississippi, embracing all the country drained by its eastern tributaries ; they had a natural right, according to the accepted international law, to follow these rivers to the sea, and to the use of the Mississippi River accordingly, as the great natural channel of commerce. The river was not only necessary but absolutely indispensible to the prosperity and growth of the western settlement then rapidly rising into commercial and political importance. They were situated in the heart of the great valley, and with wonderful expansive energies and ac-cumulating resources, it was very evident that no power on earth could deprive them of the free use of the river below them, only while their numbers were insufficient to enable them to maintain their rights by force. Inevitably, therefore, immediately after the ratification of the treaty in 1785, the western people began to demand the free navigation of the Mississippi-not as a favor, but as a right. In 1786 both banks of the river, below the Ohio, were occupied by Spain, and military posts on the east bank enforced her power to exact heavy duties on all imports by way of the river for the Ohio region. Every boat descending the river was forced to land and submit to the arbitrary revenue exactions of Spanish authorities. Under the administration of Governor Miro, these rigorous exactions were somewhat relaxed from 1787 to 1790; but Spain held it as her right to make them. Taking advantage of the claim of the American people, that the Mississippi should be opened to them, in 1791, the Spanish Government concocted a scheme for the dismembership of the Union. The plan was to induce the Western people to separate from the Eastern States by liberal land grants and extraordinary commercial privileges.
Spanish emissaries, among the people of Ohio and Kentucky, informed them that the Spanish Government would grant them favorable commercial privileges, provided they would secede from the Federal Government east of the mountains. The Spanish
Minister to the United States plainly declared to his confidential correspondent that, unless the Western people would declare their independence and refuse to remain in the Union, Spain was determined never to grant the free navigation of the Mississippi.
By the treaty of Madrid, October 20, 1795, however, Spain formally stipulated that the Mississippi River, from its source to the Gulf for its entire width, should be free to American trade and commerce and that the people of the United States should be permitted for three years to use the port of New Orleans as a port of deposit of their merchandise and produce, duty free.
In November, 1810, the United States Government received, through Rufus King, its Minister at the Court of St. James, a copy copy of the treaty between Spain and France, signed at Madrid, March 21, 1801, by which the cession of Louisiana to France made the previous autumn, was confirmed.
The change offered a favorable opportunity to secure the just rights of the United States, in relaton to the free navigation of the Mississippi, and ended the attempt to dismember the Union by an effort to secure an indendent government west of the Alleghany Mountains. On 7th day of January, 1803, the American House of Representatives adopted a resolution declaring their "unalterable petermination to maintain the boundaries and the rights of navigation and commerce through the River Mississippi, as established by existing treaties."
In the same month President Jefferson nominated and the Senate confirmed Robert R. Livingston and James Monroe as Envoys Plenipotentiary to the Court of France, and Charles Pinckney. and Jamas Monroe to the Court of Spain, with plenty of power to negotiate treaties to effect to object the enunciated by the popular branch of the National Legislature. These envoys were instructed to secure, if possible, the cession of Florida and New Orleaans to the United States, but it does not appear that Mr. Jefferson had any idea of purchasing that part of Louisiana lying on the west side of the Mississippi. In fact, on the 2d of March following the instructions were sent to our Ministers, containing a plan which expressly left to France "all her territory on the west side of the Mississippi." Had these instructions been followed, it might have been that there would not have been any State of Iowa or any other member of the glorious Union of States west of the Father of Waters.
In obedience to his instructions, however, Mr. Livingston broached this plan to M. Talleyrand, Napoleon's Prime Minister, when that courtly diplomatist quietly suggested to the American Minister that France might be willing to cede the whole French dominion in North America to the United States, and asked how much the Federal Government would be willing to give for it. Livingston intimated that twenty million francs might be a fair price. Talleynand thought that not enough, but asked the American to "think of it." A few days later; Napoleon, in an interview with Mr. Livingston, in effect informed the American Envoy that he had secured Louisiana in a contract with Spain for the purpose of turning it over to the United States for a mere nominal sum. He had been compelled to provide for the safety of that province by the treaty, and he was anxious to give the United States a magnificent bargain for a mere trifle. The price proposed was one hundred and twenty-five million francs. This was subsequently modified to fifteen million dollars, and on this basis a treaty was negotiated, and was signed on tha 30th day of April, 1803.
This treaty was ratified by the Federal Government, and by ac-of Congress, approved October 31, 1803, the President of the United States was authorized to take possession of the territory and provide for a temporary government. Accordingly, on the 20th day of September following, on behalf of the President, Governor Clairborne and Gen. Wilkinson took possession of the Louisiana purchase, and raised the American flag over the newly acquired domain , at New Orleans. Spain, although it had by treaty ceded the province to France in 1801, still held quasi possession and at first objected to the transfer, but withdrew her opposition early in 1804.
By this treaty, thus successfully consummated, and the peaceable withdrawal of Spain, the then infant nation of the New World extended its dominion west of the Mississippi to the Pacific ocean, and north from the Gulf of Mexico to British America.
If the original design of Jefferson's administration had been accomplished, the United States would have acquired only that portion of the French territory lying east of the Mississippi River, and while the American people would thus have acquired the free navigation of that great river, all of the vast and fertile empire on the west, so rich in its agricultural and inexhaustible mineral re-sources, would have remained under the dominion of a foreign power. To Napoleon's desire to sell the whole of his North American possessions, and Livingston's act transcending his instructions which was acquiesced in after it was done, does Iowa owe her position as a part of the United States by the Louisiana purchase.
By authority of an act of Congress, approved March 26, 1804, the newly acquired territory was, on the first day of October following divided: that part lying south of the thirty-third parallel of north latitude was called the territory of Orleans, and all north of that parallel the District of Louisiana, which was placed under the authority of the officers of Indian Territory, until July 4,1805, when it was organized with territorial government of its own, and so remained until 1812, when the Territory of Orleans became the State of Louisiana, and the name of the Territory of Louisiana was changed to Missouri. On the 4th of July, 1814, that part of the Missouri Territory comprising the present State of Arkansas, and the country to the westward was organized into the Arkansas Territory.
On, the 2d of March, 1821, the State of Missouri, being a part of the territory of that name, was admitted to the Union. June 28, 1834, the territory west of the Mississippi River and north of Missouri, was made a part of the territory of Michigan; but two years later on the 4th of July, 1836, Wisconsin Territory was erected, embracing within its limits the present States of Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
By act of Congress, approved June 12, 18S8, the
TERRITORY OF IOWA
was erected, comprising, in addition to the present State, much the larger part of Minnesota, and extending north to the boundary of the British possessions.
THE ORIGINAL OWNERS
Having traced the early history of the great empire lying west of the Mississippi, of which the State of Iowa constitutes a part from the earliest discovery to the organization of the Territory of Iowa, it becomes necessary to give some history of the Indians of Iowa.
According to the policy of the European nations, possession perfected title to any territory. We have seen that the country west of the Mississippi was first discovered by the Spaniards, but afterwards, was visited and occupied by the French. It was ceded by France to Spain, and by Spain back to France again, and then was purchased and occupied by the United States. During all that time, it does not appear to have entered into the heads or hearts of the high contracting parties that the country they bought, sold and gave away was in the possession of a race of men, who, al-though savage, owned the vast domain before Columbus first crossed the Atlantic. Having purchased the territory the United States found it still in possession of its original owners, who had never been dispossesed; and it became necessary to purchase again what had already been bought before, or forcibly eject the occupants; therefore, the history of the Indian nations who occupied Iowa prior to and during its early settlement by the whites, be-comes an important chapter in the history of the State, that can-not .be omitted.
