USA > Iowa > Des Moines County > History of Des Moines County, Iowa, Volume I > Part 4
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On the 4th of August. 1824, in a treaty made in St. Louis between the United States and the Sac and Fox Indians, they relinquished their title to the lands which they held in Missouri. By the terms of this treaty there was set off and reserved for the use of the halfbreeds what is known as the llalfbreed Tract, they holding the title in the same manner as Indians. They had the right to occupy the land, but could not convey title, the reversion being in the Govern- ment. On the 30th of July. 1834, the Congress passed an act by which this rever- sionary interest was relinquished, and the halfbreeds acquired the fee title. The result was, as soon as the halfbreeds had been clothed with the fee title, many speculators entered this district and for a quart of whiskey, a blanket, a pony, or any small sum, purchased most of these lands. They also purchased from some claiming to be halfbreeds, but who in fact were not, and who had taken possession of certain portions of the land. It was a general mixup of fraud and deception to acquire valuable property. To settle the difficul- ties which arose from these acts, and to decide the validity of the claimants, the Legislature of Wisconsin Territory on the 16th of July. 1838, passed an act
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HISTORY OF DES MOINES COUNTY
appointing Edward Johnston, Thomas S. Wilson and David Brigham commis- sioners, with power to settle the difficulty. After the commissioners had com- menced their labors the next Legislature repealed the act appointing them. The repealing act also provided that the commissioners should receive $6 per day for the services which they had rendered, and gave them authority to bring actions against the owners of the halfbreed tracts to recover for the services rendered. In August, 1839, Edward Johnston, one of the commissioners, obtained judgment against the owners of the said tract for $1,290, and David Brigham, another of the commissioners, obtained judgment against the same owners for $818, botlı judgments being rendered by the District Court of Lee County. Execution was issued on these judgments, and the sheriff made return on these executions, stating he had sold to Hugh T. Reid the halfbreed tract containing one hundred and nineteen thousand acres, more or less, for $2,884.06, and had executed and delivered to him a deed for the same. Webster, the defendant (plaintiff in appeal) claimed title to 160 acres of the land sold to Reid, and offered to prove that Na-ma-tau-pas was a halfbreed. Objection to this evidence was sustained. Then he offered to prove that he had entered into possession of the land and had im- proved it, and no service had ever been made upon him of the pendency of the suit of Johnston and Brigham; that Reid was the counsel who had procured said judgment ; that he as well as the owners of the said land were prevented by the fraudulent acts of plaintiffs from appearing and defending ; that the return made by the sheriff was false and fraudulent. The court sustained the objections to this evidence, whereupon plaintiff below had judgment and for costs, and upon writ of error the case came before the United States Court ( Webster vs. Reid, 20 How- ard 437)." The Supreme Court reversed the court from which appeal had been taken, holding the court erred in sustaining objections to the evidence offered by the defendant. This put an end to Reid's title. Subsequently the title to these lands was determined by partition decree issued by the United States District Court for the Territory of Iowa. The partition decree divided the tract into 101 shares, and it was provided in the decree that each claimant should draw lots for his share. Francis S. Key, author of the "Star Spangled Banner," and Henry WV. Starr, attorney, of Burlington, were attorneys in the case; Judge Mason pre- sided as the court. This trouble commenced when the halfbreeds' land was a part of old Des Moines County, for it was in 1834 the halfbreeds were clothed with the fee title to these lands.
The treaty by which the United States acquired the lands described in and known as Black Hawk Purchase was ratified on February 13, 1833. Col. J. W. Johnson had in 1808 a trading post at Shoc-ko-kon, near the mouth of Flint Creek.
