of
Muscatine County Iowa
1911
| History of Muscatine County Iowa 1911 | |
Source: History of Muscatine County Iowa, Volume I, 1911, pages 17-18
EARLY SETTLEMENT. The first permanent settlement made by the whites within the limits of Iowa was 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. What was known as the Girard settlement in Clayton county was made by some parties prior to the commencement of the nineteenth century. It consisted of three cabins in 1805. Louis Honori settled on the site of the present town of Montrose, probably in 1799, and resided there probably until 1805, when his property passed into other hands. Indian traders had established themselves at other points at an early date. Mr. Johnson, an 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 came into possession of Louisiana. In 1820, Le Moliese, a French trader, had a station at what is now Sandusky, six miles above Keokuk, in Lee county. The same year a cabin was built where the city of Keokuk now stands by Dr. Samuel C. Muir, a surgeon in the United States army. His marriage and subsequent life were very romantic. While stationed at a military post on the Upper Mississippi, the post was visited by a beautiful Indian maiden--whose native name unfortunately has not been preserved--who in her dreams had seen a white brave unmoor his canoe, paddle it across the river and come directly to her lodge. She felt assured, according to the superstitious belief of her race, that in her dreams she had seen her future husband and had come to the fort to find him. MeetIng Dr. Muir, she instantly recognized him as the hero of her dream which, with childlike innocence and simplicity, she related to him. Charmed with the dusky maiden's beauty, innocence and devotion, the Doctor took her to his home in honorable wedlock; but after a while the sneers and jibes of his brother officers--less honorable than he--made him feel ashamed of his dark-skinned wife, and when his regiment was ordered down the river to Bellefontaine, it is said he embraced the opportunity to rid himself of her, never expecting to see her again and little dreaming that she would have the courage to follow him. But with her infant this intrepid wife and mother started alone in her canoe and after many days of weary labor and a lonely journey of nine hundred miles, she at last reached him. She afterward remarked, when speaking of this toil-some journey down the river in search of her husband: "When I got there I was all perished away--so thin." The Doctor, touched by such unexampled devotion, took her to his heart and ever after until his death treated her with marked respect. She always presided at his table with grace and dignity but never abandoned her native style of dress. In 1819-20 he was stationed at Fort Edwards, now Warsaw, but the senseless ridicule of some of his brother officers on account of his Indian wife induced him to resign his commission. He then built a cabin, as above stated, where Keokuk is now situated and made a claim to some land. This land he leased to parties in the neighborhood and then moved to what is now Galena, where he practiced his profession for ten years, when he returned to Keokuk. His Indian wife bore him four children: Louise, James, Mary and Sophia. Dr. Muir died suddenly, of cholera, in 1832, but left his property in such condition that it was wasted in vexatious litigation and his brave and faithful wife, left friendless and penniless, became discouraged, so with her two younger children she disappeared. It is said she returned to her people on the Upper Missouri.
Back to Historical Index Page