USA > Iowa > Dickinson County > History of Emmet County and Dickinson County, Iowa, a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 7
USA > Iowa > Emmet County > History of Emmet County and Dickinson County, Iowa, a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 7
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 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45
"Another particular convention signed at the same date as the present treaty, relative to a definite rule between the contract-parties, is in like manner approved and will be ratified in the same form and at the same time, and jointly.
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"Article X-The present treaty shall be ratified in good and due form, and the ratification shall be exchanged in the space of six months after the date of the signatures of the ministers plenipotentiary, or sooner if possible. In faith whereof, the respective plenipotentiaries have signed these articles in the French and English languages, declaring, nevertheless, that the present treaty was originally agreed to in the French language; and have thereunto set their seals.
"Done at Paris, the tenth day of Floreal, in the eleventh year of the French Republic, and the 30th of April, 1803.
"ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON. (L. S.)
"JAMES MONROE. (L. S.)
"BARBE MARBOIS. (L. S.)"
The original cost of the entire territory ceded by the treaty of Paris was about three cents per acre, but McMaster says: "Up to June, 1880, the total cost of Louisiana was $27,267,621." Out of the country acquired by the treaty have been erected the following states: Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, North and South Dakota, about one-third of Colorado, nearly all of Montana, three-fourths of Wyoming, and Oklahoma. In the purchase of this vast region, Livingston and Monroe exceeded their authority and for a time President Jefferson was inclined to the belief that an amendment to the Federal Constitution- an "act of indemnity," he called it-would be necessary to make the transaction legal. But when he saw the general acquiescence of the peo- ple he abandoned the idea. In his message to Congress on October 17, . 1803, he said:
"The enlightened Government of France saw, with just discernment, the importance to both nations of such liberal arrangement as might best and permanently promote the peace, interests and friendship of both ; and the property and sovereignty of all Louisiana, which had been restored to them, have, on certain conditions, been transferred to the United States by instruments bearing date of 30th of April last. When these shall have received the constitutional sanction of the senate, they will without delay be communicated to the representatives for the exercise of their functions, as to those conditions which are within the powers vested in the consti- tution by Congress."
Three days after the delivery of this message, the treaty was rati- fied by the senate. It was ratified by the house of representatives on October 25, 1803. Mr. Jefferson appointed William C. C. Claiborne, gov- ernor of Mississippi, and Gen. James Wilkinson commissioners, in accordance with Article IV of the treaty, to receive the province from Pierre Laussat, the French commissary. The transfer was formally made and the Stars and Stripes were raised at New Orleans on December 20,
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1803. Thus the domain of the United States was extended westward to the summit of the Rocky Mountains and Iowa became a part of the terri- tority of the American Republic.
EXPLORING THE NEW PURCHASE
Not long after the cession of Louisiana to the United States, Presi -. dent Jefferson began making plans to send an expedition up the Missouri River to discover its sources, and to ascertain whether a water route to the Pacific coast was practicable. As it was late in the year 1803 before the treaty of Paris was ratified, the expdeition was postponed until the following spring. The President selected as leaders of this expedition Capts. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark of the regular army. Both were natives of Virginia and the latter was a brother of Gen. George Rogers Clark. On May 14, 1804, they left the mouth of the Missouri River and ascended that stream. Their company consisted of fourteen regular soldiers, nine young men from Kentucky, two French voyageurs or boatmen, an Indian interpreter, a hunter and a negro servant belonging to Captain Clark. Their main vessel was a keel-boat fifty-five feet long, with twenty-two oars and drawing three feet of water. It had a cabin, in which were kept the most valuable articles, and a large square sail to be used when the wind was favorable. They also had two pirogues, fitted with six and seven oars, respectively. Two horses were led along on the bank, to be used in hunting game.
On July 22nd the expedition came to "a high and shaded situation" on the east side of the river, where they established a camp, "intending to make the requisite observations, and to send for the neighboring tribes for the purpose of making known to them the recent change in govern- ment and the wish of the United States to cultivate their friendship." The best authorities agree in locating this camp near the line between Mills and Pottawattamie counties, Iowa. On September 8, 1806, they occupied this camp again on their return trip.
