USA > Iowa > Report of the organization and first reunion of the Tri-State Old Settlers' Association of Illinois, Missouri and Iowa, 1884 > Part 4
USA > Illinois > Report of the organization and first reunion of the Tri-State Old Settlers' Association of Illinois, Missouri and Iowa, 1884 > Part 4
USA > Missouri > Report of the organization and first reunion of the Tri-State Old Settlers' Association of Illinois, Missouri and Iowa, 1884 > Part 4
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29
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The preservation, my fellow citizens, of such a government, is the highest duty of American citizenship. You, the sovereigns of the land, have conferred upon you that constitutional right which no power can take from you-the right of the ballot; and it is for you to say whether this, the greatest blessing of this constitutional government, shall in the purity it was handed to you be transmitted to your posterity. You can transmit your estate, all your material wealth, by will or by the statute law of the State in which you reside, but you can transmit the priceless legacy of a pure and beneficent republican government only by inculcating into the minds and hearts of your children an intelligent appreciation of this form of government, and an ardent, patriotic determination to preserve it in its purity and strength at any cost, and at all hazards.
I am not, in many senses, an old settler in Missouri, and if I were to go back to my native county in Kentucky, I do not know that I would be ranked as a very old settler there ; but I have lived long enough to have some reminiscenses of the past, and there is one that occurs to me to-day that I want to put on record. I was a law student in the office of Squire Turner, of Richmond, Kentucky, one of the great lawyers of Kentucky ; a good man, and as you (addressing Judge Miller) and I know, one of the best friends a struggling young man ever had in the world. I entered his office in 1851, and after receiving from him a well-worn copy of Black- stone, which I thumbed over a good many weeks, and after reading it through carried it to him with a good deal of pride, I asked him what I should read next. "Blackstone." said he; and he made me read it through a second time; and during that period he told me of a young man that he had persuaded to leave the profession of medicine and study law. He said, "I loaned him this old copy of Blackstone and begged him to read it." That was Dr. Samuel F. Miller. [Applause.] I have never forgotten the prophecy of that old man when he told me during the days of my tutelage that of all the young men that he had ever come in contact with, either in his office or at the bar, that Samuel F. Miller was the best natural lawyer that he had ever seen ; and said he, "I will pass away and be forgotten, but you will live to see the day when he will adorn the bar and the bench as but few men have done." In verification of this prophecy, I am glad to day of the opportunity to read an extract from one of the late decisions, which in my opinion, will live as long as the ablest of the decrees and opinions of the supreme court of the United States. Said Mr. Justice Miller in one of his recent decisions upholding the rights of the people against the encroachments of the legislative power :
"It must be conceded that there are rights in every free government beyond the control of the State. A government which recognizes no such rights, which held the lives, the liberty, and the property of its citi-
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zens subject at all times to the absolute disposition and unbounded con- trol of even the most democratic depository of power, is after all but a despotism. It is true it is a despotism of the many, of the majority, if you choose to call it so, but it is none the less a despotism."
"The theory of our government, State and National, is opposed to the deposit of unlimited power anywhere. The executive; the legislative, and the judicial branches of these governments are all of limited and defined powers." 1
"There are limitations of such powers which grow out of the essential nature of all free governments, without which implied reservations of individ- ual rights, without which the social compact could not exist, which are respected by all governments, entitled to the name."
And now, my friends, I can only add in conclusion, that in honoring the pioneers, in honoring the early settlers of these great States, in look- ing with just pride at their magnificent territory and its wonderful capacities, I beg and pray you not to forget the lessons that your fathers taught you and that have come down to you through three generations, to cherish a love and admiration, aye, devotion, to your form of government and determine that no party spirit or party zeal, shall ever induce you as American citizens, to swerve from that higher and grander duty which you owe to your prosterity, namely to transmit to them that priceless legacy, a free and great republican government.
I thank you Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, my fellow citi- zens, for your gracious attention.
MUSIC-THE PROUD HAWKEYE STATE.
[Written for the Committee by Richard B. B. Wood.]
We will sing a song of greeting While a happy day is fleeting, At this grand Old Settlers' meeting, And we'll make the air resound.
CHORUS. We are all Old Settlers, We are all Old Settlers, We are all Old Sett'ers, Of the proud Hawkeye state.
We have brothers here to meet us, We have sisters here to greet us. And there's nothing to defeat us, In the joy that we feel. We are all Old Settlers, &c.
