USA > Iowa > Lee County > Story of Lee County, Iowa, Volume I > Part 6
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Notwithstanding the fact that the settlers felt no special alarm, Governor Reynolds called out the militia to aid the garrison at Fort Armstrong in driving out the invader and sent 2,000 men under General Whiteside to that post. Major Stillman was sent out with 275 mounted men to turn Black Hawk back. This force came upon the chief and about forty of his warriors some distance from where the main body of the Indians were encamped. Black Hawk sent forward five messengers with a flag of truce, to ask for a parley, but Stillman's men opened fire and two of the messengers were killed. The few warriors then took up the fight Indian fashion, by concealing themselves behind rocks and trees and picking off the white troops. As Stillman's men were mounted they fought at a disadvantage and in a little while were utterly routed, abandoning their provisions, etc., in their hasty flight.
Up to this time no depredations nor hostile acts had been com- mitted by the Indians. The killing of the two warriors bearing the
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flag of truce was the beginning of active hostilities. This occurred on May 12, 1832, and during the next month some raids were made by the Indians upon the unprotected settlers. But not all the atroci- ties were committed by the members of Black Hawk's band. A number of Winnebagoes and Pottawatomies took advantage of the situation to kill and plunder, though they declined to join Black Hawk and "fight like men."
Immediately after Stillman's defeat volunteers were called for and on June 15th there were three brigades in camp at Dixon's Ferry, commanded by Gens. Alexander Posey, Milton R. Alexander and James D. Henry. In addition to these brigades, there were the regular troops of Fort Armstrong, commanded by General Atkinson, and the militia under General Whiteside. And all this military array was deemed necessary to overcome a little, half-starved band of Sacs and Foxes, who had committed no more serious offense than crossing the Mississippi River to visit their old friends, the Winnebagoes, in order to raise corn for food, for it is questionable whether or not Black Hawk's intentions were really hostile. Capt. W. B. Green,. who served in the mounted rangers, afterward maintained that Black Hawk told the truth, when he said that he was on a friendly visit to the Indians farther up the Rock River, and that the war was instigated by trader to whom the band was in debt, in the hope of forcing the negotiation of another treaty so that he could get his pay.
After the Stillman affair, General Atkinson being between Black Hawk and the Mississippi, the chief started for the Wisconsin River, intending to descend that stream and recross the Mississippi. Early in June Maj. Henry Dodge, with the Galena Battalion, joined the forces at Dixon's Ferry. When it was learned that Black Hawk was making for the Wisconsin River, General Henry and Major Dodge started in pursuit. On July 21, 1832, the troops came up with the Indians at the Wisconsin, about fifty miles above its mouth, and Black Hawk was forced to make a stand until the women, children and old men could retreat across the river. With his few warriors he held the soldiers at bay until the squaws constructed light rafts for the goods and little children. These rafts they pushed across the stream, at the same time leading the ponies. When the noncom- batants were out of danger on the other side, Black Hawk sent half his fighting force over. From the opposite shore these braves opened fire to cover the retreat of the chief and the remainder of his little army, who then swam across to safety. This feat was accomplished with fewer than one hundred warriors in the face of two brigades,
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with a loss of only six men. Jefferson Davis, then with Major Dodge's Battalion, afterward said :
"This was the most brilliant exhibition of military tactics that I ever witnessed; a feat of most consummate management and bravery in the face of an enemy of greatly superior numbers. I never read of anything that could be compared with it. Had it been performed by white men it would have been immortalized as one of the most wonderful achievements in military history."
The last battle of the war was fought at the mouth of the Bad Axe on August 2, 1832. Here all the white troops were concen- trated against Black Hawk. A steamboat had been sent up the river from Fort Crawford to prevent the Indians from crossing the Mississippi. The force on this boat opened fire on the red men in front, while from all sides the band was assailed by the land forces. Notwithstanding the inequality in the strength of the two armies, Black Hawk held out against the great odds for about two hours, hoping vainly for some fortunate turn in the battle that would permit at least part of his people to make their escape. Some even attempted to swim the Mississippi, but the steamboat ran in among them, capturing a few and drowning many more.
