USA > Iowa > Dickinson County > History of Dickinson County, Iowa, together with an account of the Spirit Lake massacre, and the Indian troubles on the northwestern frontier > Part 11
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four times. Every time he shot the soldiers would fire a return volley at the spot from which the smoke arose and he was soon riddled with bullets, and as the firing ceased a soldier rushed forward and finished the work with a thrust of his bayonet. It will be remembered that this was the same Indian that murdered Mrs. Noble after she had been purchased by the Yankton. The squaw was taken prisoner. The other Indians escaped.
It seems that the wife of Roaring Cloud was one of the ageney Indians, and this accounts for the risks he ran in com- ing so near to the agency at a time when he was sure to be killed if recognized. The taking this squaw prisoner eame very near causing serious trouble with the agency Indians. In going down to the ageney, the expedition passed through a camp of several thousand Indians. These Indians were nom- . inally friendly to the whites but the sight of one of their tribe being held a prisoner aroused their indignation to an alarm- ing degree. The purpose of the troops in making this squaw a prisoner was to get such information as they could regarding the Indian that was killed, also the balance of the party. The troops realized that they had got themselves into trouble. The excitement was intense. The angry warriors crowded around them on every side, making all kinds of hostile demonstra- tions. A shot from either side would have doubtless precipi- tated a collision, and in all probability, the force would have been annihilated on the spot. Fortunately no collision occur- red and they reached the agency in safety. Here they took possession of a log house and awaited results, determined in case of an attack to defend themselves the best they were able. After a few days anxious suspense and sleepless anxiety they were relieved from their perilous situation by the arrival of Major Sherman with a force of regulars and a battery of ar- tillery, having been ordered there from Fort Snelling to attend
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APATHY ON THE PART OF THE GOVERNMENT
the payment of the annuities. Thus strengthened the troops were powerful enough to defend themselves in case of an attack. But with the release of the prisoner the affair blew over and matters quieted down to their normal condition.
The only other attempt made by the government to capture the renegade chief was later in the season. The garrison at Fort Ridgley had been materially strengthened and as the time approached when the annuities were to be paid the Indians were informed that they would be required by the government to deliver Inkpadutah and his band to the authorities as a condition on which they would receive their annuities. To this the Indians strennously objected. They regarded it as a great wrong, punishing the innocent for the crimes of the guilty. However, they succeeded in organizing a force made up of squads from the different bands, numbering in the neigh- borhood of a hundred warriors. This force, under the leader- ship of Little Crow, made a campaign into the Indian country and were gone about two weeks. Upon their return they claimed that they had killed three of his band, wounded one and taken one sqnaw and one papoose prisoner. The Indians now claimed that they had done all that they could do and all that they ought to be required to do to entitle them to their ammities.
The agents of the government on the other hand insisted that it was the duty of annuity Indians to pursue and either capture or exterminate the outlaws. The time for paying the annuities had now arrived and matters began to look serions. AAfter discussing the question in all its bearings the government anthorities decided that it would be better to yield the point. and pay the annuities than to run the risk of precipitating hos- tilities with the entire Sioux nation by withholding them longer. This opinion was largely held by the settlers along the border and by the population of Minnesota generally. Ac-
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cordingly, on the eighteenth of August, Major Cullen sent the following dispatch to the Department :
"If the Department concur, I am of the opinion that the Sioux of the Mississippi have done all in their power to punish or surrender Inkpadutah's band, and their annuities may with propriety be paid them. * *
* The special agent awaits answer to this dispatch at Dunleith and for instructions in the premises."
The annuities were accordingly paid and the government made no further effort to capture or punish this little band of marauders, who had wrought such destruction and spread such consternation along the entire northwestern frontier. Nothing definite is known of the remainder of Inkpadutah's band sub- sequent to this time, but it is supposed that they scattered, the different members uniting with other bands, thus destroying their identity and making their pursuit or capture as a dis- tinet band impossible.
So far as can be ascertained there is absolutely no tradition claiming to give the final fate of Inkpadutah. Several times during the summer of 1857 rumors were circulated telling of his death, and these were as often denied. Had he remained among the Indians along the frontier, he must at some time have been seen and recognized by some of the traders, trappers, half-breeds or friendly Indians of that region, but so far as known, nothing of the kind ever occurred. He dropped out of sight completely, and there is no authentic account of his ever having been seen or heard of since.
