USA > Iowa > Allamakee County > History of Winneshiek and Allamakee counties, Iowa > Part 15
USA > Iowa > Winneshiek County > History of Winneshiek and Allamakee counties, Iowa > Part 15
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HISTORY OF WINNESHIEK COUNTY.
of gaining admission, not only to make the cards serve that pur- pose, but also to give a condensed history of each individual; and in order to serve this purpose to the best advantage, printed cards, with blank spaces to fill, were used. The person gaining admis- sion by this means was obliged to fill the blank spaces left for that purpose, and which, when filled, would give his age, when married, to whom and what year, and the date of his settlement in the county, as well as the number of the section on which he settled.
The following list of the very early settlers is quite complete:
Hamilton Campbell and his wife, Sarah, came to Winneshiek County June 7, 1848, and settled on sections 23-26, Bloomfield Township. Hamilton Campbell was born in 1802, and married in 1838.
Gotlob Krum and wife came to Winneshiek County on the 29tlı of June, 1848, and settled on the N. W. Q. of Section 17, in what is Washington township.
Gotleib Krum, June 29, 1848. Washington.
David Reed and wife settled on the N. E. Q. of Section 25 August 15, 1848, Bloomfield Township.
Daniel Reed settled on the N. E. Q. of Section 25; August 15, 1848, Bloomfield Township.
John N. Topliff settled on the S. E. Q. of Section 25, of Bloom- field Township. April 1, 1848.
Andrew Meyer and wife came to Winneshiek County on the 1st of April, 1849, and settled in Washington Township on Section 23.
Phenas Banning settled on the N. W. of N, W. Q. of Section 5, in what is now Bloomfield Township, in June, 1859.
William Day and Elizabeth, his wife, came to Winneshiek County and settled on what is now Decorah, on the 10th of June, 1849. John F. Day, same. Richard V. Day, same. Claibourne Day, same.
O. W. Emery came to Winneshiek County on the 20th of Au- gust. and settled on the N. W. Q. of Section 17, Canoe Township Josiah Goddard. Jr., October 10, 1849, Decorah.
The following are settlers who made a permanent settlement in the county in 1850:
David Kinnison and his wife Henrietta, who settled on the N. W. Q. of Section 7.
John DeCow and his wife Mary D., who settled on the N. E. Q. of Section 1, in Bloomfield Township, June 29.
A. O. Lommen and his wife, Seigie, who settled on the E } of N. W. Q. of Section 2. in Springfield Township, June 12.
Erick Anderson settled on the S. E. Q. of Section 24, Spring- field Township, June 12.
A. K. Anderson came to Winneshiek County on the 20th of June, and settled on the N. E. Q. of Section 23, Springfield Township.
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HISTORY OF WINNESHIEK COUNTY.
. Tolef Simianson and his wife Betsy, came to Winneshiek County July 2, and settled on the N. E. Q. of Section 1, Spring- field Township.
Russell Dean, April, Bloomfield Township.
Ole G. Johnson settled on the S. W. Q. of Section 31, Glenwood Township, July 2.
Nelson Johnson and his wife Hannah came to Winneshiek County on the 2d of July, and settled on the N. E. Q. of Section 36, Decorah.
Orin Simmons came to Winneshiek County on the 3d of July, and settled on the N. E. Q. of Section 23, Decorah Township.
E. G. Opdahl came to Winneshiek County on the 4th of July, and settled on the N. E. Q. of Section 14, Springfield Township.
Albert Opdahl settled on the N. E. Q. of Section 14, Spring- field Township, July 4th, and his wife, Mary H., settled on the N. W. Q. of the N. W. Q. of Section 13, Decorah Towhship, July 25.
John W. Holm came to Winneshiek County on the 30th of July, and settled on the N. E. Q. of Section 33, Canoe Town- ship.
Benjamin L. Bisby came to Winneshiek County on the 1st of August, and settled on the S. W. Q. of Section 29, Hesper Town- ship.
