USA > Iowa > Lee County > The history of Lee county, Iowa, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, &c. > Part 42
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" At the time that the Sacs and Foxes were prevailed upon to consent to the expenditure of a portion of the proceeds of their lands, with a view to the introduction among them of all this new machinery of mills, farms and the like, they had not the slightest ground for apprehending that so much of their sub-
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sistence as depended upon their favorite occupation of the chase could diminish in a long time to come ; and their annual cash receipts from the United States were large in their eyes. Under such conditions, not the least motive existed to induce them to labor ; while the design of the farm was to serve as a model, an exemplar, where they could come and look on, and learn to work by obser- - vation, by such practice as they might be willing to attempt, and by the instruc- tions of the skilled farmer and hands employed. The expenses of maintaining, as well as of the original establishment of the farm, were taken from their annuities, from the consideration allowed them for the lands they had sold. And the chief benefit that ever accrued to them was, that parties coming in from a distance to get work done by their black and gun smith could some- times, in bad weather, depend on it for shelter while detained, as well as for pro- visions. And, even here, the farmer was always liable to be imposed upon by the worthless vagabonds of the tribes, who would make it a pretext for indulging their laziness ; and it was also the source of jealousy and discord among the bands if the slightest charge could be established that one had received the least benefit more than another, requiring constant caution and delicate management to prevent.
" Indeed, the writer never considered these schemes to be anything in fact, although not in intent, but barefaced plunder of the Indians. Since that time, they have doubtless increased in number and in kind, so as to embrace every object out of which a 'job' can be got ; and the only chance of justice to the Indian is in their utter expulsion, and the restoration of the entire Indian service to the War Department, where alone it properly and reasonably be- longs, where for years it was conducted to the general welfare and contentment of the Indians, and where, if restored to it, remedies could soon be devised to abate the countless perfidies and iniquities against the savages, to which its first removal paved the way. The powerful interests that have already once or twice defeated measures undertaken in Congress for this object, and rendered of no avail the most convincing arguments in its favor of those least liable to suspicion of personal interest, are proof enough that the simple welfare of the Indian is not the sole incentive, and also justify the apprehension that venality may not be an unwelcome guest in the patriotic breast of a Congress- man.
" The treaty of 1837 having been ratified by the Senate, Gen. Street took early measures, in 1838, to establish the agency within the boundaries, and as conveniently as possible to `the village of the Sacs and Foxes, and at once entered into contract with a gentleman, whose name the writer has forgotten, but who lived not far below Clarksville, in Missouri, to put up the requisite buildings for his family residence and office, the smiths' shops, etc. The great length of Gen. Street's service in the Indian Department, and the high consid- eration, both officially and personally, in which he was held, caused the Depart- ment to be more liberal toward him in the sums allowed for these objects than perhaps otherwise it would have been ; for, beside consenting to a house quite substantial and of convenient size, they allowed him, also, a sum sufficient to pay for the breaking-up and inclosing of a large field, with quite convenient stables and other buildings attached to the domicile. The contractor was a responsible person, of considerable means, and, when he undertook business, was disposed to push it through without delay or vexatious annoyances ; and so, starting from his home with teams, some of his negroes and an ample force of hired mechanics and laborers, he soon had a large company at work upon the ground.
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" The writer came out for a couple of days in August, 1838. The old Council-house, intended for a place wherein to hold talks with the Indians, was already completed, being the first building put up, with a view to using it as a shelter for the provisions and other perishable stores. Many of the timbers for the Agency-house were upon the ground, and being continually hauled there, ready hewn. Two heavy breaking teams were at work upon the future field, and wagons hauling on the rails, and the ring of the blacksmith's hammer being quite steadily maintained, quite a business air was imparted to the new settlement. As the party of four, of whom the writer was one, rode in, about 11 o'clock, hot and tired with the saddle, from beyond Birmingham, without an intervening house, the hospitable-looking camp of tents and board sheds, close to the Council-house, the blazing fire, over which two or three female Africans were busy at the steaming coffee, bacon, biscuits and divers vegetables of the season, excited in his mind an impression of the new agency, the satisfactory contentment of which has never to this day worn off.
