USA > Iowa > Linn County > History of Linn County Iowa : from its earliest settlement to the present time, Volume I > Part 2
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It was soon discovered that the band was a portion of the Illinois tribe. Mar- quette had enough acquaintance with the language of this tribe to enable him to hold an intelligent conversation with his hosts. He told the Indians who their visitors were, and why they were there. He expressed the great pleasure he and his companions took at meeting some of the inhabitants of that beautiful country.
* L. G. Weld, Iowa Journal of History and Politics, vol. i, no. 1.
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HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY
They in turn were given a cordial welcome by the Indians, one of the chiefs thus addressing them :
"I thank the Black Gown Chief [Marquette] and his friend [ Joliet] for taking so much pains to come and visit ns. Never before has the earth been so beautiful, nor the sun so bright as now. Never has the river been so calm or free from roeks which your canoes have removed as they passed down. Never has the tobacco had so fine a flavor, nor our corn appeared so beautiful as we behold it today. Ask the Great Spirit to give us life and health, and come ye and dwell with us."
This was an eloquent speech and demonstrated the sineerity of the welcome.
Marquette and Joliet were then invited to a feast which meanwhile had been made ready by the squaws. Afterwards Marquette wrote a description of this banquet, and it is of interest to reproduce it here :
"It consisted of four courses. First there was a large wooden bowl filled with a preparation of corn meal boiled in water and seasoned with oil. The Indian conducting the ceremonies had a large wooden spoon with which he dipped up the mixture (called by the Indians tagamity), passing it in turn into the mouths of the different members of the party. The second course consisted of fish nicely eooked, which was separated from the bones and placed in the months of the guests. The third course was a roasted dog, which our explorers deelined with thanks, when it was at once removed from sight. The last course was a roast of buffalo, the fattest pieces of which were passed the Frenchmen, who found it to be most excellent meat."
The Frenchmen were so delighted with the beauty of the country and the hos- pitality of the Indians that they remained with their friends six days. They ex- plored the valleys, hunted and fished and feasted on the choice game they captured. The natives did all they could to make their stay one gay round of pleasure. They welcomed the coming guests with genuine hospitality, and when they could keep them no longer speeded them on their way in the true spirit. Six hundred of them eseorted Marquette and Joliet to their boats and wished them bon voyage.
This discovery attracted but little attention at the time in Europe, and many years passed before what is now known as Towa appears in history.
THE MOUND BUILDERS
The Mound Builders, from what information we have been able to obtain. must have lived in the Mississippi valley and at one time or another way back in some remote age they must have resided on what later became Iowa. Chronology is not definite as to when or how the Mound Builders arrived in the new world. It is merely speculation when one says that traditions point to a time two or three thousand years ago when the Mound Builders resided in the Mississippi valley and lived in villages and towns. It is true, that in various parts of the old world records have been found of other races which have preceded the raees of which history has any definite record. As the North American Indians had no written language prior to the arrival of the Europeans, their traditions, con- sequently, go back but a short time at best.
It is true that there have been found on the American continent various bones of animals which no longer exist, and there have been found relics of a race of men who were far different from the Indians as the whites found them on their arrival. In North America these pre-historie races have been called Mound Builders, and they have been the first inhabitants of the vast plains of what later became the United States. Still, it may be possible that the Mound Builders
5
THE FIRST INHABITANTS
may have driven out or exterminated some other preceding race of people, who had dwelt in this country for ages before the Mound Builders made their entrance into what is known as the New World. Who knows ?
In Johnson's Encyclopedia, Vol. I, page 125, one finds the following: "Re- mains of the Mound Builders are spread over a vast extent of country. They are found on the sources of the Alleghany, in the western part of the state of New York, and in nearly all the western states, including Michigan and Iowa. They were observed by Lewis and Clark on the Missouri a thousand miles above its junction with the Mississippi. They lined the shores of the Gulf of Mexico from Texas to Florida, whenee they extended through Alabama and Georgia into South Carolina. They are especially numerous in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wis- consin, Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ala- bama, Georgia, Florida, and Texas. Many of these remnants were evidently designed as works of defense or as large towers in war. No inconsiderable num- her appear to have been formed as sepulehre monuments or as places of burial for the dead, while others seemed obviously to have been constructed as temples or places of worship or sacrifice."
