USA > Iowa > Kossuth County > History of Kossuth County, Iowa > Part 7
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While camping there on that evening of August 25th, they did not know there was another white man in the county. They believed themselves to be the only inhabitants except the roving Indians. In their opinion they were nearly correct, though not quite. Seventeen days before they came Ambrose A. Call with the help of one W. T. Smith had finished the building of their cabin (in Cresco) and they were staying there at that time. Neither of these parties knew of the presence in the county of the other. Before the parties on the north had hardly left that camping ground the embryo settlement on the south had been increased by the arrival of several families. The Haggard party had with them two loaded wagons, one of which was drawn by horses and the other by an ox team. The camp equipment, the surveying outfit and the supply of provisions constituted the major portion of
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these loads. The campers were not out to starve for they had with them a couple of barrels of pork, a keg of molasses, plenty of flour, sugar, beans, tea, coffee, dried apples and other eatables. The party had lifted that 300 pound pork barrel in and out so many times when the wagon was stuck in the sloughs, while coming from Dubuque, that their appetites became something wonderful. They had come a long distance over bridgeless streams and bottomless sloughis and ponds and had had considerable rough experience in common with others who came to the county about that time.
The two covered wagons conveying the surveying party and camp equipment left Dubuque August 10, 1854. After leaving the western edge of Dubuque county they found that for fifty miles the settlements were very light. They crossed the "Wapsie" at the Frink settlement where there were three or four log houses, and then came on to Janesville on the Cedar river through a wilderness and there found a few settlers located. Turning towards the northwest they moved on until they reached the spot where Mason City is situated, and there found three men wrest- ling with pioneer conditions on the outskirts of civilization. Old Joe Hewitt and Jimmie Dickerson, the noted Indian scouts, hunters and frontiersmen, were there living in huts at Clear lake. While at Hewitt's cabin the party first began hearing about the Indians. A few weeks before they arrived the Sioux, who had camped on Lime creek and who were at war with the Winnebagoes, captured a Winnebago boy who had been making his home with Hewitt, and after killing him left for the north over the same section of country through which the surveying party had to travel. But as they had been used to mixing with Indian company in Dubuque county, and had considerable knowledge of Indian character they proceeded on their journey, caring but little about the movements of the Sioux.
Following Lime creek up to a point near where Forest City is located they had a pleasant journey, but they began encountering difficulties which seemed to have no end after passing Crystal lake. The sloughs became much more numerous and much more difficult to cross. In order to cross them at all their party had to go in a northerly direction some distance before getting a chance to turn west on a route leading into Kossuth. When near where Thompson is they were met and sur- rounded by sixteen Indian braves, riding their ponies and yelling as only Sioux Indians can do. It was a perilous situation and something had to be done. By direction of the contractor the teams, wagons and surveying party were placed as nearly as possible in a circle and then awaited the further movements of the Indians. The latter for a while rode around the teams and party, giving the most hideous yells and making war-like demonstrations. Finally this circle-ride of the savages ceased and each sat on his pony watching the action of those who were surrounded. The Indians having single barreled shot guns and hunting knives could easily have annihilated the surveying party who had no arms except three revolvers and a gun, one barrel of which was for shot and the other for ball. Sud- denly one of the leaders jumped off his horse and was met by John Haggard who could converse in the Sioux language. Loud talk and wild gesticulations were indulged in by each, which amused D. . A. Haggard and the others who saw in the performance a grand game of bluff between two, each of whom was equally skilled in all the tricks of the game. The red bluffer being surprised at the courage mani- fested by the "Wasecha" he had encountered withdrew his band, galloping towards the east, evidently in disgust.
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THE OLD JAMES HENDERSON HOUSE (1857) The first brick building in the county
RESIDENCE OF HON. GEORGE W. HANNA, LU VERNE
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After enduring continued hardships in unloading and re-loading the wagons to get them over the sloughs and marshy lands, the party finally reached the Little Buffalo in this county and camped August 25th as above stated. At that time that stream was nameless, for it was about a year later when Ingham, Seeley and Covel sported with the buffaloes on the prairie in that region, and first gave the name of Buffalo Fork to the principal stream.
