History of Jackson County, Iowa; Volume I, Part 1

Author: Ellis, James Whitcomb, 1848-; Clarke, S. J., publishing company
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 730

USA > Iowa > Jackson County > History of Jackson County, Iowa; Volume I > Part 1

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HISTORY

OF -

JACKSON COUNTY IOWA

HON. JAMES W. ELLIS

VOLUME I

ILLUSTRATED

CHICAGO S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING CO.

1910

Amaky Heel 50,00 12-4-65 2 vols. P.O. 1534

1339786

INTRODUCTORY.

The world is progressing to-day, The world is growing better they say.

And we like to believe it is true, great achievements are being accomplished each day; the hitherto impossible has been made possible; railroads now pass under and over highest mountains; and wireless messages are flashed from one continent to another ; aerial navigation has been accomplished, ships heavier than air now traverse the upper regions going and coming at will at a speed of one hundred miles an hour.

The pioneer farmers of Iowa carried their produce to markets with teams, their sons now go to market in automobiles. The journey to the north pole, which has been the goal of daring adventurers for more than three centuries, has been accomplished by an American, who has been able to return with reports of his discoveries.

History is being made every hour, and evolution is going on continually, and the history of evolution should be recorded lest we lose sight of the past in con- templating the present and in anticipating future. The Historical Society of Jackson county is striving to collect and preserve the early history of our county as well as the events in which we ourselves have lived and had a part.

Seventy-six years ago the first white man so far as we have any reliable account, entered within the boundaries of Jackson county. Seventy-six years seems a short space of time when we reflect that we have nine people now living in the city of Maquoketa, Jackson county, who have passed the four score and ten mark, and we have two men living in the city of Maquoketa who have re- sided in this vicinity continuously for a period of seventy-two years.

We have prepared the history of the county which begins with the passing of the red man and the coming of the white. As but one attempt has been made to publish a history of Jackson county and that fully thirty years ago, and from the further fact that the history of 1879 was very unsatisfactory at the time of pub- lication, and was pronounced by the old pioneers then living to be contradictory, unreliable, and biased, and from still further fact that the evolution of time has added much that ought to be recorded, thus the writer has been induced to take charge of the work of compiling the historical part, and we trust that the story that we have prepared for this important work is a plain, truthful tale, un- varnished, unprejudiced, and unbiased.

The writer is a son of a pioneer of Jackson county and has spent fifty-seven years of his life among the pioneers of the county, has been intimately acquainted with most of the earliest settlers, including the first white man who actually set- tled in the county. Aside from the historical part, the work consists of to- pography, geography, geology, soil, climate, trees, flowers, county, township, and town organization, resources, crops and live stock, business, profession, banking, educational and religious, and Jackson county in three wars: Mexican, Civil and Spanish-American wars.

We thank all who have assisted us in compiling this work, which was our first experience in this line and we do not claim that it is perfect but it is the best we could do with the limited time and facts at our disposal.

Amillis

HISTORICAL.

THE STATE OF IOWA.

Prior to the year 1762 the territory now included in the state of Iowa was claimed by Spain, England and France. Through preliminary treaty in 1762, carried into effect in 1763, France was conceded ownership of that part of the disputed territory lying west of the Mississippi River, but while negotiations were pending France secretly ceded these possessions to Spain. In 1769 Spain took formal possession and retained control until 1800, and then under treaty agreement re-ceded the territory to France.

The original claim of France to this territory was based on discoveries by Jaques Marquette and Louis Joliet, who in the course of their wandering's floated down the Wisconsin River to its mouth and then down the Mississippi. They are said to have been the first white men to set foot on what was afterwards Iowa soil. On their way down the Mississippi they discovered footprints and a pathway on the west bank of the Mississippi near the mouth of the Des Moines River, and going ashore soon found an Indian village where they stopped for a friendly visit. This was in the summer of 1673. It was following their dis- coveries that the King of France named the vast extent of country to which claim was made, the Province of Louisiana.