While Linn county and Iowa have not as many mounds of as muell interest as, for example, the Cirele Mound in Ohio, still there are a number of mounds found in eastern Iowa and a number in Linn county which would appear to have been constructed by Mound Builders, or, at least, by some pre-historie race long since extinet. Some mounds found near Palo would indicate that they must have been constructed a long time ago, for even trees of large dimensions have been found growing on top and around these mounds. The remnants certainly give evidence in places as though they had been constructed for religious purposes, which evidently is true of nearly all sneh remnants which have recently been discovered in Yucatan and Mexieo.
Some stone implements and ornaments have been found in some of these mounds. These implements are all flint spear and arrow heads and have been worked with much care and skill. Some pottery has also been discovered, at times ornamented and at other times very coarse. Some copper implements have been found of a kind and quality as discovered in the copper region of Lake Superior, which, undoubtedly, have been worked by the Indians and perhaps by the Mound Builders. No bones have so far been discovered to indicate that the Mound Builders had the use of any domestic animals. Very seldom have human skeletons been found, which might attest to the fact that these had been dug ages and ages ago. No tablets of any kind have been discovered, which might indi- cate that the Mound Builders had at no time a written language.
Seience has held that the Mound Builders were an agricultural people and compared with the Indians much more civilized, and that the Mississippi valley was densely populated until the arrival of the Indians. Whether the Indians exterminated them or they were driven away. or they voluntarily removed from this part of the country is still a debatable question.
"If it is really true that there were pre-historie peoples, then the oldest conti- nent would be, in all probability, the first inhabited; and as this is the oldest continent in the formations of the geological period, and as there are found relies of man in England in identically the same strata as are shown in Linn county. why may we not reasonably expect to find relies of man - relies as old as any - in Linn county ? If man once existed here, why may he not have always existed here? It is certainly unreasonable to think young Europe should alone have early relics of man.
"What place the Mound Builders are entitled to in the world's history. since they have left no relics hut mounds of earth, which mounds are probably funeral
6
HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY
pyres or places of sepulchre, we can simply conjecture. We believe some rude carvings on slabs have been exhumed at Grand Traverse, Michigan, Davenport, Iowa, and Rockford, Illinois. These carvings may have reference to the sun, moon and stars; we believe the savants favor such an interpretation. As to where he lived, careful geological study of his mound may some day determine. He was a link in the chain of man's existence; tracing it to its source we may dis- eover some hitherto unknown facts regarding man's origin, or the ancient history of America. This continent may have been more intimately connected with Asia than is at present considered.
"Compare the average life of these nations with the age of the Cedar valley; compare historie age with Cedar valley, whose channel has been ent down through the rocks between one and two hundred feet. Look at these old Devonian rocks, with their fossils as fresh as of yesterday. Look at the clay soil that overlies the rocks. Ilas it been changed in fourteen hundred or in six thousand years? Now look at those mounds that are on the crests of so many ridges, and say how old they are! Forests of giant trees have come and gone over them, how many times ? Those mounds were built by the people known as the Mound Builders. What of their life? What of their age? What of their history ? We have the mounds, and substantially the mounds only. But these mounds are an interest- ing study of themselves. We have not observed these mounds only in the valley of the Cedar river, above and below Cedar Rapids; our observations find them in positions as follows :
"LOCATION OF MOUNDS NEAR CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA
Number of
No.
Location
See.
Twp.
