USA > Iowa > Muscatine County > History of Muscatine County, Iowa, from the earliest settlements to the present time, Volume I > Part 3
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EARLY SETTLEMENT
The first permanent settlement made by the whites within the limits of Iowa was by Julien Dubuque in 1788, when, with a small party of miners, he settled on the site of the city that now bears his name, where he lived until his death in 1810. What was known as the Girard settlement in Clayton county was made by some parties prior to the commencement of the nineteenth century. It con- sisted of three cabins in 1805. Louis Honori settled on the site of the present town of Montrose, probably in 1799, and resided there probably until 1805, when his property passed into other hands. Indian traders had established them- selves at other points at an early date. Mr. Johnson, an agent of the American Fur Company, had a trading post below Burlington, where he carried on traffic with the Indians some time before the United States came into possession of Louisiana. In 1820, Le Moliese, a French trader, had a station at what is now Sandusky, six miles above Keokuk, in Lee county. The same year a cabin was built where the city of Keokuk now stands by Dr. Samuel C. Muir, a surgeon in the United States army. His marriage and subsequent life were very ro- mantic. While stationed at a military post on the Upper Mississippi, the post was visited by a beautiful Indian maiden-whose native name unfortunately has not been preserved-who in her dreams had seen a white brave unmoor his canoe, paddle it across the river and come directly to her lodge. She felt as- sured, according to the superstitious belief of her race, that in her dreams she had seen her future husband and had come to the fort to find him. Meeting Dr. Muir, she instantly recognized him as the hero of her dream which, with childlike innocence and simplicity, she related to him. Charmed with the dusky maiden's beauty, innocence and devotion, the Doctor took her to his home in honorable wedlock; but after a while the sneers and jibes of his brother offi- cers-less honorable than he-made him feel ashamed of his dark-skinned wife, and when his regiment was ordered down the river to Bellefontaine, it is said he embraced the opportunity to rid himself of her, never expecting to see her again and little dreaming that she would have the courage to follow him. But with her infant this intrepid wife and mother started alone in her canoe and after many days of weary labor and a lonely journey of nine hundred miles, she at last reached him. She afterward remarked, when speaking of this toil- some journey down the river in search of her husband: "When I got there I was all perished away-so thin." The Doctor, touched by such unexampled devotion, took her to his heart and ever after until his death treated her with Vol. I-2
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marked respect. She always presided at his table with grace and dignity but never abandoned her native style of dress. In 1819-20 he was stationed at Fort Edwards, now Warsaw, but the senseless ridicule of some of his brother officers on account of his Indian wife induced him to resign his commission. He then built a cabin, as above stated, where Keokuk is now situated and made a claim to some land.
This land he leased to parties in the neighborhood and then moved to what is now Galena, where he practiced his profession for ten years, when he returned to Keokuk. His Indian wife bore him four children: Louise, James, Mary and Sophia. Dr. Muir died suddenly, of cholera, in 1832, but left his property in such condition that it was wasted in vexatious litigation and his brave and faithful wife, left friendless and penniless, became discouraged, so with her two younger children she disappeared. It is said she returned to her people on the Upper Missouri.
CIVIL GOVERNMENT FOR TERRITORY AND STATE.
After the "Black Hawk Purchase" immigration to Iowa was rapid and steady, and provisions for civil government became a necessity. Accordingly, in 1834, all the territory comprising the present states of Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota, was made subject to the jurisdiction of Michigan territory. Up to this time there had been no county or other organization in what is now the state of Iowa, although one or two justices of the peace had been appointed. and a postoffice was established at Dubuque in 1833. In September of 1834, therefore, the territorial legislature of Michigan created two counties on the west side of the Mississippi river-Dubuque and Des Moines-separated by a line drawn westward from the foot of Rock Island. These counties were par- tially organized. John King was appointed chief justice of Dubuque county and Isaac Leffler of Des Moines county was appointed by the governor.
