USA > Iowa > Clayton County > History of Clayton County, Iowa : from the earliest historical times down to the present : including a genealogical and biographical record of many representative families, prepared from data obtained from original sources of information, Volume I > Part 4
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In pursuance with this suggestion of the governor, the territory west of the Mississippi was divided into two counties, Dubuque and Demoine, and each was made a township, the first, Julien ; the second, Flint Hill. A line west from the lower end of Rock Island was made the boundary between the two counties. County courts were estab- lished and the laws then enforced in Iowa county, were extended to the new counties across the river. Iowa county laid upon the east shore of the Mississippi and was closest to the newly formed counties, and the fact that its laws were extended to them caused them to be known as the Iowa District and this fact, undoubtedly, played some part in
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naming the state at a later date. The first judge named for Dubuque County, of which Clayton County was a part, was John King, of Dubuque, founder of the Dubuque Visitor, the first newspaper pub- lished in Iowa. In 1835, George W. Jones was elected as territorial delegate from Michigan. He secured the passage of a bill creating the Territory of Wisconsin, and this new territory included Iowa and portions of Minnesota and the two Dakotas. Henry Dodge was appointed governor and David Irwin an associate justice, to preside over the courts of Dubuque and Demoine counties.
A census was taken in September 1836, and it was found that Dubuque and Demoine counties had a population of 10,531. They were thus entitled to six members of the council and thirteen members of the House of Representatives in the Wisconsin Territorial Legislature. Dubuque county, at an election held in October, 1836, sent to the coun- cil Thomas McCraney, John Foley and Thomas Mcknight; to the House, Loring Wheeler, Hardin Nowlin, Hosea T. Camp, Peter H. Engle and Patrick Quigley. This first legislative session in which the people of Iowa had a part, convened October 25, 1836, at Belmont which was the temporary capital. Peter H. Engle, of Dubuque was elected Speaker of the House. This legislature chartered the Miners Bank at Dubuque, this being the first bank in Iowa. Belmont proved to have but poor accommodations for the legislators and the capital of Wisconsin was removed, temporarily to Burlington, where the second session of the legislature was held, in 1837. This legislature memorial- ized Congress to pass an act organizing a separate territorial gov- ernment in that part of Wisconsin lying west of the Mississippi river.
The question of the rights of pre-emption, by actual settlers, on government lands, was a burning issue and the memorial to Congress relative to this matter stated: "Twenty-five thousand people have settled on lands in Wisconsin Territory, west of the Mississippi river, in what is called the 'Iowa District,' improved 'arms, erected build- ings, built towns, laid out cities and made valuable improvements, but have not yet been able to secure any kind of title to their homes and farms. Congress is urged to enact the law authorizing all bona fide settlers to pre-empt for each actual occupant for land, who has shown his good faith by making improvement, the right to enter a half section of land before it shall be offered at public sale." It was at this session of the Wisconsin Legislature, held at Burlington, in 1837, that the county of Clayton was named and organized and the county seat fixed at Prairie La Porte, afterward named Guttenberg. The county, as then organized, had the same eastern and southern borders as at present but its northwest boundary was fixed by the so-called "Neutral Ground" and included a portion of what is now Allamakee county and did not include the northwest corner of the present county of Clayton.
It has often been, mistakenly, stated that Clayton County extended over all of northern Iowa and included large portions of Minnesota and the Dakotas. This was not the case. Fayette County was established at the same session of the Legislature, and, as the border county, it was the one which included this vast territory. However, Fayette County was unorganized for some time and was "attached" to Clayton County for governmental purposes, so that, while Clayton County at no time in-
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cluded this large territory within its borders, it did exercise jurisdiction over the entire territory included within its own boundaries and the vast area included in the first boundaries of Fayette County. In June, 1838, the bill dividing Wisconsin Territory and creating a separate government for that portion of it west of the Mississippi, passed Con- gress and, on July 3, 1838, Iowa emerged triumphant from the chaos of the past and had a name and an identity of its own.
