History of Jackson County, Iowa; Volume I, Part 5

Author: Ellis, James Whitcomb, 1848-; Clarke, S. J., publishing company
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 730

USA > Iowa > Jackson County > History of Jackson County, Iowa; Volume I > Part 5

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Soon after the removal of the Sacs and Foxes to their new reservation on the Des Moines River, General Joseph M. Street was transferred from the agency of the Winnebagoes, at Prairie du Chien, to establish an agency among them. A farm was selected, on which the necessary buildings were erected, including a comfortable farm house for the agent and his family, at the expense of the In- dian fund A salaried agent was employed to superintend the farm and dispose of the crops. Two mills were erected, one on Soap creek and the other on Sugar creek. The latter was soon swept away by a flood, but the former remained and did good service for many years. Connected with the agency were Joseph Smart and John Goodell, interpreters. The latter was interpreter for Hard Fish's. Three of the Indian chiefs, Keokuk, Wapello and Appanoose, had each a large field improved, the two former on the right bank of the Des Moines, back

HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY

from the river in what is now Keokuk's prairie, and the latter on the present site of the city of Ottumwa. Among the traders connected with the agency were the Messrs. Ewing, from Ohio, and Phelps & Company, from Illinois, and also Mr. J. P. Eddy, who established his post at what is now the site of Eddyville.

The Indians at this agency became idle and listless in the absence of their nat- ural and wonted excitements, and many of them plunged into dissipation. Keokuk himself became dissipated in the latter years of his life, and it has been reported that he died of delirium tremens, after his removal with his tribe to Kansas.

In May, 1843, most of the Indians were removed up the Des Moines River, above the temporary line of Red Rock, having ceded the remnant of their lands in Iowa to the United States on the 21st of September, 1837, and on the IIth of October, 1842. By the terms of the latter treaty, they held possession of the "New Purchase" till the autumn of 1845, when the most of them were removed to their reservation in Kansas, the balance being removed in the spring of 1846. I. Treaty with the Sioux .- Made July 19, 1815; ratified December 16, 1815. This treaty was made at Portage des Sioux, between the Sioux of Minne- sota and Upper Iowa and the United States, by William Clark and Ninian Ed- wards commissioners, and was merely a treaty of peace and friendship on the part of those Indians toward the United States at the close of the war of 1812.

2. Treaty with the Sacs .- A similar treaty of peace was made at Portage des Sioux, between the United States and the Sacs, by William Clark and Ninian Edwards and Auguste Choteau, on the 13th of September, 1815, and ratified at the same date as the above. In this the treaty of 1804 was reaffirmed, and the Sacs here represented promised for themselves and their bands to keep entirely separate from the Sacs of Rock River, who, under Black Hawk, had joined the British in the war just then closed.

3. Treaty with the Foxes .- A separate treaty of peace was made with the Foxes at Portage des Sioux, by the same commissioners, on the 14th of Septem- ber, 1815, and ratified the same as above, wherein the Foxes reaffirmed the treaty of St. Louis, of November, 1804, and agreed to deliver up all their prisoners to the officer in command at Fort Clark, now Peoria, Illinois.

4. Treaty with the Iowas .- A treaty of peace and mutual good will was made between the United States and the Iowa tribe of Indians, at Portage des Sioux, by the same commissioners as above, on the 16th of September, 1815, at the close of the war with Great Britain, and ratified at the same date as the others.

5. Treaty With the Sacs of Rock River .- Made at St. Louis on the 13th of May, 1816, between the United States and the Sacs of Rock River, by the com- missioners William Clark, Ninian Edwards and Auguste Choteau, and ratified December 30, 1816. In this treaty, that of 1804 was reestablished and confirmed by twenty-two chiefs and head men of the Sacs of Rock River, and Black Hawk himself attached to it his signature, or as he said "touched the goose quill."

6. Treaty of' 1824 .- On the 4th of August, 1824, a treaty was made between the United States and the Sacs and Foxes, in the city of Washington, by William Clark, commissioner, of the southeast corner of Iowa known as the "Half Breed Tract" was set off and reserved for the half breeds of the Sacs and Foxes, they holding title in same manner as Indians. Ratified January 18, 1825.

