USA > Iowa > Cedar County > The history of Cedar 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, portraits of early settlers and prominent men > Part 1
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HAROLD B. LEE LIBRARY BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY PROVO, UTAH
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017 with funding from Brigham Young University
https://archive.org/details/historyofcedarco00west
957.7 HEhe
THE
HISTORY
OF
CEDAR 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 Cedar County, Constitution of the United States, Miscellaneous Matters, &c.
ILLUSTRATED.
221997
CHICAGO : WESTERN HISTORICAL COMPANY ... - SUCCESSORS TO H. F. KETT & CO).
1878.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1878, by
THE WESTERN HISTORICAL COMPANY. In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.
uver page Moyne22
PRINTERS 118 &120 MONROE ST!
CHICAGO
PREFACE.
FORTY-TWO years have come and gone since civilization's advance guard, in the persons of DAVID W. WALTON and family,* came to occupy and develop the rich agricultural lands and exercise dominion in that part of the Cedar River country included within the boundaries of Cedar County, erst the home of the wild, untutored red men, their wives and little ones, and the grazing places of the buffalo, the elk, the deer and other animals native to the climate, herbage and grasses. Had these pioneers or some others who immediately followed them, directed their attention to the keep- ing of a chronological journal or diary of events, to write a history of the country now would be a comparatively easy task. In the absence of such records, the mag- nitude of the enterprise is very materially augmented, and the difficulties of the undertaking still further increased by reason of the absence of nearly all the pioneer fathers and inothers who first came to gladden the prairies and forest wilds with their presence, and scatter the seeds of that better intelligence, which, growing and spreading as year was added to year, has made the country of their choice rank second to none in modern accomplishments. The seeds they scattered ripened into the fullness of a plentiful harvest, and school houses, churches, cities, towns, tele- graphs, railroads and palatial-like dwellings occupy the old " camp grounds" of the Sauks, Foxes and kindred tribes of red mien.
The struggles, changes and vicissitudes that forty-two years evoke, are as trying to the minds, as to the bodies of men. Physical and mental strength waste away together beneath gathering years, and the memory of names, dates and events becomes lost in the confusion engendered by time and its restless, unceasing muta- tions. Circumstances that were fresh in memory ten and twenty years after their occurrence, are almost, if not entirely, forgotten when nearly fifty years have gone. If not entirely obliterated and effaced from memory's tablet, they are so nearly so, that, when recalled by one seeking to preserve theni, the recollections come slowly back, more like the memory of a mid-night dream than of an actual occurrence in which they were partial, if not actual participants and prominent characters. The footprint of time leaves its impressions and destroying agencies upon everything, and hence it would be unreasonable to suppose that the annals, incidents and hap- penings of nearly half a century in a community like that whose history we have attempted to write, could be preserved intact and unbroken.
That part of this history relating to the Cedar County Freebooters is the only succinct, connected and reliable history ever published of the outrages and outlawry to which the people of Cedar and adjoining counties were subjected for so many years. The facts relating to that reign of terror were obtained from different citi- zens who took a prominent part in the measures inaugurated to free themselves from the presence of the outlaws that defiled and corrupted the country from 1837 to 1857, when the unlawful combination was broken up and the members of the gang driven from the country. Many of the prominent and active members of the so-called Reg- ulators have maintained a continuous residence in the county, where they have steadily grown in wealth, honor and influence, and while they regret the severity of the measures they employed to free themselves from the presence of dishonest and predatory characters, they believed then, as they believe now, that it was the only means of protecting their homes. We feel assured this chapter will be read with interest.
