USA > Iowa > Allamakee County > History of Winneshiek and Allamakee counties, Iowa > Part 39
USA > Iowa > Winneshiek County > History of Winneshiek and Allamakee counties, Iowa > Part 39
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The following year D. W. Adams was elected President of the society. Although we have no record of the old society at hand to refer to, we know that for several years quite successful Fairs were held, for those days.
At the suggestion of Mr. Adams and John Plank, Sr., a meet- ing was held at Waukon Jan. 8th, 1868, for the purpose of re- organizing a County Agricultural Society, which was successfully accomplished, and this organization has held a County Fair each year since then, nearly all of which have been successful ones, and the society is prosperous. At that meeting the following officers were elected:
President, John Haney, Jr .; Vice President, John Plank, Sr .; Secretary, D. W. Adams; Treasurer, Charles Paulk.
Directors-Center township, John Stillman; Fairview, D. F. Spaulding; Franklin, Selden Candee; French Creek, Porter Bel- lows; Hanover, Hans G. Hanson; Iowa, A. B. Hays; Jefferson, C. D. Beeman; Lafayette, W. Smith; Lansing, G. Kerndt; Lin- ton, Harvey Miner; Ludlow, Thos. Feely; Makee, C. O. Howard; Paint Creek, John Smeby; Post, W. H. Carithers; Taylor, James Carrigan; Union City, Benj. Ratcliffe; Union Prairie, A. L. Grip- pen; Waterloo, W. Robinson.
It was decided to purchase grounds adjoining Waukon, and each director was made an agent for the sale of life and annual membership tickets to accomplish this.
The present fair grounds, comprising seventeen acres, admir- ably adapted to the purpose, were purchased and paid for, inclosed by an eight foot tight board fence, and a half mile track made within the inclosure, at the following cost:
Cost of grounds. $ 800 00
Labor and material 634 60
Lumber, etc. 684 88
Total cost
$2,129 48
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HISTORY OF ALLAMAKEE COUNTY.
On which, after paying all the premiums of the first fair in full, there was at the annual meeting in January, 1869, a remain- ing debt of only $483.58 unprovided for.
In the autumn of 1869 the society erected a new hall, 39 by 60 feet, and made considerable other improvements, at an expense of $560, and still further reduced its debt. The society has con- tinued to make improvements upon its grounds from time to time, including an addition to the exhibition hall in 1881. It is . now almost entirely out of debt, and is one of the most flourish- ing societies of its kind in a wide region around.
The present officers of the society are:
President-W. C. Earle.
Vice-President-H. G. Grattan.
Treasurer-A. E. Robbins.
Secretary-H. A. Rodgers.
Directors-John Johnson, Center; Eugene Perry, Fairview; C. F. Newell, Franklin; J. Doughterty, French Creek; H. G. Han- son, Hanover; A. B. Hays, Iowa; T. B. Wiley, Jefferson; An- drew Sandry, Lansing; E. D. Tisdale, Lafayette; Robt. Hender- son, Linton; Simon Opfer, Sr., Ludlow; J. A. Townsend, Makee; R. Sencebaugh, Paint Creek; W. H. Carithers, Post; Robert Banks, Taylor; B. Ratcliffe, Union City; T. W. David, Union Prairie; A. P. Dille, Waterloo.
CHAPTER III.
General History; the Aborigines; Archeology; Advent of the Whites; Early Settlements; County Organization; First County Officers; Taxable Property in 1849; Sketch of Father Lowrey; Indian Missions; The Painted Rock; County Seat Elections; Sodom and Gomorrah.
The great Dakota or Sioux family of American Indians, whose proper domain is the vast central prairies between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains, from east to west, and stretch- ing from the Saskatchewan on the north to the Red River, of Texas, occupied the territory iu which Allamakee county is in- eluded, when the white man first set foot on Iowa soil, in 1673. They are remotely allied, in language, to the Wyandotte-Iroquois family of the East.
At the time of the advent of the white man, the Winnebagoes ("Puans" of the Canadians), a division of this powerful Dakota family, formed their eastern outpost, and lived on the western shore of Lake Michigan, and about the waters of Winnebago
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HISTORY OF ALLAMAKEE COUNTY.
Lake and Green Bay, Wisconsin. This tribe was the parent stock of the Omahas, Iowas, Kansas, Quappas, or Arkansas, and Osages. They took up arms with the French in the Franco-English wars, and with the English in the Revolution and war of 1812.
