USA > Iowa > Pottawattamie County > History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa. Containing a history from the earliest settlement to the present time biographical sketches; portraits of some of the early settlers, prominent men, etc. > Part 10
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*By Col. John H. Keatley.
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HISTORY OF POTTAWATTAMIE COUNTY.
Council Bluffs except Roberdean. another Frenchman who had a trading-post on the river where St. Joseph, Mo., now is. Mr. Guittar did not come into the country for the purposes of settlement, but to engage in the fur trade for his employers. This occupa- tion made him a nomad in fact, and for many years he dealt with the Pawnees, Omahas and Otoes, moving about and living with them in their wanderings over the great plains as far west as the Rocky Mountains. In all their conflicts with the Sioux, he was their counselor and adviser. He espoused their cause, and in their battles on the plains was a trusted military leader.
In one instance, when with the Pawnees, westward at O'Fallon's bluff, the latter were attacked by the Sioux in large numbers. A blinding snow storm set in. The prairie was a bleak expanse, when the Sionx came down upon their hereditary enemies, mounted on ponies, and armed with rifles and bows and arrows, and yelling like demons. The snow came down in blinding flakes. but the Sioux were determined to destroy their antagonists. and forever settle a contest which had been waged for centuries. All day long they fought with desperation. The two bands were about equally matched in numbers. The Pawnees were as strong and as brave and as resolute as their adversaries. Form- ing a circle around their women, children and old men, they struggled desperately to guard and protect everything that was dear to sav- age life. Here and there one of their braves went down in the full flush of the fight, but they were not to be vanquished. When the · sun set behind a cold, gray cloud, and the day ended on that lonely, snow-covered plain, far away from the borders of civilization, the Sioux rode away with their dead and wound- ed, and the only white man on that battle- field unchronicled by the civilized annalist,
was the French voyageur and trader-Frank Guittar, who lay upon the ground pierced with two bullets and punctured with Sioux arrows. That he survived is a miracle in itself. From that day to this the affection for him by the remnant of the Pawnees is that of sons for a father. Wherever there is a relic of the Omalias, the Otoes, or the Paw- nees, to be found, his name is cherished as a tradition, and will always be so long as there is one of them to recount the heroic and mem- orable deeds of their race. In all the subse- quent intercourse of the whites with the In- dians in this quarter, Mr. Guittar has taken an important part. Upon the dissolution of the fur company, and their abandonment of this territory. by the encroachment of perma- nent settlers. Mr. Guittar settled down to or- dinary business pursuits and took part in the building up of Council Bluffs. He also married and has reared a family, among whom are Theodore Guittar, who, with credit, served throughout the civil war, in the Second Iowa Battery, and now (1852) is the Sheriff of Pot- tawattamie County.
Among the other old settlers of the neigh- borhood who came into the country shortly after Mr. Ghittar, also in the service of the fur company. was William Menary, a Cana- dian by birth. and French by extraction. His death, two years ago, marked the disap- pearance of another of the landmarks and traces of the earliest attempts to civilize the borders of the Missouri River. His relations with the Indians, in their tribal intercourse, was not as intimate as that of Mr. Guittar, but his knowledge of Indian character was quite as complete, and to the day of his death he retained the confidence of the remnants of the tribes who came here, at intervals, to look at the rapid transformation of their for- mer hunting grounds. Mr. Menary lived to assist in changing the very ground upon
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HISTORY OF POTTAWATTAMIE COUNTY.
which the buffalo fed when he came to this point, into orchards and farms, and, in re- spect to results, had the pleasure of demon- strating that bountiful crops of luscious fruit were the reward of his own perseverance. He has left behind him a family to cherish his name as that of one of the pioneers of the county.
It was not in the nature of things that this fertile country should remain undeveloped, that the American Fur Company should alone, share its great wealth with the Indian nomad. Illinois had become a State, and history was only repeating itself in the annals of the In- dian tribes. Chicago was only a village, on Lake Michigan, but the Pottawattamies, whose home, ever since the days of Marquette and
LaSalle, had been on the borders of that lake, and whose trading canoes had been to Montreal, in the years when Count Fronte- nac was the inspiration of French Canadian colonization, were troublesome neighbors, in the opinion of the whites. The country be- yond the Missouri, even on the Iowa side, between the Des Moines River and the Mis- souri, was inaccurately described and laid down by the geographer so late as 1846, as the Great American Desert; and there are men now in the prime of life who took their knowledge of the country from that source, and who shuddered in conning their lessons at the idea of the Sahara desolateness resting in the very heart of our own continent.
