USA > Iowa > Wapello County > The history of Wapello County, Iowa, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, &c., a biographical directory of citizens, war record of its volunteers in the late rebellion, general and local statistics history of the Northwest, history of Iowa > Part 38
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HISTORY OF WAPELLO COUNTY.
herein referred to has been conducted by Mr. Evans, in company with the several gentlemen named, in the following order:
Sugar Creek-Capt. W. H. Kitterman, S. H. Burton and D. T. Mil- ler
The Stiles, by Hon. E. H. Stiles. The Trowell has not been opened, so far as can be ascertained.
Village Creek, by Mr. Richard Willians and Mr. A. T. Holly.
Keosauqua, or Ely Ford Group (shown here in diagram "B"), by Judge Robert Sloan, Mr. J. J. Kinnersly, Mr. D. C. Beaman, Messrs. Robert N. and Charles L. Dahlberg and Ben Johnson, Esq.
The names of these gentlemen are ample guaranty of the thoroughness and intelligence of the search made. Capt. Kitterman, Mr. Williams, Mr. Holly and Judge Sloan are especially qualified to prosecute so important an under- taking.
The Sugar Creek Mounds (Sec. 21. T. 72, R. 13) are simple tumuli. The first one opened stands upon a high elevation, and may be termed a mound of observation. From it, those lying to the southwest, the Trowell Mounds, are visible, although a mile and a half distant. From this post, a series of com- munication might be maintained with a person stationed on the Trowell hillock, if the intervening growth of young trees was removed. From this mound, nothing of value was obtained save bits of charcoal and decomposed ashes. This fact goes to confirm the theory that it was designed as a station of survey. The second of the Sugar Creek group contained a few decayed bones, but no estimate of their character was possible.
From the Trowell Mound the Stiles tumuli are plainly seen. These mounds lie in the suburbs of Ottumwa. When they were opened, in the spring of 1878, no traces of human burial were found. There were but few, and those unsatisfactory, evidences of cremation. In one of the largest, a small hatchet was obtained, which. was made of green stone, highly finished. The character of this hatchet led the explorers to believe that its deposit was accidental. No other implements in entire form were discovered, but several bits of broken arrow-heads and a few chips or cherts of obsidian were taken. This flint is exceedingly rare. If the valley and intervening ridges were denuded of the growing young timber, one group of the Village Creek mounds could be seen from this mound, although the Creek groups are more than three miles distant.
In the fall of 1877, three of the Village Creek mounds were carefully examined. A reference to diagram "A" will show that there are two groups. each composed of seven or eight individual mounds, lying in line. The groups are about one mile apart. Those which were opened contained evidences of cremation. Successive layers of ashes and charcoal, intermingled with calcined bones. No implements of any kind were discovered in a complete state, and but few broken arrow-heads.
From this record it will be seen that the mounds removed from the river- the Sugar Creeks-are in line of direct communication with those on the stream, by means of signals. This fact is mentioned merely as an incidental one, perhaps worthy of consideration. Recent examination of the Caldwell and Hedrick Mounds resulted in nothing important. They contained no remains, human or otherwise, but were doubtless mounds of observation solely. Still, subsequent research may reveal relics, and it is to be hoped that the investiga- tion will be carefully made at an early day.
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HISTORY OF WAPELLO COUNTY.
N
A
WE
PITTSBURG
KEOSAUQUA
SEC. 3.
SEC. 2.
DIAGRAM B.
Mounds near Keosauqua and Pittsburg, Van Buren County.
REFERENCES.
A bluff extends over Sections 2 and 3, Township 68, Range 10.
Mounds on Section 3 are known as "Ely Ford Mounds," because of creek and old ford.
The square on right of creek, near mouth, is the Shell Heap, referred to herein.
The stream running through Pittsburg is Chequest Creek.
The dotted line around the southern shore indicates where the chain of mounds exists. Scale, five-eighths inch to the mile.
In July, 1878, the Ely Ford Mounds in Van Buren County were opened. The location of these tumuli is as follows : Counting from the left bank of the creek northwestward, No. 1 is 20 rods north, 55° west from mouth of creek ; 20 feet above river-bed; 40 feet from water's edge. There is no timber. In this were found fresh-water muscle-shells in large quantity, and pieces of pottery, arrow-heads, bones (probably animals'), part of a human jaw with teeth, and foot and leg bones of a human skeleton in fair state of preservation. There was a surface deposit of about two feet ever these remains.