Mrs. Sharp, in speaking of his family, says : "His family consisted of himself and squaw, four sons and one daughter."
As has been related, the eldest son, Roaring Cloud, the mur- derer of Mrs. Noble, was killed some time in July by a party of soldiers and volunteers near the Yellow Medicine Agency. There is a theory, and it is a plausible one, entertained by
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WHAT BECAME OF INKPADUTAH'S BAND
many that the three sons hovered around the frontier for some years ; that they were leaders in many of the petty difficulties along the border, and that they were active in inciting the annuity Indians to deeds of violence and insubordination. When the outbreak at the agency came, in August, 1862, they were among the foremost in their deeds of violence and blood- shed, and later that they participated in the many sanguinary conflicts on the upper Missouri, and the great western plains, and that they were known to have been present at and partici- pators in the Custer Massacre on the Little Big Horn in 1876.
A little book, entitled "Twenty Years on the Trap Line," by Joseph Henry Taylor, insists there is abundant proof of this fact. The author claims to have been a member of Captain White's company of the Northern Border Brigade, stationed at Correctionville, and other points along the frontier, and that after receiving his discharge he spent the next twenty years trapping on the Missouri River and its tributaries. In his reminiscences he mentions several instances of coming into close proximity with these Indians and had several narrow escapes from them. "Mill Creek," in Cherokee County, seems to have been one of his favorite trapping grounds. In writ- ing of his experiences there, he says :
"As the rapidly changing season commenced to spot the furs, I made ready to pull up traps and move down to the settle- ments. On the morning of my final departure I noticed a man passing along the edge of the bluffs without seeming to see the camp. With gun in hand, and with a brace of pistols in my 'war' belt, I intercepted him with a 'Hello!' On approach- ing, I discovered him to be a half-breed, and seemed to be trailing something. 'Did you see anybody pass here ?' he said in good English. 'No,' I answered. 'You were in luck they didn't see you.' 'Why so ?' 'Because Inkpadutah's boys don't often let a chance slip.' 'Inkpadutah's boys,' I repeated mechanically. 'Yes, Inkpadutah's sons. Inkpadutah's sons-I well re- member the cold chill that crept over my nerves at
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the half-breed's mention of the dreaded name. As soon as he had disappeared down the winding valley I crit- ically examined the trail he was following and found the moccasin tracks of six different Indians all pointing down the valley. After having taken up the traps, I moved up on the high divide and took a bee line, for Correctionville. *
* Striking the valley of the Little Sioux at least once a year on a hostile raid seemed to be a fanatical observance of Ink- padutah's band that they could not abandon. Whether fishing for pickerel around the shores of Lake Winnipeg, or hunt- ing antelope on the plains of the upper James River, or buf- falo in the Judith Basin or along the Muscleshell River, time and opportunity were found to start out hundreds of miles on a dreary foot journey to count a 'coup" on their aggressive con- querors. The battle on the Little Big Horn is still rated the most important engagement between the whites and Indians since that day on the banks of the turgid Tippecanoe, when the sycamore forests hid the broken columns of Tecumseh and the prophet from Harrison's victorious army. Var- ions writers have ascribed Custer's death as the cul- minating episode in this latter day fight and to heighten the color of the picture have laid his death to the per- sonal prowess of Rain in the Face or on the field altar of Chief Priest Sitting Bull. It has long since been proven that Rain in the Face was not on the field of battle that day, but was miles away in charge of the pony herd. About. Sit- ting Bull's hand in the affair, he has expressed himself again and again by saying in about these words to the charge, 'They tell you I murdered Custer. It is a lie. I am not a war chief. I was not in the battle that day. His eyes were blinded that he could not see. He was a fool and rode to his death. He made the fight, not I. Whoever tells you I killed Custer is a liar.' Any intelligent Yankton, Santee, Unepapa Blackfoot or other Sioux, who participated in the fight against ('uster's battalions on that twenty-fifth day of June, 1876, will tell you it was difficult to tell just who killed Custer. They believed he was the last to fall in the group where he was found. That the last leaden messengers of swift death hurled amongst this same group of falling and dying soldiers were belched forth from Winchesters held in the hands of Inkpadutah's sons."
