USA > Iowa > Lee County > The history of Lee county, Iowa, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, &c. > Part 49
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These boundaries included all the territory now included in the States of Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota, and all that part of Dakota Territory lying on the east side of the Missouri River, and also that part of that Territory on the west of the Missouri River and north of the White-earth River to the British Possessions.
The act, under which Wisconsin Territory was organized, was approved by President Jackson, who appointed Henry Dodge,* of Missouri, to be Governor of the new dependency. Soon after entering upon the duties of the position, Gov. Dodge ordered a census of the new Territory to be taken, and the population of the two counties on the west side of the Mississippi River, Dubuque and Des Miones, aggregated 10,531. An election (by proclamation) was ordered to be held on the first Monday in October, 1836, for members of the Territo- rial Legislature. This assembly of territorial Solons and law-makers convened at Belmont, in the present State of Wisconsin, on the 25th day of the same month.
* Gov. Dodge was born in Vincennes, Ind., and emigrated to Cape Girardeau County, Mo., when quite young.
414
HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY.
The second act of the first session of the Wisconsin Territorial Legislature. was entitled " An act to establish the Judicial Districts of the Territory, and for other purposes." Section 1 of this act provided that the counties of Craw- ford and lowa (Wisconsin, should constitute the First Judicial District: that the counties of Dubuque and Des Moines should constitute the Second Judicial District, and that the counties of Brown and Milwaukee (Wisconsin) should constitute the Third Judicial District.
Section 2 assigned Charles Dunn, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Territory of Wisconsin, to the First District : David Irvin, Associate Juis- tice of said Court, to the Second District, and William C. Fraser. Associate Justice, etc .. to the Third District.
Act No. 4. was entitled " An act to amend an act entitled an act to provide for the appointment of Sheriff's, and to define their duties and powers." passed by the Legislative Council of the Territory of Michigan, on the 28d day of April. 1883, which required the bonds of said Sheriff to be approved by two JJudges of the County or Circuit Court of the proper county, was repealed, and so amended as to allow the bonds of the Sheriff's of the several counties to be approved by the Judge of the District Court of the proper county, or by any two Justices of the Peace of the same county. in the same manner as the said Judges of the County or Circuit Court might have done.
Act number six, approved November 17. 1886, authorized the Judges of the several judicial districts to appoint a clerk of each court of their respective dis- triets previous to holding the first term of each court, who should hold their offices until the first term of the court for which they should be appointed, and until their successors were appointed and qualified.
The twenty-first act, approved December 7, 1886, was entitled. " An act dividing the county of Des Moines into several new counties." Section 1 of this act defined the boundaries of Lee County in the words following :
Be it enacted by the Council and House of Representatives of the Territory of Himvasin. That the country included within the following limits, to wit : Beginning at the mest southern outlet of Skunk River, on the Mississippi : thence in a northern direction, passing through the grove on the head of the Northern Branch of Lost Creek ; and thence to a point corresponding with the range line dividing Banges Seven and Fight : and thence south with said line to the Des Moines River : thence down the middle of the same to the Mississippi : and thence up the Mississippi to the place of beginning. be, and the same is hereby, set off' into a separate county. by the name of lee .*
Section & provided that the District Court should " be held at the town of Madison, in the county of Lee on the last Monday in March and on the last Monday in August in each year ; in the town of Farmington, in the county of Van Buren, on the second Monday in April and the Second Monday in Sep- tember of each year."
Cook County was attached to Musquitine for judicial purposes.
Stc. 11. This act to be in force from and after its passage, and until the end of the next annual session of the Legislative Assembly, and no longer. P. H. ENGLE.
Speaker of the House of Representatives.
HENNY S. BAIRD. President of the Conseil.
Approved December 7, 1887.
H. PODGE.
The origin of the name of Lee County is a subject of controversy. In a letter to the editor of Annals of Iowa, dated October 16. 1868. Julius A. Reed says Dr. Galland told him that when Lee County was formed it was proposed to call it after him : but he objected, and proposed it be called Lee. after Ice. of the New York Land Company, and it was adopted. Others claim it was
* Van Buren, Des Moines Henry, Louis, Magnusve, and Cook (now Scuff) were created under the same Net.
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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY.
named after Gen. R. E. Lee, of Coufederate notoriety, who surveyed the Des Moines Rapids, in 1834. He has been written to on the subject, but has no knowledge of such claim being founded on fact.
