History of Taylor County, Iowa : containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, etc. : a biographical directory of many of its leading citizens, war record of its volunteers in the late rebellion, general and local statistics, portraits of early settlers and prominent men, history of Iowa and the Northwest, map of Taylor County, Constitution of the United States, reminiscences, miscellaneous matters, etc, Part 17

Author:
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Des Moines : State Historical Co.
Number of Pages: 868

USA > Iowa > Taylor County > History of Taylor County, Iowa : containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, etc. : a biographical directory of many of its leading citizens, war record of its volunteers in the late rebellion, general and local statistics, portraits of early settlers and prominent men, history of Iowa and the Northwest, map of Taylor County, Constitution of the United States, reminiscences, miscellaneous matters, etc > Part 17

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12. Treaty of 1836, with the Sacs and Foxes, ceding Keokuk's Reserve to the United States; for which the Government stipulated to pay thirty thousand dollars, and an annuity of ten thou- sand dollars for ten successive years, together with other sums and debts of the Indians to various parties.

13. Treaty of 1837 .- On the 21st of October, 1837, a treaty was made at the city of Wash- ington, between Carey A. Harris, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and the confederate tribes of Sacs and Foxes, ratified February 21, 1838, wherein another slice of the soil of Iowa was obtained, described in the treaty as follows: "A tract of country containing 1,250,000 acres, lying west and adjoining the tract conveyed by them to the United States in the treaty of September 21, 1832. It is understood that the points of termination for the present cession shall be the north- ern and southern points of said tract as fixed by the survey made under the authority of the United States, and that a line shall be drawn between them so as to intersect a line extended westwardly from the angle of said tract nearly opposite to Rock Island, as laid down in the above ' survey, so far as may be necessary to include the number of acres hereby ceded, which last mentioned line, it is estimated, will be about twenty-five miles."

This piece of land was twenty-five miles wide in the middle, and ran off to a point at both ends, lying directly back of the Black Hawk Purchase, and of the same length.

14. Treaty of Relinquishment .- At the same date as the above treaty, in the city of Washing- ton, Carey A. Harris, Commissioner, the Sacs and Foxes ceded to the United States all their right and interest in the country lying south of the boundary line between the Sacs and Foxes and Sioux, as described in the treaty of August 19, 1825, and between the Mississippi and Mis- souri Rivers, the United States paying for the same one hundred and sixty thousand dollars. The Indians also gave up all claims and interests under the treaties previously made with them, for the satisfaction of which no appropriations had been made.

15. Treaty of 1842 .- The last treaty was made with the Sacs and Foxes October 11, 1842 ; ratified March 23, 1843. It was made at the Sac and Fox agency (Agency City), by John Chambers, Commissioner on behalf of the United States. In this treaty the Sac and Fox Indians " ceded to the United States all their lands west of the Mississippi to which they had any claim or title." By the terms of this treaty they were to be removed from the country at the expira- tion of three years, and all who remained after that were to move at their own expense. Part of them were removed to Kansas in the Fall of 1845, and the rest the Spring following.

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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF IOWA.

SPANISH GRANTS.

While the territory now embraced in the State of Iowa was under Spanish rule as a part of its province of Louisiana, certain claims to and grants of land were made by the Spanish authorities, with which, in addition to the extinguishment of Indian titles, the United States had to deal. It is proper that these should be briefly reviewed.

Dubuque .- On the 22d day of September, 1788, Julien Dubuque, a French- man, from Prairie du Chien, obtained from the Foxes a cession or lease of lands on the Mississippi River for mining purposes, on the site of the present city of Dubuque. Lead had been discovered here eight years before, in 1780, by the wife of Peosta Fox, a warrior, and Dubuque's claim embraced nearly all the lead bearing lands in that vicinity. He immediately took possession of his claim and commenced mining, at the same time making a settlement. The place became known as the "Spanish Miners," or, more commonly, "Dubuque's Lead Mines."

In 1796, Dubuque filed a petition with Baron de Carondelet, the Spanish Governor of Louisiana, asking that the tract ceded to him by the Indians might be granted to him by patent from the Spanish Government. In this petition, Dubuque rather indefinitely set forth the boundaries of this claim as "about seven leagues along the Mississippi River, and three leagues in width from the river," intending to include, as is supposed, the river front between the Little Maquoketa and the Tete des Mertz Rivers, embracing more than twenty thou- sand acres. Carondelet granted the prayer of the petition, and the grant was subsequently confirmed by the Board of Land Commissioners of Louisiana.

