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E. M. HANCOCK
PAST AND PRESENT OF
Allamakee County IOWA
A Record of Settlement, Organization, Progress and Achievement
By ELLERY M. HANCOCK
ILLUSTRATED
VOLUME I
CHICAGO THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY 1913 CHR
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY 638679 ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS R 1914 L
FOREWORD
The history of a community must be composed largely of the biography of a few people, and, as such, may seem to some trivial and valueless. But the nation is made up of similar individuals, and the life and character of the mass goes to make the history and character of a world-power for good or evil to the human race. Hence the local history is not unimportant. In submitting the following pages to the public the writer is aware of their incompleteness as a history, and begs the lenient judgment of the reader. After an arduous research for facts and dates the futility of an attempt at completeness in a work of this character has been pressed home upon him; but he cherishes the belief that as regards the statement of facts the work will be found generally correct and reliable. Any errors discovered should be brought to his attention, that they may be noted for future correction. If he has succeeded in presenting the chief points of our his- tory in a readable and entertaining manner, and has collated the reminiscences of others previously published or written at divers times in a form suitable for preservation and reference, he has accomplished the task assigned him.
In this connection full credit should be given to those who have rendered valuable assistance in the work, among whom should be prominently named A. M. May, Ellison Orr, and Jas. T. Metcalf. The published papers of Judge Dean, D. B. Raymond, J. S. Bryson, T. C. Medary and others have been liberally drawn from; and the members of the press have generally assisted willingly, the files of the Standard, Democrat, and Mirror, having been of especial value. The Postville history is based chiefly on the painstaking work of A. R. Prescott in the old county history, while assistance has been freely given by Wm. Shepherd, Geo. S. Tuttle and others. The Lansing sketch written by Dick Haney thirty years ago, has also been utilized, with his permission, as also the interesting con- tributions to the Lansing Mirror by Mrs. Martha T. Hemenway and Miss Fanny Hemenway. Assistance is also acknowledged from B. F. Thomas and N. A. Nelson of that city. Numerous others have generously responded as called upon, among whom may be mentioned I . O. Larson and Mrs. M. A. R. Bellows, of the early settlers, and R. W. Erwin in his description of the iron mine.
3
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
PAGE 9
Early Dawn
CHAPTER II
Encroaching Civilization
17
CHAPTER III
THE ABORIGINES
Black Hawk War
...
36
CHAPTER IV
CIVIL GOVERNMENT
County Organization . 44
CHAPTER V
Allamakee County
. 47
CHAPTER VI
The Old Mission
55
CHAPTER VII
EARLY COURTS
First Terms of Court
69
....
.
CHAPTER VIII
GEOLOGY OF ALLAMAKEE COUNTY
The Stratified Rocks 77
Tron Hill 99 Geological Character 99
CHAPTER IX
AGRICULTURE AND MANUFACTURES
Agricultural Society 108 Farmers' Institute . 112
5
6
CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER X
POLITICS
Vote for President Vote for Governor
. 1 1 5
Secretary of State
.115
CHAPTER XI
COUNTY OFFICERS
State Legislature-Senate 125
State Legislature-House 126
District Court
127
Circuit Court
128
CHAPTER XII
THE COUNTY SEAT
Some Other Early County Affairs
CHAPTER XIII
THIE COUNTY PRESS
Journalistic Adventures of Late T. C. Medary, by Himself, in 1890 147
Local Affairs-A Digression .152
The Craft Again 154
Off to the Front and After 155
In Conclusion
157
Another "Country Editor."-Jas. T. Metcalf. 161
Others of the Fraternity
165
CHAPTER XIV
The County Bar
.... . .
