USA > Iowa > Louisa County > History of Louisa County, Iowa, from its earliest settlement to 1912, Volume I > Part 7
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52
Local government was first organized here by virtue of the act of the gover- nor and legislative council of Michigan, of September 6, 1834, entitled An Act to Lay Off and Organize Counties West of the Mississippi River. It provided that all of that district of the country which was attached to Michigan Territory by the act of congress, of June 28, 1834, and to which the Indians title had been extinguished and which was situated north of a line drawn due west from the lower end of Rock Island to the Missouri river, should constitute the county of Dubuque, and that that county should constitute a township called Julien. Sec- tion 2 provided that all that part of the district aforesaid, which was attached as aforesaid to the Territory of Michigan, and situated south of the line drawn west from the lower end of Rock Island, should constitute the county and be called Demoine, and that this county should constitute a township to be called Flint Hill.
46
HISTORY OF LOUISA COUNTY
Provision was made for the establishment of a county court and court was to be held in Demoine county on the second Mondays in April and September. Permission was given to the inhabitants of said townships to hold an election for township officers on the first Monday in November following, the elections in the county of Demoine to be held at the seat of justice, the place of which was to be designated by the judges of the county court. The act itself was to take effect from and after the first day of October.
Officers were appointed for Des Moines county by Governor Mason, and that county was duly organized, but we know of nothing of consequence which happened while "we" were under the jurisdiction of Des Moines county.
CHAPTER VI.
EARLY SETTLEMENTS IN THE COUNTY-THE CENSUS OF DES MOINES COUNTY, WIS- CONSIN IN 1836-ESTABLISHMENT OF WISCONSIN TERRITORY-CLAIM LAWS- ESTABLISHMENT OF IOWA TERRITORY.
It is always a difficult matter to determine when the first settlements in a country were made and by whom they were made, and Louisa county is no excep- tion to the rule. For instance, in the Wapello Republican of October 26, 1867, is the following item. "Last Sunday we saw the oldest log cabin in Louisa county. It stands near the Toolesboro and Grandview road, in Port Louisa township, and was built some thirty-five years ago."
By a little plain subtraction the date of the erection of this cabin is thus given at the year 1832. This is something like three years earlier than the date given by all the other authorities, as the date of the first permanent settlement here.
Lieutenant Albert M. Lea in an article in "lowa Historical Records, Vol. 6," relates that during a very cold spell in the month of February, 1836, in making a trip overland along the river, he stopped at the "raw village" of Burlington one night, and next day reached the mouth of the Iowa river at dark. He says that he was refused shelter in the only house there at the time, which was occupied by a drinking crowd of men and women and that he was obliged to go up the nar- row, crooked river (the Iowa) on the ice, which was but four inches thick, and with three inches of snow on it, four miles to a snug cabin on the north side, where he arrived at nine o'clock at night. This cabin was undoubtedly the residence of Christopher Shuck, who is now, and has for many years been regarded as the first permanent settler of the county. This settlement was some- where not far from the farm upon which T. M. Parsons, familiarly known as "Thomps," spent the most of his days.
Of his reception at this cabin, Lieutenant Lea says: "They received me kindly, gave me supper and a sleep with the hired man, the other two beds being occupied by the squatter and wife and many children, grown daughters included, the cook stove being in the fourth corner, and yet we were all comfortable, and as gay at breakfast as if feasting at a wedding."
William L. Toole, who was himself among the earliest settlers in the county, in an article published in the "Annals of lowa." for January, 1868, states that the first occupancy of Louisa county was in the year 1835, at and near the mouth of the Iowa river and near the ancient mounds and. fort ; also near the Indian villages of Keokuk, Wapello and Black Hawk. He includes the name of Shuck among those of the very early settlers. He says: "Among the early settlers hereabouts we had the names of Harrison, Creighton, Deihl, Toole, McCleary,
47
48
HISTORY OF LOUISA COUNTY
Thornton, Parsons, Benson and Shuck, and soon afterwards, Cook, Hale, Guest, Crow, Isett, Bell, Bird and Judge Springer."
The same date for the first settlement of the county is given by Francis Springer in his "Recollections" published in the "Annals," Third series, Vol. 2: and a similar statement was made by Colonel John Bird, also an early settler, in an address delivered at the first meeting of the Old Settlers' Association, in this county, which was hekl at Wapello, February 22, 1860.
