USA > Iowa > Chickasaw County > History of Chickasaw and Howard Counties, Iowa > Part 2
USA > Iowa > Howard County > History of Chickasaw and Howard Counties, Iowa > Part 2
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47
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HISTORY OF IOWA.
price. Talleyrand thought that not enough, but asked the Ameri- can to "think of it." A few days later, Napoleon, in an interview with Mr. Livingston, in effect informed the American Envoy that he had secured Louisiana in a contract with Spain for the purpose of turning it over to the United States for a mere nominal sum. He had been compelled to provide for the safety of that province by the treaty, and he was anxious to give the United States a magnificent bargain for a mere trifle. The price proposed was one hundred and twenty-five million francs. This was subse- quently modified to fifteen million dollars, and on this basis a treaty was negotiated, and was signed on the 30th day of April, 1803.
This treaty was ratified by the Federal Government, and by ac- of Congress, approved October 31, 1803, the President of the Unit- ed States was authorized to take possession of the territory and provide for a temporary government. Accordingly, on the 20th day of September following, on behalf of the President, Governor Clairborne and Gen. Wilkinson took possession of the Louisiana purchase, and raised the American flag over the newly acquired domain , at New Orleans. Spain, although it had by treaty ceded the province to France in 1801, still held quasi possession and at first objected to the transfer, but withdrew her opposition early in 1804.
By this treaty, thus successfully consummated, and the peace- able withdrawal of Spain, the then infant nation of the New World extended its dominion west of the Mississippi to the Pa- cific ocean, and north from the Gulf of Mexico to British America.
If the original design of Jefferson's administration had been accomplished, the United States would have acquired only that portion of the French territory lying east of the Mississippi River, and while the American people would thus have acquired the free navigation of that great river, all of the vast and fertile empire on the west, so rich in its agricultural and inexhaustible mineral re- sources, would have remained under the dominion of a foreign power. To Napoleon's desire to sell the whole of his North Amer- ican possessions, and Livingston's act transcending hisinstructions which was acquiesced in after it was done, does Iowa owe her position as a part of the United States by the Louisiana pur- chase.
By authority of an act of Congress, approved March 26, 1804, the newly acquired territory was, on the first day of October fol- lowing, divided: that part lying south of the thirty-third parallel of north latitude was called the territory of Orleans, and all north of that parallel the District of Louisiana, which was placed under the authority of the officers of Indian Territory, until July 4, 1805, when it was organized with territorial government of its own, and so remained until 1812, when the Territory of Orleans became
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HISTORY OF IOWA.
the State of Louisiana, and the name of the Territory of Louisiana was changed to Missouri. On the 4th of July, 1814, that part of the Missouri Territory comprising the present State of Arkansas, and the country to the westward was organized into the Arkansas Territory.
On the 2d of March, 1821, the State of Missouri, being a part of the territory of that name, was admitted to the Union. June 28, 1834, the territory west of the Mississippi River and north of Missouri, was made a part of the territory of Michigan; but two years later on the 4th of July, 1836, Wisconsin Territory was erected, embracing within its limits the present States of Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
By act of Congress, approved June 12, 1838, the
TERRITORY OF IOWA
was erected, comprising, in addition to the present State, much the larger part of Minnesota, and extending north to the boundary of the British possessions.
THE ORIGINAL OWNERS.
Having traced the early history of the great empire lying west of the Mississippi, of which the State of Iowa constitutes a part from the earliest discovery to the organization of the Territory of Iowa, it becomes necessary to give some history of the Indians of Iowa.
According to the policy of the European nations, possession perfected title to any territory. We have seen that the country west of the Mississippi was first discovered by the Spaniards, but afterwards, was visited and occupied by the French. "It was ceded by France to Spain, and by Spain back to France again, and then was purchased and occupied by the United States. During all that time, it does not appear to have entered into the heads or hearts of the high contracting parties that the country they bought, sold and gave away was in the possession of a race of men, who, al- though savage, owned the vast domain before Columbus first crossed the Atlantic. Having purchased the territory the United States found it still in possession of its original owners, who had never been dispossesed; and it became necessary to purchase again what had already been bought before, or forcibly eject the occu- pants; therefore, the history of the Indian nations who occupied Iowa prior to and during its early settlement by the whites, be- comes an important chapter in the history of the State, that can- not be omitted.
