USA > Iowa > Chickasaw County > History of Chickasaw and Howard Counties, Iowa > Part 1
USA > Iowa > Howard County > History of Chickasaw and Howard Counties, Iowa > Part 1
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47
HISTORY
1885
COUNTIES
CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND GIVEN IN 1891 BY HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE
Date Due
PRE 3 1942
1
Cornell University Library F 627C5 A371883 History of Chickasaw and Howard Counties
olin 3 1924 028 913 858
F 627 C5A37 1883
N
R
1865
D
ED
A
Cornell University Library
The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library.
There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text.
http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028913858
HISTORY
OF
Chickasaw and Howard Counties
IOWA.
BY W. E. ALEXANDER.
DECORAH, IOWA: WESTERN PUBLISHING COMPANY. 1883. DC CORNELL UNIVERSITY 14.RARY.
Ha
A223649
PREFACE.
The object of this work is to place upon record in a reliable man- ner, and in a permanent form what ever incidents of importance may have transpired, within the limits of Howard and Chickasaw coun- ties, since their first settlement. While the publisher does not arrogate to himself a degree of accuracy beyond criticism, he hopes to be found measureably correct, in the compilation, and ar- rangement, of the almost immeasurable incidents that have been swallowed up in the past, and that enter so largely into the pres- ent of the community, in whose interest this volume is written.
Without the aid and assistance of the pioneers,or their immedi- ate descendants, and numerous notes from their carefully written, and well preserved diaries, the task would have been far more arduous and difficult. To the patriarchs of the past, who have so favored us; as well as to the representative men of the present we tender our grateful acknowledgement. Among those we take especial pleasure in mentioning are J. H. Powers, Jos. F. Grawe, B. A. Billings, L. E. Smith, W. R. Mead and John E. Peck, whose retentive memories, and carefully preserved newspaper files and general records, have added largely to whatever of interest may be found in this volume.
The undertaking of the publisher completed, it only remains to tender to the people of Howard and Chickasaw counties in gene- ral, his obligations and acknowledgement, for the uniform kind- ness and courtesy extended to him and his representatives and agents, during the preparation of these annals, as well as for their liberal patronage, without which this history would have been left buried beneath the debris of time, unwritten and unprepared.
Respectfully,
W. E. ALEXANDER.
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1
HISTORY OF IOWA.
DISCOVERY AND OCCUPATION.
The name Iowa is said to signify "The Beautiful Land," and was applied to this magnificent and fruitful region by its ancient. owners, to express their appreciation of its superiority of climate, soil and location. Prior to 1803, the Mississippi River was the extreme western boundary of the United States. All the great Empire lying west of the "Father of Waters," from the Gulf of Mexico on the south, to British America on the north, and west- ward to the Pacific Ocean, was a Spanish province. A brief his- torical sketch of the discovery and occupation of this great em- pire by the Spanish and French governments will be a fitting in- troduction to the young and thriving state of Iowa, which, until the commencement of the present century, was a- part of the Spanish possessions in America.
Early in the spring of 1542, Ferdinand DeSoto discovered the mouth of the Mississippi River at the mouth of the Washita. After the sudden death of DeSoto, in May, of the same year, his followers built a small vessel, and in July, 1543, descended the great river to the Gulf of Mexico.
In accordance with the usage of nations, under which title to the soil was claimed by right of discovery, Spain, having con- quered Florida and discovered the Mississippi, claimed all the ter- ritory bordering on that river and the Gulf of Mexico. But it was also held by the European nations that, discovery gave title,. that title must be perfected by actual possession and occupation. Although Spain claimed the territory by right of first discovery, she made no effort to occupy it ; by no permanent settlement had she perfected and held her title, and therefore had forfeited it when, at a later period, the Lower Mississippi Valley was re-dis- covered and occupied by France.
The labors of the zealous French Jesuits of Canada in pene- trating the unknown rigion of the West, commencing in 1611, form a history of no ordinary interest, but have no particular con- nection with the scope of the present work, until in the fall of 1665. Pierre Claude Allouez, who had entered Lake Superior in Septem- ber and sailed along the southern coast in search of copper, had arrived at the great village of the. Chippewas at Chegoincegon. Here a grand council of some ten or twelve of the principal Indian nations was held. The Pottawatomies of Lake Michigan, and Sacs and Foxes of the West, the Hurons from the North, the Illinois.