No. 2 was 10 rods north, 60° west from No. 1, on Bluff Point, 100 feet above river-bed, 200 feet from water's edge. On this mound were the decayed remains of a large white-oak tree, which was two feet in diameter ; also young oak growing. In the mound was found
A HUMAN SKULL
entire, except the lower jaw. A portion of the upper jaw was decomposed, but one tooth remained. The leg-bones were also discovered. The position of the skeleton was two feet beneath the surface, with head southeast, horizontal. The same pottery as in No. 1. The dimensions of this skull are as follows : horizontal circumference, 20 inches ; longitudinal arc, from nasal depression, along middle line of skull to occipital protuberance, 13 inches ; transverse measurement, 5 inches ; vertical height, 3 75-100 inches ; longitudinal meas- urement, 8 inches. This skull approaches very nearly to the famous Neander- thal, or Cave skull, of Prussia.
No. 3 is half-moon shaped, 15 rods north, 550 west from No. 2, on same bluff, 120 feet above the river-bed, and 200 feet from water's edge. In it were found thigh-bones.
No. 4 was 15 rods north, 45° west from No. 3, but contained nothing valu- able, and may be modern.
No. 5 was a large mound, 50 feet in diameter and 5 feet in height ; located 30 rods south, 45° east from mouth of Ely's Creek, on high bluff point, 100 feet above river-bed, and 20 rods from water's edge. Upon it was a decayed white oak stump, 24 inches in diameter, located 12 feet north, 10° west from ฿
$40
HISTORY OF WAPELLO COUNTY.
the center of the mound, and another stump of similar character 16 inches in diameter, 4 feet north from center. In this mound were discovered human thigh-bones under the south side of the large stump, five feet from the surface, and subsequent investigation revealed
TWO SKELETONS
in excellent state of preservation. The wood of the oak crumbled in the hand, because of its exceedingly rotten condition. There were fragments of the arm- bone, and the position of the body must have been horizontal, with head toward the west and leg doubled under. Quantities of shells were found, as in No. 1.
The river-bank is thickly covered with these mounds. The diagram does not show the twentieth part of the tumuli in Van Buren County. Nearly fifty have been discovered in the immediate vicinity of Keosauqua. We aim to locate only those which have been explored by Mr. Evans, or some one skilled in the detection of relics.
Judge Sloan has devoted a considerable portion of the leisure which his arduous professional duties grudgingly gave him to the contemplation of thissubject. From him we learn that he is aware of the existence of some forty-five mounds, be- sides many "pockets," or places of deposit in the bluffs, where shells, bits of bone-probably of animals that served as food-and fragments of pottery are placed, and slightly covered with earth.
The most valuable discovery yet made in the Des Moines Valley is the skull which we have described. It is the remains of a race the like of which does not exist on earth at the present time. The doubts created as to the antiquity of the stone implements found are natural and reasonable. Any race of stone- workers might have produced them ; but the irrefutable evidence of the skull silences comment and arouses profound conjecture. The modern Indian pos- sesses no characteristics like those which must have been the portion of this man, whose gaping sockets mock us as we gaze into them. Could the tongue which once formed syllables of command beneath that moldering jaw be re-in- vested with the power to speak, what tales it could unfold !
The race of which this is a type was easily led, low in intellect, and not far different from the patient toiler on the Pyramids of Egypt.
Messrs. Robert N. and Charles L. Dahlberg, explored the region of the mouth of Chequest Creek, at Pittsburg, Van Buren County, with satisfactory results, on the 31st of July, 1878. Ancient pottery was discovered. A descrip- tion of the ware, prepared by the gentlemen who unearthed it, is herewith appended :
The pieces of pottery found are composed of clay and sand, mixed with small pebbles, form- ing a cement which appears to be baked rather than burned. The most of the pieces found show that the heat applied in their construction was not sufficient to melt the sand or pebbles, or in any way to affect their original condition. No glazing appears on the pottery, and yet it is of a hard, firm, durable substance which is impervious to water. One piece of pottery is about four inches square, but of an irregular shape. At one point it is shown to be a part of the top of a wide-mouthed vessel, evidently about two inches less in diameter at the neck than at the top. Judging by the arc described by the piece in question, the neck of the piece must have been at least 18 inches in diameter.
