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Chapter
Three
The Old
Blockhouse
Perhaps
no one object at or near the site of the present city of Council Bluffs
has afforded a wider field for surmise, discussion and dissemination of
erroneous information than the "Old Blockhouse" of frontier days. It
stood for about twenty years (1837 to 1857) upon the plateau crowning
the blunt nose of the hill jutting into and almost perpendicularly
towering, something like fifty feet, above the road, now called
Broadway, between the present-day Grace and Union streets (the latter
being known as Spring Street at an early day).
From the earliest occupation of the country by white people — 1846 — to
the time of its demolition — 1856-1857 — it was commonly mentioned as
the "Old Fort" or "Old Mission", both of which designations were
appropriate, because it was originally constructed by United States
troops for military purposes (1837) and afterward (1838-1841) occupied
as a Jesuit Mission known as St. Joseph or St. Mary.
June 4, 1853, at the age of a little more than ten years, the writer
began residence at Council Bluffs with the family of his father —
Lysander W. Babbitt, — at which time the "Old Fort" or "Mission House",
surmounted by a cross, occupied the above-described site. His home was
about a half mile farther up (east and north) on Broadway — now known
as "Babbitt Place", and almost daily while the old building remained he
passed it at a distance of only a few yards, and often played about it
with other children. In his memory it is pictured as a log structure,
about 24 x 40 feet in dimension of ground space, one and one-half story
in height, with an ordinary sloping roof, with embrasures (small
windows) on north and west sides, and loopholes for musketry all
around, standing in the open without stockade or other enclosure, or
any evidence that it had ever been enclosed. Near by was a grave yard
surrounded by a fence
constructed of hand-riven palings.
During the year 1856 intense rivalry existed between what were termed
"up-town" and "down-town" portions of the city. The principal hotel,
recently erected, was located "down town", and, for the benefit of
their end of the toAvn, a company of "up-towners" was formed for the
purpose of building a better and finer hostelry, the site of the old
blockhouse being selected for its location. The old
fort, then in a tumbled-down condition, was removed either that Fall or
the following Spring, ?nd the ground, still practically in its natural
condition (a plateau but slightly graded when the blockhouse was built)
was cut away so that a precipitous bank something like thirty feet high
formed the south line of Pierce Street, where the sharp pitch of the
great bluff swept down to the plateau, and the grading necessary to the
preparation of the hotel building site greatly reduced the elevation of
the blunt nose of bluff jutting onto Broadway. Beyond the grading here
mentioned nothing was done toward the erection of the new hotel;
probably because of the financial crisis of the Fall of 1857.
An article entitled "The Old Blockhouse at Council Bluffs", written in
August, 1896, by Hon. Dexter C. Bloomer, of Council Bluffs, appeared in
the October issue of the Annals of Iowa for that year (Third Series,
Volume 2, No. 7, page 549), with an illustration said to have been
prepared from a sketch made from memory by George Simons, wherein it is
said :
"This was the first building
erected in Pottawattamie
county. In 1838 the Pottawattamie Indians were removed from the 'Platte
Purchase', so-called, in Missouri, to a location on the Missouri river
which subsequently was organized into a county and took the name of the
tribe. . . .
"In 1839 the general government stationed two companies of troops among
these Indians for the purpose of keeping peace and quiet among them,
although, through the careful management of their Agent, their presence
did not prove necessary for that purpose. These troops located
themselves a short distance up in the bluffs in the little subsidiary
valley of Indian creek and near a living spring found at that point.
Here, on a gentle elevation, in the same year, they erected a
blockhouse of logs and rough puncheons and raised the American flag
over it. Its sides were pierced with numerous holes tlirough which
muskets could be discharged in case of assault from without. The
barracks, tents and parade grounds, and probably some minor structures,
were located in the vicinity of this building. No record can be found
of the. names of tlie officers in command of these troops. They did not
remain a great while, for the reason already stated. With the Indians
came a Roman Catholic Mission in charge of Fathers De Sraet and
Verreydt. Tiiey also built for themselves a rude dwelling, but when the
troops left they took possession of the government buldings, blockhouse
and barracks, for n^ligious purposes, erecting a wooden cross over one
of them. When the writer took up his residence in Council Bluffs, in
1855, these buildings (as shown in the cut), one of them surmounted by
a cross, were yet standing. . . ."
In the four-volume ''History of Iowa" compiled and published by Hon.
