USA > Iowa > Polk County > The history of Polk County, Iowa : containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, &c., biographical sketches of its citizens, war record of its volunteers in the late rebellion, general and local statistics, portraits of early settlers and prominent men > Part 36
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At this time the Sacs and Foxes numbered about two thousand three hundred, and it is not possible that Keokuk could have carried on an organ- ized system of theft without the fact becoming apparent to all. . As it was,
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however, Governor Lucas thought best to change the manner in which the annual payments were made. The matter was referred to the Indian bureau, and the mode was changed so that the payments were made to heads of fam- ilies, approximating a per capita distribution. This method of payment did not suit the traders, and after a short trial the old plan was again adopted. That the Indians, then as now, were the victims of sharp practice, cannot be doubted, but the fact can be attributed to the superior tact and the un- scrupulous character of many of the traders; this furnishes a more probable explanation and is more in accord with the character of Keokuk, as known by his intimate friends, still living, than to attribute these swindling operations to a conspiracy in which the illustrous chief was the lead- ing actor.
Among the early settlers of Iowa, the names of Keokuk and Wapello are the most noted and familiar. These two illustrious chiefs live not only in the recollections of these early settlers, but in the permanent history of our common country. Short biographical sketches of these two noted charac- ters, therefore, will be of great interest to the people of this county, and peculiarly appropriate for a work of this kind. To the school-boy who has frequently read of these Indians, the fact that they roved around on this very ground where their feet tread, and that in their hunting excursions these Indians crossed the same prairies where they now gather the yellow- eared corn, will give to these sketches intense interest, while the early settler who talked with Wapello and Keokuk, ate with them, hunted with them, and fished with them, cannot fail to find in these brief and necessarily im- perfect biographies, something fascinating, as they are thus led back over a quarter of a century, to live over again the days of other years, and witness again the scenes of early days, when the tall prairie grass waved in the autumn breeze, and the country, like themselves, was younger and fresher than now.
As before remarked, Keokuk was chief of the Sac branch of the nation; he was born on Rock river, Illinois, in 1780. The best memory of the ear- liest settler of Iowa cannot take him back to a time when Keokuk was not a full grown man. When in 1833 the impatient feet of the white man first hastened across the Mississippi eager for new conquests, this illustrious chief was already nearing his three score years, and when with longing eyes he took the last look on this fair land, and turned his feet reluctantly toward the west, his sun of life had already crossed the meridian and was rapidly approaching its setting.
Keokuk came first into prominence among the whites at the breaking out of the second war with England, commonly known as the War of 1812. Most of the Indians at that time espoused the cause of the English, but Keokuk, at the head of a large number of the Sacs and Foxes, remained faithful to the Americans. In 1828, Keokuk, in accordance with the terms of a treaty, crossed the Mississippi river with his tribe and established him- self on the Iowa river. Here he remained in peace, and his tribe flourished till the breaking out of the Black Hawk War in 1832. He seemed to have a much more intelligent insight into the great national questions which were raised during these early difficulties, as well as more thorough appre- ciation of the resources of the national government. He opposed the Black Hawk War, and seemed to fully forecast the great disaster which thereby befel his tribe. Although many of his warriors deserted him and followed Black Hawk in his reckless campaign across the Mississippi, Keokuk pre-
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vailed upon a majority of his tribe to remain at home. When the news reached Keokuk that Black Hawk's warriors had gained a victory over Stil- man's forces in Ogle county, Illinois, the war spirit broke out among his followers like fire in the dry prairie grass; a war-dance was held, and the chief himself took part in it. He seemed for a while to move in sym- pathy with the rising storm, and at the conclusion of a war-dance he called a council to prepare for war. In a work entitled Annals of Iowa, pub- lished in 1865, there is reported the substance of a speech made by Keokuk on this occasion. We quote: "I am your chief, and it is my duty to lead you to battle, if, after fully considering the matter, you are determined to go." He then represented to them the great power of the United States, against which they would have to contend, and that their prospect of suc- cess was utterly hopeless. Then continuing, said: "But if you are deter- mined to go on the war-path, I will lead you on one condition-that before we go we kill all our old men, and our wives, and our children, to save them from a lingering death by starvation, and that every one of you deter- mine to leave your bones on the other side of the Mississippi." This was a strong and truthful picture of the prospect before them, and was presented in such a forcible light that it caused them to abandon their rash under- taking.
