USA > Iowa > Lee County > Story of Lee County, Iowa, Volume I > Part 5
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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY
The treaty was ratified by the Federal Government and on Decem- ber 20, 1803, Governor Claiborne, of Mississippi, and General Wilkinson, as the commissioners of the United States, took formal possession of the territory and raised the Stars and Stripes at New Orleans. Had Livingston and Monroe adhered to their original instructions and acquired only the island and city of New Orleans, leaving all west of the Mississippi in the hands of France, what the history of Iowa might have been can only be conjectured. But to Napoleon's desire to dispose of the entire province and the fact that the envoys went beyond their instructions-which was afterward ratified by the Federal Government-Iowa owes her position as one of the states of the American Union. By that treaty the territory of this country was extended westward to the Pacific Ocean, and northward from the Gulf of Mexico to the British possessions.
On March 26, 1804, President Jefferson approved an act of Congress authorizing the division of the newly acquired territory, and on October 1, 1804, all that portion south of the thirty-third parallel of north latitude was designated as the Territory of Orleans, that part north of the thirty-third parallel becoming the District of Louisiana, in which was included the present State of Iowa.
During the next thirty-five years the status of Iowa was some- what unsettled. The Northwest Territory, comprising the present states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and that part of Minnesota east of the Mississippi River, was organized in 1787. In May, 1800, it was divided and the Territory of Indiana was established, with Gen. William H. Harrison as governor. When the Province of Louisiana was divided by the act of 1804, the upper portion, or District of Louisiana, was placed under the territorial authorities of Indiana, where it remained until July 4, 1805, when it was organized as a separate territory with a government of its own. In 1812 the Territory of Orleans was admitted into the Union as the State of Louisiana and the name of the District of Louisiana was then changed to the Territory of Missouri. Upon the admission of Missouri into the Union in March, 1821, the northern part of the Louisiana Purchase, including Iowa, was left without any form of civil government. The Black Hawk Purchase was made in 1832 and the next year preliminary steps were taken by the Government for the settlement of the territory west of the Mississippi. It then became apparent that some provision must be made for the govern- ment of that section of the country. On June 28, 1834, President Jackson approved the act erecting the Territory of Michigan, which included all the territory from Lake Huron westward to the Missouri.
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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY
In September of that year the territory legislature of Michigan created two counties west of the Mississippi-Dubuque and Des Moines-separated by a line running due westward from the foot of Rock Island.
These counties were partially organized and on October 5, 1835, Gen. George W. Jones was elected a delegate to Congress from this part of the Territory of Michigan. Through his efforts and influ- ence, Congress passed an act, approved by President Van Buren on April 20, 1836, dividing the Territory of Michigan and creating the Territory of Wisconsin, which included the region west of the Mississippi. This act went into effect on July 4, 1836, with Gen. Henry Dodge as governor of the new territory. One of the first official acts of Governor Dodge was to order a census, when the two counties west of the Mississippi were found to have a population of 10,531. He then issued his proclamation for an election to be held on the first Monday in October, 1836, for members of the territorial legislature.
In Des Moines County Jeremiah Smith, Jr., Joseph B. Teas and Arthur B. Ingram were elected members of the council; Isaac Leffler, Thomas Blair, John Box, George W. Teas, Eli Reynolds, David R. Chance and Warren L. Jenkins, members of the house. The legis- lature met on October 26, 1836, at Belmont. During the session Des Moines County was divided into the counties of Lee, Van Buren, Henry, Muscatine and Cook, the boundaries of which were defined and provisions made for their organization.
In the early autumn of 1837 the question of dividing the Territory of Wisconsin and establishing a separate territory west of the Missis- sippi began to be earnestly discussed by the people living west of the river. Late in September the following notice was circulated throughout Lee County :
"A county meeting will be held at the house of C. L. Cope, in the Town of Fort Madison, on Saturday, the 14th of October, next, at I o'clock P. M., for the purpose of choosing three delegates to meet in convention at Burlington on the first Monday in November, next, to take into consideration the expediency of petitioning Congress for a division of the Territory of Wisconsin and the organization of a separate territorial government west of the Mississippi. Also the attempt being made by the State of Missouri to extend her northern boundary line, and to call the attention of Congress to the necessity of granting preemption laws to actual settlers, and for other purposes.
