USA > Iowa > Jackson County > Annals of Jackson county, Iowa, Vol 1-2 > Part 19
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both with our pistols presented at his breast and said "surrender Brown and you shant be hurt." He lowered his gun, no doubt with the intention of surrendering, but it went off, the ball passing through Co !. Cox's coat, the crack of Brown's rifle was no doubt a signal to the balance of Brown's men. as a general firing commenced by them up stairs." (We thought he claimed it commenced before the posse charged. ) "Before Brown could speak several shots was fired into the house in the north windows, one of which passed through both of Brown's jugular veins, he fell and died without a strangle. The general fight was kept up for about fifteen minutes, those of Brown's men down stairs fought with perfect desperation." We thought he said they had forsaken their chief in his hour of need, but as there is no account in his write up of more than six escaping and that after Brown was killed and the house fired, (afterward extinguished) Brown couldn't have needed them any longer.
And yet again, we find in the historian's reply to "Old Settler, " who he brands as a "viper" and charges with helping to kill Davenport, the follow- ing: "The time of serving the warrant of arrest on Brown and his twenty - seven followers," (the warrant read according to a previous statement of Warren's, Wm. Brown, Wm. Fox, Aaron Lang and twenty others) "was the first day of April, 1840. Brown had been informed of the day fixed for his arrest and had speedily asse nbled his men and sympathizers together at his house, where he armed and arranged them for the fight. 3 He fortified his premises and unfolded a red flag on which was inscribed "victory or death." In another place the same writer says, "it so exasperated Brown's men they placed a red flag in front of his house on which was inscribed the ominous sign "victory or death" In one it was Brown himself who displayed the flag-and in the other his men, who "placed it before . his house." We do not charge our historian with intentionally tangling things up for in his dreams he might have forgotten what he had dreamed before.
The write up of the Bellevue War and the cause that led up to it, as published in the 1879 history of Jackson County, not only contradicts itself in these and other particulars, but is not in accord with the docket of Jack- son County. Our historian's writings make much adieu about the criminal proceedings of the so-called desperadoes with Brown, Fox, Long. Thompson and others as ring leaders and that it was an utter impossibility to convict them on account of their always being able to prove an alibi. We must take it according to that statement, that they had been indicted at least several times and-it is strange the dockets of the courts held bewteen 1838 and 1810 -- the time of the Bellevue war-does not show it. If it shows where W. W.
Brown, the claimed chief of the clan and Wm. Fox, the claimed chief, one among the "outlaws" was indicted for any crime in Jackson County, we overlooked it in our search of the record, those who are familiar with the docket, tells me on inquiry, no such can be found and that there is no civil suit for debts, and what is true of them is also true of many others who helped defend Brown against the so-called sheriff's posse. As we aforesaid it is "strange" inasmuch as J. K. Moss, one of the pase. was a justice. W. A. Warren sheriff and Hadiey deputy sheriff, also members of the posse, and to aid them in their support of the law there was Cut Cos, Henderson
Palmer, James C. Mitchell, Anson Harrington and Hadley, who according to our historian were embittered against Brown and some of his men and had to aid them indetecting the crimes of the "outlaws." Lyman Wells, who Warren says had been one of Brown's gang and still professed to be. acted as a spy for the ferreting out of the "outlaws" doings.
