USA > Iowa > Polk County > Des Moines > Des Moines, the pioneer of municipal progress and reform of the middle West, together with the history of Polk County, Iowa, the largest, most populous and most prosperous county in the state of Iowa; Volume I > Part 7
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The prominence of Captain Allen in the affairs of this epoch in the history of Des Moines calls for all the light which can be thrown upon the man. That he was a man of unusual intelligence and discernment is already evident from his reports, and becomes still more apparent to the reader of his extended ac- count of an expedition up the Des Moines, the features of which, so far as they are deemed essential to the author's present purpose, appear in a subsequent chapter of this work. Negus, in his "Early Times in Iowa," describes the Captain as "a man of small stature, but of a natural military turn, and very popular with his men." He further says that Allen was a classmate of Charles Mason, afterward Chief Justice of Iowa, and of Robert E. Lee, of the Con- federate Army.
In addition to his soldierly qualities and general administrative ability, Cap- tain Allen was a road-builder-in fact, the pioneer road-builder of the upper Des Moines valley. He saw from the first that the navigation of the Des Moines, without artificial help, would be unreliable and at best would be impossible in winter and midsummer for the transportation of troops and supplies. St. Louis was then the great mart of trade for this region, and the Mississippi river was the thoroughfare. Hence the desirability of an open road from Fort Des Moines to the Mississippi. We find the Captain as early as 1843 engaged on plans for a military road from the post to Tool's Point, now near Monroe, Jasper county. At that point, connection could be made with a road to Keokuk and the Mississippi, via Oskaloosa, Eddyville, Ottumwa and Agency City. To effect this purpose, he utilized the "land-lust" of Peter Newcomer and Thomas Mitchell, giving Newcomer a special permit to file a claim on condition that he would build a bridge over Four Mile creek, about four miles east of the Fort, and Mitchell the same privilege on condition that he would bridge Camp creek. Like inducements were extended to others, on condition that they would open, or improve, the desired roadway.
The Captain early induced one Moses Barlow to join him in building a saw-mill about ten miles south of the Fort primarily to supply the Fort with timber, and secondarily to assist the squatters in their efforts at home-building.
2 Father of Wm. H. Thrift, who, from Feb. I. 1905 to Feb. I, 1907, was Adjutant General of Iowa.
JOSEPH B. STEWART Pioneer Capitalist and Promoter
J. D. SEEBERGER A Pioneer Wholesaler
DR. M. P. TURNER Pioneer Street Car Magnate
JOSIAH GIVEN
MAJ. THOMAS CAVANAGH Mayor of Des Moines in 1862
DR. CHARLES H. RAWSON Pioneer Physician and Promi- nent Army Surgeon
JAMES C. SAVERY MARTIN TUTTLE Proprietor of the old Savery, Pioneer Merchant and Packer Kirkwood and New Savery Hotels
CAPT. ISAAC W. GRIFFITH Hero of the Mexican War
OLD FORT DES MOINES IN 1851 Showing the Unprecedented Flood of That Year
DES MOINES, THE NEW CAPITAL OF THE STATE OF IOWA AS IT LOOKED IN 1858
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CITY OF DES MOINES AND POLK COUNTY
Not content to haul grists all the way from Bonaparte, 150 miles away, Cap- tain Allen induced one John D. Parmelee, an energetic young builder, who had been employed by the traders, to buy Barlow's interest in the saw-mill and to add thereto a grist-mill for the convenience of the garrison and the settlers. Once assured of the success of the dual interprise, he sold his interest to Par- melee and retired from the milling business.
There can scarcely be any more fitting conclusion to this story of the be- ginning of things than the record of the soldier who planted the colony known in military history as "Fort Des Moines, Number 2," from which subsequently grew the community life that forms the foundation of the present work.3
Captain James Allen was born in Ohio in 1806, and at the age of 19 entered the Military Academy from the State of Indiana. He graduated July 1, 1829, assigned to the Fifth Infantry with the rank of Second Lieutenant, and was stationed at Fort Brady. He served in that capacity until the 4th of March, 1833, and was then transferred to the new regiment of dragoons organized for service on the border. A' writer in the War Department-to whom the author is indebted for much of the subject-matter of the history of Fort Des Moines4 -states that "from this time until his death, his services on the frontier were con- tinuous and of the highest value to the Government." He joined his regi- ment at Fort Dearborn, and remained on staff duty until May 31, 1835, when he was promoted to a First Lieutenancy, and assigned to engineer duties "in connection with the reconnoisance of the Indian country." During the next decade he served, respectively, at Forts Leavenworth, Gibson, Atkinson, Sand- ford and Des Moines,-and meantime was promoted to a captaincy. After quitting the Des Moines post in 1845, he was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel and was made commander of the Mormon Battalion of Missouri Volunteers for the Mexican War. He was enroute to New Mexico with his command when, near Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, he suddenly died, on the 23d of August, 1846.