In 1803 the United States paid to France the sum of fifteen million dollars for all its rights and title to the territory in question which transaction has since been known as the "Louisiana Purchase." The territory acquired now constitutes all of Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska and parts of Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota; however, the United States in 1819 by treaty recognized that the northern line of Mexico extended north so as to include within its limits that part of Texas and New Mexico and a portion of the grant in Colorado, Kansas, and Wyoming which had been included within the Louisiana Purchase. It embraced an area of about eight hundred and seventy-five thousand and twenty-five square miles or five hundred and sixty million, sixteen thousand acres. Undoubtedly the boundary lines of the territory acquired by the purchase were but vaguely understood and not clearly defined at the time of the transfer.

On the acquirement of this territory in 1803 the Congress of the United States provided for its government. In 1804 Congress passed an act dividing the terri- tory along the thirty-third parallel, naming the southern part, the territory of Orleans, and the northern part, the district of Louisiana. In 1805 the district of Louisiana was organized as the territory of Louisiana and in 1812 the terri- tory of Louisiana was reorganized and its name changed to the territory of Missouri. In 1819 the territory of Arkansas was organized taking in the present area of the state and some additional on the west.

HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY'

In 1821 the state of Missouri was organized and admitted as a state in its present form. The remaining portion of what had been the territory of Missouri was left for a time without any organized form of government. In 1834 the unorganized part of Missouri territory was attached to and made a part of the territory of Michigan. In 1836 the territory of Wisconsin was or- ganized, including what now constitutes the states of Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa. On July 4, 1838, the territory of Iowa was organized embracing that part of Wisconsin territory lying west of the Mississippi River and north of the state of Missouri. In 1840 and 1842 elections were held in Iowa territory to vote on the question of holding a constitutional convention but in each case the proposition was defeated. In 1844 the question was again submitted and carried. Following this delegates were elected and a convention held at Iowa City, which convened October 7, 1844, and agreed upon a constitution and boundary lines for a new state. These lines included a large part of the present State of Minnesota but excluded a tract embracing all of the present counties of Lyon, Osceola and Sioux and parts of Dickinson, O'Brien, Plymouth and Wood- bury. The proposed constitution, with outlines of territory for the proposed state, was submitted to Congress for approval, but that body saw fit to change the proposed boundary lines, and when it was submitted to the people at an election in April, 1845, it was voted down.

In August of the same year the question of adopting the constitution as it came from the convention was voted on and defeated.

Another constitutional convention convened at Iowa City on May 4, 1846, and agreed to a constitution with provisions for state boundaries identical with those of the state at this time, and also in harmony with a statehood bill then pending in Congress. This constitution was adopted by the people at an election held August 3, 1846, the vote being nine thousand four hundred and ninety-two for and nine thousand thirty-six against the constitution. This action by the people of the proposed state was ratified by Congress and on December 28, 1846, Iowa was admitted as the twenty-ninth state of the Union. The question of amending or revising the constitution was agitated in 1854 and the Fifth General Assembly passed an act approved January 24, 1855, providing for the submission at the general election in August, 1856, of a proposition for holding a convention to revise or amend the same. The proposition carried and at a special election held the following November delegates were selected to meet at Iowa City in January, 1857. This convention formulated the present constitution of the state and it was adopted by the people at an election held August 3, 1857, by a vote of forty thousand, three hundred and eleven for to thirty thousand, six hundred and eighty-one against the constitution. It went into effect by proclamation of the governor dated September 3, 1857.

By the provisions of the new constitution the capital of the state was located at Des Moines and the State University was located at Iowa City.