Gen. Albert Lea, after whom the town of Albert Lea, Minn., was named, now living at Corsicana, Texas, and who was in the Confederate Army, has written a letter since this work was commenced, in which he claims that the county was named for him. He says he was present at the Legislature when the bill was passed under which the county was organized, and that the name was spelled Lea in the original bill, and that the orthography was changed (accidentally) by the clerks in copying, cte. He suggested, in his letter on the subject, which was addressed to Judge Miller, of the United States Supreme Bench, that measures be taken to restore the orthography. The claim of Gen. Len, however, is disputed by such eminently well, informed gentlemen as Gen. Dodge, Judge Johnstone and Hon. D. F. Miller, so that the question as to the origin of the name is still unsettled.
It is almost impossible to trace the boundary lines of Lee County as defined in the organic act. Old settlers say the " Grove on the north branch of Lost Creek " must have been the one in the neighborhood where the corners of Den- mark, Washington, West Point and Pleasant Ridge Townships are joined. A continuation of the line in the same direction would strike the range line between Ranges 7 and 8 very nearly at the present northwest corner of the county, and from thenee it went due south on the present west line of the county, to the Des Moines River.
The act, however, was only to remain in force until the end of the next annual session of the Legislative Assembly, and no longer.
Aet number sixty-seven of the Second Session of the Wisconsin Territorial Legislature re-established the boundary lines as follows :
Beginning at the main channel of the Mississippi River, due east from the entrance of Skunk River into the same ; thenee up snid river, to where the township line, dividing Townships Sixty-eight and Sixty-nine, north, leaves said river ; thenee with said line, to the range line between Ranges Four and Five, west : thence north with said line to the township line, between Townships Sixty-nine and Seventy, north ; thence west with said line, to the range line between Ranges Seven and Eight west ; thence sonth with said line, to the Des Moines River ; thence down said river, to the middle of the main channel of the Mississippi River; thence up the same to the place of beginning.
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The same act established the seat of justice at Fort Madison.
By this act all of what is now Denmark Township and a small portion of Green Bay, were left attached to Des Moines County, and the wedge-shaped fractional township lying north of Skunk River and south of what is now Henry County, was made a part of Lee County. By an act passed at the first session of the Iowa Territorial Legislature, and approved January 23, 1839, the boundaries of Lee County, as they now exist, were established.
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.
BOUNDARIES.
Lee County is situated in the southeast corner of the State, and occupies that portion of the territory lying immediately between the Mississippi and Des Moines Rivers, and is bounded on the east by the Mississippi, on the north by Skunk River and Henry County, on the west by Van Buren County, and on the south by the Des Moines River.
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416
HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY.
1
It has an area of about five hundred square miles of surface, which is nearly equally divided between prairie and timber, and is well watered. In addition to the great water-courses, which nearly bound it on three sides, there are three principal ereeks, with numerous small branches.
Des Moines Sugar Creek finds its principal sources in Section 27. Cedar Township, and Section 7. Harrison Township. It flows in a southeasterly course and discharges its waters into the Des Moines River from fractional Sec- tion 24. Jackson Township. Its largest tributary rises in Section 9. Des Moines Township, and unites with the main creek on Section 6. Jackson Township. The name is derived from sugar-maple trees that grow along its course.
Sugar Creek finds its main sources just across the line in Henry County. These branches enter Lee County in Sections 2 and 6, and unite on Section 26. Marion Township. The principal western tributary rises in Section 18. Cedar Township, and unites with the main creek at the northeast corner of Section 11. Franklin Township. A smaller western tributary, called Painter Creek, rises in the southwest corner of Section 2, Charleston Township, flows southeast to the northern part of Sections 19 and 20. Jefferson Township, and there turns northeast and unites with the main channel in Section 16. Jefferson Township. Below the mouth of Painter Creek. this stream is called Devil Creek, from the Indian name Che-wa-lis-ki Man-i-tou Se-po, which, being interpreted, means Evil Spirit River. Devil Creek joins the Mississippi at the southeast corner of Section 23. Jefferson Township. Sugar Creek comes from the sugar-maple trees that grow along its banks. A small, eastern tributary rises in Section 30. Pleasant Ridge Township, flows southwest and unites with Sugar Creek, on Section 2. Franklin Township. A second one rises in Section 34. Pleasant Ridge Township, and joins Sugar Creek on Section 29, West Point Township. The only eastern tributary of Devil Creek is formed by two creeks that unite in Section 10, Jefferson Township, from whence they empty into Devil Creek at the southeastern corner of Section 15. Jefferson Township. The largest of these creeks rises in Section 6, Washington Township. The smaller, or east- ern one, is formed by two branches that rise in Sections 17 and 18. Washing- ton Township, and unite in Section 10, in Jefferson Township.
