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HISTORY
DELAWARE COUNTY
IOWA.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.
Chap Fb / Copyright na. Shel 13 H6
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
THE
V
HISTORY
OF
DELAWARE 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 Delaware County, Constitution of the United States, Miscellaneous Matters, &c.
ILLUSTRATED.
BRARY OF COPYRIGHT
CONGRESS No. 153 - ITS 1878. OF
WASHINGTON
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.
1 6.27 D3 HS
ulver Hage Moyne PRINTERS 18 &120 MONROE ST. CHICAGO
PREFACE.
L ESS than fifty years ago, Delaware County, now so densely populated and replete with all the elements of an enlightened civilization, was the undisturbed home of the Sacs and Foxes. Less 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.
Only a little more than forty years have elapsed since the roving, restless BENNETT built the first rude log cabin and the first brave and hardy pioneers settled on the beau- tiful prairies of Delaware. But these fleeting years have been full of eventful changes -of history. To gather, compile and preserve that history for transmission to posterity as one of the almost countless chapters in the annals of this great country, has been the purpose of this work.
The task has been an arduous and responsible one. Several years had passed, after the first permanent settlements by KIBBEE, the LIVINGSTONS, the NICHOLSONS, BAILEY, the KEELERS, EADS, PENN, AUBREY, JACKSON and others, before any writ- ten records were made ; indeed, prior to 1850, the records of Delaware were very incom- plete and many valuable papers pertaining to that period have been lost. Of those who came prior to 1842, only a few remain to greet those who now come to write their history. Memories fail with the accumulating burdens of years, and events that were fresh and vivid in memory ten or fifteen years ago are now so nearly forgotten that they are recalled with difficulty.
In the absence of written records, it has often occurred that different individuals have given sincere and honest but nevertheless conflicting accounts of the same events, and it has been a task of great delicacy to harmonize these conflicting statements and draw therefrom reasonable and approximately correct conclusions. This part of the work has been performed with much care and with the single purpose of ascertaining the truth and of recording events as they actually transpired. How well it has been performed the reader must judge. It will be strange indeed, if, in the multiplicity of names, dates and events, no errors shall be detected. The compilers do not dare hope that in all its numerous and varied details, this work is absolutely correct, nor is it expected that it is beyond criticism. But the publishers hope and believe that it will be found measurably correct and generally accurate and reliable. Unwearied and studious care has been con- stantly exercised, 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 grateful acknowledgments to the people of Delaware County
iv
PREFACE.
for the liberal patronage that has enabled us to present them with this volume, and for the courtesy and kindness almost without exception extended to our representatives and agents to whom has been entrusted the work of collecting and arranging the histor- ical records herein preserved to that posterity who, in the not far distant 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 so freely and generously furnished so much valuable information, without whose aid the history of Delaware County would not have been so complete and accurate as it is hoped it will be found to be.
To the Fathers and Mothers of the Past. and the Sons of the Present, who have taken a deep interest in this work, and especially to Hon. JOEL BAILEY and his amiable wife, Mrs. ARABELLA COFFIN BAILEY; Hon. CUMMINGS SANBORN, Mayor of Man- chester ; THOMAS TOOGOOD, Esq .; RAY B. GRIFFIN, Esq .; Col. S. G. VAN ANDA; R. M. KWART, Esq., Superintendent of Schools ; Dr. JOSEPH W. ROBBINS; Rev. B. M. AMSDEN ; JOSEPH S. BELKNAP, Esq .; S. L. DOGGETT, Esq .; R. W. TIRRILL, Esq .; FRANCIS BETHELL ; WILLIAM CATTRON, Esq .; L. L. AYERS, Esq .; C. C. PEERS ; CHARLES C. LEWIS; MARK WHITMAN; ALLEN LOVE, of Manchester; Hon. FRED- ERICK B. DOOLITTLE ; Col. JOHN H. PETERS; CHARLES W. HOBBS, Esq .; J. B. BOGGS, Esq., County Auditor ; J. B. SATTERLEE, Ex-Clerk of Courts ; Capt. J. M. HOL- BROOK, County Treasurer ; H. C. JACKSON, Esq., Recorder of Delhi; LEROY JACK- SON ; HENRY A. CARTER; Mrs. Dr. FINLEY ; P. H. WARNER ; Rev. S. HODGE, D. D .; Prof. WM. FLUDE, of Hopkinton ; LAWRENCE MCNAMEE, Esq .; JACOB B. MORE- LAND, Col. SAMUEL G. KNEE; JOHN PLATT, Esq .; Rev. E L. McNAMEE, of Coles- burg; ASA C. BOWEN, Esq., of Sand Spring; ROLAND AUBREY, Esq., of North Fork; HIRAM D. WOOD, Esq., of Forestville ; SILAS GILMORE, Esq., of Greeley ; CHRISTO- PHER L. FLINT, Esq., of Hazel Green ; HENRY BAKER, Esq., of Coffin's Grove; C. B. LONT, Esq .; W. M. HEFNER, of Delaware; to the Press of the County, to the minis- ters and official representatives of the churches, lodges and societies, and the principals and teachers of schools, this paragraph of grateful appreciation and thanks is respect- fully dedicated. We are also under obligations to Hon. T. S. WILSON and P. J. QUIG- LEY, Esq., Clerk of Courts of Dubuque; and to Hon. T. W. BURDICK, M. C. from this Congressional District, for courtesies extended to our representatives.