171
CHAPTER XV
COUNTY SCHOOLS
School Townships 183
Independent Districts 183
Summary of the Annual Report, 1911-12. 186
CHAPTER XVI
PUBLIC UTILITIES
The Standard Telephone Company 187
Other Telephone Companies 188
Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway 191
Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway
United States Express Company 191
192
Wells Fargo & Co. Express. . 192
Western Union Telegraph Company . 192
Upper Iowa Power Company . . 192
. . . . . . . 142
.II4
CONTENTS
7
CHAPTER XVII
PAGE
. A Dark Chapter
.. .. 195
CHAPTER XVIII
THE PIONEERS
Judge Dean's Narrative
206
D. B. Raymond's Recollections .213
North of the Oneota .218
CHAPTER XIX
TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION
Center Township
227
Fairview Township
233
Franklin Township
237
French Creek Township
Hanover Township .245
. 246
Iowa Township
251
Jefferson Township
.257
Lafayette Township
263
Lansing Township
Linton Township 267
271
Ludlow Township
273
Makee Township
274
Paint Creek Township
277
Taylor Township
288
Union City Township
30I
Union Prairie Township
305
Waterloo Township
.307
CHAPTER XX
HISTORY OF WAUKON
The Shattucks
.313
Name
.318
Waukon in 1858-61
. 321
County Officials 321
Municipal History .323
City of the Second Class
.326
Fire Department and Fires
Public Utilities
334
Railroad
335
The Waukon Schools
341
Early School History
341
Allamakee College
348
The Press
352
Postoffice
354
Public Library
355
Financial Institutions
355
Churches
36
Grand Army of the Republic 376
Spanish War Veterans .377
Women's Clubs 378
Old Company "I"
378
Captain Nichols
385
-
Waukon's Financial Condition-Spring of 1913. 328 331
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CONTENTS
PAGE
Fraternal Societies
.386
Some Waukon Pioneers-One of the Maine Families 394
A Typical Pioneer 396
Other Pioneers of Waukon and Vicinity
.401
Some of the F. F. Allamakees
.406
CHAPTER XXI
IIISTORY OF LANSING
Recollections of 1851 416
Lansing in 1852-53
420
City Government 422
The Water Supply
423
Fire Department
425
Lansing Schools
426
Churches
430
The Press
440
Financial Institutions
441
Fraternal Societies
.443
Postoffice
416
Public Library
449
Military Company
449
Railroad
450
Some Lansing Pioneers
452
Pearl Button Industry
.466
Early Business Items
467
CHAPTER XXII
POSTVILLE AND POST TOWNSHIP
Public Schools 477
Municipal
479
Churches 487
Early Sunday Schools
490
Fraternal Societies
490
Public Library
491
City Park .491
The Early Professions 491
.492
Postville Business Directory 1882.
492
Militia Company
493
Newspapers
493
Banks 494 497
Brick and Tile Manufactory
Some Old-Time Voters
497
An Ancient Autograph 498
Early Villages
498
CHAPTER XXIII
ALLAMAKEE IN THE CIVIL WAR
Iowa Regiments . 501
Extracts from Diary of Corp. F. E. Hancock of Company B. 510
Shiloh Battle Field
Illinois Regiments . 527
.558
Missouri Regiments .558
Wisconsin Regiments 559
Chronology
. 561
Postmasters
HISTORICAL
CHAPTER I
EARLY DAWN
The "dawn of history" appeared, for what is now Allamakee county, and indeed for all of Iowa, when Marquette and his companions floated from the Wisconsin into the broad expanse of the Mississippi river, on the 17th of June, 1673, two hundred and forty years ago. This is true even if it be admitted, as seems now to be fairly well established, that two French fur-hunters had preceded them down the Wisconsin by fourteen years or more. Nothing ap- pears to have come of their explorations until followed up by those of others, more responsible, and under authority that might utilize their discoveries, for the settlement and civilization of the regions thus opened up.
However, this was but the first faint glimmering of the dawn. Although other fur-traders and the Jesuit missionaries soon began to follow the course pointed out by Radisson and Marquette, a century elapsed before a white man trod the soil of Allamakee, so far as any known record shows; and another half century before any sign of permanent occupation. Three or four genera- tions of the native occupants enjoyed undisturbed the hunt and other rude pleasures of their wild life, except as these were from time to time exchanged for the more savage joys of the warpath, in struggle with adjacent tribes for the possession of choice hunting grounds.
There can be no doubt that the explorers mentioned were the first Euro- peans to look upon the rocks and trees of Allamakee, as the majestic bluffs along our southern shore-line were well within their range of vision as they emerged from the mouth of the Wisconsin river. We were situated at the earliest gate- way to the Northwest ; but partly because of our rugged and forbidding "coast- line," and partly because the natural routes of travel were along the larger rivers, the first explorers passed us by both to the north and south. As the tide of exploration was thus directed to our very doors as it were, it will be of interest to look back and trace the progress of these explorations which de- veloped the Wisconsin river route as the most natural channel of emigration to the regions west of the upper Mississippi, as the Ohio river was to the regions further south, and Lake Superior to those of the far north.
In 1608 Samuel de Champlain, who was called the father of New France, made a permanent settlement at Quebec. In 1615 he had pushed his explorations to the banks of Lake Huron, and missionary stations were soon after established among the Indians of that name.
