USA > Iowa > Woodbury County > Sioux City > Past and present of Sioux City and Woodbury County, Iowa > Part 64
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Amable Gallerneaux came from Assump- tion, Canada, abont twenty-four miles below Montreal. He went up the river about ten years before I did. I first saw him at Ft. Pierre. He came here to Sioux City about two years before I sold to Dr. Cook. L. D. Le- tillier came up the Missouri river abont ten years after I did. Letillier was living with me when I sold to Dr. Cook. He had been living with me about six months. He was a single man then. O'Dillon Lamereanx and Clement Lamereaux came from Canada about fifteen years after I did. Clement stayed with me some time. O'Dillon Lamereaux married one of Bruguier's daughters, Rose. She is now liv- ing as the wife of old man Dubois at Sloan.
JOSEPHI LIONAIS. APRIL 20, 1898.
I lived on the levee here in Sioux City forty- four years ago. I got a barrel of whiskey at Council Bluffs ; there was a whole lot of Sioux Indians in my cabin. I sold the whisky to the Indians for furs ; at first it was pure whisky. There were about forty or fifty Indians; then, when they felt pretty good, I commenced to fill it up with water. They kept drinking and as fast as they drank, I filled it up with more water. After they got pretty full they could not tell the difference between the whisky and water; it went pretty fast till I got all their furs. When I got through selling it was pretty much all water. I got about $200 worth of furs ; the whiskey cost me about eighteen cents a gallon. I finally traded the balance of the whisky for a pony, and got $60 for the pony.
I had trouble with the Indiaus a good many times, but I had to show myself brave or they would have killed me. If a white man shows that he is afraid of an Indian he is sure to get killed, but if he walks right out to them, and isn't afraid, they will run. The Indians have pulled their arrows to shoot at me sometimes, but I stood up to them and they quit. I loaded my gun right before them, to let them know I was ready to shoot.
Fort Vermilion, where the trading posts used to be, was about fifteen miles this side of the town of Vermilion on the Dakota side of the river; it was a small place; three or four houses. William Dixon was the trader; he worked for the Chouteau Company. T. Bruen- ier was the next one there. Just below Council Bluffs was another trading post belonging to Chouteau, but Sarpie was the head man there. A man by the name of LeClaire was trading for himself at the mouth of the Niobrara river. The next one was old Fort Pierre. Honore Pi- cotte was there; that was the largest one there was in that part of the country. The next one was a little below where Bismarck now is, Ft. Leerie: there was an Indian tribe by that
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name. This was where the Mandan Indians were.
Sergeant Floyd's grave here in Sioux City was well known when I first came up the river. I don't know that there was any post put up; the path went right by it.
Fort Lapenter was up on the Yellowstone; the first time I went up the river I went from Pierre up the Yellowstone. I chopped wood. There was a fort called Yellowstone Fort. Was there two years; stayed there all winter and came back in the spring. There were two of us, a Spaniard and myself. This Spaniard was Mirable; he lived here in Sioux City afterward. George Tack- ett came up the river after I did. Perry, the one Perry ereek was named after, was living on Perry creek before I bought my house of Bruguier. Bruguier frightened Perry out of the country; he got the Indians to scare him, and Perry had a horse and he rigged up a wagon of poles and hauled his stuff out of the country ; went south in the month of Septem- ber; that was before I built my house. Perry gave me his shanty. Perry's home was on the other side of Perry creek. Theophile Heggi, when he came to Sioux City lived right close to where Perry's house was. I made a shed of Perry's house for a storeroom for furs, and when I built my house I moved it down to my house, and made a granary out of it. Perry lived here only about a year and a half. Perry was an eceentric, excitable fellow easily fright- ened. I never heard of him afterward.
The foregoing is as related by Lionais him- self. He was unable to read or write, and his dates are not always to be relied on, as he named no years, but spoke relatively of the number of years before or after certain events. and as in the case of meeting William Thomp- son at Floyd's Bluff, he is evidently confused as to which trip he stopped there.
Leonais' name was spelled in numberless ways by others in the various transactions when required to be written. As Leonais said by
other Frenchmen to be correct, it was also writ- ten Leonais, Liona, Lyonat.
He served in the army in Company D, First Battalion Dakota Volunteer Cavalry, and drew a pension in the name of Joseph Lyonnais.