Range
Mounds
1
N. W. 14 S. W. 14
35
83
11
2
S. 1% S. E. 1/4 .
16
83
14
3
S. 1% N. W. 1/4
16
83
7
11
4 N. W. 14 N. E. 1/4
17
83
7
3
5
N. 1% N. W. 14.
20
83
7
11
6
E. 1/2.
18
83
7
11
7
W. 1%.
18
83
7
11
8 N. W. 1/4 N. W. 14
24
83
7
12
Total
84
"No. 1 has eleven mounds, situated on the erest of a divide. The general direc- tion of locations is from north to south, or south to north. The correct location, I believe, is from south to north; that is, they point to the north. These mounds are now raised about three feet above the level, and are uniformly thirty feet in diameter. Counting from the south, the sixth and seventh are generally within a few feet - come very near touching each other; the others are as near as, may be, two diameters apart. These remarks will apply to No. 2. No. 3. No. 5 and No. 6. No. 2 has eleven in a line (as No. 1,) and then three mounds to the cast appear to be parallel, and may have had the remaining eight removed by eulti- vation. No. 4 is on the bottom - second beneh land; are a little larger in size; the others, to make out the eleven, may have been destroyed by cultivation. No. 7 has eight in position, and then a valley intervenes, and the three additional, making the eleven, are on the ridge next to the north. No. 8 has twelve. They are on the erest of a divide which passes around the head of a deep ravine, and follow the divide at the angle. Most of these monnds (No. 8) have been lately opened, but we think no relies were found. We have been careful to find the place that the earth composing the mounds was taken from. Generally, the
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THE FIRST INHABITANTS
banks of a near ravine indieate, by their shape, the place. Under the strongest sunlight, in a mound ent through the center, we could detect no indication or difference in the clay to show that it had been removed or disturbed, or that there had been any remains in it to discolor the clay in their decomposition.
"Let it be observed that the mounds are substantially north and south in line of location. They are eleven in number, uniform in size, and, I believe, cover every ridge in the vicinity of the rapids of the Cedar having the direction suffi- cient in length on which the mounds could be placed. They are built in the locality the least likely to be disturbed, and in the shape and of the material the most enduring. There certainly was intelligence displayed in their location and in the selection of the material of which they are constructed, as well as in the design of their form and positions. There may have been more mounds than these, but these are all that are left - all that are left of that raee which might have sent from their number emigrants to people the new land, to the far west, the last continent, fresh and vigorous from the ocean, the newest born, the best then adapted for man's material and mental development."-History of Linn County, 1978, p. 319.
J. S. Newberry, in Johnson's Cyclopedia, says :
"From all the facts before ns, we can at present say little more than this, that the valley of the Mississippi and the Atlantic coast were once densely populated by a sedentary, agricultural and partially eivilized race, quite different from the modern nomadic Indians, though, possibly, the progenitors of some of the Indian tribes ; and that, after many centuries of occupation, they disappeared from onr country at least one thousand, perhaps many thousands of years, before the advent of the Europeans. The pre-historic remains found so abundantly in Arizona appear to be related to the civilization of Mexico; and the remains of semi-civilized Indian tribes now found there are, perhaps, descendants of the ancient builders of the great houses and cities whose ruins are found there."
Researches concerning ancient mounds have been carried on in a most scien- tifie manner by Dr. Cyrus Thomas. His chief work and research have been embodied in a monograph of over 700 pages and found the 12th Report of the government publications.
Major J. W. Powell, whose studies of this subject have been considered authoritative, in his Pre-historic Man in America has the following to say :
"Widely scattered throughout the United States . artificial mounds are discovered which may be enumerated by thousands and hundreds of thousands. They vary greatly in size. Some are small so that half a dozen laborers with shovels might construet one of them in a day, while others cover acres and are seores of feet in height. These mounds were observed by the early explorers and pioneers of the country. . Pseud-archeologists descanted on the Mound Builders, that onee inhabited the land, and they told of swarming populations who had reached a high condition of enlture, erecting temples, practieing arts in metals and using hieroglyphics. It is enough to say that the Mound Builders were the Indian tribes discovered by the white men. It may well be that some of the mnounds were erected by tribes extinct when Columbus first saw the shores, but they were kindred in culture to the peoples that still existed. Pre-Columbian culture was indigenons, it began at the lowest stage of savagery and developed to the highest and was in many places passing into barbarism when the good queen sold her jewels."-J. W. Powell, quoted in Larned, Vol. I, p. 45.