For more than one hundred years after Marquette and Joliet trod the virgin soil of Iowa, not a single settlement had been made or attempted; not even a trading post had been established. The whole country remained in the undisputed possession of the native tribes, who roamed at will over her beautiful and fertile prairies, hunted in her woods, fished in her streams, and often poured out their life-blood in obstinately contested contests for supremacy. That this State so aptly styled "The Beautiful Land," had been the theater of numerous fierce and bloody struggles between rival nations, for possessions of the favored region, long before its settlement by civilized man, there is no room for doubt. In these savage wars, the weaker party whether aggressive or defensive, was either exterminated or driven from their ancient hunting grounds.
In 1673, when Marquette discovered Iowa, the Illini were a very powerful people, occupying a large portion of the State, but when the country was again visited by the whites, not a remnant of that once powerful tribe remained on the west side of the Mississippi, and Iowa was principally in the possession of the Sacs and Foxes, a war-like tribe which, originally two distinct nations, residing in New York and on the waters of the St. Lawrence, had gradually fought their way westward, and united, probably, after the Foxes had been driven out of the Fox River country, in 1846, and crossed the Mississippi. The death of Pontiac, a famous Sac chieftain, was made the pretext for war against the Illini, and a fierce and bloody struggle ensued, which continued until the Illinois were nearly destroyed and their hunting grounds possessed by their victorious foes. The Iowas also occupied a portion of the State for a time, in common with the Sacs, but they, too, were nearly destroyed by the Sacs and Foxes, and, in "The Beautiful Land," these natives met their equally war-like foes, the Northern Sioux, with whom they maintained a constant warfare for the possession of the country for many years.
When the United States came in possession of the great valley of the Mississippi, by the Louisiana purchase, the Sacs and Foxes and Iowas possessed the entire territory, now comprising the State of Iowa. The Sacs and Foxes, also occupied the most of the State of Illionois.
The Sacs had four principal villages, where most of them re-sided, viz.: Their largest and most important town-if an Indian village may be called such-and from which emanated most of the obstacles and difficulties encountered by the Government in the extinguishment of Indian titles to land in this region, was on Rock River, near Rock Island; another was on the east bank of the Mississippi, near the mouth of Henderson River; the third was at the head of the Des Moines Rapids, near the present site of Montrose, and the fourth was near the mouth of the Upper Iowa.
The Foxes had three principal villages, viz.: One on the west side of the Mississippi, six miles above the rapids of Rock River; another about twelve miles from the river, in the rear of the Dubuque lead mines, and the third on Turkey River.
The Iowas, at one time identified with the Sacs, of Rock River, had withdrawn from them and become a separate tribe. Their principal village was on the Des Moines River, in Van Buren County, on the site where Iowaville now stands. Here the last great battle between the Sacs and Foxes and the lowas was fought, in which Black Hawk, then a young man, commanded one division of the attacking forces.
The Sacs had a fierce conflict with the Winnebagoes, subdued them and took possession f their lands. Their village on Rock River, at one time, contained upward of sixty lodges, and was among the largest Indian villages on the continent. In 1825, the Secretary of War estimated the entire number of the Sacs. and Foxes at 4,600 souls. Their villages was situated in the immediate vicinity of the upper rapids of the Mississippi, where the beautiful and flourishing towns of Rock Island and Davenport are now situated. The beautiful scenery of the island, the extensive prairies, dotted over with groves; the picturesque bluffs along the river banks, the rich and fertile soil, producing large crops of corn, squash and other vegetables, with little labor; the abundance of wild fruit, game, fish, and almost everything calculated to make it a delightful spot for an Indian village, which was found there, had made this place a favorite home of the Sacs, and secured for it the strong attachment and veneration of the whole nation.
North of the hunting grounds of the Sacs and Foxes, were those of the Sioux, a fierce and warlike nation, who often disputed possession with their rivals in savage and bloody warfare. The possessions of these tribes were mostly located in Minnesota, but ex-tended over a portion of Northern and Western Iowa to the Missouri River. Their descent from the north upon the hunting grounds of Iowa frequently brought them into collision with the Sacs and Foxes; and after many a conflict and bloody struggle, a boundary line was established between them by the Government of the United States, in a treaty held at Prairie du Chien in 1825. But this, instead of settling the difficulties, caused them to quarrel all the more, in consequence of alleged trespasses upon each other's side of the line. These contests were kept up and became so unrelenting that, in 1830, Government bought of the respective tribes of the Sacs and Foxes, and the Sioux, a strip of land twenty miles in width, on both sides of the line and thus throwing them forty miles a part by creating between them a "neutral ground," commanded them to cease their hostilities. Both the Sacs and Foxes and the Sioux, however, were allowed to fish and hunt on the ground unmolested, provided they did not interfere with each other on the United States territory. The Sacs and Foxes and the Sioux were deadly enemies, and neither let an opportunity to punish the other pass unimproved.
In April, 1852, a fight occurred between the Musquaka band of Sacs and Foxes and a band of Sioux, about six miles above Algona, in Kossuth County, on the west side of the Des Moines River. The Sacs and Foxes were under the leadership Ko-kowah, a subordinate chief, and had gone up from their home in Tama County, by way of Clear Lake, to what was then the "neutral ground." At Clear Lake, Ko-ko-wah was informed that a party of Sioux were encamped on the west side of the East Fork of the Des Moines, and he determined to attack them. With sixty of his warriors, he started and arrived at a point on the east side of the river, about a mile above the Sioux encampment, in the night, and concealed themselves in a grove, where they were able to discover the position and strength of their hereditary foes. The next morning, after many of the Sioux braves had left their camp on hunting tours, the vindictive Sacs and Foxes crossed the river and suddenly attacked the camp. The conflict was desperate for a short time, but the advantage was with the assailants, and the Sioux were routed. Sixteen of them, including some of their women and children, were killed, and a boy 14 years old was captured. One of the Musquakas was shot in the breast by a squaw as they were rushing into the Sioux's camp. He started to run away, when the same brave squaw shot him through the body, at a distance of forty rods, and he fell dead. Three other Sac braves were killed. But few of the Sioux escaped. The victorious party hurriedly buried their own dead, leaving the dead Sioux above ground, and made their way home, with their captive, with all possible expedition.
PIKE'S EXPEDITION.
Very soon after the acquisition of Louisiana the United States Government adopted measures for the exploration of the new territory, having in view the concilation of the numerous tribes of Indians by whom it was possessed, and, also, the selection of proper sites for the establishment of military posts and trading stations. The Army of the West, Gen. James Wilkinson, commanding, had its headquarters at St. Louis. From this post Captains Lewis Clarke, with a sufficient force were detailed to explore the unknown sources of the Missouri and Lieut Zebulon M. Pike to ascend to the head waters of the Mississippi. Lieut. Pike, with one Sergeant, two Corporals and seventeen privates, left the military camp, near St. Louis, in a keel-boat, with four month's rations on the 9th day of August, 1805. On the 20th of the same month, the expedition arrived within the present limit of Iowa, at the foot of the Des Moines Rapids, where Pike met William Ewing, who had just been appointed Indian agent at this point, a French interpreter and four chiefs and fifteen Sac and Fox warriors.
At the head of the rapids, where Montrose is now situated, Pike held a council with the Indians, in which he addressed them substantially as follows: "Your great Father, the President of the United States, wished to be more intimately acquainted with the situation and wants of the different nations of red people in our newly acquired territory of Louisiana, and has ordered the General to send a number of his warriors in different direction to take them by the hand and such inquiries as might afford the satisfaction required." At the close of the council he presented the red men with some knives, whisky and tobacco.
