USA > Iowa > Allamakee County > Past and present of Allamakee county, Iowa. A record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Vol. I > Part 4
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55
Under the treaty of 1846, which was proclaimed February 4, 1847, the removal of the Winnebagoes from the Neutral Ground to the Long Prairie (or St. Peter ) purchase, was carried out in the summer of 1848, under difficulties. The whisky sellers hung about and incited dissatisfaction and desertion; and Waba- sha III, the Sioux chief at Winona, tried to sell them a share of his territory. He was arrested by soldiers from Fort Snelling, and a conflict between the soldiers and the Winnebagoes was narrowly averted. Two principal parties abandoned the tribe, one going back to their old haunts on Black river in Wisconsin, and one moving southwest through Iowa, finally uniting with the Otoe in Nebraska, but later returning in part to Wisconsin.
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While on the Blue Earth reservation, 1855 to 1860, the Winnebagoes who remained there prospered, and the annual reports of the agent showed encourag- ing progress in agriculture and mechanics. A treaty was made by which they were to be allotted land in severalty, but this was never consummated, owing to the Civil war, and the Sioux outbreak of 1863. While the Winnebagoes mostly remained quietly on their reservation, a few were implicated with the Sioux, and all were later removed to the north side of the Missouri river, "dumped in the desert" about eighty miles above Fort Randall. They were greatly dissatisfied, and in 1865 were permitted to occupy a tract ceded to them by the Omahas, in Nebraska, though many returned to their old haunts in Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.
As to the number of Winnebagoes, they were estimated in 1842 at about 2,500, of whom but 756 were counted at the Turkey River mission. In 1890 there were 1,215 on the Nebraska reservation, and it was thought nearly as many had returned to their favorite hunting grounds along the Mississippi. In 1909 they numbered 1,069 in Nebraska and 1,094 in Wisconsin.
In reply to an inquiry as to the present numbers, and material condition, of the Winnebagoes, a letter from the commissioner of Indian affairs, dated at Washington, January 18, 1913, brings the following information :
"According to the census of June 30, 1912, there were 1,086 Winnebago Indians in Nebraska and 1,243 in Wisconsin. This number is slightly in excess of the number for the year 1911.
"The Winnebago Indians have $883,249.58 in the treasury of the United States to their credit under the act of March 3, 1909. This amount draws five per cent interest, and yearly payments of the interest are made to the Indians. Provision has been made by Congress for a division of the fund between the two branches of the tribe, and this question is now under consideration by the Department of the Interior. After this shall have been done, the Secretary of the Interior has authority to divide the money per capita among the Nebraska Indians, and to pay the Wisconsin Winnebagoes per capita or use it for their benefit.
"The land reserved for the Winnebagoes in Nebraska has been allotted to them in severalty. The Winnebago Indians in Wisconsin have no reservation, but some of them took up allotments on the public domain.
"The Indians near La Crosse are probably part of the Wisconsin Winnebagoes, and will share in the division of the fund when made. The amount to be paid to the Wisconsin branch of the tribe has not as yet been determined by the Secretary of the Interior, who is authorized to adjust the differences between the two branches of the tribe by the Act of July 1, 1912."
From the foregoing it will be seen that the Winnebago tribe is keeping up well numerically, and as a whole is not poverty stricken, having about $380 per capita in the keeping of their Great Father at Washington, in addition to the lands which have been allotted to them.
Indeed it is a mistaken notion that the native race is dying out. According to the latest census there are 265,683 Indians in the United States, and we are told by the Conference of American Indians, held in October, 1912, at Columbus, Ohio, that they are "the most wealthy people in America per capita: each one is worth $3,500 on an average." Dr. Charles A. Eastman, the famous full-
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blooded Sioux lecturer, says that "the policy and ultimate purpose of Americans towards my race has been admirable. Christian in tone and theory. * * You will find men of Indian blood in the congress of the United States, and in several of the state legislatures. Many of these were born in the tepee. Is this not much to achieve in half a century ?"
