USA > Iowa > Fayette County > The history of Fayette County, Iowa, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, &c. > Part 9
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HISTORY OF THE NORTHWEST.
BRICHAM CHIN
VIEW OF THE CITY OF CHICAGO.
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HISTORY OF THE NORTHWEST.
The procession moved slowly along the lake shore till they reached the sand-hills between the prairie and the beach, when the Pottawattamie escort, under the leadership of Blackbird, filed to the right, placing those hills between them and the white people. Wells, with his Miamis, had kept in the advance. They suddenly came rushing back, Wells exclaim- ing, " They are about to attack us; form instantly." These words were quickly followed by a storm of bullets, which came whistling over the little hills which the treacherous savages had made the covert for their murderous attack. The white troops charged upon the Indians, drove them back to the prairie, and then the battle was waged between fifty- four soldiers, twelve civilians and three or four women (the cowardly Miamis having fled at the outset) against five hundred Indian warriors. The white people, hopeless, resolved to sell their lives as dearly as possible. Ensign Ronan wielded his weapon vigorously, even after falling upon his knees weak from the loss of blood. Capt. Wells, who was by the side of his niece, Mrs. Heald, when the conflict began, behaved with the greatest coolness and courage. He said to her, " We have not the slightest chance for life. We must part to meet no more in this world. God bless you." And then he dashed forward. Seeing a young warrior, painted like a demon, climb into a wagon in which were twelve children, and tomahawk them all, he cried out, unmindful of his personal danger, " If that is your game, butchering women and children, I will kill too." He spurred his horse towards the Indian camp, where they had left their squaws and papooses, hotly pursued by swift-footed young warriors, who sent bullets whistling after him. One of these killed his horse and wounded him severely in the leg. With a yell the young braves rushed to make him their prisoner and reserve him for torture. He resolved not to be made a captive, and by the use of the most provoking epithets tried to induce them to kill him instantly. He called a fiery young chief a squaw, when the enraged warrior killed Wells instantly with his tomahawk, jumped upon his body, cut out his heart, and ate a portion of the warm morsel with savage delight !
In this fearful combat women bore a conspicuous part. Mrs. Heald was an excellent equestrian and an expert in the use of the rifle. She fought the savages bravely, receiving several severe wounds. Though faint from the loss of blood, she managed to keep her saddle. A savage raised his tomahawk to kill her, when she looked him full in the face, and with a sweet smile and in a gentle voice said, in his own language, "Surely you will not kill a squaw!" The arm of the savage fell, and the life of the heroic woman was saved.
Mrs. Helm, the step-daughter of Mr. Kinzie, had an encounter with a stout Indian, who attempted to tomahawk her. Springing to one side, she received the glancing blow on her shoulder, and at the same instant.
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HISTORY OF THE NORTHWEST.
seized the savage round the neck with her arms and endeavored to get hold of his scalping knife, which hung in a sheath at his breast. While she was thus struggling she was dragged from her antagonist by another powerful Indian, who bore her, in spite of her struggles, to the margin of the lake and plunged her in. To her astonishment she was held by him so that she would not drown, and she soon perceived that she was in the hands of the friendly Black Partridge, who had saved her life.
The wife of Sergeant Holt, a large and powerful woman, behaved as bravely as an Amazon. She rode a fine, high-spirited horse, which the Indians coveted, and several of them attacked her with the butts of their guns, for the purpose of dismounting her ; but she used the sword which she had snatched from her disabled husband so skillfully that she foiled them ; and, suddenly wheeling her horse, she dashed over the prairie, followed by the savages shouting, " The brave woman ! the brave woman ! Don't hurt her !" They finally overtook her, and while she was fighting them in front, a powerful savage came up behind her, seized her by the neck and dragged her to the ground. Horse and woman were made captives. Mrs. Holt was a long time a captive among the Indians, but was afterwards ransomed.
