USA > Iowa > Pocahontas County > The pioneer history of Pocahontas County, Iowa, from the time of its earliest settlement to the present time > Part 14
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Forty-nine regiments of infantry (forty-eight of white troops and one of colored), nine regiments and two ex- tra companies of cavalry, and four bat- western portion of this country, the teries of artillery were enrolled in the people of Iowa cast a decisive major- patriotic force, making 56,364 men in ity vote on the platform, declaring duly organized and reported Iowa "We most unqualifiedly and emphat- troops, while there were 19,155 enlist- ically disapprove of the efforts now ments of Iowa men in other states, made in congress to legislate slavery that made the grand army of 75,519 into the territory of Nebraska."
They then believed that the broad- sons of her population at the close of est possible freedom was essential to the struggle. Of those' reported in the true happiness of the people and Iowa organizations, 3,360 were killed real prosperity of the state. They or died of wounds received in battle claimed civic freedom for themselves and 8,810 died of disease or fell by ac- and their posterity and patriotically cident, making a total loss of 12,170 gave voice and vote that others set- men.
tling new territories throughout this "Sleep sacred dust of noble dead, broad West, should enjoy these same Spring's brightest bloom shall deck your head. " -
heaven-bequeathed advantages. In- spirations of the noblest patriotism Iowa's part in the conflict for per- petual, national unity in a redeemed country was costly in precious lives. Her homes were made sad by the sor- determined the lines of development that have made Iowa, in her brief his- tory, not only one of the freest and most progressive but also one of the rows of war, but her people faltered most orderly states of the Union.
not when called to patriotic duty.
When in April, 1861, the stirring A beautiful monument, costing message that rebel hosts assailing $150,000, was erected in 1895, by the Fort Sumpter had made necessary the State of Iowa, south of the Capitol in proclamation of President Lincoln, Des Moines, to commemorate the summoning the states to send armed heroism of the Iowa soldiers and sail- men to maintain the national author- ors of 1861 to 1865. It is an upright ity, the citizens of no other of the shaft surmounted with the statue of twenty-four loyal states were more victory. earnest in patriotic determination and deed than were the people of this state. The patriotism of the people of Iowa had its expression in the fact
"Situated in the central region of the grand constellation of states, Iowa favors their perpetual union. ITer intelligent citizens regard each star with equal respect. In the na-
*Hand book of Iowa; 355:
men enrolled, or one for each ten per-
EDUCATION, RELIGION AND PATRIOTISM.
109
IOWA SOLDIERS' AND SAILORS' MONUMENT.
Erected in 1895 at a cost of $150,000, south of the Capitol, Des Moines,
110
PIONEER HISTORY OF POCAHONTAS COUNTY, IOWA.
tional parliamentary halls her citi- uel J. Kirkwood upon his election as zens haye won fame and honor; in the United States senator.
highest judicial chambers her citizens have gained honored name; in the high duties of cabinet councils and diplomatic offices her representatives have rendered distinguished service. Exalting the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, she recog- nizes each of her citizens as having equal rights to life, liberty, the ad- vantages of her schools and the pro- tection of her government."
"Land of the noble heart and brave!
How leaped thy men in the thickest fray, When died our noblest sons, to save
Our mighty realm to freedom's sway;
Thy children know where honor lies,
The deeds that greatness consecrates: And on their matchless virtues, rise
The pillars of a peerless state."
-HORATIO N. POWERS.
SUCCESSION OF GOVERNORS.
The following gentlemen have filled the executive chair of the state since the admission of Iowa into the Union: SUCCESSION OF UNITED STATES SENA-
Date Of Service. Represented.
Ansel Briggs 1846-1850, Jackson.
Stephen Hempstead ... 1850-1854, Dubuque.
Jas. W. Grimes 1854-1858,
Des Moines.
Ralph P. Lowe 1858-1860.
Lee.
Samuel J. Kirkwood. .1860-1864,
Johnson.
William M. Stone 1864-1868,
Marion.
Samuel Merrill.
