USA > Iowa > Hancock County > History of Winnebago County and Hancock County, Iowa, a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 4
USA > Iowa > Winnebago County > History of Winnebago County and Hancock County, Iowa, a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 4
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these were uniformly found by rocky perennial streams, and in the shelter of other forest trees where the drought was less severe. This tree is called A. saccharinum L. in the more familiar literature of this subject.
Acer negundo L. Ash-leaved Maple. Box Elder.
The box elder is our universal tree. Native in all the eastern por- tion of the State it is now planted and naturalized in every county. As a shelter tree it rivals the willow and soft maple, especially in rapid growth, and makes a denser shade than either. Its habit is however very different from that of other maples. It tends to make crooked branches and a round dense head. Even in thick groves the trunk may rarely be induced to grow straight. The tree is nevertheless valuable in every-way, for shade, shelter, and fuel.
Rhus typhina L. Velvet Sumac. Staghorn Sumac.
A beautiful shrub is this; sometimes rising to the stature of a small tree, twenty to twenty-five feet in height; rare in northern Iowa. The only specimens noted were in the vicinity of Lake Mills, Winnebago county. Here it occurs commonly by the roadside. It is a most hand- some ornamental hardy plant. It tends to form a thicket but is easily kept in cheek. The curious "velvet" of the young shoots and branches is unique in our forests; the leaves are soft of delicate tints of green, changing in autumn; the flower clusters are large and showy and the fruit crimson and brilliant. We have nothing better that will endure our climate, probably nothing as good. It is not poisonous, as some are wont to believe, although the fruit is inedible, except by birds, and the peculiar resin of the branches protects the shrubs generally from cattle and horses.
The species ranges along our northern border and in eastern lowa has been noted as far south as Monticello in Jones county.
Rhus glabra. Sumac. Smooth Sumac.
This is the species common throughout the State. Even in prairie counties where natural groves are none or few, the traveler often en- counters on some dry hillside a plantation of sumae bushes, sometimes no more than one foot high. On the other hand in the eastern coun- ties the sumac is sometimes a small tree fifteen or twenty feet high. Like the preceding it is one of our own ornamental shrubs and de- serves well of every Iowan.
Rhus toxicodendron L. Poison Ivy; Three-leaved Ivy; Poisonvine; 1
Poison Oak; Poison Sumac.
Resembling the preceding in none of its more obvious characters the poison sumac is yet able to lend its own ill repute to all other mem- bers of the family. This plant is poisonous, at least for many people though not for all. It is sometimes confused with the Virginia
1-3
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Creeper, because like that species it sometimes ascends tall trees, root- ing fast to the bark of its host. In Iowa the three-leaved foliage is a sure distinction in the growing season; later the white dry fruit will readily separate it not only from other species of sumac, but also from the purple fruited innocent Ampelopsis.
Robinia pseudacacia L. Locust. Black Locust.
Probably indigenous to southeastern Iowa, the locust tree has been very widely planted. For some time less popular because of the de- predations of the locust-borer, it is now coming again into favor, being less afflicted. One of our most valuable hardwood trees; well worth planting for all purposes. Its flowers are beautiful and odorous; its foliage handsome and its wood heavy, strong, of unusual durability when in contact with the soil, hence of highest value for posts.
Spira salicifolia L. Wild Meadowsweet.
This is a beautiful little shrub with wand-like stems and branches tipped in summer with abundant, spicate, snowy bloom. Common in moist shades, on the flanks of Pilot Knob.
Pyrus iowensis Wood. Crab-apple. Wild Crab.
The crab-tree is common over all the prairie country, forming small thickets around the borders of native groves and even on cool hillsides where there are no other forest trees. Its beautiful odorous bloom, the very glory of our early summer, should render this tree a favorite with our whole people and save it from threatened destruction. The agents of the nurseries offer our Iowa farmers long lists of cultivated and imported novelties in the way of flowering shrubs, but not one of them all will for a moment compare with the modest splendor of our Iowa crab, which everybody may have for the planting. It will bear transplanting and grow anywhere.
Cratægus mollis T. and G .; C. crus-galli L .; C. punctata Jacq .; C. tomentosa L. Hawthorn; White thorn; Thorn-apple.
