USA > Iowa > Butler County > History of Butler County, Iowa, a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 2
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The area of the lowan drift in which Butler county is located shows a marked contrast to the above conditions. This glacier invaded the state before the Wisconsin and its deposit is there- fore older. Its drift area has entered well upon the second stage of development indicated above. Natural drainage lines have been developed for the most part. The excess of rainfall and surface water has, therefore, much greater opportunity of flow- ing away of its own accord. This in itself constitutes the chief advantage which this area enjoys over that of the Wisconsin glacier to the west.
PILOT ROCK
A glacial bowlder on the farm of W. P. Miller in West Point Township
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Another contrast is to be noted in the character and size of the boulders, the presence of which in great numbers is noticeable in both areas. The granite boulders of the Wisconsin area are much smaller than those of the Iowan arca and are in many instances apparently as fresh as when first broken from their parent ledges by the slowly moving ice cap. The most obvious characteristic of the Iowan area is the enormous size of the boul- ders which it contains and their greater age as evidenced by the decay of their surface. Although conspicuous on account of their imposing dimensions, these boulders are rarely so numerous as to constitute an interference to agriculture.
"PILOT ROCK"
The illustration here given shows one of these typical boulders found in Butler county. "Pilot Rock" stands on the farm of W. P. Miller in section 22 of West Point township. Although now so surrounded by growths of artificial timber as to be hidden from view except at close quarters, in an early day it formed one of the most conspicuous landmarks upon the trecless, trackless prairie. This boulder is one of the largest in the state, measuring thirty-eight feet in length, twenty-six in width and twelve feet in height above the ground. How much of it is buried beneath the surface is unknown. It is composed of a very hard gray granite similar in quality to many of the boulders of the surrounding territory and plainly coming originally from the same parent ledge in the far away northland.
AGENCIES OF SOIL FORMATION
Over this thick layer of glacial deposit there has been spread through the process of the centuries that have elapsed since the far off glacial age a mantle of the most fertile soil in the world. Many agencies have contributed to this result.
* "The chief agents concerned in modifying the surface throughout most of Iowa since the disappearance of the lat- est glaciers have been organic, although the physical and chemical influences of air and water have not been with- out marked effect. The growth and decay of a long series of generations of plants have contributed certain organic constituents to the soil. Earth worms bring up fine material
* Calvin: Geology of lowa.
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HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY
from considerable depths and place it in position to be spread out upon the surface. The pocket gopher has done much to furnish a surface layer of loose, mellow, easily cultivated and highly productive soil. They drag leaves and any manage- able portion of plants into their burrows and much of the material so taken down into the ground decays and enriches the ground to the depth of several inches. Like the earth worm, the gopher for century after century has been bringing up to the surface fine material to the amount of several tons annually to the acre avoiding necessarily the pebbles and coarser constituents. The burrows collapse, the undermined boulders and large fragments sink downwards, winds and rains spread out the gopher hills and worm castings, and the next year and the next the process is repeated ; and so it has been for all the years making up the cen- turies since the close of the glacial epoch. Organic agents in the form of plants and burrowing animals have worked unremit- tingly through many centuries and accomplished a work of incalculable value in pulverizing, mellowing and enriching the superficial stratum and bringing it to the ideal condition in which it was found by the explorers and pioneers from whose advent clates the historical period of our matchless Iowa."
SOIL OF BUTLER COUNTY
The soil of Butler county is typical of this region. Deep borings have shown the presence of sedimentary lime rock under- lving the later deposits. There are in places traces of coal deposits but neither in quantity nor quality sufficient to justify development. Upon this underlying stratum rests a thick deposit of glacial till consisting of blue and yellow clay, sand. gravel and boulders. Above this on the surface is the mantle of hummus, the soil which furnishes the elements of plant food and makes this the most desirable farming section in the state.
