USA > Iowa > Iowa County > The history of Iowa County, Iowa, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, &c. > Part 36
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It was not only at Elk Creek that Johnny Greene and his band were known, but throughout the whole of Central Iowa. They were peaceable Indians, and apparently on good terms with the Sac and Fox Indians as well as the whites. Not so with the Sioux, who lived further north; they were treacherous, cruel and relentless.
THE LOTT AFFAIR AND THE SPIRIT LAKE MASSACRE.
During the winter of 1846-7 an incident occurred in Webster county which threw all the settlers of the Des Moines valley as far south as Fort Des Moines into a fever of excitement.
A man named Henry Lott had settled at the mouth of Boone river, in what is now Webster county. His house was in range of the Sioux Indi- ans, whose chief's name was Sim-au-e-do-tah. By some accident, or from wounds received in battle, or on account of some natural deformity, we know not, he had no thumb or forefinger on his right hand; on account of this deformity he was known as Old Chief Three Fingers. Lott had pro- vided himself with a small quantity of goods and a barrel of whisky, ex- pecting to drive a prosperous trade with the old chief and his band, and buy their robes and furs for little or nothing. The first visit the chief made him he was accompanied by six of his band, all painted for the war- path. He informed Lott thas he was an intruder and warned him to leave before a certain time. The time having arrived, the Indians appeared and finding Lott still there they commenced an indiscriminate destruction of property. They shot his horses, cattle and hogs full of arrows so that many of them died; threatened and ordered his family and drove him and his son from the house more scared than hurt. Two small girls, daughters of Lott, fled to the timber, and Mrs. Lott covered a small child, the youngest of the family, under a feather bed, and then, after contending with the savages till her strength was exhausted, was compelled to submit to all the indigni- ties which they chose to heap upon her.
One of the most remarkable circumstances of the whole affair is the fact that, although the Indians were in and around the house for nearly an en- tire day, the little fellow hidden under the feather bed not once moved or uttered a cry.
When Lott and his son reached the Boone River bluffs they looked back toward the house, which was plainly in view, and as they thought they saw the Indians tomahawking the family and heard the screams of the wife and children, they, having no arms, concluded to make their way rapidly toward the settlements, and sometime during the same night they reached Pea's Point, where some white people had begun improvements. The story they told astounded everybody.
John Pea, one of the earliest settlers of Boone county, and for whom Pea's Point was named, proposed an immediate expedition to take ven- geance on Sim-au-e-do-tah, but some of the inore prudent of the people thought best to dispatch a messenger to Elk Rapids, near the border of Polk county for the purpose of securing more reinforcements. Lott him- self proceeded on this mission and when he arrived there he found Chemisne, a Pottawattamie chief, with whom he was acquainted, and who was
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encamped there with several hundred of his tribe. Upon hearing Lott's story he immediately called a council of his braves, wherein it was deter- mined that the chief should accompany the white men with twenty-six of his warriors. After several pow-wows they painted themselves in the most hideous manner and mounting their ponies set off for Pea's Point to join the expedition.
The settlers around Pea's Point fearing that the Sioux might follow Lott and his son and fall upon the settlement and murder all, had assembled at the house of John M. Crooks for better safety and defense, and were on the lookout for Indians.
Lott, with several white men and the Pottawattamies, were rapidly ad- vancing across the prairie toward Crook's house, the Indians in the front yelling, as is their custom when starting on the war-path and not in the vicinity of danger. The settlers supposing them to be Sioux coming to at- tack them, prepared for action, each singling out his Indian, and were upon the point of firing when they recognized Lott and other white men, and were happily disappointed to find them all friends.
John Pea and six other white men accompanied Lott and his followers to. the mouth of Boone River and found that the family had not been butch- ered as Lott had represented, but one of the boys, a lad about twelve years old, in order to escape from the Indians had undertaken to reach the settle- ments by following down the river on the ice, a distance of twenty miles. The Sioux had robbed the family of everything, except the barrel of whisky which Lott had hidden; the family was in a deplorable condition. After making an unsuccessful scout the Pottawattamies returned to camp, Lott rewarding their services by giving them all the whisky they could carry home with them, they refusing to drink any till they returned from the expedition. They filled their cups and powder-horns with the grateful beverage, and in that way carried it back to Elk Rapids, where, on their arrival, they had a rousing spree.