The last work which devolved upon Captain Allen was the enlistment of a battalion of five hundred pioneer Mormons, in 1846, for service in the Mexican War. He appeared at Mount Pisgah, a Mormon station in Iowa and, organiz- ing the battalion, marched them to Fort Leavenworth where, says Jesse C. Little,5 "they were fully mustered into the service of the United States, against Mexico."
Though a veteran in service and experience, he was at the time of his death only forty years of age.
3 The data from which the following biographical outline is founded was obtained from the Army and Navy Register.
4 Annals of Iowa, v. 4, pp. 161-78.
5 History of Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, v. 3, p. 191-92.
Vol. 1-4
CHAPTER II.
GARRISON LIFE IN FORT DES MOINES-1843-46.
A fleeting picture of garrison life is given by the Rev. Benjamin A. Spauld- ing, circuit rider, in his report for 1844. One Sunday, he preached to the garri- son-to as many as could be crowded into a single log-cabin,-"officers, soldiers, merchants, mechanics, farmers, gentlemen, ladies, children and servants-both black and white."
The new year, 1844, found the little garrison well housed and in good health and spirits. The discipline imposed, while presumably not severe, was clearly ample to employ the time and occupy the minds of both officers and men. Then, too, the frequent rumors of incursions by the irrepressible Sioux, and occasion- ally an actual incursion, the raids of individual and organized horse-stealers upon the widely scattered Indian camps, the outbreaks of Indian wrath because of some real or fancied advantage taken by unlicensed traders, and the inevitable pres- sure of westward-moving civilization keenly felt by those whose treaty rights were, as they thought, inadequately protected by the government,-all these in- Auences combined to impart not a little zest to garrison life at "the Point." Then, too, the spirit of the explorer was stirred by the fact that little in detail was known of the region roundabout. Short excursions were made into the un- known interior, sometimes for the purpose of exploration; at other times to dis- cipline rebellious Indians, and oftener to repress some anticipated outbreak be- tween the Indians and some irrepressible squatter, or illicit trader.
Capt. J. W. Campbell, well describes a voyage to Fort Des Moines in the late spring of 1844.1 Infatuated in his early youth with "the catfish and drift-log business" he "naturally drifted on board a keel boat named the Des Moines Belle, of sixty tons burden plying on the Des Moines river between its mouth and Raccoon Fork." He was paid $7 a month as "chief cook and tin-pan washer." Sac and Fox Indians still lingered along the river, though they were preparing to depart for their new home beyond the Missouri. On this his first trip the boat was chartered by Lamb & Turner, the cargo being supplies for Fort Des Moines. The crew consisted of fourteen men and a boy, six polesmen on a side, the pilot, supercargo and cook. The boat averaged twelve miles a day, as far as Keosauqua. The rainy season then set in and the river had overflowed its banks in many! places ; but they plodded along as best they could "by wrapping in one place and bush-whacking in another, reducing the average to four miles a day."
After many incidents. and "no end of hard labor," he writes: "While we were cordelling up the shore of a prairie bank, upon our right, we espied ten miles distant the converging bluffs upon which now stands the capital of Iowa, and before sunset we landed upon the west bank above the mouth of the Coon river ; while immediately in our front stood the log barracks upon a flat-iron shaped piece of bottom-land, which then constituted the military post called Fort Des Moines.
"The following morning we called upon Maj. Allen, the commandant of the post, who extended a cordial reception to us all and notified one of the orderly sergeants to tally the cargo as soon as it was unloaded, after which we visited
1 The account is credited to the Chicago Times, but without date. It was found in 2 scrap-book left by the late Charles Aldrich.