"Dated September 23, 1837."
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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY
At the Fort Madison meeting at Mr. Cope's house, Henry Eno, Philip Viele and Hawkins Taylor were chosen as Lee County's delegates to the Burlington convention. On the appointed date dele- gates from the various settlements west of the Mississippi assembled at Burlington. A petition asking for the organization of a new territory west of the river was adopted without a dissenting vote. The territorial legislature, then in session, indorsed the action of the convention. In response to this expression of popular sentiment, Congress passed "An act to divide the Territory of Wisconsin, and to establish the territorial government of Iowa." President Van Buren approved the act on June 12, 1838, "to take effect and be in force from and after July 3, 1838," and appointed Robert Lucas, of Ohio, as the first territorial governor. William B. Conway, of Pennsylvania, was appointed secretary; Charles Mason, of Burling- ton, chief justice; Thomas S. Wilson, of Dubuque, and Joseph Wil- liams, of Pennsylvania, associate judges.
The Territory of Iowa, as first created, included "all that part of the Territory of Wisconsin which lies west of the Mississippi River and west of a line drawn due north from the head water or sources of the Mississippi to the northern boundary of the Territory of the United States."
On February 12, 1844, the Iowa Legislature passed an act pro- viding for the election of delegates to a constitutional convention as a preparatory step for admission into the Union as a state. The convention assembled at Iowa City on October 7, 1844, and com- pleted the constitution on the first day of November. When the constitution was submitted to the United States Congress, that body refused to accept the boundaries proposed by the people of Iowa, "in constitutional convention assembled," but by an act approved March 3, 1845, provisions were made for the admission of Iowa, if the act was accepted by the people of that territory. The Consti- tution of 1844 was submitted to the voters of the territory at an election held on August 4, 1845, and was rejected by a vote of 7,656 to 7,235.
On May 4, 1846, another constitutional convention met at Iowa City and completed its work on the 18th of the same month. This second constitution was ratified by the people at an election held on August 3, 1846, by a vote of 9,492 to 9,036, and on December 28, 1846, President Polk approved an act admitting Iowa into the Union as a state. Under the operations of this act Lee County became a political subdivision of one of the sovereign commonwealths of the American Union.
CHAPTER IV
INDIAN TREATIES AND WARS
VARIOUS POLICIES IN DEALING WITH THE INDIANS-POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES-TREATY OF 1804- PIKE'S EXPEDITION UP THE MISSISSIPPI-FIRST COUNCIL WITH INDIANS IN IOWA-TREATIES OF PEACE AFTER THE WAR OF 1812-TREATY OF 1824-REMOVAL OF THE SACS AND FOXES TO IOWA-THE BLACK HAWK WAR-TREATY OF 1832-THE "BLACK HAWK PURCHASE"-SUBSEQUENT TREATIES -REMOVAL OF THE INDIANS-THE HALF-BREED TRACT.
By the Treaty of Paris, concluded on April 30, 1803, France sold the entire Province of Louisiana, which included the present State of Iowa, to the United States. But France had no power to extinguish the Indian title to the lands, leaving that problem to be solved by the purchaser. Before the United States could come into complete and formal possession of the territory, it was therefore necessary that some agreement be made with the natives. In this connection it may not be amiss to notice briefly the policies of the several European nations claiming territory in America in dealing with the Indians.
As early as 1529, when Cortez was commissioned captain-general of New Spain, he received instructions from the Spanish authorities "to give special attention to the conversion of the Indians, and see that none are made slaves or servants." Theoretically, this was the policy of Spain, but when Bishop Ramirez, as acting governor, endeavored to carry out the instructions given to Cortez, he quickly discovered that he was not to be sustained. Spain took the lands of the Indians without compensation, leaving them what the Spanish officials considered enough for a dwelling place, and in numerous instances the Indians were enslaved and compelled to work in the mines or on the plantations.
