USA > Iowa > Des Moines County > The history of Des Moines county, Iowa, containing a history of the country, its cities, towns, &c., a biographical directory of citizens, war record of its volunteers > Part 44
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For doors and windows, the most simple contrivances that would serve the purposes were brought into requisition. The door was not always immediately provided with a shutter, and a blanket often did duty in guarding the entrance. But as soon as convenient, some boards were split and put together, hung upon
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wooden hinges, and held shut by a wooden pin inserted in an auger-hole. As a substitute for window-glass, greased paper, pasted over sticks crossed in the shape of sash, was sometimes used. This admitted the light and excluded the air, but of course lacked transparency.
In regard to the furniture of such a cabin, of course it varied in proportion to the ingenuity of the occupants, unless it was where settlers brought with them their old household supply, which, owing to the distance most of them had come, was very seldom. It was easy enough to improvise tables and chairs ; the former could be made of split logs-and there were instances where the door would be taken from its hinges and used at meals, after which it would be rehung-and the latter were designed after the three-legged stool pattern, or benches served their purpose. A bedstead was a very important item in the domestic comfort of the family, and this was the fashion of improvising them : + A forked stake was driven into the ground diagonally from the corner of the room, and at a proper distance, upon which poles reaching from each were laid. The wall ends of the poles either rested in the openings between the logs or were driven into auger-holes. Barks or boards were used as a substitute for cords. Upon this the tidy housewife spread her straw tick, and if she had a home-made feather bed, she piled it up into a luxurious mound and covered it with her whitest drapery. Some sheets hung behind it for tapestry added to the coziness of the resting-place. This was generally called a " prairie bed- stead," and by some the "prairie rascal." In design, it is surely quite equal to the famous Eastlake models, being about as primitive and severe, in an artistic sense, as one could wish.
The house thus far along, it was left to the deft devices of the wife to com- plete its comforts, and the father of the family was free to superintend out-of- door affairs. If it was in season, his first important duty was to prepare some ground for planting, and to plant what he could. This was generally done in the edge of the timber, where most of the very earliest settlers located. Here the sod was easily broken, not requiring the heavy teams and plows needed to break the prairie sod. Moreover, the nearness of timber offered greater con veniences for fuel and building. And still another reason for this was, that the groves afforded protection from the terrible conflagrations that occasionally swept across the prairies. Though they passed through the patches of timber, yet it was not with the same destructive force with which they rushed over the prairies. Yet by these fires much of the young timber was killed from time to time, and the forest kept thin and shrubless.
The first year's farming consisted mainly of a " truck patch," planted in corn, potatoes, turnips, etc. Generally, the first year's crop fell far short of supplying even the most rigid economy of food. Many of the settlers brought with them small stores of such things as seemed indispensable to frugal living, such as flour, bacon, coffee and tea. But these supplies were not inexhaustible, and once used were not easily replaced. A long winter must come and go be- fore another crop could be raised. If game was plentiful, it helped to eke out their limited supplies.
But even when corn was plentiful, the preparation of it was the next diffi- culty in the way. The mills for grinding it were at such long distances that every other device was resorted to for reducing it to meal. Some grated it on an implement made by punching small holes through a piece of tin or sheet- iron, and fastening it upon a board in concave shape, with the rough side out. Upon this the ear was rubbed to produce the meal. But grating could not be done when the corn became so dry as to shell off when rubbed. Some used a
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coffee-mill for grinding it. And a very common substitute for bread was hominy, a palatable and wholesome diet, made by boiling corn in a weak lye till the hull or bran peeled off, after which it was well washed, to cleanse it of the lye. It was then boiled again to soften it, when it was ready for use, as occasion required, by frying and seasoning it to the taste. Another mode of preparing hominy was by pestling.
A mortar was made by burning a bowl-shaped cavity in the even end of an upright block of wood. After thoroughly clearing it of the charcoal, the corn could be put in, hot water turned upon it, when it was subjected to a severe pestling by a club of sufficient length and thickness, in the large end of which was inserted an iron wedge, banded to keep it there. The hot water would soften the corn and loosen the hull, while the pestle would crush it.