Peter K. Langland and his wife Emma, came to Winneshiek County in August, and settled on the N. W. Q. of Section 10, Pleasant Township.
John Evanson came to Winneshiek County on the 25th of Sep- tember, and settled on the N. E. Q. of Section 32, Madison Town- ship.
Christopher A. Estrim and his wife Juger Caroline, settled on the S. half of S. E. Q. of Section 5, on the 3d of September, Frankville.
John Fredenburg settled, the 20th of October, on the N. W. Q. of Section 6, Canoe Township.
William Padden and wife settled 25th of November, Section 28, Frankville Township.
John Rosa came to Winneshiek County with his father, and settled on the Washington Prairie.
Jacob Duff, Frankville.
Edward Tracy, Decorah.
Walter Rathbun and his wife Welthie came to Winneshiek County in March, and settled on the N. W. Q. of Section 16.
The following is a partial list of the pioneers who came to the county in 1851:
E. C. Dunning and wife settled on settled 16, Decorah Town- ship, June 20th.
Geo. Blake, April, Bloomfield Township.
Russell Dean, April, Bloomfield.
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HISTORY OF WINNESHIEK COUNTY.
E. E. Clement, Springfield. settled March 1, on the S. W. S. W. Q. of Section 1, Springfield Township.
D. D. Huff and his wife Anna settled April 26, on the S. E. Q. of Section 29, Hesper Township.
Peter E. Haugen came to Winneshiek county on the 12th of May, and settled on the N. W. Q. of Section 31, Decorah Town- ship.
Simeon M. Leach and his wife settled on the 12th of May, on the S. W. Q. of Section 17, Canoe Township.
A. V. Anderson and wife, Parmelia, settled the first part of June, on the N. E. Q. of Section 24.
Torket Hansen and his wife, Sophronia, came to Winneshiek county about the 15th day of June, and settled on the N. E. Q. of Section 25, Decorah Township.
Christopher Evans settled the 15th of June, on the N. E. Q. of Section 32, Glenwood Township.
Iver G. Ringstad and wife settled in Madison Township on the 30th of June, on the S. half of Section 29.
Herbrand Onstine settled in Madison Township.
Helge Nelson Myran settled in Madison township, on the S. W. S. W. Q. of Section 8.
Ole M. Asleson and wife settled July 12, on the N. E. Q. of Section 8, Madison Township.
William Birdsall and his wife, Mary, settled on Section 28, Frankville Township, on the 13th of August.
Gulbrand Erickson Wig, settled in September, on the S. E. Q. of Section 36, Madison Township.
Gulbrand T. Lommen settled on Section 33, Decorah Town- ship.
Ole Kittleson and wife settled on Section 17, Decorah Town- ship.
Philip Husted.
W. L. Iverson. Mount Pleasant.
Isaac Birdsall, Frankville.
Ole Toleffson Wig, and his wife, Thora, settled on Section 31, Decorah Township.
Geo. V. Putney settled on Section 30, Burr Oak Township.
A. K. Drake, Decorah.
Erick Olsen Bakke and wife settled on Section 5, Frankville Township.
Nathan Drake settled on Section 7, Glenwood Township.
Rolland Tobiason and wife settled on Section 10, Springfield Township.
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HISTORY OF WINNESHIEK COUNTY.
CHAPTER II.
The Winnebago Indians; Our County and County Seat Named after theirChiefs; Early History of the Tribe; their Career in Wiscon- sin; Removal to Iowa, in Winneshiek County; Fort Atkinson; the Chiefs Winneshiek and Decorah; the Grave of the Latter, and Re-interment of His Remains; Indian Traders and Whisky Selling; Bloody Tragedies; Indian Customs and Habits.