INDIAN HISTORY
Having related the political history of this region under the French and Spanish and under the various jurisdictions of the United States, after the purchase of Louisiana, it is now fitting that we should con- sider the actual conditions existing during this period. It is an un- deniable fact that government has much more to do with the general welfare of the people than is generally conceded, and the influence of governmental changes can be readily traced in the history of north- eastern Iowa. To understand Iowa during this period one must know something of the numerous Indian tribes which inhabited it, but, as these tribes had no written history, as they lived chiefly by hunting and trapping over large areas, and as the most pretentious of their villages were but temporary affairs, this history is difficult to write. From the time when the Europeans, of whatever nationality or colony, arrived upon the shores of America, there was a constant pushing back of the Indians, in the face of the oncoming tribes of pale faces. The Sacs and Foxes, who inhabited this region just prior to its settle- ment by the whites, were not indigenous to this soil. In common with other Indians they were driven back by the colonists and weakened by wars with hostile tribes. They were, although linked together in later times, originally separate and distinct nations. Their homes were in the east along the Atlantic coast. Both were unsuccessful in war and were driven westward. They emigrated from New York to the lake regions, and finally, settled, if that word can be applied to people who never settled, in southern Wisconsin and Illinois. They doubtless crossed the Mississippi, but this was not their favorite hunting ground. It was before their coming to Illinois, that the two tribes practically united, for purposes of defense and offense, and while, at all times, they maintained a large degree of individuality, they were closely allied in many ways.
The true conception of the Indian is found midway between the heroic figure pictured in the novels of Fenimore Cooper and the whiskey debauched brute which he was made by the unscrupulous traders. Many of the ideas, and many of the customs of the Indians, in their native state, before they were polluted by contact with the whites, were beautiful. From the folk-lore of the Fox Indians there are preserved to us many things worthy of a high-minded and intel- lectual race. Some of these legends are both prophetic and pathetic, as, for instance, their account of the creation of the Fox race, which is as follows: "The Fox was the first of men on earth. He came before all other. He was red at the face, at the hands, at the legs, all over his body, everywhere. He was red, like the color of the blood within
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him. Such was the way he was made by Wisaka, and such was the way he looked when his maker let him step forth on earth among the Manitous. Among the Manitous he mingled. He was present at their councils, and had the right of speech. The Manitous looked upon him with wonder, and made comment when he passed in and out among them. He was very much of a Manitou. Afterwards, came other Foxes, Manitous like the first. By and by they grew great in number. As time went on, they took the form, the looks, and the nature of the people that they now are. Things have changed since those times. The people are now in distress. They no longer reap the good of the land which is theirs; little by little, it is slipping from their hands. Bird and animal-kind is vanishing, and the world is not as it was in the beginning. With all this the Manitou is displeased. On some day in the future the Manitou will take upon himself to destroy this earth. He will then create it anew, and place his chosen to dwell there once more. In that day the Fox will look as he did in the beginning; he will be red all over the body, red as the blood within him.'
Concerning death could any nation have a more beautiful belief than this? "It is natural for one to die, and hence there is nothing unusual about it. It is the same as going on a far journey, and I like the thought of making it as a journey here in life. I know that yonder, behind the west, somewhere in the great distance, there flows a river, that over the river is a bridge for me to cross, and that there on the farther shore awaits one who will give me welcome. I do not know what my life in the spirit-world will be like. I concern myself little about the thought of it. I simply rest confident that I shall find it natural and simple, the same as here. Such are my notions about death, and I have yet no good reason to change them."
The Indian also had high ideals as to hospitality. It is not of record that the white people were at any time greeted ungraciously or that the Indians were malignant until they found that the whites were aggressive, wished to occupy lands which they had every reason to regard as their own and until they were victims of the white man's greed and injustice. Father Marquette, traveling practically alone and unarmed, was greeted with the utmost kindness.
