USA > Iowa > Lee County > The history of Lee county, Iowa, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, &c. > Part 59
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Gen. A. C. Dodge made the great speech of the day. It. abounded in good stories and happy hits. At times, the audience was melted to tears, and then
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again convulsed with laughter. With the old settlers, Dodge is a universal favorite.
Daniel F. Miller was unanimously re-elected President. Vice Presidents, Israel Anderson, JJackson Township; M. Wright, Montrose : William Skinner, Jefferson : R. A. Russell, Madison ; M. H. Rodgers, Green Bay: J. Meek, Des Moines ; R. W. Dresser. Van Buren : O. Danks, Charleston ; Alexander Cruickshank, Franklin ; D. S. Bell, Cedar ; E. Overton, Marion ; E. S. MeCullough, Harrison ; George Berry, Pleasant Ridge ; J. O. Smith, Den- mark : Henry Dye, Washington ; R. W. Pitman, West Point.
Gen. J. C. Parrott was elected Secretary ; Hon. E. S. MeCollough, Corre- sponding Secretary ; R. MeFarland, Treasurer, and J. A. Casey was chosen as Marshal.
The third Thursday (the 20th) of August, 1874, was selected as the time for the next meeting. The place of meeting was left to be selected by the Vice Presidents.
AT THE KEOKUK FAIR-GROUNDS.
The fourth annual gathering of the old folks of Lee County was held on the fair-grounds near Keokuk, on Thursday, August 20. 1874, Hon. D. F. Miller presiding. The meeting was called to order at 11 o'clock, and at the request of the President, Col. William Patterson addressed the throne of grace. The Hamilton (Ell.) choir was present and enlivened the occasion with some excellent selections of vocal music.
Hon. George W. MeCarty, who had been selected for orator of the day, was unable to be present, in consequence of illness, and the time was occupied with short addresses. Mr. Thomas Gregg, editor and publisher of the Old Settlers" Memorial, at Hamilton, Ill .. delivered a short address, and explained the nature and object of his publication.
Richard Miller spoke in behalf of " Young America," and gave a number of good reasons why the young people should attend the annual gatherings of the old settlers. The meeting was largely attended and very enjoyable.
Capt. J. W. Campbell was elected President.
Vice Presidents-Valencourt Vanausdol. Jackson Township: George Hamil- ton, Montrose : William Skinner, Jefferson : Philip Viele, Fort Madison ; John Morgan, Green Bay ; Jonas Rice, Washington ; William Brown. Denmark ; George Berry, Pleasant Ridge ; R. W. Pitman, West Point : Elias Overton, Marion : Alex. Cruickshank, Franklin : Nicholas Sargent. Des Moines ; Jere- miah Hunt, Charleston ; Amos Hinkle. Van Buren : David S. Bell. Cedar : E. S. McCullouch, Harrison.
Robert MeFarland was elected Secretary : Gen. J. C. Parrott, Treasurer. and Capt. Alt. Roberts was chosen as Marshal.
The Association agreed to hold its next annual meeting at Warren Station, on the Thursday before the full of the moon, in September, 1875.
AT WARREN STATION
the meeting was well attended. The gathering was called to order at 10 o'clock, by President J. W. Campbell. The throne of grace was addressed by Robert A. Russell, Esq., and the opening address delivered by S. D. Davis, Esq. Mrs. Pollard read a poem entitled " Continually." W. C. Hobbs, Esq., delivered an address full of pathos and sentiment.
Capt. J. W. Campbell, the President of the Association, followed Mr. Hobbs with an able and appropriate address, in which he reviewed the history of the county from 1830 to that time-nearly half a century.
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After President Campbell, E. S. Mccullough made a short " talk," and con- cluded his remarks by asking all the old settlers to partake of an old-fashioned dinner, prepared in the old-fashioned way, by the old-lady pioneers.
After dinner, Capt. Hobbs, on behalf of the old settlers, presented Alex- ander Cruickshank and William Skinner with a hickory cane each. These veteran pioneers, both of whom came to Lee County in 1834, responded to the presentation in a happy, old-fashioned way.
John Whitaker, the first Probate Judge elected in Iowa, was present and was introduced to the multitude. [Mr. Whitaker was elected Probate Judge of Des Moines County in the fall of 1834, when all the lower part of the Black Hawk Purchase was included in that county.]