Although the honor was frequently disputed by some of the original fol- lowers of Black Hawk, Keokuk was ever afterward recognized as the head of the Sac and Fox nation by the United States government. It is said that a bitter feud existed in the tribe during the time that Keokuk lived near Des Moines, between Keokuk's band and the Black Hawk band. Their distrust and hatred were smothered in their common inter- course, when sober; but when their blood was fired with whisky, it sometimes assumed a tragic feature among the leaders of the respective bands. An instance of this character occurred on the lower part of the Des Moines river, on the return of a party making a visit to the " half- breeds," at the town of Keokuk, on the Mississippi. In a quarrel incited by whisky, Keokuk received a dangerous stab in the breast by a son of Black Hawk, and a certain person giving an account of the altercation, says he saw him conveyed by his friends homeward, lying in a canoe, unable to rise.
In person, Keokuk was of commanding appearance. He was tall, straight as an arrow, and of very graceful mien. These personal character- tics, together with his native fervor, and ready command of language, gave him great power over his people as a speaker. If, as a man of energy and courage, he gained the respect and obedience of his tribe, it was more especially as an orator that he was able to wield his people in the times of great excitement, and in a measure shape their policy in dealing with the white man. As an orator rather than as a warrior, has Keokuk's claim to greatness been founded.
Persons who had the good fortune to see him and hear him under favora- ble surrondings say that he was gifted by nature, with the elements of an or- ator in an eminent degree. The great difficulty which he had to encounter, was his inabilty to procure an interpreter who could to any degree convey the meaning of the speaker to the hearer. Of this serious hindrance Keokuk was well aware, and he retained Frank Labashure, who had received a rudimental education in the French and English languages until the latter died broken down by exposure and dissipation; but during the meridian of
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his career among the white people, he was compelled to submit his speeches for translation to uneducated men, whose range of thought fell below the flights of a gifted mind, and the fine imagery drawn from nature was be- yond their power of reproduction. He had a sufficient knowledge of the English tongue to make him sensible of this bad rendering of his thoughts, and otten a feeling of mortification at the bungling efforts was depicted upon his countenance while he was speaking.
There are but few of the early Polk county settlers who remember Keo- kuk, and probably very few who ever saw him, as he with his tribe moved westward before the territory which now composes the county, was thrown open for settlement. There are many who settled in the country east of the Red Rock line who remember well the distinguished savage.
Mr. James, of Sigourney, being present at the council at Agency City, when the treaty of 1842 was made, says of Keokuk: "We heard him make a speech on the occasion, which, by those who understood his tongue, was said to be a sensible and eloquent effort. Judging from his voice and gest- ures, his former standing as an Indian orator and chieftain, we thought his reputation as a dignified, yet gentlemanly aborigine had not been overrated. During the Black Hawk War his voice was for peace with the white man, and his influence added much to the shortening of the war. As an honor to the chief, our county bears his name."