Pursuing his way up the river, he arrived, on the 23d of August, at what is supposed, from his description, to be the site of the present city of Burlington, which he selected as the location of a military post. He describes the place as being "'on a hill, about forty miles above the River de Moyne Rapids, on the west side of the river, in latitude about 41 degress 21 minutes north. The channel of the river runs on that shore; the hill in front is about sixty feet perpendicular; nearly level on top; four hundred yards in the rear is a small prairie fit for gardening, and immediately under the hill is a limestone spring, sufficient for the consumption of a whole regiment." In addition to this description, which corresponds to Burlington, the spot is laid down on his map at a bend in the river a short distance below the mouth of the Henderson, which pours its waters into the Mississippi from Illinois. The fort was built at Fort Madison, but from the distance, latitude, description and map furnished by Pike, it could not have been the place selected by him while all the circumstances corroborate the opinion that the place he selected was the spot where Burlington is now located, called by the early voyagers on the Mississippi, "Flint Hills."
On the 24th with one of his men, he went 'on shore on a hunting expedition, and following a stream which they supposed to be a part of the Mississippi, they were led away from their course. Owing to the intense heat and tall grass, his two favorite dogs, which he had taken with him, became exhausted and he left them on the prairie, supposing that they would follow him as soon as they should get rested, and went on to overtake his boat. Reaching the river, he waited some time for his canine friends, but they did not come, and as he deemed it inexpedient to detain the boat longer, two of his men volunteered to go in pursuit of them, and he continued on his way up the river, expecting that the two men would soon overtake him. They lost their way, however, and for six days were without food, except a few morsels gathered from the stream and might have perished had they not accidentally met a trader from St. Louis, who induced two Indians to take them up, the river and they over took the boat at Dubuque.
At Dubuque, Pike was cordially received by Julien Dubuque, a Frenchman, who held a mining claim under a grant from Spain. Dubuque had an old field piece and fired a salute in honor of the advent of the first Americans who had visited that part of the Territory. Dubuque, however, was not disposed to publish the wealth of his mines, and the young and apparently inquisitive officer could obtain but little information from him.
After leaving this place, Pike pursued his way up the Fiver, but as he passed beyond the limits of the present State of Iowa, a detailed history of his exploration on the upper water of the Mississippi more properly belongs to the history of another State.
It is sufficient to say that on the site of Fort Snelling, Minnesota, at the mouth of the Minnesota River, Pike held a council with the Sioux, September 23, and obtained from them a grant of one hundred thousand acres of land. On the 8th of January, 1806, Pike arrived at a trading post belonging to the Northwest Company, on Lake De Sable in latitude 47°. At this time the then powerful Northwest Company carried on their immense operations from Hudson's Bay to the St. Lawrence; up the river on both sides, along the Great Lakes to the head of Lake Superior, thence to the sources of the Red River of the North, and west to the Rocky Mountains, embracing within the scope of their operations the entire Territory of Iowa. After successfully accomplishing his mission, and performing a valuable service to Iowa and the whale Northwest, Pike returned to St. Louis, arriving there on tha 30th day April, 1806.
INDIAN WARS.
The territory of Iowa, although it had been purchased by the United States, and was ostensibly in the possession of the Government, was still occupied by the Indians, who claimed title to the soil by right of ownership and possession. Before it could be open to settlement by the whites, it was indispensable that the Indian title should be extinguished, and the original owners re-moved. The accomplishment of this purpose required the expenditure of large sums of money and blood, and for a long series of years the frontier was disturbed by Indian wars, terminated repeatedly by treaty, only to be renewed by some act of oppression on the part of the whites or some violation of treaty stipulation,
As previously shown, at the time when the United States assumed the control of the country by virtue of the Louisiana purchase nearly the whole state was in possession of the Sacs and Foxes, a powerful and warlike nation, who were not disposed to submit without a struggle to what they considered the encroachments of the pale faces.
Among the most noted chiefs, and one whose restlessness and hatred of the Americans occasioned more trouble to the Government than any others of his tribe, was Black Hawk, who was born at the Sac village, on Rock river, in 1767. He was simply the chief of his own band of Sac warriors, but by his energy and ambition he became the leading spirit of the united nation of Sacs and Foxes, and one of the prominent figures in the history of the country from 1803 until his death. In early manhood he attained some distinction as a fighting chief, having led campaigns against the Osages and other neighboring tribes. About the beginning of the present century he began to appear prominent in affairs on the Mississippi. Some historians have added to the statement "it does not appear that he was ever a. great general, or possessed any of the qualification of a successful leader." If this was so his life was a marvel. How any man who had none of the qualification of a leader became so prominent as such, as he did, indicates either that he had some ability, or that his cotemporaries, both Indian and Anglo-Saxon, had less than he. He is said to have been the victim of a narrow prejudice and bitter ill-will against the Americans" but the impartial historian must admit that if he was the enemy of the Americans, it was certainly not without some reason.
It will be remembered that Spain did not give up possession of the country to France on its cession to the latter power, in 1801, but retained possession of it, and, by the authority of France, transferred it to the United States, in 1804. Black Hawk and his band were in St. Louis at the time, and were invited to be present and witness the ceremonies of the transfer, bit he refused the invitation, and it is but just to say that this refusal was caused probably more from regret that the Indians were to be transfered from the jurisdiction of the Spanish authorities than from any special hatred toward the Americans. In his life he says : "I found many sad and gloomy faces because the United States were about to take possession of the town and country. Soon after the Americans came, I took my band and went to take leave of our Spanish father. The Americans came to see him also. Seeing them approach, we passed out of one door as they entered another, and immediately started in our canoes for our village, on Rock River, not liking the change any more than our friends appeared to at St. Louis On arriving at our village, we gave the news that strange people had arrived at St. Louis, and that we should never see our Spanish father again. The information made all our people sorry."
On the 3d day of November, 1804, a treaty was concluded between William Henry Harrison, than Governor of Indiana Territory, on behalf of the United States, and five chiefs of the Sac and Fox nation, by which the latter, in consideration, of two thousand two hundred and thirty-four dollars' worth of goods then delivered, and a yearly annunity of one thousand dollars to be paid in goods at just cost, ceded to the United States all that land on the east side. of the Mississippi, extending from a point opposite the Jefferson, in Missouri, to the Wisconsin River, embracing an area of over fifty-one millions of acres.
To this treaty Black Hawk always objected and always refused to consider it binding upon his people. He asserted that the chiefs or braves who made it had no authority to relinquish the title of the nation to any of the lands they held or occupied; and, more-over, that they had been sent to St. Louis on quite a different errand, namely, to get one of their people released, who had been imprisoned at St. Louis for killing a white man.
The year following this treaty (1805), Lieutenant Zebiilon M. Pike came up the river for the purpose of holding friendly councils with the Indians and selecting sites for forts within the territory recently acquired from France by the United States. Lieu-tenant Pike seems to have been the first American whom Black Hawk ever met or had a personal interview with; and he was very much prepossessed in Pike's favor. He gives the following ac-count of his visit to Rock Island:
"A boat came up the river with a young American chief and a small party of soldiers. We heard of them soon after they passed Salt River. Some of our young braves watched them every day, to see what sort of people he had on board. The boat at length arrived at Rock River, and the young chief came on shore with his interpreter, and made a speech and gave us some presents. We in turn presented them with meat and such other provisions as we had to spare. We were well pleased with the young chief. He gave us good advice, and said our American father would treat us well."
