USA > Iowa > Marion County > History of Marion County, Iowa, and its people, Volume I > Part 5
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Quebec was founded by Samuel Champlain in 1608, only a year after the English colony was planted at Jamestown, and in 1616 a French explorer named Le Caron visited the country inhabited by the Iroquois and Huron Indians on the shores of the Great Lakes. Jesuit missionaries had been in the lake region some five years be- fore Le Caron, and in 1634 Jean Nicollet pushed still farther west- ward and reached the Fox River country in what is now the State
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of Wisconsin. Among the Jesuit Fathers was Claude Allouez, who in the fall of 1665 held a council with representatives of several of the most powerful Indian tribes of the West at the Chippewa village on the southern shore of Lake Superior. Chiefs of the Sioux, Sacs, Foxes, Pottawatomi, Illini and Chippewa tribes were present at this council. To them and their people Allouez promised the protec- tion of the great French father, thus opening the way for a profit- able trade with the Indians. Some of the Sioux and Illini chiefs told Allouez of a great river farther to the westward, "called by them the Me-sa-sip-pi, which, not knowing of the De Soto expedi- tion, they said no white man had yet seen, and along which fur- bearing animals abounded."
Claude Dablon, another zealous Jesuit missionary, founded the mission of St. Mary in 1668. This was the first white settlement within the present State of Michigan. The accounts carried back by Nicollet and the missionaries induced the French authorities at Quebec to send Nicholas Perrot as the accredited agent of the French Government to arrange for a grand council with the Indian tribes that inhabited the country about the Great Lakes. The council was held at St. Mary's in May, 1671, and before the close of that year Father Jacques Marquette founded the mission of Point St. Ignace, where the city of Mackinaw now stands, for the benefit of the Huron Indians. This mission was for many years considered as the key to the great unexplored West.
Shortly after the council of May, 1671, Father Marquette, who had heard the reports of the great river, determined to make an effort to discover it. The council established friendly relations be- tween the French and Indians and as soon as the mission at Point St. Ignace was on a sure footing he asked and received permission from the Canadian officials to conduct a small expedition to the westward in hope of finding the Mississippi. While he was making his preparations at Point St. Ignace in the spring of 1673, the friendly Indians there tried to dissuade him from the attempt by circulating reports that the Indians along the river were savage and vindictive; that in the forests along the stream were dangerous wild beasts, and that the river itself was the abode of frightful monsters that could swallow both canoes and men.
Unmoved by these stories, Marquette hurried forward his prep- arations and on May 13, 1673, accompanied by Louis Joliet, an explorer and trader, and five voyageurs, in two large canoes, the little expedition left the mission. They passed up Green Bay to the mouth of the Fox River, ascended that stream to the portage be-
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tween it and the Wisconsin River, crossed over to the latter stream and floated down it until June 17, 1673, when the two canoes shot out upon the broad bosom of the Mississippi. Here they turned their canoes southward and descended the great Father of Waters, carefully noting the landmarks as they passed along. On June 25th they landed on the west bank "sixty leagues below the mouth of the Wisconsin River." Sixty leagues from the mouth of the Wisconsin would throw this landing somewhere near the present town of Mont- rose, about half way between Fort Madison and Keokuk. This is the earliest account of any white men upon Iowa soil.
Noticing footprints in the soft earth, Marquette and Joliet left the five voyageurs to guard the canoes and supplies and set out to follow a trail that led back into the forest. After traveling several miles they came to an Indian village and noticed two other villages in the vicinity. The Indians informed Marquette and Joliet that they belonged to the Illini tribe, and that the name of their village and the river upon which it was situated was "Moingona." After a visit of several days the white men were accompanied back to their canoes by the chiefs and a large party of warriors. One of the chiefs addressed Marquette as follows:
"I thank the black-gown chief for taking so much pains to come and visit us. Never before has the earth been so beautiful nor the sun so bright. Never has the river been so calm and free from rocks, which your canoe has removed. 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 be you pleased to come and dwell among us."