He was a short, well proportioned man, ac- tive, and, as natural in his early mode of life, was in the habit of going on occasional sprees, when he made things lively, but in his later years, after he sold his remaining interest in Floyd City east, the Floyd where the Cudahy Pack- ing House is located, to N. Desparois, for an annuity of $60 a month, he became a conserva- tive and husbanded his health and his money, but would not buy real estate, as he had a horror of paying taxes, induced no doubt by his experience in keeping up his taxes on his land before that, as he never was much of a farmer, and had always been rather poor.
Joseph Leonais married a daughter of Louis Menard, a French employe of the American Fur Company, who had married an Indian wife and made his home at Fort Pierre. This Louis Menard seems to have been something of a character, unless there was another of the same name up the river; he was an old voyageur, had been with Fremont in his trip to the Rocky Mountains in 1842 and to Oregon and California in 1843 and 1844. He was with Charles Larpenteur, the trader, at the mouth of Niobrara in 1852 and 1853.
He had three sons and three daughters: 1st, Rosalie Menard married Joseph Leonnais about 1831 and came to Sioux City ; 2d, his daughter Amelia married Charles Rulo, one of the early settlers of Sioux City, and the founder of Rulo, Nebraska. Mrs. Rulo is yet alive; her hus- band died and she remarried; she has been known as Missouri Timber, now Amelia Spider. She had eleven children and numerous grand- children.
Eli Bedard, one of Sioux City's early set- tlers, one of the men who platted East Sioux City, married the third daughter, Sophia Men- ard, who lived with Joseph Leonnais the winter
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of 1854 and 1855. They moved to Rulo, Ne- his claim or right to land after the government braska, where he died in 1866, and had several children ; his wife died before him. 4th. His son, Louis Menard, was at Sioux City in early days and was living at Rosebud Agency a few years ago; he had four children.
5th. Son, Leon Menard, died at Rosebud Ageney about 1882.
6th. Son, George Menard, died single about 1888.
1st, Joseph and Rosalie Leonnais had four children, the eldest, Joseph, born May 19, 1853, has lived mostly in Sioux City, and yet re- sides there; is single, and much resembles his father.
2d, Daughter Josephine, lives in Sioux City ; she married Louis O. Parent, they had six children : Josephine, Rose, Willie, Villery, An- drew and Arthur. Many of them are now living in Sioux City.
3d, A daughter, Rosalie, born probably about 1858, married Alex Charboneaux ; they went to Cheyenne, Indian Agency, and then to Rose- bud Ageney, where she died about 1893; they had four children.
4th, Son William, born about 1861, lived to be about 25 years old and died single in San Antonio, Texas.
The mother, Rosalie, died soon after the birth of William and was buried on the top of the hill southeast of Floyd monument, where other graves are located. Joseph Leonnais died in Sioux City May 25, 1900, and was buried in Mount Calvary Cemetery.
The descendants of Louis Menard and his squaw wife have been numerous and they seem to have been inelined to keep up their affilia- tions with the Indians, as his grandehildren and great grandchildren have many of them re- sided with the Indians for a time and attended their schools. He died at Rulo, Nebraska.
Joseph Leonnais cultivated his field during the vears 1852, 1853 and 1854, which was located about between what is now Pierce street and Perry creek, south of Seventh street, and
survey was the southwest quarter of section 28, bounded on the north by Seventh street, on the east by Jones street, on the south by the Missouri river, and on the west by seo tion line which followed very nearly the line of Perry creek, erossing it several times.
He built a log house in part out of some logs that T. Bruguier had thrown together near the mouth of Perry creek, and this remained for several years after he sold to Dr. Cook in the spring of 1855, and was for some time the chief hotel and only stopping place. Hle bought the ground and platted Floyd City, sold most of it, but kept the part east of the Floyd river and built a house on the cast line just south of Leech street, where after he returned from Rulo, Nebraska, he lived for many years, doing a little farming till he sold to Narcesse DeSpar- ois about 1885, for an annuity.
He then bought a small house on the bank of the Missouri river in East Sioux City near the foot of Court street, where he lived till he died. He was a familiar sight on the streets for many years.
We have endeavored to name all the early French settlers, as they were in the beginning a prominent feature in our early history, though they were soon overshadowed by the great influx of Americans and other nationali- ties that soon followed. From previous habits many of them were not qualified to contest for material prosperity with their better educated white competitors and many of them departed, but a prominent capable few remained and had an important part in our growth and many more have come in and now Woodbury county has a large number of worthy French citizens.
