The history of Black Hawk County, Iowa, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, &c., a biographical directory of citizens, war record of its volunteers in the late rebellion, Part 1

Author: Western historical co., Chicago, pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Chicago, Western historical company
Number of Pages: 600


USA > Iowa > Black Hawk County > The history of Black Hawk County, Iowa, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, &c., a biographical directory of citizens, war record of its volunteers in the late rebellion > 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



1800


Class F627


Book.


3676


Copyright N.º.


COPYRIGHT DEPOSE:


.


THE


1


HISTORY


OF


BLACK HAWK COUNTY,


IOWA,


CONTAINING


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


A Biographical Directory of 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 Black Hawk County, Constitution of the United States, Miscellaneous Matters, &c.


ILLUSTRATED.


LIBA


CITIRIGHT


UYaSESS


No


CITY


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CHICAGO: WESTERN HISTORICAL COMPANY, 1878.


Entered, according to Act ot Congress, in the year 1878, by THE WESTERN HISTORICAL COMPANY, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.


2


tiver Tage moyne


PRINTERS 118 8926 MONROE ST (


CHICAGO


PREFACE.


L ESS than half a century has rolled into eternity since the Indian title to any portion of the soil of Iowa was extinguished, and the Black Hawk Purchase permitted the resistless tide of emigration westward to flow across the Mississippi, and only thirty years ago the Winnebagoes reluctantly left their Iowa Reserve, the southern line of which was very near the northern part of Black Hawk County. Less than thirty-five years have elapsed since STURGIS and ADAMS built the first rude log cabins in the valley of the Cedar, and the first brave and hardy pioneers settled on the beautiful prairies of Black Hawk. But these fleeting years have been replete with eventful changes-of history that it has been the purpose of this work to gather, arrange and preserve for transmission to posterity as one of the almost countless chapters in the annals of this great country.


The task has been an arduous and responsible one. Some years had passed, after the first permanent settlements by STURGIS, ADAMS, HANNA, VIRDEN, MELROSE, MULLAN, NEWELL and others, before any written records were made; and of those who settled in the county in 1845, only one now remains to tell the story of their hardships and privations.


The compilers have been forced to depend upon the remembrances of the early settlers for many of the incidents recorded in the following pages. But memories fail with the accumulating burdens of years, and events that were vividly recalled ten or fifteen years ago, are now so nearly forgotten that they return with difficulty at the call of the historian. The reminiscences of JAMES NEWELL, one of the pioneers of Iowa as early as 1834-5, written by himself before his decease, kindly placed at the disposal of the historians by S. H. PACKARD, Esq., of Cedar Falls, have furnished some interesting and valuable matter for this work. Large numbers of circulars and letters addressed to Township Clerks and old settlers, asking for information for this work, have not been answered, with one or two honorable exceptions. It has often occurred, also, that different individuals have given sincere and honest, but, nevertheless, conflicting, versions of the same events, and it has been a task of great delicacy to harmonize these conflicting statements. This work has been done with much care and discrimination, with the sole purpose of arriving at the truth. How well this task has been performed, the intelligent reader must judge. It will be strange, indeed, if, in the multiplicity of names, dates and events no errors,


PREFACE.


no omissions be detected. The compilers do not dare hope that, in all its numerous and varied details, this work is absolutely correct, nor is it to be expected that it is beyond criticism; but it is hoped and believed that it will be found measurably correct and generally accurate and reliable. Great care has been constantly exercised in its preparation in the hope of making it a standard work of reference, as well as a volume of interest to the general reader.


Such as it shall be found, however, our work is done, our offering completed, and it remains for us to tender our acknowledgments to the people of Black Hawk County for the patronage that has enabled us to present them with this volume, and for the courtesy and kindness generally extended to our repre- sentatives, to whom has been intrusted the work of collecting and arranging the historical record herein presented to that posterity who, in the not far dis- tant future, are to take the places of the fathers and mothers of to-day, so many of whose names are honorably recorded in the following pages.