These are first consins of the crab apple, often, indeed generally, growing with the more familiar species, especially in wood borders or where the forest meets the prairie. Common on Pilot Knob, along Lime creek, and in the groves of Hancock county. Their white flowers contrast pleasantly with the rosy infloresence of the crab, although some are inclined to be malodorous. The first species is our favorite red haw whose large scarlet apples enrich the fence rows in autumn where the zeal of the road commissioner has not yet found the tree, or the barbarous vandalism of the "line-men" has not yet mutilated and de- stroyed it.
Amelanchier rotundifolia T. and G. Shad-bush; Service-berry; June-berry.
Recognizable in all our northern country by its fine snow-white
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blossoms covering the bush or tree in early spring. It blooms before the wild plum, before the leaves are out on anything-save perhaps the vanguard willows,-and marks the whole hillside with its white banners signaling the on-coming of the spring. The fruit is small but edible and in favor with many people so that the tree is often cultivated in country gardens. In habit and foliage variable, there is after all per- haps but a single species, the old A. canadensis L. of which our round- leaved forms are but the western variety. Along the banks of the Des Moines ; on Pilot Knob.
Cornus circinata L'Her; C. paniculata L'Her. Cornel-Bush; Dog- wood.
These are handsome ornamental shrubs. They bear white flat elus- ters of flowers in early summer and showy, round or flattened, berries in fall; the fruit in the first named blue, in the second white. C. circi- nata endures dry rocky places, even elings to rocky ledges; C. panicu- lata loves the river brink. Found in the thickets along wooded banks in all three counties.
Sambucus canadensis L. Elder-bush. Elder-berry.
The elder-berry is a plant, everywhere familiar, often planted in gardens for the sake of its fruit, but now springing up as if native in the rich soil of farm-land and meadow. The abundant black-purple fruit is esteemed as fruit, and is certainly valuable as food for birds.
Viburnum lentago L .; V. prunifolium L .; V. dentatum L. Sheep- berry; Black haw; Arrow-wood.
Of the three Viburnums in this part of Iowa the first and last as here named are found in wet places or by streams; the black haw is a small slender tree everywhere in native groves. V. dentatum on Pilot Knob only.
Symphoricarpus occidentalis Hook. Wolf-berry.
A handsome shrub is this, native to all the northern counties ; abun- dant about the margins of the groves and so suggesting its proper use in plantations. The elegant little flowers are showy even in the flowery month of June, and the white fruit is in pleasing contrast to the dull tints of the autumn field.
Cephalanthus occidentalis L. Button-bush.
A common shrub in wet places on Pilot Knob; with handsome flowers, in its favorite habitat, but of little general use.
Fraxinus americana L. White Ash.
The ash is a tree of wide range and of universal usefulness. Its wood is excellent for lumber and makes fine fuel. As a shade tree it is clean and beautiful and of reasonably rapid growth. No other tree except the cottonwood and the maple is so extensively planted on prairie farms; nevertheless its value is hardly yet appreciated.
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Fraxinus viridis Michx. Green Ash.
This species is not rare along wooded water courses and differs decidedly from the commonly planted species. It is a small, irregu- larly branched, but vigorous tree, valuable only for the excellent fuel it affords.
Ulmus americana L. American Elm. White Elm.
The white elm is the street-tree of North America. For planting in rows along our village and city streets nothing can match this. The tree is hardy, enduring all sorts of soil and much mistreatment; it grows rapidly and in selected individuals with a symmetry unequalled. Nor only along the highway and street is the elm a thing of beauty; ont in the open field or by the prairie stream a single lone elm may often be noticed whose rich umbrageous foliage in summer, and elegant plumy ontline in winter, are simply the crowning beauty of the landscape.
The elm is a rapid grower, makes first class lumber for many uses about the farm, and is valuable at least in no small degree as a source of excellent fuel.
Ulmus fulra Michx. Red Elm. Slippery Elm.
The slippery elm occurs rarely in the groves of the counties we describe. It is a much less valuable tree than the preceding, although its wood is tough, unsplittable, highly prized for some purposes. The tree is easily distinguished by its extremely harsh, large and rongh- surfaced leaves, the stiff rigid branching, and the large-clustered, al- most orbicular, rough and venulose fruit.
Celtis occidentalis L. Hackberry.
