USA > Iowa > Crawford County > History of Crawford County, Iowa, a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 2
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HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY
one and a half to the great Pawnees; two days from the Mahas; two and a quarter from the Pawnees Loups village; convenient to the hunting grounds of the Sioux; and twenty-five days journey to Santa Fe.
The ceremonies of the council being concluded we set sail in the afternoon, and encamped at the distance of five miles, on the south side, where we found the mosquitoes very troublesome.
The above gives a very vivid picture of the Missouri valley as first authen- tically reported by white men. While this intrepid band followed the course of the river and did not penetrate the interior, either to the east or the west, for any great distance, still we will all recognize the picture and be glad to learn of these first white men who captured the large, succulent catfish, the diminutive descendants of which have for the most part eluded us until this day.
The Lewis and Clark expedition went on and on, penetrating the wilder- ness to the very sources of the Missouri, crossing the mountains and adding Oregon and the great northwest to the domain of the United States. The care- ful reader will have noted with amusement the apparent astonishment with which the scribe of the expedition notes that the plants and flowers of western Iowa "are like those of the United States."
We have outrun our story and must retrace our steps. At the time of the French discoveries all western Europe was at war. Louis XIV, who said "I am the state," was the central figure of all this turmoil. Not only had his dauntless explorers added a great new world to his domain, but a larger part of what is now Germany had come beneath his sway and the fates of Eng- land and Holland stood trembling in the balance. William of Orange was raised up to combat the ferocious greed of the French king. War succeeded war, and each war upon the soil of Europe found its echo in the wildernesses of North America, where the French and Indians made common cause against the English settlers. In 1759 the great stronghold of Quebec was captured, France was humiliated, the Canadies were lost, and it was feared that an Eng- lish fleet might capture New Orleans and thus take away the last vestige of French control in America. Louis XV was then on the throne of France and he made a secret treaty with Charles the III of Spain, in which New Orleans and all the country west of the Mississippi was ceded to the latter govern- ment. This cession was later acknowledged and accepted January 1, 1763, in the treaty of Paris.
It must be confessed that this change of ownership made little difference as to the actual control of the hills and vales of Iowa, or of Crawford county, but it is interesting to know that for forty years the land in which we live was a part of the Spanish kingdom. But again the tides of European warfare affected, nominally at least, the affairs of far off, unheard of, unthought of Iowa. Another monarch was raised up in France, mightier than Louis XIV, more aggressive, more rapacious, and far more capable, than his Bourbon predecessor. The great Napoleon rushed through Europe like a mighty hur- ricane of power, uprooting old dynasties, almost depopulating vast regions, and changing the map of the civilized world. It was in 1800 that, by a second treaty, negotiated by Lucien Napoleon, Spain was compelled to re-
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trocede Louisiana to Franco In the same way, however, that Louis XIV was stricken down by the English hand of fate, so was Napoleon to feel the resistless strength of British arms. Just in the same way also that the Bour- bon king was forced to cede his American territory in order to prevent it falling into the hands of the British, so the French emperor was forced to give over Louisiana into the hands of the then new American nation to save it from English invaders.
The story of the Louisiana purchase need not be retold here in full. It was first proposed by Napoleon, the offer, however, including only New Orleans and territory east of the Mississippi. Thomas Jefferson was quick to grasp the opportunity and appointed Robert R. Livingston and James Monroe as. plenipotentiaries to conduct the negotiations. With one of those sudden flashes of genius, which enabled the great Napoleon to forsake one cherished object in pursuit of one still more cherished, he suddenly turned the course of the negotiations and offered to the astonished Americans the entire French pos- sessions in North America, although at a sum largely in excess of that which they had been instructed to pay. Fifteen million dollars was the price-a huge sum in those days, although Crawford county, not the thousandth part of those possessions, could hardly be purchased for a like sum now. To the credit of the Americans let it be said that they realized the great possibilities almost at once. This was shown in the fact that they did not hesitate; that no quibbles as to authority or constitutionality were allowed to interfere, but that, with characteristic American energy, the great transaction was concluded, rushed through Congress, and the purchase made before the French emperor had opportunity to change his mind.
