USA > Iowa > Black Hawk County > Historical and biographical record of Black Hawk County, Iowa > Part 11
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the Supreme Court of the United States, is the oldest legal title held by a white man in the State of Iowa. A tract of 5,860 acres in Clayton County was granted by the Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Louisiana in 1795 to Basil Girard, whose title was made valid some time after the preceding case was settled.
Other early settlers were : Mr. Johnson, an agent of the American Fur Company, who had a trading-post below Burlington. Le Moliere, a French trader, had, in 1820, a station at what is now Sandusky, in Lee County, six miles above Keokuk. During the same year Dr. Samuel C. Muir, a sur- geon of the United States army, built a cabin where the city of Keokuk now stands. His marriage and subsequent life were so romantic that we give the following brief sketch :
While stationed at a military post on the Upper Mississippi, the post was visited by a beautiful Indian maiden-whose native name unfortunately has not been preserved -who, in her dreams, had seen a white brave unmoor his canoe, paddle it across the river and come directly to her lodge. She felt assured, according to the super- stitious belief of her race, that in her dreams she had seen her future husband, and had come to the fort to find him. Meeting Dr. Muir she instantly recognized him as the hero of her dream, which, with childlike innocence and simplicity, she related to him. Her dream was, indeed, prophetic. Charmed with Sophia's beauty, innocence and devotion, the Doctor honorably mar- ried her, but after a while the sneers and gibes of his brother officers-less honorable than he, perhaps-made him feel ashamed of his dark-skinned wife, and when his regi- ment was ordered down the river to Belle- fontaine, it is said that he embraced the opportunity to rid himself of her, and left her, never expecting to see her again, and little dreaming that she would have the
courage to follow him. But, with her in- fant child, this intrepid wife and mother started alone in her canoe, and after many days of weary labor and a lonely journey of 900 miles, she at last reached him. She afterward remarked, when speaking of this toilsome journey down the river in search of her husband, "When I got there I was all perished away-so thin !" The Doctor, touched by such unexampled devotion, took her to his heart, and ever after until his death treated her with marked respect. She always presided at his table with grace and dignity, but never abandoned her na- tive style of dress. In 1819-'20 he was stationed at Fort Edward, now Warsaw, but the senseless ridicule of some of his brother officers on account of his Indian wife induced him to resign his commission. He then built a cabin as above stated, where Keokuk is now situated, and made a claim to some land. This claim he leased to Otis Reynolds and John Culver, of St. Louis, and went to La Pointe (afterward Galena), where he practiced his profession for ten years, when he returned to Keokuk. His Indian wife bore to him four children- Louise, James, Mary and Sophia. Dr. Muir died suddenly of cholera in 1832, but left his property in such a condition that it was soon wasted in vexatious litigation, and his brave and faithful wife, left friendless and penniless, became discouraged, and, with her two younger children, disap- peared. It is said she returned to her peo- ple on the Upper Missouri.
The gentleman who had leased Dr. Muir's claim at Keokuk subsequently em- ployed as their agent Moses Stillwell, who arrived with his family in 1828, and took possession. His brothers-in-law, Amos and Valencourt Van Ansdal, came with him and settled near. Mr. Stillwell's daughter Margaret (afterward Mrs. Ford) was born in 1831, at the foot of the rapids, called by the Indians Puckashetuck. She was prob-
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ably the first white American child born in Iowa.
In 1829 Dr. Isaac Gallaud made a settle- ment on the Lower Rapids, at what is now Nashville. The same year James S. Lang- worthy, who had been engaged in lead- mining at Galena since 1824, commenced lead-mining in the vicinity of Dubuque. A few others afterward came to that point as miners, and they soon found it necessary to hold a council and adopt some regulations for their government and protection. They met in 1830 on the bank of the river, by the side of an old cottonwood drift log, at what is now the Jones Street Levee in Dubuque, and elected a committee, consisting of J. L. Langworthy, H. F. Lander, James Mc- Phetres, Samuel Scales and E. M. Wren, who drafted a set of rules, which were adopted by this, the first "Legislature" of Iowa. They elected Dr. Jarote as their officer to choose arbitrators for the settle- ment of difficulties that might arise. These settlers, however, were intruders upon In- dian territory, and were driven off in 1832 by our Government, Colonel Zachary Tay- lor commanding the troops. The Indians returned and were encouraged to operate the rich mines opened by the late white occupants.
