USA > Iowa > Marion County > History of Marion County, Iowa, and its people, Volume I > Part 6
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With England it was different. Parkman says that in the early land grants made by the English crown "the Indian was scorned and neglected." This is not surprising when one stops to consider that the great aim of the English colonists was to establish a permanent home-to cultivate the soil-and naturally under those conditions the title to the land was the first and greatest consideration.
In the charter of Lord Baltimore to Maryland was a provision giving the grantce authority "to collect troops, wage war on bar- barians and other enemies who may make incursions into the settle- ments, to pursue, even beyond the limits of the province, and, if God shall grant it, to vanquish and captivate them; and the captives to put to death, or, according to their discretion, to save."
Other colonial charters contained similar provisions, and, as the people who founded the United States were descendants for the most part of the original English colonists, they naturally copied
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HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY
the English policy. Article 9 of the Articles of Confederation-the first organic law of the Federal Government-provided: "That Congress shall have the sole and exclusive right and power to reg- ulate the trade with, and manage the affairs of the Indians."
Under this authority, Congress, on September 22, 1783, issued a proclamation forbidding all persons to settle upon the Indian lands. The Articles of Confederation were superseded by the Con- stitution, which also vested in Congress the sole power to deal with all matters arising out of the government's relations with the In- dians. By the act of March 1, 1793, Congress declared: "That no purchase or grant of lands, or any title or claim thereto, from any Indians, or nation or tribe of Indians, within the bounds of the United States, shall be of any validity, in law or equity, unless the same be made by a treaty or convention entered into pursuant to the Constitution."
The objects designed to be accomplished by this law were: First, to prevent irresponsible persons from trespassing upon the Indian lands, thereby arousing the natives to hostility; and, second, to ac- quire the lands in such a manner that the Government could assure a valid title for all time to come. The first treaties made between the United States and the Indian tribes were merely agreements of peace and friendship. But as the white population increased the Government began to negotiate treaties for the acquisition of more land and the red man was gradually crowded farther and farther toward the setting sun.
Soon after the Louisiana Purchase was made the white man be- gan to clamor for the removal of the Indians from the broad and fertile prairies of Illinois to the new territory west of the Missis- sippi River. Among the tribes whose removal was thus desired were the Sacs and Foxes. On November 4, 1804, Gen. William H. Harrison, then governor of the Indiana Territory, negotiated a treaty at St. Louis with the chiefs of the Sacs and Foxes, by which those tribes agreed to surrender their lands east of the Mississippi to the United States, retaining the privilege of dwelling there until the lands were actually sold to white settlers, when they were to remove to the west side of the river. This treaty was afterward the cause of much trouble between the whites and the Indians. At that time it was the custom of the Sacs and Foxes to give instructions to their chiefs or delegates to a treaty convention as to what course should be pursued, or, in the absence of such instructions, afterward con- firm their action by a vote. Some of the Indians claimed that the delegates to the St. Louis council had no definite instructions to sell Vol. 1-4
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the lands east of the Mississippi, and a portion of the allied tribes, under the leadership of Chief Black Hawk, refused to confirm their action. This opposition finally culminated in the conflict known to history as the "Black Hawk war."
At the beginning of the War of 1812, Black Hawk and a num- ber of the Sacs and Foxes allied themselves with the British. The Indians of the confederated tribes who remained loyal to the United States were persuaded to remove to the Missouri, to be away from Black Hawk's influence, and were afterward known as the "Sacs and Foxes of the Missouri;" those who remained in Illinois and Eastern Iowa, but refused to assist the British, were called the "Sacs and Foxes of the Mississippi," and those who followed Black Hawk into the war became known as the "British Band of Rock River."
After the war treaties of peace and friendship were made with several of the western tribes that had aided and abetted the British. Black Hawk and his band were the last to "come into the fold." On May 13, 1816, a number of chiefs and head men of the Rock River band were induced to sign a treaty at St. Louis confirming the treaty of 1804, which ceded the lands in Illinois to the United States. One of the twenty-two Indians who signed this treaty, or "touched the goose quill," as they expressed it, was Black Hawk himself, though he afterward repudiated his action.