Thus scientists do not agree whether or not the Mound Builders were closely akin to the Indians. However recent investigators seem to agree with Thomas
S
HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY
and Powell that the early inhabitants were much like the later denizens of the American prairies in their mode of life and means of subsistence, in their weapons, arts, usages, and customs, in their institutions and physical character- isties, they were the same people in different stages of advancement.
John Fiske, one of the scholarly writers on American history, has the following to say on the early races in the United States:
"Whether the Indians are descended from this ancient population or not, is a question with which we have as yet no satisfactory method of dealing. It is not unlikely that these glacial men may have perished from off the face of the earth. having been crushed and supplanted by stronger raees. There may have been several successive waves of migration of which the Indians were the latest." -- Fiske's Discovery of America, Vol. I. p. 15.
"The aboriginal American, as we know him with his language and legends. his physical and mental peculiarities, his social observance and customs, is most emphatically a native and not an imported article. He belongs to the American continent as strictly as its opossums and armadillo, its maize and its golden rods, or any number of its aboriginal fauna and flora belong to it."-Ibid. p. 20.
An lowa investigator, C. L. Webster, some years ago examined several mounds on the banks of the Cedar river near Charles City and "found the skulls small which would show an extremely low grade of mental intelligence."-American Naturalist, Vol. 23, p. 1888.
This may go to show that the carly inhabitants were different from the nomadic Indians that the first whites saw as they landed on the bleak shores of New England in the eleventh century.
Most writers on this subject are led to believe that we have conclusive evi- denee that man existed before the time of the glaciers and that from primitive conditions he has lived here and developed through the same stages which may correspond to the development of primitive man in Europe and Asia. Whether the first settlers in lowa then, were Mound Builders, or Indians, or some other raee may never be known, for a certainty. It is enough to say, that man existed and lived on what has become known as lowa many, many centuries ago, and he left few if any remains which can testify to his stage of development or to his mode of living. This is no doubt true, that man existed in Linn county count- less ages ago, but whether it was a different race, or simply the Indian race at a different stage of development may never be known and thus will always remain a mystery.
INDIANS
When the first white settlers located in Linn county the Red Men still occupied the land, and even after treaties had been fully ratified. Indians were slow to give up these choice hunting places along the Red Cedar and the Wapsie. It is needless to say that the rights of Indians were not protected and they invariably were set aside and driven away as fast as possible. Still nearly all of the early settlers were very friendly toward the Red Men, and in return received many favors from their hands. Of course, the Red Men were jealous of the whites, who gradually kept coming in and drove the Indians away. The Indians who most frequented this part of Iowa after the settlement by whites were the Sae and Fox and Wine- bagoes. The Winnebagoes were a remnant of a warlike tribe, and at one time in Wisconsin were very powerful. These joined with the Sac and Fox in the Black Hawk war and were driven across the Mississippi river after the signing of the treaty of peace.
LEWIS FIELD LINN
9
THE FIRST INHABITANTS
The pioneers in this county from necessity had to be friendly with the Indians. Many of the early settlers were able to speak the Winnebago language, such as the family of William Abbe, the Edgertons, the Usher family, the Crows, and many others. The Winnebagoes lingered around in this part of lowa in the thirties and forties, when they were finally removed to Minnesota, much against their own wishes. But the Indians, rightly in this respect as in many others, were not eon- sidered, for the white men ruled and looked out for their own selfish interests and did not consider the side of mercy, justice or the rights of the weak as against those of the strong.