James Thornton, of Ashland, Oregon, now in his eighty-fifth year, in 1910 wrote an article concerning early times, which was published in the Muscatine Journal, and is reproduced in the history of Muscatine county, published by the S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, of Chicago. This James Thornton was a son of Levi Thornton, who was one of the first representatives from Louisa and the adjoining counties, having been elected in 1838. In this article James Thornton says that his father and his two brothers, Err Thornton and Lot Thorn- ton, with their mother and sister, started from Lafayette, Indiana, in the spring of 1835, and came to New Boston, where they resided with a cousin named Jesse Willetts, and there planted some thirty acres of sod corn. After this they decided to take up claims in the Black Hawk Purchase, and in June of 1835, the three brothers, with two other men, whose names are not given, crossed the Mississippi at the mouth of the Iowa. He says there was then a farmer there by the name of Shook and this is the only settler spoken of in the article as being located anywhere in this county. From there the Thornton party proceeded up the bluff, all locating in the vicinity of Whiskey Hollow, the claim taken 11p by Levi Thornton being now a part of the Dan Westbrook farm. The party then went up the river to Pine creek and took the steamer back to New Boston : Pine creek, or Pine river, where it empties into the Mississippi, is the place called Iowa in Lieutenant Lea's book, and it will be interesting in this connection to note something of what he says about that locality: "Iowa. This is the name of a town to be laid out at the mouth of Pine river about three hundred and thirty miles above St. Louis. From this situation at the apex of a great bend in the Mississippi, it is central to a large district of country, and the near approach of the Iowa just back of it, brings all the settlements along a great part of that stream within a short distance of this place." Further on in the same article, Lieutenant Lea indicates that he expects Iowa to be made a county seat and probably the location of the future capital of the state of Iowa. In a very interesting little book called "Scraps of Muscatine History," by J. P. Walton, we find that he visited Err Thornton in 1891 and that at that time Err Thornton said the Thorntons first came over from New Boston in the spring of 1834 or 1835, but he was not certain which, and Mr. Walton states that he finds by history that it was in 1834, though he does not give his authority. We quote from an article prepared by Mr. Walton in July, 1891, as follows: "I have just made a trip across the river and called on Hon. Err Thornton, who lives some five miles southeast of here, in Drury township. His postoffice address is Foster. I was in company with John Holliday, an old acquaintance of Mr. Thornton. Both of them came from Tippecanoe county, Indiana, and were old acquaintances before coming here. Mr. Thornton was eighty-four years old yesterday, the 22d. John Holliday is eighty-five years old. Mr. Thornton says that himself, his brother Lot and several others came west and stopped near New Boston,
* NULAS FICHE DECKE
O
CITY OF WAPELEO
Oranow & = TOWA
One Dollar
ONE
CITY OF WAPELLO
2
TWO DOLLARS
3
(CHY JE WAPELLO)
Five Dollars
Hapille
P. Distur
FAC-SIMILE OF WAPELLO SCRIP
PUBLIC LIBIA: ₹ ,
ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATION8 L
49
HISTORY OF LOUISA COUNTY
Illinois, in the spring of 1834 or 1835, he is not certain which (we find by other history that it was in 1834), and on the fifth day of June he and his brother Lot and three others, five in all, crossed the Mississippi river at New Boston to look for land. They crossed over to Black Hawk, now Toolesboro, and started north. They were joined by a man by the name of Fisher, who belonged to a religious sect called Seceders, and had been over in Louisa county making claims. Acting as their pilot, he took them up about where Grandview now stands and said that they were then up to the north line of their claims. (I think such a sect settled west of the lowa river near Columbus City : possibly some may have located east of the river). He said they could have all the land they wanted north of that place. Bidding them good-by he left them. While traveling north in the bottom in the rear of the present Port Louisa, they found a Mr. Kennedy and family, a brother of the present William Kennedy of Louisa county, who were camped for the day, boiling coffee, and they treated our party very kindly. They then traveled north to where they afterwards took their claims near Whis- key Hollow. Here was a fine bottom, with plenty of timber-an indispensable article for the pioneer settler. They concluded to investigate the extent of the timber, so they started up Whiskey Hollow and came out to the prairie some where near where the railroad goes out. It was then night. They cut some brush to make beds of and lighted a fire on an old white oak log. In the night Thornton was awakened by distant thunder. He aroused the others and they had but time to draw on their boots and get each to his tree before the storm came. While hugging to the lee of their trees, their fire blew to a great distance and they thought they had lost it all: (a very serious loss when it had to be lighted with flint and steel), but by good fortune some remained in a knot hole, from which they rebuilt another. As soon as it was light enough ( about three o'clock) they started on their way. They traveled along the timber until they struck an Indian trail that led them down the bluff some five miles west of our city. Here they found an Indian's wickiup. The Indian, with his squaw and two or three pappooses, were planting corn."
