USA > Iowa > Dickinson County > History of Emmet County and Dickinson County, Iowa, a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 44
USA > Iowa > Emmet County > History of Emmet County and Dickinson County, Iowa, a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 44
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"So far as relates to the fur bearing animals, no description of them had ever exceeded the truth, and the same is true of the birds, but when it comes to the larger game such statements need to be taken with some degree of allowance. It was held by some the lakes being the favorite headquarters of certain bands of Sioux Indians, they kept the game hunted down closer than was done in other localities. This was doubtless true to some extent. Be that as it may, the buffalo had practically dis- appeared at the time of the first attempt to settle the county in 1856. So far as now can be ascertained there are no accounts or traditions of any having been seen in the vicinity of the lakes for three or four years along about that time. Trappers and others coming across the Big Sioux and beyond, occasionally reported having seen buffalo sometimes in large droves and then again in small numbers. But that was contiguous to the buffalo grass region. None came about the lakes at that time.
"Along about 1861 or 1862 there used to be occasional reports of stragglers being sighted on the prairie, but so far as is known none were killed at that time, although some reports are going the rounds of the papers that one was killed in Osceola County in 1860. One was killed in . this county in the latter part of 1861 or 1862. He was evidently a two year old. He must have straggled in around the north end of Lake Oko- boji, for the first seen of him he was coming down along what is now known as Des Moines Beach, and on reaching Given's Point he took a course, swimming straight across the bay. He landed at the mouth of a ditch, which had been dug from the lake inland to supply a steam mill, located there, with water. The ditch was nearly a hundred and fifty feet long, and although shallow where it entered the lake, it gradually increased in depth as it neared the mill until at the upper end it was about twelve feet deep. The buffalo entered this ditch without hesitation, and as he
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made his way toward the upper end he soon found himself in a trap. He couldn't go ahead, but he couldn't climb up the sides and he could not back out, and the mill hands putting in an appearance about that time soon dispatched him."
While en route to Sioux City in August, 1863, J. S. Prescott, E. V. Osborn, Aaron Rogers, John Burrill and R. A. Smith discovered two buf- falo in the southwest corner of Okoboji Township. At first the men thought the animals to be cattle, but with the aid of a glass found them to be bison. A plan of encircling the animals was evolved, two of them to guard against the escape of the quarry and the other three to shoot them. The first volley had little effect and the animals started to the southwest, but the wounded one was driven back by Smith until again within good range of the guns. A second fusilade failed to down him, but so far checked him as to enable Osborn to send a bullet through his brain, killing him. The second animal escaped. At other times -buffalo in num- bers from one to three were seen in Northwestern Iowa and in Dickinson County, but hardly a year elapsed before the reports ceased. It is prob- able that all the buffalos seen in this county were stragglers. Iowa was never a natural habitat of the buffalo.
As to the elk, it is another question. The prairies of Iowa once abounded in this picturesque animal. Until 1871 elk were plentiful. J. A. Smith, in an article written for the Midland Monthly for August, 1895, writes: "Until midsummer of 1871 a considerable drove of elk had found feeding grounds and comparative security for rearing their young in the then unsettled region of Northwestern Iowa, where the trend of drainage is toward the Little Sioux and Rock rivers and near their headquarters. A colony of settlers planted by Captain May in Lyon County in 1869, the railroad surveyors and advance guard of pioneers in Southwestern Minne- sota in the same year and the influx of homesteaders into Dickinson, O'Brien, Clay and Sioux Counties at that period, compelled this herd of elk to take refuge in the valley of the Ocheyedan River, a tributary of the Little Sioux. There they remained undisturbed, except by an occasional band of hunters, until a memorable July morning in 1871, when the writer at a distance of some two miles saw them pass southwestward down the further border of a small stream that emptied its waters into the Ocheyedan River. The coign of vantage was a lone house on a home- stead claim in the extreme southwestern corner of Dickinson County, miles away from any habitation to the East and many more miles away from any on the West. The herd passed down on the East bank of the stream, while the homesteader's cabin was on the West bank with the wide valley between. To the northwest the view was unobstructed for half a dozen miles, and it was from this quarter that the elk were moving from their violated jungle homes amid the tall rushes and willows of the Ocheyedan Valley.
