Iowa
History Project
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OUR IOWA: ITS BEGINNINGS AND GROWTH
PART 7
DUBUQUE'S SETTLEMENT
JULIEN
DUBUQUE
The man who built Iowa's first white settlement
was another French Canadian. His name was Julien Dubuque. Like
Joliet,he also was rather well educated for his time. He was born in
Pierre les Brecquets, a village on the south bank of the St. Lawrence River,
fifty miles above Quebec. As a boy he went through the parish school there.
Then, as a young man he went west, settling first at Prairie du Chien,
Wisconsin.
Dubuque learned that the wife of a fox Indian, by
the name of Peosta, had found lead on the land where the city of Dubuque is now
located. This interested him. On September 22, 1788, he held a
council with some Fox Chiefs at Prairie du Chien. At the council he made
a treaty with the Indians by which he leased all the land upon which he had
been found by Peosta's wife.
Dubuque, after making the treaty, immediately started
his settlement, taking with him ten men from Prairie du Chien. We know
nothing about these men, not even their names, except that they were all French
Canadians. Dubuque first took his men to the village of the chief.
Then he built his settlement near the Indian village, at the mouth of
Catfish Creek. It was located about two miles below the present city of
Dubuque. This first settlement in Iowa started one hundred fifteen years
after the discovery of our state.
Dubuque had his men clear the land of its trees.
With the timber they built fences and buildings, including a house and a
horse mill. A smelting furnace was also built.
The mines were simple and not much like the mines
of today. Shafts were not sunk deep into the ground. The men started
digging into the side of the hill. A drift or hole was dug as far as it
was safe to go and the ore was carried out in baskets. Dubuque hired
Indian women and some of the older Indian men to do most of the work. The
Indian braves would not do that kind of work.
DUBUQUE
AND THE INDIANS
The Indians called Dubuque "Little
Cloud." He was a small, well built man with black eyes and black
hair. It is said that no other white person ever learned so much about
Indians as did Dubuque. The Indians believed that he had magical powers
that were greater than those which they thought their medicine men had.
He handled poisonous snakes without fear or harm.
Once when Indians refused to obey Dubuque he had
one of his men go a short distance up Catfish Creek and pour oil on the water.
He did not let the Indians know about this. When the oil came
floating down the creek, Dubuque stepped to the bank and set fire to it.
Then he told the Indians that they would burn up all of their rivers and
creeks. The Indians were frightened and quickly obeyed Dubuque.
The little French Canadian lived among the Indians
for twenty two years. He never had any serious trouble with them and his
life was peaceful and quiet.
DUBUQUE
AS A BUSINESSMAN
Besides the treaty with the Indians, Dubuque also
received, in November, 1796. a Spanish grant for his land. Spain then
owned the Iowa land. To flatter the Spaniards, Dubuque called his mines
"The Mines of Spain."
Dubuque became a trader as well as a miner.
He made several trips to St. Louis. He would take down a load of
furs and lead and bring back a load of goods that he needed. The people
of St. Louis liked him because he had polite French manners. They held
big balls for him several times. He gave explorers who came to his settlement
a hearty welcome.
Dubuque, although well liked, was a poor business
man.
DUBUQUE'S
GRAVE
Dubuque never married. When he died on
March 24, 1810, the Indian chiefs asked if they might carry his body to
the grave. They thought it was an honor to speak at his
funeral. The Indians built a stone vault over his grave, and for many
years the Sac and Fox chiefs paid a yearly visit to it. In recent years
the people of the city of Dubuque have built a tower at the grave a tower at
the grave as a memorial to the man for whom their city is named.
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WITH LEWIS AND CLARK ON THE MISSOURI
PRESIDENT'S
PARTY
Before anyone buys land he usually wants to see it
or wants to be told about it by someone who has seen it. When President
Jefferson bought the Louisiana Territory, of which Iowa was a part, he had not
seen the land nor had he learned much about it. Before the deal was
completed, however, he had asked Congress for $2,500 to send a party of men on an
exploring trip from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean.
The President began to get the party ready soon
after the territory had been bought. He selected two young men to lead
the party and each of them had the same power. Never has such an
important piece of work been given to two young men, each with equal power.
Some people in the East said President Jefferson was sending the men to
their death. They said the president was crazy and wanted to know what
good could come from it.
All the men that were chosen for the party except
one, a negro servant, either were or became soldiers in the regular army.