1868-1872, Clayton.
Cyrus Carpenter 1872-1876,
Webster.
Samuel J. Kirkwood.
.1876-1877,
Johnson.
Joshua G. Newbold .. ... 1877-1878,
Henry
John H. Gear .1878-1882,
Des Moines.
Buren R. Sherman ,1882 1886,
Benton.
William Larrabee .... .1886 1890,
Fayette.
Horace Boies 1890-1894,
Black Hawk
Frank D. Jackson 1894-1896, Polk.
Francis M. Drake 1896-1898, Appanoose.
Leslie M. Shaw .1898 to pres. Crawford
Joshua G. Newbold was elected Lieutenant-Governor, but became
Governor on the resignation of Sam-
CABINET OFFICERS.
Six citizens of Iowa have held posi- tions in the cabinet of the President of the United States, as follows:
JAMES HARLAN was Secretary of the Interior in the second administra- tion of Abraham Lincoln.
W. W. BELKNAP was Secretary of War in Gen. Grant's administration.
SAMUEL J. KIRKWOOD was Secreta- ry of the Department of the Interior, under Presidents Garfield and Arthur.
GEORGE W. MCCRARY was Secreta- ry of War under President Hayes.
FRANK HATTON was Postmaster- General during part of President Ar- thur's administration.
JAMES WILSON is now Secretary of the Department of Agriculture, under the administration of President Mc- Kinley.
County TORS.
Iowa has been represented in the United States Senate by the follow- ing citizens:
Geo. W. Jones, of Dubuque 1848 to 1859 Augustus C. Dodge, of Burlington ... 1848 to 1855 James Harlan, of Mt. Pleasant. .1855 to 1865
James W.Grimes, of Burlington .1858 to 1870 Samuel J. Kirkwood, of Iowa City ... 1866 to 1867 James Harlan, of Mt. Pleasant. 1867 to 1873 Jas. B. Howell, Keokuk, Jan. 20 to Mch. 4, 1871 (To fill vacancy caused by death of James W. Grimes.)
Geo. G. Wright, of Des Moines ..... 1871 to 1877 William B. Allison, of Dubuque, .. 1873 to the present time.
Samuel J. Kirkwood. of Iowa City ... 1877 to 1881 James W. McDiil, of Afton. 1881 to 1883
(Appointed by the Governor, Mch.
8, 1881, to fill vacancy by resigna-
tion of Samuel J. Kirkwood.)
James F. Wilson, of Fairfield ... .. 1883 to 1995 John H. Gear, Burlington, 1895 to pres. time.
THE HISTORY
-OF --
Pocahontas County, Iowa,
IN THREE PERIODS.
PERIODS.
1-1856-1869-Period of Early Settlement by Pioneers. II-1870-1882-Period of Organization and Railway Construction. III-1883-1898-Period of Growth and Development.
-INCLUDING AN ACCOUNT OF-
The Previous Establishment of the County, Its Survey,
-- AND THE STORY OF-
POCAHONTAS, The Indian Princess of Virginia.
1
THE OLD CAPITOL AT IOWA CITY.
It was occupied by the General Assembly of Iowa from ' Dec. 6, 1841, to March 5, 1857. It is now the Central Building of the State University.
7
HISTORY OF POCAHONTAS COUNTY,
PIONEER PERIOD,-1856-69.
"Behold the new Eden! At last man has found it."
I.
THE COUNTY ESTABLISHED AND STORY OF POCAHONTAS, AFTER WHOM IT WAS NAMED,
"My native country, thee Land of the noble free, Thy name I love."
HE county of Poca- ships 93 and 94, to the northwest cor- hontas was estab- ner of township 93, range 34; thence southi on the line between ranges 34 and 35 to the southwest corner of township 90, north, range 34 west; thence east on the line between town- ships 89 and 90 to the southwest cor- ner of township 90, range 30; thence north to the place of beginning." lished and received its present name by an act of the third General Assembly of the state of Iowa, that convened at Iowa City, December 3, 1850. This This act established and defined the boundaries of fifty new counties in northern and western Iowa, as fol- lows: act was entitled, "An act to establish new counties and to define their boun- daries," and it was approved January 15, 1851.
