USA > Iowa > Wapello County > History of Wapello County, Iowa, Volume I > Part 6
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HISTORY OF WAPELLO COUNTY
can Government has reduced me to, is the wish of him who, in his native forest, was once as proud and bold as yourself."
He was repeatedly deceived by the Americans, and says he was forced into the war by being deceived. His home was a model of cleanliness. His lodge was enclosed by a neat fence of poles. It had a gate, and vines growing about. The lodge was constructed of peeled bark, and places were built around the sides, with mats laid on, for beds. It contained also some dining chairs. The Indian agent, feeling a friendship, gave Black Hawk a cow-something very unusual for an Indian to possess. Passing the lodge some time afterward, he saw Mrs. Black Hawk following the cow about the place and brushing the flies off with a rag. Mrs. Black Hawk was extremely neat, and every morning swept down the ant hills in the yard with a hickory broom.
In different tribes various tales are told by the Indian story tellers of the gift from the Great Spirit of Indian ways. Longfellow has preserved one in the story of Mondamin, but none is more interesting than the myth concerning its origin as Black Hawk tells it. His people, the Sacs, have a tradition that the maize was a gift sent from heaven, together with corn and tobacco.
"According to traditions handed down to our people," he says, "a beau- tiful woman was seen to descend from the clouds and alight upon the earth, near two of our ancestors, who had killed a deer and were roasting part of it for food. They were astonished at her appearance, but supposed she was hungry, so took her a piece of roasted venison. She ate it, telling them to return to the spot where she was sitting at the end of a year, and they would be rewarded for their kindness. Then she ascended to the clouds and disappeared. When these hunters returned to the tribe and told what they had seen and heard, the people laughed. But they returned in a year's time and found corn growing where her right hand had touched the earth; where her left hand rested, beans ; and where she sat, tobacco."
CHAPTER V
THE PIONEERS
The term "first settler," as applied to Wapello County, cannot be used with consistency, for the reason that the county had no first settler. Being a part and parcel of the "New Purchase," and within the territory reserved for the Sac and Fox tribes of Indians, the land was forbidden under the treaty of 1842 to the uses of the white man until the first day of May, 1843.
It was widely known that on the day last mentioned the "New Pur- chase" would be thrown open to settlement, so that, for some time prior thereto, the border line was dotted with the wagons and tents of venturesome and courageous men and women of the eastern states, waiting for the signal that would warrant them in coming into the "promised land." History has it, there were at least two thousand men, women and children who entered the "New Purchase" on May 1, 1843, or soon thereafter, which makes it plain that when one attempts to speak of Wapello County's first settler one is estopped by the fact that such a personage never existed. There were "first settlers," and many of them, who entered into the wilder- ness, and they and their descendants metamorphosed primitive conditions, using the ax and plow, until today this fair land is a garden spot, producing bounteous and valuable harvests. Towns and cities have been builded, affording the people profitable markets for the products of their farms.
The story is told elsewhere of the aborigines, who made this country their home and hunting grounds. Major Beach's pen picture of the Indians under his charge and the early white settlers here cannot be surpassed, and for that reason it is reproduced from an old history. Judge H. B. Hen- dershott, who was the legally delegated authority and assisted materially in organizing the county, was one of the early settlers, and on many occa- sions contributed of his vast store of facts to the written history of Wapello County. His relation of early events will be largely drawn upon in the preparation of this chapter.
Notwithstanding the Government had made provision against interlopers, by maintaining troops of border rangers or dragoons, along the line sep- arating the new purchase from the old, certain adventurers managed to escape the vigilance of the guards and, gaining access to the forbidden ground, staked out claims and maintained a habitation within the confines
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HISTORY OF WAPELLO COUNTY
of the county for some time prior to the formal opening. But the real settlements were made shortly after midnight or early in the morning of May I. Then it was that camp-fires were forsaken; sleep was banished for alertness and action; the stillness of the prairies was broken with shouts . of joy and the discharge of firearms, and with an almost simultaneous rush the army of farm and town builders crossed over the line into Wapello County and possessed their own.
