USA > Iowa > Webster County > Fort Dodge > History of Fort Dodge and Webster County, Iowa, Volume I > Part 3
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the savages get into the water and haul and guide
their
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HISTORY OF WEBSTER COUNTY
canoes with great difficulty and danger; for they sometimes get in up to the neck and are compelled to let go * * *
saving themselves as best they can from the rapidity of the water which snatches the canoe from them and bears it away. This happened to one of our Frenchmen who remained alone in the canoe, all the savages having left it to the mercy of the torrent. (He was in a sorry plight, but at last his life was saved) and the canoe also with all that was in it." No wonder that Nicollet had sewn up his mandarin's cloak in an oilskin bag!
"I kept count of the number of portages," continues Brebeuf, "and found that we carried our canoes thirty-five times and dragged them at least fifty. Another difficulty is in regard to provisions. Frequently one has to fast, if he misses the catches that were made (by the savages when on their way down), and even if they are found one still has a good appetite even after indulging in them ; for the ordinary food is only a little Indian corn coarsely broken between stones and sometimes taken whole in pure water. It is no great treat. -x- Add to these difficulties that one must sleep on tlie bare earth, or even on the hard rock. * * and must walk in the water or mud and in the frightful entan- glement of the forest, where the stings of an infinite number of mosquitoes and gnats are a (continual torment) But * * we all had to begin by these experiences to bear the cross that our Lord presents to us for his honor and for the salvation of these poor barbarians. In truth I was sometimes so weary that the body could do no more, but at the same time my soul experienced very deep peace, considering that I was suffering for God. No one knows it if he has not experienced it."
It was under such difficulties as these that Nicollet's journey was begun ; but Brebeuf speaks admiringly of him as being "equal to all the hardships endured by the most robust savages." But their tiresome ascent of the Ottawa was finally accomplished and the canoes glided out upon the waters of Lake Nipissing then down French river to Georgian bay and on to its head, where the Jesuits imme- diately established themselves in the place formerly occupied by the Franciscans. They were soon joined by Nicollet, who had tarried for a time with the Indians on an island in the Ottawa (Isle des Allumetts). After procuring a suitable outfit and engaging seven Hurons to act as guides, Nicollet bade adieu to Father Brebeuf and his associates and set out on his voyage westward. His commission required him to explore such countries as he might be able to reach and to make commer- cial treaties with the people dwelling therein. The party coasted along the eastern and northern shores of Lake Huron, passing through the dangerous channel to the north of the Manitoulins, until they found themselves tossing about in the eddies below the Sault Ste. Marie in water through which now floats a commerce whose tonnage is three times that which passes Port Said and Suez.
But for Nicollet the scene seems to have had no special interest. He must have heard from the Indians of Lake Superior, but makes no mention of having visited it. The water coursing past his camp at the foot of the rapids was fresh and gave no promise that the "salt sea" of which he was in search lay beyond. Thus did he miss discovering the greatest of all the Great Lakes. Dropping down St. Mary's strait, he rounded the upper peninsula of Michigan and passed on through the Straits of Mackinac. The "second lake of the Hurons," as Lake Michigan was for a time called. lay before him. Boldly following the northern shore of this
Ringgold Co.
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FIGURE VIII-MAP OF RINGGOLD COUNTY, SHOWING MATURITY OF DRAINAGE
Fort Dodge
Webster Co.
FIGURE IX-MAP OF WEBSTER COUNTY, SHOW- ING IMMATURITY OF DRAINAGE
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR, LENOX AND 1 D N FOUNDATIONS.
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new-found sea Nicollet entered Green bay, land-locked by the present state of Wis- consin. He pushed on to its head, where he for the first time encountered tribes of Indians with whom he could not converse. He believed himself upon the out- skirts of the vast Chinese empire. Being invited to a council with the chiefs, he donned his mandarin's cloak and approached, discharging his pistols into the air. The impression was all that could be desired, but he soon discovered that he had not yet reached China, nor even its outskirts. He was well received, however, and. passed on up the Fox river.