For more than one hundred years after Marquette and Joliet trod the virgin soil of Iowa, not a single settlement had been made or attempted; not even a trading post had been established. The whole country remained in the undisputed possession of the native tribes, who roamed at will over her beautiful and fertile prairies, hunted in her woods, fished in her streams, and often
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HISTORY OF IOWA.
poured out their life-blood in obstinately contested contests for supremacy. That this State so aptly styled "The Beautiful Land," had been the theater of numerous fierce and bloody struggles between rival nations, for possessions of the favored re- gion, long before its settlement by civilized man, there is no room for doubt. In these savage wars, the weaker party whether ag- gressive or defensive, was either exterminated or driven from their ancient hunting grounds.
In 1673, when Marquette discovered Iowa, the Illini were a very powerful people, occupying a large portion of the. State, but when the country was again visited by the whites, not a remnant of that once powerful tribe remained on the west side of the Mississippi, and Iowa was principally in the possession of the Sacs and Foxes, a war-like tribe which, originally two distinct nations, residing in New York and on the waters of the St. Lawrence, had gradually fought their way westward, and united, probably, after the Foxes had been driven out of the Fox River country, in 1846, and crossed the Mississippi. The death of Pontiac, a famous Sac chieftain, was made the pretext for war against the Illini, and a fierce and bloody struggle ensued, which continued until the Illinois were- nearly destroyed and their hunting grounds possessed by their victorious foes. The Iowas also occupied a portion of the State for a time, in common with the Sacs, but they, too, were nearly destroyed by the Sacs and Foxes, and, in "The Beautiful Land," these natives met their equally war-like foes, the Northern Sioux, with whom they maintained a constant warfare for the possession of the country for many years.
When the United States came in possession of the great valley of the Mississippi, by the Louisiana purchase, the Sacs and Foxes and Iowas possessed the entire territory, now comprisiug the State . of Iowa. The Sacs and Foxes, also occupied the most of the State of Illionois.
The Sacs had four principal villages, where most of them re- sided, viz .: Their largest and most important town-if an Indian village may be called such-and from which emanated most of the obstacles and difficulties encountered by the Government in the extinguishment of Indian titles to land in this region, was on Rock River, near Rock Island; another was on the east bank of the Mississippi, near the mouth of Henderson River; the third .. was at the head of the Des Moines Rapids, near the present site. of Montrose, and the fourth was near the mouth of the Upper- Iowa.
The Foxes had three' principal villages, viz .: One on the west: side of the Mississippi, six miles above the rapids of Rock River; another about twelve miles from the river, in the rear of the Dubuque lead mines, and the third on Turkey River.
The Iowas, at one time identified with the Sacs, of Rock River, had withdrawn from them and become a separate tribe. Their
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HISTORY OF IOWA.
principal village was on the Des Moines River, in Van Buren County, on the site where Iowaville now stands. Here the last great battle between the Sacs and Foxes and the Iowas was fought, in which Black Hawk, then a young man, commanded one division of the attacking forces.
The Sacs had a fierce conflict with the Winnebagoes, subdued them and took possession of their lands. Their village on Rock River, at one time, contained upward of sixty lodges, and was among the largest Indian villages on the continent. In 1825, the Secretary of War estimated the entire number of the Sacs and Foxes at 4,600 souls. Their villages was situated in the immediate vicinity of the upper rapids of the Mississippi, where the beautiful and flourishing towns of Rock Island and Davenport are now situ- ated. The beautiful scenery of the island, the extensive prairies, dotted over with groves; the picturesque bluffs along the river banks, the rich and fertile soil, producing large crops of corn, squash and other vegetables, with little labor; the abundance of wild fruit, game, fish, and almost everything calculated to make it a delightful spot for an Indian village, which was found
1 there, had made this place a favorite home of the Sacs, and se- cured for it the strong attachment and veneration of the whole nation.
