History of Kossuth County, Iowa, Part 6

Author: Reed, Benjamin F
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 879

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"The general appearance of the country is one of great beauty. It may be represented as one grand rolling prairie, along one side of which flows the mightiest river of the world, and through which navigable streams pursue their devious way towards the ocean. In every part of the whole district, beautiful rivers and creeks are found, whose transparent waters are perpetually renewed by the springs from which they flow. Many of these streams are connected with lakes; and hence their supply of water is remarkably uniform throughout the summer. All these rivers, creeks, and lakes are skirted with woods often sev- eral miles in width, affording shelter from intense cold or heat to the animals that there may take refuge. These woods also afford the timber necessary for building houses, fences and boats. Though probably three-fourths of the dis- trict is without trees, yet so conveniently and admirably are the waters and the woods distributed throughout, that nature appears to have made an effort to ar- range them in the most desirable manner possible.

"Taking the district all in all, for convenience of navigation, water, fuel and timber; for richness of soil; for beauty of appearance, and for pleasantness of climate, it surpasses any portion of the United States with which I am ac- quainted. At present there is a great deal of deer, some bear, and some buffalo within reach. Turkeys, grouse, and ducks will long be abundant ; and of fish there can never be any scarcity. Every stream is filled with them, and among them may be found the pike, the pickerel, the catfish, the trout and many other vari- eties."

This little book was published ten years before Iowa became a state, and fif- teen before Kossuth county was established. How well it was received and how it directed the people's attention towards the west may be learned from the let- ter which the Hon. Geo. W. Jones wrote to Lieutenant Lea in 1836, on the ap- pearance of the book. Jones at that time was delegate in Congress from Wis- consin territory and was of course, representing this section of the country. Here is what he said:

"Your account of the country is certainly interesting and candid, as I was con- fident it would be when I heard that you were writing on this subject, from the fact of your having explored the country in person, from your liberal and just views of the far northwest and from the ample means which you had of obtaining information. The country which you have described, is undoubtedly not sur- passed as a farming and mining country by any in the known world; and the manner in which you have set forth its advantages must insure to your work an extensive circulation. The numerous applicants that have come to me from the east, the south and the west for information in relation to this country, I take pleasure in referring to your 'Notes.' You have said much for the coun- try, but I do not believe that you could have said too much in commendation of its fertility and natural resources."

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HISTORY OF KOSSUTH COUNTY

It is. doubtful if Captain Allen's expedition up through here, in 1844. did much to induce emigration into this region, unless his account of the wild game they saw along the route was an incentive. After passing up the Des Moines river from Fort Des Moines and attempting to explore the country in the regions of the head waters of the Blue Earth and St. Peter's rivers and then across to the Missouri, they encountered too many obstacles to receive a very favorable im- pression of that unexplored region. On their return march, while tangled in the swamps and marshes of the Big Sioux, Captain Allen no doubt expressed his sincere convictions when he noted in his journal this significant sentence: "The romance of marching through a wilderness country is much abated."

The California gold fever, which so affected tens of thousands of people in 1849, that they joined in the mad rush across the valleys, plains and mountains enroute for the gold mines, was one of the agencies that helped to settle the newer portions of this state. Many who left the southern and eastern parts of the state on that mission returned after having met with disappointments and brought others with them to found new homes. The green prairies and black soil looked good to them after their having had a sad experience in the parched country in the far west. Many also, who crossed the state for the first time while on their way from the east to the Golden Gate, remembered how inviting the country seemed as they passed through. They returned, sick of pushing hand-carts across the plains; sick of camping in a country filled with savages and fraught with danger ; sick of climbing the mountains with wagons and ox teams; sick of looking for gold which they never found; and sick of trying to make a living in a section of a country where it was too sandy to produce the necessary food- stuff to maintain their families. Iowa soil was good enough for them ; so they stopped and began building homes and opening up farms. Most of these 49ers have passed away, but their children and grandchildren are still in this section of the country and are here surrounded with all the comforts their hearts can desire.

