USA > Iowa > Dubuque County > The history of Dubuque County, Iowa : containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, etc. > Part 37
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" The following section at a quarry on the Delhi road, about eight miles west of Dubuque, near the summit of the ridge, will give an idea of the succession of the beds in this portion of the Niagara.
"Thin bedded flinty layers. .4 feet.
" Heavy layers alternating with cherty bands. 5
" Fine, white and compact dolomite in beds from six to fourteen inches
thick, with a few thin layers of chert .. 5
"Irregularly stratified and somewhat concretionary beds with shaly partings, thickness not known.
" Rocks very similar in character to these are quarried on Waddles Mound, near Galena, and used for building in preference to the galena limestone, which is less regularly bedded and weathers more unequally than the Niagara.
"The exposures of the Niagara limestone in the southwestern portion of the county, on the North Fork of the Maquoketa and its branches, are very numerous. There is not unfrequently a thickness of 150 to 180 feet exhibited
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HISTORY OF DUBUQUE COUNTY.
in the river bluffs of that region. On the edges of the bluffs the soil is usually thin, and filled with angular fragments of chert; but, on receding a short dis- tance from the streams, the rocks are found to be covered with a heavy cover- ing of fincly comminuted materials, forming a rolling and highly fertile country.
"The lower beds of the Niagara are not very fossiliferous, but the upper ones are everywhere characterized by the presence of corals, which, having been silicified, resist the influence of the weather, and accumulate on the ridges in considerable quantity. Among the corals Halysites catenulates is the most con- spicuous, but Favosites, Lyellia, Stromatopora, Syringapora, Heliolites and other genera are each represented by one or more species. Pentamerus oblongus is accumulated in some localities in great numbers.
" Lead .- The existence of lead deposits in the Northwest was undoubtedly known to the aboriginal inhabitants ; but whether they were worked, and the ore smelted into metallic lead, previous to the time of the whites, is a question of some doubt. It is stated that, although galena has been found in the mounds, no metallic lead has ever been discovered among the relics of the former occu- pants of the soil. It would seem, however, highly probable that the race which had skill and perseverance enough to mine the native copper of Lake Superior, in numerous localities, and in some places to a depth of fifty feet, in a rock much more difficult to work than the limestone accompanying the lead ore, would also have understood the simple process of smelting the lead from its pure and easily reducible ore.
" The first discovery of lead by the white race in this region dates back as far as 1700, when Le Sueur made his famous voyage up the Mississippi, as far as the St. Peters ; up which stream, near the mouth of the Mukahto or Blue River, he discovered, as he supposed, a mountain of copper ore. Although this dis- covery was a great mistake, yet there is reason to believe that he did find lead ore at differents points along the Mississippi. About twenty years after this, mining was actually commenced in the Missouri lead region, although it was not till 1798 that it became a regular business, and was carried on with any system. It was nearly a century after Le Sueur's discoveries before any attempt was made to open the lead mines of the Upper Mississippi. In 1788, however, Julien Dubuque, an Indian trader of French extraction, who had pre- viously settled on the site of the flourishing city which is now called by his name, obtained a grant from the councils of the Sacs and Foxes, which was afterward confirmed by Carondelet, at that time Governor of Louisiana, of a large tract of land situated on the western bank of the river, including the rich mineral lands of that vicinity. Here he remained, engaged in mining and trading with the Indians until his death, which took place in 1810.
" It was not, however, until about the year 1822 that mining was regularly commenced in the Upper Mississippi Valley. In that year, a number of indi- viduals settled in the vicinity of Galena, and engaged in the business of dig- ging for lead ; and so rapidly did the excitement consequent on the discovery of such rich deposits spread, that, by the year 1827, mines had been opened and worked over nearly the whole extent of the lead region on the east side of the river. Up to the year 1830, the Indians had held possession of the west bank of the river, and had not permitted any encroachments of the miners on their domain, which had not yet been ceded to the United States ; in that year, however, in consequence of the hostility of the Sioux, the Foxes abandoned the vicinity of the river, and thus that region was opened to the whites, who immediately crossed over and commenced exploring and mining. They were soon driven away by the United States troops, as the land had not yet been
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HISTORY OF DUBUQUE COUNTY.