The events which soon followed Pike's expedition were the erection of Fort Edwards, at what is now Warsaw, Illinois, and Fort Madison, on the site of the present town of that name, the latter being the first fort erected in Iowa. These movements occasioned great uneasiness among the Indians. When work was commenced on Fort Edwards, a delegation from their nation, headed by some of their chiefs, went down to see what the Americans were doing, and had an interview with the commander; after which they re-turned home apparently satisfied. In like manner, when Fort Madison was being erected, they sent down another delegation from a council of the nation held at Rock River. According to Black Hawk's account, the American chief told them that he was building a house for a trader who was coming to sell them goods cheap, and that the soldiers were coming to keep him company-a statement which Black Hawk says they distrusted at the time, believing that the fort was an encroachment upon their rights, and designed to aid in getting their lands away from them.
It has been held by good American authorities, that the erection of Fort Madison at the point where it was located was a violation of the treaty of 1804. By the eleventh article of the treaty, the United States had a right to build a fort near the mouth of the Wisconsin River; by article six they had bound themselves "that if any citizens of the United States or any other white persons should form a settlement upon their lands, such intruders should forthwith be removed." Probably the authorities of the United States did not regard the established of military posts as coining properly within the meaning of the term "settlement," as used in the treaty. At all events, they erected Fort Madison within the territory reserved to the Indians, who became very indignant. Not long after the fort was built, a party led by Black Hawk attempted its destruction. They sent spies to watch the movements of the garrison, who ascertained that the soldiers were in the habit of marching out of the fort every morning and evening for parade, and the plan of the party was to conceal themselves near the fort, and attack and surprise them when they were outside. On the morning of the proposed day of attack, five soldiers carne out and were fired upon by the Indians, two of them being killed. The Indians were too hasty in their movements, for the regular drill had not yet commenced. However, they kept up the attack for several days, attempting the old Fox strategy of setting fire to the fort with blazing arrows; but findinng their efforts unavailing they soon gave up and returned to Rock River.
When war was declared between the United States and Great in Britian, 1812, Black Hawk and his band allied themselves with the British, partly because he was dazzled by their specious promises, and more probably because they had been deceived by the Americans. Black Hawk himself declared that they were "forced into the war by being deceived." He narrates the. circumstance& as follows : "Several of the chiefs and head men of the Sacs and Foxes were called upon to go to Washington to see their Great Father. On their return, they related what had been said and done. They said the Great Father wished them, in the event of a war taking place with England, not to interfere on either side, but to remain neutral. He did not want our help, but wished us to hint and support our families, and live in peace. He said that British traders would not be permitted to come on the Mississippi to furnish us with goods. bnt that we should be supplied with an American trader. Our chiefs then told him that the British traders always gave them credit in the fall for guns, powder and goods, to enable us to hunt and clothe our families. He repeated that the traders at Fort Madison would have plenty of goods; that we should go there in the fall and he would supply us on credit, as the British traders had done."
Black Hawk seems to have accepted this proposition, and he and his people were very much pleased. Acting in good faith, they fitted out for their winter's hunt, and went to Fort Madison in high spirits to receive from the trader their outfit of supplies. But, after waiting some time, they were told by the trader that he would not trust them. It was in vain they pleaded the promise of their Great Father at Washington. The trader was inexorable; and, disapointed and crestfallen, they turned sadly toward their own villiage. "Few of us," says Black Hawk, "slept that night; all was gloom and discontent.. In the morning a canoe was seen ascending the river; it soon arrived, bearing an express, who brought intelligence that a British trader had landed at Rock Island, with two boats loaded with goods, and requested us to come up immediately, because he had good news for us, and a variety of presents. The express presented us with tobacco, pipes and wampum. The news ran through our camp like fire on a prairie. Our lodges were soon taken down, and all started for Rock Island. Here ended all hopes of our remaining at peace, having been forced into the war by being deceived.
He joined the British, who flattered him, styled him "General Black Hawk," decked him with medals, excited his jealousies against the Americans, and armed his band; but he met with de-feat and disappointment, and soon abandoned the service and came home. With all his skill and courage, Black Hawk was unable to lead all the Sacs and Foxes into hostilities to the United States. A portion of them, at the head of whom was Keokuk ("the Watchful Fox"), were disposed to abide by the treaty of 1804, and to cultivate friendly relations with the American people. Therefore, when Black Hawk and his band joined the fortunes of Great Britain, the rest of the nation remained neutral, and, for protection organized, with Keokuk for their chief. This divided the nation into the "War and Peace Party."
Black Hawk says he was informed, after he had gone to the war, that the nation, which had been reduced to so small a body of fighting men, were unable to defend themselves in case the Americans should attack them, and having all the old men and women and children belonging to warriors who had joined the British on their hands to provide for, a council was held, and it was agreed that Quash-qua-me (the Lance) and other chiefs, together with the old men, women and children, and such others as chose to accompany them, should go to St. Louis, and place themselves under the American chief stationed there. They accordingly went down and were received as the "friendly band" of the Sacs and Foxes, and were provided for and sent up the Missouri river. On Black Hawk's return from the British army, he says Keokuk was introduced to him as the war chief of the braves then in the village. He inquired how he had become chief, and was informed that their spies had seen a large armed force going toward Peoria, and fears were entertained of an attack upon the village; whereupon a council was held, which concluded to leave the village and cross over to the west side of the Mississippi.
Keokuk had been standing at the door of the lodge where the council was held, not being allowed to enter on account of never having killed an enemy, where he remained until Wa-co-me came out. Keokuk asked permission to speak in the council, which Wa-co-me obtained for him. Keokuk then addressed the chiefs; he remonstrated against the desertion of the village, their own homes and the graves of their fathers, and offered to defend the village. The council consented that he should be their war chief. He marshaled his braves, sent out spies, and advanced on the trail leading to Peoria, but returned without seeing the enemy. The Americans did not disturb the village, and all were satisfied with the appointment of Keokuk.
Keokuk, like Black Hawk, was a descendant of the Sac branch of the nation, and was born on Rock river, in 1780. He was of a pacific disposition, but possessed the elements of true courage, and could fight, when occasion required, with a cool judgment and heroic energy. In his first battle he encountered and killed a Sioux, which placed him in the rank of warriors; and he was honored with a public feast, by his tribe, in commemoration of the event.
Keokuk has been described as an orator, entitled to rank with the most gifted of his race. In person he was tall, and of portly bearing; in his public speeches he displayed a commanding attitude and graceful gestures; he spoke rapidly, but his enunciation was clear, distinct and forcible; he culled his figures from the stores of nature, and based his arguments on skillful logic. Unfortunately for the reputation of Keokuk as an orator, among white people, he was never able to obtain an interpreter who could claim eved a slight acquaintance with philosophy. With one exception only, his interpreters were unacquainted with the elements of their mother tongue. Of this serious hindrance to his fame, Keokuk was well aware, and retained Frank Labershure, who had receiued a rudimental education in the French and English languages, until the latter broke down by dissipation and died. But during the meridian of his career among the white people, he was compelled to submit his speeches for translation to uneducated men, whose range of thought fell below the flights of a gifted mind, and the fine imagery drawn from nature was beyond their power of re-production. He had sufficient knowledge of the English language to make him sensible of this bad rendering of his thought, and often a feeling of mortification at the bungling efforts was depicted on his countenance while speaking. The proper place to form a correct estimate of his ability as an orator was in the Indian council, where he addressed himself exclusively to those who understonnd his language, and witness the electrical effect of his eloquence upon his audience.