On behalf of the band, one of the chiefs then presented Mar- quette with a finely decorated calumet, or peace pipe, as a token of the tribe's good wishes, and the two Frenchmen continued their voyage down the Mississippi until they came to a tribe of Indians whose language they could not understand, when they returned to Canada.
Five years after the discovery of the Mississippi by Marquette and Joliet, Louis XIV, then King of France, granted to Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle, authority to explore the western part of New France. La Salle's ambition was to trace the course of the Mississippi from its source to its mouth. In his expedition of 1680 he directed Father Louis Hennepin to lead an expedition from the mouth of the Illinois River to the headwaters of the Mississippi, and in April of that year Father Hennepin reached the Falls of St. Anthony. After several failures, La Salle finally succeeded in
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reaching the mouth of the river, where on April 9, 1682, he took possession of all the territory drained by the Mississippi and its tributaries in the name of France, to which territory he gave the name of Louisiana, in honor of the French king-Louis XIV.
Although both Spain and England had laid claim to the interior, it remained for the French to make the first actual explorations in the Mississippi Valley. The claim of La Salle was acknowledged by other European nations and what is now the State of lowa became thereby a part of the French possessions in North America. At the close of the seventeenth century the English settlements occupied the Atlantic coast from New England to Georgia; Spain was in possession of Florida and that part of the Gulf coast not included in Louisiana, and France held the Valley of the St. Lawrence, the Great Lake Basin and the Valley of the Mississippi.
During the next fifty years the frontier of civilization was pushed gradually westward. In 1712 the French Government granted to Antoine Crozat, a wealthy merchant, a charter giving him exclusive control of the trade of Louisiana under certain con- ditions. When his agents came to America to carry out his orders they found the Spanish ports on the Gulf coast closed to his vessels, for Spain, although recognizing the claim of France to Louisiana, was jealous of French ambitions. After five years Crozat surren- dered his charter and was succeeded by John Law, who organized the Mississippi Company as a branch of the Bank of France. In 1718 he sent some eight hundred colonists to Louisiana and the next year Philipe Renault went up the Mississippi, to the Illinois country, with about two hundred colonists, intending to establish posts and open up a trade with the Indians. Scarcely had these steps been taken when Law's whole scheme collapsed and so dismal was the failure that his project is known in history as the "Mississippi Bubble." On April 10, 1732, he surrendered his charter and Louis- iana again became a crown province of France.
FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR
In the meantime the English traders had been extending their operations into French territory. As early as 1667 the Hudson's Bay Company had been organized and its trappers and traders pushed their way into all parts of the interior, in spite of French claims and oblivious to French protests. In 1712 some of the British traders incited the Fox Indians to hostilities against the French. The first open rupture between the two nations did not come, however,
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until 1753, when the French began the construction of a line of forts from the Great Lakes to the Ohio River for the purpose of prevent- ing the English from extending their settlements west of the Alle- ghany Mountains. Some of these forts were located upon territory claimed by Virginia, and Governor Dinwiddie of that colony sent George Washington, then just turned twenty-one, to demand of the French commandant an explanation of this invasion of English do- main while the nations were at peace. The reply was insolent and the next year Washington, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, was sent with a detachment of troops into the disputed territory.
A company called the Ohio Company had been granted a char- ter by the British authorities to a large tract of land and the right to trade on the Great Miami River, and in 1750 this company estab- lished a trading post near the site now occupied by the City of Piqua, Ohio. This post was broken up by a party of French soldiers and their Indian allies in 1752 and the company began a new post at the head of the Ohio River, where the City of Pittsburgh now stands. Part of Washington's instructions in 1754 was "to complete the fort already commenced by the Ohio Company at the forks of the Ohio, and to capture, kill or drive out all who attempted to interfere with the English posts." This aroused the indignation of France, and in May, 1756, that nation formally declared war against England. The conflict that followed, known in history as the "French and Indian war," kept the American colonies and Indian tribes in a state of unrest for several years.
