 |
Chapter Five
The Mormons
The
beginning of the history of civil government at and in the vicinity of
the site of the present city of Council Bluffs dates from the arrival
there of the Mormons — "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints"—
on June 14, 1846.
Whither they were going, that is to say, where would they fix their
permanent resting place, was at that time unknown even to their
leaders. They were fleeing from persecution which they had suffered for
a period of years in various portions of the United States, especially
in Ohio, Missouri and Illinois, and they had started upon a pilgrimage,
seeking, like the Children of Israel of old, a New Zion or "promised
land".
There is strong proof to indicate that it was their intention, at the
time of leaving the beautiful city of Nauvoo — the largest then in the
State of Illinois — which they had builded at much expense, time and
labor, to go beyond the jurisdiction of the Government of the United
States; and there is good reason for the belief that California — then
a part of Mexico — was the contemplated goal; that they intended to
effect settlement there and, eventually, to seize the territory
occupied and found a government of their own. And there is evidence of
no mean character to indicate that in such enterprise they were
encouraged and promised aid by prominent officials of the United States
Government, and that the Government itself, as represented by several
cabinet officers and influential members of the Senate, if not actually
a party to the undertaking, allowed it to be understood that the
movement would not meet with federal opposition or interference.
It was under such conditions and with the hope that at least the
advance parties would reach the Pacific coast that season that the
emigrants began crossing the Mississippi river on February 5 and 6,
1846, and established their first camp on Sugar creek, opposite Nauvoo
and not far from Keokuk, in the Territory of Iowa, where, on the 15th
of that month, they were joined by Brigham Young and other leaders, and
organization of the caravans was begun.
The start from Sugar creek was made on March 1, 1846, and at about the
same time the ship "Brooklyn", with a number of "Saints" and large
quantities of supplies on board, sailed from New York, via Cape Horn,
for San Francisco.
On March 21, 1846, near the river Chariton, the organization of the
"Camps of Israel" was perfected. Near the end of April, Garden Grove
(so named by them) was reached and there was established a settlement.
Shortly afterward another settlement was founded at what they called
Mount Pisgah; and, on June 14, the head of the column reached the
Missouri river at or near the site of the present city of Council
Bluffs, where another settlement was begun.
These settlements were made for the purpose of affording rest for the
moving trains, for the planting of crops to be cultivated and used by
following parties, and similar ones were to be established and
maintained along the route, as relay stations, forming a continuous
line of connection from the beginning to the end of the journey, and
they were called "Stakes of Zion".
Within a few days after arrival at Council Bluffs Captain James Allen,
with a few dragoons, visited the camp and laid before the leaders a
proposition, submitted by the Government through Colonel Stephen W.
Kearny, commandant of the military district with headquarters at Fort
Leavenworth, for the raising by the Mormon Church of a force of from
five hundred to one thousand men for service in the war with Mexico. As
an inducement for compliance with the request it was promised that the
men should be taken through to California, where, at the expiration of
the term of enlistment, they would be discharged with full pay and
permitted to retain their arms and all equipment. There not being a
sufficient number at Council Bluffs, Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball
and Willard Richards (of the High Council), accompanied by Captain
Allen and three dragoons, visited the settlement at Mount Pisgah, and,
by sending messengers to Garden Grove, secured volunteers to the number
of five hundred and twenty. Within three days after the arrival of
these men at Council Bluffs they were equipped, mustered into the
United States service and ready to march to Fort Leavenworth, for which
place they departed on July 20, 1846.
"A Concise History of the Mormon Battalion in the Mexican War —
1846-1847— by Sergeant Daniel Tyler", is the title of a work containing
much first-hand information concerning the movements of this body of
troops. Incorporated in it are various other papers, one of which is
"The Mormons, a Discourse delivered before the Historical Society of
Pennsylvania, March 26, 1850, by Thomas L. Kane". Speaking of the
raising of this battalion, he having been present at the time, Mr. Kane
said :
"They were collected a little above
the Pottawattamie Agency. The hills
of the 'High Prairie' crowding upon the river at this point, and
overhanging it, appear of an unusual and
commanding elevation. They are called the Council Bluffs ; a name given
them with another meaning, but well illustrated by the picturesque
congress of their high and mighty summits. To the south of them, a rich
alluvial flat of considerable width follows down the Missouri, some
eight miles, to where it is lost from view at a turn, which forms the
site of an Indian town of Point aux Poules."