We are not putting up any defense of Wm. Fox or any of the rest of them only so far as history seems to demand. It is claimed Fox, a little over five years after he was whipped with the rest and driven out, helped to kill Col. George Davenport, but so far as we can learn he was only arrested on suspicion and escaped from the officers and never was rearrested, though it was afterwards known he was living in the east, Indiana, we believe. We do know though, (if we can believe Warren) that after he was whipped he came back into the island and sent for the sheriff and begged him to go and bring him $400 he had given Mrs. Brown for safe keening when he would leave the country and never return. The sheriff done so and Mrs. Brown asked the sheriff (Warren) to also take him a suit of good clothes he had there and put up something to eat for him, all for which he was very thankful. This is one of the few cases where such a "desperado" has saved up $400 and had the sympathy of such a good woman as Warren tells us Mrs. Brown was, who must have known something of Fox's character. We also fail to learn of anything on the crimpal docket against "Old Man" Burtis, who was killed by the so-called posse, or his son, James L. Burtis, who, we believe, was whipped by Cox's men and in later years built and run the Burtis house, the best equipped and most popular hotel west, of Chicago in those days, of which can be found an extended description in the fifty year souvenir addition of the Davenport Democrat. Now these are some of the things the docket of Jackson County should show if the statements in the 1879 history are true. As we said before, we might have overlooked them or been misinformed by those more familar with the records. But it, was not at all hard to see different places where such men as John Cox, Harris, (the man who issued the warrant for the wholesale arrest of Brown and his men) and James C. Mitchell and some others of that posse, or whatever you see fit to call it, had civil actions against them for debts, trespass and so forth.
James C. Mitchell was indicted for manslaughter, in killing Thompson. January Sth, 1840, (though if Warren's account of the affair is true, Mitch- eli ought to have been pensioned for the act) and was also indicted and con- victed for keeping a gambling house, and his name appears on the dockets at every term of court for years as defendant in matters wherein he was sucd for debts. We do not allude to this out of partiality for anyone or impartiality toward anyone, only to raise the question why the dockets seem to be silent as to the doings of such men as Brown, Fox, the Burtises and others were claimed to have been, while they show charges against mem- bers, who are claimed by Warren's writings to have been pillars of the law. We have not been influenced in these writings by anyone, but trive been led by a desire to clear up some of the suspicion that in former years at last. clung to "Old Settler" and others, and write a little history as history seems in the light of our researches to have been made. We used to be prejudiced against Brown and those who sympathized with him, but we read
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Warren's historical account. Read and reread it and at every reading had our opinion still more changed until we concluded to go on a still hunt among pioneers, written history and court dockets to either confirm or weaken our change of opinion. It has taken us some time to make up our mind to place this matter, as we see it and believe we find it, on paper. We knew it would be so radically different to the popular version that the "bees might swarm." There are many living who are descended from some of those men we may seem to condemn, although we only mean to do so as far as the evidence appears to me to warrant, and if they can show where in we error, they owe it to history and the memory of friends' to make what they can prove a matter of history by contributing it to the Jackson County Historical Society for publication by the Sentinel, which has the contract to place it in pamphlet form. With all honor for Harvey Keid, our friend, who has done so much valuable work in collecting the life's history of Co !. Cox and he, James Ellis, Geo. Mitchell and others who were instrumental in moving and marking the grave of Col. Cox, I will give this to the public and all who want to criticize.
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Ancther Old Pioneer Gives Something of Interest.
(Written by J. W. Ellis for the Jackson County Historical Society .)
The article by Farmer Buckhorn, "Recollections of S. Burleson." has again brought up for discussion, thought and inquiry, the greatest tragedy in the history of Jackson county-the Bellevue war as Colonel W. A. War- ren designated it, and the Bellevue mob as others designated it. The writ- er gave his versions of that tragedy and the causes leading up to it in 1897. At that time there were persons living who had been eye witnesses of the tragedy of April 1st, 1840, in Bellevue. But I doubt if there is now any- where, any one living, who participated in or witnessed the events of the dark and bloody days in the the county seat of Jackson county. From my earliest recollections I have been accustomed to hear people say that such and such people had been suspicioned of being in sympathy with Brown and his gang. When I grew older I sought all the light I could get on the unwritten as well as written history of the early days in the county in the territorial days. From the researches I have made and from the in- formation received direct from those who lived amid the stirring scenes enacted in those early days. I feel that I have a better knowledge of the true state of affairs in the county and especially in Bellevue. than any oth- er person now living, but a large share of space has been taken up in our annals by Mr. Seeley in his vindication of his old friend and neighbor S. Burleson and in refuting the charges implied by the historians of 1879. I will only present at this time a sketch dictated to me in 1897 by Joseph Henry an eye witness of the conflict of April Ist, 1840, and with it two let- ters written to Governor Lucas immediately after the Bellevue war or mob, which will indicate to the students of history quite clearly that the victors on that occasion were not universally hailed as heroes.