BLACK HAWK WAAR
An account of the Black Hawk war belongs more properly to the history of Illinois and Wisconsin ; but the scene of its closing tragedy being upon our very border, requires a brief outline of its conduct here, especially as some of the Winnebagoes were implicated therein. In April, 1832, Black Hawk with his braves, including their families, crossed the Mississippi at Rock Island with the avowed purpose of raising a crop of corn on the Rock river in Illinois, their old home. General Atkinson, then at Fort Armstrong (or Rock Island ), sent orders for them to return to their new reservation, but Black Hawk was angered, and feeling that his people had been greatly wronged he had come prepared for war or peace as circumstances might dictate. He declared afterwards that the Win- nebagoes and Pottawattomies had encouraged him to believe they would assist him to recover his lands in Illinois. This they denied: but upon the commence- ment of actual hostilities, which resulted in a victory for the Indians on May 14, it is said that a considerable number from both these tribes joined his forces, only to desert him when success shortly after came to the whites. Finding him- self vastly outnumbered, and short of provisions, Black Hawk moved northward to the Wisconsin river, with occasional fights, and closely followed by the military under General Atkinson and Colonel Dodge, who pursued them toward Fort Winnebago.
On the 21st of July the Indians were overtaken, on the banks of the Wiscon- sin, where they were defeated with considerable loss. A party of Black Hawk's band, including many women and children, now attempted to escape down the Wisconsin in canoes, but they were attacked by troops, some were killed, somnie drowned, a few taken prisoners, and others escaped to the woods and perished of starvation. Black Hawk now abandoned all idea of resistance, and with his main band attempted to reach the Mississippi and effect their escape farther to the north. They struck it at the mouth of the Bad Axe river, directly opposite the outlet of the Upper Iowa, and attempted to get their women and children across, in such canoes as they could procure. A steamboat, the Warrior, had been dispatched from Prairie du Chien, however, with an armed force to intercept them, and on the Ist of August this party fired upon the Indians on the east shore, while under a flag of truce attempting to surrender, killing a number of them, claiming the white flag was a decoy.
On the 2d of August the army overtook the Indians at this point, and brought Black Hawk to bay; and after a two or three hours' fight his people were driven into the river, men, women and children, but only a few escaped, those who suc- ceeded in swimming to the islands opposite falling into the hands of the merciless Wabasha. It has been claimed that Black Hawk was captured here by the Win- nebagoes ; but he himself says (in his narrative dictated to a U. S. interpreter for the Sacs and Foxes, in 1833) : "I started with my little party to the Winnebago
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village at Prairie la Crosse. On my arrival there I entered the lodge of one of the chiefs and told him that I wished him to go with me to his father-that I intended to to give myself up to the American war chief, and die, if the Great Spirit saw proper. During my stay at the village the squaws made me a dress of white deer-skin. I then started with several Winnebagoes, and went to their agent at Prairie du Chien, and gave myself up."
On the contrary, the fact is well established that he did not come in of his own volition. William Salter in his "Life of Col. Henry Dodge" says: "Early in the battle of Bad Axe, Black Hawk and the Prophet fled * * * After the battle Colonel Dodge called Waukon-Decorra to him and told him that their Great Father at Washington wanted the big warriors taken. Parties were sent in search of them, and they were captured and delivered up to the Indian agent at Prairie du Chien." And Drake's "Life of Black Hawk" states that "it is to two Winnebagoes, Decorie and Chaetar, that the fallen chief is indebted for being taken captive. On the 27th of August they delivered Black Hawk and the prophet (Wabokieshiek) to the Indian agent, General Street, at Prairie des Chiens. Upon their delivery, Decorie, the One-eyed, arose and said:
"'My father, I now stand before you. When we parted, I told you I would
return soon; but * * we have had to go a great distance. You see we have done what you sent us to do. These are the two you told us to get. We have done what you told us to do. We always do what you tell us, because we know it is for our good. You told us to get these men, and it would be the cause of much good to the Winnebagoes. We have brought them, but it has been very hard for us to do so. You told us to bring them to you alive ; we have done so. If you had told us to bring their heads alone we would have done so, and it would have been less difficult than what we have done. * We want you to keep them safe ; if they are to be hurt we do not want to see it. Wait until we are gone before it is done. Many little birds have been flying about our ears of late and we thought they whispered to us that there was evil intended for us; but now we hope these evil birds will let our ears alone. We know you are our friend, because you take our part, and that is the reason we do what you tell us to do. You say you love your red children ; we think we love you as much if not more than you love us. We have confidence in you and you may rely on us. We have been promised a great deal if we would take these men; that it would do much good to our people. We now hope to see what will be done for us. We now put these men into your hands. We have done all that you told us to do.'"
