USA > Iowa > Muscatine County > The History of Muscatine county, Iowa, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, &c. > Part 52
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1839 .- John A. Parvin, J. M. Kane, G. W. Kincaid, J. McCloud, J. A. Purinton, E. T. S. Schenck, C. A. Abbott, Mathew Mathews, Clark Mathews, W. W. DeWeber, Hiram Mathews, Benjamin S. Olds, G. E. Daniels, G. W. Humphreys, Samnel Tarr, S. N. Candee, F. H. Stone, James Weed, Z. Wash- burn, J. K. Williams, M. Gilbert, J. E. Israel, George M. Kinsley, Dennis Jeffers, Joseph Bennett, D. C. Cloud, William Leffingwell, J. Scott Richman, William A. Gordon, John Giles, S. D. Viele, Samuel Sinnett, Isaac Magoon, George D. Magoon, W. G. Woodward, A. R. Woodward, Alexander Dunsmore, Shepherd Smalley, John Smalley, William Smalley, Jackson Smalley, Henry Smalley, Tiley Smalley, S. Whicher, J. Ziegler, J. A. McCormick, G. W. Hunt, A. M. Hare, H. Q. Jennison, Stephen B. Brophy, L. Truesdale, William Brownell, G. A. Springer, P. Fryberger, Benjamin and Edward Mathews, who were brought here by C. A. and D. R. Warfield, as emancipated slaves from Maryland, Daniel S. Smith, Silas Hawley, Barton Lee.
It is possible that some errors have crept into the arrangement of the fore- going list, but great care has been taken to avoid such mistakes. The names are all copied from records and papers, or taken from statements made to the writer in person. The settlers here enumerated were in the county prior to 1840, beyond question, and probably came as indicated. The list might be swelled to include hundreds of other names, but such a task as the preparation of the roll would be is obviously impossible.
Among the men who have claimed Muscatine as their place of residence, the one who has gained the most wide-spread celebrity is Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain). When but a young lad, he came with his mother and brother from Hannibal, Mo., and located in Muscatine. Orion Clemens purchased an interest in the Journal, and Samuel worked as printer in the office. This was in 1853-54. After a time, the restless spirit possessed young Clemens and he started out upon a " tramp," with little besides that magic passport to a print- ing office-a " composing-rule." It was during his sojourn at Hannibal and at this place that Clemens imbibed that profound reverence for the profession of Mississippi pilot, which he so admirably described in his Atlantic Monthly papers. The young printer journeyed on from place to place, until he finally reached Philadelphia, and while there wrote letters to the Journal at this place, descriptive of the City of Brotherly Love. The first letter published was one
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concerning the Fairmount Water Works. These letters evinced so much native talent on the part of the writer that they were generally commented on. Sub- sequently, Clemens reached California, in his wanderings, and there he blos- somed out into a successful humorist. His later triumphs are too fresh in the minds of the people to need special mention here.
Judge S. Clinton Hastings occupied the most prominent position of any of the earlier politicians. He was chosen Representative in Congress in 1846. and served one term. He was appointed to the Supreme Bench, as Chief Jus- tice, January 26. 1848, and served until January 15, 1849. He exercised a decided influence on local politics during the formative years of the county, and his name is found in many of the official records and early law documents. In 1849, he removed to California, where he was placed upon the Supreme Bench. and is now one of the capitalists of the Pacific Slope.
Judge Henry O'Connor, now Solicitor of the State Department at Wash- ington, was, for a quarter of a century, a power in the politics of Muscatine County. As a lawyer of marked ability and a gentleman of admirable quali- ties, he is known and respected by his former associates.
Hon. T. S. Parvin, who came in 1838, was from the first a prime mover in all educational and other beneficial enterprises. He is esteemed the foremost man among those who laid the foundation of schools in Muscatine, and is remembered for his untiring devotion to the higher interests of the town. His removal to Iowa City was a serious loss to this place.
THE " MISSOURI WAR."
One of the most exciting events of early times was the difficulty known as the " Missouri war," an amusing, but, for the time, an absorbing. controversy, which arose as to the limit between Iowa and Missouri. Instead of relegating the whole matter to Congress the moment it arose, Gov. Lucas became deeply excited and acted absurdly.
