USA > Iowa > Clay County > History of Clay County, Iowa, from its earliest settlement to 1909 > Part 2
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There was a portion of the Saes and Foxes whom Black Hawk, with all his skill and cunning, could not lead into hostilities against the United States. With Keokuk, "the Watchful Fox," at their head, they were disposed to abide by the treaty of 1804, and to cultivate friendly relations with the American people. So when Black Hawk and his band joined the fortunes of Great Britain, the rest of the nation remained neutral and, for protection, organized, with Keokuk for their chief. Thus the nation was divided into the "war party" and "peace party." Keokuk became one of the nation's great chiefs. In person he was tall and of portly bearing. He has been described as an orator, entitled to rank with the most gifted of his race, and through the eloquence of his tongue he prevailed upon a large body of his people to remain friendly to the Americans. As has been said, the treaty of 1804 between the United States and the Sac and Fox nations was never acknowledged by Black Hawk, and in 1831 he established himself, with a chosen band of warriors, upon the disputed terri- tory, ordering the whites to leave the country at once. The settlers complaining. Governor Reynolds, of Illinois, despatched General Gaines, with a company of regulars and one thousand five hundred volunteers, to the scene of action. Taking the Indians by surprise, the troops burnt their village and forced them to conclude a treaty, by which they ceded all their lands east of the Mississippi and agreed to remain on the west side of the river.
Necessity forced the proud spirit of Black Hawk into submission, which made him more than ever determined to be avenged upon his enemies. Having rallied around him the warlike braves of the Sac and Fox nations, he recrossed the Mississippi in the spring of 1832. Upon hearing of the invasion, Governor Reynolds hastily gathered a body of one thousand eight hundred volunteers, placing them under Brigadier-General Samuel Whiteside. The army marched
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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY
to the Mississippi and, having reduced to ashes the village known as "Prophets' Town," proceeded several miles up the Rock river, to Dixon, to join the regular forces under General Atkinson. They formed at Dixon two companies of volun- teers, who, sighing for glory, were despatched to reconnoiter the enemy. They advanced, under command of General Stillman, to a creek, afterwards called "Stillman's Run," and, while encamping there, saw a party of mounted Indians at a distance of a mile. Several of Stillman's men mounted their horses and charged the Indians, killing three of them; but, attacked by the main body under Black Hawk, they were routed, and by their precipitate flight spread such a panic throughout the camp that the whole company ran off to Dixon as fast as their legs could carry them. On their arrival it was found that eleven had been killed. For a long time afterward Major Stillman and his men were subjects of ridicule and merriment, which was as undeserving as their expedition was disastrous. Stillman's defeat spread consternation throughout the state and nation. The number of Indians was greatly exaggerated and the name of Black Hawk carried with it associations of great military talent, cunning and cruelty. He was ever active and restless and was continually causing trouble.
After Black Hawk and his warriors had committed several depredations and added more scalp-locks to their belts, that restless chief and his savage partisans were located on Rock river, where he was in camp. On July 19th General Henry being in command, ordered his troops to march. After having gone about fifty miles they were overtaken by a terrible thunderstorm, which lasted all night. Nothing cooled in their ardor and zeal, they marched fifty miles the next day, encamping near the place where the Indians encamped the night before. Hurrying along as fast as they could, the infantry keeping up an equal pace with the mounted men, the troops on the morning of the 21st crossed the river connecting two of the four lakes, by which the Indians had been endeavoring to escape. They found on their way the ground strewn with kettles and articles of baggage, which in the haste of retreat the Indians were obliged to abandon. The troops, imbued with new ardor, advanced so rapidly that at noon they fell in with the rear guards of the enemy. Those who closely pursued them were saluted by a sudden fire of musketry from a body of Indians who had concealed themselves in the high grass of the prairie. A most desperate charge was made on the four, who, unable to resist, retreated obliquely in order to outflank the volunteers on the right; but the latter charged the Indians in their ambush and expelled them from the thickets a the point of the bayonet and dispersed them. Night set in and the battle ended, having cost the Indians sixty-eight of their bravest men, while the loss of the Illinoisans was but one killed and eight wounded. Soon after this battle Generals Atkinson and Henry joined forces and pursued the Indians. General Henry struck the trail, left his horses behind, formed an advance guard of eight men and marched forward upon the trail. When these eight men came in sight of the river, they were suddenly fired upon and five of them killed, the remaining three maintaining their ground until General Henry came up. Then the Indians, charged upon with the bayonet, fell back upon their main force. The battle now became general; the Indians fought with a desperate vigor, but were furiously assailed by the volun- teers with their bayonets, cutting many of the Indians to pieces and driving the
