USA > Iowa > Johnson County > History of Johnson County, Iowa, containing a history of the county, and its townships, cities and villages from 1836 to 1882 > Part 67
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HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY.
clean water are dying out from this cause. But the nastier breeds can still stand it and grow fat on the filth.
FOOD FOR FISHES.
On Wednesday night, January 20, 1875, Dr. Shaw, the State Fish Com- missioner of Iowa, arrived at Iowa City with 18,000 California salmon two inches long, from the state fish hatchery at Anamosa, and put them into the river above the old Terrell mill dam. They doubtless made very choice and dainty feed for the cat fish, dog fish, gar pike, etc .; and thus the state money instead of providing "fishes for food," as Dr. Shaw so eloquently pleads, only provided the merest trifle of "food for fishes."
The largest fish reported caught in Johnson county was a channel cat- fish, which weighed sixty-eight pounds. It was caught with a hook by Wm. Ayers, at Terrell's mill dam in 1862. M. W. Davis took off the skin and stuffed it, and kept it in his drug store window for a number of years as a natural curiosity. A good many of the same kind have been caught weighing from 50 to 55 pounds.
The largest black bass ever caught here was hooked by Samuel J. Hess, at Rock Point, a little way above Coralville, and weighed five and a quarter pounds.
In 1862 or '63, a gar pike over four feet long was caught in a seine, and is still preserved at the boat house as the largest icthyosaurian specimen ever seen in Johnson county waters. This fish is really a fresh water shark.
CHAPTER X .- PART 1.
PIONEER POINTS, BY HON. HENRY FELKNER.
Hon. Henry Felkner furnished to this historian the original manuscript of his reminiscences and recollections of the pioneer days in Johnson coun- ty, with free permission to make any use of it which would aid in produc- ing a full, fair and complete history of the county. After three months' of work in collecting our history material, we find Mr. Felkner's sketch to be generally very reliable, and we therefore give it entire. It will thus be saved from the mutilation of using it in fragmentary citations, and will be the more prized by his pioneer associates. The same MSS. was edited and printed in the State Press in 1881, and we are much indebted to Hon. John P. Irish for the free use of the files of his paper in regard to this and many other historical matters.
THE FIRST TWO.
Eli Myers and Philip Clark started from Elkhart county, Indiana, in the fall of 1836 to visit what was then known as the "Black Hawk Pur-
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HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY.
chase." Their objective point was Rock Island, better known then at a distance than any other point on the Mississippi above St. Louis. They arrived there at the termination of a treaty with the Sac and Fox Indians, at which they sold what was called the Keokuk Reserve, a body of land lying on both sides of the lowa river from its mouth up to where the line of the Black Hawk purchase crossed it. Messrs. Myers and Clark there made the acquaintance of John Gilbert, who was keeping a trading house on the Iowa river for S. Phelps & Co., of Oquawka, Ill. Gilbert learned that they were looking for a location on which to settle, and told them he knew the very place, and invited them to go with him to his trading house. They gladly accepted, and on arriving he treated them with great kindness, and went on foot to show them the place where they made their claims and finally settled. Those claims embrace all the land south of the residence of the late Judge McCollister down to Sandtown. After making their claims they returned to Indiana, and during the winter got their teams and outfit; and early in the spring of 1837 set out for their western homes, which they reached in time to break and plant, each 40 acres. Soon after them in 1837, came Judge Harris, from St. Joseph county, Indiana, who by nearly the same route reached Gilbert's trading house, accompanied by his nephew James Massey, and wife and child. Gilbert went with him to where he finally located his claim, embracing the Thomas Hill and a half dozen other farms. After the Judge had built a cabin for Massey on the southwest bank of the lowa river, oppo- site the Myers farm, he returned to Indiana to prepare to move his fam- ily out to his new home, which was accomplished late in July or early in August, bringing with him his son-in-law, Dr. Isaac N. Lesh, Jacob Earhart and family, and John and Henry Earhart.