Price's Creek is a small water-course, only two or three miles in length. It rises at Summitville, on Section 33. in Montrose Township, and joins the Mississippi on Section 18, Jackson Township.
Lemoliese or Sandusky Creek, at the mouth of which it is believed Marquette and Joliett landed from their canoes on the 21st day of June. 1678. and thence went across to the Des Moines River, rises in Section 27. Montrose Township. and joins the Mississippi on Section 1. Jackson Township.
A small stream rises in Section 36. Charleston Township, and joins the Mississippi at the upper corner of the village of Montrose.
French Creek rises in Section 20. Washington Township, flows south and unites with the Mississippi River at the southwest corner of Fort Madison.
Penitentiary Creek rises in Section 14. Washington Township, flows south and empties into the Mississippi at the upper end of Fort Madison.
Lost Creek rises in the center of the southern part of Section 20. Pleasant Ridge Township, flows southeast to the southeast quarter of Section 8, not far from Jollyville. Green Bay Township, where it was originally lost, by spread- ing all over the prairie, and hence its name. A few years ago, the township cut a channel. or ditch, and threw up an embankment on either side, from Section S to the upper end of Green Bay, by which a good deal of land was reclaimed . and made susceptible of the highest stages of cultivation. In wet seasons, a
417
HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY.
tremendous current flows down Lost Creek, which, in its mad fury, carries for- ward everything that comes in the course of its floods. The railroad has often suffered serious damage from the force of its current.
Mud Creek, a tributary of Lost Creek, rises in Section 16, Washington Township, flows southeast and joins the main channel in Section 24 of the" same township.
Cedar Creek, a small water-course, rises just across the line in Van Buren County, flows east, through Sections 7 and 8, to the west part of Section 9; thence turns due north and leaves Lee County from the northeast corner of Section 4, and empties into Skunk River, in Henry County.
The Des Moines River heads in Southwestern Minnesota.
Origin of the name Des Moines .- In Nicollet's "Report of the Upper Mis- sissippi River," made to Congress February 16, 1841, and published in 1843, he gives the following account of the origin of the name of the Des Moines River :
" The Des Moines is one of the most beautiful and important tributaries of the Mississippi, north of the Missouri; and the metamorphosis which its name has undergone from its original appellation is curious enough to be recorded.
" We are informed that Father Marquette and M. Joliett, during their voy- age in search of the Mississippi, having reached the distance of sixty leagues below the mouth of the Wisconsin, observed the footprints of men on the right side of the great river, which served as a guide to those two celebrated explorers to the discovery of an Indian trail, or path, leading to an extensive prairie, and which they determined to follow. Having proceeded about two leagues, they first saw one village on the bank of the river, and then two others upon the slope, half a league from the first. The travelers, having halted within hailing distance, were met by the Indians, who offered them their hospitalities, and represented themselves as belong to the Illinois nation.
" The name which they gave their settlement was Moningouinas (or Moingona, as laid down in the ancient maps of the country), and is a cor- ruption of the Algonquin word, Mikouang, signifying at the road, by their customary elliptical manner of designating localities, alluding, in this instance, to the well-known road in this section of the country, which they used to follow as a communication between the head of the lower rapids and their settlement on the river which empties itself into the Mississippi, to avoid the rapids; and this is still the practice of the present inhabitants of the country.
"Now, after the French had established themselves on the Mississippi, they adopted this name; but with their custom (to this day also that of the Creoles) of only pronouncing the first syllable, and applying it to the river as well as to the Indians who dwelt upon it-so they would say, ' la riviere des Moines' (the river of the Moines) : 'allez chez les Moines' (to go to the Moines people). But, in latter times, the inhabitants associated this name with that of the Trap- pist Monks (Moines de la Trappe), who resided with the Indians of the Ameri- can Bottom.
" It was then concluded that the true reading of the riviere des Moines was the 'riviere des Moines,' or river of Monks, by which name it is designated on all the modern maps. The Sioux, or Ndakotah Indians, call the Des Moines Inyan-sha-sha-watpa, or Redstone River, from inyan, stone ; sha-sha, redupli- cation of sha, red ; and watpa, river. They call the upper east fork Inyan- sha-sha-watpa-sunkaku, the Brother of the Redstone River."