When breadstuff's were needed, they had to be obtained from long distances. Owing to the lack of proper means for threshing and cleaning wheat, it was more or less mixed with foreign substances, such as smut, dirt and oats. And as the time may come when the settlers' method of threshing and clearing may be forgotten, it may be well to preserve a brief account of them here. The plan was to clean off a space of ground of sufficient size, and if the earth was dry, to dampen it, and beat it so as to render it somewhat compact. Then the sheaves were unbound and spread in a circle, so that the heads would be uppermost, leaving room in the center for the person whose business it was to stir and turn the straw in the process of threshing. Then, as many horses or oxen were brought as could conveniently swing round the circle, and these were kept moving until the wheat was well trodden out. After several " floor- ings " or layers were threshed, the straw was carefully raked off, and the wheat shoveled into a heap to be cleaned. This cleaning was sometimes done by waving a sheet up and down to fan out the chaff as the grain was dropped before it; but this trouble was frequently obviated when the strong winds of autumn were all that was needed to blow out the chaff from the grain.
This mode of preparing the grain for flouring was so imperfect that it is not to be wondered at that a considerable amount of black soil got mixed with it, and unavoidably got into the bread. This, with the addition of smut, often rendered it so dark as to have less the appearance of bread than of mud; yet upon sueli diet the people were compelled to subsist, for want of a better.
Not the least among the pioneers' tribulations, during the first few years of settlement, was the going to mill. The slow mode of travel by ox-teams was made still slower by the almost total absence of roads and bridges, while such a thing as a ferry was hardly even dreamed of. The distance to be traversed was often as far as sixty or ninety miles. In dry weather, common sloughs and creeks offered little impediment to the teamsters; but during floods and the breaking-up of winter, they proved exceedingly troublesome and dangerous. To get stuck in a slough, and thus be delayed for many hours, was no uncom- mon occurrence, and that too, when time was an item of grave import to the comfort and sometimes even to the lives of the settlers' families. Often a swollen stream would blockade the way, secming to threaten destruction to whoever should attempt to ford it.
With regard to roads, there was nothing of the kind worthy of the name. Indian trails were common, but they were unfit to travel on with vehicles. They are described as mere paths about two feet wide-all that was required to accommodate the single-file manner of Indian traveling.
An interesting theory respecting the origin of the routes now pursued by many of our publie highways is given in a speech by Thomas Benton many
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years ago. He says the buffaloes were the first road engineers, and the paths trodden by them were, as a matter of convenience, followed by the Indians, and lastly by the whites, with such improvements and changes as were found neces- sary for civilized modes of travel. It is but reasonable to suppose that the buf- faloes would instinctively choose the most practicable routes and fords in thir migrations from one pasture to another. Then, the Indians following, possessed of about the same instinct as the buffaloes, strove to make no improvements, and were finally driven from the track by those who would.
When the early settlers were compelled to make these long and difficult trips to mill, if the country was prairie over which they passed, they found it comparatively easy to do in summer, when grass was plentiful. By travel- ing until night, and then camping out to feed the teams, they got along without much difficulty. But in winter, such a journey was attended with no little dan- ger. The utmost economy of time was, of course, necessary. When the goal was reached, after a week or more of toilsome travel, with many exposures and risks, and the poor man was impatient to immediately return with the desired staff of life, he was often shocked and disheartened with the information that his turn would come in a week. Then he must look about for some means to pay expenses, and he was lucky who could find some employment by the day or job. Then, when his turn came, he had to be on hand to bolt his own flour, as, in those days, the bolting machine was not an attached part of the other mill machinery. This done, the anxious soul was ready to endure the trials of a return trip, his heart more or less concerned about the affairs of home.
These milling trips often occupied from three weeks to more than a month each, and were attended with an expense, in one way or another, that rendered the cost of breadstuffs extremely high. If made in the winter, when more or less grain-feed was required for the team, the load would be found to be so con- siderably reduced on reaching home that the cost of what was left, adding other expenses, would make their grain reach the high cost figure of from $3 to $5 per bushel. And these trips could not always be made at the most favorable season for traveling. In spring and summer, so much time could hardly be spared from other essential labor ; yet, for a large family, it was almost impos- sible to avoid making three or four trips during the year.