The first session of the legislature of Wisconsin territory was held at Bel- mont in Iowa county (now La Fayette county), Wisconsin, commencing in Oc- tober, 1836. This assembly selected Madison as the permanent capital of the territory and provided that until the capitol was completed that the legislature should meet at Burlington, Demoine county. Accordingly the second session of the legislature of Wisconsin territory was held at Burlington beginning in November, 1837 ; a special session also met there in June, 1838. On the creation of Iowa territory the first legislative assembly met at Burlington in November, 1838. At this session an act was passed appointing a commission to select a site within the limits of Johnson county for the permanent seat of government. The commission located and laid out a town to be called Iowa City and com- menced the erection of the new capitol. The removal from Burlington took place in April, 1841, and the third session of the legislative assembly convened at Iowa City in December, 1841. After the admission of Iowa into the Union there arose a demand for a more central location of the seat of government and

HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY

the first general assembly appointed a commission to relocate the capital and authorized it to survey and plat the town and sell a certain number of lots. This commission selected Monroe City in Jasper county and surveyed and sold the lots but the location proved so unpopular that the next session of the gen- eral assembly terminated the functions of the commissioners, declared Monroe City vacated and provided for the refunding of the purchase money paid for the lots. The agitation for a new location of the capital continued until the general assembly in 1854 provided for the new capital to be located within two miles of the Raccoon Forks of the Des Moines River. Commissioners were ap- pointed who selected the site and a company of private individuals erected the building, which was afterwards purchased by the state. It was a plain brick building located where the soldiers' monument now stands. The removal from Iowa City to Des Moines took place in the fall and early winter of 1857. The first steps toward the erection of the present capitol building were taken by the twelfth general assembly in 1868, when an act was passed providing for the procuring of plans and specifications. In 1870 the legislature made an appro- priation for the beginning of the structure and on November 23, 1871, its corner stone was laid. The building was dedicated on January 17, 1884.

The first codification of the laws of the state was made in 1851 and in 1860 a revision was made and published. In 1873 and again in 1897 the state recodified the laws and issued new codes. Since the publication of the Code of 1897 the state has issued a code supplement following each third session of the general assembly, the supplement containing all changes and additions to the laws appear- ing in the code. The first of these supplements was issued in 1902 and the second in 1907.

The first white settlement within the present limits of the state was made by Julien Dubuque and a small band of fellow French-Canadians in 1788. They worked the lead mines and traded with the Indians, shipping lead and furs in small boats to St. Louis and bringing back merchandise and supplies of various kinds for their own use and for trade to the natives. Dubuque died in 1810 when the settlement was abandoned. Other early French traders were Basil Girard who in 1795 located within the limits of the present county of Clayton, living there for several years, and Louis Honori, who from 1799 to 1803 had a trading post near the present town of Montrose, in Lee county. In 1804 Captains Lewis and Clarke of the United States Army, while on their ex- ploration trip to the Pacific coast, passed up the Missouri River and blazed a historic pathway on the western border of our present state. While camped at a point near the present site of Sioux City, one of the members of their party, Sergeant Charles Floyd, was taken sick and died. He was buried on a high bluff near the river, since called Floyd's Bluff, and where recently a monument was erected to his memory at the expense of the state. It was nearly thirty years after this, about 1833, that the permanent settlement of the state of Iowa was begun. Previous to 1833 at various points along the west bank of the Mis- sissippi River cabins, were erected by white settlers, but on account of trouble with the Indians, and through forced compliance with the terms of treaties en- tered into between the government and Indian tribes, enforced by United States troops, the settlers were compelled to move across the river to its eastern shore.

Various tribes of Indians occupied the country at that time, the most im- portant of which were the Sacs, Foxes, Sioux, Winnebagoes, Pottawattamies and Iowas. From the time of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 down to the year 1851, various treaties were entered into between the United States government and the various Indian tribes, all tending to the ultimate occupation and owner- ship of the country by the whites. The first of these treaties was entered into in November. 1804, by the terms of which the Sac and Fox Indians conveyed to the United States practically all of their lands east of the Mississippi River. In 1808 a military post was established on the west side of the Mississippi River on Indian lands and named Fort Madison. This was in violation of treaty

HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY

stipulations and the Indians resented it. They interpreted this as an abrogation of the treaty and at once became hostile, aiding and assisting the English in the war of 1812. As a result of various attacks on Fort Madison by the Indians in 1812 and 1813, the post was abandoned. On September 13, 1815, another treaty was entered into with the Sac Indians which reaffirmed the treaty of 1804. On September 14th of the same year a similar treaty was entered into with the Fox Indians; also one on September 16th with the Iowas. A treaty was also made with the Sioux Indians on July 19, 1815.