A brief summary of the Government Land Surveys will be of interest to many and we de- seribe them here.
The United States Government surveys in the county commeneed with the surveying the correction line between townships 88 and 89, from the east to west, ending at the Missouri
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river, which was done from August 4 to 15, Ruth, as one of the chainmen, and George W. 1849, and on this survey the section and quar- Chamberlain, as flagman, all of whom settled here, subdivided township 89, ranges 46 and 47, which included Concord township and most of what is now Sioux City. This was done com- mencing May 24 and ending July 12, 1854. ter section corners for starting the new base for the subdivisions north were set. This was done by James M. Marsh, Department Sur- veyor. William Cook, who has written con- siderable on early Iowa history, was one of the chainmen.
The running the township lines south of the correction line that is south of the north tier of townships in the county was done by Alex- ander Anderson, Deputy Surveyor, of Du- buque, commencing at the sonth line of the county August 6, 1851, and working north un- til December, and commencing March 29, 1852, and ending in April, and Alexander An- derson, Deputy Surveyor, ran the township lines in township 89 from August 4 to August 15, 1853. Leonard Bates, an early settler, was one of the markers in this survey.
The subdivision of the townships into sec- tions commenced with this same Deputy United States Surveyor, Alexander Anderson, of Du- buque, in the southern part of the county, com- mencing October 3, 1852, and ending in De- cember. He surveyed townships 86, 87 and 88, ranges 46, 47 and 48. This embraced the present townships of Sloan, Lakeport, Grange, Liberty, Floyd, Woodbury with the piece of Sioux City that is below the correction line.
James Seevers and Silas Sawyer, survey- ors, commencing April 6, 1853, and ending April 21, 1853, subdivided into sections town- ships 86, 87 and 88, range 45, comprising the present townships of Willow, Westfork and Moville.
John W. Ross, Deputy United States Sur- veyor, commencing February 5, 1853, and end- ing May 10, 1853, subdivided into sections townships 86, 87 and 88, ranges 43 and 44, comprising the present townships of Little Sioux, Oto, Grant, Miller, Wolf Creek and Kedron.
John K. Cook, as United States Surveyor, and Samuel F. Watts as Deputy, with Samuel
J. L. Sharp, as Deputy Surveyor, subdivided township 89, range 48, the west part of Sioux City, from April 27 to May 4, 1854.
Henry Allen, Surveyor, subdivided town- ship 89, range 42, Union township, between July 3 and July 16, 1854, and subdivided township 89, ranges 44 and 45, between April 20 and May 23, 1855. These now are Arling- ton and Banner townships.
David Ferguson, Surveyor, subdivided township 89, range 43, being Rutland town- ship, from May 1, to May 5, 1854. Elijah Pearson was axman in this survey. He may have been a relative of Moses H. Pearson, after whom the stream and town there were named.
John P. Brown, Surveyor, subdivided town- ships 86, 87 and 88, range 42, between October 21 and November 10, 1855, now being Liston, Morgan and Rock townships.
These surveyors attempted to note on the maps made, and their field notes, things of im- portance, as the roads and settlements, and at the end of each township survey they made some general comments, as, for instance, in one township near the center of the county, re- marked it would never be settled owing to the lack of timber.
Roads are marked or described.
In the survey of township 86, range 44, Lit- tle Sioux township, a road is marked running on the west side of the Sioux from Smith's house, marked about the center of the north- east quarter of section 23, then south, forking and going southeast and crossing the south township line on section 32, and the notes say this road is a mere wagon track, and branches in a great many directions as it approaches the settlement. This road led southwest to
PAST AND PRESENT OF WOODBURY COUNTY
Ashton in Monona county probably, and from a line marked "trail" goes northeast across there it followed the main trail to Council Bluffs.
The notes further say of this township that "Smith's improvements on the northeast quar- ter of section 23 is three aeres under fence and log cabin." This is the only house marked on the plat, but it says that the other "im- provements in the township consist of Lamb's farm in the southeast quarter, section 14, log house, five aeres under fence-Lee's farmi of section 26, log house, four aeres under fence -- White's farm, southeast quarter, four aeres under fence." This was in February, 1853.
