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 13
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42
169
ORGANIZING THE COUNTY
1
BRIDGE BETWEEN MINNIE WASHITA AND GAR LAKE.
County for judicial and financial purposes, it was practicall; outside of any civil jurisdiction whatever. It was early fore- seen that it would be a great advantage to be able to settle all questions liable to arise in the future under the forms and provisions of the statutes. It was therefore determined to organize at the earliest practical period, which would be at the August election. That election was held on the first Tues- day in August, 1857, at the house of J. S. Prescott. Under the law as it then stood it was necessary to send in a petition signed by two-thirds of the voters of the new county to the county judge of the county to which it was attached and if in his judgment the interests of the county demanded it, he issued an order for the organization of the new county.
The petition for organization had twenty names attached, and was taken to Sioux City by C. F. Hill some time in June. John K. Cook was at that time county judge of Woodbury County. He issued an order for holding the election, which was held accordingly. The first officers
170
DICKINSON COUNTY - IOWA
elected were as follows: O. C. Howe, County Judge ; B. F. Parmenter, Prosecuting Attorney; M. A. Blan- chard, Treasurer and Recorder; R. A. Smith, Clerk of the District Court ; C. F. Hill, Sheriff ; Alfred Wilkins, County Surveyor; W. B. Brown, Coroner. R. U. Wheelock and R. A. Smith were elected Justices of the Peace. After the elec- tion it was necessary that the returns be sent to Sioux City, and that either the county judge, district attorney or elerk of the district court elect go before the judge of Woodbury County and give bonds for his approval and be sworn in in dne form. This journey fell to the lot of the clerk of the district court.
These trips to Sioux City were no holiday affairs. The route by which they were made was to strike out in a westerly direction to the head of the Floyd and follow that stream to
NATURAL TERRACE ON WEST OKOBOJI.
171
HILL'S VISIT TO SIOUX CITY
Sioux City. There were no settlements on the route until within eight miles of the city. The time required for mak- ing the trip was seven days; the distance one hundred and twenty miles each way, or two hundred and forty miles in all. Let a person imagine himself taking a trip that distance alone on horseback, drinking from the streams he might chance to cross, eating a dry lunch from his portmanteau, at night roll- ing up in a saddle blanket with the saddle under his head as a pillow, his horse picketed by his side, and with no proba- bility of seeing a human being for the next three days, and he can form some idea of what those trips were. AAdd to this the ever-present danger that roving bands of Indians were continually hovering along the border ready at any mo- ment to waylay any luckless adventurer who may have ventured beyond the line of the settlements, and it will be understood that no slight amount of courage and hardihood were exhibited in their successful accomplishment.
The following letter, written by C. F. Hill and published in the Sioux City JJournal, June 10, 1900, conveys a pretty vivid idea of what these early trips were. In his letter Mr. Hill says :
"Hazleton, Pa., June 4, 1900 .- Neil Bonner, Sioux City, Iowa .- Dear Sir: Yours of May 30, referring to my early visit to Sioux City, is received. In the spring of 1857 I located at Spirit Lake, shortly after the massacre took place under Inkpadutah, and I helped bury some of the dead that had been overlooked by the soldiers sent down from Fort Ridgley. About the month of May, 1857, the settlers at Spirit Lake decided to organize Dickinson County, which he- fore that had been attached with all northwestern Iowa to Woodbury County, and I was designated to go to Sioux City and get an order from the court there to hold an election and organize Dickinson County.
"I started out on my mission mounted on an Indian pony which had both ears badly burned in a prairie fire, and accom-
172
DICKINSON COUNTY - IOWA
panied by a young man by the name of Barnum, a relative of P. T. Barnum, the great showman. Barnum was on foot, and as he was a good fellow, I shared my pony with him and allowed him to ride half of the time. After we left Spirit Lake we did not reach a white man until we reached the Floyd River in Plymouth County, where we met a party of surveyors, who were staking out Plymouth City. Barnum and I were glad to meet these men, and we begged the privilege of camping near them, which they reluctantly granted. The next day we reached Sioux City, and put up at the Sioux City House, a story and a half building, and to my great surprise I found it kept by the Trescott Brothers, Wesley and Milo, who were from near Shickshinny, Pa. I knew them well, but I had some little trouble in making myself known to them, as my camp life, my leggings, Indian pony and other Indian fixings led them to believe that I was a half-breed, which amused my companion very much.