The event in the life of Keokuk which more than any other gave him a national reputation, was his trip to Washington City. He, in company with Black Hawk, Poweshiek, Kish-ke-kosh, and some fifteen other chiefs, under the escort of Gen. J. M. Street, visited Washington City and dif- ferent parts of the East in 1837. The party descended the Mississippi to the mouth of the Ohio by steamer, and thence up the latter to Wheeling, where they took stage across the mountains. When the party arrived in Washington, at the request of some of the government officials, a council was held with some chiefs of the Sioux there present, as the Sacs and Foxes were waging a perpetual war with the Sioux nation. The council was held in the Hall of Representatives. To the great indignation of the Sioux, Kish-ke-kosh appeared dressed in a buffalo hide which he had taken in war from a Sioux chief, and took his position in one of the large windows, with the mane and horns of the buffalo as a sort of head-dress, and the tail trailing on the floor. The Sioux nation complained to the officials, claim- ing that this was an insult to them, but they were informed that the Sacs and Foxes had a right to appear in any kind of costume they chose to wear. The first speech was make by a Sioux, who complained bitterly of the wrongs they had suffered, and how they had been driven from their homes by the Sacs and Foxes, their warriors killed and their villages burned. Then followed Keokuk, the great orator of his tribe, who replied at some length, an interpreter repeating the speech after him. There were those present who had heard Webster, Calhoun, Clay, and Benton in the same hall, and they declared that for the manner of delivery, for native eloquence, impassioned expression of countenance, the chief surpassed them all, and this while they could not understand his words, save as they were repeated by the interpreter. From Washington they went to New York, where they were shown no little attention, and, Gen. Street attempt- ing to show them the city on foot, the people in their anxiety to see Keokuk and Black Hawk, crowded them beyond the point of endurance, and in order to avoid the throng, they were compelled to make their escape through
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a store building, and reached their hotel through the back alleys and less frequented streets. At Boston they were met at the depot by a delegation of leading citizens and conveyed in carriages to the hotel. The next day they were taken in open carriages, and with a guard of honor on foot, they were shown the whole city. During their stay in Boston, they were the guests of the great American orator, Edward Everett, who made a banquet for them. When the Indians returned and were asked about New York, they only expressed their disgust. Boston was the only city in the United States in their estimation, and their opinion has been shared in by many white people, who since that time, have made a pilgrimage from the West to the famous shrines of the East.
The first settlers of Iowa who remain still remember the Mormons, who first located across the Mississippi river and then in the western part of ' Iowa, created such an excitement among the scattered settlements of Iowa. Several of the most worthy of the early settlers of Polk county, became converts to that faith and went West with the "Saints." It is not gener- ally known, however, that a special effort was made for the conversion of Keokuk.
While residing at Ottumwah-nac, Keokuk received a message from the Mormon prophet, Joseph Smith, in which the latter invited Keokuk, as king of the Sacs and Foxes, to a royal conference at his palace at Nauvoo, on matters of the highest importance to their respective people. The in- vitation was accepted, and at the appointed time the king of the Sacs and Foxes, accompanied by a stately escort on ponies, wended his way to the appointed interview with the great apostle of the Latter Day Saints. Keo- kuk, as before remarked, was a man of good judgment and keen insight into the human character. He was not easily led by sophistry, nor beguiled by flattery. The account of this interview with Smith, as given by a writer in the Annals of Iowa, so well illustrates these traits of his charac- ter that we give it in full:
"Notice had been circulated through the country of this diplomatic in- terview, and quite a number of spectators attended to witness the the de- noument. The audience was given publicly in the great Mormon temple, and the respective chiefs were attended by their suites, the prophet by the dignitaries of the Mormon Church, and the Indian potentate by the high civil and military functionaries of his tribe, and the Gentiles were com- fortably seated as auditors.
"The prophet opened the conference in a set speech of some length, giv- ing Keokuk a brief history of the Children of Israel, as detailed in the Bible, and dwelt forcibly upon the history of the lost tribes, and that he, the prophet of God, held a divine commission to gather them together and lead them to a land 'flowing with milk and honey.' After the prophet closed his harangue, Keokuk ' waited for the words of his pale-faced brother to sink deep into his mind,' and in making his reply, assumed the gravest attitude and most dignified demeanor. He would not controvert anything his brother had said about the lost and scattered condition of his race and people, and if his brother was commissioned by the Great Spirit to collect them together and lead them to a new country it was his duty to do so. But he wished to inquire about some particulars his brother had not named, that were of the highest importance to him and his people. The red man was not much used to milk, and he thought they would prefer streams of
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water; and in the country they now were there was a good supply of honey. The points they wished to inquire into were, whether the new government would pay large annuities, and whether there was plenty of whisky. Joe Smith saw at once that he had met his match, and that Keokuk was not the proper material with which to increase his army of dupes, and closed the interview in as amiable and pleasant a manner as possible."
