USA > Iowa > Page County > History of Page County, Iowa : also biographical sketches of some prominent citizens of the county, Vol. I > Part 2
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HISTORY OF PAGE COUNTY
Hawk," decked him with medals, excited his jealousy against the Americans and armed his band but he met with defeat and disappointment and soon abandoned the service and returned home.
There was a portion of the Sacs and Foxes whom Black Hawk, with all his skill and cunning, could not lead into hostilities against the United States. With Keokuk, "the Watchful Fox," at their head, they were dis- posed to abide by the treaty of 1804 and to cultivate friendly relations with the American people. So when Black Hawk and his band joined the fortunes of Great Britain, the rest of the nation remained neutral and for protection organized with Keokuk for their chief. Thus the nation was divided into the "war party" and "peace party." Keokuk became one of the nation's great chiefs. In person he was tall and of portly bearing. He has been described as an orator, entitled to rank with the most gifted of his race, and through the eloquence of his tongue he prevailed upon a large body of his people to remain friendly to the Americans. As has been said. the treaty of 1804, between the United States and the Sac and Fox nations was never acknowledged by Black Hawk and in 1831 he established himself with a chosen band of warriors upon the disputed territory, ordering the whites to leave the country at once. The settlers complaining. Governor Reynolds, of Illinois, despatched General Gaines, with a company of reg- ulars and one thousand five hundred volunteers, to the scene of action. Taking the Indians by surprise, the troops burnt their village and forced them to conclude a treaty, by which they ceded all their lands east of the Mississippi and agreed to remain on the west side of the river.
Necessity forced the proud spirit of Black Hawk into submission, which made him more than ever determined to be avenged upon his enemies. Having rallied around him the warlike braves of the Sac and Fox nations. he recrossed the Mississippi in the spring of 1832. Upon hearing of the invasion, Governor Reynolds hastily gathered a body of one thousand eight hundred volunteers, placing them under Brigadier-General Samuel White- side. The army marched to the Mississippi and. having reduced to ashes the village known as "Prophet's Town," proceeded several miles up Rock River to Dixon to join the regular forces under General Atkinson. They formed at Dixon two companies of volunteers, who, sighing for glory, were dispatched to reconnoiter the enemy. They advanced under command of General Stillman to a creek, afterwards called "Stillman's Run," and while encamping there saw a party of mounted Indians at a distance of a mile. Several of Stillman's men mounted their horses and charged the Indians. killing three of them, but attacked by the main body under Black Hawk, they were routed and by their precipitate flight spread such a panic through the camp that the whole company ran off to Dixon as fast as their legs could carry them. On their arrival it was found eleven had been killed. For a long time afterward Major Stillman and his men were subjects of ridicule and merriment, which was as undeserving as their expedition was disastrous. Stillman's defeat spread consternation throughout the state and nation. The number of Indians was greatly exaggerated and the name of Black Hawk carried with it associations of great military talent, cunning
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and cruelty. He was very active and restless and was continually causing trouble.
After Black Hawk and his warriors had committed several depreda- tions and added more scalp locks to their belts, that restless chief and his savage partisans were located on Rock river, where he was in camp. On July 19th, General Henry being in command, ordered his troops to march. After having gone fifty miles, they were overtaken by a terrible thunder- storm which lasted all night. Nothing cooled in their ardor and zeal, they marched fifty miles the next day, encamping near the place where the Indians encamped the night before. Hurrying along as fast as they could, the infantry keeping up an equal pace with the mounted men, the troops on the morning of the 21st crossed the river connecting two of the four lakes, by which the Indians had been endeavoring to escape. They found on their way the ground strewn with kettles and articles of baggage, which in the haste of retreat the Indians were obliged to abandon. The troops, imbued with new ardor, advanced so rapidly that at noon they fell in with the rear guards of the enemy. Those who closely pursued them were saluted by a sudden fire of musketry from a body of Indians who had con- cealed themselves in the high grass of the prairie. A most desperate charge was made on the four who, unable to resist, retreated obliquely in order to outflank the volunteers on the right but the latter charged the Indians in their ambush and expelled them from the thickets at the point of the bay- onet and dispersed them. Night set in and the battle ended, having cost the Indians sixty-eight of their bravest men, while the loss of the Illinoisans was but one killed and eight wounded. Soon after this battle Generals Atkinson and Henry joined forces and pursued the Indians. General Henry struck the main trail, left his horses behind, formed an advance guard of eight men and marched forward upon the trail. When these eight men came in sight of the river they were suddenly fired upon and five of them killed, the remaining three maintaining their ground until General Henry came up. Then the Indians, charged upon with the bayonet, fell back upon their main force. The battle now became general. The Indians fought with desperate valor but were furiously assailed by the volunteers with their bayonets, cutting many of the Indians to pieces and driving the rest of them into the river. Those who escaped from being drowned found refuge on an island. On hearing the frequent discharge of musketry, General At- kinson abandoned the pursuit of the twenty Indians under Black Hawk himself and hurried to the scene of action, where he arrived too late to take part in the battle. He immediately forded the river with his troops, the water reaching up to their necks, and landed on the island where the Indians had secreted themselves. The soldiers rushed upon the Indians, killed several of them, took the others prisoners and chased the rest into the river, where they were either drowned or shot before reaching the opposite shore. Thus ended the battle, the Indians losing three hundred, besides fifty prison- ers ; the whites but seventeen killed and twelve wounded.