This incident, while it resulted in no actual harm to the settlers of the Des Moines valley, except the Lott family, nevertheless it had the effect to deter many from settling in the county the ensuing spring and summer.
Lott was much overcome when he found in what condition the savages had left his family. His wife died a short time afterward from the effects. of the treatment she had received from the Indians. The boy, who started down the river in order to reach the settlement, perished from the effects of the cold, and his dead body was found on the ice. The two little girls were found some time afterward in a sorry plight, exhausted by the cold and hunger. After burying his wife and boy, Lott secured homes for the other children among the settlers of Boone county, and it is but proper to. state, in this connection, that the little boy, now grown into manhood, re- cently made a visit to that locality. The two girls, having grown to be- young women, were married and became the wives of two of the leading citizens of an adjoining county.
Having thus arranged his affairs, Lott directed his attention to wreaking vengeance upon the savages who had despoiled his home. The saddest part of the story remains to be told.
He does not seem to have been long engaged in meditating and planning and the plan of operations having been determined on he lost no time in carrying it out. He procured an ox team and drove to Fort Des Moines,.
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where he purchased two barrels; in one of these barrels he put pork, and in the other whisky. What other ingredient he mixed with the pork and whisky can be imagined from its effects upon those who partook of it.
Having thus laid in his stock of goods, he set out from Des Moines to the hunting grounds of the Sioux. After driving around for some time he learned that the old chief, Sim-au-e-do-tah, with a hunting party, was en- camped near a stream in the present bounds of Webster county. He pro- ceeded stealthily into the timber near by and hastily erected a temporary shelter, where he stored his pork and whisky. During the following night he kindled a large fire, and having heaped upon it a sufficient quantity of fuel to keep it burning for a day or two, he arranged his wagon, team and cooking utensils in such a manner as to indicate sudden flight. After Lott had thus fixed up matters to suit his mind he quietly left the country. How the camp, with its team, wagon, pork and whisky was discovered by Sim- au-e-do-tah's band next morning, and just what became of the provisions, will probably never be known. However, the fact did become public that during the following summer the Indians in that vicinity were greatly ter- rified by the ravages of a peculiar and unknown epidemic, against which the skill of the medicine men, and the most importunate appeals to the Great Spirit, were of no avail. It is said that over seventy-five of the most robust and bravest of the warriors perished in a short time, and a feeling of melancholy and sadness took possession of the whole tribe of savages. Notwithstanding the sad havoc among the Sioux, following Lott's last visit to their hunting grounds the old chief Sim-au-e-do-tah, and his sons, es- caped and continued to prosper. Upon hearing that the chief with his family still survived, Lott determined on a braver, as well as a more manly plan of revenge. Having disguised himself so that the old chief could not recognize him, and armed with a trusty rifle, whose unerring aim usually brought down his game, Lott mounted a horse and rode into the Sioux country. He entered the camp where Sim-au-e-do-tah was encamped and sought an interview with the old chief. After having put the wary savage off his guard by the presentation of gifts and the utterance of the most ex- pressive words of friendship, Lott informed Sim-au-e-do-tah that a certain prairie, through which he had originally come abounded in game of the choicest kind, and thus having aroused the old man's natural propensity for the chase, succeeded in prevailing upon him and his three sons to ac- company him on a hunting excursion. When Lott and the Indians arrived at the place where the game was reported to be, it was decided, upon the suggestion of the former, that they surround the prairie in which the game was concealed. The three young Indians were sent in opposite directions, and as soon as Lott and the old Indian were left alone, the former soon dis- patched the unsuspecting old chief; he then started on the track of the young Indians and killed all three of them in detail. It is further reported that after killing the old Indian and his three sons, Lott dragged their dead bodies together, on an elevation near the Des Moines River, and having built a log heap placed them on it, and having set it on fire, returned to Boone county.