In conclusion, we may be permitted to express the earnest hope that before two score more of years have passed, other and abler pens will have gathered and recorded the historical events that are to follow the close of this offering to the people of Delaware, that the history of the County may be preserved unbroken from generation to gener- ation.
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-
ments
35
American Settlements ..
60
Division of the Northwest Ter- ritory .. 66
Tecnmseh 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
Illinos
240
Indiana
212
Iowa ..
243
Michigan
244
Wisconsin
245
Minnesota
247
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
Indians.
147
Pike's Expedition
151
Indian Wars. 152
Black Ilawk War.
157
Indian Purchase, Reserves and
Treaties .
159
Spanish Grants
163
llalf-Breed Tract ..
164
Early Settlements.
166
Territorial History.
173
Boundary Question
177
State Organization
.181
Growth and Progress 185 Agricultural College and Farm.186
PAGE.
History of Iowa : PAGE.
State University
.187
State Historical Society
Penitentiaries.
.194
.193
Vote 1876.
415
County Officers, 1841 to 1878 ... 416
Insane Hospitals
195
Township Officers
418
Old Settlers' Society.
422
Agricultural Society.
424
Farmers' Institute ..
.426-
Patrons of Husbandry.
427
Sabbath School Association ..... 428
Post Offices and Postmasters ... 428
Fire and Lightning Insurance
Company
.431
¿ Dairy System
.432
Nurseries
434
War Record.
.435
.462
Press
471
Medical Society
475
Musical Society.
476
Bible Society
477
History of Towns:
Manchester 477
Delhi
514
Earlville.
520
Delaware
525
Greeley
530
Colesburg and Colony ..
.533
Forestville
547
Almoral ..
549
Rock ville
551
Hartwick
552
Delaware Township.
553
Masonville
.554
Cotfin's Grove Township. .555
Yankee Settlement.
556
Railroad Strangled.
.391
Hazel Green.
.557
Broom Corn
.392
Delaware Center.
558
Petersburg
5.59
Millheim
560
Poor House.
.407
York
560
County Seat Contests.
408
Elk Township.
561
Ilarvest Home
.410
Miscellaneous
411
Property Statement.
.414
ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE.
Mouth of the Mississippi. 21 Source of the Mississippi 21.
La Salle Landing on the Shore of Green Bay 25
Hunting 32
Iroquois Chief. 34 |
Pontiac, the Ottawa Chieftain 43. Indians Attarking Frontiersmen .. 56 A Prairie Storm .... 59
PAGE.
A Pioneer Dwelling. 61
Tecumseh, the Shawnoe Chieftain .. 69
72 1
Big Eagle ...
80
Trapping
29
83
Captain Jack, the Modoe Chieftain Kinzie House 85
A Representative Pioneer 86
Lincoln Monument 87
A Pioneer School House
88
Pioneers' First Winter
94
PAGE.
Great Iron Bridge of C., R. l. & P. R. R., Crossing the Mississippi at Davenport, Iowa 91
Chicago in 1833
95
Old Fort Dearhorn, 1830
98
Present Site Lake Street Bridge,
Chicago, 1833.
98
Ruins of Chicago.
104
View of the City of Chicago.
106
Ilunting Prairie Wolves ..
219
Starved Rock.
274
Centennial Medals
562
History of Delaware County :
Tax Statement.
414
College for the Blind .. 197
Deaf and Dumb Institution 199 Soldiers' Orphans' lIomes 199 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
229
Educational
459
Number Volunteers
233
Bowen Collegiate Institute.