This description of early milling applies rather to the pioneers west of this county than to those who settled near the Mississippi and Skunk Rivers, but it was not uncommon for people here to cross over into Illinois to get their grind- ing done.
Among other things calculated to annoy and distress the pioneer, was the prevalence of wild beasts of prey, the most numerous and troublesome of which was the wolf. While it was true, in a figurative sense, that it required the utmost care and exertion to "keep the wolf from the door," it was almost as true in a literal sense.
There were two species of these animals-the large, black, timber-wolf, and and the smaller gray wolf, that usually inhabited the prairie. At first, it was next to impossible for a settler to keep small stock of any kind that would serve as a prey to these ravenous beasts. Sheep were not deemed safe property until years after, when their enemies were supposed to be nearly exterminated. Large numbers of wolves were destroyed during the early years of settlement -as many as fifty in a day in a regular wolf-hunt. When they were hungry, which was not uncommon, particularly during the winter, they were too indis- creet for their own safety, and would often approach within easy shot of the
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settlers' dwellings. At certain seasons, their wild, plaintive yelp or bark could be heard in all directions, at all hours of the night, creating intense excitement among the dogs, whose howling would add to the dismal melody.
It has been found, by experiment, that but one of the canine species-the hound-has both the fleetness and courage to cope with his savage cousin, the wolf. Attempts were often made to capture him with the common cur, but this animal. as a rule, proved himself wholly unreliable for such a service. So long as the wolf would run, the cur would follow ; but the wolf, being apparently acquainted with the character of his pursuer, would either turn and place him- self in a combative attitude, or else act upon the principle that " discretion is the better part of valor," and throw himself upon his back, in token of sur- render. This strategic performance would make instant peace between these two seions of the same house ; and, not infrequently, dogs and wolves have been seen playing together like puppies. But the hound was never known to recog- nize a flag of truce; his baying seemed to. signify " no quarter," or at least so the terrified wolf understood it.
Smaller animals, such as panthers, lynxes, wildcats, catamounts and polecats were also sufficiently numerous to be troublesome. And an exceeding source of annoyance was the swarms of mosquitoes which aggravated the trials of the settler in the most exasperating degree. Persons have been driven from the labors of the field by their unmerciful assaults.
ORGANIZATION OF DES MOINES COUNTY. GOVERNMENT IN 1833.
For more than a year after the original pioneer ventured to reclaim the Black Hawk Purchase from its native wildness, it may be truthfully said that the brave little company was beyond the confines of civilization. There were no laws, there were no officers, there were no social or political regulations within the limits of the colony, except such laws as dwelt in the hearts and minds of the intrepid band, which smiled at privation and looked hopefully forward to the realization of their desires. The handful of men and women who wintered on the bleak banks of the Mississippi during the season of 1833-34, were a law and gospel unto themselves ; controlling their, actions by the innate standard of an experience derived from associations among older and more cultivated communities. Laws were needed only for protection of the virtuous against the vicious, and when a band of men combine to do as nearly right as they can, a simple code suffices to regulate the lives of all. From the sparse records of 1833 are gathered sufficient suggestions of the intent and expectations of the pioneers to form the basis of these conclusions. For example, an association was formed in the fall of 1833, composed of the citizens of the county, and rules were adopted for the general government of the region. Among those rules were the following :
"Resolved. That any person or persons allowing the Indians to have whisky on any account whatever, shall forfeit all the whisky he or they shall have on hand, and likewise the confidence and protection of this Association.
" Resolved, That any person harboring or protecting a refuge, who, to evade justice, has fled from other sections of the Union, shall be delivered, with such refugee, on the other side of the river."
These resolutions are but a part of the list, but the remainder are beyond reproduction here, since the original record-book has gone the way of earthly
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things. Sufficient is given, however, to show that the community wished to avoid two great evils-demoralization of the Indians, and an influx of outlaws from the older States. The evidence still extant proves that the dreaded dan- gers to prosperous development were averted.
Thus do we see that the first step toward organization was a self-imposed law, which nothing but the popular will sustained, as, in fact, that alone had created it. The people desired to be law-abiding citizens, and as a formal code could not be offered them from the East, they satisfied their own consciences by taking the matter into their own hands. It may be inferred from some vague rumors still in the air, that all who came to Burlington were not above the average in honesty ; but the inference that the community, as a whole, was strongly in favor of proper conduct is weightier than the first impression, and may be relied upon as a just conclusion. Burlington began right, and escaped many of the unpleasant scenes which occurred in some other new localities.