CHAPTER III HISTORICAL-IOWA TO THE ADMISSION OF THE STATE
FIRST INHABITANTS
The first evidences of the presence of man upon this portion of the earth's surface are found in the geologic remains from the period immediately succeeding the final disappearance of the glaciers. The discovery of arrow heads in undisturbed beds of loess and of skulls of horses and other animals used for food with their skulls crushed as with a stone ax or other similar weapon together with the presence of stone axes in the same deposit with the skulls all indicate the existence of man at this period.
No well authenticated instance of the discovery of human remains dating back to this early prehistoric period is known in Butler county, but in Floyd county to the north and Chickasaw county to the northeast, human skulls have been discovered that indicate that the first inhabitants of this section were "low-browed, brute-like, small-bodied beings who were but a grade above the lower animals." These skulls resemble those of the gorilla, hav- ing thick ridges over the eyes and an almost total absence of forehead, indicating a low degree of intelligence. It is not at all improbable that if a thorough investigation were to be under- taken under the direction of competent archaeologists similar remains might be discovered in this county.
THE MOUND BUILDERS
Later in the prehistoric age, Iowa and the upper Mississippi valley were peopled by a race whom for lack of a better name we call "The Mound Builders." Of these strange, unknown people who possessed this land we now call ours. Gne in his "His- tory of Towa" says:
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"Stone and copper implements found indicate that they had made progress in the scale of intelligence. Whether they culti- vated the soil, erected comfortable dwellings and built towns is not known; but that they made cloth is proven by samples found in the mounds; strangely preserved through the innumerable ages that have elapsed. The numbers, color, habits, customs and forms of government of these people, as well as the manner in which their mounds were constructed. the purpose for which these enduring earthworks of various forms were used, and a thousand interesting details of these inhabitants of Iowa must forever remain unknown. Whence they came, how long they possessed the land, from what cause they were exterminated, are problems that will never cease to have an absorbing interest to succeeding races and generations."
Evidences of the work of these people are numerous along the Mississippi in Iowa and are not unknown in this section of the state. From these evidences the conclusion is inevitable that their civilization was well advanced, that they existed in great numbers and that they possessed the land for many thousands of years. In the end they were assailed by a new race of warlike invaders coming upon them from the north and west, before whom after generations of conflict they retreated gradually to the southward. It is possible that the last remmants of this once mighty people sought refuge from the onsets of their resistless foe in the almost inaccessible cliffs of the Southwest where today we find the villages of the "Cliff Dwellers." It is probable that the conquerors of the "Mound Builders" were the ancestors of the American Indians whom the first European discoverers found in undisputed possession of the continent.
DISCOVERY
With the discovery of America by Columbus there begins the period of authentic history. On the basis of the Columbus dis- covery and the subsequent discoveries and explorations of a score of adventurers under the flag of Castile and Arragon, Spain laid claim to all the vast North American continent from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic regions. Basing her claims upon the fact that the Cabots were the first Europeans actually to sight the mainland of North America and upon the establishment of per- manent settlements along the Atlantic coast, England announced
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HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY
her title to the continent from ocean to ocean. At the same time France through the voyages of Cartier and his successors and the settlements in the St. Lawrence valley laid similar ambitious claim to these lands and all those that lay to the south and west of them. So were sown the seeds of a worldwide struggle that was to terminate only after centuries of warfare with the prac- tical annihilation of one and the elimination of another of the three great nations that coveted the possession and control of this new world.
EXPLORATION
At first England and Spain contented themselves with a mere skirting of the fringes of the continent. True, for the latter nation. De Soto and Coronado penetrated the heart of the con- tinent from opposite directions and displayed to the view of the white man regions before existing but in the fervid imaginings of dreams. They sought, however, as all Spaniards did, not to build the foundations of a new nation in the wilderness and to make it strong by the development of its natural resources, but to exploit the country for their own selfish ends, to find the fabled "Land of Eldorado" where lay the "seven cities of Cibola" whose walls were built of precious stones and whose streets were paved with gold and silver. Failing utterly in this hope, finding only disappointment, disaster, and death as recompense for all their toil and hardships, the Spaniards abandoned the great Central valley and made no serious attempt to assert their rights to its possession which these explorations gave them.