After traversing Lake Winnebago, he found himself once more among Indians, of the Algonquin stock, whose language was quite intelligible. From them he heard of a "great water" which could be reached in three days by a short port- age from the Upper Fox river. The portage referred to was, of course, that into the Wisconsin river at what is now Portage City. Had he taken this "three day's journey," he would have debouched, not upon a new sea as he supposed, but upon the upper course of the Mississippi at Prairie du Chien, opposite Mc- Gregor. in Clayton county, Iowa. The "way to Iowa" had been pointed out, but was not to be followed up until forty years later. Why Nicollet missed this opportunity, as he had already missed that at Lake Superior, is not in the least clear. What he did do was to travel overland to the south to visit and estab- lish friendly relations with the great nation of Illinois Indians, obtaining at the same time some general notion of the extent of Lake Michigan. He was at Three Rivers (on the St. Lawrence), again in July, 1635. How the "great water" of which he had heard was regarded by his contemporaries, is evident from this passage quoted from the Jesuit Relation of Vimont for the year 1640. "Sieur Nicollet, who has advanced farthest into these distant countries has assured me that had he gone three days' journey farther from a river which issues from this lake" (the second lake of the Hurons, or Lake Michigan ). "he would have found the sea. Now I have strong suspicions" (that through this sea there would be a passage toward Japan and China.)
But the discoveries of. Nicollet were not soon to be followed up. Scarcely had he returned when Champlain died. Then came a succession of incompe- tent governors. The Iroquois took advantage of the situation and devastated the country, utterly destroying the Huron nation (1649). Such of the Jesuit missionaries as had escaped death were hastily recalled. The fugitive Hurons and Ottawas betook themselves to the remotest shores of the Great Lakes, or sought refuge at Quebec, while others became amalgamated with the Iroquois themselves. Even the fortified settlements on the St. Lawrence were in danger. Trade was, of course, completely demoralized. Many of the wood-rangers (Coureurs de bois), cut off from the settlements, found their only safety in plunging deeper into the great interior wilderness.
As soon as some degree of order had been restored explorations were pushed farther than ever to the northwest for the purpose of reestablishing the fur trade, which had almost entirely fallen away with the destruction of the Huron and Ottawa nations. In 1660 Radisson and his brother-in-law, Grosseilliers, launched their canoes upon Lake Superior and followed the south shore to the end of the lake. Here they located the remnants of the Hurons and Ottawa tribes, secure in these distant regions from the fury of the Iroquois. It is claimed
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that the brothers in their overland explorations, came upon the Mississippi; but. while it may be reasonably inferred, this is not definitely confirmed by Radisson's journal.
However, one thing in this journal is of special interest to us as Iowans. At the close of the narrative of his explorations, Radisson gives a list of the various Indian tribes of which he had knowledge and many of whom he had personally visited. Among these we find mentioned the Maingonis. These were probably the Moingonas, who at this period dwelt along the Illinois river, though they were found in Iowa not many years later. Our capital is named from the river Des Moines i. e., La riviere des Moingonas. I believe this to be the earliest appearance of the name in history.
Among other missions soon established in the far northwest, was one at La Pointe, near Bayfield, on Lake Superior, in northern Wisconsin, near the trading station occupied eight or nine years before by Radisson. This was the direct successor of the old Huron mission at the head of Georgian bay ; for, as just explained, it was to this region that the Hurons and Ottawas had fled in their terror of the Iroquois. Here was stationed Father Jacques Mar- quette, a young man of thirty years and one of the most picturesque characters among the Jesuits in North America.
Indians from far and near resorted to these mission stations to meet the French fur traders on their yearly visits. Marquette, at La Pointe, heard repeat- edly from members of the Illinois tribes of the "great river" by which they came thither to trade-the same "great river." he had no doubt, which was believed by some geographers to flow into the Vermilion Sea (Gulf of Cali- fornia), by others into the Gulf of Mexico. He would explore it; but, before the opportunity presented itself, the Sioux Indians, the "Iroquois of the West," became openly hostile and the dispirited Hurons and Ottawas fled again-the Hurons to Machillimackinac (Mackinac), and the Ottawas to the Manitoulin islands. Marquette went with the Hurons and established his new mission at St. Ignace, at the head of Lake Michigan, on the main land of the northern peninsula of Michigan just opposite Mackinac island. At about the same time another important missionary and trading station was established at the head of Green bay, in Wisconsin.