In this sharp conflict two-thirds of the white people were slain and wounded, and all their horses, baggage and provision were lost. Only twenty-eight straggling men now remained to fight five hundred Indians rendered furious by the sight of blood. They succeeded in breaking through the ranks of the murderers and gaining a slight eminence on the prairie near the Oak Woods. The Indians did not pursue, but gathered on their flanks, while the chiefs held a consultation on the sand-hills, and showed signs of willingness to parley. It would have been madness on the part of the whites to renew the fight; and so Capt. Heald went for- ward and met Blackbird on the open prairie, where terms of surrender were soon agreed upon. It was arranged that the white people should give up their arms to Blackbird, and that the survivors should become prisoners of war, to be exchanged for ransoms as soon as practicable. With this understanding captives and captors started for the Indian camp near the fort, to which Mrs. Helm had been taken bleeding and suffering by Black Partridge, and had met her step-father and learned that her husband was safe.
A new scene of horror was now opened at the Indian camp. The wounded, not being included in the terms of surrender, as it was inter- preted by the Indians, and the British general, Proctor, having offered a liberal bounty for American scalps, delivered at Malden, nearly all the wounded men were killed and scalped, and the price of the trophies was afterwards paid by the British government.
THE STATE OF IOWA.
GEOGRAPHICAL SITUATION.
The State of Iowa has an outline figure nearly approaching that of a rec- tangular parallelogram, the northern and southern boundaries being nearly due east and west lines, and its eastern and western boundaries determined by southerly flowing rivers-the Mississippi on the east, and the Missouri, together with its tributary, the Big Sioux, on the west. The northern boundary is upon the parallel of forty-three degrees thirty minutes, and the southern is approxi- mately upon that of forty degrees and thirty-six minutes. The distance from the northern to the southern boundary, excluding the small prominent angle at the southeast corner, is a little more than two hundred miles. Owing to the irregularity of the river boundaries, however, the number of square miles does not reach that of the multiple of these numbers; but according to a report of the Secretary of the Treasury to the United States Senate, March 12, 1863, the State of Iowa contains 35,228,200 acres, or 55,044 square miles. When it is understood that all this vast extent of surface, except that which is occupied by our rivers, lakes and peat beds of the northern counties, is susceptible of the highest cultivation, some idea may be formed of the immense agricultural resources of the State. Iowa is nearly as large as England, and twice as large as Scotland ; but when we consider the relative area of surface which may be made to yield to the wants of man, those countries of the Old World will bear no comparison with Iowa.
TOPOGRAPHY.
No complete topographical survey of the State of Iowa has yet been made. Therefore all the knowledge we have yet upon the subject has been obtained from incidental observations of geological corps, from barometrical observations by authority of the General Government, and levelings done by railroad en- gineer corps within the State.
Taking into view the facts that the highest point in the State is but a little more than twelve hundred feet above the lowest point, that these two points are nearly three hundred miles apart, and that the whole State is traversed by
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF IOWA.
gently flowing rivers, it will be seen that in reality the State of Iowa rests wholly within, and comprises a part of, a vast plain, with no mountain or hill ranges within its borders.
A clearer idea of the great uniformity of the surface of the State may be obtained from a statement of the general slopes in feet per mile, from point to point, in straight lines across it :
From the N. E. corner to the S. E.' corner of the State 1 foot 1 inch per mile.
From the N. E. corner to Spirit Lake. 5 feet 5 inches per mile.
From the N. W. corner to Spirit Lake. feet 0 inches per mile.
From the N. W. corner to the S. W. corner of the State. .2 feet 0 inches per mile.
From the S. W. corner to the highest ridge between the two
great rivers (in Ringgold County) 4 feet 1 inch per mile
From the dividing ridge in the S. E. corner of the State .. .5 feet 7 inches per mile.
From the highest point in the State (near Spirit Lake) to the
lowest point in the State (at the mouth of Des Moines River) 4 feet 0 inches per mile.