Lewis and Clark landed at several places in Iowa, but found only a few Indians on the east side of the river. The names they gave to some of the streams that empty into the Missouri still remain.
On August 9, 1805, Lieut. Zebulon M. Pike left St. Louis with a sergeant, two corporals and seventeen privates, to explore the upper Mis- sissippi River. In the latter part of that month he held a council with the Indians near the present town of Montrose, in Lee County, Iowa, which was probably the first council ever held on Iowa soil between a representative of the United States and the natives. On that occasion Pike addressed the assembled chiefs as follows: "Your great father, the President of the United States, in his desire to become better acquainted
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with the condition and wants of the different nations of red people in our newly acquired Territory of Louisiana, has ordered the general to send a number of warriors in various directions to take our red brothers by the hand and make such inquiries as will give your great father the infor- mation required."
No attempt was made to conclude a treaty, but at the close of the council Pike distributed among the Indians knives, tobacco and trinkets of various kinds. Among the Indians who were present at this council were some who had signed the treaty at St. Louis the preceding November. Lieutenant Pike seems to have been the first American with whom Chief Black Hawk came in close contact. Some years later the old chief gave the following account of the lieutenant's visit to the Sac and Fox village on the Rock River: .
"A boat came up the river with a young chief and a small party of soldiers. We heard of them soon after they passed Salt River. Some of our young braves watched them every day, to see what sort of people were on board. The boat at last arrived at Rock River and the young chief came on shore with his interpreter, made a speech and gave us some presents. We in turn gave them meat and such other provisions as we could spare. We were well pleased with the young chief. He gave us good advice and said our American father would treat us well."
The expeditions of Lewis and Clark and Lieutenant Pike touch only the borders of Iowa. The first authentic account of the region now com- prising Emmet and Dickinson counties was that contained in the official report of J. N. Nicollet, who was appointed by the secretary of war on April 7, 1838, to make a map of the hydrographic basin of the upper Mississippi River. Associated with Nicollet in this work was John C. Fremont, then a young engineer in the service of the United States, but who afterward won fame as the "Pathfinder of the Rocky Mountains," the first candidate of the republican party for the presidency, and as a general in the Union army during the Civil war. Nicollet and Fremont took an astronomical observation on the north shore of Spirit Lake and reported the altitude, as mentioned in a former chapter.
ACQUISITION OF THE INDIAN LANDS
Although the treaty of September 3, 1783, which ended the Revolu- tionary war, extended the territory of the United States westward to the Mississippi; and the treaty of Paris (April 30, 1803) sold the Province of Louisiana to the United States, thereby extending the western boundary to the Rocky Mountains, neither treaty had the power to extinguish the Indian title to the lands. That problem was left to the Federal Govern- ment for solution.
Article IX of the "Articles of Confederation"-the first organic law
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of the American Republic-gave Congress "the sole and exclusive right and power to regulate the trade with, and manage the affairs of the Indians." Under the authority conferred by this article, Congress issued the order of September 22, 1783, forbidding all persons to settle upon the Indian domain. The Articles of Confederation were superseded by the Constitution, which likewise gave to Congress the exclusive power to regulate Indian affairs. By the act of March 1, 1793, Congress declared: "That no purchase or grant of lands, or any claim or title thereto, from any Indians, or nation or tribe of Indians, within the bounds of the United States, shall be of any validity, in law or equity, unless the same be made by a treaty or convention entered into pursuant to the Constitution."
The first treaties between the United States and the Indian tribes were merely agreements of peace and friendship, but as the white popu- lation increased treaties for the acquisition of lands were negotiated by the Government and the continuation of this policy gradually crowded the red man farther and farther westward before the advance of civilization.
TREATY OF 1804
At the beginning of the Nineteenth Century the white man was already looking with longing eyes upon the broad prairies of Illinois, where lived the Sacs and Foxes and some other tribes. When the Louisiana Purchase was made a clamor arose for the removal of the Indians in Illinois to the new domain west of the Mississippi. Gen. William H. Har- rison, then governor of the Indiana Territory, negotiated a treaty at St. Louis on November 4, 1804, by which the Sacs and Foxes ceded to the United States their lands east of the Mississippi, but retained the privilege of dwelling thereon until the lands were actually sold to white settlers, when they were to remove to the west side of the river. At that time it was the custom of the confederated tribes to give instruc- tions to their chiefs or delegates to a treaty convention as to what course should be pursued, or, in the absence of such instructions, afterward con- firm the action of the delegates by a vote in council.