In October, 1804, Dubuque transferred the larger part of his claim to Auguste Choteau, of St. Louis, and on the 17th of May, 1805, he and Choteau jointly filed their claims with the Board of Commissioners. On the 20th of September, 1806, the Board decided in their favor, pronouncing the claim to be a regular Spanish grant, made and completed prior to the 1st day of October, 1800, only one member, J. B. C. Lucas, dissenting.

Dubuque died March 24, 1810. The Indians, understanding that the claim of Dubuque under their former act of cession was only a permit to occupy the tract and work the mines during his life, and that at his death they reverted to them, took possession and continued mining operations, and were sustained by the military authority of the United States, notwithstanding the decision of the Commissioners. When the Black Hawk purchase was consummated, the Du- buque claim thus held by the Indians was absorbed by the United States, as the Sacs and Foxes made no reservation of it in the treaty of 1832.

The heirs of Choteau, however, were not disposed to relinquish their claim without a struggle. Late in 1832, they employed an agent to look after their interests, and authorized him to lease the right to dig lead on the lands. The miners who commenced work under this agent were compelled by the military to abandon their operations, and one of the claimants went to Galena to institute legal proceedings, but found no court of competent jurisdiction, although he did bring an action for the recovery of a quantity of lead dug at Dubuque, for the purpose of testing the title. Being unable to identify the lead, however, he was non-suited.

By act of Congress, approved July 2, 1836, the town of Dubuque was sur- veyed and platted. After Icts had been sold and occupied by the purchasers, Henry Choteau brought an action of ejectment against Patrick Malony, who

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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF IOWA.

held land in Dubuque under a patent from the United States, for the recovery of seven undivided eighth parts of the Dubuque claim, as purchased by Auguste Choteau in 1804. The case was tried in the District Court of the United States for the District of Iowa, and was decided adversely to the plaintiff. The case was carried to the Supreme Court of the United States on a writ of error, when it was heard at the December term, 1853, and the decision of the lower court was affirmed, the court holding that the permit from Carondolet was merely a lease or permit to work the mines ; that Dubuque asked, and the Governor of Louisiana granted, nothing more than the " peaceable possession " of certain lands obtained from the Indians; that Carondelet had no legal authority to make snch a grant as claimed, and that, even if he had, this was but an "inchoate and imperfect title."

Giard .- In 1795, the Lieutenant Governor of Upper Louisiana granted to Basil Giard five thousand eight hundred and sixty acres of land, in what is now Clayton County, known as the "Giard Tract." He occupied the land during the time that Iowa passed from Spain to France, and from France to the United States, in consideration of which the Federal Government granted a patent of the same to Giard in his own right. His heirs sold the whole tract to James H. Lockwood and Thomas P. Burnett, of Prairie du Chien, for three hundred dollars.

Honori .- March 30, 1799, Zenon Trudeau, Acting Lieutenant Governor of Upper Louisiana, granted to Louis Honori a tract of land on the site of the present town of Montrose, as follows: "It is permitted to Mr. Louis (Fresson) Henori, or Louis Honore Fesson, to establish himself at the head of the rapids of the River Des Moines, and his establishment once formed, notice of it shall be given to the Governor General, in order to obtain for him a commission of a space sufficient to give value to such establishment, and at the same time to render it useful to the commerce of the peltries of this country, to watch the Indians and keep them in the fidelity which they owe to His Majesty."

Honori took immediate possession of his claim, which he retained until 1805. While trading with the natives, he became indebted to Joseph Robedoux, who obtained an execution on which the property was sold May 13, 1803, and was purchased by the creditor. In these proceedings the property was described as being "about six leagues above the River Des Moines." Robedoux died soon after he purchased the proprerty. Auguste Choteau, his executor, disposed of the Honori tract to Thomas F. Reddeck, in April, 1805, up to which time Honori continued to occupy it. The grant, as made by the Spanish government, was a league square, but only one mile square was confirmed by the Uuited States. After the half-breeds sold their lands, in which the Honori grant was included, various claimants resorted to litigation in attempts to invalidate the title of the Reddeck heirs, but it was finally confirmed by a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in 1839, and is the oldest legal title to any land in the State of Iowa.

