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Gc 977.701 W19w v.1 1450882
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
BV
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
3 1833 01716 1982
M.C
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
37 50
HARRISON L. WATERMAN
HISTORY OF WAPELLO COUNTY IOWA
HARRISON L. WATERMAN Supervising Editor
· ILLUSTRATED
VOLUME I
CHICAGO THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY 1914
1450882
PREFACE
Wapello County in many of its topographical features is similar to the state as a whole, which consists of level or rolling prairies, with occasional deep valleys, with gentle or abrupt slopes according to the depth the streams lie below the prairie, and the character of the material through which they have carved their courses.
The Des Moines River traverses the county from northwest to south- east, having, with its numerous tributaries, cut its way through the overlying strata of clays, shales and coal beds, down to the limestones, thus exposing to view and making accessible a vast amount of mineral wealth.
Untold ages were required for the forces of nature to make this prep- aration for the habitation of man, but many more thousands of years inter- vened, of which there is little or no record, before civilized man appeared on the scene.
The present history endeavors to give a record of events within the county, beginning with the establishment of the Indian agency in 1838 at what is now the town of Agency.
At that time the valley of the Des Moines and the adjacent hills, a part of which is the present site of Ottumwa, was occupied by the Sacs and Foxes under their chiefs, Wapello and Appanoose.
Under the terms of a treaty, on May 1, 1843, the Indians gave up the territory now comprising the County of Wapello and the white man moved across the border and occupied the land.
All of these occurrences are graphically portrayed by Major Beach, who became Indian agent on the death of General Street, in 1840, and who con- tinued his residence in the county until his death in 1874.
We have given a record of the organization of the several townships, so far as data were obtainable, that of the several towns in the county and of the City of Ottumwa; and the progress and present conditions of agricul- tural, industrial and transportation developments in the county.
In doing this we have used any and all available historical material, reminiscences by early settlers, found in previous histories or in the press, and interviews with a few of the small number of surviving first settlers.
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20.10. 171. 2591 10 801
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PREFACE
Some may complain on account of mention of some individuals and omission of others. Our reply must be that a true history should not merely try to please or exalt the individual, but to use him only so far as he was instrumental in recording or shaping things that make for the growth and well-being of the community.
Viewed from this standpoint, we confidently believe the history sub- mitted will stand the test of any fair criticism.
THE PUBLISHERS.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
9
CHAPTER II
INDIAN TREATIES AND THE NEW PURCHASE.
17
CHAPTER III
INDIAN AGENCY IN WAPELLO COUNTY
23
CHAPTER IV
FILE SADLY O'ER THE PRAIRIE INTO A STRANGE COUNTRY.
45
CHAPTER V
THE PIONEERS
55
CHAPTER VI
PIONEER LIFE
71
CHAPTER VII
GEOLOGY OF WAPELLO COUNTY.
83
CHAPTER VIII
WAPELLO COUNTY ORGANIZED
97
CHAPTER IX
GOVERNMENTAL
109
CHAPTER X
OTTUMWA IS INCORPORATED
117
5
6
CONTENTS CHAPTER XI
SOUTH OTTUMWA
I33
CHAPTER XII
POSTOFFICE
I37
CHAPTER XIII
FINANCIAL
143
CHAPTER XIV
INDUSTRIAL
149
CHAPTER XV
TRANSPORTATION
161
CHAPTER XVI
RELIGIOUS
165
CHAPTER XVII
EDUCATIONAL
187
CHAPTER XVIII
THE MEDICAL PROFESSION .
193
CHAPTER XIX
THE BENCH AND BAR.
..
..
199
CHAPTER XX
THE PRESS
... . 225
CHAPTER XXI
PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS
231
CHAPTER XXII
FRATERNITIES AND SOCIETIES.
245
CHAPTER XXIII
PUBLIC IMPROVEMENT THAT FAILED 255
CONTENTS CHAPTER XXIV
CENTER TOWNSHIP
267
CHAPTER XXV
WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP
..
. 277
..
CHAPTER XXVI
COLUMBIA TOWNSHIP
291
CHAPTER XXVII
AGENCY TOWNSHIP
.
..