JOE HENRY'S STORY.
Last Saturday morning Mr. J. E. Goodenow entered our office accom- panied by a very aged man whom he introduced as Joseph Henry, a man who had lived in the vicinity of Maquoketa before Maquoketa was thought of. The writer knew something of Joe Henry away back in the early days, but supposed that he had long ago joined the great majority of the Jackson County Pioneers on the other shore. The old gentleman spent the forenoon with us, and gave us a brief outline of his history so far as it was collected with this county.
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He came to Bellevue in 1835. worked at the carpenter trade for a time. then got a claim on the Maquoketa river where Higginsport is: this he trad- ed for a claim in the forks of the Maquoketa intending to build a saw mill on it, and partly built the frame for one on the branch that runs through Hurstville. In some way he lost this claim; he then took up a claim which was afterwards known as the Lyman Bates farm, now owned by M. E. Fin- ton. and built a saw mill on Mill Creek, some 80 rods above where McCloy's mill was afterwards built; this was in 1837, the mill was completed in the fall. On the first day of January, 1838, it began to rain, and a great flood came and swept away the products of all his labor and savings and left him without a dollar.' He says: "In a few days after the flood George Clausen came down from Dubuque and bought a yoke of cattle to butcher and stay- ed a night with me. I got him to let me help him drive the cattle to Du- buque, and he paid me $1.50 for it. and kept me over night. A man by the name of Hapgood owed me ten dollars. I went to a Mr. Downs to enquire for him, told him my situation, what I had and where I was from. He gave me his hand and said, 'Henry, I know you, everybody that comes from that country stops with you and speaks well of you. now just make yourself at home, you are welcome to all you can eat and drink.' While ] was in Dubuque an agent came up from Davenport to get voters to go to Davenport to vote for the county seat for that place. He offered to pay my fare to Davenport and back and board me. He finally made a bargain with me to give me a dollar and fifty cents a day to help him get a crowd to go with him. We got three sled loads of men from Dubuque. stopped at Bellevue and got two sled loads there. On leaving Bellevue each sled con- tained a big jug full of whiskey.
The weather was extremely cold and nearly all were frostbitten before we got to Davenport. This was in January. When we got to Davenport the doors were all open and everything was free. James Campton, of Dubuque, was captain of our company, and on a wager of $20 he drank 100 giasses of whiskey, ate the peppers and drank the sauce of two bottles of pepper sauce in one day, helping to dress 6 beeves the same day, was sober at night, and won the bet. After the election we were returned. I stopped at Bellevue where I made my home with Charlie Bilto, and worked at the carpenter trade, taking such pay as I could get ; there was no money in the country. I was elected constable beating Jim Hanby two to one. The country at that time was overrun with horse thieves and counterfeiters. W. W. Brown was the most prominent man in the county at that time; he kept a public house in Bellevue, run a butcher shop, a general store and a wood sard, employ. ing a great many men; he was successful in business and was good to the poor, as was his amiable wife, and he was generally considered the most useful and best citizen in the place. Travelers said that Brown set the best table from there to New Orleans. Brown was fiever known to pass counter- feit money to his customers, he always said if any one got bad money at his house he would make it, good, there were other men in business in Bellevue who were less successful and could not compete with brown, and were very jealous and claimed that. Brown was getting rich too fast. J. K. Moss and the Sublets were the loudest in their denunciation of Brown's methods
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of doing business, and he to retaliate. bought up their paper where ever he could and made them trouble; this made matters worse. Brown continued to prosper in business and his enemies openly accused him of being the lead- er of all the outlaws in the country.