But in June of the same year the troops were ordered to the east side of the Missis- sippi to assist in the annihilation of the very Indians whose rights they had been protecting on the west side !
Immediately after the close of the Black Hawk war and the negotiations of the treaty in September, 1832, by which the Sacs and Foxes ceded the tract known as the " Black Hawk Purchase," the settlers, supposing that now they had a right to re-enter the territory, returned and took possession of their claims, built cabins, erected furnaces and prepared large quantities of lead for market. But the prospects of the hardy and enterprising settlers and miners were
again ruthlessly interfered with by the Government, on the ground that the treaty with the Indians would not go into force until June 1, 1833, although they had with- drawn from the vicinity of the settlement. Colonel Taylor was again ordered by the War Department to remove the miners, and in January, 1833, troops were again sent from Prairie du Chien to Dubuque for that purpose. This was a serious and per- haps unnecessary hardship imposed upon the miners. They were compelled to aban- don their cabins and homes in mid-winter. This, too, was only out of respect for forms ; for the purchase had been made, and the Indians had retired. After the lapse of fifty years, no very satisfactory reason for this rigorous action of the Government can be given. But the orders had been given, and there was no alternative but to obey. Many of the settlers re-crossed the river, and did not return; a few, however, re- moved to an island near the east bank of the river, built rude cabins of poles, in which to store their lead until spring, when they could float the fruits of their labor to St. Louis for sale, and where they could re- main until the treaty went into force, when they could return. Among these were the Langworthy brothers, who had on hand about 300,000 pounds of lead.
No sooner had the miners left than Lieu- tenant Covington, who had been placed in command at Dubuque by Colonel Taylor, ordered some of the cabins of the settlers to be torn down, and wagons and other prop- erty to be destroyed. This wanton and inexcusable action on the part of a subordi- nate, clothed with a little brief authority, was sternly rebuked by Colonel Taylor, and Covington was superseded by Lieutenant George Wilson, who pursued a just and friendly course with the pioneers, that were only waiting for the time when they could repossess their claims.
The treaty went formally into effect June,
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1833, the troops were withdrawn, and the Langworthy brothers and a few others at once returned and resumed possession of their homes and claims. From this time must date the first permanent settlement of this portion of Iowa. John P. Sheldon was appointed superintendent of the mines by the Government, and a system of permits to miners and licenses to smelters was adopted, similar to that which had been in operation at Galena since 1825, under Lieutenant Martin Thomas and Captain Thomas C. Legate. Substantially the primi- tive law enacted by the miners assembled around that old cottonwood drift log in 1830, was adopted and enforced by the United States Government, except that miners were required to sell their mineral to licensed smelters, and the smelter was required to give bonds for the payment of 6 per cent. of all lead manufactured to the Government
About 500 people arrived in the mining district in 1833, after the Indian title was fully extinguished, of whom 150 were from Galena. In the same year Mr. Langworthy assisted in building the first school house in Iowa, and thus was formed the nucleus of the populous and thriving city of Dubuque. Mr. Langworthy lived to see the naked prairie on which he first settled become the site of a city of 15,000 inhabitants, the small school-house which he aided in construct- ing replaced by three substantial edifices, wherein 2,000 children were being trained, churches erected in every part of the city, and railroads connecting the wilderness which he first explored with all the eastern world. He died suddenly on the 13th of March, 1865, while on a trip over the Du- buque & Southern Railroad, at Monticello, and the evening train brought the news of his death and his remains.
Lucius H. Langworthy, his brother, was one of the most worthy, gifted and influ- ential of the old settlers of this section of
Iowa. He died greatly lamented by many friends, in June, 1865.
The name Dubuque was given to the settlement by the miners, at a meeting held in 1834.
Soon after the close of the Black Hawk war in 1832, Zachariah Hawkins, Benjamin Jennings, Aaron White, Augustine Horton, Samuel Gooch, Daniel Thompson and Peter Williams made claims at Fort Madison. In 1833 General John H. Knapp and Colonel Nathaniel Knapp purchased these claims, and in the summer of 1835 they laid out the town of " Fort Madison." Lots were ex- posed for sale early in 1836. The town was subsequently re-surveyed and platted by the United States Government. The popu- lation rapidly increased, and in less than two years the beautiful location was cov- ered by a flourishing town, containing nearly 600 inhabitants, with a large pro- portion of enterprising merchants, mechan- ics and manufacturers.