While the Indians were possessed of many high ideals, it must be confessed that their code of warfare was on no higher plane than that of the civilized warfare of today. It is true that they did not use poison gases, nor drop bombs upon innocent women and children, nor attempt the wholesale starvation of a race, but with their limited resources they did the best they could to make war terrible. They believed, just as European countries seem to believe today, that the ultimate design of war was to exterminate the enemy, root and branch. With this idea in mind, they were not particular as to whether they shot an enemy in the face or in the back, whether they lured him to death in the ambush or crept upon and killed him in his sleep. Women and children were as legitimate prey for the tomahawk, as they now are for the bomb. Giving no quarter, the Indian expected none; he met death with stoical bravery.
Speaking roughly there were but three great Indian nations which
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left an impress on the history of northeastern Iowa. The Sioux were the most cruel and warlike. Their range was to the north and west. They were fonder of the prairie than of the woods and streams. They favored the pony, rather than the canoe.
The Sacs and Foxes, one tribe of which was called the Iowas, were less savage and less nomadic than the Sioux. At the beginning of the nineteenth century they confined themselves chiefly to southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois.
The Winnebagoes belonged to the Dakota or Sioux group. They were found in Iowa at an early date, but migrated eastward. They were allies of the British and took part in the battle of Tippecanoe and the massacre at Fort Dearborn. They also fought with Black Hawk, their habitat being in Wisconsin. They were the last Indians to come to this region and the last to leave it.
Northeastern Iowa, with its many streams, its wooded hills, its bounteous supplies of rich fur bearing game and its easy accessibility to market, over the great Mississippi highway, became a coveted hunting ground for all the western tribes, and the fact that it was so rich in all that satisfied the Indians' wants, made it a bloody battle ground.
The generous hospitality accorded Marquette was soon changed to suspicion by the crafty tricks of French traders, the white man's firewater brought degeneracy and drunkenness, the policy of the gov- ernment in the distribution of inadequate supplies, in payment for rich tracts of land, led to pauperism, indolence and helplessness ; the injus- tice of many of the treaties and the lack of good faith shown by the white man in many instances, induced hatred and a desire for revenge.
FUR TRADERS
The surrender of Canada brought British influences to the head waters of the Mississippi and brought about the sharp competition between the English, French and Spanish. The only product of this region for which the Europeans cared was the product of the chase. The Indians were expert hunters and trappers and the white men wished to exploit their craft. For this purpose the British, following the example of the French, formed vast companies, financed in the old country, managed at Montreal or Quebec and reaching throughout the northern half of the continent. The Hudson's Bay Company operated in the far north while the Northwest Company and the Mich- ilimacinac Company controlled the region to the south, the latter com- pany with headquarters at Mackinac, confining its operation to the Up- per Mississippi valley. Goods of English manufacture were shipped, via Montreal to Mackinac and thence, by the Fox-Wisconsin route, fol- lowed by Marquette, to the mouth of the Wisconsin; thus Prairie du Chien became the great distributing point from which the traders departed, following the Indians to their hunting grounds, and to which the Indians, for a territory of several hundred miles, brought the spoils of the season's hunt.
The close of the Revolutionary War and the treaty of Paris, in 1783, brought a new factor into the Upper Mississippi regions. Whereas the commercial struggle had been twofold it was now three-
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fold, but the British occupied the north and continued to frequent this region after the close of the war, because the American Government made no determined effort to enter its northwest territory. The British traders were canny enough to make use of the old French voyageurs and the most of the employees of the British companies were French Canadians, who already had established intimate relations with the Indians. Thus Jean Baptiste Faribault, as an employee of the British company, penetrated as far as the Des Moines valley and maintained a post there for several years. This whole region abounded with beaver, otter, deer, bear and other wild animals. A description written by Faribault gives some idea of the trader's life. He says: "The wages of a good clerk at that time was $200 per annum; in- terpreter $150, and common laborers or voyageurs $100, and the rations allowed them were of the simplest description. But the abundance of game more than compensated for any deficiency in food. The articles used in the trade with the Indians were principally blankets, cloths, calicos, tobacco and cheap jewelry, including wampum, which latter served in lieu of money, as a basis of exchange. During the winter the traders and their men ensconced themselves in their warm log cabins, but in the early spring it was required of them to visit the various Indian tents to secure the furs and pelts collected by the savages in their hunts. Goods were not then given on credit, but everything was paid for on delivery."