Referring to the departure of the volunteers for Fort Leavenworth, many
of whom were married and leaving wives and children, and the events
connected therewith, the author said:
"There was no sentimental leave
taking. The afternoon was appropriated to a farewell ball; and a more
merry dancing rout I have never seen, though the company went without
refreshments, and their ball room was of the most primitive. It was the
custom, whenever the larger camps rested for a few days together, to
make great arbors, or boweries, as they called them, of poles and
brush, and wattling, as places of shelter for their meetings of
devotion or conference. In one of these where the ground had been
trodden firm and hard by the worshippers of the popular Father Taylor's
precinct, was gathered now the mirth and beauty of the Mormon Israel. .
. . Light hearts, lithe figures and light feet, had it their own way
from an early hour till after the sun had dipped behind the sharp
skj'-line of the Omaha hills."
The precise place where these troops were mustered does not appear in
any of the works which have fallen under the eye of the writer here,
but in the Journal of Sergeant William Hyde, incorporated in Sergeant
Tyler's History (page 128), it is said:
"We were mustered into the service
of the United States on the 16th of
July, 1846, and marched to the Missouri river, a distance of eight
miles. . . . "
Reverend Henry De Long, who still resides at Council Bluffs, was with
the Mormons who early arrived at that place, being then some twelve or
fourteen years of age. In a letter addressed to the writer November 18,
1915, he says:
"My remembrance of the raising of
the Mormon Battalion
is this: They had a regular city composed of wagons and
tents; some four thousand inhabitants, at what is now Dodge Orchard and
J. G. Rice's place. Brigham Young's tent was the most conspicuous of
them all. A flag pole sixty or eighty feet high stood in front of it.
Amidst the beating of drums and martial music the men fell into line as
volunteers were called for. Most of those that went were counseled by
Brigham Young to go. When five hundred men were secured they marched to
Trader's Point and there took a steamboat for St. Louis, about the
middle of July, if I remember rightly. Among them was William Garner."
This would indicate that the first rendezvous of volunteer soldiers in
Western Iowa was at the identical place, upon the very same ground, as
were those of later date, at the beginning of the War of the Rebellion.
On the plateau on the north (right) bank of Mosquito creek, opposite
the site of the Institute for the Deaf and Dumb. Mr. De Long is
mistaken, however, in regard to the battalion taking passage by
steamboat for St. Louis. The record shows that they marched to Trader's
Point (Point aux Poules) on the day of muster, where they were
outfitted, and thence, by way of Black Snake Hills (St. Joseph), to
Fort Leavenworth, from which point, in conjunction with other troops,
they marched and found their way, along the old "Santa Fe Trail",
onward to California, where, joined with the command of General Kearny,
they assisted in the seizure of the territory now embraced in that
State which resulted in its becoming a part of these United States.
The raising of this battalion resulted in materially modifying the
plans of the emigrants. It was believed by the leaders that, with such
a reduction of their numbers, the taking away of the flower of their
defensive force, it would not be prudent to undertake to cross the
plains that season in the face of the numerous bands of hostile Indians
; so a semi-permanent encampment was established at Council Bluffs,
then still in the possession of the Pottawattamie Indians, though they
had previously negotiated and some of them had signed a treaty by which
their lands were ceded to the United States. These Indians were, under
the circumstances, willing that the emigrants should live among them
and readily granted permission.
To the end that an early resumption of their journey the following
season should not be interfered with by late opening of the Missouri
river, it was deemed advisable that the main body should cross the
stream and, if possible, make settlement on its western (right) bank.
Accordingly negotiations were begun with the Omaha Indians who then
occupied the lands on that side. Those Indians being at war with the
Sioux immediately recognized the advantage it would be to them to have
so large a body of whites upon their northern border, who would serve
as a buffer and protect them from the onslaughts of their enemies;
therefore, permission was readily granted by them that the emigrants
should occupy the territory for a period not exceeding two years.
Because of the beauty of the site, its desirability on account of
bountiful supplies of wood and water, and because of the existence
there of an abandoned trading post, with stockade, in fairly good
condition, "Winter Quarters" were established upon the site later
occupied by the town of Florence (now embraced within the limits of the
Greater Omaha), and Brigham Young and other leaders located
headquarters there.