"Next day I looked up his honor, the Judge of Woodbury County, and in a day or two had matters all arranged to start the wheels of government for Dickinson County. While I re- mained at Sionx City I heard much talk that the remains of Sergeant Floyd were exposed by the action of the Missonri River, and the citizens were about to remove the remains to another bluff, where the aggressive Missouri River could not reach them. A man by the name of Brughier, a Frenchman, lived at the. mouth of the Big Sioux River, and he had two squaw wives.
"Sioux City at that time was an unpretentious village of one story and story and a half frame houses. The town was hemmed in closely by bluffs, which were so numerons and so close together as in some cases to admit only of a wagon road between them. I remember many interesting incidents while in the city, regarding the Indians who came there. I remem- ber a one story clothing store on the wharf which had a large picture on canvas of an elephant, which the boys called the 'land elephant.' The land elephant was the great animal of those days, and woe to the poor fellow who indulged in too much land and allowed the elephant to lie down on him.
AN INDIAN CAROUSAL.
"Having completed the object of my mission, I made my ar- rangements to return to Spirit Lake, and was directed to a
173
AN INDIAN CAROUSAL
saloon, restaurant and grocery store, where I could purchase a supply of provisions for my return. While selecting my outfit a band of Indians and half-breeds entered. They seemed to have plenty of money and one of the braves called up the drinks for all hands. They were all well armed and in a state of caronsal that would have laid 'Pat in a Grog Shop' in his palmiest days in the shade. The brave who was treating stepped up to me and in an animated tone asked:
""Are you my fren ?'
"I replied: 'Oh, yes, I am your friend.'
" 'Then come and take a drink wi' me.'
"I declined with many apologies.
" 'Then you no my fren.'
"I thought I saw trouble ahead and I quickly changed my mind, as I had just discovered that I did want a drink, and I stepped up to the bar and took a ration of Missouri corn whisky. I proceeded with preparing my outfit, when a sec- ond brave asked me to take a drink with him. This invita- tion followed the first in such quick snecession that I was forced to decline, when he sang out :
" 'Yon drink wi' him-you no drink wi' me -- eh ?'
"So I was in for a second ration, and so it went on, grow- ing more lively. At no time was it long between drinks, and I devoted the brief time between drinks to collecting my pur- chases and completing my outfit, and at the first opportunity that offered I made a straight coattail out of the door. And as I walked up the street I wondered how that poor bartender expected to get out of that green corn whisky dance alive. He, however, had a six inch Colt's revolver lying on the bar be- hind him in easy reach. It was wonderful what a respect a Colt's revolver inspired for its owner in that day.
"Well, I was happy. I escaped that drunken, carousing band of Indians and was pleased with my little outfit, which contained a bottle of raspberry syrup, one can of peaches and a box of good cigars. Mr. Trescott was very kind to me and asked for my pocket compass which he compared with a sur- veyor's instrument and it was pronounced correct. This was the last thing done. I was now ready to start for Spirit Lake alone, as Barnum did not return with me.
174
DICKINSON COUNTY - IOWA
LOST ON THE PRAIRIE.
"Sherman's battery had passed through the country. a few days before, enroute from Fort Scott, to Fort Ridgley, in Min- nesota, and it had left a well beaten trail along the Floyd River. This battery suffered severely in the first battle of Bull Run, July 22, 1861. On my way back I decided to follow this trail as far as I could north and then I left it in a right line for Spirit Lake. I left this trail either in Buncombe (now Lyon) or Osceola County. In the following day, while riding under a hot noon-day sun, I became very somnolent and slept while riding. In fact, I fell off my pony, and then I tied my pony to my foot with my lariat and lay down and slept it ont. When I awoke, to my great surprise, the sun was in the north. I now had to resort to my pocket compass to discover, if I could what had gone wrong with the sun. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the compass was just as erratic as the sun. It now began to dawn. upon me that my idea of direction was muddled and'I was lost. The question now arose, Where am I ? Which way have I been traveling ? Which way shall I go?