THE HALF-BREED TRACT.

Before any permanent settlement had been 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, producing a race of half-breeds, whose number was never definitely ascertained. There were some respectable and excellent people among them, children of men of some refinement and education. For instance : Dr. Muir, a gentleman educated

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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF IOWA.

at Edinburgh, Scotland, a surgeon in the United States Army, stationed at a military post located on the present site of Warsaw, married an Indian woman, and reared his family of three daughters in the city of Keokuk. Other exam- ples might be cited, but they are probably exceptions to the general rule, and the race is now nearly or quite extinct in Iowa.

A treaty was made at Washington, August 4, 1824, between the Sacs and Foxes and the United States, by which that portion of Lee County was reserved to the half-breeds of those tribes, and which was afterward known as "The Half-Breed Tract." This reservation is the triangular piece of land, containing about 119,000 acres, lying between the Mississippi and Des Moines Rivers. It is bounded on the north by the prolongation of the northern line of Missouri. This line was intended to be a straight one, running due east, which would have caused it to strike the Mississippi River at or below Montrose; but the surveyor who run it took no notice of the change in the variation of the needle as he proceeded eastward, and, in consequence, the line he run was bent, deviating more and more to the northward of a direct line as he approached the Mississippi, so that it struck that river at the lower edge of the town of Fort Madison. "This errone- ous line," says Judge Mason, "has been acquiesced in as well in fixing the northern limit of the Half-Breed Tract as in determining the northern boundary line of the State of Missouri." The line thus run included in the reservation a portion of the lower part of the city of Fort Madison, and all of the present townships of Van Buren, Charleston, Jefferson, Des Moines, Montrose and Jackson.

Under the treaty of 1824, the half-breeds had the right to occupy the soil, but could not convey it, the reversion being reserved to the United States. But on the 30th day of January, 1834, by act of Congress, this reversionary right was relinquished, and the half-breeds acquired the lands in fee simple. This was no sooner done, than a horde of speculators rushed in to buy land of the half-breed owners, and, in many instances, a gun, a blanket, a pony or a few There was quarts of whisky was sufficient for the purchase of large estates. a deal of sharp practice on both sides; Indians would often claim ownership of land by virtue of being half-breeds, and had no difficulty in proving their mixed blood by the Indians, and they would then cheat the speculators by selling land to which they had no rightful title. On the other hand, speculators often claimed land in which they had no ownership. . It was diamond cut diamond, until at last things became badly mixed. There were no authorized surveys, and no boundary lines to claims, and, as a natural result, numerous conflicts and quarrels ensued.

To settle these difficulties, to decide the validity of claims or sell them for the benefit of the real owners, by act of the Legislature of Wisconsin Territory, approved January 16, 1838, Edward Johnstone, Thomas S. Wilson and David Brigham were appointed Commissioners, and clothed with power to effect these objects. The act provided that these Commissioners should be paid six dollars a day each. The commission entered upon its duties and continued until the next session of the Legislature, when the act creating it was repealed, invalidat- ing all that had been done and depriving the Commissioners of their pay. The repealing act, however, authorized the Commissioners to commence action against the owners of the Half-Breed Tract, to receive pay for their services, in the Dis- trict Court of Lee County. Two judgments were obtained, and on execution the whole of the tract was sold to Hugh T. Reid, the Sheriff executing the deed. Mr. Reid sold portions of it to various parties, but his own title was questioned and he became involved in litigation. Decisions in favor of Reid

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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF IOWA.

and those holding under him were made by both District and Supreme Courts, but in December, 1850, these decisions were finally reversed by the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Joseph Webster, plaintiff in error, vs. Hugh T. Reid, and the judgment titles failed. About nine years before the " judgment titles " were finally abrogated as above, another class of titles were brought into competition with them, and in the conflict between the two, the final decision was obtained. These were the titles based on the " decree of partition " issued by the United States District Court for the Territory of Iowa, on the 8th of May, 1841, and certified to by the Clerk on the 2d day of June of that year. Edward Johnstone and Hugh T. Reid, then law partners at Fort Madison, filed the petition for the decree in behalf of the St. Louis claimants of half-breed lands. Francis S. Key, author of the Star Spangled Banner, who was then attorney for the New York Land Company, which held heavy interests in these lands, took a leading part in the measure, and drew up the document in which it was presented to the court. Judge Charles Mason, of Burlington, pre- sided. The plan of partition divided the tract into one hundred and one shares and arranged that each claimant should draw his proportion by lot, and should abide the result, whatever it might be. The arrangement was entered into, the lots drawn, and the plat of the same filed in the Recorder's office, October 6, 1841. Upon this basis the titles to land in the Half-Breed Tract are now held.