COLONIZATION
England builded better than she knew in laving the founda- tions of her future greatness in America. Her pioneers in the new world were home builders. For nearly two centuries after their first settlement on the Atlantic coast, the English in Amer- ica were content to make firm their hold upon the little strip of the continent that lay between the Appalachian highland and the sea. This made sure, eventually by a process of natural expansion, their descendants pushed across the low mountain bar- rier and down into the great valley. But England was never to hold in fee simple the title to the lands of North America lving Vol. 1-2
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west of the Mississippi river; for before this irresistible west- ward movement had more than well begun, England's American, colonies had been lost to her forever and it remained for the United States, England's rebellious offspring, to make sure her place among the sisterhood of nations by the annexation of this vast region in which we live today.
THE FRENCH IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY
But this is anticipating the actual progress of history. It remained for France actually to explore and settle the Mississippi valley. Under the French flag missionary and trader advanced hand in hand. Beginning in the St. Lawrence valley a chain of trading posts and mission stations was founded, extending west- ward around the Great Lakes and finally reaching the center of the continent. As early as 1634, Nicolet, a French explorer, traversed the northern portion of the United States lying just to the west of Lake Superior. Thirty-five years later, Allouez, a French missionary, reaching the same region previously explored by Nicolet, heard from the Indians of the existence of a mighty inland river flowing southward between boundless and beautiful meadows. The Indians called it "Mis-sis-se-pe," "The River of the Meadows."
Tn 1670, Father Dablon wrote of this river:
"These people (the Illinois Indians) were the first to come to Green Bay to trade with the French. They are settled in the midst of a beautiful country away to the southwest toward a great river named Mis-sis-se-pi. It takes its rise far in the north, flowing toward the south, discharging its waters into the sea. All of the vast country through which it flows is of prairie with- out trees."
MARQUETTE AND JOLIET
From the earliest discovery of the new world, men of all nations had been searching for a passage through the continent to the western ocean. Nerved by a new hope roused by the news of this mighty body of water flowing southward to the sea. Mar- quette, a missionary, accompanied by Joliet, an explorer and trader, set out early in the year 1673 to explore this stream. From Green Bay the voyagers paddled up the Fox river, por-
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HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY
taged across to the Wisconsin and then floated down this stream to its junction with the Mississippi.
* "It was on the 17th day of June, 1673, that Marquette and Joliet looked out upon the bold bluffs of the western shore a few miles below where MeGregor now stands. They were the first white men who ever saw lowa. Pushing out into the current they beheld a wild and beautiful landscape. On the Wisconsin side was a level prairie shore stretching northward for many miles covered with tall grass waving in the June breeze. East- ward were the bluffs which in prehistoric times had been washed by a torrent of which the Mississippi of modern days is but a little remnant. Westward coming down to the water's edge were lofty, wooded, rocky hills and deep gorges fringed with rich foliage and flowers. Once out upon the waters of the greatest river of the continent they felt the inspiration of a great dis- covery.
"Marquette and Joliet were charmed with the beauty of the country, the fertile prairies with their mantles of luxuriant grass and wild flowers stretching away westward; the fish and game most plentiful, and their friendly reception by the Indians. This was lowa, as it was first seen by white men, and no more enchant- ing land ever met the gaze of explorers."
The explorers continued their voyage southward until they reached the mouth of the Arkansas river, a distance of more than eleven hundred miles. There they encountered Indians with whose dialect they were unfamiliar and who were far more hostile than any with whom they had come in contact before. Fearing that the little party might be overwhelmed by their foes and all the results of their journey lost to the world, they turned back and after weary weeks of rowing against the current finally reached the mouth of the Illinois. This stream, the Indians told them, would give them a shorter and easier route to the lakes than the one by which they had come; so, passing up this river nearly to its source, they crossed to the headwaters of the Chicago river and thence to Lake Michigan and their starting point.