On the Sth of January, 1840, war was almost precipitated and barely averted by the killing of James Thompson by James Mitchell. Mitchell and his brother had been having trouble over partnership business. Jim had retained a trunk full of clothing that belonged to his brother's wife and would not give it up. On the night in question, while Jim was at a ball at the new hotel, his brother got James Burtis and James Thompson to go with a team and get the trunk. Jim and Thompson had been having trou- ble and threatened each other; when Jim heard of the visit to his house, he got a gun and set out to find Thompson, whom he soon met in company with Ab Montgomery. Thompson was very drunk. Thompson and Mitchell approached within striking distance of each other and leveled their guns at each other; Thompson's gun failed to go off, and the bullet from Mitchell's gun passed through Thompson's heart killing him immediately. The wildest excitement was created by this incident, as the two men represent- ed the two factions, and the breach between the factions was considerably widened and both sides went armed at all times.
In March a warrant was procured from a justice of the peace named Harris, near Fulton, for the arrest of Brown and his friends. As constable and deputy sheriff I called upon Brown and tried to arrange matters peace- fully. Brown said he was willing to go before any tribunal and defend him- self against the charges and was willing to give bonds for the appearance of the men named with him in the warrant, but would not advise the men to surrender to a mob. Ile also said if his enemies were so anxious to get rid of him. he would submit the matter to three appraisers to be selected from outside the county, he to select one, his enemies one, and the two to select a third, and he would take two-thirds the appraised value of his prop- erty.
On the fatal first day of April, 1840, the so-called citizens committee met at the store of J. K. Moss, who kept among other things, tinware, large stock of coffee pots which were filled with whiskey on this occasion, and freely circulated among the men, who soon became so drunk that they could not be held in restraint; they swore they would go up and kill Brown them- selves. They were led by Col. Cox who was very drunk himself. He finally gave the word to march and they marched up to the Brown Hotel. As they came up Brown stood in the front door, his guu pointed at Cox, who also bad his gun pointed at Brown. Cox ordered Brown to ground arms and Brown dropped his rifle so the muzzle pointed to the ground and it went off. Cox was pushed out of the way by the men behind and Tom Sublette and one of the men who kept, the ferry at the mouth of Teto des Morts creek, whose name I have forgotten, sprang to the side window and fred through it at. Brown who stood by his wife just inside the door, one of the balls striking him in the temple and the other just below the ear killing him instantly. I stood in the street about four rods from Brown's heure. There were four or live men with me who took no part in the light. amung
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them were two men who had landed a log raft there that morning. They had worked with me during the day to settle the trouble without a fight. Mr. Farley was also one of the party. He had come up to the mili and I told him there was going to be trouble, and had him put his pony in the stable with mine. With the report of the guns which killed Brown the firing became general. There was not more than ten men in the house with . Brown when the fight commenced. There was one young man in the hotel whom Brown had befriended who had a claim near Bellevue, and he said 'if Brown had to go he would go with him.' He was an exemplary young man, and had not an enemy in the place and never drank- nor gambled. When Brown was killed the house was soon filled with smoke, so that those inside could see nothing. This young man stepped out on the porch, sin- gled out his man and fired and turned to go inside again but a ball struck him and he fell on the porch, his head hanging off. His groans and cries were pitiful to hear. I started once to go to him, but realizing the danger turned back. Mr. Farley was greatly affected by the situation of the unfor- tunate young man, and finally he said, "I can't stand this ans longer, " and went to the porch and bent over him to lift him up. Just as he stooped over a ball from one of the citizen's guns struck him and he fell across the body of the man he was trying to succor, and neither of them spoke or mov- ed again.
About this time those who were in the house broke out at the rear and jumped over the fence by the privy which was riddled with bullets. Bill Fox was among this crowd. and was wounded in the side and captured. Tom Welch, a boy who had been working for Brown, was shot through the side and fell, the pursuers passed him thinking him dead. Charles Kilgrove on returning saw him move. 'Well, Tom,' he said. 'you are not dead yet?' and put his pistol to his face and fired. Tom threw up his hand and turned so the ball went through his hand. Those two men were good friends that morning. When Kilgore had gone Tom struggled to a sitting position again when a Methodist exhorter from Galena, who had worked in the stone quar- ries there, came up to Tom. He said, "you rascal, you are not dead yet.' and kicked him three times and passed on. Tom got to his feet. and made his way to Kirkpatrick's place, which was near by. He asked Kirkpatrick to protect him from Kilgore and others who were after him again, and War- ren coming up again, he and Kirkpatrick interfered in behalf of. Tom and he was saved from death. We took him to Bilto's and I dressed his wounds.
