USA > Iowa > Jackson County > The history of Jackson County, Iowa, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, &c., biographical sketches of citizens, war record of its volunteers in the late rebellion history of the Northwest, history of Iowa miscellaneous matters, &c > Part 1
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Gc 977.701 J13h 1148925
M. L
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01081 2714
THE
HISTORY
OF
JACKSON COUNTY,
I.O WA,
CONTAINING
A history of the County, its Cities, Gowns, +
Biographical Sketches of Citizens, War Record of its Volunteers in the late Rebellion, General and Local Statistics, Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men, History of the Northwest, History of Iowa, Map of Jackson County, Constitution of the United States, Miscellaneous Matters, &c., &c.
B. Mcnally
ILLUSTRATED.
Sabulala
CHICAGO : WESTERN HISTORICAL COMPANY, 1879.
ulver Hage Hoynel2 PRINTERS 118 &120 MONROE SI (
CHICAGO
PREFACE. 1148925
ORTY-FIVE years ago, Jackson County was a wilderness untrodden by the white settler. To-day, it abounds in cultivated fields, growing hamlets and prosperous cities. A generation back, it was an unorganized Territory. To-day it is a mature and well-governed commonwealth. Then it was poor and naked. To-day finds it rich in money, comfort and future prospects-clothed in all the graces of a new world's civilization.
The purpose of this volume is to trace the story of this change. A thou- sand years will probably not work so marked a difference in the appearance and history of this district as has the past half-century. If this work has done nothing more, it has at least saved from oblivion the most important events and circumstances connected with the great transformation which rescued Jackson County from Nature's wildness to fit it for the home of comfort and culture.
We have endeavored to introduce the reader to the crudities of backwoods government, to show him society as it existed in a new and almost lawless region, to seat him by the hearthstone of pioneers, to trace the growth of the community through succeeding decades and to present a faithful picture of the county and its institutions as it has entered upon the last quarter of this event- ful century. The book is not so much our own work as it is that of Jackson citizens. The latter produced the facts it has been our pleasure to record. We have endeavored to represent events as they have occurred. We have halted, perplexed, before conflicting, though honest, statements, and have sometimes been able but partly to repair existing breaches in our path. Memory is falli- ble. Dates are fickle. Names are obstinate. Recollection sometimes refuses from sheer weariness to go backward over the years of a generation. Under such circumstances, we cannot expect to have made no mistakes. Some errors will be due to our informants; some, to ourselves. A charitable public will
H 0
iv
PREFACE.
acknowledge the difficulty and credit us with doing the work faithfully at least. The reception extended in the county gives us reason to believe we place the work in the hands of its friends.
It remains for us publicly to express our appreciation of the kindness with which the pioneers and citizens of Jackson County have co-operated with our representatives in securing the information which makes this work a possibility. Our thanks are especially due to COL. WILLIAM A. WARREN, of Bellevue, for the privilege of making use of published articles ; to the editors of the Sentinel and Excelsior, as well as other members of the county press, for their courtesy in affording us access to their files ; to the various county and city officials for uniform kindness, and for opportunities to consult the records; to JOHN E. GOODENOW, EsQ., for much of the early history of Maquoketa.
To mention the names of gentlemen to whom we are indebted for courtesy and assistance though a labor of love, would be superfluous ; we thank all, but desire particularly to make our acknowledgements to S. BURLESON, CAPT. W. S. BELDEN, GEORGE F. GREEN, WILLIAM Y. EARLE, DR. J. F. SUGG, DR. E. A. WOOD, N. BUTTERWORTH, JR., DR. L. MILLAR, Z. DE GROAT, A. G. HENDERSON and J. M. KIRKPATRICK.
Whatever of satisfaction, instruction or enjoyment these pages may bring to their readers will be a gratification to
November, 1879.
THE PUBLISHERS.
CONTENTS.
HISTORY NORTHWEST AND STATE OF IOWA.
PAGE.
19
Geographical Position .. 19 Early Explorations .. 20 Discovery of the Ohio .. 32
English Explorations and Set- tlementa. 34
American Settlements. 59 Division of the Northwest Ter- ritory 65 Tecumseh and the War of 1812 69
Black Hawk and the Black Hawk War. 73
Other Indian Troubles .. 79
Present Condition of the North- weat 79
Illinois ... 88 Illinois 257
Indiane 259
Iowa .. .
260
Michigan
263
Wisconsin. 264 Minnesota 266 Nebraska. 267 History of Iowa:
Geographical Situation 109 Topography .. 109
Drainage System.
110
PAGE.
PAGE.
