USA > Iowa > Black Hawk County > The history of Black Hawk County, Iowa, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, &c., a biographical directory of citizens, war record of its volunteers in the late rebellion > Part 34
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The Wapsipinicon flows through the township of Lester.
Crane Creek flows through Bennington and Lester, and loses itself in the Wapsipinicon.
Black Hawk Creek drains the southwest, pouring its waters into the Cedar just above Waterloo.
Miller's Creek, Beaver Creek, Mud Creek, Prairie Creek and other small streams empty into the Cedar from the west, and Ellsworth, Elk Run, Poyner, Indian and Spring Creeks from the east.
TIMBER.
Originally, the proportion of timber was about one acre to fourteen acres of prairie. Nearly all of that standing when the county was first settled has been cut off, but much of the land it covered has come up with second growth and many groves have been planted by the settlers, so that the supply has increased rather than diminished.
It is said that the banks of the river were formerly covered in many places with groves of red cedar trees, from which fact the river took its name. A large portion of this valuable timber, however, was cut and rafted to St. Louis, before the advance guard of civilization began to settle in this beautiful valley, by bands of adventurers, some of whom continued their depredations after the removal of the Indians and after the white settlers began to occupy their hunt- ing grounds. One of these was Charles Dyer, who had a peculiarly formed hump-back, looking, as some of the early settlers described him, " as if he had shouldered himself." Dyer continued his work of plunder to such an extent that the white settlers determined to drive him from the county. They assembled, and visited his shanty in a body to deal with him in accordance with pioneer custom ; but the gentleman whom they desired to see was not at home. After
due deliberation-as they knew that Dyer could not read a note of warning if they left one for him-they stripped the bark from a large tree in front of his rude cabin, and, with a bit of charcoal, one of their number sketched upon the naked trunk a picture of the hump-back, which they riddled with bullets. The likeness was unmistakable, and it is said Dyer understood it, as he quietly dis- appeared. It is not known when the event occurred or where Dyer's cabin was located.
THE GEOLOGICAL FORMATION
of the Red Cedar Valley is full of interest to the careful student of natural his- tory. Most of the county is underlaid with Devonian rock, generally of the Hamilton group, although the Chemung appears in the western part. Much of the rock is magnesian limestone, suitable for building purposes, while in other
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localities it is entirely unfit for use. Fossils are numerous, and everywhere the limestone rock abounds with corals, sea-weeds, shells, spines, teeth, etc., of ganoid fishes, as well as teeth of those reptiles and fishes that abounded during the old red sandstone era.
There are also evidences of vegetable life prior to the deposits constituting the present prairie. Ancient soil and timber are found in digging wells, gen- erally twenty-five to thirty feet below the present surface.
Beautiful specimens of spar are frequently found, and agates and cornelians are occasionally picked up along the river banks.
Boulders of granite, schist, quartz and greenstone scattered over the prairie are evidences that this was a part of the great drift region. Much of the lime- stone, when burned, makes excellent lime, while good brick-clay and sand are abundant and well distributed throughout the county.
The climate is remarkably salubrious. Malarious diseases are rare. Win- ters are cold and long, but the cold is steady and the air pure and invigorating.
The county is peculiarly adapted to grazing-the long Winter being the only drawback.
EARLY SETTLEMENT.
The first "pale-face" to enter the domain of the Sacs and Foxes, in that portion of the valley of the Cedar now embraced within the limits of Black Hawk County, was, so far as is now known, G. Paul Somaneux, a Frenchman, who located at the Falls of the Cedar in the Spring or early Summer of 1837, and commenced trafficking with the natives. For some reason, probably not caring to spend the Winter alone, surrounded by " no gentler " neighbors than Indians, he left his encampment in the Fall of that same year. Although his first stay was so brief, Somaneux must probably be considered the pioneer set- tler of Black Hawk County, for he returned ten years after his first visit or stay, and in the Winter of 1847-48, in company with A. J. Taylor, trapped above Sturgis' Falls. During the following Summer of 1848, Somaneux worked for Overman & Co. In the Fall of that year, he trapped along the Shell Rock, and early in the Winter of 1848-49, made a claim and built a cabin where the village of Cedar City now stands. He is said to have been a very devout Catholic, having been reared by a Catholic priest at Detroit, Mich., and very rarely uttered a profane word. He died at his cabin in the Fall of 1850, and was buried on the bank of the slough, near by. Leaving no known heirs, his estate was administered by Jolın T. Barrick.