A soldier named Townsend, who took part in the engagement, afterward described the action as follows: "For eight miles we skirmished with their rear-guard and numbers of women and children were killed. One squaw had fallen with a child strapped to her back, as Indian women always carry their children. The ball that found the mother's life had hit and broken the child's arm, and when the mother fell the child was fastened between her dead body and the ground. When the soldiers went to secure the child it was making no moan, but was gnawing ravenously at a horse bone from which the flesh had nearly all been eaten away; nor did the child make any moan while the surgeon was amputating its shattered limb. It sat and ate a hard cracker, with as much indifference as if the arm had been made of wood or stone."
After the Battle of Bad Axe, Black Hawk escaped to the Winne- bago Village at Prairie la Crosse. Through the treachery of two Winnebagoes, he was delivered as a prisoner to General Street, the Indian agent at Prairie du Chien. His two sons were also captured and held as prisoners of war. They were held in confinement at Fortress Monroe, Virginia, until June 4, 1833, when President Jack- son ordered their release and placed them in charge of Major Gar- land, to be taken on a tour of the country, in order that they might see the greatness of the United States and the futility of further war-
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fare against the white men. When taken before the President, Black Hawk said :
"I am a man ; you are only another. We did not expect to conquer the whites. They had too many men. I took up the hatchet to avenge injuries my people could no longer endure. Had I borne them longer without striking my people would have said Black Hawk is a squaw; he is too old to be chief; he is no Sac. These reflections caused me to raise the war whoop. The result is known to you. I say no more."
President Jackson presented Black Hawk with a sword, "a gift from one warrior to another." A short time before his death Black Hawk gave the sword to James A. Jordan and it was afterward used by the tilers of Masonic lodges at Iowaville and Keosauqua until the Masonic Hall at the latter place was destroyed by fire in 1871 or 1872.
The monetary cost of the Black Hawk war to the Federal Govern- ment and the State of Illinois was about two million dollars. The aggregate loss of life of both whites and Indians was not far from twelve hundred. The history of the war is of interest to the people of Lee County because as its immediate result the treaty of Septem- ber 21, 1832, was negotiated. By this treaty the Sacs and Foxes ceded to the United States "all lands to which the said tribe have title or claim included within the following boundaries, to wit:
"Beginning on the Mississippi River at the point where the Sac and Fox northern boundary line, as established by article 2 of the treaty of July 15, 1830, strikes said river; thence up said boundary line to a point fifty miles from the Mississippi, measured on said line; thence in a right line to the nearest point on the Red Cedar of Ioway, forty miles from the Mississippi River; thence in a right line to a point in the northern boundary line of the State of Missouri fifty miles, measured on said line, from the Mississippi River; thence by the last mentioned boundary to the Mississippi River, and by the western shore of said river to the place of beginning."
The territory included within these boundaries includes the pres- ent counties of Dubuque, Delaware, Jackson, Jones, Clinton, Cedar, Scott, Muscatine, Louisa, Henry, Des Moines and Lee, and portions of Clayton, Fayette, Buchanan, Linn, Johnson, Washington, Jeffer- son and Van Buren. It embraces about six million acres of Eastern Iowa and was known as the "Black Hawk Purchase." It was taken by the United States as an indemnity for the expenses of the Black Hawk war.
This treaty was concluded on the west bank of the Mississippi, opposite Fort Armstrong, where the City of Davenport, Iowa, now
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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY
stands. Gen. Winfield Scott and Governor Reynolds, of Illinois, were the commissioners on the part of the United States and the Sacs and Foxes were represented by the chiefs of the Keokuk faction, Black Hawk and his two sons being at the time prisoners of war. The treaty was ratified on February 13, 1833, and on the first day of June following the title was fully vested in the United States and the lands opened to settlement.
One article of the treaty provided for a reservation of 400 square miles, "to be laid off under the direction of the President of the United States, from the boundary line crossing the Iowa River, in such manner that nearly an equal portion of the reservation may be on both sides of said river, and extending downwards so as to include Keo Kuck's principal village on its right bank, which village is about twelve miles from the Mississippi River."
The cession and reservation were surveyed by Charles de Ward in October, 1835, and by the treaty of September 21, 1836, the reserva- tion was ceded to the United States for $30,000 and an annuity of $10,000 for ten successive years.