Talon, the capable intendent of New France, was now devoting his best cnergies to establishing the claim of the mother country to that region in the !, est, the real extent of which was beginning to unfold itself with the simul- taneous advance of missionary and fur trader. He meant to occupy this region and secure control of its great water-ways. Little recked he of Far Cathay. Hle dreamed of a vast new empire for France. The English, mere grubbers of the soil, were to be confined to the region between the Atlantic coast and the Alleghanies, while Spanish influence was to be thwarted by the establishment of French colonies on the Gulf of Mexico.
A splendid expedition was organized under Saint Lusson, acting as lieuten- ant, and sent to Sault Ste. Marie to take formal possession of the whole interior of North America in the name of the French King, Louis XIV. But Talon was determined to give the claim made in behalf of his sovereign a more sub- stantial foundation. He resolved to discover and map the course of that mys-
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COL ENC CO GM
WEBSTER COUNTY COURTHOUSE, 1896
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR, LENOX AND TILD N FOUNDATIONS.
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HISTORY OF WEBSTER COUNTY
terious "great river" concerning which such conflicting but insistent rumors had been current ever since the days of Champlain. To execute his purpose he chose Louis Joliet.
At this juncture, however, Talon disagreed with the governor and both were recalled. The new governor, Comte de Frontenac, at once adopted the ideas of Talon and proceeded to their execution. Joliet was confirmed in his appoint- ment.
The way to Mackinac. to which place Joliet now journeyed, was not new to him. He was already a path-finder, having only recently demonstrated the continuity of Lake Ontario and Lake Erie with the other lakes of the system. At Mackinac he was joined by Father Marquette, still in charge of the Huron mission at St. Ignace. It was early spring. The ice had just left the straits. They made instant haste to prepare for the journey. Five companions were chosen-all Frenchmen and experienced wood-rangers. Their two canoes were selected with unusual care. They were of birch bark, stiffened with cedar splints. Though large enough to carry safely the seven voyageurs and their provisions of smoked meat and maize, besides blankets, camp utensils, guns. instruments and a quantity of trinkets to serve as presents to the Indians, they were still light enough to be easily portable. Joliet and the five wood-rangers were dressed in the buckskin suits then worn by frontiersmen; but Marquette retained his long black Jesuit's cassock and cumbered himself with no weapon save his rosary.
On the seventeenth of May. 1673, they pushed off their canoes into the crescent-shaped bay at St. Ignace, rounded the point to the south, and headed westward along the northern shore of Lake Michigan. The voyageurs must have felt the quickening influence of the changing season. They paddled all day, relieving one another by turns. Trolling lines were set to catch fish. At twilight they landed to prepare for the night. The sand of the beach still retained the heat of the midday sun. Each canoe was hauled up beyond the reach of the waves, turned over and propped up by one edge to serve as shelter. One of the party collected dry drift wood for the fire. Another cut forked sticks and set them up in the sand to hold a cross bar upon which the kettle was hung. Hulled corn was cooked: the fish were broiled in the embers; and Marquette blessed the simple meal. Then, sitting 'round the camp fire, the tired explorers smoked their pipes and rested. Such was the routine of their voyage on Lake Michigan.
Pushing on day after day, along the route followed by Nicollet thirty-nine years before, the party soon entered the Baie des Puans, later known as Grande Bave, now Green bay. They turned into the Menominee river and visited the village of the Indian tribe of the same name, which name signifies wild rice. Here they heard dreadful tales of the country and the river which they were about to visit and were urged to go no farther. A few days later they were welcomed at the mission at the head of the bay, still conducted, as it had been founded. by Father Claude Allouez. After making some final arrange- ments here they ascended Fox river, crossed Lake Winnebago, and entered the devious upper course of the same stream. On the seventh of June, they had
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reached the neighborhood of the portage to the Wisconsin river, first made known by Nicollet.
Guides were secured to conduct them to the point to which the portage was casiest reached, they carried their canoes and baggage a mile and a half over a marshy prairie and, parting with their guides, launched upon the Mescon- sing ( Wisconsin), whose current might bear them to the South Sea, the Gulf of California or the Gulf of Mexico, they knew not which.