Vol. 1-1
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PAST AND PRESENT OF ALLAMAKEE COUNTY
The first European to enter the upper Mississippi valley appears to have been Jean Nicolet, an explorer and interpreter for the merchants of Quebec, who visited Green Bay in 1634-35, and there met the Winnebago and Mascoutin, and made a treaty with them in the name of France, in an assembly of four or five thousand. He related his discoveries to the Jesuit priests, and from the translations of their writings these facts have but recently been established. It has been inferred by some that he visited the Mississippi river; but after a careful study it has been established that he went no further than up the Fox river to the Wisconsin portage .* It is interesting to note that this first estab- lished route of Nicolet, by way of Green Bay, and the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, continued for more than two hundred years to be a main path of exploration, travel, and commerce, to the West and Upper Louisiana.
The zealous Jesuits, frequently accompanying the licensed traders, were the reporters of what they discovered, though they were not usually the first to visit the new regions. In 1641 Fathers Jogues and Rambault arrived at the out- let of Lake Superior. the falls of St. Mary ( Sault Ste. Marie), where they met a band of Pottawottomi fleeing from the Dakotas, "who lived to the west of the falls about eighteen days' journey." Two adventurous French traders. by name Radisson and Chouart. the latter often called Groseilliers, passed a year or two among these warlike Dakotas, or Naudowessi (Sioux), in 1654-55, but their place of staying is not clearly established. the best authorities locating it at the Isle Pelée, or Prairie Island, (at or near the head of Lake Pepin ). Winchell says : "If we are to accept the implication of Radisson himself, he had apparently been on the Mississippi and had seen the country far toward the mouth.
There is great difficulty however in accepting this assumed trip down the Mis- sissippi, and some authorities have rejected it as fictitious. If we consider, however, that Radisson * relates what was 'tould' him by some people that he met, we may perhaps attribute some of his discrepancies to his imperfect manner of narration." But it appears probable that these explorers sailed down the Wisconsin and discovered the Mississippi in 1655 (or 1659), and that they ascended the latter river to Prairie Island, where they spent about a year, and returned by the same route.
Keyes says;, "The first white men actually to view the Great Water' and to set foot upon what is now Iowa soil appear to have been Pierre Radisson and Médard Groseilliers. *
* In the spring of 1659 ; they determined to visit the Mascoutins, or Fire Nation, and passing up Fox river crossed the portage to the Wisconsin, and sailed on down into a greater river. Here are Radisson's own words: 'We went into ye great river that divides itselfe in 2. where the hurrons with some Ottonake & the wild men that had warrs with them had retired. There is not great difference in their language as we weare told, against those of the forked river. It is so called because it has 2 branches,
*Father Paul Le Jeune and Father Bartholemy Vimout, 1640-1642 .-- N. H. Winchell in "The Aborigines of Minnesota," published by the Minn. Hist. Soc. 1911, and Charles R. Keyes, Ph. D., in "Annals of Iowa," Jan., 1912. "Earliest Explorations of Iowa Land."
tWinchell says they returned to Northern Minnesota in the early spring of 1650 by the south shore of Lake Superior, suffering famine and frost, to an appointed rendezvous with the Sioux, when they met to celebrate the feast of the dead, in the early spring, and after six weeks passed directly back to Cheqnamegon Bay, on Lake Superior.
VIEWS OF WAUKON IN 1869
11
PAST AND PRESENT OF ALLAMAKEE COUNTY
the one towards the west, the other toward the south, wch we believe runns to- wards Mexico.'". There is no doubt that Radisson and his associate entered the Mississippi river and gazed out upon the high bluffs of Iowa land at 'about where McGregor now stands. Thwaites is of the opinion that the west branch of the forked river, as Radisson calls the Mississippi, may have been the Iowa river. Richman, in his sketch of "Mascoutin, a Reminiscence of the Nation of Fire," considers it the Upper Iowa river. There appear to be good reasons for believing it was really the Missouri river. Raddison's informa- tion on this point was manifestly hearsay.
The news of the great river conveyed to Canada by Nicolet and Radisson created great enthusiasm, both among the traders and the missionaries who ever followed closely upon their heels in their zeal for new fields of labor. An expedition was fitted out from Montreal in the spring of 1660, but was attacked by the Iroquois and dispersed with some loss of life.