The election of officers for the ensuing year resulted : President, Capt. James W. Campbell ; Vice Presidents, John Morgan, Green Bay Township ; Jonas Rice, Washington ; R. W. Pitman, West Point ; L. Young, Pleasant Ridge ; Elias Overton, Marion ; David Bell, Cedar ; E. S. Mccullough, Harri- son ; Henry Abel, Franklin; John Herron, Van Buren ; A. L. Donnell, Charles- ton ; N. Sargent, Des Moines ; George G. Hamilton, Montrose; William Skin- ner, Jefferson ; V. Vanausdol, Jackson ; Robert Russell, Madison ; Secretary, Robert McFarland ; Treasurer, I. Hale, Madison ; Marshal, C. C. Border, Har- rison Township.
Resolved, That Fort Madison should be the place of holding the next regu- lar meeting, and that said meeting should be held on the - day of Septem- ber, 1876.
CAPT. CAMPBELL'S ADDRESS.
Capt. James W. Campbell came to what is now Lee County in October, 1830, when quite a youth, since when his residence here has been uninterrupted, hence he is entitled to the honor of being considered the second oldest citizen. And as his address is full of importance, as relates to the condition of the county, early incidents and first occupants, it is presented entire. Other addresses at the old settlers' annual gathering were excellent and in good taste, but this one is deemed most pertinent and appropriate, because of Capt. Campbell's intimate personal knowledge of things whereof he speaks. He said :
Twelve months ago, you elected me President of this Association, and I now, for the first time, embrace the opportunity of thanking you all for the honor conferred upon me. It has been my desire to furnish a speaker for this occasion far more able than myself, but as I have failed, I cannot let this moment pass without saying a few words to you about what I have seen and heard of the people and their settlements here from 1830 to 1834, which I designate as the half-breed era. Since then, many of you have been as familiar with the changes that have occurred here as myself, and if I do not, in reviewing the past, amuse you in relating what I have seen and heard of this county, it will certainly interest some of you to retrace with me, step by step, your pioneer life, and while you are traveling back over its dark and ragged edges, you will come to many bright spots in memory's pathway that will produce emotions of pleasure.
Forty-five years ago this coming October, my father moved from the present site of Nauvoo, and settled four miles below, on the west bank of the river, at Ah-we-pe-tuck (which, translated from the Indian dialect to our tongue, means beginning of cascades), on the Sauk and Fox Reservation It is now called Nashville, and almost every association in this connection with this place remains still fresh in my memory, although I was but five years old.
The settlement here consisted of four houses, which were occupied by Dr. Isaac Galland, Samuel Brierly, William P. Smith and my father. There was,
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also, a small log house, 10x12 feet in size, used for a schoolroom. I remember well some of my schoolmates here, whose names are Tolliver Dedman, James Dedman, Thomas Brierly and Washington Galland. Over this literary insti- tution, which, I suppose, was the first school taught in Iowa, Benjamin Jen- nings presided as teacher. I remember him well, for when kind and oft-repeated words failed to impress upon the memory of Washington Galland and myself the difference between A and B, he had niether delicacy nor hesitancy about applying the rod, which usually brightened our intellects.
The greatest object of interest to me while I remained here, was to visit the wreck of the sunken steamer Mexico, which lay close against the shore, a few rods above my father's house. Her cabin had been removed, but a portion of her machinery still remained, which resembled very much one of Eads & Nel- son's submarine pumps, in use at the present time.
As there is nothing more which I can remember about this place that would interest you, I will, in turn, begin to describe each house and its locality, to the best of my recollection, that was situated on the half-breed tract in 1831. We embark in an Indian canoe, on our voyage of discovery in the month of April. After floating down the river two and a half miles or more, we came in view of a double log house, inclosed by a fence made of logs and saplings, and I am told that at its entrance way stood, in 1826, a pair of elk horns, answering the double purpose of gate-posts and center-mark, north and south, of the half-breed reservation. This building, which stood upon an elevated position, about one hundred and fifty yards from the river, had formerly been the home of Maurice Blondeau, the Washington and father of his country ; for, by his instrumental- ity, prior to the era of grangerism, he acted as the middleman, and at the treaty of 1824, secured to the half-breeds of the Sac and Fox Indians all that portion of land lying between the Mississippi and Des Moines Rivers, embracing the south half of Lee County.