In October, 1835, General George W. Jones, in recent years a citizen of Dubuque, was elected a delegate to congress. April 20, 1836, through the efforts of General Jones, congress passed a bill creating the territory of Wis- consin, which went into operation July 4th of the same year. Iowa was then included in the territory of Wisconsin, of which General Henry Dodge was appointed governor; John S. Horner, secretary; Charles Dunn, chief justice; David Irwin and William C. Frazer, associate justices. September 9, 1836, a census of the new territory was taken. Des Moines county showed a population of 6,257, and Dubuque county 4,274.
ORGANIZATION OF THE TERRITORY OF IOWA.
The question of the organization of the territory of Iowa now began to be agitated and the desires of the people found expression in a convention held November Ist, which memorialized congress to organize a territory west of the Mississippi river and to settle the boundary line between Wisconsin territory and Missouri. The territorial legislature of Wisconsin, then in session in Bur- lington, joined in the petition. The act was passed dividing the territory of Wisconsin and providing for the territorial government of Iowa. This was approved June 12, 1838, to take effect and be in force on and after July 3, 1838.
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The new territory embraced "all that part of the present territory of Wis- consin west of the Mississippi river and west of a line drawn due north from the headwaters of sources of the Mississippi river to the territorial line." The organic act provided for a governor, whose term of office should be three years ; a secretary, chief justice, two associate justices, an attorney general and marshal, to be appointed by the president. The act also provided for the election, by the white citizens over twenty-one years of age, of a house of representatives, consisting of twenty-six members and a council to consist of thirteen members. It also appropriated $5,000 for a public library and $20,000 for the erection of public buildings. In accordance with this act, President Van Buren appointed ex-Governor Robert Lucas of Ohio, to be the first governor of the territory; William B. Conway, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, secretary; Charles Mason, of Burlington, chief justice; Thomas S. Wilson, of Dubuque, and Joseph Williams, of Pennsylvania, associate justices; Mr. Van Allen, of New York, attorney ; Francis Gehon, of Dubuque, marshal; Augustus C. Dodge, register of the land office at Burlington; and Thomas C. Knight, receiver of the land office at Dubuque.
On the 10th of September, 1838, an election was held for members of the legislature and on the 12th of the following November the first session of that body was held at Burlington. Both branches of this general assembly had a large democratic majority but notwithstanding that fact, General Jesse B. Brown, a whig, of Lee county, Des Moines and Dubuque counties having been pre- viously divided into other counties, was elected president of the council, and Hon. William H. Wallace, of Henry county, also a whig, speaker of the house. The first session of the Iowa territorial legislature was a stormy and exciting one. By the organic law the governor was clothed with almost unlimited veto power. Governor Lucas was disposed to make free use of this prerogative and the independent Hawkeyes could not quietly submit to arbitrary and abso- lute rule. The result was an unpleasant controversy between the executive and legislative departments. Congress, however, by act approved March 3, 1839, amended the organic law by restricting the veto power of the governor to the two-thirds rule and took from him the power to appoint sheriffs and mag- istrates. Among the first important matters demanding attention was the loca- tion of the seat of government and provision for the erection of public build- ings, for which congress had appropriated $20,000. Governor Lucas in his mes- sage had recommended the appointment of commissioners with a view to select- ing a central location. The extent of the future state of Iowa was not known or thought of. Only a strip of land fifty miles wide, bordering on the Missis- sippi river, was alienated by the Indians to the general government and a cen- tral location meant some central point within the confines of what was known as the "Black Hawk Purchase."
The friends of a central location favored the governor's suggestion. The southern members were divided between Burlington and Mount Pleasant but finally united on the latter as the proper location for the seat of government. The central and southern parties were very nearly equal and in consequence much excitement prevailed. The central party at last was triumphant and on January 21, 1839, an act was passed appointing commissioners to select a site
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HISTORY OF MUSCATINE COUNTY
for a permanent seat of government within the limits of Johnson county. All things considered, the location of the capital in Johnson county was a wise act. Johnson county was from north to south in the geographical center of the pur- chase and as near the east and west geographical center of the future state of Iowa as could then be made. The site having been determined, 640 acres were laid out by the commissioners into a town and called Iowa City. On a tract of ten acres the capitol was built, the corner stone of which was laid, with appro- priate ceremonies, July 4, 1840. Monday, December 6, 1841, the fourth legis- lature of Iowa met at the new capital, Iowa City, but the capitol building not being ready for occupancy, a temporary frame house erected for the purpose was used.