7. Treaty of August 19, 1825 .- At this date a treaty was made by William Clark and Lewis Cass, at Prairie du Chien, between the United States and the Chippewas, Sacs and Foxes, Menomonees, Winnebagoes and a portion of the Ottawas and Pottawattomies. In this treaty, in order to make peace between the contending tribes as to the limits of their respective hunting grounds in Iowa, it was agreed that the United States government should run a boundary line be- tween the Sioux, on the north, and the Sacs and Foxes on the south, as follows: Commencing at the mouth of the Upper Iowa River, on the west bank of the Mis- sissippi, and ascending said Iowa River to its west fork; then up the fork to its source ; thence crossing the fork of Red Cedar River in a direct line to the second

HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY

or upper fork of the Des Moines River ; thence in a direct line to the lower fork of the Calumet River, and down that river to its junction with the Missouri River.

8. Treaty of 1830 .- On the 15th of July, 1830, the confederate tribes of the Sacs and Foxes ceded to the United States a strip of country lying south of the above line, twenty miles in width, and extending along the line aforesaid from the Mississippi to the Des Moines River. The Sioux also, whose possessions were north of the line, ceded to the government in the same treaty a like strip on the north side of the boundary. Thus the United States, at the ratification of this treaty, February 24, 1831, came into possession of a portion of Iowa forty miles wide, extending along the Clark and Cass line of 1825, from the Mississippi to the Des Moines River. This territory was known as the "Neutral Ground," and the tribes on either side of the line were allowed to fish and hunt on it unmo- lested until it was made a Winnebago reservation, and the Winnebagoes were re- moved to it in 1841.

9. Treaty with the Sacs and Foxes and Other Tribes -At the same time of the above treaty respecting the "Neutral Grounds" (July 15, 1830), the Sacs and Foxes, Western Sioux, Omahas, Iowas, and Missouris, ceded to the United States a portion of the western slope of Iowa, the boundaries of which were defined as follows: Beginning at the upper fork of the Des Moines River, and passing the sources of the Little Sioux and Floyd Rivers, to the fork of the first creek that falls into the Big Sioux, or Calumet, 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; thence along said line to the northeast corner of said state; thence along the high lands between the waters falling into the Missouri and Des Moines, passing to said high lands along the dividing ridge between the forks of the Grand River; thence along said high lands or ridge separating the waters of the Missouri from those of the Des Moines to a point opposite the source of the Boyer River, and thence in a direct line to the upper fork of the Des Moines, the place of beginning. It is understood that the lands ceded and relinquished by this treaty were to be assigned and allotted, un- der the direction of the president of the United States, to the tribes then living thereon, or to such other tribes as the president might locate hereon for hunting and other purposes. In consideration of three tracts of land ceded in this treaty, the United States agreed to pay to the Sacs three thousand dollars; to the Foxes three thousand dollars; to the Sioux two thousand dollars; to the Yankton and Santie bands of Sioux, three thousand dollars; to the Omahas two thousand five hundred dollars ; and to the Otties and Missouris, two thousand five hundred dol- lars-to be paid annually for ten successive years. In addition to these annuities, the government agreed to furnish some of the tribes with blacksmiths and agri- cultural implements to the amount of two hundred dollars, at the expense of the United States, and to set apart three thousand dollars annually for the education of the children of these tribes. It does not appear that any fort was erected in this territory prior to the erection of Fort Atkinson on the neutral ground, in 1840-4I.

This treaty was made by William Clark, superintendent of Indian affairs, and Colonel Willoughby Morgan, of the United States First Infantry, and came into effect by proclamation, February 24, 1831.

10. Treaty with the Winnebagoes .- Made at Fort Armstrong, Rock Island, September 15, 1832, by General Winfield Scott and Hon. John Reynolds, governor of Illinois. In this treaty the Winnebagoes ceded to the United States all their land lying on the east side of the Mississippi, and in part consideration therefor the United States granted to the Winnebagoes, to be held as other Indian lands are held, that portion of Iowa known as the neutral ground. The exchange of the two tracts of country was to take place on or before the Ist day of June, 1833. In addition to the neutral ground, it was stipulated that the United States should give the Winnebagoes, beginning in September, 1833, and continuing for twenty-seven successive years, ten thousand dollars in specie; and establish a

HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY'

school among them, with a farm and garden, and provide other facilities for the education of their children, not to exceed in cost three thousand dollars a year, and to continue the same for twenty-seven successive years. Six agricul- turists, twelve yoke of oxen, and plows and other farming tools were to be sup- plied by the government.