The names of white settlers who came to what was Des Moines County before the extinguishment of the Indian title will be considered in another place in this history. It may not be out of place at this point to state why in the course of events the Indians were compelled to give way to the coming of the pioneers. The North American Indian possessed characteristics different from those of any other race of men on the face of the earth. He was different from the ancient Britain, German and Gaul, who led a tribal existence amongst the mountains and forests of the land in which he dwelt ; different from the hordes which came from Asia and devastated Europe. Like the Indians, the Celtic, German and
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HISTORY OF DES MOINES COUNTY
other tribes inhabiting Western Europe were continually at war among themselves. When they had been conquered by the Roman power, they took upon themselves the customs and habits of their conquerors, and in coming time became the con- querors of those who had conquered them. More than this, they conquered themselves by weeding out the wildness in their natures, and became in time masters in all the arts of civilization and enlightenment. Not so with the North American Indian. He was a part of the wilds he inhabited. He could not sep- arate his life from his environments. He was as untamed as the wild buffalo which he chased over the prairies, or the deer or elk which he hunted amidst the forests. He lacked the power to reason and comprehend ; was governed by hate and revenge. He had no fixed habitation ; was not rooted to the soil; was blood- thirsty, and to satisfy this hunger for the blood of his enemy would in midwinter traverse the forests for hundreds of miles, and with hideous yells, with tomahawk and scalping knife in his hand, pounce upon his sleeping foe and without any discrimination of age or sex, massacre them. He fought in ambush, and not in the open. His bravery was a fiendish bravery, and only when he thought his enemy was in his power would he exhibit it. He is passing away with the buffalo, with the forests in which he lurked, and the wild prairies which he roamed. If he had possessed the nature of the German or Celtic tribesmen he would have become rooted to the soil on which he dwelt, would have cultivated fields, built for himself a home; would by his labor and skill have made the material universe administer to the satisfaction of his outward wants; would have developed his inward being. He had to give way before the irresistible march of the white man wearing the coonskin cap ; the man who came to till the soil ; to make a home for himself, his wife and children.
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CHAPTER VII
TOPOGRAPHY OF DES MOINES COUNTY, IOWA
Before writing the history of Des Moines County, with its present territorial limits, as well as its people, we wish to know something of the natural features of the county, its streams, prairies, timber lands, and its altitude; where on the face of the earth it is located.
The City of Burlington, its capital, is situated on the west bank of the Mis- sissippi River, in longitude 91° 7' Greenwich time, and in latitude 40° 40' north of the terrestrial equator. Near the center of the South Hill Square, the exact latitude north of the equator is 40° 48' 20". Longitude west from Washington 14° 3' 30". This makes the difference in time between Burlington and Washing- ton fifty-six minutes and fourteen seconds sideral time.
Until December 18, 1838, as we have stated, Des Moines County comprised all that territory north of Missouri to a line drawn from the lower end of Rock Island to the Missouri River. For the purpose of this history, we have called it Old Des Moines County. The territorial existence of Old Des Moines County extended from June, 1834, to December 18, 1836.
On December 7, 1836, the Wisconsin Legislature passed an act which pro- vided for the division of Old Des Moines County, and establishing the territorial limits of Lee, Des Moines and other counties. It established the territorial limits of Lee County as follows: "Beginning at the most southern outlet of Skunk River on the Mississippi; thence in a northern direction passing through the grove at the head of the northern branch of Lost Creek; and thence to a point corre- sponding with the range line dividing ranges 7 and 8; and thence south with said line to the Des Moines River ; thence down the middle of the same to the Mississippi ; and thence up to the place of beginning."
It established the territorial limits of Des Moines County as follows: "Begin- ning on the Mississippi River at the northeast corner of Lee; thence up said river to a point fifteen miles above Burlington, on the bank of said river ; thence on a westerly direction to a point on the dividing ridge between the Iowa River and Flint Creek, being twenty miles on a due west line from the Mississippi River ; thence in a southerly direction so as to intersect the northern line of Lee at a point twenty miles on a straight line from the Mississippi River ; thence east with the northerly line of said County of Lee, to the beginning, be and the same is hereby set apart into a separate county by the name of Des Moines." From the above description, the northeast corner of Des Moines County was at a point on the Mississippi River fifteen miles northeast of Burlington, and the northern line would be the boundary line between Huron, Yellow Springs, Washington and Pleasant Grove, Franklin, Benton and Jackson townships. The southern
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HISTORY OF DES MOINES COUNTY
boundary line would be a line running due west from the Mississippi River pass- ing Patterson Station on the section line running east and west for twenty miles.
On December 18, 1838, the Wisconsin Legislature, in session at Burlington, passed an act which took effect on its immediate publication, to establish the boundaries of Lee, Van Buren, Henry, Louisa, Muscatine and Slaughter ( Wash- ington) counties. It provided "The boundaries of Lee County shall be as fol- lows: Beginning at the main channel of the Mississippi River due east from the entrance of Skunk River into the same; thence up the said river to where the township line dividing townships 68 and 69 north, leaves the said river ; thence with said line between ranges 4 and 5 west." Section 3 of the act provided : "The boundaries of Des Moines County shall be as follows, to wit: Beginning at the northeast corner of Lee County ; thence west with the northern line of said county to the range line between ranges 4 and 5 west; thence north with said line to the township line dividing townships 72 and 73 north; thence east with said line to the middle of the main channel of the Mississippi River; thence down the same to the place of beginning ; and the seat of justice of said county is hereby established at the Town of Burlington."
