USA > Iowa > Report of the organization and first reunion of the Tri-State Old Settlers' Association of Illinois, Missouri and Iowa, 1884 > Part 5
USA > Illinois > Report of the organization and first reunion of the Tri-State Old Settlers' Association of Illinois, Missouri and Iowa, 1884 > Part 5
USA > Missouri > Report of the organization and first reunion of the Tri-State Old Settlers' Association of Illinois, Missouri and Iowa, 1884 > Part 5
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When I got my bill, creating Wisconsin Territory, through both houses of congress, my two colleagues, (as the delegates then termed each other) Sevier, of Arkansas, afterwards senator in congress from that State and Minister to Mexico, and White, of Florida, a very distinguished law - yer, both told me that I need not expect to see any one of my constituents. appointed to either of the twelve or thirteen offices created by that law, as neither of them had ever had any such favor conferred on them or any one of their constituents. I was shocked at such a disclosure and so upon the spot I sat down and wrote a letter to the President, (Gen. Jackson,) claiming the right to have those offices given to my own constituents of the then newly created Territory of Wisconsin, protesting against the appointment of any other than my fellow citizens of the New Territory proper, of Wisconsin, for whose especial benefit those offices were created. I contended that my constituents of Wisconsin, then embracing all of what constitutes the States of Iowa, Minnesota, and all of the country west of Lake Michigan, north of the State of Missouri, and all the inter- mediate territory to the Pacific Ocean, including Oregon and excluding Michigan which had adopted a State Government, elected her two senators Lyon and Norvell, and her representative Isaac F. Crary, who went to Washington as such when I did, but whose State was not admitted and. they allowed to take their seats until December, (first Monday) 1826, when I took my seat in congress as the delegate elected from Wisconsin.
Col. Donelson, the President's adopted son, and his private secretary came to me the next day after I had sent my letter to the President, and said : "Col. Jones, the General wants to see you."
I immediately jumped into a hack (there were no street cars there then) and was driven to the White House, which I entered with fear, trembling like an aspen leaf. I was soon ushered into the Old President's presence, whom I found sitting with his two feet on the table and smok . ing his corn-cob pipe with his cane stem of about five feet in length. His back was towards me, and as I entered he said: "Walk in, my son-take a seat, my son." "J. read your letter, my son, with interest. It does honor
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to your head and heart. But my son, it has been the unvarying custom ever since the establishment of the First Territorial Government by Con- gress to fill the offices therein, by appointments from the States, and not by selecting them from amongst the citizens of the newly created Territory. There is a Governor to be appointed for this New Territory, who is to be Commander in Chief of the Militia of the Territory, will be ex-officio superintendent of Indian affairs. Have you, my son, any man in your New Territory who is qualified to fill this great trio in urium office ?" Yes ! Mr. President, I replied; I have the best man in the U. S. to fill this office-General Henry Dodge. "I don't know any General Dodge, the President replied," looking up to the ceiling of the room. I said I served with him as his aide de camp through the Black Hawk war, which he put an end to. He is now in the Rocky Mountains as the Colonel commanding the first regiment of cavalry-the dragoons, with his confi- dential friend Jefferson Davis as his adjutant. "Is that the man that you want me to appoint," he replied. "Yes, sir, he is the man that my constituents want as their chief magistrate and commander in case of another Indian war." "You shall have him my son, I care not what my cabinet may say, or what the practice of the government has been. Bring me, my son, a list of the offices created by this act establishing Wisconsin Territory, with the salaries attached to them, and I will give you some of them."
When my old friend General Charles Gratiot informed me that General Jackson was about to veto the bill. making an appropriation of $75,- ooo for the removal of the obstructions to the navigation of the Mis- sissippi river, at the Des Moines rapids, I lost not a moment's time in appearing before the Chief Magistrate to prevent, if possible, such actions. I informed the President that that appropriation was made in pursuance of a resolution which I, as the delegate in Congress, introduced for that purpose.
