The History of Clinton County, Iowa: Containing a History of the County, Its., Part 39

Author: Western Historical Co , Western Historical Company
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Co.
Number of Pages: 807

USA > Iowa > Clinton County > The History of Clinton County, Iowa: Containing a History of the County, Its. > Part 39

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Mr. Buel, having decided upon his location went below for supplies and returned in a pirogue, loaded with his purchases, and accompanied by Henry Carson, whom he had hired, landing here July 25, 1835. Mr. Buel com- menced at once to make preparations for a permanent home. During the months of August and September, he and Carson built him a log house on the bank of the river. They cut the logs along the bluffs above, and floated them down and " crabbed " them up the bank to the place where needed, having some assistance from the Indians. His cabin was sixteen feet square, with a puncheon floor and a roof of shakes. He then went back for his family, and for additional supplies. On his return, he left his wife and child for a time at Cordova, they having been attacked with chills and fever, but, after their recov- ery, he brought them to their home. Having thus become "settled " in a "home," which consisted of one room, which answered all the purposes of par- lor, dining-room, bedroom, kitchen and storeroom, Mr. B. commenced his labors on the "farm." His first business was cutting hay. Having employed David S. Osborn, known as the " Green Mountain Yankee," whom he found in a cabin near the Meredosia, where he was trapping and trading with the Indians, they cut a good supply of prairie hay, which they stacked on the fields

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where cut. He then commenced cutting cord-wood, which he expected to sell to the steamboats the next season.

Having no vegetables and his other supplies running low, in the fall of 1835, he went down to St. Louis to purchase the necessary winter stores, such as potatoes, onions, fish, flour, meat, etc. The potatoes he purchased of a Mr. Armstrong, who lived at Sand Prairie, between Cordova and the Meredosia, and who had raised a " sod crop" of these esculents. For these he paid 60 cents per bushel, and, with his man Carson, they loaded forty bushels into a pirogue and started homeward, but just as they reached the mouth of the Cat- tail slough, their boat was capsized and his potatoes were planted on the bottom of the slough. Nothing daunted, and quite satisfied with results in view of the fact that they had saved their lives by clinging to their overturned craft, they ran up and down the shore until they had warmed themselves and " drained" their clothing of surplus water, and then returned to Mr. Arm- strong's for another load, with which they reached home safely during the night.

The next effort was to procure a team, and Mr. Buel went down to Cordova, to a Mr. Allen's, where he expected the loan of an Indian pony to go to Mon- mouth, Ill., where there was a comparatively old settlement, and where he had heard there were cattle for sale. While eating breakfast here, a party of men came along driving a fine yoke of oxen, three cows and three calves. on their way to Galena. Mr. Buel followed along, and, entering into conversation with the owner of the stock, learned that he was a disgusted pioneer, who had buried his wife, got the ague, and was pushing for the lead district to sell out his stock so as to return East. Mr. B. purchased the whole outfit, paying $50 per yoke for the best pair and $40 each for the others, $20 per head for the cows and calves. Reaching the river where Fulton now is, the stock were swum across, and, so far as can be learned, were the first work and domesticated cattle in the county. Having constructed a large ox-sled, he hauled his hay-cocks together and stacked them. That winter was a very open one and no snow fell, to remain, during the whole winter. Mr. B. therefore was obliged to snake his cord-wood over the bare ground on his ox-sled to the river bank. In the spring of 1836, he commenced his first breaking.

To illustrate the privations undergone by these pioneers, the following incident will be of interest. Soon after getting into his cabin with his family, Mrs. Buel and her infant son and only child, who was one and a half years old, were both taken sick. Before leaving St. Louis, Mr. B. had procured from his family physician a small chest of medicines with a little manuscript book of prescriptions, prepared by this physician, and instructions as to administering. There was no physician within fifty miles. He used his best skill and judg- ment, but the little boy died, and, with only his hired man, Carson, they made a rude coffin, and those two, with George W. Harlan, the only other settler, carried the little first-born, as dear to these grief-stricken parents as though encoffined in rosewood casket and borne beneath nodding plumes from the horne of luxury, and buried him beneath the prairie sods. The wife grew worse until they despaired of her life. Mr. Buel gave directions to Carson, and, leaving her in his charge, went on foot to Elk River, where there was an Indian camp. Making known his necessities, two squaws came down with him, and, after carefully examining his wife, they went out and dug various roots, which they made into a tea, very weak at first and then stronger, and administered it to her. For six days and nights they watched her with sleepless vigilance, until she was on the way to recovery. In relating this incident, Mr. Buel exhibited, even at this far-off day, a depth of emotion at the revival of the

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memories of that trying time that gave an indication of the mental struggle he must have passed through, and he closed his narration with the remark, "I would not pass through another such ordeal for the whole State of Iowa."