In time, reports of Lott's doings began to be whispered around, and at length became a subject for investigation by the grand jury. All the region of country north and west of Polk county was at that time attached
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HISTORY OF IOWA COUNTY.
to the latter for revenue, election and judicial purposes, and the jury which considered the case was in session at Des Moines.
Among the members of the grand jury was a gentleman residing at Boonesboro. Lott's case was the last one disposed of, and in the evening, just before the jury was discharged, a true bill was found against Lott and he was indicted for murder in the first degree. It is not positively known when the Boonesboro juror left Des Moines, nor when he arrived at the for- mer place; all that is known is the fact that his horse was in the stable at Des Moines at dark on the evening of the day that the indictment was found, and that the same horse was in a stable at Boonesboro the following morning. It is also known that Lott left the country the same night, and the sheriff who went up from Des Moines to arrest him the next day failed to find him. Lott was never again seen in this region of the country, and nothing has been definitely known as to his whereabouts. It was rumored at one time that he made his way to the Pacific slope, and after having been engaged in barter and mining for a number of years, was finally lynched for some alleged misdemeanor. Whether or not such was the tragic end of his eventful life is not positively known, but the incidents above related bearing upon his career in these parts are vouched for by some of the early settlers then residing in the vicinity of his operations, and they can be re- lied on as substantially true in all theparticulars.
It is a peculiar characteristic of the American Indians that they never forget nor forgive an injury, and although a wrong, either real or imagin- ary, inflicted upon them, is seeminglyforgotten or forgiven, it is neverthe- less treasured up in the mind, and in cases where no favorable opportunity occurs for the aggrieved generation to avenge the wrong, it is transmitted down to the next generation, and the wreaking of vengeance is bequeathed as a sacred legacy to those who come after.
The Sioux were greatly exasperated when they found that their chief and his sons had been decoyed and slain, and preferred complaint to the govern- ment agents, through whose influence Lott was doubtless indicted. After Lott's escape, it became whispered about among the savages that Lott was not only responsible for the death of their chief and his sons, but that his pork and whisky had something to do with the epidemic which had pre- viously carried off some seventy-five of their braves. They nursed their grievance, and their desire for revenge increased until it finally found vent in the Spirit Lake massacre, which created so great excitement and did much to retard emigration at the time.
In the spring of 1857, almost ten years after the killing of Sim-au-e-do-tah and his sons, Ink-pa-du-tah, chief among the Sioux Indians, and cousin to the chief killed by Lott, led a band of Indians to a small settlement, near Spirit Lake, in Dickinson county. They murdered many of the settlers and carried away some of the women and children into captivity. They plun- dered the settlement of all the stock and provisions and then retreated into Minnesota. Although the scene of this massacre was over one hundred miles away, it caused a thrill of fear and excitement in this county. Es- pecially was this the case among the scattered settlements in the north part of Polk county, and the recently organized counties farther north. Reports were spread abroad to the effect that the Sioux were on their way south, down the valley of the Des Moines, and that the merciless savages were de- populating the settlements through which they passed. All kinds of work were abandoned, and the settlers confederated together for their defense.
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HISTORY OF IOWA COUNTY.
At the county seat of Boone county excitement was at fever heat, and after taking the proper steps to defend their own homes, the citizens organized a company for the purpose of going to the rescue of the settlers nearer the scenes of the massacre. The following account of that expedition was pub- lished some time since in one of the Boone county papers:
News of the massacre was brought to Fort Dodge about the first of April, and to Boonesboro the next day or so. Following the news came fleeing settlers going south, and a day or two afterward, about the sixth day of April, came the news that Ink-pa-du-ta, after murdering all the settlers north of Fort Dodge and Webster City, had surrounded those towns, and the people could not long keep them off.
This last news came to Boonesboro about two o'clock. A meeting was at once called at the court-house and a company, one hundred strong, or- ganized to go to the relief of the besieged towns. Judge McFarland was chosen superior officer; Samuel B. McCall was elected captain; George B. Redman, first lieutenant; Jonas H. Upton, second lieutenant; James Wright, wagon-master; Dr. DeTarr, surgeon; and John H. Hall, commis- sary. Hon. C. Beal locked his house, took his wife behind him on a pony to the house of her father on the other side of the river, where he left her and started north on his own hook, recruiting wherever he could find a man who could leave home. There were hurried but tearful partings at Boones- boro of husbands and wives, and their uncles, cousins, and aunts. After regularly confiscating a ton of flour that belonged to John Grether, the same quantity of bacon belonging to Clark Luther, all the oats that William Pilcher had, and all the powder and "fire-water" in town, the company was ready to march at half past four o'clock.