The Sacs and Foxes, originally separate tribes, were at one time neighbors of the Winnebagoes in Wisconsin, but had united their numbers in one band, and removed to and occupied a large por- tion of Illinois, and the eastern part of Iowa, south of the upper Iowa river. By the treaty of 1825 this river was made the divid- ing line between the Sioux on the north and the Sacs and Foxes (now considered as one tribe) on the south. But owing to fre- quent collisions between these tribes, in their hunting expeditions, the favorite hunting grounds being a bone of contention, the Government, in 1830, assembled them in council and established "the neutral ground," a strip of territory forty miles in width from north to south, with the upper Iowa as its center, extending westwardly from the Mississippi to the upper valley of the Des Moines river. Thus nearly the whole of what is now Allamakee county was included in the neutral ground, which was considered on of the very best of hunting grounds, and upon which either tribe was permitted to hunt at pleasure, without interfer- ence from the other.
At the close of the Black Hawk war, in 1832, in which the Winnebagoes took no active part, but were rather friendly to the whites, a treaty was made whereby this neutral ground was to become their reservation, and in consideration of the surrender of their lands in Wisconsin they were to be allowed large annuities from the government, which also undertook to supply them with agricultural implements and teach them the art of tilling the soil, hoping to induce them thereby to abandon their wild and idle ways and become civilized; a hope which proved fallacious. . This treaty, (or another made near that time,) was proclaimed Feb. 13, 1833, and by its terms-as recently found by A. M. May in a vol- ume of Indian treaties in the library of the Wisconsin State His- torical Society-defined the boundaries of the reservation as fol- lows: Beginning at a point on the west bank of the Mississippi river, twenty miles above the mouth of the Upper Iowa, thence west to Red Cedar Creek (the head-waters of the Cedar River), thence south forty miles, thence east to the Mississippi, thence north to place of beginning. This grant was to take effect June 1st, 1833, provided that by that time they should leave their old reservation and settle upon this. The eastern portion of this neu- tral ground was soon occupied, and a mission school and farm was established by the government on the north side of the Yellow River in 1834, of which we shall have more to say further along.
By another treaty proclaimed June 16, 1838, the Indians re- linquished their right to occupy the eastern portion of this tract
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HISTORY OF ALLAMAKEE COUNTY.
of land, except for hunting, and agreed to move, in eight months after the ratification of said treaty, to the western part of the neutral ground, which was done in 1839 or '40. This was the oc- casion of the abandonment of the Yellow River mission, and the establishment, in 1840, of the Fort Atkinson mission on the Tur- key River in Winneshiek County.
By a treaty made Oct. 13, 1846, and proclaimed Feb. 4, 1847, the Winnebagoes ceded and sold to the United States all their right, title, and interest in this neutral ground; and in June, 1848, they were removed to the upper Mississippi, north of the St. Peter's (or Minnesota) River. By a series of treaties they have since been removed no less than four times, occupying reserva- tions in various parts of Minnesota and Dakota, and now live upon the Omaha reservation in Nebraska, where they are said to be prospering. The love for their old haunts, however, was hard to overcome, and year after year they returned in small parties to their old hunting grounds on the banks of the Mississippi. And although time and again were these scattered parties gathered together by squads of U. S. troops and taken to their reservation, there are still quite a number who continue to inhabit the islands of the river along our county border, subsisting upon fish and game.
ARCHAEOLOGY.
The banks of some of our streams bear the marks of having been the home of a numerous people many centuries in the past, but of what race they were is a mystery hard to solve. Especially are there in the valley of the Upper Iowa numerous mounds, but of the acts and scenes which were taking place in this beautiful val- ley in the age in which they were constructed we may imagine, though probably never know. That it is an interesting subject for investigation is felt by all; and the following extracts from an account of explorations made in 1875, are worthy of a place here. The article was written by Dr. W. W. Ranney, of Lans- ing, who was accompanied in his investigations by Judge Mur- dock, of Garnavillo, and others of Lansing:
"The mound in which our excavations were made is situated on the southeast quarter of the southeast quarter of section thir- ty-six, township one hundred, range five, west of principal merid- ian (or the southeast corner of Union City township), or about one hundred feet above the Iowa River bottom. It is not in the form of the burial mounds, or tumuli, but forms a circle, the cir- cumference of which is seven hundred feet. The ridge, or eleva- tion, averages about twenty-five feet in width, leaving a circular inclosure 210 feet in diameter. The height of the ridge or mound is about three to four feet from the surface of the ground.
