USA > Iowa > Allamakee County > Past and present of Allamakee county, Iowa. A record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Vol. I > Part 6
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Having received authority to go on with the school, General Street had se- lected a place on Yellow river (in what is now Allamakee county), and let the contract for a stone building to be completed the following fall, 1833 ; but through the influence of the traders with General Cass (secretary of war appointed by President Jackson in 1831), the work was stopped. When the contract was let General Street obtained Rev. David Lowrey's consent to come on and take charge of the school; and then taking a surveyor, and a guard of soldiers from Col. Zachary Taylor (then in command at Fort Crawford, and later General Taylor and President of the United States), he proceeded to run the south line of the "Neutral Ground." It was while he was gone on this trip that the work on the
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school was stopped. When he returned, Mr. Lowrey had made his arrange- ments to come, but because of the delay had to remain in Prairie du Chien until the spring of 1834. By that time General Street had obtained permission to go on with the stone building and Mr. Lowrey occupied temporary quarters at Yellow River until it was completed the following fall. In the spring of 1835 he bought oxen, cows and horses, in Sangamon county, Illinois, and they were driven up by the men who were to open the farm in connection with the school and were in charge of Rev. John Berry.
While the provisions of the treaty were to have been carried out by June I, 1833, it will be seen that the removal of the Winnebagoes to the west of the Mississippi was long delayed, and obstructed largely by the traders, aided by the natural indisposition of the Indians to make the change. The Fur Company had a double motive in preventing the removal to the Neutral Ground: First, they did not wish to let the Winnebagoes out of their sight and influence; and they did not wish the Sioux driven from their hunting grounds. And in fact it seems there were comparatively few of the Winnebagoes ever located in this portion of the Neutral Ground, and the attendance at the school was small. We can only guess how far it fell short of General Street's ideal. His object in insisting on a stone building was perhaps to assure the Indians of the permanency of the school and of the reservation, hut very few years elapsed before the school was removed further west.
In a report written in January, 1838, General Street says :
"In the spring of 1834 I let out the erection of the buildings, and before I could do more was ordered to the Sac and Fox Indians, and gave up the business of the Winnebagoes to the commanding officer of Fort Crawford. When the buildings were ready the school was commenced, but nothing more was done with the farm. Late in 1834 I was ordered back to Prairie du Chien too late for active operations on a new farm, and some hesitation was expressed by the com- missioner of Indian affairs as to the place where he could suffer the farming operations to commence. However, at the beginning of 1835 I ventured to em- ploy hands and set them to work near the school, under the superintendence of the Rev. David Lowrey, but * had scarcely time to place the oxen and horses upon the farm before I was again ordered to the Sacs and Foxes, and * the commanding officer at Fort Crawford who unwillingly took charge (Col. Zachary Taylor) did not feel at liberty to enlarge the operations which I had only commenced."
He adds that Colonel Taylor felt averse to the measure, believing it would not succeed; but that during a temporary command of Captain Jowitt, in the winter of 1836-7, Colonel Taylor having gone to Jefferson Barracks, he deter- mined to carry out the provisions of the treaty of 1832 as to the school and farm. Requisitions were made, but the hands and oxen did not arrive until late in the spring. So the Indians lost the use and benefit of oxen and hands from the spring of 1833 to that of 1837. As to the school he says :
"Through opposition from the traders, and natural habits of idleness with Indians, and a distaste for any restraint on the subject of literary improvement, the advances have been slow. In the early commencement of the school the Indians did not send children enough to require the whole expenditure of the school fund. Last spring (1837) on coming again to this agency, I changed the
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plan of reception and exerted myself in conjunction with the principal teacher, Mr. Lowrey, to put the school into full operation, and now Mr. Lowrey assures me that he can get pupils to any amount he may inform the grown up Indians can be taken."
In 1837 Mr. Street was permanently transferred to the Sac and Fox agency, so his connection with our Old Mission ceased. He had been opposed by General Cass, secretary of war, who would have removed him but for the friendship of President Jackson, who is reported to have said, "I know General Street is a Whig, but he is an honest man, and I shall keep him in office while I am presi- dent." He died near Ottumwa, Iowa, May 5, 1840.