After considerable argument, Black Hawk and his band removed to the west side of the Mississippi "under protest" in 1830. The following spring he recrossed the river with a number of his braves and their families and took possession of his old village and corn- fields. This time a force of soldiers under General Gaines was sent to expel them, and the old chief was solemnly warned not to cross the river again.
Notwithstanding this warning, Black Hawk, influenced by Wa- bo-kie-shiek, "a bad medicine man," again crossed over into Illinois and his disobedience brought on the Black Hawk war, which culmi- nated in the stinging defeat of the Indians at the battle of Bad Axe, August 2, 1832. The monetary cost of the war to the Federal Gov- ernment was about two million dollars and the loss of life of both whites and Indians was not far from twelve hundred men. Black Hawk and his two sons were captured and held for some time as prisoners. While they were confined at Fortress Monroe, Virginia, the Federal authorities negotiated the treaty of September 21, 1832, with the Sac and Fox chiefs under the leadership of Keokuk. By this treaty the Sacs and Foxes ceded to the United States "all lands
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HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY
to which the said tribes have any title or claim included within the following boundaries, to-wit:
"Beginning on the Mississippi River at the point where the Sac and Fox northern boundary line, as established by article 2 of the treaty of July 15, 1830, strikes said river; thence up said boundary line to a point fifty miles from the Mississippi, measured on said line; thence in a right line to the nearest point on the Red Cedar of Ioway, forty miles from the Mississippi ; thence in a right line to a point in the northern boundary line of the State of Missouri fifty miles, measured on said line, to the Mississippi River; thence by the last mentioned boundary to the Mississippi River, and by the western shore of said river to the place of beginning."
The territory included within the above described boundaries embraces about six million acres and was taken by the United States as an indemnity for the expenses of the Black Hawk war. This "Black Hawk Purchase," as it was commonly called in early days, included the present counties of Dubuque. Delaware, Jackson, Jones, Clinton, Cedar, Muscatine, Scott, Louisa, Henry, Des Moines and Lee and portions of Clayton, Fayette, Buchanan, Linn, Johnson, Washington, Jefferson and Van Buren. It was the first Iowa land obtained from the Indians for purposes of settlement.
TREATY OF 1842
The western boundary of the Black Hawk Purchase was rather irregular and it was not long after actual settlement commenced until disputes arose between the settlers and the Indians as to its exact location. To settle these difficulties some of the Sac and Fox chiefs were taken to Washington, D. C., where they entered into a treaty on October 21, 1837, to cede to the United States a tract of 1,250,000 acres lying west of and adjoining the former cession. The object of this cession was to straighten the boundary line, but upon survey it was found that the number of acres ceded was not sufficient to make a straight line, and in a short time the Indians again accused the whites of encroaching upon their domain. Some of the wiser chiefs of the Sacs and Foxes saw that it was only a question of time when the tribes would have to give up all their lands in Iowa. Keokuk, Wapello and Poweshiek advised a treaty peaceably ceding the lands to the United States, rather than to wait until they should be taken by force. These chiefs asked for a council, which was called to meet at the Sac and Fox Agency (now Agency City) in what is now Wapello County.
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HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY
John Chambers, then governor of Iowa Territory, was appointed commissioner on the part of the United States to negotiate the treaty. A large tent was set up near the agency. On one side of the tent was a platform, upon which sat Governor Chambers, John Beach, the Indian agent, Lieut. C. F. Ruff, of the First United States Dragoons, and the interpreters, Antoine Le Claire and Josiah Swart. Around the tent the Indians were arranged, leaving an open space in the center.
When the time came to open the council, Governor Chambers, attired in the uniform of an army officer, made a short speech, stat- ing the purpose for which they were assembled. At the close of his remarks, Keokuk, clad in all his native finery and wearing all his ornaments and trinkets, stepped into the open space in the center of the tent and replied. After that there was "much talk," as nearly every chief present had something to say. The result of the council was that on October 11, 1842, the Indians agreed to cede all their lands west of the Mississippi River to the United States, but re- ยท served the right to occupy for three years from the date of signing the treaty "all that part of the land above ceded which lies west of a line running due north and south from the Painted or Red Rocks on the White Breast fork of the Des Moines River, which rocks will be found about eight miles in a straight line from the junction of the White Breast and Des Moines."