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HISTORY OF IOWA.
from the South, and the Sioux from the land of prairie and wild rice, were all assembled there. The Illinois told the story of their ancient glory, and about the noble river on the banks of which they dwelt. The Sioux also told their white brother of the same great river, and Allouez promised to the assembled tribes the protection of the French nation against all their enemies, native or foreign.
The purpose of discovering the great river about which the In- dian nations had given such glowing accounts, appears to have originated with Marquette, in 1669. In the year previous, he and Claude Dablon had established the Mission of St. Mary's, the old- est white settlement within the present limits of the state of Mich- igan. Marquette was delayed in the execution of his great under- taking, and spent the interval in studying.the language and hab- its of the Illinois Indians, among whom he expected to travel.
About this time the French government had determined to ex- tend the Dominion of France to the extreme western borders of Canada. Nicholas Perrott was sent as the agent of the govern- ment to propose a grand council of the Indian nation, at St. Mary's.
When Perrot reached Green Bay, he extended the invitation far and near ; and, escorted by Pottawatomies, repaired on a mis- sion of peace and friendship to the Miamis, who occupied the re- gion about the present location of Chicago.
In May, 1671, a great council of Indians gathered at the Falls of St. Mary, from all parts of the northwest, from the head waters of the St. Lawrence, from the valley of the Mississippi and from the Red River of the North. Perrot met with them, and after grave consultation, formally announced to the assembled nations that their good French Father felt an abiding interest in their wel- fare, and had placed them all under the powerful protection of the French Government.
Marquette, during that same year had gathered at Point St. Ignace the remnants of one branch of the Hurons. This station, for a long series of years, was considered the key to the unknown West.
The time was now auspicious for the consummation of Mar- quette's grand project. The successful termination of Perrott's mission, and the general friendliness of the native tribes, rendered the contemplated expedition much less perilous. But it was not until, 1673 that the intrepid and enthusiastic priest was finally ready to depart on his daring and perilous journey to lands never trod by white men. Having implored the blessing of God upon his undertaking, on the 13th day of May, 1673, with Joliet and five Canadian-French voyageurs, or boatmen, he left the mission on his daring journey. Ascending Green Bay and Fox River, these bold and enthusiastic pioneers of religion and discovery pro- ceeded until they reached a Miami and Kickapoo village, where
11
HISTORY OF IOWA.
Marquette was delighted to find a "beautiful cross planted in the middle of the town, ornamented with white skins, red girdles; and bows and arrows, which these good people had offered to the Great Manitou, or God, to thank Him for the pity He had bestowed on them during the winter, in having given them abundant chase." This was the extreme point beyond which the explorations of the French missionaries had not then extended. He called together the principal men of the village, and informed them that his com- panion, Joliet, had been sent by the French Governor of Canada to discover new countries, to be added to the dominion of France ; but that he, himself, had been sent by the Most High God, to carry the glorious religion of the Cross ; and assured his wonder- ing hearers that on this mission he had no fear of death, to which he knew he would be exposed on his perilous journey.
Obtaining the services of two Miami guides, to conduct his little band to the Wisconsin River, he left the hospitable Indians on the 10th of June. Conducting them across the portage, their Indian guides returned to their village, and the little party de- scended the Wisconsin, to the great river which had so long been so anxiously looked for, and boldly floated down its unknown waters.
On the 25th of June, the explorers discovered indications of In- dians on the west bank of the river, and landed a little above the mouth of the river now known as Des Moines, and for the first time European trod the soil of Iowa. Leaving the Canadians to guard the canoe, Marquette and Joliet boldly followed the trail in- to the interior for fourteen miles (some authorities say six), to an Indian village situated on the banks of a river, and discovered two other villages, on the rising ground about a half a league dis- tant. Their visit, while it created much astonishment, did not seem to be entirely unexpected, for there was a tradition or prophecy among the Indians that white visitors were to come to them'. They were, therefore, received with great respect and hos- pitality, and were cordially tendered the calumet or pipe of peace. They were informed that this band was a part of the Illini nation, and that their village was called Monin-gou-ma or Moingona, which was the name of the river on it stood. This from its simi- larity of sound, Marquette corrupted into Des Moines (Monk's- River) its present name.