It will be seen, therefore, that there is a good degree of propriety in regard- ing the whole State as a part of a great plain, the lowest point of which within its borders, the southeast corner of the State, is only 444 feet above the level of the sea. The average height of the whole State above the level of the sea is not far from eight hundred feet, although it is more than a thousand miles inland from the nearest sea coast. These remarks are, of course, to be under- stood as applying to the surface of the State as a whole. When we come to consider its surface feature in detail, we find a great diversity of surface by the formation of valleys out of the general level, which have been evolved by the action of streams during the unnumbered years of the terrace epoch.
It is in the northeastern part of the State that the river valleys are deepest ; consequently the country there has the greatest diversity of surface, and its physical features are most strongly marked.
DRAINAGE SYSTEM.
The Mississippi and Missouri Rivers form the eastern and western bounda- ries of the State, and receive the eastern and western drainage of it.
The eastern drainage system comprises not far from two-thirds of the en- tire surface of the State. The great watershed which divides these two systems is formed by the highest land between those rivers along the whole length of a line running southward from a point on the northern boundary line of the State near Spirit Lake, in Dickinson County, to a nearly central point in the northern part of Adair County.
From the last named point, this highest ridge of land, between the two great rivers, continues southward, without change of character, through Ringgold County into the State of Missouri; but southward from that point, in Adair County, it is no longer the great watershed. From that point, another and lower ridge bears off more nearly southeastward, through the counties of Madi- son, Clarke, Lucas and Appanoose, and becomes itself the great watershed.
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF IOWA.
RIVERS.
All streams that rise in Iowa rise upon the incoherent surface deposits, occupying at first only slight depressions in the surface, and scarcely percept- ible. These successively coalesce to form the streams.
The drift and bluff deposits are both so thick in Iowa that its streams not only rise upon their surface, but they also reach considerable depth into these deposits alone, in some cases to a depth of nearly two hundred feet from the general prairie level.
The majority of streams that constitute the western system of Iowa drainage run, either along the whole or a part of their course, upon that peculir deposit known as bluff deposit. Their banks are often, even of the small streams, from five to ten feet in height, quite perpendicular, so that they make the streams almost everywhere unfordable, and a great impediment to travel across the open country where there are no bridges.
The material of this deposit is of a slightly yellowish ash color, except where darkened by decaying vegetation, very fine and silicious, but not sandy, not very cohesive, and not at all plastic. It forms excellent soil, and does not bake or crack in drying, except limy concretions, which are generally dis- tributed throughout the mass, in shape and size resembling pebbles; not a stone or pebble can be found in the whole deposit. It was called "silicious marl" by Dr. Owen, in his geological report to the General Government, and its origin referred to an accumulation of sediment in an ancient lake, which was afterward drained, when its sediment became dry land. Prof. Swallaw gives it the name of "bluff," which is here adopted; the term Lacustral would have been better. The peculiar properties of this deposit are that it will stand securely with a precipitous front two hundred feet high, and yet is easily excavated with a spade. Wells dug in it require only to be walled to a point just above the water line. Yet, compact as it is, it is very porous, so that water which falls on its surface does not remain, but percolates through it; neither does it accumulate within its mass, as it does upon the surface of and within the drift and the stratified formations.
The bluff deposit is known to occupy a region through which the Missouri runs almost centrally, and measures, as far as is known, more than two hun- dred miles in length and nearly one hundred miles in width. The thickest part yet known in Iowa is in Fremont County, where it reaches two hundred feet. The boundaries of this deposit in Iowa are nearly as follows: Com- mencing at the southeast corner of Fremont County, follow up the watershed between the East Nishnabotany and the West Tarkio Rivers to the southern boundary of Cass County ; thence to the center of Audubon County ; thence to Tip Top Station, on the Chicago & Northwestern Railway; thence by a broad curve westward to the northwest corner of Plymouth County.
