USA > Iowa > Allamakee County > Past and present of Allamakee county, Iowa. A record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Vol. I > Part 5
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"The work was continued in a desultory way until fifty counties had been organized before the convening of the third general assembly of the state, which made a new record in that line, a record probably never equalled by any other legislative body. The bill was introduced by Senator Casady.
"When the bill came up for consideration in the Senate there was a group who favored more Indian names than were assigned by the committee, but
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PAST AND PRESENT OF ALLAMAKEE COUNTY
their plans were anticipated by Senator Casady. He and his associates had prepared a slate of names and these were finally adopted.
"In those days there was no 'hands across the sea' sentiment toward the British government, and the pioneers of the west were warm sympathizers with the patriots who were leaders of Ireland's revolt against English oppres- sion. Consequently it was determined to name three counties for the martyrs of the Irish struggle, and Mitchell, O'Brien, and the younger Emmet were the ones chosen. It was recommended that three be named after the battles of the Mexican war, Cerro Gordo, Buena Vista, and Palo Alto. Three were named for colonels who fell in that war: Col. John J. Hardin of Illinois, Colonel Yell of Arkansas, and Lieut. Col. Henry Clay, Jr., of Kentucky, the gallant son of the famous statesman, all three of whom were killed in the battle of Buena Vista. Some years later the name of Yell county was changed to Webster, at the same time that the adjoining county of Fox was changed to Calhoun. When this change was made there seems to have risen a tendency to associate the name of Clay with the other of the famous triumvirate who were so long the giants of the United States Senate, and the memory of the gallant Kentucky soldier who fell at Buena Vista has been neglected.
"It seems strange that John C. Calhoun, who stood for principles so unpopular in the North, should have been honored by Iowa, but the people of the county which had been named Fox to correspond with its neighbor Sac had conceived a violent dislike to the name and were ready to adopt anything as a substitute. One of the settlers who had come from Michigan, and who in earlier days had in some way been befriended by the South Carolina statesman, circulated a peti- tion for the name Calhoun and this was granted.
"The correct form of the name of the famous tribe associated with the Foxes is 'Sauk', and in this form it is preserved in the name of a Wisconsin county and of a Minnesota city. But the earlier settlers of Iowa corrupted the name to its present form, and as such it has been retained.
"The name Pocahontas was the suggestion of Senator John Howell of Jef- ferson county. He was the patriarch of the two houses and in his earlier days had been a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses. He was accorded the privilege of naming one of the counties and suggested this name. Of all the states carved out of the Northwest Territory ceded to the national government by Virginia not one had named a county for the heroine of the Old Dominion's colonial traditions, and he asked that this tardy honor be paid to her memory. There, were some of the legislators who demurred when this name was pro- posed, but upon being informed that Senator Howell was the sponsor, they withdrew all objections, saying that the old gentleman could have anything he asked for.
"In the original bill the name of Floyd was proposed for the county having the present boundaries of Woodbury. Sergeant Floyd of the Lewis and Clark expedition had died in camp and was buried on the east bank of the Missouri river south of Sioux City, and in early days the river flowing into the Missouri at Sioux City bore his name. Those who favored Indian names, however, got the name changed in the house to Waukon, or Wahkaw, and this name was retained until 1853, when the present name of Woodbury was adopted. Sergeant
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PAST AND PRESENT OF ALLAMAKEE COUNTY
Floyd is remembered by the town of Sergeant's Bluffs, which was ordinarily the county seat of Wahkaw.
"The name Ida was suggested by Ilon. Eliphalet Price, who was noted among the pioneers for his classical lore, and who wished the new state to be linked with the ancient civilization by adoption of the name of the famous mountain of Greece.
"Bremer county, named for Frederika Bremer, the famous Swedish author, was the second in the state to be named for a woman, Louisa being the other. The name was suggested by Hon. A. K. Eaton, then a member from Delaware county, and father of Hon. W. L. Eaton, recently Speaker of the House.