It will be seen by this act that Skunk River was not the south boundary line of Des Moines County, except for a short distance.
The eastern border of the county is washed by the Mississippi River. llere we will digress for a time to give the proper meaning of the word "Mississippi" in the Algonquin dialect.
The name was spelled by Marquette in 1673 "Mississipy." Claude Dablon, 1671, "Mississippi." Francis L. Merciew, 1666, "Missipi." Hennepin, 1680, "Mschaspi." D. Cox, 1698, "Mischaspe." In Annals of Iowa, 1869, pages 200 and 201, appears the first of a series of articles by Dr. Isaac Galland, one of the first settlers in Iowa : who lived among the Indians, knew their language and cus- toms, and was better qualified to speak on any subject concerning their language than any one of his time. Ile devotes a part of this article to the Mississippi River, a brief history of its discovery, and the etymology of the name. We quote what he says :
"There are two sources from which we may trace generally the great con- fusion in all the names of rivers, lakes, nations and places, etc., to wit: ist, the actual dialectic difference in pronunciation of the same name by the several differ- ent tribes, as for example, we give the following instances :
English
Sank
Chippewa
River
Se-pe
Se-be
Water
Ne-pe
Ne-be
Fire
Sku-tah
Ish-ko-da
Thunder
Al-lem-o-kee An-nem-i-kee
Death
. Neho
Ne-bo
Great
Kit-che
Git-che
"2d. But still the most material difference in the correct enunciation of Indian words by European and other nations will be found in the varied orthography adopted by different writers to express the same sound (as in the examples given
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HISTORY OF DES MOINES COUNTY
above in spelling the name of the river we call Mississippi). It should be borne in mind that the above names with the exception of D. Coxe, were Frenchmen, and they adopted a French orthography to enunciate the articulate sounds uttered by the Indians in pronouncing this name.
ETYMOLOGY
Indian
English
Mis-sisk
Grass
Mis-sisk-ke-on
Weeds
Mis-sis-que
Medicinal herbs
Mis-sis-ke-wau-kuk
A field of exuberant herbage
Mis-sku-tah (meadow)
Prairie, from 'mis'
The root of the term for herbage is shu-tack, i. e. fire, and literally signifies grass fire, or fire of herbage. The fitness of this name as applied to the vast native meadows of the West has been for ages past most forcibly impressed on the beholder, on witnessing the annual conflagrations of the immense masses of grass and other herbage which cover the whole face of the country, and when set on fire, and accompanied with wind, presents a scene, not easily described, and still more difficult to conceive without an actual view of the sublimity and splen- dor of the scene." He continues, saying : "From the annual scenes of vernal love- liness and autumnal desolation which the natives had witnessed from time immemorial, the former with pleasure, the latter with dismay, and which con- stituted .the prominent character of this great valley from all of the coun- tries known to the natives. And it was from those distinctive features of the country, that their great native meadows were called 'Mis-ku-tah,' as already shown." But the native tribes who occupied the country on both sides of the river were denominated "Mis-sku-tem," which signifies "Meadow people," or "people of the meadows," while the great river which flows through these extensive meadows or fields of luxuriant herbage has, in like manner, received its name from the same source, as follows: "Mis-sis," being the two first syl- lables, and forming the radix of "Mis-sis-ke-wau-kuk," which signifies meadows, or more literally, "fields of exuberant herbage," or "River of Meadows."
We have thus quoted largely from Doctor Galland, concerning the meaning of the word "Mississippi," for the reason that, in many of the encyclopedias, and in the public schools, it is taught that the word "Mississippi" in the Indian dialect, signifies "Father of Waters." The crest of Iowa, from which the water flows into the Mississippi, runs diagonally across the state and enters the State of Mis- souri at the southwest corner of Appanoose County. The highest point of this crest is near Spirit Lake. Dickinson County, being 1,250 feet above low water mark at Keokuk or 1,694 feet above sea level. At Creston in Union County, it is 1.355 feet above sea level, and about 885 feet above low water mark of the Mississippi at Burlington.