The war was concluded by the preliminary Treaty of Fontaine- bleau on November 3, 1762, by which France ceded that part of Louisiana lying cast of the Mississippi River-except the City and Island of New Orleans-to Great Britain. The preliminary treaty was fully ratified by the Treaty of Paris, February 10, 1763, and on the same day it was announced that, by an agreement previously made in secret, all that part of Louisiana west of the Mississippi was ceded to Spain. By this treaty the jurisdiction of France in America was brought to an end and lowa became a Spanish posses- sion. Many of the French inhabitants remained in the province, however, as Spanish subjects, and took an active part in business affairs.
About the time the transfer was made to Spain, a fur company was organized at New Orleans for the purpose of trading with the Indians between the Upper Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains, and it was not long until its representatives were operating in what is now Missouri, Kansas, lowa, Nebraska and Minnesota. Inde-
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pendent English traders and trappers also came into the upper val- ley about 1766, and some writers think they traded with the Indians of Iowa. At first they operated without the sanction and support of the English colonial authorities, but were later organized as the Northwest Fur Company, which contested with the French traders of the New Orleans Company for the Indian trade of the North- west. Pierre Laclede, one of the projectors of the New Orleans Company, laid out the City of St. Louis, which quickly came into prominence as a trading center.
CLARK'S CONQUEST OF THE NORTHWEST
Thus matters stood until the Revolutionary war, which again changed the map of Central North America. At the close of the French and Indian war, many of the French subjects living east of the Mississippi refused to acknowledge allegiance to Great Britain and removed to the Spanish province west of the river, where they remained until the beginning of the Revolution, when a large num- ber of them recrossed the river and joined the colonists in the struggle for independence. The British had established several posts in the territory acquired from France at the close of the French and Indian war, the most important of which were those at Detroit, Vincennes, Kaskaskia and Cahokia. At the beginning of the Revo- lution, Detroit had about two hundred houses; Vincennes and Kas- kaskia about eighty, and Cahokia about fifty. There were also a few families at Prairie du Rocher, where the City of East St. Louis is now- situated. Virginia then claimed a large tract of land ex- tending westward and including the posts in Indiana and Illinois. In 1778 the legislature of that colony, upon the recommendation of Gov. Patrick Henry, authorized an expedition under Gen. George Rogers Clark for the reduction of these posts. Clark was successful and by his conquest of the Northwest the western boundary of the United States was fixed at the Mississippi River by the treaty of 1783, which ended the Revolutionary war, instead of the new re- public including only the thirteen colonies that had rebelled against the mother country.
Soon after the independence of the United States was established the new nation became involved in a controversy with the Spanish authorities of Louisiana, the final settlement of which had a direct and important influence upon the region now comprising the State of Iowa. That controversy related to the free navigation of the Mississippi River. The Spanish officials of Louisiana authorized
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the establishment of posts along the river, and every boat descending the stream was forced to land at these posts and submit to arbitrary revenue exactions. The great river constituted a natural outlet for the commerce of a large part of the United States. It was there- fore not only humiliating to the American trader to see this great natural channel of transportation under the control of a foreign power, but the system of revenue duties inaugurated by the Spanish authorities also materially decreased the profits of his trade. After much discussion and correspondence, the question was finally set- tled, for a time at least, by the Treaty of Madrid (October 20, 1795), which provided that "the Mississippi River, from its source to the gulf, for its entire width, shall be free to American trade and com- merce, and the people of the United States shall be permitted, for three years, to use the port of New Orleans as a port of deposit without payment of duty."
This treaty provision afforded a temporary relief and during the three years it was in force the commerce of the states adjacent to the river showed a marked increase in volume. But at the expi- ration of the three years Spain showed a disposition to return to the old policy and the free navigation of the Mississippi again be- came a subject of vital interest to the people of the United States. While it was under discussion a secret treaty was negotiated between France and Spain, at San Ildefonso, in the fall of 1800, by which Spain agreed to cede Louisiana back to France, under certain con- ditions. The secret agreement was ratified and made public by the Treaty of Madrid, which was concluded on March 21, 1801. Soon after that date Rufus King, the United States minister to England, sent a copy of the treaty to President Jefferson. This changed the entire situation, inasmuch as the United States must now enter into negotiations with France for the free navigation of the river.