A day or two after my interview with the President, when I walked into the Senate Chamber I was stopped by Mr. Buchanan, then a Senator from Pennsylvania, who called out Messrs Dr. Linn Walker, of Mis- sissippi, and Clayton, then the chairman of the judiciary committee of that body, afterwards in 1849, made Secretary of State by President Taylor. Mr. Buchanan said let me tell you gentlemen what has happened to me this morning. I called upon my old friend General Jackson to obtain from him the appointment of my friend Wm. Frazer, of Lancaster, to one of the judgships in this New Territory of Wisconsin, which this young gentleman, Col. Jones, has forced us to establish before Michigan is admitted as a State. What do you suppose General Jackson's reply to my appli- cation was ? He said, Mr Buchanan, you must go to the delegate from that Territory. If he will recommend your friend to me I will appoint
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him and not without. I, to whom General Jackson tendered the appoint- ment as his Secretary of State on his accession to the Presidency on the 4th of March, 1829 ; who have served some twenty years in Congress have got to appeal to this young gentleman for such a favor. Now. Clayton, continued Mr. Buchanan, say a good word to Col. Jones in behalf of my friend and yours, Mr. Frazer. Senator Clayton said, Colonel Jones I have nothing to do with these d-d locofocos (the term then usually applied to the democrats), but I can assure you that Mr. Frazer, with whom I have practiced law in Delaware and Pennsylvania, is one of the best lawyers that I have ever met with. Mr. Buchanan wrote to Mr. Frazer immedi- ately, and in two or three days he brought his friend to see me at my boarding house, at Dawson's, on Capital Hill. Mr. Frazer dined with me that day. Mr. Frazer, before and at the dinner, declined to taste a drop of any liquor, or even claret or champagne wine, saying he had not tasted any kind of spirits for twenty years. This delighted me as did his conver- sation. I the next day wrote a note to President Jackson and Mr. Frazer was nominated and unanimously confirmed by the Senate as one of the Justices of the Supreme Court for the Territory of Wisconsin. On his way out to Wisconsin he stopped at Mrs. McArthur's tavern, and being unwell, she prepared a hot brandy sling for him, which he, not know- ing its contents, drank as advised to do by Mrs. McArthur, and never after that day breathed another sober breath, but at once got drunk and continued to drink hard until he finally killed himself by hard drink.
The noble hero of the hermitage, President Jackson, permitted me to name every one of the officers appointed for Wisconsin Territory in IS36, but one, and that was Judge David Irvin, of Virginia, who has filled the office of "additional judge" for Michigan Territory, west of the Lake, through the influence. of his and General Jackson's friend, Wm. C. Rivers, of Virginia.
In 1820 my father sent me to Lexington, Ky., to college, traveling all the way from St. Louis on horse back through southern Illinois, the Green river country of Kentucky, and by Frankfort to Lexington, where I was placed under the protection and college guardianship of Henry Clay, with whom I afterwards served in the Congress as Iowa's first Senator elect, the noble and ever to be lamented General Augustus C. Dodge being my- colleague. 'The legislature at its first session, 1847, failed to elect, although Judge Thos. S. Wilson came within one vote of being elected by the joint meeting of the two houses. I was. not then a candidate, but was made one at the next session, when I was nominated in the caucus on the third ballot and elected the next day in the joint meeting of the two houses. When elected I was the Surveyor General, at Dubuque, for Wiscon- sin, Iowa, Minnesota, and the balance of the Territory cast of the Pacific Ocean. There was no opposition or competition whatever
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to the election of General Dodge as Iowa's first Senator. When he and I entered the Senate, at my suggestion, we walked around to the rear of Col. Benton when he seized with his two a hand of each of us and exclaimed, "This is too good, too good, to have two of the sons of two of my oldest and best Missouri friends and constituents to be sent here to serve with me as brother Senators, both of whom I have known from their childhood and both of whom I served whilst they were delegates in Congress. He elevated his voice to such a pitch as to put a stop to the proceedings, the Senate being then in solemn session. My colleague and I were then sworn in, he drawing the short term and I the long. He was, however, again elected by our legislature for a long term, the same legislature being still in session which had elected us on the 7th of December. President Polk on the same day, gave us a precisely sim- ilar greeting, at the White House, when we called to see him and saying that there were no two men whom he would rather see come to the Senate than us. We had served in the House with him whilst we were delegates.
When the Black Hawk war commenced, I was engaged in my farm- ing, mining, smelting and merchandising, at Sinsinawa Mound. I erected a block house or fort there at my own expense, armed and provisioned it as I did when I settled there. I am the first man who brought corn meal into the Territory in the shape of two hundred barrels of kiln dried.