While Napoleon parted with this vast region for a song, under the cir- cumstances he did well and wisely. The money served to fill his depleted coffers at a time of urgent need, and an overpowering English fleet had already been detailed to the capture of New Orleans and the consequent wresting of Louisiana from the French, when the cession was made known. It was thus, on April 30, 1803, that this became an integral part of the United States of America.
CHAPTER II.
E. PLURIBUS UNUM.
"The world turned on in the lathe of time."
The details of the early government of this territory after it came into the possession of the United States, are perhaps dry and uninteresting. Never- theless they are necessary to one who would know of the various steps by which we merged from the common wilderness, and how, gradually, Iowa, and at last Crawford county, came into their own. It must be confessed that for many decades it made but little difference to the wild inhabitants of this vast country whether they owed allegiance to the lilies of France, to the lion of Great Britain, or to the milk white stars of the United States. The Indians had grown used to treaties, and, we regret to say, that they had grown used to bad faith. They seemed to have made these pacts with little regard either for their own subsequent rights, or the rights of others. As Black Hawk naively put it, he made treaties with both the English and the Americans be- cause he preferred to have two fathers instead of one.
Iowa, and all the west, was still a fighting ground, not only between the whites and the Indians, but between the Americans and the British, the latter being represented by the large trading influences which came down the rivers from Canada and which incited the Indians to warfare against the authority of the United States. All these influences served to retard settlement and to keep the Mississippi and Missouri valleys beyond the ken of white men, long after other states had been occupied.
The first congressional action extending the power and sovereignty of the United States over this region was on March 26, 1804. Even at that time the slavery question entered into the character of National legislation, for the long struggle between humanity and commercialism, which has not ceased to this day, had already begun. 'Accordingly, therefore, the territory of Louisiana was divided into two parts, the thirty-third degree of north latitude, about the north line of Arkansas, being fixed as the dividing line. The southern portion was constituted the territory of Orleans, while the northern portion was named the district of Louisiana, and its government was vested in the governor and judges of Indiana territory, which at this time extended to the east side of the Mississippi. It was on October 1, 1804, that William Henry Harrison, Vol. I-2
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governor of Indiana, made formal entry into St. Louis and took his place as governor, also, of the district of Louisiana. Governor Harrison entered into a treaty about this time with the Sacs and Foxes, in which they formally ceded lands to the United States, but the region on the west side of the Mis- sissippi from the Missouri to the Sioux country, remained in the Indians hands.
Indiana was a free territory, and this was obnoxious to the people of St. Louis, the most of whom had come from New Orleans and down the river, and they remonstrated to congress, the result being that, after remaining nine months as a part of Indiana, the district of Louisiana became the territory of Louisiana, July 4, 1805, General James Wilkinson being the first governor. This made Iowa again slave territory. The next transition was when the people of Orleans territory organized a state government and named it Louisiana. This state was admitted in 1812 and congress gave another name to the territory of Louisiana, calling it the territory of Missouri. William Clark was the first and only governor of this territory.
This was at the time of the second war with Great Britain and this section, especially along the shores of the Mississippi, was the scene of incessant war- fare between hostile tribes of red men, aided in some cases by the British and in others by Americans. The close of the war, followed by comparative peace with the Indians, caused a great influx of emigration. The population of Mis- souri doubled in five years. Government agencies were active and fur traders swarmed the country exchanging beads, and cloth, and whiskey for the valuable pelts which the Indians procured. In 1819 a steamboat, "The Western Engi- neer" came up the Missouri river as far as Council Bluffs, at which place, under the direction of John C. Calhoun, then secretary of war, a frontier fort was erected. The admission into the union of the state of Illinois, in 1818, caused much unrest and dissatisfaction among the people of Missouri, who felt that they, too, should be incorporated into the membership of states. They presented a memorial to congress in which they represented that their population was but little short of one hundred thousand, and that was increasing with unpar- alelled rapidity. They asked that the boundaries of the territory be reduced and that Missouri be admitted as a state. The reduced boundaries, however, included about one-half of the state of Arkansas, almost the entire present state of Missouri, and that portion of Iowa south and west of Davenport. One reason which Missourians advanced for urging such boundaries was as follows: "The districts of country that are fertile and susceptible of cultivation are small, and separated from each other at great distances by immense plains and bar- ren tracts, which must for ages remain waste and uninhabited. These fron- tier settlements can only become important and respectable by being united, and one great object is the formation of an effectual barrier against Indian incursions, by pushing a strong settlement on the Little Platte to the west, and on the Des Moines to the north."