It may be asked why the subject is introduced into the pages of a history of Muscatine County. The answer is ready enough : Muscatine furnished a whole company of troops, and took a leading hand in the impending fray. The pioneers have assured the writer that a full account of the "war " would be expected, and so we have endeavored to supply the needed history.
Suel Foster once prepared a readable sketch of the cause and progress of the " war," and from that paper is here quoted a liberal portion of his version : " In August, 1836, Mr. Foster was living about two miles from the mouth of Rock River, and about three miles from the present site of Rock Island. Early one day that month, the Sac and Fox Indians began to assemble at their previous home, which was destroyed during the Black Hawk war of 1832. After paying tribute to the dead which were buried there, the Indians called for Maj. George Davenport and Antoine LeClaire. The business of the meeting was kept a profound secret. The result of this conference was the formation of a company known as the Half-breed Land Company. The object and pur- pose of the Company was the purchase of the tract of fertile lands in Lee County, which had been secured to the half-breeds for settlement. Some 30 .- 000 aeres were embraced in the reserve. There were about forty-five half-breeds in the tribe, and from these deeds were obtained by the Company. As might have been expected. the loose business ideas possessed by the Indians soon led to confusion in titles. as the half-breeds would profit by selling their lands to
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whoever would pay for the same. In this way, as many as a dozen claims were known to exist on the same tract of land.
" Finally, the question of priority became a legislative bone of contention, and even continued to be as late as 1856 The multiplicity of stockholders in the original Company, who first purchased shares for $2, but afterward at as high a figure as $10, led to still greater complications. To make the land hold out to fit the shares was a serious problem. Finally, it was detected by a shrewd observer, that the boundary of the Half-breed Tract was " the head of the Des Moines Rapids," which was the name generally given to the rapids in the Mississippi River, at the mouth of the Des Moines River. The inter- ested parties interpreted the act to mean the rapids in the river Des Moines, near Keosauqua, Van Buren County, which gave nearly twelve miles more territory, north and south, at the point involved."
From this point of the story, we quote from a paper by Charles Negus, who made the subject a matter of special study :
" Soon after the organizing of the Territorial Government of Iowa, there arose a dispute between Missouri and Iowa about the jurisdiction of the State and Territorial authorities over a tract of country in the southern part of Iowa, which Missouri claimed as being within the boundary of that State as defined by Congress.
" The act of Congress, passed March 6, 1820, authorizing the Territory of Missouri to form a State Government, provided that (if the State should ratify the boundaries) the State of Missouri 'should consist of all the territory within the following boundaries : Beginning in the middle of the Mississippi River, on the parallel of 36º north latitude ; thence west, along that parallel of lat- itude, to the St. Francis River; thence up and following the course of that river, in the middle of the main channel thereof, to the parallel of 36° 30'; thence west along the same to the point where the said parallel is intersected by a meridian line passing through the middle of the mouth of the Kansas River, where the same empties into the Missouri River ; thence from the point aforesaid, north along the west meridian line, to the intersection of the parallel of latitude which passes through the rapids of the river Des Moines, making said line to correspond with the Indian boundary line, etc .; thence east from the point of intersection last aforesaid, along the said parallel of latitude, to the middle of the channel of the main fork of the said river Des Moines ; thence down and along the middle of the said river Des Moines, to the mouth of the same, where it empties into the Mississippi,' etc. These boundaries, as defined by Congress, were adopted by Missouri, through the Convention which formed the State Constitution.
" The northern boundary of the State, which was defined as 'the parallel of latitude which passes through the rapids of the river Des Moines,' though it might have been well understood at the time, was vague and uncertain, and subsequently gave grounds for an open dispute.
·· In the treaties made with the Sacs and Foxes and the lowa Indians, on the 4th of August, 1824, for the purchase of a portion of their lands, it is set forth that they sold to the United States all their lands within the limits of the State of Missouri, which are situated, lying and being between the Missis- sippi and Missouri Rivers, and a line running from the Missouri to the mouth of the Kansas River, north 100 miles to the northwest corner of the State of Missouri, and thence east to the Mississippi. The line, as defined in this treaty, commencing at the mouth of the Kansas River, thence running 100 miles due north, and thence east until it strikes the Des Moines River, had been run in
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1816, by John C. Sullivan, and duly marked by blazing trees, driving stakes nd erecting mounds.