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"Peering through the vista of pink and yellow shades of a rising summer sun, the first thought of the early summer dwellers in the cabin was that some emigrant's cattle had stampeded-a not unusual occur- rence. A few minutes later and the use of a field glass disclosed the iden- tity of the swiftly galloping animals. Ere they reached the nearest point on the eastern range, we were able to classify them as a drove of elk consisting of four old bulls, ten full grown cows, twelve yearlings and four calves. Judging by the peculiar articulate movements which were plainly visible through the glass, the pace did not seem to be fast, but the conclusion arrived at from the distance covered in a given time, led us to believe that it would be useless to intercept them without swift horses. Some weeks later (for news traveled slowly in those days) we learned that the entire drove in its hegira was scattered and killed before reaching the Missouri River. They took refuge in the larger bodies of timber that skirt the lower waters of the Little Sioux River, and relays of hunters slew to the very last one this fleeing remnant of noble game. And this in brief is the story of the exodus from Iowa of the American
elk. . . . It is quite probable that the remnant the fate of which these pages record, was the last vestige of the American elk east of the great Rocky Sierras and south of the unsalted seas."
Deer were never plentiful in Dickinson County, due to the absence of any large tracts of timber, the favorite habitat of the animal. Deer in scattering numbers were seen from time to time, but were transient, never staying for any length of time. The last time any number was seen in the northwestern part of the state was in the winter of 1881-2.
Animals such as the fox, the prairie wolf and the coyote were numerous until about 1875, when their species disappeared from the land in Dickinson County. Occasionally the timber wolf made his presence known in this county-usually through his thieving propensities. The lynx, or bob-cat, as it was known by the trappers, was found occasionally in this territory. "One of these animals was killed in the winter of 1869 and 1870 northwest of Spirit Lake by a young man by the name of Fenton, who lived at Marble Grove. Either that winter or a year later one was killed by Frank Mead out west of West Okoboji. Frank and a young man by the name of Hogle were together out there trapping muskrats. It was their custom to make the rounds of their traps during the day, bringing their game in and taking care of the furs in the evening, and they were not very particular about throwing the carcasses far away from the tent. One night Frank heard something prowling around and crunching the carcasses that had been thrown out the preceding day, and crawling out of bed he went to the door of the tent, and cautiously putting aside the cur- tain that served as a door he was suddenly startled by the hideous counte- nance of an enormous bob-cat within six inches of his face. Dodging back
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into the tent he seized his revolver and finished the animal there and then. He brought the hide in next day and was quite proud of his trophy."
The prevalence of fur-bearing animals and the extent of the fur business at one time is detailed in another chapter of this volume.
FISH
The catching of fish is now a popular pursuit of dwellers among the lakes of Dickinson County, but the "catch" today cannot be compared to the useless hauls made in other days, when parties came to the lakes and seined the fish by the barrelful. Also many thousands of fish were lost during the high waters of 1874 to 1885. They were carried down stream and never returned. The state legislature passed an act compelling owners of the different water powers to construct fishways in their dams, but two mills at the outlet in this county were constructed before this act was passed and consequently had no contrivance of that kind. This act was passed in 1878. The building of these fishways would have allowed the fish to pass up and down the stream while water was pouring over the dam.
In the spring of 1880 the legislature passed a law establishing an addi- tional fish hatchery at Spirit Lake and the appointment of a fish com- missioner. A. A. Mosher of Spirit Lake was named as assistant commis- sioner. He erected on the isthmus a structure to assist the state hatchery,' and also secured from there the spawn and young fish, afterward plac- ing the young fish in the lakes. In 1886 the legislature decided to abol- ish the hatchery which had been previously established at Anamosa in Jones County, and moved the whole to Spirit Lake. E. D. Carlton of Spirit Lake was appointed fish commissioner by Governor William Larra- bee, and the office of assistant commissioner abolished. Carlton changed the site of the hatchery. R. K. Soper of Emmet County was the next commissioner appointed to the position. He was succeeded by Jut Griggs of O'Brien County in 1892.
