of
Muscatine County Iowa
1911
| History of Muscatine County Iowa 1911 | |
Source: History of Muscatine County Iowa, Volume I, 1911, pages 16-17
FIRST LAND TITLE IN IOWA. By the terms of this treaty the Sacs and Foxes were removed to another reservation on the Des Moines river, where an agency was established at what is now the town of Agency, in Wapello county. The government also gave out of the "Black Hawk Purchase," to Antoine LeClaire, interpreter, in fee simple, one section of land opposite Rock Island and another at the head 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.
General Joseph M. Street established an agency among the Sacs and Foxes very soon after the removal of the latter to their new reservation. He was transferred from the agency of the Winnebagoes for this purpose. A farm was selected, upon which the necessary buildings were 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 did good service for many years.
Connected with the agency were Joseph Smart and John Goodell, interpreters. The latter was interpreter for Hard Fishes' 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 and back from the river in what was "Keokuk's Prairie," and the latter on the present site of Ottumwa. Among the traders connected with their agency was 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 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 remnants of their land in Iowa to the United States, September 21, 1837, and October 11, 1842. By the terms of the latter treaty, they held possession of the "New Purchase" until the autumn of 1845, when most of them were removed to their reservation in Kansas, the balance being removed in 1846.
Before any permanent settlement was 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 the 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 some refinement and education.
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