418
HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY.
Skunk River heads in Hamilton County, Iowa, and flows through Story, Polk. Jasper, Marion, Mahaska. Keokuk. Washington, touches Jefferson, then through Henry. and divides Lee and Des Moines.
Origin of the name .- The name comes from the Sac and Fox Indian word, Che-qua-que, which means skunk. The adoption of the English translation, skunk. does not evince any great poetical taste. but the pride of the dwellers along its course is somewhat gratified when they call to mind the fact that the great commercial emporium of the West derives its name from no better source. Chi-ca-go and Che-qua-que are slightly different pronunciations of an Indian word that means the same thing-skunk or bad-smelling.
Surface and Soil .- The prairie lands in Lee County have a rolling or undu- lating surface, and are covered by a rich. black loamy soil from one to four feet in depth, that is unsurpassed in fertility by any territory of equal extent in the State.
Timber .- The timber on the upland consists of black, white and red oak, linden, hickory and cherry. Black and white walnut, ash, hackberry, buck- eve. sugar and white maple, cottonwood. sycamore, honey locust and elm, are found in the bottoms. The sugar maple was utilized by the Indians. When. the sugar-making season came, some of them, at least, erected camps in the maple forests, tapped the trees, caught the sap and made sugar. When William Skinner first moved out on Sugar Creek in December, 1884, he lived in Black Hawk's sugar-making camp until he built his cabin.
GEOLOGY. [From the Official Report of James Hall, 1858.]
The following section exhibits the different geological formations exposed in Lee County, with their true stratigraphical position ; and are noted in the order in which they occur, beginning with the upper :
Alluvium.
Drift or bowlder formation 50-185 feet.
Coal-measures .. 2 30 feet.
Shale and sandstone with coal seam. 1
40 feet.
Concretionary limestone.
| Arenaceous limestone.
10 feet.
Marly clays and impure limestones with Fenestella ( Archimedes). 20 feet.
Magnesian limestone. 12 feet.
Geode bed .. 45 feet.
25 feet.
Cherty limestone. 40 feet.
Burlington crinoidal limestone. So feet.
Chemung gritstones and Colitie limestone.
20 feet.
Keokuk limestone
The term alluvium is made to include those deposits that have been formed since the present order of things, and which do not contain the remains of extinct species of animals or plants in a fossil state. This includes the soil and subsoil of the uplands, and the deposits along the creeks and rivers termed " bottoms," and consequently forms the surface everywhere except where it may have been removed by the action of water. Nearly the whole of Green Bay Township, in the northeast corner of the county, is composed of alluvial bottom lands, and is by far the most valuable deposit of this kind in the county. This bottom was once subject to overflow at periods of high water; but by a judicious system of leveling, it is now secured from inundation. except in seasons of extraordinary flood : and in point of fertility, it is hardly excelled by the far- famed bottom lands of the Miami.
419
HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY.
There are no lands in Lee County, or, perhaps, in the State of Iowa, capa- ble of producing as great an amount of human food to the acre as those of the Green Bay bottoms. The inhabitants were formerly subject to periodical attacks of chill and fever; but, since the surface has been generally brought under cultivation, and swampy portions cleared out and properly drained, they have enjoyed as good health generally as those living on the high lands adjacent. Between Fort Madison and Montrose, there is a belt of what may be termed high bottoms, or terrace lands, from three to four miles in width, which seem to belong to an older period than those just described, and consisting of beds of sand and gravel, the surface of which is from twenty to thirty feet above the present high-water level of the river, and yet bear strong marks of having been deposited by river-floods when the bed of the Mississippi was at a considera- bly higher level than it occupies at present. As an evidence that the river along the rapids once occupied a much higher level, we have the fact that a band of Uniones (river mussels) extends on both sides of the river, at an eleva- tion of from fifteen to twenty feet above the present high-water mark, nearly the whole distance from Nauvoo to Keokuk. Just below the Mansion House in Nauvoo, this mussel band is twenty-five feet, by measurement, above the ordinary water-level of the river. This band consists of water-worn shells, of the same species with those now living in the river, in many places from twelve to eighteen inches thick ; the shells worn perfectly white, and having the appearance of a white belt drawn along either shore. I know of no way to account for this shell band along the rapids, except in the supposition that it marks what was once the low-water level of the Mississippi River.