Benjamin F. Gue, the foregoing narrative, with identically the same
illustration is substantially reproduced. (Volume 1, pages 100-101.)
In a two- volume "History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa", written,
compiled and published by Homer H. Field and Hon. Joseph R, Reed, of
Council Bluffs (Volume 1, page 6), appears the following:
"The conditions above described
continued until 1838, when,
during President Van Buren's administration, the Pottawattamie Indians
were assigned a reservation here, and Davis Hardin was appointed to
instruct them in farming. He, with his family and a company of soldiers
arrived here on the steamer Antelope from Fort Leavenworth, in the
spring of that year. . . . Arriving here they found the country a
solitude. They located by a big spring on what is now East Broadway and
the soldiers immediately commenced building a house for the Hardins,
and then a fort on the promontory that was a continuation of the hill
between Franklin and Lincoln avenues, and which at that time jutted
into what is now Broadway, where the dwelling of the late John Clausen
now stands."
Many other stories relating to this old fort have been published from
time to time in current newspapers and otherwise, and the date of
construction has been stated by some to have been as early as 1819,
running from that to the years above given ; but, in no instance that
has come to the knowledge of the writer, has a letter-press
description of it, other than as above set out, been given.
Hon. H. H. Field, a man of experience in estimating the dimensions of
standing buildings, now residing at Council Bluffs, having been there
continuously since 1855, in answer to inquiry, says —
"The ruins of the old blockhouse
were standing when I first
came here. I should think it was about 20 feet square. It disappeared
in the Spring of 1857, and several feet of the ground was taken off and
put on Broadway to improve the grade ; but by what authority I do not
know, but it was rumored that a hotel was to be built there by L. W.
Babbitt and Dr. S. H. Craig. If there was anything in it the great
crash that came in the Fall of that year put an end to it. I don't know
when the (Government relinquished title to it, but suppose when .Judge
Casady was commissioned to make deeds to the occupants. John Warner was
the first that owned it to my knowledge as he <'Tnployed me to fence
it, and John Clausen the last, as I worked on liis dwelling some forty
years ago. The lot then consisted of nearly all the square hounded by
Broadway, Grace, Union and Pierce streets."
Hon. Spencer Smith whose arrival at Council Bluffs was at about the
same time as that of the writer, but at a slig^htly earlier age,
answering an inquiry, says :
"Since the receipt of your letter I
have been trying to
refresh my memory of early days, but find little response as to the
'Mission House' of which you make inquiry. I called on my way to lunch
today at the library and took a look at the picture in Mr. Bloomer's
sketch which appears to me about as it looked when I first saw it. I
know of no picture of the ' OldFort ' as we called it other than the
one given by Mr, Bloomer."
Mr. Ephraim Huntington, at about the age of seven years, began
residence as a member of the family of his father — John Huntington, —
at Kanesville, as the place was then named, in 1850. In a conversation
with the writer, in September, 1915, speaking of the old blockhouse, he
said:
"I remember it as it appeared to me
when a boy and until it
was demolished. It was originally surrounded with a stockade several
feet high and constructed of very heavy oaktimbers."
In a communication dated June 13, 1916, referring to the illustration
above mentioned which had been called to his attention, he said :
"The picture of the Fort and
Mission resembles the buildings, &c., very much as I remember it."
Reverend Henry De Long, then a boy of twelve or fourteen years,
accompanied the Mormons from Nauvoo as far as the site of Council
Bluffs, arriving in July, 1846, and has continued to reside there ever
since. He is now the "dean of old settlers" in the county. Upon request
he furnished a very complete description of the "Old Fort'' as memory
recalls its first appearance to him, to-wit :
"There were three buildings in the
fort. The main building
was what we'd call a story and a half, about sixty feet long and
twenty-four feet wide, running parallel with Broadway. It was made of
hewed logs and the logs were hewed square so they fit right down
together. The port holes were made by sawing out half of the log and
should judge they were about eight feet apart.
"There was a building just west and south of the main building, built
in the form of a chapel, with a place for a bell in the
center, I think it was used by the Catholics. This chapel was about 24
x 30.
"There was a small one-story building back of the fort, to the east.
Don't know what it was used for, but it looked like it might have been
officer 's quarters. It was about 16 x 20,
"The roofs were made of clapboards which were smooth and of much better
appearance than usual.
"The chapel roof was built four square, running to a center containing
a cupola.