While the name of Father Lowrey has long been familiar as the principal teacher at this mission school, that of the female assistant provided for in the instructions of General Street has been left in obscurity. In the Wisconsin His- torical Collections of 1892, however, is an account of an interview (in 1887) with Moses Paquette, a half-breed, in which he says: "I was born March 4. 1828, at the Portage, in Wisconsin. * Two years after my father's death, when I was ten years old, my sister and I were sent by our guardian, H. L. Dousman, for education in English, to the Presbyterian Indian Mission on the Yellow river, in Iowa. Rev. David Lowrey was the superintendent. His as- sistants were two young ladies, Minerva and Lucy Brunson, sisters, who did the teaching, while Mr. Lowrey preached to us and superintended the agency. Minerva, in after years, married one Thomas Linton, who had in early days been employed at the old agency house at the Portage. There were about forty children at the mission, all of us more or less tinctured with Winnebago blood. The English language was alone used, the grade of instruction being about the same as the average rural district school. Of course the religious teaching was wholly of the Presbyterian cast, and the children were very good Presbyterians so long as they remained at the mission; but most of them relapsed into their ancient heathenism as soon as removed from Mr. Lowrey's care."
Some of Paquette's recollections relate to noted Winnebagoes, for instance : "It is related by the descendants of the Winnebago Black Hawk of that day that One-Eyed Decorah ( Big Canoe) had a village at the mouth of Black river. Out hunting one day he came across a Sac fugitive and notified his companions ; they had instructions if found to bring him to Prairie du Chien. Winnebago Black Hawk declined to do so, so One-Eyed Decorah went and found the Sac leader and took him to Prairie du Chien. I knew One-Eyed Decorah well when I was a boy at school on the Turkey river. He was an old man then, quite stout, hale, with heavy features, and hair somewhat gray."
The Old Mission was located on the north side of the Yellow river. The building stood facing the south, built almost into the south slope of a high bluff in the rear. There was also a bhiff on the east and west sides, the location being an amphitheater in the shape of a horse shoe, almost completely sheltered from winter winds and storms. In size it was about 40 by 60 feet with dressed stone walls, excellent building stone being quarried from the bluff side, near the spring, a few rods northeast of the house. It was two stories and a roomy, high attic. It included six rooms in the lower story, the school room being on the second floor. In the center of the building there extended from the cellar up a strongly built chimney about ten feet square with a large, open fireplace for each of the
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lower four rooms and all others connecting with it, each fireplace being provided with immense iron andirons for holding the large "backlog." This chimney was made a "witness tree" when the government survey was made in 1848; and our county surveyor, H. B. Miner, has several times climbed to its top when sur- veying in that locality.
The water from a large spring close by in the bluff in the rear, and of suf- ficient height, was taken directly into an upper story by wooden pipes, and fur- nished all the water needed. Connected with the mission were about two hun- dred acres of magnificent farm land cultivated by and for the mission.
Judge Murdock wrote in 1878: "The contract to build the Old Mission and the other buildings was let to Samuel Gilbert, father of General Gilbert who dis- tinguished himself in the late war; and he employed John Linton to superintend the work."
John Linton, born in Kentucky, was employed by Rev. Lowrey in 1837 as general manager for nearly five years. The government having discontinued the mission, sold this land in 1842 to John Linton and his brother, Thomas C. Linton, one of the county commissioners of Clayton county which included that location. John Linton sold his interest to Thomas C. Linton and afterward graduated from a St. Louis medical college, and for many years practiced his profession at Garnavillo, Clayton county, where he died in 1878. Thomas C. Linton became the organizing sheriff of Allamakee county, as narrated in another chapter, and afterwards went to Oregon, where he died.
Colonel Thomas was placed in charge of the Mission farm, when it was opened in 1837, and was in 1842 transferred to the Fort Atkinson farm.
Dr. F. Andros, the pioneer physician of this corner of the state, was located at the mission for a time, about the year 1835.
