USA > Iowa > Jefferson County > The history of Jefferson County, Iowa, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, &c., a biographical directory of citizens, war records of its volunteers in the late rebellion, general and local statistics, portraits of early settlers and prominent men > Part 39
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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
" The writer cannot locate the place exactly, according to our State maps, although he has often visited it in Indian times : but somewhere out north from Kirkville, and probably not over twelve miles distant, on the bank of Skunk River, not far above the 'Forks of Skunk,' was a small village of not over fif- teen or twenty lodges, presided over by a man of considerable influence, though he was not a chief, named Kishkekosh. The village was on the direct trail- in fact, it was the converging point of the two trails-from the Hardfish village, and the three villages across the river below Ottumwa, to the only other permanent settlement of the tribes, which was the village of Poweshiek, a Fox chief of equal rank with Wapello, situated on the bank of the Iowa River.
" About the time that Eddy moved out his stock of goods from Burlington to his licensed point at the Hardfish village, P. Chouteau, Jr., & Company also obtained an addition to their license for a post at the same place. and put up a small establishment some fourth of a mile below Eddy, on the river-bank. In the same winter, of 1840-41, Messrs. W. G. & G. W. Ewing, of Indiana, who had already acquired large wealth in the Indian trade, but never yet had dealt with the Sacs and Foxes, obtained a license and had their point assigned them just at the mouth of Sugar Creek, on the Ottumwa side, where they soon got up a large establishment, filled with a full and valuable stock. This post was started, and, for a year or so, conducted by a Mr. Hunt, a gentleman of far more education, refinement and culture than is often found among the resi- dent Indian traders. .
"Previous to the treaty of 1842, some few changes were made in their location, both by the Indians and among the whites. The house at the 'Old Garrison ' was broken up, and one established in its stead up in the Red Rock region, near the mouth of White Breast ; and Keokuk, also, moved his village into the same neighborhood. A second blacksmith was appointed, named Baker, son-in-law of Col. Ingraham, one of the pioneers of Des Moines County, and a person of considerable character and influence in his county. Baker died at Fort Des Moines, still in the service of the Indians ; but when appointed, he built his residence some half a mile east of the Agency, not far from the claim taken by the late ,William Newell, father of L. F. Newell, by whom the prop- erty was subsequently purchased and added to his farm.
"The Sacs and Foxes were quite friendly and manageable ; in fact, were very pleasant and agreeable people to live among, and all public and personal intercourse with them rolled smoothly along the well-worn track, without much of incident or marvel, until the final sale of their remaining Iowa domain. Sometimes, incidents would occur, possessing excitement or amusement enough to encroach for a little upon the monotony that otherwise might have become tedious, of which the writer will endeavor to recover the memory of one or two that may amuse the reader.
" The Sacs and Foxes, like all other Indians, were a very religious people, in their way, always maintaining the observance of a good many rites, ceremo- nies and feasts in their worship of the Kitche Mulito, or Great Spirit. Fasts did not seem to be prescribed in any of their missals, however, because, per- haps, forced ones, under a scarcity of game or other edibles, were not of impos- sible occurrence among people whose creed plainly was to let to-morrow take care of the things of itself. Some of these ceremonies bore such resemblance to some of those laid down in the books of Moses as to have justified the impression among biblical students that the lost tribes of Israel might have found their way to this continent.
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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
"The writer was a witness, one delightful forenoon in May, 1841, of a ceremony that seemed full of mystery, even to these of the Indians who took no part in celebrating it. A large lodge had been set up for the occasion on the level green, near Keokuk's village, and its sides left so entirely open that vision of the proceedings conducted within was entirely free. Close around was a circle of guards or sentinels, evidently 'in the secret,' as they were close enough to hear, but at a distance far enough to prevent eavesdropping of the low tones used within the sacred precincts. Inside of these guards was another and much larger circle of sentinels, who restrained all outsiders (of whom the writer had to content himself with being one) from crossing within their line. Keo- kuk seemed to be the chief personage among the performers, and the performance to be designed for the exclusive benefit of one old fellow of some importance in the tribe, who was mainly distinguished from those about him by being clad in a much scantier pattern of raiment. Sometimes they would place him on his feet, and sometimes on his seat, as they powwowed and gesticulated about him. Finally, while in a sedentary position, with a large pile of blankets behind him, Keokuk approached in front, pistol in hand, apparently aimed at his fore- head
" There was an explosion, quite audible to us outsiders, and a no small puff of smoke, and the old savage went over on his back in quick time, where he was covered up and left among the blankets, while a good many 'long talks ' were held around and over him, until at length, Keokuk, taking his hand, brought him to the sitting posture, and soon after to his feet, apparently none the worse for having been used as a target. The outside multitude of Indians gazed with marked awe throughout the entire performance, and maintained, withal, the deepest silence.