Maurice Blondeau was a jolly, good Frenchman, weighing considerably over two hundred pounds, and the old adage, " Laugh and grow fat," was fully illus- trated in him. Owing to this habit, he came to be a great favorite with the Indians. If any visitor to this country is fond of antiquarian researches, and wishes to visit the locality of this man's former home, I will be pleased to direct him to the identical spot. You will take the cars at Montrose or Keokuk, and when the faithful old conductor, " Dave," calls for your ticket, ask him to let you stop off at the little Catholic Church building, between Sandusky and Nashville, and when you arrive there proceed immediately back to the top of the first elevation, and you are within a few feet of where his humble cabin stood, and within the area of one among the first corn and pumpkin patches cultivated by civilized man in the State of Iowa. Let us pass down a few hun- dred yards farther, and we are at the ancient log house of Lemoliese, which was once supposed to be a palace in the midst of a wilderness, being the first erected in what is known as Iowa of to-day. This single log house stood some seventy to eighty yards from the river, on a slight elevation, on the south side of a creek near the approach of a bridge now in use at Sandusky. It was occupied in 1831 by Mr. Brierly, whose son James became our first Representative under Territorial organization. Indian tradition says this locality had ever been a haunt of their forefathers, owing to its pleasant location, and its near proximity to other ancient villages on the Des Moines River. Indians always select loca- tions for their villages that are not subject to an overflow, so I imagine that, at one time, there was a village at St. Francisville, on the south side of the river, in Missouri, and one on the north side, one and a half miles above, near Jim-
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town ; and where could there have been found two more beautiful locations than these, and why should we doubt that these localities are not the identical villages discovered by Marquette in June, 1673 ? We read sketches from his journal that were published in Paris several years after his death, where it is said, using- his own language, after floating down the Mississippi four days, they went ashore on the 21st of June (1673) and found some fresh traces of men upon the sand, and a path which led to the prairie. The men remained in the boat, and Marquette and Joliet followed the trail up a creek for two or more leagues to the west, when they came to a beautiful stream. There was an Indian village upon the right and left banks of the stream. If Sandusky, in Lee County, is not the place he alluded to when he landed upon the west bank, and visited this beautiful river, our Keosauqua Sepo, where is there another place in all this country that answers the description so well ? Take the distances, the creeks, the traditionary locations of the Indian villages, and all point unerringly to this as the place where Marquette landed on the occasion mentioned.
We will now jump from romance to reality, and journey on our way, hoping to introduce you to each locality and individual as we pass along. When we have passed about four and one-half miles further down the stream, we come to Spring Chain, on the rapids. Abreast of this chain, and near an everflowing spring, stood a single log cabin, the residence of Andrew Santamont, the brother-in-law of Maurice Blondeau. Madame Santamont had a son by her first husband, whose name was Francis Labesser, who never had an equal as an interpreter in the Sac and Fox nation. I have often heard him read our books and papers to the Indians as you and I can a long-studied piece for an exam- ination day. Frank used to tell us little fellows that if we ever expected to be educated as he was, we would have to go to Paris, as he did. So, you see, Paris set the fashion then as well as now ; but in later years, I began to doubt if Frank had ever entered a schoolhouse outside of the suburbs of Portage des Sioux.
This old house of Santamont once stood within a few feet of the round- house of the Keokuk & St. Paul Railroad, now owned by the Chicago, Burling- ton & Quincy Railroad Company .. It was occupied several years after by William McBride. A short distance below it, and a few feet further back from the river, a log house was afterward built and occupied by James Bartlett, who was an honest, quiet, good man, of whom we find in his son Henry D., a mem- ber of our little band of pioneers, a fair representative of his father.
Let us drop down with the rapid current a few hundred yards further, around Point-no-Point, and we are in view of Puck-a-she-tuck (foot of the cascades), a village "mighty as Babylon," in my childhood imagination, but of less renown than our Gate and Federal Court city is to-day, although we then had occasionally residents of great celebrity, such as Paw-shi-pa-ho (stab chief) and Keokuk, the peace chief of the Sac nation, from whom our city derived its name, as early as 1832. The hillsides of this embryo city were covered with a heavy growth of timber, extending to high-water mark. The old cottonwood- tree above Main street, under whose shade I landed in 1831, has not been spared to designate the spot ; but memory supplies its place by locating over it the abutment of the first wagon and railroad bridge that spanned the Missis- sippi River.