" Mr. Richard Kerr was one of this party. He had just been appointed Farmer to the Indians, and arranging with Gen. Street to meet in Burlington, the object of the trip out was to select a suitable location for the Pattern Farm, and to receive his preliminary instructions for commencing operations. The place was selected, and Mr. Kerr set about employing laborers, who were paid, as well as himself, out of the appropriation set apart for agricultural purposes. Mr. Kerr's pay was $50 per month, and his wife received $20 per month as Matron, which, with the free use of whatever was raised, made it a very com- fortable position. Their house, the one now occupied by Mr. Van Zant, was not long in making its appearance. Mr. Kerr understood the art of farming in all its minutiæ, and the Pattern, once under way, was always kept in the best of order and made productive.
" At the Agency, bricks, lime and whatever could be manufactured on the premises were ready by the time needed, and by winter the contract was about completed and the buildings ready for occupancy. In April, 1839, Gen. Street moved down his family from Prairie du Chien, and took possession. Erelong his health began to fail, and the result was a combination of obstinate maladies under which he succumbed early in May of the next year. For several months, he had been totally incapable of attending to his duties, and the De- partment had consented that any of his sons or sons-in-law of age might dis- charge them for him-of course his bond being held responsible. He had been out to ride with his brother-in-law, Dr. Posey, of Shawneetown, Ill., who had been professionally caring for him during several weeks. Alighting from the carriage, he had stepped quite firmly across the stile and yard and seated him- self within the door and bade a servant to bring a glass of cold water. As the boy stood presenting it, he sat motionless in the chair. Mrs. Street was there in an instant from an adjoining room, and called to her brother, the Doctor, who had passed up stairs. It was the delay of hardly a minute, but no flow of blood responded to the Doctor's lancet. He had died in his chair.
" The Indians were greatly attached to their 'Father,' as they usually term their Agent, and word of the General's sudden demise reaching the villages, opposite Ottumwa, numbers of them came immediately to the Agency. Wapello and his band, especially, were so demonstrative in their grief as to augment the distress of Mrs. Street and the writer's wife-who had been some weeks in attendance upon her father-and younger members of the family to the extent that it became necessary to have the interpreter kindly explain it to them, and beg them to give expression to their sorrow at some point more remote from the house.
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"The writer who was then living in Dubuque, hastened to Washington as soon as the sad news reached him, the hope being to save the family their home. in which they were now comfortably established, and of which the succession of a stranger to the office would have deprived them. When he arrived there-by a then unusually quick journey of twelve days-he found his nomination already awaiting the action of the Senate, and in a day or two more, obtaining his com- mission, he came direct to the Agency. At the time of his arrival, about June- 1, 1840, the Agency, with its dependencies, was about as follows: In the Agency-house was Mrs. Street and the nine youngest of her children, of whom William B. Street, of Oskaloosa, was the senior. Just over the branch, in rear of the Agency, was Josiah A. Smart, the interpreter, one of God's noblemen, who combined in his character every brave, honest and generous sentiment that can adorn a man ; and within a few steps of his residence was that of the black- smith, Charles H. Withington. There was also Harvey Sturdevant, the gun- smith ; but, being unmarried, he boarded with Withington, until, a year or so later, he put himself up a cabin, where the writer now lives, August, 1874, and dug that famous old well. As distance (from the rest of us) did not lend enchantment to the view of his bachelorhood, he soon switched on to the matri- monial track. Then there was the household of the Pattern Farm, some half- dozen in number, except in extra times, such as harvesting. This was the actual Agency settlement. On the Des Moines, a mile or so below the County Farm, where the bluff approaches nearest to the bank, was the trading-post of P. Chou- teau, Sr., & Co., but later more familiarly known as the ' Old Garrison.' This was usually superintended by Capt. William Phelps. And just above the mouth of Sugar Creek, on the creek bank, at the old road crossing, lived the miller, Jeremiah Smith, Jr., with his family. This embraced all the whites lawfully living in the country at the time.