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THE FIRST PLAT OF FORT DES MOINES, DATED JULY 8, 1846 Photographed for this history with permission of Mrs. Frank W. Dodson, County Recorder of Polk County
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CITY OF DES MOINES AND POLK COUNTY
the various surroundings of Raccoon Forks. Upon the east bank of the river stood a double log house having been formerly occupied by Mr. Ewing as a trad- ing house. We visited the coal bank on the east side with Joseph Smart, the Indian interpreter, who expressed the opinion that it was better for blacksmithing purposes than Pittsburg coal. The coal cropped out at the base of what is now called Capitol Hill." He concludes with :
"The next morning we said farewell to Fort Des Moines, and were once more headed homeward."
The trip began April 26, and ended June 5, 1844.
In the spring of 1844, the number of white settlers largely increased, to the chagrin of Captain Allen and to the annoyance of the Indians. Several times squads of his men took to the woods in search of white and red trespassers ; but all these expeditions were comparatively free from danger, so firm was the cap- tain's grasp of the situation.
Early in 1844 Lieutenant King was given an extended leave of absence, and his place was supplied, first, by Brevet Second Lieutenant Joseph H. Potter, afterward a brigadier-general in the regular army; and later, by First Lieutenant Robert S. Granger, who in 1865 returned from service a brevet major-general of volunteers.
During the summer of 1845, in anticipation of the opening of the land, the rush of settlers and the righteous indignation of the Indians created a situation which called for all the firmness of the trained soldier and the tact of a trained diplomat. Most of the invaders of the reservation were eager home-seekers, but there were also not a few speculators well entitled to the term "land-sharks." And, too, there were a few horse-thieves and purveyors of bad whisky who made depredations into the Indian country in defiance of law and military discipline.
As illustrative of the restraining influence of a military post in the heart of the reservation, the case of Jonas Carsner may be cited.2 Carsner was an outlaw who afterwards left a trail of felonies in several counties of the territory. His latest offences consisted of incursions into the Sac and Fox reservation with quantities of whisky which, in defiance of law and authority, he sold to the In- dians, at exorbitant prices. After demoralizing his too willing victims with liquor, and gaining their confidence, he would disappear, taking with him their best horses, which he would sell beyond the border of the reservation. Finally Captain Allen sent out a detachment of dragoons in pursuit of him. Carsner was captured and brought a prisoner to the fort. He was tried by court martial ; but, notwithstanding the man's known culpability, no direct proof of his guilt could be produced at the time, and the court decided it could not convict him "on general principles." Thinking it not best to pass formal sentence upon the culprit, in the absence of positive proof of his guilt, yet doubting not that he was richly deserving of punishment, Captain Allen and his associates turned Cars- ner over to certain Indians they could trust to do the subject justice. The In- dians took the man out into the woods, tied him to a tree, and gave him "a most unmerciful whipping." This punishment would have more than satisfied an ordinary outlaw; but Carsner was soon "at it again." A horse stolen by him had been found, and he was given an application of cat-o'-nine-tails, and released on promise to do better. His was evidently the gambler's definition of the word "better," for on the night after "the cat" had been administered to him, two horses were stolen-this time from a trader named Fish who was conveying sup- plies to the garrison and had encamped for the night a few miles from the Fort. The Indians loaned the trader the animal they had just reclaimed. He mounted the horse and started out in pursuit of his property. While he was following the outlaw's trail through the timber, suddenly Carsner appeared, mounted on one of Fish's horses. Riding boldly up to his pursuer, Carsner cut the saddle-girth of Fish's borrowed horse, hurled Fish to the ground, and rode off at full speed
2 Turrill's Historical Reminiscences, p. 14.
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CITY OF DES MOINES AND POLK COUNTY
with the horse he had first stolen! The discomfited trader trudged back to the Indian camp with a tale of woe which set the red men wild with rage. But, meantime, the horse-thief was well on his way beyond the border.
Fort Des Moines in 1845 is described by a writer in the Mail and Times of Des Moines, fifty years afterward, in this fashion: "Fifty years ago, if one could have climbed to this lofty elevation [the Observatory Building opposite the Savery Hotel] what would he have seen? A row of cabins up and down the two rivers, a few straggling cabins here and there, and a vast open space where our city now stands, dotted here and there with hazel brush and an occasional duck
pond. Where the Rock Island depot and the Morgan House now stand, there was a famous duck pond, or slough, which extended diagonally across our city from one river to the other. All was open space as far as the eye could see, where game abounded and from which the hunter never returned empty-handed, To the north, south-east and west was not the sign of a habitation, unless of a hardy backwoodsman or two who kept ever on the van of civilization."