"On opening it we discovered pieces of broken pottery made of a bluish clay and partially pulverized mussel shells; stones, show-
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HISTORY OF ALLAMAKEE COUNTY.
ing evidence of having been used for hearths, or supports for the earthen vessels while being used for cooking food; collections of fish scales, bones of buffalo, deer, badger, bear, fish and birds, but no evidence whatever of human bones. The long, or marrow bones of all animals were found broken or split, supposed to have been done for the purpose of extracting the marrow for food, which circumstance is also noted in the Kjokkommoddings, or kitchen middings, of Denmark. One peculiarity noticed by Mr. Hemenway was that each of us digging in different localities found the ornamentation of the pottery dissimilar. For instance, all Mr. Haney found was ornamented with horizontal circular rings; all the Judge found was ornamented with zig-zag lines with dots in the angles. All that we found had perpendicular lines like a muskmelon, etc. This was finally accounted for by the supposi- tion that each family had its own particular method of ornamen- tation, by which they recognized their property.
"These vessels were quite capacious, the diameter of one having been fourteen inches at the mouth, (or as large as a ten pound tobacco pail). About one and three-quarter inches below the mouth they abruptly widened out about six inches all around, making the largest diameter twenty six inches.
"Taking occasion to remark to the Judge that we had found no bottoms to the vessels, set him to thinking, and the result was that he decided that the bottoms had been rounded in such a manner that they never tipped over, but let them be set down as they might they oscillated till they finally, when still, sit in an upright position. For the purpose of handling, the vessels were pro- vided with handles on two opposite sides similar to our jug handles.
"Besides the before-mentioned articles, Col. Johnston found a thin strip of copper two inches long by three-quarters wide, and and we found an ornament of the same material, triangular in form, one inch wide at the base, and one and one-half inches from base to apex, the form being the same as the face of a flat iron, the center being perforated to attach some additional ornament, and the apex also, to attach a string to fasten in the ear.
"Now the question arises, when, how and for what purpose was this mound built. Was it a burial ground, a fort or a village? At first the Judge thought the former, Mr. James Haney the second, and we took the last proposition. To say when, is imposs- ible; the time has been long, long ago, as we have evidence by the decay of the bones and shells. Why it was built? We think it the remains of a village. That the huts or wigwams were built in a circle, and the piles of burnt stone we unearthed each repre- sented a hearth in a hut, on which the pottery set while cooking, and around each of which a separate family warmed and fed them- selves. We think with Mr. H. that each family had a separate distinct mark on their vessels by which they were known from their neighbors in the next hut or wigwam.
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HISTORY OF ALLAMAKEE COUNTY.
"We think that the bones found show no evidence of human bones, and consequently it could not be used for a burial ground. Another evidence lies in the fact that all the bones are broken to obtain the marrow. The scales and bones of fish and animals, the charcoal, ashes and burnt hearth-stones all point conclusively to the fact that this was their abode. The central enclosure was used for their games, dancing and pleasure, or perhaps in case of attack from wild beasts or their fellow men, as a place for the aged, the young and the women to flee to while the warrior met their encroachments outside the circle of dwellings. Add to this the fact forty rods south of this village we find some eighty-three burial mounds or tumuli, out of which we procured parts of hu- man skeletons, and nothing else, with the long bones entire, and we are convinced of the fact that this was once a town filled with people, enjoying the pleasures of families and all knit together as one tribe of people."
Commenting on the above, Mr. J. G. Ratcliffe, for many years a resident of that valley, and a close observer of those mounds, wrote in 1875:
"These remains extend up the Iowa River, from near New Albin, for a distance of at least twenty miles, and consist of sites of ancient villages or forts; tumuli or burial grounds; lookout or signal stations on the tops of the bluffs; and rude hieroglyph- ics; these last consisting of men on horseback, buffalos, pecul- iar circular figures, etc., being now mostly obliterated through the agency of the weather, the friable nature of the rock (potsdam sandstone) and rude boys.