Josephine Gregoine, my wife, with whom I fell in love at first sight, on the 29th of September 1825, at Carmelite Bopier's birth night ball. Josephine being then just thirteen years, seven months and twenty-two days old. I married her on her seventeenth birthday, and love her, ladies and gentlemen, this day, better than I did then, so help me God. This splendid gold watch and chain, which you now see, being one amongst many rich, beautiful and valuable tokens of affection with which our friends presented to us on the thrice happy occasion of our golden wedding.
I settled at Sinsinawa Mound in the early spring of 1828, built my log cabin in two days from the stump and slept in it on the second night.
I have never used tobacco in any way, have always been very tem- perate in my habits, have never been drunk once in my life, and have not been confined to my bed or room by sickness or other cause for upwards of forty years.
My old friend and partner in mining and mercantile business, Hon. Thomas Mcknight sent an express to me, at Sinsinawa Mound, announc- . ing the sad news, which had that night came into Galena, that my brother- in-law, Felix de St. Vrain, then U. S. Agent, of the Sac and Fox Indians, at Rock Island, had either been taken prisoner or killed by a war party of some forty Sac, Foxes and Winnebagoes, some twenty or twenty-five miles west of Dixon, Illinois.
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I immediately mounted my horse, the "General," and was soon in. Galena, but too late, by several hours, to join Capt. Stephenson's horse company, which had put out in all possible speed, in pursuit of the mur- derous and blood thirsty Indians. I however, notwithstanding, the entreaties of Capt. James May, whom many of you know well and of other friends, not to go off alone, pushed on and overtook the volunteers from Dodgeville, under the valiant Gen. Henry Dodge, and Capt. Stephenson's company some fifteen or twenty miles east of Galena.
We found the remains of three or four of the murdered party and I recognized that of Mr. St. Vrain by his clothes, pocket-book, papers and jet black hair, albeit his head, hands and feet were taken off as was also. much of the flesh from his body, as food for the Cannibals, who were almost in a starving condition. His heart, as I was afterwards informed by the Interpretress, Mrs. May Otte, a French women, was also taken out, and when they reached their encampment, where their families were congregated, they cut the heart into small pieces and gave them to their boys to swallow, he to be adjudged the bravest, who would swallow the biggest piece.
I recollect follow-citizens of this Tri-Union how we were told as we came upon the Steamer Indiana, by the wise-acres, that although the shores and the land, particularly on the west side, was beautiful to the eye, that it extended back but for a very few miles of that character, and that all beyond, clear to the Missouri river and beyond, was a barren sandy desert, fit only for the sand hill cranes and the wolves and other wild beasts of the forest. The Indians inculcated this idea, and strange to say, even the Government authorities at Washington City believed their stories. and hence the early settlers in the lead mine regions were not permitted to make farms under " stringent rules . and regulations " sent out from the War Department to the Superintendent of the Lead Mines.
My old friend, the God-like Daniel Webster, called me out of the Senate Chamber one day and said to me " Mr. Fillmore has appointed me Secretary of State, and has requested me to make up his cabinet. You and I differ in politics, but I ask you as a personal friend to give me your opinion as to the selection of a proper person to select from the North- west, as one of Mr. Fillmore's Cabinet." I replied that I would first suggest the name of Henry S. Geyer, of St. Louis; my next choice would be Edward Bates, also of St. Louis ; and the third man would be his old friend and brother Congressman, Honorable John Scott. of Ste. Gen- evieve, Missouri. He left me, going directly to the office and telegraphed to Mr. Geyer, the tender of the appointment, as a member of Mr. Fill- more's Cabinet. Mr. Geyer immediately declined the honor, and then Mr. Webster tendered the appointment by telegraphic dispatch to Hon. Edward Bates, who came to Washington and entered upon the duties of the office. He was in 1861 made Attorney-General of President Lincoln.
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That session of Congress proved to be my last as delegate, and solely because of my service as the second of the Hon. Johnathan Cilley in the fatal duel between him and the Hon. W. J. Graves, of Louisville, Kentucky. I made strenuous efforts to put a stop to it after the first and second fires. Although defeated for a re-election by the people I carried all of my bills before Congress, the members of Congress all knowing how I resented a connection with the duel and its unhappy result.