"In 'the original list of counties the extreme northwest county was given the name of Buncombe in honor of a North Carolina colonel of the Revolutionary war. The members of the lower house in the third general assembly were opposed to the name, but finally agreed to its adoption. On account of its slangy associations, however, the name was never popular. It acquired this significance from a North Carolina legislator's retort. That state had a county named after its old hero and the representative from the county was at one time making a speech 'to the galleries.' One of his colleagues called him to task for the princi- ples he was advocating, and he retorted, 'I'm not talking for principle, I'm talking for Buncombe.' The new use of the name spread until it was generally associated with insincerity ; and after the battle of Wilson's Creek, the first of the Civil war in which Iowa troops were engaged, the name of Gen. Nathaniel Lyon, who fell in the battle, was chosen to be given a place in the roster of Iowa counties, and in looking over the list for one to strike out the members were moved by the old prejudice against the name Buncombe to sacrifice it.
"Audubon county was named for the famous naturalist, whose great 'Bird Book' is the choicest treasure of the state library. He died in January, 1852, probably before the news reached him of the honor paid him by the frontier state.
"The historian Bancroft was remembered and his name was given to the county north of Kossuth, the original division of the state being into one hundred counties instead of ninety-nine. Four years later this county was abolished and the territory incorporated into Kossuth, which was named after the famous Hungarian patriot. In 1870 there was a proposition to re-establish the one hundredth county under the name of Crocker, in honor of the brigadier general who had commanded the Thirteenth Iowa regiment when it started to the front in the Civil war. The people of Kossuth were successful, however, in resisting division of their county."
CHAPTER V
ALLAMAKEE COUNTY
As has been heretofore shown, the area of the present Allamakee county was included in the two counties of Clayton and Fayette by the first legislative assem- bly of the Territory of Wisconsin in its first session on Iowa soil, at Burlington, December 21, 1837; far the greater portion of it in Fayette. No further changes looking to our civil organization were made until after Iowa had become a state.
The first general assembly of the State of Iowa convened at Iowa City, Novem- ber 30, 1846, and adjourned February 25, 1847. Chapter 66 of the laws of this assembly approved by Governor Briggs, February 20, 1847, was "An act to estab- lish new counties and define their boundaries in the late cession from the Winnebago Indians." This refers to the treaty dated October 13, 1846, but not proclaimed until February 4, 1847, surrendering the Neutral Ground. This chap- ter 66 names but two counties, Allamakee and Winneshiek, and defines their boundaries as at present constituted. Both were taken from Fayette, except a small triangle in the southeast corner of Allamakee which had theretofore belonged to Clayton, which county was reimbursed therefor by a similar though smaller parcel from within the Neutral Ground, squaring out its northwest corner.
The question of the origin of the name given to our county by this act of the Legislature has long been a mooted one, but the prevailing opinion is that it was an Indian name. At a meeting of the Early Settlers' Association of Lansing, the proceedings of which were published in the Mirror of November 28, 1879, "Dr. J. I. Taylor spoke of the selection of the name of the county, as he had it from John Haney, Jr., deceased. It was his recollection that David Olmstead, in the Legislature for this unorganized portion of the state, gave the county its present title. An old friend of Olmstead was Allen Magee, an Indian trader, who was familiarly known to the Winnebagoes and in their gut- tural dialect called Al-ma-gee. Calling to mind this fact, Mr. Olmstead cansed the name Allamakee to be inserted in the organizing act and it was thus legalized."
According to the official records, however, David Olmstead did not repre- sent this section in the second general assembly (which organized this county, in 1849), although he was a member of the constitutional convention of 1846, from Clayton county. The name was given to this county by the first general assembly as before stated, in 1847, when its boundaries were defined, this being the actual birth of the county, and Samuel B. Olmstead was a member of that Legislature. Col. S. C. Trowbridge, who came to Iowa in 1837, stated posi- Vol. 1-3
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PAST AND PRESENT OF ALLAMAKEE COUNTY
tively that the name Allamakee is an Indian name purely; and Fulton, in his "Red Men of Iowa," says the same. If so. it is remarkable that we nowhere find the name mentioned in printed accounts of the Indian tribes, as we do the names Winneshiek, Decorah, and Waukon.