In a work the title page of which is, "Route fromLiverpool to Great
Salt Lake City, Illustrated with Steel Engravings and Wood Cuts from
Sketches made by Frederick Piercy; Edited by James Linforth. Liverpool
: Published by Franklin D, Richards, 36 Islington. London: Latter Day
Saints' Book Depot, 35 Jevin Street, City. MDCCCLV", on page 83, in
regard to Winter Quarters, it is said:
"Upwards of 1000 houses were soon
built — 700 of them in about 3 months — on a pretty plateau overlooking
the river, and neatly laid out with highways and by ways, and fortified
with breastwork and stockade. 'It had too it» place of worship,
"Tabernacle of the Congregation", and various large workshops, mills
and factories provided with water power.' . . . Always capricious, and
in this case instigated by white men, the Indians, notwithstanding they
had formally given the Saints permission to settle upon their lands,
complained to the Indian Agents that they were trespassing upon them,
and they were requested to remove. From this circumstance is
attributable the
rise and rapid growth of Kanesville, leaving Winter Quarters again
entirely to its savage inhabitants, and only ruins point to its former
prosperity, and now its situation."
The visit of Mr. Piercy to this place was made in 1853 or 1854, at
which time it appears that practically all of the improvements made by
the Mormons had been destroyed, and the site was used merely as camping
grounds for the later emigration of the Saints, and a ferry had been
established there. On page 81 of the book just cited it is said:
"At Kanesville I was kindly
permitted to join the emigrating company, under the presidency of
Elders Miller and Cooley, . . . The company being ready to move we
drove down to Ferryville, or Council Bluffs Ferry, 12 miles distant,
and just opposite Winter Quarters, at which point we crossed the
Missouri into Indian Territory, now Nebraska and Kansas.
"The ferry-boats are flat bottomed, and large enough to carry 2 wagons
of ordinary size. The starting point is usually chosen a considerable
distance up the stream, so that the current may assist in conveying the
boats to the landing place on the opposite side of the river. . . . The
camping place on the west side of the Missouri was about a mile from
the landing, in the vicinity of 2 springs, near the site of Winter
Quarters. I paid a visit to the old place, and found that some person
had set fire to the last house that remained of the once flourishing
settlement. . . .
(Page 84) : "Since the organization of Nebraska Territory an effort has
been made, owing to the desirable situation of Winter Quarters, and its
good ferriage and water facilities, to build a city by the name of
Florence upon the old site."
The total population of Winter Quarters, at the time of the general
removal thence in 1848, is not positively known; but, judging from the
number of houses erected, it must have been in the neighborhood of from
five to six thousand. Probably more than half of the people went with
the departing train to Salt Lake City; and a majority of those
remaining removed to Kanesville, while others settled at various places
within the Pottawattamie country, notably at C^rterville, Macedonia,
Springville, in Pottawattamie County, and Cutler's Camp, Coonville (now
Glenwood), and Bethlehem, in what is now Mills County, the
last-mentioned place having been swept away by the Missouri river long
ago. It was opposite the mouth of the Platte river.
Within a few weeks after the arrival of the emigrants at the Missouri
river they arranged a form of government for the contemplated en-
campment at that point, in regard to which the writer has a letter from
the Latter Day Saints' Historian's Office, dated Salt Lake City, Utah,
December 24, 1915, giving information as follows:
"About the municipal government
which obtained from 1846 till the creation of Pottawattamie County, the
following is recorded in tlie Journal History of the 'Mormon Church':
" 'July 21, 1846, a High Council was organized at Council Point, near
Council Bluffs, to preside over the temporal and spiritual affairs of
that camp and the other settlements organ- ized since leaving Nauvoo.
The following brethren were sustained as a High Council : Isaac Morley,
Geo. W. Harris, James Allred, Thos. Grover, Phineas Richards, Heman
Hyde, Andrew H. Perkins, Wm. G. Perkins, Henry W. Miller, Daniel
Spencer, Jonathan H. Hale, and John Murdock.'
" ' The personnel of this High Council was changed from time to time as
members of the same migrated to Great Salt Lake Valley, and other men
were chosen to fill the vacancies; and, after the organization of
Pottawattamie County, the jurisdiction of this High Council was
confined to religious or spiritual affairs mainly.' "
Relative to the first occupancy of any portion of what was the original
town on the site of the present city of Council Bluffs, it is said, in
the letter here mentioned, that:
" ... in the advance company was
Bishop Geo. Miller and also Henry W. Miller; the latter Miller soon
afterwards settled in what some [time] afterwards became known as
'Miller's Hollow', while the other Miller cro.ssed the river, traveled
westward [?] and wintered among the Ponca Indians, 1846-47.