" Through some unfortunate misunderstanding in regard to the boundary line, several persons had intruded upon the Indian land upon the Iowaville bottom and the ridges in the rear, as well as upon the south side of the river ; and as the Indians made complaint to the Government, it had no alterna- tive but to remove them. This duty fell upon the writer to execute, and was a very unwelcome one, if only for the reason that several of the intruders were. persons who would not willingly have violated any law. Among them was that fine old specimen of West Virginia hospitality, Van Caldwell; but by reason of his location, and his readiness by any reasonable arrangement to escape the terrors of fire and sword, the writer obtained permission from the Department that he should remain, upon the condition of his maintaining a ferry for access to Soap Creek Mills during high water.
" At the time of Gen. Street's decease, the Indians were occupying their country with their permanent or spring and summer villages, located as fol- lows : Upon the bank of the Des Moines, opposite the mouth of Sugar Creek, where there is quite a spacious bottom, extending for a mile or more below, where the bluff closes in pretty closely upon the bank, and for a much longer distance in the up-river direction, toward and past Ottumwa, was the village of Keokuk ; and, still above, were those of Wapello, Foxes and Appanoose, a Sac chief. According to the writer's present memory, that of Wapello was the intermediate one. Keokuk himself, had selected a pleasant, commanding, and picturesque point for his own summer wigwam, some half-way up the side of the bluff, in the rear of his village, where, with his own little field of corn and beans, despite the arge field of Uncle Sam just beneath him, he enjoyed the otium cum dignitate of his authority and rank during the hot weather.
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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY.
" His wigwam was a very conspicuous object to a traveler along the road that crests the bluff and winds down the long hill to Sugar Creek on this side. From his elevated position, where, like another Robinson Crusoe in the boys' story-books, he could contemplate himself as 'monarch of all he sur- veyed,' he had a fine view of the three villages spread beneath him, as well as of the bluffs and bottoms for a considerable distance up and down the river on this side. Several of the lodges in every town had their own small patches of cultivated ground in the neighborhood of their villages ; but the hillside, now covered by Ottumwa, seemed to offer them more attractive spots for this purpose, probably because the soil was more easily worked, and situated more favorably for the influence of the sun, than upon their side of the river. A light, easily- turned soil was, of course, an object to the poor squaws, upon whom devolved the duty of working it with their hoes, and of inserting the rickety posts that with light poles bound to them, made the fence, not exceeding four feet in height, but, in general, very respectfully treated by the ponies, the only animal liable to intrude injuriously upon their fields.
" The whole hillside, on its lower slope (for they seldom cultivated it more than half-way up), was occupied in this way by the Indians, for some distance below the depot fully up to or above the Court House ; often the writer, on the receipt of some instructions requiring a ' talk' with the leading men, in order to save time, and to the Indians the trouble of a ride to Agency, has appointed some shady spot in one of these patches.
" The Indians seldom occupied their permanent villages, except during the time of planting or securing their crop, after which they would start out on a short hunt, if the annuity-which was generally paid within the six weeks from the 1st of September-had not yet been received. Immediately after payment, it was their custom to leave the village for the winter, hunting through this season by families and small parties, leading the regular nomad life, changing their location from time to time, as the supply of game and the need-so essential to their comfort-of seeking places near to timbered streams best protected from the rigors of weather, would require.
" Hardfish's band of Sacs was composed mainly of those who had been the leading parties in the Black Hawk war, and who had been, by degrees, freeing themselves from the restraint imposed upon them by the treaty, demanding their dispersion among the friendly villages. But, as all unfriendly feeling had now subsided, and they were now disposed to conduct themselves with the utmost good-will in all their intercourse with the Government ; and as, more- over, the Department, with a view to an early effort to acquire possession of their remaining lands in Iowa, deemed it most conducive to success in that object to pursue toward them a policy apparently oblivious of former strife, the writer was instructed, so long as there was no reason to apprehend unfriendly designs, to ignore these requirementsof the treaty, and to avoid all cause for re-awaken- ing former strife.
