USA > Iowa > Allamakee County > History of Winneshiek and Allamakee counties, Iowa > Part 40
USA > Iowa > Winneshiek County > History of Winneshiek and Allamakee counties, Iowa > Part 40
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"The Indian tribes roamed over this whole region, and Jefferson Barracks, a military post about eight miles below St. Louis, Mis- souri, was headquarters for the military operations of the Mississ- ippi Valley. Just think of it! This valley knew no railroads, no telegraphs and a very large per cent. of its present inhabitants were not then born. The military post at Prairie du Chien had been established and when they wanted to utilize the resources of this wild region about them, they detailed soldiers for the work, and in 1828, being in want of lumber, they sent a part of the gar- rison over to Yellow River, and built a saw mill about two miles below what is now the old Mission House, the remains of which was burned down in 1839.
"In 1840, one Jesse Danley built a saw inill on the river about one mile below the Mission, but the floods came and took the dam away, and the proprietor meeting with one mishap after another, finally abandoned it, and in time it was torn down. .
"The town of Johnsonsport, at the mouth of Paint Creek, was named after a soldier who served out his time at the Prairie, and was discharged and paid off in 1837. Now this man, Johnson be- ing fond of Indian women, took several of them for wives, and spent his time between hanging around the post and living among the tribes, and finally settled near the river bank, somewhere be- tween what is now Harper's Ferry and North McGregor. Some of our old residents still remember him and speak of him as Squaw Johnson, but he has been dead several years, and the writer has no knowledge of his descendants, if he left any.
"In 1839, Hiram Francis and family came from Prririe du Chien to the old Mission in the employ of the Government, and remained there until it ceased to be a Mission, and from him we learn that
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his duties were to issue daily rations to such Indians as were fed at that place, and that in November, 1840, the last of them were re- moved to the Turkey River, and the school closed.
"In 1841, there lived at the Mission Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Ryner- son, and there was born unto them a son, and this was thought to be the first white child born in the county.
"The earliest settlers in what is now Makee and Union Prairie townships, came in overland from the south, through Clayton County, there being no town then where Lansing is now. In conversation with the late Elias Topliff, when he was a citizen among us, he related to me that while living in Clayton County he, with several others, started out to hunt land on which to make a home; that they followed an Indian trail north across the Yellow River and on to the Iowa River somewhere, where the party camped over night and caught and cooked a splendid mess of speckled trout. He thought they traveled across what is now the prairie on which Waukon stands, but could not positively identify their old route, for at that time the country traveled over was in a state of nature, and there was not a white man to be seen on the trip after leaving the settlements of Clayton County. In the morning they retraced their steps and returned to Clayton county again, not finding a single foot of land that suited them. My recollection now is that the Judge located this trip in 1847.
"The first white settlers in Makee township were Patrick Keenan and his brother-in-law. Mr. Richard Cassiday. They lived together, and in October, 1848 settled on Makee Ridge, where they grubbed out and broke up about three acres of land, built a log cabin, and in 1849 abandoned it and made themselves farms ia Jefferson township, where they lived until they passed on to "the better country." Mr. Keenan was the first man in the county, of his nationality, ever made an American citizen through the naturalization law, the court at the time being held at Columbus , on the Mifsis-ippi river .* He died in March, 1878, leaving a large and respectable family and a handsome property, and was buried at Cherry Mound. Mr. Cassiday died in 1879 and was buried at the same place.
"In the spring of 1849 there was born to Mr. and Mrs. Cassiday a daughter, Margaret, now Mrs. Murphy, living in McGregor, and she was the first white child born in Jefferson township."
"In 1850 there was a small pair of buhrs near Decorah for grinding, but no bolt attached, and our settlers from this locality with their ox teams hauled their little grists up there; but soon after (summer of 1850) one Ellis put in a small pair of buhrs, without bolt, on Paint Creek, just around the bend below where Waterville now stands. The remains of this first mill in the county still stand in that place. *
*We think Mr. Dean slightly in error here, as the date of this transaction was July, 1849, when there was no settlement at Columbus.
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HISTORY OF ALLAMAKEE COUNTY.