You, Mr. President, will recollect, as doubtless do our many friends, the Rev. Doctor Salter, as must also, our excellent friend and learned, jurist, Hon. John H. Craig, how on the 3rd of last June, in Burlington, my friend, Gen. A. C. Dodge seized me by my hand with his left and slapping me on the breast, with my hand elevated, he said: " here is the man, this is the hand, these are the fingers that drew the law that divided the Territory of Michigan and established the Territory of Wisconsin, which then embraced Iowa. Minnesota, and all of the country north of the State of Missouri, clear to the Pacific Ocean, including all of Oregon and Washington Territories, and the vast intermediate country." Here is the man, (again slapping me on my breast,) this is the hand, and these are the fingers that drew the law which made this, our beautiful and glori- ous Iowa a separate government on the 4th day of July, after Wisconsin had been created as a district Territory. Here is the man, this is the hand, and these are the fingers which drew the law setting. apart six hun- dred and forty acres of land upon which this, our beautiful City stands, and as were likewise provided for the five other towns of Fort Madison, Bellevue, Dubuque, Peru, Iowa and Mineral Point. in Wisconsin. Here is the man, this is the hand, these are the fingers that drew the law making the first appropriation of money by Congress for the removal of the obstructions to the navigation of the Mississippi river at the Des Moines and Rock River Rapids. Here is the man, this is the hand, these are the fingers that drew the law making appropriations of money by the general government for the purchase of the lands of the Indian tribes which owned the soil of Iowa, and the lands of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, embracing amongst others the vast pine regions of these States." I could and would go on to innumerate other beneficiaries obtained for us by this my old colleague and life-long friend, but that he begs me to desist, and that I have to introduce others who will follow him in addresses.
I allude to this scene because of the honor which that noble friend conferred upon me on that memorable occasion, and because of the pro- found regret which I, and the people not only of Iowa, and indeed of the whole union of the States feel, because of his absence from amongst us, albeit his pure soul is now in the enjoyment of eternal felicity at the right hand of the throne of Almighty God.
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But ladies and gentlemen I must cease to weary you with any further remarks, knowing as I do that others are to follow me who will afford you much more gratification than l can, and especially as I cannot, with truth `say, as Col. Thomas H. Benton did to me, when in my presence he was told that his opponents said that he was vain and egotistical. " Damn them George, I have something to be vain and egotistical of, know more than all of them put together." That was in 1852 when we were fellow-passen- gers going down the Mississippi river on a steamboat. I thank you Mr. President, and ladies and gentlemen, for the patient hearing you have given me, on this, the most delightful occasion of the kind that I have ever participated in a lifetime of upwards of eighty years. God bless and prosper you all, I pray.
IMPROMPTU SPEECH OF CAPTAIN WM. HILLHOUSE.
MR. PRESIDENT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN :- Forty-four years ago this present month I landed in Burlington, Iowa Territory. After spending a year among the pioneers in and around Burlington I mounted my horse and started out west. After one day's ride I found myself across, the line of civilization, in among the original pioneers of this country-the red men of the forest. The Sac and Fox Indians owned the land through to the Missouri river at that time. I went to the clerk in the Indian trading house, located on the Des Moines river, in the Fox village of old Chief Mish-e-quahmah-quiet or " Hard Fish " Eddyville has taken the place where the Indian village was. In the summer of 1842 I accompanied the Sac and Fox Indians on their annual buffalo hunt, and traversed all through what is now the State of Iowa, and we found great herds of buffalo and elk feeding on the vast prairie of the State, both north and west. Hundreds of them were killed on that hunt, and the meat dried and prepared for winter use. The Indians returned home from the hunt and prepared themselves to meet the agent and government commis- sioners so as to receive their annual payment. After the payment was over they made a treaty and sold off all their remaining lands to the Missouri river. In the spring of 1843 we moved up to what was called Racoon Forks of Des Moines, now the capital of the State. Keokuk, chief of the Sac tribe, built his village just below the Raccoon Forks. I knew the old chief well, and have smoked many a pie of kinnekinick with him, and many a meal I have eaten in the wick-e-up with the family of that noted old warrior Black Hawk. In the winter of 1843-4, I started out on a collecting tour among the Sac and Fox Indians. It was their custom to leave their villages late in the fall with bag and baggage, and stay out on a hunting and trapping expedition until spring. They would go in squads of from Give to ten families and camp and hunt and trap together, scattering all along the Des Moines, Skunk, Cedar and Turkey
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rivers. Most of the families would make an'account at the trading house before starting on the hunt, payable in furs and pelts on their return in the spring. About the first of December the clerks of the different trading houses would draw off a schedule of individual accounts and strike out to hunt them up and gather in the collections of otter, beaver and deer skins, so as to settle up their indebtedness. We would travel up and down and across each of those rivers mentioned many times through the winter until we would load several ponies packed with furs and pelts taken on account from our customers. We always made it convenient to know where the Indians were camped, as we depended on them for our subsis- tence, as well as lodgings. We generally made ourselves at home when we entered the wigwams, demanded something to eat and order our ponies taken out to brouse, and generally took choice of the sleeping departments, and were well entertained as long as we visited the camp. In traveling from one stream to another we would find innumerable small lakes which lie glimmering upon the plain. This portion of the country I traversed forty-two years ago, was then the home of the original pioneer, the red men of the Sac and Fox tribes of Indians. Here they lived in their characteristic laziness and savage glory. The woods abounded with game, and the rivers and lakes with fish, and he took them without fear or contention. What is the condition of that beautiful plain to-day, dotted with innumerable cities, checkered with railroads, every quarter section taken for agricultural purposes, fine improved farms, which constitutes the garden spot of the great northwest, second to none in producing fine cattle, big crops of corn, wheat, oats and barley raised by the second class of pioneers and old settlers.