No complete record is extant giving the names of all the men, women and children who came into Wapello County on that eventful morning of May 1, 1843. But many of them became well known in the community and they have been preserved in history by able and loyal men like Judge Hendershott and others. The greater portion of the homeseekers remained, and today their children and grandchildren are here to recite the deeds and successes of their forbears; others became dissatisfied or disheartened and returned to the middle west or further east, or still further west. The identity of quite a few, however, of the "first ones" has been preserved, and their names follow; in the articles devoted to the townships, details of their interesting lives will be more fully observed:
Major John Beach, William B. Street, J. H. D. Street, Alexander Street, sons of General Street, the Indian agent; James Weir, James Stevens, Charles F. Harrow, S. S. Dwire, William H. Coggswell, Joseph Myers, Reuben Myers, Jesse Brookshire, H. B. Hendershott, Joseph Leighton, Mahlon Wright, Jesse Scott, Dr. Lewis, Alexander Smith, George Harmon, John Henderson, James Hill, John Murray, John Huffstetter, James T. Coleman, Lewis F. Temple, George Hanna, Thomas Larwood, Samuel McGee, Thomas Brumsey, Manley Blanchard, John Phillips, Calvin Carson, Hiram Fisher, John and Templin McDowell, John Priest, Gideon Myers, Joseph H. Flint, S. M. Wright, Silas Garrison, Thomas Ping, James and John Acton, L. A. Myers, G. D. La Force, Joseph Hayne, Demps Griggsby, Thomas Foster, Daniel Dennison, Green B. Savery, Joseph McIntire, Seth Ogg, William C. McIntire, J. J. Seaman, Benjamin Young, William Ken- drick, Robert H. Ivers, Curtis Knight, Jesse Wallace, D. H. Michael, Ben- jamin Baum, Richard Jackson, Ezekiel Rush, Benjamin Powell, Isham Higdon, A. J. Redenbaugh, James F. Adams, Theophilus Blake, Cyrus Van Cleave, Lawson Bradley, Joseph Gardner, Moses Baker, Frank Bates, James Sayles, Abram Butin, Samuel Webb, Bird Pritchett, Noah Dofflemeyer, Lewis Myers, George F. Myers, L. L. Denny, L. Stump, Samuel Bush, J. P. Eddy, John Kavanaugh, Abner Overman, James Baker, Walter Clement, William R. Ross, Joseph, Stephen and Lorenzo Roberts, William Black, Richard Butcher, Henry Segur, Michael Welch, D. Campbell, T. M. and Dr. Kirkpatrick, David Whitcomb, John Baker, J. G. Baker, Isaac Fisher, William Brim, James B. Wright, John D. Bevins, the McGlassons, A. J. Spurlock, John Kirkpatrick, William A. Winsell, John M. Spurgeon, Hugh Brown, Thomas Hardesty, Hill,
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HISTORY OF WAPELLO COUNTY
Bayliss, J. W. Carpenter, George Godfrey, William Evans, James West, Jedediah Scott, William Harris, Washington Williams, George Robinson, James Van Winkle, M. W. McChesney, Joseph H. Hedrick, Peter and Elias Kitterman, Martin Koontz, James Woody, W. B. Woody, Benjamin Brattain, John Moore, N. D. Earl, N. 11. Yates, Peter White, John and Joseph Kite, Alvin Lewis, John W. Caldwell, Lewis Cobler, James M. Peck, Farnum Whitcomb, Richard, J. C. and Peter Fisher, Henry Huffman, Nason Roberts, John Alexander, Reuben R. Harper, J. M. Montgomery, Philester Lee, John Clark, James Langshore, Dr. Ilackleman, Thomas H. Wells, Jerry Smith, Clark Williams, Dr. C. C. Warden, Hugh George, William Dewey, Paul C. Jeffries, David Glass, David Hall, Rev. B. A. Spaulding, S. S. Norris, Sewell Kinney, David P. Smith, John Myers, David Armstrong, II. P. Graves, William H. Galbraith, Levi Buckwalter, Jink Vassar, George D. Hlackworth, Arthur Eakins, Ammon Shawl, John Overman, John C. Evans, Thomas Reveal, John Humphrey, Sylvester Warner, Paris Caldwell, G. A. Roemer, William Harris, William, Alex and Thomas Crawford, Nathaniel Bell, B. C. Pelham, John Ford, Thomas Bedwell, Daniel Traul, Madison Wellman, Cyrus Armstrong, William Betterton ( 1840), William Strickland, Joseph Kitterman, Beniah Dimmitt John G. Sharp, Caleb Cloyd. S. W. Knight, J. S. Phillips, Charles Dudley, James Daniels, Thomas Bradley, Stephen Boyce, David Clodfelter, W. H. Connelly, Jacob Daily, B. J. Harmon, Samuel Marsh, P. C. Shaw, James Burbage, J. A. Parker, Lee J. Michael, J. W. Hollingsworth, A. Durbin, Peter Barnett, Willoughby Randolph, Jonathan Davis, Jefferson Redman, James Broherd, Josiah C. Boggs, Nelson Westcott, N. B. Preston, Williani Kendrick, Gamaliel Belknap, William A. Houghland, A. C. Logan, James Ililton, N. D. Earl, William S. Campbell, Hiram Lambert, Thomas Linnard, William Newell, David F. Parrott, George H. Gow, R. V. Holcomb, Jona- than Ilodson, David P. Smith.