In 1841 John Chambers succeeded Robert Lucas as governor and in 1845 he gave place to James Clarke. The territorial legislature held its eighth and last session at Iowa City in 1845. James Clarke was the same year appointed the successor of Governor Chambers and was the third and last territorial governor.
THE TERRITORY BECOMES THE STATE OF IOWA.
The territory of Iowa was growing rapidly in its population and soon began to look for greater things. Her ambition was to take on the dignity and im- portance of statehood. To the furtherance of this laudable ambition the terri- torial legislature passed an act, which was approved February 12, 1844, pro- viding for the submission to the people of the question of the formation of a state constitution and providing for the election of delegates to a convention to be convened for that purpose. The people voted on this at their township elec- tions the following April. The measure was carried by a large majority and the members elected assembled in convention at Iowa City, October 7, 1844. On the Ist day of November following, the convention completed its work and adopted the first state constitution. By reason of the boundary lines of the pro- posed state being unsatisfactorily prescribed by congress, the constitution was rejected at an election held August 4, 1845, by a vote of 7,656 to 7,235. May 4, 1846, a second convention met at Iowa City and on the 18th of the same month another constitution, prescribing the boundaries as they now are, was adopted. This was accepted by the people August 3d, by a vote of 9,492 to 9,036. The new constitution was approved by congress and Iowa was admitted as a sovereign state in the Union, December 28, 1846, and the people of the territory, anticipating favorable action by congress, held an election for state officers, October 26, 1846, which resulted in the choice of Ansel Briggs for gov- ernor; Elisha Cutler, Jr., secretary ; James T. Fales, auditor; Morgan Reno, treasurer ; and members of both branches of the legislature.
The act of congress which admitted Iowa into the Union as a state gave her the sixteenth section of every township of land in the state, or its equivalent, for the support of schools; also seventy-two sections of land for the purposes of a university ; five sections of land for the completion of her public buildings ; the salt springs within her limits, not exceeding twelve in number, with sec- tions of land adjoining each; also in consideration that her public lands should
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be exempt from taxation by the state. The state was given five per cent of the net proceeds of the sale of public lands within the state.
The constitutional convention of 1846 was made up largely of democrats and the instrument contains some of the peculiar tenets of the party that day. All banks of issue were prohibited within the state. The state was prohibited from becoming a stockholder in any corporation for pecuniary profit and the general assembly could only provide for private corporations by general statutes. The constitution also limited the state's indebtedness to $100,000. It required the general assembly to provide for schools throughout the state for at least three months during the year. Six months' previous residence of any white male citizen of the United States constituted him an elector.
At the time of the organization of the state Iowa had a population of 116,651, as appears by the census of 1847. There were twenty-seven organized coun- ties and the settlements were being rapidly pushed toward the Missouri river.
The western boundary of the state, as now determined, left Iowa City too far toward the eastern and southern boundary of the state. This was conceded. Congress had appropriated five sections of land for the erection of public build- ings and toward the close of the first session of the general assembly a bill was introduced providing for the relocation of the seat of government, involving to some extent, the location of the state university, which had already been dis- cussed. This bill gave rise to much discussion, and parliamentary maneuvering almost purely sectional in its character. February 25, 1847, an act was passed to locate and establish a state university, and the unfinished public buildings at Iowa City, together with the ten acres of land on which they were situated, were granted for the use of the university, reserving their use, however, for the gen- eral assembly and state officers until other provisions were made by law.
Four sections and two half sections of land were selected in Jasper county by the commissioners for the new capital. Here a town was platted and called Monroe City. The commissioners placed town lots on sale in the new location but reported to the assembly small sales at a cost exceeding the receipts. The town of Monroe was condemned and failed of becoming the capital. An act was passed repealing the law for the location at Monroe and those who had bought lots there were refunded their money.