Perrin du Lac, a French traveler in this region, in 1801, urged Napoleon to contend for the commerce of the upper Mississippi. He asserted that the British had no claim to this trade because their Indian customers hunted game entirely on French soil and then repaired, with furs and skins, to their rendezvous at Prairie du Chien. Goods shipped from New Orleans in flat bottomed boats, he declared, could reach these places at an increase of cost from 10 to 12 per cent. English mer- chandise must be transported from Montreal to Mackinac at a cost of 25 per cent, with 7 per cent additional for transportation to Prairie du Chien. The French traders, he declared, thus had a decided advantage, and especially as the English boats were too small to carry heavy loads as compared with those of the French; and it required four months for the journey from Montreal to Prairie du Chien and but one month from New Orleans to Prairie du Chien. The magnitude of the fur trade at this time may be seen from the statement of Du Lac that the Sioux annually sold two thousand five hundred bundles of skins to the English traders, while the Sacs and Foxes and the Iowas furnished several hundred packs more.
Thomas Jefferson was the first President who saw the possibilities of the Northwest as a trade center. He urged exploration and in- stituted the Lewis and Clark expedition. Lewis urged the establish- ment of a post at Prairie du Chien to trade with the Sacs and Foxes, whose hunting grounds were described as along both sides of the Mississippi, between the Wisconsin and the Illinois. William Henry Harrison, as Governor of Indiana, made the first treaty with the Sacs and Foxes which affected this country. By this treaty the Indians relinquished all title to lands east of the Mississippi. It was this treaty, which the Indians claimed was signed by drunken and
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irresponsible chiefs, which was the cause of the Black Hawk war. This treaty also provided for Government trade with the Indians. In April, 1806, Nicolas Boilvin was appointed as the first Indian agent in the Iowa country with instructions to visit Prairie du Chien, to con- ciliate the Indians, to suppress the liquor traffic, and to instruct the Indians in agriculture and especially in the raising of potatoes. Boilvin removed to Prairie du Chien, to replace agent John Campbell, who was killed in a duel with Redford Crawford.
In the great contest for the Indian trade now developed between the British and the Americans, the British had the advantage as they had been longer in the business, had established relations with the Indians, knew their wants, and, for some reason, supplied them with better goods. It was, however, the settled policy on the part of the United States to drive out the British traders. A government factory was established at Fort Madison, and in 1811 Boilvin urged the found- ing of a factory at Prairie du Chien. Boilvin called particular attention to the rich lead mines, saying that, during the season, the Indians had produced four hundred thousands pounds of that metal. During all this time the British were using every effort to cripple and embarrass the young American nation, this, not only at sea but on land. They did everything possible to incite the Indians against the Americans. They employed a Winnebago chief to get all the nations of Indians to De- troit, to see their fathers, the British, who told them "they pity them in their situation with the Americans, because the Americans had taken their lands and their game; that they must join and send them off from their land; they told the savages that the Americans could not give them a blanket, nor any good thing for their families." Many of the Indians went to Detroit and the Sacs and Foxes were aroused against the Americans. Following the great victory of Harrison over the Indians at Tippecanoe the Winnebagoes raided the traders' camp in the lead mine district, tearing the men limb from limb and stripping their bones of all flesh. A messenger was sent from Fort Madison to Prairie du Chien to notify that post of the Tippecanoe victory and the massacre at the Spanish mines. In 1812, the friendly portion of the Sacs and Foxes migrated to the Missouri river to get out of the war zone between the British and the Americans.
War was declared by the United States against Great Britain in June, 1812 ; among the grievances recited being the Indian disturbances in the Northwest. The Winnebagoes and the Sacs under Black Hawk attacked Fort Madison and rendered that fort well nigh untenable. Governor Howard urged that a campaign against the Indians as far north as the Wisconsin river, and the erection of a fort at Prairie du Chien were necessary.