' North of the hunting grounds of the Sacs and Foxes, were those of the Sioux, a fierce and warlike nation, who often disputed pos- session with their rivals in savage and bloody warfare. The pos- sessions of these tribes were mostly located in Minnesota, but ex- tended over a portion of Northern and Western Iowa to the Mis- souri River. Their descent from the north upon the hunting grounds of Iowa frequently brought them into collision with the Sacs and Foxes; and after many a conflict and bloody struggle, a boundary line was established between them by the Government of the United States, in a treaty held at Prairie du Chien in 1825. But this, instead of settling the difficulties, caused them to quar- rel all the more, in consequence of alleged trespasses upon each other's side of the line. These contests were kept up and became so unrelenting that, in 1830, Government bought of the respective tribes of the Sacs and Foxes, and the Sioux, a strip of land twenty miles in width, on both sides of the line, and thus throwing them forty miles a part by creating between them a "neutral ground," commanded them to cease their hostilities. Both the Sacs and Foxes and the Sioux, however, were allowed to fish and hunt on the ground unmolested, provided they did not interfere with each other on the United States territory. The Sacs and Foxes and the Sioux were deadly enemies, and neither let an opportunity to pun- ish the other pass unimproved.
In April, 1852, a fight occurred between the Musquaka band of Sacs. and Foxes and a band of Sioux, about six miles above AM
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HISTORY OF IOWA.
gona, in Kossuth County, on the west side of the Des Moines River. The Sacs and Foxes were under the leadership Ko-ko- wah, a subordinate chief, and had gone up from their home in Tama County, by way of Clear Lake, to what was then the "neutral ground." At Clear Lake, Ko-ko-wah was informed that a party of Sioux were encamped on the west side of the East Fork of the Des Moines, and he determined to attack them. With sixty of his warriors, he started and arrived at a point on the east side of the river, about a mile ahove the Sioux encampment, in the night, and concealed themselves in a grove, where they were able to dis- cover the position and strength of their hereditary foes. The next morning, after many of the Sioux braves had left their camp on hunting tours, the vindictive Sacs and Foxes crossed the river and suddenly attacked the camp. The conflict was desperate for a short time, but the advantage was with the assailants, and the Sioux were routed. Sixteen of them, including some of their women and children, were killed, and a boy 14 years old was cap- tured. One of the Musquakas was shot in the breast by a squaw as they were rushing into the Sioux's camp. He started to run away, when the same brave squaw shot him through the body, at a distance of forty rods, and he fell dead. Three other Sac braves were killed. But few of the Sioux escaped. The victorious party hurriedly buried their own dead, leaving the dead Sioux above ground, and made their way home, with their captive, with all possible expedition.
PIKE'S EXPEDITION.
Very soon after the acquisition of Louisiana the United States Government adopted measures for the exploration of the new ter- ritory, having in view the concilation of the numerous tribes of Indians by whom it was possessed, and, also, the selection of proper sites for the establishment of military posts and trading stations. The Army of the West, Gen. James Wilkinson, com- manding, had its headquarters at St. Louis. From this post Cap- tains Lewis Clarke, with a sufficient force were detailed to ex- plore the unknown sources of the Missouri and Licut Zebulon M. Pike to ascend to the head waters of the Mississippi. Lieut. Pike, with one Sergeant, two Corporals and seventeen privates, left the military camp, near St. Louis, in a keel-boat, with four month's . rations on the 9th day of August, 1805. On the 20th of the same month, the expedition arrived within the present limit of Iowa, at the foot of the Des Moines Rapids, where Pike met Wil- liam Ewing, who had just been appointed Indian agent at this point, a French interpreter and four chiefs and fifteen Sac and Fox warriors.
At the head of the rapids, where Montrose is now situated, Pike held a council with the Indians, in which he addressed them substantially as follows: "Your great Father, the President of
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HISTORY OF IOWA.
the United States, wished to be more intimately acquainted with the situation and wants of the different nations of red people in our newly acquired territory of Louisiana, and has ordered the General to send a number of his warriors in different direction to take them by the hand and such inquiries as might afford the satisfaction required." At the close of the council he presented the red men with some knives, whisky and tobacco.