The passage of two years marked the pages of time after the first settlement on Sugar Creek before any records of a public nature, relating to what is now Cedar County, were made. From the date of the erection of Michigan Territory, and the division of the "Forty Mile Strip" into two counties, Dubuque and Des Moines, by the Legislature of that Territory, until the organization of Cedar County, in 1838,
* Per con'ra, Mr. William Baker still insists that Enos Nyce was the " first settler," and that Col. Walton and his family did not come to tlie county until after July, 1836.
iv
PREFACE.
under act of the Wisconsin Territorial Legislature (which was set off from Michigan Territory in 1837), this district of country was subject to the jurisdiction of Dubuque County, and, as a matter of fact, many things of which the author has written were collected from the old records of that county by Hon. JOSEPII B. HALL, a gentleman of learning, experience and judgment, and by him placed at our disposal. These records were invaluable aids in the compilation of these pages. With this single exception, the gentlemen entrusted with the duty of writing this history were forced to depend upon the memory and intelligence of the few surviving pioneer settlers for a very large share of facts and information relating to immediate local events until after the organization of the county and the first meeting of the first Board of County Commissioners, at Rochester, on the 2d day of April, 1838. And it is a sub- ject of regret, that, even after that date, many important records are lost from the county archives, so that, in some instances, it has been impossible to supply certain names, dates, etc., from written data.
For these reasons, it is not to be expected that this volume will be entirely accu- rate as to names, dates, etc., or that it will be so perfect as to be above and beyond criticism, for the book is yet to be written and printed that can justly claim the meed of perfection; but it is the publishers' hope, as it is their belief, that it will be found measurably correct and generally accurate and reliable. Industrious and studied care has been exercised to make it a standard book of reference, as well as one of interest to the general reader. If in such a multiplicity of names, dates, etc., some errors are not detected, it will be strange, indeed.
Such as it is, our offering is completed, and it only remains for the publishers to acknowledge their obligations to the gentlemen named below for the valuable infor- mation furnished by them, without which this history of Cedar County would not be so voluminous and comprehensive.
To Hon. WILLIAM H. TUTHILL, for valuable MSS., data, and much time spent in revising the entire historical matter; to Messrs. LONGLEY and PEET, of the Adrer- tiser, for the use of their well-kept files of the paper over which they preside with such signal ability; to M. R. JACKSON, the able and accomplished editor of the Con- serrative, for similar favors; T. C. PRESCOTT, Clerk of the District and Circuit Courts; MOREAU CARROLL, County Anditor; CHARLES W. HAWLEY, County Re- corder, for access to the records of their several offices, as well as for services and assistance rendered in uncovering old and time-stained records; ALONZO SIIAW, the efficient and obliging Postmaster; WILLIAM M. KNOTT, Esq., of Tipton; Col. HENRY HARDMAN, WILLIAM BAKER and GEORGE FRAIN, of Rochester; SEWALL GOWER, of Cass Township; EBENEZER A. GRAY, of lowa Township; WASHINGTON A. RIGBY, of Stanwood; FRED. HECIIT, WILLIAM N. HOEY, LEWIS and L. W. PHELPS, Dr. COATES and S. S. CROCKER, of Clarence; JOHN SAFLEY and JOIN FER- GUSON, of Red Oak, for historical data of their respective neighborhoods; ROBERT J. DAVIDSON, of Fremont Township, for a history of the hurricanes; to E. E. EDWARDS, Esq., of Moscow, one of the earliest officials of the county, for missing links in county records; to Mrs. CATHERINE FLEMING (now of Davenport), for thirty-five years a respected and highly esteemed business woman of Tipton, for sundry items of interest that could be obtained from no other source; the Ministers and official representatives of the several churches, and to the Superintendent, Principals and Teachers of the schools of the county, for statistical and other facts, this paragraph of acknowledgment is, therefore, respectfully dedicated. To these parties, and the interest they have shown for the undertaking, is due, in a great measure, whatever of merit may be ascribed to this offering.
To the press and people of the county in general, and to the citizens of Tipton in particular, our most grateful considerations are due for their universal kindness to our representatives and agents who were charged with the labor of collecting and arranging the information herein preserved to that posterity that will come in the not far distant by-and-by to fill the places of the fathers and mothers, so many of whose names and honorable biographies are to be found within the pages of this book.