They were long and tedious hours, When we sought these western bowers,
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Grown with rude uncultured flowers In that long time ago. We are all Old Settlers &c.
Now this happy land is beaming, Bright as angels that are dreaming,
With the harvest that is teeming, On our own Hawkeye soil.
We are all Old Settlers &c.
Old Missouri stands before us, Illinois swells the chorus, While the sky is beaming o'er us, And our fair western homes.
We are all Old Settlers, &c
Then three cheers, and all together,
For the Tri-State now and ever-
Our old hearts there's none can sever, 'Neath the bright shining sun,
We are all Old Settlers, &c.
ADDRESS OF CAPT. JAS. W. CAMPBELL.
MR. PRESIDENT AND OLD SETTLERS OF ILLINOIS, MISSOURI AND IOWA :- Blackstone, the great English legal authority, has immortalized the words, lex scripta lex non scripta (the written and the unwritten law) and could the unwritten pages of history be opened up to-day, the world would be startled at the showing.
And my friends, we have met here to-day to celebrate our first Tri- State reunion, and as I have been a citizen of all three states in the days of yore, I am proud of the privilege accorded me on this important occasion, as it will be an era long to be remembered by our descendants.
Pioneers of Missouri, I desire to address you first, as Lewis county is my birthplace, and my father came to Missouri in 1820, in the employ of Maj. Kenney, who located a short distance up the Wycondah, for the pur- pose of erecting a mill. My father's first acquaintance on stepping on shore at the mouth of the Wycondah was two cub bears, as he was going to Bullock's, two miles above, for milk.
In 1823 he united in marriage with Miss Sarah White, my mother, and settled on the North Fabius, on land now owned by John Taylor. It was here in the wilderness, in our log cabin home, that I first beheld the light of day. I have no recollection of it now, for when my parents departed from it, I was still in the vigor of my infancy, and was what our nearest neighbor called a "pe-tete," a pappoose.
But in after years, from hearsay, I learned to lisp the names of Lucian and Chauncy Durkie, Dr. Frazier, Moses D. Bates, Trotter,
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Bosier, and Findley, who resided near us, and if any of their descendants are here to-day among us, in celebrating our first Tri-State Old Settlers' reunion, I will be glad to shake them by the hand before we part, as my father's acquaintance in the days of "Auld Lang Syne."
My father sold his farm to Dr. Frazier and embarked in two Indian canoes, lashed together, and floated down the Fabius to its mouth, and on his journey up the Mississippi river passed the following settlements : John Woods', now Quincy; Jacob Weavers, at Weavers' Prairie, adjoining La Grange, Missouri, on the south ; Bullock's, two miles or more above the mouth of the Wycondah; Captain Prichard's, now the lower part of Canton, Missouri; Myers', at Cottonwood prairie, now Tulley ; Hugh White's, at Rocky Point, on opposite side in Illinois ; and at what is now Warsaw he passed the remains of a stockade called Fort Johnson. situated on top of the highest part of the bluff in Illinois, and opposite and below the mouth of the Des Moines. In 1821, by direction of Major Maston, my father tore down the first and only house at the mouth of the Des Moines and floated the puncheon floor across the river to be used in the fort on the bluff.
At Puck-e-she-tuck, now Keokuk, he passed Dr. Muirs' cabin. The Clyde hotel now occupies the ground on which it stood. One and a half miles above he passed Andrew Stautamout's, at Spring Chain, situated but a few rods from where Rand Park now is, on the bluff above this beautiful city. Joseph Charpoukey was settled on the Illinois side of the river between the first and second chain of rocks. John Waggoner was an English point, two and a half. miles farther up, now called Diamond Valley. This name was given to the branch that enters the river above the Waggoner residence, by Charles Catlin, the naturalist, in 1835, while being engaged in collecting geodes for his museum in New York City. The original name, English Point, comes from the fact that a battle was fought in that locality between the French and English, possibly prior to 1803. Isaac N. Waggoner found in the river in front of his house, in 182/, a sword which was supposed to have been lost at the time of the engagement.
The next settlement was on the west side of the river, by LeMolise, a French trader, now known as Sandusky. A short distance above, on an eminence, stood Maurice Blondeau's residence, near the present concrete building erected several years ago by Judge Ballinger.