Some of them, before the trip, had been frontiersman. The negro
servant proved to be great curiosity to the Indians because they had never seen
a black man before.
LEWIS
AND CLARK
Captain Meriwether Lewis, a Virginian and
twenty-nine years of age, was the first man to be chosen. He had been
President Jefferson's private secretary for two years. William Clark,
also a Virginian and thirty-three years old, was the other leader of the party.
He was a younger brother of George Rogers Clark, the conquerer of the
North west Territory east of the Mississippi. Both Lewis and Clark had
been in the regular army and both had fought in Indian Wars.
Many men wanted to go with Lewis and Clark, but
only twenty-six were taken for the entire trip. Sixteen more were to
travel along as far as the lands of the Mandan Indians in what is now North
Dakota.
There were great dangers ahead for the party.
Strange and powerful Indians would be met. The land was not known.
Food had to be obtained along the way. The men might starve
to death, they might drown in the swift rivers, or they might even freeze
to death in the mountains.
Much preparation had to made. Three boats
were loaded with supplies, such as clothes, tools, guns, powder, and food.
Fourteen bales of presents were taken to the Indians.
The party started up the Missouri River from St.
Louis on May 21, 1804. Travel was slow. The boats had to be pulled
by long ropes from the shore or rowed against the current. Sometimes
sails were used on the boats.
IOWA IS
REACHED
On July 18, the Lewis and Clark party reached what
is now the southwest corner of Iowa. Already strange Indian tribes had
been met. The President had told Lewis and Clark to hold councils with the
Indians and to make friends with them.
An important council was held on the west bank of
the Missouri River, on August third. Lewis and Clark told the Indians
about their new "White Father," as the president was called by
the Indians. They told them that the president wanted the Indians
for friends. Presents were given to six chiefs of the Otoe and Missouri
tribes.
Lewis and Clark liked the place where the council
was held. They called it Council Bluffs, and said it would be a good
place upon which to build a fort. Council Bluffs, Iowa, is located across
the river from where this meeting place.
The party had plenty of food while traveling along
what is now Iowa. Game was plentiful and much wild fruit was to be found.
Hunting parties were sent out nearly every day. A whole buffalo
lasted only one day and it took several deer to supply meat for a day.
SERGEANT
FLOYD
On August 19, Sergeant Charles Floyd, a young man
form Kentucky, became very sick. There were no doctors who might be
called. The men did what they could for Sergeant Floyd but he died the
next day. He was buried on a high bluff now called "Sergeants
Bluff."
Lewis and Clark thought Floyd was one of their
best men. He had been one of seven that were selected to keep a journal
of the trip. They named the Floyd River, in Northwestern Iowa, in his
honor. The town, Sergeants Bluff, is also named for him. He was the
only man in the party who died on the trip. Lewis and Clark asked the
government to pay a pension to his parents, but it was never done.
Floyd's grave was marked with a cedar post and it
became a landmark for early settlers. In 1857 the remains were moved back
two hundred yards from the river because the bluff had been washed away until
the grave was partly destroyed. A large stone was then put over the grave
to mark it.
People said that a monument should be put up in
honor of Sergeant Floyd. Money was got from the United States Congress
and from the Iowa Legislature for that purpose. Many people who lived in
and near Sioux City also gave money. The monument was dedicated on May
10, 1901. It is one hundred feet high and the cost was about $20,000.
AFTER
LEAVING IOWA
During the winter of 1804-5, the Lewis and Clark
party lived near the Mandan Indians, in what is now North Dakota. In the
spring, the large boat, with sixteen men aboard, was sent back to St. Louis.
The rest of the party went on west. The second winter was spent at
the mouth of the Columbia River.
The Lewis and Clark party returned to St. Louis on
September 23,1806. It had taken them two years and four months to make
the trip, but it had been worth all that it cost in time, in money, and in
hardships.
RESULTS
OF THE TRIP
Long reports of the trip were written by Lewis and
Clark. They told of animals and plants that white men had never seen.
They brought back alive some small animals and the skeletons and hides of
larger animals. They told, too, of making friends with strange Indian
tribes.
President Jefferson was proud of Lewis and Clark. No one said, after they returned, that the trip had been foolish, as some had said before they started. The people now could learn many things about the new land that had been bought. White people, too, could go into this land because Lewis and Clark had made friends of the Indians.