USA > Iowa > Scott County > Davenport > History of Davenport and Scott County Iowa, Volume I > Part 78
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Governor Clark inquired of Mr. Davenport "how it had been possible for him and his party to reach the white settlements without being seen by the rang- ers, who were ordered to guard the frontiers from a surprise by the Indians?" Mr. Davenport replied, "that he had not seen anything of the rangers nor any signs of their ever having been to the mouth of the Illinois." Some of the offi- cers of the rangers were present and overheard the conversation and when they left they swore they would show Mr. Davenport's party whether there were rangers on the lookout or not.
Governor Clark supplied the chiefs with presents and provisions and directed Mr. Davenport to take the party up the river in a perogue, and land them at the mouth of the Illinois river, on the north side, so that they might return home in safety. After getting everything in order they started on their return. They
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were obliged to keep on the Missouri side all the way up for fear of the rangers firing on them, as they were very angry at the statements that had been made by Mr. Davenport and had sworn vengeance against him and his party on their re- turn. They, however, reached home in safety.
Mr. Davenport returned to Bellefontaine and remained there until the spring of 1814, when the first regiment was ordered to join General Brown on the Can- ada line. They shipped on keel boats and went down the Mississippi and up to the Ohio to Pittsburg. Then then crossed over the mountains by forced marches until they arrived at the town of Erie. They immediately embarked on two vessels and sailed to Fort Erie, where they were ordered to be reviewed. They put themselves in as good order as possible, paraded and received orders at once to march to Lundy's Lane and arrived in time to be in the hottest part of the battle. This was very hard service, as they had just performed a long fatiguing journey without an hour's rest. But the army was hard pressed and had need of every man that could be brought into action during the battle. Mr. Davenport had to assist in taking one of the officers, who was severely wounded, from the field, and laid his musket down to perform the service, and when he returned it was gone. He soon found one by the side of a British soldier, which he took, and found to be one of the Glengarian muskets, a very excellent ex- change for the one he had lost (this old relic is still kept in the family in memory of the war). Mr. Davenport was in many very perilous situations during this service time, often being placed on picket-guard duty and during the siege of Fort Erie he was on duty at one of the batteries night and day, with scarcely a moment's rest. He was also on duty at Black Rock in charge of a battery, a part of the time. At the time of the sortie he was one of the attacking party which drove the British from their works. After the siege was over the troops crossed back again to Buffalo and the First Regiment marched to Pittsburg and then by boats to Bellefontaine. After being there a short time his term of ser- vice expired and he got an honorable discharge, having given his adopted coun- try ten years of very active duty and of the very best part of his life. At this time he was employed by Colonel William Morrison, of Kentucky, government contractor, as his agent to supply the troops with provisions-the commissary department being at that time under the management of the contractors. He now came to St. Louis and took charge of several keel boats, loaded with the necessary provisions. A large drove of cattle were also purchased and driven through the country. They started up the river and arrived at the mouth of the Des Moines river late in the fall and concluded to stop there for the winter, building a number of log huts for the men and for storing the provisions. It be- ing so late, it was difficult to build huts in sufficient numbers. The best he could do was to put poles into the ground and nail up green hides for siding and roof- ing, and when they got dry they made a tolerably warm house. This post was called "Cantonment Davis." The next year Fort Edwards was built there.