To appease the demands of those who sought the removal of the Pottawattamies from Northern Illinois, the Federal Govern- ment gave it sanction, and proceeded to carry it out by the selection of a new reservation for that tribe on the site of the present city of Council Bluffs. The Territory of Iowa had been organized by a separation from Wisconsin. The Black Hawk war of 1833 was over, and the Indian title of the Sacs and
Foxes extinguished to the Iowa River. It is no part of my duty in this connection to de- tail the events of that war They are famil- iar to every student of the ordinary history of the border, having been recounted at the fire- sides of the frontier settlements during the last fifty years, and the men are living yet in this city who were active participants in that noted conflict. White control, however, of all the country between the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers, was not fully obtained even after the subjugation of Black Hawk, in 1833, and the submission of Keokuk and Wapello. The Sioux still kept up their ma- rauding habits, and it is recorded of them that on the 19th of November, 1836, they passed the present site of Council Bluff's in a large war party, made a raid eastward to the lower Iowa River, and there surprised five lodges of Foxes, at a point where the line of the Black Hawk Purchase crossed the river, and killed twenty of their number. Only one of the Foxes, a young brave, made his escape, though wounded in the neck, and carried the news to Poweskeik's village.
When the United States acquired the title to the lands of the Sacs and Foxes, lands that were claimed by them to extend to the Mis- souri River, and with them the soil of Council Bluff's, they promised and obligated them- selves to protect the Sacs and Foxes from their blood-thirsty enemies, the Sioux. How well that stipulation was observed may be gathered from a single event. The Sacs and Foxes were threatened with a raid, during the spring and summer of 1837. Wacoslı- aushee, the principal chief, went to St. Louis to see what could be done for him in the way of protection. When he got back, he found his people starving in the village. Hedivid- ed the provisions he received from the trader to the tribe, and, distributing the powder and lead, separated his band into two parties for
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HISTORY OF POTTAWATTAMIE COUNTY.
the purpose of hunting game for sustenance, until the corn should grow and ripen. One party proceeded up the country, between the Cedar and the Iowa Rivers, and the other followed the east bank of the Cedar. The chief himself was at the head of the latter band, consisting of 170 people, forty of whom were men, the rest being women and chil- dren. They found no game for many days, aud subsisted on the fish caught in the Cedar River. Ho expected to find abundance of game in a belt of wooded country on the Wapsie, in the vicinity of what is now Ana- mosa, in Jones County, and when he sent for- ward some young men to reconnoiter, they were informed that the Winnebagoes were hunting there. They then started for the month of Otter River, and when they got near that point, the chief found that the Sioux from the Missouri River were in the vicinity. He found, also, that it was impossible to re- treat, without discovery, and resolved to leave the women and children in camp and go on the trail and fight the Sioux. About mid- night, of the 2d of August, 1837, the forty braves set out on the war-path westward, crossing the Otter and out into the open prairie. They discovered some sandhills be- fore morning, which they supposed were lodges, and, making a charge, with a desper- ate war-whoop, they rushed on what were regarded as enemies, and were discovered by the Sioux, who were encamped in a ravine near by. The Foxes retreated to a line of hills and opened fire, and kept it up until their powder and lead were exhausted, and then their foe came down on them with a yell, and drove them from the field, inflicting a loss of eleven killed and thirteen wounded. That affair was substantially the last square Indian fight between two tribes on the soil of Iowa.
Col. Hardin, of Kentucky, during the administration of President Washington,
through various services rendered the Gov- ernment, in dealing with the Indian tribes in Ohio, had acquired the confidence of the offi- cials at Philadelphia, and was intrusted with a delicate mission to the Shawnees.