"In the winter of 1848 the Legislature passed an act authorizing the organization of the county, and appointed Thomas C. Linton, who owned the old mission property, as organizing sheriff; and as this county then belonged to Clayton County it required him to appear at her county seat, file his bond, take the oath of office, and make due returns of his doings thereto. We have been un- able to find any written record of that organizing election, and after much inquiry by correspondence and otherwise have through the kindness of Mr. J. S. Deremo of Fairview township, obtained the particulars as he gathered them the past week from Mr. Moses Van Sickle, one of the participants in that election. It was held under the call of Mr. Linton, at his house, in August, 1849, about fifteen votes being cast, and resulted in the election of the following persons:
"County Commissioners-Thomas Van Sickle, Daniel G. Beck, Thos. B. Twiford.
"County Clerk-James Haney.
"Recorder-Stephen Holcomb.
"School Fund Commissioner-Moses Van Sickle.
"Treasurer-Elias Topliff.
"Sheriff-Lester W. Hays.
"Thomas Van Sickle died in Nebraska about 1878. Daniel G. Beck died in Missouri about 1866. Thos. B. Twiford moved to Minnesota and was the founder of the town of Chatfield. James Haney lives at this time in Wisconsin. Stephen Holcomb died at the Mission about 1851. Moses Van Sickle is living at this date in Fairview township. Elias Topliff died in Waukon in 1860. Thomas C. Linton lives in Oregon.
"Lester W. Hays was for several years before his death a county charge, living sometimes at the county farm, and some- times in Fairview township where he had a little log hut hardly high enough to stand erect in, nor large enough to afford room for many visitors; and being about eighty years old and too in- firm to labor, he was allowed from the poor fund the pittance of one dollar per week, and this with the charity of kind neighbors kept life in the old man until last Christmas night, the coldest night of the year, when the mercury ran down to thirty-three degrees below zero, he perished. The next morning some of the neighbors went to the hut and found the old man lying on his rude cot, with legs and arms frozen. The county furnished a coffin, and poor Hays is no more.
Rattle his bones over the stones, For he's but a pauper whom nobody owns.'
"This election gave the County a legal and working existence. In 1849 she had two hundred and seventy-seven white inhabitants, men, women and children.
"The county records of those early times as left by the commis- sioners, are either lost, mislaid, or were made in so transient a
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HISTORY OF ALLAMAKEE COUNTY.
manner as to preclude their being handed down to posterity, and so much as we have gathered has been obtained from other official records, the personal recollection of our early settlers, and has taken much time and labor, and as the years roll on these items of early history are more and more difficult to obtain in consequence of the death, removal or incapacity through age or infirmity of the parties participating in them.
"From Elias Topliff I learned that the first tax list was put into his hands for collection; that the gross amount of it was about ninety dollars; that he traveled all through the eastern part of the county to collect, and that after doing his best, collecting about one half of the list and making his returns to the Commis- sioners, they charged up to him the uncollected portion and took it from his compensation as Treasurer."
In a carefully preserved copy of the North Iowa Journal, pub lished at Waukon, in the summer of 1860, we find a sketch of the previous history of the county, from which we shall find occasion to make a few extracts. In regard to the County organization we find:
The county was organized by an act of the Legislature, approved January 15, 1849, and taking effect March 6th, 1849.
Thomas C. Linton was appointed organizing Sheriff; the first election being held by the order of the Sheriff on the first Wed- nesday of April, 1849. The officers elected were:
County Commissioners-James M. Sumner and Joseph W. Holmes.
Sheriff-Lester W. Hays.
Clerk Commissioners' Court-D. G. Beck.
Clerk of District Court-Stephen Holcomb.
The officers elect qualified at the house of Thomas C. Linton, April 10th, 1849.
The second election was held the first Monday of August, 1849, and the following officers were elected:
County Commissioners-James M. Sumner, Thomas A. Van- Sickle and Daniel G. Beck.
Clerk of Commissioners' Court-G. A. Warner.
Sheriff-L. W. Hays.
Treasurer and Recorder and Collector-Elias Topliff.
County Surveyor-James M. Sumner.
Judge of Probate Court-Stephen Holcomb.
Inspector of Weights and Measures-G. A. Warner.
Coroner-C. P. Williams.