While the camping party were on the banks of the Little Buffalo the next morning they beheld to their surprise and delight a herd of forty-seven buffaloes coming up over the higher ground in the distance towards the northwest. Hur- riedly the campers got their revolvers ready for action but it did them no good, for the big game turned towards the north and were soon out of sight. That was the only herd that large the party saw while on their surveying expedition, but stragglers of one or two were seen at various times. Resuming their journey over such wet, soggy lands that day they only went a few miles and camped near where the old John O'Hara place is situated. Pursuing their journey on the 29th towards the west they came in sight of a drove of nearly 200 elk in a bunch, which from a distance gave the appearance of a mound of boulders, in the center of which was a large stumpy tree. We will let D. A. Haggard in his own language describe the scenes which followed :
"It may perhaps have been because I was only a boy at the time, but I feel now after a long life spent in varied scenes, that never have I witnessed a grander sight than that knoll crowned with a forest of wide spreading antlers. Of course our first thought was elk meat for dinner. The best shot in the party, George Upston, was presented with our only gun and disappeared in the high grass to endeavor to sneak near enough for a shot, while the party waited for results. Luck favored him to the extent of wounding one, upon which the herd made off directly north, turning neither to the right nor to the left, and leaving a trail from six to ten rods wide where the grass was beaten flat through low land where it was dif- ficult for a horse to follow. Our horses were unharnessed as rapidly as straps could be unbuckled by fingers trembling with excitement, as Upston and one other of the party took up the chase, which they continued for three or four miles, but although the wounded elk remained behind the herd about a mile, they could never get near enough for another shot, and finally abandoning the chase, returned to the wagons with the information that we would have the usual bill of fare for dinner.
"Years afterwards at Buffum's farm sale held in this county, I sold elk at auction for from $ic to $12 per head.
"Continuing west till about 10 o'clock, we struck Union slough, near the present west line of section three, Portland township. As I have mentioned before, we had accumulated quite a list of experiences in bad roads, sloughs and hard traveling but here we viewed this extensive swamp seemingly the climax, and wondered if this was the end or only the beginning of our hard luck. A person watching the breaking teams going up and down this slough as I did a few years ago, could hardly realize that only about forty years before it resembled the everglades of Florida, and was nearly a solid canebrake from eight to twelve feet high. As there was no hope of effecting a crossing we turned to the south and soon struck an Indian trail which led us to a crossing where the slough entered into the Buffalo. We camped for the night on the west bank, with signs of a camp that had been occupied not long previous by a large party of Indians. The following day I had my first view Vol 1-4
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of the Des Moines river, which we reached at a point north of Sheldon's in Burt township, where the old ford now is. Here all hands were set to work with spades and shovels to level the bank so that the wagons might be taken down to the stream ; the same process was gone through on the west bank. We were now near our destination, and made our first camp on the land afterwards homesteaded by one of our old settlers-the late Dr. L. K. Garfield.
"At this point we lay two days in camp resting the men and horses, cleaning up and cutting posts to be used in the work. Now followed some weeks of hard labor, during which time we finished Greenwood and a part of Seneca townships, the men each day wading water a part of the time to their waists, drinking from the sloughs and complaining of sickness at night. Finally matters became so bad that on the discovery by my father of a spring of good water on section 14, Seneca township, we abandoned the work and made our camp almost where the Batterson house now stands. After spending some two weeks in idleness and the men mak- ing no improvement, it was decided to abandon the work altogether and return to Dubuque, for which place the teams were now headed. We made the crossing of the Upper Des Moines at the place we had prepared on our journey out and camped on our old ground on the Buffalo. While we lay in camp that night the beaver made so much noise that most of the boys went down to the stream to watch them work by moonlight. Continuing east, with most of the party too sick to do more than drive the team, near Clear Lake we met a party by the name of Iyon, who informed us he was going to work east of my father's contract. The rest of our party continued east, but after hiring out to this contractor I took the back trail and once more entered Kossuth county, to carry chain through what is now Green- wood, Lincoln, Hebron, Ramsey and a part of Ledyard townships. At our camp in East Ramsey I assisted the men in making what I am satisfied was the first hay put up in Kossuth county. At this time the weather became so inclement work was abandoned and we camped in the timber where the iron bridge is now on the Buffalo in Portland township. While here two young men, from twenty-seven to thirty years of age, came into our camp. They told us they had been engaged in trapping along the Des Moines and its tributaries and there were no white men on the south nearer than Fort Dodge. From this camp sheltered by the timber, we pulled out for Dubuque county."