General Street, the agent, replied to this speech, reminding them that some of the Winnebagoes had proved unfaithful, but the capture of Black Hawk would be to their credit ; and Col. Zachary Taylor, then the military commandant, upon taking charge of the prisoners also made a few remarks to their captors; after which Chaetar, the associate of Decorie, arose and said: "My father, I am young, and do not know how to make speeches. * * I am no chief; I am no orator; if I should not speak as well as the others, still you must listen to me. When you made the speech to the chiefs, Waugh Kon Decorie Caramani, the one-eyed Decorie, and others I was there. I heard you. I thought what you said to them you also said to me. * * * I left here that same night, and I have been a great way; I had much trouble. * * * Near the Dalle on the Wisconsin I took Black Hawk. No one did it but me, what
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I have done is for the benefit of my nation, and I hope to see the good that has been promised us. That one, Wabokieshiek, the Prophet, is my relation; if he is to be hurt I do not wish to see it."
Black Hawk, and some other prisoners who were to be held as hostages dur- ing the pleasure of the President, were sent down the river to St. Louis, under charge of Lieut. Jefferson Davis, later President of the Southern Confederacy. Albert Sidney Johnston, who became a famous southern general in the Civil war. commanding the southern army at Shiloh, where he was killed in the first day's fight, was General Wilkinson's A. D. C. and adjutant at the battle of Bad Axe; and President-to-be Col. Zachary Taylor personally commanded the United States regulars there engaged. He remained at Fort Crawford until 1836. General Atkinson reported the total force of whites in the Bad Axe battle at twelve hundred; and twenty-four killed and wounded. Abraham Lincoln was among the young volunteers in this war too late to get into action. And General Winfield Scott reached the seat of war about the time it was ended.
CHAPTER IV
CIVIL GOVERNMENT
From the time the earliest French explorers entered the Mississippi valley, soon after the middle of the 17th century, the crown of France claimed control over all this region by right of discovery, and occupation. This claim remained undisputed for a hundred years, when all west of the Mississippi was trans- ferred to Spain by the treaty of Paris, January 1, 1763, but not until 1770 was the actual possession turned over to a Spanish Governor.
October 1, 1800, Spain re-ceded all of Louisiana to France, by a secret treaty ; and formally surrendered possession at New Orleans November 30, 1803, several months after the treaty of re-sale to the United States, under which another ceremony of transfer took place twenty days later, December 20, 1803. In a similar manner a double transfer of Upper Louisiana took place at St. Louis the following spring, the Spanish flag giving place to that of France on the 9th of March, 1804, which itself was lowered on the following day and permanently replaced by the stars and stripes. Thus was consummated the famous "Louisiana Purchase," under the treaty of April 30, 1803, ratified by the United States Senate in October following, by which Napoleon reluctantly relinquished to us of to-day the heritage of this vast empire west of the Mississippi river.
On the Ist of October, 1804, that part of the Louisiana Purchase lying north of the south line of Arkansas, or the 33d parallel, was constituted the "District of Louisiana," and placed under the authority of the Governor of Indiana Terri- tory, at that time William Henry Harrison. The southern portion became the "Territory of Orleans."
July 4, 1805, the District of Louisiana was constituted the "Territory of Louisiana," and so continued until December 7, 1812, it became the "Territory of Missouri," including all north to the British possessions. From this was organized the state of the same name; and, on March 2, 1821, the State of Missouri was admitted to the Union, under the provisions of the famous "Missouri Compromise" bill, prohibiting slavery in the territory north and west thereof. The act carried with it the disappearance of the "Territory" of Missouri; and all that part not included within the state boundaries "was left without law or government, except as to the prohibition of slavery and laws to regulate the Indian trade. Traders and army officers, however, as occasion served, still carried slaves into the territory. The soil of Iowa continued in the occupancy of a few tribes, who lived in villages on the banks of rivers, and often fell foul
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of one another as they roamed over the prairies in their hunting expeditions. There were about six thousand Sacs and Foxes, with a thousand Iowas in eastern and central Iowa, one or two thousand Otoes, Pawnees, and Omahas in western lowa, and roving bands of Sioux in the northern part. numbering a thousand or more-in all about ten thousand souls. War was their native element, the ideal. of savage life."-(Salter: "Jowa : the First Free State in the Louisiana Purchase.")
