The history of Benton County, Iowa, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, &c., a biographical directory of its citizens, war record of its volunteers in the late rebellion, general and local statistics, Part 1

Author: Western historical co., pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Chicago, Western historical company
Number of Pages: 656


USA > Iowa > Benton County > The history of Benton County, Iowa, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, &c., a biographical directory of its citizens, war record of its volunteers in the late rebellion, general and local statistics > Part 1


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org.


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 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81



1800


ES


Class F627


Book .BAH6


Copyright N.º.


COPYRIGHT DEPOSI.


F


٠٠


مكرر




1


THE


HISTORY


OF


BENTON COUNTY,


IOWA,


CONTAINING


A history of the County, its Cities, Gowns, t.


A Biographical Directory of its Citizens, War Record of its Vol- unteers in the late Rebellion, General and Local Statistics, Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men, His- tory of the Northwest, History of Iowa, Map of Benton County, Constitution of the United States, Miscellaneous Matters, &c.


ILLUSTRATED.


LIBFinn:


1 CENYNIGHT


CONGRESS


No /


CITY


CHICAGO: WESTERN HISTORICAL COMPANY, 1878.


F 627 BAH6


THE Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1878, by


WESTERN HISTORICAL COMPANY, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.


uver page.moyne) PRINTERS 18 &120 MONROE ST CHICAGO


Re-941


PREFACE.


L ESS than half a century has rolled into eternity since the resistless tide of emigration was permitted to flow across the Mississippi, by the extinguish- ment of the Indian title to any portion of the State of Iowa ; and only thirty-five years have gone since the Indians were the owners of nearly the whole of Benton County. Less than forty years have elapsed since the first log cabin was built by white settlers in Benton County ; and only thirty-two years since it became an independent county. But those fleeting years have been full of eventful changes-of history that it has been the purpose of this work to collect, arrange and preserve for transmission to posterity, as one of the almost countless chap- ters in the annals of this great country.


The task has not been an easy one. Some years had passed after the first settlements by WRIGHT, HINKLEY, LOCKHART, BORDWELL and others, before any written records were made -indeed, before the western and central portions of the county were open to settlement; and the written records made during the first five years of the existence of the county have been lost or destroyed. This has added very materially to our labor, and the compilers have been indebted largely to the recollections of the early settlers, who still remain to tell the story of their struggles, toils and privations, for many of the incidents recorded in the following pages. Men's memories fail, however, with the accumulating burdens of years, and it frequently happens that incidents and events that were fresh and vivid in memory ten or fifteen years ago, are now so nearly lost that they are recalled with difficulty. Justice to ourselves requires us to state, also, that many persons to whom application was made for information made no reply.


In the absence of written records, it has often occurred that different indi- viduals have given honest but nevertheless conflicting versions of the same event ; and it has been a task of extreme delicacy to harmonize these diverse statements, and arrive at the absolute truth as nearly as it is possible for human judgment to do. How thorough and well this task has been performed is for the intelligent reader to judge. It is not to be expected that the work is beyond criticism, or that, in all its numerous and varied details, it is absolutely correct ; but it is hoped and believed that it will be found measurably correct. and, in the main, accurate and reliable. Studious care has been constantly exercised in the preparation of the text, in the hope of making a standard work of refer- ence, as well as a volume of interest to the general reader.


PREFACE.


Such as it shall be found to be, however, our work is done, our offering completed, and it remains for us to tender a grateful acknowledgment to the people of Benton County for the liberal patronage that has enabled us to pre- sent them with this volume, and for the courtesy and kindness extended to our representatives, to whom was intrusted the work of collecting and arranging the historical record herein presented to posterity.


Particularly do we desire to express our warmest thanks to those citizens who have so generously and so freely furnished so much valuable information, without whose aid this history of Benton could not have been so complete as it is hoped it will be found to be. To JAMES RICE, Esq., DR. J. C. TRAER, JAMES WOOD, Esq., L. D. BORDWELL, Esq., J. C. COLLISTER, JOHN W. FILKINS, J. F. PYNE, Prof. S. A. KNAPP, W. H. EHRED, Clerk of Le Roy Township; to the county officers, who have so courteously and kindly aided us and placed the official records of the county at our disposal ; to the members of the press of the county-particularly the Vinton Eagle-who have so generously offered us free access to their files ; to the clergymen and official representatives of the churches, lodges and societies-this paragraph of grateful appreciation and thanks is respectfully dedicated.