C. C. CARPENTER'S REPORT
"In 1854 a man by the name of Haggard of Dubuque ( D. A. Haggard's father ) had taken a contract to subdivide eight townships in Emmet and the northern part of Kossuth counties. He made preparations for the work, with camping outfit, team, tent, etc., and somewhat late in the fall he went upon the ground he was to survey. The fall rains had filled the sloughs, so that the work was difficult and confusing. For some days he worked and figured among the sloughs and ponds to get a start. In the meantime a large party of Indians came down from Minne- sota and camped in the vicinity, and parties of them were daily visitors at his camp. They begged provisions and were a general annoyance, until between sloughs, mosquitoes and the Indians, he became utterly disgusted with his contract, and finally left, and returning to Dubuque told the surveyor general he desired to sur- render the contract. Before the surrender of the contract was finally determined,
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Mr. William J. Neely, inspector of United States surveys, who the summer before had visited Mr. Berry's camp while I was at work for him, advised him to hire me to go up and do the work for him. But he feared it might not be done right and he would have trouble. Mr. Neely, however, gave him such assurance as led him to determine to do so. Accordingly Mr. Neely wrote me inquiring if I would do the work for Mr. Haggard provided he would send his outfit to Fort Dodge with three or four hands, leaving me to fill up the force. I answered agreeing to do so.
"In compliance with this understanding, about the first of May, 1855. the team and camping outfit with three hands arrived at Fort Dodge. Mr. Lewis H. Smith, now an honored citizen of Algona, who had just come to Fort Dodge, and a younger brother of mine, R. E. Carpenter, also a recent arrival, were hired to make up the party. We moved upon the ground and began the work. We, of course, had the usual experiences of frontier surveyors. The country was a wet and sloughy region. It seems to me now, as I have ridden over the country since its improve- ment, that there has been a great change in its entire physical structure. The sloughs are not half so large and there are not as many of them. One of the annoy- ances of the surveyor, as it was a sore annoyance in every frontier home, were the mosquitoes. We would generally work until nearly dark and then find our way around the sloughs and through them to our camp. You can neither imagine, nor can I describe, the torment of the mosquito. The air would be literally thick with them. If we talked they would get into our mouths; they would fly into our eyes and cars ; would cover our faces and hands, and not an inch of our bodies, unpro- tected by clothing, would escape them. In going to and from camp one chainman would carry the chain and the other the pins, the mound builders would lead the pony, upon which was strapped the stakes, our lunch basket, a spade, and any cloth- ing we did not need for the time being, so each of these people had one hand with which to fight mosquitoes. But the surveyor carried his compass on one arm and his Jacob-staff on his shoulder, held in place by the other hand, so he had no hand to fight these little torments and had to resolve to let them bite, and march on. At night we would close our tent air tight to prevent being annoyed by them all night.