II. Treaty of 1832 with the Sacs and Foxes .- Already mentioned as the Black Hawk purchase.

12. Treaty of 1836 with the Sacs and Foxes, ceding Keokuk's Reserve to the United States; for which the government stipulated to pay thirty thousand dollars, and an annuity of ten thousand dollars for ten successive years, together with other sums and debts of the Indians to various parties.

13. Treaty of 1837 .- On the 21st of October, 1837, a treaty was made at the city of Washington, between Carey A. Harris, commissioner of Indian affairs, and the confederate tribes of Sacs and Foxes, ratified February 21, 1838, where- in another slice of the soil of Iowa was obtained, described in the treaty as fol- lows: "A tract of country containing one million, two hundred and fifty thou- send acres, lying west and adjoining the tract conveyed by them to the United States in the treaty of September 21, 1832. It is understood that the points of termination for the present cession shall be the northern and southern points of said tract as fixed by the survey made under the authority of the United States, and that a line shall be drawn between them so as to intersect a line extended westwardly from the angle of said tract nearly opposite to Rock Island, as laid down in the above survey, so far as may be necessary to include the number of acres hereby ceded. which last mentioned line, it is estimated, will be about twenty-five miles.

This piece of land was twenty-five miles wide in the middle, and ran off to a point at both ends, lying directly back of the Black Hawk purchase, and of the same length.

14. Treaty of Relinquishment .- At the same date as the above treaty, in the city of Washington, Carey A. Harris, commissioner, the Sacs and Foxes ceded to the United States all their right and interest in the country lying south of the boundary line between the Sacs and Foxes and Sioux, as described in the treaty of August 19, 1825, and between the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, the United States paying for the same one hundred and sixty thousand dollars. The Indians also gave up all claim and interests under the treaties previously made with them, for the satisfaction of which no appropriations had been made.

15. Treaty of 1842 .- The last treaty was made with the Sacs and Foxes October II, 1842; ratified March 23, 1843. It was made at the Sacs and Foxes Agency (Agency City), by John Chambers, commissioner, on behalf of the United States. In this treaty the Sacs and Fox Indians "ceded to the United States all their lands west of the Mississippi to which they had any claim or title." By the terms of this treaty they were to be removed from the country at the expiration of three years, and all who remained after that were to move at their own expense. Part of them were removed to Kansas in the fall of 1845, and the rest in the spring following.

SPANISH GRANTS. 1339786

While the territory now embraced in the state of Iowa was under Spanish rule as a part of its province of Louisiana, certain claims to and grants of land were made by the Spanish authorities, with which, in addition to the extinguish- ment of Indian titles, the United States had to deal. It is proper that these should be reviewed.

Dubuque .- On the 22nd day of September, 1788, Julien Dubuque, a French- man from Prairie du Chien, obtained from the Foxes a cession or lease of lands on the Mississippi River for mining purposes, on the site of the present city of Dubuque. Lead had been discovered here eight years before, in 1780, by the

HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY

wife of Peosta Fox, a warrior, and Dubuque's claim embraced nearly all the lead bearing lands in that vicinity. He immediately took possession of his claim and commenced mining, at the same time making a settlement. The place became known as the "Spanish Miners," or, more commonly, "Dubuque's Lead Mines."

In 1796, Dubuque filed a petition with Baron de Carondelet, the Spanish gov- ernor of Louisiana, asking that the tract ceded to him by the Indians might be granted to him by patent from the Spanish government. In this petition, Du- buque rather indefinitely set forth the boundaries of this claim as "about seven leagues along the_ Mississippi River, and three leagues in width from the river," intending to include, as is supposed, the river front between the Little. Maquo- keta and the Tete des Mertz Rivers, embracing more than twenty thousand acres. Carondelet granted the prayer of the petition, and the grant was subsequently confirmed by the board of land commissioners of Louisiana.

In October, 1804, Dubuque transferred the larger part of his claim to Auguste Choteau, of St. Louis, and on the 17th of May, 1805, he and Choteau- jointly filed their claims with the board of commissioners. On the 20th of Sep- tember, 1806, the board decided in their favor, pronouncing the claim to be a regular Spanish grant, made and completed prior to the Ist day of October, 1800, only one member, J. B. C. Lucas, dissenting.