The ten log houses comprising our little village then have all been removed. Even our grave-yard, at the corner of Second and Blondeau streets, once held sacred by every pioneer, has been rooted up for the benefit of civilization, and not one landmark remains of our childhood homes. But when I look over the
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panorama of the past, I see them distinctly before me again, and will describe them to you, that we may share the pleasure together by recalling the associa- tions of the past.
The population consisted of some thirty-odd persons-English, French and half-breeds.
The first log house erected in 1820, under direction of Dr. Samuel C. Muir, stood on the right hand corner of Main and Levee, as you ascend the street. It had received an additional frame room, with an open entry between, when my father moved into the log house in 1831. The whole house had been pre- viously occupied by Dr. Muir, who, having taken my father into copartner- ship, was compelled to furnish him a room until he could get some other place. It was here in this old house that I learned, under the instruction of James Wheat, a private teacher, to commemorate the words " ba-ker, "sha-ker," "tidy," "holy," etc. The definition of the last word was neither appreciated nor practiced by many of the residents of those days. Many times my old preceptor would require his son Henry and myself to march out into the open entry and engage in a contest of spelling, before the gaze of admiring spectators from some steamboat which had recently arrived. We were considered progidies in spelling by many ; but, to tell the honest truth, I could not spell one of these words on the book ; but we made the old man feel good, and that was enough for us.
Moses Stillwell, the first permanent white settler, erected the second log house on the hillside opposite the upper end of the lock; this was also a double log cabin, with an open entry between, and a small inclosure for garden purposes. Mrs. Stillwell, an excellent, kind, good woman, lived here several years after her husband's death. Immediately below, and against a perpendicular stratum of stone, stood the front and end walls of a one-story stone building, the stone bluff answering for the back wall. This building was about 15x40 feet, and was destroyed by an ice freshet in 1832. It was intended for a warehouse, and was built by Stillwell for Culver & Reynolds. At the beginning of Blondeau and Levee, stood the first house in a row of five, all joined together with a porch in front, three feet above the ground. These buildings belonged to the American Fur Company, and were sold to my father in 1832, and many years after were known as the famous Rat Row. If my memory does not deceive me, I think these buildings were occupied by Mark Aldrich, of whose family I have but a faint recollection. There was an elderly lady, a member of his family, of the name of Wilkinson or Wilker- son, of whom I have a more distinct remembrance, than any one else con- nected with his family. One day, while in front of their house, I was trying the experiment of balancing myself in walking on the edge of a half-sunken canoe, when this kind old lady, seeing the danger to which I was subject, requested me to get off, and, in attempting to look around I lost my balance and off I fell into the water, heels over head. After I crawled out on shore she indulged in a hearty laugh, and I indulged in a little hard swearing.
Below the Fur Company's buildings, half way between Blondeau and Main streets, stood a clapboard frame house, owned by Edward Bushnell, and used at various times as a stable, warehouse and grocery, and a little farther back on the side of the hill, stood John Forsyth's little log cabin, which was occupied by a venerable gentlemen in 1833, of the name of Jesse Creighton, a shoe- maker. Finding it rather difficult to support himself at his trade, owing to our custom of going barefooted in summer and wearing moccasins in the win- ter, he was induced to open a private school, and his pupils were Valencourt
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Vanausdol, Forsyth Morgan, Henry D. and Mary Bartlett, John Riggs, George Crawford, Eliza Anderson and myself. The attendance was small, but our number embraced about all the little folks in Keokuk at this time. But as few as we were in numbers, we convinced Uncle Jesse that we were legions at recess, for we frequently upset his shoe-bench and shoe-tub, which caused the" old gentleman to reach for us with his crooked cane. At this first school taught in Keokuk, I made rapid progress, for I learned to read Chieftain War- rior, Winnebago, Enterprise, William Wallace and Ouisconsin, the names of steamboats that landed immediately in front of our schoolhouse. My rapid progress was owing to the privilege of looking out of the window at these boats and drawing their picture upon a slate. I can see them now, and their appearance to a schoolboy of to-day would look ludicrous. For example, the William Wallace, with one smokepipe; the Warrior, with one deck, with a barge along side containing the cabin; the Chieftain, with a quarter-pitch roof similar to our houses, cabins all on lower deck aft of the wheel-house, open bunks running fore and aft, trimmed with gorgeous calico curtains.