After the removal of this tribe west of the Mississippi, Keokuk resided until 1836 on a reservation of four hundred square miles, situated on the Iowa river, and his headquarters were at a village located on the right bank of the stream, and which bore his name. According to the stipulations of the treaty of 1836, in which the Indians ceded to the United States Keo- kuk's reserve, the illustrious chief removed farther west, and his head- quarters, for a time, were in Wapello county. The agency for the Indians was located at a point where is now located Agency City. At this time an effort was made to civilize the red man. Farms were opened up, and two mills were erected, one on Soap Creek and one on Sugar Creek. A salaried agent was employed to superintend these farming operations. Keokuk, Wapello, and Appanoose, each had a large field improved and cultivated. Keokuk's farm was located upon what is yet known as Keokuk's Prairie, in what is now Wapello county. The Indians did not make much progress in these farming operations, and in the absence of their natural and wonted excitements, became idle and careless. Many of them plunged into dissi- pation. Keokuk himself became badly dissipated in the latter years of his life. Pathetic as was the condition of these savages at this time, it was but the legitimate result of the treatment which they had received. They were confined to a fixed location, and provided with annuities by the gov- ernment, sufficient to meet their wants from year to year. They were in this manner prevented from making those extensive excursions, and em- baaking in those warlike pursuits, which from time immemorial had formed the chief avenues for the employment of those activities which for centu- ries had claimed the attention of the savage mind; and the sure and regu- lar means of subsistance furnished by the government, took away from them the incentives for the employment of these activities, even had the means still existed. In addition to this the Indian beheld his lands taken from him, and his tribe growing smaller year by year. Keokuk, as al- ready intimated, was possessed of a highly imaginative intellect, and he doubtless forecast the future far enough to be thoroughly impressed with the thought that in a few years all these lands would pass into the posses- sion of the white man, while his tribe and his name would be swept away by the flood which was ready to sweep in from the East. Keokuk saw all of this, and seeing it, had neither the power nor inclination to prevent it. Take the best representative of the Anglo-Saxon race, and place him in similar circumstance, and he would do no better. Shut in by restraint from all sides, relieved from all the anxieties comprehended in that practi- cal question, what shall we eat, and wherewithal shall we be clothed? and deprived of all those incentives springing from, and inspired by a lofty ambition, and the best of us, with all our culture and habits of industry, would fall into idleness and dissipation, and our fall would be as great, if not as as low, as was the fall of that unhappy people who formerly inhab- ited this country, and whose disappearance and gradual extinction we shall now be called upon to contemplate.
Wapello, the cotemporary of Keokuk, and the inferior chief, after whom
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a neighboring county and county seat were named, died before the Indians were removed from the state, and thus escaped the humiliation of the scene. He, like his superior chief, was a fast friend of the whites, and wielded an immense influence among the individuals of his tribe. As is mentioned in a former chapter, he presided over three tribes in the vicinity of Fort Armstrong, during the time that frontier post was being erected. In 1829 he removed his village to Muscatine Swamp, and then to a place near where is now located the town bearing his name. Many of the early settlers of the country remember him well, as the southern part of this county was a favorite resort for him and many members of his tribe. It was in the limits of Keokuk county thas this illustrious chief died. A]- though he willingly united in the treaty ceding it to the whites, it was done with the clear conviction that the country would be shortly over- run and his hunting ground ruined by the advance of pale-faces. He chose to sell rather than to be robbed, and then quietly receded with his band.
Wapello, in common with Keokuk, Poweshiek and all other distinguished Indians as far as known, was very fond of whisky, and especially in times . of unexpected good fortune or in days of gloom and misfortune, was he accustomed to become deeply intoxicated.