As our county and county seat have taken their names from the chiefs of the Winnebago Indians, it will be of interest, as well as of historic value, to trace the history of our historic predeces- sors on this soil, even though we have little clue, except by the remains left by the mound builders, of the races of the pre- historic ages of the past. It is now about two and a half centu- ries since the civilized world began to gain knowledge of the exist- ence in the Far West of a tribe of Indians known as the Winneba- goes, that is, "Men of the Sea;" pointing possibly to their early emi- gration from the shores of the Mexican Gulf or the Pacific. North- ern Wisconsin and the upper northwestern peninsula of Michi- gan were in early times inhabited by several tribes of the Algon- quin race, forming a barrier to the Dakotas or Sioux, who had ad- vanced eastward to the Mississippi. But the Winnebagoes, al- though one of the tribes belonging to the family of the latter, had passed the Mississippi at some unknown period, and settled upon the head waters of Green Bay. Some historians claim that they came from Mexico, whence they fled to escape the Spaniards.
Here the "sea tribe" as early, it is believed, as 1634, was visited by an agent of France, and a treaty concluded with them. The tribe afterward called themselves Hochungara, or Ochunkora, but were styled by the Sioux Hotanke or Sturgeon. Nothing more is heard of the Quenibigoutz or Winnebegouk (as the Winneba- goes were called by the Jesuit missionaries, and the Algonquin tribes, meaning men from the fetid or salt water, translated .by the French, Puants) for the next thirty-five years, although there is no doubt that the tribe had been visited, meanwhile, by adven- turous Frenchmen, when on the second of December, 1669, some of this nation were noted at a Sac (Sauk or Saukie's) village on Green Bay, by Father Allouez. As early, at least as 1670, the French were actively engaged among the Winnebagoes trading. "We found affairs," says one of the Jesuit missionaries, who ar- rived among them in September of that year, "we found affairs in a pretty bad condition, and the minds of the savages much soured against the French who were there trading; ill-treating them in deeds and words, pillaging and conveying away their merchandise in spite of them, and conducting themselves toward
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HISTORY OF WINNESHIEK COUNTY.
them with insupportable insolence and indignities." The cause of this disorder, adds the missionary, "is that they had received bad treatment from the French, to whom they this year had come to trade, and particularly from the soldiers, from whom they had pretended to receive many wrongs and injuries." It is thus made certain that the arms of France were carried into the territory of the Winnebagoes over two hundred years ago.
Two Jesuits who ascended the Fox river of Green Bay in 1670, at some falls about one day's journey from the head of the bay, dis- covered an idol that the savages honored, "never failing, in passing, to make him some sacrifice of tobacco, or arms, or paintings or other things to thank him, that by his assistance they had, in ascend- ing, avoided the danger of the waterfalls that are in this stream, or else if they had to ascend to pray him to aid them in this peril- ous navigation." The devout missionaries caused the idol "to be lifted up by the strength of arm and be cast into the depths of the river, to appear no more" to the idolatrous savages. The mission of St. Francis Xavier, founded in December, 1669, by Allouez was a roving one among the tribes inhabiting the shores of Green Bay, and the interior country watered by the Fox River and its tribu- taries, for about two years, when its first mission house was erected at what is now Depere, Brown County, Wisconsin. This chapel was soon afterward destroyed by fire, but was rebuilt in 1676.
The Winnebago Indians by this time had not only received considerable spiritual instruction from the Jesuit fathers, but had obtained quite an insight into the mysteries of trading and traffic- ing with white men; for following the footsteps of the mission- aries, and sometimes preceding them, were the ubiquitous French traders. It is impossible to determine precisely what territory was occupied by the Winnebagoes at this early date, farther than they lived near the head of Green Bay. A direct trade with the French upon the St Lawrence was not carried on by the Winne- bagoes to any great extent until the beginning of the eighteenth century. As early as 1679 an advance party of La Salle had col- lected a large store of furs at the mouth of Green Bay, doubtless in a traffic with this tribe and others contiguous to them. Gener- ally, however, the surrounding nations sold their peltries to the Ottawas, who in turn disposed of them to the French.
