USA > Iowa > Woodbury County > Sioux City > Past and present of Sioux City and Woodbury County, Iowa > Part 67
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The petition is found in the minute book of the county judge, and reads as follows :
Page 9.
To the Honorable Orrin B. Smith, County Judge of Woodbury county :- We, the under- signed voters of Woodbury county, ask an order for the election of the qualified voters of said county on the first Monday of April, A. D.
-
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1855, to elect whether the seat of justice of said county shall or shall not be removed from Sergeants Bluffs to Sergeants Bluffs City. W. II. James A. S. Dutton
John B. Pearee
M. Townsley
William Turman
Hiram Salow
Morris L. Jones
Curtis Lamb
J. Sherwood
John Samuels
A. Arnell J. P. Sherman
John H. Simons
Stephen Leroy
James Martin
George M. Mills
P. Lapplant
J. D. M. Crockwell
S. F. Watts Samuel Peck
T. Elwood Clark
John W. Brown
Leonard Bates
Charles Rulo
H. Breckenridge B. Woren
It contains the names presumably of most of the early settlers, and was probably cireu- lated so early in the year that there were only a very few of the Sioux City promoters then at that place, and some contended that this pe- tition was never granted by the county judge, as there is no other record of it, except this petition.
There does not appear to have been any act performed at Sergeants Bluffs City. When the first term of District Court was held, Sep- tember 3, 1855, it did not convene at Sergeants Bluffs City, as it would have done had it been the county seat, and early in 1856, before the removal of the county seat to Sioux City, the county judge held the session of the county court there, because there was no proper plaee at the county seat, which could not truthfully be said of Sergeants Bluffs City, unless the judge himself was prejudiced and wished to create a public sentiment in favor of the then contemplated petition to move it to Sioux City.
To illustrate the way people were living in 1854, it will be of interest to quote from an interview with Mr. Gibson Bates, who came here that year, a young man of twenty years, and is yet residing in the county, a prosperous and successful farmer.
"I came from Greene county, Iowa, to Wood- bury county in August, 1854, to visit my brother, Leonard Bates, who was already here. I came on a pony by way of Council Bluffs and up the Missouri bottom. The first stop I made in Woodbury county was at an Indian tepee just a short distance south of where August Traversie lived. There was an old buek and squaw there, and inquired the way to where my brother was. They could not understand, but pointed up north. They had supper ready, and as I started to go the old buek stopped me and said, no, I must stay to supper. They seemed to think because I was a white man I must sit down to their table. They had a sort of biseuit made of flour and water, and a little tea. I shall always recol- leet the tea. They would not sit down with me; I must eat first. I asked them where Traversie lived, and they pointed up the road. When I got to Traversie's I inquired where my brother was, and they pointed east with their finger to where Townsley lived, which was near by. Traversie's wife was a squaw. They had several children around there, and their yard was full of Indians and squaws. I do not know who they all belonged to. Under the circumstances I did not inquire.
I went to Townsley's and found my brother there and his wife and daughter. The next night there was a dance at Traversie's; they wanted I should go down and see it, and I was anxious to go and see how they performed, as I had never seen them dance. Traversie had a double log house with a kind of entry be- tween, an open room or place in the center, with a house at each end. I ean recollect some of the persons who were there. Traversie, of course, was one. Bill Thompson, and later in the evening Charles Thompson, his brother, George W. Chamberlain, Dr. F. B. Wixon, a single man then, and a dark looking fellow by the name of Richard E. Rowe. There were in all about six or seven white men. I think Hiram Nelson was there also. These young
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Americans were all up there to see the sport, and there were several Frenchmen, besides the Indians.
The dance would go on for about fifteen minutes, a couple of runs up and down the room, then a circle or two by the Indians, while we Americans looked on. They had no music, just kept singing "How, How, How." After they had danced for some time, Traversie got his bottle of whiskey out, and was passing it around. When about half way round, Rowe, who was a big heavy fellow, who had a little half-pint bottle of whiskey in his pocket, could not wait until all the Indians had drunk out of the bottle, so he took his bottle out of his pocket, took a drink on the sly and slipped it back. Some one saw him and told Tra- versie. This act of Rowe's was contrary to frontier French and Indian etiquette, and was as much as saying he would not drink with Traversie.