The persons whose names have been above enumerated settled in various parts of the county, some of them opening farms, others establishing towns and engaging in mercantile and kindred pursuits.
In an address delivered before the Old Settlers' Association in 1874, Judge H. B. Hendershott touched upon the inrush of people to the county at the "opening." and gave a description of the Dahlonega war, so called. lle said :
"Before night of this day there were not less than two thousand persons actually inhabiting the county. The most of these had been squatted along the line of the county, in Jefferson County, preparatory to passing into Wapello as soon as midnight arrived.
"The greater part of these early settlers were engaged the last half of the night of the 30th of April and the ist of May, 1843, in marking out their claims. This was done by setting stakes in the prairie and blazing trees in the timber. These claims embraced from 80 to 320 acres.
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HISTORY OF WAPELLO COUNTY
As might be expected, the work of locating and defining these claims, much of it being done in the night, was very inartistically done. Many of the boundary lines were crooked, disjointed and encroached the one upon the other. This inevitably led to many disturbances called 'claim difficulties.' It is quite apparent that these difficulties must find some peaceable means of adjustment. To meet this necessity the earlier inhabitants organized what were called 'claim committees.' A claim, when bona fide made and held, was as sacredly protected as are the homes and lands of the present inhab- itants. The judgments of these crudely organized though necessary tribunals were enforced by summary process. This process was generally a plain, written statement of the opinion of the 'claim committee,' setting forth the right of the injured party and the wrong complained of, and an order to the wrong-doer to abide by and submit to the judgment of the court, in default of which the power of the county was invoked to carry out and enforce, on the spot, the judgment. From the judgment of these 'claim committees' there was no appeal or stay of execution. It was well under- stood that when the committee reported it meant business, and generally, like Scott's coon, the erring brother came down. Occasionally, however, these judgments were met by insubordination, and where this did occur it resulted in a war on the spot, without any formal declaration.
THE DAHLONEGA WAR
"As an example of one of these wars I may give an account of the 'Dahlonega war.' This war was brought on in this way: James Woody, who came from near Dahlonega, Lumpkin County, Georgia, and who was one of the very first settlers of the county, made a claim, now the farm of Enos King, near Dahlonega. This claim he sold to Martin Koontz for $200 in gold, and received the money. Conceiving that he had sold too cheap and that the county seat of the county must be located very near this claim, Woody 'jumped' the claim; that is, went on it again and took steps to preempt the land under the act of Congress. He accordingly erected on the claim a cabin. As soon as this fact was known, Woody was warned off ; failing to go, the action of the claim committee was invoked, and that being in favor of Koontz, Woody was ordered off and to surrender to the claim- ant, Koontz, which he refused to do. This, of course, was the signal to arms.
"Capt. Jehu Moore, who led the Koontz forces, about sixty well-armed men, some of whom-Peter Kitterman,. N. D. Earl, Joseph Kite and Elias Kitterman-moved on the enemy's works. Among the Woody men were William, Alexander and Thomas Crawford, with a few others. I think William Crawford was the leader of the Woody men. The friends of Koontz repaired to the cabin which had been erected by Woody, and finding him in it, tore it down over his head and drove him off the claim. This
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HISTORY OF WAPELLO COUNTY
brought the contending armies together, and thereupon a most desperate fight ensued, resulting in the death of Thomas Crawford.
"This war was followed by an effort on the part of the civil authorities, at the instance of Woody, to arrest the leader of the Koontz men. Being then attached to Jefferson County for judicial purposes (though not for military purposes ), process was sued out in Jefferson County and placed in the hands of Deputy Sheriff Woolard, who came up from Fairfield to make arrests. On reaching the scene of the war, this officer of the law found it required something more than a mere declaration from him, You are my prisoner,' to make an arrest. Men who had banded themselves together by the strong ties of honor and courage, as the Moores, Kittermans, Kites, Earls and others had done to protect their rights, were not to be arrested in this way. The deputy sheriff, Woolard, called to his assistance Andrew Weir, who was a mere youth, acting as constable, but of prudent courage, to assist him in making arrests. But it was of no use.