IMPROMPTU SPEECH BY HON. EDWIN MANNING.
MR. PRESIDENT AND FELLOW CITIZENS: I am unexpectedly before you as a speaker to-day. Another and abler talker from Van Buren County I had supposed would entertain you on this occasion. His ab- sence is your misfortune and my presence you are desired to tolerate in his stead.
At the kind request of your honorable President, I will briefly submit a few modest claims for the old settlers of Van Buren in her early history. As early as January 7th, 1837, Capt. James Hall and myself were stopping at St. Francisville, Mo. The fame and glory of the half-breed tract doubt- less attracted us thither, and before we left I purchased an interest in a claim in said tract. Having formed a favorable opinion of Iowa, I returned and attended the first land sales at Burlington in 1838. Here I witnessed and learned one of the most valuable lessons in western life. . The sales were limited to a few of the eastern counties which the carly settlers had squatted upon. The settlers' rights were protected and their homes secured.
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In the spring of 1839 I ordered a stock of merchandise from New York City via New Orleans. The vessel and goods were lost in the gulf, but as they were insured at io per cent. over cost I was not the loser. The stock was duplicated and forwarded immediately and arrived in six weeks. Now for the truth of history, I will give you a few reminiscenses following this first importation of goods to Keosauqua.
A young friend of mine just from Boston made favorable overtures to operate my store, and as I was anxious to free myself of personal care, I sold him a half interest, stipulating he should faithfully manage the busi- ness and I would supply the stock.
This arrangement was mutually satisfactory while the business was new and popular, but when the stock became older and needed more care my young partner became restless and impatient for a wider field of operation. Accordingly, we mutually divided the stock and each started a new house. My young partner was a genius in his way, and was universally popular with the ladies, and was widely known as a great gallant. I have to-day been forcibly reminded of him in General Jones' interesting reminiscenses in his life. Marvelous, grandiloquent powers during his official life at Washington City, the general's life was legit- imately political, while that of my young friend was more of a Hebrew, educated in the arts of fancy jewelry traffic and other and greater sensa- tional operations. Suffice it to say my young Bostonian spread his wings, and in less than two years planted a dozen stores in southern Iowa. This was easier done than to properly care for them after started.
His next enterprise was flat-boating after the Hoosier style. In this he met with signal failure. His boats were frail, his experience limited, and out of a dozen or more boats freighted with wheat and corn he reached market with only two, and the cargo of those, when unloaded, proved almost. worthless.
The end of this vision ary display produced an alarm among his creditors and meeting after meeting was held. Finally a compromise was effected and the creditors accepted 373 cents on the dollar. The young hero again picked his flint and started again. His next grand scheme was in making whisky, and in this, unlike the rest of mankind, he made a suc- cess. He took it to the mountains and mines and there he turned it into gold and stock raising, and to-day is a respected and proud millionaire, without wife, chick or child to help him to enjoy it. Who doubts but his early creditors would be thankful for the balance due them ? Your speaker is an humble farmer, merchant and small banker, and believes there is more real manhood, happiness and benefit in life with those who pay one hundred cents on the dollar than with those who do not. Integ .. rity is a crowning jewel and blesses all mankind through life who posses it. In the spring of 1841 I supplied the government post at Fort Des
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