On the fifth day of our voyage we arrived at Old Quash-qua-me's old deserted village. In October, 1825, my father at once occupied a log cabin on a claim he had purchased of Hugh Wilson, embracing the upper part of the present site of Nauvoo, Illinois. This land is now owned in part by P Kimball. Thus you learn, pioneers of Hancock, that I lived with you when your present county was called Adams district.
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It was first with you that impressions of animated nature were painted on the panorama of my mind. I see now the picture of the past, the interior of a log house chinked with chips and daubed with mud, with a clapboard, door, and when it was opened, shaved heads with painted faces, red and green blankets, beads and brass rings, appeared before me. Even good old Nau-o-qua, my mother's Indian maid, rises up before me with mop-stick in hand, aiding my mother in the discharge of her house- hold cares.
As I had at this time arrived at an age when I became a personal observer, and have heretofore only depictured to you the recollections of my father, I deem it advisable, before I describe what I have seen, that I add to this narrative, to make it more perfect, the tales of my grandfather, Capt. James White, who purchased from Julian, an Indian trader, in 18 1'9, his claim and trading house, situated at the head of the lower rapids, on the east side of the Mississippi river, and extending one and a half miles above and below the trading house, and one and a half miles back to the top of the bluff, all in Madison county, Illinois, embracing all of that beautiful promontory once covered with the houses of 12,000 Latter Day Saints. Julian represented his title to be a Spanish grant, and conveyed it as such to Captain James White, who felt secure in holding his purchase and agreed with Julian that he could remain until the country began to be settled, but during this interval the trading house burned and Julian departed. Captain White erected a double log cabin a few feet above the trading house in 1823, and began at once preparing the way to occupy his new home, but before doing so it became necessary to get Quash-qua- me to vacate his village, which occupied the promontory with near a thousand lodges. This he accomplished by giving old Quash-qua-me a little sku-ti-apo and two thousand bushels of corn, which his sons, Alev.m. der and Hugh White, with Newton Price and Clinton Wagener, boated up in Mackinaw boats from his farm on the North Kate Mccann. Quash-qua-me's band crossed over the river to Wapelo'a 1 Montrose), and in the spring of 18 | Alexmm two sisters, occupied the double log calan une 11 in 1826 the ballance of the White family followed. My grandfather 11 this time began to entertain doubts as to the validity of his Spanish title, and to make sure of holding it, he got up what "land sharks" call a cor- ner, by sub-dividing his grant and locating his sons as follows : Alexan- der on the north next to my father ; Hugh on the south and William on the east, occupying the center himself, thereby covering the whole promontory. Being well supported on all sides by his own family, he was ready for any emergency, and if Spanish grants failed, pre-emption would not; and by pre-emption our family cornered the present sight __ ot Nauvoo.
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The old stone house at the ferry landing (now owned by Dundee) superseded the log house. The mason work was begun by John Wag- goner in 1827 and finished the next year ; and whilst he was engaged in laying the stone, when half way up the second story, the boys one day while he was at dinner, stole his pint flask of whisky, and laying it in the wall placed a stone over it and pointed it up. Uncle Johnny after dinner con- tiņued his work but missed his bottle, and never knew until the house was finished what. had become of it. It is there now and will remain while the house stands.
This stone house was the first one erected in Hancock county, and the first courts in the county were held in it, and it was also used as a fort at the commencement of the Blackhawk war. The denizens of upper Yellow Banks (now New Boston, Ill.,) together with Spellnian of Pon- toosac, and Edward. White of Appanoose, sought refuge in it. It was well protected, as Captain White raised several hundred men and drilled them daily, to be in readiness for the attack, but Blackhawk never came. He either considered discretion the better part of valor, or his friendship for Wit-we-au (Captain White) kept him aloof. They had met years before this as foes at the sink holes near Quiver river, Lincoln county, Mis- souri, at which place, after Calloway was killed, Captain White took com- mand and drove Blackhawk across the river near Cap au Gris, killing a number of his braves while they were crossing.
While couit was held at the stone house several of the county officers boarded at our house. Wesley Williams was clerk of the court and Edison Whitney sheriff, and their little daughters, Eunice and Chloe, were the first girls I played with.
Our first school district extended six miles up and down the river. Wesley Williams, George Y. Cutler and my father were the first trustees. Our log school house stood back on the bluff near a spring, less than one hundred yards from where the Mormon temple was built. It was called Gouge's school house, as he owned the lane adjacent. Our first teachers were Chauncy and John Robinson, and in 1829 came John M. Forest, whose certificate of competency, issued by the trustees, is now held by your Old Settlers' Association as a souvenir of the past. Your first preacher was Mr. Robinson; your first constable and county treasurer was my father.