In 1873 the legislature put an end to the catching of fish "with any net, seine, wire basket, trap, or any other device whatsoever, except with a hook and line, snare, gun, or spear." In 1884 the legislature imposed further restrictions, preventing the use of a spear and gaff between the first of November and the last of May. In 1890 an act was passed repeal- ing the former restrictions and making the law read: "It shall be unlaw- ful for any person to take from any waters of the state any fish in any manner except by hook and line, except minnows for bait. Also that it shall be lawful to spear buffalo fish and suckers between the first of November and the first day of March following." The latter clause was repealed in the year 1894. Various other acts have been passed since
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by the state legislature regulating the fishing in the Dickinson County lakes.
The office of Fish and Game Warden was created in 1896, and in 1898 the legislature passed a law prohibiting winter fishing alltogether. The closed season is now from November 1st to May 15th.
CENSUS
The census of Dickinson County from 1859 until the present time may be presented as follows: In 1859 the county contained 121 people; in 1860 there were 180 people here; in 1863, 189; in 1865, 300; in 1867, 509; in 1869, 582; in 1870, 1,389; in 1873, 1,743; in 1875, 1,748; in 1880, 1,901; in 1885, 3,215; in 1890, 4,328; in 1895, 6,025; in 1900, 7,995; in 1910, 8,137.
The tabulated census list for the years 1900 and 1910 follows :
Center Grove Township
1,901
1,919
Arnold's Park
251 .
273
Spirit Lake Town
1,219
1,162
Diamond Lake Township
268
887
Excelsior Township
427
286
Lakeville Township
314
369
Lloyd Township, including Terrill
623
614
Terrill Town
217
253
Milford Township, with part of Milford Town
751
762
Milford Town
485
575
Okoboji Township, with part of Milford Town
829
949
Richland Township
490
462
Silver Lake Township, with Lake Park Town
896
894
Lake Park Town
541
552
Spirit Lake Township
445
448
Orleans Village
92
105
Superior Township, with Superior Town
578
542
Superior Town
187
154
Westport Township
533
595
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REMINISCENCES BY T. J. FRANCIS
When I was eight years old my parents lived in Winnebago County, Wisconsin. This was in the spring of 1860. My father had decided to emigrate west. We traveled by team, crossed the Mississippi River at Prairie du Chien, came through the north tier of the counties of this State, and landed one evening in May and camped in the edge of the timber on
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East Okoboji Lake, the place which proved to be our future home. After leaving the Mississippi we did not see any cars or even one piece of rail- road iron. We traveled day after day across the bare prairie, at one time two days of continuous travel without seeing any sign of human habitation. I remember hearing my parents remark, "This country will never be settled up. There is too much prairie."
It was a beautiful panorama to stand on the naked, bare prairie, with nothing but the waving prairie grass and look yonder fifteen to twenty miles and see that strip of green native timber that lined the rivers and lakes. It was a magnificent scene, something that the eye of man can never behold again.
The summer of 1860 I attended school in Spirit Lake, which was the first school in town, if not in the county. It walked from the farm and for a time had to go around the lake near where the Hotel Orleans now stands, as the bridge down at the foot of Lake Street was not yet com- pleted. The schoolhouse was a one-room garret over a residence. It had two windows, one in each gable. The building stood on the present site of E. D. Carleton's residence and the teacher was Miss Mary Howe.
In the early spring of 1862 my father enlisted and joined the western army. I was then the man about the farm.
I distinctly remember one morning in September. I had just yoked the oxen on the wagon and was ready to go after hay, when a man came swiftly passing on horseback and without stopping shouted, "Go to town, the Indians are coming." Mother lost no time in getting the children and a few necessary things loaded in the wagon. When we arrived in town we found the Indians had murdered the settlers on the Des Moines River, north of us, the day before and the last of their murderous work was less than twenty miles from us. Two of the victims had been brought to Spirit Lake. During the night one had died and the other was still living.
The messenger that I spoke of notified all of the people in the county, which were those that then lived around the lakes. In a few hours every person in the county was in town and the most of them in one building, that was the new courthouse then under construction. The roof was not shingled and there was where I did my first carpenter work.