The fall of the Iowa River from Iowa Falls to Iowa City is three feet and one inch per mile. From Iowa City to its mouth, two feet and four inches per mile. The fall of Skunk River from Colfax Station to Oakland, Henry County, is two
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HISTORY OF DES MOINES COUNTY
feet and two inches per mile; and from Oakland to its mouth, one foot and a half per mile. Skunk River has the least fall of any river in lowa which empties in the Mississippi. On each side of this river are the richest of bottom lands. The most important and the largest stream in Des Moines County is Flint Creek, which, with its tributaries, furnishes drainage to the western and northwestern portions of the county, and empties into the Mississippi a short distance above the City of Burlington.
The greater portion of Des Moines County at the coming of the pioneer con- sisted of prairie land. The prairies were elevated plateaus, lying between streams, and sometimes almost surrounded by streams, on whose bottoms and adjoining lands for a distance of one, and sometimes two miles, grew an abun- dance of timber. On the bottom lands of those streams grew black and white walnut trees to an immense size, as well as the cotton wood, elm, maple, and some species of oak. On the adjoining high land grew the white and black oak, and hickory ; while on the rough land bordering on the prairie, grew what was called scrub oak. The prairies were much higher than the adjoining timber lands, so much so, when one was out near the middle of a high prairie, he could only see the tops of the trees along the streams. Frequently the situation of the streamns gave names to the prairies. Round Prairie in Yellow Springs Township was called such, because it was almost surrounded by streams, along which timber grew. The prairies themselves had certain features of their own, affording a system of drainage. There was a crest to each prairie from which the water flowed in sloughs in different directions into adjoining creeks. In these sloughs grew a species of prairie grass from two to three feet in height.
Much has been written about those prairie lands, their formation, soil, and why it is that in the long past ages they had not become woodlands, but with all that has been written, no satisfactory explanation has been given. Their soil con- sists of a rich loam from ten to twenty inches or more in depth, and is particularly adapted to the production of maize, wheat, barley, potatoes, turnips, blue grass, timothy, and all the cereals grown in this latitude. They evidently had their beginning in the glacial period, when great ice sheets slowly through countless ages ground their way to the south, crushing and pulverizing the calcareous elements now found in the soil. In their slow, but irresistible southern journey, these ice sheets left behind them scattered in their pathway, boulders of granite of all sizes and shapes, which bear on their surface the scars of the terrific grind- ing process through which they passed.
The soil of the prairies is such that it is not adapted to the growth of the hard woods, such as the oak and hickory; while the soft woods grow to a large size on prairie lands.
The largest prairie in Des Moines County lay between Flint Creek and the Iowa River on the north, and its tributary streams. In width, it varied from eight to fifteen miles and extended in a northwesterly direction. The direction of this great plateau was northwesterly, lying between the Skunk River on the south, and the Iowa River on the north, through which ran Flint Creek. It joined the great prairie in the southeast part of the state. The prairies in this county had their termination in this great plateau. In the southern part of the county existed a prairie which lay between Skunk River on the south and Flint Creek on the north. It joined the great prairie at the head waters of Flint Creek. The state
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HISTORY OF DES MOINES COUNTY
road leading from Burlington to Mount Pleasant was laid out through this prairie. No words are adequate to describe the beauty and grandeur of a great prairie. When looked upon in spring time, it presents one vast expanse of land, of gently sloping hills and level plains, clothed in a garment of green ; a picture painted by the hand of the Creator, over which he has suspended a blue canopy of sky by an invisible thread. A gentle breeze caressing the tall feathery grass causes it to rise and fall in ripples, which reflect the rays of the sun as he pursues his course along the canopy of the sky. The tall rosin weed, with its yellow flowers, on which is perched the prairie lark, bows and nods, as the lark sings his song of joy ; then, rising, with flapping wings, beating an ocean of air, he is borne aloft and lost in the blue ether of sky. No sound can be heard, save the song of the lark and the rustle of the blades of grass when touched by the fingers of the breeze. When night comes, the picture is changed. It is then darkness and empty space, through which blinking stars look down. Now it has no rim. There is nothing but star light above, blackness below, from which comes the cry of the wolf. When fall time comes, and the grass is turning to an ashen hue ; when Indian summer has come, and a hazy mist fills the air, shutting out any distant view ; when the sun, a red ball of fire up in the sky, pursues his course ; then it is, the beholder feels the awful solemnity of life, and there comes into his heart the realization that he is a part of a universe subject to a universal law of death.