purchased of the Indians. A small military force was stationed here ; and, under this protection, the Indians returned and began to work at the localities aban- doned by the whites, but probably under their direction, and chiefly for the benefit of the traders stationed on the other side of the river. After the close of the Black Hawk war, in 1832, which resulted in the ceding to the United States a large tract of land, including the eastern portion of Iowa, a consider- able number of miners crossed over and resumed operations on that side. They were again driven off by the Government troops, as the treaty had not yet been ratified by the Senate. Finally, in 1833, permission was given to take pos- session of the much-coveted region. Attempts were made by the Government to collect rent for the mineral lands, whichi, by the act of Congress of March 7, 1807, had been reserved from sale. The system of leasing reserved mineral tracts was kept up for a few years, with great expense and trouble to the Gov- ernment, and finally abandoned in 1847, when lands supposed to contain val- uable ores, and previously reserved on that account, were thrown open for entry and purchase.
"Previous to this abandonment of the system of leasing, a geological survey of the lead region had been authorized by Congress, in 1839, for the purpose of ascertaining the extent of the productive lead formation, with a view to the preparation of a place for the sale of the lands reserved as mineral.
"The productive lead region of the Upper Mississippi occupies the larger portion of the territory south of the Wisconsin River, between the east branch of the Pecatonica on the east, and the Mississippi on the west, and extends south into Illinois as far as Apple River. The Mississippi runs near the west- ern edge of the mineral district, but there is a considerable area of productive territory on the west side of that river, the limit beyond which no ore has been worked on that side being the outcrop of the Niagara.
"The occurrence of lead ore in the region under consideration is limited to the groups between the Hudson River shales and the lower sandstones, and it appears that no profitable workings have ever been carried on for any length of time, except in that part of the series which lies between the upper sand- stone and the Hudson River group, while much the larger portion of the lead hitherto obtained has been raised from the galena limestone proper.
"Different names are given by the miners to the different forms of the galena, according to the form and size of the crystals, and their arrangement into groups. The terms 'dice mineral,' 'cog mineral,' 'sheet mineral,' 'chunk mineral,' etc., explain themselves, the ore of lead being universally designated by them as 'mineral.'
"The freedom of the galena from mixture with other metalliferous ores throughout the upper mines, and more especially in Iowa, is remarkable. Sul- phuret of zinc is almost the only one which occurs in any quantity, intimately associated with the galena, and the large majority of the diggings do not show even a trace of this ; hence the great softness and purity of the metallic lead of this region, and the high price which it bears in comparison with most of the imported metal.
"The simplest form in which lead ore is found occurring in the region under consideration, is the vertical sheet, or upright crevice, filled with galena, where the whole remains in the same condition in which it was when the ore was first deposited in the fissure, the rock not having undergone decomposition, so as to allow the mineral to be washed out of its place. The thickness of these sheets varies from that of a knife-blade up to several inches; in very rare cases a solid sheet of ore may extend for some distance, having a thickness of a foot
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HISTORY OF DUBUQUE COUNTY.
or more, but bodies of ore of this magnitude are usually connected with "open- ings," as will be explained further on, or they have a nearly horizontal position, and belong to the class of "flat sheet deposits." The vertical sheet is usually from one to three inches in thickness, and is pretty regular in its form, the walls maintaining their parallelism for some distance and then gradually closing up, the ore thinning out and disappearing. In these crevices there are rarely any of the usual accompaniments of a vein, such as a gauge or vein-stone, never smoothed and striated walls ; there is sometimes a little clay or ferru- ginous matter between the ore and rock ; but more generally the one is directly adherent to the other, without any separating substance. When the crevice is barren of ore, it is usually filled with clay, or, more rarely, with brown oxide of iron. Sometimes, when the ore gives out, calcareous spar takes its place, especially in the lower part of galena limestone, but neither does this mineral or any other vein-stone appear in the vertical crevices with the comby structure characteristic of the true vein.
" Vertical sheets just described are rarely of great extent in any direction ; but a number of them are sometimes grouped together, so that they may be profitably mined in one excavation. Single sheets are said to have been fol- lowed down uninterruptedly for nearly one hundred feet, but no such instances have ever fallen under our observation. On the whole, but a small portion of the ore raised occurs in the vertical sheet form ; in much the larger number of instances, the vertical crevice is connected with what is called an opening, and this may be considered as the characteristic mode of occurrence of the lead ore in the middle and upper portions of the galena limestone, the flat sheet being almost exclusively limited to the lower part of that rock and the upper portion of the Trenton.