"The other roofs were made with gable ends.
"There was no stockade surrounding the fort,"
Commenting upon the illustration accompanying the Bloomer article, to
which his attention had been directed after he had written the
foregoing description, "Uncle Henry", as he is familiarly called by
intimate friends, said:
"With the main building I speak of
torn down, the picture is probably a fair representation of the fort in
1855; but I think this picture was drawn by someone from memory and is
not an exact copy of the buildings as they were. The picture shows two
buildings and the smaller one is what I recollect was probably used for
officers' quarters."
It is presumed, in absence of citations of authority or any sources of
information by the writers named, that all of the foregoing matter
quoted is founded upon memory, hearsay, legend and tradition; and it is
given here for such consideration as may be merited. Official data
relating to the old blockhouse appears to be meagre and difficult of
access or discovery at this late date.
In connection with Mr, J. N, Nicollet's report of his explorations made
in the Missouri river country in 1838 and 1839 is published a map
prepared by the War Department, upon which at or near the site of the
present city of Council Bluffs is shown "Fort Croghan". For a time it
was assumed by the writer that the old blockhouse and Fort Croghan were
identical ; but, in a certain sense, tliis was error. No name for the
old blockhouse appears in any of the official records
of the War Department nor in those of the Office of Indian Affairs,
though it is mentioned occasionally in letters from the agents and
sub-agents. In Mr, Nicollet's report a reference to "Camp Kearney" is
apparently, but not necessarily, applicable to this old fort,
P"'ort Croghan was not a blockhouse or fortification ; but merely a
military cantonment located, originally, near the old Indian farm
upon which Mr, Davis Hardin resided while and after acting as farmer
for the Pottawattamies ; and, because of a flood in the Missouri river
in April, 1843, was removed to the hills. The old blockhouse appears to
have been used by the troops by whom Fort Croghan was founded, and was
no doubt considered a part of that fort or cantonment.
Richard S. Elliott, Pottawattamie sub-agent, in a letter to the
Superintendent of Indian Affairs (unpublished) dated June 1, 1843, said
:
"There are in the block house of
the Dragroons some goods which were seized in November last, and which
yet, as I understand, await their disposition by the Department."
Senate Document No. 237, 26th Congress, 2d Session, consists solely of
a "Eeport intended to illustrate a map of The Hydrographic Basin of
Upper Mississippi River, made by J. N. Nicollet while in employ under
the Bureau of the Corps of Topographical Engineers", which is the map
referred to above. On pages 93 and 94 is the following language, to-wit
:
"Assured that every reader will
partake of my sentiments on this subject, I shall, without further
prelude or apology, acknowledge the services I have received, in this
respect, from . . . The Revs. P. J. De Smet and Felix Werreydf,
missionaries among the Pottawattamies at Camp Kearney, near Council
Bluffs on the Missouri. . . ."
On. pages 98 and 99 is found matter pertinent to the subject here under
treatment, and, although some of it may seem to be irrelevant, it is
fully quoted because of the general information contained, to-wit:
"When the course of my observations
carried me to the regions of the North and Northwest, the stationary
barometer of St, Louis, to which my portable barometers were referred,
became too distant for simultaneous observations to be any longer
comparable. I had foreseen this difficulty, and had succeeded in
establishing, as soon as needed, two new fixed barometer stations, much
higher north — the one at St, Peters, on the Mississippi: the other at
Camp Kearney, near Council Bluffs, on the Missouri. At each of these
points was a stationary barometer, corresponding four or five times a
day with the barometer at St, Louis, and aft'ording, at the same time,
for my portable barometers, a reference to one or the other, according
as my position at any time brought one or the other nearest,
"Nevertheless, as both of these stations are at a great distance from
St. Louis, whether the length of the journey necessary for
communication between them, or their geographic positions and direct
distance apart, be considered, it became necessary that their
differences of level, as respects St. Louis, should be determined by
the greatest number of observations possible. In this view, I deem it
fit to introduce here the results of these determinations :
"1. The station at Camp Kearney was occupied by the venerable
missionaries, Rev. Messrs. De Smet and Werreydt. I furnished them with
a barometer, well compared with that of Dr. Engelman at St. Louis, and
with my own, and delivered it at their missionary station in good
condition. Mr. De Smet, with whom I had passed some days of travel on
the Missouri, soon made himself acquainted with the manner of taking
obser- vations; and proved it, in furnishing me with a four-months'
series, made with a care that the most scrupulous examination could
only confirm, and embracing the period between the 17th of May and 17th
of September, 1839, — an interval during which I was exploring in the
Northwest.