"I, however, took a course and while riding along I sud- denly came upon what seemed to me to be a camp of Indian tepees on the prairie. My first thought was to turn back, and then I was afraid if I should be discovered the Indians would give chase, so I decided the best thing I could do was to move right on, which I did, and when I neared the supposed camp of tepees, to my great surprise up jumped a herd of elk and ran away over a divide. The elk horns which I saw were so magnified by the clear atmosphere that I mistook them for te- pees.
"After the herd ran over the divide I heard several shots fired, and as there were no white men in that country, as I believed, I made up my mind that the shots had been fired by Indians. I did not want to meet any Indians, yet I was curious to know from whence the shots came, so I dismounted and crept cautiously to the top of the divide; the elk had disappeared, but I saw a man going in the opposite direction to which I was going, and I, for the time, was greatly relieved. After going a few miles I was hailed by two men coming towards me, whom I took for Tu- dians, and I tried hard to avoid them, and they tried as hard
175
THE FIRST ELECTION
to intercept me. They finally waved their hats, and then I knew they were white men and turned to meet them. When we met these two men simply exhausted their vocabulary of profanity on me. They were members of a party of govern- ment surveyors and said they had not seen a white man for so long that they almost had a mind to shoot me for trying to evade them. They soon informed me that their chief surveyor, Alfred Wilkins, was lost and they were trying to find him. I then related the incident of the elks and how I saw a man going in the opposite direction that I came. They then put one of their party on a horse and started him after him with a very large tin horn. He returned to camp during the night with the lost surveyor all right.
"I camped with the party and at our mess I shared with them some of the delicacies I had brought with me from Sioux City, which they enjoyed, especially the cigars. They now informed me that I was in Osceola County, and in the morn- ing gave me the direction to take to reach Spirit Lake. was glad that I had not wandered away farther than I did, for had they told me that I had wandered into the then un- ceded territory of Dakota I would have scarcely been prepared to dispute it. However, I consoled myself with the thought that if I was lost the government surveyor had undergone a similar experience. "Misery loves company.'
DICKINSON COUNTY ORGANIZED
"I reached Spirit Lake the next day, and soon posted the notices for the election in Dickinson County. The election came and we elected a full line of county and township officers. I had the honor of being elected the first sheriff. The election over, we held a jollification, made speeches, etc. O. C. Howe in a speech said we had the most independent set of officers he ever knew, that each man in the county had an office of some kind, and we owed no thanks to anyone, as we had elected ourselves. The election passed off very quietly. There were no charges of ballot box stuffing and no contests. It certainly was an honest election, and I know of no election since that T have had the same good opinion of. Every man had an office and the harmony that followed was great. The secret of good government and honest election lies in the plan of giving every man an office. If the administration at Washington will act on
176
DICKINSON COUNTY - IOWA
the line of this theory there will be no reason why turbulent Kentucky in time should not become as peaceable and order loving as Ohio. I make no charge for this tip. C. F. Hill."
Mr. Hill in his letter mentions the fact that "a few days before Sherman's battery had passed from Fort Scott to Fort Ridgley in Minnesota, and that in doing so they left a well beaten trail along the Floyd River to the state line, which they crossed near the northwest corner of Osceola County." This trail was visible for years and served as a road through that country when going to Sioux City from here. The practice was to go west until that trail was struck and then follow it. Later the usual route to Sioux City was by way of Peterson and Cherokee, then across the prairie to Melbourne. By this route a fifty mile prairie had to be crossed without a house. "Twelve mile slough" and "twenty mile slough" were as well known by the early traveler as stopping places as the leading hotels now are.
It is well known as a historical fact that during the years of 1855 and 1856, there had been a rush of emigration to the West, such as had hitherto_ been unknown. People neg- lected their legitimate business and many run wild in town lot .and real estate speculations. Emigration had been boom- ing and all kinds of property throughout the West advanced in value at fabulous rates. Vast amounts of money were loaned at as high rates as five per cent a month for the purpose of investing in western lands. Everybody was dealing in real cstate. Towns were laid out and railroads projected in every possible direction. The wildest extravagance took the place of judicious economy and business sense. This state of affairs could not last, but finally culminated in the financial crash of 1857, which every one admits was induced by over speculation.
The revulsion was instantaneous and complete, and no where were the consequences more severely felt than on the frontier.