The commencement of the eighteenth century found che Win- nebagoes friendly to and in alliance with France and in peace with the dreaded Iroquois. In 1718, the nation numbered six hundred. They were afterward found to have moved up Fox river, locating upon Winnebago lake, which stream and lake were their ancient seat, and from which they had been driven either by fear or the prowess of more powerful tribes of the West or South- west. Their intercourse with the French was gradually extended
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HISTORY OF WINNESHIEK COUNTY.
and generally peaceful, though not always so, joining with them in their wars with the Iroquois, and subsequently in their con- flicts with the English which finally ended in 1760.
In Shea's "Early French Voyages" there was printed a letter from Father Guignas, written May 29, 1728, at Fort Beauharnois on Lake Pepin, on the upper Mississippi river, in which an inter- esting reference is made to the Winnebagoes. He says:
"The Sioux convoy left the end of Montreal Island on the 16th of the month of June, last year, at 11 A. M., and reached Michili- mackinac on the 22d of the month of July. This post is two hundred and fifty leagues from Montreal, almost due west, at 45. deg. 20 min. north latitude.
"We spent the rest of the month at this post, in the hope of receiving from day to day some news from Montreal, and in the design of strengthening ourselves against the alleged extreme difficulties of getting a free passage through the Foxes. At last, seeing nothing, we set out on our march the first of the month of August, and after seventy-three leagues of quite pleas- ant sail along the northerly side of Lake Michigan, running to the southeast, we reached Green Bay on the 8th of the same month at 5:30, P. M. This post is 44 deg. 43 min. north lati- tude.
"We stopped there two days, and on the 11th, in the morning, we embarked, in a very great impatience to reach the Foxes. On the third day after our departure from the bay, quite late in the afternoon, in fact somewhat in the night, the chiefs of the Puans (Winnebagoes) came out three leagues from the village to meet the French, with their peace calumets and some bear meat as a re- freshment, and the next day we were received by the small nation, amid several discharges of a few guns, and with great demonstra- tions.
"They asked us with so good grace to do them the honor to stay some time with them, that we granted them the rest of the day from noon, and the following day. There may be in all the vil- lage, sixty to eighty men, but all the men and women of very tall stature and well made. They are on the bank of a very pretty little lake, in a most agreeable spot for its situation and the good- ness of the soil, nineteen leagues from the bay and eight leagues from the Foxes."
When the English, in October, 1761, took possession of the French post at Green Bay. the Winnebagoes were found to num- ber only one hundred and fifty warriors; their nearest village be- ing at the lower end of Wennebago Lake. They had three towns, and perhaps more.
Their country at this period inclosed not only the lake, but all the streams flowing into it, especially Fox river, and afterward ex- tended to the Wisconsin and Rock rivers. They readily changed the course of their trade-asking now of the commandant of the
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HISTORY OF WINNESHIEK COUNTY.
fort for English traders to be sent among them. In the Indian outbreak under Pontiac, in 1763, they joined with the Menomi- nees and other tribes to defend the British garrison at the head of the bay, assisting in conducting them to a place of safety. They continued their friendship to the English during the Revolution, by joining with them against the colonies, and were active in the Indian war of 1790-4, taking part in the attack on Fort Recovery, on the Maumee, in the present State of Ohio, in 1793. They also fought on the side of the British in the war of 1812-15, aid- ing in 1814 to reduce Prairie du Chien. They were then esti- mated at 4,500.