RE-ORGANIZING THE LAW IN 1834.
When the colony at Burlington had assumed sufficient size to warrant the thought of adopting legal restraints, the pioneers found themselves under the governmental control of the Territory of Michigan. In that year, this region was attached to Michigan Territory, for judicial purposes, and, in the spring of 1834, instructions were sent to Mr. Ross, from Detroit, to organize Des Moines County. The new county was composed of the territory south of Rock Island to the mouth of the Des Moines River, and thence west, along the Missouri line, for fifty miles. The tract was fifty miles wide. The necessary laws and documents were received by Mr. Ross, and, as organizing officer, he gave notice of the impending election by advertising in suitable manner. The offi- cers chosen at the first election, in the fall of 1834, were as follows: Col. William Morgan was elected Supreme Judge, and Henry Walker and Young L. Hughes, Assistants of District Court, which was the highest court in Iowa at that time; Col. W. W. Chapman was Prosecuting Attorney ; W. R. Ross, Clerk ; Solomon Perkins, Sheriff; John Barker, Justice of the Peace ; W. R. Ross, Treasurer and Recorder; John Whitaker, Probate Judge; Leonard Olney, Supreme Judge; John Barker and Richard Land, Justices of the Peace, the latter appointed by the Governor of Michigan Territory.
In October, 1835, Hon. George W. Jones was elected Delegate to Congress from the Territory of Michigan. Mr. Jones was interested in the development of the great Western wilderness, and favored the erection of a new Territory west of the lakes. He worked for that purpose in Congress, and was successful. Apropos of his achievement in that direction is here given an anecdote con- cerning his adroit avoidance of Mr. Calhoun's opposition to his bill :
The Hon. George W. Jones, or the General, as he is more familiarly known at home, was a great ladies' man. Knowing the opposition to his terri- torial bill on the part of Mr. Calhoun, and that a speech from that distinguished statesman would defeat it, he set his wits to work to procure the absence of Mr. C. when the bill would be called up. To accomplish this, he paid very marked attention to a lady friend of Mr. Calhoun, then at the capital, and was so kind, polite and entertaining that she, feeling under obligations to hin for the same, inadvertently expressed the hope that circumstances might throw it in her way to render him some service. This was just what the General wanted, and he immediately said, " You can, if you will, do me the greatest favor in the world," and went on to explain the " Territorial Bill," and the opposition of Mr. Cal- houn thereto. "Now," said the General, " it will come up on such a day, and
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when I send you my card, call out Mr. C., and, on some pretext, keep him out an hour or two." She consented and carried out the arrangement, and during that absence the bill was passed, and Mr. Calhoun did not have an opportunity to oppose it.
WISCONSIN TERRITORY FORMED.
April 20, 1836, the bill creating the Territory of Wisconsin was approved. Gov. Henry Dodge was appointed to the Executive office by President Jackson. The first proclamation was issued by him September 9, 1836, convening the Legislature at Belmont on the 25th of October. A delegate in Congress was ordered elected at the same time as the legislators were chosen.
The counties of Dubuque and Des Moines then contained 10,521 popula- tion, as was shown by the census ordered by Gov. Dodge.
BELMONT LEGISLATURE.
The election was ordered to be held on the second Monday (not the first, as stated by some writers) in October. The Belmont Legislature convened, as required, October 25, 1836, and was composed of the following members, as shown by the official report printed in 1836 :
Brown County-Council. Henry S. Baird, John P. Arndt;' House, Ebenezer Childs, Albert G. Ellis, Alexander J. Irwin.
Milwaukee County-Council, Gilbert Knapp, Alanson Sweet ; House, William B. Sheldon, Madison W. Cornwall, Charles Durkee.
Iowa County-Council, Ebenezer Brigham, John B. Terry, James R. Vine- yard : House, William Boyles. G. F. Smith, D. M. Parkinson, Thomas Mc- Knight, T. Shanley, J. P. Cox.