A messenger was sent to Sioux City to call for soldiers. In the mean- time all was excitement. Someone had a small spy glass and a lookout was kept on top of the court house, looking for Indians. Sometimes he would imagine he saw something moving in the distance and the news would go out among the people faster than by a country telephone. The women would scream and all was confusion. This continued for three or four days and then a company of soldiers came .. It was a grand sight and such a joyous demonstration as was then made I have never since witnessed.
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My mother soon decided that it would be impossible to live here through the coming winter, and she would take the family and go back to her parents in Wisconsin, which was a distance of five hundred miles. Our only way of transportation was with that yoke of oxen and the lum- ber wagon. And those oxen had to be led by a rope fastened to their horns. This lot fell to me. We started from here with several families who wanted to leave the country until it was safe to return. Today there are only three persons living in the county who were in that party. They are Mrs. L. H. Farnham, Mrs. A. F. Bergman and myself. After a num- ber of days' travel the party was separated, some going in other direc- tions and we were alone. I still handled the rope and walked near the head of the oxen. My mother had no money to buy shoes, so I was barefoot.
I will never forget one afternoon late in October when we came to a small town not far this side of the Mississippi River. I was plodding . along the street in about three or four inches of mud just on the point of freezing. A man standing in front of a store called to me to drive in and tie the team. He then took me into the store and bought me a pair of shoes and stockings. He also bought some groceries and carried them out to the wagon. I would today travel a long distance to see that man and take him by the hand.
Our journey was completed about November 1st. I secured a job the next day husking corn. We remained there until the spring of 1864. In the meantime mother had secured a span of horses-nowadays they would call them pelters. However, I had the satisfaction of sitting up in the front seat and driving them back to Spirit Lake.
In the '60s people were very sociable. There was no better or select class. One person was just as good as another. It was not unusual at a public ball in this town to sell one hundred 'numbers at $2 each, including supper for one couple. Parties would come twenty miles and some even farther. Dancing would commence at sundown and continue until sun- rise. When I was sixteen years of age I thought I was as big as my dad- my feet were I wore a number eleven boot. This, however, did not hinder my going to and enjoying dancing parties.
I once had the promise of a lady's company to attend a dance in Spirit Lake. The lady lived on the bank of Silver Lake, near what is now the town of Lake Park. There being no liveries or autos at that time the best I could do was to take an ox team and lumber wagon and go after her, which I did and then took her home after the dance. But soon after this occurrence a fellow more swift than I came along and took her away from me and in time they were married.
Most of the houses the pioneers lived in would not be considered as a residence. Our house was a one-room log house, with one room above
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that was used for sleeping. The roof was porous. We could look up and see the stars. In a bad snow storm everything in the room would be buried under snow. I never wore underclothes, never had an over- coat, and never saw a pair of overshoes until I was over eighteen years old. Strange as it may seem, I never knew what it was to have a cold or be sick.
The county had a famine in the spring of 1866. There was no flour or provisions for sale. If a man had been possessed of one million dol- lars there was a time he could not have bought a sack of flour any place. We were fortunate enough to have a few bushels of corn and a coffee-mill, which was put in operation.
We also had fish. At that time you could go fishing any time of the year and catch any kind or any number you pleased. This continued over one month, until the high water in streams and rivers had gone down so as to make it possible for teams to haul in goods. In that day there were no bridges except the two here at the lakes. The value of the first load of flour that came in was one sack even exchange for a cow. I will never forget one afternoon, about three o'clock, when father came home with some flour. Mother proceeded at once to make some biscuit. These lone biscuits were placed in the center of the table, and I have never since tasted anything that was so good. In my judgment it was great joy and satisfaction to have a grist-mill in the house and three good square meals a day of buffalo fish.
MRS. COOPER'S REMINISCENSES
The following article by Mrs. Cooper was published in the Spirit Lake Beacon and is quoted from that publication. At the time of the experiences related Mrs. Cooper was Mrs. William Schuneman.