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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY
rest of them into the river. Those who escaped from being drowned found refuge on an island. On hearing of the frequent discharge of musketry, General Atkin- sont abandoned the pursuit of the twenty Indians under Black Hawk himself and hurried to the scene of action, where he arrived too late to take part in the battle. He immediately forded the river with his troops, the water reaching up to their necks, and landed on the island- where the Indians had secreted themselves. The soldiers rushed upon the Indians, killed several of them, took the others prisoners and chased the rest into the river, where they were either drowned or shot before reaching the opposite shore. Thus ended the battle, the Indians losing three hundred, besides fifty prisoners : the whites but seventeen killed and twelve wounded.
Black Hawk, with his twenty braves, retreated up the Wisconsin river. The Winnebagoes, desirous of securing the friendship of the whites, went in pursuit and captured and delivered them to General Street, the United States Indian agent. 'Among the prisoners were the son of Black Hawk and the prophet of the tribe. These, with Black Hawk, were taken to Washington, District of Columbia, and soon consigned as prisoners to Fortress Monroe. At the interview Black Hawk had with the president he closed his speech delivered on the occasion in the following words: "We did not expect to conquer the whites. They have too many houses, too many men. I took up the hatchet, for my part, to revenge injuries which my people could no longer endure. Had I borne them longer with- out striking my people would have said, 'Black Hawk is a woman ; he is too old to be a chief ; he is no Sac.' These reflections caused me to raise the war whoop. I say no more. It is known to you. Keokuk once was here; you took him by the hand, and when he wished to return to his home you were willing. Black Hawk expects, like Keokuk, he shall be permitted to return, too."
By order of the president, Black Hawk and his companions, who were in con- finement at Fortress Monroe, were set free on the 4th day of June, 1833. After their release from prison they were conducted, in charge of Major Garland. through some of the principal cities that they might witness the power of the United States and learn their own inability to cope with them in war. Great multitudes flocked to see them wherever they were taken, and the attention paid them rendered their progress through the country a triumphal procession, instead of prisoners transported by an officer. At Rock Island the prisoners were given their liberty amid great and impressive ceremony. In 1838 Black Hawk built him a dwelling near Des Moines, this state, and furnished it after the manner of the whites and engaged in agricultural pursuits, together with hunting and fishing. Here, with his wife, to whom he was greatly attached, he passed the few remaining days of his life. To his credit, it may be said, that Black Hawk remained true to his wife and served her with a devotion uncommon among Indians, living with her upwards of forty years.
At all times when Black Hawk visited the whites he was received with marked attention. He was an honored guest at the old settlers' reunion in Lee county, Illinois, and received marked tokens of esteem. In September, 1838, while on his way to Rock Island to receive his annuity from the government, he contracted a severe cold, which resulted in an intense attack of bilious fever and terminated his life in October. After his death he was dressed in the uniform pre-
CLAY COUNTY COURTHOUSE
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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY
sented to him by the president while in Washington. He was buried in a grave six feet in depth, situated upon a beautiful eminence. The body was placed in the middle of the grave in a sitting position upon a seat constructed for the occasion. On his left side the cane given him by Henry Clay was placed upright, with his hand resting upon it. Ilis remains were afterwards stolen and carried away, but they were recovered by the governor of Iowa and placed in the museum at Burlington of the Historical Society, where they were finally destroyed by fire.
INDIAN TREATIES.