Little was accomplished during the next two years toward an adjustment of the matter, and on January 7, 1803, the lower house of the United States Congress adopted a resolution setting forth "That it is the unalterable determination of the United States to maintain the boundaries and the rights of navigation and commerce through the Mississippi River, as established by existing treaties."
THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE
A few days after the adoption of this resolution, President Jefferson, with the consent and sanction of Congress, dispatched Robert R. Livingston and James Monroe as special envoys to Paris,
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HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY
with instructions to negotiate a treaty that would secure to the United States the free navigation of the Mississippi, "not as a favor, but as a right." The envoys extraordinary were also instructed to secure, if possible, the cession of the City of New Orleans and its island to the United States, which would give this nation full control of the mouth of the river. At the first favorable opportunity Livingston and Monroe presented this subject to M. Talleyrand, the French prime minister, who suggested that it might be possible for the United States to acquire the entire Province of Louisiana. A little later Livingston had an interview with Napoleon, who offered to cede the entire province to the United States for a consideration of $25,000,000. This consideration was subsequently reduced to $15,000,000, which was accepted by the American envoys, notwith- standing their instructions did not contemplate the acquisition of the whole territory. But, as it offered a complete solution to the navigation problem by giving the United States control, not only of the mouth but also the entire river, it was considered the best thing to do. The treaty was accordingly concluded on April 30, 1803, by which Iowa was made a part of the territory of the United States.
Had Livingston and Monroe adhered strictly to their instruc- tions and acquired only the City and Island of New Orleans, leaving all west of the Mississippi in the hands of France, what the history of Iowa might have been can only be conjectured. But the desire of Napoleon to dispose of the entire province, and the fact that the envoys exceeded their instructions- their action afterward being ratified and approved by the Federal Government-placed Iowa in territory afterward divided into states of the American Union. The treaty was ratified by Congress and on December 20, 1803, Gov. Wil- liam Claiborne, of Mississippi, and Gen. James Wilkinson, as com- missioners of the United States, took formal possession of Louisiana and raised the Stars and Stripes at New Orleans. Thus the terri- tory of the United States was extended westward to the summit of the Rocky Mountains and northward from the Gulf of Mexico to the British possessions.
On March 26, 1804, President Jefferson approved an act of Con- gress dividing the newly-acquired territory. By the provisions of this act on and after October 1, 1804, all that part of the purchase lying south of the thirty-third parallel of north latitude was to be designated as the Territory of Orleans, and that part north of the same parallel as the District of Louisiana, in which was included the present State of Iowa. The District of Louisiana was placed
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HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY
under the jurisdiction of the Territory of Indiana, of which Gen. William H. Harrison was governor, where it remained until July 4, 1805, when it was organized as a separate territory with a gov- ernment of its own. The Territory of Orleans was admitted into the Union in 1812 as the State of Louisiana and the name of the District of Louisiana was then changed to the Territory of Missouri.
When the State of Missouri was admitted into the Union in March, 1821, the northern part of the Louisiana Purchase, which in- cluded Iowa, was left without any form of civil government. This condition of affairs was of little moment, however, as the only white people in the region were a few hunters, trappers and agents of the fur companies. The Black Hawk Purchase was negotiated by the treaty of September 21, 1832, by which the United States Govern- ment obtained from the Sacs and Foxes the first cession of Indian lands in the present State of Iowa. Preparations for settling the Black Hawk Purchase soon commenced, and it then became neces- sary to establish some form of government over the country that had so long lain neglected. On June 28, 1834, President Jackson approved the act of Congress erecting the Territory of Michigan, which included all the territory from Lake Huron westward to the Missouri River.
Iowa thus became a part of Michigan, where it remained until the establishment of Wisconsin Territory. President Van Buren approved the act organizing the Territory of Wisconsin on April 20, 1836, but it did not take effect until the 4th of July following. Gen. Henry Dodge was appointed governor of the new territory, which included all the country west of the Mississippi River, and on the first Monday in October, 1836, pursuant to a proclamation issued by Governor Dodge, the first election was held in what is now the State of Iowa for members of the territorial legislature.