Some of the ridges on this high bottom are covered with sand, and destitute of soil ; but the greater portion is well adapted to the growth of corn, from the great amount of siliceous material contained in the soil.
DRIFT OR BOWLDER FORMATION.
This deposit covers all the high lands in the county, and varies in thick- ness from fifty to one hundred and eighty-five feet. It is mostly composed of clay and gravel, with occasional beds of sand, and is deposited without much regularity of stratification, and contains many worn and rounded masses of granite, gneiss, porphyry, hornblende and other primary rocks, together with limestone, sandstone, bits of coal and slate, all of which have been transported from points more or less remote from their present locality. Fragments of galena and native copper have also been found in it ; but this should not be regarded as an indication of the existence of any workable bed of these minerals in the vicinity, as it only proves that a portion of the materials composing the drift has been transported from a region where these minerals abounded.
The only materials of economical value to be obtained from the Drift deposits, are sand and clays. Sand of an excellent quality, suitable for molder's use and cement, may be obtained in the river-bluffs in abundance, and occasionally beds of clay, sufficiently pure for potters' use, may be pro- cured from this formation. The best wells of water are to be obtained by sinking to the subterranean streams that percolate through the sandy strata of this deposit. Usually, on the prairies, good water may be reached from twenty to forty feet below the surface. In the bluffs immediately above Fort Madison, this deposit attains its maximum thickness of 185 feet above the river level. The lower portion consists of a compact blue clay, containing a few pebbles. This passes into a marly, ash-colored clay. which is overlaid by irregular beds of sand, and these by beds of yellowish clay with bowlders. These bluffs occupy
420
HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY.
what seems to have been an ancient basin excavated in the limestone at a period antecedent to the Drift formation, and by causes which ceased to operate before the commencement of the Drift period. The limestones, which, on the east side of the river, form high bluffs extending to the river-bank, are entirely absent on the west, and their place is now occupied by the substitution of Drift material. The valley thus scooped out of the solid rocks extends from Montrose to the mouth of Skunk River, and is from six to eight miles in width. The eastern portion of this ancient basin, except the bluffs on the river above Fort Madison, is now covered by the alluvial deposits before men- tioned, while the western part is occupied by deposits of Drift material from one hundred to one hundred and eighty-five feet in thickness. That this val- ley was formed by ancient currents previous to the Drift period is proved by the fact that a considerable portion of it is now occupied by deposits of that age, and which must have been formed after those currents ceased to act.
Fossils .- The only fossils obtained from the Drift formation of this region are a few shark's teeth and a fragment of siliceous wood, which probably belong to a period somewhat older than the Drift. and have been transported from some Tertiary or Cretaceous deposit over which the Drift has passed.
COAL-MEASURES.
The rocks belonging to this' formation, occurring in this county, consist usually of a quartzose sandstone at the base, on which rests a thin seam of coal with its underclay : the coal is almost invariably overlaid by black slate, and the whole covered with a bed of gray shale. The following section shows the order of superposition of these strata :
Gray Shale. sometimes ferruginous.
Black Slate.
Coal. Under clay.
Quartzose Sandstone.
These beds always rest upon the concretionary limestone. which, in this region, forms the upper member of the Mountain limestone series. All deposits of the coal-bearing period. which occur in this county, are found in detached patches or outliers from the main coal-basin, and are of limited extent. seldom occupying more than two or three square miles of surface : while the coal-seam is too thin to be profitably wrought, and the coal itself of an inferior quality. The most promising of these coal-deposits yet found in Lee County is on Sec- tion 16, in Pleasant Ridge Township, on the lands of Mr. Norris. The coal here is said by the workmen to be from twenty-four to thirty-four inches thick ; but, at the time of my visit to the locality, it could not be examined satisfactorily. as the old diggings were full of water. and in the new they had not yet reached the coal. It is not probable, however, that anything like a supply of coal can be obtained in this vicinity, except for the use of the neighborhood immediately around it. Coal has also been obtained a half-mile west of Tuscarora, in Marion Town- ship, and west and southwest of West Point. and within a mile and a half or two miles of the town : but neither the quantity nor quality of the coal justifies the working of the seam at these points. In the bluffs on the Nassau slough. two miles below Keokuk, an outlier of the same kind occurs; but the coal is only a few inches in thickness, and valueless for economical purposes. The upper layer of the bluff's. for a mile below the town of Nashville, consists of the quartzose sandstone, which forms the base of the coal-measures, and is here
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