. In 1837 and 1838, he hauled wheat and pork from here to Chicago, which. he sold there for 40 cents per bushel, and at $2.25 per hundred, and loaded back with salt, at $1.25 per barrel. The trip, with horse teams, took eight days.

At the time of his arrival, and for some time after, Mr. Buel says, there was an encampment of Sac and Fox Indians on Elk River. They frequently visited him, and, as he could speak their language and always treated them fairly, they were friendly to him, and exchanged venison and other game for such things as he had to give in exchange. Frequently, however, they would come down to " New York," and, getting a supply of "fire-water " at Bartlett's store, would become intoxicated, and on their return, would stop at Mr. Buel's cabin to sleep off their potations. Sometimes his cabin floor would be covered with their dusky forms. At one of these visits, they had put their guns and tomahawks overhead and laid down to sleep, but, in the morning, one of them demanded of Mn. Buel more whisky. He was told that there was none in the cabin. He became enraged, and, taking down his rifle, with threats, began to load it. Mr. Buel, his wife and Carson were all there were to contend with those fifteen savages. Coolness and courage must stand in place of num- bers. The Indian would bite his rifle-ball, and make a feint of pushing it down the barrel. He was assured by Mr. Buel that he would kill him if he put down the ball. At last the ball went down, when instantly Mr. Buel seized an iron skillet and knocked him senseless on the cabin floor. His com- rades took him away without any interference in his behalf. For some time, Mr. B. lived in some apprehension that the result might be unpleasant to him, and one day, while he was chopping in the timber, this Indian suddenly and silently stood at his back. But his mission was a conciliatory one. He said, " Too much whisky; served right." When Mr. Buel reached his cabin at night-fall, he found that this Indian had been there and left with his wife a bucket of honey.

Being the pioneer, and a man of energy and enterprise, it was natural that he should at once become prominent in public affairs, and selected to represent the interests of his community. He was one of the first Board of Commis- sioners of the county, and held other offices, but he had no taste for public preferment. In 1837, he traveled over the county and circulated a petition for the first mail-route through the county, from Fulton, Lyons to Vandenburg (now De Witt) to Gower's Ferry, on the Cedar, which was established, and a horseback mail put on.

Mr. Buel has lived to see his property become valuable, and the county where he was "monarch of all he surveyed," one of the wealthiest and most prosperous in the State.

Mr. Daniel H. Pearce, who died at his residence in Clinton, January 5, 1878, had prepared a manuscript, in which he gave some incidents relative to the early settlement of this locality, from which we gather the following :

Mr. Pearce came here in the latter part of October, 1838. As he says, " The footprints of the red man had scarcely been obliterated ; indeed, many still lingered here, reluctant to quit the hunting-grounds of their fathers; but the rush of immigration soon crowded them toward the setting sun, where they may be permitted to linger a few years longer .. but will ultimately become extinct."

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On the 4th of July, 1838, Iowa Territory was organized, it having pre- viously been a part of Wisconsin Territory. Iowa was known as the "Black Hawk " country, and emigrants would simply say they wished to go to " Black Hawk," and the steamboat captains would put them off anywhere along the Mississippi which suited his convenience, and they would be satisfied, so that they were landed in " Black Hawk."

The first claim, where the principal part of Clinton now is, was made previous to his arrival by Joseph M. Bartlett. " At any rate, he owned it the year pre- vious to our arrival, but had sold out his claim, I think, some time in the spring or summer of 1838, to Capt. C. G. Pearce, of Cincinnati, Ohio, and Col. Beal Randall, of Baltimore." Bartlett, he says, had previously laid out a town called New York, and established a ferry to Whiteside Point in Illinois. This was previous to the Government Survey, as this town (New York) is noted on the field-notes of the Surveyor. The plat of the city was quite extensive, as, in breaking up the prairie for farming purposes, we plowed up large quantities of stakes, which marked the streets and alleys of the imaginary city."

