USA > Iowa > Lee County > The history of Lee county, Iowa, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, &c. > Part 1
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116 | Part 117 | Part 118
1800
Glass F627
Book
IL4H6
1
241 3086
.
KEOKUK
THE
HISTORY 1 1
OF
LEE COUNTY,
'IOWA,
CONTAINING
A Bistory of the County, its Cities, Butuns, &t.,
1 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, History of the Northwest, History of Iowa, Map of Lee County, Constitution of the United States, Miscellaneous Matters, &c.
A
)
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.
1
PREFACE.
N EARLY sixty years have come and gone since Dr. SAMUEL C. MUIR built a house at Puck-e-she-tuck as a permanent home for his Indian wife and children, and almost half a century has been added to the pages of time since white men began to exercise dominion in the land of the Sacs and Foxes. These years were full of change and of history, and, had some of the vigorous minds and ready pens of the early set- tlers been directed to the keeping of a chronological journal of events, the record would be invaluable to the local historian of the present. With such help, it would be a comparatively easy task to write a reliable and correct history. Without such aid, the undertaking is a difficult one, and the difficulty is materially increased by reason of the absence of nearly all the pioneer fathers and mothers.
Of those who came here in pursuit of homes and fortunes between 1833 and 1840, but few are left to greet those who now come to write the local history of their county- a county second to none in the great State of Iowa in point of historic interest. The struggles, changes and vicissitudes that fifty years evoke are as trying to the minds as to the bodies of men. Physical and mental strength waste away together beneath accu- mulating years, and the memory of names, dates and important events becomes buried in the confusion brought 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; or, if not entirely lost from the mind, are so nearly so that, when recalled by one seeking to preserve them in printed pages, their memory comes slowly back, more like the recollections of a midnight dream than an actual occurrence in which they were partial, if not active, participants and prominent actors. 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 almost half a century in a community like that whose history we have attempted to write, could be preserved intact and unbroken in memory alone.
In the absence of written records, recourse was had to the minds of such of the Pioneers and Old Settlers as have been spared to see the wilds of 1820 and 1833 eman- cipated from Indian hunting-grounds and camping-places and made the abode of thrift, wealth, intelligence, refinement, of schools, colleges, churches and cities, of the highest order. In seeking to supply missing links in the county's history by personal inter- views, different individuals rendered different and conflicting, although honest and sincere, accounts of the same events and circumstances. To sift these statements and arrive at the most reasonable and tangible conclusions was a delicate task, but a task we sought to discharge with the single purpose of writing of incidents as they actually transpired. If, in such a multiplicity of names, dates, etc., some errors are not detected, it will be strange indeed. But, such as it is, our offering is completed, and it only
PREFACE.
remains for us to acknowledge our obligations to the gentlemen named below for the valuable information furnished by them, without which this history of Lee County would not be so nearly perfect as it is :
To ISAAC R. CAMPBELL and NATHAN SMITH, Esqs., of St. Francisville, Mo .; Capt. JAMES W. CAMPBELL, Hon. PHILIP VIELE, Judge JOHN WHITAKER, JONAS S. KNAPP, JOHN G. KENNEDY, OTWAY CUTLER, R. MCFARLAND, CHARLES J. HYDE. A. L. RICE, AARON JOHNSON, PETER MILLER, Sr., and others, of Fort Madison, and vicinity ; VALENCOURT VANAUSDOL, HENRY D. BARTLETT, Col. JAMES C. PARROTT, ISRAEL ANDERSON, Judge EDWARD JOHNSTONE. Hon. DANIEL F. MILLER, Sr., Col. WILLIAM PATTERSON, Col. JAMES MONROE REID and others. of Keokuk ; ALEXANDER CRUICKSHANK, Esq., of Franklin Township; JOHN O. SMITH. Esq., of Denmark; WILLIAM SKINNER, Esq., of Jefferson Township; A. W. HARLAN, Esq., of Van Buren Township ; R. W. PITMAN, of West Point, and D. C. RIDDICK, Esq .. of Montrose; L. B. FLEAK, Esq., editor of the Brighton (Iowa) Sun, and Col. J. B. PATTERSON, editor of the Oquawka (Ill.) Spectator, this paragraph of acknowledgment is, therefore, respectfully inscribed.