A bill was reported in Congress, January 6, 1830, to establish the Territory of Huron, with boundaries embracing what now constitutes the states of Wis- consin, Iowa, Minnesota, a part of Dakota, and the upper peninsula of Michi- gan, but it did not become a law. A somewhat similar bill passed the House of Representatives in 1831, but not the Senate .- History of Wisconsin, by Moses M. Strong.
October 1, 1834, all of what is now Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and most of Dakota, was attached to the Territory of Michigan, under which two counties were organized lying on the west side of the Mississippi : Demoine and Dubuque. The latter constituted all of the recent Black Hawk purchase lying north of a line drawn due west from Rock Island, and therefore included a small portion of Allamakee county, in the southeast corner, adjoining the south line of the Neutral Ground. This was the first civil government that concerned people living in Iowa, as it was only the previous year that the Black Hawk purchase was opened for settlement. "Iowa county ( Wis. ) was at that time the nearest organized portion of Michigan Territory to the new counties. It was con- stituted in 1829, and named by Henry R. Schoolcraft. From the judicial rela- tion of Iowa county to the new counties, those counties were called the Iowa District. This was the earliest application of the name 'Iowa' to a part of what became the State of Iowa." (Salter.)
By an act approved April 30, 1836, Congress created the Territory of Wis- consin, covering the country between Lake Michigan and the Missouri river north of the States of Illinois and Missouri, and Gen. Henry Dodge was appointed its first Governor. The first legislative session was held at Belmont, Iowa county, now in Lafayette county, Wisconsin, in the fall of 1836. A second session November, 1837, and also a special session, June, 1838, of the first legis- lative assembly, were held in Demoine county, at Burlington. At the second
session, (December 21, 1837.) the county of Dubuque was divided, Clayton being one of the new counties, its northern boundary being identical with the south line of the Neutral Ground, and its western boundary on the line dividing ranges six and seven, where it has remained. Fayette county was also established at this time, being partly taken from Dubuque. It was probably the largest county ever constituted, comprising "the whole of the country lying west of the Mississippi river and north of the southern boundary of Clayton county, extending westward to the western boundary of Wisconsin Territory, and not included within the proper limits of the said county of Clayton." It extended to the British pos- sessions on the north, and included all of the present State of Minnesota west of the Mississippi, and nearly all of the Dakotas. It, however, had no county organization until some years after it had been reduced to its present boundaries, in 1847, when Allamakee was taken therefrom; and indeed not until after this county was organized.
UPPER IOWA POWER COMPANY-POWER PLANT NO. 1
VIEW ACROSS ONEOTA RIVER, AT SITE OF DAM NO. 1
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A convention was also held during this session, by citizens west of the Missis- sippi, to ask the organization of a new territory, and the Legislature adopted a memorial to Congress to that effect. The names of Jefferson, Washington, and Iowa were discussed, with a decision in favor of Iowa. In Congress the prospect of another free state was displeasing to the South, and John C. Calhoun was determined in his opposition. The delegate from this (Wisconsin) terri- tory, George W. Jones, told him the inhabitants were mainly from Kentucky, Illinois, and Missouri, and the South had nothing to fear from them. Mr. Calhoun replied that this state of things would not last long; that immigrants from the New England and other abolition states would soon outnumber them. Both statements were true.