" During the three years that the writer had charge of the Agency, before its removal from this place, there were two, and he thinks even three, occasions on which he had to remove persons who had 'squatted ' for good on the Sac and Fox lands. One of these has already been spoken of, the mishap having grown out of some erroneous belief about the boundary. Another originated in some opinions of a former head of the St. Louis Superintendency of Indian Affairs, drawn from him in correspondence and published in the papers. They were erro- neous, and believed to have been in order to embarrass the then Government, to which he was politically unfriendly. If correct, they would have opened to settlement a valuable tract of the Sac and Fox land bordering on Missouri, including their Soap Creek Mill. Gov. Chambers coinciding with the Agent's opinion, which was immediately reported to him, as intruders had begun to move in, issued a proclamation warning all persons from crossing the boundary line as then established ; and the affair, in due course, reaching the head of the Indian service, the Secretary of War, under the law of that time. That official, Hon. William L. Marcy, promptly sustained the subordinate pro- ceedings, and orders were issued to remove by military force all trespassers who, having received reasonable notice, had not retired by a specified day. Notices were printed and distributed by a special messenger among the new trespassers, and, as some had failed to go by the specified date, a company of United States Cavalry was ordered to the Agency to enforce the laws and treaties. This duty seemed the more imperative, just at that time, as the De- partment was intending to treat, in a few months, with the Sacs and Foxes for the purchase of that very land.
" Such military expeditions would, of course, abound with incidents, some- times amusing, sometimes exciting, and sometimes disagreeable and embarrass-
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ing. We would generally find the men gone, leaving the premises in charge of the women and children, under the vain belief that they would, in some way, get over the trouble. Excuses would be various, mostly of wagons broken in the very act of starting, or of oxen strayed and horses lost or stolen just a day or so too soon ; sometimes of sickness, though we failed of observing signs of it. On one occasion, a soldier overheard a well-grown girl tell a frightened junior one not to cry for 'Pap' was just away down the branch, and would come back as soon as the soldiers were gone. And, sure enough, when the smoke of the burning cabin curled above his hiding-place, convincing him that his plan had proved abortive, 'Pap' came rushing around a point of the grove, apparently out of breath, with a long story of his strayed horses that he had hunted till the last day, and then gone to some kindred six or seven miles off beyond the Iowa State line, who were then on the road with their wagons ; and that he having heard the bugle, had left them in order, by short cuts across the timber and hollows, to get home in time to save his 'plunder.' Well, the Lieutenant told him, there it was all safe, the soldiers had set it out carefully without giving his family any trouble to help them ; and if only he had time, he would be glad to wait till his Missouri friends arrived, and help him load up. The mansion being now burned beyond salvation, the bugle sounded to mount, and the troop resumed its march.
" The next amusing incident was in our encounter, soon after the troop had resumed its march, with an old fellow whom we met coming up the somewhat dim road just along the edge of the timber, on this side of the river. The troop was of between thirty and forty men, with a Lieutenant, the Captain hav- ing stayed at the Agency, with the rest of his company, to take care of his sup- plies in camp. The Lieutenant and writer were comfortably walking their nags along the said road, the troops some distance in the rear, following the same easy gait, with their two six-mule wagons behind, when we espied a wagon com- ing round a point of the road not far ahead of us. The team soon showed itself to be a span of fat, sleek horses, and the entire outfit indicated that the old chap in charge of it was not as hard up as his personal look would have led one to believe. He was for giving us the entire right of way, but as we turned off to face him, as if we intended to collide, bow on to him, he reined up.