"The barometer at St. Louis was situated in a small exposed plain ;
that at Camp Kearney was placed in the valley of the Missouri, which is
deep, and often three to five miles wide. Using only the noon
observations for both, grouping them 20, and applying the reduction of
the stations to their respective levels, the calculations give the
following results :
Station at Camp Kearney, above St. Louis by —
20 observations at noon in May and June, 1839 596 feet
20 {observations at noon in June},1839.. 680''
20 {observations at noon in} June and July, 1839 633 "
20 {observations at noon in} July and August, 1839 659 "
20 {observations at noon in} August, 1839 694 "
13 {observations at noon in} September, 1839 ...667 '*
____________________________________________
113 {observations at noon in} Mean difference in level.... 655 "
Reduction of St. Louis to Gulf 332 "
Altitude of Missouri at low water, near Council Bluffs, above Gulf of
Mexico 1,037 "
The foregoing matter may be found, also, in House Executive Documents,
28th Congress, 2d Session, Vol. 1, No. 52, page 94.
The name "Camp Kearney" used by Mr. Nicollet probably relates to the
camp of his exploring party, in the near vicinity of the old
blockhouse, and was not intended to apply either to the blockhouse
itself or to any other military encampment proper in the neighborhood.
The missionaries De Smet and Verreydt were at the time in occupancy of
the blockhouse.
A letter of inquiry, addressed to the War Department, in which
reference was made to Mr. Nicollet's report, was returned with
endorsement as follows:
"WAR DEPARTMENT
The Adjutant General's Office
Washington, January 22, 1916.
"Respectfully returned to —
"Mr. Charles H. Babbitt,
933 Massachusetts Avenue, N. W.,
Washington, D. C.
Such search of the records of this Department as it has been found
practicable to make, based on the data submitted, has resulted in
failure to identify any record of the establishment of a Camp Kearny at
or near the present city of Council Bluffs, Iowa. The records indicate
that Captain D. B. Moore, with Company C, 1st Dragoons, was sent by
Colonel S. W. Kearny from Fort Leavenworth to that section in 1837 for
the purpose of protecting the Pottawattamies, then about to move to
their new country, and with instructions to throw up a block house of
one story about 25 feet square, and with sufficient loop holes, at such
place as Captain Moore might deem eligible. The location is more
particularly described as being above the State Line of Missouri, near
the river and not far from Belle View. Captain Moore returned to Fort
Leavenworth early in November, 1837, when he reported to Colonel
Kearney that he had reached the locality mentionel August 4, 1837 ;
erected a block-house and departed November
1, 1837.
"The records further show that Colonel Kearny himself spent about 12
days in that vicinity between April 12 and 24, 1838, and in that time
examined the country above and below the Platte and fixed upon a site
for a military post.
"It is further shown by the records that Captain J. H. K. Burgwin, 1st
Dragoons, with a company of that regiment, was stationed near Council
Bluffs from about May 31, 1842, to about October 6, 1843. He called his
post Camp Fenwick, and on his recommendation it was named by the War
Department about November, 1842, Fort Croghan. It appears that this
post was about 6 miles from 'the Bluff' and at a point that was reached
by an excessive overflow in the Spring of 1843.
"Nothing has been found of record to indicate that any of the stations
or posts mentioned was ever called Camp Kearny
H. P. McCain,
The Adjutant General."
A personal examination of the records referred to in the foregoing note
disclosed the following orders and reports relating to the errand of
Captain Moore and the erection of a blockhouse, to- wit :
"Order No. 11. Headquarters 1st
Dept. West. Division,
Fort Leavenworth, July 19, 1837.
"Colonel Kearny will detail a Troop of Dragoons from his Regiment for
imm.ediate service in the vicinity of the position to be occupied by
the Pottawattamie Indians opposite to Belleview on the Missouri river.
Special instructions will be given to the Commanding Officer of the
Troop respecting the duties to be assigned to it. . . .
"By order of Brigadier General
Atkinson.
T. S. Alexander,
A, D. C. & Ast. A.G."
-------------------------
"Headquarters 1st Regiment
Dragoons,
Fort Leavenworth, July 21, 1837.