Traversie was angry in an instant, and came jumping across to where Rowe stood, striking his hands together at every step, and talking loud, ready to fight Rowe. Bill Thompson at once stepped up beside Traversie, jumping up and striking his heels together and swear- ing. Every one was scared. Some ran under the bed, and anywhere they could get. We went across the room and expected to see a fight, and all flew out the door. After I got out I got up the side of the house. It was my first experience in that kind of a mixed com- pany. Thompson had killed a man not long before that. They were all afraid of him; but they gathered together around him, it soon subsided, and they went back to dancing. ] advised the boys not to take any more private drinks out of their bottles. They kept up the dancing until daylight, but we white people left at midnight.
Sioux City had not then been talked of. The next day after the dance I went up with some of the boys to see the country, the same ones went with me who were at the dance the
night before. Bill Thompson's house was the county seat, and he and his brother lived in that one, and the other boys, Rowe, Chamber- lain and Wixon, "batched" in the house south, which I think was Charles Thompson's house. I went past Floyd's grave. It was then pretty close to the river bank. I took my knife and split off a piece of the post. I then went up and along and across the Floyd. Some French- men had a boat there. The next place I went to was Jo Leonnais' house, near the mouth of Perry Creek, and I found Jo Leonnais and his wife there, but no other white man. It is my recollection that before we reached Leon- nais' house there were two sod cabins, one was close to the river some ways east from Leon- nais'.
I went on, crossing Perry Creek somewhere above where Seventh street now is and then turned back. I went south upon Prospect Hill. On the side of the hill was a dead squaw wrapped in blankets in the branches of a tree, and there were some fifteen or twenty dead In- dians besides, upon poles, some clear up on the highest point of Prospect Hill.
We then went on to Bruguier's place, and got there about dinner time; there were six of us. Bruguier was at home, there were at least two squaws, and some boys, halfbreeds, about there. The dinner was set out in the middle of a dirt floor, and our boys jumped up and sat down in the dirt. The dinner was in a big kettle. It was some kind of soup. The boys with me tried to scare me by saying it was dog soup. I do not know what it was made of. I have never cared much for soup since. They dished it out in a big wooden ladle, and then ate it out of the ladle with big wooden spoons. I hesitated about sitting down, but I had to do as the rest did. The spoon was so large it would almost stick in your mouth.
I then went up the Sioux and out onto an island near where the Sioux bridge stands, and went to a house near the bluff. Paul Pa-
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quette lived there. They started a dance that night, but it was not like the Indian dance I attended the night before, and they did not have a fight. Bill Thompson's was Frenchmen and Indians, but this was a French dance, and not an Indian one. We white men did not dance, but just looked on. We stayed there all night and slept on the ground, and the next day went back to Townsley's. Hiram Nelson married Julia Townsley after that.
I helped my brother build his own house just north of what is now Sergeants Bluffs, south of J. Y. Kennedy's house, and I helped my brother build a house for Dr. J. D. M. Crockwell. There were the first and only houses in Sergeants Bluffs then.
I went back to Greene county that fall, and in February, 1855, my brother and I started baek with our brothers and sisters, three boys and two girls. Four of ns are yet living. We eame by way of Ida Grove, where we eamped over night, and were suddenly surrounded by Indians, who proved to be friendly, and de- parted as suddenly as they came, shouting "How, How, How."
We came through Smithland, where there were two or three houses. We moved into my brother's house. I took a piece of land which I still own. By the spring of 1855 Sioux City had started, and the rivalry between the two towns commenced. Before I left in the fall of 1854 they had started to survey the town of Sergeants Bluffs."