" According to his own story, he was out for just a pastime drive up the ridge, without much motive or object of any kind ; but he had a scythe to cut grass, a good lot of oats and shelled corn in sacks, an extra wagon sheet that would have improvised a comfortable tent in short order, a plentiful supply of ยท grub ' for himself and a boy he had with him, thirteen or fourteen years old, and a forty-gallon empty barrel, all suggestive of a contemplated raid upon the bee-
trees. After some parley, the Lieutenant turned him over to the Sergeant, who had in the mean time come up with his men, who, in turn, placed him with a file of troopers, as a guard of honor, between the two baggage-wagons. The old fellow soon got the hang of what was up from the soldiers, and, as misery loves company, he shortly scemed to lose site of his own disgust in contemplating that of the inmates of the two squatters' cabins we had yet to visit. We soon reached the nearest one and found it abandoned, though very recently, as all signs proved. Stopping long enough to burn the cabin, we then kept on our way to the only remaining trespasser, who had put up his cabin in a grove on the Des Moines River side of the ridge we had been all day descending. As we turned off to cross the ridge, our former captive, whom we now released, seemed, for a while, as if disposed to relieve himself from the enjoyment of our society as soon as possible. But, in a short time, he changed his mind ; for long before
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he had traveled the half-mile across the ridge, we saw that he had also turned' off and was in pursuit of us. He reached the house almost as soon as did the troops, and in full time to say to the Lieutenant and myself what could not have been less than an unpleasant feeling of personal sympathy for the fam- ily we were about to dislodge. As in several previous instances, the man had gone off, leaving the woman to give reasons and offer excuses for his absence. It was very near night, and not less that five miles to the nearest house in the direction the woman wished to go; she had several children, of whom not the largest, even, was yet of an age to be other than an incumbrance at such a time : nor was there team, wagon or other means of transportation to be seen. While she was bitterly complaining of her cruel fate in thus being turned out of her house to see it consumed, with herself, children and chattels all night under the open heavens, our lately-made acquaintance came to a halt among us. the expression of his features indicating a much more enjoyable expectation of wit- nessing the scene ahead than was ever felt by any among us, whose duty it was to bring it into action.
" We accordingly concluded to press him into the service, soothing, by that proposal, much of the distress of mater familias, who appeared to be a person rather superior to the ordinary grade of squatters. The soldiers set about removing her property from the house, and loading into the old fellow's wagon such portions of it as she was least disposed to abandon for the night, and, com- fortably stowing herself and children upon the load, we started him off as soon as she was ready to leave, after having placed the rest of her effects in as secure a condition as we could. To guard against any possible treachery on the part of the old bee-hunter, as well as in view of any break-down before he could strike the smoother road, the Lieutenant took the precaution to detach a Cor- poral with a half-dozen men, to act as escort over the three miles or so to the Indian boundary, beyond which our jurisdiction ceased.
" The house, with its combustible appendages, having been set on fire, we continued our march to a point a mile or two within the civilized part of Iowa Territory, where a well-fixed, thrifty settler supplied our commissariat, as well as our forage department, with sundry items that a three-days expedition through the brush had made acceptable, if not actually needful. Night had fairly set in. The Corporal had rejoined the command, and reported the bec-hunter and his cargo to be making satisfactory and apparently friendly progress at the point he was ordered to leave them. Our camp-fires were soon blazing, and the tents pitched, and, in a short time, a good supper increased the contentment which the Lieutenant and Agent could not fail to enjoy over the final conclusion of a most unpleas- ant duty. An early reveille, and the next mid-day found us at the Agency.