. 305
CHAPTER XXVIII
DAHLONEGA TOWNSHIP
313
CHAPTER XXIX
RICHLAND TOWNSHIP
. 317
CHAPTER XXX
ADAMS TOWNSHIP
323
CHAPTER XXXI
PLEASANT TOWNSHIP
331
CHAPTER XXXII
COMPETINE TOWNSHIP
335
CHAPTER XXXIII
GREEN TOWNSHIP
339
CHAPTER XXXIV
POLK TOWNSHIP
343
CHAPTER XXXV
KEOKUK TOWNSHIP
345
CHAPTER XXXVI
HIGIILAND TOWNSHIP 347
7
8
CONTENTS CHAPTER XXXVII
CASS TOWNSHIP 351
CHAPTER XXXVIII
WAPELLO COUNTY IN THE CIVIL WAR. 355
CHAPTER XXXIX
REMINISCENT 411
CHAPTER XL
KELLEY AND IHIS MOTLEY ARMY 427
History of Wapello County
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
Rev. William Salter, a pioneer clergyman of Burlington, was a close student of Iowa history and a voluminous and entertaining writer on sub- jects pertinent thereto. On November 11, 1900, he delivered an address in the Congregational Church of Burlington in commemoration of the meeting of the first Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Iowa, November 3, 1838. His theme gave him a wide range of thought, which he covered in a general way, clearly outlining the salient features of Iowa's history. As the space in this work is limited, the Reverend Salter's address is given the preference to a more extended relation of the many important events be- longing to the history of the state, and follows:
The name of Iowa first appeared a little more than two centuries ago as that of bands of Indians who roamed over the vast region between Lake Michigan and the Missouri River. They were nomads, not like the Arabs, with flocks and herds and some measure of civilization, but in a low stage of savagery, living by the chase and by fishing. They occupied from time to time small villages scattered here and there upon water courses of the region. They were found upon the Milwaukee River in Wisconsin and upon rivers that still bear their name in this state; the Iowa, that has a tortuous course of more than two hundred miles, and the Upper Iowa. For a more continuous period since the discovery of the country than any other tribes, the Iowa Indians had villages in Iowa. Hence the state bears their name.
Upon early maps the interior of North America had been named "New Spain," but no white man looked upon the soil of Iowa until, on the 17th day of June, 1673, James Marquette and Louis Joliet entered the Mississippi from the Wisconsin River, and they beheld the bluffs where the City of McGregor now stands. "We entered the Mississippi with a joy I cannot express," says Marquette. In the eight following days they passed down along the shores of Iowa, seeing no man and no trace of any man until, on
9
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HISTORY OF WAPELLO COUNTY
June 25th, they observed human footprints in the sand on the west side of the river. Thereupon, they left their canoes and followed the trail of those footsteps. Going about six miles, they came to two Indian villages on the Des Moines River. Here they were kindly received and entertained with a dog feast. These Indians called themselves "Illinois." They were bands of a tribe bearing the name of the river where were their chief villages. Longfellow has put Marquette's narrative of his reception into the closing scene of "Hiawatha."
On June 30th the discoverers proceeded down the Mississippi. They went as far as the Arkansas, and, returning, passed up the Illinois River and . over to Lake Michigan. They prepared maps of their discovery. Upon Marquette's map the Mississippi is named "R de la Conception"; what is now Iowa is only marked by two faint lines to indicate rivers, by "Peourea," "Moingouena," indicating the Indian villages visited, and by the names of distant nations, "Otontanta," "Pana," "Maha," "Panoutet," suggesting the Otoes, Pawnees and "Omahaws," as they were called later, and the Iowas under a name given them by the Sioux. The four tribes were of Dakota stock, the Illinois were of Algonquin. Marquette's map was first published in "Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley," by John G. Shea, 1852.
Joliet's map was sent to Paris, where a rough copy was published by Thevenot, 1681. Upon this map the Mississippi is called "Buade," ir. honor of Buade Frontenac, patron of the voyage of discovery, governor of New France.
The next European upon the border of Iowa was Louis Hennepin. In the spring of 1680, with two Frenchmen, he ascended the Mississippi from the mouth of the Illinois River. He carried presents to ingratiate himself with the Indians. Game and fish were found in abundance. A party of Miamis were met crossing from the west to the east of the Mississippi, on whom it was afterwards learned a band of Sioux were seeking revenge for killing their chief's son. Near the mouth of the Wisconsin River, stopping to cook a turkey and repair their canoe, that band of Sioux came down upon them with hideous clamor. Hennepin told them that the Miamis had escaped across the river and would be out of their reach. Whereupon the band took Hennepin captive and returned up the Mis- sissippi.