Mr. Scearcy, who yet resides in Keokuk county, and who was intimately acquainted with Wapello, relates the following:
" Between the Sioux, and the Sacs and Foxes, a bitter and deadly hatred existed. This enmity was carried to such a bitter extent that it caused the establishment, by the government, of the neutral ground, in the north part of the territory, which was a strip of country about thirty miles in width, over which the tribes were not allowed to pass in order to slay each other. The love of revenge was so strongly marked in the Indian character that it was not to be suppressed by imaginary geographical lines, and consequently it was not a rare occurrence for a Sac or Fox Indian, or a Sioux, to bite the dust, as an atonement for real or imaginary wrongs. In this manner one of the sons of Wapello was cruelly cut down, from an ambush, in the year 1836. When the chief heard of the sad calamity he was on Skunk river, opposite the mouth of Crooked Creek. He immediately plunged into and swam across the stream. Upon arriving at a trading-post near by, he gave the best pony he had for a barrel of whisky, and setting it out, in- vited his people to partake, a very unwise practice which he doubtless bor- rowed from the white people who availed themselves of this medium in which to drown their sorrows."
Wapello died in Keokuk county, in March, 1844. As provided in the terms of the treaty he had retired beyond the Red Rock line early in 1843, and at the time of his death he was visiting some of the most favorite lo- calities in the country, which but a year before he had relinquished. A Mr. Romig, who for some time lived near the place where Wapello died, delivered an address before a historical society, in which he gives the fol- lowing pathetic account of the last days and death of the illustrious chief:
" As the swallow returns to the place where last she had built her nest, cruelly destroyed by the ruthless hands of some rude boy, or as a mother would return to the empty crib where once had reposed her innocent babe in the sweet embrace of sleep, and weep for the treasure she had once pos- sessed, so Wapello mourned for the hunting grounds he had been forced to . leave behind, and longed to roam over the broad expanse again. It was in
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the month of March; heavy winter had begun to shed her mantle of snow; the sun peeped forth through the fleeting clouds; the woodchuck emerged from his subterranean retreat to greet the morning breeze, and all nature seemed to rejoice at the prospect of returning spring. The old chief felt the exhilarating influence of reviving nature and longed again for the sports of his youth. He accordingly assembled a party and started on a hunting excursion to the scenes of his former exploits. But alas, the poor old man was not long destined to mourn over his misfortunes. While traveling over the beautiful prairies, or encamped in the picturesque groves that he was once wont to call his own, disease fastened upon his vitals and the chief lay prostrate in his lodge. How long the burning fever raged and racked in his brain, or who it was that applied the cooling draught to his parched lips, tradition has failed to inform us; but this we may fairly presume: that his trusty followers were deeply distressed at the sufferings of their chief whom they loved, and administered all the comforts in their power to alleviate his sufferings, but all would not avail. Grim Death had crossed his path, touched an icy finger on his brow, and marked him for his own. Human efforts to save could avail nothing. Time passed, and with it the life of Wapello. The last word was spoken, the last wish ex- pressed, the last breath drawn, and his spirit took its flight. The passing breeze in Æolean notes chanted a requiem in the elm tops. The placid creek in its meandering course murmured in chorus over the dead. The squirrel came forth in the bright sunshine to frisk and chirp in frolicksome glee, and the timid fawn approched the brook and bathed her feet in the waters, but the old man heeded it not, for Manitou, his God, had called him home.
" Although it is a matter of regret that we are not in possession of his words and other particulars connected with his death, let us endeavor to be content in knowing that Wapello died sometime in the month of March, in the year 1844, in Keokuk county, on Rock Creek, in Jackson township, on the northwest quarter of the northwest quarter, section 21, township 74, range 11 west, where a mound still marks the spot; and with knowing also that his remains were thence conveyed by Mr. Samuel Har- desty, now of Lancaster township, accompanied by twenty-two Indians and three squaws, to the Indian burial ground at Agency City, where sleep the Indian agent, Gen. Street, and numbers of the Sac and Fox tribe, and where our informant left the remains to await the arrival of Keokuk and other distinguished chiefs to be present at the interment."
Keokuk, Appanoose, and nearly all the leading men among Indians, were present at the funeral, which took place toward evening of the same day upon which the body arrived at the Agency. The usual Indian ceremonies preceded the interment, after which the remains were buried by the body of Gen. Street, which was in accordance with the chieftain's oft repeated request to be buried by the side of his honest pale-faced friend.
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