It will be seen that there is a discrepancy between this account and that in Judge Dean's paper, as regard the time of the first election and the lists of officers elected thereat. We are inclined to take the Journal account to be authoritative, for the reason that it was published week after week for several months in suc- cession, apparently without question, and that at a time only elev-
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HISTORY OF ALLAMAKEE COUNTY.
en years after the events narrated; and further, we have reason to believe that the facts there stated were gleaned at the time from a sketch of the county history, prepared by Mr. Dean while County Judge in 1859, a copy of which was deposited in the corner stone of the Waukon Court House after being read to the people there assembled to witness that ceremony. The original has been miss- ing for many a year, as Mr. Dean tells us. On the other hand, the account as it appears in his later narrative is based largely up- on the recollections of individuals, after a lapse of over thirty years, and no matter how honest their intentions are, it is quite likely they have erred by means of the incidents of two or more elections becoming intermingled in their memory.
The sketch we last quoted then continues:
"On the first Monday of August, 1851, Elias Topliff was elected County Judge, succeeding the County Commissioners; he served as Judge until August 25, 1857, when George M. Dean was elected. In 1859, J. A. Townsend was elected, and is now acting Judge.
"James M. Sumner was elected Recorder and Treasurer in 1851. Since then the following gentlemen have served the county in that capacity: T. C. Linton, J. J. Shaw, L. O. Hatch and Elias Topliff, the present officer.
"In August, 1851, Leonard B. Hodges was elected Clerk of the District Court. Lewis Hersey and C. J. White has since served. C. J. White is the present Clerk. At the same election Wm. C. Thompson was chosen Sheriff. John Laughlin succeeded him and John A. Townsend next served for two successive terms in that office. Wm. C. Thompson was again elected in 1859, and is now the acting Sheriff.
"In August, 1856, James Bryson was elected as a Representative to the Legislature.
"In 1857, G. W. Gray was chosen a member of the Legislature, J. B. Suttor, County Assessor; G. W. Gray, Drainage Commission- er; W. W. Hungerford, Surveyor; M. F. Luark, Coroner, and G. W. Camp, Prosecuting Attorney.
"In 1858, J. W. Merrill was chosen Drainage Commissioner; C. J. White, Clerk of the District Court; F. W. Nottingham, Coro- ner, and J. W. Flint, Superintendent of Common Schools.
"In 1859, Charles Paulk was chosen a member of the Legisla- ture; G. L. Miller, Drainage Commissioner; John Ryan, Surveyor; J. W. Granger, Coroner, and R. C. Armstrong, Superintendent of Common Schools.
"The above list comprises the principal officers since the organ- ization of the county. The records previous to 1856 are very in- complete, and we were unable to learn the dates of the elections of the various officers.
"The total amount of taxable property in the county was: In 1849, $1,729; in 1851, $8,299; in 1854, $700,794; in 1857. $1,827 .- 766; in 1859, $1,967,899.
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HISTORY OF ALLAMAKEE COUNTY.
We have said that when the Indian Mission was established on Yellow River, it was placed in charge of Father Lowrey, a man ex- ceedingly well adapted to the duties pertaining thereto. He was well known many years after in this part of the country and great- ly admired.
David Lowrey, D. D., was born in Logan County, Kentucky, January 20, 1796. His parents were worthy members of the Presbyterian Church, but, like many other good people, were en- trusted with little of this world's treasury. The widowed mother died when he was only a little over two years old, leaving him a penniless and friendless orphan. He was bound out to a family that, in course of time became very reckless and intemperate; but at a Cumberland Presbyterian camp meeting, held near his residence, he solemnly consecrated his heart and his life to God. This event happened when he was eighteen years of age. Shortly after his conversion he became a candidate for the ministry, under the care of Logan Presbytery, and his proficiency and usefulness were so great that he was soon licensed and ordained to the work of the ministry. On the 16th of December, 1830, he began the publication in Princeton, Kentucky, of the "Religious and Literary Intelligen- cer." It was a weekly journal, ably edited, and was the first pa- per published under the auspices of that church. To him, there- fore, belongs the honor of being the father of Cumberland Pres- byterian journalism. Some years afterward he was editor of the "Cumberland Presbyterian," then published in Nashville, Tennes- see. In addition to his editorial duties he had the pastorate of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Nashville, which was then in its infancy; and for his year's labor he received, as compensation, the astonishing sum of one wagon load of corn in the shuck!
In the year, 1832, under the administration of his friend, Pres- ident Jackson, he received the appointment of teacher to the Win- nebago Indians. He arrived at Prairie du Chien with his family in the month of November, of the above year. Shortly after his arrival he organized a "Military Church," and here was spread the first communion table in the Northwest.