Keokuk seems to have possessed a more sober judgment, and to have had a more intelligent view of the great strength and re-sources of the United States, than his noted and restless cotemporary, Black Hawk. He knew from the first that the reckless war which Black Hawk and his band had determined to carry on could result in nothing but defeat and disaster, and used every argument against it. The large number of warriors whom he had dissuaded from following Black Hawk became, however, greatly excited with the war spirit after Stillman's defeat, and but for the signal tact displayed by Keokuk on that occasion, would have forced him to submit to their wishes in joining the rest of the warriors in the field. A war-dance was held, and Keokuk took part in it, seeming to be moved with the current of the rising storm. When the dance was over, he called the council to prepare for war. He made a speech, in which he admitted the justice of their complaints against the Americans. To seek redress was a noble aspiration of their nature. The blood of their brethern had been shed by the white man, and the spirits of their braves, slain in battle, called loudly for vengeance. "I am your chief," he said, "and it is my duty to lead you to battle, if, after fully considering the matter, you are determined to go. But before you decide on taking this important step, it is wise to inquire into the chances of success. He then portrayed to them the great power of the United States, against whom they would have to contend, that their chances of success was utterly hopeless. "But," said he, "if you do determine t. go upon the war-path, I will agree to lead you, on one condition, viz.: that before we go, we will kill all our old men and our wives and children, to save them from a lingering death of starvation, and that every one of us determine to leave our homes on the other side of the Mississippi."
This was a strong but truthful picture of the prospect before them, and was presented in such a forcible light. as to cool their ardor, and cause them to abandon the rash undertaking.
But, during the war of 1832, it is now considered certain that small bands of Indians, from the west side of the Mississippi, made incursions into the white settlements, in the lead mining region, and committed some murders and depredations.
When peace was declared between the United States and England, Black Hawk was required to make peace with the former, and entered into a treaty at Portage des Sioux, September 14, 1815, but did not " touch the goose-quill to it until May 13, 1816, when he smoked the pipe of peace with the great white chief," at St. Louis. This treaty was a renewal of the treaty of 1804, but Black Hawk declared he had been deceived; that he did not know that by singing the treaty he was giving away his villiage. This weighed upon his mind, already soured by previous disappointment and the irresistible encroachments of the whites; and when a few years later, he and his people were driven from their possessions by the military, he determined to return to the home of his fathers.
It is also to be remarked that in 1816, by treaty with various tribes, the United States, relinquished to the Indians all the lands lying north of a line drawn from the southermost point of Lake Michigan west to the Mississippi, except a reservation five leagues square, on the Mississippi River, supposed then to be sufficient to include all the mineral lands on an adjacent to Fever River, and one league square at the mouth of the Wisconsin River.
The immediate cause of the Indian outbreak in 1830 was the occupation of Black Hawk's villiage, on the Rock River, by the whites, during the absence of the chief and his braves on a hunting expedition, on the west side of the Mississippi. When they returned they found their wigwams occupied by white families, and their own women and children were shelterless on the banks of the river. The Indians were indignant, and determined to re-possess their villiage at all hazards, and early in the spring of 1831 recrossed the Missisiippi and menacingly took possession of their own cornfields and cabins. It may be well to remark here that it was expressly stipulated in the treaty of 1804, to which they attributed all their troubles, that the Indians should not be obliged to leave their lands until they were sold by the United States, and it does not appear that they occupied any lands other than those owned by the Government. If this was true, the Indians had good cause for indignation and complaint. But the whites, driven out in turn by the returning Indians, became so clamorous against what they termed the encroachments of the natives, that Gov. Reynolds, of Illinoise, ordered Gen. Gaines to Rock Island with a militay force to drive the Indians again from their homes to the west side of the Mississippi. Black Hawk says he did not intend to be provoked into war by anything less than the blood of some of his own people; in other words, that there would be no war unless it should be commenced by the pale faces. But it was said and probably thought by the military commanders along the frontier, that the Indians intended to unite in a general war against the whites, from Rock River to the Mexican borders, But it does not appear that the hardy frontiersmen themselves had any fears, for their experience had been that, when well treated, their Indian neighbors were not dangerous. Black Hawk and his band had done no more than to attempt to repossess the old homes of which they had been deprived in their absence. No blood had been shed. Black Hawk had his chiefs sent a flag of truce, and a new treaty was made, by which Black Hawk and has band agreed to remain for-ever on the Iowa side.
On the 6th day of April, 1832, Black Hawk, and his en-tire band, with their women and children, again recrossed the Mississippi River in plain view of the garrison of Fort Armstrong, and went up the Rock River. Although this act was construed into an act of hostility by the military authorities, who declared that Black Hawk intended to recover his village, or the site where it stood, by force; yet it does not appear that he made any such attempt, nor did his appearance create any special alarm among the settlers. They knew that the Indians never went on the war-path encumbered with the old men, their women and their children.
The Galenian, printed in Galena, of May 2, 1832, says that Black Hawk was invited by the Prophet, and had taken possession of a tract about forty miles up Rock river; but that he did not re, main there long, but commenced his search up Rock river. Capt. W. B. Green, who served in Captain Stevenson's company of mounted rangers, says that "Black Hawk and his band crossed the river with no hostile intention, but that his band had had bad luck in hunting during the previous winter, were actually in a starving condition, and had come over to spend the summer with a friendly tribe on the headwaters of the Rock and Illinois rivers by invitation from their chief." Other old settlers, who all agree that Black Hawk had no idea of fighting, say that he came back to the west side expecting to negotiate another treaty, and get a new supply of provisions. The most reasonable explanation of this movement, which resulted so disastrously to Black Hawk and his starving people, is that, during the fall and winter of 1831-32, his people became greatly indebted to their favorite trader at Fort Armstrong (Rock Island), they had not been fortunate in hunting, and he was likely to lose heavily, as an Indian debt was outlawed in one year. If, therefore, the Indians could be induced to came over, and the fears of the military could be sufficiently aroused to pursue them, another treaty could be negotiated, and from the payments from the government the shrewd trader could get his pay. Just a week after Black Hawk crossed the river, on the 13th of April, 1832, George Davenport wrote to Gen. Atkinson: "I am informed that the British band of Sac Indians are determined to make war on the frontier settlements.
* * * * * *
From every information that I have received, I am of the opinion that the intention of the British band of Sac Indians is to commit depredations on the inhabitants of the frontier." And yet, from the 6th day of April, until after Stillman's men commenced war by firing on the flag of truce from Black Hawk, no murders nor depredations were committed by the British band of Sac Indians.
It is not the purpose of this sketch to detail the incidents of the Black Hawk war of 1832, as it pertains rather to the history of the State of Illinois. It is sufficient to say that, after the disgraceful affair at Stillman's Run, Black Hawk concluded that the whites refusing to treat with him, were determined to exterminate his people, determined to return to the Iowa side of the Mississippi. He could not return by the way he came, for the army was behind him, an army, too, that would sternly refuse to recognize the white flag of peace. His only course was to make his way northward and reach the Mississippi, if possible, before the troops could overtake him, and this he did; but, before he could get his women and children across the Wisconsin, he was overtaken, and a battle en-sued. Here, again, he sued for peace, and, through his trusty lieutenant, "the Prophet," the whites were plainly informed that the starving Indians did not wish to fight, but would return to the west side of the Mississippi, peaceably, if they could be permitted to do so. No attention was paid to this second effort to negotiate peace, and, as soon as the supplies could be obtained the pursuit was resumed, the flying Indians were overtaken again eight miles before they reached the mouth of the Bad Axe, and the slaughter (it should not be dignified by the name of battle) commenced. Here, overcome by starvation and the victorious whites, his band was scattered, on the 2d day of August, 1832_ Black Hawk escaped, but was brought into camp at Prairie du Chien by three Winnebagoes. He was confined in Jefferson bar-racks until the spring of 1833, when he was sent to Washington, arriving there April 22. On the 26th of April they were taken to Fortress Monroe, where they remained till the 4th of June, 1833, when orders were given for them to be liberated and returned to their own country. By orders of the president he was brought back through the principal eastern cities. Crowds flocked to see him all along the route, and he was very much flattered by the attention he received. He lived among his people on the Iowa river till that reservation was sold, in 1836, when, with the rest of the Sacs and Foxes, he removed to the Des Moines reservation, where he remained till his death, which occurred on the 3d of October, 1838.