Early in the fall of 1837 a movement was started among the people living west of the Mississippi for the establishment of a separate territory. This movement found definite expression in a convention held at Burlington on the first Monday in November, which adopted a memorial to Congress asking that a new territory be formed west of the river. In response to this expression of pop- ular sentiment, Congress passed an act which provided for the divi- sion of Wisconsin and the erection of the Territory of Iowa. Presi- dent Van Buren approved the act on June 12, 1838, "to take effect and be in force from and after July 3, 1838," and appointed Robert Lucas, of Ohio, as the first territorial governor. William B. Con- way, of Pennsylvania, was appointed secretary; Charles Mason, of
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HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY
Burlington, as chief justice; Thomas S. Wilson, of Dubuque, and Joseph Williams, of Pennsylvania, associate judges.
As first created, the Territory of Iowa included "all that part of the Territory of Wisconsin which lies west of the Mississippi River and west of a line drawn due north from the headwater or sources of the Mississippi to the northern boundary of the territory of the United States."
On February 12, 1844, the Iowa Legislature, with the sanction of the Federal Government, passed an act providing for the election of delegates to a constitutional convention as a preparatory step for admission into the Union as a state. Marion County had not then been organized, but the people voted with those of Mahaska County for delegates. The choice fell on Van B. Delashmutt and Stephen B. Shelledy. The convention met at Iowa City on October 7, 1844, and completed its work on the first day of November. The constitution framed by this convention was rejected by the people at the election on August 4, 1845, by a vote of 7,656 to 7,235.
A second constitutional convention assembled at Iowa City on May 4, 1846, and remained in session until the 18th, when it com- pleted its labors and adjourned. In this convention the counties of Marion, Iowa, Polk and Jasper constituted a delegate district and was represented by John Conrey, of Marion. The constitution was ratified by the people at an election held on August 3, 1846, by a vote of 9,492 to 9,036, and on December 28, 1846, President Polk approved the act admitting Iowa into the Union as a state. Under the operations of this act, Marion County became an authorized political subdivision of one of the sovereign commonwealths of the American Union.
ACQUISITION OF INDIAN LANDS
So far, this chapter has dealt with the work of the European nations in discovering and laying claim to territory in America, the subsequent changes in ownership, the war for independence and the establishment of the United States Government. By the Treaty of Paris (April 30, 1803) France sold the Province of Louisiana to the United States. But France had no power to extinguish the Indian title to the lands. That problem was left to be solved by the purchaser. Before the United States could come into full and formal possession of the vast domain, it was necessary that some agreement should be made with the natives. In order that the reader may understand the origin of Indian treaties of cession, it
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may not be amiss to notice briefly in this connection the policies of the several European nations claiming territory in America in deal- ing with the Indians.
When Cortez was commissioned captain-general of New Spain in 1529, he received instructions from the Spanish authorities "to give special attention to the conversion of the Indians, and see that none are made slaves or servants." Theoretically, this was the Span- ish policy, but when Bishop Ramirez, as acting governor, undertook to carry it into effect, he soon discovered that he was not to be sus- tained. Spain took the lands of the Indians without compensation, leaving them what the Spanish officials considered enough for a dwelling place, little attention was given to their conversion or education, and in numerous instances the natives were enslaved and compelled to work in the mines or upon the plantations.
France, it seems, had no settled policy in dealing with the red men. The early French trader cared little for land. In the estab- lishment of the trading posts not much land was needed and the trader and his retinue lived with the Indians as "tenants in com- mon." Sometimes a small tract was cleared near the trading post for the purpose of raising a few vegetables, but both the trader and his Indian customer were interested in the preservation of the hunt- ing grounds, from which came the supply of furs that he handled at a large profit. Even when the French Government, in 1712, granted Antoine Crozat a charter giving him a monopoly of the Louisiana trade, and stipulating that the Indians and negroes living in the province were to receive religious instruction, no provision was made for extinguishing the Indian title or claim to the soil.
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