"Of the village or forts: these consist of circular (in one case only triangular) enclosures or embankments of earth and stone. They were located generally at intervals of a couple of miles apart on the benches or second bottoms of the valley, but some- times (as was the case with one on a farm formerly owned by me) were down on the river flat. The enclosures were generally from seventy-five to one hundred yards in diameter. The embankments being now about twenty-five to thirty feet in width and two or three in height, were originally, I think, much higher, and prob- ably built of sods, serving the purposes of a modern stockade as a means of defence against enemies, and high enough for a sup- port for one end of their tent poles, while at the base on the inside were their kitchen hearths, whereon was cooked the spoils of the chase, the embankment warding off the inclement storms to which the climate is subject.
"In exploring these embankments we found (in addition to the pottery, bones, fish scales, etc., mentioned as found by Judge Murdock and party) large stone mortars and pestles, for grinding corn, two or three kinds of stone axes, celts, etc .; also numerous flint and chert arrow heads, and skinning instruments. These mortars are about fourteen inches in diameter and about five
23
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HISTORY OF ALLAMAKEE COUNTY.
inches in thickness, hollowed out like a soup plate, hand made, from a hard syenite stone, but sometimes from a common sand- stone. The pestles are of three kinds and the most common kind are about the size of, and almost identical in shape with a large sized biscuit, being about three and a half inches in diam- eter by ore and three quarter inches in depth, can be readily clutched in the hand, and are worn off very smooth by constant abrasion; these are quite numerous. Another kind is similar to a common potato masher, except that the handle is a little larger and shorter, the whole instrument being eight or nine inenes in length. Also one of a shape between these two with grooves for the fingers. This kind is very scarce. I have never known of but one being found here.
"The stone axes, celts, etc, are crude instruments when com- pared with ours; and yet they are crude in material more than in workmanship. There is a symmetry of form and a proportion of materials to the work to be done which invites our admiration, and suggests the question 'whether the civilized men of the present day placed in the same situation and with the same materials and tools could or would do any better'. The stone ax is much the size and shape of one of our axes with the steel worn away and blunted. Instead of an eye there is a groove cut around the head of the ax, around which the handle was withed. The Sioux In- dians of the present day withe their handles on in this manner with strips of green rawhide, which on drying makes a firm and elastic handle. The material with which these axes were made is a very tough kind of porphyritic granite or green stone and is not found nearer than the Lake Superior region and the Canadas.
"Mr. John Haney informed me sometime since that many years ago, when he and his brothers first started their mill, that they very successfully used one of these wedges or celts of this material for a mill pick for dressing the buhr stones. The stone celts and skinning instruments are similar to the axes except that with the same cutting edge they have the top part rounded off to grasp with the hand or sink into a club. Some of these are quite diminuitive; I have some specimens that are not over two and a half inches in length, while others are as large as a blacksmith's sledge. An- other specie of skinning instrument is a large flat stake; one of these found on the Iowa is about six inches in length by four and one-half in breadth, and three-fourths of an inch in thickness, and resembles very much one described in Harper's Magazine for Sep- tember, 1875.
"A year or two ago a band of wandering Winnebagoes happened along the Iowa, fishing and begging as is their wont. The atten- tion of one of the old men was called to an old village site and he was asked what it was. He replied an Indian garden. His know- ledge of this subject was coextensive with that of one of the same tribe to whom I showed a large mastodon bone, which was ex-
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HISTORY OF ALLAMAKEE COUNTY.
humed near New Albin in grading the railroad. On asking him to what animal it belonged he answered "buffalo," that being the largest animal of which he had any knowledge.
"Before leaving the subject of these forts or village sites, I would say in this connection that on a trip over on the Kickapoo River in Wisconsin, last year, I found them quite numerous, and of peculiar shape. The engineer of the Narrow Gauge Railroad there surveyed and platted some of them, when to his surprise he found them take the shapes of a bear, birds and other animals, showing artistic design in their construction."
THE ADVENT OF THE WHITE MAN.
The first permanent settlement within the boundaries of Alla- makee County of which we have any record was at the old Gov- ernment Indian Mission in Fairview township, which was opened in 1835 with Rev. David Lowrey and Col. Thomas in charge. The building was erected the previous year; and as early as 1828 a de- tail of men from Ft. Crawford (Prairie du Chien, which place was settled by Indian traders more than a century before) had built a saw mill on the Yellow River a short distance below this point to get out lumber for building purposes at the Fort. In- deed, it would have been strange if this region had not been well traversed by white hunters and trappers for many years previous to this time; and it is said that somewhere along our river border a white man had established his home as early as 1818, but had after a time abandoned it. Of this the writer has nothing authen- tic, however, and the earliest individual or private settlement of which we have knowledge was by one Henry Johnson, at the mouth of Paint Creek, about the year 1837-and this was the origin of "Johnsonport."