In the fall of 1832 Simpson S. White erected a cabin on the site of Burlington, seventy-nine miles below Rock Island. During the war parties had looked long- ingly upon the "Flint Hills" from the op- posite side of the river, and White was soon followed by others. David Tothers made a claim on the prairie about three miles back from the river, at a place since known as the farm of Judge Morgan. The following winter the settlers were driven off by the military from Rock Island, as intruders upon the rights of the Indians. White's cabin was burned by the soldiers. He returned to Illinois, where he remained during the winter, and in the following summer, as soon as the Indian title was ex- tinguished, returned and rebuilt his cabin. White was joined by his brother-in-law, Doolittle, and they laid out the town of Burlington in 1834, on a beautiful area of sloping eminences and gentle declivities, enclosed within a natural amphitheater
11
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formed by the surrounding hills, which were crowned with luxuriant forests and presented the most picturesque scenery. The same autumn witnessed the opening of the first dry-goods stores by Dr. W. R. Ross and Major Jeremiah Smith, cach well sup- plied with Western merchandise. Such was the beginning of Burlington, which in less than four years became the seat. of government for the Territory of Wisconsin, and in three years more contained a popu- lation of 1,400 persons.
Immediately after the treaty with the Sacs and Foxes, in September, 1832, Colonel George Davenport made the first claim on the site of the present thriving city of Davenport. As early as 1827, Colonel Davenport had established a flat-boat ferry, which ran between the island and the main shore of Iowa, by which he carried on a trade with the Indians west of the Missis- sippi. In 1833 Captain Benjamin W. Clark moved from Illinois, and laid the founda- tion of the town of Buffalo, in Scott County, which was the first actual settlement within the limits of that county.
The first settlers of Davenport were An- toine Le Claire, Colonel George Davenport, Major Thomas Smith, Major William Gor- don, Philip Hambough, Alexander W. Mc- Gregor, Levi S. Colton, Captain James May and others.
A settlement was made in Clayton County in the spring of 1832, on Turkey River, by Robert Hatfield and William W. Wayman. No further settlement was made in this part of the State until 1836.
The first settlers of Muscatine County were Benjamin Nye, John Vanater and G. W. Kasey, all of whom came in 1834. E. E. Fay, William St. John. N. Fullington, H. Reece, Jonas Pettibone, R. P. Lowe, Stephen Whicher, Abijah Whitney, J. E. Fletcher, W. D. Abernethy and Alexis Smith were also early settlers of Musca- tine.
As early as 1824 a French trader named Hart had established a trading-post, and built a cabin on the bluffs above the large spring now known as " Mynster Spring," within the limits of the present city of Council Bluffs, and had probably been there some time, as the post was known to the employes of the American Fur Company as " La Cote de Hart," or " Hart's Bluff." In 1827 an agent of the American Fur Company, Francis Guittar, with others, encamped in the timber at the foot of the bluffs, about on the present location of Broadway, and afterward settled there. In 1839 a block house was built on the bluff in the east part of the city. The Pottawat- omie Indians occupied this part of the State until 1846-'7, when they relinquished the territory and removed to Kansas. Billy Caldwell was then principal chief. There were no white settlers in that part of the State except Indian traders, until the arri- val of the Mormons under the lead of Brig- ham Young. These people on their way westward halted for the winter of 1846-'7, on the west bank of the Missouri River, about five miles above Omaha, at a place now called Florence. Some of them had reached the eastern bank of the river the spring before in season to plant a crop. In the spring of 1847 Brigham Young and a portion of the colony pursued their journey to Salt Lake, but a large portion of them returned to the Iowa side and settled mainly within the present limits of Pottawatomie County. The principal settlement of this strange community was at a place first called " Miller's Hollow," on Indian Creek, and afterward named Kanesville, in honor of Colonel Thomas L. Kane, of Pennsyl- vania, who visited them soon afterward. The Mormon settlement extended over the county and into neighboring counties, wherever timber and water furnished de- sirable locations. Orson Hyde, priest, law- yer and editor, was installed as president
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of the Quorum of Twelve, and all that part of the State remained under Mormon con- trol for several years. In 1847 they raised a battalion numbering 500 men for the Mexican war. In 1848 Hyde started a paper called the Frontier Guardian, at Kanesville. In 1849, after many of the faithful had left to join Brigham Young at Salt Lake, the Mormons in this section of Iowa numbered 6,552, and in 1850, 7,828; but they were not all within the limits of Pottawatomie County. This county was organized in 1848, all the first officials be- ing Mormons. In 1852 the order was pro- mulgated that all the true believers should gather together at Salt Lake. Gentiles flocked in, and in a few years nearly all the first settlers were gone.