Between Judge Harris' arrival in the spring and his permanent settle- ment here in mid-summer, Wm. Devaul and Tom Bradley came in, the former to remain some years -- the latter went in the fall of 1837 to a trad- ing house on the Des Moines river and never returned. Samuel and James Walker came also early in the spring, and Joseph Walker and another brother late in the same year. The Walker brothers made claims where Joseph now lives and to the south and west, including many farms now owned by other parties. I should have said that Myers and Clark each brought with them a young man, Eli Summery and William Wilson. The former returned to Indiana in the fall of 1837, and Wilson remained. The foregoing is the precise order in which white men came to Johnson county. The writer came next, very soon after the two Walker brothers, and made a claim south of Sandtown, adjoining Phillip Clark's on the south. I hired Eli Myers to break five acres of land and while I was helping him to make rails to fence his corn, [had been there about a week, } S. C. Trowbridge came in. He had known Myers and Clark in Indiana, and wished to get a claim near them. He offered me $15.00 for mine.
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HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY.
Not long after William Sturgis and G. W. Hawkins came, the latter a married man. They both settled in the south part of the county. Late in the season John Trout, E. Hilton, A. D. Stephen, Mulholland and John Hight came; also a man name Schrick, who was but little known. He stayed with the Walker boys and was the first white man who died in Johnson county. J. A. Cain, a married man, settled on the farm now owned by Henry Walker. He did not live long and the family left.
THE FIRST TOWN.
One of the events of that summer was the laying off of a town, above the mouth of English river by John Gilbert. He called it Sephe-nahmo, but it was only a town on paper, although scientifically staked off.
THE FIRST " RAISING."
In the spring of that year John Gilbert gave notice to S. Phelps & Co., that as soon as he could make arrangements, he would leave their employ and set up on his own account. Accordingly, about the first of July he gathered up all the young men in the settlement who were unemployed, to help him build a house. They were glad to get work and to get a place to board. They were all from timbered States and knew the use of the ax. While some were chopping logs, others were getting out timber for clapboards to roof it, and puncheons for floors; others dug a hole for the cellar, while others were hauling up the material. It was not long till everything was on the ground, and as there was force enough to raise the building we did not call in the neighbors. We all knew something about cabin building, and had no trouble in getting it up and covered. One room was finished as a store room, the cracks were chincked and daubed, a strong puncheon floor laid, a stout counter and door put in. The house stood over the line on Indian ground, and as a consideration, Gilbert agreed to treat the Indians, and this he fulfilled religiously, as far as two barrels of whisky would do it. As the season's building was over, and the treat safely administered, Gilbert had no use for his force and dis- charged them all but the writer, who remained in his employ till March 7, 1838. None of the young men who had come in the spring and summer of 1837, except Philip Clark, Eli Myers and the Walker brothers, were in a position to set up house-keeping, and so were without homes, only as they could get employment of others. After leaving Gilbert's some found work with Wheton Chase, a brother-in-law of S. Phelps, who took charge of the trading house which Gilbert had just left. Chase had for several years kept a trading horse on the Cedar river, in what is now Cedar county, just above Rochester, for Phelps & Co. Others of the young men hired with Myers and Clark, making hay, and later husking corn. As winter came on, however, it became more than ever necessary for them to have permanent quarters. A few went to Bloomington [now
37
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HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY.
Muscatine], but the greater number went to New Boston, on the Missis- sippi, and took contracts to chop steamboat wood. Coal was not then in use, and boats ran exclusively on wood. These choppers built cabins in the low and thickly timbered bottoms, boarded themselves and made good wages. After they were gone our little colony was small, for about the same time the Indians, except some old people, went on their winter hunt, to be gone till spring. The number of settlers left on the north bank of the river did not exceed twenty, including Mesdames Chase, Lesh, Cain and several children, and these twenty people were scattered from Gil- bert's trading house to the south line of the county.
AN INDIAN BATTLE.