In the course of the summer (1680), while Hennepin was moving about among the Sioux villages, another French explorer appeared upon the scene De Luth, whose name is preserved in the city at the head of Lake Superior, had threaded his way through the wilderness and swamps between that lake and the Mississippi, and fell in with Hennepin. In the fall they went together down the Mississippi to the Wisconsin, and up that river and over to Green Bay and Mackinaw, retracing from the mouth of the Wiscon-
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HISTORY OF WAPELLO COUNTY
sin the route by which Marquette and Joliet had come to the Mississippi seven years before.
These discoveries were at once followed by a rush of adventurers to the region for trade with the Indians, or in search for mines or to plant missions. Prominent among these adventurers were Nicholas Perrot, Le Seuer and Father Marest.
Meanwhile, on April 9, 1682, La Salle took possession at the mouth of the Mississippi of the whole country watered by its tributaries, in the name of Louis XIV. By that act the soil of Iowa fell under the authority of France. In the exercise of that authority, "in order to make incontestable his majesty's right to the countries discovered by his subjects," Denonville, governor of New France, ordered Nicholas Perrot to take formal pos- session of the Upper Mississippi country, as he did on May 8, 1689.
Meanwhile Le Seuer discovered the mines which he thought of great value in the Sioux country. To obtain miners for working them he went to France, and, after many mishaps, returned with a party of miners. They arrived at the mouth of the Mississippi in December, 1699, and in the spring started up the river, and in the course of the summer ( 1700) passed along the border of Iowa. They encountered upon the river parties of Canadian voyageurs, and on July 30th a Sioux war party intent to avenge the killing of some of their people by the Illinois. Telling them that the King of France did not want the river any longer polluted with blood, Le Seuer gave them presents and induced them to return. He also met "Ajavois," or "Ainoves," another form of "Ioways." They, too, were at war with other tribes.
On August 13th Le Seuer passed the lead mines "on the right and left bank of the Mississippi, then and long after known as "Perrot's mines." On September 5th he passed Bad Axe River, just above the boundary line between Iowa and Minnesota. Continuing in his voyage, he passed up to St. Peter's River and up that river to Blue Earth River, where he made an "establishment." Here he again met "Ioways," with Indians of other tribes.
In these closing years of the seventeenth century, England and France were at war. Each had colonies in America and these colonies embroiled themselves and their respective Indian allies in the barbarities and cruelties of the war. Louis XIV cherished a warm and ambitious regard for New France and Louisiana. He gave their affairs his personal attention and liberal support. No English sovereign gave similar consideration to the English colonies in America. Those colonies grew from their own inde- pendent and self-reliant spirit. As against the despotic imperialism of Louis XIV, they were firm supporters of the Revolution of 1688, which brought William III to the throne of England. The contest raged fiercely in America, as in Europe. In this country it was confined chiefly to the frontiers of the Hudson, Connecticut and Merrimack rivers. The French
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HISTORY OF WAPELLO COUNTY
forts and "establishments" upon the lakes and the Mississippi were aban- doned and the troops. called to the St. Lawrence. So far as the Indians of this region took part, it was on the British side. Upon the final close of the war on this continent, with the fall of Quebec (1759) and the treaty of Paris (1763), what is now Iowa, in common with the whole country between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains, was transferred to Spain, and remained in the possession of Spain until its retrocession to France by secret treaty (1800), and its purchase by the United States in 1803. Mean- while, wandering bands of Indians continued to roam over the soil of Iowa. The vast prairies were known as "buffalo meadows." They were the hunting grounds of tribes who fought each other, as well as the buffaloes, elks, bears and other game.
The aborigines whom the first discoverers of Iowa found here roamed about in small and scattered bands, and were in the lowest stage of savagery. Students of Indian history make this distinction between savagery and barbarism-that savages know nothing of the art of pottery, or use of stone or adobe in building. That was the condition of the aborigines of Iowa. Neither knew they how to construct a chimney. They had no arts or trades. Their only tools or implements were shells, fish bones, the bones and sinews of animals and clubs or spears of wood. Their clothing was of skins, which they decorated with feathers and bears' claws. The only skill or genius of construction they displayed was in their light and graceful canoes of birch bark, which were, aside from journeys on foot, their only mode of trans- portation. The rivers were their highways. They had no horses, cows, sheep, pigs or chickens. They knew not the use of milk as food. They had no wax, oil or iron.