We are also under obligation to the Post Office Department at Washing- ton, for courtesies extended to our representatives.


In conclusion, we must be permitted to express the earnest hope that before twoscore more of years have passed, other and abler pens than ours will have gathered and recorded the historic events that are to follow the close of this offering to the people of Benton, that the history of the county may be pre- served unbroken from generation to generation ; and to this end, public records, private journals and newspaper files should be carefully preserved.


August, 1878.


PUBLISHERS.


CONTENTS.


HISTORICAL.


PAGE.


History Northwest Territory


19


Geographical Position


19


Early Explorations .. 20


Discovery of the Ohio. 33


English Explorations and Set- lements. 35


American Settlements 60


Division of the Northwest Ter- ritory. 66


Tecumseh and the War of 1812 70


Black Hawk and the Black Hawk War 74


Other Indian Troubles.


79


Present Condition of the North- west 86


Chicago. 95 Illinois. 240 Indiana 242


Iowa ...


243


Michigan


244


Wisconsin


245


Deaf and Dumb Institution


Minnesota


247


199


Soldiers' Orphans' Homes


199


State Normal School


201


Nebraska


248


History of Iowa :


Geographical Situation. 109


Topography .109


Drainage System. 110


Rivers


111


Lakes


118


Springs.


119


Prairies 120


Geology 120 Climatology 137


Discovery and Occupation. .139


Territory


147


Men


236


PAGE.


Ifistory of Iowa :


Population .. 238


274


Agricultural Statistics ... .... History of Benton County from its early settlement to the pres- ent time .. .307


War History.


.384


Roster


.392


County Othcers


406


Educational


411


Press ..


417


Post Offices


419


Agricultural Societies 420


Medical Society. 421


Patrons of Husbandry .421


Blind Asylum 423


Miscellaneous. 424


Real and Personal Property


.469


Tax Levied, 1877.


470


Vote, 1876 ..


.471


Town Histories:


Vinton. 424


Belle Plaine ..


.443


Blairstown


453


Shellsburg.


459


Luzerne. 463


Florence and Norway. 465


Watkins. 466


Mount Auburn 467


Benton .. .467


Benton City. 467


Number Volunteers.


233


Irving


468


Number Casualties-Officers ... 234


Marysville.


165


ILLUSTRATIONS.


PAGE


Pioneers' First Winter


94


Great Iron Bridge of C., R. I. & P.


R. R., Crossing the Mississippi at Davenport, lowa. 91


Chicago in I×33


95


Old Fort Dearborn, 1830.


98


Present Site Lake Street Bridge,


Chicago, IS33.


98


Ruins of Chicago.


101


View of the City of Chicago


10G


Hunting Prairie Wolves ..


219


LITHOGRAPHIC PORTRAITS.


PAGE.


.425+ Nichols, Jolin D


.. 373 | Voris, F. R .. 279


Herridge, Geo .. Johnson, E. S.'


441 Tobin, T ..


407- Watson, Saml. H. .339


McMorris, J. 227 | Voris, D. E .. 261 Wood, Jas. .305


PAGE.


Indians 147


Pike's Expedition. 151


Indian Wars. 152


Black Hawk War. .157


Indian Purchase, Reserves and


Treaties .


159


Spanish Grants


163


History of Iowa :


Half-Breed Tract .. 164


Early Settlements ... 166


Territorial History. 173


Boundary Question.


177


State Organization


181


Growth and Progress. 185


Agricultural College and Farm.186


State University 187


State Historical Society. 193


Penitentiaries.


194


Insane Hospitals 195


College for the Blind .. 197


Asylum for Feeble Minded Children 201


Reform School 202


Fish Hatching Establishment .. 203


Public Lands 204


Public Schools


218


Political Record 223


War Record. 229


Breaking Prairie. 63


Tecumseh, the Shawanoe Chieftain 69 Wild Prairie ... 23


La Salle Landing on the Shore of


Black Hawk, the Sac Chieftain .... 75 Green Bay 25


Big Eagle. 80 Buffalo Hunt 27


Captain Jack, the Modoc Chieftain 83 Trapping 29


Kinzie House 85 Hunting 32


Iroquois Chief 34


Indians Attacking Frontiersmen .. 56


A Pioneer School House


88


A Prairie Storm.


59


PAGE.


Mouth of the Mississippi 21


PAGE.


A Pioneer Dwelling. 61 Source of the Mississippi 21


Indians Attacking a Stockade.