Editor Clarkson, of the Des Moines Register, in the early Nineties, gives this all too brief outline of Thanksgiving Day at the Fort in 1845: "From an old dingy paper before us we learn that on one occasion of this kind in the old times there was a Thanksgiving dance in the barracks, tickets, one dollar. The same day there was a rifle-shoot for turkeys and a beeve on the ground now bounded by West Walnut and Twelfth and Fourteenth streets and Raccoon river. That would be a poor place for a shooting match now."
As the date of the treaty's expiration neared, the number of "squatters" measurably increased. "The woods were full of them," many camping down on the boundary line ; some taking their chances on the reservation itself. Another difficulty arose. Several of the tribe became dissatisfied with the treaty. Some were sullenly disinclined and others stubbornly refused to "move on." The oc- casional shooting of an Indian on his own ground, with the swift vengeance of the outraged survivors, and the incursions of the warlike Sioux, gave the garri- son no end of annoyance.
During the summer of 1845, the dragoons from the Fort and Captain Sum- mer's dragoons from Fort Atkinson were constantly riding over the reservation, "assisting" the reluctant Sacs and Foxes in preparing to comply with their treaty obligations.
August 29, Captain Allen wrote urging the Department not to vacate the post at. the expiration of the treaty in October. Should the troops be compelled to use force in removing any number of the Indians, the garrison could then be utilized in the process. Then, too, he thought the 12th of October too late in the season for a removal of government stores to another post without much inconvenience and expense, the contract for forage and other supplies being let for the winter. There would be loss and inconvenience on that account also. He recommended that the post be abandoned as early in the following spring as practicable,- not before.
General Brooke, the Department Commander, was not convinced. Writing on the 9th of September, 1845, after a conversation with Colonel Kearny, he informed Captain Allen that he deemed it wise to break up the post at once, after the expiration of the treaty, and to compel the Indians to remove on the 12th, for immediately after the 12th a great number of white persons would enter the country, for the purpose of squatting, and that much disturbance and difficulty might be expected between them and the Indians if they were suffered to remain. He was informed by Mr. Beach, the Indian agent, that the Indians were even then making preparations and were willing to comply with the treaty. But, notwithstanding their apparent readiness, he doubted not but that some would scatter on the march and many would endeavor to remain.
The War Department sustained Captain Allen's contention, and the post was kept up during the winter. But Company I, Ist Infantry, was ordered to Jeffer- son Barracks, and the garrison was reduced to fifty-two dragoons.
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CITY OF DES MOINES AND POLK COUNTY
Most of the Sac and Fox Indians, true to their treaty obligations, quit the reservation, on or soon after the expiration of the privilege accorded them in the treaty, removing to the lands set apart for them beyond the Missouri. As had been anticipated several hundred remained, their continued presence creating no end of embarrassment and inconvenience to Captain Allen. January 1, 1846, the commandant reported from one hundred eighty to two hundred Sacs and Foxes yet remaining in the territory, but expressed the belief that all would quietly remove to their new reservation before their next annual payment.
Of Poweshiek, the relatively great chief of the Sacs, who in 1845 led his tribe into exile, a single incident remains to be told. It is related that Poweshiek and his people temporarily encamped on the Grand River, not far from the set- tlements of northern Missouri. While there, some time in the winter of 1845- 46, the Sacs had some disagreement, or misunderstanding, with the settlers, and for a time bloodshed seemed inevitable. Rumors of these troubles reached Fort Des Moines, and several white men, among whom were J. B. Scott, Hamilton Thrift and Dr. Campbell, all trusted friends of the chief, immediately mounted horses and proceeded across country to the Sac encampment on the Grand. They found the camp in arms. They held an interview with Poweshiek, impressing upon his mind the inevitable consequences of an attack upon the white settlers; reasoning that many of their women and children as well as braves, would be killed, or would perish with hunger and cold; that it would be better for them to break up their lodges and go in peace to their reservation beyond the "big Muddy." After some hesitation Poweshiek pledged himself to follow the ad- vice of his friends. He soon resumed his westward march, and in due time he and his people were gathered around the camp-fire on the new reservation.