CHAPTER XII.
EFFECT OF THE MASSACRE ELSEWHERE-ATTRAC- TION OF EMIGRANTS-THE HOWE AND WHEELOCK PARTY-J. S. PRESCOTT AND HIS PARTY-GEO. E. SPENCER AND THE NEWTON PARTY.
HE MASSACRE at Spirit Lake created great excitement and consternation along the entire frontier. Nearly the whole line of frontier settlements were abandoned and in some instances the excitement and alarm ex- tended far into the interior. Indeed, in many cases where there was no possibility of danger the alarm was wildest. Mili- tary companies were formed, home guards were organized and other measures taken for defense hundreds of miles from where any Indians had been seen for years. The alarm spread to adjoining states. The wildest accounts of the number and force of the savages was given currency and credence. Had all of the Indians of the Northwest been united in one band they would not have formed a force so formidable as was sup- posed to exist at that time along the western border of Iowa and Minnesota. Doubtless there are at this time many who were then residing in the central portion of this state, and some even in some parts of Wisconsin, who remember the wild excitement and the needless and unreasonable alarm following these events as above related.
One of the results of the Spirit Lake Massacre and the ex- citement following it was to attract the attention of settlers, emigrants and adventurers in that direction. The party from Jasper County, to which allusion has formerly been made, consisting of O. C. Howe, R. U. Wheelock and B. F. Parmen-
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ter still persisted in their determination of making a perma- nent settlement at the lakes. It will be remembered that this was the party that explored the lake region the fall before and passed Inkpadutah's camp near Loon Lake. They were also the first to discover and give an intelligent account of the mas- sacre and it was on the strength of their representations that the relief force under Major Williams was raised. They re- turned to Fort Dodge with Major Williams' command, after which Mr. Howe went on to Newton, while Parmenter and Wheelock remained in Fort Dodge to procure a new lot of sup- plies and await his return.
Just previous to this time a party, consisting of J. S. Pres- cott, W. B. Brown and a man whom they employed as guide by the name of Overacker, started on an exploring trip to the lakes, passing up the Des Moines on the west side, while Major Williams' command on their return trip were coming down on the east side and thus avoiding them. Prescott and Brown reached the lakes about the fifteenth of April, and after spend- ing a few days in exploring the country they returned again to Fort Dodge, where they purchased supplies and made other necessary preparations for their return to the lakes for perma- nent settlement.
Mr. Howe upon his arrival at Newton succeeded in raising a party to accompany him on his return trip to the lakes. This party consisted of Hon. George E. Spencer, since United States Senator from Alabama; his brother, Gustave Spencer, M. A. Blanchard, S. W. Foreman, Thomas Arthur, Doctor Hunter and Samuel Thornton, all of Newton, Jasper County. Mr. Howe was detained at home by sickness in his family and could not accompany the balance of the party at the time. They came on to Fort Dodge, where they found Wheelock and Parmenter, who were waiting for them. There were some others who had decided upon
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SCHEMES OF THE FIRST SETTLERS
making a trip to the lakes, some from a desire for adventure and others for the purpose of settlement.
Perhaps a short notice of some of the more prominent char- acters that took part in making the first settlement of the county, subsequent to the massacre, would not be wholly devoid of interest. J. S. Prescott, one of the most active of the early settlers here, was one of the original projectors and founders of the college at Appleton, Wisconsin. He had also been par- tially successful in starting an institution at Point Bluff, Wis- consin. He, having heard of the romantic beauty of the lake region, made his first trip to this locality with the idea of es- . tablishing here some time in the future an institution of learning similar in its provisions to that at Appleton. Visionary, as such a scheme must seem at this time in the light of subse- quent events, it was not at that time regarded as an impossi- ble undertaking.
For this project he had associated with him several gentle- men in Ohio and (Wisconsin who had advanced him consider- able sums of money for that purpose. Prescott was a man of great energy and ability, a college graduate and a fine scholar, but he was a poor judge of human nature. He lacked discre- tion, was impatient, impetuous and excitable, and while he was very enthusiastic in everything he undertook, he was, at the same time, visionary and often unpractical and impracti- cable.