Particularly do we desire to express our warmest thanks to those who have taken an interest in the work and who have so generously furnished valuable information, without whose aid this history of Black Hawk County could not have been so complete and accurate as it is hoped it will be found to be. To GEORGE W. HANNA, Esq., the oldest settler now living ; to JAMES VIRDEN, Esq .; M. PARROTT, Esq., of the Iowa State Reporter; W. H. HARTMAN, Esq, of the Courier ; SNYDER BROS., of the Gazette ; S. VAN METER & Co., of the Recorder ; S. H. PACKARD, Esq .; Dr. J. WASSON, of the Progress ; 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 ministers and official repre- sentatives of the churches, lodges and societies, this paragraph of grateful appreciation and thanks is respectfully dedicated. We are also under obliga- tions to Hon. T. W. BURDICK, Member of Congress, for courtesies extended to our representatives.


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


September. 1878.


PUBLISHERS.


CONTENTS.


HISTORICAL.


PAGE.


History Northwest Territory.


19


Geographical Position.


19


Early Explorations ..


20


Discovery of the Ohio ..


33


English Explorations and Set-


tlements. 35


American Settlements 60


Division of the Northwest Ter- ritory. 66


Tecumseli 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


Minnesota ..


247


Nebraska.


248


Ilistory of Iowa :


Geographical Situation 109


Topography.


109


Drainage System.


110


Rivers


111


Lakes


118


Springs


119


Prairies.


120


Public Schools.


218


Geology


120


War Record.


229


Climatology


137


PAGE.


History of Iowa :


Discovery and Occupation


.139


Territory


147


Indians.


147


Pike's Expedition


151


Indian Wars.


152


Black Ilawk War


157


Indian Purchase, Reserves and Treaties ... 159


Spanish Grants


163


Half-Breed Tract ..


.164


Early Settlements ..


.166


County Officers


.364


Territorial History.


173


Educational


366


Boundary Question


177


Press.


370


Railroads


.374


Agricultural Societies.


.376


Patrons of Husbandry.


.377


State University


.187


Medical Association ...


378


Insurance Company.


378


War History.


439


Town Ilistories :


Waterloo .. 379


Cedar Falls


.. 410


La Porte City


430


Cedar City


434


Gilbertville


435


Raymond


436


Hudson


437


Barclay


.438


Janesville


438


Finchford


.438


Property Statement and Popu-


lation


603


ILLUSTRATIONS.


PAGE.


Month of the Mississippi.


21 | A Pioneer Dwelling. 61


Breaking Prairie .. 63


Tecumseh, the Shawanoe Chieftain 69 Indians Attacking a Stockade .... 72


25 | Black Hawk, the Sac Chieftain ..... Big Eagle .. 80


Captain Jack, the Modoc Chieftain 83 Kinzie House 85


Present Site Lake Street Bridge,


Chicago, 1833.


98


A Representative Pioneer 86 Ruins of Chicago. 104


View of the City of Chicago


100


Hunting Prairie Wolves.


219


LITHOGRAPHIC PORTRAITS.


PAGE.


Bishop, S. A 357 - Hartman, W. H


......... .305v


Parrott, Matt


....


.339


Foote, D. W. .425 |Melendy, Peter


.493-4 Williams, D. C ..


....


....


39I J


BLACK HAWK COUNTY VOLUNTEERS.


Infantry:


PAGE.


Infantry :


PAGE.


Cavalry : PAGE.


Third


445


Thirty-first


449


First 454


Fourth


455


Twelfth .. 447


Thirty-seventh 454


Seventh. 455


Sixteenth .. 448


Forty-first ..... .454


Ninth 156


Artillery ..


456


Twenty-first. 449


Forty-seventh 454


PAGE


History of Iowa :


Number Volunteers ..


233


Number Casualties-Officers ... 234 Number Casualties-Enlisted Men .236


Population.