By reason of jealousies and bickerings the first general assembly failed to elect United States senators but the second did better and sent to the upper house of congress Augustus Caesar Dodge and George Jones. The first repre- sentatives were S. Clinton Hastings, of Muscatine, and Sheppard Leffler, of Des Moines county.
The question of the permanent seat of government was not settled, and in 1851 bills were introduced for its removal to Fort Des Moines. The latter locality seemed to have the support of the majority but was finally lost in the house on the question of ordering it to a third reading. At the next session, in 1853, a bill was again introduced in the senate for the removal of the capital and the effort was more successful. On January 15, 1855, a bill relocating the capital of the state of Iowa within two miles of the Raccoon fork of the Des Moines river, and for the appointment of commissioners, was approved by Governor Grimes. The site was selected in 1856, in accordance with the pro-
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visions of this act, the land being donated to the state by citizens and property holders of Des Moines. An association of citizens erected a temporary building for the capitol and leased it to the state at a nominal rent.
THE STATE BECOMES REPUBLICAN.
The passage by congress of the act organizing the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, and the provision it contained abrogating that portion of the Missouri bill that prohibited slavery and involuntary servitude north of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes was the beginning of a political revolution in the northern states, and in none was it more marked than in the state of Iowa. Iowa was the "first free child born of the Missouri Compromise." In 1856 the republican party of the state was duly organized, in full sympathy with that of the other free states, and at the ensuing presidential election the electoral vote of the state was cast for John C. Fremont.
Another constitutional convention assembled in Iowa City in January, 1857. One of the most pressing demands for this convention grew out of the prohibi- tion of banks under the old constitution. The practical result of this prohibi- tion was to flood the state with every species of "wildcat" currency. The cir- culating medium was made up in part of the free-bank paper of Illinois and Indiana. In addition to this there was paper issued by Iowa brokers, who had obtained bank charters from the territorial legislature of Nebraska and had had their pretended headquarters at Omaha and Florence. The currency was also variegated with the bills of other states, generally such as had the best repu- tation where they were least known. This paper was all at two, and some of it from ten to fifteen per cent discount. Every man who was not an expert at detecting counterfeit bills and who was not posted in the methods of banking institutions, did business at his peril. The new constitution adopted at this con- vention made ample provisions for house banks under the supervision of laws of the state and other changes in the old constitution were made that more nearly met the views of the people.
The permanent seat of government was fixed at Des Moines and the univer- sity at Iowa City. The qualifications of electors remained the same as under the old constitution but the schedule provided for a vote of the people upon a separate proposition to strike out the word "white" from the suffrage clause. Since the early organization of Iowa there had been upon the statute books a law providing that no negro, mulatto or Indian should be a competent witness in any suit at law or proceeding, to which a white man was a party. The general assembly of 1856-7 repealed this law and the new constitution contained a clause forbidding such disqualification in the future. It also provided for the educa- tion of "all youth of the state" through a system of common schools.
THE CAPITAL REMOVED TO DES MOINES.
October 19, 1857, Governor Grimes issued a proclamation declaring the city of Des Moines to be the capital of the state of Iowa. The removal of the arch- ives and offices was commenced at once and continued through the fall. It was
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HISTORY OF MUSCATINE COUNTY
an undertaking of no small magnitude. There was not a mile of railroad to facilitate the work and the season was unusually disagreeable. Rain, snow and other accompaniments increased the difficulties and it was not until December that the last of the effects-the safe of the state treasurer, loaded on two large "bob-sleds" drawn by ten yoke of oxen-was deposited in the new capitol. Thus Iowa City ceased to be the capital of the state after four territorial legislatures, six state legislatures and three constitutional conventions had held their regular sessions there.
In 1870 the general assembly made an appropriation and provided for a board of commissioners to commence the work of building a new capitol. The corner stone was laid with appropriate ceremonies, November 23, 1871. The estimated cost of the building was $2,500,000, and the structure was finished and occu- pied in 1874, the dedicatory exercises being held in January of that year. Hon. John A. Kasson delivered the principal address. The state capitol is classic in style, with a superstructure of buff limestone. It is 363 feet in length, 247 feet in width, with a central dome rising to the height of 275 feet. At the time of completion it was only surpassed by the capitol building of the state of New York, at Albany.