Not until 1665 was further progress made in western exploration, when Father Pierre Claude Allouez coasted along the south shore of Lake Superior to La Pointe, on Chequamegon bay, where he established the mission of the Holy Ghost, near the present Ashland, Wisconsin. Here he wrote about the Dakotas, who dwelt to the west, toward the great river called Messipi, and this appears to be the first mention in literature of the name "Mississippi." In 1669 the renowned Marquette succeeded Father Allouez, who about this time estab- lished the mission of St. Francis Xavier on the west shore of Green Bay, and soon after returned to Sault Ste. Marie, although he "longed to visit the Sioux country and see the great water the Indians called the Missi Sepe."
In 1665 also, Nicolas Perrot left the east and spent several months with the Pottawottomies around Green Bay. In the spring of 1666 he entered the Fox river and visited the Outagamies, or Foxes, who dwelt above Lake Winne- bago.
Perrot was a very active agent for the French Crown throughout the north- ern region then known, and was the authority who summoned the chiefs from fourteen tribes to Sault Ste. Marie in 1671 to celebrate the formal taking pos- session of all the country along the lakes and "southward to the sea," by the erection and ceremony of consecration of a large cedar cross. Alongside of the cross a cedar column was also erected, marked with the lilies of the Bourbons. Thus, says Bancroft, "were the authority and the faith of France uplifted in the presence of the ancient races of America, in the heart of our continent. Yet this daring ambition of the servants of a military monarch was doomed to leave no abiding monument-this echio of the middle age to die away." Allouez and Joliet were among the fifteen Frenchmen present on this occasion.
It was now well known that a great river to the west ran southwardly, but it was not known whether it flowed into the Gulf of Mexico or, as they hoped, into waters leading to China. Soon after this, Father Jaques Marquette and Louis Joliet, the latter as agent for the French government, were given authority to make an expedition for the purpose of solving this question.
Starting from St. Ignace, a mission station at the straits of Mackinaw, on the 13th of May, 1673, these two distinguished men, with five boatmen and two birch-bark canoes, coursed along the north shore of Lake Michigan and Green Bay, and found there a welcome at the mission of St. Francis Xavier established
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PAST AND PRESENT OF ALLAMAKEE COUNTY
by Father Allouez four years before. Continuing their journey, they paddled up the Fox river to the portage, launched their canoes in the waters of the Wis- consin, and on the 17th of June, 1673, emerged from that river upon the broad bosom of the Missi (great) Sepe (river, or water), "with a joy I cannot ev- press," writes the devout Marquette in his journal. Marquette named it "Con- ception River," because of the day on which it was discovered, and it appears by that name on a map which he drew after returning from the expedition, printed in some of the earlier histories, and the original of which is said to be still preserved in St. Mary's College at Montreal. He says, "the river is narrow at the mouth of the Wisconsin, and the current slow and gentle; on the right is a considerable chain of very high mountains. It is in many places studded with islands." He found "ten fathoms of water ; its breadth is very unequal, some- times three-quarters of a league and sometimes narrows to three-arpents or two hundred and twenty yards."
They did not stop here, but proceeded on their journey south. As they passed down the river and the banks became less precipitous the country appeared to them more promising, and occasional herds of buffalo were seen grazing on the prairies. It is to be presumed that they made their camp on the western bank at times, but no record of any stop or landing is made until after eight days they approached the extreme lower corner of the state, where they first saw Indians, and stopped for a few days in a village of the Illinois tribe, who at that time occupied most of the present Iowa.
Continuing their journey, at a point near the present city of Alton, Illinois, they were startled by the sight of a painting of a monstrosity in human form, high up on the face of a cliff, which was attributed by Marquette to the work of the evil one himself, and he would have destroyed the sacrilegious picture could he have gained access to it.
[This is mentioned here to show that there were several "painted rocks" along the course of the upper Mississippi. This one is said to have remained until 1850 or later, when the rock was quarried out for building purposes .- ED.]
The party proceeded on down the river arriving at the mouth of the Arkan- sas river in July, where the Indians they there met informed them that in ten days more they could reach the mouth of the Mississippi. They were now near, or below, the point where the unfortunate De Soto had discovered this river in 1541, one hundred and thirty-two years before. Having determined that the great river emptied into the Gulf of Mexico instead of into the Pacific ocean, on the 17th of July the voyagers set out on their return. It was a different proposition, pulling up stream, and upon arriving at the mouth of the Illinois river they gladly availed themselves of the guidance of the Indians up that stream, and the Desplaines, and portage to the Chicago river, whence they pro- ceeded along the shore of Lake Michigan to the mission at Green Bay, where they arrived before the end of September. Marquette's strength was exhausted and he remained here for the winter to rest. But he was thereafter an invalid, and although he once more resumed his work his death took place May 19, 1675, on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan. The following year his bones were re- moved to St. Ignace and interred beneath the floor in the chapel there.