.238


Agricultural Statistics .274


History of Blackhawk County from


its early settlement to the present time. .307


Postmasters and Post Offices ..... 359


State Historical Society


193


Penitentiaries.


194


Insane Hospitals. 195


College for the Blind .. 197


Deaf and Dumb Institution.


199


Soldiers' Orphans' Homes


199


State Normal School 201 Asylum for Feeble Minded Children .201 Reform School. 202


Fish Hatching Establishment .. 203


Public Lands


204


Lincoln Monument. 87


A Pioneer School House ..


88


A Prairie Storm.


59


PAGE


Pioneers' First Winter 94 Great Iron Bridge of C., R. I. & P. R. R., Crossing the Mississippi at Davenport, Iowa .. 91


75


Chicago in 1833


95


Old Fort Dearborn, 1830.


98


Buffalo Hunt 27 Trapping 29 Hunting 32 Iroquois Chief. 34


Pontiac, the Ottawa Chieftain 43 Indians Attacking Frontiersmen .. 56


PAGE.


Source of the Mississippi 21 Wild Prairie. 23


La Salle Landing on the Shore of Green Bay


Ninth. .447


Thirty-second .. 452


PAGE.


PAGE./


State Organization.


181


Growth and Progress 185


Agricultural College and Farm.186


Political Record


223


Miscellaneous


457


CONTENTS.


BIOGRAPHICAL TOWNSHIP DIRECTORY.


P'AGE.


Barclay


577


Eagle ...


568


Poyner ... .544


Bennington 537 Fox. 596 Spring Creek


Big Creek . ...


.509 Lester .584 Union. .541


Black Hawk 560 Lincoln .556


Cedar


573


Cedar Falls. 491


East Waterloo 482


ABSTRACT OF IOWA STATE LAWS.


PAGE.


Adoption of Children.


287


Forms :


Chattel Mortgage 298


Limitation of Actions. 281


Confession of Judgment .. 290 Landlord and Tenant. 28S


Commercial Terms. .289


Capital Punishment. 282


Mortgages. .294


Notice to Quit ... 293


Notes. 290,297


Descent 275


Orders


Quit Claim Deed. .299


Receipts ..


290


Wills and Codicils.


.293 | Support of Poor 287


Taxes.


277


Wills and Estates. .276


Bills of Sale . 292 Interest. .. 275 Weights and Measures 289


Bond for Deed. 299


Intoxicating Liquors .. 301


Jurisdiction of Courts


281


MISCELLANEOUS.


PAGE.


PAGE.


Surveyor's Measure 269 Population of Fifty Principal Cities


How to Keep Accounts 269 Interest Table. 270


of the United States ..... 272 Population and Area of the United States ... 273 Population of the Principal Coun-


Practical Rules for Every-Day Use .. 265


United States Government Land


Measure. 268


PAGE.


Map of Black Hawk County. ..... Front. Constitution of United States ......... 250


Vote for President aud Vice Pres-


Miscellaneous Table 270 ident ... .. 264


Names of the States of the Union


and their Significations.


271


tries in the World


273


Population of the United States .....


272


Tax Levied, 1877


304


Marks and Brands 284


Mechanics' Liens. 285


Roads and Bridges 286


Surveyors and Surveys .. .287


Suggestions to Persons Purchasing Books by Subscription 303


Damages from 'Trespass 284


Exemptions from Execution .282


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


Wolf Scalps.


284


Bills of Purchase .. 290


PAGE.


PAGE.


Jurors 281


533


Washington. 552


Mount Vernon. 526


Waterloo City .461


Waterloo Township


478


Orange


517


PAGE.


PAGE.


Bills of Exchange and Promissory Notes .. .275


Lease


296


Married Women.


.282


Charitable, Scientific and Religious Associations 300


290


MAP OF BlackHawk COUNTY IOWA.


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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 parallei 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


MOUTHI 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 north ward, 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 Chev-


25


THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.


alier returned to Canada, and busily entered upon his work. He at once rebuilt Fort Frontenae 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,




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