"At an adjourned session of a general conference of the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter Day Saints, held in the log tabernacle. Miller's
Hollow, April 8, 1848, Orson Hyde moved that 'the place hitherto known
as Miller's Hollow be named Kanesville, in honor of Col. Thomas L.
Kane."
That motion was agreed to and the name Kanesville endured until after
the final general exodus of the Mormons from the locality. The log
tabernacle, referred to above, was erected in December, 1847, and stood
on or near what is now known as Harmony Street, between Benton and
Frank Streets. The residence of Henry W. Miller, from which the
original name was acquired, was north of Broadway and not far from the
present site of the Federal building, near Seventh Street.
April 7, 1847, Brigham Young, at the head of an exploring party
consisting of one hundred and forty-three picked men, embracing eight
of the Twelve Apostles, set out from "Winter Quarters" in search of the
"Promised Land". He returned on October 31st, having decided upon the
Great Salt Lake Valley, and the site of the present
Salt Lake City, as the most desirable location, and established a
colony there.
During his absence difficulties arose between the Mormons and the Omaha
Indians, resulting in a request by the Indian department of the
Government for the abandonment of "Winter Quarters" and other places in
the Omaha country then occupied by the Saints. Accordingly, in the
spring of 1848, the great body of Mormons then in Nebraska, Brigham at
the head, departed on the journey to the
newly-established Zion, their train comprising six hundred wagons.
Those left behind removed to various places on the Iowa side of the
river, as hereinbefore stated, and "Winter Quarters", as such, ceased
to exist, though it was for many years afterward used as temporary
camping ground for Mormon emigrants en route to the Great Salt Lake
Valley.
In the meantime, however, occurred at KanesviUe one of the most
important events connected with the history of the church. By those
familiar with that history it will be recalled that, after the death of
Joseph Smith (the prophet), the then existing organization was aban-
doned and the affairs temporal and spiritual were vested in a council.
On page 114 of the work entitled "Route from Liverpool to Great Salt
Lake City", is found the following:
"They returned to Winter Quarters,
Council Bluffs, where they arrived on the 31st of October, and an
Epistle was issued on the 23d of December, by the Twelve Apostles,
noticing the principal events which had befallen the Saints since the
expulsion from Nauvoo, and the discovery of G. S. h. Valley. It is also
stated that it is in contemplation to reorganize the Church, according
to the original pattern, with First Presidency and Patriarch.
Accordingly, on the 24th, the day following, at a conference held at
the 'Log Tabernacle' in KanesviUe, State of Iowa, the suggestion was
brought before the Saints who 'hailed it as an action which the state
of the work at present demanded', and 'Brigham Young was nominated to
be the First President of the Church, and he nominated Heber C. Kimball
and Willard Richards to be his two counsellors, which nominations were
seconded and carried without a dissentient voice'. The appointment was
afterwards acknowledged at a General
Conference on the 6th of April, 1848, at the same place at which the
appointment was made."
Upon the abandonment of "Winter Quarters" Kanesville became the church
official headquarters for the Missouri river country. On
page 648 of "The History of Salt Lake City and its Founders, by Edward
W. Tullidge", published by authority of the organization at Salt Lake
City, from which work have been gleaned many of the facts set forth
herein, appears the following:
"Before the return of the Pioneers
to the mountains, they appointed Orson Pratt to preside over the
mission in Great Britain, and to push emigration to the fullest extent,
while Orson Hyde, George A. Smith and E. T. Benson were stationed at
Council Bluffs to receive the emigrants from abroad, and to promote
their speedy removal to the Valley, as well as the removal of
those of the community who had concentrated there after the exodus from
Nauvoo."
In the letter from the Latter Day Saints Historian's Office, to which
referisnce has hereinbefore been made, it is said :
" ... After the evacuation of
Winter Quarters (now Florence), in 1848, nearly all of the Mormons who
did not migrate to the 'Valley' that year settled in and near
Pottawattamie County, with headquarters at Kanesville, and at one time
there were about forty branches of the Church on that side of the
Missouri river. Apostle Orson Hyde presided almost continuouly from
1848 to 1852."