Black Hawk with his twenty braves retreated up the Wisconsin river. The Winnebagoes, desirous of securing the friendship of the whites, went
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HISTORY OF PAGE COUNTY
in pursuit and captured and delivered them to General Street, the United States Indian agent. Among the prisoners were the son of Black Hawk and the prophet of the tribe. These, with Black Hawk, were taken to Washington, D. C., and soon consigned as prisoners to Fortress Monroe. At the interview Black Hawk had with the president he closed his speech delivered on the occasion in the following words: "We did not expect to conquer the whites. They have too many houses, too many men. I took up the hatchet, for my part, to revenge injuries which my people would no longer endure. Had I borne them longer without striking my people would have said: 'Black Hawk is a woman ; he is too old to be a chief ; he is no Sac.' These reflections caused me to raise the war whoop. I say no more. It is known to you. Keokuk once was here; you took him by the hand, and when he wished to return to his home you were willing. Black Hawk expects like Keokuk, he shall be permitted to return, too."
By order of the president, Black Hawk and his companions who were in confinement at Fortress Monroe, were set free on the 4th day of June, 1833. After their release from prison they were conducted in charge of Major Garland through some of the principal cities that they might witness the power of the United States and learn their own inability to cope with them in war. Great multitudes flocked to see them wherever they were taken and the attention paid them rendered their progress through the country a tri- umphal procession instead of prisoners transported by an officer. At Rock Island the prisoners were given their liberty amid great and impressive cere- mony. In 1838 Black Hawk built him a dwelling near Des Moines, this state, and furnished it after the manner of the whites and engaged in agricul- tural pursuits, together with hunting and fishing. Here, with his wife, to whom he was greatly attached, he passed the few remaining days of his life. To his credit it may be said that Black Hawk remained true to his wife and served her with a devotion uncommon among Indians, living with her up- wards of forty years.
At all times when Black Hawk visited the whites he was received with marked attention. He was an honored guest of the Old Settlers' reunion in Lee county, Illinois, and received marked tokens of esteem. In September, 1838, while on his way to Rock Island to receive his annuity from the gov- ernment, he contracted a severe cold, which resulted in an intense attack of bilious fever, and terminated his life October 3. After his death he was dressed in the uniform presented him by the president while in Washing- ton. He was buried in a grave six feet in depth, situated upon a beautiful eminence. The body was placed in the middle of the grave, in a sitting position upon a seat constructed for the occasion. On his left side the cane given him by Henry Clay was placed upright, with his right hand resting upon it. His remains were afterward stolen and carried away but they were recovered by the governor of Iowa and placed in the museum at Burlington, of the Historical Society, where they were finally destroyed by fire.
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HISTORY OF PAGE COUNTY
INDIAN TREATIES.
The territory known as the "Black Hawk Purchase," although not the first portion of Iowa ceded to the United States by the Sacs and Foxes, was the first opened to actual settlement by the tide of emigration which flowed across the Mississippi as soon as the Indian tide was extinguished. The treaty which provided for this cession was made at a council held on the west bank of the Mississippi where now stands the city of Davenport, on ground now occupied by the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad Com- pany, September 21, 1832. This was just after the Black Hawk war and the defeated savages had retired from east of the Mississippi. At the coun- cil the government was represented by General Winfield Scott and Governor Reynolds, of Illinois. Keokuk, Pash-a-popo and some thirty other chiefs and warriors were there. By this treaty the Sacs and Foxes ceded to the United States a strip of land on the eastern border of Iowa, fifty miles wide, from the northern boundary of Missouri to the mouth of the Upper Iowa river, containing about six million acres. The western line of the purchase was parallel with the Mississippi. In consideration for this cession the United States agreed to pay annually to the confederated tribes, for thirty consecu- tive years, twenty thousand dollars in specie, and to pay the debts of the Indians at Rock Island, which had been accumulating for seventeen years and amounted to fifty thousand dollars, due to Davenport & Farnham, In- dian traders. The government also donated to the Sac and Fox women and children, whose husbands and fathers had fallen in the Black Hawk war, thirty-five beef cattle, twelve bushels of salt, thirty barrels of pork, fifty bar- rels of flour and six thousand bushels of corn.
The treaty was ratified February 13, 1833, and took effect on the first of June following, when the Indians quietly removed from the ceded territory and this fertile and beautiful region was opened by white settlers.
By the terms of the treaty, out of the "Black Hawk Purchase" was re- served for the Sacs and Foxes four hundred square miles of land, situated on the Iowa river, and including within its limits Keokuk village, on the right bank of that river. This tract was known as Keokuk's reserve and was occupied by the Indians until 1836, where by a treaty made in September be- tween them and Governor Dodge, of Wisconsin territory, it was ceded to the United States. The council was held on the banks of the Mississippi above Davenport, and was the largest assemblage of the kind ever held by the Sacs and Foxes to treat for the sale of land. About one thousand of their chiefs and braves were present, Keokuk being the leading spirit of the occasion and their principal speaker.