In the spring of 1816 the Eighth Regiment and a company of riflemen, un- der the command of Colonel Lawrence (the very same officer and friend with whom Mr. Davenport had enlisted ten years before), embarked on boats and started up the river. They arrived at the mouth of Rock river and examined the country for a site for a fort, and the result was the selecting of the lower
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end of Rock island as the most suitable point. They landed on Rock island on the 10th of May, 1816. As soon as they had completed their encampment he employed the soldiers to cut logs and build store houses for the provisions, and had a bakehouse and oven put up. This was the first building ever erected on this island. The soldiers now set to work to build the fort, which was named Fort Armstrong. At this time there lived a large body of Indians in the vicin- ity, numbering some 10,000, divided in three villages, one on the east side of the river, near the foot of the island, called Waupellow Village, and about three miles south, on the bank of Rock river, stood the famous village of Black Hawk, and on the west side of the river stood a small village named after an old brave, Oskosh. Upon the first arrival of the troops on the island the Indians were very much dissatisfied but the officers took great pains to gain their friendship by making them many presents and they soon became reconciled and were most excellent neighbors. During the first summer they would frequently bring over supplies of sweet corn, beans, pumpkins and such other vegetables as they raised, and present them to Mr. Davenport and the officers, with the remarks that they had raised none and that they themselves had plenty, invariably refusing to take any pay.
During the first summer an incident occurred which gave Mr. Davenport an Indian name. Some of his cattle having strayed off the island, he took some men and went over to look for them in the bottom at the mouth of Rock river, but not finding them, they were returning along the bank of the river, in front of the Indian village. When opposite some of the lodges a party of drunken Indians came rushing out towards them-his men took to their heels but he stood his ground ; some dozen of the drunken Indians seized him by the arms, legs and coat- tail, while another drunken fellow held a large black bottle in his hand and would stagger up and try to hit him on the head with it, which blow would require all his strength to dodge. This manoeuver was repeated a number of times until he was nearly exhausted and had about made up his mind that the "cursed Indian" would break his head with the bottle, when an old Indian, a friend of his, hap- pened to see what was going on, when he cried out "Saganosh, Saganosh !" ("he is an Englishman.") These words operated like magic-they loosed hold and commenced to shake him by the hands and endeavored to be the cleverest fellows in the world. He was ever afterward known by the different tribes as "Sagan- osh." At this time he resided near the fort and continued to supply the troops with provisions but in the second year he built a double log cabin and storehouse adjoining, about a half mile from the fort, and where the present residence is. He now, with what little money he had saved, purchased a small stock of Indian goods and commenced the "Indian trader." At this time there was a large tribe of Winnebagoes or, as the French called them, Peons, that inhabited Rock river country and the Winnebago swamps. This tribe had a very bad name and were always very hostile and treacherous and they had been in the habit, for several years before, when a trader came among them with goods, to kill him and take the goods, as the easiest way of making a short bargain, so that the French traders had been afraid, for some time, to go among them. Mr. Davenport not knowing much about the Indians at this time, and hearing that they had large quantities of furs and that no traders had visited them for some time, concluded
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that this would be the best place for him to trade in. As soon as the French traders (most of whom were in the employ of the American Fur Company) heard of it, they advised him not to attempt it, as he would be killed and robbed, but he determined to try it and fitted out five or six pack-horses, loaded them with goods and taking two Canadians, Gokey and Degree, with him, started up Rock river. They soon reached the Winnebago encampment. He immediately got the chiefs and principal men together and made them a "talk." He told them he had heard that they were in want of many kinds of goods, and that they had plenty of furs, so he had come up to trade with them, but that before he had started he had been told that they were a very bad people and was advised not to go among them, but he did not believe these stories, and that he had come among them to see for himself. The chiefs shook him by the hand and expressed great satisfaction at the confidence he had in them and assured him if he would trade with them he should never have cause to complain. They then sent a cryer through the different encampments to announce the arrival of a trader, and that they must treat him well. He now unpacked his horses and placed his goods in one of the lodges, which was offered him. He commenced to trade and soon sold all his goods and had received the best kind of furs in payment, and at very good profits. He now loaded up his horses and started back with Gokey, leaving Degree in charge of a part of the furs, while he returned to get another supply of goods. He now visited all the different encampments and met with very good treatment- his trade soon increased so largely that he established several trading posts on Rock river and maintained them for many years, making a very profitable business.