Fine specimens of this tree were noticed near the old town of Am- sterdam, and others in Winnebago county. It is indigenous to our northern counties generally and a delightful tree. It grows more slowly than its consin, the elm, but makes a much denser shade. The top when left to itself is shapely, the foliage pale green. There is no finer ornamental tree and while its wood is less desirable for lumber it makes the best of fuel.
Juglans nigra L. Black Walnut. Walnut.
This is doubtless, commercially considered, the most valuable species in the whole list. Native to eastern Iowa, it grows well in stream valleys and on prairie plantations as far as the Missouri river. The walnut grove at Whiting in Monona county is famous the country over and there is another in Sac almost as fine. These are both the result of careful planting. In Hancock county there are fine thrifty trees in the groves around the old court-house at Concord. But the species is also represented by native trees at Amsterdam and on the land of Mr. Hathaway in Twin Lakes township. The pioneers seem to have found elegant walnut trees in Winnebago county and there is still
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near Forest City, a walnut stump in witness, more than four feet across the top. There is therefore no reason why farmers in these counties may not raise walnut timber. The crop is somewhat slow, but if cared for is much more rapid than some people suppose. There are many native walnuts along the Des Moines in Kossuth county but the larger trees have been long since eut away.
Juglans cinerea L. Butter-nut. White Walnut.
The butter-nuit was noted in eastern Hancock and in Winnebago. This must be near the western limit of the species in this latitude. Not without value, the tree is nevertheless nothing like so worthy of cultivation as is the walnut. It is by nature a smaller form and al- though furnishing a fine-grained limber has not been much in favor with our western people.
Carya alba. Nutt. Hickory; Shell-bark Hickory; Shell-bark.
This valuable species is apparently common in Winnebago county, but less so in the other counties. Only small young trees were ob- served. The old trees are probably all gone. The wood of the hickory is in great demand in the manufacture of wagons, buggies and other forms of vehicles. A forest of hickory today would be worth a fortune. As fuel the wood is equally famous, and the finest trees of our North American valley forests have been cut down to make winter fires. The hickory grows well and rapidly from seed, and it is to be hoped that within the range of its natural habitat it may be nowhere suffered to become extinct. The bitter nut, C. amara Nutt., is also found in our present field; it is a good tree for fuel but in the mill or factory posses- ses nothing like the value of its associate.
Corylus americana L. Hazel. Hazel-nuit.
The hazel nut is so widely known as to require no more than men- tion here. It is the universal attendant of our native forest, the low, out-creeping border of the woods. It is astonishing how rapidly and easily the hazel extends its beneficent domain. The fruit is disseminat- ed by our familiar birds. Blue-jays will attempt to carry two or three hazel-nuts at a time in their beaks, and will fly with a bunch of the fruit for long distances. In this way people are often surprised to find the hazel springing up about the borders of our artificial groves. The birds are the planters and the hazel simply occupies its own.
Ostrya virginica. Wild. Ironwod. Horn-beam.
A valuable though small tree is this, not uncommon. The wood grows rapidly up to a certain age; afterwards very slowly; is tough and exceedingly hard; makes good tool handles and firewood.
Quercus. The Oaks.
More than any trees of the forest, the oaks appeal to every lover of the wood. On Pilot Knob five distinct species of oak ocenr, and
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three or four in other parts of our area. The universal species is of course the bur-oak, Q. macrocarpa Michx. This species occupies the very hardest and most unfavorable roeky or sandy hilltops, remote from all other arboreal vegetation. Next in frequency is the jack-oak, Q. velutina, occupying the whole forest area already referred to, the whole Mississippi valley. On the slopes of Pilot Knob beautiful specimens of Q. coccinea Wang., the scarlet oak, adorn the roadsides and fields, their thin elegantly cleft leaves shining with unusual lustre
in the summer sun. In similar localities and in the valleys of all the wooded streams occurs another common species Q. rubra, L. the red oak. The three last named all belong to the black oak series; all have dark-colored, furrowed bark, bristle-tipped leaves and fruit, and acorns that take two years to mature. The bur-oak, on the other hand, belongs to the white oak group. Its leaves have rounded lobes, are never bristly; the bark is pale and often flaky, though in old trees apt to furrow, over certain areas, and the nuts form and mature in a sin- gle season. The white oak, Q. alba L. is the finest and most valuable oak in our northern woods, and is fortunately not rare in Iowa. The writer noted, however, in the district covered by this report but very few, and these in Forest township of Winnebago county.
