USA > Iowa > Jefferson County > The history of Jefferson County, Iowa, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, &c., a biographical directory of citizens, war records of its volunteers in the late rebellion, general and local statistics, portraits of early settlers and prominent men > Part 1
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1800
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THE
V HISTORY
OF
JEFFERSON COUNTY,
IOWA,
CONTAINING
A Bistory 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 Jefferson County, Constitution of the United States, Miscellaneous Matters, &c.
ILLUSTRATED.
CHICAGO : WESTERN HISTORICAL COMPANY, 1879.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1879, by
THE WESTERN HISTORICAL COMPANY In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.
F-62
81-761
PREFACE.
N EARLY forty-three years have come and gone since civilization's advance-guard came to occupy and develop the rich agricultural lands and exercise dominion in that part of the Black Hawk country included in Jefferson County. If the pioneers of 1836, or some of those who immediately followed them, had directed their attention to the keeping of a chronological journal or diary of events, to write a history of the county now would be a comparatively easy task ; but, pre-occupied with the cares incident to frontier life, no such journals were ever attempted. In the absence of such records, the enterprise is one of no small moment, and the magnitude of the undertaking is still further increased by the removal, by death or otherwise, of nearly all the pioneer fathers and mothers who first came to gladden the prairie 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 accom- plishments. The seeds they scattered ripened into the fullness of a plentiful harvest, and schoolhouses, churches, cities, towns, telegraphs, railroads and princely dwellings occupy the old " camp-grounds " of the Sauks, Foxes and other kindred tribes of red men.
The struggles, changes and vicissitudes that forty-three years evoke, are as trying to the minds as to the bodies of men. Physical and mental strength waste away together beneath gath- ering years, and the memory of names, dates and events become lost in the confusion engendered by time and its restless, unceasing mutations. Circumstances that were fresh in memory ten and twenty years after their occurrence, are almost, if not entirely, forgotten when 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 them, the recollections come slowly back, more like the memory of a midnight 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 happenings of nearly half a century in a community like that whose history we have attempted to write, could be preserved intact and unbroken.
The passage of three years marked the pages of time after the first settlements on Round Prairie before any records of a public nature, relating to what is now Jefferson County, were made, so that the gentlemen intrusted 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 Lockridge, on the 8th day of April, 1839. And it is a subject 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 accurate 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 puh- lishers' hope, as it is their belief, that it will be found measurably correct and generally accurate and reliable. Industrious and studied care have 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.
PREFACE.
Such as it is, our offering is completed, and it only remains for the publishers to acknowledge their obligations to the citizens named below for the valuable information furnished by them, without which this history of Jefferson County would not be so voluminous and comprehensive.
To JOHN HUFF, who is believed to be the first white man that visited the territory now included in Jefferson County ; MRS. SARAH A. LAMBIRTH, the first white woman to cross Cedar Creek, and one of the two first women to settle on Round Prairie, and JOSEPH TILFORD, of the same locality, where they have lived since the early spring of 1836, for incidents relating to the beginning of the settlement of the country ; to MRS. MAJOR WOODS, the especial friend of " Iowa's Boys in Blue," during the late war, for information regarding the movement for the collection of sanitary supplies ; to JOHN CLINTON, Col. J. W. CULBERTSON and wife, Messrs. SLAGLE and ACHESON, H. B. MITCHELL, Capt. C. JORDON, Hon. D. P. STUBBS, GEORGE CRAINE, JOHN DU BOISE, Messrs. CULBERTSON and JONES, for various incidents relating to early times in Fair- field ; to Capt. W. T. BURGESS, the excellent and obliging Postmaster, for the use of sundry papers of reference; to A. T. WELLS, the Librarian, for access to the Library, as well as for his uniform courtesy and kindness ; to W. W. and C. H. JUNKIN, of the Ledger, for the use of their well-kept files of the paper over which they preside with such signal ability ; to Messrs. FRANK GREEN and O. L. HACKETT, of the Tribune, for similar favors ; to the ministers and representa- tive members 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. there- fore, respectfully dedicated. To these parties, and the interest they manifested for the under- taking, 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 Fairfield in particu- lar, 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-three 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 Jefferson County, that the historical literature of the country may be fully preserved and maintained from county to nation.
Very respectfully,
JANUARY, 1879.
PUBLISHERS.
CONTENTS.