Just after Gilbert had given the treat to the Indians, already referred to, the Indians got up a party ostensibly to go on a hunt, but really to get into a fight with the Sioux. None but able-bodied young men went. They had drawn on their friends, the Sacs, on the Des Moines river, for some horses. When everything was ready they slipped away without making any sensation, so far as a white man could see. This was some time in August. On such an expedition travel was necessarily slow, for they had to provide rations as they went. Some weeks went by and no tid- ings came back. The Indians in camp seemed to anticipate no harm to their friends. One very pleasant evening in September, about 5 o'clock, when everything was quiet, the old Indians lying around smoking, the young ones enjoying themselves, a peculiar Indian shout was heard on the bluff north-east of the upper town. The first shout was followed by a half dozen others, in not very quick succession. These cries were so loud and distinct that although the Indian was two miles away from the lower town, they were heard distinctly. The effect of these shouts was most striking. Every Indian knew at the first what it meant. It was a mes- senger sent from the battle with the Sioux to bear heavy tidings to their friends. He had sped day and night with his message, and when the shouts had secured the attention of the camp, he told the story in short sentences, named the red warriors that were killed, gave a list of the wounded and the incidents and outcome of the fight. He spoke so loud and distinctly that all heard, and when he finished such a wail went up from those bereaved of fathers, husbands and sons as I never heard before or since; the camp was literally a house of mourning.
Indian women do not weep like white women, they wail, and for weeks they could be heard daily in secluded places wailing as if their hearts were broken. The war party. had been badly whipped by the Sioux, and barely got away with the wounded, leaving their dead to be scalped. It was some weeks before the main party got in. They brought the wounded down the Iowa river in canoes, established a hospital near the trading house, and put them in charge of the Medicine Man. No one else dare go in. Three times a day he made it hideous around there with his pow-
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HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY.
wowing, beating a tin kettle and rattling a gourd with shot in it. Some died and a few got well. This defeat gave the Indians such a scare that more than six months after they paid John Gilbert $400, to build a stock- ade around the upper town.
DISTINGUISHED VISITORS.
In the fall of 1837 occurred a visit of Keokuk, Wapello, Appanoose, and a number of other distinguished Indians, to Poweshiek, the chief of the tribe that held this section. Their coming was known, but was without display. The visiting party rode up in single file. Hitched their horses, went into Poweshiek's tent where he was seated and all sat down in a row, remaining for some time in silence. Then Poweshiek rose and passed the tobacco around, filling Keokuk's pipe and his own. They all smoked awhile without saying a word. Keokuk finally broke the silence by stat- ing the purpose of their visit, which was to consult upon a proposition of the government to buy more lands. He made a speech in favor of the sale. This was about October 1, for the treaty making the sale then decided on is dated October 21, and in a few days after this meeting they started for Washington, Wheton Chase going as interpretor. From Washington they were taken through all the chief cities of the country, and returned late in November highly pleased with all they saw except President Van Buren. They were accustomed to call the President the "Great Father," and expected to see a man head and shoulders bigger than his fellows. But when they met in Van Buren a little "squatty" man, as they called him, and bald headed at that, their contempt knew no bounds and was quite beyond the power of their language to express.
The year 1837 closed without further incident of interest. The settlers were in theenjoyment of good health. The exodus of young men alraedy noted, made the settlement lonesome, as winter came, with nothing to do, no place to go, nothing to read and no way of hearing from the outside world except by going to Burlington or Rock Island. It was distressingly monotonous, especially to such a man as Judge Harris. He was active and well preserved, had been an active politition in Indiana, had enjoyed office, and to be cut off from such interests was more than he could stand .
" BE IT RESOLVED."
Mainly on his suggestion, it was announced that a public meeting would be held at Gilbert's trading house, to consider the situation. The appointed evening came and with it Judge Harris, Dr. I. N. Lesh, Eli Myers, Gilbert and the writer. There were also present old Jennie, a squaw who had lived with the traders many years and talked good English; Gilbert got her now and then to wash things up, and a person called by the Indians, Mogawk, a tall and very black negro. The object of the meeting was talked over and the settlement's need of roads, bridges and mail facilities were discussed. The legislature of Wisconsin, for be it known we were
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HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY.