This piece also shows attempts at ornamentation, having a horizontal row of dots, or beads, about an inch and a half from the top of the vessel ; these have the appearance of having been made by punctures from the inside of the vessel, and are about half an inch apart, or seven- eighths from center to center.
There are also parallel lines running about it horizontally, about half an inch apart, which were evidently made by some blunt instrument about one-eighth of an inch square, pressed into the clay, leaving little ridges between each impression of the instrument that would average about one-sixteenth of an inch thick. There are a number of small pieces, one showing dis- tinctly that the neck and rim of the vessel above it were quite flaring, though this rim does not
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HISTORY OF WAPELLO COUNTY.
show entire. The rim is ornamented by diamond-shaped figures made by lines crossing each other, which lines are formed very much like the parallel lines in the larger piece.
Another piece shows parallel lines. One small piece is corrugated as the Ely Ford pottery ; and shows distinctly the application of heat sufficient to fuse the silex in the composition of the pottery, making it a very hard and firm substance; this piece is thinuer than the baked pieces. Another piece shows bead-work distinctly about an inch from the top of the vessel ; the body of the vessel is ornamented with parallel lines running at right angles with the top of the vessel, made as in the first piece described, and the top ornamented very much as our mothers used to ornament the edge of a pie.
Several other pieces show the application of heat sufficient to fuse the silex in their compo- sition, Several, including the larger piece described above, show on the edges and upon bothi surfaces glittering particles, which appear to be small pieces of isinglass. This pottery was nearly all found upon the surface of the ground, having been washed out by the action of the water; some were found on the creek-bank, and some on the river-bank near the edge of the water, but all at the mouth of Chequest, which empties into the river at Pittsburg. In the river-bank in front of the village is also a bed of ashes and charcoal, about three inches in deptlı, and about two feet from the surface of the ground.
Mr. Evans recently contributed to the Chicago Times a series of letters descriptive of the mounds in this locality, and speculative as to their origin. We quote so much of the contributions as treats of the appearance of the tumuli:
The mounds which I have examined on Village Creek presented the following conditions, They are found on natural elevations, the highest in the vicinity. They are regular in shape and regular in the arrangement of the materials which compose them. The second stratum of earth composing them, immediately beneath the natural soil, accumulated by the decay of vege- tation, is very often foreign to the surroundings. Then succeed strata of ashes, charcoal and earth, averaging about five inches in thickness. Human remains are found in these mounds, but not always, which indicates that they were not originally made for burial places, and give color to the idea that they were utilized by succeeding populations for uses foreign to the design of the builders. But in Iowa they are not numerous enough to encourage the supposition that they were merely sites of dwelling-places, because of the labor to build them. It is not reason- able to believe that any people, whether civilized or barbarous, would build a mound which would require the labor of ten men for fifty days, on the top of which a wooden building could be constructed less than twenty feet in circumference.
In Wapello County we have a range of mounds about two miles from the river, on a ridge running parallel with the Des Moines, on the southern side which overlooks the plateau or bot- tom land of the stream, and is in plain view of a corresponding range of mounds situated on a high hill north of the river. These mounds are similar in shape, and having examined many of them on each side of the river, I find their interior composition to be very much alike. The layers of ashes, charcoal and earth are the same, and in some of them human remains were found. In a few of them I have discovered flint implements. I must confess, however, that after all my examinations I cannot settle down on any well-grounded opinion as to the objects for which these mounds were created, except to disagree with all the theories so far advanced. The ashes and charcoal and human remains showing the action of fire, have at times induced me to believe that the Mound-Builders practiced cremation, and that after the rites were performed the remains were covered with earth, each succeeding funeral pyre adding to the height of the mound. Yet, while this theory has in my mind more proofs than any other yet advanced, I am not prepared to accept it without additional evidence.