It seems that France had no settled policy in dealing with the natives. The early French trader cared little for the land. When the French Government, in 1712, granted Antoine Crozat a charter giving him a monopoly of the Louisiana trade, it was expressly provided that the Indians and negroes living in the province were
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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY
to receive religious instruction, but no provision was made for ex- tinguishing the claim of the Indians to the soil. In the establishment of the trading posts not much land was needed and the trader and his retinue lived with the Indians as "tenants in common." Sometimes a small tract was cleared near the trading post for the purpose of raising a few vegetables, but the forests were rarely disturbed, leaving the Indian in possession and his hunting grounds unmolested.
With England it was different. The English colonists wanted to establish permanent homes and cultivate the soil. Consequently title to the land was the first consideration. In the early land grants made by the English crown, Parkman says the Indian was "scorned and neglected." In Lord Baltimore's charter to Maryland was the provision giving the grantee authority "to collect troops and wage war on barbarians and other enemies who may make incursions into the settlements, and to pursue, even beyond the limits of their province, and, if God shall grant it, to vanquish and captivate them ; and the captives to put to death, or, according to their discretion to save."
William Penn's charter to Pennsylvania contained a similar pro- vision. After the settlement of the colonies reached a point where the local authorities were called upon to deal with the question, each colony adopted a policy of its own, but that of Pennsylvania was perhaps the only one based upon the principles of justice.
The people who founded the Government of the United States were either from England, or descendants for the most part of Eng- lish immigrants, and naturally copied the English policy. Article 9 of the Articles of Confederation-the first organic law of the Federal Government-provided : "That Congress shall have the sole and exclusive right and power to regulate the trade with, and manage the affairs of the Indians."
Under this authority Congress, on September 22, 1783, issued a proclamation forbidding all persons to settle upon the Indian lands. Then came the Constitution, which superseded the Articles of Con- federation, and the new organic law also vested the power in Congress to deal with all matters arising out of the Government's relations with the Indians. By the act of March 1, 1793, Congress declared : "That no purchase or grant of lands, or any title or claim thereto, from any Indians, or nation or tribe of Indians, within the bounds of the United States, shall be of any validity, in law or equity, unless the same be made by a treaty or convention entered into pursuant to the Constitution."
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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY
The object of the founders of the Government in adopting this policy was twofold: First, to prevent adventurers from trespassing upon Indian lands, thereby causing conflicts with the natives; and, second, to establish a system by which titles to lands should be assured for all time to come. Soon after the Federal Constitution went into effect, the Government began making treaties with the Indians. At first these treaties were merely expressions of peace and friendship, but as the white population increased the Government negotiated treaties of cession for the acquisition of more land, and the Indian was gradually pushed farther and farther toward the setting sun.
When the Louisiana Purchase was made the white man was look- ing with longing eyes at the broad prairies of Illinois, and immedi- ately after the ratification of the Treaty of Paris a clamor arose for the removal of certain Indian tribes, among whom were the Sacs and Foxes, to the new domain. Accordingly, on November 3, 1804, Gen. William H. Harrison, then governor of Indiana Territory, negotiated a treaty at St. Louis with the chiefs of the Sacs and Foxes, by which the confederated tribes ceded their lands east of the Missis- sippi River to the United States, retaining the privilege of dwelling there until the lands were sold to actual white settlers, after which they were to remove to the west side of the river.
This treaty was subsequently the cause of a great deal of trouble with the Sacs and Foxes. It was then the custom of these tribes to instruct their chiefs or delegates to a treaty council in advance as to what course to pursue, or afterward confirm their action by a vote. It was claimed by some of the Indians that the delegates to the St. Louis Council had no definite instructions to cede the lands east of the Mississippi, and a portion of the allied tribes, led by Chief Black Hawk, refused to confirm their action.