The following is an extract from a letter written by Capt. C. G. Pearce, a former proprietor of New York, to Mr. D. H. Pearce :

"In the summer of 1836, I found J. M. Bartlett squatted on the little town- site, keeping a small store, the only building within a mile or more of this spot. He was the sole proprietor and monarch of all he surveyed-quite a funny- talking fellow, who liked whisky full as well as he did money. He was ready for a trade of any kind, and was always anxious to sell town lots, which he often accomplished, for some commodity, such as old harness, horses, wagons, plows, etc .- generally, in those days, minus the money ; more commonly, a great deal of time, called credit, was given, particularly to such lot-holders as our old friend Hogan, who owned the eighty over against the side-hill."

" As I was running the steamboat Missouri Fulton between St. Louis and Dubuque, and sometimes going up as far as St. Anthony Falls and Fort Snell- ing, I had a chance to watch the little town of New York and its sole proprie- tor, upon whom I used to call nearly every trip. Besides its natural and com- mercial advantages, he would argue, when trying to sell me the site for a town, that there was gold enough in the earth in and about this site, if properly worked, to run the United States Mint. He always insisted that he was dig- ging for gold, and that he found it in large quantities. In the spring of 1838, I think it was myself and Col. B. Randall and Col. Jennings purchased the town from Mr. Bartlett, but I have no recollection that we gave any more for it on account of its mineral wealth."

Mr. Pearce continues his narrative :

"The land not being in market, it was held by claim-titles alias ' squatter sovereignty.' One reason why this locality did not settle up in subsequent years more rapidly was on account of these 'claim-titles,' by which specula- tors held large bodies of land as ' squatters,' and which they held against the actual settler, until bought off. This also led to interminable brawls. Some of the chivalry, or gentlemen of elegant leisure, followed the business of making claims and selling them to emigrants as they arrived in the Territory. The method of operation was this : As soon as a new settler arrived, the above- named gentry would ascertain the ' size of his pile,' by some means best known to themselves. They would have a claim ready to suit his purse, and, if he demurred paying anything to them, contending that his right to the public domain was as good as theirs, they would very soon convince him of his error. He would be summoned to appear before a Justice of the Peace as a trespasser,

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or, in the language of the times, a 'claim-jumper.' The magistrate issuing the summons belonged to the fraternity, and the poor devil of a settler would have to shell out or leave, and, even if he went, would have to go a poorer if not a sadder man.

"Our Justice Courts were a mere farce. The laws of Michigan were pre- tended to be used as a legal guide; but the party who furnished the most whisky would, as a matter of course, always gain the suit.

" I had some little experience in a case brought as trespass, in order to get possession of a piece of land that myself and others were in possession of at the time. Previous to the suit, we had purchased the land from the Government ; and, at the trial, we introduced the Government patent, yet the jury gave the cause against us, and the Justice issued a writ, to dispossess us of our property. . " Col. Randall, one of the proprietors, kept a small store near where Flour- noy's warehouse now stands. The principal commodities kept were whisky, Dr. Sappington's ague pills and tobacco-all of which were more or less used as antidotes for ague, and other malarial diseases incident to a new coun- try. Col. Randall's store was the general resort for the surrounding country. Here they would congregate ; hold caucuses, talk politics, take a little whisky for the ague, and sometimes indulge in a free fight.

"New York, at this time-1838 and 1839-did not appear in a very flour- ishing condition, although there had been many lots sold at high figures, but mostly in barter trade. For instance, a person having an old horse or broken- down team, would trade it for a city lot, get his deed, and consider himself worth some hundreds of dollars in real estate. There were, at this time, three buildings in the city proper. These were Bartell's store, the Perrin House, and that of the Pearces.

" The first election held in this part of the county, I think, was held in the fall of 1839. The writer sat as one of the judges of the election. We kept the polls open all day, and the electors came from a circuit of ten or twelve miles; and after counting our votes at sundown, we found we had just sixteen votes, and every masculine voted who was old enough, and no questions asked.