"Well, things went on without much change until one day we were at work in the vicinity of the point now known as Armstrong's Grove, in the northern part of Kossuth county, when it seemed instantaneously the atmosphere became thick with smoke. The prairie, which had not been burned the fall before, all seemed to be on fire. The smoke absolutely prevented running a line more than a few steps at a time. In the midst of this an Indian came up to me and began a 'pow-wow' and motion with his hands and fingers, I suppose to give me the idea of the number and location of the Indians. While he was going through with his gesticulations, Smith, now Judge Smith, of Algona, came up leading the pony, upon which were strapped the stakes, our coats, dinner pail, etc. The instant the pony caught sight of the Indian, he reared back, jerked the strap from Smith's hand and disappeared in the smoke. We found him the next day, however, and recovered our goods. The Indian, after vain efforts to talk with us, wrapped his blanket around his gun and strode away. It was now quite late in the afternoon and we started for camp. We knew that our cook and camp-keeper would move during the day, with the purpose of pitching the tent near the center of the next township south, as we had
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hoped to finish the one upon which we were at work that day. We therefore walked in the direction of the point to which we supposed the camp would be moved, but knew we would not be able to see it in the smoke, unless we should come very near it. Night finally came on, and the horizon on every side was lurid with burning grass. We knew if our camp-keeper should build a fire to guide us into camp we could not distinguish it from the other fires on every hand. To add to our difficulties Mr. Smith and my brother were not well. We traveled, however, until near 12 o'clock, when we found ourselves in low ground and concluded we might have passed our camp and instead of getting nearer to it might be going away from it. So we lay down in the grass and smoke to rest until daylight. Our coats were strapped to the pony and the night was chilly. It was a hard night.
"The next morning we found ourselves in a bottom near the Des Moines and on looking off to the south, about three-fourths of a mile, we saw our tent. Our cook fairly leaped for joy when we came into camp. He had known the night before we would be confused by the fires, so he had built a fire on a knoll and ran around it for hours hoping we would see him. He was a noble, faithful young man. Well, this was Sunday, and of course we spent the day in camp. Before night we found it a fortunate circumstance that we were all there. About 10 o'clock we discovered coming from the northeast and steering for the southwest, in the direction of the west fork of the Des Moines, a long procession of Indians. The squaws were lead- ing the ponies, to which were attached tents, tent poles, papooses and all the para- phernalia of an Indian camp. They passed about half a mile west of us. When opposite our camp some 30 or 40 of the Indian men turned off and came up to our tent. They gathered around the tent ; some of them went inside, and others peered into it and around it from the outside. They asked for food. I motioned to them that we had to stay three or four moons and had only enough to last, and that we could not get more nearer than Mankato or Fort Dodge. Then they asked for tobacco and we had a pretty good supply and gave them enough to fill their pipes. They sat for a while and smoked and talked among themselves. Finally they got up and began to walk around and through the tent and handle various things. We had a couple of sacks of flour and the two boys had spread a blanket over them and taken a seat on them. One of the boys spread a blanket over our sack of beans and our sugar and coffee and had taken a seat upon them. On the outside of the tent we had a barrel about half full of pickled pork. They gathered around this, took off the cover, looked in, and finally one reached down and took out of the brine a good sized piece of pork and put it under his blanket. I knew if we per- mitted him to keep it that it would be a signal for them to take more, and all. We could talk among ourselves without their understanding what we said, and we agreed that the only way to protect our camp from robbery was to put on a bold front, and if necessary defend ourselves as best we could. So when the Indian had put the pork under his blanket, I walked up to him, took it out, threw it into the barrel and put the lid on. Another picked up a tin cup and acted if he proposed to keep it. I took it away from him and threw it into the tent. Then a young buck picked up a bell which we had to put on one of the horses when they were out graz- ing. He buckled the strap around his leg and walked away, while the whole con- tingent set up a loud guffaw. We agreed they were testing our patience and cour- age. I therefore seized a section stake and followed him a few rods from the tent, confronted him with the stake in hand, pushed him backwards to the tent and
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motioned him to unbuckle the strap. He looked at me with a most surly scowl for half a minute, and I looked him in the eye. He finally unbuckled it and threw the bell toward the tent, and I gave him a push after it. I then walked back to the tent and stood among them, assuming as much as possible an air of indifference in regard to them. They finally began to talk among themselves, and then asked for tobacco. We gave them tobacco to fill their pipes, and after they had lighted them and taken a few whiffs, they marched off. During all this performance with the red scoun- drels it never occurred to me that our lives were in danger. My only anxiety was to protect our food and property, as I thought they intended to rob us. But two years after this when I learned of the massacre at Spirit Lake, in which undoubtedly a part of these savages were engaged, I thought of that Sunday on the prairie and was thoroughly scared."
