USA > Iowa > Fayette County > Oelwein > The Telegraph-herald's abridged history of the state of Iowa and directory of Fayette County, including the city of Oelwein, with a complete classified business directory; > Part 9
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The first report of State Officers, made at the close of 1847, showed taxable property valued at $11,27,139, on which a tax of two mills should raise a revenue of $22,554.25; only $15,788, however, had been collected. The report of the Treasurer showed the total revenue from all sources to be $50,782.36, and the amount paid out on warrants $59,184.36. The children of school age were 20,- 928, of which only 2,429 wer attending school. Congress adopted the policy of granting lands for public improvements as early as 1802, long before a rail-
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF IOWA.
road was built. When a grant was made for a turnpike from the interior of the State of Ohio to the Ohio River, a grant was also made to aid the construction of a canal in Indiana. Other grants were made to Ohio and Illinois for similar purposes. In 1829 the first railroad on which steam was used was built. The first grant of public lands to aid in the construction of a railroad in the United States was in 1833. The first grant of public lands in Iowa for internal im- prove ment was in 1846, to aid the navigation of the Des Moines River. It was every alternate section for five miles on each side of the river from its mouth to its source.
Congress made the first grant of public lands to aid in the construction of a railroad by authorizing the State of Illinois to use the land therefore granted to aid in the construction of canals.
As early as 1837 the people of Iowa had, through the efforts of John Plumb, became interested in a project for building a great trunk line of railroad to connect the Atlantic States with the Pacifi Coast, to be aided by a grant of public lands along the route. Such a route would be likely to pass through Iowa and open up its inland prairies to settlement. Asa Whitney, of New York, who projected a line of railroad across the great plains and Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Coast and had written able articles showing the feasibility of such a line. The proposed route passed through Iowa and the citizens of our State felt a deep interest in the project and some of the far-seeing men believd that the benefits of this commercial highway might be secured to Iowa by prompt ac- tion in obtaining a valuabl land grant for a railroad to the Missouri River.
In 1854 a strong movement had been organized in the State by the Prohi- bitionists for the enactment of a law prohibiting the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquor. The State Temperance Alliance had delegated to Hiram Price, D. S. True and John L. Davies the preparation of a bill to be presented to the Legislature, similar to the "Maine Liquor Law." The bill was drafted with great care and sent to Dr. Amos Witter, a Democratic Representative from Scott County, who, on the 13th of December, 1854, introduced it into the House. It met with active opposition, but finally passed both houses and was approved by Governor Grimes. One of its provisions required the act to be submitted to a vote of the people at the following April election. The vote stood 25,555 for the law to 22,645 against. Having thus been adopted by a majority of 2,910, it went into effect on the first of July following. The act prohibited the manu- facture and sale of intoxicating liquors, excepting for mechanical or medicinal purposes. The penalties were fine and imprisonment. With some amendment and modifications this law remained upon the statute books for more than forty years.
CHAPTER XXV.
Ansel Briggs was the first Governor of the State of Iowa. He was inaugu- rated December 3, 1846, and the first legislature convened in 1848 the report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction showed children of school age 41,446, of which but 7,077 were in the public schools. There were 124 teachers em- ployed, of which 101 were men and 23 women. The average salary of the men was $16 per month, and of the women but $9. There were 673 organized school districts. The State Library contained 1,660 volumes, one-third of which were law books. The expense of maintaining the Library in 1847 was $109.31.
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The first homestead law, exempting the home to the heads of families from sale for debts was enacted by the Second General Assembly. The usual rate of interest was 40 per cent. Governor Briggs on retiring, congratulated the General Assembly and the people, on the settlement by the Supreme Court of the United States of our Southern boundary. The claim of Iowa being al- lowed. During this session the following counties were created: Union, Adams, Adair, Cass, Montgomery, Mills, Bremer, Butler, Grundy, Hardin, Frank- lin, Wright, Risley, Yell, Greene, Guthrie, Audubon, Carroll, Fox, Sac, Crawford, Shelby, Harrison, Monona, Ida, Allamakee, Humboldt, Pocahontas, Buent Vista, Cherokee, Plymouth, Floyd, Cerro Gordo, Hancock, Kossuth, Palo Alto, Clay, O'Brien, Sioux, Howard, Mitchell, Worth, Winnebago, Bancroft, Emmet, Dickin- son, Osceola and Buncomb.