During the next three years, while the soldiers were at Fort Dodge to protect the settlers in their homes, long emigrant trains continued to pour into this state. In these trains were frequently seen that old curiosity-the wide-track, Pennsylvania wagon with its box shaped like a half moon. Sometimes several such wagons would be seen in the same train. They were usually drawn by several yoke of ox teams and were filled with a great quantity of household goods. Following the long trains came the cattle and other stock strung out in line. On the end of the reach of each. wagon there hung that other old curiosity, the wooden tar-bucket, patterned like a tall, silk hat. Camping at night was an enjoyable event, no matter what kind of weather it happened to be. Victuals cooked in the ashes had a better flavor and were more relished, especially bv the youth of the train, then is the food, prepared in these later days of perfection in the culinary art.

Long before Horace Greeley said, "Go West, young man, and grow up with the Country," emigration had started from the Atlantic slope to pass beyond the Mississippi. Notwithstanding the fact that there have been probably as many as one hundred persons, each of whom claimed to be the identical one to whom this advice was personally directed by the great founder of the New York Tribune, it is quite doubtful if he had in mind any one particular young man when he first spoke or wrote that classic sentence. It embodies a sentiment

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which Editor Greeley many times expressed through the columns of his paper. Many had their thoughts directed westward on account of these expressed sen- timents. Not only the young men, but the grey-haired fathers and mothers and their daughters became restless and longed to go

"To the West, to the West, to the land of the free Where the Father of Waters rolls down to the sea."

This restlessness was not caused solely by Greeley's published sentiments, but it was due to a variety of causes. When western farmers returned to the east and informed their old-time neighbors that if the Cabots had first discovered the Mississippi valley instead of the eastern coast, the Atlantic sea-board would have received no settlers until the great valley had been filled to overflowing, those old neighbors received the news with wonder and astonishment and sought further information on the subject.

As they had been accustomed to digging out a living anrid stones and stumps on their small, irregular-shaped patches of ground, they could hardly realize that in the Mississippi valley one could turn unbroken furrows for a mile with- out meeting obstructions of any kind. It is no wonder that upon learning this information they became restless and uneasy and longed to help populate such a country.

Those who lived along the banks of the Mississippi river, and especially those who lived in sight of the ferries during the year 1854, had the best possible chance of becoming informed as to the great number of people who were pushing their way towards the setting sun to found new homes. These homeseekers had cut loose from their old moorings and had joined in the stampede in search of better conditions. The immense tracts of grazing lands, the timbered streams, the fertile soil, and the easy terms by which the government was disposing of her domain, caused thousands of these emigrants to hail Iowa that year as a future home. They could not conceive of better prospects anywhere. North- western Iowa then began receiving settlers, and the first cabins began to appear in Kossuth.

The reader can form some idea of the great rush for Iowa land in 1854. by noting what some of the papers along the Mississippi had to say on the subject that year. The Courier, published in Crawford county, Wisconsin, in one of its July, 1854, issues gave this interesting pen picture in a paragraph headed, "Emi- grants to Iowa:"

"There is a ferry across the Mississippi some five miles below here called 'Junction Ferry,' and a ferry plying between the lower town of Prairie du Chien and McGregor. There is still another ferry here which plies between our upper steamboat landing and a point below the mouth of the Yellow river called 'Upper Ferry.' Each of these ferries employs a horse-boat and is crowded all the time with emigrants for Iowa. Sometimes the emigrants have to encamp near the ferries for two or three days to wait their chance of crossing in the order of their arrival. They come in crowds a mile long. They come with wagon-loads of household fixings, with droves of cattle and flocks of sheep; they come from every land that ever sent adventurers westward, and the cry is, 'Still They Come!' The emigration to the northern part of Iowa this year exceeds anything

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HISTORY OF KOSSUTH COUNTY

in the way of emigration we have ever seen or heard of, except perhaps the first stampede across the plains for California."