The Indian name for corn was tomanock, and as the early settlers found a number of Indian cornfields when they came here, it will be well worth while to preserve in this connection an account of their way of planting corn as related by Mr. Walton in the book before referred to: "They made their hills three or four feet apart, without any regularity whatever, possibly using the same ground and the same hill that their predecessors had done for ages before. In the spring at planting time, they removed the weeds, usually carrying them out of the field, and dug up the top of the hill and planted their corn. In tilling they would always scrape the earth up to the corn. This manner of tillage kept the hill identical for year after year. I have often thought that this system of growing corn, or these perpetual hills, gave rise to the term, 'hill of corn.' 1 think that the white man borrowed the term when he borrowed the corn. The corn they raised was a variety of eight-rowed corn ; we knew it by the name of 'squaw corn' and raised it for several years for green corn. It was blue in color ; when ripe it was quite soft, and when crushed was white and flowery. It produced fairly well: I think thirty or forty bushels could have been gathered from an acre."
Vol. 1-4
50
HISTORY OF LOUISA COUNTY
It may be, of course, that there were permanent settlements in this county in the year 1834 but this is certainly the earliest date which can be assigned for any permanent settlement, and there were likely not more than three or four such settlements within the entire limits of the county that year. It is possible that the old cabin referred to by the Wapello Republican was erected by the Mr. Kennedy spoken of by Err Thornton. This was John Kennedy, a brother of William Kennedy, the latter having been a very prominent figure in the early settlement of the county. He is said to have settled here in 1836.
The first government sale of land in this county was not till November, 1838, and for that reason we have no public land records regarding the ownership and transfer of the various tracts and claims prior to the winter of 1838. The earliest official record of any kind which gives the names of the early settlers in this part of the country is that of the census which was taken in July, 1836. This census was taken in pursuance of the act of congress organizing Wisconsin Territory and was made by Solomon Perkins, who styles himself "sheriff and censor, D. C. W. T.," Mr. Perkins being at that time sheriff of Des Moines county, Wisconsin Territory, of which Louisa county was then a part. There is nothing in the census as recorded to show where the various persons resided, except as to Burlington, and perhaps as to Van Buren county, it being described as in the "western part" of Des Moines county. This census shows the name of the head of each family and opposite the name of the head of the family is given the number of males under twenty-one and over twenty-one, the number of females under twenty-one and over twenty-one; and the total number in the family is also carried out.
The following list appears by itself on page 5 of the census and was taken by Zadok C. Inghram, as assistant to Sheriff Perkins, and we give it with his spelling :
Alales Females Under 21 Over 21 Under 21 Over 21 Total
Isaac Parsons
1
-
6
I
12
John H. Benson
2
I
5
William L. Toole
I
I
Orien Briggs
2
2
2
I
1
Christopher Shuck
+
2
2
1
Elias Keever
William Dunbar
I
I
I
3
James A. Campbell
[
6
6
T
James Magers
1
3
[
5
John McClung
3
1
2
I
4
James Erwin
2
I
I
2
6
John Reynolds
2
3
I
7
Thomas Kellow
T
1
2
Robert Childers
3
2
Į
2
George Umphrey
5
5
I
15
Abraham McClary
2
2
I
5
Levi Thornton
1
T
1
2
8
1
8
John Ranken
3
I
HISTORY OF LOUISA COUNTY
51
Males Females Under 21 Over 21 Under 21 Over 21 Total
Err Thornton
4
I
5
Silas Richardson
1
1
3
Nathaniel Parson
1
3
3
1
Samuel Shortridge
3
I
1
1
6
Thomas Starks
1
1
2
I
5
William McClaren
4
2
2
1
9
Joseph Crane
1
2
I
1
Thomas M. Crane
I
I
2
Samuel L. Crane
1
1
I
3
William Starks
I
2
2
1
6
Isaac Lathrop
1
I
1
1
4
John Cobb
1
I
2
I
5
Silas Lathrop
2
I
3
Į
7
James WV. Casey
6
1
7
John Vanetty
2
2
I
5
Thomas Burdett
3
2
I
4
Eli Reynolds
I
I
I
3
James Davis
2
3
John W. Furgason
2
2
5
-
52
71
62
38
223
It appears from the census of Burlington that Zadok C. Inghram was then residing in Burlington.