The next recorded visit of Europeans to our vicinity was that of Father Hennepin, in 1680. He was a member of the party of Cavelier La Salle who had
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PAST AND PRESENT OF ALLAMAKEE COUNTY
undertaken an expedition to the mouth of the Mississippi, by way of Lake Michigan and the Illinois river, and was constructing therefor a large boat at a fort he had built at Peoria, Illinois, which, after the failure of this first attempt was named Fort Creve-Coeur. Of the four priests in his party, it seems that Hen- nepin was the least popular, and La Salle conceived the idea of sending him to explore the head-waters of the Mississippi. Father Hennepin accepted the mission with no good grace, but started in an open canoe with two companions, Accan and DuGay, in the last days of February, 1680, amply provided with presents for the Indians, as well as provisions, guns and ammunition. They fared well until the 12th of April, when, landing at a point now supposed to be at or just above Prairie du Chien, to roast a wild turkey, they were made captive by a large war party of Sioux, and taken to their homes in the region of Lake Mille Lac in northern Minnesota, reaching there in May. Here the three were adopted, each by a different chief, and so separated from each other. In the summer the Indians determined on a buffalo hunt, and Hennepin, disgusted with Indian life and the semi-captivity which had deprived him not only of his liberty but of his stock of goods brought along for presents, of which his captors had nearly despoiled him, told them that a party of Frenchmen were to meet him at the mouth of the Wisconsin river, in the summer, with a new supply of goods and thus obtained permission to go to meet them at that point. Hennepin asserts that La Salle had promised this, but the statement is questioned, especially as Hennepin's mendacity was later established by a book of travels he published upon his return to France.
Hennepin and his companion, DuGay, started down the river, arriving at the falls on St. Anthony's day, in honor of which event he gave them the name which became permanent. Long before reaching the Wisconsin, however, they met a party of the Sioux who had outstripped them to that destination and found no Frenchmen there; and they returned with the Indians to the site of St. Paul, where they had heard there were five more white men awaiting them. They found them to be Daniel Greysolon DuLhut (Duluth), and four companions, who had been two years among the far-off lodges of the Sioux, and other tribes to the north, exploring under the patronage of the Canadian governor, having entered that region by the way of Lake Superior. At the approach of autumn the entire party, eight in number, started upon their return to Canada, by way of the Wis- consin river. At its mouth they found no traders and no Indians.
From this time on the visits of traders and travelers to the Mississippi by the Wisconsin river route became more frequent. In 1683 Nicholas Perrot was sent to the Iowa and Dakota Indians to establish friendly alliances; and it is supposed that it was about this time that he established Fort St. Nicholas on the Mississippi river just above the mouth of the Wisconsin and a short distance below the present city of Prairie du Chien. (Keyes, in Annals of Iowa, Jan. 1912.) He also established a post on the west side of the Mississippi near the site of Wabasha, Minnesota, called Fort Perrot. And in 1685 Fort St. Antoine on the east side, at the mouth of the Chippewa river.
Salter, in his "Iowa, the First Free State in the Louisiana Purchase," p. 30, says: "The Indian trade of the upper Mississippi centered at the mouth of the Wisconsin river, where trading posts were established, some of them on the west bank of the Mississippi. Thence traders and missionaries went up
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PAST AND PRESENT OF ALLAMAKEE COUNTY
into the Sioux country or down the Mississippi, or followed a long path to the Missouri river overland, which was marked on English maps as the French Route to the West.'" And at page 17: "Perrot was the first trader with the Indians upon the Mississippi, and made several establishments : one among the Sioux near Lake Pepin, another near the mouth of the Wisconsin, probably in what is Clayton county, lowa. The latter had his Christian name. It was Fort St. Nicholas. While thus engaged. Perrot was commissioned by the governor of New France, Denonville, to take formal possession of the upper Mississippi. * This was done on the 8th of May. 1689, at Post St. Anthony, a few miles above La Crosse. De Bois Guillot, commandant at Fort St. Nicholas, Le Seuer, and other witnesses were present."
In 1689 Baron La Hontan entered the Mississippi from the Wisconsin, Octo- ber 23, and journeyed up the river. Ilis accounts of his experiences, like Henne- pin's, are not regarded as fully trustworthy. In this year the French are supposed to have had a trading post near the mouth of the Wisconsin, but if so it was soon abandoned.
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