Dubuque died March 24, 1810. The Indians, understanding that the claim of Dubuque under their former act of cession was only a permit to occupy the tract and work the mines during his life, and that at his death they reverted to them, took possession and continued mining operations, and were sustained by the military authority of the United States, notwithstanding the decision of the commissioners. When the Black Hawk purchase was consummated, the Du- buque claim thus held by the Indians was absorbed by the United States, as the Sacs and Foxes made no reservation of it in the treaty of 1832.

The heirs of Choteau, however, were not disposed to relinquish their claim without a struggle. Late in 1832, they employed an agent to look after their interests, and authorized him to lease the right to dig lead on the lands. The miners who commenced work under this agent were compelled by the military to abandon their operations, and one of the claimants went to Galena to institute legal proceedings, but found no court of competent jurisdiction, although he did bring an action for the recovery of a quantity of lead dug at Dubuque, for the purpose of testing the title. Being unable to identify the lead, however, he was non-suited.

By act of Congress approved July 2, 1836, the town of Dubuque was surveyed and platted. After lots had been sold and occupied by the purchasers, Henry Choteau brought an action of ejectment against Patrick Malony, who held land in Dubuque under a patent from the United States, for the recovery of seven undivided eighth parts of the Dubuque claim, as purchased by Auguste Choteau in 1804. The case was tried in the District Court of the United States for the District of Iowa, and was decided adversely to the plaintiff. The case was car- ried to the Supreme Court of the United States on a writ of error, when it was heard at the December term, 1853, and the decision of the lower court was affirmed, the court holding that the permit from Carondelet was merely a lease, or permit to work the mines; that Dubuque asked, and the governor of Louisiana granted, nothing more than "the peaceable possession" of certain lands obtained from the Indians ; that Carondelet had no legal authority to make such a grant as claimed, and that, even if he had, this was but an "inchoate and imper- fect title."

Giard .- In 1795, the lieutenant governor of Louisiana granted to Basil Giard five thousand eight hundred and sixty acres of land, in what is now Clayton county, known as the "Giard Tract." He occupied the land during the time that Iowa passed from Spain to France, and from France to the United States, in consideration of which the federal government granted a patent of the same to

aSALAT PAU!

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BELLEVUE AND THE MISSISSIPPI

HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY'

Giard in his own right. His heirs sold the whole tract to James H. Lockwood and Thomas P. Burnett, of Prairie du Chien, for three hundred dollars.

Honori .- March 30, 1799, Zenon Trudeau, acting lieutenant governor of Upper Louisiana, granted to Louis Honori a tract of land on the site of the present town of Montrose as follows: "It is permitted to Mr. Louis (Fresson) Honori, or Louis Honore Fesson, to establish himself at the head of the rapids of the river Des Moines, and his establishment once formed, notice of it shall be given to the governor general, in order to obtain for him a commission of a space sufficient to give value to such establishment, and at the same time to render it useful to the commerce of the peltries of this country, to watch the Indians and keep them in the fidelity which they owe to His Majesty."

Honori took immediate possession of his claim, which he retained until 1805. While trading with the natives, he became indebted to Joseph Robedoux, who obtained an execution on which the property was sold May 13, 1803, and was purchased by the creditor. In these proceedings the property was described as being "about six leagues above the river Des Moines." Robedoux died soon after he purchased the property. Auguste Choteau, his executor, disposed of the Honori tract to Thomas F. Reddeck, in April, 1805, up to which time Honori continued to occupy it. The grant, as made by the Spanish government, was a league square, but only one mile square was confirmed by the United States. After the half breeds sold their lands, in which the Honori grant was included, various claimants resorted to litigation in attempts to in- validate the title of the Reddeck heirs, but it was finally confirmed by a decision of the supreme court of the United States in 1839 and is the oldest legal title to any land in the state of Iowa.

THE HALF BREED TRACT.

Before any permanent settlement had been made in the territory of Iowa, white adventurers, trappers and traders, many of whom were scattered along the Mississippi and it tributaries, as agents and employes of the American Fur Company, intermarried with the females of the Sacs and Fox Indians, producing a race of half breeds, whose number was never definitely ascer- tained. There were some respectable and excellent people among them, chil- dren of men of some refinement and education. For instance: Dr. Muir, a gentleman educated at Edinburgh, Scotland, a surgeon in the United States army, stationed at a military post located on the present site of Warsaw, mar- ried an Indian woman, and reared his family of three daughters in the city of Keokuk. Other examples might be sighted, but they are probably exceptions to the general rule, and the race is now nearly or quite extinct in Iowa.