HISTORY NORTHWEST AND STATE OF IOWA.
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 Northı- west 86
Chicago. 95
Illinois. 257 Half-Breed Tract .. 164
Indiana 259 Early Settlements. 166 Territorial Ilistory. 173
Iowa ..
260
Michigan
263
Wisconsin.
264
Minnesota
266
Nebraska .. .267
History of Iowa :
Geographical Situation 109
Topography .. 109
Drainage System. 110:
PAGE.
History of Iowa:
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 Hawk War. 157
Political Record. 223
War Record.
229
Infantry .233
Cavalry.
214
Artillery
247
Miscellaneous
248
Promotions from Iowa Reg- iments 949 Number Casualties-Officers.250 Number Casualties-Enlist- ed Men .. 252
Number Volunteers .. 254
Population ..
.255
Agricultural Statistics.
320
HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
PAGE.
Original Occupants ... .323
Black Hawk .325
Wapello and other Chiefs 326
l'ashapaho .331
Indian Chieftains. .. 33
First White Settlers.
.349
The Black Hawk Purchase ..... 349
Bowlders .388
Economic Geology .. .388 Old Settlers. .433
Origin of the Prairies .392 Political Parties. .434 Roll of Iloner. .434
War Ilistory
.435
Roster 444
Fairfield .465
Early Incidents-Robbery. .. 466 Willis' Cheek 467 A Timid Beau .. .468 Miscellaneous Firstlings ... 468 Growth and Prosperity .469 United States Land Office .. 469
Banking Interests .. 470
Gas- Light Company .470
Mills.
Elevators 471
City Government 471
Educational Interests - First Schools 471
Parsons College. .473
Public Library 475
Second Court House and Jail .. 406 Poor-Farm .. .407 Lecture Course. 480 Press. 480
Religious ..
.482
Cemeteries
.488
Lodges, elc ..
.489
Temperance Organizations .. .. 493
Batavia. .495
Perlee
.498 Libertyville 499
Vote, October 8, 1878. ... 500
PAGE
Educational :
Formation of Lime-Beds. .382 Statistical 416 Great Coal-Basin. .. 382 Sabbath-School Association .417 Cretaceous. .385 Miscellaneous 419
Glacial Period.
.. 385
Railroads
.422
Drift Period .. 387
Agricultural Societies. 425
Hurricanes .431
Location of the County Seat .. 393
Political Economy .395
Explanatory. 395
Township System 396 Indian Scare. .. 359 Ilard Times and Ilominy
Resume 397
First Election Precincts .398
Settlers of 1837-Old Village
of Lockridge-First Store ... 361 An Indian Wife on her Muscle.363
First Road .400 First Regular Election .. .401 Retrospective ... .364
First Tax-Receipt and Finan- cial Exhibit .402 Tax-Levy of ISto-Township
Organization-Vote Ordered 403 Morals of the Pioneers-First Jail .404
Financial Condition, January 3, 1842 .. .405
Last Meeting under Territori- al Jurisdiction . .. 405
First and Second Marriage ... .372 First Births. .372 First Deaths etc. .. 372 First Physicians .. 373 Starting an Orchard-the Old
Apple-Tree .373 Troxell's Mill - Raising and Break-Down .. 374
Klinkenbeard's Flood .. 375 Another Flood. .376
Coop in the Legislature ......... 377
Organization of County. 377 Physical Geography, Origin of
Names, Timber, etc ........ .. 378 Educational 416
History of Iowa: PAGE.
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
Public Schools
218
Indian Purchase, Reserves and
Treaties .
159
Spanish Grants ...
163
Boundary Question
177
State Organization 181
Growth and Progress. 185
Agricultural College and Farm.186
State University. 187
State Historical Society. 193
Penitentiaries.
.194
PAGE.
Geology
.. 381
In the Wilderness-Crossing Cedar Creek-Mrs. Lambirth in Nettles .. 352 Plowing the Virgin Soil-the First Crop .353 Hawkins Taylor .357
County Officers .396 Blocks .. 360
Land Sales - Squatters and Speculators. .364 Society, Churches, Schools, etc.368 First Mill ..: 372
471
District Court. .408 Criminal Mention. 410 Double Tragedy-Lynching of Kephart .. 410 Mathews Homicide. 412 The Butler-Woodard Affair ..... 415 Political Murder. .416
.
CONTENTS.
ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE.