Although this discovery of the great river and the exploration of its upper valley received little attention in Europe at the time, it led directly to the expeditions of La Salle in the next ten years and so constitutes the most valid basis of the claim which France set forward to all the Mississippi valley.
* Gue: History of Iowa.
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HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY
LA SALLE AND LOUISIANA
Robert Chevalier de La Salle, the most famous of the explorers of the Mississippi valley, inspired by the achievements of Mar- quette and Joliet, made several unsuccessful efforts to complete the exploration of the great river. On one of these expeditions, Father Hennepin with seven attendants ascended the Mississippi from the mouth of the Illinois to the falls of St. Anthony where Minneapolis now stands. They completed the exploration of the eastern border of Iowa. In the account which La Salle wrote of this Hennepin expedition occurs the first mention of the Towa Indians from whom our state takes its name,
Later in 1682, La Salle was finally successful in his hope to explore the Mississippi river to its mouth, where he took formal possession of all the regions drained by its waters in the name of his royal master, Louis XIV. Thenceforth all this region was called Louisiana in honor of the king. Eventually the establish- ment of the English claim to the territory east of the Mississippi restricted the name Louisiana to the lands lying to the west of the great river.
LOUISIANA UNDER SPANISH RULE
Spain still asserted a claim to the territory now called Louis- iana and its definite ownership was not finally settled until the close of the French and Indian war in 1763. In 1762 a prelimi- mary treaty between France, England and Spain was signed at Fontainbleau by which it was agreed that the boundary between the provinces of England and France should be irrevocably fixed by the Mississippi river. By this treaty Towa was definitely placed in the possession of France and all rights of claimants through charters and grants made by English kings in the pre- vious centuries were terminated. The Treaty of Paris which was signed in 1763 confirmed the boundaries agreed upon in the preliminary treaty. By this act ostensibly, Spain was to be defi- nitely and finally excluded from the Mississippi valley. How ever, at approximately the same time that these negotiations were in progress, by a secret treaty between France and Spain all the French possessions lying west of the Mississippi river, including Iowa, were ceded to Spain. Formal possession of this vast region
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HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY
was not taken by Spain until seven years later. From 1769 to 1800 Louisiana was administered as a Spanish province.
Up to the time of this secret cession to Spain no permanent settlements had been made by white men within the limits of Iowa. Fur traders, hunters, trappers and missionaries had ascended its streams, built temporary cabins on the river banks, dwelt for a time amidst its beautiful groves, and departed, leav- ing no record or trace of their sojourn other than the naming of the principal rivers and prominent landmarks, some of which names remain to the present day. During the earlier part of the period of Spanish possession, the same conditions prevailed. The fur trade with the Indians remained practically the only industry of this region and its continuance and increasing importance stood in the way of the development of the rich agricultural and mineral resources which were later to constitute Iowa's basis of permanent prosperity.
A strong rivalry grew up between the English and the French over this fur trade with the Indians and this rivalry became one of the chief causes of what is known as the French and Indian war. Another result of this rivalry was the establishment of a trading post on the west bank of the Mississippi a few miles below the month of the Missouri which in later years was to become one of the foremost cities of the new world, the city of St. Louis.
CONQUEST OF NORTHWEST TERRITORY
For Americans, after 1763 interest shifts from the great struggle of France and England for world-wide supremacy to the lesser but far more significant struggle of our forefathers for their rights as Englishmen in the new world. To the outcome of this war for independence, Towa with all the sisterhood of states owes its very existence : but one incident of the war bears, perhaps, more directly upon the development of Towa than any other event of the period. This was the conquest of the Northwest Territory by George Rogers Clark.
The story of this magnificent achievement need not be retold here, but to it and to the man who made it, the United States owes its immediate possession of all the territory lying east of the Mississippi and north of the Ohio and probably its ultimate success in maintaining its existence as a free nation in the second war for independence from 1812 to 1815. At the close of the War
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HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY
of the Revolution in 1783, by virtue of the actual military occu- pation of this territory, England was forced to recognize the claims of the United States and ceded all her possessions east of the Mississippi river from its sources to the thirty-first par- allel of latitude to the new republic. Thus was the western bound- ary of the United States extended to the Father of Waters and the eventual acquisition of the territory lving still farther to the westward rendered inevitable.