" But in a period of between twenty and thirty years, those marks had become so obliterated that they were not easily to be found, and the rapids of the river Des Moines was so uncertain a place that it was hard for those first settling the country, at the time Iowa was first opened for white settlement, to designate where the northern boundary of Missouri was located. There being several rapids in the Des Moines River, and one of considerable fall. near Keosauqua, in Van Buren County (a fall in eighty rods of twenty-one inches), the Missourians claimed that the latter were the rapids referred to in the act of Congress authorizing Missouri to form a State Con- stitution as a point in defining their boundaries. And, in 1837, the authorities of Missouri, without the co-operation of the United States, or of the Territory of Iowa (then Wisconsin), appointed Commissioners to run and mark the north- ern boundary.
" The Commissioners so appointed, instead of commencing to run the line upon the parallel of latitude which passes through the rapids of the river Des Moines in the Mississippi, proceeded to search for rapids in the Des Moines River itself, from which to commence. They finally fixed upon the ripples in the great bend in the Des Moines River, in Van Buren County, which they assumed to be the rapids of the Des Moines River named in the act of Congress of 1820, and in the Constitution of Missouri, notwithstanding those ripples had never been known as the 'rapids of the river Des Moines.' From this point, the Commissioners proceeded to run and mark a line, which the authorities of that State claimed was the northern boundary, while the early history of the West showed, and it was subsequently decided by the Supreme Court of the United States, that the rapids of the river Des Moines were in the Mississippi River.
"Gen. Pike, who first explored the Upper Mississippi, after the acquisition of the Louisiana Purchase by the United States, in his journal, kept while ascending the river in 1805, says he arrived at the foot of the rapids Des Moines at 7 o'clock,' and thus goes on to give an account of the difficulties he had in getting over those rapids with his boat, on his way up the Mississippi River. And, after passing the rapids, in writing to Gen. Wilkinson, he dates his letter, 'Head of the Rapids Des Moines.' Also, in his map of the Upper Mississippi, Pike lays down the Rapids Des Moines as being in the Mississippi River, a short distance above the mouth of the Des Moines River. And, before the United States acquired possession of this territory in 1779, Zenon Tendeau, acting as Lieutenant Governor of Upper Louisiana, in one of his official acts, says : 'It is permitted to Mr. Lewis (Tesson) Honore to establish himself at the head of the rapids of the river Des Moines.' Upon this grant, Honore made an actual settlement and improvement immediately upon the banks of the Mis- sissippi River, at the head of the Des Moines Rapids in that river, some eighteen or twenty miles above its mouth.
" These, with other references, go to show that, at an early day, the rapids in the Mississippi opposite the southern extremity of Iowa, were known as the ' rapids of the river Des Moines,' but the authorities of Missouri claimed and contended for many years that the rapids referred to by Congress, and in their Constitution were in the Des Moines River and near Keosauqua. The northern boundary of that State, as long as there were no settlements there, was a matter of little consequence to her citizens, and there was no one to dispute their claims until after the Black Hawk Purchase, which was made in 1832.
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"The Territory of Wisconsin, in organizing the county of Van Buren, made her southern boundary extend to the southern line, and the same bound- aries were claimed by Iowa as soon as she assumed a territorial government. The territorial government of Iowa went into operation on the 4th day of July, 1838, and at that time the boundaries between Missouri and Iowa had not been settled, and there was a strip of Government land about ten miles wide which both governments claimed. The county of Van Buren, as organized by the Legislature of Wisconsin, before Iowa assumed a territorial government, embraced within her boundary a portion of this disputed tract of land.
"The County Court of Clarke County, Mo., in levying the taxes for that county, enrolled the settlers on this disputed tract, as being citizens of that State and belonging to that county, and, having placed their names upon the tax-list, ordered Uriah S. Gregory, the Sheriff of that county, to collect the taxes. Accordingly, the Collector of Clarke County went on the disputed tract to collect the taxes, but the tax-payers refused to pay, and the officer undertook to collect them by levying upon their property ; but while endeavoring to do this, some of the citizens of Van Buren County sued out a warrant from a magistrate and placed it in the hands of Henry Heffleman, the Sheriff of Van Buren County, who arrested the Missouri officer, and, there being no jail suit- able for retaining prisoners nearer than Muscatine, he was taken to that county and there lodged in jail.