"Some enterprising genius had plowed a furrow on the section line, between Townships 81 and 82, to some indefinite place towards sundown, following the surveyor's mark, and this was the only road we had leading into the interior of the county. Crossing the small water-courses was sometimes a rather hazard- ous enterprise. We were sometimes fortunate in finding a fallen tree or drift- log, on which we could cross, coon-fashion, but more frequently had to ford or swim. There was no settlement, after leaving the river, for a distance of twenty miles ; at Round Grove, near where De Witt was afterwards built, A. G. Har- rison had a small, log honse at the edge of the grove.

"During the fall and winter of 1838, myself and my father's family, consist- ing of ten persons, occupied a small, log house, located about half-way between where the Iowa Central House now stands and the river. We had no great surplus of room, it is true; but being resolved to make the best of everything, we passed the winter very pleasantly.

"Among the earliest manufacturing enterprises established in the county was Bigelow's Mint. This establishment was located about one and a half miles below town, on the place now occupied by Mr. Howe. Here hard money was coined in large quantities, and distributed in every direction. So great was the demand for coin, and such the briskness of business at this mint at one time, that the workmen confiscated the machinery of a small grist-mill on Mill Creek, with which to increase the facilities and capacity of their institution.

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" Tim Bigelow's money was very well executed, and circulated quite current. In many places it was quite as current as much of the Eastern currency, wild- cat bills, and was about equally as good. Such, however, was the pressure of the Democratic party in Iowa, at this time, against " Banks of Issue," that our mint was forced to suspend operations. Bigelow was driven from his strong- hold, for he had previously made a fortress of his house, the upper story being pierced with loopholes for musketry, determined to defend himself to the last. But he was forced to capitulate by a posse of regulators ; his old blacksmith- shop (the mint), was demolished, and he was threatened with dire vengeance if he ever showed himself in this part of the county again."

Other informants give us the following statements in regard to Bigelow and his " mint : " The first telegraph in this part of the country was probably erected in this county. Bigelow, who was a "hard-money " man, and whose coin went current even at the land office, and with which many acres of land in this county are said to have been paid for, had his " mint " in a log house situated in Riverside, below where Davis's lime-kiln now stands. Near where the pres- ent railroad bridge now reaches the shore, there was a bridge across the slough on the road between Lyons and Camanche. Another bridge crossed Mill Creek near the present site of the Mill Creek bridge.

From each of the bridges a wire was extended to the "mint," so arranged that any one passing over would ring a bell at the house, upon which labor was suspended, tools carefully laid aside, and the artisans at once became agricul- turists, and assiduously devoted themselves to the labors of the farm.

It is said that this bogus coin was so well executed that much of it passed current at the land office, and was paid out with other coin at the land sales.

Mr. Pearce continues : " There were several stations along the Mississippi in those early days, where sporting gentlemen stopped to trade horses and other property. They were asked no questions, supplied with coin and creature com- forts, and passed on their course of dissipation and crime. The 'mint' was one of these stations.

" The names of the old settlers in this immediate vicinity were Noble Perrin, T. K. Peck, Robert Thomas and J. L. Pearce. Capt. C. G. Pearce, whose interest in the town of New York our family subsequently purchased, and Col. Randall, never considered themselves citizens.

"The old Perrin homestead stood on the bank of the river, between where the railroad bridge and W. J. Young & Co.'s saw-mill now stands; the old Bartlett house and store, near the Farmers' Mills, and the old Pearce ' mansion,' near the Clinton Lumber Co.'s mill. The only land-mark that remains is the old well. The old Frank Weir's house stood in Young and Arnold's Addition to South Clinton, near where Davis and Co.'s saw-mill used to stand.

" Little Rock Island, in its primitive state, was a beautiful spot. Memory still loves to linger around its stately trees. Here was our sugar camp, where each spring we manufactured our supply of sugar for the coming year. The hand of improvement, I had almost said of desecration, has stripped it of its beauty, and left it in its nakedness.

" The act of the Territorial Legislature organizing the county of Clinton, located the county seat at Camanche. Previous to this, Clinton County was attached to Scott for judicial purposes.

" The first District Court held in this county was in October, 1839, if my memory serves me right. Hon. Thos. S. Wilson, of Dubuque, was the Judge, James D. Bourne, Sheriff, and Martin Dunning, Clerk. It took nearly all the adult male population of the county for grand and petit jurors and constables.

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Persons would frequently have to serve several terms in succession, there being not men enough in the county to change.