The navigation of the Wisconsin presented no serious difficulties, and ten days later, on the seventeenth of June, the explorers floated out upon the broad surface of a mighty river, which they must have recognized at once as the "great water" which they had been sent to find out and explore. They were in the shadow of the almost mountainous bluff at the foot of which lies the quaint little town of South McGregor, the Bingen of the Mississippi. Beyond lay the rolling prairies of Iowa ; but little did they, or their successors for a century and a half to come, dream of such a commonwealth as ours. The depth and breadth of the channel and the swiftness of the current gave them some notion of the extent of the territory to which they had gained access.
The canoes were turned down stream and, as they floated on, the voyageurs justly marvelled at the grandeur of the prospect, which developed new features at every turn of the great river. For days the easy voyage along the eastern border of Iowa was continued without meeting the slightest trace of human habitation. Late each afternoon they landed to stretch their cramped limbs and do their simple cooking ; then carefully extinguishing the fire they floated some miles farther on and anchored after dark at a distance from the shore, leaving one of the party on guard while the others slept. At sunrise they were under way again. Once those in Marquette's canoe were frightened by a huge cat- fish that threatened to damage their frail craft. The great sturgeon that "rushed through the water like hungry sharks" also excited their wonder and apprehen- sion. Buffalo and deer came down to the water's edge and wild turkeys were often seen. Such was the routine of their voyage upon the Mississippi.
Not a canoe, but a hut or a landing place, not a sign of human habitation was seen until the twenty-fifth of June, when they discovered human footprints at the water's edge on the west bank. Leaving their companions to guard the canoes, the two leaders landed, quite unarmed. A trail was found conducting up the bank and into the interior. They followed it for five or six miles over a fine rolling prairie to a village, or rather a group of three villages, situated near a considerable stream. Their reception was ceremonious, but cordial. The Indians were of the Illinois nation and had crossed the Mississippi to escape the prowling bands of Iroquois whose devastating raids were feared even as far west as this. The villages were called Peouaria, after the tribe which occupied them. Another village called Moingouena is also set down upon Marquette's map at some distance, though he makes no mention of it in his narrative. The first of these names survives as Peoria, the now populous district of which this city is the center, being the proper country of the Illinois tribes. The second name, Moingouena, has, as we have already explained, been corrupted into Des Moines and applied to the stream supposed to be the one upon whose banks the vil- lages visited by Marquette were located. Careful study of his map and a com-
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KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS BUILDING, FORT DODGE, BUILT IN 1909
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parison of latitudes, however, indicate beyond reasonable doubt that the site in question was near the mouth of our own Iowa (or Cedar) river. Such being the case, the town of Wapello, in Louisa county, cannot be far from the point at which was held this first conference on Iowa soil, if not in the Mississippi valley, between the white man and the Indian.
The Indians begged the Frenchmen to remain with them, assuring them that the sun had never shone so brightly nor their tobacco had so rich a flavor as since their arrival. An elaborate banquet was served, the four courses being in order hulled corn, fish, dog, and buffalo marrow bones. Presents were exchanged. `The calumet was smoked with due formalities and given to Mar- quette as a peace token to be displayed as occasion might require.
So hospitable was their entertainment that it was the end of June, before the explorers felt that they could with propriety return to their canoes and resume their voyage. Some days later they passed the mouth of the Illinois, then that of the Missouri. This last stream must have been at high water for it is described as a "torrent of yellow mud sweeping in its course logs, branches and uprooted trees." They seem to have been duly impressed by the vastness of a continent that could send forth two such mighty rivers. The mouth of the Ohio was next passed and still they allowed themselves to be borne along by the swift current day after day. However the Indians became less friendly. Strange tribes were encountered with whom not even Marquette could con- verse. They were regarded with suspicion and, at times, were even in peril ; but the peace calumet never failed to secure then safe passage in the end. The long voyage back, against the current of the river, was becoming a matter for serious consideration. Finally, at the mouth of the Arkansas river they deter- mined to turn back. They rightly regarded the problem of the Mississippi as solved. To go on would avail them nothing and might, they thought, lead to their capture by Spaniards and the consequent sacrifice of the results of their expedition.