INDIAN PURCHASES, RESERVES AND TREATIES.
At the close of the Black Hawk War, in 1832, a treaty was made, at a council held on the west bank of the Mississippi, where now stands the thriving city of Davenport, on grounds now occupied by the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific, railroad company on the 21st day of September, 1832. At this council, the United States were represented by Gen. Winfield Scott and Gov. Reynolds, of Illinois. Keokuk, Pash-a-pa-ho and some thirty other chiefs and warriors of the Sac and Fox nation were present. By this treaty, the Sacs and Foxes ceded to the United States a strip of land on the eastern border of Iowa, fifty miles wide, from the northern boundary of Missiouri to the mouth of the Upper Iowa River, containing about six million acres. The western line of the purchase was parallel with the Mississippi. In consideration of this cession, the United States Government stipulated to pay annually to the confederated tribes, for thirty consecutive years, twenty thousand dollar in specie, and to pay the debts of the Indians at Rock Island, which had been accumulating for seventeen years, and amounted to fifty thousand dollars, due to Davenport & Farnham, Indian traders. The Government also generously donated to the Sac and Fox women and children, whose husbands and fathers had fallen in the Black Hawk war, thirty-five beef cattle, twelve bushels of salt, thirty barrels of pork, fifty barrels of flour and six thousand bushels of corn.
This territory is known as the "Black Hawk Purchase." Al-though it was not the first portion of Iowa ceded to the United States by the Sacs and Foxes, it was the first opened to actual settlement by the tide of emigration that flowed across the Mississippi as soon as the Indian title was extinguished. The treaty was ratified February 13, 1833, and took effect on the 1st of Juneollowing, when the Indians quietly removed from the ceded territory, and this fertile and beautiful region was opened to white-settlers.
By the terms of the treaty, out of the Black Hawk Purchase was reserved for the Sacs and Foxes 400 square miles of land situated on the Iowa River, and including within its limits Keokuk's village, on the right bank of that river. This tract was known as "Keokuk's Reserve," and was occupied by the Indians until 1836, when, by a treaty made in September between them and Gov. Dodge, of Wisconsin Territory, it was ceded to the United States. The council was held on the banks of the Mississippi, above Davenport, and was the largest assemblage of the kind ever held by the Sacs and Foxes to treat for the sale of lands. About one thousand of their chiefs and braves were present, and Keokuk was their leading spirit and principal speaker on the occasion. By the terms of the treaty, the Sacs and Foxes were re-moved to another reservation on the Des Moines River, where an agency was established for them at what is now the town of Agency City.
Besides the Keokuk Reserve the government gave out of the Black Hawk Purchase to Antoine Le Clair, interpeter, in fee simple, one section of land opposite Rock Island, and another at the bead of the first rapids above the island, on the Iowa side. This was the first land title granted by the United States to an individual in Iowa.
Soon after the removal of Sacs and Foxes to their new reservation on the Des Moines River, Gen. Joseph M. Street was transfered from the agency of the Winnebagoes, at Prairie du Chein, to establish an agency among them. A farm was selected, on which the necessary buildings erected, including a comfortable farm house for the agent and his family, at the expense of the Indian Fund. A salaried agent was employed to superintend. the farm and dispose of the crops. Two mills were erected, one on Soap Creek, and the other on Sugar Creek. The latter was soon swept away by a flood, but the former remained and did. good service for many years. Connected with the agency were Joseph Smart and John Goodell, interpreters. The latter was interperter for Hard Fish's band. Three of the Indian chiefs, Keokuk, Wapello and Appanoose, had each a large field improved, the two former on the right bank of the Des Moines, back from the river, in what is now Keokuk's Prairie, and the latter on the present site of the city of Ottumwa. Among the traders connected with the agency were the Messrs. Ewing, from Ohio, and Phelps & Co., from. Illinois, and also Mr. J. P. Eddy, who established his post at what is now the site of Eddyville.
The Indians at this agency became idle and listless in the absence of their natural and wonted excitements, and many of them plunged into dissipation. Keokuk himself became dissipated in the latter years of his life, and it has been reported that. he died of delirium tremens after his removal with his tribe to Kansas.
In May, 1843, most of the Indians were removed up the Des Moines River, above the temporary line of Red Rock, having ceded the remnant of their lands in Iowa to the United States on the 21st of September, 1837, and on the 11th of October 1842. By the terms of the latter treaty, they held possessisn of the "New Purchase" till the Autum of 1845, when the most of them were removed to their reservation in Kansas, the balance being removed in the Spring of 1846.
1. Treaty with the Sioux.-Made July 19, 1815: ratified December 16, 1815. This treaty was made at Portage des Sioux, between the Sioux of Minnesota and Upper Iowa and the Uniied States, by William Clark and Ninian Edwards, Commissioners, and was merely a treaty of peace and friendship on the part of those Indians toward the United States at the close of the war of 1812.
2. Treaty with the Sacs.-A similar treaty of peace was made at Portage des Sioux, between the United States and the Sacs, by William Clark, Ninian Edwards and Auguste Choteau, on the 13th of September, 1815, and ratified at the same date as the above. In this, the treaty of 1804 was re-affirmed, and the Sacs here represented promised for themselves and their bands to keep entirely seporate from the Sacs of Rock River, who, under Black Hawk, had joined the British in the war just then closed.
3. Treaty with the Foxes.-A separate treaty of peace was made with Foxes at Portage des Sioux by the same Commissioners on the 14th of Septembr, 1815, and ratified the same as the above, wherein the Foxes re-affirmed the treaty at St. Louis, of November 3, 1804, and agreed to deliver up all their prisoners to the officer in command at Fort Clark now Peoria, Illinois.
4. Treaty with the Iowas.-A treaty of peace and mutual good will was made between the United States and the Iowa tribe of Indians, at Portage des Sioux, by the same Commissioners as above, on the 16th of September 1815, at the close of the war with Great Britain, and ratified at the same date as the othors.
5. Treaty with the Sacs at Rock River.-Made at St. Louis on the 13th of May, 1816, between the Unitad States and the Sacs of Rock River, by the Commissioners, William Clark, Ninian Ed-wards and Auguste Choteau, and ratified December 30, 1816. In this treaty, that of 1804 was re-established and confirmed by twenty-two chiefs and head men of the Sacs of Rock River, and Black Hawk himself attached to it his signature, or, as he said, "touched the goose quill."
6. Treaty of 1824.-On the 4th of August, 1824, a treaty was made between the United States and the Sacs and Foxes, in the city of Washington, by William Clark, Commissioner, wherein the Sac and Fox nation relinquished their title to all lands in Missouri, and that portion of the southeast corner of Iowa know as the "Hal-Breed Tract" was set off and reserved for the use of the half-breeds of the Sacs and Foxes, they holding title in the same manner as Indians. Ratified January 18, 1825.