Allamakee county was organized under Chapter III of the acts of the second general assembly, approved by Governor Ansel Briggs, January 15, 1849, and taking effect the Ist of March. The first organizing election was to be held April 2, 1849. Thomas C. Linton was appointed organizing sheriff, and William C. Linton. John Francis and James C. Jones were selected to locate the county seat. The sheriff thus appointed was required to appear at the county seat of Clayton county to qualify for the office, and to make returns of his doings thereto. In the performance of his duties Sheriff Linton called the election to be held at his house, the Old Mission property, on Monday, the 2d day of April. 1849, and the officers chosen at this election were as follows :
County Commissioners-James M. Sumner and Joseph W. Holmes.
Sheriff-Lester W. Hays.
Clerk Commissioners' Court-D. G. Beck.
Clerk District Court-Stephen Holcomb.
The officers elect qualified at the house of Thomas C. Linton, April 10, 1849.
While there is no written record remaining of this election, or of any elec- tion in the county prior to 1856, the results here stated are quite well substan- tiated by old newspaper files ; and as to dates by the legislative records.
It has been claimed that an earlier election was held at the Old Mission, and that is very likely true, as it was designated several years before as a voting- place in Clayton county : but the election above referred to was undoubtedly the first in our county organization. At a session of the county commissioners of Clayton county, held April 4, 1844. the boundaries of various election precincts were defined, and one was described 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 prin- cipal meridian; then down said river two miles, thence due west on section line to west side of township ninety-five, range four. west ; thence north to the neutral line : thence following said line to the place of commencing, at Painted Rock." In this election precinct "the house of Thomas C. Clinton, on Yellow River," was designated as the place for holding the elections." Hence it is quite probable that an expression of the few voters in this precinct may have been taken on the submission of the state constitution, in the elections occurring in April. 1845. and August, 1846.
Indeed, there was a still earlier election precinct established embracing the Old Mission. The first meeting of the county commissioners of Clayton county was held at the county seat. Prairie la Porte, now Guttenberg, October 6, 1838. at which meeting the county was divided into four election precincts. the third precinct being defined as follows: "Commencing at the southeast corner of range three west, ninety-four north, thence west to the southwest corner of fraction six west. ninety-four north, thence following the Black Hawk line to the obtuse angle of six west. thence following the purchase line to the Mississippi river." While a little ambiguous. this description necessarily includes the two nor- thernmost tiers of townships in the present Clayton county ( except a triangu-
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PAST AND PRESENT OF ALLAMAKEE COUNTY
lar tract in the northwest corner) and that part of Allamakee south of the Neutral Ground; the place of elections was designated at the house of Jesse Dandly. The jurisdiction of Clayton county extended a great distance, shown by the following order of the commissioners, of date July 13, 1839: "License is hereby granted Lewis Massey, of St. Peters, to keep a ferry across the Missis- sippi one mile above Fort Snelling, for one year from date hereof, for the sum of $10." At the December, 1839, meeting it was "ordered, that the settlement at the outlet of Lake Pepin compose an election precinct, to be called the sixth precinct," and "that the settlement at the mouth of St. Peters River compose an election precinct, to be called the seventh precinct." And at the meeting held February 1,1841, the assessor was ordered to assess the people at St. Peters, and at all intermediate points between the county seat and that place. But at the October session the assessor was instructed not to assess any property more than fifty miles beyond the bounds of Clayton county.
At the December, 1839, meeting, the third election precinct, the boundaries of which are above given, was abolished by the commissioners, and no further pro- vision seems to have been made for any voter that might be in our Old Mission vicinity until the Yellow river precinct above described was established in 1844; but under a former ruling it was left to the discretion of those living in any precinct not of sufficient number to organize an election, to cast their votes at the nearest voting place adjoining their place of residence.
The second election in Allamakee county was held at the same place on the first Monday of August, 1849, and the following officers elected :
County Commissioners-James M. Sumner, Thomas A. Van Sickle, and Daniel G. Beck.