The most if not all of the following names appear in that part of the census book as having been taken by J. & J. Inghram, assistants to Sheriff Perkins:
Males
Females
Under 21 Over 21 Under 21 Over 21 Total
Reuben Westfall
3
2
3
I
9
David G. Blair
3
I
2
I
7
Thomas Blair
2
1
5
1
9
Allen Elliot
I
I
2
William Dupont
2
I
3
Reuben C. Mason
3
I
Į
5
Phillip Mascle
5
I
2
S
Phillip B. Harrison
2
2
Joseph Derben
Į
3
2
9
John Spence
2
I
3
Jacob Rinearson
2
1
1
-
8
Isaac Rinearson
1
2
1
I
5
Robert Williams
3
3
3
1
Wright Williams
I
1
I
3
Rolla Driskall
James Hatcher
Gideon B. Alexander
Thomas Stoddard
2
I
3
3
Adison Reynolds
1
52
HISTORY OF LOUISA COUNTY
Males
Females Under 21 Over 21 Under 21 Over 21 Total
Joshua Swank
4
I
3
Į
9
Westley Swank
I
2
3
William Milligan
5
I
I
8
David Russell
2
1
I
1
William Creighton
I
2
I
4
Rufus P. Burlingame
5
5
Hannah Smith
3
2
1
Jeremiah Smith. Sr.
7
2
2
[
12
Samuel Smith
I
3
1
2
7
James C. Reed
-
2
James Crutchfield
1
I
2
I
Jackson Dolahite
1
2
I
5
:
:
-
In the list of names as taken by Zadok C. Inghram we find a number of very early settlers of Muscatine county and among the names thus taken by J. & J. Inghram. our information is that the Westfalls and the Blairs, possibly some others, lived about the vicinity of Northfield, which is now in Des Moines county. and some of the others lived in the neighborhood of Augusta at that time. This we know to be true of James Crutchfield, and it is possibly true of some of the others whose names appear in connection with his. We have endeavored to give in a separate chapter an account of the earliest settlements that were made in various parts of the county.
Late in the year 1835 and early in 1836 there had been much agitation both on the east and west side of the Mississippi river for the formation of a new territory. The people found by the decisions of the courts that they were almost entirely without the pale of civilized government, the courts having decided in one or two early murder cases that they had no jurisdiction to try or punish such offenders. We find in Dr. Shambaugh's "History of the Constitutions." page 73. an extract from a memorial to congress adopted about this time by the territorial legislature of Michigan, as follows: "According to the decision of our federal court, the population west of the Mississippi are not within its jurisdiction. a decision which is presumed to be in accordance with the delegated power of the court and the acknowledged laws of the land: but that ten or twelve thousand freemen. citizens of the United States, living in its territory, should be unprotected in their lives and property, by its courts of civil and criminal jurisdiction, is an anomaly unparalled in the annals of republican legis- lation. The immediate attention of congress to this subject is of vital importance to the people west of the Mississippi."
In presenting this memorial in the senate, Senator Clayton, of Delaware. referred to a recent murder in Dubuque, where the murderers had been arrested buit had been discharged by the court. Judge David Irvin presiding, for lack of jurisdiction, and Mr. Clayton contended with much force that congress ought not to permit this state of things to exist. As a result of this agitation the territorial government of Wisconsin was created by an act approved April 20, 1836. The new territory of Wisconsin included the present state of lowa and much other country not necessary to describe. It was to have a governor and a legislative assembly to consist of a council and house of representatives, the
53
HISTORY OF LOUISA COUNTY
council to be composed of thirteen members and the house, twenty-six members. It was provided that previous to the first election the governor should cause a census of the inhabitants of the several counties to be taken by the sheriffs thereof and returns made to the governor, and that the election should be held at such time and place and be conducted in such manner as the governor should direct. It was also provided that the governor should declare the number of members of the council and house of representatives to which each county should be en- titled, and the governor was required to declare who had been duly elected to the two houses, and to order new elections in cases where there was a tie. It was also provided that after the legislative assembly should meet, these various matters, including the apportionment of representation in the several counties. should be prescribed by law. The governor was empowered to nominate, and with the consent of the council. to appoint all judicial officers, justices of the peace, sheriffs and certain militia officers and all civil officers not provided for in the organic act, but it was provided that township and county officers should be elected by the people. The judicial power was vested in a supreme court. district courts, probate courts and in justices of the peace, the jurisdiction of the latter not to extend to disputes over land titles, or where the amount claimed exceeded $50.