" For some years previously to the writer's appointment as Agent, Messrs. P. Chouteau, Jr., & Co., of St. Louis, had been the only traders among the Sacs and Foxes, and the magnitude of their interests was enough to excite any rivalry. Col. George Davenport, of Rock Island, had been admitted as part- ner to their trade with that particular tribe, and he was looked to to reside among them and to carry it on. S. S. Phelps, Esq., of Oquawka, in connection with his brother, Capt. William Phelps, of jovial memory, had been gaining a foot-hold on trade for two, three, and perhaps, four years before the treaties of 1836 and 1837, and after the removal of the Agency from the island, and its
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consequent effect of rendering a change in the location of the chief trading-post inevitable, Col. Davenport, who had already acquired a comfortable fortune, concluded to withdraw. Mr. S. S. Phelps fell into the position thus made vacant in the company, although he relied upon his brother to reside in the Indian country, and maintain personal oversight of the company's affairs. A + new trader now appeared in the field, with at least means enough to prevent the old company from being monopolists. Of course rivalry of feeling and interest would now spring up, and every occasion be employed by each rival to gain and secure what advantage he could. The writer is not intimating any idea of his own that any unfair or dishonorable appliances would be used by the gentlemen heads respectively of the rival establishments : but the employes or others, hoping advantage to themselves in the success of either party, might be less scrupulous.
" It was probably through some such strategy that Gov. Lucas became impressed with the most sincere conviction that the Chouteau Company sup- plied whisky, with their other merchandise, to the Indians, and a conviction once fixed with the Governor was pretty apt to stay. So persuaded was he of the truth of his belief, that he was never disposed to the least reticence upon the subject ; and it was generally believed in Burlington that if the Trading Com- pany could be caught, flagrante delicto, it would prove a pretty good haul for the catcher-certainly not less than the transfer to his own pocket of the half value of a large stock of goods.
" As the writer soon saw that any effort of his own, however reasonable, to lead the Governor to a different opinion was opening the way to suspicions against himself of some personal interest in the company's affairs, prudence naturally admonished him to desist. One morning, Mr. S. S. Phelps, to whom the Governor's belief-and propensity to express it-was no secret, being in Burlington, stepped in a place where the Governor happened at that moment to be engaged in his favorite pastime of denouncing Mr. Chouteau's establish- ment, etc., and the Governor, totally unacquainted with Mr. Phelps, still kept up in his presence his conversation on the subject.
" Now, if there was anything Capt. Billy Phelps loved better than another, it was to play off a trick ; or if anything he knew better than another, it was how to plan and play it. The company had on its license a man named Simp- son Vassar, who was better known at the Agency and its various dependencies under the sobriquet of 'Suggs.' When any deviltry lurked in Capt. Billy's mind, ' Capt. Suggs ' was his most reliable assistant in getting rid of it. So a scheme was planned. Suggs was sent over on pretext of some message to Phelps at Oquawka, with instructions not to leave Burlington until he had exe- cuted his part of the programme.
" A person, who was either the City Marshal, or attached to his official ret- inue, soon heard of Suggs in Burlington, and became so ambitious of his acquaintance as to introduce himself without delay. He learned from Suggs that the latter lived out in the Agency neighborhood ; that he knew the Trading Company-in fact, sometimes worked for them when an extra force was needed; clever people ; good paymasters, with the cash always in hand; knew nothing of their dealings in whisky ; had never seen them supply it to the Indians ; and, even if he had, as he had heard they were accused of it, a dollar, when needed, was not so easily made out there that a man could afford to make enemies out of good-paying employers ! After several interviews, Suggs embarked upon the ferry-boat. But his newly-made friend was not long in joining him, and during the crossing, Suggs yielded to the potent arguments and promises that had
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already shaken his sense of personal honor and interest. He admitted that he had seen a large lot of kegs. and these not empty, landed by night at the trading-house from a boat not long before, and immediately buried upon the bank. where most of them were: and if he could be guaranteed against suspi- cion as the informer, and terms arranged to suit-as he expected to remain about the place some time after his return-he would put his friend upon the right- track. The boat having landed them, and all details being adjusted, each party went on his way rejoicing-Suggs' way being to Oquawka, and at once back to the trading-post to report to Capt. Phelps.