" At the accession of Gen. Harrison to the Presidency, in March, 1840, Mr. John Chambers, ex-Congressman of Kentucky, was appointed to replace Gov. Lucas as Governor of our then Territory, which office included within its commission that of Superintendent over the Indians and their Agencies. For several months previous, some feelings of antagonism had existed between the old Black Hawk party, whose chief was Hardfish, and the other bands, which was excited mostly and kept up by the traders, influenced by their rival inter- ests, and the characteristic obstinacy of Gov. Lucas, who leaned to the Hardfish band. Upon the arrival of Gov. Chambers at Burlington, it was, of course, an object with Keokuk to gain his favor, or at least to have him committed to a strictly impartial course ; while the Hardfish effort would be to induce him to follow in the track of his predecessor. Keokuk at once requested the Agent to obtain the Governor's consent for him and his chief men to visit him at Burling-
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ton. It was the wish, however, of the Indian Department to discountenance. and prevent such pilgrimages of the Indians through the settlements, and the Agent promised Keokuk that he would inform the new Governor of his desire, and that, perhaps, he would prefer to make his acquaintance and receive his congratulations here at the Agency. The Hardfish band-or rather their insti- gators, Eddy and his satellites-less patient, and ignoring their proper channel of communication through the Agent with the Superintendency, hastened to Burlington in a large body, and having encamped a short way from town, sent in a written notice of their arrival and its purpose, with a request that the Gov- ernor would cause the needed supplies of food, etc., to be provided for them. Under the late Lucas regime, an order on Eddy's Burlington store would have soon satisfied this want. But Gov. Chambers sent them word that when he sent for any of them to come and see him, he would, of course, be prepared to have them fed: that he had no intention of converting his executive head- quarters in Burlington into a council-ground for his red children, and that it was his purpose to visit them in their own country at a very early day. Hard- fish came home with a large flea in his ear ; and the Agent received a commu- nication from the Governor informing him of the facts, and instructing him to use all means in his power to prevent the intrusion of his charge upon the set- tlements, and that he should visit the Agency in a very short time, notice of which should be seasonably served.
" The Governor at length set his time, the bands were all informed, the Governor arrived, and on the next day, at a specified hour, a grand council would be opened. Meanwhile, all the Indians, except the Iowa River Foxes, indisposed to come so far, had been gathering, and were encamped about the Agency, the Keokuk side covering the ground along the branch behind the mills, which was then full of plum, hazel and crab-apple thickets ; while the Hardfishes were along the edge of the river timber south of the Agency, and where the writer now lives (August, 1874). Long before the appointed hour, the Hardfish party, arrayed in full toggery, had all arrived, themselves and their ponies caparisoned in their richest styles of ornament; and, having gone through the equestrian performances usual on such occasions, had dismounted, secured their ponies, and, forming on foot, had marched into the Agency vard, where the Governor was to receive them, and where was quite a gathering of whites, and Hardfish with some of his leading men, having taken the Govern- or's hand and said a few words of courtesy, had sat down upon the grass.
"Now, it was a sacred duty with the Governor to cherish the memory of his dear and lately dead friend, Gen. Harrison. He had been Aide-de-camp to the General in the war of 1812, and rumor told that their mutual sentiments were more those of father and son than of simple friends. Keokuk had been apprised of this, and, as it proved, knew how to ' make it tell.' The appointed hour had been a long time passed, but as yet he made no sign of putting in an appearance, and at last the Governor began to grow impatient and to use some expressions approbatory of the Hardfish promptitude.
" At length the first faint sounds of Keokuk's music came floating through the thickers, which grew more audible as it neared, but never swelled up to the full tone of their more joyous notes ; and as the front of their procession wound slowly into view, their lances and staves, instead of being dceked in gaudy ribbons and feathers to flutter in the breeze, were wrapped round with wilted grass. No sound of bells responded to the tramp of their ponics ; and their own persons, instead of being painted in vermilion and dressed in bright colors, bore the usual funeral substitutes of clay and somber hues. In fact, all the-
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paraphernalia of woe betokened some sad affliction. The agent, after a hurried word with the interpreter, told the Governor that this was a funeral march, and that some one of their leading men must have died in the night, and lay prob- ably yet unburied in the camp. The Hardfishes seemed as much at a loss as anybody, wondering who could have died without their knowing it.
" The solemn dirge ceased, and, dismounting, the several hundred savages, forming on foot, with Keokuk leading, marched into the yard and toward the Governor, who advanced a step or two to meet him, when Keokuk, ordering a halt, signed the interpreter and said : 'Say to our new Father that before I take his hand I will explain to him what all this means. We were told not long ago that our Great Father was dead. We have heard of him as a great war- chief, who had passed much of his life among the red men and knew their wants, and we believed we would always have friendship and justice at his hands. His death has made us very sad. and, as this is our first opportunity, we thought it would be wrong if we did not use it to show that the hearts of his red children, as well as his white, know how to mourn over their great loss, and we have had to keep our father waiting while we performed that part of our mourning that we must always attend to before we leave our lodges with our dead.