The land now in possession of the United States, the government set aside a military reservation of one mile square, of which the flag-staff of Fort Des Moines was the center. On January 17, 1846,-the day on which Governor Clarke signed the bill creating the county of Polk-the new county received its first recognition from the national government, by the setting aside, to the new county of 160 acres of the military reservation at Fort Des Moines with all the buildings thereon.
On the 23d of February, 1846, was issued the departmental order for the abandonment of the post; First Lieutenant Grier, commanding. Captain Allen's Company of dragoons, was directed to leave as early as practicable for Fort Leavenworth, escorting all the Fox Indians who had not yet left the Territory of Iowa, leaving in Fort Des Moines "one steady non-commissioned officer and two privates, as care-takers, until further orders."
Preparations for evacuation were begun at once. Lieutenant Noble with twenty men was dispatched up the river in search of a party of Indians encamped there; and another detachment was sent to the Skunk river to assist the Indians lingering there.
In March, Lieutenant Grier wrote that he found about one hundred and ten Indians assembled about thirty miles up the river, and thought their intention was to move still farther on. He found them in a destitute condition. They were temporarily supplied with provisions by Mr. Scott on behalf of the government. Lieutenant Noble had started on the 8th for Fort Leavenworth. He (Grier) was not aware that there were any more Foxes in that territory.
At noon on March 10, 1846, Lieutenant Grier and his handful of dragoons marched out of the garrison, "and Fort Des Moines as a military post ceased to exist."
Later, Lieutenant Grier returned from Fort Leavenworth, via St. Louis, to direct the sale of what remained of government property at Fort Des Moines. The sale occurred on the Ist of May, 1846. By that time a community of some pretensions had sprung up around the fort, and the town of "Fort Des Moines" which had, meantime, been designated the county seat of Polk county, became a
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CITY OF DES MOINES AND POLK COUNTY
factor to be reckoned with in all questions relative to the future of the county and of the State.
In the midst of and shadowing this little group of log huts stood a tall flag- staff, and, for three years, there had floated from that staff the flag which to Indian and white man, to both friend and foe, meant Power,-power to be ex- ercised only for the protection of the weak against the strong, a guaranty that the treaty rights of the Indians should be maintained inviolate. While the stars and stripes did not always command unqualified respect, while white men and Indians were not always scrupulously honest in their observance of treaty rights, yet, in the main, the presence of this small body of government troops in the heart of the Indian country was a wholesome restraint generally felt and recognized.
Without preconcerted movement on the part of the civilians who, with mingled feelings of sadness and satisfaction, saw the flag which they had fol- lowed hauled down for the last time, there had sprung up in the wake of the departing troops a community life which was destined to have wide influence in the future of the State and Nation.
A memento of the occupancy of Fort Des Moines was recently found by C. L. Lucas, of Madrid, Boone county. It is a stone 15x16 inches, and about an inch thick, and sloping toward a point at the bottom. It bears the following in- scription evidently carved with a jack-knife, or hunting-knife:
DECEMBER IO, 1845.
FOUND 200 INDIANS HID ON AND AROUND THIS MOUND. THEY CRIED NO GO! NO
GO! BUT WE TOOK THEM TO FORT D.
LT. R S GRANGER.
Mr. Lucas supplies the key to this tablet.3 When the treaty of 1843 became operative, October II, 1845, a number of the Sac and Fox Indians, less conscien- tious, or more attached to the soil than the rest, instead of joining the proces- sion of expatriates, withdrew to a point about thirty miles up the river, near Madrid, in the vicinity of the Elk Rapids mounds where the tablet was found. Captain Allen sent an officer and a troop of dragoons to capture them, and con- duct them to the reservation assigned them. The inscription establishes the in- ference that Lieutenant Granger was the officer detached for this service, and that the expedition was successful. The fact that the Indians were overtaken in this region and were returned to Fort Des Moines for a fresh start was sub- stantiated by the late C. W. Gaston, a Boone county pioneer, who was one of the soldiers detailed for that service. While on this expedition, Mr. Gaston decided to locate in Boone county at the end of his term of enlistment, and, later, he carried out his purpose.4
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