After the light was over half a dozen men were dead and as many more severely wounded. The citizens who had remained in town and had not taken part in the fight, wanted some one to go to Dubuque for docotrs. I was prevailed upon to go. I rode one horse to Tete des Morts and pressed a horse there and ran the horse all the way to Dubuque. J think two doc- tors went down from there, and some went from Galena. I stayed over night in' Dubuque and when I returned the men who had been captured at Brown's house had been whipped and driven out of the country. The Cox party who had been victorious in the fight, were arrogant and abusive to all who had not sided in with them.
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I worked there a while, then went to Davenport and worked at the car- penter trade. In abont eighteen months I returned to Bellevue, but there was nothing for me to do, so I left town. going down the river on the steamer Nauvoo. Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet, was on the boat, and there were two professional phrenologists aboard and they were examining heads for so much a head. Joe Smith told them he could tell them more about their dispositions and not touch their heads than they could by exam- ining the heads, so the phrenologists examined several people, and then those same people went to where Smith lay on the deck and he told their fortunes, as they called it then, without looking at them, and they all de- cided in favor of Smith.
The second summer after the Bellevue war, I was in Natchez. I had been sick, and was not able to work yet, and was sitting down on the levy one day, when who should turn up but Bill Fox. He seemed very much sur- prised to see me, and uneasy, but as there was no chance to dodge he came up and we had a long chat. He asked me how they felt toward him in Iowa, and if I thought they would allow him to come back here. I told him I thought if he behaved himself he would not be molested. 1 never saw Fox again, and the next time I heard from him he was implicated in the mur- der of Col. Davenport. I was well acquainted with Col. Davenport, who was a good man and good to the poor.
I went back to Pennsylvania, rented a mill, got married, have lived in several different states, but my home is now in Benton, Butler county, Kansas. This is my only visit to Iowa since 1841, and will be my last. Was 88 years old last February, have been visiting old friends in the east and am on my way home.
LETTERS FROM GOV. LUCAS' FILES
Dubuque, April 4th, 1840.
Dear Sir: I am under the painful necessity of informing you that Jack- son county in this territory is in a state of a complete disorganization. The sheriff, judge of probate, and the celebrated Col. Cox on the first day of this month headed a mob at Bellview and attacked a peaceable citizen of that place with a view of driving him out of town. The result was that a most disgraceful fight took place, and as report says from six to nine lives were Jost and several wounded. It is currently reported at this place and very generally believed that Warren, the sheriff, went about the county procuring the names of persons pledging themselves to support the mob, several days previous to the day of the assembling of the most infamous mob that over was assembled in this or any other country. The mob with their infamous leaders have since the killing been engaged in holding a citizens' court, as they call it, and have tried and punished several individuals. It is also un- derstood at this place that this triumvirate composed of Cos, Warren and Moss, are about to divide the property of Brown who happened to be the special object of their vengeance, and who had considerable property.
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Mitchell, the man who committed the murder last winter and who had been held in mock confinement by this infamous sheriff, is now let loose rejoicing with the good and pious mob citizens at his freedom from all the restraints of regulated society, law and good order. A court, as you must be aware of under the existing laws of this Territory, is appointed to be held on the 13th instant at Bellevue. Since I have set down to write this letter I learn from two gentlemen who have just returned from the seat of war that the mob boast that they had all of the Grand Jury for the next court to act with them except Brown and that he was killed. It will be next to impossible if not utterly useless to hold a court in a community composed of such brutish beasts, when blood and murder is the order of the day. In such a state of things you must be aware that those base and foul felons cannot be punished in their own county. I have therefore deemed it a duty of mine to acquaint you with the facts and if you have any power vested in you as the Governor of this Territory to aid and assist the laws I hope you will exercise them in bringing to justice base and foul murderers and to wipe off the disgraceful stigma that has evidently been thrown upon the people of this Territory by this most disgraceful tragedy.
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