The names of your pioneers that I have known personally were Vance, Flint, Burkelow, Robinson, White, Wilson, Gouge, Dunn, Dewey, Coon, Hibbard, Hildebrand, Williams, Whitney, Cutler, Morrison, Tougate and Atchison ; and below were the Moffats, Middletons, Millers, Castoes, and the next in succession on the river came the Montebello set- tlement. They had aspirations for obtaining the county seat. Whitney built the Montebello house and court was held in it until Carthage became
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the perminent county seat. Many of the first settlers of Montebello were of Puritan stock. They ridgidly opposed the use of tobacco and ardent spirits, were a strict church going people, and warred against immortality in every form. Their names were as follows: Browns, Felts, Grays, Beadles, Smiths and Steels. Mrs. Beadle was so disgusted with tobacco chewers that she would mop up their tobacco spittle from her puncheon floor in the presence of the aggressor.
I attended a school taught by Miss Marsh in the Montbello house in 1836. I remember Lafayette, Washington, and Johnson Smith. who were prominent pupils in this school. The valedictory. spoken by Lafayette ; "The Boy stood on the Burning Deck," by Washington; and "Tall trees from Little Acorns Grow," by Johnson Smith, left lasting impressions on my mind of oratorical greatness ; and the closing scenes upon the stage. by Andrew Cochran, when in the character of Fritz James, he killed poor old Roderick Dhu with a flint lock horse pistol, made me cry with anguish to see the poor old fellow shot.
"Through bars of brass and triple steel They tug, they strain ; down, down they go; The Gaul above, Fitz James below."
I did not then think the Scotch were half so good as our Indians, who used muskrat spears on occasions of this kind.
Below Montebello lived the Johnsons, Gallaghers, Schoonovers, Chaneys, Eubanks, Gordon Legget, Parsonses, Clarks and Hydes, and back from the river the Marshs.
As my time is limited, I will now cross over the river into the Sac and Fox reservation, now' a part of Lee county, Iowa. In the winter of 1830-31, I lived at the present site of Nashville and attended a school taught by Berryman Jennings. Captain Galland, who is with us here to. day, was one of my school mates, and so also was James Dedman, now of Alexandria, Missouri. In the spring of 1531 I beheld for the first time the hills of Puck-e-she-tuck, now transformed into the beautiful city of Keokuk. It contained then about ten Jog houses tenented by thirty odd persons, composed of Americans, French and half breeds. Outside of this place, on the reservation, there was but seven houses, four at Nash- ville, one at Blondeau's, one at Lemolise, and one at Spring Chain, all located on the Mississippi river ; also one house on the Des Moines, opposite old Fort Pike, (now St. Francisville, Mo )
Pioneers of Lee County, Iowa, in 1875, I addressed you at your re- union. At that time I related to you a complete history of the half breed era, and I can add but little more to it now, as it was then given to you in full, and others who have followed me since have exhausted every sub- ject matter pertaining to pioncer times ; all of which you will find in the history of Lee county. John Gaines was the first civil officer in Keokuk ;
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he was appointed justice of the peace by Governor Dodge. Geo. Craw- ford and myself were the first witnesses to testify before him, having seen Alexander Hood knock a stranger down on the beach and rob him of $500,00. We reported what we had seen and described the locality where he had hid the money under a stone, which was recovered. The stranger left for the lead mines and Hood was reprimanded and allowed to go at large. All legal business, when I first became a resident here, was trans- acted by Capt. Prichard, of Lewis county, Mo., who was our nearest justice of the peace, we being under the control and subject to the laws of Missouri. Soon after this we became a part of Michigan, and I here- with submit for inspection a legal document written at that time and signed, "John Whitaker, Judge of Probate, Territory of Michigan, Des Moines county, Dec. 31, 1835. Attest: Wm. R. Ross, Clerk." We became next a part of Wisconsin, and finally set up in business for ourselves under the title and cognomen of Lee county, Iowa.