" A ferry was run from Camanche to Albany. The boat was an old mud- scow, propelled by sweeps, and it was considered a good half-day's work to cross over and return. Some years later, a horse power-boat was used. This innovation created quite a sensation in the community, and the time of its trips from shore to shore, was often the basis for wagers among the sporting gentle- men; these trips varying from five to thirty minutes, according to the favor- ableness of wind and weather."

GENERAL SUMMARY.

The earliest settler upon any territory within the State of Iowa of which history gives us any account, was an adventurous Frenchman named Julien Dubuque. He is believed to have been a Canadian Frenchman, and, it is sup- posed, obtained his first knowledge of the Upper Mississippi country from the reports made of the explorations of James Marquette and Louis Joliette, who, in 1673, under authorization from the French Government of Canada, voyaged along the northern shore of Lake Michigan, through Green Bay, up the Fox River and Lake Winnebago, and down the Wisconsin River, having made a portage between the two latter waters, to the Mississippi. They entered the latter stream on the 17th of June, 1673, and floated down to the solitudes below, gazing with wonder and admiration upon the bold bluffs and beautiful prairies along its western shore. They were the discoverers of Iowa-the " Beautiful Land."

At this time, and until 1788, this newly-discovered territory was inhabited by Indians, of whom no authentic history is known. Marquette and his com- panions only record a brief paragraph in regard to the tribes they found. On the 21st day of June, 1673, the fourth day of their journey down the Missis- sippi, they landed on the west bank, and " discovered footprints of some fellow- mortals and a little path leading into a pleasant meadow." They followed that trail, with their companions, five French Canadians, a short distance, when they heard the Indians talking, and, making their presence known by a loud cry, they were conducted to an Indian village. Various conjectures have been made as to the probable location of this village, but it seems to be only con- jecture. It is reasonable to believe it was near the present site of the city of Davenport. The inhabitants of this Indian village are said to have been of the Illini, meaning " tribe of men," who are supposed to have occupied a large portion of the country bordering upon the Mississippi. The Illini were suc- ceeded by the Winnebagoes, who in turn gave place to the Iowas. The Iowas, after having been defeated in a sanguinary conflict by the Sacs and Foxes, yielded up their prairie homes to their victors, and pushed westward to more peaceful hunting-grounds, leaving their name to the beautiful State which has risen upon their aboriginal possessions. A remnant of these Sacs and Foxes remained here when the first settlers arrived. Albert Gallatin, in writing upon Indian history, says, "The Sauks, or Saukies (white clay), and the Foxes, or Outagamins (so called by Europeans), and Algonquins respectively, but whose true name is Mus-quaq-kiuk (red clay), are, in fact, but one nation." A rem- nant, called " Musquakies," now reside upon their reservation in Tama County, Iowa.

For a century following the discovery by Marquette and Joliette, France claimed jurisdiction over the country, when it was ceded to Spain ; but in 1801, the Spanish Government ceded back to the French all interest in the

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Mississippi Valley, and, under treaty dated April 30, 1803, these possessions were ceded by the French Government to the United States. It was while a province of Spain that, in 1788, Dubuque found his way into this wilderness, and, reaching the galena section of Iowa, he obtained from Blondeau and two other chiefs of the Fox tribe of Indians, what he claimed to be a grant of lands. His claim was described as follows: "Seven leagues (twenty-one miles) on the west bank of the Mississippi, from the mouth of the Little Maquoketa River to the Tete Des Mortes, and three leagues (nine miles) in depth." This grant from the Indian chief Blondeau was subsequently qualifiedly confirmed by Carondelet, the Spanish Governor at New Orleans. Dubuque intermarried with the Indians among whom he had cast his fortunes, and continued to operate his mines until the time of his death, in 1810. In 1854, a case hav- ing been made, the United States Supreme Court decided that his grant from the Indian chief Blondeau, qualifiedly confirmed by the Spanish Governor Carondelet, was nothing more than a " temporary license to dig ore, and con- stituted no valid claim to the soil." [16 Howard Rep., 224].

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The History of Clinton County, Iowa: Containing a History of the County, Its., Part 39

Author: Western Historical Co , Western Historical Company Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Co. Number of Pages: 807

Author: Western Historical Co , Western Historical Company
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Co.
Number of Pages: 807