He was educated by his parents for a physician, but dislik- ing the profession went into the practice of law in Ohio, in which he was very successful. After following that for a while he joined the Methodist Church and commenced preaching. As a speaker he possessed extraordinary ability and power. It is no disparagement to the ministers who have represented the different denominations here since that time to say that his pulpit oratory has seldom if ever been equaled by any
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other man in northwestern Towa. His sermons were of that rare character which church members and men of the world alike regard as moral and intellectual treats. At the same time, his visionary and impractical ideas rendered his selection for the position, to which he was assigned and for the work laid out for him to do, a most unfortunate one. As might be ex- peeted his scheme was a failure.
Prominent among the others who assisted in making the first settlement subsequent to the massacre were O. C. Howe, B. F. Parmenter, R. U. Wheelock, W. B. Brown, C. F. Hill, R. A. Smith and Henry Backman. Messrs. Howe and Par- menter were attorneys, formerly from Erie County, New York. but had been stopping for a short time at Newton, in this state. Their object in coming here at that time was to select a location for a town site, secure the location of the county seat, and secure claims on the adjoining land for themselves. Their scheme was a feasible one, and had times remained as they had been for a few years previous, would doubtless have been successful. They succeeded in securing the county seat all right but after the financial crash of 1857 values became so unsettled that the whole scheme was worthless. Mr. Howe was chosen district attorney at the general election in the fall of 1858 for the Fourth Judicial District, which then com- prised nearly one-fourth of the state. This office he held four years after which he enlisted in the Ninth Iowa Cavalry and was promoted to the rank of captain, which position he held at the close of the war.
One of the most unique and remarkable characters that came into prominence in the settlement of northwestern Iowa was George E. Spencer, for whom the town of Spencer, Clay County, was named. It was a part of the original arrangement that he should be associated with Messrs. Howe, Wheelock and Parmenter in the town of Spirit Lake, while in his oper-
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PROMINENT CHARACTERS
ations in Clay County he was associated with other parties. For two or three years he divided his time between the two counties. In one of his trips to Sioux City he succeeded in trading for a traet of land some four or five miles southeast of the present town of Spencer. This he had surveyed and had an elaborate plat made, naming the town after himself.
He succeeded in getting commissioners appointed and har- ing the county seat located there, while the county records were kept at Peterson. He had a postoffice established there which was also kept at Peterson. Indeed, the two postoffices, Peterson and Spencer, were for a time kept in the same house. All of this when there was not a house within fifteen miles of Spencer. Then he issned circulars and commenced selling lots, representing that they had an eighty thousand dollar courthouse, a fine public schoolhouse, stores, hotels, mills and all of the material advantages of a prosperous western town. This was probably the most conspienous instance of working a paper town that ever occurred in northwestern Towa.
Spencer was chosen Chief Clerk of the Senate for the Eighth General Assembly, which position he filled with ability. But inasmuch as his operations were carried on far more extensively in Clay County than in Dickinson it is hardly profitable to fol- low his career farther. After two or three years he abandoned his schemes in Dickinson County and his interests fell into other hands.
The balance of the party whose names have been given were younger men, most of them well educated and just starting ont in the world, and were ready to engage in anything that might afford a chance for speculation or a spice of adventure or ex- ritement.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE THREE PARTIES-THE TRIP TO THE LAKES- TAKING CLAIMS-THE CLAIMS OF THE VICTIMS OF THE MASSACRE-A WRONG IMPRESSION COR- RECTED-GRANGER AND THE RED WING PARTY- PRESCOTT'S VISIONARY SCHEME-THE SPIRIT LAKE TOWN SITE LOCATED-THE OLD FORT-THE FIRST RELIGIOUS MEETING-MODE OF LIVING.
T MAY BE WELL to remember at this time that during the winter of 1856 and 1857 Congress passed the Minn- esota Railroad Bill or an act granting subsidies of land to all of the then projected railroads in Minnesota. Prominent among these was the St. Paul and Sioux City, or, as it was then called, the Minnesota Valley Railroad, which provided for the building of a railroad up the Minnesota Valley to the south line of the state in the direction of the mouth of the Big Sioux River. A direct line from the south bend of the Minnesota River to the mouth of the Big Sioux would run a little to the east and south of the center of our lakes. The idea that that road would be located and built as it was, over thirty miles west of here, was not thought of at that time.