All sorts of oaks may be transplanted but they, like other forest species, grow best from seed. Acorns spring up readily if protected from animals and covered lightly with leaves. When cared for they grow with surprising rapidity, easily making two or three feet a year in height. There is no good reason why on the farms of northern Iowa oaks, ash trees, walnuts and pines may not begin to supplant the useful, but less valuable soft maple and box-elder.
Populus tremuloides, Miehx. Quaking-aspen.
A common little tree in all native groves. Of little value save as light fuel. Its nearst kin, P. grandidentata Michx., the large leaved aspen, or simply aspen, is much more valuable. It springs up quickly in clearings, grows in dense hillside groves and in a few years makes fine long straight poles, light and strong for use on the farm. Hun- dreds of these trees are found on the slopes leading up to Pilot Knob. The cotton-wood, P. deltoidea Marsh has been extensively planted here as in all our western country. The cotton-wood makes good fuel and has been of service as a wind-break. Does not however, make good groves.
Salix species.
Of willows there are many in our region. Prof. Shimek furnishes me the following list : S. discolor, Muhl; S. amygdaloides Anders., dia- mond willow; S. cordata Muhl., heart-leaved willow; S. candida Wild., hoary willow; S. humilis Marsh., prairie willow; S. petiolaris Smith,
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has no common name. In fact, the willows are for our people little distinguished. Most of those here listed are mere shrubs without eco- nomic value save as ornamental plants. The first two named are small trees.
Juniperus virginiana, L. Red Cedar.
This is the only representative of the conifers or pine family in this part of Iowa. The white pine seems not to come so far south and west. The little red cedar is said to be still not rare about the shores of Rice lake, Winnebago county and many are reported as taken thence for planting on the farms. All the conifers usually planted in Iowa have been successfully reared by the farmers of the counties here discussed. So much in genuine arboriculture has here been already wisely done that we have high hope for greater success in time to come, when to the other crops making Iowa the land of varied husbandry shall be added a perennial harvest of forest products from trees of all our noblest species.
CHAPTER II
THE FIRST INHABITANTS
THE MOUND BUILDERS-DESCRIPTION OF THEIR RELICS-EARLY INVESTI- GATORS-MOUND BUILDERS' DISTRICTS-WHO WERE THEY ?- THE IN- DIANS-DISTRIBUTION OF INDIAN GROUPS AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY- THE IOWA-THE SAC AND FOX-BLACK HAWK AND KEOKUK-OTHER SAC AND FOX CHIEFS-POTAWATOMI-WINNE- BAGO-PRINCIPAL TRIBES OF THE SANTEE SIOUX-MDEWAKANTON- SISSETON-WAHPEKUTE -- WAHPETON.
Who were the first inhabitants of the American continent? This is a question over which ethnologists and archaeologists have pondered and speculated for at least a century. When Christopher Columbus made his first voyage to the Western Hemisphere in 1492, he believed that he had reached the goal of his long cherished ambitions, and that the country where he landed was the eastern shore of Asia. European explorers who followed him, entertaining a similar belief, thought the country was India and gave to the race of copper colored people they found here the name of "Indians." About a century and a half after the first white settlements were made, indications were discovered that the interior of the continent had once been inhabited by a peculiar people, whose mode of living was different from that of the Indians. These evidences were found in the mounds, earthworks, fragments of pottery, stone weapons and implements, etc. A report of the United States Bureau of Ethnology says: "During a period beginning some time after the close of the ice age and ending with the coming of the white man-or only a few years before-the central part of North America was inhabited by a people who had emerged to some extent from the darkness of savagery, had acquired certain domestic arts, and practiced some well defined lines of industry. The location and boundaries inhabited by them are fairly well marked by the mounds and earthworks they erected."