ROBERT STUART.
Somaneux was not the only white man who came to the Cedar Valley in 1837. Robert Stuart, an elderly man, said to have been a surveyor, spent the Summer of 1837 in the vicinity of the Falls, engaged in trading with the Indians. Stuart's testimony remains, that the Summer of 1837 was extremely wet. The river, according to his statement, having risen to higher water than it has ever reached since that time.
In 1855, Stuart was at Cedar Falls; while there an evangelist visited the place and held meetings in the school house every evening during the week, and announced three discourses on the Sabbath. He drew large audiences, and it was understood that a collection was to be taken up in his behalf, on Sunday afternoon. The house was crowded as usual: Bob Stuart, the pioneer of 1837, was among the audience ; the sermon was long and Stuart got tired. He was near the door and determined to leave; he rose to his feet and deliberately
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marched up the aisle toward the preacher. Every eye was upon him, for he was over six feet high, gaunt, stoop-shouldered, grizzly, and dressed as a fron- tiersman ; he halted at the desk, thrust his bony hand deep into his trousers, fished up a ten-cent piece, which he turned over on the open Bible with a mus- cular slap, and exclaimed, "Here's my sheer !" turned on his heel and passed out of the door, leaving both preacher and congregation paralyzed with aston- ishment.
A man named Osborn, who afterward settled in the southern part of Cedar County, hunted at the forks of the Cedar prior to 1845, but in what year is not now known.
From 1837 to 1844, a period of seven years, there are no traces of white occupation of any portion of the territory of this county. It does not seemn probable, however, that this beautiful valley could have been so long overlooked by the roving frontier traders and trappers known to have had their tramping grounds in this region. Although the Sacs and Foxes had ceded this region to the United States in 1837, so that south of the neutral line it was open to white occupation, they had not left their old hunting grounds. The south line of the neutral ground, starting from a point on the left bank of the Des Moines River. 37 miles 70.50 chains below the second or upper fork of the same, and run- ning a course north 70 deg. 15 min. east, passed very near the forks of the Cedar, and very near the northwest corner of the county of Black Hawk, as subsequently laid out.
This line was surveyed by James Craig, under instructions from the Super- intendent of Indian Affairs, April 9, 1833. North of this line, from 1833 to 1848, the Winnebago Indians had their Reserve, a strip forty miles wide, from the Des Moines River to the Mississippi. Along this line Indian traders and an occasional settler located. In 1840, Franklin Wilcox, with his family and his brother Nathaniel, settled just south of the line surveyed by Craig, in Fayette County ; and a few miles east on the Volga, in 1841, George Culver built a log trading-post that is still standing.
With these facts in view, and with the knowledge that white men lived on the bank of the Cedar in 1837, it is difficult to believe that from that date to 1844, this lovely valley was untrodden by any save Indian feet. It seems almost certain that other traders lived in succeeding Summers where Somaneux and Stuart tarried in 1837 ; but there are no evidences remaining to verify this belief.
In the Spring of 1844, however, William Chambers, a genuine specimen of the Western frontiersman, from Louisa County, established himself at the Falls of the Cedar, built a cabin, and engaged in trading with the Indians. The cabin which he occupied (whether he or some previous trader built it, is not so clear). stood on the south bank of the Cedar at the head of the Falls. The south end of the Dubuque & Pacific Railroad bridge at Cedar Falls is very near the spot where Chambers lived, "monarch of all he surveyed," in the Summer of 1844. It is not known whether Chambers made any "claim," as understood by Western pioneers. If he did, he abandoned it in the Fall, when he is said to have re- turned to his home in Louisa County, and never returned to make any perma- nent settlement.
FIRST PERMANENT SETTLEMENT.
The next visitors at this point were destined to make a more permanent loca- tion. In March, 1845, William Sturgis, a farmer from Michigan, and his wife, and Erasmus D. Adams, a cabinet maker from Ohio, then living in Johnson
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County, made a trip up the valley of the Red Cedar, in search of homes and a desirable water-power. Arrived at the point where Chambers had lived the previous year, they were charmed by the romantic beauty of the spot, and, with an eye to business, appreciating its adaptability for a town site in the future. they determined to remain and make claims. Mr. Sturgis claimed the north part of the present town of Cedar Falls, including the mill site, and Adams selected his claim farther south, near what is now called Dry Run.