He was required to go to his destination alone and on horseback, and, while en route, was waylaid and murdered by Indians. He left behind him, in Kentucky, a widow and several sons. One of the latter, David Har- din, grew to manhood, and was selected by the Federal Government to carry into effect the plan of removing the Pottawatomie In- dians from Northern Illinois to the banks of the Missouri River in 1839. The reservation which has given the name and location to a very large and populous county of Iowa, had been marked out, and, after gathering to- gether the scattered remnants of that once powerful tribe, the exodus began, under the escort of two companies of the First United States Dragoons. There were about three thousand men, women and children in the party, when they reached the position of Council Bluffs. Mr. Hardin brought with him his wife and children, and steps were at once taken to carry out the intentions of the Government in the establishment and equip- ment of a permanent reservation. A stoek- ade was built in the timber, in the bottom lands, about three miles south of the present limits of the city. A Government mill was put in operation on Mosquito Creek, two miles east of the city, at what is now known as Parks' Mill. A Catholic mission accom panied the Indians, and a mission house was built near what is now known as the Bryant Spring, on Upper Broadway. The military post, from sanitary considerations, was trans- ferred to the same point, or near that, in a short time, and the stockade for that purpose erected on the hill, now graded down some- what, and occupied by the brick residence of
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HISTORY OF POTTAWATTAMIE COUNTY.
John Clausen. The mission burial-ground was established a few hundred yards south of the fort, across what is known as Pierce street. A street running north and south
through this burial-place has been oxcavated, and, from time to time, the remains of those buried in the locality have been exhumed and exposed by the beating rains.
CHAPTER X .*
COUNCIL BLUFFS-OREGON ROUTE-JOHN CHARLES FREMONT-KIT CARSON-SURVEY OF 1843 -RICHARD AND M. D. HARDIN-MAJOR ENGLISH.
W HALING vessels and merchantmen by the way of Cape Horn to the coast of California and Oregon, for hides, occasionally brought home intelligence of the salubrious character of the climate, and of the fertility of the soil of the Pacific coast, and emigration soon began to set in to a limited extent from the States. California was then an outlying dependency of the Mexican Republie, almost neglected, except for tribute. Oregon was in the joint occupation of the United States and Great Britain, with pending dispute as to ul- timate boundary and ownership. Pioneer energy was already invading the rich valleys of both Oregon and California, and the site of Council Bluffs was on the feeblo trail which led through the Indian country to the foot of the Rocky Mountains. Thomas H. Benton, with a wise forecast of the future, and a dream, now realized, that the great pathway between Eastern Asia and Japan would eventually be across our continent, sought the efforts of the Government in a survey and exploration. on a scientific basis, to lead, in the end, to the connecting of our Pacific possessions with our great central territory. Manifest destiny seemed to him to point definitely to our acquisition of Cali- fornia. A large part of Oregon was assured to us, under treaty with Great Britain, and xBy Col John II. Keatley.
| there were statesmen in the Cabinet and in Congress who were ready to disputo with it, even to a resort to arms, for the posses- sion of the whole of what was then called Oregon Territory. The result may be finally stated, as an ultimate settlement, by which we acquired, indisputably, all of what now constitutes the State of Oregon, and Wash- ington Territory to the British line, thai por- tion north of the latter remaining under the control of Great Britain by indefeasible title.
John Charles Fremont, of French parent- age, a graduate of West Point, a young and en- terprising officer of the topographical engi- neers of the United States army, and, more than all, the son-in-law of Senator Benton, of Missouri, by marriage with his daughter, Jes- sie, was selected by the War Department to carry into execution the famous Senator's design of a scientific exploration of the wide expanse of country between the Missouri River and the Pacific Ocean. The wilds of Central Africa, before the advent of Livings- ton, of Sir Samuel Baker, of Capt. Speke, and of Stanley, were scarcely more unknown than the interior of our own continent, when Lieut. Fremont and his party of twenty-four men, with Kit Carson as guide, set out in June, 1842, from Cyprian Chonteau's trading house, on the Kansas River, twelve miles above its mouth, to find the route of an
HISTORY OF POTTAWATTAMIE COUNTY.
eventual Pacific railroad, the constant day dream of Senator Benton, and the one real- ized to its fullest extent before his son-in-law, the young Path-Finder, was sixty years of age.
The publication of the report of that year's operations led to a material modification of the opinion of the character of the country bordering the Missouri River and tributary to it. The survey made by him in 1843, and in continuation of which he found him- · self, after great suffering and privation to his party in crossing the Rocky Mountains, in the rich valleys of the Sacramento, and the American Fork in California, led to a more general and more favorable appre- ciation of our trans-Missouri possessions. It required no great foresight to determine that the location of an Indian reservation on or near the most direct route to the Pacific coast would be impracticable, and with that in view, a treaty was signed with the Pottawatomies in 1846, extinguish- ing their title to the reservation at Council Bluffs, and they were removed, in due time. to a new reservation. thirty miles square, on the Kansas River, within the present limits
of the State of Kansas, where they now num- ber 4,000 prosperous people.