Here the voyagers remained six days, learning much of the manners and customs of their new friends. The new religion they boldly preached, and the authority of the King of France they proclaimed were received without hostility or remonstrance by their savage entertainers. On their departure, they were ac- companied to their canoes by the chiefs and hundreds of warriors. Marquette received from them the sacred calumet, the eniblem of peace and safeguard among the nations, and re-embarked for the rest of their journey.
12
HISTORY OF IOWA.
In 1682, LaSalle descended the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mex- ico, and in the name of the King of France took formal possession of all the immense region watered by the great river and its tribu- taries from its source to its mouth, and named it Louisiana, in honor of his master, Louis XIV. At the close of the seventeenth century, France claimed, by right of discovery and occupancy, the whole valley of the Mississippi and its tributaries, including Texas, as far as the Rio del Norte.
In 1719, Phillipe Francis Renault arrived in Illinois with two hundred miners and artisans. The war between France and Spain at this time rendered it extremely probable that the Mississippi Valley might become the theater of Spanish hostilities against the French settlements ; to prevent this, as well as to extend French claims, a chain of forts was begun, to keep open the connection between the mouth and the source of the Mississippi. Fort Or- leans. high up the Missouri River, was built as an outpost in 1720.
The Mississippi scheme was at the zenith of its power and glory in January, 1720, but the gigantic bubble collapsed more suddenly than it had been inflated, and the company was declared hope- lessly bankrupt in May following. France was impoverished by it, both private and public credit was overthrown, capitalists sud- denly found themselves paupers, and labor was left without em- ployment. The effect on the colony of Louisiana was very dis- astrous.
While this was going on in Lower Louisiana the region about the lakes was the theater of Indian hostilities, rendering the passage from Canada to Louisiana extremely dangerous for many years. The English had not only extended their Indian trade in- to the vicinity of the French settlement, but through their friends, the Iroquois, had gained a marked ascendancy over the Foxes, a fierce and powerful tribe, of Iroquois descent, whom they incited to hostilities against the French: The Foxes began their hos- tilities with the siege of Detroit, in 1712, a siege which continued for nineteen consecutive days, and although the expedition re- sulted in diminishing their numbers and humbling their pride, yet it was not until after several successive campaigns, embodying the best military resources of New France, had been directed against them, that they were finally defeated at the great battles of Butte des Morts, and on the Wisconsin river, and driven west in 1746.
The Company, having found that the cost of defending Louisi- ana exceeded the returns from its commerce, solicited leave to sur- render the Mississippi wilderness to the home government. Ac- cordingly, on the 10th of April, 1732, the jurisdiction and control over the commerce reverted to the crown of France. The Com- pany had held possession of Louisiana fourteen years. In 1725, Bienville returned to assume command for the King.
A glance at a few of the old French settlement will show the progress made in portions of Louisiana during the early part of
1
13
HISTORY OF IOWA.
the eighteenth century. As early as 1705, traders and hunters had penetrated the fertile regions of the Wabash, and from this region at that early date, fifteen thousand hides and skins had been col- lected and sent to Mobile for the European market.
In the year 1716, the French population on the Wabash kept up a lucrative commerce with Mobile by means of traders and voyag- eurs. The Ohio river was comparatively unknown.
In 1746, agriculture on the Wabash had attained to greater prosperity than in any of the French settlements besides, and in that year six hundred barrels of flour were manufactured and shipped to New Orleans, together with considerable quantities of hay, peltry, tallow and beeswax.
In the Illinois country, also, considerable settlement had been made, so that, in 1730, they embraced one hundred and forty French families, about six hundred "converted Indians," and many, traders and voyageurs.