The tract of land ceded by this treaty includes practically all of Central Iowa, extending southward to the Missouri line. The line passing through the Painted or Red Rocks runs near the center of the cession, and the northern boundary line was not far from the present towns of Waterloo, Eldora and Stratford. The United States agreed to pay for the land thus ceded the interest at five per cent upon $800,000 annually, to assume the payment of certain debts owed by the Indians to licensed traders, and to "assign a tract of land suitable and convenient for Indian purposes to the Sacs and Foxes for a permanent home for them and their descendants, which tract shall be upon the Missouri River or some of its waters."
Governor Chambers appointed Alfred Hebard and Arthur Bridgman to audit the claims of the traders and sce that they were not unjust or exorbitant. Claims to the amount of $312,366.24 were filed with the two auditors, the largest accounts being presented by Pierre Chouteau & Company and W. G. & G. W. Ewing. The account of the former firm, amounting to $112,109.47, was allowed, but the account of the Ewings was reduced about twenty-five per
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HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY
cent, the amount allowed them being $66,371.83. The total amount of indebtedness allowed by the auditors was $258,566.34.
By the various treaties made with the Sacs and Foxes, the Gov- ernment paid them $80,000 annually. In the treaty of October 11, 1842, it was stipulated that $30,000 should be retained at each annual payment "in the hands of the agent appointed by the President for their tribe, to be expended by the chiefs, with the approbation of their agent, for national and charitable purposes among their peo- ple ; such as the support of their poor, burying their dead, employ- ing physicians for the sick, procuring provisions for their people in cases of necessity, and such other purposes of general utility as the chiefs may think proper and the agent approve."
Chief Wapello, who had assisted in the beginning of the nego- tiations, did not live to see the treaty concluded. He died on March 15, 1842, and was buried by the side of his white friend, Gen. Joseph M. Street, former Indian agent, at the Sac and Fox Agency. At the request of the Indians the sum of $100 was set apart to purchase a tombstone for his grave. Likewise, at their request, a section of land, including the two graves and the agency buildings, was given to Mrs. Eliza MI. Street, widow of the general.
The Indians agreed to vacate that part of the cession east of the Red Rock line by May 1, 1843, and the United States agreed to remove the blacksmith and gunsmith tools at the agency west of the said line and establish two shops for the accommodation of the In- dians until their removal to the new lands assigned them "upon the waters of the Missouri." The treaty was signed by forty-four of the chiefs and head men of the Sacs and Foxes, among whom were Keokuk and his son, Appanoose, Pashepaho, Kiskekosh, Poweshiek, Kaponeka, Chekawque and a number of others whose names are still remembered in Iowa. In the fall of 1845 most of the Indians removed from the country and the rest departed in the spring of 1846.
With the exit of the red man the territory now comprising the great State of Iowa became the undisputed possession of the pale- face. The period of preparation for a civilized people was com- pleted with the treaty of 1842, and what were once the hunting grounds of the Sacs and Foxes are now the cultivated fields of the white man. Where was once the Indian trail is now the railroad or the improved highway. The shriek of the factory whistle is heard instead of the howl of the wolf or the war-whoop of the savage. The modern residence has been built upon the site of the Indian tepee, the halls of legislation have supplanted the tribal council. Indian villages have disappeared and in their stead have come cities
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HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY
with paved streets, electric lights, magnificent school buildings, street railways, libraries and all the evidences of modern progress. The primeval forest has practically disappeared and the great trees have been manufactured into lumber to build dwellings for civilized man, or turned into furniture for his comfort and convenience. About all that is left of the native race are the names from their language that have been conferred upon some of the towns or streams in the country they once inhabited. And all this change has come within the memory of persons yet living. To tell the story of these years of progress and development is the province of the subsequent chapters of this work.