An eye-witness describes the departure as " grand, gloomy, and peculiar." Old men and boys, too weak to endure the hardships of the march, had to be driven back to prevent their going to the front, and a rear guard was put out to keep such stragglers back; yet many old men and boys escaped the guard, and by going cross lots came into camp that night at Hook's Point, where the commissary had four big log fires and a whole barrel of whisky. But those men did not drink. It was there for strictly medical purposes, and dealt out only on the surgeon's requisition. No one slept that night, as the constantly passing wagons, filled with fleeing settlers who confirmed the reports of the day before, kept the company under arms all night. About daybreak an alarm was sounded. The pickets came in, and for a time they were sure the Indians were coming. A cow that had been left at home, some distance off, had got hungry and came trotting down the road, followed by some others of her family, making a terrible din with an old cracked bell abont her neck, and created the alarm. She escaped un- hurt, unless the damning she got hurt her.
"After a hurried breakfast, the company started for Webster City. The day was cold, with a fierce wind blowing in their faces. They reached Webster City about two o'clock, where they were received in a very hostile manner by the people. Bucketsful, pitchersful, jugsful, and bottlesful of distilled and boiled down hostility met them at every turn and corner. In fact, men fleet of foot met the command out of town with bucketsful of rye, etc. A general invitation was given them to enjoy the freedom of the city, and every house in town was thrown open to them. A public meeting was held at the school-house that night, at which the people voted the com- pany thanks and a fitting testimonial. It is related that on account of the
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exposure of the men on their trip, Dr. DeTarr and Judge Mitchell were the only members of the company who could appear and respond on behalf of the company. . Dr. DeTarr's speech was printed in full in the Free- man."
The next day the company returned home.
This was the last Indian scare to which the settlers of the Des Moines Valley were subjected.
During the following summer the government concluded a treaty with the Sioux Indians, and removed those living in southern Minnesota to the west of the Missouri River.
Thus did the successor and relative of Sim-au-e-do-tah wreak vengeance on the white man for the murder of the chief and the penalty of that foul deed had to be paid by innocent parties.
The Sioux Indians, always noted for their fierce cruelty, are still true to their former characteristics, and it was the same tribe under the leadership of Sitting Bull who for some years was a source of so much terror to the Black Hill's miners, and who composed the army concerned in the defeat and death of the brave General Custer.
THE TAMA COUNTY RESERVATION.
The Musquakie Indians originally were very numerous along the valley of the Iowa River. There doubtless still remain in Iowa county many per- sons who, in early times, were familiar with this tribe of savages. Their headquarters were on the south bank of the Iowa River, near where is now the western boundary of Tama county. They were removed west with the other bands in 1845-6, but many of them wandered back to their old hunting grounds. For a time the government declined to allow them a pro rata share of their annuity unless they would return to their reserva- tion. They, however, persisted in remaining, and from time to time ac- quired the title to several tracts of land, amounting to over four hundred acres, when the government changed its policy, paying them their propor- tion of their annuity, and allowing them to remain. There a remnant of the tribe still lives, cultivating a portion of the land, and as a rule, behav- ing themselves in a becoming manner. During certain portions of the year they leave their home and visit certain parts of the State, either on hunting excursions or to dispose of the pelts they have already taken.
It is no uncommon thing for a few representatives of the original tribes to visit the county at the present day on trading expeditions. As a general thing, however, the Indians that are occasionally seen in the county now are representatives of the tribe who have a reservation in Tama county. The Indians at that reservation are comparatively quiet and peacable, but degenerate both physically and morally, year by year, and gradnally approach inevitable extinction.