Sturgis built a double log cabin on the bank of the river, and broke five acres of prairie. Adams built a cabin on his claim, about two miles from Mr. Hanna's, and also broke about five acres. This breaking by Sturgis and Adams was the first breaking done in Black Hawk County. " Adams soon returned to Iowa City," says George W. Hanna, the only settler of 1845 now living in the county. " Sturgis had some hands, and commenced getting out timber for a mill, but his family got sick, and he and his family went back to Iowa City again, leaving a Dutchman to work his claim, and not intending to return until other settlers came in. The man he left had a claim where Hon. Jeremiah Gay now lives (on Miller's Creek), and the creek took its name from him." To Mrs. Sturgis must be accorded the credit of being the pioneer white woman of Black Hawk County. "In the Fall." says Mr. Hanna. " Sturgis and his wife, and Adams, and his wife and his little boy John, came back and occupied the cabins they had built in the Spring previous."
The Chambers' cabin was yet standing as he had left it, but soon after Sturgis and Adams moved to their claims in the Fall, it singularly enough tumbled into the river. By what mysterious agency this result was produced is not known, but it is said that Sturgis had a theory upon which the phenome- non was to be explained; but he never, so far as is known, made the explanation.
When the mill was built and the town of Cedar Falls was laid out, Sturgis' cabin proved to be near the upper end of the race, at the foot of Washington street, where it remained until, a few years ago, it was removed to give place to a more permanent and graceful building.
In May or June, 1845, John Hamilton and his sons, also from Johnson County, arrived and made claims near Sturgis and Adams. They brought a team and breaking-plow with them, and broke some prairie. The Hamiltons did not remain long. Becoming dissatisfied, they abandoned their claims, returned to Johnson County, and left Sturgis and Adams the only white men in the county, whose nearest white neighbors were at Quasqueton, Buchanan County, and Fremont (Vinton), Benton County.
They, too, had gone when, on the 18th day of July, 1845, George W. Hanna, with his wife and two children and his wife's brother, John Melrose, arrived and located on Section 20, Town 89, Range 13, about half-way between Sturgis' Falls and Prairie' Rapids. If Mrs. Sturgis is fairly entitled to the honor of being the first white woman in the county, Mrs. Hanna has the honor of being the first to permanently settle here.
In the Fall, about the time Sturgis and Adams moved in, William Virden and his family, consisting of his wife and little daughter, settled about half a mile southeast of Hanna's cabin, on what in 1878 is known as the " Glover Farm." The four families of Hanna, Sturgis, Adams and Virden, numbering thirteen souls, comprised the entire permanent population of Black Hawk County in the Winter of 1845-6. Mr. Sturgis made some progress with his dam across the Cedar at the head of the Falls during the Fall, but owing to the difficulty in obtaining " hands," the work progressed very slowly.
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HISTORY OF BLACK HAWK COUNTY.
Capt. Boone, of Missouri, visited Iowa in the Summer of 1836, and in the Fall of that year gave James Newell, then living in the vicinity of Muscatine, a glowing description of the region about the three forks of the Cedar, through which he had passed some years before in command of a squad of eleven soldiers, marching from Council Bluffs to Prairie du Chien. So much pleased had Boone been with the beauty of the surroundings that he halted his party there for four days, and spent the time in hunting and fishing.
In the Spring of 1845, James Newell and Harris Wilson started out from the vicinity of Muscatine to visit the country along the upper part of Cedar River. At Marion, they were informed that the last settler northward lived seventeen miles out, and that after they passed that lonely cabin they must keep a sharp look-out, for the Fall before the Indians had robbed two brothers named Ward who had been trapping along the Cedar. The two explorers met James Chambers as they proceeded northwestward, who told them it was a fine country along the Cedar, but that no white man could live there in safety. because it was neutral ground for the Sacs, Foxes, Winnebagoes and Sioux, The first night in Black Hawk County, the two men camped near where Gil- bertsville was afterward laid out. Near where Waterloo now stands, they crossed an Indian trail leading from Fort Atkinson to Indiantown, on the Iowa River, which crossed the Cedar at the rapids above. The men left the ford to the left, and came to the Cedar again near where Janesville now stands, where they crossed and explored the country between the Cedar and the Shellrock. While camping in the vicinity, a heavy rain occurred. They forded the Shellrock with great difficulty, and in crossing the Cedar the water filled their wagon-box. Wilson was hardly satisfied with the forks of the Cedar, but Newell had made up his mind to settle there. Returning, Wilson was better pleased with the land north of the Rapids, where Sturgis had just made his claim, but objected to the whole country as being too far from Muscatine.