Not many days later, an hour or so before dinner-time. Col Jesse Williams -later of Henn, Williams & Co., of Fairfield, but then Private Secretary to Gov. Lucas-rode up to the Agency. Being, doubtless, himself disposed (as indeed the Agency hospitality would suggest) to consider that an expedition which would demand a three-miles ride and several hours of time could be more satisfactorily completed as a post-prandial duty, he made no mention of his bus- iness. But as soon as the meal was over. he handed to the Agent a package from the Governor, containing a deposition in full form, taken before Judge Mason, of the Territorial Supreme Court, by Suggs' Burlington friend, to the effect that so many kegs of whisky, etc., etc., and were then secreted. etc .. etc., in violation of the statute, etc .. by the said P. Chouteau Jr.'s Company, traders, etc .. as aforesaid. And there was also a line to the Agent that, in the execution of so delicate a duty, which must involve judicial process, he had deemed it best to send out Col. Williams to assist the Agent. Whatever the motive may have been, it is certain that, until both were in their saddles. Col. Williams proved himself able to watch the Agent with untiring eye.
Reaching the trading-house, the person who took the deposition and a companion were found there waiting. they having . forked-off' by another trail so as not to be seen. Suggs was on hand, having taken the opportunity to post the Burlingtonians about the locality. And also Capt. Billy Phelps, called by the Indians Che-che-pe-qua, or the . Winking Eyes,' was there, those visuals fairly gleaming with joy over the anticipated fun.
"The Agent proceeded at once to business, expressing to Capt. Phelps his regret that so unpleasant a duty should have devolved upon him : his hope that it would prove that so serious a complaint had originated in some error, but suggesting that, if true, admission of the fact and production of the contraband article would be more apt to temper subsequent proceedings with leniency than efforts to conceal it would do. The Captain vehemently denied the impeach- ment, stating that it would require a much wiser man than himself to discover where such an article then was, or ever had been, kept upon their premises. The complainant was now appealed to, who led the party a short distance to a spot where, with a triumphant air, he pointed to an X that the edge of Suggs' boot sole had made in the sandy bank.
" They began digging, and soon reached some matting that was removed. and thus uncovered a lot of lard kegs, too greasy to suggest a thought of any other article being contained in them. The immediate sold. by thunder !' of one of the moiety gentlemen came in accents too Ingubrious to be listened to without exciting a sense of sadness. Suggs, meanwhile, had come up missing. and the . Winking Eyes' walked off with a most disdainful air, leaving the Agent and his party on the spot. whence they soon returned to the Agency. where the Agent made his report that the informant had pointed out a place where, by digging, a large quantity of lard in kegs was found that had been buried to avoid loss by heat, and in the night to conceal the fact from vagabond
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whites and Indians. The disappointed informer and his companion hastened homeward, but Col. Williams remained until next morning, and then returned bearing the Agent's report.
" But the unkindest cut of all was six months later, when, about the last of February, Capt. Phelps addressed a letter to Gov. Lucas in the most respectful and official form, saying, that having heard he had declared his determination not to continue in office under such an old Tory as Gen. Harrison, and fearful that whoever his successor would be, he might not feel so friendly toward the company as he had proved in the matter of exhuming their lard, and as they would soon be much in need of some, and the ground was then very hard frozen, the company would be under great obligations if he would at once send some one out to dig up the rest of it.
" The village of Hardfish-or Wishecomaque, as it is in the Indian tongue -- which was quite as respectable in size as any of the old villages, was located in what is now the heart of Eddyville, named for J. P. Eddy, a trader, who was licensed in the summer of 1840, by the writer, to establish his trading- post at that place. He continued to trade there until the treaty of final cession in 1842, and was the most fortunate of any of the large traders in finding his schedule of claims against the Indians very little reduced by the Commissioners, whose part it was, at that treaty, to adjust all outstanding claims against the Saes and Foxes.
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