At this early time most of the Indian goods were brought from Mackinac, through Green bay, then up the Fox river to the Portage, there packed across to the Wisconsin river, then down the Mississippi in Mackinaw boats. He once sent an order to Mackinaw for an assortment of Indian goods, camping equip- age, four hands and a Mackinaw boat, and everything complete was delivered to them at Rock island. His employes were Canadians, hired for three years, at $125 per year, and were very faithful hands. Shortly after he had commenced trading up Rock river he made a very narrow escape. About this time several war parties had gone to attack the settlements, one of which had been unfortunate and had lost some of their men, so that, on their return, the relations of those that were killed felt very hostile and deter- mined to be revenged at the first opportunity. Not knowing anything of this state of things Mr. Davenport packed up some goods on four or five horses, taking Gokey with him, and started up Rock river. They arrived at Prophets- town and went immediately to their old friend, Wetaico's lodge. The old man met them but seemed much alarmed. He shook them by the hand and said he was very sorry they had come at this time; he was afraid they would be killed as there was a war party just about to start from the upper end of the village, headed by the "Crane," who had lost some relatives, but that he would do all he could to save them. This was said to them in the Chippewa tongue as that was generally used by the traders. He invited them to sit down, when the yells of an approaching party of Indians were heard. He told them to keep cool and show no signs of alarm. In a few minutes a large crowd surrounded the lodge, whoop-
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ing and yelling like so many devils. The old man now stepped to the door of his lodge and inquired what they wanted (in the Winnebago language.) They re- plied that "they had come to kill the white men." The old man now made them a long speech, claiming the rights of hospitality and the sacredness of his lodge. He told them they were fools! Why be in so great a hurry? That they had plenty of time, as the trader was going to encamp just below the village and would remain three or four days to trade! This seemed reasonable and the crowd assented to it and retired. The old man returned and said he could save them, but they must follow strictly his counsed. He then directed them to go just below the village and pitch their tent near the bank of the river-unpack their goods, turn out their horses and make every preparation for remaining sev- eral days, and in the meantime he would place a light canoe and paddles a little way below their tent and as soon as it was dark to slip away from their camp- fire, jump into the canoe and float down the river until they were out of hearing of the village, and then to paddle for their lives, but to lay by in the high grass in the daytime as they might be pursued and headed off across some of the bends of the river. They followed his advice strictly, put up their tent, built a fire and spanceled their horses, arranged their goods and made preparations for cooking. Some few Indians came to them and desired to trade, but they put them off until next day on the score of fatigue. They did this to throw them off their guard. The hours seemed very long but darkness came at last and they stole away from their encampment, reached the canoe and floated quietly down the river, and as soon as they were out of sight of the camp-fires they began to paddle their canoe swiftly down Rock river. Several times during the night they saw camp-fires ahead of them on the bank of the river and were obliged to drift past them on the opposite side under the shadow of the bank. As soon as it was daylight they landed, hauled their canoe into the tall grass and concealed themselves during the day and when it was dark, they started again and paddled all night. Next morning they found themselves at the mouth of Rock river and soon reached Rock Island. Sometime afterwards old Wetaico visited Rock Island, when he gave an account of what occurred. The next morning after the escape, he said, the whole village turned out-men, women and children, marched down to the tent, headed by the "Crane" and his war party, armed with their tomahawks, bows and arrows, and painted-singing their war song and beating their drums. They advanced, dancing their war dance, and surrounded the tent. But they soon found "that white man is very uncertain." Owing to the bad feeling of this part of the tribe he did not go among them for some time afterward. The Winnebagoes frequently came down to the island to trade, in small parties, but they appeared very sullen and shy. They did not like to visit the fort much. Mr. Davenport felt satisfied that if they got a good opportunity they would kill some of the whites.
In 1818 Mr. Davenport gave up the agency of supplying the troops and turned his attention entirely to the Indian trade. He made arrangements for building him a house and store and got the commanding officer (Colonel Mor- gan), to point out the place where he could build without interfering with the forts. The place selected was the one where his late residence now stands. He put up a double log cabin, with a chimney between them. He now went to St.