"Sir:
"You
will, in command of Company 'C,' march to the Pottawattamie country,
above the State line of Missouri, and take a position in it near the
river, and not far from 'Belle View', so as to intervene between those
Indians and the Sack and others as reside above them.
"As the Pottawattamies are now about to move to their New Country your
object will be to afford them protection from being molested by other
Indians. . . .
"I wish you to throw up a Blockliouse of one story, about 25 feet
square, at such place as you may deem eligible, with a sufficient
number of loop holes, which will serve as a hospital for any sick you
may have and as a storehouse for your provisions. . . .
S. W. Kearny,
Colonel 1st Regiment Dragoons.
Captain D. B. Moore,
1st Regiment Dragoons."
-------------------------
"Headquarters 1st Regiment Dragoons,
Fort Leavenworth, August 5, 1837.
" ... Company 'C, (66 strong) under Captain Moore, 1st Dragoons, by
order of Brigadier General Atkinson, of the 19th, left here, on the
22nd \iHo., to take a position in the Pottawattamy Country for the
purpose of giving confidence to those emigrating Indians and affording
them protection (if necessary) froiri being (iistiirbcd by the Indians
above them. The service
of the company, I think, will not be required after the 1st of October,
at which time I will look for its return.
S. W. Kearny,
Colonel 1st Regiment Dragoons.
General William Clark,
Superintendent of Indian Affairs, St. Louis."
--------------------------------
"Fort Leavenworth, November 11, 1837.
"I have the honor to inform you that, in compliance with your order of
the 21st July, 1837, dated at Forth Leavenworth, I took a position in
the Pottawattamie Country, with my Company ' C ', 1st Dragroons, at a
point near Belle- View, on the east side of the Missouri river, at
which place I erected a Blockhouse for the defense of the
Pottawattamies while they are moving to their new land. I arrived there
on the 4th of August and remained until the 1st of November, 1837, when
I broke camp and
marched to this post in pursuance of your order.
D. B. Moore,
Captain 1st Regiment Dragoons.
Colonel S. W. Kearny,
Commanding 1st Regiment Dragoons."
The foregoing shows conclusively that a blockhouse about 25 feet
square, was constructed, in 1837, in the vicinity of the site of the
present city of Council Bluffs. It has been found impossible to secure
equally as positive proof that the blockhouse then erected and the
''Old Blockhouse at Council Bluffs", the "Old Fort" that Colonel Kearny
gave to De Smet in 1838, are identical. But, in absence of any
indication either through hearsay, legend or tradition, that any other
blockhouse was ever known to exist in that neighborhood, and taking all
circumstances into consideration, little room for doubt in that regard
may be reasonably entertained.
Papers on file in the Indian Office at Washington relating to the
emigration of the Pottawattamies, reproduced in connection with that
portion of this booklet entitled "Pottawattamie Indians", prove that
General Atkinson, commanding the First Department of the Western
Division of the Army, personally superintended the removal of a part of
the tribe or nation from the "Platte Purchase";
that he arrived with them on board of the steamboat "Kansas" July 28,
1837, and landed them at a point on the east (left) bank of the
Missouri river, about eighteen miles above the mouth of the Platte
river and there turned them over to the proper agent; that one week
later Captain
Moore arrived for the purpose of protecting them from Northern foes,
and erected a blockhouse for that purpose, it may be presumed that he
located it at a convenient place; the fact that Billy Caldwell, one of
the principal Pottawattamie chiefs, located his village precisely upon
the spot where the original town from which Council Bluffs developed
became situated, and that a blockhouse actually existed at that place,
would appear to be strong circumstantial evidence in support of the
presumption that it was the one built by Captain Moore.
In the four- volume book entitled "Life, Letters and Travels of Father
Pierre-Jean De Smet, S. J., 1808-1873, by Hiram Martin Chittenden and
Alfred Talbot Richardson", on pages 14 to 16 of Volume I, is found the
following:
"In the Spring of 1838 he (De Smet) was sent with Father Verrydt and
two lay brothers to found a mission among the Pottawattamies, a part of
whom were located about where the city of Council Bluffs, Iowa, now
stands. . . . Father De Smet left St. Louis by the steamboat Howard May
10, 1838. . . . They seem to have first occupied an abandoned fort
turned over to them by Colonel S. W. Kearney; but Father De Smet says
that they also erected a small house. The mission was named St. Joseph,
although it has been more frequently referred to as St. Mary. It was
located within the present limits of Council Bluffs, Iowa. . . . The
Pottawattamie mission at Council Bluffs is of particular interest in
this narrative, not so much for results accomplished, as because it
reveals at this early date the full character of Father De Smet as an
Indian missionary. It was from here that he began that famous series of
letters which have made his name well known throughout the world.