On August 4, 1824, another treaty was concluded with the Sac and Fox tribes by which the Indians relinquished to the United States all of their terri- tory in the state of Missouri and a tract in southeastern Iowa between the Mississippi and Des Moines Rivers south of a line drawn from the point where the Missouri state line touches the Des Moines River due east to the Mississippi River. A good many trappers and traders had married Indian women and settled in this locality and the three-cornered piece of country was afterward known as the "Half Breed Tract."

August 19, 1825, a treaty was concluded by the Indian commissioners, Clark and Cass, with several tribes, including the Sacs, Foxes, Pottawattamies, Winne- bagoes, Sioux and some others, fixing the boundary lines of lands belonging to each tribe. The only boundary line of importance established in Iowa under this treaty was one dividing the possessions of the Sioux from those of the Sac and Fox Indians. The lands of the Sioux were to the north and those of the Sac and Fox tribes to the south of a line described as follows : "Commencing at the mouth of the upper Iowa River on the west bank of the Mississippi and ascending the said Iowa River to its left fork; thence up that fork to its source ; thence crossing the fork of the Red Cedar River in a direct line to the second or upper fork of the Des Moines River; thence in a direct line to the lower fork of the Calumet River and down that river to its juncture with the Missouri River." This with other lines established became known as the Clark and Cass boundary lines. On account of the extreme hostility between the Sioux and Sac and Fox Indians, an agreement was brought about resulting in the setting apart of a strip of country extending twenty miles each way from the Clark and Cass line between the possessions of the above tribes to be called the "Neutral Ground." It was agreed that the members of either tribe might hunt and fish anywhere on this strip of neutral ground without being disturbed by the others, but woe to the Indian who was caught by his enemies on the wrong side of this dividing belt of country. July 15, 1830, this neutral strip was con- veyed to the United States, the Sioux Indians ceding the twenty mile strip on the north of the boundary line and the Sacs and Foxes the twenty mile strip on the south. On the same date treaties were effected with the Sac, Fox, Sioux, Omahas, Iowa, Otto and Missouri tribes by which these tribes ceded to the United States a considerable portion of the western part or so-called Missouri slope of Iowa.

In 1832 there occurred a war with the Indians known as the Black Hawk war. Black Hawk was a Sac chief and the leader of the Sac and Fox Indians who refused to move from the ceded territory in Illinois. In 1831 they were practically forced to move across the river by imperative governmental orders backed by a large force of the United States troops and the state militia. The following spring, their numbers having been swelled by volunteers from several tribes in Iowa, they recrossed the Mississippi River with Black Hawk in com- mand, and there followed a brief but sanguinary war which lasted until late in the summer. The capture of Black Hawk ended the war. The war was followed by a treaty, concluded September 15, 1832, with the Winnebago Indians, who had assisted Black Hawk in his struggle, by which they ceded all their lands on the east side of the Mississippi River in exchange for the "Neutral Ground" in Iowa; and on September 21, 1832, by a treaty with the Sac and Fox Indians by which they relinquished that portion of Iowa known as the

HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY'