Early in the spring of 1833, a council of Winnebago chiefs was called for the purpose of deliberating in reference to Mr. Lowrey's work. He made a brief statement of his object and plans, and then called for expressions from the various chiefs who were present. After brief speeches from others, Waukon rose up, and thus delivered his sentiments: "The Winnebagoes are asleep, and it will be wrong to awake them; they are red men and all the white man's soap and water cannot make them white." The result of the council, however, was favorable, and Mr. Low- rey entered on his work.
In 1840 the Yellow River mission was abandoned and the prop- erty sold by the government to Thos. C. Linton. At this time the Fort Atkinson mission was established and the Indians who
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HISTORY OF ALLAMAKEE COUNTY.
had heretofore received their annuities at Yellow River were thenceforth paid off at this post until they were removed to Min- nesota in 1848. Besides the attempt to teach the red men how to till the soil successfully, their children were taught to read and write (or some of them were who would learn), and the girls were also instructed in sewing, cutting garments, etc. Rev. Lowrey was transferred to this Fort Atkinson charge (as was also farmer Thomas), and remained with the Winnebagoes the greater part of the time, until about 1861 or 1862, when the tribe was moved west of the Missouri River. At the close of the late civil war he removed from St. Cloud, Minnesota, where he was then living, to Clayton County, Iowa, near the scene of his early labors with the Indians. Some years prior to his death he removed to Pierce City, Mo., where he died in January, 1877, leaving an aged wife. He had two sons, both of whom he outlived.
As before stated, the Old Mission became the property of T. C. Linton about 1840; but we find it was transferred to the school lands from the government, and then contracted from the school fund by Mr. Linton in 1854. He sold it to Ira Perry in 1855. John Linton, a native of Kentucky, came to the mission in 1837 and remained some time. He died at Garnavillo in 1878.
Before the territory of Iowa was organized, the Legislature of Wisconsin passed an act, in December, 1837, establishing Clayton County, which was then attached to Dubuque County for judicial purposes. In the following spring the Governor of Wisconsin territory appointed the first sheriff of Clayton County, and the first term of court was held, and the first election. For judicial and election purposes this region of country, as well as all of what is now the state of Minnesota, was at that time attached to Clayton.
In 1838-June 3d-all of Iowa and most of Minnesota was formed into the Territory of Iowa. And on December 28, 1846, Iowa was admitted as the 29th State of the United States.
During the first session of the General Assembly of Iowa, in the winter of 1846-47, an act was passed defining the boundaries of several counties, among them Allamakee, which placed it with- in its present limits. Previous to this time the northern boundary of Clayton county was identical with the southern line of the neutral ground of 1830-a line that begun on the bank of the' Mississippi twenty miles below the mouth of the Iowa, and ex- tended in a west-southwest direction something over twenty miles; thence southerly about nine miles to the Turkey river; thence westerly again. On Newhall's map of Iowa, published in 1841. and apparently gotten up with the utmost care, this line is dis- tinctly laid down as the northern boundary of Clayton and Fayette counties.
And this brings us to the question of the "Painted Rock," on Section 3, in Fairview township. On the face of a bold cliff, facing the river, and some half way up the bluff, was at some time
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HISTORY OF ALLAMAKEE COUNTY.
painted the figure of an animal and the word "Tiger," with some names and other symbols. Judge Murdock said the painting was there in 1843, and looked ancient at that time; and, as far as we have been able to ascertain, the question of when or why it was put there, or by whom, has ever been a matter of speculation without a satisfactory answer. From various facts it is very evi- dent that this was the point at which the southern boundary line of the "neutral ground" of 1830 touched the river, one of the proofs of which is as follows: At the session of the County Commissioners of Clayton County, held April 4th, 1844, the boundaries of various election precincts were defined, and one precinct was established as follows: "Yellow River precinct. (No. 4), commencing at the Painted Rock on the Mississippi River; thence down said river to the corner of township ninety-five, range three, west of the fifth principal meridian; thence down said river two miles, thence due west on section line west side of township ninety-five, range four, west; thence north to the neu- tral line; thence following said line to the place of commencing, at Painted Rock." This fact being established, what more reasonable to suppose than that the authorities at Prairie du Chien should cause this prominent cliff-this natural "bulletin-board" as it were-to be so plainly marked as to desig- nate the boundary line in a manner not to be mistaken by the natives; and what more natural than that the subordinates who performed the duty should decorate the rock with representations of wild animals and strange figures, the more readily to attract the attention of the Sioux hunting expeditions as they descended the river in their canoes and warn them that they had reached the limit of the hunting grounds permitted to them. Neither is it strange that they should take the opportunity of placing their own names where they might become famous, though they have long since become illegible. The only wonder is that some enter- prising patent nostrum vendor was not on the spot to make his words immortal.