Besides the work done by the Carpenter crew in Seneca, Greenwood, Swea and Harrison, Lewis H. Smith says they surveyed four townships in range 31 in Palo Alto and Emmet counties, being 96, 97, 98 and 99.
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HON. AMBROSE A. CALL (1854) Built the first log cabin for himself and brother, Asa C. Call, the very first settlers in the county. Was president of the First Na- tional Bank when he died
HON. J. E. BLACKFORD (1855) Early legislator, master of Grange and county treasurer
JUDGE ASA C. CALL (1854)
Was one of the first settlers and the founder of Algona
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CHAPTER VII
COMING TO KOSSUTH IN 1854
Since it is admitted that the best evidence of events is that produced by the actors themselves, the first settlers to arrive in the county will be given a chance to tell in their own language the stories of their experiences in reaching Kossuth. Of the 1854 arrivals a few have had their stories reduced to print or put into manuscript form, thus constituting valuable reports of their experiences in coming to this county to found new homes. From these reports only such portions have been selected for this chapter as tend to show who they were, why they came, what experiences they had in coming, the conditions which enabled them to come, and what they did during the winter after their arrival. Asa C. Call left but little in print or in manuscript concerning his coming to this county. The first part of his report which follows is substantially what his sons compiled from his memoranda and gave to the press for publication. The last part is given in his own language as it appears in his memoranda. The reports of Am- brose A. Call and W. H. Ingham as presented are taken from their addresses deliv- ered at the great semi-centennial celebration of the county in September, 1904. The report of Malachi Clark's experience in making his way to the county finds its place in this chapter to throw additional light on prevailing conditions at that time.
This chapter not only furnishes the reader with a fund of rare information on subjects pertaining to the early history of the county, but it introduces him to actual pioneer conditions in the year 1854 when the first settlements in the county began to form.
JUDGE ASA C. CALL'S EXPERIENCE
Asa C. Call, after working his way through Oberlin College and graduating with the honors of his class, started west to seek his fortune. His first impor- tant work was surveying public lands in Illinois, which gave him his first knowledge of the resources and fertility of this region of country and "inspiring in his mind that abiding faith in the ultimate value of the Illinois and Iowa prairies which remained with him during life."
In the year 1849 he left for the California gold fields, and being without funds, he walked all the way from St. Louis to San Francisco, driving an ox team and paying for his board by standing guard against the Indians. On arriving in California he was appointed Indian commissioner, with the rank of captain, in the regular army, and was given the command of one hundred men,
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with the duty of negotiating treaties with the northwest Indian tribes and recovering stolen property from the Indians.
At the end of four years he returned home with six thousand dollars quilted in his buckskin vest. On his voyage he was shipwrecked and came very tear losing his life. Having had a thorough acquaintance with the Indians and their languages, and being inured to the hardships and dangers of the West, he made up his mind to find some desirable location in a new and fertile country where he could make homes for the various members of his family and build a town,
While he was visiting at Elkhart, Indiana, shortly after his return in 1854, he met and married Sarah Heckart and then they started for lowa City, then the capital of this state. During his sojourn there of a few months he became acquainted with the new land laws and government surveys. He then started with his youngest brother, Ambrose A. Call, to found a new home ..
The present site of Algona was selected as the most desirable point to be found in northern Iowa, at that time forty miles from the nearest house, in a country infested with Indian tribes, from which the government surveyors had been driven the year before by the hostiles. Here they made their home.
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