In 1840 the Old Mission was made an appointment by the Methodists. and was filled at stated times by the Rev. Sidney Wood, whose curcuit was Clayton county ; and in 1841 quarterly meeting was held here, Rev. Alfred Brunson coming over from Prairie du Chien to preside. These were the first Methodist appointments ever made in Allamakee county.
The first Baptist church in Allamakee county was organized by Elder Miles, in January, 1841, at the Old Mission on Yellow river, consisting of eleven mem- bers. It is safe to presume that Elder Miles, who came to the Mission from Indiana, was the first Baptist minister to preach in the northeastern part of Iowa. He and some of the members soon after removed to Wisconsin, and this pioneer church lost its vitality. Two of its constituent members were John and Hiram Francis, the former removing to Clayton county. Hiram Francis and family came to the Mission in the employ of the government, in 1839, from Prairie du Chien, where he had lived since 1836, and his duties were to issue the daily rations to the Indians, which he did until the Mission was abandoned in 1842. He remained a consistent member of the Baptist church, transferring to the Rossville church, and died at the residence of his son-in-law, Samuel Den- ning, near Rossville, in 1890, aged eighty-three years. He was buried at Council Hill, on the edge of Clayton county.
In 1841 there lived at the Mission Mr. and Mrs. Rynerson, and there was born unto them a son, and this was thought to be the first white child born in the county.
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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 entrusted 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 Decem- ber, 1830, he began the publication in Princeton, Kentucky, of the "Religious and Literary Intelligencer." It was a weekly journal, ably edited, and was the first paper published under the auspices of that church. To him. therefore, belongs the honor of being the father of Cumberland Presbyterian journalism. Some years afterward he was editor of the "Cumberland Presbyterian," then published in Nashville, Tennessee. In addition to his editorial duties he had the pastorate of the Cumberland Presbyterian church in Nashville, which was then in its in- fancy; 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 1833, under the administration of his friend, President Jackson, he received the appointment of teacher to the Winnebago 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. He was an able and original preacher, and in many respects a remarkable man, loved and admired by all. A traveler visiting Prairie du Chien in 1837, Wm. R. Smith, says in his letters from Wisconsin, published at Philadelphia in 1838: "I was much pleased and instructed in attending divine service on the Sabbath day, in the courthouse, lis- tening to an excellent discourse by the Rev. D. Lowrey, who is stationed in this neighborhood, teacher of a Winnebago school. He is a gentleman of strong mind and original conception, eloquent and persuasive. The numerous congregation, their perfect decorum, and the presence of so many well dressed ladies and gentlemen, formed a striking contrast with the rude and half-naked Indians within a stone's throw."
When the Yellow River Mission was discontinued Rev. Lowrey was trans- ferred to the Fort Atkinson charge (as was also Farmer Thomas), and remained with the Winnebagoes the greater part of the time, until about 1863, 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, Missouri, where he died in January, 1877, leaving an aged wife. He had two sons, both of whom he outlived.
The creation of the Yellow river election precinct by the Clayton county commissioners in April, 1844, with the voting place at the house of Thomas C. Linton, establishes the fact that the Old Mission was not located within the neutral grounds, but a short distance south of the line, in Clayton county (or prior to 1837, Dubuque county), a part of the Black Hawk purchase of 1832.
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It is presumed that the first election ever held in what is now Allamakee county was at this voting place in April, 1845, on the question of the adoption or re- jection of the first submitted state constitution; although, as narrated in a previous chapter, the Old Mission was included in an election precinct established in October, 1838, with voting place at the house of Jesse Dandly, no election is known to have occurred during the year that the precinct continued.
The first, or organizing election, in this county, was held at the Mission in April, 1849; and this place was virtually, although not nominally, the county seat, most of the officers living there or near there, until Columbus became the first actual county seat in I851. As a landmark in the history of Allamakee county the Old Mission house itself should have been sacredly preserved, but it was nobody's business to do so; and a portion of the walls having fallen a good many years ago, it has since disappeared, having furnished excellent ma- terial for the construction of other buildings. The property changed hands many times, and in 1912 passed into the possession of the present owners, Stephen and Michael Walsh.