May 9, 1843, Captain James Allen, with a small detachment of troops on board the steamer Ione, arrived at the site of the present capital of the State, Des Moines. This was the first steamer to ascend the Des Moines River to this point. The troops and stores were landed at what is now the foot of Court avenue, and the Captain re- turned in the steamer to Fort Sanford to arrange for bringing up more soldiers and supplies. In due time they too arrived, and a fort was built near the mouth of Rac- coon Fork, at its confluence with the Des Moines, and named "Fort Des Moines." Soon after the arrival of the troops, a trad- ing-post was established on the east side of the river by two noted Indian traders named Ewing, from Ohio. Among the first settlers in this part of Iowa were Ben- jamin Bryant, J. B. Scott, James Drake (gunsmith), John Sturtevant, Robert Kin- zie, Alexander Turner, Peter Newcomer and others.
PIONEER LIFE.
Most of the early settlers of Iowa came from older States, as Pennsylvania, New York and Ohio, where their prospects for
even a competency were very poor. They found those States good-to emigrate from. Their entire stock of furniture, implements and family necessities were easily stored in one wagon, and sometimes a cart was their only vehicle.
After arriving and selecting a suitable location, the next thing to do was to build a log cabin, a description of which may be interesting to many of our younger readers, as in some sections these old-time struct- ures are no more to be seen. Trees of uniform size were chosen and cut into logs of the desired length, generally twelve to fifteen feet, and hauled to the spot selected for the future dwelling. On an appointed day the few neighbors who were available would assemble and have a " house-raising." Each end of every log was saddled and notched so that they would lie as close down as possible; the next day the proprietor, would proceed to " chink" and " daub " the cabin, to keep out the rain, wind and cold. The house had to be re-daubed ev- ery fall, as the rains of the intervening time would wash out a great part of the mortar. The usual height of the house was seven or eight feet. The gables were formed by shortening the logs gradually at each end of the building near the top. The roof was made by laying very straight small logs or stout poles suitable distances apart, and on these were laid the clapboards, somewhat like shingling, generally about two and a half feet to the weather. These clapboards were fastened to their place by " weight- poles " corresponding in place with the joists just described, and these again were held in their place by " runs " or " knees " which were chunks of wood about eighteen or twenty inches long fitted between them near the ends. Clapboards were made from the nicest oaks in the vicinity, by chopping or sawing them into four-foot blocks and riving these with a frow, which was a simple blade fixed at right angles to
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its handles. This was driven into the blocks of wood by a mallet. As the frow was wrenched down through the wood, the latter was turned alternately over from side to side, one end being held by a forked piece of timber.