" The opening is the expansion of the crevice in a single stratum or a sin- gle strata, in which the conditions were more favorable to the accumulation of ore, and on passing into which, the previously nearly closed fissure widens out suddenly and becomes productive. This change from a mere seam to a wide opening is the more marked, because, in the metalliferous stratum, the rock adjacent to the crevice has usually undergone decomposition, and been par- tially or entirely removed, leaving a cavity of irregular dimensions, which sometimes expands out into what may with propriety be called a cave. To this peculiarity, the term opening owes its derivation.
" In different localities, the forms and dimensions of the openings vary considerably. Their vertical height is not usually less than four, or more than fifteen feet ; and the same opening may vary between these limits in different parts of the course. The opening is equally liable to expansion and contrac- tion in width; and, while from four to ten feet may be considered as being the usual dimensions, there are localities where the rock retains its metalliferous character, and is more or less marked with the peculiarities of the opening for a width of forty feet. The number of openings, or productive strata, which may in any one locality be found occurring, one below the other, is variable in different districts of the mining region. In the majority of cases there is only one ; and, although there may be as many as five, one is usually much more productive than the others.
" The transition from the unproductive into the metalliferous stratum is usually a sudden one, so that the rock above the opening is usually firm and solid, and covers it like a cap, and is for this reason called by the miners the cap-rock. Not unfrequently, however, the expansion takes place more gradually, and often, in the same crevice, unequally, so that the opening will
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HISTORY OF DUBUQUE COUNTY.
in one place be capped over by a flat stratum, in which nothing more than a mere seam is discernible; while, in other places, the cavity will extend far up into the cap-rock, gradually diminishing in width as it is followed upward. When the opening presents itself with irregular forms, and with a solid cap above, it is called a square opening; when it becomes irregularly elliptical in form and expands to a great size, it comes under the denomination of a cave- opening.
" The mines in the vicinity of Dubuque occur over most of the space extending from Catfish Creek in a northwesterly direction as far as the Middle Fork of the Little Maquoketa, occupying a belt from three to four miles wide to the west of the Mississippi. The Hudson River shales cover the elevated surface over a considerable portion of this area; but, as the strata have cut down into the galena limestone, the crevices are first discovered by their out- crop in the valleys, and then worked frequently by shafts sunk through a considerable thickness of detritus and shale before reaching the lead-bearing rock.
" The mines in the vicinity of Dubuque are among the most interesting and remarkable of the whole lead region. Extending over an area, on the surface, of hardly more than twelve to fifteen square miles, there is probably no district of equal extent in the Mississippi Valley which has produced so large an amount of ore. The crevices are more extensive, both vertically and longitudinally, than in any observed in Wisconsin; and their whole arrangement and grouping exhibit a degree of regularity which is rarely exhibited by this class of mineral deposits, and which most closely assimilates them, in this respect, to true veins.
" The characteristic form of occurrence in the Dubuque district is the ver- tical crevice with openings, which frequently expand into large caves, several hundred feet in length, and from which, not unfrequently, several million pounds of lead have been taken."
Professor Whittlesey gives a description of his visit to a lead mine, from which the following is quoted. After speaking of the difficulty experienced in squeezing between the walls of the narrow and winding crevice, he says : " We had not gone far in this uncomfortable manner, when a handsome cave appeared, illuminated by the lights in front. It was a square room, with a mud floor and rock ceiling, along the middle of which was a seam or vertical crevice, con- taining galena. This crevice was about two feet broad, the sides covered with mineral six to eight inches thick, leaving a space between the inner faces of the mineral up which we could see several feet. There was about this crevice an entirely new feature, so far as I know-the solid mineral projected from this crevice downward, a foot to a foot and a half in a 'sheet,' as they call it, eight to ten inches thick, and twenty-five to thirty feet long, spreading fan-like as it descended. A part of the way there were three sheets, two thick and heavy ones, with coarse, irregular surfaces, composed of aggregated cubes, from two inches to ten inches on a side, and one thin or light sheet. the whole covered with oxide of lead, and having, in consequence, a pure white color. This depending mass was wholly clear, except where it was attached to the rock above, and projected downward in space, the most rich and beautiful object I ever saw of a mineral kind. About two hundred feet more of twisting and squirming brought us to the leaden temple where lay the fortune of our bold explorer. It is a cave, or pocket, some hundred and thirty feet long, twenty feet high in the dome or cavern part, and twenty to thirty feet wide, the sides
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HISTORY OF DUBUQUE COUNTY.