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Louis and purchased a supply of goods and provisions and bought a small keel boat (Flying Betsey) loaded her with them, and returned to Rock Island. Here- tofore Mr. Davenport had confined his trade principally to the Winnebagoes but he now commenced to trade with the Sacs and Foxes in opposition to Amer- ican Fur Company's traders. During the winter he was constantly traversing the prairies of Iowa and visiting every encampment in person. He, in this way, seldom left their trading post. In the spring he would have all his furs and selected all the best furs, while the old French traders had very little energy and skins nicely packed and prepared-feathers all sacked, bees-wax and deer tal- low all barreled-then would load his boat and go to St. Louis and sell his cargo, which always commanded the highest market price, owing to the good condi- tion in which everything was put up. It was customary with the Sac and Fox Indians residing in this vicinity, when they finished planting their corn, for the young men to go on a summer hunt for buffalo and deer, while the old men and most of the women would go up to the lead mines in their canoes and dig min- eral, smelt it in log furnaces and return back again about the time their corn would be fit to eat. On these occasions he would load his keel boat with pro- visions and a few goods and go up to Fever river (or "Mau-cau-pi-a-sepo," or Small Pox river, as the Indians called it), and trade with the Indians for their lead. He also visited the mines on the west side of the Mississippi (where the Dubuque mines were) and obtained large quantities of lead of them, which branch of the trade was very valuable.
In the fall of 1819 Mr. Davenport and his family came very near being massacred by the Winnebagoes, a party of twenty of whom, headed by the "Crane" arrived about sundown and said they wanted to trade. He told them he never opened his store after sundown, that they would have to wait until next day. At this they seemed to be very much dissatisfied but he invited them into the room occupied by his men (adjoining the room he lived in) and gave them plenty to eat and pipes and tobacco and told them they could sleep on the floor in front of the fire. At this time he had only two men at home, Jerome and another trader. About bedtime Jerome came into his room and told him he did not like the conduct of the Indians, that they did not act right, that they had laid down without taking off their moccasins or other things and that he was afraid to sleep in the room with them and that they intended mischief. He told Jerome to bring in the other man and their blankets and sleep on the floor. The two rooms were divided by a chimney with a short passage at one side, from one room to the other with a door at each end. Jerome and the man came in with their blankets and guns and laid down on the floor with their guns be- side them. Soon after one of the Indians came in and said he wished to sleep on the floor as the other room was rather crowded. He secured permission to do so. As soon as the men had laid down Mr. Davenport examined every- thing to see that the guns were all in their proper places, as he generally kept a number always loaded, standing against the wall ready, in case of an attack. He then put a sack of sweet corn against the door (locks were scarce in those days), and retired to bed, but not to sleep. About the middle of the night, Jerome turned over and in doing so rattled his powder horn. This alarmed the Indian who sprang to his feet and, giving a yell, rushed into the other room.
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By this time Mr. Davenport and his men were up, with their guns in their hands, and when the Indians, in the other room, came rushing through the narrow pas- sage, leveled their guns at them and told them to move back or they would fire on them. The Indians saw that they were prepared to fire, so they retreated and shut the door at their end of the passage and placed every thing they could find against it to barricade it. Mr. Davenport did the same at the other end and, with his men, stood on guard until sunrise, expecting every moment some kind of attack would be made on them, but during the whole time they could not hear the least noise. As soon as it was light they began to reconnoiter, but could not see anything of the Indians-they had gone. Some time afterwards Mr. Daven- port learned that the party had started out with the intention of killing the whole family and plundering the store. Their plan, at first, was to get Mr. Davenport into the store, where they intended to tomahawk him and then kill the rest with- out firing a gun, for fear of alarming the fort. Their next move was to place the Indian in the room to sleep, so that he could get up when all were asleep and tomahawk as many as he could and at the same time to give a yell as a signal that they should come to his assistance. But a guilty conscience frightened him, when the Frenchman moved. He thought he was going to take the start of him. Failing in this attempt they still kept prowling about the neighborhood, watch- ing for any straggler who might venture out alone. They at last succeeded. Two soldiers got permission to go into the woods to cut a stick for axe helves. They were cautioned not to go far from the fort but at sundown, when the roll was called, it was found they were missing, and fearing they might be lost in the woods, one of the cannons was fired off, so they might know the direction of the fort. Next morning Lieutenant Stubbs and a party of soldiers came up to Mr. Davenport's house and informed him that the two men were missing. He stated that he heard. about noon, the report of two guns and had no doubt they were killed. He then got all of his men and with the soldiers formed a line and struck across the island in the direction of the sound of the gun, and when they had reached the middle of the island they found their bodies. Both had been shot and scalped.