The territory known as the "Black Hawk Purchase." although not the first portion of Iowa ceded to the United States by the Sacs and Foxes, was the first opened to actual settlement by the tide of emigration which flowed across the Mississippi as soon as the Indian title was extinguished. The treaty which pro- vided for this cession was made at a council held on the west bank of the Missis- sippi, where now stands the city of Davenport, on ground now occupied by the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Company, September 21, 1832. This was just after the Black Hawk war and the defeated savages had retired from east of the Mississippi. At the council the government was represented by Gen- eral Winfield Scott and Governor Reynolds of Illinois, Keokuk, Pashapopo and some thirty other chiefs and warriors were there. By this treaty the Sacs and Foxes ceded to the United States a strip of land on the castern border of Iowa, fifty miles wide, from the northern boundary of Missouri to the mouth of the Upper Iowa river, containing about six million acres. The western line of the purchase was parallel with the Mississippi. In consideration for this cession the United States agreed to pay annually to the confederated tribes, for thirty con- secutive years, twenty thousand dollars in specie, and to pay the debts of the Indians at Rock Island, which had been accumulating for seventeen years, and amounted to fifty thousand dollars, due to Davenport & Farnham, Indian traders. The government also donated to the Sac and Fox women and children, whose husbands and fathers had fallen in the Black Hawk war, thirty-five beef cattle, twelve bushels of salt. thirty barrels of pork, fifty barrels of flour, and six thousand bushels of corn.
The treaty was ratified February 13, 1833, and took effect on the Ist of June following, when the Indians quietly removed from the ceded territory and this fertile and beautiful region was opened to white settlers.
By the terms of the treaty out of the "Black Hawk Purchase" four hundred square miles of land was reserved for the Sacs and Foxes, situated on the Iowa river, and including within its limits Keokuk village, on the right bank of that river. This tract was known as Keokuk's reserve, and was occupied by the Indians until 1836, whereby a treaty made in September between them and Governor Dodge, of Wisconsin territory, it was ceded to the United States. The council was held on the banks of the Mississippi above Davenport, and was the largest assemblage of the kind ever held by the Sacs and Foxes to treat for the sale of land. About one thousand of their braves and chiefs were present, Keokuk being the leading spirit of the occasion and their principal speaker.
CLAY 2.
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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY
FIRST LAND TITLE IN IOWA.
By the terms of this treaty the Sacs and Foxes were removed to another reservation on the Des Moines river, where an agency was established at what is now the town of Agency, in Wapello county. The government also gave out of the "Black Hawk Purchase" to Antoine LeClaire, interpreter, in fee simple, one section of land opposite Rock Island and another at the head of the first rapids above the island, on the Iowa side. This was the first land title granted by the United States to an individual in Iowa.
General Joseph M. Street established an agency among the Sacs and Foxes very soon after the removal of the latter to their new reservation. He was trans- ferred from the agency of the Winnebagoes for this purpose. A farmi was selected, upon which the necessary buildings were erected, including a comfortable farm-house for the agent and his family, at the expense of the Indian fund. A salaried agent was employed to superintend the farm and dispose of the crops. Two mills were erected-one on Soap creek and the other on Sugar creek. The latter was soon swept away by a flood, but the former did good service for many years.
Connected with the agency were Joseph Smart and John Goodell, inter- preters. The latter was interpreter for Hard Fishes' band.
Three of the Indian chiefs-Keokuk, Wapello and Appanose-had each a large field improved, the two former on the right bank of the Des Moines, and back from the river, in what was "Keokuk's Prairie," and the latter on the present site of the city of Ottumwa. Among the traders connected with their agency was J. P. Eddy, who established his post at what is now the site of Eddyville. The Indians at this agency became idle and listless in the absence of their natural ex- citements and many of them plunged into dissipation. Keokuk himself became dissipated in the latter years of his life and it has been reported that he died of delirium tremens after his removal with his tribe to Kansas. In May, 1843, most of the Indians were removed up the Des Moines river, above the temporary line of Red Rock, having ceded the remnants of their land to the United States, Sep- tember 21. 1837, and October 11, 1842. By the terms of the latter treaty they held possession of the "New Purchase" until the autumn of 1845, when most of them were removed to their reservation in Kansas, the balance being removed in 1846.