An act of Congress to constitute the Territory of Iowa from that part of Wisconsin west of the Mississippi was approved by President Van Buren June 12, and took effect July 4, 1838. Robert Lucas, of Ohio, former Governor of that state and a native of Virginia, was appointed by the President as the first Governor of the Territory of Iowa, which included Minnesota and was practically unlimited to the west. The first Legislature assembled at Burlington, November 12, 1838, and comprised thirty-nine members in both houses. Of these, nine were natives of Virginia, eight of Kentucky, two of North Carolina, one of Maryland, one of Tennessee, twenty-one in all from the South. Four were natives of New York, four of Pennsylvania, four of Ohio, two of New Hamp- shire, two of Vermont, one of Connecticut, one of Illinois, eighteen in all from the North. At the election, in September, of the members of this assembly, Wm. W. Chapman, a native of Virginia, was elected first delegate to Congress. The seat of government was established by this assembly in Johnson county, at a town to be called Iowa City. At the October election in 1840 the people voted down a proposal for a state government, and again at the election in 1842.
In 1841, when William Henry Harrison became President, he appointed John Chambers, Governor of Iowa. He was a member of Congress from Ken- tucky, but a native of New Jersey. In 1845, James K. Polk appointed James Clarke, of Pennsylvania, as his successor.
At the April election in 1844 there was a large majority for a convention to form a state constitution; and such convention met at Iowa City, October 7, 1844, and continued in session until November I. The boundaries settled upon were the Mississippi river on the east, the State of Missouri on the south, the Missouri river to the mouth of the Sioux on the west, and a direct line from that point to the mouth of the Blue Earth river in Minnesota, thence down the St. Peters (Minnesota) river to the Mississippi. But when the constitution and memorial asking admission were submitted to Congress that body objected to the boundaries prescribed as creating too large a state, and cut us off from the Missouri river by making the western boundary on the line of 17ยบ 30' west from Washington, a few miles west of Fort Dodge. The bill as passed, March 3, 1845, provided for the admission of Florida and Iowa together-one slave and one free state-and was approved by President John Tyler as one of his last offical acts. The plan failed, for although Florida came in at once, Iowa rejected the boundary conditions at an election in April following, and remained a ter- ritory.
,
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Another convention of the people of Iowa assembled in May, 1846, and formed a constitution with the present boundaries of the state. Congress mean- while having reconsidered its former action and prescribed lines identical with those of the convention. Upon the submission of this constitution to the people on the 3rd of August, 1846, it was adopted ; and by act of Congress approved by President James K. Polk December 28, 1846, Iowa was admitted as the twenty-ninth state of the Union, the fourth formed (the first free state) from the Louisiana purchase, and having a population of over one hundred thousand, the first state to be admitted with a population entitling it to two members of Congress from the start. Meanwhile, at an election held October 26, 1846, Ansel Briggs, a native of Vermont, was chosen as the first Governor of the State of Iowa, and assumed the duties of the office.
COUNTY ORGANIZATION
Of the ninety-nine counties which constitute the State of Iowa, none was created under the present constitution of the state, although several were later organized which were located and named prior to its adoption in 1857, and aets have been passed looking to new counties or division of old ones, and found unconstitutional, or defeated by the voters. The organization of the older counties, prior to 1853, was provided for by special legislative enactments.
Two counties were created by the legislative council of Michigan ; twenty- two (including three now extinct ) by the legislative assembly of Wisconsin ; twenty-three by the legislative assembly of Iowa Territory; and the remaining fifty-five by the general assembly of the state. Most of these were given an existence by the third general assembly, 1850-1851. of which Hon. P. M. Casady was a member in the Senate; and some forty years later he read a paper before the Pioneer Law Makers' Association, telling of the origin of county names in the following interesting manner :
"When the Territory of Iowa was established the work of creating new counties was carried on as rapidly as the growth of population warranted. The session of 1843 showed itself imbued with the spirit of the latter-day ethnologist, for all the counties authorized at this session were given Indian names, most of the chiefs prominent in the pioneer history of the territory. The last territorial legislature, however, showed its disapproval of such relapse into barbarism by refusing to give a single Indian name to the new counties which it established and as an additional token of its convictions along these lines it changed the name of Kishkekosh given by its predecessors to Monroe. All the new counties of this year were named after American statesmen and soldiers, two heroes of the Revolution being honored in naming the counties of Wayne and Jasper, while Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Chief Justice Marshall and others were remembered in the assignment of names.
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