At the west end of the county the road com- ing from Council Bluffs to the Big Sioux is marked and named on each township plat gen- erally as the "Floyd's Bluff road" up to that bluff, and above there is marked or called "road from Floyd's Bluff to Ferry on the Sioux." It came across the south line of the county in Sloan township in the south line of southwest quarter of section 32 and ran north- west and across section 19, into Lakeport town- ship, and then about west to Sand Hill lake, and up along the east bank of this lake and out of the township just west of the corner of sec- tions 2 and 3 into Liberty township, and going north through this and out on the north line on line between sections 5 and 6, having bowed to the west as it came through the township, going through Woodbury township, along west of the bluff, and crossing into township 88, range 48, about half way up the line, and end- ing at Floyd's Bluff, and then above it, it is marked as crossing the Floyd at the foot of Sawyer's Bluff onto the island, or where the Armour Packing Plant now stands, and up through Floyd City, and then came close to the Missouri river bank above the mouth of the Floyd, and up across Perry creek about Ninth street, and then southwest till it came to about where the Riverside car line runs, and then on about that line to the Sioux.
Just west of Perry Creek this road forks and
Perry creek and over to the Floyd, about where we have described the buffalo trail as going.
There is also marked, without a name, a road going from the Floyd a short distance southeast, just south of Greenville.
On these plats no houses are marked south of Sergeants Bluff, in most cases the notes saying there were no settlements.
On the maps of township 88, ranges 47 and 48, Floyd's grave is marked, and Thompson's house is located near the river on Government lot 8, the one the monument is located in, and south of this line marks like squares are made to indicate blocks, and it is marked "Floyd's Bluff," and the location of the grave and Thompson's house are designated in field notes at specifie distances and directions from a given corner. Surveyor Anderson says "This is a valuable fraction ; town of Floyd's Bluff is the first point on the Missouri river for 250 miles where Bluff comes to river, land good, and all claimed in northern part, and will sell."
And he also said the year before (1851), when running the township line, that "Ser- geants Bluff ou section 1 is the first point above St. Joe, Missouri, where the Missouri river comes to the bluff, well situated for a town. Must always be a point of some note, about six miles below mouth of Big Sioux, all the town site in Iowa on Missouri river."
So even the pioneer surveyor was inspired by Bill Thompson's large hopes and was prophesy- ing a town there. He missed his calculations by a very few miles only. He had not then, perhaps, been up across the Floyd, as he did not survey that township.
He marked, in the spring of 1852, Charles Rulo's, Franeis La Charity's and Jo Span- iard's houses, and marks a house with no name where Traversies was located, and on the river bank on section 25 marks a house as "Black- foot's."
In township 89, range 47, Sioux City, a house and small cultivated field are marked at
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the Floyd crossing, where Gallerneaux lived, emption by actual settlers, but not to private and a house and cultivated field are shown just entry until proper notice. So considerable time elapsed before it could be entered for eash or by location of military Bounty Land Warrants. The first entries of land in Wood- bury county were in 1854, and these mostly by actual settlers. east of the month of Perry creek, marked Joseph Yanna's (Leonnais), and he says that there is a house on sonth half of southeast quar- ter, seetion 27, which must have been Hiram Nelson's in Central Sioux City, as Gibson Bates, who was there in 1854 speaks of a sod shanty in about that location.
There is also marked on this plat a small cultivated field about where Greenville lies along Bacon creek. This may have been on the claim Henry Hivon and Charles Rondean sold to Moses W. Bacon in 1856. They kept a ferry over the Floyd, and east of there about east of Greenville in the southwest corner of section 26 a spot is marked "Indian graves."
On the survey of the fractional township at Riverside in the bend of the Sioux to the west, just below the bridge, a eultivated field is shown, in area of twenty-five to thirty aeres, and another larger one is shown about where the fair ground now is, and just southeast of this, where the old Brugnier's house now stands, it is marked in three or four rows to represent houses or tents, and the field notes when run- ning the meander line along the Sioux, on com- ing to this point say, "There were fifteen French and Indian houses on Sionx river." This was in April, 1854, but this surveyor did not mark in the plat the houses or name the settlers in his field notes as the other survey- ors had done.
It thus appears that the Government sur- veying was in progress from 1849 to 1855, in- clusive, except the year 1850.
After these surveyors had completed their work, plats were made of each township, and in the course of from three to six months copies of these maps were sent from the Surveyor- General's office at Dubuque, Iowa, to the Gen- eral Land Office at Washington, and in due time these plats, with proper instructions, were sent to the loeal land offiees then at Council Bluffs, and the land beeame subjeet to pre-
The Indians were here before the French settlers, but with the advent of the latter, with their squaw wives, the aborigines naturally congregated around them, and though more or less migratory, had their eamps near their white friends and continued numerous for many years.