The third settlement was made by Mr. Joel Post and his wife, Zerniah, in 1841, they establishing a half way house of entertain- ment on the military road, between Ft. Crawford and Ft. Atkin- son. Their place was in the extreme southwest corner of the county, and is now the thriving town of Postville. Mrs. Post is still living in that place, and her memory register preserves the names of many distinguished guests who have enjoyed the hos- pitality of her home. Among these may be mentioned Capt. N. Lyon, Lt. Alfred Pleasanton, Gen. Sumner, and other officers who afterwards became noted.
From this time on there seem to have been no other settle- ments made until the Indians were removed in 1848, although portions of the county were explored in 1847. When Reuben Smith located on Yellow River, in June, 1849, he reports that there were seven or eight settlers then near Mr. Post's.
In 1848 Patrick Keenan and Richard Cassiday settled in Makee township, and William Garrison and John Haney at Lansing.
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HISTORY OF ALLAMAKEE COUNTY.
In 1849 there were many new settlements made in various parts of the county, including those of Geo. C. Shattuck at Wau- kon, W. C. Thompson in Lafayette, some parties along Yellow River and others to the north of the Iowa, so that in the latter part of this year the population was enumerated and reported at 277. When Mr. Shattuck located at Waukon his nearest post office was Monona, just over the line in Clayton County. The only one in this county at that time was at Postville, established in January of that year.
From an interesting sketch of the early settlement of the coun- ty, prepared by G. M. Dean and read before the Early Settlers' Association, of Makee township, in January, 1880, we make the following extract, as showing very clearly the condition of things in those days:
"In 1834 the United States, through its military authorities at Fort Crawford, Prairie du Chien, built on what is now section 19, township 96, range 3, called Fairview township, in this county, a mission school and farm. At this time Col. Zachary Taylor, af- terwards President of the United States, commanded the post, and Jefferson Davis, since President of the so-called Southern Confed- eracy, was on duty there as Lieutenant. General Street was In- dian agent; all the agents at that time being army officers, and the Indians being under the control of the Secretary of War. The mission was for the purpose of civilizing and christianizing the Indians, and was opened in the spring of 1835 with the Rev. David Lowrey, a Presbyterian in faith, as school teacher, and Col. Thomas as farmer. But the effort to make good farmers, schol- ars or christians out of these wandering tribes proved abortive, and poor 'Lo' remained as before, 'a child of nature,' content to dress in breech-clout and leggins, lay around the sloughs and streams, and make the squaws provide for the family.
"After their removal, the government having no more use for the Mission, put it on the market and sold it to Thomas C. Lin- ton, who occupied it as a farm a few years and sold it to Ira Per- ry, and on the death of Mr. Perry in 1868 it became the property of his son, Eugene Perry, the present owner. The building is a large two-story stone house, the chimney of which was taken for a 'witness tree' when the Government survey of public lands was made at a later day. It is still standing in a good state of pre- servation, and has sheltered the families of its respective owners up to this date.
"This house has become historic in many respects. It is one of the very prominent land-marks in the history of the development of Allamakee County, and we earnestly hope its owners will let it stand as long as grass grows or water runs, and thus preserve to those who may come after us at least one thing that may be considered venerable.
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HISTORY OF ALLAMAKEE COUNTY.
"In the fall and winter of 1849 there were only three dwelling houses in the valley of the Yellow River. The Old Mission, called at this time the Linton House, the house of Mr. John S. Clark, on section fourteen in Franklin township, and the house of Reuben Smith on section eleven in Post township.
"It is a very difficult matter for us, who live in Allamakee County to-day, to conceive of the condition of things in the Mississippi Valley when this old Mission was first built in 1834, and it is still more difficult for the writer to convey a clear idea of it.
"There was at that time no Allamakee County, no Clayton County, no Winneshiek County, and in fact no Territory organi- zation, but simply a wilderness waste. 1n 1836, Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota was taken from Michigan and made 'Wisconsin Ter- ritory', and Iowa soon after divided all of her territory lying west of the Mississippi River into two counties, to-wit: Dubuque County and Des Moines County, the dividing lines being at the foot of Rock Island.
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