When, in 1816, the government of the United States sent troops to take possession of the Green Bay country, by establish- a garrison there, some trouble was anticipated from the Winne- bago Indians, who, up to that date, had the reputation of being a bold and warlike tribe. A deputation from the nation came down Fox river and remonstrated with the American commandant on what they considered an intrusion. They were desirous of know- ing why a fort was to be established so near them. The reply was, that although the troops were armed for war, their purpose was peace. The response of the Indians was an old one. "If your object is peace, you have too many men; if war, too few." How- ever the display of a number of cannon that had not yet been mounted, satisfied the Winnebagoes that the Americans were masters of the situation, and the deputation gave the garrison no further trouble. On the 30th of June, 1816, at St. Louis, the tribe made a treaty of peace and friendship with the General Gov- ernment, but they continued to lay tribute on white people who passed up Fox river. At this time a portion of the tribe was liv- ing on the Wisconsin river, away from Green Bay. In 1820, they had five villages on Winnebago Lake and fourteen on Rock river. In 1825 the claim of the Winnebagoes was an extreme one so far as territory was concerned. Its southern boundary stretched away from the source of the Rock river to within forty miles of its mouth in Illinois, where they had a village. On the west it ex- tended to the heads of the small streams flowing into the Missis- sippi. To the north it reached Black river and the Upper Wiscon- sin, to the Chippewa Territory, but did not extend over Fox river. although they contended for the whole of Winnebago Lake.
The final removal of the Winnebagoes from Wisconsin to the westward, across the Mississippi soon followed. In 1829, a large part of the territory in southwest Wisconsin, lying between the Sugar River and the Mississippi and extending to the Wisconsin, was sold to the Government, and three years later, all the residue lying south and east of the Wisconsin and Fox rivers of Green Bay. And finally in the brief language of the treaty of Novem- ber 1, 1837, (this tribe having become unsettled and wasteful). "The. Winnebago Nation of Indians" ceded to the General Govern-
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HISTORY OF WINNESHIEK COUNTY.
ment "all their lands east of the Mississippi." Not an acre was reserved. And the Indians agreed that within eight months from that date, they would move west of the "great river," they being alloted territory a part of which was in the present Winneshiek County. This arrangement, however, was not fully carried out. In 1842 there were only 756 at the then Turkey River, Iowa Settlement, their new home, with as many in Wisconsin and small bands elsewhere. All had become lawless and roving. Some removed from Wisconsin in 1848, while a party to the number of eight hundred left that State as late as 1873 for Nebraska, long after the Iowa portion of the tribe had preceeded them to their western home. Their Nebraska reservation is north of and adja- cent to the Omahas, containing over one hundred thousand acres. However, since their first removal, they have several times changed their homes, and scattering bands have wandered back and forth between Wisconsin and Nebraska. The total number is now. esti- mated at less than twenty-five hundred.
The following brief paragraphs in reference to the Winneba- goes, and removals of portions of the tribe, is taken from a sketch of the "Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota," by Rev. Edward D. Neil:
"The Ho-Tchun-Graws, or Winnebagoes, belong to the Daka- tah family of aborigines. Champlain, although he never visited them, mentions them. Nicollet, who had been in his employ, visited Green Bay about the year 1635, and an early relation men- tions that he saw the Ouinipegos, a people called so because they came from a distant sea, which some French writer erroneously called Puants."
Another writer, speaking of these people, says:
"These people are called 'Les Puants,' not because of any bad odor peculiar to them, but because they claim to have come from the shores of a far distant lake, toward the north, whose waters are salt. They call themselves the people 'de l'eau pu- ants' of the putrid or bad water."
"By the treaty of 1837 they were removed to Iowa, and by an- other treaty in October, 1846, they came to Minnesota in 1848, to the country between the Long Prairie and Crow Wing River. The agency was located on the Long Prairie River, forty miles from the Mississippi, and in 1849 the tribe numbered about five hundred souls.
"In February, 1855, another treaty was made with them, and that spring they removed to lands on the Blue Earth River. Owing to the panic caused by the outbreak of the Sioux in 1862, Congress, by a special act, without consulting them, in 1863 re- moved them from their fields in Minnesota to the Missouri River, and in the words of the missionary, 'they were, like the Sioux, dumped in the desert, one hundred miles above Fort Randall.'"
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HISTORY OF WINNESHIEK COUNTY.
IN WINNESHIEK COUNTY.