In one of the first of these letters, written in July, 1838, Father De
Smet said:
"We arrived among the
Pottawattamies on the afternoon of May 31st. Nearly 2,000 savages, in
their finest rigs and carefully painted in all sorts of patterns, were
awaiting the boat at the landing. I had not seen so imposing a sight
nor such fine looking Indians in America; the lowas, the Sauks and
Otocs arc beggars compared to these. Father Verreydt and brother Maxell
i went at onc(^ to the camj) of the half breed chief, Mr. Caldwell,
four miles from the river (page 157.)
"The chief has given us possession of three cabins, and we have changed
the fort which Colonel Kearney has given us into a church. On the day
of Corpus Christi I put a cross on the roof, and while I climbed the
ladder to put it into place, and my flag floated from a hole in my
breeches, Father Felix (Verreydt) beheld the devil clap his tail
between his legs and take flight over the big hills." (Page 158.)
In a letter dated at the "Nation of the Pottawattamies, July 20, 1838,"
Father De Smet said:
"We have a fine little chapel,
twenty-four feet square,
surmounted by a little belfry ; four poor little cabins beside, made of
rough logs; they are fourteen feet each way, with roofs of rude
rafters, which protect us from neither rain nor hail, andstill less
from snow of winter." (Page 168.)
In the spring of 1839 De Smet visited the Sioux Indians near the mouth
of the Big Sioux river, in an effort to preserve peace between them and
the Pottawattamies, and, on the steamboat he met Mr. Nicollet. His
account of the meeting is summarized as follows:
"On the 29th of April I went on
board the American Company's steamboat, which makes every year the
voyage from St. Louis
to the Yellowstone river. ... To my great joy I found on board the
celebrated Nicollet, whom I had had the honor of knowing for a long
time. ... At present he is making a scientific excursion upon the upper
Missouri, as he did last year to the sources of the Mississippi and its
tributaries. . . . He made me a present of several instruments,
thermometers, barometers, compass, etc., to take observations during
the summer, to aid those he was making in the upper country. (Pages
179-80.)
On pages 183 and 184 is printed a letter from Father De Smet, under
date "Pottawattamie Nation, St. Joseph (Mission), July 1838", but in a
foot note the authors say the year should be 1839. The following
extract is made from that letter, viz. :
"Our Superior sent us from St,
Louis, goods to the amount
of $500, in ornaments for the church, a tabernacle, a bell, and
provisions and clothes for a year. I had been for a long time without
shoes, and from Easter we were destitute of supplies. All of the
Pottawattamie nation were suffering from scarcity, having only acorns
and a few wild roots for their whole stock of food. At last, about the
20th of April, they announced to US that
the much-desired boat was approaching. Already we saw it from the
highest of our hills. I procured, without delay, two carts to go for
our baggage. I reached there in time to witness a very sad sight. The
vessel had hit a sawyer, was pierced, and rapidly sinking in the waves.
The confusion that reigned in the boat was great, but happily no lives
were lost. The total damage was valued at $40,000. All the provisions
forwarded by the government to the savages were on board of her. Of our
effects, four articles were saved; a plough, a saw, a pair of boots and
some wine. Providence was still favorable to us. With the help of the
plough, we were enabled to plant a large field of corn ; it was the
season for furrowing. We used the saw to build a better house and
enlarge our
church, already too small."
A thorough search of official reports and various other sources has
failed to discover any account, other than the above, of the wrecking
of a steamboat at or near the site indicated.
Father De Smet's service at this mission ceased in the fall of 1839,
when he was transferred to the far Northwest. On his return to the
eastern country, late in 1840, he visited the old place, arriving about
November 24th. Of that visit he says :
"The very night of our arrival
among our Fathers at Council
Bluffs, the river closed. It would be vain for me to attempt to tell
what I felt at finding myself once more amidst our brothers, after
having travelled 2,000 Flemish leagues, in the midst of the greatest
dangers and across the territories of the most barbarous nations. I
had, however, the grief of observing the ravages which unprincipled
men, liquor sellers, had caused in this budding mission ; drunkenness,
with the invasion of the Sioux on the other hand, had finally dispersed
my poor savages. While awaiting a more favorable turn of events, the
good Fathers Verreydt and (Christian) Hoeken busy themselves with the
cares of their holy ministry among the fifty families that have had the
courage to resist these two enemies." (Page 258.)