"Those men would not be taken but, on the contrary, they took the officer, Woolard, keeping him over night, and in the morning bringing him out and placing him upon his horse, escorted him to the public square in Dahlonega, or rather to the place intended as a public square. Riding around him here, with their well-trained rifles in hand, they gave, as they passed, a most respectful military salute, he returning the same. After this ceremony was closed, Captain Moore advanced and informed Deputy Sheriff Woolard that he and his men had no further use for him and would not longer detain him from his family and home, and that he was at liberty to go, and when they wanted him again they would let him know it; and that if he came again until thus called for, he had better make his last will and testament before leaving home. Suffice it to say, Woolard never returned.
"A somewhat laughable incident is said to have occurred during this war. or at its close, with one of the attorneys engaged-only professionally, how- ever-for Woody. William H. Galbraith and George May were retained by Woody, and W. W. Chapman for Koontz. During the excitement grow- ing out of this difficulty, the Koontz men corraled May in Woody's house. Finding him in a back room in bed, they called him out. George came forth, and seeing the crowd by which he was surrounded, and having the love of honor before his eyes, then and there implored his captors for the sake of honor, for the sake of God and the love which he bore for his family and home, not to tar and feather him, or ride him on a rail ; but rather than be disgraced and sent away, he preferred to be shot. Well, they did not shoot him, nor did they tar and feather him nor did they ride him on a rail ; but it is said, though for the truth of this I will not vouch, that the cloud of war passed off and the angry waves of passion were hushed by May asking his captors to go out and liquor. You know George was good on expedients. But whether the party liquored or not, I cannot state. My
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HISTORY OF WAPELLO COUNTY
friends, N. D. Earl and Peter Kitterman, who are on the ground, can tell you, for they were there.
"It is due to George May, an absent friend, to say that he was in no way implicated in the effort of Woody to take Koontz's claim, and that he lived long amongst us, and when he left had no better friends in the county than the men who espoused the interest of old Mr. Koontz. The prosecution which had been commenced in Jefferson County against the Koontz men remained undisposed of until Wapello County was organized; after which, from some oversight in legislation, Jefferson County lost her jurisdiction and they were dismissed. And thus ended the Dahlonega war and its con- sequences. Woody, of course, lost the claim.
"This perhaps was the fiercest war that was waged in the county. In other localities like disturbances took place, but I cannot stop to refer to each in detail. I have only alluded to this for the purpose of advising the uninitiated more clearly how justice was administered in the olden time in Wapello, when the law's delay did not supplant justice with mere forms."
Mention has already been made of the fact that white men were in the county before the formal opening of the tract. Among the men who took a chance against the authorities in this respect was John Arrowsmith, who, it is alleged, ascertained the geographical center of Wapello County in the winter of 1842, and with this valuable knowledge, he, with J. R. McBeth, Uriah Biggs, John Lewis, Thomas D. Evans, Paul C. Jeffries, Hugh George, David Glass, Sewell Kenney, William Dewey, and Milton Jameson, members of the Appanoose Rapids Company, entered claims and became proprietors of the southeast quarter and east half of the northwest quarter and the east half of the southwest quarter of section 24; and so much of the north half of section 25 as lies on the left bank of the Des Moines River, including the island therein, in Center Township; also the west half of section 30 and the southwest quarter of section 29, in the same township, all near and adjoining the Appanoose rapids of the Des Moines, and estimated to be at the center of the county.
OTTUMWA CHOSEN THE COUNTY SEAT
The Appanoose Rapids Company was conceived and organized for the purpose of getting into the county "on the ground floor," and for specu- lative purposes. Arrowsmith and his confreres were well assured that a site for the county seat would be selected from their holdings, and made provisions for the donation of certain lots to the county in the event their land should be chosen for the seat of government. J. R. McBeth was selected as the company's agent to sell lots, and George Arrowsmith was appointed by the company to prepare a list of lots falling to the share of each stockholder.
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HISTORY OF WAPELLO COUNTY
In May, 1844. Joseph B. Davis, of Washington County, John II. Ran- dolph, of Henry County, and Solomon Jackson, of Lee County, designated by the organizing act as commissioners to select a site for the county seat, chose Ottumwa for the honor, and, according to the plans of the Appanoose Rapids Company, the county was given a certain number of lots, in its tract of land containing 467 acres, which was preempted of the Government on the 9th day of September, 1845. About the same time Uriah Biggs, Sewell Kenney and John Lewis were appointed a committee to select a site for a courthouse, and reported in favor of the lot on the corner of Third and Market streets, opposite the present city hall, where the temple of justice was built in 1846 by the company, John Fuller, J. R. McBeth and Paul C. Jeffries acting as the building committee.