The above clipping from the Crawford County Courier gives a graphic de- scription of the conditions along the Mississippi on the southwestern border of Wisconsin, in 1854. The Dubuque Times that year published numerous accounts of how the people were swarming from the east and passing over the river into Iowa. Among these notices was this beautiful editorial production :

"Daily, yes hourly, immigrants are arriving in this and neighboring counties from Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois. All are in raptures at the lovely sight which here meet their gaze, and they with one accord yield the palm to western Iowa for lovely prairies, beautiful groves of timber, and meandering streams of water."

The Dubuque Reporter about that same time made these statements: "Never before in the history of this northwestern region has there been a more gratify- ing spectacle than that now presented to those who take an interest in its progress and welfare. Viewing the almost countless throng of immigrants that crowd our streets, and learning that a similar scene is visible at every other point along the Mississippi border of lowa, the spectator is naturally led to infer that a general exodus is taking place in the eastern states of the Union, as well as in those that, a few years ago, were denominated the west. Day by day the endless procession moves along- a mighty army of invasion which, were its objects other than peace, and a fraternal cordial league with its predecessors, their joint aim to conquer this fair and alluring domain from the wild dominion of nature, would strike terror in the boldest hearts. They come by hundreds and thousands from the hills and valleys of New England, bringing with them that same untiring indomitable energy and perseverance that have made their native states the admira- tion of the world, and whose influence is felt wherever enterprise has a votary, or commerce spreads a sail; with intellects sharpened to the keenest edge, and brawny arms to execute the firm resolve of their iron will, and gathering fresh accessions as they swept across the intermediate country from the no less thrifty and hardy population of New York, Ohio and Indiana."

Professor Tuttle in his History of Iowa, says regarding this great movement towards the west : "In the years 1854 and 1855, the stream of immigration began to pour into Iowa from the Eastern states to an extent that was astonishing and un- precedented. For miles and miles, day after day, the prairies of Illinois were lined with cattle and wagons, pushing on towards Iowa. At Peoria, one gentleman says that during a single month 1.743 wagons had passed through that place, and all for Iowa. Allowing five persons to a wagon, which is a fair average, we have 8,715 souls added to the population."

The Chicago Press, in one of its 1854 issues, told as follows about the great rush into Iowa: "Most of the passenger trains came in last week with two loco- motives, and the reason of this great increase of power will be understood when it is known that 12,000 passengers arrived from the east by the Michigan Southern Railroad during the last week." The Burlington Telegraph about the same time said: "Twenty thousand immigrants have passed through the city within the last thirty days, and they are still crossing the Missisippi at the rate of six and seven hundred a day."

The Keokuk Dispatch in one of its issues in 1854 gave this bit of interesting

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HISTORY OF KOSSUTH COUNTY

information about the condition of immigration into that part of the state : "No one can travel up and down the Mississippi without being astonished at the immigration constantly pouring into Iowa from all parts of the country ; but especially from Indiana and Ohio. Two gentlemen from Richmond county, Ohio, told us that from that county alone 1,000 persons were coming to Iowa this fall; at every ferry on the river crowds are waiting to cross; and the land offices all over the state are unable to meet the demands upon them by those who are eager to enter land."

What a grand spectacle of 1854 conditions is here presented! How valuable these condensed items of Iowa's early history! How fortunate these published paragraphs have been preserved for the benefit of later generations! The first ferry boat the author ever saw was at Burlington in the fall of 1853 when he, a little boy, along with his parents crossed the river with one of these immigrant trains. Its members entered a country on this side of the river which was reported to be filled with dangerous horse thieves. Before the third night's encampment they had reasons for realizing that the report was well founded.