During the winter of 1813-14, the French traders at Mackinac, who sympathized with the British, planned an attack upon the Amer- ican trading post at Prairie du Chien. In May 1814, the Americans ascended the Mississippi with a gunboat and barges, carrying one hundred and fifty volunteers and sixty regulars. Just north of Prairie du Chien they erected Fort Shelby and equipped it with six cannon to co-operate with the fourteen cannon on the gunboat. Governor Clark left the new fort under the command of Lieutenant Joseph Perkins
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and, in July, 1814, the fort was attacked by a force consisting of British officers, traders, employees and several hundred Indians. The gunboat, stationed between McGregor and Prairie du Chien, was attacked, and although the cannon responded valiantly, the gunboat was driven down stream, pursued by the French and Indians in canoes as far as Rock Island. Perkins was obliged to surrender, and Fort Shelby became Fort McKay and was held by the British and their Indian allies. The British considered this fort of great importance, as did also the Americans. Two efforts were made by the Americans to recapture the fort. One expedition under Lieutenant Campbell was repulsed by the Sacs and Foxes under Black Hawk, while Major Zachary Taylor with a force of three hundred and fifty men was met and defeated at Rock Island by a force of British and Indians. The great victory of General Jackson at New Orleans finally decided the possession of the Mississippi in favor of the United States, but the British traders, using Fort McKay as their base, continued to control the commerce with the Indians, whom they incited to take American scalps.
At the conclusion of the war of 1812 the British demanded free- dom of navigation,on the Mississippi, but the treaty contained no such provision, although this was not known at Fort McKay until May 1815. This treaty practically ended British control of this region, although many British traders remained, and for a number of years, the Indians received presents and supplies from Canada. In the meantime serious competition had arisen against the British traders through the company founded by John Jacob Astor. In 1800, Astor had come into prominence in the Montreal fur market by reason of a great corner on muskrat skins. Eight years later he incorporated the American Fur Company, later he secured control of the Mackinac Company which he rechristened the Southwest Company, with Prairie du Chien as its principal frontier post. Joseph Rolette was one of the owners of this company and for a number of years he had charge of the Astor interests at Prairie du Chien. He was the dictator of all this region, and was known as "King Rolette." During the time when the English were in the ascendancy and, afterwards, when French and English free traders were numerous, Astor was a great advocate of the Government factory, but as soon as the British were driven out and his own company grew to be the first American trust, he was very anxious for the abolishment of Government trade and that the whole Indian problem be left to private enterprise.
Despite Astor's opposition the Government established a factory at Prairie du Chien which was now called Fort Crawford. Although the law provided that no licenses to trade with the Indians were to be granted to foreigners, the President was given discretion and he per- mitted Indian agents to issue licenses. This power was not always used with wisdom and, as a result, licenses to trade were issued to men of vicious character, who cheated and despoiled the Indians and plied them with whiskey. The factor at Fort Crawford complained of this swarm of private traders who exploited the Indian on every hand.
In 1818, all licenses were refused to others than Americans, and, the foreign traders having been driven out, Astor turned his attention
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toward ending the competition given him by the Government factories. In this year, 1818, the situation was further complicated by war which broke out between the Sioux and the Sacs and Foxes. The latter went on the warpath, killed forty Sioux and brought thirty women and children prisoners to Prairie du Chien, where, under the very guns of the fort, they indulged in a wild celebration of their victory, parading the river bank with their bloody trophies. The Sioux had much difficulty in getting their relatives back, and this war lasted inter- mittently for nearly twelve years. The traders, however, generally, acted in the interests of peace, for the wars interfered sadly with the chase. By 1822 the machinations of the American Fur Company effected the abolishment of the factory system, the store at Fort Craw- ford was closed, and the Indians were left to the mercy of private traders. The fur company did not, as a rule, act directly through agents. It sold outfits of merchandise to traders to be paid for in pelts, and these traders went out, keeping in touch with the Indian hunting parties, securing the highest possible price for their goods and paying the lowest price for fur. They also established an extensive credit system with the Indians, outfitting them for the hunt and expecting their pay in furs when the hunt was over. They charged enough for their goods so that they made sufficient profit if the Indians paid one third of their account.
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