One of the articles of agreement entered into by and between the mem- bers of the Appanoose Rapids Company shows the aim and intent of the company, in its relations to the County of Wapello, and is here quoted :
"Each of said proprietors, or their successors, shall pay a portion of the expenses and debts of the company, proportionate to the share held by him, whether said debts and expenses may have been previously contracted in the prosecution of the designs of the company and for their benefit, or may be hereafter incurred to carry out this agreement. It is further agreed that the aforesaid proprietors shall continue to lay out, and cause to be platted and numbered, the town now in part surveyed by John Arrowsmith. And the aforesaid proprietors hereby band themselves and their assigns to use all legal and honorable means, jointly and separately, to procure the location of the seat of justice for the said County of Wapello at said town; and in furtherance of this object the aforesaid proprietors do hereby bind them- selves, their heirs and assigns, to donate to said County of Wapello every alternate lot in said town, or that may be laid out in said town, the proprietors holding the one-half of said town, and the said county the other half, so as to make as legal a division as practicable ; provided that the county seat shall be located in said town; and provided, also, that the said donation shall not exceed one-quarter section ( 160 acres ), including streets, alleys and public grounds. It is also agreed, and the said proprietors hereby bind themselves, their heirs and assigns, to donate the mill seat at the rapids aforesaid, with a sufficient quantity of ground for milling purposes, to any good and sufficient person or persons who will bind him or themselves to erect a flouring or sawmill thereon, at such time as the company may hereafter determine, and build a dam and sufficient lock. (The ambiguity of that last sentence has been explained to mean that the building of the dam and lock also devolved upon the party accepting the donation of lands for milling purposes .- Ed.) It is also agreed that the parts of the claims not laid out in town lots shall be held as the joint property of the company, as tenants in common, and is hereby reserved from sale as a fund to insure the perfecting of the title to the land sales, and
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HISTORY OF WAPELLO COUNTY
then to be divided between the parties, or their heirs or assigns, agreeably to the shares they may represent."
As proprietor of the site of Ottumwa, then known and designated as Louisville, the Appanoose Rapids Company laid out the town and platted it, John Arrowsmith being the surveyor. John Fuller carried the chain and Paul C. Jeffries drove stakes and hauled the corner stones to mark out lots. On July 4, 1844, a public sale of lots was held, and many of them were disposed of at prices ranging from $75 to $150, according to their location in the embryo city. The company having agreed to give a free site for the erection of a mill, David Glass, Paul C. Jeffries, David Smith, J. R. McBeth and Hugh George relinquished their title to the first choice of lots and placed the lots at the disposal of Francis M. Harrow and others, of Indiana, who had made a proposition to the company to erect a dam, lock and mills, both for making lumber and flour, on condition of a donation of three and one- half acres of land. William Ross, who owned the claim on the opposite side of the river, gave his consent to the undertaking, and on the 11th day of August, 1843, the articles of agreement were signed. This transaction took place while Wapello was attached to Jefferson County, and, as already noticed, the commissioners of Wapello County made certain changes in the contract shortly after the county was organized.
GROWTH OF THE COUNTY SEAT
The only remarkable feature of Ottumwa in its infancy was the slow pace of its growth. Who built the first house within the town's confines the earlier histories do not say, but in 1844 there were only ten buildings in the place, one, a small frame structure, put up by Elder Jamison, a Methodist circuit rider, and the others, crude log cabins. The first store was built by Seth Richards and conducted by Heman P. Graves. In the summer of that year David Hall built the Ottumwa House, a double log affair, in which, on the 4th of July, 1844, George May read the Declaration of Independence, and Judge H. B. Hendershott and Charles Overman addressed a small audience in patriotic vein. The county commissioners' court was held in a log cabin situate between Third and Fourth streets, immediately east of the public square. These comprised the buildings, and it is presumed most of them were occupied by the county officials.
The year 1845 saw but little forward movement in building and increase of population. The appearance of the town was primitive. "No streets had been opened. Paths ran across lots every which way, like they were made by cows going to pasture. Indian wickeups were scattered over the bluff, a cluster of them being on a lot on 'College Hill,'" is the way an early writer pictured the scene.
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