The period of the Spanish government of Louisiana from 1769 to 1800 was one of stagnation rather than development. The only European inhabitants of the territory were of French origin and they resisted persistently the attempts of the Spanish governors to enforce the use of Spanish laws and language. Even after the close of the Revolution, Spain still held possession of the terri- tory on both sides of the Mississippi as far north as the thirty-first parallel. This enabled her to control the navigation of the river. As the only commercial outlet for the products of the Mississippi valley, its free navigation was a matter of vital importance to the settlers farther up the river. This question was one of the rocks upon which the infant republic so nearly went to wreck and ruin in those critical years following the cessation of hostilities. The apparent timidity of the Government of the United States and the constant intrigues of the Spaniards led finally to suggestions of secession on the part of the people of the upper valley. In the end wiser councils prevailed and after years of fruitless nego- tiation a treaty was concluded with Spain whereby the free navi- gation of the river was guaranteed to the citizens of the United States.
NAPOLEON AND THE TREATY OF ST. ILDEFONSO
The days of Spanish supremacy in Louisiana, however, were rapidly drawing to a close. Weakened by internal dissensions and foreign wars, disgraced by the profligaey of the queen and the imbecility of the king, the once proud Spanish monarchy was tottering to its fall. France. meanwhile. had emerged from the shadow of the great revolution and under the guiding genius of Napoleon was again the dominant world power. His boundless ambition looked forward to the reestablishment of the lost colo- nial empire of France in the new world. As a first step in the realization of this project. he compelled the weak king of Spain
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HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY
by a secret treaty agreed to at St. Ildefonso in 1800 to recede Louisiana to France upon the fulfillment of certain considera- tions to be performed by the French Republic. This agreement was publicly ratified in the following year by the treaty of Mad- rid and Louisiana became for the second time the possession of France.
THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE
Before adequate provision could be made by Napoleon for the occupation and defense of his new possessions in North America, he was confronted by the armed strength of Europe in another great struggle for supremacy. In order to save Lou- isiana from falling into the hands of the English and at the same time to insure the neutrality of the United States and make it a formidable rival of England in the new world, Napoleon opened confidential negotiations with the American minister to France looking toward the transfer of the sovereignty over this territory. On the 30th of April, 1803, a treaty of purchase was concluded between the representatives of the United States and of Napo- leon, whereby for a consideration of $15,000,000, France relin- quished all her claims to territory lying west of the Mississippi and north of the Spanish possessions. Out of this vast domain, an empire in extent, embracing a greater area than all of the United States at that time east of the Mississippi river, fourteen states of the Union today have been carved either wholly or in part. And the proudest of these is our own State of Iowa.
"Our new possessions proved to be of greater value than all the territory conquered and held by Napoleon during his brilliant and unscrupulous wars of conquest in Europe and Africa. No such acquisition of valuable territory was ever before made peaceably by any nation in the world's history. The industrial, commercial, political and geographical importance of this region were colossal and inestimable. It rounded ont our territorial possessions, opened up an inland water route to the sea, and at one step lifted the young republic into rank and power with the first nations of the earth."
GOVERNMENT OF THE TERRITORY
The first act of Congress providing for the government of the territory acquired in this manner was approved Oct. 31, 1803.
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HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY
and provided that all military, civil and judicial powers should be "vested in such persons and exercised in such manner as the President of the United States shall direct." This was followed in 1804 by an act dividing the territory into the Territory of Orleans and the District of Louisiana, the thirty-third parallel being the boundary line between these divisions. The District of Louisiana was temporarily placed under the control of the Governor and the judges of Indiana territory, which then com- prised all of the present states of Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and a part of Minnesota. In 1805, Congress established a sepa- rate territorial form of government for this district, executive and judicial powers being vested in a Governor and three judges to be appointed by the President.
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