In 1753, the first actual conflict arose between Louisiana and the Atlantic colonies. From the earliest advent of the Jesuit fathers, up to the period of which we speak, the great ambition of the French had been, not alone to preserve their possessions in the West, but by every possible means to prevent the slightest attempt of the English, east of the mountains, to extend their settlement towards the Mississippi. France was resolved on retaining posses- sion of the great territory which her missionaries had discovered and revealed to the world. French commandants had avowed their intention of seizing every Englishman within the Ohio Valley.
The colonies of Pennsylvania, New York and Virginia were most affected by the encroachments of France in the extension of her dominion ; and particularly in the great scheme of uniting Canada with Louisiana. To carry out this purpose the French had taken possession of a tract of country claimed by Virginia, and had commenced a line of forts extending from the lakes to the Ohio River. Virginia was not only alive to her own interests, but attentive to the vast importance of an immediate and effectual re- sistance on the part of all the English colonies to the actual and contemplated enrochments of the French.
In 1753, Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia, sent George Washing- ton, then a young man, just twenty-one, to demand of the French commandant "a reason for invading British Dominions while a solid peace subsisted." Washington met the French commandant Gardeur de St. Pierre, on the headwaters of the Alleghany, and having communicated to him the object of his journey, received the insolent answer that the French would not discuss the matter. of right, but would make prisoners of every Englishman found trading on the Ohio and its waters. The country, he said, belong- ed to the French, by virtue of the discoveries of LaSalle, and they would not withdraw from it.
4
14
HISTORY OF IOWA.
In January, 1754, Washington returned to Virginia, and made his report to the Governor and Council. Forces were at once rais- ed, and Washington as Lieutenant Colonel, was dispatched at the head of a hundred and fifty men, to the Forks of the Ohio, with orders to "finish the fort already begun there by the Ohio company, and to make prisoners, kill or destroy all who interrupted the English settlements."
On his march through the forests of Western Pennsylvania, Washington, through the aid of friendly Indians, discovered the French concealed among the rocks, and as they ran to seize their arms, ordered his men to fire upon them, at the same time, with his own musket, setting the example. An action lasting about a quarter of an hour ensued ; ten of the Frenchmen were killed, among them Jumonville, the commander of the party, and twenty one were made prisoners. The dead were scalped by the Indians, and the chief, bearing a tomahawk and a scalp, visited all the tribes of the Miamis, urging them to join the Six Nations and the Eng- lish against the French. The French, however, were soon re-en- forced and Col. Washington was compelled to return to Fort Ne- cessity. Here, on the 3d day of July, DeVilliers invested the fort with 600 French troops and 100 Indians. On the 4th, Washing- ton accepted terms of capitulation and the French garrison with- drew from the valley of the Ohio.
This attack of Washington' upon Jumonville aroused the indig- nation of France, and war was formerly declared in May, 1756, and the "French and Indian war" devastated the colonies for seve- ral years. Montreal, Detroit, and all Canada were surrendered to the English, aud on the 10th of February, 1763, by the treaty of Paris-which had been signed, though not formerly ratified by the respective governments, on the third of November, 1762- France relinquished to Great Britain all that portion of the prov- ince of Louisiana lying on the east side of the Mississippi, except the Island and town of New Orleans. On the same day that the treaty of Paris was signed, France, by a secret treaty, ceded to Spain all her possessions on the west side of the Mississippi, includ- ing the whole country to the headwaters of the Great River, and west to the Rocky Mountains, and the jurisdiction of France in America, which had lasted nearly a century, was ended.
At the close of the Revolutionary war, by the treaty of peace be- tween Great Britain and the United States, the English govern- ment ceded to the latter all the territory on the east side of the Mississippi River, and north of the thirty-first parallel of north latitude. At the same time Great Britain eeded to Spain all the Floridas, comprising all the territory east of the Mississippi and south of the southern limits of the United States.
At this time, therefore, the present State of Iowa was a part of the Spanish possessions in North America, as all the territory west.
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HISTORY OF IOWA.
of the Mississippi River was under the dominion of Spain. That government also possessed all the territory of the Floridas east of the great river and south of the thirty-first parallel of north lati- tude. The Mississippi, therefore, so essential to the prosperity of the western portion of the United States, for the last three hundred miles of its course flowed wholly within the Spanish dominions, and that government claimed the exclusive right to use and control it below the southern boundary of the United States.