Archæologists have determined that the mounds of America may be prop- erly classed under three general heads, viz .: Mounds of Observation, Mounds of Sacrifice and Mounds of Burial. The first were doubtless used as posts of communication between distant bands. They are always found on elevated lands, from which wide areas of territory may be seen, if modern timber or edifices do not intervene. From one to another a signal fire or flag might have conveyed intelligence of invasion, of joy or of distress. This class of works is found in Wapello County, in an excellent state of preservation. The larger groups present evidences of having been erected for such purposes, rather than for sacrificial observances, or even for the disposal of the dead : although some of the tumuli, undoubtedly, were devoted separately to each of the three purposes.
In Van Buren County, the dwelling-places of the Mound-Builders are more distinctly marked. While observation hills are found there, also, the larger
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HISTORY OF WAPELLO COUNTY.
number of mounds bear striking testimony of other uses. The unearthing of the skeletons from Mounds Nos. 2 and 5, are events worthy of the considera- tion of scientists the world over. The fragments of pottery, the stone imple- ments and the heaps of shells and animal bones, furnish food for deepest thought. The ground is rich in remains of every character, and should be thoroughly investigated.
From far above Pittsburg to a point several miles below Keosauqua, a con- tinuous chain of works is to be seen. The diagram of the great bend in the river, near Keosanqua, shows but a faint outline of the place where future archæologists will delve with satisfactory results.
It is not within the province of this chapter to enter into an elaborate dis- cussion of the subject, but, as has already been intimated, merely to suggest where the labor should be undertaken. Van Buren County should be made the theater of exhaustive research, and if this paper prepares the way for such enterprises, its mission will be fully accomplished.
HISTORY OF THE ABORIGINES.
From the contemplation of this primordial race-a people which must be termed the originals, so far as our imperfect knowledge extends, but which may, after all, have been but the last fragments of a nation greater even than our own-let us pass to the consideration of those tribes which are not myth- ical.
Human improvement, rushing through civilization, crushes in its march all who cannot grapple to its car. This law is as inexorable as Fate. "You colonize the lands of the savage with the Anglo-Saxon," says Stephen Montague ; "you civilize that portion of the earth ; but is the savage civilized ? He is exterminated ! You accumulate machinery, you increase the total of wealth; but what becomes of the labor you displace ? One generation is sacrificed to the next. You diffuse knowledge, and the world seems to grow brighter ; but Discontent at Poverty replaces Ignorance happy with its crust. Every Improvement, every advancement in civilization, injures some to benefit others, and either cherishes the want of to-day or prepares the revolution of to-morrow."
It is, as it were, but yesterday since the hills upon which Ottumwa's palace homes now stand re-echoed the mournful dirge of the departing red man. The years are few in number since the sorrowful cortege passed slowly toward the setting sun, leaving behind the noble dead, sleeping in the cold embrace of the grim monarch, by the side of their beloved white father; leaving the homes they had been taught to claim as their own ; leaving all, even hope, behind. There still live many persons who beheld the strange sight of a remnant of a race departing forever from the scenes of their early life. and such will, doubt- less, be disposed to sneer at the pen which finds a source of sadness in the con- templation of this event. But worthy hands have written lines of liv- ing power upon the theme, nor can the harsh character of fact denude the sub- ject of a glamour which poetry and romance have cast around the dusky subject and his fate. There is a grandeur in the record of the race which the stern force of truth is powerless to dispel.
Those men who were compelled to meet the groveling band which had sur- vived the first shock of defeat, saw only the ruin which the strong had wrought upon the weak. The native power had fled; a subjugated race was subsist-
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HISTORY OF WAPELLO COUNTY.
ing in its helplessness upon the bounty of its conquerors. There was no spot on earth left for them. Foot by foot their mighty possessions were taken from them, not in the din and whirl of battle, but by the humiliating processes of peace. Here, at last, they stood, with bowed heads, meekly awaiting the decree which should compel them to resume their endless march. Behind them was the tradition of their strength ; before them, annihilation of their clans. Even their warlike instincts were dwarfed in the presence of their masters. Had they disputed titles with the whites, the memories clustering about them now would be far different. But that resort to arms, that defiant struggle to the end, that disappearance in dramatic furor-all was denied them. Had they been other in nature than they were, this placid surrender to fate would seem less pitiful. Once fierce and bloody, then subdued, their stolid acceptance of destiny carried with it a mournful air that will be breathed through history's pages while our race shall live.