In the election precinct above described, "the house of Thomas C. Linton, on Yellow River", was designated as the place for hold- ing the elections. So that undoubtedly the first election in the present boundaries of this county was held at that place long be- fore the organizing election of 1849. From this it will be seen, too, that the Old Mission was not established within the boundary line of the Winnebago reservation, but a couple of miles to the south of that boundary, and in Dubuque County-after 1837 in Clayton County.
In the second General Assembly an act was passed organizing the county of Allamakee, and approved by Gov. Ansel Briggs- the first state governor-Jan. 15, 1849. Under this act the first election was held-as heretofore stated. Commissioners were al- so appointed to locate the county seat of said county. And they
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HISTORY OF ALLAMAKEE COUNTY.
performed their duty by selecting a location in Jefferson town- ship, about a mile and a half northwest of the present village of Rossville, on the road from there to Waukon, near the Pettit place. It has ever since been known as "The Old Stake."
In April, 1851, the people of Allamakee County voted upon the following three points for the county seat, viz: Vailsville, on Paint Rock Prairie (now Harper's Ferry), "Smith's Place, sec. 12," in Post township, and Columbus, at the mouth of Village Creek in Lansing township. As neither point received a majority an- other vote was taken on the first Monday in May following, be- tween Columbus and Smith's Mill, resulting in a small majority -14 it is said-for Columbus. We have no means of ascertain- ing the number of votes cast; neither do we know how many polling places there were in the county at that time; but if we are not mistaken Reuben Smith's place (one of the contesting points) was one of these. He stated in the fall of 1877 that a county seat election in '51 was held in a log cabin of his, and that voters came there from a distance of many miles, of whom he re- membered Shattuck and Bush from what is now Makee, among others.
Since that time no less than nine more county seat elections have been held, which will be spoken of more at length in their appropriate chapter.
To return to some of the earlier incidents of the county's set- tlement and history. About 1840 or '41 a trading post was es- tablished near what is now Monona, just off the reservation, by one Jones, who sought to replenish his treasury by supplying the Indians with "fire water." Another individual by name of Thorn instituted a like concern near by, and by a happy application of the eternal fitness of things these institutions were called "Sodom" and "Gomorrah" in the vernacular of those days. One of the re- sults of their establishment was probably the first murder in our county, the particulars of which we find in the Decorah Republi- can, in 1875, substantially as follows: A party of Indians were living on a tributary of the Yellow River (thought to be Hickory Creek) four or five miles from Monona. An old Indian visited Jones' den at Sodom, and as many a pale face has done since then traded all his worldly effects for whisky, even to the blanket from his shoulders. On his way to his lodge he died from exposure and cold. The next morning his son found his body naked and frozen in the snow. Thirsting for vengeance, he visited the whisky den at Gomorrah and shot the first white man he saw, it happening to be an inoffensive man named Riley. The young Indian was cap- tured by a detachment of troops under Judge D. S. Wilson of Dubuque, then a Lieutenant at Ft. Atkinson, but before the time for his trial he escaped and was never recaptured.
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HISTORY OF ALLAMAKEE COUNTY.
CHAPTER IV.
First Entries of. Government Lands; First Importation of Lum-
ber; First Grist Mill; First Postoffice; Interesting Remin- iscences; First Official Seal; First Terms of Court and List of Grand Jurors; First Party Organization; Systems of County Management; List of County Officers; State Senatorship and Representatives from Date of Organization to . Present Time; the Circuit Court.
Although the Indian title was extinguished, and the county was open to settlement in 1848, the lands were not put upon the market until about the first of October, 1850. The earliest entry of Government land we have found upon the records is that of the southeast quarter southeast quarter section 19, and three for- ties in section 30, all in Paint Creek Township, to Geo. Watkins, October, 7, 1850.
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