To the press of Fort Madison and Keokuk-Dr. A. C. ROBERTS, of the Democrat, and Messrs. TREMAINE & DAWLEY, of the Plaindealer, and R. V. ALBRIGHT, Esq., the founder of the Courier, and to Messrs. HOWELL & CLARK, of Gate City, and Messsrs. SMITH, CLENDENIN & REES, of the Constitution, we are under obligations for the use of the well-preserved files of their respective papers, and other journalistic courtesies. Our thanks are also due to the county officers for free access to the books and records of their several offices; and to the city and various township authorities, as well as to the ministers and official representatives of the various churches, and the Principals and teachers of the schools of the county, for statistical and historical infor- mation, without which this volume would be incomplete. To the parties named above is due, in a great measure, whatever of merit may be ascribed to this undertaking.
To the people of the county in general, and the citizens of Fort Madison and Keo- kuk in particular, our most grateful considerations are due for their universal kindness and courtesy to our representatives and agents to whom was intrusted the labor of col- lecting 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 in the pages of this book.
In conclusion, the publishers and writers can but express the hope that, before another fifty years will have passed, other and abler minds will have taken up and recorded the historical events that will follow after the close of this offering to the people of Lee County, that the annalistic literature of county may be fully preserved and maintained intact and unbroken from county to nation.
APRIL. 1879.
WESTERN HISTORICAL COMPANY.
-
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 North- west 86
Chicago ... 95
Illinois
257
Half-Breed Tract ..
164
Indiana
259
Early Settlements.
166-
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
120
Climatology 137
Discovery and Occupation .139
Territory 147
Indians ..
147
Pike's Expedition 151
Indian Wars.
152
Public Schools
218
Political Record 223
War Record
229
Infantry. 233
Cavalry.
2.14
Artillery.
247
Miscellaneous.
248
Promotions from Iowa Reg-
iments.
249
Number Casualties-Officers.250 Number Casualties-Enlist- ed Men 252
Number Volunteers .....
254
Population ..
255
Agricultural Statistics
320
ABSTRACT OF IOWA STATE LAWS.
PAGE.
PAGE.
PAGE.
Formis :
Chattel Mortgage
,314
Confession of Judgment ..
.. 306
Landlord and Tenant.
304
Lease
312
Married Women.
298
Mortgages
310
Notice to Quit ...... .309
Notes. .306, 313
Orders ... 306 Descent 293 Damages from Trespass .. .300 Quit Claim Deed
Exemptions from Execution
298
Receipts
306
Estrays
.299 |
Wills and Codicils.
309
Warranty Deed.
314
Fences 300
Interest.
293
Intoxicating Liquors. 317
Wolf Scalps.
300
ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE.
A Pioneer Dwelling ... 61
Breaking Prairie ... 63
Tecumsehi, the Shawanoe Chieftain 69 Wild Prairie ... 23 Indians Attacking a Stockade. ...
La Salle Landing on the Shore of Green Bay 25
Big Eagle. 80 Buffalo Hunt 27 Trapping 29
Captain Jack, the Modoc Chieftain 83 Kinzie House 85 Hunting 32
Iroquois Chief 34
Pontiac, the Ottawa Chieftain 43
Indians Attacking Frontiersmen .. 56
A Pioneer School House ..
88
A Prairie Storm.
59
MISCELLANEOUS.
PAGE.
Map of Lee County Front.
Constitution of United States ......... 269
Vote for President, Governor and Congressmen. 283
Miscellaneous Table
289
Names of the States of the Union
and their Significations .. .. 290 United States Government Land
Measure
.287 | Population of the United States ..... 291
PAGE
Pioneers' First Winter
94
Great Iron Bridge of C., R. I. & P.
R. R., Crossing the Mississippi at
72 . Davenport, lowa
Chicago in 1833.