The two travelers decided they must visit Sturgis, and on the way Newell picked up a piece of coal, which Wilson suggested had been carried thither by ice.
Arriving opposite Sturgis Rapids, they found a small canoe at the eddy below, into which they got, Newell rowing. When they reached the main cur- rent, Wilson became frightened and stretched himself in the bottom of the boat, whimpering, praying and begging Newell to set him on shore. When they reached the south bank, Wilson sprang out and remarked that he'd " be d -- d if Newell would get him in that boat again." They did not find Sturgis, and had nothing to do but to return to camp. That evening, Wilson visited the bank of the second bottom, and found flood-wood about seven feet higher than their camping ground, which convinced him he did not want to settle there.
The following Fall, 1845, Newell returned to the forks of the Cedar, called " Turkey Foot Forks " by the Indians, accompanied by his brother Robert. Walter Fillman and Joseph Brown, but was much incommoded on the way by an attack of ague. His companions built him a cabin, and, not fancying the region, they soon returned down the river, Newell going back with them, fully determined to return to his claim as soon as possible.
TRESPASSING ON THE PUBLIC LANDS.
In January, 1846, James Newell and Hugh Rawdon started up the Cedar. with the intention of cutting cedar logs and rafting them down. They engaged Charles Hinkley, of Benton County, to go with them as guide. They found the Dickersons cutting logs near the mouth of Big Creek. The Dickersons
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informed them that " Cedar " Johnson had begun cutting eight miles above Big Creek in 1844.
They found Johnson's cabin and moved in without ceremony, sending Rawdon back for grain for the teams.
Johnson heard that his cabin was occupied, and sent word up the river for the party to vacate, or to " prepare their wooden jackets," for he intended to shoot them at sight. But the little party kept at work till they had cut and hauled logs enough for a raft eighty-four yards long. About this time they were visited by John Sturgis, who stayed one night with them. When Newell was about ready to start, Johnson came up in a wagon, with two hands. His desire for human blood was not so great as when he was at Cedar Rapids. Johnson went into the grove, saw that it was badly slashed, and returned to the cabin, where, after being invited in by Newell, he expostulated mildly about Newell's occupying his cabin, and gave Newell to understand that he intended to sue him for the value of the logs. Newell remarks concerning this, "that it would be a d-d pretty case-two thieves going to law about property they were stealing from the Government."
The latter part of March came, and the water being too low for rafting, Newell started for home in a canoe down the Cedar, sold his place and made his preparations to move to Black Hawk County. He reached his cabin May 19, 1846. He mentions that his wagon broke down at Poyner Creek, and that Clark and Giles, of Quasqueton, passed by without offering to help him. He had sold his share of the raft, and was enabled to go to farming in earnest as soon as he reached his claim. In spite of the crows, he raised 500 bushels of corn, one hundred of which he sold to the Indians at a dollar a bushel.
Wolves were very numerous around Newell's cabin in the Fall of 1846, killing off all his chickens but one rooster, whose gills turned white with fear. To save his life, they had to take him in the cabin of nights.
In January or February, 1847, James Chambers made Newell a visit. He was going northward with a load of pork, driving up the river on the ice.
June 1, 1846, James Virden came to visit his brother William and see the country, and was so well pleased that he made a claim and broke some prairie on the east side of the Cedar, at Prairie Rapids, on Section 23, Township 89, Range 13, just above the original town plat of Waterloo, but he did not build a cabin until the Fall of the next year. June 24, Charles Mullan and family, wife and two children (Mrs. Mullan was a sister of James and William Virden), located on the west side of the river, opposite Prairie Rapids, and built a log cabin on the northwest quarter of Section 26, Township 89, Range 13. The first actual settler near the future city, Andrew Jackson Taylor, and his family, settled at Sturgis Falls about the same time. E. G. Young settled at Turkey Foot Forks, near Newell's, in the Fall of 1846, and two Williams families settled in the vicinity. Mr. Sturgis continued work on his dam during this year, but did not succeed in completing it.
THE FIRST SCHOOL
on the territory of the future county of Black Hawk was "kept " at Sturgis Falls, during the Summer of 1846, by Mrs. A. J. Taylor, with six scholars, who doubtless acquired the rudiments of knowledge under Mrs. Taylor's tuition just as readily and thoroughly as the pupils of a generation later with infinitely bet- ter advantages have done.