A Representative Pioneer. 8G l'ontiac, the Ottawa Chieftain 43


Lincoln Monument.


Number Casualties-Enlisted


P'AGE.


PAGE.


CONTENTS.


BENTON COUNTY VOLUNTEERS.


PAGE.


Infantry :


First.


392


Twenty-eighth ... ............. .398


Eighth


393


Fortieth


400


Twelfthi.


395


Forty-seventh.


.....


40I


Cavalry :


Fifth, Veteran .. ...... .401


Miscellaneous


.402


BIOGRAPHICAL TOWNSHIP DIRECTORY.


PAGE.


Big Grove. 579


Florence. .


623


Le Roy 521


Benton.


618


Fremont ..


Bruce ....


597


Harrison. 538


Homer.


.609


St. Clair.


635


Cedar


545


Eden ...


573


Eldorado. 630


Kane 551


ABSTRACT OF IOWA STATE LAWS.


PAGE.


Adoption of Children. 287


Bills of Exchange and Promissory Notes 275


Commercial Terms.


289


Capital Punishment. 282


Charitable, Scientific and Religious Associations .300


Descent 275


Damages from Trespass. 284


Exemptions from Execution 282


.203 Estrays. 283 Warranty Deed. 298 Forms : Articles of Agreement .291 Fences 284


Wills and Codicils


Support of Poor


287


Taxes.


277


Wills and Estates.


276


Weights and Measures


289


Bills of Sale 292 Interest .... 275 Bond for Deed 299 Intoxicating Liquors. 301 Wolt Scalps 284


Bills of Purchase.


290


Forms :


Chattel Mortgage 298


Confession of Judgment .. .290


Lease


296


Married Women.


282


Mortgages.


294


Marks and Brands


284


Notice to Quit. 293 Mechanics' Liens. 285


Notes 290,297


Orders ...


Quit Claim Deed


299' Suggestions to Persons Purchasing Books by Subscription 303


Roads and Bridges


286


290 ' Surveyors and Surveys .. 287


MISCELLANEOUS.


PAGE.


Map of Benton County.' Front. Constitution of United States. .250 Vote for President and Vice Pres- ident. .264


Practical Rules for Every-Day Use .. 265


United States Government Land


Measure .. 268


Names of the States of the Union


and their Significations ..


271


Population of the United States ..... 272


PAGE. !


PAGE


269 | Population of Fifty Principal Cities


Surveyor's Measure


How to Keep Accounts


269


of the United States


... 272


Interest Table.


270


Population and Area of the United


States.


273


Miscellaneous Tahle.


.270


Population of the Principal Coun-


tries in the World ..


273


Population of Benton County


....... 304


PAGE.


PAGE.


Infantry :


Cavalry :


Sixth .. 401


Seventh .. .402


Nintlı.


402


Thirteenth.


.395


Eighteenth 397


PAGE.


PAGE.


Monroe.


591


Polk 604


Canton.


557


Iowa


.504


Taylor.


173


Jackson 541


Union. 616


PAGE.


PAGE.


Jurors 281


Limitation of Actions.


281


Landlord and Tenant 288


Receipts.


290


Jurisdiction of Courts.


.281


.585


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--


.


19


THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.


GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION.


When the Northwestern Territory was ceded to the United States by Virginia in 1784, it embraced only the territory lying between the Ohio and the Mississippi Rivers, and north to the northern limits of the United States. It coincided with the area now embraced in the States of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and that portion of Minnesota lying on the east side of the Mississippi River. The United States itself at that period extended no farther west than the Mississippi River ; but by the purchase of Louisiana in 1803, the western boundary of the United States was extended to the Rocky Mountains and the Northern Pacific Ocean. The new territory thus added to the National domain, and subsequently opened to settlement, has been called the "New Northwest," in contradistinction from the old "Northwestern Territory."


In comparison with the old Northwest this is a territory of vast magnitude. It includes an area of 1,887,850 square miles ; being greater in extent than the united areas of all the Middle and Southern States, including Texas. Out of this magnificent territory have been erected eleven sovereign States and eight Territories, with an aggregate popula- tion, at the present time, of 13,000.000 inhabitants, or nearly one third of the entire population of the United States.


Its lakes are fresh-water seas, and the larger rivers of the continent flow for a thousand miles through its rich alluvial valleys and far- stretching prairies, more acres of which are arable and productive of the highest percentage of the cereals than of any other area of like extent on the globe.