The center of this ancient civilization-if such it may be called- seems to have been in what is now the State of Ohio, where the mounds are more numerous than in any other part of the country. Iowa may be regarded as its western frontier, though traces of this ancient race
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have been noted west of the Missouri River. From the relies they left behind them, archaelogists have given to this peculiar people the name of
MOUND-BUILDERS
Most of the mounds discovered are of conical form, varying in height, and when opened have generally been found to contain human skeletons. For this reason such mounds have been designated by ar- chaeologists as burial mounds. Next in importance comes the trun- cated pyramid-that is, a mound square or rectangular at the base and flattened on the top. On account of their greater height and the fact that on the summits of several of these pyramids have been found ashes and charcoal, the theory has been advanced that they were used as lookout stations, the charcoal and ashes being the remains of signal fires. In some parts of the country may still be seen well defined lines of fortifications or earthworks, sometimes in the form of a square, but more frequently of oval or circular shape and bearing every indication that they were erected and used as places of defense against hostile invaders. A work of this character near Anderson, Indiana, was connected by a subterranean passage with a spring on the bank of the White River, some fifty feet below the level of the earth- work. Still another class of relics, less numerous and widely separa- ted, consists of one large mound surrounded by an embankment, out- side of which are a number of smaller mounds. The smaller mounds in these groups rarely contain skeletons or other relies, and even in the large mound within the embankment only a few skeletons, imple- ments or weapons have been found. The absence of these relics and the arrangement of the mounds have led antiquarians to believe that such places were centers of sacrifice or religions ceremony of some kind.
EARLY INVESTIGATORS
Among the first to make a systematic examination of the mounds were Squier and Davis, who about 1850 published a work entitled "Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley." Between the years 1845 and 1848 these two archaeologists, working together, explored over two hundred mounds and earthworks, the description of which was published by the Smithsonian Institution. Following these pioneer investigators came Baldwin, McLean and a number of other writers on the subject, practically all of whom held to the theory that the Mound Builders belonged to a separate and distinet race and that many of the relics were of great antiquity. Some of these early writers took the view that the Mound Builders first established their civilization in
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the Ohio Valley, from which region they gradually moved southwest- wardly into Mexico and Central America, where the white man found their descendants in the Aztec Indians. Others, with arguments equally as plausible, contended that people who left these interesting relics originated in the South and slowly made their way northward to the country about the Great Lakes, where their further progress was checked by a hostile foe. Upon only one phase of the subject were these early authors agreed, and that was that the Mound Builders be- longed to a very ancient and extinct race. The theory of great antiq- uity was sustained by the great trees, often several feet in diameter, which they found growing upon many of the mounds and earthworks, and the conclusion that the Mound Builders were a distinct race of people was supported by the fact that the Indians with whom the first white men came in contact had no traditions relating to the Mounds or the people who built them.
MOUND BUILDERS' DISTRICTS
The United States Bureau of Ethnology, soon after it was estab- lished, undertook the work of making an exhaustive and scientific investigation of the mounds and other relics left by this ancient people. Cyrus Thomas, of the bureau, in analyzing and compiling the infor- mation collected, has divided the country once inhabited by the Mound Builders into eight districts, each of which is marked by certain fea- tures not common to the others. In thus classifying the relics Mr. Thomas evidently did not adhere to any of the proposed theories as to the origin or first location of the Mound Builders, as he begins in the northwestern part of the country and proceeds toward the east and south, to wit :
1. The Dakotah District, which includes North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin and the northwestern part of Iowa; 2. The Huron-Iroquois District, embracing the country once inhabited by the Huron and Iroquois Indians, viz: the lower peninsula of Michigan, the southern part of Canada, a strip across the northern part of Ohio and the greater part of the State of New York. 3. The Illinois Dis- trict, which includes the middle and eastern portions of Iowa, North- eastern Missouri, Northern Illinois and the western half of Indiana. 4. The Ohio District, which takes in all the State of Ohio, except the strip across the northern part already mentioned, the eastern half of Indiana and the southwestern portion of West Virginia. 5. The Appalachian District, which includes the mountainous regions of Southwestern Virginia, Western North Carolina, Eastern Tennessee and Northern Georgia. 6. The Tennessee District, which adjoins
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the above and includes Middle and Western Tennessee, the southern portion of Illinois, practically all the State of Kentucky, a small sec- tion of Northern Alabama and the central portion of Georgia. 7. The Arkansas District, which embraces the state from which it takes its name, the southeastern part of Missouri and a strip across the north- ern part of Louisiana. 8. The Gulf District, which includes the country bordering on the Gulf of Mexico.
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