The chimney to the Western pioneer's cabin was made by leaving in the original building a large open place in one wall, or by cutting one after the structure was up, and by building on the outside, from the ground up, a stone column, or a column of sticks and mud, the sticks being laid up cob house fashion. The fire-place thus made was often large enough to receive fire-wood six to eight feet long. Sometimes this wood, especially the " back-log," would be nearly as large as a saw-log. The more rapidly the pioneer could burn up the wood in his vicinity the sooner he had his little farm cleared and ready for cultivation. For a window, a piece about two feet long was cut out of one of the wall logs, and the hole closed, sometimes by glass but gener- ally with greased paper. Even greased deer- hide was sometimes used. A doorway was cut through one of the walls if a saw was to be had; otherwise the door would be left by shortened logs in the original building. The door was made by pinning clapboards to two or three wood bars, and was hung upon wooden hinges. A wooden latch, with catch, then finished the door, and the latch was raised by any one on the outside by pulling a leather string. For security at night this latch-string was drawn in, but for friends and neighbors, and even stran- gers, the "latch-string was always hanging out," as a welcome. In the interior over the fire-place would be a shelf called "the mantel," on which stood a candlestick or lamp, some cooking and table ware, possi- bly an old clock, and other articles; in the fire-place would be the crane, sometimes of iron, sometimes of wood; on it the pots were hung for cooking; over the door, in forked
cleats, hung the ever-trustful rifle and pow- der-horn; in one corner stood the larger bed for. the " old folks," and under it the trundle-bed for the children; in another stood the old-fashioned spinning-wheel, with a smaller one by its side; in another the heavy table, the only table, of course, there was in the house; in the remaining was a rude cupboard holding the tableware, which consisted of a few cups and saucers, and blue-edged plates, standing singly on their edges against the back, to make the display of table-furniture more conspicu- ous; while around the room were scattered a few splint-bottom or Windsor chairs, and two or three stools.
These simple cabins were inhabited by a kind and true-hearted people. They were strangers to mock modesty, and the traveler seeking lodging for the night, or desirous of spending a few days in the community, if willing to accept the rude offering, was always welcome, although how they were disposed of at night the reader might not easily imagine; for, as described, a single room was made to answer for kitchen, dining-room, sitting-room, bed-room and parlor, and many families consisted of six or eight members.
The bed was very often made by fixing a post in the floor about six feet from one wall and four feet from the adjoining wall, and fastening a stick to this post about two feet above the floor, on each of two sides, so that the other end of each of the two sticks could be fastened in the oppo- site wall; clapboards were laid across these, and thus the bed was made complete. Guests were given this bed, while the fam- ily disposed of themselves in another cor- ner of the room or in the loft. When several guests were on hand at once they were sometimes kept over night in the fol- lowing manner: When bedtime came the men were requested to step out of doors while the women spread out a broad bed
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upon the mid floor, and put themselves to bed in the center; the signal was given, and the men came in and each husband took his place in bed next his own wife, and single men outside beyond them again. They were generally so crowded that they had to lie "spoon " fashion, and whenever anyone wished to turn over he would say " spoon," and the whole company of sleep- ers would turn over at once. This was the only way they could all keep in bed.
To witness the various processes of cook- ing in those days would alike surprise and amuse those who have grown up since cooking stoves and ranges came into use. Kettles were hung over the large fire, sus- pended with pot-hooks, iron or wooden, on the crane, or on poles, one end of which would rest upon a chain. The long-hand- Jed frying pan was used for cooking meat. It was either held over the blaze by hand or set down upon coals drawn out upon the hearth. This pan was also used for baking pancakes, also call flapjacks, batter- cakes, etc. A better article for this, how- ever, was the cast-iron spider, or Dutch skillet. The best thing for baking bread in those days, and possibly even in these latter days, was the flat-bottomed bake kettle, of greater depth, with closely fitting cast-iron cover, and commonly known as the Dutch oven. With coals over and under it, bread and biscuits would be quickly and nicely baked. Turkey and spare-ribs were sometimes roasted before the fire, sus- pended by a string, a dish being placed underneath to catch the drippings.
Hominy and samp were very much used. The hominy, however, was generally hulled corn-boiled corn from which the hull or bran had been taken by hot lye, hence sometimes called lye hominy. True hom- iny and samp were made of pounded corn. A popular method of making this, as well as real meal for bread, was to cut out or burn a large hole in the top of a huge
stump, in the shape of a mortar, and pound- ing the corn in this by a maul or beetle suspended by a swing pole like a well- sweep. This and the wellsweep consisted of a pole twenty to thirty feet long fixed in an upright fork so that it could be worked " teeter " fashion. It was a rapid and sim- ple way of drawing water. When the samp was sufficiently pounded it was taken out, the bran floated off, and the delicious grain boiled like rice.
The chief articles of diet in an early day were corn bread, hominy or samp, venison, pork, honey, pumpkin (dried pumpkin for more than half the year), turkey, prairie chicken, squirrel and some other game, with a few additional vegetables a portion of the year. Wheat bread, tea, coffee and fruit were luxuries not to be indulged in except on special occasions, as when visit- ors were present.
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