" Then, amid the murmur of approbation from his people, he stepped forward and extended his hand. The hearty grasp with which the Governor seized and clung to it, showed he had touched the right spot, and the Hardfishes must be content, thereafter, to take a back seat. When, years after, the writer was enjoying a day of the Governor's hospitality at Maysville, Kv., and the incident coming up in conversation, the Governor was told that he must not credit Keokuk with the paternity of the entire 'plot,' but that his ingenuity was put into requisition only to manage the details, the kind old gentleman seemed greatly amused."
WAPELLO'S DEATH.
An editorial in the Ottumwa Courier of September 13, 1876, is here repro- duced, because of its permanent value as an authentic sketch :
" The old chief died at the forks of the Skunk River, March 15, 1842, and his remains were brought to the Indian Agency, near where Agency City is now located, in an ox-wagon, and buried toward evening of the same day, with the customary Indian ceremonies. At his own request, he was buried by the side of Gen. Street, in the garden of the Agency. Gen. Street had been an Indian Agent at Prairie du Chien and at Rock Island. He came to the Agency of the Sacs and Foxes here in April, 1838, by assignment of the Com- missioner of Indian Affairs, Judge Crawford, and died May 5, 1840. He was for many years in the Indian service, and, although always a strong Whig, he was yet a man of such experience and sterling integrity that he remained in office to the day of his death, in spite of his politics and the changes in adminis- tration. He was very popular with the Indians, and hence the desire of Wa- pello to be laid by the side of his honest pale-faced friend, which wish was grat- ified. Gen. Street left numerous children and grandchildren, none of whom reside here now.
" Keokuk, Appanoose and nearly all the leading men among the Indians, were present at Wapello's funeral. The dead chief was the successor of Black Hawk in rank. If Wapello's name is translated into English, we are unac- quainted with the fact. He was chief of the Foxes as well as of the confeder- ated tribes of Sacs and Foxes, composed of the bands of Keokuk, Appanoose, Hardfish, Poweshiek and his own. Poweshiek succeeded him as the senior
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chief of the confederated tribes, while Poweshiek's tribe-leadership fell to Pashe- shamore (Pa-she-sha-more), who, from all accounts, was a good sort of an Indian. He went to the Indian Territory with the Sacs and Foxes, where the remnants of this dejected race still subsist upon the bounty of the Govern- ment.
"Ere many more years are added to the pages of time, the last of these people will have gone to join the spirits of their ancestors in the "happy hunt- ing-ground," and will only be remembered in name. Within the last half cen- tury they have rapidly diminished in numbers, and from a once aggressively brave and warlike tribe, they have fallen into sheerest dejection. There is left but little semblance of the spirit of Black Hawk's time and generation. Pas- sionless and dejected, like most of the remnants of the other tribes that have been congregated in the Indian Territory, they have become hopelessly indiffer- ent, and seem to be calmly awaiting the coming of that fate which will remove every vestige of the once proud tribe of which they are the only remaining rep- resentatives.
THE FIRST WHITE SETTLERS.
THE BLACK HAWK PURCHASE.
On the 21st day of September, 1832, Gen. Winfield Scott concluded a treaty with the confederate tribes of the Sauk and Fox Indians, by which the Indian title was extinguished to that portion of Iowa known as the Black Hawk Pur- chase. "This," said Hon. C. C. Nourse, in his State Address, delivered at the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia, Thursday, September 7, 1876, " was a strip of land on the west bank of the Mississippi River, the western boundary of which commenced at the southeast corner of the present county of Davis ; thence to a point on Cedar River, near the northeast corner of Johnson County ; thence northwest to the neutral grounds of the Winnebagoes; thence to the Mississippi to a point above Prairie du Chien, and contained about six million acres of land. By the terms of this treaty, the Indians were to occupy this land until June 1, 1833."
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