CHAPTER 1V
SETTLEMENT AND ORGANIZATION
PROGRESS OF SETTLEMENT IN IOWA-INDIAN TREATY OF 1842-EARLY TRADING POSTS IN MARION COUNTY -- FIRST SETTLERS-WEST OF THE RED ROCK LINE-CLAIMS AND CLAIM ASSOCIATIONS-PIONEER LIFE AND CUSTOMS-AMUSEMENTS-ORGANIZATION OF THE COUNTY-THE "CORNSTALK CONVENTION"-THE ORGANIC ACT- LOCATING THE COUNTY SEAT-FIRST ELECTION-ELECTION PRE- CINCTS-RO.AD DISTRICTS-SECOND ELECTION-VOTE ON THE STATE CONSTITUTION-EVOLUTION OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM OF COUNTY GOVERNMENT.
From the time Marquette and Joliet landed in what is now Lee County, lowa, in 1673, as stated in a previous chapter, more than one hundred years passed before any attempt was made to found a per- manent settlement within the present limits of the state. In 1788 Julien Dubuque, a French trader, obtained permission from the Indians to open and work the lead mines on the west side of the Mississippi and founded a small settlement that has grown up into the city that still bears his name. Eight years after Dubuque began the development of the "Mines of Spain," as his establishment was called, Louis Honore Tesson obtained from the Spanish authorities of Louisiana a grant of land on the west bank of the Mississippi at the head of the Des Moines Rapids, where he built a trading house and planted an orchard. No further efforts to establish settlements in lowa until after the beginning of the nineteenth century.
In the fall of 1808 a small detachment of United States troops, under command of Lieut. Alpha Kingsley, built a military post where the City of Fort Madison is now located. Starting from the settlements on the eastern seaboard, the white man's civilization gradually extended westward, and soon after the Louisiana Pur- chase in 1803 had reached the Mississippi River. West of that stream the land was still in the hands of the Indians, and it was not until after the Black Hawk Purchase of 1832 that any portion of lowa was legally subject to settlement by the whites. A trading post had been established at Keokuk in 1820 and a few other estab-
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HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY
lishments of that character were located at different points along the eastern border of the state. Burlington and Fort Madison were laid out and settled in 1832, and Davenport was founded in 1833. On June 1, 1833, the title to the Black Hawk Purchase, or "Forty- Mile Strip," became fully vested in the United States and settlers began to pour into the newly acquired territory.
The region comprising Marion County still remained an Indian possession, however, until the Sacs and Foxes, by the treaty con- cluded at their agency on October 11, 1842, relinquished to the United States all their lands west of the Mississippi. Under the provisions of this treaty the white man was given the right to settle east of a line running north and south through the cliff known as "Red Rock" on the Des Moines River after May 1, 1843, and west of that line after October 10, 1845. This line was surveyed in the fall of 1843 by George W. Harrison, a civil engineer and surveyor in the employ of the United States Government, though a few white men had located in the eastern part of the county earlier in that year. Disputes soon arose between these pioneers and the Indians as to the location of the line, the latter frequently claiming that the white men were encroaching upon their lands. It was to settle these difficulties that Mr. Harrison was sent to survey the line and mark it by stone monuments at stated intervals. The marker at the Des Moines River was placed a short distance above the present Town of Red Rock.
Prior to the actual settlement of the county in 1843 but little was known of this section of the country. Adventurous hunters and trappers who had traversed the Des Moines Valley told of the beau- tiful prairies and fertile soil, and a few trading houses had been established along the river between the Indian Town of Hard Fish (now Eddyville) and Fort Des Moines. Says Donnel, in his "Pio- neers of Marion County":
"The remains of one of these houses are still visible near the eastern border of the county, in what is now Lake Prairie Township. It was, perhaps, the first house occupied by white people within the bounds of the county. Another, known as the 'Phelps Trading House,' stood somewhere near the same locality. The proprietor, William Phelps, previously kept the same kind of an establishment at Farmington, Van Buren County, and moved up when his Indian customers receded before the advance of civilization. At a some- what later date others were established at and in the neighborhood of Red Rock. One of these, kept by a person named Shaw, stood
JOSHUA JJENKINS
Only Marion County survivor of the Mexican War.
AUTOR, LE BILDEN FOUND
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HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY
on the opposite side of the river from the village, and another a short distance above it was kept by John Jordan. About a mile and a half above Red Rock was another trading house kept by Turner, and north of town about the same distance was yet another, known as the firm of Gaddis & Nye. Some others, who still live in the county, traded much with both the Indians and whites after the settlements commenced, among whom are G. D. Bedell, of the vil- lage, and G. H. Mikesell, of the Town of Red Rock. Indeed, so far as we can learn, only the first three mentioned establishments existed previously to the date of settlement."