History of Iowa:
Rivers. 111
Lakes
118
Springs
119
Prairies
120
Geology
140
Climatology 137
Discovery and Occupation .. .139
Territory
.147
Indians ..
147
Pike's Expedition
151
Indian Wars.
152
Public Schoola.
218
Black Hawk War .. .157
Indian Purchase, Reserves and
Treaties ...
.159
Infantry
.233
Cavalry.
244
Artillery
247
Miscellaneous
.248
Promotions from Iowa Reg-
iments ..
249
Roundary Question.
177
State Organization.
181
Number Casualties-Officers.250
Number Casualtios-Eolist-
Growth and Progress.
185
Agricultural College and Farm.186
ed Men.
252
Number Volunteers .......
.254
State University.
.187
State Historical Society
.193
Population ...
.255
Agricultural Statistics 320
ABSTRACT OF IOWA STATE LAWS.
PAGE.
PAGE.
PAGE.
Adoption of Children. 303 Forms :
Bille of Exchange and Promissory Notes 293
Confession of Judgment ...
..... 306
Lease.
.. 312
Married Women ...
298
Mortgages ..
.. 310
Marks and Brands.
.300
Notice to Quit
.. 309
Mechanics' Liens.
.301
NotPa ...
Ordera ...
Quit Claim Deed
Receipts ....
306
Wills and Codicils .. .309 Support of Poor 303
Warranty Deed.
314
Taxes ...
295
300
Willa and Estates.
293
Weights and Measures
305
317 | Wolf Scalps .. 300
ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE.
Indiane Attacking Frontiersmen .. 55
Present Site Lake Street Bridge,
Chicago, 1833 ... 58
A Pioneer Dwelling. 60
Trapping 29 Lake Bluff. 62 Hunting Prairie Wolves .. 85
Month of the Mississippi .. 31
High Bridge
33
Pontiac, the Ottawa Chieftain
42
MISCELLANEOUS.
PAGE.
Surveyor'a Measure. .. 288
How to Keep Accounts. .. 288 Interest Table .... .289
Vote for President, Governor and Congressmen .. .283 Practical Rules for Every-Day Use .. 284
Names of the States of the Union and their Significations. 290 United States Government Land
Moasure.
.287 | Population of the United States ..... 291 |
PAGE.
Population of Fifty Principal Cities
of the United States .. .. 291 Population and Area of the United
Miscellaneous Table
.289
States ..
.. 292
Population of the Principal Coun-
tries lo the World.
.292
Kiozie House
87
Starved Rock
89
74 | An Early Settlement 108
PAGE.
Map of Jackson County .. Front.
Constitution of United States ......... 269
PAGE.
Source of the Mississippi 22
.
La Salle Landing on the Shore of
Green Bay 24 Buffalo Hunt 26
Old Fort Dearborn, 1830
79
Lincoln Monument.
80
A Pioneer School House.
81
Chicago in 1833.
82
Tecumseh, the Shawanoe Chieftain 68 Indiana Attacking a Stockade ..... 71
Black Hawk, the Sac Chieftain ....
Jurors
.. 297
Limitation of Actions ...
297
Landlord and Tenant.
.304
Commercial Terms. 305 Capital Punishment .. 298 Charitable, Scientific and Religious Associations. .. 316 Descent .293 Damages from Trespass ... .. 300 Exemptiona from Execution .. 298
Estrays. 299 Forms : Articles of Agreement ... 307 Fences Bills of Sale 308 Interest .. 293
Bond for Deed. .315
Intoxicating Liquors ..
Bills of Purchase. .306 Jurisdiction of Courts. 297
History of lowa:
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
Political Record. .223
War Record.
.229
Spanish Grants
163
Half-Breed Tract ..
164
Early Settlements.
166
Territorial History ...
173
Penitentiaries
.194
Chattel Mortgage
.314
.306,313 Roads and Bridges 302 .. 306 Surveyors and Surveys .. ... 303 Suggestions to Persone Purchasing .. 315 Books by Subscription. 319
PAGE.
History Northwest Territory
.....
vi
CONTENTS.
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
PAGE.