Probably the first council ever held on Iowa soil between a representative of the United States and the Indians was in the latter part of August, 1805. On August 9, 1805, Lieut. Zebulon M. Pike, with a sergeant, two corporals and seventeen privates, left St. Louis to explore the Mississippi to its head waters. At the head of the Des Moines Rapids of the Mississippi, where the Town of Montrose is now situated, he held a council with the Indians and addressed them as follows : "Your great father, the President of the United States, in his desire to become better acquainted with the conditions and wants of the different nations of red people in our newly acquired Territory of Louisiana, has ordered the general to send a number of warriors in various directions to take our red brothers by the hand and make such inquiries as will give your great father the information re- quired."
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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY
No attempt was made to conclude a treaty, but at the close of the council Pike distributed among the Indians knives, tobacco and trinkets. Among the Indians who attended this council were some who signed the treaty at St. Louis the preceding November. Pike seems to have been the first American with whom Black Hawk ever came in close contact. Some years afterward the old chief gave the following account of the lieutenant's visit to Rock Island :
"A boat came up the river with a young chief and a small party of soldiers. We heard of them soon after they passed Salt River. Some of our young braves watched them every day, to see what sort of people were on board. The boat at last arrived at Rock River and the young chief came on shore with his interpreter, made a speech and gave us some presents. We in turn gave them meat and such other provisions as we could spare. We were well pleased with the young chief. He gave us good advice and said our American father would treat us well."
At the beginning of the War of 1812 part of the Sacs and Foxes allied themselves with the British. Those who remained loyal to the United States were induced to remove to the Missouri River and became known as the "Sacs and Foxes of the Missouri." Those who remained in Illinois and Eastern Iowa were called the "Sacs and Foxes of the Mississippi," and Black Hawk's band was called the "British Band of Rock River." Shortly after the conclusion of the war a number of treaties were made with the tribes or bands that had fought on the side of England.
On July 19, 1815, at a place called Portage des Sioux, William Clark and Ninian Edwards, commissioners on the part of the United States, concluded a treaty of peace and friendship with the Sioux of Minnesota and Upper Iowa.
At the same place, on September 13, 1815, the same commissioners negotiated a treaty with the Sacs and Foxes of the Missouri, in which the Indians reaffirmed the Treaty of St. Louis of November 3, 1804, and agreed to keep entirely separate from the Sacs of Rock River. The next day the Foxes met the commissioners at Portage des Sioux and entered into a treaty reaffirming the Treaty of St. Louis. They also agreed to deliver the white prisoners in their hands to the commandant at Fort Clark, where Peoria, Illinois, now stands.
On September 16, 1815, the chiefs and head men of the Iowa Indians held a council with the commissioners at Portage des Sioux and signed a treaty of "mutual peace and good will." All the above treaties were ratified by the national administration on December 16, 1815, and the commissioners then undertook the work of negotiating
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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY
a treaty with Black Hawk and his band. But it was not until the following spring that the chiefs and head men of the band could be persuaded to visit St. Louis for the purpose of holding a council. On May 13, 1816, twenty-two of the leaders of the Rock River Sacs entered into a treaty confirming that of November 3, 1804. One of those who signed, or "touched the goose quill," as the Indians ex- pressed it, was Black Hawk himself, though subsequently he repudi- ated his action on that occasion.
The next treaty that has any direct bearing upon the history of Lee County was that of August 4, 1824, which was concluded at Washing- ton, D. C., where some of the Sac and Fox chiefs had been taken at the expense of the Government. By this treaty the Sacs and Foxes relinquished all claim to their lands in the State of Missouri. One provision of this treaty was as follows: "It is understood, however, that the small tract of land lying between the rivers Des Moines and Mississippi and the section of the above line (the northern boundary of Missouri) between the Mississippi and Des Moines, is intended for the use of the half-breeds belonging to the Sac and Fox nations, they holding it, however, by the same title and in the same manner that other Indian titles are held."
The treaty was ratified on January 18, 1825, and it established the so-called "Half-Breed Tract," a history of which is given later in this chapter.