The code of 1851 was also adopted. The volume consisted of six hundred and eighty-five pages. The report of the Commission with diagram and field notes of the survey of the boundary between Iowa and Missouri was also filed and entered of record in the House Journal. The entire length of the line, so stablished, was two hundred and eleven miles and thirty-two chains.
The census of 1857 gave Iowa a population of 116,454. The Democrats car- ried the State, at the Presidential election of 1848 by a small majority. Hon. Geo. W. Jones and T. S. Wilson were candidates for United States Senator, Jones receiving the nomination and election. The contract had been let for rendering the Des Moines River navigable, by building dams and locks, from the Raccoon Forks to the Missouri River, to be completed March 1, 1850. Much was expected from this improvement, but it was not realized. Efforts were also made to induce Congress to make appropriations to improve the Maquo- keta, Skunk, Wapsipinicon and Iowa Rivers.
The first Exemption Law, providing for the exemption from debt of the home to the head of each family, was passed by the Legislature of 1848. The Democrats carried the election in 1849 by a small majority. In this year the California gold fever set in, and for three or four years the Iowa prairies were lined with immigration wagons bound for the gold fields.
In 1850 the election was in favor of the Democrats. The plurality being about 2,000. Stephen Hempstead of Dubuque, was elected Governor. The financial report of the money on hand and recived for the year ending Novem- ber 4, 1850, showed amount received $90,444.33, paid out 90,442.94. The year 1851 was remarkable for the vast amount of rainfall all over the State. The average precipitation was about 731/2 inches. Rivers were very
high all summer low and lands were converted into lakes. In Dubuque County the floods were terrific. About the 15th day of May the little Maquoketa was so high that the water run from Sageville down the Couler avenue to Dubuque City, a distance of about five miles, where it emptied into the Missisippi River, which was also very high. At Sageville the grist mill, bridge and saw mill were washed away. A warehouse stored with flour, es- caped. In the morning when it was observed that the river was rising rap- "idly, Harvey Thompson, the proprietor of the mill, John Challice and Joe, the teamster, entered the warehouse to pile up the flour which was in barrels,this was before sacks for flour came into use. They piled them up as high as possi- ble on the upper side of the building and when they started to go to breakfast they found they were prisoners. The water had risen so high and the current was so strong that it was impossible for them to get out. Several neigh- bors gathered around but could afford no aid. Ropes were secured and an effort
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made to float a raft to the building, but in vain. The current was so strong that it pulled the raft under. In the meantime a couple of men were sent to Dubuque to get a skiff. They were compelled to make their way over the hills as the Couler Valley was covered with water. They intended to haul the skiff out on a wagon but having learned that the water was high enough to float it they took to the oars and for the first and last time white men rowed a boat from Dubuque to Sageville up the Couler Valley. It was nearly noon when they arrived with the skiff and the water having fallen considerably the prisoners were soon released. The agonizing suspense which they endured during the four or five hours of their imprisonment can more easily be imagined than de- scribed. When the flood was at its height, it was expected momentarily that the building would be washed away, and in that event there was no hope for the three men in it to escape. John Challice and Joe tried to make them- selves appear brave, but it was very much like the boy in the graveyard whistling to keep his courage up. Mr. Thompson spent most of his time sitting in an upper window or door. When the flood was at its height, a plank in the rear of the building gave way with a loud report and all thought it was the end. Mr. Thompson quickly dodged inside. This gave rise to the belief that he intended to go with the last remnant of his property without an effort to save his life or perhaps he saw the utter futility of any effort he might make in that direction.
When the water went down it was found that the rear end of the building was moved six inches off its base. The weight of the flour piled in front saved it. The county replaced the bridge and Thompson erected a stone mill that has stood the floods up to this date, but the sawmill was not rebuilt. A flood later in the season washed away the dam that was in process of contruction and did some damage to the mill then being built. Thompson received two thou- sand dollars from Mr. Douglas, his partner, who was in California, which helped him materially in erecting his new building. Two thousand dollars was a large sum those days and as there were no unions or trusts or syndicates it was sufficient to put up a good building.
In order to keep the Sioux Indians at bay, Fort Dodge was selected as a site for a fort. The fort was erected and manned in 1849. It was abandoned in 1863 and the troops sent to Minnesota to build a new fort on the North line of the new purchase made from the Sioux Indians.
At the Persidential election in 1852 the Democrats carried the State. Pierce securing 17,762 and Scott 15,856. George W. Jones was elected Senator for six years.