By the treaty of October 21, 1837, the Sacs and Foxes ceded to the United States 1,250,000 acres directly west of the Black Hawk Purchase. This treaty was ratified on February 21, 1838. The last treaty with the Sacs and Foxes of Iowa was negotiated on October II, 1842, at the Sac and Fox agency, by John Chambers, commis- sioner on behalf of the United States. By the terms of this treaty the allied tribes surrendered title to all their lands in the State of Iowa and agreed to be removed from the country at the expiration of three years. Part of them removed to Kansas in the fall of 1845 and the remainder followed in the spring of 1846.
THE HALF-BREED TRACT
Mention has already been made of this tract, which was set apart by the treaty of August 4, 1824, for the half-breeds belonging to the Sacs and Foxes. It contained 119,000 acres, "lying between the Des Moines and Mississippi rivers, and south of a line drawn from a point one mile below Farmington east to the Mississippi River, near the site of old Fort Madison, and including all the lands lying between said line and the junction of the said rivers."
Before any white settlements were made within the limits of the present State of Iowa, white trappers, traders and adventurers visited the Indian country along the Upper Mississippi and its tributaries, many of whom married Indian women and dwelt with the tribes to
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which their wives belonged. The American Fur Company established posts along the great river and a majority of its agents had Indian wives. Julien Dubuque, the founder of the city of that name, had an Indian wife. Chevalier Marais, who is credited with being the second white settler in Iowa, married the daughter of an Iowa chief. Antoine Le Claire, one of the founders of the City of Davenport; the trader Lemoliese, who settled near Sandusky, Andre Santamont, another French trader, and many others became "squaw men." Some- times a soldier or officer of one of the frontier garrisons would marry an Indian girl. A notable instance of this kind was the marriage of Dr. Samuel C. Muir, an army surgeon at Fort Edwards, to a Fox maiden. A few of the children of these marriages were given the advantages of the white man's education and civilization, but the great majority of them were reared among the Indians and adopted Indian customs. It was for the benefit of such that the Half-Breed Tract was established.
The territory once comprising the tract is all in Lee County and includes the present townships of Jackson, Montrose, Des Moines and Jefferson, practically all of the townships of Charleston and Van Buren and that portion of Madison Township lying south of Divi- sion Street and its extension, Santa Fe Avenue, in the City of Fort Madison. It may therefore be interesting to the Lee County reader to know something of the traditions of this tract of land, as well as its history, particularly the accounts of how it came to be estab- lished. It is claimed by some writers that a half-breed named Morgan made such an eloquent appeal before the Government com- missioners in the treaty council of August 4, 1824, for the rights of the half-breeds, that the provision above mentioned was incorporated in the treaty. Another story gives the credit to Maurice Blondeau, a French trader, who for years prior to the treaty had been a sort of mediator for the Sacs and Foxes. Frank Labiseur, a stepson of Andre Santamont, acted as interpreter at the council, and afterward stated that his stepfather was largely instrumental in securing the establishment of the Half-Breed Tract. Still others are inclined to the opinion that the provision was incorporated in the treaty upon the recommendation of Dr. Samuel C. Muir. Probably there is some truth in all these stories, and the men named cooperated to secure the southern portion of the present county of Lee for the half-breeds.
Under the original grant, the half-breeds had the right to occupy the land as Indians occupied the lands of other reservations. They had no right to sell or convey it, the United States holding a rever- sionary right. In the fall of 1833 a meeting of half-breeds was held
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at Farnum's Trading Post, within the present limits of the City of Keokuk, and a petition to Congress, asking for the passage of an act giving the occupants the right to sell the land, was prepared and signed by a large number of those present. Other signatures were subsequently obtained and in response to the petition Congress passed an act, approved by President Jackson on January 30, 1834, relin- quishing the Government's reversionary interest and giving the lands to the half-breeds in fee simple.
The passage of this act was the signal for the land shark and real estate speculator to "get busy." Lee County quickly became one of the most active real estate markets in the country and the founda- tion was laid for a vast amount of litigation. Says a writer of that period : "A horde of speculators rushed in to buy land of the half- breed owners, and, in many instances, a gun, a blanket, a pony or a few quarts of whisky was sufficient for the purchase of large estates. There was a deal of sharp practice on both sides. Indians would often claim ownership of land by virtue of being half-breeds and had no difficulty in proving their mixed blood by the Indians, and would then cheat the speculators by selling land to which they had no right- ful title. On the other hand, speculators often claimed land to which they had no right. It was diamond cut diamond, until at last things became badly mixed. There were no authorized surveys, no boundary lines to claims, and, as a natural result, numerous quarrels ensued."