In conclusion, the publishers express the sincere hope that, before another forty- two years will have passed, other and abler pens will have taken up and recorded the annalistic events that will follow after the close of this offering to the people of Cedar County, that the historical literature of the country may be fully preserved and maintained from County to Nation.
Very respectfully,
June, 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
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
Minnesota.
247
Nebraska.
218
History of Iowa :
Geographical Situation 109
Topography 109
Drainage System 110
Rivers
111
Lakes
118
Springs
119
Climatology 137
Discovery and Occupation. 139 Pioneer Incidents 318
Territory
147
Freshet, 1837 ..
324
Indians ..
147
Bogus Claimants
.325
Stanwood
507
Pike's Expedition.
151
Claim Rings
.325
West Branch
508
Indian Wars. 152
Black Hawk War
157
Centerdale ...
521
Indian Purchase, Reserves and
Centerville.
326
First Store
326
Durant
521
Treaties 159 Spanish Grants 163 Indian Relic 326 Rochester. .526
Half-Breed Tract .. 164
Early Settlements .. .166
First Singing School.
.330
Territorial History.
173
Primitive Mill.
.. 330
Fairview.
542
Boundary Question
177
Legal Jurisdiction ..
.. 333
Inland
541
State Organization.
181
Growth and Progress. 185 Removal. 335
ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE.
A Pioneer Dwelling. 61
Breaking Prairie 63
Tecumseh, tbe Shawanoe Chieftain 69 Wild Prairie .. 23
La Salle Landing on the Shore of Green Bay. 25
Buffalo Hunt 27
Captain Jack, the Modoc Chieftain 83 Trapping 29
Hunting 32 Kinzie House 85 Iroquois Chief 34
Pontiac, the Ottawa Chieftain 43
Indians Attacking Frontiersmen ..
56!
A Pioneer School House
88
A Prairie Storm
59
PAGE.
PAGE.
History of Iowa :
Agricultural College and Farm.186
State University. 187
State Historical Society ...
.193
John Brown
.371
Political Economy
.374
Resume ....
377
First Tax Levy. .383
Deaf and Dumb Institution
199
First Court House
3×6
Soldiers' Orphans' Homes
199
Bridges.
395
State Normal School.
201
Asylum for Feeble Minded Children. 201
Reform School 202
Fish Hatching Establishment .. 203
Public Lands
204
Public Schools
218
Political Record
.223
War Record.
Number Volunteers. 233
Number Casualties-Officers ... 234 Number Casualties-Enlisted Men 236
Population ..
238
Agricultural Statistics
274
History of Cedar County
305
General Summary.
305
Descriptive Geography.
307
307
Timber.
307
War History.
549
Soldiers' Monument. .570
History of Towns: Tipton .. 458
Clarence 487
Mechanicsville
495
Louden.
500
Pioneer Iconoclasts
.325
Downey
511
Springdale.
.514
Cedar Bluff.
532
Pedce and Iowa Township ...... 535
Black Hawk, the Sac Chieftain ... 75 Chicago in 1833 95
Big Eagle. 80
PAGE.
Pioneers' First Winter 94 Great Iron Bridge of C., R. I. & P. R. R., Crossing the Mississippi at Davenport, Iowa 91
Old Fort Dearborn, 1830.
9S
Present Site Lake Street Bridge, Chicago, 1833. 98
A Representative Pioneer 86 Ruins of Chicago. 104 Lincoln Monument 87 View of the City of Chicago .. .106
Hunting Prairie Wolves ..
219
Circuit Court
410
District Court
413
Agricultural
413
Educational. 416
Sabbath School Association .417
Old Settlers' Association.
418
Cedar County Bible Society ...... 427
Railroads
427
Tornadoes
437
Miscellaneous 439
Press. 452
Personal Property Statement ... 547 Tax Levy 1877 .547
Vote 1877.
548
County Poor.
400
County Officers, Past and I'res-
ent
401
History of Cedar County :
Freebooters.