Upon petitions submitted by Brigham Young, the Iowa legislature
provided for the temporary organization "into a county, by the name
of Pottawattamie", of "the country embraced within the limits of what
is called the 'Pottawattamie Purchase', the act being approved February
24, 1847 ; and the Government of the United States established a
postoffice at "Miller's Hollow'', to be known as "Kane",
January 17, 1848, and Evan M. Greene was appointed postmaster February
7, 1848. Shortly afterward (precise date not officially shown, nor
location given, ) another postoffice was established in
Pottawattamie County, known as "Nebraska", as the postmaster for which
Joseph T. Pendleton was named. May 30, 1849. Inasmuch as it is within
the knowledge of the writer that Mr. Pendleton resided at Trader's
Point; that the name of the Office is shown by official
records to have been changed to Council Bluffs May 30, 1850, and to
Trader's Point on December 10, 1852; that on a map published in 1851
the latter-named place was borne as Council Bluffs; that the name of
Kane
postoffice was changed to Council Bluffs on December 10, 1852, it would
seem reasonable to believe that the postoffice of Nebraska was
located at Trader's Point. On March 11, 1850, a postoffice was
established at Macedonia. All of these resulted from Mormon effort.
February 7, 1849, was issued the first number of the publication called
the Frontier Guardian, not
precisely a newspaper though in the form of
one; an organ of the Saints, published by Apostle Orson Hyde. Still,
it did publish items that might be termed news, but pertaining almost
exclusively to church matters. Of course these characteristics were in
a measure unavoidable, even had the inclination to make them otherwise
existed, because of the isolation of the community on the extreme
frontier beyond the lines of ordinary communication. In one of the
early issues it was said :
"It affords unmeasured pleasure to
see the favorable results of some limited exertions, not long since
made, in favor of education. Two flourishing schools in our little
town, of about eighty scholars each, conducted by a principal and
assistant to each one, with many others in various parts of the country
that have sprung into existence."
Its issue of June 12, 1850, estimates the number of teams crossing the
river during the season, up to that date, at about four thousand five
hundred, with probably thirteen thousand five hundred men and about
twenty -two thousand horses, mules, oxen and cows; and states that
Orson Hyde 's own train would probably consist of seven hundred wagons,
with two carding machines and other valuable machinery; also
four thousand sheep and five thousand cattle, and added :
"We have attended the organization
of three hundred and fifty wagons of Salt Lake emigrants up to Saturday
the 8th inst. We left them at Council Grove, twelve miles from
Bethlehem,
west of the Missouri river."
Mr. Kane, in the paper from which quotation has been made hereinbefore,
referring to means of crossing the river, said :
"Our nearest ferry was that over
the Missouri. Nearly
opposite the Pull Point, or Point aux Poules, a trading post of the
American Fur Company, and village of the Pottawattamies."
The ferry referred to by him was owned and operated by Peter A. Sarpy -
"Colonel Peter A. Sarpy, by-gad, sir," — as he was wont himself to say,
who was what our English friends would term the American Fur Company's
"Factor" at Bellevue, nearly opposite Trader's Point, anrl lie had
established such exorbitant rates for
ferriage that an opposition establishment was set up a short distance
below, at the mouth of the Platte river below the mouth of which was
its western landing. James A. Little, in his book entitled "From
Kirtland to Salt Lake", to which the present writer is under
obligations, referring to the year 1852, says :
"For some reason the most of the
Mormon emigration traveled the south side of the Platte. They crossed
the Missouri river eighteen miles below Kanesville at an insignificant
hamlet called Bethlehem." (Page 240.)
Mr. Little visited Council Bluffs in 1854 and spent some days there
renewing old acquaintance. In describing the place as then seen he
said, among other things, that:
"Through the western part of the
town ran Indian (alias Lousey) creek. . . . Running along its western
bank about half a mile was Greene Street, so named in honor of Mr. Evan
Greene, who was one of the first residents in the locality. He was an
early pioneer and the first postmaster of the place, then called
Kanesville, in honor of Col. Thos. L. Kane, the philanthropist."