Pursuing his way up the river; he arrived, on the 23d of August, at what is supposed, from his description, to be the site of the pres- ent city of Burlington, which he selected as the location of a mili- tary post. He describes the place as being "on a hill, about forty miles above the River de Moyne Rapids, on the west side of the river, in latitude about 41 degress 21 minutes north. The channel of the river runs on that shore; the hill in front is about sixty feet perpendicular; nearly level on top; four hundred yards in the rear is a small prairie fit for gardening, and immediately under the hill is a limestone spring, sufficient for the consumption of a whole regiment." In addition to this description, which corresponds to Burlington, the spot is laid down on his map at a bend in the river a short distance below the mouth of the Henderson, which pours its waters into the Mississippi from Illinois. The fort was built at Fort Madison, but from the distance, latitude, description and map furnished by Pike, it could not have been the place selected by him while all the circumstances corroborate the opinion that the place he selected was the spot where Burlington is now located, called by the early voyagers on the Mississippi, "Flint Hills."
On the 24th with one of his men, he went on shore on a hunt- ing expedition, and following a stream which they supposed to be a part of the Mississippi, they were led away from their course. Owing to the intense heat and tall grass, his two favorite dogs, which he had taken with him, became exhausted and he left them on the prairie, supposing that they would follow him as soon as they should get rested, and went on to overtake his boat. Reach- ing the river, he waited some time for his canine friends, but they did not come, and as he deemed it inexpedient to detain the boat longer, two of his men volunteered to go in pursuit of them, and he continued on his way up the river, expecting that the two men would soon overtake him. They lost their way, however, and for six days were without food, except a few morsels gathered from the stream and might have perished had they not accidentally met a trader from St. Louis, who induced two Indians to take them up, the river and they over took the boat at Dubuque.
At Dubuque, Pike was cordially received by Julien Dubuque, a Frenchman, who held a mining claim under a grant from Spain. Dubuque had an old field piece and fired a salute in honor of the advent of the first Americans who had visited that part of the Territory. Dubuque, however, was not disposed to publish the
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HISTORY OF IOWA.
wealth of his mines, and the young and apparently inquisitive officer could obtain but little information from him.
After leaving this place, Pike pursued his way up the river, but as he passed beyond the limits of the present State of Iowa, a detailed history of his exploration on the upper water of the Mis- sissippi more properly belongs to the history of another State.
It is sufficient to say that on the site of Fort Snelling, Minne- sota, at the mouth of the Minnesota River, Pike held a council with the Sioux, September 23, and obtained from them a grant of one hundred thousand acres of land. On the 8th of January, 1806, Pike arrived at a trading post belonging to the Northwest Com- pany, on Lake De Sable in latitude 47º. At this time the then powerful Northwest Company carried on their immense opera- · tions from Hudson's Bay to the St. Lawrence; up the river on both sides, along the Great Lakes to the head of Lake Superior, thence to the sources of the Red River of the North, and west to the Rocky Mountains, embracing within the scope of their opera- tions the entire Territory of Iowa. After successfully accom- plishing his mission, and performing a valuable service to Iowa and the whole Northwest, Pike returned to St. Louis, arriving there on the 30th day April, 1806.
INDIAN WARS.
The territory of Iowa, although it had been purchased by the United States, and was ostensibly in the possession of the Gov- ernment, was still occupied by the Indians, who claimed title to the soil by right of ownership and possession. Before it could be open to settlement by the whites, it was indispensable that the Indian title should be extinguished, and the original owners re- moved. The accomplishment of this purpose required the expen- diture of large sums of money and blood, and for a long series of years the frontier was disturbed by Indian wars, terminated re- peatedly by treaty, only to be renewed by some act of oppres- sion on the part of the whites or some violation of treaty stipula- tion,
As previously shown, at the time when the United States as- sumed the control of the country by virtue of the Louisiana pur- chase nearly the whole state was in possession of the Sacs and Foxes, a powerful and warlike nation, who were not disposed to submit without a struggle to what they considered the encroach- ments of the pale faces.