For the last twenty years the increase of population in the North- vest has been about as three to one in any other portion of the United States.


(19)


20


THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.


EARLY EXPLORATIONS.


In the year 1541, DeSoto first saw the Great West in the New World. He, however, penetrated no farther north than the 35th parallel of latitude. The expedition resulted in his death and that of more than half his army, the remainder of whom found their way to Cuba, thence to Spain, in a famished and demoralized condition. DeSoto founded no settlements, produced no results, and left no traces, unless it were that he awakened the hostility of the red man against the white man, and disheartened such as might desire to follow up the career of discovery for better purposes. The French nation were eager and ready to seize upon any news from this extensive domain, and were the first to profit by DeSoto's defeat. Yet it was more than a century before any adventurer took advantage of these discoveries.


In 1616, four years before the pilgrims "moored their bark on the wild New England shore," Le Caron, a French Franciscan, had pene- trated through the Iroquois and Wyandots (Hurons) to the streams which run into Lake Huron ; and in 1634, two Jesuit missionaries founded the first mission among the lake tribes. It was just one hundred years from the discovery of the Mississippi by DeSoto (1541) until the Canadian envoys met the savage nations of the Northwest at the Falls of St. Mary, below the outlet of Lake Superior. This visit led to no permanent result ; yet it was not until 1659 that any of the adventurous fur traders attempted to spend a Winter in the frozen wilds about the great lakes, nor was it until 1660 that a station was established upon their borders by Mesnard, who perished in the woods a few months after. In 1665, Claude Allouez built the earliest lasting habitation of the white man among the Indians of the Northwest. In 1668, Claude Dablon and James Marquette founded the mission of Sault Ste. Marie at the Falls of St. Mary, and two years afterward, Nicholas Perrot, as agent for M. Talon, Governor Gen- eral of Canada, explored Lake Illinois (Michigan) as far south as the present City of Chicago, and invited the Indian nations to meet him at a grand council at Sault Ste. Marie the following Spring, where they were taken under the protection of the king, and formal possession was taken of the Northwest. This same year Marquette established a mission at Point St. Ignatius, where was founded the old town of Michillimackinac.


During M. Talon's explorations and Marquette's residence at St. Ignatius, they learned of a great river away to the west, and fancied -as all others did then-that upon its fertile banks whole tribes of God's children resided, to whom the sound of the Gospel had never come. Filled with a wish to go and preach to them, and in compliance with a


THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.


SOURCE OF THE MISSISSIPPI.


BRIGHAM


MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI.


21


22


THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.


request of M. Talon, who earnestly desired to extend the domain of his king, and to ascertain whether the river flowed into the Gulf of Mexico or the Pacific Ocean, Marquette with Joliet, as commander of the expe- dition, prepared for the undertaking.


On the 13th of May, 1673, the explorers, accompanied by five assist- ant French Canadians, set out from Mackinaw on their daring voyage of discovery. The Indians, who gathered to witness their departure, were astonished at the boldness of the undertaking, and endeavored to dissuade them from their purpose by representing the tribes on the Mississippi as exceedingly savage and cruel, and the river itself as full of all sorts of frightful monsters ready to swallow them and their canoes together. But, nothing daunted by these terrific descriptions, Marquette told them he was willing not only to encounter all the perils of the unknown region they were about to explore, but to lay down his life in a cause in which the salvation of souls was involved ; and having prayed together they separated. Coasting along the northern shore of Lake Michigan, the adventurers entered Green Bay, and passed thence up the Fox River and Lake Winnebago to a village of the Miamis and Kickapoos. Here Mar- quette 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 giving them an abundant " chase." This was the farthest outpost to which Dablon and Allouez had extended their missionary labors the year previous. Here Marquette drank mineral waters and was instructed in the secret of a root which cures the bite of the venomous rattlesnake. He assembled the chiefs and old men of the village, and, pointing to Joliet, said : "My friend is an envoy of France, to discover new coun- tries, and I am an ambassador from God to enlighten them with the truths of the Gospel." Two Miami guides were here furnished to conduct them to the Wisconsin River, and they set out from the Indian village on the 10th of June, amidst a great crowd of natives who had assembled to witness their departure into a region where no white man had ever yet ventured. The guides, having conducted them across the portage, returned. The explorers launched their canoes upon the Wisconsin, which they descended to the Mississippi and proceeded down its unknown waters. What emotions must have swelled their breasts as they struck out into the broadening current and became conscious that they were now upon the bosom of the Father of Waters. The mystery was about to be lifted from the long-sought river. The scenery in that locality is beautiful, and on that delightful seventeenth of June must have been clad in all its primeval loveliness as it had been adorned by the hand of


23


THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.