" This act aroused the citizens of Clarke County, and an application was made to Gov. Boggs, of Missouri, for the military power of the State to aid the civil officers in maintaining their authority, and to enforce the law of Mis- souri over the disputed tract. He accordingly dispatched Gen. Allen, with a thousand men, to the place of contention.
" Gov. Lucas, of Iowa, was as determined and fixed in his purpose to main- tain the rights of his State as the authorities of Missouri were to exact theirs, and for this purpose, ordered Maj. Gen. J. B. Brown to call out the militia and march with his forces to Van Buren County to protect the citizens.
" At this time, the militia of Iowa was poorly organized ; but Gen. Brown gave orders to his subordinates to beat up for recruits, and the citizens were not backward in enrolling themselves by voluntary enlistment, and, in a short time, about five hundred men, with arms, were assembled in Van Buren County, and others were on their way, amounting, in all, to about twelve hundred men, and the gathering of military forces had all the appearance of a fierce and bloody civil war. But before there was any collision between the two forces, Gen. Brown, from his officers, selected Gen. A. C. Dodge, of Burlington, Gen. Churchman, of Dubuque, and Dr. Clark, of Ft. Madison, as an embassy to the enemy to try to negotiate a peace.
" On arriving at Waterloo, the county seat of Clarke County, they found that the County Court of that county had rescinded the order to the Sheriff to collect the taxes on the disputed tract, and had sent a special delegation to wait upon Gov. Lucas and the Legislature of Iowa, then assembled at Burlington, for the purpose of making some amicable adjustment of the difficulties, and that Gen. Allen, with his forces, had withdrawn from the contest. Upon recciv- ing this information, the embassy returned to their headquarters, and the Iowa forces were disbanded and permitted to return to their homes.
"Col. McDaniels and Dr. Wayland, the representatives of Clarke County, came to Burlington and waited upon Gov. Lucas, who, not evincing much dispo- sition to adjust matters, they then went before the Legislature, which body, after hearing their proposition, passed a set of resolutions, with a preamble, expressing
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their views. In the preamble, they set forth the difficulties existing between Iowa and Missouri, and that Iowa, under any circumstances, deprecated any military collision between the forces of the State of Missouri and the Territory of Iowa, and reciprocated the kind feelings evinced by the delegation from the County Court of Clarke County, and Resolved, That the officers now on the part of Missouri be respectfully requested to suspend all further military operations on the part of said State until these resolutions can be submitted to His Excel- lency Gov. Boggs ; that His Excellency Gov. Boggs, be requested to authorize a suspension of hostilities on the part of the State of Missouri until the 1st day of July next, with a view to having the unfortunate difficulties now existing between the State of Missouri and the Territory of Iowa adjusted by the act of Congress : that Ilis Excellency, the Governor of Iowa, be requested to suspend all further military operations until the decision of His Excellency Gov. Boggs, may be obtained relative to the proposition herein contained : that the Governor be requested forthwith to furnish a copy of these resolutions to the Governor of Missouri, one to the County Court of Clarke County and copies to the officers in command of the disputed grounds, to be by them presented to the officers of the Missouri forces.
" These proceedings on the part of the Legislature had a tendency to quiet things for a time. The Sheriff of Clarke County was, however, indicted at the next term of the court in Van Buren County for his attempt to collect taxes in the disputed tract : but the Prosecuting Attorney entered a nolle prosequi, and he was discharged from custody.
" On the 10th of November, 1841, Thomas Reynolds, Governor of Missouri, who was the successor to Gov. Boggs, addressed a letter to John Chambers, who was at that time Governor of Iowa, in which he informed him that the Legisla- ture of Missouri, at their last session, passed an act directing the Governor of Missouri to bring a suit on behalf of Uriah S. Gregory, the late Collector of Clarke County, against Henry Heffleman, the Sheriff of Van Buren County, for the purpose of having the question of boundary between Iowa and Missouri finally adjusted in the Supreme Court of the United States. As Heffleman and others who arrested Gregory resided in Iowa, such a suit should have been commenced in Iowa. Gov. Reynolds wished to know, if suit was thus commenced, . whether the authorities of Iowa would consent to make such an agreed case on the record as would insure a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States on the question of boundary.