Month of the Mississippi 21
Source of the Mississippi 21
Wild Prairie 23
La Salle Landing on the Shore of Green Bay 25
Buffalo Hunt
Trapping
29
Hunting
32
Iroquois Chief 34
Pontiac, the Ottawa Chieftain 43 Lincoln Monument 87
Indians Attacking Frontiersmen .. 56
A Prairie Storm 59
JEFFERSON COUNTY VOLUNTEERS.
Infantry:
PAGE.
Infantry :
PAGE.
Cavalry : PAGE.
Second
.444
Forty-fifth.
453
Seventhi. 460
Seventh.
446
Cavalry:
Third.
454
Ninthı.
461
Nineteenth
.. 4-18
Thirtieth ..
451
BIOGRAPHICAL TOWNSHIP DIRECTORY.
l'AGE.
Black Hawk
595
Fairfield
501
Penn.
549
Buchanan ... 534
Liberty
522
Polk 600
Cedar
,540
Lockridge 543
Round Prairie. .528
Walnut
571
LITHOGRAPHIC PORTRAITS.
ĮPAGE.
Potter, A. C ... ....
.457
Culbertson, John W .......
491 Chester, S. J .. 423
Burgess, W. T. .389 |Stubbs, D. P
.355 |Coop, W. G., Gen 321
ABSTRACT OF IOWA STATE LAWS.
PAGE.
Adoption of Children ..
.. 303
Forms:
Chattel Mortgage. .314
Limitation of Actions .297
Landlord and Tenant .... 304
Lease
.. 312
Married Women ...
298
Mortgages. .310
Marks and Brands.
300
Mechanics' Liens.
301
Roads and Bridges
.302
Surveyors and Surveys .. .303
Suggestions to Persons Purchasing Books by Subscription .. 319
Support of Poor .303
Taxes
295
Wills and Estates
293
Weights and Measures
305
Wolf Scalps.
.300
MISCELLANEOUS.
PAGE.
PAGE.
PAGE.
Map of Jefferson County. Front. Constitution of United States ....... .. 269
Vote for President, Governor and
Miscellaneous Table .. 289 Congressmen. 283 Practical Rules for Every-Day Use .. 284 . Names of the States of the Union
and their Significations. .290 United States Government Land
Measure 287
Population of the United States ..... 291
Jurors. 297
Bills of Exchange and Promissory Notes .293
Confession of Judgment. .. 306
Commercial Terms. .305
Capital Punishment. 298
Charitable, Scientific and Religious Associations .316
Orders. .306 Descent 293
Damages from Trespass. 300 Exemptions from Execution 298
Receipts .. .. 306 Wills and Codicils. 309 Estrays .299 Forins : Articles of Agreement 307 Fences .300 Warranty Deed. 314
Bills of Sale . .308 Interest. 293 Bond for Deed. 315 Intoxicating Liquors 317
Bills of Purchase
.. 306
Jurisdiction of Courts
297
PAGE.
PAGE.
Notice to Quit ... 309
Notes .. 306, 313
Quit Claim Deed. 315
Eighth 460
Seventeenth. .447
27
Big Eagle. 80
Captain Jack, the Modoc Chieftain 83 Kinzie House .. 85
A Representative Pioneer. 86
A Pioneer School House 88
PAGE.
A Pioneer Dwelling .. ..... 61 Pioneers' First Winter 94 Great Iron Bridge of C., R. I. & P.
, Breaking Prairie. 63
R. R., Crossing the Mississippi at
Tecumseh, the Shawanoe Chieftain 69 Indians Attacking a Stockade .. 72 Davenport, lowa 91
Black Hawk, the Sac Chieftain ..... 75
Chicago in 1833
95
Old Fort Dearborn, 1830.
98
Present Site Lake Strect Bridge, Chicago, 1833 98
Ruins of Chicago ..
104
View of the City of Chicago.
106
Hunting Prairie Wolves ..
268
Fourth.
460 Miscellaneous 461
PAGE.
PAGE
Des Moines. 567
Locust Grove
.560
PAGE. PAGE.
Surveyor's Measure . 288 Population of Fifty Principal Cities of the United States ... ........... 291 llow to Keep Accounts .288 Interest Table. .289 Population and Area of the United States. 292 Population of the Principal Coun- tries in the World. 292
PAGE.
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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.
000000000
BRIGHAM
MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
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.
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