How short-sighted is man, how dwarfed his intellect! Where would one search today, in all the broad acres of Missouri and Iowa, for those "barren tracts which must for ages remain waste and uninhabited."
Again the dark shadow of human slavery fell upon our land. Missouri desired admission, but it desired to enter as a slave state, and it placed its de-
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sire to traffic in human flesh even above its wish to become a part of the Union. In congress the discussion was almost entirely upon this question and the de- bates of that day contain some of the most burning and eloquent passages of American oratory. The whole country was fired with the discussion of this great question, the forerunner of the Civil war. The north declared that the territory of the Louisiana purchase should be free; the south claimed Mis- souri as its own. The territory of Arkansas was formed and the motion to prohibit slavery in it failed, thus adding fuel to the flames. The legislatures of Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Indiana joined in condemnation of any movement to extend the evil of slavery. The south- ern states were equally positive in their resolution to the contrary. Slave own- ers in Missouri held public meetings and declared their right under the constitu- tion and under the treaty with France, to carry slaves into Missouri and to keep them there in bondage. In the next congress the debate was resumed with redoubled vigor and it was at this time that the well known "Missouri compromise" was introduced. The admission of Maine was made conditional upon the admission of Missouri. The senate passed the bill admitting Missouri as a slave state, and this compromise was forced upon the house. While called a compromise it was in reality a great victory for the slave holding states, and gave them an ascendancy which they held, almost without interruption, until the time of the Civil war. Missouri was admitted as a slave state, but fortunately its boundaries were restricted and it was declared that states thereafter carved from the great Louisiana purchase should be free. Congress refused the state of Missouri a northern boundary to extend from the mouth of the Rock river, and reduced it almost to its present dimensions, the line running from the western border of the state through the rapids of the River Des Moines, and thence to the Mississippi. It is a serious comment upon the intelligence and state-craft of that day, that when the territory of Missouri was dissolved, one part being organized as Arkansas territory, another as the state of Missouri, for the remainder, including Iowa, Minnesota, the Dakotas, and all the vast territory north and west to the British line, no provision was made for any sort of territorial government.
CHAPTER III.
NO MAN'S LAND.
"For we lived by blood and the right of might, 'Ere human laws were drawn."
The period from 1821 to 1834 is the darkest of our history. Iowa was a sort of no man's land. It was, to the north, what the Indian Territory was, later, to the south, and more. The Indian trading posts vouchsafed by Jef- ferson and fostered by Calhoun, were abandoned. Ten thousand savages, six thousand of them Sacs and Foxes, one thousand Iowas, one or two thousand Otoes, Pottawattamies and Omahas in western Iowa, perhaps one thousand rov- ing Sioux in the northern part, comprised the population of this great state, with the exception of what was known as the "half-breed strip" along the Mis- souri line. At one time it was seriously contemplated that this region should be permanently given over to the Indians. The American Fur Company, which was the foundation of the Astor millions, had its representatives scattered throughout the state. We have record of one trader who established head- quarters "ninety miles west from a point on the Des Moines river, near Boone." Whiskey was one of the chief articles of commerce and under its malevolent influence the red men were incited to deeds most dastardly. War, pestilence and famine thinned their ranks, taking heavy toll from young and old. It was the policy of the United States to abandon Iowa to Indian control, and it was expressly stated in various treaties that the government desired no cession of lands in Iowa. This policy even went so far that white miners were driven from the vicinity of Dubuque and the mines were restored to the Sacs and Foxes, whose squaws worked them without intelligence or vigor. There were vast regions of the east still to be settled. It was lodged in the popular mind that Iowa was a barren, inhospitable country. If the people of Missouri could solemnly declare that it was composed of barren tracts and that "ages must pass before it would be inhabited," we can, perhaps, hardly blame the people of the eastern states for believing them and being willing to leave such an un- kindly region to the aborigines. Indeed, had it not been for the warlike Black Hawk, it is probable that Iowa would have remained still longer a "terra incognito."