A short time since the Mitchellville News contained the following item:
" Kesco, an Indian woman of the Musquakie tribe, died in her wigwam at Trulinger Grove, two and three-quarter miles north of Mitchellville, Saturday, March 20. She was 101 years old, and died of old age. Indian Jim, with his wife and a few other Indians, buried Kesco on sabbath after- noon, near the fence and just outside the Franklin cemetery, one-half mile from where she died.
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HISTORY OF IOWA COUNTY.
" Although Kesco had been a burden to her tribe for many moons, they took care of her until the Great Spirit carried her away to the happy hunt- ing grounds. A striking contrast to some pale-faces who live within ten miles of where Kesco died, and who are trying to steal their parents' pos- sessions and send the latter
'Over the hill to the poor-house.'
" Jim got some boards and made a rough box; Kesco was shrouded in a blanket and laid in the box; a tin pan filled with corn, beans and bread was set beside her in the coffin; also a bottle of water. Next the cover was put on, the coffin lowered into the grave, a buffalo robe and roll of blankets. were laid on the foot of the coffin, and then the grave was filled with earth. Jim's wife gathered the squaws about her and divided Kesco's few trinkets; then all went back to camp. Everything was done decently and in order."
THE IOWA INDIANS.
Special interest centers in this tribe of Indians, from the fact that the State and county took the name from them. This tribe was allied with the Sac and Fox Indians when the headquarters of the latter were along the banks. of Rock River, Illinois, but from some cause the Iowas separated them- selves from the Sacs and Fox's and established themselves in the south- eastern part of what is now the State of Iowa, but then a part of an un- named and undefined region of country, which, beginning at the west bank of the Mississippi, stretched away to the north and west, unbroken, unex- plored and scarcely thought of by the white man. As near as can be deter- mined at this late day their chief villages were on the banks of the Des Moines River, in what is now Van Buren county. The tribe was subdivided into eight families, each family taking the name of some bird or beast, these families being known respectively by the names Eagle, Pigeon, Wolf, Bear, Elk, Beaver, Buffalo and Snake. The members of each family were dis- tinguished by the peculiar manner in which they wore their hair. The Eagle family wore the hair in two locks in front and one behind; the Bear family left the hair on one side of the head much longer than on the other side; and so on.
After the Iowas separated themselves from the Sacs and Foxes a feeling of jealousy and deadly hatred gradually developed, and these two once powerful allies now became sworn enemies. Finally a great battle was fought near the Iowa villages on the banks of the Des Moines, and the Iowas suffered such an overwhelming and bloody defeat that they left the country .. This was before any portion of the territory of Iowa was opened for settle- ment, hence, the Iowa Indians do not figure in the early settlement of this county or any other part of the State; hence, the tribe for whom the State and county were named took no part in the treaties whereby the State and county became the habitation and property of the white man.
The following account of the decisive battle between the Iowas and Sacs. and Foxes details with approximate exactness the particulars of the contest. Occurring as it did before a single white man had crossed the Mississippi the writer had to draw all his facts from the verbal testimony of the Sacs and Foxes, and such legends and traditions as floated around in the atmos- phere of the imaginative and superstitions.
" Contrary to a long establislied custom of Indian attack, this battle was
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HISTORY OF IOWA COUNTY.
brought on in the daytime, the attending circumstances justifying the de- parture from a well settled usage of Indian warfare. The battle-field is a level bottom about four miles in length and two miles in width in the mid- dle and narrows down to a point at either end. The main area of the bottom rises perhaps twenty feet above the river, leaving a narrow strip of low bot- tom along the shore, covered with trees that belted the prairie on the river side with a thick forest, and the immediate bank was fringed with a deuse growth of willows. Near the lower end of the prairie, and near the river bank, was situated the village of the Iowas, and about two miles above the village and near the middle of the prairie was situated a small strip of neu- tral ground, covered at the time with a tuft of small trees and brush grow- ing on its summit. In rear of this mound lay a belt of wet prairie, which at the time was covered with a dense crop of rank, coarse grass. Border- ing this wet prairie on the north the country rises abruptly into elevated river bluffs, covered with a heavy forest of many miles in extent, and por- tions thickly clustered with undergrowth, affording a convenient shelter for the stealthily approaching foe.
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