CLIMATE.
In former years considerable objection was made to the prevalence of high winds in Iowa, which is somewhat greater than in the states south and east. But climatic changes have lessened that grievance. The air, in fact, is pure and gen- erally bracing, particularly so during the winter. Thunderstorms are also more violent in this state than in those of the east and south but not near so much as toward the mountains. As elsewhere in the northwestern states, westerly winds bring rain and snow, while easterly ones clear the sky. While the highest tempera- ture occurs in August, the month of July averages the hottest and January the coldest. The mean temperature of April and October nearly corresponds to the mean temperature of the year, as well as to the seasons of spring and fall, while that of summer and winter is best represented by August and December. "Indian Summer" is delightful and well prolonged.
TOPOGRAPHY.
The state lies wholly within and comprises a part of a vast plain. There are no mountains and scarcely any hilly country within its borders, for the highest point is but one thousand, two hundred feet above the lowest point. These two points are nearly three hundred miles apart and the whole state is traversed by gently flowing rivers. We thus find there is a good degree of propriety in re- garding the whole state as belonging to a great plain, the lowest point of which within its borders, the southeastern corner of the state, is only four hundred and forty-four feet above the level of the sea. The average height of the whole state above the level of the sea is not far from eight hundred feet, although it is over a thousand miles from the nearest ocean. These remarks of course are to be understood as only applying to the state at large, or as a whole. On examining its surface in detail we find a great diversity of surface for the formation of
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HISTORY OF MUSCATINE COUNTY
valleys out of the general level, which have been evolved by the actions of streams during the unnumbered years of terrace epoch. These river valleys are deepest in the northwestern part of the state and consequently it is there that the country has the greatest diversity of surface and its physical features are most strongly marked.
It is said that ninety-five per cent of the surface of Iowa is capable of a high state of cultivation. The soil is justly famous for its fertility and there is prob- ably no equal area of the earth's surface that contains so little untillable land, or whose soil has so high an average of fertility.
LAKES AND STREAMS.
The largest of Iowa's lakes are Spirit and Okoboji, in Dickinson county, Clear Lake, in Cerro Gordo county, and Storm Lake, in Buena Vista county. Its rivers consist of the Mississippi and Missouri, the Chariton, Grand, Platte, One Hundred and Two, Nodaway, Nishnabotna, Boyer, Soldier, Little Sioux, Floyd, Rock, Big Sioux, Des Moines, Skunk, Iowa, Cedar, Wapsipinicon, Tur- key and Upper Iowa.
IOWA AND THE CIVIL WAR.
Iowa was born a free state. Her people abhorred the "peculiar institution" of slavery, and by her record in the war between the states proved herself truly loyal to her institutions and the maintenance of the Union. By joint resolution in the general assembly of the state in 1857, it was declared that the state of Iowa was "bound to maintain the union of these states by all the means in her power." The same year the state furnished a block of marble for the Washing- ton monument at the national capital and by order of the legislature there was inscribed on its enduring surface the following: "Iowa-Her affections, like the river of her borders, flow to an inseparable Union." The time was now come when these declarations of fidelity and attachment to the nation were to be put to a practical test. There was no state in the Union more vitally interested in the question of national unity than Iowa. The older states, both north and south, had representatives in her citizenship. Iowans were practically immigrants bound to those older communities by the most sacred ties of blood and most enduring recollections of early days. The position of Iowa as a state-geographically- made the dismemberment of the Union a matter of serious concern. Within her borders were two of the great navigable rivers of the country, and the Missis- sippi had for years been its highway to the markets of the world. The people could not entertain the thought that its navigation should pass to the control of a foreign nation. But more than this was to be feared-the consequence of introducing and recognizing in our national system the principle of secession and of disintegration of the states from the Union. "That the nation possessed no constitutional power to coerce a seceding state," as uttered by James Buchanan in his last annual message, was received by the people of Iowa with humiliation and distrust. And in the presidential campaign of 1860, when Abraham Lin- coln combated with all the force of his matchless logic and rhetoric this mon- strous political heresy, the issue was clearly drawn between the north and the
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