In 1822 Mr. Davenport established a trading post at Fever river in charge of Amos Farrar. This was a very good point at this time for trade with the In- dians, for furs and lead. He also had trading houses at Flint Hills, mouths of the Iowa river, Waupsipinica, and Maquoketa rivers, besides three on Rock river. To attend to them all and have them properly supplied, kept him constantly traveling from one post to another, sometimes on foot, sometimes in a canoe, and sometimes on horseback. His principal depot was on Rock island. Here all the furs and skins had to be collected together and here the outfits of goods were made up and sent off into the different parts of the country. In 1823 the first steamboat arrived-the Virginia. She was loaded with provisions for Prairie du Chien and was from Wheeling. Mr. Davenport was called upon to pilot her over the rapids. He took his old "patroon debuts" with him. They were three or four days getting over. At this time quite a number of persons went up to Fever river to work the mines. Colonel William Johnson, of Kentucky, had obtained permission of the government to work the mines and passed up the river with several keel boats loaded with provisions and tools. In a short time quite
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a village was formed at Fever river. Two magistrates were appointed about this time by Governor Cass of Michigan territory. The following letter, written at the request of some of the inhabitants, will show the state of feeling at the idea of being in that territory :
ROCK ISLAND, January, 1825.
Sir: About a year ago two magistrates' commissions were forwarded by Governor Cass, of Michigan, to two respectable inhabitants of Fever river. They were recommended by a gentleman from Michigan, then concerned in a commercial way at that place, on the presumption that it belonged to Michigan and one of the gentlemen so appointed acted by virtue of his commission. The people were dissatisfied at the idea of being attached to a territory so remote and with whom, in a whole age, they could have no social intercourse. Last spring they had the pleasure of finding that the settlements on Fever river right- fully belonged to Illinois-upon which the magistrate, acting under the authority of Michigan, declined and since sent on a formal resignation. Of course they are at present in an awkward situation in the absence of civil authority and it is the cordial wish of the permanent population of that place that no time may be lost in appointing the persons (recommended by them some time since as magis- trates), namely, Moses Meeker and John Connelly.
Most respectfully, sir, yours,
G. DAVENPORT. D. D. SMITH, EsQ., Atlas, Pike county, Illinois.
N. B. Have the goodness to send me a prompt reply (by the military ex- press, who pass through your town), stating, circumstantially, all the forms nec- essary to the completion of the business as I am much concerned in the ultimate welfare of the upper country and you will much oblige.
I am informed that lately the sheriff of Prairie du Chien (Crawford county, Michigan territory), visited the mines people and exacted poll tax from them, some of whom were simple enough to pay, others manfully refused and it gave umbrage to all. G. D.
The mails were carried at this time by express from the fort; the nearest postoffice was at Clarksville, Missouri. In the spring of 1825 Mr. Davenport received the following letter :
GENERAL POST OFFICE WASHINGTON CITY, 23d April, 1825.
Sir .: From the information I have received I conclude it will be agreeable to you to accept of the office of post master at Rock Island. Missouri. I herewith send you a copy of the law for regulating the post office, a key for opening the mail and forms and directions conformable therewith. You will find these at the Clarksville post office, Missouri. After executing the bond and taking the oath you may proceed in the duties of the office without waiting for a commis- sion.
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