James Thorn, a large, stout Canadian Frenchman, married to a Sac squaw, lived in a small log house situated half-way from the water's edge to the top of the bluff, between Concert and High streets. John Connolly, of Irish descent and clerk for the American Fur Company, with a squaw wife in a log house on the hill, between Main and Johnson, on Water street, just back of the old depot-house. This locality is more noted than any other spot of ground in Keokuk, owing to a fort being erected here in 1832, under the supervision of my father and Maj. Jenifer T. Spriggs, who, being an intimate at my father's house, having come here for the purpose of surveying the Half-Breed Reserva- tion, deemed it advisable to garrison this point, as Black Hawk had started upon the war-path, and upon his request being made known to the commandant at St. Louis, one swivel, thirty-four muskets and five hundred rounds of cart- ridges were forwarded immediately, and, on their arrival, a small stockade, about one hundred feet across, inclosing a blockhouse, was constructed ; and, after the munitions of war were conveyed into this stockade, Jenifer T. Spriggs, the hero of Bladensburg, was elected to the exalted position of Captain Com- mandant, and Isaac R. Campbell, Lieutenant and Commissary.
Fifteen hundred barrels of pork and flour belonging to the United States army had been left here in charge of my father, owing to the low water on the rapids. This our troops protected, which was about all they did during the war.
After peace was declared, Maj. Spriggs lost the muster-roll, while on a little " tare" in St. Louis, and, in consequence of that loss, all our soldiers lost their bounty.
I remember the day very well when Black Hawk danced his war-dance upon the rocky beach of Puck-a-she-tuck, in 1832. He had with him about four hundred warriors, who marched four-abreast ; and, after going through the various evolutions peculiar to the Indian mode of warfare, they halted in front of my father's house, and Black Hawk, Ne-sa-us-cuck, his son, and five or six others stepped into the entry, between our room and Dr. Muir's, and again began their war-dance. Forty-three years have intervened since I witnessed these scenes, but still that war-whoop and rattling of clapboards by spearing imaginary foes are heard distinctly by me now; their blackened faces, with tomahawk and scalping-knife in hand, whirling around each other's head, I see again.
This exhibition, which was, undoubtedly, intended as a mark of esteem by our savage neighbors, was soon brought to a close, as my mother became
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frightened and sent for my father, who soon came from the store and requested Kah-kah-kaw (Black Hawk) to desist, as his pale-faced squaw was alarmed. Turning to my mother, he laughingly remarked, "Emily, don't be afraid : these people are our friends." They ceased their dance, and in the evening they departed up the river. On the second day they crossed the Mississippi at Spellman's, now Pontoosuc. They swam their horses to the island above, and, after reaching the main shore, journeyed on in the direction of Rock Island.
There is no doubt that Black Hawk held my father in very high esteem ; but he did not think it prudent to allow his family to remain here. So we were sent on the Chieftain to Hannibal, Mo., which locality was considered out of danger. Other families went to Fort Edwards, now Warsaw.
One circumstance occurred at Keokuk, during the war, that fully illustrates the Indian character. Match-e-paw and Wa-paw-si-ah, Sac Indians, and full- brothers to Mrs. Muir, became very restless, a short time after hostilities began, and, as the Sac nation were at peace with the whites, they, of course, could take no part in it. So, on the pretense of hunting, they started up the Keo- sauqua Sepo, and were gone until after the battle of Bad Axe, when Match-e- paw returned, wounded in the palm of his hand. His family inquired the cause of the wound. In reply to their inquiry, he said he was trying to draw the load from his gun, when it went off, shooting the ramrod through his hand. We believed this statement to be true until Wa-paw-si-ah, his younger brother, returned soon after, who had also lost a thumb. We inquired of him the cause of his misfortune, and he answered by saying, " Has not Match-e-paw told you we were wounded in the river swimming from the main shore to an island at the battle of Bad Axe ?" "Why, Wa-paw-si-ah," we replied, " we thought the Sacs were at peace with the whites ?" " So they are, with their neighbors," he replied, "but they do not consider it any harm to scalp a stranger.'
I fear I am tiring you with Indian reminiscences, so I will return to a description of the locality, and only remaining house in Keokuk not before mentioned. It occupied the point of the hill on the upper side, immediately behind Patterson & Timberman's porkhouse. Peter Bruseau, a Frenchman, occupied this log cabin, and the creek emptying into the river below his house, received its name from him, and was so called by the first settlers.
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