Fort Dodge, being on the outskirts of civilization in the early 50's, was the gateway to Kossuth and other northwestern Iowa counties during that period. When this county began forming settlements the newspapers at that place made many favorable comments with reference to the advantages which this county afforded. These comments had much to do in directing a stream of emigrants northward into this region. The old Iowa Northwest never missed an opportunity to say a good word for Kossuth. Its editors took special delight in making just the right kind of statements to impress emigrants with the fact that Kossuth was emphatically the place for them to settle. Nor were these favorable comments contained alone in the old Northwest. Later publications continued with praises along in the same line. Even at so late a date as November, 1864, the Fort Dodge Republican gave us this gratuitous advertising :

"Kossuth county is one of the largest counties in the state, being over forty miles long and about twenty-four miles wide, embracing twenty-eight townships. There are 10,000 acres of timber in it lying along the Des Moines river, the remainder is prairie. There is but very little timber and no settlement in the north- ern part of the county, it being one vast unbroken plain of prairie. In the south- ern part of the county we find some of the finest grazing country in the west. The settlements are sparse, farms large, and thousands of acres still unsettled, amid the richest pastures in the whole world."

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CHAPTER VI

SURVEYING KOSSUTH IN THE EARLY FIFTIES

The experiences the government surveyors had in running the township bound- ary lines, and the section subdivisions in the early 50's would make an interesting and lengthy chapter, had they all been reduced to story form and preserved in manuscript or print for the local historian. It is evident that the obstacles they encountered at that period, while engaged in their duties, were as difficult to over- come as any with which the first settlers had to contend while endeavoring to main- tain their cabin homes. The surveyors, the chainmen, the mound builders and campkeepers were all making history pertaining to the county with everyday's service they performed. Their progress was impeded by the interference of the Indians, the annoyance of the myriads of mosquitoes, the presence of impassable sloughs and overflowed swamps, the inclemency of the weather and many other causes. Unfortunately for the historian but little is now known of the vexatious trials the most of them had while establishing the corners which today mark the boundary lines of the thousands of valuable farms in the county.

The state line between Iowa and Minnesota was run during the year 1852, the next year after the legislature had established Kossuth county and all the other counties in northwestern Iowa. Andrew Talcott was the name of the surveyor who ran the line, and set those oak posts on the boundary to designate where one state began and the other ended. These posts stood for many years after this county had begun to settle and show signs of civilization. They were seen by Captain Ingham on his return from the Northwest after having had an encounter with Umpashotah in the spring of 1855. They were familiar objects to the Calls and to other early settlers, as well as to the surveyors who ran the township and subdivision lines in the northern part of this county.

The Talcott surveying crew came near to having serious trouble with the Indians before the line of posts was completed. Buffaloes at that time were roam- ing in that vicinity and so was Ish ta ha bah with his band of braves, who claimed the titonkas (big blacks) as his individual property. When the crew killed a couple of the buffaloes they committed a great crime in the opinion, or pretended opinion, of the chief. He was a stickler for the doctrine of "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." Two of his "cattle" having been killed and appropriated by the Tal- cott party, he demanded and was determined to have as indemnity two of the oxen used in drawing the camping outfit. At that time Engineer Talcott and a few of his men were some two miles in advance of the other members of the party. They were entirely surrounded by the savages and for a while the situation looked serious. A war of words followed, including threats from Ish ta ha bah. Talcott

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and his few assistants put up a strong bluff and managed to prevent any violence being used until the rear attendants could arrive. When they came up there was an armed body of them amounting to about eighty in all. The Sioux then agreed to puckachee, but with the understanding that if any more of the titonkas were killed they would drive the surveying party out of the country by force. This encounter occurred in the northwest corner of this county near the state line. Shortly after this some of the party went down to Fort Dodge for supplies, and while there told the story of their narrow escape. Talcott's state boundary line was not only marked by that long line of posts, but by a line of empty flasks and long necked bottles which his crew left behind them as the work progressed from day to day. They evidently much preferred the beverage the bottles contained to the slough water along the route, in which the snakes, frogs, bugs and lizards seemed always to be present. At the time the line was run the north three tiers of town- ships, of what is now Kossuth, comprised Bancroft county. Both had been created at the same session of the legislature in 1851. Since Kossuth absorbed Bancroft in 1855, whatever history the latter had is now a history of the former.

