Iowa History Project

___________________________

THE

MAKING OF IOWA

CHAPTER XV

_______________________________________________________

A FEW ROMANCES

______________________________________________

It has been noted that Antoine Le Claire and other early traders, and the like, in what is now Iowa, had indian blood in their veins.  Nearly all of these persons were of French extraction, usually the father having been French, while the mother represented the native American or Indian side.

So, far from being deadly foes, White and Indian often joined forces, intermarried, and sustained intimate relations.  The first trappers, traders and adventurers in Iowa Territory were French.  The records do not show that the Spaniards came much above St. Louis.  These frenchmen established themselves in Indian villages, and were  constantly with the indians.  They found it advisable to take Indian girls as brides.  Not only were the maidens comely and attractive, but they made good wives and to have a chief as father-in-law proved quite advantageous.

From such unions sprang families of "half-breeds," as the children of white parent and Indian parent were termed.  The half-breeds cut considerable figure in Iowa's history, and their descendants can be found to-day in the state.

Lemoiliese, the trader who in 1820 had a cabin where Sandusky, Lee County, is now, was wedded to an Indian woman, who is said to be a most pleasant and amiable wife.  She was fond of dress and to please her husband would don gown, hat and shoes such as white woman wear.  But he preferred her own attire, and after she proudly displayed herself in civilized garments, she would make haste to put on her accustomed style of Indian outfit.  She would chose the most brilliant colors for this, and strutted about like a peacock.  Theophile Bruguir was a Frenchman who joined his fortunes with those of the Sioux Indians, and  for many years dwelt with them in Northern and Northwestern Iowa.  He married the daughter of War Eagle, and had great influence in his tribe. Finally he became tired of this life, and in May, 1849, with his Indian wife and children settled at the mouth of the Big Sioux river, about two miles above where Sioux city now is.  Here his wife died, and he took for his second spouse another daughter of War Eagle.  She, also, died before he did.  These are the two daughters beside whom War Eagle is buried.

Not always was it a Frenchman who married an Indian girl.  Josiah Smart, an interpreter at the Sac and Fox agency, in Wapello County, was united with a Sac maiden, and their children were sent to St. Louis to be educated

Some of these Indian girls must have been exceedingly pretty, for it is stated that a young man from Baltimore, while visiting at Ft. Madison, fell in love with a daughter of Black Hawk.  The Sac chief was then living near Ft. Madison.  The Baltimore lad was cordially received at the Black Hawk cabin, and had just about concluded to marry the girl and take her back with him to Baltimore when a friend of his arrived on the scene. 

He told the love-sick youth that in Baltimore everybody would point and whisper on the street:  "There goes so-and-so with his squaw!"  The young man was weak enough to give up his sweet heart and leave her. She promptly married one of her own people, which was very sensible to her.  

A romantic little tale is told about the true love of Dr. Samuel C. Muir, a Scotch surgeon in the army and his Indian wife.  Dr, Muir was stationed in a frontier fort, on the Mississippi.  Probably it was Fort Edwards, where Warsaw, Illinois, stands, a short distance below Keokuk, or Fort Armstrong, on Rock Island.  A Sac damsel dreamed that a white man paddled over the river in a canoe and came to her lodge.   When she awoke  she believed so strongly in her dream that she went  to the fort in search of this person.  She felt that he was to be her husband.  She met Dr. Muir and recognized him as the man of her vision.

She related to him her experience, and he was attracted to her innocence and devotion that he married her.

His fellow officers sneered at her, and made fun of him, but he did not renounce her.  It is said that once he was induced to go down the river to Bellfontaine, several hundred miles, and leave her behind.  With her child in her arms she sought him, making the long journey with no assistance save such as she found in her canoe.  When she reached him she was very thin.  She exclaimed pitifully:  "Me all perished away."

He never again deserted her.

In all other accounts Dr. Muir is represented as being loyal to his wife on every occasion.  While he was at his last station,  Fort Edwards, the war department issued orders that all officers at posts on the frontier should forbid the presence of Indian women.  Thus Dr. Muir must either abandon his wife or resign from the army.

He at once resigned, and when urged to reconsider his action held up his first born babe and said:

 "May God forbid that a son of Caledonia should ever desert his wife or abandon his child."

He built the cabin that in 1820 stood on the site of Keokuk.  He soon went to Galena to practice his profession, but in 1830 returned to the cabin.  His Indian wife accompanied him wherever  he went.  He called her Sophia.  The couple had five children, Louisa, James, Mary, Sophia, and Samuel.

In 1832 Dr. Muir died from cholera.  His wife disappeared.  It is thought that she had rejoined her tribe.

The Muir and Blondeau children, and other half-breeds, were regarded with such kindly feelings by the Sacs and Foxes that when 1824 these tribes ceded to the United States a tract of land in the Northern part of Missouri, 119,000 acres in what is now Iowa were reserved for half-breeds.  The area was termed the half-breed tract.  It lay between the Des Moines and the Mississippi Rivers.

The Northern line of Missouri extended straight east, crossing the Des Moines, was to be the Northern boundary of the tract.  Thus the reservation was a triangle.

Now if the surveyor due east it would have struck  the Mississippi about at Montrose.  But the surveyor made a mistake.  The needle of his compass was affected by magnetic currents, so that as he proceeded he inclined farther northward, until the line reached the Mississippi at the lower edge of Fort Madison

So the funny little dip in the present state of Iowa, at the southeast corner, formerly was the Half-breed Tract.  It gave rise to much disputing in the courts, and to a corresponding amount of trouble.

The half-breeds were to occupy it, but it was to belong to the United States.  In 1834, however, Congress decreed that the half-breeds should own the land.  Immediately traders and swindlers flocked there in order to cheat the ignorant among the residents out of their property.  Some half-breeds did not know much, and a barrel of liquor bought all they had.  Then Indians would assert to have white blood and put in claims for land they insisted were due them.  All in all, numbers were badly mixed.

A commission was appointed by the government to decide on the rights of various persons to land.  After the commission had worked many months, the three members composing it found themselves unable to collect pay for services, as the Legislature of Wisconsin Territory would not allow their bills.  They were told to collect of the half-breeds.

Suits were won in courts, and to raise money the whole tract was sold to Hugh T. Reid by the sheriff for $2,884.66- cheap enough for 119,000 acres!

Then Reid got into trouble with the tract, and at last, in 1841, the supreme court decided that 101 shares in the tract were the rightful ones.  Consequently the area was divided into these 101 shares, and that ended the difficulties, so far as the courts were concerned.

Whether the half-breeds reaped any benefits from the kindness of their friends was doubtful.  The speculators proved too much for the prosperity of what might have proved a very unique settlement.

At one point the people living on the tract even discussed withdrawal from the United States.  This was in the fall of 1836, When the question of territorial government for Iowa was being considered.  A meeting of half-breeds and other tract dwellers was held six miles west of Keokuk, and a number of local orators spoke from the head of the whiskey barrel, giving as their opinion that the half-breed tract was in no political organization at all, but should set up an organization of its own.

However, after several speeches and some wordy combats, the level-headed among the settlers prevailed, and the half-breed tract remained in the Union.

Home to Iowa History Project