Dubuque County-Council, John Foley, Thomas MeCraney, Thomas Mc- Knight ; House, Loring Wheeler, Hardin Nowlin, Hosea T. Camp, P. H. Engle, Patrick Quigley.
Des Moines County-Council, Jeremiah Smith, Jr., Joseph B. Teas, Arthur B. Inghram : House, Isaac Leffler, Thomas Blair, Warren L. Jenkins, John Box, George W. Teas. Eli Reynolds, David R. Chance.
WISCONSIN JUDICIARY.
The second act passed by the Legislature provided for the establishment of Judicial Districts. Charles Dunn was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Wisconsin, and performed judicial duties in the First District; David Irwin, Associate Justice, in the Second District ; and William C. Frazier, Associate Justice, in the Third District.
THE TEMPORARY SEAT OF GOVERNMENT.
The eleventh bill passed was one fixing upon Madison as the permanent seat of government of Wisconsin. and selecting Burlington as the temporary seat, pending the erection of suitable buildings in Madison. The story of this bill is interesting, since it effected the destiny of Burlington in no slight degree.
When Wisconsin was created, Dubuque sought to secure the seat of govern- ment. Those engaged in that effort were not far-seeing enough to perceive the transient character of the boundaries of Wisconsin, as first defined. The loca- tion of Dubuque was, by chance, near the geographical center of the immense region embraced in the original Territory, and failed to realize that the ultimate division of the country would be marked by the two great rivers. The paper at Dubuque, and the leading men, endeavored to persuade the Legislature that
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the proper locality for the seat was there ; but wiser councils prevailed. Bur- lington, by uniting with the eastern counties, held the power necessary to decide the question. Perhaps reciprocal promises were made by the Burlington delegation, and perhaps not; of that we have no clear evidence; but one thing is certain, when the voting came on, Des Moines County, with its ten votes, joined the eastern counties and carried the bill, fixing the permanent seat at Madison. A clause was inserted in the bill providing, " That, until the public buildings at the town of Madison are completed-that is to say, until the 4th day of March, 1839-the sessions of the Legislative Assembly of Wisconsin Territory shall be held at the town of Burlington, in the county of Des Moines, provided the public buildings are not sooner completed." Congress had appro- priated a sum of money for the erection of those buildings and the purchase of a library.
The clause was a wise one for Des Moines, since nature had foreordained the division of Wisconsin at the Mississippi River, and the creation of a Territory, and ultimately a State, out of Des Moines and Dubuque. By forfeiting all pretense of claim to permanency, Burlington secured the temporary seat of Wisconsin, and thereby held the nine points of possession on the capital of the future State. Of course, no one asserted the possibility of Burlington holding the seat of Iowa after the development of the region ; but the purpose was to advertise Burlington to the country, and profit by the prestige of being the most prominent locality at the start. It was a shrewd piece of figuring, and worked great good to the new aspirant for settlers' favor. At the same time it secured the seat away from its natural rival, Dubuque.
THE FIRST ROAD WEST OF THE RIVER.
Act No. 20 of the Legislature provided for the establishment of a territorial road west of the Mississippi River, commencing at the village of Farmington, then to be the seat of Van Buren County ; thence to Moffit's Mill; thence direct to Burlington ; thence to Wapello ; thence to Dubuque, and thence on to Prairie du Chien. The Commissioners were Abel Galland, Solomon Perkins, Benjamin Clarke, Adam Sherrill, William Jones and Henry F. Lander.
SUBDIVISION OF OLD DES MOINES.
Act No. 21 was the next important bill (after the one locating the seat of government) passed by the Legislature so far as the county of Des Moines was concerned. It is here given in full :
An Act dividing the County of Des Moines into several new Counties :
SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Council and House of Representatives of the Territory of Wisconsin, That the country included within the following limits, to wit : Beginning at the most southern outlet of Skunk River, on the Mississippi : thence, a northern direction passing through the grove on the head of the northern branch of Lost Creek ; and thence, to a point correspond- ing with the range line dividing Ranges Seven and Eight; and thence, south with said line to the Des Moines River ; thence, down the middle of the same to the Mississippi, and thence up the Mississippi to the place of beginning, be and the same is hereby set off into a separate county, by the name of Lee.
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