To further illustrate the condition of the country in 1854 and 1855, we will quote from another old settler yet living, Mr. George Mur- phy, of Sioux City, who started from Dubuque, Iowa, with a companion named John Leavitt, with a single horse and buggy, to drive to the Missouri river. "We thought that sometime there would be a railroad from the east to this river, so we went to see the country. We took a rifle along to shoot game; we took the mili- tary trail to Ft. Dodge. There we saw Gover- nor Carpenter, who told us there was a trail
for six miles as far as the Lizzard, which we took, but that there was no trail after that. We camped at Twin Lakes that night, then pushed on to Coon river, where we managed to get across by getting into the stream, and then going down and finding a place to get out, after taking the horse from the buggy and removing the wheels. At Boyer river we had to do pretty much the same thing. We came to the Maple river and crossed two or three little streams. We went to Ida Grove, but there was nothing but a grove there then, turned northwest and went to where Correc- tionville is now. Before night I got my rifle and shot some turkeys for supper. The Sioux was too high to cross, so we went back on the Divide. We met on the prairie O. Plato, the first white man we had seen since we left Ft. Dodge. He is still living. There were two others, but I have forgotten their names. Ile told us about O. B. Smith and Eli Lee who lived at what is now Smithland. We went down the Sioux but found no one to take us across at first, and the mosquitoes nearly ate myself and horse up. Eli Lee then came aeross in a skiff and we found a rope stretched aeross the stream, and by this means we got our horse and buggy over. The same day we went about three miles south to Seth Smith's in Monona county. This land had just come into market at Council Bluffs and most of the settlers had gone there to pre-empt or enter their land.
"We went on down to Ashton, in Monona county. Then we went north from Ashton, and the next family we found was named Driggs, living on the bank of Silver Lake in Monona eounty, and about five miles above Ashton.
"The next house I came to was that of John Brown, on the bank of Sand Hill lake, that had been built there that summer. From Brown's house west I could see a house which T. Bru- guier had built on a elaim.
"The next house by the road was built about
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two miles from Brown's by John M. Cloud, a son-in-law of Marshall Townsley. He after- wards tried to lay out part of his half section into town lots, and called it New Buffalo. I found his door locked; he had gone to Council Bluffs to attend the land sales. His wife had gone up to her father's. I met her later.
"The next house I came to was the one Len Bates and his brother had built for J. D. M. Crockwell in Sergeants Bluffs. It was get- ting night then and we drove up to Traversie's ; he told us he could not accommodate us, but sent us to Judge Townsley's, east. I spent about a week there, Judge Townsley being in Council Bluffs attending the land sales and get- ting a supply of provisions. Until the judge got home from this trip there was no bread at any of the families where we stopped. They used corn meal ground in large sized coffee mills. While I was there I met Hiram Nel- son, who then made his home with Judge Townsley's family, also Dr. Wixon, who lived with Traversie.
"We drove up to Thompson Town and met Bill Thompson and his brother Charles. Charles Thompson married a sister of the Bates boys. We then went up to the cross- ing of the Floyd where Gallerneaux lived. The water was high and we had no boat. We did not come any nearer Sioux City. We were in the same condition as Moses was. We saw the promised land.
"While stopping at Gallerneanx', Mr. Leavitt saw some dried herbs hanging from the rafters of his house, and commenced to handle them, at which the squaw set up a terrible howl, as we understood, because the white man, "Minne- hoska," touched or defiled them, and destroyed all their medicinal qualities for the Indians.
tended the land sales, and entered the town site and some other land. The Bates boys had just finished building the house. They had split small sized trees for the roof, then cov- ered it with hay, then several inches of dirt on top of the hay. The doctor had got plenty of muslin and had the inside under the roof and the sides lined. He had a puncheon floor.
"The doctor had brought a good supply of provisions, and we found better eating there than at most places. Mr. Clark was camping near Dr. Crockwell's while he was building his own house. Dr. Crockwell wanted to sell us an interest in his townsite, and tried to sell us lots, but I thought his town was too far from the river. Thompson had also wanted to sell us some lots, but I thought from what I had seen up the river that what is the pres- ent site of Sioux City was the best of any of them.
"There were other houses in the vicinity of Traversie's, back from the road. There was one place across the road from Traversie's, east, where they sold liquor, a sort of a saloon. The houses south of Traversie's were west of the road toward the river.
"I spent ten days in that vicinity, and as it was getting late in October, and there being no good, comfortable place to stay, we concluded to go back to Anamosa, and went by way of Council Bluffs.
"I came back to this county in April, 1855, and followed the same route that I did before, but west of Ft. Dodge there was no trail, noth- ing to show a white man had ever erossed the country, except that I saw on the Maple a jug which someone had thrown away.