CHAPTER VIII
GEOLOGY OF DES MOINES COUNTY
North America, known and called the New World, is in fact the oldest portion of land surface of the earth. Speaking of the formation of the continents of our globe, Professor Agassiz says: "America was the firstborn among the continents, though so much later in culture and civilization than some of a more recent birth. America, so far as her physical history is concerned, has been falsely denominated the New World. Hers was the first dry land lifted out of the waters; hers the first shore washed by the ocean that enveloped all the earth besides ; and while Europe was represented only by islands arising here and there above the sea, America already stretched one unbroken line of land from Nova Scotia to the far West." To trace and mark definitely each period in the building up of a continent or any section of the same is the work of the geologist, and for this work in Iowa the state has intrusted it to the most competent men. We only know how the building-up process was carried on, by the strata of rocks which lie bencath the earth's surface, the substances of which they are composed, and the organic remains in them found, and further, by the marks of erosion on their surfaces, the depth of the rivers, the vast amount of detritus by them deposited at certain places, the thickness of coal deposits, and from what they contain ; the kind of deposits; all of which comprise, as it were, the leaves of a book to be opened, studied and read. It is by reason of animal and vegetable fossils found in rock layers and coal measures the geologist is enabled to tell the story of the destruction of the life of one period and the beginning of another, in the million of bygone ages. The first leaf of this book when opened discloses to him what is called the primary rock formation, which does not contain any vegetable or animal fossils ; such is the granite, thus indicating that at the time of their formation no life existed on the face of the earth. The next leaf or layer he examines he finds contains fossils of the simplest forms of life. The next contains fossils more complex in their organization ; and as he turns the succeeding leaves or layers he finds fossils more complex and perfect in organization than those in the last. The fossils thus found are such that could only live in water. These fossils consist of the shells of marine life. In reading his book he finds vegetable fossils, the first the simplest forms of vegetable life, which to live must breathe the air. Continuing his reading. he comes to the leaf showing the coal measure, indicating a luxuriance of vegetable life. He concludes that at this time at this place there was not an entire submergence of the land. On the top of this he finds other rock formations containing fossils, showing that there existed at the time marine life. Then finally he comes almost to the close of the book, the last leaves of which show a stratum of sand, pebbles, soil, etc. In reading the book
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HISTORY OF DES MOINES COUNTY
he explores mountain ranges; crosses seas and oceans; traces the windings of rivers from their sources, until they empty their waters through, sometimes, deltas into gulfs. Professor Calvin of the State University says: "These geologic records, untampered with, and unimpeachable, declare that for uncounted years Iowa, together with the great Valley of the Mississippi, lay beneath the level of the sea. So far as it was inhabited at all, marine forms of animals and plants were its only occupants." The story of the geologist tells how the great river which washes the eastern border of this county came about; that in the million years in the past mighty icebergs slowly but irresistibly crept along over the sur- face of a shallow sea, crushing and grinding, and gouging a pathway, which in the long coming time became the channel of the great river ; tells the story of vast, thick sheets of ice slowly, but irresistibly, inch by inch, as it were, creeping over a shallow sea, crushing and grinding into marl what it met in its pathway, and leaving in its wake the great boulders which are found scattered on the prairies, some being left in this county. That animal as well as vegetable life existed in Des Moines County long before the glacial epoch is proven conclusively by what was found some years ago in excavating for the cellar of the building which stands on the southwest corner of Fourth and Wash- ington streets, where were exhumed the molars and tusks of a mastodon, each tooth being six inches in length. They were found in a stratum of sand and gravel, superimposed by clay many feet in thickness. This stratum of sand under- lies the ground north of Hawkeye Creek. When Jefferson Street was cut through, the hillside bordering on its north side then left an embankment some ten or more feet in height. This stratum of sand lies just below the surface of Jefferson Street as now improved. When excavating for the basement of the new Iowa State Savings Bank Building this stratum was struck, and is the same stratum in which the mastodon teeth and tusks were found. This stratum is superimposed on the top of the Kinderhook Group, as shown by the excavations for the bank building, where they had to go down to blue clay to get a solid foundation. The same was true in reference to acquiring a solid foundation for the postoffice building. That Mastodon americanus had his habitation here in pre-glacial times there cannot be any doubt. In Missouri and Nebraska have been found at many places the remains of the mastodon in the Pliocene period. The same is true in Indiana. All goes to show that the mastodon at this period of time roamed over a wide extent of country. The surface of the land in Des Moines County lies below what is called the carboniferous group. The following is a list of the solid beds of rock as they appear in the Mississippi Valley :
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