It will be well to remember here also that this was during the fast times preceding the crash of 1857. During the preced- ing five years railroads had been built throughout the West at a rate and upon a scale unprecedented in the history of the world. The states of Illinois and (Wisconsin were virtually covered with a net-work of railroads, all of them constructed within the brief period of six years. If Illinois could be covered with a net-work of railroads in six years, why not
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Iowa ? As vet the only road built in Iowa was from Daven- port to Iowa City, with a branch to Muscatine.
Innumerable towns had sprung up in every locality on these new roads and many men had made respectable fortunes in selling town lots, some of them in towns where improve- ments were actually being made, and many in towns that had no existence except on paper. Towa lands were held at figures that would have delighted the real estate owners of twenty years later.
Taking the past as a criterion, however, men were not at that time to be considered as extravagant or unreasonable, who expected that the system of railroads for Iowa and Minnesota would have been completed in the next five years as those of Illinois and Wisconsin had been within the preceding five years.
Taking into consideration the natural advantages and the unequaled beauty of the lake region, and, as was then supposed, the almost positive certainty that they would soon have railroad communication with the rest of the world, it is not strange that a different class of men were attracted here than the representative pioneers who had sub- dued the older portions of the country. People who leave the older states with the last magazine in their pockets and the last daily paper in their hands are very much the same peo- ple after landing in Towa or Minnesota that they were before leaving New York or New England. The term "The Wild and Wooly West," with its peculiar significance, never was applicable to the pioneers of northwestern Towa and more particularly to the first settlers of Dickinson County.
The several parties of which mention has heretofore been made, completed their arrangements at Fort Dodge and started for the lakes again on Wednesday, the 30th day of April, 1857. The different parties were made up as follows: First, Doctor J. S. Prescott, W. B. Brown, Charles F. Hill,
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Moses Miller, Lawrence Furber and George Brockway ; second, the Newton party, consisting of the Spencers and others whose names have been heretofore given; third, a party consisting of B. F. Parmenter, R. U. Wheelock, William Lamont, Morris Markham, Alexander Irving, Lewis Hart and R. A. Smith.
These parties were mostly independent of each other but proposed keeping together as much as possible for the purposes of company and protection. It would require too much space ยท to give the details and incidents of travel along the road. Most persons can imagine what a trip of that kind would be in times of high water across an unsettled country without bridges, and without so much as a foot-path for a guide. Add to this the ever-present danger that roving bands of Indians were hov- ering along the border liable at any time to put in an appear- ance when least expected. From this combination of circum- stances it will be readily seen that it was no May day picnic these hardy adventurers were planning for themselves.
After leaving Fort Dodge, which they did on the thirtieth of April, they followed up on the west side of the Des Moines River to a point about ten miles below where Emmetsburg now stands. At this point the Newton party parted company with the others and struck across the prairie to Clay County for the purpose of examining the land there and making arrangements for carrying out the scheme they had in contem- plation relative to laying out the town of Spencer.
The main body followed up the river a short distance farther and then struck across to Lost Island where they camped on the night of the sixth of May on the north east shore of Lost Island Lake. They arrived at Okoboji on the eighth, about noon. The Newton party which had been prospecting about Spencer and Gillett's Grove, arrived the same evening, the entire party going into camp at the Gardner place.
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THE CLAIMS OF THE FIRST SETTLERS
Naturally the first business to be disposed of after arriving there was the taking of claims and adjusting their boundaries. One word in reference to the claims of those who had settled here previous to the massacre is in place now. It will be re- membered that the land was unsurveyed and all that any one could do was to "squat" on a piece of land and defend pos- session of it under the laws of the state. Measures were taken as far as possible to settle with the heirs of those holding bona fide claims, and in every instance they were paid a vahi- able consideration therefor. There was no instance of any person settling upon any bona fide claim that had been im- proved previous to the massacre without an equitable settle- ment having been made with those entitled to receive it.
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