HOTEL
ORIGINAL COURTHOUSE AT WAUKON, 1853 TO 1861: RAZED IN 1913
OLD HANCOCK HOUSE. A LANDMARK AT ROSSVILLE
CHAPTER VII
EARLY COURTS
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Upon the establishment of Allamakee county by the Legislature in Feb- ruary, 1847, it was placed in the Second Judicial District of the State, presided over by Judge James Grant from November 15. 1847, to the spring of 1852.
During the jurisdiction of Judge Grant there was no regular term of District Court held in Allamakee county, and no venire issued for jurors. All the anthorities agree that Judge T. S. Wilson held the first terms in Allamakee and Winneshiek counties in the summer of 1852. But it appears well established that Judge Grant did appear and hear cases at the Old Mission-there being then no county seat-once, and possibly twice. Mr. Wm. C. Thompson, who was elected sheriff in 1851, stated in 1882, that a court was held there by Judge Grant, he thought, in the fall of 1849, that being the home of Thomas C. Lin- ton, then sheriff, but that little or no business was done. The time was fixed in his mind by his returning to Wisconsin for his family that fall, and it was during his absence he understood this court was held. Mr. C. D. Beeman, another pioneer of '49, thought the first court was held at Postville in 1851, at which a divorce was granted to Mrs. Post. But Judge Samnel Murdock, the first lawyer to settle north of Dubuque, was of the opinion that this was at the Old Mission. In a letter to A. M. May in December, 1893, published in the Waukon Standard, of which Mr. May was then the editor, Judge Murdock very judicially and entertainingly disposes of the question which had arisen, and from which the following quotations are here made :
"I infer there was a discussion as to two questions: First, when, where, and by what judge was held the first court in your county? Second, when, where, and before what judge did Mrs. Zerniah Post [the founder of Postville] obtain a divorce? And I am greatly pleased with the opportunity offered to settle these two questions, and moreover, to sustain and affirm the accuracy of Mr. Hancock's history [published in 1882] *
"I have before me, while writing this letter, biographical sketches of Judge Grant, Judge Wilson, and Mrs. Post, all either written or dictated by themselves, and from that of Judge Grant I find that he was elected judge of the District Court on April 5, 1847, and held the office five years to April, 1852, and that his district included Allamakee County. From that of Judge Wilson I find that he
succeeded Judge Grant, and was elected April, 1852. *
* * In regard to Mrs. Post, * -x- she had three husbands, all of whom were personally known to me, but from some cause or other her biography is silent as to the
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second. She was first married to Joel Post, March 6, 1831, in the state of New York, and they settled where is now Postville, in 1841. After the death of Joel [January, 1849] she was married again to another person by the name of Post, a cousin to the former, and they lived together very happily for one or two years until one day she received a letter which informed her that her husband had a lawful wife still living in Rock county, Wisconsin, and present- ing this letter to him, he broke down and confessed. All of this evi- dence of his confessions, letters, and facts, afterwards fell into my hands, and it was these that I subsequently used to procure her a divorce from this man Post.