He had his points of the compass slightly mixed as any one acquainted
with the place will readily perceive. At the time of which he wrote
Indian creek scarcely touched the western part of the town. It ran
through the northern part, for about the distance mentioned by him,
turning to the north at the western edge of the town as it then
existed, and, skirting the foot of the bluffs for a short way, lost
itself in a swamp at the site of Dagger's Mill. But, this is digressing
slightly from Mormon days, extending beyond the period of actual Mormon
occupancy.
Dagger's Mill was erected by Madison Dagger, about 1848, originally a
grist mill exclusively; but later a saw was added. Its power was
derived from the waters of Indian creek poured upon an overshot wheel.
The dam was at Benton street, and the water was carried in a ditch
along the north bank of the original stream to the edge of the bluff
under which the mill was situated. This ditch followed along the
south side of the western part of Greene street, which, for that
reason, was called Race street (now Washington Avenue), and was no
doubt the stream which Mr. Little supposed to be the creek itself.
Almon W. Babbitt, an elder of the Mormon Church and a man of strong
personality and combative instincts, never in very high favor
with the ruling powers, seems to have disliked Apostle Hyde 's methods
of conducting the Frontier Guardian, and, therefore, in 1850, he
founded an opposition publication named the Weekly Western Bugle. It
was the fashion among newspapers at that time to carry below the main
head line some kind of a motto, and Brother Babbitt seems to have
received inspiration for his from the well-known lines of "The Battle
Field", by William Cullen Bryant:
"Truth crushed to earth shall rise
again,
Truth crushed to earth shall rise again, --
The eternal years of God are hers;
But error, wounded, writhes in pain,
And dies among her worshippers".
So, the motto adopted for the Bugle
was, "Truth, tho' crushed, shall
rise again." With the departure of Apostle Hyde for Salt Lake City, in
1852, his publication was absorbed by that of Babbitt and the title
became the Weekly Western Bugle and
Frontier Guardian, under which the
paper continued so long as the existing advertising contracts of the
Guardian remained in force, when, the name of the town having
been changed, the title of the paper became Weekly Council Bluffs
Bugle. By this time the concern had passed into the ownership of
Joseph
E. Johnson and L. 0. Littlefield, the former, an elder of the Mormon
church, being editor, and the latter, a layman printer, the publisher.
But this was after the almost exclusive occupancy and complete control
of the town, which had existed for upward of six years, had passed from
the church.
No evidence has been found to indicate that newspapers or any
periodical publications other than the two mentioned, were issued at
Kanesville or in the vicinity during the official occupancy by the
Mormons. It is believed that there were none.
Although the "Stakes of Zion" — (such as Garden Grove, Mount Pisgah,
and Winter Quarters) — established by the "Camps of Israel" along the
line of march from Nauvoo to Great Salt Lake City were intended merely
to be temporary camps, or way stations, fairly permanent improvements
were made at each. Tabernacles were erected, mills built, and business
houses established, as indicated by the
extract above made from "Route from Liverpool to Great Salt Lake City"
descriptive of Winter Quarters; though that was by far the largest and
most important of thciii all. True, no buildings were constructed of
brick or stone, nor docs it appear that bricks were at any of them
manufactured under the direction of the; church authorities; but Rev.
Henry De Long, who has been hereinbefore quoted, under date of March
24, 1916, has informed the writer that :
"In 1849, a man by the name of
Roberts started a pottery in "Duck Hollow", what is now Harrison
Street, a short distance north of the junction of Harrison and Harmony
Streets. In connection with the pottery, a man whose name I have
forgotten, burned a brick kiln, and these brick were used in the
construction of the little powder magazine that stood on the hill
back of the Ogden House."
Inasmuch as the surrounding adjacent country was devoid of coal of any
kind, the blacksmiths and other workers in metal were de- pendent for
fuel supplies upon the steamboats of the American Fur Company, which
passed up and down the river once or twice each season, and upon
charcoal manufactured in the locality, consequently there were numerous
charcoal pits or kilns in and about Kanesville.
When the exodus from Winter Quarters occurred, in May, 1848, the more
important of the business concerns of the place removed to Great Salt
Lake City, and a number of the smaller establishments recrossed the
Missouri river and located at Kanesville and adjacent small towns. Many
of these became fixtures and grew into the leading business concerns in
the early life of Council Bluffs.
Mormon control in Western Iowa, especially at Kanesville, ceased in the
spring of 1852, when Apostle Orson Hyde departed, bag and baggage, with
all the Saints whom he could by any means induce to accompany him.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