Clerk 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.
The list of officers elected at the first two elections mentioned, is quoted from a copy of the North Iowa Journal, published at Waukon in 1860; and in most instances there are official signatures in the various early records of the county to substantiate its correctness. It also says that at the August, 1851, election, Elias Topliff was elected the first county judge, succeeding the county commissioners, and served until 1857. James M. Sumner was elected recorder and treasurer, combined ; and Leonard B. Hodges, clerk of the district court. And these state- ments are substantiated by the county records-not, however, by any election records, because, as the editor adds, "the records previous to 1856 are very in- complete."
The paper gives the total amount of taxable property in the county in 1849, $1,729; in 1851, $8,299; in 1854. $700.794 ; and in 1859, $1,967,899. This would indicate a very rapid development in the first ten years.
From a paper read by G. M. Dean before the early settlers' association of Makee township, in January, 1880, we quote the following :
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PAST AND PRESENT OF ALLAMAKEE COUNTY
"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 .* Stephen Holcomb died at the Mission about 1851. Moses Van Sickle (who was elected school fund commissioner at the August, 1849, election, according to his recollection) is living at this date, in Fairview township. Elias Topliff died in Waukon in 1860. Thomas C. Linton lives in Oregon. [Where he died a few years later .- Ed.]
"Lester W. Hays was for several years before his death a county charge, living sometimes at the county farin, and sometimes 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 infirm to labor, he was allowed from the poor fund the pittance of $1.00 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 his 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.
"The county records of those early times as left by the commissioners, are either lost, mislaid, or were made in so transient a manner as to preclude their being handed down to posterity, and so much as we have gathered has been obtained from other official records, and 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 par- ticipating 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 commissioners. they charged up to him the uncollected portion and took it from his compensation as treastirer."
Mr. Dean himself, who penned the foregoing .- widely known as Judge Dean from his serving as county judge in the early days, or as Captain Dean from his rank in the Civil war,-remained an honored citizen of Waukon for twenty-four years after the date of the above paper, and a brief biography appears in another chapter. He was an interesting writer on our early history, and liberal quota- tions from his sketches will be found in these pages.
The number of voters at the two elections heretofore mentioned, is not known; but Moses Van Sickle in 1880 stated that only about fifteen votes were cast at the election in August, 1849. The officials elected in the later years. so far as can be ascertained, are named in a separate chapter on county officers.
*Thos. B. Twiford had been a lieutenant in Captain Parker's Company, Iowa Volun- teers, in the Mexican War, and as such received a warrant for forty acres of government land, which he sold to Alden N. Merriam, who located it upon the S. W. N. E. Sec. 17-98-3. After going to Minnesota Twiford prospered, but lost what he had in the panic of 1857, and removed to Kansas.
BEN
THE OLD MISSION
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PAST AND PRESENT OF ALLAMAKEE COUNTY
No record of the number of voters is found until 1853, when at the August election, it was as follows:
Franklin twp. 21
Paint Creek twp. 25
Jefferson twp.
19
Post twp. 36
Lafayette twp.
44
Taylor twp. 15
Lansing twp. 46
Union City twp.
8
Linton twp. 32
Union Prairie twp.
36
Ludlow twp.
22
Makee twp. 47
Total 351
At this date it will be noticed that six out of the eventual eighteen townships were not yet organized. Of the twelve above which made returns six had as yet no definite boundaries and doubtless included the unorganized townships for voting purposes. The township organizations will be treated more fully further along.
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CHAPTER VI
THE OLD MISSION
The Winnebago Indian mission established by the United States government in 1833, in the east part of section 9, township 96, range 3, in Fairview township, about a mile and a half east of the village of Ion, in the Yellow River valley, became the first permanent settlement within the boundaries of what is now Allamakee county.
This mission has possessed a greater historic interest than any other spot in northeastern Iowa, north of Dubuque, but the circumstances leading to its establishment have not been familiar to the general public. In the "Annals of Iowa" for January, 1899, appears a "Chapter of Indian History," by Ida M. Street, from which some of the facts are gleaned which are used in the follow- ing sketch.