February 22, 1854, thousands assembled at Rock Island to witness the ar- rival of the first train. At five o'clock P. M. the whistle of the engine St. Clair was heard. A great shout went up from the crowd. The booming of cannons and sky rockets were the response. Two other trains followed in rapid suc- cession. Speeches of welcome followed and a big time was had which lasted away into the night. In 1853 the Illinois Legislature incorporated a bridge company, to build a bridge across the Mississippi River at Rock Island. The constructon of a bridge was opposed on account of its being an obstruction to navigation, but the courts decided in favor of the bridge. The work was begun in 1853 and finished in 1856. In 1852 the census showed a population of 229,929. At the election of 1854 the Whigs won. J. W. Grimes was elected Secretary. of State.
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF IOWA.
The last contest between . Democrats and Whigs occurred in 1855. The Whigs won by a majority of nearly 5,000 .. But before the next election the' Whig party was largely absorbed by the New Republican party. The contest in Kansas over slavery had become very bitter. Thousands of people from slave States had entered the territory to aid in making it a slave state. Im- migration from the Northern States poured in, and the contest between the Slavery: and anti-Slavery parties was bitter and bloody. Armed collisions were frequent. In 1856 the Legislature passed a joint resolution in opposition'to the extension of slavery. . "But our member in Congress took no part in the fierce discussion, until Harlan and Thorington were elected by the free soil Whigs and Abolitionists. Those were the first Iowa Congressmen to oppose the aggres- sion of the slave powers.
May 15, 1856, Congress made a grant of every alternate section for three railroads running from Burlington, L'yons and Davenport, respectively, west- ward through the State. The grant to be subject to the disposal of the Leg- islature. At the Presidential election in 1856, the vote stood for John C. Fre- mont (Republican) 45,196; James Buchanan (Democrat), 37,663; Filmore (Whig) 9,669. The vote in favor of a Constitutional convention was 32,790 . against 14,162. The most important changes made in the Constitution were as follows: No lease of agricultural lands valid for more than twenty years; sec- ond, Biennial Sessions of the Legislature were to begin on the second Monday in January after the election of members; third, time of the general election changed to the second Tuesday of October; fourth, a majority of the members elected in each branch of the General Assembly was required to pass a bill; fifth, local or special laws not to be passed on certain subjects, and in no case when a general law could be made applicable; sixth, no money to be appropri- ated for local or private purposes, unless by a vote of two-thirds of the mem- bers of each branch of the general assembly; seventh, the Senate was limited to fifty, and the House to one hundred members; eighth, the office of Lieuten- ant-Governor was created; ninth, the office of Supreme Judge was made elec- tive: tenth, the limit of State indebtedness was increased from one hundred thousand to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. In case of insurrection, invasion or defense or in time of war this limit might be exceeded; eleventh, banks could be established under laws enacted by the Lgislature, provided such laws were approved by a majority of the whole, at a general or special election; twelfth, a State Board of Education was created; thirteenth, the Capitol of the State was permanently fixed at Des Moines, and the State University was per- manently located at Iowa City; fourteenth, to submit to a vote of the people a proposition to strike out he word "white" from the article on Suffrage.
The census of the year 1856 gave Iowa a population of 517,875. Iowa was now very prosperous. Railroads were building rapidly; immigration was rush- ing in rapidly; crops were good and prices satisfactory. The Committee a- pointed to investigate the office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, re- ported a deficit of $65,150. Although the Sioux Indians had sold the lands about the head water of the Little Sioux, they were reluctant to leave it. When the land was being surveyed by Mr. Marsh of Dubuque, a band of Sioux Indians attacked him, and compelled him and his party to cross the river and leave the country, after destroying his wagon and instruments and capturing their horses. In the war between the Sioux and Pottawattamies the last battle was founght on the Lizard in Webster County. The Sioux were in ambush and the Potta- wattamies were led into the trap. They fought bravely but were defeated with
.
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great slaughter. The survivors who reached their own country were so few that they made no more raids into the Sioux district ..
CHAPTER XXVI.