95
Old Fort Dearborn, 1830 ..
98
Present Site Lake Street Bridge,
Chicago, 1833.
98
A Representative Pioneer.
8G
Ruins of Chicago.
104
View of the City of Chicago ..
106
Hunting Prairie Wolves.
268
PAGE
Population of Fifty Principal Cities
of the United States
291
Population aud Area of the United
States.
.. 292
Population of the Principal Coun-
tries in the World.
292
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
Black Hawk War .157
Indian Purchase, Reserves and
Treaties
159
Spanish Grants 163
State Organization. [8]
Growth and Progress
185
Agricultural College and Farm.186
State University
187
State Historical Society.
193
Penitentiaries.
.194
History of Iowa :
Insane Hospitals. 195
College for the Blind. 197
Limitation of Actions.
.297
Bills of Exchange and Promissory Notes .. 293
Commercial Terms. .. 305 Capital Punishment 298
Charitable, Scientific and Religious
Associations 316
Roads and Bridges
302
Surveyors and Surveys .. .303
315 Suggestions to Persons Purchasing Books by Subscription
319
Support of Poor
303
Taxes.
295
Wills and Estates.
293
Weights and Measures
305
Forms : Articles of Agreement .. 307 Bills of Sale .. 308 Bond for Deed .. .. 315
Bills of Purchase
306 |Jurisdiction of Courts
297
PAGE.
Mouth of the Mississippi 21 Source of the Mississippi 2I
Black Hawk, the Sac Chieftain ..... 75
Lincoln Monument 87
PAGE.
Surveyor's Measure 288 How to Keep Accounts 288 Interest Table. 289
Practical Rules for Every-Day Use .. 284
Territorial History 173
Boundary Question
177
Adoption of Children .. 303
Jurors 297
Marks and Brands .. 300
Mechanics' Liens. 301
CONTENTS.
HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY.
PAGE.
Footprints on the Sands of Time ... 325
The Aboriginal Occupants .. 326
Condition of the Country 60 Years Ago. 328
Recollections of Valencourt Van- nusdol .333 Black Hawk War. .336 Black Ilawk Purchase ... .347 Other Purchases. ... 347
Last Days of the Indians. ₩.348 Personal Sketches, Character- istics, etc. .348
Black Hawk and his Wife ...... 348 Wapello and other Chiefs ...... 350
Anecdote of Pashapaho .. .358 Miscellaneous Pleasantries, etc.359 Wapello's Death. 375 Ka-la-Wa-Quois. .. 375
Possessing the Land 377 The Pioneer Era .. .377 Fort Des Moines .381
Relics 382 Personal Sketches and Anec- dotes .. 382 First lowa Counties. .384 First Election 384 First Court. .38.1
Settlers of 1835 and 1836.
385
German Pioneer Settlers ... .. 392 Fragments .. .. 398
Indian Gluttony - Hominy-
Block, and Log Cabins-
Wild Game-First Crops- Amusements of the Pio- neers, etc. 39S
Pioneer Times in Skinner's Neighborhood .. 402 Going to Mill under Difficulties405 A Pioneer Dog 405 Denmark Settlement ... 406
Rail-Pen Ilabitations, etc ........ 406
Frontier Generosity .407 A Preacher in the Wilderness.408 (fleanings from the Memory of A. W. Harlan 410
Wisconsin Territory .413 Physical Geography 115 Geology. 418 Coal-Measures 420
Entomology .429 Political Economy .430 Starting the County Machinery430 First Election 431 First Meeting of Board of Su-
Muscatine Railroad .. .510 pervisors 431
PAGE.
Discovery of Iowa. .324 | Political Economy-
Roads and Highways.
432
Last Orders ...
.434
County Commissioners
434
Second Election
.435
Violations of the License
Law
.436
County Jail
437
Iowa Territory
.437
Government Lands
.439
Making and Protecting Claims.439
Land Sales - Squatters and
Speculators
440
County Seat on Wheels.