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Black Hawk and his tribe were driven, by treaty and by force of arms, from place to place in the state of Illinois, and finally across the Mississippi. Black Hawk longed for the home of his fathers, for the hunting-ground of his youth, for the hills and streams he had known in his young manhood. He did not feel .
the binding force of any treaty and, in spite of the wiser counsel of Keokuk and other chiefs, he led the young braves in fierce revolt. Settlements were raided, homes were burned, men, women and children were killed and scalped. The strong arm of the government was invoked and, after a series of bloody and hard fought battles, Black Hawk and his braves were subdued. It was then that the United States, for the first time, seemed to see the advisability of obtaining a foothold west of the Mississippi and north of Missouri. The result was the acquirement of what is known as the Black Hawk purchase. The commissioners of the United States, headed by Major General Winfield Scott and Governor Reynolds, of Illinois, met with the Indians in 1832. They demanded as indemnity for the cost of the war, and to secure the safety of the citizens of Illinois, that the Indians should cede a portion of their superfluous territory bordering on the frontier. The United States asked and obtained a cession along the west bank of the Mississippi about one hundred and ninety- five miles in length and from forty to fifty miles in width. The government agreed to pay the Sacs and Foxes the sum of twenty thousand dollars an- nually for thirty years, and Black Hawk, his sons, and other leading warriors, were held as hostages for the future good conduct of the band. The Indians agreed to remove from these ceded lands on or before June 1, 1833. Scott county is named after the general who concluded this treaty.
It is interesting to note, however, that the first cession of land by the Indians to the United States was made not in eastern but in western Iowa. In 1825 a treaty was made in which it was expressly stated that no lands were to be ceded to the United States, but in which it was attempted to fix the boundaries between the hostile tribes. In this treaty it was agreed that the federated tribes of the Sacs and Foxes should hold that land as theirs, commencing at the mouth of the upper Iowa river, crossing to the Red Cedar, thence in a direct line to the second, or upper fork of the Des Moines, (which would be in the vicinity of Humboldt,) then on to the Calumet, (or Sioux,) and following its course to the point where it entered the Missouri. It was stipulated, however, that as the Yankton band of Sioux were not represented, and as they laid claim to this western territory, the treaty was not to go into effect in regard to this region until the consent of the Yankton Sioux had been obtained. In 1830 a great council was called at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, it having been found that these imaginary lines were wholly imaginary and were not in any wise re- spected by the warlike tribes and that some further agreement was necessary. A strip of ground forty miles wide, to be known as neutral ground, was there- fore established to separate, if possible, the Sacs and Foxes from the Sioux. At this same council the Sacs and Foxes, Iowas, Missouris, Omahas, and bands of Sioux joined in ceding to the United States all their right and title to what is now western Iowa. The treaty read as follows, describing the boundary as that land west of "the highlands between the waters falling into the Missouri and those falling into the Des Moines river, and of the dividing ridge between
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the forks of Grand river to the source of Boyer river, and thence in a direct line to the upper forks of the Des Moines." It will thus be seen that within these very vaguely outlined boundaries lies the first territory that can rightfully be said to have belonged, in reality, as well as in name, to the United States of America. Eastern Iowa may boast an older settlement and a longer civiliza- tion; but western Iowa and Crawford county belonged to the United States, by right of double purchase, from the French and from the Indians, several years before the government had any claim upon the Indian lands of the east- ern part of this state. By a treaty made September 26, 1833, the Pottawat- tamies, with some of the Ottawas and Chippewas, were granted five million acres of land in the west, upon which they agreed to remove, for the land east of the Mississippi. The boundaries of this grant were as follows: "Beginning at the mouth of the Boyer's river on the east side of the Missouri river, thence down the said river to the mouth of Nodaway river, thence due east to the west line of the state of Missouri, thence long the said state line to the point where it is intersected by the western boundary line of the Sacs and Foxes-thence north along the said line of the Sacs and Foxes, so far as that when a straight line shall be run therefrom to the mouth of Boyer's river (the place of begin- ning) it shall include five millions of acres." It is hard to follow now the exact outlines of this grant, but it included much of the southern portion of this county. In accordance with the treaty these Indians in due time removed to their new hunting grounds. An agency, or trading post, was established at a place, now in Mills county, known as Traders Point. In 1846 the sub-agency at Council Bluffs reported the number of Indians belonging to the agency to be 2243. This census included Pottawattamies, Ottawas and Chippewas. At Trader's Point Colonel Peter A. Sarpy, a trader from St. Louis, of French de- scent, supplied the Indians with powder, lead, tobacco, blankets, and such other articles as they needed. Colonel Sarpy was a man of considerable note in his time and during the latter part of his life was somewhat prominent in the early settlement and history of Nebraska, which state has honored his memory in the name of one of her counties.