!
The Hardin family, who came to this coun- try with that tribe, remained here and made permanent settlements. Richard Harbin lived on a farm in what became afterward Hardin Township, twelve miles east of Coun- cil Bluffs, until about 1874, when he removed to Missouri. M. D. Hardin became the own- er of a tract of land which included the or- iginal military post south of the city, and is still a resident of Council Bluffs, and the head of a family constituting the third gen- eration of the name as occupants of its soil. William English, a Philadelphian, as a mem- ber of the First Dragoons, came with the Pot- tawatomies to this point, and, at the end of his enlistment, settled in civil life, marrying a daughter of David Hardin, the agent who conducted the tribe here. When the civil war broke out, in IS51, Mr. English volun- teered as a soldier, and was made Major of the Fourth Iowa Infantry, whose first Colo- nel was Greenville M. Dodge, who also rose to the rank of Major General of Volunteers, and was the commander of the Sixteenth Corps in Gen. Sherman's army.
CHAPTER XI.4
COUNCIL BLUFFS-ITS SECOND ERA -THE MORMON MOVEMENT-PROPHIET JOSEPH SMITH- BISHOP PRATT-SIDNEY RIGDON-BRIGHAM YOUNG-DRIVEN FROM MISSOURI-ESTAB- LISHMENT OF NAUVOO-THE LEGION-DEATH OF THE PROPHET-EXODUS TO SALT LAKE VALLEY-STOP AT COUNCIL BLUFFS-THE MORMON BATTALION.
T THE foundation of the city, its inception as a commercial center, a railroad focus, was not due to any well-defined commercial fore- sight, but to a religious exodus, and in that respect, its origin, and the history of its origin,
are attended with more than ordinary interest.
In September, 1819, Joseph Smith, Sr., the father of Joseph Smith. Jr., the celebrated Mormon prophet, in digging a well near Pal- myra, N. Y., found a curiously shaped stone. Joseph Smith, Jr., who came into possession
*By Col. John II. Keatley.
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HISTORY OF POTTAWATTAMIE COUNTY.
of it, soon made the claim that, by means of it, he could see wonderful things. From 1820 to 1827, he practiced a sort of clairvoy- ance, and, from time to time, gained many adherents and believers in his miraculous powers. From this he advanced to the claim of prophecy, after the manner of the dispen- sations of the Hebrew Scriptures, and divined the location of certain plates containing mys- terious characters and profound hieroglyph- ics, that none could decipher except him- self, under the influence of inspiration. With these plates, the claim was also made that a huge pair of spectacles, the Urim and Thummim of the new dispensation, had been found, through the aid of which the transla- tion was made possible.
Of the thirty-five converts to the new doc- trine at the outset, none acquired any promi- nence, or exerted any marked influence upon its destiny, except the members of the Smith family themselves. These converts were dis- ciples, but not apostles. Those who took upon themselves that function came after- ward, and some of them became residents of Council Bluffs, and bore their share in its early development. Parley P. Pratt, who was afterward one of the most noted Bishops of the Church of Latter-Day Saints, belonged to Lorain County, Ohio, and, when passing through Palmyra, halted and became a convert to Smith's teaching. Sidney Rigdon, who was the minister of an association of anti-sec- tarians, mostly dissenters from different re- ligious denominations, at Mentor, Ohio, joined Smith's church, and moved, shortly afterward, with the " Saints," to Kirtland, in the same State, where they sought to found a society and a community exclusively of their own members, in their own belief and in their own interest. Joseph Smith, Sr., the father of the Prophet, was duly installed as Patriarch and President of the Church of the Latter-Day
Saints, and a regular hierarchy was ordained. Kirtland became the headquarters of the church in 1830. Missions were established and many converts made. Circumstances surrounding them at Kirtland induced them to emigrate to the frontier, and in 1834 they had formed settlements at Independence, Mo. Brigham Young, who was born in Ver- mont, joined the church at Kirtland in 1832, and, taking a leading part in its mission, was ordained one of the twelve apostles, and, in 1836, was elected President of that body, and became a recognized leader. W. W. Phelps started a religious newspaper at In- dependence, called the Evening and Morning Star. Pratt and Young had remained at Kirtland, and Smith, after seeing that his followers in Jackson County, Mo., were prop- erly located, also resumed his residence at Kirtland. Young and Smith went to Mis- souri in 1835, making that their permanent residence. They were forced to fly also from Missouri under the pressure of a mob, which impelled them to a hasty exodus. A public meeting was held of the inhabitants of the towns surrounding Independence, and it was resolved that the Mormons should be expelled from the State. The printing office of Phelps was destroyed, some of the Mormons were tarred and feathered, and others killed or wounded while defending their rights. A con- ference was held between the belligerents and the Mormons, as they were called, from their Scriptures, the Book of Mormon, and they agreed to leave Jackson County if molested no farther. This agreement was put in writ- ing and signed by the leaders of both parties. Time until the following spring was given to make the removal, and in the meantime, suits were brought in the courts against some of the ringleaders of the mob seeking their expul- sion, and this caused the latter to break all bounds, to disregard the truce and to renew
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HISTORY OF POTTAWATTAMIE COUNTY.