About this time some of the tribes in Minnesota, Iowa and Wis- consin got into a violent dispute as to the limits of their respective hunting grounds and the United States undertook the work of a mediator. William Clark and Lewis Cass were appointed com- missioners to hold a council and, if possible, establish a line that would settle the controversy. Accordingly, a general council was held at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, on August 19, 1825, in which the Sacs and Foxes, Chippewas, Sioux, Winnebagoes, Ottawas, Pottawatomies and some other tribes participated. The treaty agreed upon fixed a line as follows :
"Beginning at the mouth of the Upper Iowa River, on the west bank of the Mississippi, and ascending said Iowa River to its west fork; thence up the said fork to its source; thence crossing the fork of the Red Cedar River in a direct line to the second or upper fork of the Des Moines River; thence in a direct line to the lower fork of the Calumet River, and down that stream to its junction with the Mis- souri River."
South of this line was to be the country of the Sacs and Foxes and north of it the other tribes were to have undisputed possession. Vol. I-4
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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY
It was also provided that the Iowa tribe should be permitted to occupy the territory south of the line until some provision could be made for them, which the Government was slow to do, and the Iowas became dissatisfied and went to Southwestern Iowa, some of them crossing the Missouri River.
It soon became manifest that the imaginary line established by the treaty of August 19, 1825, was insufficient to keep the tribes from trespassing on each other's domain. Representatives of the tribes that had taken part in the formation of the treaty were therefore summoned to another council on July 15, 1830, at which the Sacs and Foxes and Iowas ceded to the United States a strip twenty miles in width south of the line and extending from the Mississippi to the Des Moines, and the northern tribes ceded a strip twenty miles wide between the same rivers. The tract forty miles wide thus formed was established as a sort of buffer between the tribes and was known as the "Neutral Ground." It remained so until 1841, when it was given to the Winnebagoes for a reservation.
At the same time and place the Sacs and Foxes, Iowas, Missouris, one band of the Sioux, and the Omahas relinquished to the United States all claim to the land south of the Clark and Cass line of 1825 and west of a line "drawn from the forks of the Des Moines River, extending along the ridge separating the Valley of the Des Moines from the Valley of the Missouri, to the Missouri state line." This was the first cession of land in Iowa to the United States. The tract ceded was not to be settled by white men, however, but was "to be assigned or allotted, under the direction of the President of the United States, to the tribes then living thereon, or to such other tribes as the President might locate thereon for hunting and other purposes."
In the meantime the State of Illinois had been rapidly settling up and the lands of the Sacs and Foxes in that state were demanded for actual settlers, according to the provisions of the treaty of 1804. In 1828 President Adams issued a proclamation declaring the lands opened to settlers and demanding that the Indians remove to the west side of the Mississippi as stipulated in the treaty. As a matter of fact, Keokuk and his followers had removed to the west side of the river, about two years before the proclamation was issued, and estab- lished a village on the Iowa River, the exact location being somewhat uncertain. Black Hawk refused to vacate until the Government sold the section of land upon which his village was situated. He and his band crossed the river in 1830 and located on the Iowa River, about two and a half miles from its mouth. The removal was made "under protest" and the old chief was far from being reconciled to the situa-
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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY
tion. In the spring of 1831, with a number of his braves and their families, he recrossed the river and took possession of their old cabins and cornfields. The white settlers appealed to Governor Reynolds, of Illinois, who sent General Gaines to Rock Island with a military force large enough to compel the return of the Indians to Iowa.
THE BLACK HAWK WAR
During the winter the Indians were compelled to undergo severe hardships in their new homes. Their houses were poorly built and provisions were scarce, so that they suffered both from cold and hunger. In this emergency Black Hawk fell under the influence of Wa-bo-kie-shiek, "a bad medicine man," who advised him to recross the river, ostensibly to visit the Winnebagoes, and secure the coopera- tion of that tribe and the Pottawatomies in an uprising against the whites. The suggestion was accepted and on April 6, 1832, he again crossed over to the east side of the river within plain view of the garrison at Fort Armstrong, giving out the information that he was ยท going to visit the Winnebagoes and join with them in raising a crop of corn. His act was construed as a hostile invasion, however, by the military authorities, who feared that he would attempt to recover his village on the Rock River. There is no evidence that he made or intended to make any such attempt and some of the settlers, know- ing that the Indians never took the war path accompanied by their squaws, old men and children, expressed that Black Hawk was on a peaceful mission.
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