The bands of Illinois and Miami Indians, who were found upon the Des Moines and Mississippi at the time of the discovery of Iowa, soon returned east of the Mississippi. For 150 years after Marquette the country remained a favorite hunting ground for different tribes, chief among them being the Iowas, the Sioux, the Missouris, the Otoes, the Omahaws and the Pawnees. The Sacs and Foxes came later, after they had been severely worsted in wars with the French and with other tribes in the region of the lakes and of Green Bay, when they came in the latter part of the eighteenth century to the banks of the Mississippi. The idea of their owning Iowa by long hereditary possession, or by right of conquest, is fabulous. Bands of them came and established a few villages, because they found the land deserted of its previous occupants, and it was open before them. The idea of a title to land, or of land purchase, was an incongruity foreign to an Indian mind. To him land was as free as air or sunlight and no more subject to bargain or sale. When we speak of Indians selling their land, of our people buying their land, we speak wholly from the standpoint of the white man, from the language of what we call civilization, and, in fact, of what is the beginning of civilization.
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HISTORY OF WAPELLO COUNTY
By the treaty of Paris (1763) this region fell to Spain. But the Spanish · government never interfered with the Indians who were here. It only granted licenses to a few traders in furs, and made two small grants of land on the banks of the Mississippi to traders. One is what is Lee County, at Montrose, the other in Clayton County.
With the Louisiana Purchase by President Jefferson in 1803 what is Iowa fell to the United States. Lewis and Clark passed along our western border in 1804, and Lieutenant Pike along our eastern border in 1805. In the War of 1812 with Great Britain the Sacs and Foxes took the British side and attacked and burned Fort Madison, which the United States had built in 1808. After the close of that war the different Indian tribes in this region made treaties of peace and friendship with the United States, and, though they had wars with one another, no serious disturbance with the United States arose until the Black Hawk war of 1832. Black Hawk was the leader of what was known as the "British band," in distinction from the peace party, of which Keokuk was chief. The Black Hawk war terminated in his utter rout and defeat, and in a treaty by which a long strip of our territory was thrown open to settlement by the white people on and after the Ist day of June, 1833. Then began the transformation of our soil from. a savage wilderness to cultivated fields and golden harvests, to homes of industry and order, to barns bursting with abundance, to schools and churches, and to cities of fair renown.
In advance of the beginning of this transformation, it should never be forgotten that by an act of Congress, approved by President Monroe, slavery was prohibited upon this soil, and the vexing question that had threatened the life of the nation was so predetermined and settled that Iowa became the first free state of the Louisiana Purchase.
After being made a part of Michigan Territory in 1834, and of Wisconsin Territory in 1836, the Territory of Iowa was created in 1838, and the first Legislative Assembly of the territory convened in this city sixty-two years ago, on November 12th. A census taken in 1836 showed that in three years 10,531 persons had come to Iowa. In 1838 the census showed a population of 22,859. Pursuant to law, by appointment of the governor, Robert Lucas, previously the governor of the State of Ohio, an election for members of the Legislative Assembly was held September 10th, and the Assembly convened in Burlington on the 12th day of November.
That day was a great day of interest in Burlington, to which the people had looked forward with eager expectation. The territorial legislature of Wisconsin had met here previously, and the people west of the Mississippi river congratulated themselves on having a separate government of their own. The people had come from every portion of the country. The pro- hibition of slavery here, which had been enacted in 1820, did not prevent a large emigration from the southern states. It encouraged many to come who disapproved of slavery, who came for the very reason that the land was
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HISTORY OF WAPELLO COUNTY
dedicated to Freedom. There were more members who were natives of those states in the first legislative assembly than there were who were natives of the northern states. The whole number of members was 39, of whom 9 were from Virginia, 8 from Kentucky, I from Tennessee, I from Maryland and 2 from North Carolina, making 21, a majority of the whole number. The New England states furnished 5 members-one from Con- necticut, 2 from New Hampshire, 2 from Vermont. New York furnished 4. Pennsylvania 4, Ohio 4, Illinois 1, making 18. The assembly consisted of a council with thirteen members and a house of representatives with twenty- six. The council met in the basement of Old Zion Church, as it was after- wards called; the house of representatives in the upper story. Des Moines county had 8 members, 3 in the council and 5 in the house, a larger repre- sentation than any other county. Jesse B. Browne, of Lee county, was president of the council. He had been a captain in the United States Dragoons, under Gen. Henry Dodge, and was six feet and seven inches in height, the tallest man in the Assembly. William H. Wallace, of Henry county, was speaker of the house. The oldest and youngest members of the assembly were from Des Moines county-Arthur Ingraham, sixty years of age, and James W. Grimes, twenty-two. Fourteen of the members were under thirty years of age, three of whom came to high and honorable positions in the subsequent history of the state. Stephen Hempstead, of Dubuque, became the second governor of the state. Serrano Clinton Hastings, of Muscatine, was a member of six territorial legislatures, in one of which, 1845, he was president of the council. He was one of the first two representatives to Congress from Iowa, 1846-7, chief justice of Iowa in 1848 and afterwards chief justice of California. James W. Grimes was the third governor of the state, 1854-8, and United States senator, 1859-69.