Early in the winter of 1854 a party of Sioux went as far south as the Little Sionx river in Harrison county in search of a party of Oma- has, with whom they were then at war. The Omahas still continuing to come over on the Iowa side of the Missouri river, they killed four Omahas and stole their ponies. A party of Omahas started in pursuit and came to Lar- penteur's place, and, taking it for granted his squaw wife was a Sioux, because she came from up the river, killed her, she understanding, the instant she saw them coming, that it meant death to her. They offered no violence to any one else. About that time some Indians were trading with Traversie at his place, just below Floyd's grave. They were not Omahas; at any rate, War Eagle's band, camped up at the mouth of the Big Sioux at Bruguier's, were hostile to them, and they crossed the Missouri into Nebraska and then erossed baek into Iowa just below Traversie's, and made an attack on the Indians trading there, who went out, and they exchanged shots in the timber all night, and finally got up the river a little ways on op- posite sides of the ravine just north of the Floyd's grave and faced each other for two days, no one being hurt, till finally the trading party got away in the night and went up the Floyd.
This was probably the last battle between Indians in this vieinity. It occurred soon after
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Thomas L. Griffey helped organize the county, and he and William Thompson were at Trav- ersie's when the attack was made.
The high bluff just below Thompson's was a sort of burying ground for the Indians, as in the fall of 1854 they would often about dusk come up under this bluff, holding a sort of pow wow in order to drive away the bad spir- its from the dead, who were buried on high scaffolds about there.
Mr. Herman D. Clark eame to look at this country in May, 1855, and stopped with Bill Thompson at first and narrates that one day he started to go to Sioux City, but before he got as far as the Floyd he went to the edge of the bluff and looked over into Nebraska, and right under the bluff on the Iowa side was a party of about fifteen Pawnee bueks having a scalp dance. The scalps were up on poles eight or ten feet high, and they were beating their tom-toms and dancing around, having a wild time. They had taken these scalps over in Nebraska and had not stopped until they got safely aeross the river. Being a stranger to the party and the country, Mr. Clark did not in- trude, and, quietly withdrawing, postponed his visit to the new metropolis, Sioux City.
That summer of 1855 there was an Indian eamp between Charles Rulo's house and the river, and C. R. Woodford, now living, who was then a boy just arrived in this country, was ae- customed on Sundays to go up there with his only playmate, Chaska Sioux, an Indian boy, who lived with T. Ellwood Clark, and play with the Sioux Indian boys; they would all go in swimming together and the Indian boys would throw mud at the white skin of the Woodford boy, but at the advice of Chaska he took it all in good part. He recollects that Charles Rulo used occasionally to get intoxicated, and always when in his eups would say, "Big man me, Charles Rulo, eat half a hog and swim Mis- souri river before breakfast."
the manner of Indians treating their sick or dis- abled ones was one time, probably in the spring of '56, when I was on my way to Smithland from Sergeants Bluffs; as night overtook me I struck a fresh Indian trail that led to a small grove of timber in the bluffs, where I found a camp of Indians hunting dueks on the bot- tom near the mouth of Wolf creek. When I got to their eamp I found Sam Watts, who had just got there from the opposite direction ; we eoneluded to stop with them until morning. They gave us boiled corn and duek for supper, and after supper the bueks all left the tent. One of them had sprained his ankle, and they had dug a pit about three feet deep, then built a fire and heated several rocks, then threw the roek in the pit, and after seating the Indian on a frame of willows over the pit, they threw water on the stones, covered him all over with blankets, nearly suffocating him, in order to steam his ankle; then they formed a cirele, fol- lowing one another around, beating drums, pans and other things and yelling as only sav- ages can to drive away the bad spirits. Watts and I were told to stay in the tent with the squaws. As we did not know what they were doing, Watts went to the door of the tent and pulled the curtain to one side to look out, but the squaw soon drove him back-"Minnehoska" was spoiling the charm. However, in the morn- ing before we left we saw the means they had used to relieve the strain, or sprain. Why they thought it necessary to steam the whole body, not leaving a hole for him to breathe through, is something I could not understand, but the squaw made Watts understand he was not to peek.
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