This deposit is composed of fine sedimentary particles, similar to that which the Missouri River now deposits from its waters, and is the same which
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF IOWA.
that river did deposit in a broad depression in the surface of the drift that formed a lake-like expansion of that river in the earliest period of the history of its valley. That lake, as shown by its deposit, which now remains, was about one hundred miles wide and more than twice as long. The water of the river was muddy then, as now, and the broad lake became filled with the sedi- ment which the river brought down, before its valley had enough in the lower portion of its course to drain it. After the lake became filled with the sedi- ment, the valley below became deepened by the constant erosive action of the waters, to a depth of more than sufficient to have drained the lake of its first waters ; but the only effect then was to cause it to cut its valley out of the de- posits its own muddy waters had formed. Thus along the valley of that river, so far as it forms the western boundary of Iowa, the bluffs which border it are composed of that sediment known as bluff deposit, forming a distinct border along the broad, level flood plain, the width of which varies from five to fifteen miles, while the original sedimentary deposit stretches far inland.
All the rivers of the western system of drainage, except the Missouri itself, are quite incomplete as rivers, in consequence of their being really only branches of other larger tributaries of that great river, or, if they empty into the Missouri direct, they have yet all the usual characteristics of Iowa rivers, from their sources to their mouths.
Chariton and Grand Rivers both rise and run for the first twenty-five miles of their courses upon the drift deposit alone. The first strata that are exposed by the deepening valleys of both these streams belong to the upper coal meas- ures, and they both continue upon the same formation until they make their exit from the State (the former in Appanoose County, the latter in Ringgold County), near the boundary of which they have passed nearly or quite through the whole of that formation to the middle coal measures. Their valleys gradu- ally deepen from their upper portions downward, so that within fifteen or twenty miles they have reached a depth of near a hundred and fifty feet below the gen- eral level of the adjacent high land. When the rivers have cut their valleys down through the series of limestone strata, they reach those of a clayey com- position. Upon these they widen their valleys and make broad flood plains (commonly termed "bottoms "), the soil of which is stiff and clayey, except where modified by sandy washings.
A considerable breadth of woodland occupies the bottoms and valley sides along a great part of their length ; but their upper branches and tributaries are mostly prairie streams.
Platte River .- This river belongs mainly to Missouri. Its upper branches pass through Ringgold County, and, with the west fork of the Grand River, drain a large region of country.
Here the drift deposit reaches its maximum thickness on an east and west line across the State, and the valleys are eroded in some instances to a depth of two hundred feet, apparently, through this deposit alone.
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF IOWA.
The term " drift deposit " applies to the soil and sub-soil of the greater part of the State, and in it alone many of our wells are dug and our forests take root. It rests upon the stratified rocks. It is composed of clay, sand, gravel aud boulders, promiscuously intermixed, without stratification, varying in char- acter in different parts of the State.
The proportion of lime in the drift of Iowa is so great that the water of all our wells and springs is too " hard " for washing purposes ; and the same sub- stance is so prevalent in the drift clays that they are always found to have suffi- cient flux when used for the manufacture of brick.
One Hundred and Two River is represented in Taylor County, the valleys of which have the same general character of those just described. The country around and between the east and west forks of this stream is almost entirely prairie.
Nodaway River .- This stream is represented by east, middle and west branches. The two former rise in Adair County, the latter in Cass County. These rivers and valleys are fine examples of the small rivers and valleys of Southern Iowa. They have the general character of drift valleys, and with beautiful undulating and sloping sides. The Nodaways drain one of the finest agricultural regions in the State, the soil of which is tillable almost to their very banks. The banks and the adjacent narrow flood plains are almost everywhere composed of a rich, deep, dark loam.
Nishnabotany River .- This river is represented by east and west branches, the former having its source in Anderson County, the latter in Shelby County. Both these branches, from their source to their confluence-and also the main stream, from thence to the point where it enters the great flood plain of the Missouri-run through a region the surface of which is occupied by the bluff deposit. The West Nishnabotany is probably without any valuable mill sites. In the western part of Cass County, the East Nishnabotany loses its identity by becoming abruptly divided up into five or six different creeks. A few good mill sites occur here on this stream. None, however, that are thought reliable exist on either of these rivers, or on the main stream below the confluence, except, perhaps, one or two in Montgomery County. The valleys of the two branches, and the intervening upland, possess remarkable fertility.