The Indian is the embodiment of the dramatic, and when the curtain is rung down upon a scene so spiritless and tame as this of which we write, the admiration which is his due is turned to pity. The actual spectators of the drama find it impossible to forget the sordid character of the players, it is true ; but at so short a remove of time as this which has already elapsed since this county was the theater of the play, a shade of romance is imparted and the events become absorbing in their interest.
The very name of Wapello, which the practical iconoclast has not succeeded in tearing from the county seal, suggests the importance of the Indian history of this county. We shall endeavor to preserve for future generations the story of the declining days of the once great Sacs and Foxes.'
In the State history which precedes this department of the work, an extended history of the several tribes is given. It is the purpose of this chap- ter to take up the thread of narrative at the point where the county of Wapello becomes the scene of action, extending backward far enough to merely gather the scattered ends.
In this work the writer is dependent largely upon a series of papers from the pen of the late Major John Beach, son-in-law of the original Indian Agent, Gen. Street, and who in turn was Agent after the death of the General in 1840. These papers were prepared in the summer of 1874, and published in the Agency Independent. Major Beach died September 2, 1874, or before the series was published in full. That such forethought was manifested by him, is a matter of congratulation among all who are interested in this county. It is to be regretted, however, that the Major did not prepare a still more elaborate history of the tribes he was so long associated with. While we do not consider it essential to preserve, in exact form, the series of articles alluded to, we have carefully extracted all salient points, and have added to them much more information, obtained through those conversant with the matter.
THE GREAT BLACK HAWK.
Black Hawk, the great chief, was born in Sac Village, about three miles from the junction of Rock River with the Mississippi, in Illinois, in 1767. He came of a brave stock and began the life of a warrior at fifteen years of age. Black Hawk's name is variously given, but Major Beach, who was personally acquainted with the chief, writes that the real orthography is Muck-a-ta-mish- e-ki-ak-ki-ak, which means a black hawk. The history of this chief is not intimately associated with Wapello County, and this paragraph is introduced
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HISTORY OF WAPELLO COUNTY.
merely for the sake of preserving the spelling of the name. A fact is mentioned in Major Beach's sketch which is here produced :
The Sacs and Foxes, according to their traditions, once dwelt upon the shores of the great lakes. Gradually they were pushed westward, until in time they came to occupy a large portion of Northern Illinois. In spite of the press- ure of the whites, this band occupied a site on the east shore of the Missis- sippi, near Rock River. Here Black Hawk was, in 1832, the controlling spirit. " He was never a chief, either by inheritance or election," declares Major Beach, " and his influence was shared by a wily old savage, of part Winne- bago blood, called the Prophet, who could do with Black Hawk pretty much as he pleased ; and also by a Sac named Na-pope, the English of which is Soup, and whom the writer found to be a very friendly and manageable old native, as was also Black Hawk."
If this be true, as there is every reason to esteem it, the character of Black Hawk stands out as a " self-made Indian," if an Americanism can be thus parodied, and he appears in the nature of a dictator as well as that of a great ruler.
Of the famous Black Hawk war, it is not within the province of this sketch to speak ; it belongs to the history of Illinois, and has been repeatedly written up. After the defeat of the chief, in 1832, he was captured and taken to Prai- rie du Chien. After an imprisonment in Jefferson Barracks, and, subsequently, in Fortress Monroe, whither he was taken, he was returned, at the interces- sion of Keokuk, to this region. In his old age, Black Hawk sought the com- pany of the garrison, his band was broken up and the once great chief was left alone in his declining years. Major Beach relates the following incident de- rived from personal observation :
" Black Hawk's lodge was always the perfection of cleanliness, a quite unu- sual thing for an Indian. The writer has seen the old woman busily at work with her broom, by time of sunrise, sweeping down the little ant-hills in the yard that had been thrown up during the night. As the chiefs of the nation seemed to pay him but little attention in the waning years of his life, Gen. Street, the Agent, looked out for his comfort more carefully than otherwise he would have thought it needful to do, and, among other things, gave him a cow- an appendage to an Indian's domestic establishment hitherto unheard of. The old squaw and daughter were instructed in the art of milking her, and she was held among them in almost as great reverence as the sacred ox, Apis, was held among the ancient Egyptians.
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