"Old man Benner, father of the Benner boys, who opened a hotel in Sioux City, rented the Brown farm that year of 1855, and kept a hotel and stage station. I was told the fol- lowing story by Mr. Brown about something that had happened the winter before:
"We were disappointed that we were not able to go up the Sioux to see Bruguier. Sioux City was not then born even in name. We went down to Sergeants Bluffs and found Dr. Crockwell and T. Ellwood Clark had just ar- "In the fall of '54 a little incident befell rived from Council Bluffs where they had at- Brown. One evening he told his family he was
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going out to look for some cattle that were feed- ing on his eorn stalks in his field, taking with him nothing but a sheath knife he had, and a shotgun loaded with duckshot. Ile tied one of his horses near his house, and took the other one and went to look after his cattle. His cattle were all right, and as he saw a deer near by he shot at it, and of course with the small shot he had he could not kill it, but the deer bled profusely, so he tied his horse to some trees, and followed the deer by its bloody tracks. All of a sudden he saw two mountain tigers, or cougars, a male and a female. He was not protected in the way of firearms, having only his shotgun, and he dared not fire on them. They did not rush at him im- mediately, but crouched elose to the ground waving their tails, and creeping closer and eloser to him. He of course backed off, and thought if he could get to the eattle, they would proteet him, and the congars would leave. He tried to divert their attention from himself and turn them off after the deer. He would throw a shoe, then a hat, then his eoat, but it was of no avail. In running toward the cattle he had lost his sheath knife and was almost un- protected, except for his shotgun. When he reached his cattle he found that instead of be- ing a protection to him they all made a rush and left him alone, being afraid of the cou- gars, too.
"His only hope now lay in getting to Bru- guier's empty house, which was still some dis- tance away. He made the house all right, and elimbed to the roof, as the Bruguiers were not at home and he could not get in. He was safe for a while, so he set up a mighty vell, velling as lond as he could. His wife heard him about three-quarters of a mile away, and knew some- thing was wrong, so she jumped on the horse that was tied by the door, and made a wild run toward his calls, without bridle or saddle, just a halter on the horse, and coming up, took in the situation. The rush of the horse and the yelling of both of them frightened the
cougars, and they fled. Then Brown fired his gun at them. He jumped on behind his wife, and they rode home together thankful to be alive." Mr. Murphy goes on :
"I might follow this story up with another story of an incident that happened at Brown's place when old man Benner lived there in 1835, and which I witnessed: Benner had three voke of oxen, as he had a contract to break up considerable ground, and a wagon; in addition to these cattle he also had some young eattle and in the fall of the year he put up enough hay for feed, so they could winter in the tim- ber. One evening he told the boys he was go- ing to the timber to look after his cattle, and he wanted to ride old Ned. No anxiety was felt on his account. I happened to be there myself that evening, and the first thing we knew, someone, on looking toward Bruguier's house, saw the old man on Ned come flying toward his house. He had lost his hat, his shirt had worked above his pants and was fly- ing in the air, his long hair was flying in the wind, and altogether he was a most wild look- ing man ; he sat on his horse digging his heels into her sides, jumping up and down on her baek, at every leap. I never saw a sight that made more of an impression on me than that did, his wild looks and his digging his heels into old Ned. He said the cougars had pretty nearly got him that time; they had followed him out of the timber and then went baek, but he was as frightened as though they were still on his track."
The colony at the Little Sioux increased somewhat in 1855. Early that year the county was divided into two townships. All that part east of the center of the west fork of the Little Sioux river was made Little Sioux township, and the part west of this stream renamed Ser- geants Bluffs township. The following officers were elected: Morris L. Jones, justice of the peace : C. A. Cobb, constable; M. D. Metcalf, assessor : William Turman, James McDonald and Wendal Metealf, township trustees, and J.
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B. Day, township clerk. Three of these, Cobb, M. D. Metealf and Day, were comparatively new comers, probably arriving during the pre- ceding winter, and in August that year other new arrivals were elected to office, John Howe, E. F. Petty, A. Jones and T. Davis. Albert Jones came in February of that year, he was a brother of M. L. Jones, went to Pike's Peak in 1859 and returned to Smithland in 1884.
Petty was reputed to be not a very enter- prising citizen, fishing and tanning buckskin being his chief employments.
R. C. II. Noel came that year. He ran for county judge that year; had been appointed prosecuting attorney. He was highly educat- ed and a lawyer by profession, but a man of very little energy. He soon went to White Cloud, Minn.