The writer, wishing to ascertain if possible up to what period the
mission at Council Bluff's was maintained, and, findng no authentic
evidence in that respect, addressed a letter of inquiry to the St.
Louis University regarding the abandonment and final closing of the St.
Joseph or St. Mary Mission among the Pottawattaraies, to which reply
was received, as follows:
"Mo. Prov. S. J., St. Louis, May
16, 1916.
''Mr. Chas. H. Babbitt,
Washington, D. C.
"Dear Sir:
"In answer to your inquiry relative to the Jesuit Pottawattamie Mission
at Council Bluffs, I am able to inform you that the last resident
missionary departed from the place in July or August, 1841. The last
entry in the baptismal register of the mission, bears date July 17,
1841.
I am very sincerely yours,
G. J. Garraghan, S. J."
The "Old Fort" or "Mission House", with other buildings used for
mission purposes, stood upon the West half of the Southwest quarter of
Section 30, Township 75 North, of Range 43 West, Fifth Principal
Meridian; and, upon its inclusion in the application for entry of the
townsite of Council Bluffs, that tract became a bone of contention
between Mrs. S. T. Carey and the Catholic Church. In the record of
evidence relating to the long-drawn-out controversy that ensued (Case
No. 139, Pottawattamie file. No. 40-L) before the
Indian Office and Land Department, is an affidavit made by Stutely E.
Wicks, wherein he alleged :
" ... That, about the year 1837 two
Catholic priests, named
Veright and De Smith, took possession of the buildings and a small
field adjacent thereto and continued to occupy thesame until some time
in 1842. . . ."
It will be observed that Mr. Wicks was mistaken, both as to the date
when the mission was established and when it was abandoned.
The foregoing sets out all that the writer has been able to discover,
relating to the "Old Blockhouse at Council Bluffs", by a most thorough
search of governmental records and examination of numerous other
sources of information ; together with some things, true and otherwise,
that have been written and published, as well as the memory pictures of
the establishment retained by himself and others still
living who saw it at an early day.
It would appear, from the record evidence, conclusive and convincing in
character, that all that ever existed of the "Old Fort" was the simple
little blockhouse, twenty-four feet square, erected by Captain D. B.
Moore in 1837. That the "Old Mission" consisted of that building, to
which addition was made by the missionaries in 1839 : the little cabins
given to the Fathers bv Chief Billv Caldwell
in 1838, and the house erected by the missionaries at the same time
that enlargement of the church was made, as described by Father De
Smet.
The illustration which accompanied the article of Mr. Bloomer, in
Annals of Iowa, later used in Gue's History of Iowa, is reproduced
herein to the end that the reader may more readily understand the
comment of the writer in relation thereto.
From personal observation, almost daily, for a period of fully twenty
years, the writer knows, of his own knowledge, that there was never a
road up the nose of the promontory upon which the old building stood.
He believes that it would have been impossible to construct there such
a road as that depicted in the illustration and still have left on the
little plateau at the top sufficient space for such
buildings as there portrayed. Even had the construction of such roadway
been practicable, there would have been no necessity for so doing,
because the plateau was easily accessible from both east and west by
gentle inclines having ample space for roadways. See supposititious
picture of the old blockhouse, showing topography as remembered by the
writer.
Captain Moore's command consisted of only sixty-six persons; it arrived
at the Pottawattamie country August 4, and departed thence November 1,
1837. Such force could not, within such period, have constructed such
works as Mr. Simons' memory or imagination depicted when he made the
drawing that was used in preparing the illustration.
It would be folly to discuss or attempt to explain the differences
between the several memory pictures of the "Old Fort" as set out by
persons who have been heard, and the facts as disclosed by official
records and other evidence. It is deemed sufficient to say that,
memory, especially that extending back to childhood days, is frequently
at fault — "distance lends enchantment to the view" — and one relying
merely upon memory will find, upon investigation, that she is
frequently an unfaithful painter who magnifies, softens and gilds the
images which she presents, misleading the individual as to facts and
appearances with which one may for years have believed oneself
thoroughly faimiliar. "Things arc not what they seem."
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