One question the courts were called upon to decide was who the half-breeds were who were entitled to the land. The popular opinion as to what constituted a Sac and Fox half-breed was that he was "a person half Indian, but who did not wear a blanket." The act of January 30, 1834, was not very specific as to the manner in which the land should be divided and sold and the liberal interpretation placed upon its provisions led to the organization of several com- panies to deal in the half-breed lands. The most important of these were the New York Land Company and the St. Louis Land Company, which were merged after a short separate existence. Henry S. Austin, an attorney of the New York Company, located at Montrose, with Dr. Isaac Galland as the company's agent.
To rectify the omission of Congress, the Wisconsin Legislature, by an act approved on January 16, 1838, required all persons claim- ing land by purchase under the act of 1834, to file claims with the clerk of the District Court of Lee County within one year, showing how title was obtained. Edward Johnstone, David T. Brigham and Thomas S. Wilson were named in the act as commissioners to take
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testimony regarding said titles. Any tract of land, the title to which was not passed on favorably by the commissioners, was to be sold and the proceeds divided among the half-breeds entitled to receive the same. Two of the commissioners-Johnstone and Wilson-qualified soon after their appointment and spent the greater part of the next two years in the work of unraveling the tangled skein.
In the meantime the Territory of Iowa was erected by an act of Congress, and at the first session of the territorial legislature the act of January 16, 1838, under which the commissioners were operating, was repealed. This complicated matters somewhat, as many whose titles had received the indorsement of the commission, found that the work of the commissioners was invalidated by the repealing act. The new law also prohibited the commissioners from drawing any remuneration from the public funds for what they had done, but pro- vided that they might institute suits against the land for their services. Suits were accordingly filed in the territorial courts and the entire tract of 119,000 acres was sold to Hugh T. Reid, an attorney of Keo- kuk, for $5,773.32. Reid received a deed executed by the sheriff of Lee County and thereby became the largest land owner in Iowa. He sold several small tracts to individuals, but in time his title was ques- tioned and he became involved in litigation.
The subject again came before the territorial legislature at the second session, when an act was passed providing that settlers, before being dispossessed under the sheriff's deed to Mr. Reid, should be paid in full for any improvements they might have made. Another act provided for the partition of the tract and on April 14, 1841, the suit of Joseph Spaulding et al. vs. Euphrosine Antaya et al. was filed in the United States District Court for the Territory of Iowa, asking for the partition of the entire tract. Spaulding and his associates were represented by Edward Johnstone and Hugh T. Reid, then law partners, and it is said that the petition filed by the plaintiffs was drawn by Francis Scott Key, author of "The Star Spangled Banner," who was the attorney for the New York Land Company. The court was then presided over by Judge Charles Mason, of Burlington, who on May 8, 1841, issued a decree for the partition and appointed S. B. Ayres, Harmon Booth and James Webster commissioners to divide the 119,000 acres into 101 tracts or shares, as nearly equal in value as possible. Their report was received and confirmed by the court on October 7, 1841, and it constitutes the basis of title to all the lands in the Half-Breed Tract.
The judgment of partition was sustained in a number of appeals to the Iowa Supreme Court, but the sheriff's sale to Hugh T. Reid
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still formed a cloud on the title. This question was settled by the case of "Joseph Webster, plaintiff in error, vs. Hugh T. Reid, defend- ant in error," which was filed in January, 1846, in the District Court of Iowa. The case was heard by Judges Charles Mason, Joseph Williams and Thomas S. Wilson, who decided that Hugh T. Reid was the owner in fee simple of the land. An appeal was taken to the United States Supreme Court and at the December term in 1850 that tribunal handed down an opinion reversing the decisions of the territorial and state courts. This set aside the sheriff's sale to Reid and the judgment of partition was sustained by the highest legal authority in the country. Attorneys for the various land companies and purchasers under the sheriff's deed then quit-claimed for small considerations and the question was settled for all time to come.