EARLY SETTLEMENTS.

The first permanent settlement by the whites within the limits of Iowa was made by Julien Dubuque, in 1788, when, with a small party of miners, he set- tled on the site of the city that now bears his name, where he lived until his death, in 1810. Louis Honori settled on the site of the present town of Mon- trose, probably in 1799, and resided there until 1805, when his property passed into other hands. Of the Giard settlement, opposite Prairie du Chien, little is known, except that it was occupied by some parties prior to the commencement of the present century, and contained three cabins in 1805. Indian traders, although not strictly to be considered settlers, had established themselves at various points at an early date. A Mr. Johnson, 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 possessed the country. In 1820, Le Moliese, a French trader, had a station at what is now Sandusky, six miles above Keokuk, in Lee County. In 1829, Dr. Isaac Gallaud made a set- tlement on the Lower Rapids, at what is now Nashville.

The first settlement in Lee County was made in 1820, by Dr. Samuel C .. Muir, a surgeon in the United States army, who had been stationed at Fort Edwards, now Warsaw, Ill., and who built a cabin where the city of Keokuk now stands. Dr. Muir was a man of strict integrity and irreproachable char- acter. While stationed at a military post on the Upper Mississippi, he had married an Indian woman of the Fox nation. Of his marriage, the following romantic account is given :

The post at which he was stationed was visited by a beautiful Indian maiden-whose native name, unfortunately, has not been preserved-who, in her dreams, had seen a white brave un- moor 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 childlike innocence and simplicity, she related to him. Her dream was, indeed, prophetic. Charmed with Sophia's beauty, innocence and devo- tion, the doctor honorably married her; but after a while, the sneers and gibes of his brother

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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF IOWA.

officers-less honorable than he, perhaps-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, and left her, never expecting to see her again, and little dreaming that she would have the courage to follow him. But, with her infant child, this in- trepid 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 toilsome journey down the river in search of her husband, " When I got there 1 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 Edward, but the senseless ridicule of some of his brother officers on account of his Indian wife induced him to resign his commission.

After building his cabin, as above stated, he leased his claim for a term of years to Otis Reynolds and John Culver, of St. Louis, and went to La Pointe, afterward Galena, where he practiced his profession for ten years, when he returned to Keokuk. His Indian wife bore to him four children-Louise (married at Keokuk, since dead), James, (drowned at Keokuk), Mary and Sophia. Dr. Muir died suddenly of cholera, in 1832, but left his property in such condition that it was soon wasted in vexatious litigation, and his brave and faithful wife, left friendless and penniless, became discouraged, and, with her children, disappeared, and, it is said, returned to her people on the Upper Missouri.

Messrs. Reynolds & Culver, who had leased Dr. Muir's claim at Keokuk, subsequently employed as their agent Mr. Moses Stillwell, who arrived with his family in 1828, and took possession of Muir's cabin. His brothers-in-law, Amos and Valencourt Van Ansdal, came with him and settled near.

His daughter, Margaret Stillwell (afterward Mrs. Ford) was born in 1831, at the foot of the rapids, called by the Indians Puch-a-she-tuck, where Keokuk now stands. She was probably the first white American child born in Iowa.

In 1831, Mr. Johnson, Agent of the American Fur Company, who had a station at the foot of the rapids, removed to another location, and, Dr. Muir having returned from Galena, he and Isaac R. Campbell took the place and buildings vacated by the Company and carried on trade with the Indians and half-breeds. Campbell, who had first visited and traveled through the southern part of Iowa, in 1821, was an enterprising settler, and besides trading with the natives carried on a farm and kept a tavern.

Dr. Muir died of cholera in 1832.

; In 1830, James L. and Lucius H. Langworthy, brothers and natives of Vermont, visited the Territory for the purpose of working the lead mines at Du- buque. They had been engaged in lead mining at Galena, Illinois, the former from as early as 1824. The lead mines in the Dubuque region were an object of great interest to the miners about Galena, for they were known to be rich in lead ore. To explore these mines and to obtain permission to work them was therefore eminently desirable.