Among the most noted chiefs, and one whose restlessness and hatred of the Americans occasioned more trouble to the Govern- ment than any others of his tribe, was Black Hawk, who was born at the Sac village, on Rock river, in 1767. He was simply the chief of his own band of Sac warriors, but by his energy and am- bition he became the leading spirit of the united nation of Sacs and Foxes, and one of the prominent figures in the history of the
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HISTORY OF IOWA.
country from 1803 until his death. In early manhood he attained some distinction as a fighting chief, having led campaigns against the Osages and other neighboring tribes. About the beginning of the present century he began to appear prominent in affairs on the Mississippi. Some historians have added to the statement "it does not appear that he was ever a great general, or possessed any of the qualification of a successful leader." If this was so his life was a marvel. How any man who had none of the quali- fication of a leader became so prominent as such, as he did, indi- cates either that he had some ability, or that his cotemporaries, both Indian and Anglo-Saxon, had less than he. He is said to have been the victim of a narrow prejudice and bitter ill-will against the Americans" but the impartial historian must admit that if he was the enemy of the Americans, it was certainly not without some reason.
It will be remembered that Spain did not give up possession of the country to France on its cession to the latter power, in 1801, but retained possession of it, and, by the authority of France, transferred it to the United States, in 1804. Black Hawk and his band were in St. Louis at the time, and were invited to be present and witness the ceremonies of the transfer, but he refused the invi- tation, and it is but just to say that this refusal was caused proba- bly more from regret that the Indians were to be transfered from the jurisdiction of the Spanish authorities than from any special hatred toward the Americans. In his life he says: "I found many sad and gloomy faces because the United States were about to take possession of the town and country. Soon after the Americans came, I took my band and went to take leave of our Spanish father. The Americans came to see him also. Seeing them approach, we passed out of one door as they entered another, and immediately. started in our candes for our village, on Rock River, not liking the change any more than our friends appeared to at St. Louis On arriving at our village, we gave the news that strange people had arrived at St. Louis, and that we should never see our Spanish father again. The information made all our people sorry."
On the 3d day of November, 1804, a treaty was concluded be- tween William Henry Harrison, than Governor of Indiana Terri- tory, on behalf of the United States, and five chiefs of the Sac and Fox nation, by which the latter, in consideration, of two thousand two hundred and thirty-four dollars' worth of goods then delivered, and a yearly annunity of one thousand dollars to be paid in goods at just cost, ceded to the United States all that land on the east side of the Mississippi, extending from a point opposite the Jefferson, in Missouri, to the Wisconsin River, embracing an area of over fifty-one millions of acres.
To this treaty Black Hawk always objected and always refused to consider it binding upon his people. He asserted that the chiefs
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HISTORY OF IOWA.
or braves who made it had no authority to relinquish the title of the nation to any of the lands they held or occupied; and, more- over, that they had been sent to St. Louis on quite a different er- rand, namely, to get one of their people released, who had been imprisoned at St. Louis for killing a white man.
The year following this treaty (1805), Lieutenant Zebulon M. Pike came up the river for the purpose of holding friendly coun- cils with the" Indians and selecting sites for forts within the ter- ritory recently acquired from France by the United States. Lieu- tenant Pike seems to have been the first American whom Black Hawk ever met or had a personal interview with; and he was very much prepossessed in Pike's favor. He gives the following ac- count of his visit to Rock Island:
"A boat came up the river with a young American chief and a small party of soldiers. We heard of them soon after they passed Salt River. Some of our young braves watched them every day, to see what sort of people he had on board. The boat at length arrived at Rock River, and the young chief came on shore with his interpreter, and made a speech and gave us some presents. We in turn presented them with meat and such other provisions as we had to spare. We were well pleased 'with the young chief. He gave us good advice, and said our American father would treat us well."
The events which soon followed Pike's expedition were the erection of Fort Edwards, at what is now Warsaw, Illinois, and Fort Madison, on the site of the present town of that name, the latter being the first fort erected in Iowa. These movements occasioned great uneasiness among the Indians. When work was commenced on Fort Edwards, a delegation from their nation, headed by some of their chiefs, went down to see what the Americans were doing, and had an interview with the commander; after which they re- turned home apparently satisfied. In like manner, when Fort Madison was being erected, they sent down another delegation from a council of the nation held at Rock River. According to Black Hawk's account, the American chief told them that he was building a house for a trader who was coming to sell them goods cheap, and that the soldiers were coming to keep him company- a statement which Black Hawk says they distrusted at the time, believing that the fort was an encroachment upon their rights, and designed to aid in getting their lands away from them.
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