7. Treaty of August 19, 1825.-At this date a treaty was made by William Clark and Lewis Cass, at Prairie du Chien, betwen the United States and the Chippewas, Sacs and Foxes, Menomonees, Winnebagoes and a portion of the Ottawas and Pottawatomies. In this treaty, in order to make peace between the contending tribes as to the limits of their respective hunting grounds in Iowa, it was agreed that the United States Government should run a boundary line between the Sioux, on the north, and the Sacs and Foxes, on south, as follows:
Commencing at the mouth of the Upper Iowa River, on, the west bank of the Mississippi, and ascending said Iowa River to its west fork; thence up to the fork to its source; thence crossing the fork of Red Cedar River in a direct line to the second or upper fork of the Des Moines River; thence in a direct line to the lower fork of the Calumet River, and down that river to its junction with the Missouri River.
8. Treaty of 1830.-On the 15th of July, 1830, the confederate tribes of the Sacs and Foxes ceded to the United States a strip of country lying south of the above line, twenty miles in width and extending along the line a forosaid from the Mississippi to the Des Moines River. The Sioux also, whose possessions were north of the line, ceded to the Government, in the same treaty, a like strip on the north side of the boundary. Thus the United States, at the ratification of this treaty, February 24, 1831, came into possession of a portion of Iowa forty miles wide, extending along the Clark and Cass line of 1825, from the Mississippi to the Des Moines River. This territory was known as the "Neutral Ground" and the tribes on either side of the line were allowed to fish and hunt on it unmolested till it was made a Winnebago reservation, and the Winnebagoes were removed to it in 1841.
9. Treaty with the Sacs and Foxes and other Tribes.-At the same time of the above treaty respecting the "Neutral Ground" (July 15, 1830), the Sacs and Foxes, Western Sioux, Omahas, Iowas and Missouris ceded to the United States a portion of the western slope of Iowa, the boundaries of which were defined as follows:
Beginning at the upper fork of the Des Moines River, and passing the sources of the Little Sioux and Floyd Rivers, to the fork of the first creek that falls into the Big Sioux, or Calument, on the east side; thence down said creek and the Calumet River to the Missouri River; thence down said Missouri River to the Missouri State line above the Kansas; thence along said line to the northwest corner of said State; thence to the high lands between the waters falling into the Missouri and Des Moines, passing to said high lands along the dividing ridge between the forks of the Grand River; thence along said high lands or ridge separating the waters of the Missouri from those of the Des Moines, to a point opposite the source of the Boyer River, and thence in a direct line to the upper fork of the Des Moines, the place of beginning.
It was understood that the lands ceded and relinquished by this treaty were to be assigned and allotted, under the direction of the President of the United States, to the tribes then living thereon, or to such other tribes as the President might locate thereon, for hunting and other purposes. In consideration of three tracts of land ceded in this treaty, the United States agreed to pay to the Sacs three thousand dollars; to the Foxes, three thousand dollars; to the Sioux two thousand dollars; to the Yankton and San-tee bands of Sioux, three thousands dollars; to the Omahas, two thousand five hundred dollars; and to the Otoes and Missouris, two thousand five hundred dollars-to be paid annually for ten successive years. In addition to these annuities, the Government agreed to furnish some of the tribes with blacksmiths and agricultural implements to the amount of two hundred dollars, at the expense of the United States, and to set apart three thousand dollars annually for the education of the children of these tribes. It does not appear that any fort was erected in this territory prior to the erection of Fort Atkinson on the Neutral Ground, in 1840-1.
This treaty was made by William Clark, Superintendent of Indian affairs, and Col. Willoughby Moran, of the United States First Infantry, and came into effect by proclamation, February 24, 1831.
SPANISH GRANTS.
While the territory now embraced in the State of Iowa was under Spanish rule as a part of its province of Louisiana, certain claims to and grants of land were made by the Spanish authorities, with which, in addition to the extinguishment of Indian titles, the United States, had to deal. It is proper that these should be briefly reviewed:
Dubuque.-On the 22d day of September, 1788, Julien Dubuque, a Frenchman, from Prairie du Chien, obtained from the Foxes a cession or lease of lands on the Mississippi River for mining purposes, on the site of the present city of Dubuque. Lead had been discovered here eight years before, in 1780, by the wife of Peosta Fox, a warrior, and Dubuque's claim embraced nearly all the lead bearing lands in that vicinity. He immediately took possession of his claim and commenced mining, at the same time making a settlement. The place became known as the "Spanish Miners," or, more commonly, "Dubuque's Lead Mines."
In 1796, Dubuque filed a petition with Baron de Carondelet, the Spanish Governor of Louisiana, asking that the tract ceded to him by the Indians might be granted to him by patent from the Spanish Government. In this petition Dubuque rather indefinitely set forth the boundaries of his claim as "about seven leagues along the Mississippi River, and three leagues in width from the river," intending to include, as is supposed, the river front between the Little Maquoketa and the Tete des Mertz Rivers, embracing more than twenty thousand acres. Carondelet granted the prayer of the petition, and the grant was subsequently confirmed by the Board of Land Commissioners of Louisiana.
In October, 1804, Dubuque transfered the larger part of his claim to Auguste Choteau, of St. Louis, and on the 17th of May, 1805, he and Choteau jointly filed their claims with the Board of Commissioners. On the 20th of September, 1806, the Board decided in their favor, pronouncing the claim to be a regular Spanish grant, made and compeleted prior to the 1st day of October, 1800, only one member, J. B. C. Lucas, dissenting.
Dubuque died March 24, 1810. The Indians, understanding that the claim of Dubuque under their former act of cession was only a permit to occupy the tract and work the mines during his life, and that at his death they reverted to them took possession and continued mining operations, and were sustained by the military authority of the United States, notwithstanding the decision of the Commissioners. When the Black Hawk purchase was con-summated, the Dubuque claim thus held by the Indians was absorbed by the United States, as the Sacs and Foxes made no reservation of it in the treaty of 1832.
The heirs of Choteau, however, were not disposed to relinquish their claim without a struggle, Late in 1832, they employed an agent to look after their interests, and authorized him to lease the right to dig lead on the lands. The miners who commenced work under this agent were compelled by the military to abandon their operations, and one of the claimants, went to Galena to institute legal proceedings, but found no court of competent jurisdiction, although he did bring an action for the recovery of a quantity of lead dug at Dupuque, for the purpose of testing the title. Being finable to identify the lead, however, he was non-suited.
By act of Congress, approved July 2, 1836, the town of Dubuque was surveyed and platted. After lots had been sold and occupied by the purchasers, Henry Choteau brought an action of ejectment against Patrick Malony, who held land in Dubuque under a patent from the United States, for the recovery of seven undivided eighth parts of the Dubuque claim, as purchased by Auguste Choteau in 1804. The case was tried in the District Court of the United States for the District of Iowa, and was decided adversely to the plaintiff. The case was carried to the Supreme Court of the United States on a writ of error, when it was heard at the December term, 1853, and the decision of the lower court was affirmed, the court holding that the permit from Carondelet was merely a lease, or permit to work the mines; that Dubuque asked, and the Governor of Louisiana granted, nothing more than the "peaceable possession of certain lands obtained from the Indians; that Carondolet had no legal authority to make such a grant as claimed, and that, even if he had, this was but an "in choate and imperfected title."