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In 1847 a desperado named Henry Lott, built a cabin near the mouth of Boone River, which bacame a rendezvous for horse thieves and outlaws. Horses were stolen from the settlements below and from the Indians, secretd on Lott's premises and from there taken to the eastern part of the State and sold. In 1848 Lott's marauders stole a number of ponies from the Sioux Indians, who were hunting along the river. Si-dom-i-no-do-tah and six of his party tracked the ponies to Lott's settlement, found them concealed in the woods, recovered them and the chife ordered Lott to leave the country within five days. This he failed to do and when the time was up, the Sioux chief ordered his men to burn the cabin and kill the cattle. Lott was now alarmed and fled down the river with a stepson, abandoning his wife and small children. Upon reaching the Pea set- tlement in Boone County, he spread the report that his family had been mur- dered by the Indians. The settlers at once organized a party to punish the Sioux. Chemeuse, a Musquakie chief, was at Elk Rapids, sixteen miles below with several hundred of his band. He furnished twenty-six warriors for the ex- pedition, which was placed under his command and piloted by Lott. When they reached his claim the Sioux had gone, and the wife and children of Lott were there without food or shelter. A son twelve years old had attempted to follow Lott when he fled, but after wandering twenty miles alone had perished from cold. Lott remained on his claim, where his wife died during the year, as Lott reported, from exposure and abuse from the Indians. Lott swore ven- geance upon the Sioux chief, but made no haste to execute it. In the fall of 1853, he and a son passed through Fort Dodge with an ox team and a wagon loaded with provisions, goods and three barrels of whiskey. He went into what is now Humboldt County and built a cabin on the bank of the creek which has since been named Lott's Creek.
Here he opened trade with the Indians in goods and whiskey. In January, 1854, Lott learned that Si-dom-i-na-do-tah and family were camped on another creek since named Bloody Run. Lott and his son went to the camp of the Sioux chief. Finding the chief did not recognize him, Lott professed friendship for the Indians. He told the chief that there was a large herd of elk on the river bottom and induced him to set off to find them. Lott and his son started toward their own cabin, but as soon as the old chief was out of sight, they skulked back, hiding in the tall grass, and as the old chief returned from the hunt they shot him dead as he rode by on his pony. Then they stripped him and disguising themsedves as Indians, waited until night, when, returning to the Indian tepees, they gave a war cry, and when the Indian women and chil- dren came out in alarm, they butchered them one by one.
The victims were the wife, children and aged mother of the dead chief, and two orphans living with them. One little girl hid in the grass and escaped and one little boy, terribly wounded and left for dead, recovered. They plun- dered the camp of every article of value and left the mutilatd bodies of their victims to be devoured by wolves. Returning to their own cabin, they burnt it, to throw suspicion on the Indians, loaded a wagon with plunder and fled down the river. Ink-pa-du-tah, a brother of the murdered chief, was encamped with another band of Sioux Indians a few miles from the scene of the massacre. A
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few days later he discovered the dead and mangled bodies of his mother, brother and his entire family.
A careful examination by Major Williams of Fort Dodge, and Ink-pa-du-tah, led to the discovery of facts which left no doubt that Lott was the perpetrator of the murders. His heavily loaded team was tracked down the river on the ice to the mouth of the Boone. Lott stated that he had been driven from his claim by the Indians, and he here sold to the settlers the pony, gun, furs and other property belonging to his victims. Lott hurried on his flight down the river, leaving one of his children at T. S. White's six miles below Fort Dodge, and his two little girls at Dr. Hull's in Boone County.
Major Williams, with several of the Indians, followed rapidly on their trail, hoping to overtake and arrest them. But they having several days' start left the Des Moines River, struck out westward upon the unsettled prairie, crossed the Misouri River north of Council Bluffs and disappeared on the great plains.
Several years afterwards it was learend by a letter from his son that Henry Lott niet his fate at the hands of the "Vigilance Committee" for crime committed in the gold regions. Ink-pa-du-tah brooded sullenly over the cruel murder of his mother and brother, believing that some of the white settlers were parties to the massacre and had aided Lott and his son to escape. The head of the murdered chief was taken to Homer, by some unknown barbarous wretch and nailed on the outside of a house. Upon learning this the Sioux were highly incensed and threatened revenge. These facts were all procured from Major Williams, who had been active in his efforts to bring the murderers to justice, and was familiar with the true history of the massacre. Ink-pa-du- lah never manifested friendship for the whites after this murder of his relatives but looked upon them as treacherous enemies. There can be no doubt that he determined to bide his time for retaliation, which resulted a few years later in the Spirit Lake massacre.
CHAPTER XXVII.