In 1829, James L. Langworthy resolved to visit the Dubuque mines. Cross- ing the Mississippi at a point now known as Dunleith, in a canoe, and swim- ming his horse by his side, he landed on the spot now known as Jones Street Levee. Before him spread out a beautiful prairie, on which the city of Du- buque now stands. Two miles south, at the mouth of Catfish Creek, was a vil- lage of Sacs and Foxes. Thither Mr. Langworthy proceeded, and was well re- ceived by the natives. He endeavored to obtain permission from them to mine in their hills, but this they refused. He, however, succeeded in gaining the con- fidence of the chief to such an extent as to be allowed to travel in the interior for three weeks and explore the country. He employed two young Indians as guides, and traversed in different directions the whole region lying between the Maquoketa and Turkey Rivers. He returned to the village, secured the good will of the Indians, and, returning to Galena, formed plans for future opera- tions, to be executed as soon as circumstances would permit.

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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF IOWA.

In 1830, with his brother, Lucius H., and others, having obtained the con- sent of the Indians, Mr. Langworthy crossed the Mississippi and commenced mining in the vicinity around Dubuque.

At this time, the lands were not in the actual possession of the United States. Although they had been purchased from France, the Indian title had not been extinguished, and these adventurous persons were beyond the limits of any State or Territorial government. The first settlers were therefore obliged to be their own law-makers, and to agree to such regulations as the exigencies of the case demanded. The first act resembling civil legislation within the limits of the present State of Iowa was done by the miners at this point, in June, 1830. They met on the bank of the river, by the side of an old cottonwood drift log, at what is now the Jones Street Levee, Dubuque, and elected a Committee, con- sisting of J. L. Langworthy, H. F. Lander, James McPhetres, Samuel Scales, and E. M. Wren. This may be called the first Legislature in Iowa, the mem- bers of which gathered around that old cottonwood log, and agreed to and re- ported the following, written by Mr. Langworthy, on a half-sheet of coarse, un- ruled paper, the old log being the writing desk :

We, a Committee having been chosen to draft certain rules and regulations (laws) by which we as miners will be governed, and having duly considered the subject, do unanimously agree that we will be governed by the regulations on the east side of the Mississippi River,* with the following exceptions, to wit :

ARTICLE I. That each and every man shall hold 200 yards square of ground by working said ground one day in six.

ARTICLE II. We further agree that there shall be chosen, by the majority of the miners present, a person who shall hold this article, and who shall grant letters of arbitration on appli- cation having been made, and that said letters of arbitration shall be obligatory on the parties so applying.

The report was accepted by the miners present, who elected Dr. Jarote, in accordance with Article 2. Here, then, we have, in 1830, a primitive Legisla- ture elected by the people, the law drafted by it being submitted to the people for approval, and under it Dr. Jarote was elected first Governor within the limits of the present State of Iowa. And it is to be said that the laws thus enacted were as promptly obeyed, and the acts of the executive officer thus elected as duly respected, as any have been since.

The miners who had thus erected an independent government of their own on the west side of the Mississippi River continued to work successfully for a long time, and the new settlement attracted considerable attention. But the west side of the Mississippi belonged to the Sac and Fox Indians, and the Gov- ernment, in order to preserve peace on the frontier, as well as to protect the Indians in their rights under the treaty, ordered the settlers not only to stop mining, but to remove from the Indian territory. They were simply intruders. The execution of this order was entrusted to Col. Zachary Taylor, then in com- mand of the military post at Prairie du Chien, who, early in July, sent an officer to the miners with orders to forbid settlement, and to command the miners to remove within ten days to the east side of the Mississippi, or they would be driven off" by armed force. The miners, however, were reluctant about leaving the rich "leads " they had already discovered and opened, and were not dis- posed to obey the order to remove with any considerable degree of alacrity. In due time, Col. Taylor dispatched a detachment of troops to enforce his order. The miners, anticipating their arrival, had, excepting three, recrossed the river, and from the east bank saw the troops land on the western shore. The three who had lingered a little too long were, however, permitted to make their escape

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Author: Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Des Moines : State Historical Co. Number of Pages: 868

Author:
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Des Moines : State Historical Co.
Number of Pages: 868