In 1860 my husband and myself determined to seek a new home for our growing family in the West. Relatives in Dickinson County, Iowa, had urged us many times by letter to go there and see the beauties of the prairie country and the advantages that could be developed in a few years by economy and industry. In October we left our home at Detroit, Michigan, traveling by water to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and taking our horses and light wagon with us, as we had planned to travel in prairie schooners the rest of the way.
Arriving at Milwaukee, our real journey began. My husband's mother and sister accompanied us on the trip. When we could find room to sleep at night, the women and children occupied it, but the boys always slept in the wagons. Passing through Wisconsin in a few days, we crossed the Mississippi river at Prairie du Chien on a ferry and entered the Promised Prairie Land of Iowa with many pleasant anticipations concerning our arrival at Spirit Lake. It was the month
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for prairie fires to be abroad in the land, with ruthless ruin in their wake, but we were inexperienced and not much worried at the seem- ingly distant red lights during the nights, and much admired the pano- rama on every side of us; but we were destined to learn one of the saddest and most serious lessons imaginable, no such experiences having ever entered our lives. In the vicinity of Algona, a town of a half- dozen small houses or shelters, we followed a prairie fire for miles before daring to pass through, finally doing so safely. Seeing a light near, we drove there, finding an elderly couple and asked for shelter, which was at first refused, but later we were permitted to sleep in a part of the house.
As always, the wagon was slept in at night by my husband and boys. When we had retired to our field-bed on the floor, not very cozy you can imagine, the old lady passed through our room with a large butcher-knife in her hand; this much disconcerted us, and little sleep visited our eyes, although we greatly needed rest. In the morning she told us they were always afraid of strangers-and who could blame them, living so far from human habitation, with rumors sometimes reach- ing them of murderous assaults being committed within their range.
During that day we forded the Des Moines river, not far from where Emmetsburg has since been located, and slept that night at Miles Mahans, the last house we would find until we reached the settlement of Spirit Lake, a distance of thirty miles.
When leaving Mahans in the morning, we expected to reach our new home that night, and we were not sorry, for our long ride had become monotonous; the end so near, we cheerfully climbed in the wagons, stop- ping a short time at noon for luncheon. As we returned to our places in the wagon, a thick smoke came up the hill, dividing at the summit and surrounding us so quickly we hardly realized our precarious posi- tion, the heavy, hot smoke half-blinding us. My husband made an unsuc- cessful attempt to turn the team around, but all was confusion, with smoke and flames upon us, we could not discern one from another. At this critical moment a strange gentleman, Tom Dougherty, a citizen of Spirit Lake, came to us and begun starting fire in our midst to burn a space for our safety. When this was accomplished and the fire had passed, my husband was found several rods from us fatally burned, with only his boots and the seams of his clothing remaining on his body. He was unconscious and never again regained consciousness.
One of the horses had to be put out of his misery there the next day. We drove on toward Spirit Lake as fast as possible while I held Mr. Schuneman in my arms the rest of the way that he might be as comfortable as possible. When we got as far as the old Jenkins place a messenger was sent to town to tell them to be prepared with a doctor
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when we got there. Friends and a doctor did all things possible for us. We went to the home of my husband's brother Henry, and the already tired horse with rider were dispatched to Mankato for medicine; he lived nine days and his remains now rest in Lake View cemetery. I was then a widow with six children and empty hands and six months later a little son arrived at my home whom we named "William", whose father, William Schuneman, lost his life trying to save his family from perishing in the fire.
All were kind and helpful as possible, so it did not take long to locate the few but worthy neighbors and I soon began to care for my family the best way I could under the circumstances. My friends thought best for me to enter the Government eighty acres located between the Milwaukee railway on the west, Forest street east and George street- named for George Schuneman-the north line. Afterward I left it go back to the government when I became the wife of Mr. Giese Blackert. He had taken a government eighty where he built a frame house, on the site of Ed Carleton's happy home, previously owned by the Howe brothers. We lived there several years and many a good time was enjoyed by the people, "tripping the lightt fantastic toe,"-I nearly said "tango" but am right glad I did not make the mistake. Many years later the young peo- ple met there for a well-spent evening, among them Ex-Senator A. B. Funk, Miss Dena Barkman and others.
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