"Black Hawk Purchase" containing six million acres of land and lying im- mediately west of the Mississippi River, between the "Neutral Ground" on the north and the Missouri state line on the south. Four hundred square miles on the Iowa River were reserved out of this purchase for the use of the Sac and Fox Indians, which included Keokuk's village on its right bank. This was known as "Keokuk's Reserve." Again on October 21, 1837, the same tribes ceded a tract of one million, two hundred and fifty thousand acres of land lying immediately west of the Black Hawk Purchase, between the "Neutral Ground" and the Missouri state line. At the same time they relinquished all rights to the country lying south of the Clark and Cass boundary line between the Mis- sissippi and Missouri Rivers and on October II, 1842, they ceded all their title to lands west of the Mississippi River. The Winnebagoes on October 16, 1846, ceded the "Neutral Ground" in Iowa to the United States in exchange for a tract of land north of St. Peter's River on the upper Mississippi. The Sioux Indians for many years claimed all of Iowa, north of these concessions, but in 1851 a treaty was concluded with them by which they relinquished to the government their title to all lands within the state of Iowa. After ceding all of their lands in Iowa by the treaty of 1851, the Sioux were loath to leave northern Iowa. For several years they hunted and fished in the vicinity of the northern Iowa lakes and were continually in trouble with the white settlers These difficulties finally terminated in the massacre which has become known as the "Spirit Lake Massacre." On the morning of March 8, 1857, a band of fifty Indians entered the white settlement on the southern shore of Lake Okoboji. Feigning at first the semblance of friendship, they suddenly as if by a concerted agree- ment, commenced an indiscriminate slaughter. From this point they went north- ward, continuing the slaughter. They remained in the vicinity of Spirit Lake several days when they crossed over to the little settlement of Springfield (now Jackson), Minnesota. At this point they slaughtered several more settlers. At the lakes and at Springfield fifty-three persons are believed to have been killed.

No permanent settlements were made in Iowa until after the close of the Black Hawk war. Shortly after the treaty was concluded white settlers flocked across the Mississippi River into Iowa territory. The first settlements fringed the Mississippi River in southeastern Iowa, the settlers coming from Illinois and other middle states. Following the year 1833 the settlers poured in by the thousands. Allured by the reported beauty and fertility of Iowa they came from all parts of the Union, coming from New York and New England by way of the Erie canal and the great lakes, and from Illinois and Ohio, Kentucky, North Carolina, Missouri and other states by way of the rivers. The eastern part of the present state all along the Mississippi River almost to the northern limit was comparatively thickly settled in 1835 and the tide of settlement from then on crept westward and northward along the Des Moines, Iowa, Cedar and other rivers.

For more than a year after the white settlers commenced to flock into the territory there was no established government in force. Lawlessness pre- vailed to a great extent and it was in response to the demands made by the better element of the settlers that Congress extended the boundaries of Michigan territory west to the Missouri River and north of the Missouri state line. Shortly after the boundaries of Michigan territory were thus extended the legislative council of the territory passed an act creating the counties of Demoine and Dubuque out of the new acquisition. Dubuque county embraced all the territory north of a line drawn due west from the lower end of Rock Island to the Missouri River, and constituted the township of Julien; and Demoine county included all the territory south of this line and constituted the township of Flint Hill. The same act established a county court in each county.

In 1838 there arose a dispute between the state of Missouri and Iowa terri- tory over the question of the true location of the north boundary line of Mis- souri. This dispute came near terminating in civil war. The militia and vol-

HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY'

unteers were called out by both governors and active preparations for open hostilities commenced. But wiser counsel prevailed and the matter was left to the courts to adjudicate. The Supreme Court of the United States settled the question finally and this adjustment was largely favorable to the claims of the state of Iowa.

In 1860 the population of the state was less than seven hundred thousand, yet she furnished nearly eighty thousand volunteer soldiers to help suppress the rebellion. Her forty-seven regiments of infantry, nine of cavalry and four bat- teries of artillery were in the thickest of battle in all of the principal engagements of the war. In commemoration of the sacrifices that were made on the southern battlefields the state, during the past ten years, has spent a quarter of a million dollars in erecting monuments to the courage, valor and sacrifice of her citizen soldiery at Shiloh, Vicksburg, Andersonville and Chattanooga. These monu- ments were dedicated by the governor in November, 1906. In the Spanish- American war the state furnished four regiments of infantry, two batteries of field artillery, a signal company and a company of colored immunes as her quota for the war with Spain.

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History of Jackson County, Iowa; Volume I, Part 1

Author: Ellis, James Whitcomb, 1848-; Clarke, S. J., publishing company Publication date: 1910 Publisher: Chicago, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 730

Author: Ellis, James Whitcomb, 1848-; Clarke, S. J., publishing company
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 730