Boyer River .- Until it enters the flood plain of the Missouri, the Boyer runs almost, if not quite, its entire course through the region occupied by the bluff deposit, and has cut its valley entirely through it along most of its pas- sage. The only rocks exposed are the upper coal measures, near Reed's mill, in Harrison County. The exposures are slight, and are the most northerly now known in Iowa. The valley of this river has usually gently sloping sides, and an ndistinctly defined flood plain. Along the lower half of its course the adjacent upland presents a surface of the billowy character, peculiar to the bluff deposit. The source of this river is in Sac County.
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF IOWA.
Soldier River .- The east and middle branches of this stream have their source in Crawford County, and the west branch in Ida County. The whole course of this river is through the bluff deposit. It has no exposure of strata along its course.
Little Sioux River .- Under this head are included both the main and west branches of that stream, together with the Maple, which is one of its branches. The west branch and the Maple are so similar to the Soldier River that they need no separate description. The main stream has its boundary near the northern boundary of the State, and runs most of its course upon drift deposit alone, entering the region of the bluff deposit in the southern part of Cherokee County. The two principal upper branches, near their source in Dickinson and Osceola ,Counties, are small prairie creeks, with indistinct valleys. On entering Clay County, the valley deepens, and at their confluence has a depth of one hundred feet, which still further increases until along the boundary line between Clay and Buena Vista Counties, it reaches a depth of two hundred feet. Just as the valley enters Cherokee County, it turns to the southward and becomes much widened, with its sides gently sloping to the uplands. When the valley enters the region of the bluff deposit, it assumes the billowy appearance. No exposures of strata of any kind have been found in the valley of the Little Sioux or any of its branches.
Floyd River .- This river rises upon the drift in O'Brien County, and flow- ing southward enters the region of the bluff deposit a little north of the center of Plymouth County. Almost from its source to its mouth it is a prairie stream, with slightly sloping valley sides, which blend gradually with the uplands. A single slight exposure of sandstone of cretaceous age occurs in the valley near Sioux City, and which is the only known exposure of rock of any kind along its whole length. Near this exposure is a mill site, but farther up the stream it is not valuable for such purposes.
Rock River .- This stream passes through Lyon and Sioux Counties. It was evidently so named from the fact that considerable exposures of the red Sioux quartzite occur along the main branches of the stream in Minnesota, a few miles north of our State boundary. Within this State the main stream and its branches are drift streams, and strata are exposed. The beds and banks of the streams are usually sandy and gravelly, with occasional boulders intermixed.
Big Sioux River .- The valley of this river, from the northwest corner of the State to its mouth, possesses much the same character as all the streams of the surface deposits. At Sioux Falls, a few miles above the northwest corner of the State, the stream meets with remarkable obstructions from the presence of Sioux quartzite, which outcrops directly across the stream, and causes a fall of about sixty feet within a distance of half a mile, producing a series of cas- cades. For the first twenty-five miles above its mouth, the valley is very broad, with a broad, flat flood plain, with gentle slopes occasionally showing indistinctly defined terraces. These terraces and valley bottoms constitute some of the finest
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF IOWA.
agricultural land of the region. On the Iowa side of the valley the upland presents abrupt bluffs, steep as the materials of which they are composed will stand, and from one hundred to nearly two hundred feet high above the stream. At rare intervals, about fifteen miles from its mouth, the cretaceous strata are found exposed in the face of the bluffs of the Iowa side. No other strata are exposed along that part of the valley which borders our State, with the single exception of Sioux quartzite at its extreme north western corner. Some good mill sites may be secured along that portion of this river which borders Lyon County, but below this the fall will probably be found insufficient and the location for dams insecure.
Missouri River .- This is one of the muddiest streams on the globe, and its waters are known to be very turbid far toward its source. The chief pecul- iarity of this river is its broad flood plains, and its adjacent bluff deposits. Much the greater part of the flood plain of this river is upon the Iowa side, and continuous from the south boundary line of the State to Sioux City, a distance of more than one hundred miles in length, varying from three to five miles in width. This alluvial plain is estimated to contain more than half a million acres of land within the State, upward of four hundred thousand of which are now tillable.
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