and roof arched in an irregular manner. Probably it extends in this oval shape to a depth equal to the clear space above. The whole appears to have been ceiled with lead ; and, although its size is not as great as many other mineral caves, the amount of galena in view at any one time is said to exceed that of any pocket yet opened. Much of the lead lining the roof and sides had fallen down in immense blocks, some of them very recently. This mineral incrusta- tion was, in places, two feet thick, and one of the fallen masses was estimated to weigh 23,000 pounds. In the mud and clay that formned the bottom or floor of this spacious room, they said that mineral would be found buried or inclosed in large lumps, to the bottom, probably fifteen feet deeper."
THE ORTHOGRAPHY OF DUBUQUE.
The following remarks on the orthography of Dubuque are from the pen of Mr. C. Childs :
" As the manner of writing the name of Dubuque is still discussed, when the error of the capital 'B' is mentioned, the facts of the case, and the adoption of the present form of writing and printing the word, are here presented. Some have contended that it should be written 'Du Buque,' for the reason that the ' de, ' signifying ' of' in French, is used as a prefix to names in that lan- guage ; but it is then used only as a part of the name, and is written with the small 'd,' or, as printers call it, with a lower-case 'd.' No one will claim that 'Du' in Dubuque, is an English or American corruption of 'de.' The spelling of Dubuque, as a French name, is . Debuc,' and without the capital . B.'
" Julien Dubuque himself, in honor of whom our county and city are named, being an educated man, wrote his name in a neat, legible hand, according to the correct English form, ' Dubuque.' We have seen his signature of the date 1796, many years before the blunder of using the capital ' B' in the name was committed.
" In the papers referring to the Dubuque claim case, commencing about 1806, and continuing, at intervals, in the published records of the Commis- sioners to adjust Spanish claims within the ' Louisiana Purchase,' including Iowa, the name is generally printed ' Dubuque,' though from some blunder of a copyist, proof-reader or one who believed himself wise beyond his time, it is in one instance printed ' Dubuc,' and in one or two 'Dubugue.'"
EARLY SETTLEMENTS.
If sources of information, presumably authentic, are to be relied upon, the first white person who ever invaded the wilds of the West, and occupied the territory wherein Dubuque is located, was Father Marquette, a pious French priest connected with the Catholic missions in Canada. According to Bancroft, this enterprising divine was the pioneer missionary to this part of the Missis- sippi Valley, who, with M. Joliet, the agent of the French Government, and five courageous adventurers, descended the Father of Waters by way of Wis- consin in 1673. They ascertained that the river emptied into the Gulf of Mexico, and returned by way of Illinois and Chicago, at that time the home of the Miamis, arriving at Green Bay in September of the same year.
In their voyage of discovery, these men visited the site of Dubuque, but it was not until 1788 that a colony was planted in that part of the West now known as Iowa, " The Beautiful Land." In that year, Julien Dubuque, an Indian trader, settled in this vicinity, examined the lead mines, married Peosta,
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HISTORY OF DUBUQUE COUNTY.
the daughter of an Indian chief, and became identified with the manners and customs of his adopted kin.
As is well known, at that period all the territory of the Northwest on this side of the river was considered a part of Louisiana, being included within the dominions of the haughty power of Spain, when the proud Castilians were in the zenith of their glory, the only settlers being a tribe of Fox Indians.
By some, it is insisted that Dubuque was settled by a colony from Prairie du Chien. But this assumption is doubtful, as the most reliable data indicate Dubuque to have been the earliest emigrant, who, as above stated, married her whose name has been transmitted to the beautiful lake, the waters of which kiss the pebbles within a short distance of the city named for its founder.
Dubuque was represented as a man of wonderful enterprise and decided ability ; and so great was the influence he acquired over the Indians, that all matters of grave importance were by them submitted for his decision.