177
THE PANIC OF 1857
Emigration immediately came to a standstill, real estate be- came valueless and town property a byword. The gold was soon swept out of the country and the currency was worth- less. Perhaps there are some at this time who don't under- stand what was implied in a bank failure previous to the time of the national banks. Not only did the depositors suffer. but the bill holders as well. Many banks were based on the fictitious and inflated valnes prevalent at that time, and when the bottom fell out, depositor and bill holder went to ruin to- gether. All projected enterprises and improvements were for the time abandoned.
The effect of this state of affairs upon the frontier settle- ments was disastrous in the extreme, and in no place was the depressing effects felt more keenly than in this county. To remain here seemed to court a life of hardship and privation, while to return to the older settled portions of the country offered nothing that was much better. It was the old orthodox dilem- ma, "You are lost if you do, and you are lost if you don't." Of course the conditions of the settlers became much changed. Frontier life, instead of being a short period of adventure which in a few years would be rewarded by positions of influ- ence and affluence, became a desperate struggle with adverse circumstances for existence.
Some emigration came in in the fall of 1857, but in most cases it was made up of persons who had been stripped of their property by the panic and struck for the frontier to try their luck anew. In the fall of 1857 a couple of men named Isaac Jones and William Miller, from Story County, brought in a small steam sawmill, which they set up on the bank of East Okoboji Lake, at a point a little southwest of the Ste- vens' boatlanding. It was a small affair, but it supplied a want that had been severely felt. Previous to this time no Inmber had been used in the construction of the cabins. Doors,
178
DICKINSON COUNTY - IOWA
window frames, door frames, stools and benches had been con- structed by splitting out puncheons from the bodies of trees and then dressing them down to the desired thickness with a hand ax and jack plane. Heretofore the nearest mill was at Algona.
The first man to bring his family into the county subse- quent to the massacre was Hon. O. C. Howe, who arrived here with his wife and one child on the sixth of August. Mrs. Howe was the first woman to set foot in the county after the massacre, and her coming was counted as an event of consid- erable interest if not importance. Their daughter, a bright girl of three or four years of age, was the first child in the settlement. It had been from two to four months since any of the boys had seen either woman or child, and it was wonderful what a transformation the contact wrought in their habits and deportment.
Not much was done at farming during the summer. Some few had breaking done on their claims, but as a rule, farming was neglected. In fact, but few had come here to farm any- way. They had come to secure government land, which they imagined would soon appreciate in value, thereby making them forchanded. They were wiser after two or three years' experience. Had they gone into stockraising for all there was in it, and kept at it during all those years when the vacant prairies stretching indefinitely in every direction furnished unlimited range for stock, they might have made a good thing of it, provided the straggling parties of marauding Indians that infested the frontier up to 1863 did not come in and com- pel them to divide profits. But then they were like the pro- verbial Dutchman, their foresight was not near so good as their back sight.
The second man to bring his family was Rosalvo Kingman, who came from Sparta, Wisconsin. Mr. Kingman was first
179
THE OLD RED MILL
here early in July, then went back for his family and returned sometime in September. About the same time a roving char- acter by the name of Thurston came along with his family and spent the winter, but left early in the spring. These three, with a Mrs. Peters, who lived upon the isthmus between East Okoboji and Spirit Lake, constituted the sum total of female society in Dickinson County during the winter of 1857 and 1858.
The mention of the name of Peters brings to mind the old red mill which may as well be noticed here as anywhere. In the fall of 1857 a man by the name of James S. Peters, from Bureau County, Illinois, conceived the project of building a mill on the isthmus between Spirit and East Okoboji Lakes, and for that purpose eut a race across from one lake to the other. There was at that time nearly eight feet difference in the level of the two lakes, so that had the water supply been sufficient the mill could eventually have been made a success.