443 |
Franklin
443
Fort Madison.
445
First Election.
4-15
Second Election.
4.15
Erection of the Court House ... 446
West Point
446
A Scheme to Divide the County .... 418 Another County Seat Contest-Fort Madison Victorious .. .. 449 A Dying Kick-Keokuk Placated -Notes 450
Financial Exhibit,
450
Organization of Townships .451 Exit Territorial Dependency .. .. 453
State of lowa
.154
From one Extreme to Another. .. 155
Mormouism and Mormon Ontrages.465 Jo Smith 465
Danite Band 468
Murder of Miller and Leiza ... 470
The Hodges. .473 Expulsion of the Mornions ..... 477
Old Settlers' Association.
.483
First Annual Re-union ........ ... 486
At Sargent's Grove .... .488 At Keokuk Fair-Grounds .. .. 490
At Warren Station
.. 490
Recorders
Capt. Campbell's Address .... .. 493 County Superintendents of
Old Times Come Again.
.......
.500
Present Officers
Agricultural .. .505
Races and Stock-Show .. .. 506
Lee County Agricultural So- ciety.
506
Isaac Galland
.. 548
Old Spurlock, the Counter-
feiter.
.. 549
Anti-Horse-Thief Association ........ 551
War History.
.. 552
The First Offering.
.556
At Keokuk
.. 558
Bounty to the Gray-Beards .... .. 564
Volunteer Soldiery ...
.. 564
Roster
.505
HISTORY OF KEOKUK.
PAGE.
Early History ... .615
Origin of Name .. 615
Public Enterprises .. 626.
Railroad and Wagon Bridge .... 626 Water Works ... 627
Fire Department. .. 633 Gas-Light and Cokr Company .631 Banking Interests. 634 State National Bank ... 635 Keokuk National Bank .635 Keokuk Savings Bank .. 635 Commercial Bank. .636
Insurance Companies.
636
Iowa State Insurance Co. .636 Iowa Life Insurance Co .636 Religions Interests. 636 Catholic Church ... .. 636 First M. E. Church. 637 Chatham Square M. E.Church.639
Free-for-All Church .649 German M. E. Church ... ..... .639
PAGE.
Religious Interests-
Swedish M. E. Church .......... .. 640 First African M. E. Church ..... 640 First Presbyterian Church ...... 641 First Westminster Presbyte- rian Church 641
Baptist Church.
644
Colored Baptist Churches. 645 Episcopal Church 6.15
linitarian Church 645
St. Paul's Evangelical Church (German ). .. 647 Congregation of B'nai Israel ... 647 Re-organized Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-Day Saints .. 647
Temperance Work
.650
Railroads-
PAGE
Logansport, Peoria & Warsaw
Railroad
511
Burlington
& Southwestern
Railroad
511
Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska
Railroad
511
Fort Madison & Northwestern
Narrow-Gauge.
.. 512
St Louis, Keokuk & Northern
Railroad.
512
Disposition of the Railroad
Aid 512
First Railroad Ticket-Office .... 512
Plankroad .
512
Des Moines Rapids.
513
The Canal
513
Old-time River Craft.
515
The Lightering Period
515
Keelboats
516
Flatboats
516
Steamboats
516
The Railroad
517
Des Moines River Improvement .. 517
Half-Breed Tract .. 529
Press
.531
First lowa Newspapers ..
.531
Fort Madison Papers
.532
Keokuk Papers
534
West Point Paper 539
District Court. .459 .461 | Pioncer Lawyers. Criminal Mention .542 Educational Interests. .539 Political Parties 544
Official Roster
.. 545
Representatives and Senators .. 545 County Commissioners ......... .. 546
County Judges
.. 5.17
Board of Supervisors .....
......
.. 547
County Auditors.
.. 647
County Attorneys. .547
At Pitman Grove ...
.. 487
Sheriffs
.. 547
Clerks of the District Court ..... 547
County Treasurers.
547
Public Instruction ...
.548
505 ' Miscellaneous 548
Commercial College.
655
College of Physicians and Sur-
geons ..