Immediately after the treaty of October, 1842, a detachment of United States dragoons was sent into the Sac and Fox country and took up quarters at Fort Des Moines, where the city of that name is now located. The objects of this move on the part of the Govern- ment were to guard the Sacs and Foxes from attacks by the Sioux, and to prevent settlers from coming upon the new purchase until after the expiration of the stipulated time-May 1, 1843. There was also a garrison at the agency, the commanding officer of which was instructed to see that no immigrants crossed the line prior to that date. Notwithstanding these precautions, quite a number of pros- pectors did cross the line and select claims in advance of the day when the land was subject to settlement.
Just who was the first white man to effect a permanent settle- ment within the limits of the county is a matter of some uncertainty. In the fall of 1842 George Henry, James Carnilius and another man, whose name seems to have been forgotten, came to what is now Lake Prairie Township and erected three cabins, after which they returned to Missouri. When they returned the following spring they found that their cabins had been destroyed by the dragoons. Mr. Henry, who was a native of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, then selected a new claim in what is now the northeast corner of Indiana Township. It has been claimed by some authorities that he and his associates were the first settlers in the county. But the mere fact that they built some pole cabins in the fall of 1842, before a legal settlement could be made, and then abandoned them certainly does not deserve to be called a settlement, and about the time he located in Indiana Township quite a number of pioneers came into the county so nearly at the same time it would be a difficult matter to say which was the first.
During the spring and summer of 1843 Wellington and Levi Nossaman, George and John Gillaspy, William and John Welch and a few others settled on Lake Prairie; David Durham, Andrew
1
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HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY
Foster, Matthew Ruple and two or three other families located in what is now Clay Township, where Durham and Foster had selected claims the previous autumn. Matthew Ruple's daughter Frances, born August 26, 1843, was the first white child to be born in Marion County.
John M. Jones, an agent of the American Fur Company, trav- eled over a large part of Iowa in 1842 and in the fall of that year selected a claim on the White Breast Creek, where he spent the winter. Soon after the country was thrown open to settlement he and his four sons-John, Isaac, George and William-settled in what is now Knoxville Township. Here he was soon afterward joined by Conrad Walters, Tyler Overton, John Conrey and a few others. About the same time Martin Neel, Stanford Doud, Andrew McGruder, David Haymaker, Silas Brown, Horace Lyman and a few associates settled in what is now Liberty Township. Among the early settlers of Polk Township were M. S. Morris, George Wilson, James, Andrew and George Stevenson and their father, Mordecai Yearns and the Billaps family. In Union Township the settlers of 1843 were Simeon and George Reynolds, John Flanders, Duncan Neil, Richard and John Butcher and three or four others. Prominent among the pioneers of what is now Summit Township were James Price, David and Allen Tice, Andrew Metz and the Wilsons. A more complete account of the early settlements in dif- ferent parts of the county will be found in the chapters on township history.
WEST OF THE RED ROCK LINE
By the provisions of the treaty of October 11, 1842, the Indians were to remain in undisputed possession of their lands west of the Red Rock line for three years. That period expired at midnight on the night of October 10-11, 1845. Before that time arrived the eastern part of the county was fairly well populated and steps had been taken to organize a separate county. Near the Indian boundary were gathered a number of prospective residents, ready to cross the line and stake out their claims just as soon as the treaty agreement would permit. To prevent premature action on the part of these people, dragoons were stationed along the line to see that no one crossed for the purpose of settlement until the Indian title expired, though for some time before that the pickets would permit persons to cross the line, "just to look around," so as they had neither wagon nor ax. It is said that some of these prospectors carried axes in their
JOIN WELCH
One of Marion County's early merchants.
DEN ru
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HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY
pockets or knapsacks and when they found a tract of land that suited them it was an easy matter to fit a temporary handle in the ax and blaze out the boundary of a claim. Even a few wagons were slipped through the picket-line during the last few days of waiting. Some years later, one of those who took part in the rush for claims gave the following account of the affair:
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