then in the territory of Wisconsin, with Burlington for its capital, was in session, and this meeting resolved to send two delegates down forthwith, and it was further resolved that Judge Harris and John Gilbert should go. But they must have credentials and hence the proceedings must be writ- ten out to indicate a formal and sizable affair, but who should write them out? Gilbert's pen had forgotten its cunning by its long residence with the Indians; Lesh was well educated, but professed inexperience, and Har- ris was not a plain writer, so it was agreed that Harris should dictate and Lesh write. The result as nearly as I can recall it was about as follows:
At a large and respectable meeting of settlers on the public lands on the Iowa river, held at the traping house of John Gilbert, pursuant to pre- vious notice, on the - day of January, 1838, the following among other proceedings were had. The meeting was called to order by Judge Har- ris, on whose motion blank was unanimously elected chairman. On motion of John Gilbert, Dr. Isaac N. Lesh was appointed secretary. On motion of Dr. Lesh, a committee of three was appointed by the chairman to report resolutions expressive of the sense of this meeting. The chairman named Judge Harris, Eli Myers and John Gilbert such committee. While the committee retired to deliberate upon its report the meeting was ably addressed by several gentlemen present. [It will be observed that after the committee retired the meeting consisted of Mr. Felkner, Dr. Lesh, Mogawk and the Indian squaw.] The committee returning submitted the following which was unanimously adopted:
WHEREAS, A large number of persons have settled on the Iowa river on public lands in the vicinity of John Gilbert's trading house, and
WHEREAS, We have evidence that there will be a large influx to our settlement next spring, and
WHEREAS, As we are suffering great inconvenience from the lack of roads and bridges, and
WHEREAS, We are without mail facilities, and
WHEREAS, The legislature of this territory is now in session at Bur- lington, therefore
Resolved, That two delegates be appointed by the chair whose duty it shall be to proceed forthwith to Burlington and use their influence with the legislature to have roads established at different points on the Missis . sippi river, also to have the legislature ask congress to establish a mail route from Burlington to the trading house of John Gilbert, a post-office established there and a post-master appointed without delay. The chair appointed Judge Harris and Judge Gilbert such committee.
THE FIRST LOBBY.
The delegates, armed with their credentials, started for Burlington the second day after the meeting, walking the whole distance, although the ground was covered with snow. Arriving they made the acquaintance of Gov. Henry Dodge, who treated them very kindly and made many inqui- ries about the new settlement and especially about the number of inhabi- tants. John Gilbert told him it numbered 1,500, at which the Governor was very much surprised. When they returned I asked Gilbert how he dared tell the Governor such a story? He swore that the Governor did not ask him what color they were!
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HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY.
The delegates got acquainted with many legislators, to whom our wants were made known, but they soon learned what we could not have other- wise known for several months, that congress was about to divide the territory of Wisconsin, establishing a new territory to be called
IOWA,
and it would be organized during the summer, and they preferred handing us over to the new government.
TRICKS IN TRADE.
I have already said that late in the fall of 1837 the Indians nearly all left for the winter hunt. They went up the different water courses, the Iowa and English rivers, Old Man's creek, &c. Their practice was to go at once as far as they intended and then hunt the ground towards home. They spent the fore part of the winter far up the streams and then hunted back by slow stages, traveling a day, going into camp, hunting and trap- ping as long as game was plenty, then moving on. Sometime in Febru- ary, 1838, an Indian came in and said the main body had got down to near the present Sehorn place, on Old Man's creek. Gilbert was running his business against odds; he had not as many goods as Chase, and so resolved on strategy. With a young man named Hamilton for a compan- ion, he concluded to pack each with fifty pounds of goods, and meeting the Indians, take the cream of their trade and swap before they got in. They had to go in the night or the other establishment would find it out. The winter was mild and the river was already open and no way to cross it except in a canoe which Chase kept tied up in the mouth of Gilbert's creek. While they were getting the packs ready Gilbert sent the writer down to see if the canoe was there and to visit Chase and see if the coast was clear. The canoe was all right. The call on Chase was made, a half hour spent pleasantly there, and the report was duly made. Gilbert and Hamilton were ready and started at once, crossed in the canoe about 11 P. M., and began their long tramp. Chase and his men suspected noth- ing till after they were gone, then they grew to thinking the evening call a singular thing, talked it up and were convinced there was a nigger in the wood-pile. A messenger was sent to see if the canoe was in its place. He reported it missing. Chase determined not to be beaton and at once built a raft of logs and took some iron-socketed pushing poles which belonged to a keel boat that was tied up in the creek, pushed the raft over, recovered the canoe, packed goods, loaded men and started them in pur- suit of Gilbert. The night was clear and the ground was white with snow, so the trail of the first party could be easily followed, and they deter- mined that although he had several hours the start he should not beat them much. They had an advantage over him in having with them Quota, a French half-breed, who spoke the language equal to the Indian and had influence with them. Gilbert reached the Indians first, but thinking the
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HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY.