One faction of the Sacs and Foxes claimed that the delegates to St. Louis had no instructions to sell the lands east of the river, and a considerable number, under the leadership of Black Hawk, refused to con- firm the sale. The opposition to the St. Louis treaty was largely respon- sible for the alliance of Black Hawk and his band with the British in the War of 1812. After that war treaties of peace were made with several of the tribes that had fought against the United States. Black Hawk and his followers were the last to enter into such a treaty. On May 13, 1816, at St. Louis, a number of Sac and Fox chiefs and head men were induced to sign a treaty confirming that of 1804. One of the
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twenty-two chiefs who then "touched the goose quill" was Black Hawk, who, although he never denied signing the treaty, afterward repudiated the agreement.
It required considerable diplomacy on the part of the United States to induce Black Hawk and his followers to remove to the west side of the Mississippi, but in 1830 they crossed over into Iowa "under protest." Not satisfied with his new home, he recrossed the river in the spring of 1831, with a number of his braves and their families, and took possession of their former cornfields on the Rock River. General Gaines was sent with a force of troops to expel the Indians and Black Hawk was solemnly admonished not to repeat the offense. Despite the warning, the old chief, influenced by a "bad medicine man" named Wa-bo-bie-shiek, again crossed over into Illinois in 1832. Again troops were sent against him and the conflict which followed is known as the "Black Hawk war," which ended in the defeat of the Indians in the battle of Bad Axe, August 2, 1832. Black Hawk and his two sons were captured and held for some time as prisoners of war.
THE NEUTRAL GROUND
Going back a few years, it is necessary to notice a treaty which, though no lands were ceded by it for white settlement, played a con- spicuous part in the subsequent history of Iowa. About 1825 the Sioux on the north and the Sacs and Foxes on the south became involved in a dispute over the limits of their respective hunting grounds and the United States undertook to settle the controversy.' William Clark and Lewis Cass were appointed commissioners to hold a council and endeavor to fix a line that would define the boundaries of the different tribes. The council was held at Prarie du Chien, Wisconsin, August 19, 1825, the chiefs of the Sacs and Foxes, Sioux, Winnebago, Chippewa, Ottawa, Potawatomi, and some minor tribes taking part. Aboundary line was finally agreed upon as follows : .
"Beginning at the mouth of the Upper Iowa River, on the west bank of the Mississippi and ascending said Iowa River to its west fork; thence up said fork to its source; thence crossing the fork of the Red Cedar River in a direct line to the second or upper fork of the Des Moines River ; thence in a direct line to the lower fork of the Calumet (Big Sioux) River, and down that stream to its junction with the Missouri River."
South of this line was to be the hunting grounds of the Sacs and Foxes, while the country north of it was to be the common property of the other tribes that agreed to the treaty. It soon became apparent that the imaginary line thus established was not sufficient to keep the contending tribes from trespassing upon each other's domain. Another council was therefore called to meet at Prairie du Chien on July 15, 1830. In the treaty
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negotiated at this council the Sacs and Foxes ceded to the United States a strip of land twenty miles wide along the northern border of their hunt- ing grounds, extending from the Mississippi to the Des Moines, and imme- diately north of and adjoinng this strip the northern tribes ceded a tract twenty miles wide between the same river. The 40-mile strip thus formed was known as the "Neutral Ground," the west end of which included a portion of the present County of Emmet. It remained neutral until 1841, when it was given to the Winnebago Indians for a reservation. A few years later that tribe ceded it to the United States.