Railroads
.468
Number Casualties-Officers ... 234
Number Casualties-Enlisted
Men
236
Population
238
History of Delaware County
.331
First Election
.337
First Marriages .341
Organization of County .342
First County Election 346
First Court House 351
First Tax
.. 353
First Civil Case .. .. 367
First Criminal Trial
.. 368
Hopkinton
537
First Divorce Case ..
.. 368
Sand Spring
543
Jail and Court House .. 379-380-
386 and 387
New Townships
380
County Judge System ...
.381
Great Flood.
382
Township Boundaries.
.. 387
Land Case
.389
Incorporation of Delhi. .. 390
Murder in Delhi
.. 392
Poor Farm
403
Bremen Township.
561
Too Lates
561
Breaking Prairie. 63 Wild Prairie. 23
Indians Attacking a Stockade .... Black Hawk, the Sac Chiettain. 75 Buffalo Hunt 27
CONTENTS.
LITHOGRAPHIC PORTRAITS.
PAGE.
Baily, Joel .329~
Drybread, J. S.
455- Martin, W. H ..
527-
Belknap, J. S. 563- Emerson, F.
Bronson, Chas. E 509- Flint, C. L .. 407
Peters, J. H
Baker, Henry 35
Griffin, R. B. 163 Swinburne, J. B.
Cowles, E. S 419
Gilmore, Silas .193
Stone, Andrew
Carr, E. M. 211
Coffin, Clement. 99-
Denton, M 67- Klaus, H. H. 653-
Doolittle, F. B. 51~
Le Roy, M. F 295-
Wood, 11. D.
Wellman, O. ....
DELAWARE COUNTY WAR RECORD.
Infantry
.441
Infantry :
Forty-fourth .448
Forty-sixth .448
Sixth
Fifth 441
Miscellaneous Infantry
.. 449
Seventh
Ninth
.442
Cavalry ..
.449
Eighth
Twelfth
442
First
.449
Miscellaneous Cavalry
Artillery, etc ..
BIOGRAPHICAL TOWNSHIP DIRECTORY.
1
Adams.
684
Elk
Hazel Green
.693
Prairie
Richland
Coffit's Grove. .. 660
Milo 615
South Fork
Delaware. 565
Delhi
.595
ABSTRACT OF IOWA STATE LAWS.
1
PAGE.
Adoption of Children. 284 Forms :
Bills of Exchange and Promissory Notes 275
Commercial Terms.
286
Descent
.. 275
Damages from Trespass .. 281
Exemptions from Execution .280 Estrays .280 Forms :
Articles of Agreement 288
Bills of Sale 289 Bond for Deed. 298 Fences Bills of Purchase. 287 Interest. .. 375
282
Taxes.
Wills and Estates ....
Weights and Measures
MISCELLANEOUS.
PAGE.
Map of Delaware 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
and their Significations.
271
Measure.
268
PAGE.
Surveyor's Measure .. 269
How to Keep Accounts ... 269 Interest Table .. .270
Miscellaneous Table
.. 270
Names of the States of the Union
Population of the United States ..... 272
Population of Fifty ?r. ncipal Cities2 of the United States ..
Population and Area of the United
States ..
.273
Population of the Principal Coun-
tries in the World
.273
Errata
.......... 300
I
Lease 294
Mortgages .. 292
Notice to Quit 290
Notes 287-294
Orders ...
.287
Quit Claim Deed. 297
Receipts. .287
Tenant's Notice of Leaving .. ... 290
Wills and Codicils 290
Warranty Deed 297
Jurisdiction of Courts.
278
Jurors.
Limitation of Action®
Landlord and Tenant.
Married Women ...
Marks and Brands ...
Mechanics' Liens.
Roads and Bridges
Surveyors and Surveys ..
Suggestions to Persons Purchasing Books by Subscription
Support of Poor
Chattel Mortgage 297 Confession of Judgment. 288
PAOE.
PAGE.
625
Oneida.
Bremen 703
Colony .608
Honey Creek. .649
North Fork 689
Union ...
PAGE.
PAGE.
Cavalry :
Fourth
Third
.441
Hobbs, Chas. W .365
Jackson, Leroy .617-
Sullivan, A.
Van Anda, S. G
Drybread, H. C.
545~ McNamee, L. 6354
PAGE.
491
Martindale, Johlı.
227 -
500
Second 450
Twenty-first.
444
Twenty-seventlı 447
PAGE.
Stewart, John
First .441
PAGE.
PA
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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
-
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.
TIIE 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.
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