FIRST LAND TITLE IN IOWA.
By the terms of this treaty the Sacs and Foxes were removed to another reservation on the Des Moines river, where an agency was established at what is now the town of Agency, in Wapello county. The government also gave out of the "Black Hawk Purchase," to Antoine LeClaire, interpreter, in fee
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HISTORY OF PAGE COUNTY
simple, one section of land opposite Rock Island and another at the head of the first rapids above the island, on the Iowa side. This was the first land title granted by the United States to an individual in Iowa.
General Joseph M. Street established an agency among the Sacs and Foxes very soon after the removal of the latter to their new reservation. He was transferred from the agency of the Winnebagoes for this purpose. A farm was selected, upon which the necessary buildings were erected, in- cluding a comfortable farm house for the agent and his family, at the expense of the Indian fund. A salaried agent was employed to superintend the farm and dispose of the crops. Two mills were erected-one on Soap creek and the other on Sugar creek. The latter was soon swept away by a flood but the former did good service for many years.
Connected with the agency were Joseph Smart and John Goodell, inter- preters. The latter was interpreter for Hard Fishes' band. Three of the In- dian chiefs-Keokuk, Wapello and Appanoose-had each a large field im- proved, the two former on the right bank of the Des Moines and back from the river, in what was "Keokuk's Prairie," and the latter on the present site of Ottumwa. Among the traders connected with their agency was J. P. Eddy, who established his post at what is now the site of Eddyville. The Indians at this agency became idle and listless in the absence of their natural excite- ments and many of them plunged into dissipation. Keokuk himself became dissipated in the latter years of his life and it has been reported that he died of delirium tremens after his removal with his tribe to Kansas. In May, 1843, most of the Indians were removed up the Des Moines river, above the temporary line of Red Rock, having ceded the remnants of their land in Iowa to the United States, September 21, 1837, and October 11, 1842. By the terms of the latter treaty, they held possession of the "New Purchase" un- til the autumn of 1845, when most of them were removed to their reservation in Kansas, the balance being removed in 1846.
Before any permanent settlement was made in the territory of Iowa, white adventurers, trappers and traders, many of whom were scattered along the Mississippi and its tributaries, as agents and employes of the American Fur Company, intermarried with the females of the Sac and Fox Indians, pro- ducing a race of half-breeds, whose number was never definitely ascertained. There were some respectable and excellent people among them, children of some refinement and education.
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 nine- teenth century. It consisted 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
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HISTORY OF PAGE COUNTY
traders had established themselves 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 Keo- kuk, 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 romantic. While sta- tioned 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 assured, 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 child-like 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 officers-less honorable than he-made him feel ashamed of his dark skinned wife, and when his regiment was ordered down the river to Belle- fontaine, 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 cou- rage 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 afterwards re- marked, when speaking of this toilsome 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 marked respect. She always pre- sided 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. Doctor 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. Accord-
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HISTORY OF PAGE COUNTY
ingly, in 1834, all the territory comprising the present states of Iowa, Wis- consin 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 partially organized. John King was appointed chief justice of Dubuque county and Isaac Leffler, of Des Moines county, were 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 Wisconsin, 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. Sep- tember 9, 1836, a census of the new territory was taken. Des Moines county showed a population of six thousand two hundred and fifty-seven and Dubuque county four thousand two hundred and seventy-four.
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 Wis- consin territory and Missouri. The territorial legislature of Wisconsin, then in session in Burlington, joined in the petition. The act was passed dividing the territory of Wisconsin and providing for the territorial govern- ment of Iowa. This was approved June 12, 1838, to take effect and be in force on and after July 3, 1838.
The new territory embraced "all that part of the present territory of Wisconsin west of the Mississippi river and west of a line drawn due north from the headwaters or 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 pro- vided 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 five thousand dollars for a public library and twenty thousand dollars 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 new ter- ritory ; William B. Conway, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, secretary; Charles Mason of Burlington, chief justice; Thomas S. Wilson, of Dubuque, and
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HISTORY OF PAGE COUNTY
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 as- sembly 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 previously 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 dis- posed to make free use of this prerogative and the independent Hawkeyes could not quietly submit to arbitrary and absolute 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 magistrates. Among the first important matters demanding attention was the location of the seat of government and provision for the erection of public buildings, for which congress had appropriated twenty thousand dollars. Governor Lucas in his message had recommended the appointment of commissioners with a view to selecting 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 Mississippi river, was alienated by the Indians to the general govern- ment and a central 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 govern- ment. The central and southern parties were very nearly equal and in consequence much excitement prevailed. The central party at last was tri- umphant and on January 21, 1839, an act was passed appointing commis- sioners to select a site 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 purchase 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, six hundred and forty 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 ap- propriate ceremonies, July 4, 1840. Monday, December 6, 1841, the fourth legislature of Iowa met at the new capital, Iowa City, but the capitol build- ing not being ready for occupancy, a temporary frame house erected for the purpose, was used.
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