TREATY OF 1830
At the council of July 15, 1830, which established the "Neutral Ground," the chiefs and head men of the Sac and Fox confederacy entered into a treaty with the representatives of the United States, in which the allied tribes ceded to the United States a tract of land described as follows :
"Beginning at the upper fork of the Demoine River and passing the sources of the Little Sioux and Floyd rivers to the fork of the first creek which falls into the Big Sioux or Calumet River on the east side; thence down said creek and the Calumet River to the Missouri River; thence down said Missouri River to the Missouri State line above the Kansas River; thence along said line from the northwest corner of the state to the highlands between the waters falling into the Missouri and Demoine rivers, passing to said highlands along the dividing ridge between the forks of the Grand River; thence along said highlands or ridge dividing the waters of the Missouri from those of the Demoine to a point opposite the source of the Boyer River, and thence in a direct line to the upper fork of the Demoine, the place of beginning."
Part of the land thus ceded is in Minnesota. That portion in Iowa is bounded on the west by the Missouri River; on the south by the line separating Iowa and Missouri; on the east by a line passing through or near the towns of Estherville and Emmetsburg until it struck the west fork of the Des Moines River about ten miles above Fort Dodge. The. line along the highlands or watershed between the Des Moines and Mis- souri passed about ten miles west of Carroll, about half-way between Audubon and Guthrie Center, just east of Greenfield, west of Afton and through the town of Mount Ayr.
The lands so ceded were not opened to white settlement, the treaty expressly stipulating that "The lands ceded and relinquished by this treaty are to be assigned and allotted under the direction of the President of the United States to the tribes now living thereon, or to such other tribes as the President may locate thereon for hunting and other purposes."
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TREATY OF 1832
While Black Hawk and his two sons were held as prisoners of war, the United States negotiated the treaty of September 21, 1832, with the Sac and Fox chiefs under the leadership of Keokuk, in which those tribes ceded to the United States "all lands to which said tribes have any title or claim included within the following boundaries, to wit:
"Beginning on the Mississippi River at the point where the Sac and Fox northern boundary line, as established by article 2 of the treaty of July 15, 1830, strikes said river; thence up said boundary line to a point fifty miles from the Mississippi, measured on said line; thence in a right line to the nearest point on the Red Cedar of Ioway, forty miles from the Mississippi; thence in a right line to a point in the northern boundary of the State of Missouri, fifty miles, measured on said line, from the Mississippi River; thence by the last mentioned boundary to the Mis- sissippi River, and by the western shore of said river to the place of beginning."
The ceded territory obtained by this treaty embraces about six million acres. It was taken by the United States as an indemnity for the expenses of the Black Hawk war, and for that reason it has been called the "Black Hawk Purchase." It included the present counties of Cedar, Clinton, Delaware, Des Moines, Dubuque, Henry, Jackson, Jones, Lee, Louisa, Muscatine and Scott, and portions of Buchanan, Clayton, Fay- ette, Jefferson, Johnson, Linn, Van Buren and Washington. The Black Hawk Purchase was the first Iowa land obtained from the Indians for white settlement. 1
TREATY OF 1842
The irregular western boundary of the Black Hawk Purchase soon led to dispute between the Indians and the settlers. To adjust these differences of opinion some of the Sac and Fox chiefs were persuaded to visit Washington, where on October 21, 1837, they ceded to the United States an additional tract of 1,250,000 acres for the purpose of straighten- ing the western boundary. Upon making the survey it was discovered that the ceded territory was not enough to make a straight line, and again the Indians accused the white settlers of encroaching upon their lands. Nego- tiations were therefore commenced for additional land to straighten the boundary, and some of the wiser chiefs saw that it was only a question of time until the Indians would have to relinquish all their Iowa lands to the white man. Keokuk, Wapello and Poweshiek especially advised a treaty peaceably ceding their lands to the United States, rather than to wait until they should be taken by force. Through their influence a council
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was called to meet at the Sac and Fox agency (now Agency City) in what is now Wapello County. John Chambers, then governor of Iowa Territory, was appointed commissioner on behalf of the United States to negotiate the treaty.
The council was held in a large tent set up for the purpose near the agency. Governor Chambers, dressed in the uniform of an army officer, made a short speech stating the object for which the council had been called. Keokuk, clad in all his native finery and bedecked with orna- ments, responded. After that there was "much talk," as almost every chief present had something to say. On October 11, 1842, a treaty was concluded by which the allied tribes agreed to cede all their remaining lands in Iowa, but reserved the right to occupy for three years from the date of signing the treaty "all that part of the land above ceded which lies west of a line running due north and south from the Painted or Red Rocks on the White Breast fork of the Des Moines River, which rocks will be found about eight miles in a straight line from the junction of the White Breast and Des Moines."