With the treaties of 1832, 1837 and 1842, the removal of the Indians to Kansas in 1845-46, and the adjustment of the title question in the Half-Breed Tract, the lands of Lee County became the prop- erty of the white man. What were once the hunting grounds of the Sacs and Foxes are now cultivated fields. The whistle of the steam- boat on the great Father of Waters has supplanted the war-whoop of the savage. Indian villages have disappeared and in their stead have come cities with paved streets, electric lights, street railways, libraries and all the evidences of modern progress. Where was once the old Indian trail is now the railroad. The tepee has given way to the schoolhouse, and the halls of legislation have taken the place of the tribal council. The primeval forest has disappeared and the giant trees have been manufactured into lumber to build dwellings for civilized man, or turned into furniture for his comfort. And all this has been accomplished within the memory of persons yet living. To tell the story of this progress is the province of the subsequent chapters of this history.
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CHAPTER V SETTLEMENT AND ORGANIZATION
FIRST WHITE MEN IN LEE COUNTY-TESSON'S GRANT-EARLY SETTLERS AND SETTLEMENTS-CLAIM ASSOCIATIONS-LAND SALE AT BUR- LINGTON-FORT DES MOINES-PIONEER LIFE AND CUSTOMS-HARD- SHIPS AND PASTIMES-ORGANIZATION OF THE COUNTY-EARLY ELECTIONS-OWEN'S FERRY-FIRST JURYMEN-LOCATING THE COUNTY SEAT-PUBLIC BUILDINGS.
As stated in a previous chapter, the first white men to visit what is now Lee County were Marquette and Joliet, who landed near the present Town of Montrose in 1673, while on the voyage down the Mississippi. The first attempt to form a permanent settlement with- in the limits of the county was made by Louis Honore Tesson, who in 1796 obtained a grant of land from the Spanish authorities of Louisiana. This grant was located "on the west bank of the River Mississippi, at the head of the Des Moines Rapids." A history of Tesson's establishment is given elsewhere in connection with Mont- rose Township.
After Tesson settled upon his grant, nearly a quarter of a century passed before any further efforts were made by white men to found settlements in this part of Iowa. In the meantime there had been a heavy tide of emigration from the older states toward the setting sun. Indiana was admitted as a state in 1816 and Illinois was admitted two years later. The margin of civilization had reached the Mississippi River and it was not long until adventurous white men crossed the great river and occupied the fertile lands beyond. In 1820 a French trader named Lemoliese established a trading post at what is now Sandusky, about four miles below Tesson's place. The same year another Frenchman, Maurice Blondeau, opened a trading house about a mile above that of Lemoliese. Blondeau became a great favorite with the Indians, who frequently called upon him to settle disputes. As a mediator he heard the evidence of both the disputants and then handed down his opinion "with the wisdom of a modern Solomon." In the negotiation of some of the early treaties between the Indians and the United States, Blondeau was a trusted adviser of the Sacs and Foxes.
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Another settler of 1820 was Dr. Samuel C. Muir, who built his cabin near the foot of the rapids, within the limits of the present City of Keokuk. The next year Isaac R. Campbell first visited the county. From that time until his death at St. Francisville, Missouri, he was a resident of Lee County or one of the adjoining counties in Illinois or Missouri. He first located near the upper landing at Nauvoo, Illinois, but in the fall of 1830 sold his farm there and moved across the river, settling where the little Village of Galland now stands. Dr. Isaac Galland had settled here the preceding year, coming from Edgar County, Illinois. His daughter, Eleanor, born in 1830, was the first white child born in the county.
Moses Stillwell and the Van Ausdals settled at the foot of the rapids in 1828. In 1830 a man named Dedman brought his family to the west side of the Mississippi and settled near Galland, where he lived until the breaking out of the Black Hawk war, when he became alarmed and sought the protection of Fort Edwards, on the east side of the river.
The year 1831 witnessed a number of new arrivals in what is now Lee County. Samuel Brierly, whose son, James, was a member of the first Territorial Legislature of Iowa, brought his family and occupied the old cabin erected by the trader, Lemoliese, where he engaged in selling whisky until Colonel Kearney, commanding the post at Fort Des Moines, issued an order for the destruction of all intoxicating liquors found in the possession of the citizens of Nash- ville (now Galland), which order was duly executed by a detail of soldiers from the garrison. In the same year John Gaines, William Price, Alexander Hood, Thomas W. Taylor, William McBride, and probably a few others, joined the little settlement at the foot of the rapids.
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