The eastern line of the Iowa reservation to which the Winne- bagoes were removed from Wisconsin, and which embraced Win- neshiek County, was about twenty miles west of the Mississippi river. Their roving and unsettled condition had apparently changed their traditional independent and warlike character; and the large annuity given them as a condition of their removal from Wisconsin added to their vices and accellerated their progress to laziness and worthlessness. And if it is true that they were orig- inally warlike and fierce, as has been stated in these pages, they rapidly sunk in this respect until they won a memorable reputa- tion among the early settlers of being not only cowardly, but craftily revengeful and treacherous. Of these Winnebagoes after their removal to Iowa, Spark's History of Winneshiek County says:
"The Winnebagoes were not brave and chivalrous, but vindic- tive and treacherous. Instead of facing a foe and braving danger, they would stealthily steal upon him, and in an unguarded moment, wreak their vengeance. But these were not the worst features in this tribe. They possessed vices of a meaner and more degrading nature. They united the art of stealing to that of lying. Any- thing belonging to another on which they could lay their pilfering fingers, they appropriated to their own use. Their lying propen- sities were proverbial. They regarded the white man with envy, but stood in such fear of their Indian neighbors-the Sacs and Foxes-that they dare not oppose him, but made him their cham- pion and protector against these warlike and powerful tribes. They were more opulent in their annuities than any other tribe of Indians. Besides about $100,000 in cash and goods paid them an- nually, large sums were expended in the vain attempts to educate and christianize them. A few among them could read and write; but in proportion as they improved in book lore, in the same, and even in a greater ratio, they deteriorated morally; and those who enjoyed the greatest advantages were the most worthless and de- graded of their tribe. Every attempt that has been made to civi- ilze them, has sunk them lower in the scale of humanity. At least this is the evidence of those who are familiar with their history. It has been reduced to an axiom, by observation and ex- perience, that the Indian is incapable of civilization, except in rare cases. They are gradually and surely fading away. The very approach of civilization is a poison to them, from the ef- fects of which there is no escape. Its operation is slow but sure, and but a few years will have made their annual rounds before the race will be numbered with the things of the past, and only known in history."
The Winnebagoes being of such a character, or reputation, at least, it seemed all the more necessary that there should be an arm of the General Government extended toward their control,
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HISTORY OF WINNESHIEK COUNTY.
and a garrison established in their midst. And so Fort Atkinson, situated on a hill overlooking the village of that name in our county, was established. Some remains of the old fort still ex- ist. The fort was named after the famous and successful fighter of the Indians, General Atkinson, the hero of the Black Hawk war, and was commenced on the 2d of June, 1840, about fifty mechanics being employed in the work. It was intended to con- trol the Indians and protect them from bands of their enemies, as well as to protect the settlers. Further particulars in regard to it, and the village which bears its name, as well as in relation to Old Mission and Indian farm and reservation, established in 1842 by Indian Agent Rev. D. Lowery, about five miles southwest of Atkinson, for educating and civilizing the Indians, will be found elsewhere in this volume.
WINNESHIEK AND DECORAH.
Winneshiek, the ruling chief of the Winnebagoes, soon after their removal to the reservation or neutral ground, including what is now known as Winneshiek County, did not become chief through royal Indian blood, nor because of bravery or prowess in war. He was made chief by order of the United States War De- partment, on account of his ability and fitness for the position. Under him as head chief, there were several chiefs of respective bands into which the nation was divided. The village of the head chief, Winneshiek, extended along the Upper Iowa River for several miles, where Decorah'is now located. He was an Indian of remarkable ability, intelligence and good sense, tall, straight, well developed, and fine looking, and confided in and trusted the whites, whom he seemed to thoroughly respect as they did him, and could speak the English language tolerably well. Judge Murdock and others, who were acquainted with him, and who have heard him deliver several speeches, were much impressed with his ability and oratorical genius. His face would light up with the fires of excitement; tone and gesture would add to the effect of his words; and the effect on his hearers was thrilling and powerful.
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