The red sandstone cliffs, called by the Indians the Painted Rocks, are situated on the Des Moines River in the northwestern part of Marion County, near the town called Red Rock. The line described in the treaty forms the boundary between Appanoose and Wayne counties, on the southern border of the state, and passes thence northward between Lucas and Monroe, through Marion, Jasper, Marshall and Hardin counties to the northern limit of the cession. East of this line the land was opened to settlement on May 1, 1843, and west of it on October 11, 1845.
TREATY OF TRAVERSE DES SIOUX
By the treaties concluded at the Indian agency on the Missouri River on June 5 and 17, 1846, the Potawatomi, Ottawa and Chippewa tribes relinquished their claims to "all lands to which they have claim of any kind whatsoever, and especially the tracts or parcels of land ceded to them by the treaty of Chicago, and subsequent thereto, and now in whole or in part possessed by their people, lying and being north and east of the Missouri River and embraced in the limits of the Territory of Iowa."
With the conclusion of those two treaties all that portion of the State of Iowa south of the country claimed by the Sioux became the property of the white man. It remained, however, for the Government to extin- guish the Sioux title to Northwestern Iowa before the paleface could come into full possession. This was done by the treaty of Traverse des Sioux on July 23, 1851, when the Sisseton and Wahpeton bands ceded to the United States "All their lands in the State of Iowa, and also all their lands in the Territory of Minnesota lying east of the following line,
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to wit: Beginning at the junction of the Buffalo River with the Red River of the North; thence along the western bank of the said Red River of the North to the mouth of the Sioux Wood River; thence along the western bank of the said Sioux Wood River to Lake Traverse; thence along the western shore of said lake to the southern extremity thereof ; thence in a direct line to the junction of Kampesa Lake with the Tchan- kas-an-da-ta or Sioux River; thence along the western bank of said river to its point of intersection with the northern line of the State of Iowa, including all the islands and said rivers and lake."
The treaty of Traverse des Sioux was agreed to by the Mdewakanton band in a treaty concluded at Mendota, Minnesota, on August 5, 1851, and by the Wahpekute band a little later. Thus the great State of Iowa became the complete and undisputed domain of the white man. The period of preparation for a civilized population-a period which began more than two centuries before-was now completed and the hunting grounds of the savage tribes became the cultivated fields of the Caucasian. The Indian trail has been broadened into the highway or the railroad. Instead of the howl of the wolf and the war-whoop of the red man is heard the lowing of kine and the shriek of factory whistles. Halls of legislation have supplanted the tribal council; modern residences occupy the sites of Indian tepees; news is borne by telegraph or telephone instead of signal fires on the hilltops, and the church spire rises where once stood the totem pole as an object of veneration; Indian villages have disappeared and in their places have come cities with paved streets, electric lights, stately school buildings, public libraries, newspapers, and all the evidences of modern progress. And all this change has come about within the memory of persons yet living. To tell the story of these years of progress and development is the province of the subsequent chapters of this history.
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CHAPTER IV MILITARY HISTORY
CAUSES LEADING UP TO THE CIVIL WAR-THE SLAVERY QUESTION-THE MIS- SOURI COMPROMISE-THE OMNIBUS BILL-KANSAS-NEBRASKA BILL- POLITICAL CAMPAIGN OF 1860-SECESSION-FALL OF FORT SUMTER- LINCOLN'S PROCLAMATION CALLING FOR VOLUNTEERS-SENTIMENT IN IOWA-GOVERNOR KIRKWOOD'S PROCLAMATION-ANSWERING THE CALL -ON THE FRONTIER-CAPTAIN MARTIN'S COMPANY-MINUTE MEN- SIOUX CITY CAVALRY-NORTHERN BORDER BRIGADE-GENERAL ORDERS NO. 1-FORT DEFIANCE-COMPANY F-SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR-FIFTY- SECOND IOWA INFANTRY.
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