Anti-Pioneer Times. .323
County Organization .. ... 327 Smuggled Spoils. .381
Township Organization. .. 329
County Commissioners' Business ... 330
Probate Court .. ,331
Firat Settler. .. 332
Firet Sermon 332
Firat Deed .. 333
Club Law and Claims .333 The County Seat. .335
County Supervisors 338
Embezzlements .341
Bridges. 342
County Poor Farm 343
County Jail. 344
County Finances. 345
Statistics .. 347
Geological . .. 349
A Bridegroom's Disappointment ... 418
Van Buren .. 607
.607
A Defeated Congressman .420 St. Donatus
607
Pioneer Honor. .421 Mill Rock .608
A Diegusted Barber .. .422 Cantou .608
The First Woman's Crusade. .. 423 Ozark 608
Surface. .356 Incidente. .423 Nashville .. 608
Arrival of Outlaws in Bellevue ...... 356
A Real-Estate Transaction .. 362
The Groff-Davis Tragedy .. 363
A Checkered Life .. 366
A Romance. .. 368
Citizens' Association ... .371
The Bandits' Den .. .372
A Deputy's Bravery and What Came of It. .374
Agricultural Society. 440
Wsr. 612
Horticultural 442 Vote 1879 620
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
PAGE.
PAGE.
Bellevue ..
.657
Jackson ..
.. 765
Richland. .688
Brandon 757 Maquoketa. 621
South Fork. ... 641
Butler .. .. 764
Monmouth 651
Tete dee Morts .. .678
Union. 693 Fairfield .. .773 Otter Creek 750
Farmer's Creek 743
Perry .... 724
Van Burten.
716
Iowa
.702 | Prairie Springs. 685
Washington 709
Too"Late for Insertion
.782, 783
LITHOGRAPHIC PORTRAITS.
PAGE.
PAGE.
PAGE.
Mrs. N. R. Allen. .. 627
N. Butterworth. .411 A. L. Bartholomew. .717 M. G. Hyler. .537
Mrs. Juliett CarmRO. .. 447
Thomas W. Cassin. 663 J. Hilsinger. .. 429
J. G. Sugg .. .587
James Dunne. .753 N. Kilboru 393 Henry Specht 605
Z. De Groat 339 Charles M. Duobar. 645 J. M. Fitzgerald. .. 519
James D. Gage .. .483
Mrs. J. E. Goodenow .501 J. W. Miles. .. 591
J. E. Goodenow. .321
Theo. Niemand 681
E. G. Potter. .375
J. J. Hofstetter. .. 699 Asher Riley. .465
George W. Keleall .609 B. F. Thomas .735
George W. Keister 771
E. A. Wood 573
W. A. Warren 357
PAGE.
A Temporary Reform. .380
Political. .. 443
Vote 1876-1878. .444
Educational. .444
The Gunpowder Plot. 387 County Officers 449
Township Officers 1879 ... .. 451
Legislative Representation ... 452
War History. 453
Roster Volunteers. ... 463 487 Andrew
Maquoketa.
521 Sabule .. Bellevue. 531 562
.. 587
Lead Exploration in 1834. .413 Mon mouth.
604
The Winter of 1842-43-Incidents .. 417
Burt's Cave 350 The Iowa Band .419 Fulton. .607
Hunter's Caves.
352
Descriptive Geography .. 354
.. 353
Streams
Natural Products. .355
Timber. 355
Court Incidents 426 La Motte .. 611
Court Resolutions 428 Zwingle. 611
Truth Stronger than Fiction. .428 Cottonville 611
A Distressing Accident. 431 Sterling. 611
Monmouth'e Centennial .. .431 Iron Hill.
Fairfield'e Centennial .434 Otter Creek. .611
Railroads. 434
Correspondence on the Bellevue
James Thompson .. 377
The Thieves' Last Haul .... .390
A General Arrest Proposed. .. 392
The Bellevue War.
.396
The Assault on Brown's Hotel ..... .398 The Thieves Tried and Sentenced .. 398
Jackson-Perkins Murder and Exe- cution. 403
Fate of Alexander Grifford ... .405 Vigilance Committee. Preston Miles. 595 .405 Barger Murder and Lynching .... .406 The Cronk Murder Trial. 407 Baldwin ... .. 601
.606 Spragueville
Vosburg'e Huntiog Yarn. .. 419 Spring Brook
PAGE.
Killing of James Thompson. 382
L. Millar. .555
PAGE.
COU
MAP OF
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NTON X
28
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7
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, ineluding 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
21
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
:
22
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.
SOURCE OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
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
23
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 Chev .-
24
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 Hurou. 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,
LA SALLE LANDING ON THE SHORE OF GREEN BAY.
started her on her return voyage. The vessel was never afterward heard of. IIe 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.
By a short portage they passed to the Illinois or Kankakee, called by the Indians, "Theakeke," wolf, because of the tribes of Indians called by that name, commonly known as the Mahingans, dwelling there. The French pronounced it Kiakiki, which became corrupted to Kankakee. "Falling down the said river by easy journeys, the better to observe the country," about the last of December they reached a village of the Illi- nois Indians, containing some five hundred cabins, but at that moment
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