Before any permanent settlement was made in the territory of Iowa, white adventurers, trappers and traders, many of whom were scattered along the Missis- sippi and its tributaries as agents and employes of the American Fur Company, intermarried with the females of the Sac and Fox Indians, producing a race of half-breeds, whose number was never definitely ascertained. There were some respectable and excellent people among them, children of some refinement and education.
EARLY SETTLEMENT.
The first permanent settlement made by whites within the limits of Iowa was by Julien Dubuque in 1788, when, with a small party of miners, he settled on the site of the city that now bears his name, where he lived until his death, in 1810. What was known as Girard settlement, in Clayton county, was made by some
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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY
parties prior to the commencement of the nineteenth century. It consisted of three cabins in 1805. Louis Honori settled on the site of the present town of Montrose probably in 1799, and resided there probably until 1805, when his prop- erty passed into other hands. Indian traders had established themselves at other points at an early date. Mr. Johnson, an agent of the American Fur Company, had a trading post below Burlington, where he carried on traffic with the Indians some time before the United States came into possession of Louisiana. In 1820 LeMoliese. a French trader, had a station at what is now Sandusky, six miles above Keokuk, in Lee county. The same year a cabin was built where the city of Keokuk now stands by Dr. Samuel C. Muir, a surgeon in the United States army. His marriage and subsequent life were very romantic. 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 child-like innocence and simplicity, she related to him. Charmed with the dusky maiden's beauty, innocence and devotion, the doctor took her to his home in honorable wedlock; but, after a while, the sneers and jibes of his brother officers-less honorable than he-made him feel ashamed of his dark-skinned wife, and when his regiment was ordered down the river to Bellefontaine, it is said, he embraced the opportunity to rid himself of her, never expecting to see her again, and little dreaming that she would have the courage to follow him. But with her infant this intrepid wife and mother started alone in her canoe, and after many days of weary labor and a lonely jour- ney of nine hundred miles she at last reached him. She afterwards 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 native style of dress. In 1819-20 he was stationed at Fort Edwards, now Warsaw, but the senseless ridicule of some of his brother officers, on account of his Indian wife, induced him to resign his com- mission. He then built a cabin, as above stated, where Keokuk is now situated, and made a claim to some land. This land he leased to parties in the neighbor- hood and then moved to what is now Galena, where he practiced his profession for ten years, when he returned to Keokuk. His Indian wife bore him four chil- dren : Louise, James, Mary and Sophia. Dr. Muir died suddenly of cholera in 1832, but left his property in such condition that it was wasted in vexatious litiga- tion, and his brave and faithful wife, left friendless and penniless, became dis- couraged; so with her two younger children she disappeared. It is said she returned to her people on the Upper Missouri.
CIVIL GOVERNMENT FOR TERRITORY AND STATE.
After the "Black Hawk Purchase" immigration to Iowa was rapid and steady, and provisions for civil government became a necessity. Accordingly, in
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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY
1834, all the territory comprising the present states of Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota was made subject to the jurisdiction of Michigan territory. Up to this time there had been no county or other organization in what is now the state of Iowa, although one or two justices of the peace had been appointed and a post- office was established at Dubuque in 1833. In September of 1834, therefore, the territorial legislature of Michigan created two counties on the west side of the Mississippi river-Dubuque and Des Moines-separated by a line drawn west- ward from the foot of Rock Island. These counties were partially organized. John King was appointed chief justice of Dubuque county and Isaac Leffler of Des Moines county. Two associate justices in each county were appointed by the governor.
In October, 1835, General George W. Jones, in recent years a citizen of Du- buque, was elected a delegate to congress. April 20, 1836, through the efforts of General Jones, congress passed a bill creating the territory of Wisconsin, which went into operation July 4 of the same year. Iowa was then included in the terri- tory of Wisconsin, of which General Henry Dodge was appointed governor ; John S. Horner. secretary; Charles Dunn, chief justice : David Irwin and William C. Frazer, associate justices. September 9, 1836, a census of the new territory was taken. Des Moines county showed a population of six thousand two hundred and fifty-seven, and Dubuque county, four thousand two hundred and seventy-four.