Section 12 of this act is as follows: "And be it further enacted, That the inhabitants of the said territory shall be entitled to, and enjoy, all and singular the rights, privileges and advantages, granted and secured to the people of the territory of the United States northwest of the river Ohio, by the articles of the compact contained in the ordinance for the government of the said territory. passed on the thirteenth day of July. one thousand seven hundred and eighty- seven ; and shall be subject to all the conditions and restrictions and prohibitions in said articles of compact imposed upon the people of the said territory. The said inhabitants shall also be entitled to all the rights, privileges and immunities. heretofore granted and secured to the territory of Michigan, and to its inhabitants, and the existing laws of the territory of Michigan shall be extended over said territory, so far as the same shall not be incompatible with the provisions of this act, subject, nevertheless, to be altered, modified, or repealed. by the governor and legislative assembly of the said territory of Wisconsin; and further, the laws of the United States are hereby extended over. and shall be in force in, said territory, so far as the same, or any provisions thereof, may be applicable."
The census which was taken under this act, and to which we have before referred, showed the population of Demoine county to be 6,257. and Dubuque . county, 4,274, while the population of the four Wisconsin counties east of the Mississippi river aggregated 11,687. Demoine county, of which this county was then a part, was much the most populous county in the territory and in the ap- portionment of members of the legislative assembly it became entitled to three members of the council and seven members of the house, and at the election on the second Monday in October, 1836, Arthur B. Inghram, Joseph B. Teas and Jeremiah Smith were elected to the council, and David R. Chance, John Box, Thomas Blair, Isaac Leffler, Warren L. Jenkins, Eli Reynolds and George W. Teas were elected to the house of representatives.
This immediate part of the country continued to be a part of Des Moines county until the establishment and organization of Louisa county. This, as we
54
HISTORY OF LOUISA COUNTY
shall see later, was done by act of the Wisconsin legislature, approved December 6, 1836.
Meanwhile the fame of the Black Hawk Purchase had been spreading. New settlers were constantly invading the "Iowa District." Some came in boats, by the Ohio and the Mississippi. Others a little later, came by the Great Lakes and across country ; but thousands came in "prairie schooners" by the overland route. A few were well supplied with money, and some had a goodly number' of horses and cattle, but in most cases the team, wagon and contents, represented the sum total of the family's worldly possessions. Each brought with him, as his chief implements of state-craft, an axe and an augur. a froe and mallet, a plow, a log chain, and a shovel. The covered wagon afforded shelter by day, and lodging by night, and the cooking was done on the ground, and their journey often required two months.
Occasionally there would be a family making their long trip with one ox, hitched in the thills of a two-wheeled cart, in which they carried a mat for a bed, and a few boxes. All were actuated by the same purpose. All were seek- ing new homes where the prairies promised the richest harvest, and where the forests furnished timber for the cabin, and fuel for the fire-place. They were seeking those "gardens of the wilderness, boundless and beautiful, untouched by the ruthless hand of man." and "smiling in all the freshness of primeval beauty."
These families came from many states, from the south and the north, from Virginia and Pennsylvania, from Ohio and Kentucky, from Tennessee and Indiana, from New England and New York. They came from all walks of life. They represented all shades of political opinion and religious belief. They exemplified all phases and conditions of American citizenship-the good, bad and indifferent. The new settler did not come as an alien, to a new sovereignty ; he came as a citizen of the republic, seeking a new domicil in a land of abundant opportunity, and ample elbow room. At the outset the important question was how to obtain a title. True, the Indian title had been extinguished, but the which had not been surveyed, on penalty of forfeiture of all rights or claims, lands had not been surveyed by the government, nor thrown open to settle- and with the liability of being forcibly removed.
By the summer of 1838, Basil Bently had surveyed township 73 north, as far west as range 6, and William Lee D. Ewing had surveyed townships 74 and 75, as far west as range 7. In 1837, while these surveys were going on. Sur- veyor General Lytle, in his instructions to some of the surveyors in the field, said : "As it is probable that congress at its next session will pass a preemption law, you are instructed to note, in your surveying, the improvements upon the public lands, their situation, and the names of the claimants. This information is important the better to enable the land office to decide who are entitled to preemptions." We will see later how little the land office had to do with "deciding" these questions.
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