Such were the men who were called to frame the first laws of Iowa. They gave themselves to the task with vigor and industry, and completed it in seventy days. Mr. Grimes was chairman of the judiciary committee in the house of representatives, and all the laws passed through his hands. Their clearness of statement, their freedom from verbiage and ambiguity, is largely due to his critical sagacity and judicious revision, in which he had also the assistance and co-operation of Mr. Hastings, of Muscatine, who was a member of the came committee. By judges learned in the law that code is to this day held in high honor and esteem. Pursuant to an act of the last General Assembly of the state, it has been reprinted this year by the his- torical department of Iowa under the careful eye of Charles Aldrich, the accomplished curator of that department. The laws provided for the admin- istration of justice by courts, for roads and ferries, for common schools and academies, for the punishment of crime, for the erection of a penitentiary at Fort Madison, for the establishment of the seat of government in Johnson county, with a proviso that "for three years the sessions of the legislative assembly shall be held in the town of Burlington." A strenuous effort was
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HISTORY OF WAPELLO COUNTY
made to locate the seat of government at Mount Pleasant, but it was de- feated largely through the determined opposition of Thomas Cox, a repre- sentative from Dubuque, Jackson and Clayton counties.
The governor of the territory was a man of high personal character, firm and unyielding in his convictions of duty and an ardent supporter of education and moral order. With the experience of years and of public service as governor of the State of Ohio, he had an overweening confidence in himself to direct matters of legislation, and entrenched so much upon the rights and prerogatives of the General Assembly as to bring on a bitter controversy with a large majority of the members of the assembly. Fifteen of them who belonged to his own political party were so indignant at his course that they petitioned President Van Buren for his removal from office. Foremost among them were Mr. Hempstead, of Dubuque, and Mr. Hastings, of Muscatine. Among those not of the Democratic party, Mr. Grimes was the leader of the opposition to the course of the governor. The controversy resulted in an act of Congress (March 3, 1839), amending the organic law of the territory and curtailing the governor's power.
By the action of the legislative assembly the Superme Court of the territory held its first session in this city (Burlington) on the 30th of No- vember. During the same month occurred the first land sales in Iowa; at Dubuque, November 5th, and in Burlington, November 19th. Those were occasions of the most lively interest. They attracted a large concourse of people eager to secure a title to their homes from the United States. The receipts at the United States land office in this city during that month were $295,000. The late Gen. A. C. Dodge was register of the land office, and he once told me that, when shipping silver dollars in kegs to the United States sub-treasury at St. Louis, he employed E. D. Rand to transport them from the land office to the steamboat.
CHAPTER II
INDIAN TREATIES AND THE NEW PURCHASE
Of the thousands of interesting and important documents in the hall of public archives of Iowa many bear on the relations of the Government with the Indians during the territorial period of Iowa. There are the corre- spondence of the federal, the territorial and state officers; the petitions of the people of the territory for protection, for arms and for the removal of the Indians, and for other purposes; the muster and pay rolls of the "Frontier Guards," who were in the Spirit Lake expedition. There is the speech of Governor Lucas, delivered to the Indians when he took charge of the territory. There is a communication from the war department to Governor Lucas, which names the tribes over which he should have control, the agents who should report to him, and the report of George W. Harrison, the surveyor, who located and marked "The Indian Boundary Line" treated of in this article.
It might be well to review the relations between the Federal Government and the tribes of Sac and Fox Indians prior to the treaty of October II, 1842, under the provisions of which the line in question was established, the last rights of the Sac and Fox Indians to the possession of the lands within the present limits of the State of Iowa extinguished, and their re- moval from our boundaries specified.
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