When his wife, Peosta, "struck a paying lead" in the mining region, Dubuque turned his attention to obtaining from the Fox Indians the right to mine over a tract of land which should embrace the "lead" discovered by Peosta. Accordingly, a council assembled in Prairie du Chien in September, 1788, and, after due deliberation, Julien Dubuque, whom they called " La Pettit Nuit," was granted permission to work the mines " tranquilly and without any prejudice to his labors." Armed with this concession, and being on most friendly terms with the tribe, Dubuque became largely interested in mining, trading and other pursuits.
He was, however, constantly beset with an apprehension that Spain (which country he knew had acquired all the country west of the Mississippi from France by the terms of a secret treaty ratified in 1763) might interfere with his operations. To the end that so dire a calamity might be stayed or prevented, and to more firmly secure himself in his possessions, he determined to obtain a cession of the same from Spain to himself.
Accordingly, after carefully considering the premises, he, in 1796, addressed the following petition :
El Baron de Curondelet, Spanish Intendant and Governor General of Louisiana :
The very humble petitioner of your Excellency, named Julien Dubuque, having made a plantation on the frontier of your Government, in the middle of the Indian people, inhabitants of the country, has purchased from them a tract of land, with the mines included in it, and by his perseverance has overcome the obstacles so expensive and dangerous, and, after several misfortunes, become to be peaceable proprietor of a tract of land situate on the western part of the River Mississippi, to which tract he has given the name of " Spanish Mine," in memory of the government to'which the said land belongs ; and, as the place of his plantation is only a spot, and the several mines which he has worked at are scattered and dispersed more than three leagues of distance from one to the other, the very humble petitioner of your Excellency prays you to be so good as to grant him the peaceable possession of said mines and lands-which is to say, from the hills above the little river Moquouquetois, until the hills of Mesquabynouques, which makes about seven leagues on the western side of the Mississippi, and three leagues of depth, which the very humble petitioner dares hope that your goodness will be pleased to grant him his demand. I pray this said goodness to be so good as to allow the pure simplicity of my heart in default of my eloquence. I pray Heaven to conserve and lead you with all its kindness. I am, and will be all my life, of your Excellency the very humble, very obedient, and very submitted servant.
J. DUBUQUE.
To His Excellency Baron de Carondelet.
NEW ORLEANS, October 22, 1796.
A few days after, the following order was issued by Carondelet :
Let the merchant, Don Andrew Todd, be informed of the nature of this demand.
BARON DE CARONDELET.
NEW ORLEANS, October 29, 1796.
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HISTORY OF DUBUQUE COUNTY.
In the following month, Andrew Todd addressed a document to the Gov- ernor General, which reads thus :
SIR : Complying with the superior decree of your lordship, by which you order me to give you a notice on the demands made by the party interested in the preceding memorial, I must say that, about the land petitioned for, it does not offer anything to me by which your lordship may not grant it, if you find it proper : but under condition, that the petitioner must observe what is ordered by His Majesty concerning the trade with the Indians, and that the same should be absolutely forbidden to the petitioner unless he will obtain my consent in writing.
ANDREW TODD.
NEW ORLEANS, November 10, 1796.
On this paper occurs the following indorsement :
Granted, as it is demanded, under the restriction mentioned by the merchant, Don Andrew Todd, in his information. BARON DE CARONDELET.
In 1832, the country having passed into the possession of the United States, the War Department asserted the right of the Government to the tract of land granted by Spain to Dubuque. The heirs of Auguste Choteau and John Mull- anphy, of St. Louis, petitioned Congress, in 1836, "to be restored to their possessions, until their title should be decided according to the laws of the land." The petition sets forth, that Auguste Choteau, on the 20th day of October, 1804, bought of Dubuque 72,324 arpents, for the sum of $10,848.60, " to be taken off the lower or southern end of the tract," and that afterward he sold an undivided half of the interest to John Mullanphy. After the death of Dubuque in 1810, his estate was administered upon in St. Louis County, in the then Territory of Upper Louisiana. The petition further alleges that- " The assignee of Dubuque continued in possession of the land from the time of his death, so far as their relations with the Indians would permit, until they were dispossessed by the United States. That without any judicial investiga- tion or decision of the validity of the title of the claimants, or any of the forms of law, the executive officers of the United States, supposing the grant from Spain to Dubuque to be of no avail, dispossessed the claimants by military power, and leased the lead mine, and hield possession by superior force."
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