The Winnebagoes were considered a hardy race and respected by the whites, who showed them many favors. While the Winnebagoes had fought in the war of 1812 under Teeumseh and had sided with Black Hawk, perhaps reluctantly, in the war of 1832, they were rather friendly toward the whites, although they very much objected to disposing of all their lands east of the Mississippi river by the treaties of 1825 and 1837, when they were removed to lowa. In Linn county they remained for a longer or shorter period of time along the rivers such as the Cedar and the Wapsie, and especially around Cedar Lake, along the Palisades, in Linn Grove, Sevteh Grove west of Cedar Rapids, and in other places where there was much timber. While they were at times heartless and cruel, their relations on the whole with the early settlers in Lin county were those of friendship, and they showed the whites many favors in the early days when the scattered pioneer fam- ilies were unable to acquire sufficient food during the winter months to subsist upon. The Indians always helped the whites, and frequently went out hunting, bringing back a deer, fowls, or prairie chickens, which they divided among their own people and the whites. They early became fond of the dishes made by the white women, such as hominy, honey cakes, johnny cakes, and other delicious dishes found in the homes of the early settlers on the frontier. In no instance has it been reported that any white woman was ever assaulted by any Indian in this county. In many of the cabins of the early settlers there could be found only women and children, the husbands having left for the river towns to bring back provisions, and this faet was frequently known to the Indians. The early pioneer women used to say that they feared the rough border ruffian more than they did these traveling bands of Indians, who never assaulted anyone or ever carried away property by stealth, as the border ruffians were frequently accused of doing.
The story of the Winnebago tribe of Indians ean not be passed without some notice. The name Winnebago is said to mean "the turbid water people," and they are closely related to the lowas, Otoes, and the Missouri tribes. They used to call themselves the Hochangara, meaning "the people using the parent tongue," thus, perhaps, intending to convey that they were the original people from whom others sprang. They are first mentioned in the Jesuit Relations of 1636 and 1640. It is said that they were nearly annihilated by the Illinois tribes in early days and that the survivors fled baek to Green Bay in 1737 and that they resided on the banks of Lake Superior but once more drifted back to Green Bay and towards Lake Winnebago, stretching southwest towards the Mississippi river. On one of the islands in the lake which bears their name they made their abiding place for a number of years and here they buried their dead and dwelt in peace around their fire places.
In 1825 the population was estimated to be 6,000. By the treaties of 1825 and 1832 they were compelled to eede their lands to the government, eertain tracts of land being reserved on the Mississippi river near what is now known as La Crosse. Here they suffered from several visitations of smallpox, which plague is said to have carried off nearly one-fourth of their number.
From 1834-35 they were removed to lowa and lived along the many rivers in the northeastern part of the Territory as far as the banks of the Cedar and the Wapsie rivers White settlers came in, driving the Red Mon ont ; hunting became
10
HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY .
poor and the Indians could not subsist and they were again removed to the Bhie Earth reservation in Minnesota in 1848. On account of the Indian outbreaks in 1863, committed by the Sioux tribe, and in which the Winnebagoes took no part, they were again removed to the Dakotas, where several hundred perished from cold and hunger. There are now only abont 1,200 under the Omaha and Winne- bago agency in Nebraska, and about 1,500 in the state of Wisconsin.
The Sac and Fox were also the early neighbors of the whites in this county. The Fox was an Algonkian tribe, first found on the lakes, and who were driven south by the Ojibwa where, for self protection, they united with the Saes and have been since known as Saes and Foxes. They were always friendly to the British, joining them in the Revolution as well as in the war of 1812. After the Black Hawk war they were removed to lowa and from here removed again to the Indian Territory from 1842-46. Many of the tribes kept coming back to their old hunting ground and finally they were permitted to remain on the Iowa river and provision for them was made by the legislature. About 400, known as the Musk- waki, are still found, survivors of some of the early wanderers in eastern Iowa in the early thirties. The Sacs and Foxes and the Winnebagoes were always on friendly terms with the whites and were sworn enemies of the Sionx.
Mrs. Susan Shields. a daughter of William Abbe, was on intimate terms with the Winnebago Indians, who used to gather at her father's home on Abbe's creek frequently. She learned to speak the Winnebago language, and remembered seeing many wigwams, or tepees as they were called, at the lower end of what is now Cedar Rapids. She speaks of the Indians as being kind to her and that her first playmates were Indian girls of her own age. Her brothers also played with the Indian boys and they learned to ride Indian ponies and to shoot with bows and arrows. No trouble over arose among the young of both races in these days; rather the white boys were envious to see the liberties granted the Indian boys and how they were permitted to roam any place at pleasure, never having any chores to do.
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