The free navigation of the Mississippi was a very important question during all the time that Louisiana remained a dependency of the Spanish Crown, and as the final settlement intimately affect- ed the status of the then future state of Iowa, it will be interesting to trace its progress.
The people of the United States occupied and exercised jurisdic- tion over the entire eastern valley of the Mississippi, embracing all the country drained by its eastern tributaries ; they had a natural right, according to the accepted international law, to follow these rivers to the sea, and to the use of the Mississippi River accord- ingly, as the great natural channel of commerce. The river was not only necessary but absolutely indispensible to the prosperity and growth of the western settlement then rapidly rising into com- mercial and political importance. They were situated in the heart of the great valley, and with wonderful expansive energies and ac- cumulating resources, it was very evident that no power on earth could deprive them of the free use of the river below them, only while their numbers were insufficient to enable them to maintain their rights by force. Inevitably, therefore, immediately after the ratification of the treaty in 1785, the western people began to de- mand the free navigation of the Mississippi-not as a favor, but as a right. In 1786 both banks of the river, below the Ohio, were occupied by Spain, and military posts on the east bank enforced- her power to exact heavy duties on all imports by way of the river for the Ohio region. Every boat descending the river was forced to land and submit to the arbitrary revenue exactions of Spanish authorities. Under the administration of Governor Miro, these rigorous exactions were somewhat relaxed from 1787 to 1790; but Spain held it as her right to make them. Taking advantage of the claim of the American people, that the Mississippi should be opened to them, in 1791, the Spanish Government concocted a scheme for the dismembership of the Union. The plan was to induce the Western people to separate from the Eastern States by liberal land grants and extraordinary commer- cial privileges.
Spanish emissaries, among the people of Ohio and Kentucky, informed them that the Spanish Government would grant them favorable commercial privileges, provided they would secede from the Federal Government east of the mountains. The Spanish
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HISTORY OF IOWA.
Minister to the United States plainly declared to his confiden- tial correspondent that, unless the Western people would declare their independence and refuse to remain in the Union, Spain was determined never to grant the free navigation of the Missis- sippi.
By the treaty of Madrid, October 20, 1795, however, Spain for- mally stipulated that the Mississippi River, from its source to the Gulf for its entire width, should be free to American trade and commerce and that the people of the United States should be per- mitted for three years to use the port of New Orleans as a port of deposit of their merchandise and produce, duty free.
In November, 1810, the United States Government received, through Rufus King, its Minister at the Court of St. James, a copy copy of the treaty between Spain and France, signed at Madrid, March 21, 1801, by which the cession of Louisiana to France made the previous autumn, was confirmed.
The change offered a favorable opportunity to secure the just rights of the United States, in relaton to the free navigation of the Mississippi, and ended the attempt to dismember the Union by an effort to secure an indendent government west of the Alleghany Mountains. On 7th day of January, 1803, the American House of Representatives adopted a resolution declaring their "un- alterable petermination to maintain the boundaries and the rights of navigation and commerce through the River Mississippi, as es- tablished by existing treaties."
In the same month President Jefferson nominated and the Sen- ate confirmed Robert R. Livingston and James Monroe as Envoys Plenipotentiary to the Court of France, and Charles Pinckney and James Monroe to the Court of Spain, with plenty of power to ne- gotiate treaties to effect to object the enunciated by the popular branch of the National Legislature. These envoys were instructed to secure, if possible, the cession of Florida and New Orleaans to the United States, but it does not appear that Mr. Jefferson had any idea of purchasing that part of Louisiana lying on the west side of the Mississippi. In fact, on the 2d of March following the instructions were sent to our Ministers, containing a plan which expressly left to France "all her territory on the west side of the Mississippi." Had these instructions been followed, it might have been that there would not have been any State of Iowa or any other member of the glorious Union of States west of the Father of Waters.
In obedience to his instructions, however, Mr. Livingston broached this plan to M. Talleyrand, Napoleon's Prime Minister, when that courtly diplomatist quietly suggested to the American Minister that France might be willing to cede the whole French dominion in North America to the United States, and asked how much the Federal Government would be willing to give for it. Livingston intimated that twenty million francs might be a fair
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