field was his, made no hurry about going to trading, and spent much time in talking the thing up. When he finally began to talk trade, and opened his goods, he chanced to look around and there to his consterna- tion stood Quota and his men loaded to the guards with goods. Quota was aggressive from the start. He told the Indians that Gilbert had been underhanded in starting to meet them; had stolen the canoe, and neglected the old Indians left at home; that his sympathies were with the whites; and much more of the same sort; so that when they began to barter their furs and pelts, Quota got more than three-fourths of them, and Gilbert was beaten at his own game.
EARLY TRANSPORTATION.
Early in the spring of 1838 Judge Harris returned to Indiana on busi- ness, and while there induced many of his old friends and neighbors to move to Iowa. Among them were Green Hill, Yale Hamilton, Gardner, J. Stover, a Mr. Miller, John Royal and others. The Judge returned by way of St. Louis, where he bought a quantity of flour and groceries. Chase in the meantime had sent the company's keel boat, with the furs and pelts he got from the Indians, to St. Louis, where it was being loaded with supplies for the trading house. Judge Harris got his goods on the same boat, and Mr. Phelps shipped for me a set of saw-mill irons also. The boat was towed up to the mouth of the Iowa river by a steam boat and was pushed the rest of the way against the current of the Iowa, with poles, stopping near Judge Harris's home to unload his goods, then com- ing to the company's new trading house on what was afterwards the Byington farm, and which stood many years after.
In that year two saw mills were built, one by Judge Harris, on Old Man's creek, the other by Felkner & Myers, on Rapid creek. Wolcott was millwright of the former, and James Foy of the latter.
That summer the Indians murdered Atwood. [See something about this under history of Lincoln township.]
CHAPTER X .- PART 2.
ANNALS OF OXFORD.
Mr. M. W. Cook of Oxford township, wrote and published in the Oxford fournal in 1881, a series of articles on the pioneer history of his township, including also much that belonged to the more general history of the State. Mr. Cook's " Annals " contain a vast fund of most inter- esting and useful information, presented in a straightforward and business- like way, with a spice of anecdote, wit and genial humor occasionally intermingled. He has carefully revised and corrected it and given it to this historian. We only regret that limit of space compels us to eliminate
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HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY.
everything which does not directly and specifically pertain to Johnson county.
That portion of the Sac and Fox tribe of Indians which inhabited this region were under Poweshiek and Wapashashiek, the former a Sac and the latter a Fox. They were called by the name of Musquakas, and first located below Iowa City on the east side of the river in 1836, but removed in 1838 to a site north of the river, in which is now Monroe township, just north of the site of the proposed iron bridge. Two years later they removed to the agency near South Amana, and remained till 1843, when they moved on towards the setting sun.
Though they never made Oxford township their headquarters, it was a famous hunting ground for them, and one of their chiefs in speaking of the Clear Creek valley said that " he never expected to find its equal till he had passed over to the happy hunting grounds," and such is their attachment to this region that some of them are nearly always to be found even now wandering about over the old stamping ground. The vicinity of Dutch lake [called by them Devil's lake] was a favorite one on account of the excellent fishing which it afforded in great abundance. Many of the early settlers can testify as to that too. But there is one spot that the old warriors of the Musquaka have reason rather to regard with horror than otherwise. It is on Brush run, a mile west of Homestead. Here Poweshiek, with the warriors of the tribe were overtaken by a band of Sioux when returning from a hunting expedition up the river, and most wofully "licked." In fact the disaster was by far the greatest that ever befell the band, and is yet talked of with horror by them. It occurred in 1837, while they had their headquarters below Iowa City.
But a few of the leaders of the natives deserve special notice.
Poweshiek, chief of the Sacs, in the band was much like Keokuk, and was regarded by all as the finest specimen of the native ever seen in this region. He was a strictly honorable man, and had a large share of those characteristics that made up the " manly man," and the desirable neigh- bor. He was a "brave" too, that is, he had won distinction by his deeds of valor on the field of battle.
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