Newcomers of Lee county, I leave it with you to compare the changes from pioneer days up to the present time ; "and don't you forget it" there were giants living in those halcyon days; men of mighty will and iron- nerved, and it is your duty now, and ever will be in the future, to speak of them with the greatest veneration and respect. Log cabins, Indians, prairie wolves, scalping knives, tomakawks, and Indian warwhoops should be your song by day and dream at nights, and occasionally you might in a whisper lisp those great names of "Keokuk and Blackhawk; " they might be utilized by using them as a lullaby to waft the infants of coming gener- ations into peaceful slumber. By following these instructions closely you will please the departed shades of the big braves who have gone to the happy hunting grounds; they will smile upon you, and in time send you a commission properly countersigned with the s gnature of Old Quash- qua.me as grand secretary of the departed tribes in space, as an old settler.
From this city, in 1837, I journey westward and across the Des Moines river, and again find myself in the land of my birth-place. A new county has been created from the upper part of Lewis and is called Clark. I behold the old block-house and stockade of Fort Pike, erected in 1832. I learn the names of the boys, who are now the Pioneers of Clark county, and even now, childhood's loved group revisits every scene.
The tangled wood walk And the tufted green.
It was at St. Francisville where the greater part of my boyhood days , were passed, and countless emotions of pleasure arise as I review each loved scene again.
"Home, Home, Sweet Home;" you are dearest spot on all this earth to me. Yet still I linger here, for in yonder lonely graveyard rests my father, the oldest Tri-State Pioneer.
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IMPROMPTU SPEECH OF GEN. GEO. W. JONES.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN : I appear very unexpectedly before you to make a few remarks, admonished as I am, by the lateness of the hour and other circumstances. to be brief in what I may say.
I was born, as the President has said, at Vincennes, in the then Terri- tory of Indiana, on the 12th day of April, 1804, at half past ten o'clock in the morning. I was born in a hurry, having been in a hurry ever since, and now in a hurry, and have no doubt but that I shall die in a hurry when my time comes. On one occasion when Mrs. Gov. Wm. H. Harrison and Mrs. Col Hamtranick were on a visit to my mother, one of the ladies said : " Mrs. Jones, don't George know how to walk ?" " No," she replied, " for from' the moment he was put upon his feet he ran off, and he never walks." I can't even now walk up or down stairs, but go at the rate of two or three steps at a time, you will therefore, I trust, excuse my hurry on the present occasion.
In the month of March 1827, I first saw the small village of Keokuk, when on my way as a passenger, on the steamer Indiana, bound for Galena, the capitol of the "Fever River Lead Mines." I went there more in search of health than for any other purpose. I visited the most of the lead diggings and smelting establishments, and made my claim at Sin- sinawa Mound, now in Grant county, Wisconsin, then in the Territory of Michigan, though only six miles east of my present residence, at Dubuque, in this State. I then determined to go into the smelting, mining, farming and mercantile business at Sinsinawa Mound.
In the fall of 1823, Gen. A. Jackson passed through Lexington, Ky., on his way to the Senate of the United States. A magnificent reception was given to him, his wife and niece. He came in his own carriage drawn by four blooded Pacolet horses, driven by a negro, who had by his side on the box a fellow servant, whilst a third negro man was mounted on horse- back, as an "avaunt courier" and within that very large closed carriage sat Mrs. Gen. Jackson, by the side of the old hero, with her maid and niece Miss Donelson. The General would occasionally get out of the carriage and ride on the outrider's horse. Such a horseman I never saw before, and the like of him I have never seen since, except perhaps, in the person of my old commander and friend, Gen. Henry Dodge, whose aide de campe I had the honor of being during the Black Hawk war of 18 32. A splendid dinner and ball was given to the hero and his family at the Phoenix Hotel, in Lexington, at which I had the pleasure of being a manager on the part of the college students proper, there being managers also on the part of the city, and also of the medical and law departments of the university. I made several visits to Gen. Jackson and his party with my classmate and warm friend Stokely Donelson, an adopted son and protege
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of Gen. and Mrs. Jackson. I never met with the General after he left Lexington until about the last day in November, 1835, when I called to see him with my friend Doctor Lewis F. Linn, then a senator in con- gress from Missouri, who introduced me to him as Col. Jones, the dele- gate elected to congress from the Territory of Michigan. The General at once said to me : " If you were from Missouri, I would say that I became acquainted with you at Lexington, Kentucky." I replied I am the same man and Stokely's classmate at college. The old chieftain never after- wards addressed me otherwise than as " my son," a term of affection which I appreciated much more highly than if addressed as colonel or delegate to congress.
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