In the summer of 1858, with the assistance of such of the inhabitants as had faith enough in the project to lend a help- ing hand, Peters succeeded in getting up the frame and putting in the machinery, which was of a very rude and primitive character, having made the most of it himself. He finally got the mill in operation in 1859, but his work was so unsatisfactory and defective that it was a failure. The supply of water was also insufficient. as was afterwards proven. Peters was a half crazy fanatic and a believer in witchcraft, and when by reason of low water or the imprefections of his machinery his mill refused to work, he invariably ascribed it to some person having bewitch- ed his machinery. Having decided in his own mind who the guilty person was, he would draw an outline of their profile with a piece of chalk on an oak tree that stood near the mill, and then would sometime spend a half day at a time shooting
180
DICKINSON COUNTY - IOWA
the figure with silver bullets. He seems to have imagined that if he could only hit upon the right person and then shoot his figure with a silver bullet, that the spell would be broken and his power over him and his operations would cease. He was always very careful to cut the bullets out again after he had exhausted his supply. After trying in vain to do something with his mill for a year or two, dividing his time about equally between witches and work, he sold it to Stimp- son and Davis, of Emmet County, who overhauled it, but failed to achieve any great success.
The story is told that one day a halfwitted chap from the head of Spirit Lake was down to the mill waiting for his grist, and getting impatient, remarked that he could eat the grain faster than that mill could grind it. "Well, but," said Stimpson, "how long could you do it?" "Until I starved to death," replied the boy.
Stimpson kept the mill until 1869, when he disposed of it to Oliver Compton, who overhauled it again thoroughly, put- ting in an entire new set of first-class machinery. But it was of no use, the water power was a failure. The drawing of the water out of Spirit Lake had lowered that lake and raised Okoboji accordingly, and the project, after sinking several thousand dollars in it, had to be abandoned. The old frame was torn down afterwards and the timbers used for bridge timbers.
Among those who were here previous to the massacre were Philip Risling and Robert Madison, from Delaware County, both of whom were stopping temporarily with the Mattock fam- ily. Along about the holidays Risling went back to his home. but Madison remained here, and as a consequence fell a vietim to the massacre. In the summer of 1857, Mr. Risling, with a party of neighbors, consisting of William Oldman, George Deit- rick, Levi Daugherty and William Wisegarver, came out, bring-
181
FIRST SETTLEMENT ON THE LITTLE SIOUX
ing with them coffins for the interment of their friends, the Mattoeks and Madison. They brought seven coffins in all. They disinterred the bodies of their friends and took them out southwest on the prairie and buried them on Mr. Oldham's claim. The place has since become the property of Wood Allen.
Instead of taking his claim about the lakes, Mr. Risling took his claim down on . the Little Sioux. Shortly after that some half dozen claims were taken over on the Little Sioux, the earlier ones by Moses Miller, Andrew Oleson, Gunder and Omen Mattheson. A little later H. Meeker and Mr. Close commenced their enterprise of build- ing a mill on the outlet which they abandoned a couple of years later. Before the close of the war this settlement was reinforced by R. R. Wilcox and Hiram Davis, who also took claims on the Sioux. This little settlement, although insig- nificant in numbers, was important from the fact that it was the first point reached after crossing a forty mile prairie, in coming from Sioux City by way of Peterson and Cherokee. Mose Miller's shack was small and dirty and inconvenient but the light from his window looked mighty cheerful and encour- aging to a person who had been toiling all day through the snow across that inhospitable prairie without meeting a human being or seeing a vestige of anything indicating the existence of civilized life.
We will now resume the current of events which we have been considering as having occurred in the fall of 1857 and the winter of 1857 and 1858. Under the old constitution, we had two fall elections, one in August when the county offi- cers were chosen, and one in October when state and legisla- tive officers were elected. The August election has already been noticed. This county at that time was embraced in the Fort Dodge representative district. C. C. Carpenter and John
1S2
DICKINSON COUNTY - IOWA
F. Duncombe, both of Fort Dodge, were the opposing candi- dates. The vote of this county was almost unanimous for Carpenter. After the vote had been duly canvassed and cer- tified to, then the question arose how were the returns to be sent in in time to be counted. There was no postoffice and no mails, and it was not known that any person was going out by whom the returns could be sent in time. In this dilemma it became nec- essary for some one to volunteer to carry in the returns. It was finally arranged that R. A. Smith should take them to Fort Dodge, but fortunately, on reaching the Des Moines River, on the evening of the first day out he fell in with R. E. Carpenter, a brother of C. C., who was on his way to the lakes for the pur- pose of getting them. The election was very close, the returns from this county deciding it in favor of Carpenter, and the county has stood by him loyally ever since.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.