Girard.-In 1795, the Lietenant Governor of Upper Louisiana granted to Basil Giard five thousand eight hundred and sixty acres of land, in what is now Clayton County, known as the "Girard Tract." He occupied the land during the time that Iowa passed from Spain to France, and from France to the United States, in consideration of which the Federal Government granted a patent of the same to Girrad in his own right. His heirs sold the whole tract to James H. Lockwood and Thomas P. Burnett, of Prairie du Chien, for three hundred dollars.
Honori.-March 30, 1799, Zenon Trudeau, acting Lieutenant Governor of Upper Liousiana, granted to Louis Honori a tract of land on the site of the present town of Montrose, as follows: "It is permitted to Mr. Louis (Fesson) Honori, or Louis Honore Fes-son, to establish himself at the head of the rapids of the River Des Moines, and his establishment once formed, notice of it shall be given to the Governor General, i, order to obtain for him a commission of a space sufficient to give value to such establishment, and at the same time to render it useful to the commerce of the peltries of this country, to watch the Indians and keep them in the fidelity which they owe to His Majesty."
Honori took immediate possession of his claim, which he retained until 1805. While trading with the natives he became indebted to Joseph Robedoux, who obtained an execution on which the property was sold May 13,1803, and was purchased by the creditor. In these proceedings the property was described as being "about six leaugues above the River Des Moines." Robedoux died soon after he purchased the property. Auguste Choteau, his executor, disposed of the Honori Tract to Thomas F. Reddeck, in April, 1805, up to which time Honori contiued to occupy it. The grant, as made by the Spanish Government, was a league square, but only one mile square was confirmed by the United States. After the half-breeds sold their lands in which the Honori grant was included, various claimants resorted to litigation in attempts to invalidate the title of the Reddeck heirs, but it was finally con-firmed by a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in 1839, and is the oldest legal title to any land in the State of Iowa.
THALF-RREED TRACR.
Before any permanent settlement had been made in the Territory of Iowa, white adventurers, trappers and traders, many of whom were scattered along the Mississippi and its tributaries, as agents and employes of the American Fur Company, intermarried with the females of Sac and Fox Indians, producing a race of half-breeds, whose number was never definitely ascertained. There were some respectable and excellent people among them, children of men of some refinement and education. For instance: Dr. Muir, a gentleman educated at Edinburg, Scotland, a surgeon in the United States Army, stationed at a military post located an the present site of Warsaw, married an Indian woman and reared his family of three daughters in the city of Keokuk. Other examples might be cited, but they are probably exceptions to the general rule, and the race is now nearly or quite extinct in Iowa.
A treaty was made at Washington, August 4, 1824, between the Sacs and Foxes and the United State, by which that portion of Lee County was reserved to the half-breeds of those tribes, and which was afterwards known as "The Half-Breed Tract." This reservation is the triangular piece of land, containing about, 119,-000 acres, lying between the Mississippi and Des Moines Rivers. It is bounded on the north by the prolonggtion of the northern line Missouri. This line was intended to be a straight one, running due east, which would have caused it to strike the Missssippi River at or below Montrose; but the surveyor who ran it took no notice of the change of the variation of the needle as he proceeded eastward, and, in consequence, the line he run was bent; deviating more and more to the northward of a direct line as he approached the Mississippi, so it struck that river at the lower edge of the town of Fort Madison. "This erroneous line," says Judge Mason, "has been acquiesced in as well in fixing the northern limit of the Half-Breed Tract as in determining the northern boundary line of the State of Missouri." The line thus run in eluded in the reservation a portion of the lower part of the city of Fort Madison, and all of the present townships of Van Buren, Charleston, Jefferson, Des Moines, Montrose and Jackson.
Under the treaty of 1824, the half-breeds had the right to occupy the soil, but could not convey it, the reversion being reserved to the United States. But on the 30th day of January, 1834, by act of Congress, this reversionary right was relinquished, and the half-breeds acquired the lands in fee simple. This was no sooner done than a horde of speculators rushed in to buy land of the half-breed owners, and in many instances, a gun, a blanket, a pony or a few quarts of whisky was sufficient for the purchase of large estates. There was a deal of sharp practice on both sides; Indians would often claim ownship of land by virtue of being half-breeds, and had no difficulty in proving their mixed blood by the Indians, and they would then cheat the speculators by selling land to which they had no rightful title. On the other hand, speculators often claimed land in which they had no ownership. It was diamond cut diamond, until at last things became badly mixed. There was no authorized surveys and no boundary lines to claims, and, as a natural result, numerous conflicts and quarrels ensued.
To settle these difficulties, to decide the validity of claims or sell them for the benefit of the real owners, by act of the Legislature of Wisconsin Territory, approved January 16, 1838, Edward Johnstone, Thomas S. Wilson and David Brigham were appointed Commissioners, and clothed with power to effect these objects. The act provided that these Commissioners should be paid six dollars a day each. The commission entered upon its duties and continued until the next session of the Legislature, when the act creating it was repealed, invalidating all that had been done and depriving the Commissioners of their pay. The repailing act, how-ever, authorized the Commissioners to commence action against the owners of the Half-Breed Tract, to receive pay for their services in the District Court of Lee County. Two judgments were obtained, and on execution the whole of the tract was sold to Hugh T. Reid, the Sheriff executing the deed. Mr. Reid sold portions of it to various parties, but his own title was questioned, and he became involved in litigation. Decisions in favor of Reid and those holding under him were made by both District and Supreme Court; but in Dember, 1850, these decisions were finally reversed by the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Joseph Webster, plaintiff in error, vs. Hugh T. Reid and the judgment titles failed. About nine years before the "judgement titles" were finally abrogated as above, another class of titles were brought into competition with them, and in the conflict between the two, the final decision was obtained. These were the titles based on the "decree of partion" issued by the United States District Court for the Territory of Iowa, on the 8th of May, 1841, and certified to by the Clerk on the 2d day of June of that year. Ed-ward Johnstone and Hugh T. Reid, then law partners at Fort Madison, filed the petition for the decree in behalf of the St. Louis claimants of half-breed lands. Francis S. Key, author of the Star Spangled Banner, who was then attorney for the New York Land Company, which held heavy interest in these lands, took a leading part in the measure, and drew up the document in which it was presented to the court. Judge Charles Mason, of Burlington, pre-sided. The plan of partition divided the tract into one hundred and one shares, and arranged that each claimant should draw his proportion by lot, and should abide the result, whatever it might be. The arrangement was entered into, the lots drawn, and the plat of the same filed in the Recorder's office, October 6, 1841. Upon this basis the titles to land in the Half-Breed Tract are now held.
EARLY SETTLEMENTS.
The first permament settlement by the whites within the limits of Iowa was made by Julien Dubuque, in 1788, when, with a small party of miners, he settled on the site of the city that now bears his name, where he lived until his death, in 1810. Louis Honori settled on the site of the present town of Montrose, probably in 1799, and resided there until 1805, when his property passed Into other hands. Of the Girard settlement, opposite Prairie du Chien, little is known, except that it was occupied by some parties prior to the commencement of the present century, and contained three cabins in 1805. Indian traders, although not strictly to be considered settlers, had established themselves at various points at an an early date. A Mr. Johnson, Agent of the American Fur Company, had a trading post below Burlington, where he carried on traffic with the Indians some time before the United States possessed the country. In 1820, Le Moliese, a French trader, had a station at what is now Sandusky six miles above Keokuk, in Lee County. In 1829. Dr. Isaac Gallaud made a settlement on the Lower Rapids, at what is now Nashville.
The first settlement in Lee county was made in 18