There was also a Truman E. Howe, who, with others, was a petitioner for a county road that year from Correction Grove down the west side of the Little Sioux to the county line.
John Coonly came in that year probably.
The first store was started that year in Smithland by Howe Bros., Jolin and Truman E. They came from Massachusetts.
Smithland had become a town in name, and a school was started there that year with Miss Hanna Van Dorn as teacher, and a postoffice was established either late that year or early the next year with Orrin B. Smith as the first postmaster.
Mr. Cornelius Van Dorn came that year and settled south of Smithland.
A pair of twins arrived that year, born to Edwin M. Smith. One of these soon died, it being the first birth and death in the valley.
That year Morris Metcalf, a new comer, married Malinda Hatch.
This was a year of great expectations in this colony and some increasing. Many persons came to look at the valley with a view to settle- ment.
It was during this year that one of these travelers was robbed by another. A man by
the name of Ordway, a returned Californian, came on a land buying expedition, and stayed at the house of O. B. Smith, and Mr. Smith being away, Mrs. Smith took charge of the traveler's heavy valise, placing it at the head of his bed. On the same day, another trav- eler, Wilbur Eddy, arrived with an ox team, and was permitted to stop there, as of neces- sity they kept wayfarers. In the morning Mr. Ordway's valise, which he then said contained $3,500, was gone, and also Eddy's pair of pants, so he said. There was snow on the ground, and the stranger Eddy was suspected, as the people there knew each other. M. L. Jones and others began to investigate, and found a traek that led down to the river, and there found the valise without any money in it, and Eddy's pants tucked under some bush. Eddy soon made an excuse for hunting after his cattle, which he said had strayed, and went up the hill into the woods, but was followed by Mr. Jones, secretly, dodging to keep behind trees, who soon saw Eddy kicking snow against a hollow tree and pass on. As soon as he was out of sight, Mr. Jones examined and found the whole package of $3,500 in the tree. They arrested the man and took him to Sergeants Bluffs, but in some way he was released, no witness appearing against him.
Dr. Andrew R. McCall entered a large tract of land at Smithland and lived there many years, till his death.
Elijah Adams and Charles Parmalee came to Smithland that year, and A. Livermore and Minor Mead settled near Oto. Also Samuel R. Day, Parley Morris, Isaac C. Hall, Zalmon Livermore, Thompson Mead and Elanson Liv- ermore. These all entered land in 1855 at Oto and above there and became prominent citizens of the county.
There has been some question as to when a settlement was first made in the upper Sioux Valley about Correctionville, whether in 1855 or 1856, but it is certain that Elias Shook, with his family, settled there in 1855.
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Mr. Herman D. Clark, who came to the west end of the county in May, 1855, and lived in Sioux City many years, and is yet a large prop- erty owner here, knew him. Mr. Clark was a surveyor and land agent. He says: "The first season I was here with Elias Shook down in Thompson town. Shook and I went up the Little Sioux to Correctionville. His family was with him and he built a cabin on the east side of the Little Sioux in the timber near where Correctionville now is. Shook claimed all the timber there. Erastus and Zachariah G. Allen married Shook's two danghters. Sid- ney Shook was one of the sons. Shook came from Wisconsin. He had trouble over some of his timber claim with a young man named Pennell, who lived in a eabin near him." Pen- nell was found dead in his cabin from a gun- shot wonnd and Shook was suspected, indicted in April, 1856, and the case was taken to Harri- son county at the same time as that against Bill Thompson, but for some reason Shook was let go."
Mr. Clark further says: "Shook left after that. My partner, Cassidy, and myself had furnished the money to enter Shook's pre-emp- tion in our name on a time entry, as was then common, on a year's time, and Shook not being heard from, we sold the land ; later Shook came back and was angry at ns for selling."
The murder possibly occurred early in the spring of 1856, as Shook was in enstody for a few days at that time.
Zachariah G. Allen probably settled there about the same time as his father-in-law, Shook, as Allen was married to Harriett Shook May 5, 1855, before the trip with Mr. II. D. Clark to Correctionville that year, and Mr. Allen was appointed to organize Correctionville township. when on March 4, 1857, that township and Sioux City township were created.
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