ORGANIZATION OF THE TERRITORY OF IOWA.
The question of the organization of the territory of lowa now began to be agitated and the desires of the people found expression in a convention held November 1, which memorialized congress to organize a territory west of the Mississippi river and to settle the boundary line between Wisconsin territory and Missouri. The territorial legislature of Wisconsin, then in session in Burlington, joined in the petition. The act was passed dividing the territory of Wisconsin and providing for the territorial government of Iowa. This was approved June 12. 1838, to take effect and be in force on and after July 3, 1838.
The new territory embraced "all that part of the present territory of Wiscon- sin west of the Mississippi river and west of a line drawn due north from the headwaters or sources of the Mississippi river to the territorial line." The organic act provided for a governor, whose term of office should be three years ; a secre- tary, chief justice, two associate justices, an attorney-general and marshal, to be ยท appointed by the president. The act also provided for the election, by the white citizens over twenty-one years of age, of a house of representatives, consisting of twenty-six members, and a council, to consist of thirteen members. It also appro- priated five thousand dollars for a public library and twenty thousand dollars for the erection of public buildings. In accordance with this act President Van Buren appointed ex-Governor Robert Lucas, of Ohio, to be the first governor of the new territory; William B. Conway, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, secretary; Charles Mason, of Burlington, chief justice; Thomas S. Wilson, of Dubuque, and Joseph Williams, of Pennsylvania, associate justices ; Mr. Van Allen, of New York. attorney ; Francis Gehon, of Dubuque, marshal ; Augustus C. Dodge, regis- ter of the land office at Burlington ; and Thomas C. Knight, receiver of the land office at Dubuque.
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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY
On the Ioth of September, 1838, an election was held for members of the legislature, and on the 12th of the following November the first session of that body was held at Burlington. Both branches of this general assembly had a large democratic majority, but notwithstanding that fact General Jesse B. Brown, a whig, of Lee county, Des Moines and Dubuque counties having been previously divided into other counties, was elected president of the council, and Hon. William H. Wallace, of Henry county, also a whig, speaker of the house. The first session of the Iowa territorial legislature was a stormy and exciting one. By the organic law the governor was clothed with almost unlimited veto power. Governor Lucas was disposed to make free use of this prerogative, and the independent Hawkeyes could not quietly subinit to arbitrary and absolute rule. The result was an un- pleasant controversy between the executive and legislative departments. Con- gress, however, by act approved March 3, 1839, amended the organic law by restricting the veto power of the governor to the two-thirds rule, and took from him the power to appoint sheriffs and magistrates. Among the first important matters demanding attention was the location of the seat of government and pro- vision for the erection of public buildings, for which congress had appropriated twenty thousand dollars. Governor Lucas, in his message. had recommended the appointment of commissioners with a view to selecting a central location. The extent of the future state of Iowa was not known or thought of. Only a strip of land fifty miles wide bordering on the Mississippi river was alienated by the Indians to the general government, and a central location meant some central point within the confines of what was known as the "Black Hawk Purchase."
The friends of a central location favored the governor's suggestion. The southern members were divided between Burlington and Mount Pleasant, but finally united on the latter as the proper location for the seat of government. The central and southern parties were very nearly equal and, in consequence, much excitement prevailed. The central party at last was triumphant and on January 21, 1839, an act was passed appointing commissioners to select a site for a perma- nent seat of government within the limits of Johnson county. All things consid- ered, the location of the capital in Johnson county was a wise act. Johnson county, was, from north to south, in the geographical center of the purchase, and as near the east and west geographical center of the future state of Iowa as could then be made. The site having been determined, six hundred and forty acres were laid out by the commissioners into a town and called Iowa City. On a tract of ten acres the capitol was built, the cornerstone of which was laid with appropriate ceremonies July 4, 1840. Monday, December 6, 1841, the fourth legislature of Iowa met at the new capital, lowa City, but the capitol building not being ready for occupancy a temporary frame house erected for the purpose was used.
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