.655
United Presbyterian Church ... 642 Congregational Church 643 Secret Societies. .656
Masonic
I. O. O. F ..
658
.656
Kookuk Veteran Guards.
660
Miscellaneous
661
Gambrinus 661
Mills 662
Iron-Works. 662
Mechanical Enterprise 663 Ice-Gorge of 1832. 663
Reminder of Old Times 664
Mayors
664
PAGE
Educational Interests
652
City Schools .652 Natural llistory. .653 Library Association 654
Economical Geology
426
Ancient Mounds
.427
Railroads ..
.507
Aid to Railroads.
.. 508
Keokuk, Des Moines & Minne-
sota Railroad.
.510
Keokuk, Mount Pleasant &
CONTENTS.
HISTORY OF FORT MADISON.
PAGE.
Early History .. 589
The First Settler. 592
Incidents and Personal Sketches ... 598
Religious Interests. .. 603
Presbyterian Church .. 603
Methodist Church. .. 604
Christian Church .. 604
Episcopal Church .. 605
Catholic Churches
605
Catholic Schools.
606
Baptist Church
606
Colored Baptist Church
606
Weston Mills
.610
TOWN HISTORIES.
PAGE.
PAGE.
PAGE.
West Point 664
Nashville.
679
Primrose.
.... 679
Denmark. .670
Croton .679
South Franklin .679
Montrose . 6,75.
Pilot Grove .679
Vincennes
679
Franklin Centre 677
Charleston. 678
BIOGRAPHICAL TOWNSHIP DIRECTORY.
PAGE.
PAGE.
PAGE ..
Cedar
823
Harrison
766
Montrose
757
Charleston .818 Jefferson
788
Pleasant Ridge ..
.805
Denmark 867
Jackson 719
Van Buren .. 884
Des Moines 784 Keokuk City 681
Franklin
774
Madison
722
West Point .853
Green Bay 877
Marion 794
LITHOGRAPHIC PORTRAITS.
PAGE.
PAGE.
PAGE.
Atlee. John C., Fort Madison .. .355
Davis, C. F., Keokuk.
.627 Keokuk .Frontispiece Atlee, S., .. 593 Hughes, J. C. ... .. 321
Angear, J.J. M. .423
Henkle, Amos, Van Buren Tp ....... 457
Pittman, Wm. G., West Point ........ 389 Rogers, Millard H., Green Bay Tp .. 525
Bacon, J. H. Jr.
.. .. 611
Hunt, J. F., Charleston Tp ..........
.. 491 | South, John, Charleston Tp .......... 559
Beck, J. M.
.279
Johnstone, Edward, Keokuk. .. 227
Skinner, Wm., Jefferson Tp ........ .. 441
Bower, R. F., Keokuk
261
PAGE.
PAGE.
Religious Interests-
German Lutheran and Re-
formed Church .. .. 607
Secret Societies.
611
Evangelical
Lutheran,
St.
Masonic ... 611 Paul's Church .607
Odd Fellows. 611
Educational Interests.
607
Knights of Pythias. 612
A. O. U. W.
612
Red Ribbon Movement.
.613
Potowonok Mills 608 Plow Works. 614
Old Settlers' Mills. 608 Atlee's Lumber Mills. .609
Breweries.
614
Fire Department. 608
Mills 608
Banking ..... 610
Concordia Hall 610
1:11
IN'
BANKR CO
St. Paul
679
Wever
679
Washington .829
-
MAP OF
LEE
R. 4W
COUNTY
AAUGUSTACOUNTY
RIVER
R3 W.
6
R2Wy
14 40
17
GIONGREE
20
0
PÅ
genel
ADDISON FORT MADISON
RIVER
DALLAS
MAPPANOOGE
NIOTA
SIONITTI
OF
STATE
HAMILTON
I AIDSE
DES MOINES
SKUN
ENMARK
١
«٢ ٢٧/٢٠٢ :٧ ٢٧/٢/١٤١ جمراج: بيم
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
r
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
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.