351
Murder of Atwood 369
Penitentiaries. 194
Insaue Hospitals 195
College for the Blind .. 197
229
Indiau Names.
Geology
308
Prairies
120
Early Settlement.
310
Geology
120
314
Arrivals, 1836
1837
316
Government Survey . 326
Society, Schools, Churches, etc.326
County Seat Controversy and
Massillon
546
PAGE.
Mouth of the Mississippi 21 Source of the Mississippi 21
Indians Attacking a Stockade ...... 72
First Courts.
402
Criminal Mention
405
vi
CONTENTS.
LITHOGRAPHIC PORTRAITS.
PAGE.
Bennett, V. A.
295
Carpenter. Don A
573
Kent, J. M. 429
Britcher, Henry 591
Eldredge, N. .537
McNeil, Wm.
321
Butterfield. F. .609
Geiger, Jacob 339
Rigby, W. A 131
Baird, D. W. 501
Bunker, Moses, 375
Coates, Thos. 26]
Carr, H. C. 465
Culbertson, J .483
Jack, O. C ... 645
Walton, David 555
CEDAR COUNTY VOLUNTEERS.
PAGE.
PAGE.
PAGE.
War History. .549
War Record.
558 Soldiers' Monument. ....... .. 570
BIOGRAPHICAL TOWNSHIP DIRECTORY.
PAGE.
PAGE.
PAGE.
Cass .. 687
Gower ..
663
Pionecr 692
Centre . 577
Iowa ....
645
Red Oak 666
Dayton. 618
Inland 677
Rochester. 722
FairfiekI. 711
Linn ...
715
Springfield 633
Fremont.
703
Louden-Town
7.27
Springdale
652
Sugar Creek
719
ABSTRACT OF IOWA STATE LAWS.
PAGE.
PAGE.
Adoption of Children .287
Bills of Exchange and Promissory Notes
275
Commercial Terms. 289
Mortgages. 294
Capital Punishment 282
Notice to Quit. 293
Descent 275
Notes.
290,297
Orders. 290
Quit Claim Deed .299
Receipts 290
Wills and Codicils 293
Support of Poor 287
Taxes ..
277
Wills and Estatcs
276
Bond for Deed .299 Interest 275 Weights and Measures 289
Bills of Purchase. 290
Jurisdiction of Courts. 281
Wolf Scalps.
284
Chattel Mortgage
.298
Jurors.
281
MISCELLANEOUS.
PAGE.
Surveyor's Measure .. 269
Population of Fifty Principal Cities
of the United States .... 272
Vote for President and Vice Pres-
Miscellaneous Tahle .. 270 ident. .. 264
Practical Rules for Every-Day Use .. 265
Names of the States of the Union
and their Significations. 271
268 Population of the United States ..... 272
Forms: PAGE.
Limitation of Actions 281
Landlord and Tenant.
288
Lease 296 Married Women ... 282
Marks and Brands. 284
Mechanics' Liens.
285
Roads and Bridges
286
Surveyors and Surveys .. 287
Suggestions to Persons Purchasing Books by Subscription 300
Estrays 283 Forms : Articles of Agreement 291
Warranty Deed 298
284
Bills of Sale .292 Fences
PAGE. !
PAGE.
Map of Cedar County .. Front. Constitution of United States. 250
How to Keep Accounts .269 Interest Table. 270
Population and Area of the United States. .. 273
Population of the Principal Conn- tries in the World. 273
United States Government Land Measure ..
Hardman, Henry. 163
Sheldon, C. P. 393
Smith, R. B 519
Ilecht, Fred. 627
Hecht, Henry .447
Scott, Prior 411
Tnthill, Wmn. II 303
Jennings, Jas 357
PAGE.
PAGE.
Farmington 673
Massillon. 638
Confession of Judgment. 290
Daniages from Trespass .. 284
Exemptions from Execution .. 282
>
Map of CEDAR 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- west 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
SOURCE OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
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 theni 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 lie 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
1
23
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
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