The township boundary lines of the two counties were surveyed by John W. Ellis. He began his work in 1853 and completed it in 1854. Had the total length of the two counties been one mile more, there would have been twenty-eight town- ships staked off, each being six miles square. As the result of the shortage the townships bordering on the Minnesota line are only five miles from their south line to their north. The congressional townships staked off by Ellis and his crew were designated by numbers and not by certain names, as 96-28 instead of Plum creek, the former number indicating that the township was in the third tier of townships from the south, and the latter that it was also in the second range from the east side. The work required of Ellis was quite simple as compared with the surveying that had to be done later when it became necessary to subdivide the townships into sections and quarter-sections.

The work of subdividing the townships was done by various deputy govern- ment surveyors who contracted to perform the service. The work was begun in 1854 and mostly completed the following year. Some of these contractors met with so many obstacles that they were compelled to surrender their contracts and let the task be completed by others. Some of the work was so poorly done that it failed to pass muster with the inspector. Considerable work that was accepted, or escaped the attention of the government officials, was done so wretchedly that many law suits between neighbors in later years were the result. Some of these surveyors were either grossly incompetent, drunk at the time or wickedly indiffer- ent as to the quality of services they were performing. Some sections contained more acres than they reported and some less ; some quarters with no apparent rea- son were made larger than others; some descriptions were impossibilities; some lines were so deflected that no sober man would have established them as they were located, and in some cases there is good evidence for believing that the chainmen dropped one of the pins and consequently made a mistake of 100 feet in their cal- culations. In 96-27 (Wesley ) they made such a blunder, and it has been the cause of serious hardships and endless trouble. Several other townships have had sim- ilar difficulties to contend with and their troubles, even at this late date, are not yet ended.

Deputies had the contracts for surveying the various townships, as now desig-

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nated, as follows according to records on file at the General Land Office at Wash- ington ; Leach and Bell-Whittemore, Garfield, Cresco, Riverdale, Irvington and Sherman. Thomas McCullock-Prairie and Lu Verne. George Temple-Fenton, Lotts Creek, Burt, Union, Portland, Plum Creek and Buffalo. J. W. Woods- Wesley. John Haggard-Swea, Seneca, Harrison and Greenwood. Orson Lyon -Ledyard, Ramsey, Lincoln and German. McMichael and Harvey-Eagle, Grant and Springfield. John Snook-Hebron. Little can be found throwing light on the experiences these surveyors had in running the subdivision lines. It is known, however, that Leach and Bell encountered Inkpadutah's band of renegade Sioux, while surveying in Cresco, and fled to Fort Dodge for protection after having had their camp robbed on July 2, 1854. It was these surveyors who met the Calls at that place coming to the county and gave them a description of the groves, and who warned the claim seekers of the hazardous risk they were taking in entering a section of the country filled with hostile Sioux.

Only two reports of the experiences the surveying parties had while running the subdivision lines have come to the knowledge of the author. One is by D. A. Haggard, who contributed an article on the subject to the Upper Des Moines Republican during the semi-centennial celebration, and the other is by C. C. Car- penter, who gave the story for publication to the old Upper Des Moines during the editorship of Harvey Ingham. This story is also corroborated by Lewis H. Smith, who was one of the Carpenter surveying crew, and who had his full share of the experiences narrated in the report.

EXPERIENCE OF DAVID A. HAGGARD

Dr. John Haggard, of Dubuque, having contracted with the government to subdivide the four congressional townships in this county, now designated as Swea, Harrison, Seneca and Greenwood, and also two in Emmett, entered the north part of this county with his surveying party August 25, 1854. One of that party of seven was D. A. Haggard, son of the contractor, who at that time was a boy fifteen years of age, but who after attaining his majority and after having served in the army throughout the war, became a permanent resident of the county and identified with its material prosperity. This surveying party had entered the county from the east, crossing over the Winnebago line and coming upon the soil of what is now German township. They crossed the Little Buffalo at a point near where the German Valley postoffice was later located and then camped upon its bank over night.

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History of Kossuth County, Iowa, Part 6

Author: Reed, Benjamin F Publication date: 1913 Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 879

Author: Reed, Benjamin F
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 879