hostilities, in which two Missourians were killed; but the Saints were forced to disperse, many of them taking refuge in Clay County. Gen. Clark, in 1838, headed the militia force, a condition of civil war existed, and Gov. Boggs gave an order for their absolute expul- sion from Missouri. The Legislature made an appropriation to assist them in removing, and in paying their debts, and before the close of 1839, they had entirely abandoned their homes in that State. They sought ref- uge on the east bank of the Mississippi in 1840, in Hancock County, Ill .. and, founding a new city, gave it the name of Nauvoo.
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Brigham Young and Parley P. Pratt at once started to England on a mission, and, in the spring of 1841, Young shipped from Liverpool 769 converts, to become settlers at the new religious capital. Converts also flocked from all parts of the United States. A special charter for the city of Nauvoo was granted by the Illinois Legislature, almost making the municipality independent of State authority, and under that charter a military body, called the Nauvoo Legion, was organ- ized, which assumed powers wholly inconsist- ent with those of the commonwealth.
Exasperations and incitements, such as had characterized the Mormon residence in West- ern Missouri, began, in a short time, to awak- en a like hostility on the part of their neigh- bors in Illinois, and that led to another ex- pulsion. The military force of the Mormons consisted of 4,000 well armed men, with Jo- seph Smith at their head, and his brother, Hyrum, as coadjutor. The church organiza- tion was a complicated and intricate hier- archy, with a military adjunct, wholly incon- sistent with the principles of the Government in whose hands alone the whole military power of the people could be safely lodged, and under no circumstances, and for no pur- pose. could or ought to be delegated to any
religious organization of any kind. In 1843, Joseph Smith was both Mayor of the city and military commandant. Affairs were about to culminate in another outbreak. It is claimed that a revelation was given him on the 12th of July in that year, by which polygamy re- ceived spiritual and religious sanction. In the schism which afterward occurred, this transaction was denied, and the doctrine dis- carded by one branch, who still adhere to him as the founder of the church. Be this as it may, it was currently believed by a very large portion of the people of Western Illinois that polygamy was not only openly practiced by the Mormon secretaries, but regarded by them as a divine institution, revealed under claims of inspiration.
Criminal prosecutions were commenced against Smith and others, charged with adul- terous practices under this claim of sanctity, and arests were resisted, with the aid of the military power which had grown up under the shadow of the peculiar charter of the city. The charge of treason in levying war against the State of Illinois was preferred against Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum. The Nauvoo Legion menaced all who attempted to arrest its leaders, and, to enforce public authority in the exciting exigency, Gov. Ford called out the militia. To avoid blood- shed, which seemed imminent, the Governor induced Joseph and Hyrum Smith, Elder Taylor and Dr. Richards, to surrender them- selves, to be protected by the authorities in the Carthage jail. The Governor placed his militia in charge of the prison, and, after the Smiths had remained there for several days, many of the guard deserted, leaving but a few men to keep back the mob, eager for their blood. On the afternoon of June 27, 1844, about two hundred citizens, disguised and armed, overpowered the guard at the jail, broke open the doors, rushed in and shot
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