A treaty was made at Washington, August 4, 1824, between the Sacs and Foxes and the United States, by which that portion of Lee county was re- served to the half breeds of those tribes, and which was afterward known as "The Half Breed Tract." This reservation is the triangular piece of land con- taining about one hundred and nineteen thousand acres lying between the Mis- sissippi and Des Moines Rivers. It is bounded on the north by the prolonga- tion of the northern line of Missouri. This line was intended to be a straight one running due east which would have caused it to strike the Mississippi River at or below Montrose ; but the surveyor who run it took no notice of the change in the variation of the needle as he proceeded eastward and, in consequence, the line he run was bent, deviating more and more to the northward of a direct line as he approached the Mississippi, so that it struck the river at a lower edge of the town of Fort Madison. "This erroneous line," says Judge Mason, "has been acquiesced in as well in fixing the northern limit of the Half Breed Tract as in determining the northern boundary line of the state of Missouri." The line thus run included in the reservation a portion of the lower

HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY

part of the city of Fort Madison, and all of the present townships of Van Buren, Charlestown, Jefferson, Des Moines, Montrose and Jackson.

Under the treaty of 1824, the half breeds had the right to occupy the soil, but could not convey it, the reversion being reserved to the United States. But on the 30th day of January, 1834, by act of Congress, this reversionary right was relinquished, and the half breeds acquired the lands in fee simple. This was no sooner done, than a horde of speculators rushed in to buy land of the half breed owners, and in many instances, a gun, a blanket, a pony, or a few quarts of whiskey was sufficient for the purchase of large estates. There was a deal of sharp practice on both sides; Indians would often claim ownership of lands by virtue of being half breeds and had no difficulty of proving their mixed blood by the Indians, and they would then cheat the specu- lators by selling land to which they had no rightful title. On the other hand, speculators often claimed land in which they had no ownership. It was dia- mond cut diamond, until at last things became badly mixed. There were no authorized surveys, and no boundary lines to claim, and, as a natural result, numerous conflicts and quarrels ensued.

To settle these difficulties, to decide the validity of claims or sell them for the benefit of the real owners, by act of the legislature of Wisconsin territory, approved January 16, 1838, Edward Johnstone, Thomas S. Wilson, and David Brigham were appointed commissioners, and clothed with power to effect these objects. The act provided that these commissioners should be paid six dollars a day each. The commission entered upon its duties and continued the next session of the legislature, when the act creating it was repealed, invalidating all that had been done and depriving the commissioners of their pay. The re- pealing act, however, authorized the commissioners to commence action against the owners of the Half Breed Tract, to receive pay for their services, in the district court of Lee county. Two judgments were obtained, and on execu- tion the whole of the tract was sold to Hugh T. Reid, the sheriff executing the deed. Mr. Reid sold portions of it to various parties, but his own title was questioned and he became involved in litigation. Decisions in favor of Reid and those holding under him were made by both district and supreme courts, but in December, 1850, these decisions were finally reversed by the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Joseph Webster, plaintiff in error, vs. Hugh T. Reid, and the judgment titles failed. About nine years before the "judgment titles" were finally abrogated as above, another class of titles were brought into competition with them, and in the conflict between the two, the final decision was obtained. These were the titles based on the decree of "par- tition," issued by the United States district court for the territory of Iowa, on the 8th of May, 1841, and certifred to by the clerk on the 2d day of June, of that year. Edward Johnstone and Hugh T. Reid, then law partners at Fort Madi- son, filed the petition for the decree in behalf of the St. Louis claimants of half-breed lands. Francis S. Key, author of the Star Spangled Banner, who was then attorney for the New York Land Company, which held heavy inter- ests in these lands, took a leading part in the measure, and drew up the docu- ment in which it was presented to the court. Judge Charles Mason, of Bur- lington, presided. The plan of partition divided the tract into one hundred and one shares and arranged that each claimant should draw his portion by lot, and should abide the result whatever it might be. The arrangement was entered into, the lots drawn, and the plat of the same filed in the recorder's office, October 6, 1841. Upon this basis the titles to land in the Half Breed Tract are now held.

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History of Jackson County, Iowa; Volume I, Part 5

Author: Ellis, James Whitcomb, 1848-; Clarke, S. J., publishing company Publication date: 1910 Publisher: Chicago, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 730

Author: Ellis, James Whitcomb, 1848-; Clarke, S. J., publishing company
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 730