" To this, Gov. Chambers replied that this question, as it appeared to him, was one over which the Territorial authorities had no control; for, 'by an express reservation in the laws organizing the Territory of Iowa, the boundary remained subject to the future control of Congress.' And Gov. Chambers also expressed his doubts whether, under the Constitution of the United States, the Supreme Court, even upon an agreed case and by consent of parties, would take jurisdiction of an alleged controversy between one of the States and a Territory remaining subject to the laws of Congress. But he assured Gov. Reynolds that he would lay his communication before the next Legislature of the Territory, and if that body should differ from the views he had entertained upon the sub- ject, their decisions should immediately be made known to him. But it appears that the Legislature concurred with the views of Gov. Chambers, for there were no steps taken to comply with the request of Missouri as made by Gov. Rey- nolds.
" The expenses of Iowa in calling out the militia to maintain her rights and enforce the laws on the disputed tract were upward of $13,000. Some of
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those expenses were borne by individuals whose circumstances were such that they could not well afford to lose the amount justly due them. Congress was memorialized by the Territorial Legislature to make an appropriation to meet these expenses, and on two occasions a bill was passed through the House, pro- viding for their payment, but both bills failed to pass the Senate.
" Samuel C. Reed, of Van Buren County, who lived near where the troops were rendezvoused to defend and maintain the rights of Iowa against the intru- sion of. Missouri, having furnished them provisions to the amount of nearly $200, being a man in limited circumstances, and having waited several years with the hope of getting something from the General Government, and not succeeding, petitioned the Territorial Legislature to allow and make an appro- priation for his claim.
" Reed was regarded as a patriotic and generous man, and he did all he could to sustain the rights of Iowa in her troubles with Missouri, and having met with misfortunes and being much reduced in his circumstances. his appeal to the Legislature elicited their sympathy, and they passed a bill allowing his claims, with 6 per cent interest, and made an appropriation for paying it ; but this did not meet with the approbation of Gov. Clark, at that time Governor of the Territory, and he returned the bill with his veto. His objections were, that the Legislature should make no discrimination among those who aided the author- ities in the troubles with Missouri; if the Territory undertook to pay one they should pay all; that if Iowa should assume these debts, the United States, which was in duty bound to pay them, would not; that Iowa was soon to become a State, when she would have a representation and vote in both branches of Congress, and then, in all probability, would be able to get an appropriation to defray those expenses. But, for one cause or another, neither Reed nor any of the others who furnished means or rendered services in the war with Missouri, got pay for that which was justly their due.
"For the purpose of ascertaining and defining the southern boundary of Iowa, Congress, on the 18th of June, 1838, passed an act in which it was pro- vided that the President should cause to be surveyed, and distinctly marked. the southern boundary line of Iowa; and for that purpose, he was required to appoint a Commissioner on the part of the United States, who, with the neces- sary surveyors, was to act in conjunction with a Commissioner to be appointed by the State of Missouri, and one to be appointed by the Governor of Iowa, in ' running, marking and ascertaining' the boundary line; and it was made the duty of the Commissioner who was to be appointed by the President, to prepare three plats of this survey, one of which was to be returned to the Secretary of State of the United States, one to the office of the Secretary of State of Mis- souri and one to the Secretary of the Territory of Iowa.
" And it was also provided that if the Commissioner on the part of Missouri or of Iowa should fail to attend, or if either or both the State of Missouri or the Governor of Iowa should fail to appoint, then the Commissioner of the United States, by himself, or such Commissioner as did attend, should proceed to run the boundary line between Missouri and Iowa. But the line so run and marked was not to be fully established until the survey should be submitted to, and the boundary thus ascertained and marked be approved of and ratified by, Congress.
"In pursuance of this act, the President appointed Maj. A. M. Lee as Commissioner on the part of the United States, and Dr. James Davis was appointed for Iowa, but Missouri failed to make any appointment. Maj. Lee, in company with Dr. Davis, proceeded to make the survey as required by
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