The first election occurred in August, 1846 (see " First Election " on suc- ceeding pages).
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HISTORY OF BLACK HAWK COUNTY.
It is said that when the Winter of 1846-7 set in, there were ten white families in the entire area of Black Hawk County, now so densely populated.
Berry Way and another young man, well-known thieves from the Lower Cedar, made a trip through Black Hawk County in March, 1846, stop- ping at Newell's logging camp over night. The next morning, they proceeded up the Cedar, spent the night with " Big Wave," a Winnebago Chief, and to requite that chief's hospitality, stole two valuable horses from him before day- light next morning. About twenty of Big Wave's band pursued them, and found them at a singing school near Center Point. They threatened to shoot the trio, but the settlers interfered and persuaded the Indians it would be best to place the thieves under arrest and let the law take its course. The scoun- drels were accordingly confined in jail at Marion, but soon after escaped.
In December, 1846, Winnesheik, the head chief of the Winnebagoes. paid Newell a visit, accompanied by Big Wave and 250 men and women. The Indians camped for the Winter in the grove near Newell's. In February, 1847, a band of Pottawatomies, 250 in number, came and camped on the Cedar also, soon after which, both bands celebrated their meeting with a feast and dance. In the Spring, the Indians broke camp to make sugar, the Winneba- goes going up the Shell Rock, and the Pottawatomies coming down the Cedar toward Sturgis Rapids.
INDIAN RAID.
It is said that during the first year of the settlement, probably in 1846, the Sioux made a raid down the Cedar, and surprised and killed nine Winneba- goes near Newell's Ford, on Turkey Foot Forks. The next year, the Winne- bagoes surprised a camp of Sioux about twenty-five miles above, while the braves were absent hunting, and killed twenty-seven squaws and papooses. Mr. James Virden, however, thinks that originally the twenty-seven squaws and papooses were a Sioux brave and a boy, only two, increased to twenty-seven by the lapse of years.
In Febuary, 1847, the Overmans and John T. Barrich came to Sturgis Falls. Sturgis was trying to build a dam and mill, but his resources were very limited, and he finally concluded to sell, and during the next Fall did sell, to John W. Overman, D. C. Overman and Barrick, his claim of 280 acres of land, including the mill site and improvements, for $2,200, Barrick borrowing $500 of James Newell to make part payment for his share of the purchase. The new firm pushed the work with such energy that early in 1848 they had the saw-mill-the first in the county-in operation, and in 1850, in a shed addition to the saw-inill, the company put in one run of stones cut from a granite bowl- der in the vicinity. This was the first grist-mill in the county, and was of great service to the settlers who patronized it for a hundred miles north and west.
COULDN'T SCARE HIM.
About 1847, Moses Bates, from Western Indiana, located on Section 14, Township 87, Range 11 (Spring Creek Township), on the bank of Spring Creek. Bates appears to have been connected with the gang of prairie bandits, and was a "hard case." On one occasion he went to the cabin of Henry Gray, who had settled near him. Abruptly entering his neighbor's house, he roughly inquired of Gray if he knew who his visitor was. Gray said he had that honor, whereupon Bates, who was armed with a rifle, tomahawk, three revolvers and a bowie-knife, informed his quiet neighbor that he might have just three days to pack up his "traps" and leave the county. Gray, however, did not belong to a
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timid family ; he didn't "scare" worth a cent. His trusty rifle was hanging just over his head. He coolly took it down, "drew a bead" on his surly neighbor and exclaimed, "D-n you, Bates, I'll give you just three minutes to get out from here. Git!" It is needless to add that before the three minutes had ex- pired, Bates had placed himself at a safe distance from Gray's rifle.
On another occasion a German from Allamakee County, in search of some horses that had been stolen, found them in Bates' possession. There were other evidences of Bates' propensity to appropriate to his own use the property of others, without rendering compensation, and about a dozen stalwart settlers gathered, took the offender into the woods, stripped him and tied him securely to a tree. The men then prudently formed a ring with their backs to the cen- ter while the irate owner of the stolen horses applied a liberal dose of hickory to his bare back. Bates afterward had his castigator arrested, but as there were no witnesses who had seen him chastised, he was unable to maintain his accusation. Bates sold out to John Clark in 1852. and removed to Boone County, where he died.
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