On the seventeenth of July, just two months after leaving St. Ignace, and one month after the discovery of the river, they began the tedious journey home. Week in and week out they toiled on, the midsummer sun beating fiercely upon their backs as they plied the paddles. Marquette was seized with a pain- ful illness from which he never wholly recovered. Upon reaching the mouth of the Illinois river they were assured that the easiest route to Mackinac lay up this river and by portage into Lake Michigan (Lac des Illinois). Their toil- some journey now became, relatively, a triumphal pageant under the escort of the friendly Kaskaskias, a tribe of the great Illinois nation.
The route took them up the Des Plaines river, past an isolated bluff which traders later named Mont Joliet and which marks the site of the modern town of Joliet. Forty miles farther on they made the Chicago portage. Even then Joliet noted the strategic importance of this portage and later indicated, in his report to Frontenac, the ease with which the Mississippi valley could be opened to commerce by means of a canal connecting the Chicago and the Des Plaines rivers. Bidding adieu to their escort, they once more launched their canoes upon Lake Michigan and made their way along its western shore to the post at
HISTORY OF WEBSTER COUNTY
the head of Green bay, where they were again in touch with civilization-such as the New World then afforded.
The way to Iowa-to the whole Middle West, as well-had been discovered. But between this discovery of Iowa and the beginning of its proper history, there is an interval of a century or more. During this interval the region was frequently and even continuously visited by white men. Its broad prairies, the Mesopotamia of the New World, were doubtless well known to the French and American traders who by turns coursed up and down the Mississippi and the Missouri in quest of buffalo skins.
But the men who have made lowa and our Middle West what it is today came, not by way of the Great Lakes from Canada, nor up stream from the French colonies of Louisiana; not in canoes laden with baubles, such as cheat the savage, but in emigrant wagons with wives and children and bringing imple- ments of agriculture. They came swarming through the passes of the Alle- ghanies and brought with them into this land the spirit of the American Revolu- tion-the spirit of the free state founded upon the Christian home.
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CHAPTER III
THE MOUND BUILDERS.
TIIE GLACIER MAN-ENCLOSURE MOUNDS-ALTAR AND BURIAL MOUNDS- SIGNAL MOUNDS-CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MOUND BUILDERS-COMMERCE AND INDUSTRIES-FIRE AND SUN WORSHIPERS-DRIVEN FROM THEIR HOMES BY THE RED MAN-MAJOR WILLIAMS' ACCOUNT-"BONE YARD HOLLOW."
Along the fronts of the great glaciers, which centuries ago came from the north and covered a large part of the state of Iowa, there lived a race of people not unlike the present Eskimos. As the glaciers receded these people moved northward. They were short of stature, stout, flat-featured men and women. We know very little about them, except the accepted belief of their existence. They were succeeded by another race of people, whom for sake of a better name we call Mound Builders. We know more of the Mound Builders than of the race which preceded them. The mound builder was superior both in intelligence and civilization to the glacier man. All over the American continent are scattered the alluvial mounds of this extinct and prehistoric people. They are countless in number, often vast in extent, and varied in character. The mounds are of two general classes, enclosures and mounds proper.
The chief purpose of the enclosures was defense. Many of them are of vast extent. One at Aztalan, Wisconsin, covers seventeen acres. Its shape is that of an irregular parallelogram, with embankments twenty-two feet wide and from one to five feet in height. At Newark, Ohio, is a very intricate series of earthworks covering an area of two square miles. It consists of circles, octagons, and avenues with parallel walls nearly 5.000 feet in length. In places the parapets rise to a height of sixteen feet, with a ditch thirteen feet deep, making the altitude in the interior about thirty feet. Within this enclosure is the race course of the fair association of the present day, the banks of earth making grand stands, from which another civilization may view the contests of speed. These banks are today covered with gigantic hardwood trees, many of them black walnut.
A striking form of the sacred enclosure is that known as the "Animal Mound." These are particularly numerous in Wisconsin. The outlines of these works show the bas-reliefs of sacred animals: probably the totem of the different tribes, as the turtle, lizard, serpent, alligator, eagle, night-hawk and buffalo. The one representing the turtle has a body fifty-six feet long, with a tail two hundred and fifty feet long, and with the general height of the body about six feet. The "Great Serpent" in Adams county, Ohio, is 700 feet in length, and the "Alligator" in Licking county, of the same state, is 250 feet in length. In Dane county.
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