One of the villages of the Pottawattamies while they resided in south- western Iowa, was situated on the Nishnabotna river near where the town of Lewis, in Cass county, is situated. It was called by the Indians Mi-au-mise (the young Miami) after one of their chiefs. At this place they had a burial ground where now repose the remains of many who departed to the final hunt- ing-ground, which they fondly hoped would never be invaded or disturbed by the pale-faced intruder.
Trader's Point, over on the Missouri, was a general rendezvous of the Indians, where they resorted for the purpose of disposing of peltries and such other commodities as they could barter for supplies at the store of Colonel Sarpy. It is related that Colonel Sarpy had in his employ at Trader's Point, as clerk in his store, a young man from St. Louis, who became desperately smitten with the charms of one of the Pottawattamie belles who resided at the village on the Nishnabotna. Mounted upon her gaily caparisoned pony she had fre- quently visited Trader's Point with her people, where her equestrian accom- plishments and other personal graces had attracted the attention of the young
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clerk. So infatuated did he become that when this daughter of the forest left soon after with her people for another home beyond the Missouri, he adorned his hat with a feather and departed with them. We regret to mar the romance of this pretty incident, but the query arises as to how many half-breed vaga- bonds the government of the United States may have since been feeding in consequence of this young man's infatuation.
While these Indians resided in southwestern Iowa they cultivated some small patches of ground, but as game was then abundant in that region they subsisted chiefly by the chase. On the 5th of June, 1846, another treaty was concluded with them at Trader's Point by which they disposed of their lands in Iowa and agreed to remove further west. During that and the succeeding year most of them took their departure for their new home. For several years afterward parties of them were in the habit of making periodical visits to their old Iowa haunts for the purpose of hunting or communing with the Great Spirit at the graves of the friends and kindred they had left behind them. Pottawat- tamie county, which embraces a portion of what was their Iowa hunting ground, will perpetuate their name and memory.
For the above facts concerning this treaty and the subsequent Indian set- tlement we are indebted to "The Red Men of Iowa," an interesting book pub- lished in 1882, from which we have quoted.
The Black Hawk purchase was, however, the signal for the first real settle- ment of Iowa by American pioneers and farmers. "On the Ist day of June, 1833," says Dr. Salter, "the United States troops, who up to that time had guarded the Black Hawk purchase against the incursions of the white people, and had removed intruders and burned their cabins, were withdrawn and the pioneers of the frontier entered in to make claims and settlements. A transfor- mation of the wilderness commenced. There were some instances of strife and contention among the adventurers for town sites, mill sites, belts of timber and the best lands, but good feeling generally prevailed and rules and regulations as to claims were agreed upon in the interest of fair dealing and mutual pro- tection. A petition was sent to congress for the extension of the laws of the United States over them and a bill was introduced to organize a territorial gov- ernment between Lake Michigan and the Missouri river under the name of Wisconsin." "This territory," said Senator John Tipton, of Indiana, "must have ten thousand inhabitants and will soon have two large states. Nearly three thousand people have located themselves on the west bank of the Mis- sissippi north of the state of Missouri. Their petition to extend the laws over them lies on your table. We owe it to our country and to our legislation to keep pace with our people."
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