During 1855-6, adventurous pioneers explored the valley of the Little Sioux and made claims at different places near the river. They built cabins and set- tled with their families at Correctionville, Woodbury County, Pilot Rock, in Cherokee; Peterson and Gillett's Grove in Clay County.
An Irish colony located near Medium Lake, on the west fork of the Des Moines River in Palo Alto, and a Mr. Granger had built a cabin in Emmet Coun- ty, near the north line of the State. A small colony had ventured farther up the river and made a settlement in Minnesota, called Springfield. Asa C. and Am- brose A. Call, brothers, had settled near the present town of Algona, on the east fork of the Des Moines River, in 1854. The settlements of Okoboji and Spirit Lake, in Dickinson County, had been made in 1856, and embraced about fifty persons. Most of the Indians had by this time removed from Northwest- ern Iowa, but parties frequently returned to hunt and fish at their favorite re sorts of former years. Ink-pa-du-tah, who often came with his band, had pro. fessed friendship for the whites in these isolated settlements, but those who were best acquainted with the treachery of the Indians, were apprehensive that some day he would take revenge upon them for the murder of his relatives by Lott.
The winter of 1856-7 was one of unusual severity. Continuous storms swept over the prairies, covering them with a depth of snow that made travel very
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difficult. They continued late into March, filling the ravines with drifts so deep that communication between the scattered settlements was almost impossible for weeks and months. The colony was short of provisions and it was difficult to replenish. Ink-pa-du-tah had carefully noted the condition of the settlers and with the ferocious and relentless cruelty so characteristic of his race, laid his plans to visit an awful retribution upon the countrymen of Henry Lott. It mattered not that tuese settlers were innocent of any part, knowledge, or sym- pathy with the murders; they were of the white race to which Lott belonged and their lives must atone for his crime.
During the summer of 1856, Ink-pa-du-tah, with his band, had visited most of these frontier settlements and carefully noted their helplessness in case of a sudden attack. In February, 1857, the Sioux chief selected about thirty of his warriors and accompanied by their squaws, to allay suspicion on the part of the settlers, started up the Little Sioux Valley. The chief sent detached parties to the settlers' cabins to take their arms, ammunition, provisions and cattle. and leave thien: defenseless and destitute. . The weather was cold and the snow was deep, the seitler few and widely separated, beyond reach of aid, and were compelled to submit to every outrage the Sioux chose to perpetrate. Re- sistance would have brought certain death.
As the Indians a'vanced their depradtions began to as a!me a savage char- acter. At Gillett's Grove ten armed warriors forced an entrance into a house cceupied by two families, seized the women and girls and subjected them to horrible outrages. They destroyed the furniture and beds, killed the cattle and hogs and robbed the terrified families of every article they took a fancy to. Near midnight the settlers fied through the deep snow wandering for thirty- six hours, thinly clad, until they reached the house of A'ner Bell, the nearest neighbor, utterly exhausted and nearly frozen to death. The Indians went from cabin to cabin, perpetrating outrages too horrible to relate, carrying off some of the girls to their camps where they were held until the savages moved on Up to this time, however, no one had been killed.
Fort Dodge was seventy miles distant and Abner Bell M". Weaver and Mr. Wilcox started through the deep snow for that town. Their story of the Indian outrages created great in fagration and excitement; as all realized that the frontier settlements were in imminent danger. The pioneers who built the first cabins in the beautiful groves that line the shores of Okoboji and Spirit Lakes, were Rowland Gardner and Harvey Luce, his son-in-law. They had recently em- igrated from the State of New York. Crossing the prairies in their canvas-cov- ered wagens drawn by oxen, they found no settlement west of Algona, but con- tinued on westward until the evening of July 16, 1856, when they camped on the beautiful shore of West Okoboji. They were so enchanted with the beauty of the lakes, forest and prairie that they decided to here make their homes. They explored the country about them and found the clear blue waters of Ok- ckoji fringed by alternate stretches of sandy beach, pebble shores, wall of bowlders and forests reaching down to the water's edge. Away in the distance were prairies, while eastward were other lakes and groves. Not a sign of hu- nian habitation or smoke of camp fire was to be seen in any direction from the highest point on the lake shore. They were the sole inhabitants of the į aradise they had discovered, far distant from the haunts of men. Elk and deer were grazing on the prairies. Water fowls were coming and going from lake to lake. Great flocks of prairie chickens were seen and squirrels and birds were on every side.
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