Joseph M. Street of Kentucky, who had been made agent of the Winnebagoes at Prairie du Chien in 1828, had been for three years revolving in his mind some plans to improve the condition of the Indians at his agency. His efforts to carry out these plans brought him into more or less open conflict with the fur traders and those Indian agents and commissioners who were in sympathy with the American Fur Company and its methods. Their object was to keep the Indians savage hunters, who could be easily gulled. Their chief instruments in accomplishing this were "fire-water" and the credit system. They took care that each Indian should run up a bill at their stores almost equal to his annuity, so that when the yearly payments were made to the Indians by the government most of the money went directly into the hands of the traders, as well as the skins brought in by the Indians from their winter hunts.
Mr. Street began in a quiet way to take steps for the carrying out of his ideas. He feared that owing to the presence of the traders, and the miners in the lead region, he could not settle and civilize the Winnebagoes on the east side of the Mississippi. Moreover, the Sioux and the Sacs and Foxes, were such bitter enemies that it was hard to keep peace between them on the west side of the river. So he suggested that the government buy a strip of land forty miles wide extending from the Mississippi westerly to the Des Moines, half from the Sioux and half from the Sacs and Foxes, to be held as a neutral ground. This was accomplished by the treaty of July 15, 1830. His plan was ultimately to settle a part of the Winnebagoes upon this strip. The Winnebagoes were not as warlike a tribe as either of the others, and were on friendly terms with both, which made them suitable to occupy the neutral ground.
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PAST AND PRESENT OF ALLAMAKEE COUNTY
General Street succeeded in getting his further plans incorporated in the treaty concluded at Fort Armstrong ( Rock Island, Illinois). September 15, 1832, between Major Gen. Winfield Scott and Hon. John Reynolds, governor of Illi- nois, and the Winnebago nation. In this treaty the Winnebagoes ceded all their land lying east of the Mississippi (south of the Wisconsin), and in part con- sideration therefor they were granted that portion of Iowa known as the Neu- tral Ground, which had been purchased of the Sacs and Foxes, and the Sioux, by the treaty of July 15, 1830. This exchange was to take place on or before the Ist day of June, 1833. In addition to the Neutral Ground the United States was to pay the Winnebagoes $10,000 annually for a period of twenty-seven years, partly at Prairie du Chien and partly at Fort Winnebago. The government fur- ther agreed to "erect suitable buildings, with a garden, and a field attached, somewhere near Fort Crawford, or Prairie du Chien, and establish and maintain therein for the term of twenty-seven years a school for the education, including clothing, board and lodging, of such Winnebago children as may be voluntarily sent to it; said children to be taught reading, writing, arithmetic, gardening, agriculture, carding, spinning, weaving, and sewing, and such other branches of useful knowledge as the president of the United States may prescribe." The annual cost of the school was not to exceed $3,000. Six agriculturists, twelve yoke of oxen, ploughs and other agricultural implements to be supplied by the government ; and the services and attendance of a physician at Prairie du Chien. It was further agreed to remove and maintain in the Neutral Ground the black- smith shop heretofore allowed to the Winnebagoes on the Rock river.
The treaty of 1832 was not the first one in which a school was provided for, but it was the first from which the Winnebagoes derived any benefit. However, this forerunner of the present day "vocational education" proved a failure.
There seems to have been an attempt, in carrying out the provisions of the treaty, to establish the school on the east side of the river ; but the protests of Indian Agent Street that it should be removed as far as practicable from the traders and their "fire-water" prevailed with the department, and on April 12, 1833, he was authorized to select a location on the west side of the Mississippi, erect the buildings, and employ two teachers, a male and a female, at not to exceed $500 for the former and $300 for the latter, per annum. His proposition however to erect a substantial stone building was at first emphatically overruled by the war department at Washington, the instructions in August being that "plain, comfortable log buildings such as can be erected at a small expense, not exceeding one or two in number at present, are all that the department can sanction."
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