"In January, 1852, Mrs. Post was married for the third time, to George S. Hayward, with whom she lived at intervals for several years. * Mr. Hayward was a quiet, kind, good man, but wayward, unsteady, unsettled, fickle, discontented, and had a passion for rambling, and left her and went to California, where he later met with an accident that put an end to his life. After he went to California Mrs. Post was greatly bothered and annoyed in the way of selling and conveying lots in her town ( Postville), as every deed had to be sent to him for his signature, and she got tired of this, and the writer of this, as a member of the firm of Murdock & Stoneman, on the second day of May, 1863, filed a peti- tion for Mrs. Zerniah Hayward for a divorce from George S. Hayward, which was granted by Judge E. HI. Williams, September 29, 1863. [District Court Record "B", page 345. There was a deed of separation between them dated October 11, 1855, in Deed Record "D", page 58.] It will therefore be seen from these facts that she was three times married and twice divorced. Now, upon the condition that Mr. Beeman's term of school [which he was teaching at Monona in 1851] continued from the fall of 1851 into January, 1852, which is very likely, then he did, no doubt, dismiss the Post children in January, 1852, to go and see their mother married to Mr. Hayward." * * *
Referring again to the court at Old Mission, Mr. Murdock says: "At this time that Old Mission farm on Yellow river was owned by Thomas Linton, from whom the township takes its name, and he had been appointed organizing sheriff of the county, and called the court at his place. Mr. Linton moved into Minnesota, and again into Oregon, where he and his wife died but he has a brother still living in Mitchell county, and not long since I received from him a letter, in which, in answer to my inquiry, 'Where was the first court held in Allamakee county ?' he says : 'At my brother's house at the Old Mission on Yellow river, and my brother was the organizing sheriff of the county.' This William Linton was then living in the north part of Clayton county within seven or eight miles of his brother, and they married sisters, so that he had every opportunity to know or hear all about the court being held there by Judge Grant. *
"I think it was in the latter part of the summer of 1851 that I was retained by Mrs. Post as an attorney to procure for her a divorce from her second hus- band Post, and I drew up the necessary papers, had them sent to L. B. Hodges, who was then living at Hardin, and who I think was acting as clerk of the court [Mr. Hodges was postmaster at Hardin in 1851, and was elected clerk in August. -Ed.], and I think I sent the notice and had it personally served on defendant in Rock county, Wis., and in the fall of that year I accompanied Judge Grant to Postville, where he took the testimony [ this may have created the impression of a court held at Postville .- Ed.], and the next day we drove down
Copyrighted. 1909, by E. A. Hirth.
ALLAMAKEE COUNTY COURTHOUSE, JAIL. AND WAUKON CITY HALL, WAUKON
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to the Old Mission, where we were heartily greeted by Mr. Linton and his amiable wife, and after dinner the judge directed the Sheriff to open court, which was done, when the case of Post vs. Post was called, and no defendant appearing, he proceeded to make a record thereof, and entered a decree for the plaintiff. There was no clerk present, but I distinctly remember of the judge handing the records he had made, with all the papers, to Mr. Linton and direct- ing him to see that they were filed in the clerk's office. I make no doubt that if you inquire of those who now reside in the old building, they will have a tradition that the first court in the county was held in their house. In the after- noon I borrowed Mr. Linton's rifle and went out to get a shot at some deer, which were very plentiful there at that time. We were hospitably entertained over night and I came home the next day.
"I have been thus particular to give you all of the above facts that they may not only clear up controversy but that they may become an addition to the history of your county."
Judge Murdock in this letter assumes that this was Judge Grant's first court in Allamakee, in the fall of 1851, and if so Mr. Thompson was in error as to the year. In that case it is not explained how Mr. Linton would be the sheriff, as he was appointed as organizing sheriff only, early in- 1849, and later the same year, Lester W. Hays was elected and was sheriff during 1851, in the latter part of which year W. C. Thompson was elected, according to good authority. We are led to the conclusion that Judge Grant first appeared at the Old Mission in a judicial capacity late in 1849; and again in 1851 to hear the Post case. The record of the County Court shows on December 2, 1851, a warrant issued in favor of Lester W. Hays for services as sheriff in summoning grand and petit jury; but there is no record of any jury assembling until Judge Wilson's term at Columbus in July, 1852.
FIRST TERMS OF COURT
The first term of District court of which there is official record remaining in the county archives was held at Columbus, then the county seat, Monday, July 12, 1852, presided over by Judge T. S. Wilson, who had recently succeeded Judge Grant, May 8, 1852. Leonard B. Hodges was the clerk, and Wm. C. Thompson, sheriff. The first grand jury was empaneled as follows: Wm. H. Morrison, foreman ; Edward Eells, John Clark, H. R. Ellis, R. Woodward, Jesse M. Rose, W. W. Willson, Darius Bennett, G. A. Warner, Henry Botsford, Tru- man Stoddard, Wm. Smith, A. J. Ellis, Jeremiah Clark, and T. A. Winsted.
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