Nature. Drifting rapidly, it is said that the bold bluffs on either hand "reminded them of the castled shores of their own beautiful rivers of France." By-and-by, as they drifted along, great herds of buffalo appeared on the banks. On going to the heads of the valley they could see a country of the greatest beauty and fertility, apparently destitute of inhab- itants yet presenting the appearance of extensive manors, under the fas- tidious cultivation of lordly proprietors.


THE WILD PRAIRIE.


On June 25, they went ashore and found some fresh traces of men upon the sand, and a path which led to the prairie. The men remained in the boat, and Marquette and Joliet followed the path till they discovered a village on the banks of a river, and two other villages on a hill, within a half league of the first, inhabited by Indians. They were received most hospitably by these natives, who had never before seen a white person. After remaining a few days they re-embarked and descended the river to about latitude 33°, where they found a village of the Arkansas, and being satisfied that the river flowed into the Gulf of Mexico, turned their course


24


THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.


up the river, and ascending the stream to the mouth of the Illinois, rowed up that stream to its source, and procured guides from that point to the lakes. " Nowhere on this journey," says Marquette, "did we see such grounds, meadows, woods, stags, buffaloes, deer, wildcats, bustards, swans, ducks, parroquets, and even beavers, as on the Illinois River." The party, without loss or injury, reached Green Bay in September, and reported their discovery-one of the most important of the age, but of which no record was preserved save Marquette's, Joliet losing his by the upsetting of his canoe on his way to Quebec. Afterward Marquette returned to the Illinois Indians by their request, and ministered to them until 1675. On the 18th of May, in that year, as he was passing the mouth of a stream-going with his boatmen up Lake Michigan-he asked to land at its mouth and celebrate Mass. Leaving his men with the canoe. he retired a short distance and began his devotions. As much time passed and he did not return, his men went in search of him, and found him upon his knees, dead. He had peacefully passed away while at prayer. He was buried at this spot. Charlevoix, who visited the place fifty years after, found the waters had retreated from the grave, leaving the beloved missionary to repose in peace. The river has since been called Marquette.


While Marquette and his companions were pursuing their labors in the West, two men, differing widely from him and each other, were pre- paring to follow in his footsteps and perfect the discoveries so well begun by him. These were Robert de La Salle and Louis Hennepin.


After La Salle's return from the discovery of the Ohio River (see the narrative elsewhere), he established himself again among the French trading posts in Canada. Here he mused long upon the pet project of those ages-a short way to China and the East, and was busily planning an expedition up the great lakes, and so across the continent to the Pacific, when Marquette returned from the Mississippi. At once the vigorous mind of LaSalle received from his and his companions' stories the idea that by fol- lowing the Great River northward, or by turning up some of the numerous western tributaries, the object could easily be gained. He applied to Frontenac, Governor General of Canada, and laid before him the plan, dim but gigantic. Frontenac entered warmly into his plans, and saw that LaSalle's idea to connect the great lakes by a chain of forts with the Gulf of Mexico would bind the country so wonderfully together, give un- measured power to France, and glory to himself, under whose adminis- tration he earnestly hoped all would be realized.


LaSalle now repaired to France, laid his plans before the King, who warmly approved of them, and made him a Chevalier. He also received from all the noblemen the warmest wishes for his success. The Chey .-


25


THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.


alier returned to Canada, and busily entered upon his work. He at once rebuilt Fort Frontenac and constructed the first ship to sail on these fresh-water seas. On the 7th of August, 1679, having been joined by Hennepin, he began his voyage in the Griffin up Lake Erie. He passed over this lake, through the straits beyond, up Lake St. Clair and into Huron. In this lake they encountered heavy storms. They were some time at Michillimackinac, where LaSalle founded a fort, and passed on to Green Bay, the " Baie des Puans " of the French, where he found a large quantity of furs collected for him. He loaded the Griffin with these. and placing her under the care of a pilot and fourteen sailors,


CO


LA SALLE LANDING ON THE SHORE OF GREEN BAY.


started her on her return voyage. The vessel was never afterward heard of. He remained about these parts until early in the Winter, when. hear- ing nothing from the Griffin, he collected all the men-thirty working men and three monks-and started again upon his great undertaking.




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