Section 29 of this act reads as fol- lows: "That the following shall be lin, Wright, Risley (1853 united to
the boundaries of a new county which shall be called Pocahontas, to wit: Beginning at the northwest corner of township 93 north, range 30 west; thence west on the line dividing town-
Union, Adair, Adams, Cass, Mont- gomery, Mills, Pottawattamie, Bre- mer, Butler, Grundy, Hardin, Frank- Webster, 1857 became Hamilton), Yell (Jan. 22, 1853, Webster), Guthrie, Au- dubon, Carroll, Fox (Jan. 22, 1853, Cal- houn), Greene, Sac, Crawford, Shelby, Harrison, Monona, Ida, Wahkaw (1853
114
PIONEER HISTORY OF POCAHONTAS COUNTY, IOWA.
Woodbury), Humbolt (1853, extinct, 1857, Humboldt), Pocahontas, Buena Vista, Cherokee, Plymouth, Chicka- saw, Floyd, Cerro Gordo, Hancock, Kossuth, Palo Alto, Clay, O'Brien, Sioux, Howard, Mitchell, Worth, Win- nebago, Bancroft, Emmet, Dickinson, Osceola, Buncombe (1862, Lyon).
When the county of Dubuque was established by the territorial legisla- ture of Michigan, at Detroit, it in- cluded the territory contained in Po- cahontas county, as appears from the following act, approved September 6, 1834:
An act to lay off and organize coun- ties west of the Mississippi river.
Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the Legis- lative Council of the Territory of Michigan, That all that district of country which was attached to the Territory of Michigan, by the act of congress, entitled "An Act to Attach names of Iowa, Sac, Sioux, Winneba- the Territory of the United States West of the Mississippi River, and North of the State of Missouri to the Territory of Michigan," approved June 28, 1834, and to which the Indian title has been extinguished, which is situated to the north of a line to be drawn due west from the lower end of Rock Island to the Missouri river, shall constitute a county, and be called Dubuque. The said county shall constitute township, which shall be called Julien. The seat of justice shall be established at the vil- lage of Dubuque until the same shall be changed by the Judges of the coun- ty court of said county .*
The territory thus included in the boundaries of Dubuque county, con- tained all of the northern half of the present state of Iowa, all of the state of Minnesota west of the Mississippi river and all the territory of the states of Dakota, east of the Missouri river, being the largest territory ever included in the boundaries of one county.
In 1837, the lower tier of townships, of what is now Pocahontas county, namely: Lizard, Bellville, Colfax and Cedar, formed a part of Buchanan county, and the remainder, a part of Fayette.
When the county was established in 1851, it was first temporarily attached to Polk county, for revenue, election and judicial purposes. On January 22, 1853, it was similarly attached to Boone county and on July 1, 1855, to Webster county.
Pocahontas county was organized by an order of the County Judge of Web- ster county, who issued an order Feb- ruary 19, 1859, directing an election to be held on the 15th day of March fol- lowing, when a full Board of county officers was elected.
It is of interest to note that Poca- hontas is one of those counties of Iowa that has a name of Indian ori- gin. The names of local tribes of In- dians have been preserved in the bago and Pottawattamie counties; and of southern tribes in the names of Cherokee and Chickasaw counties.
The names of the most noted chiefs of local tribes have been preserved in the names of the following counties of Iowa: Appanoose and Black Hawk, (both of whom were powerful chiefs of the Sac and Fox tribe), Keokuk, (a Sac, sometimes called "The watchful fox," or "He who has been every- where"), Wapello, (a Fox, "The playing fox"), Mahaska, (a chief of the Iowas, "White Cloud"), Powe- sheik, (a Sac, "The roused bear" or "The shedding bear") and Winne- sheik, (a Winnebago, "Yellow Thun- der" or "Coming Thunder.")
It is also worthy of note that Poca- hontas is one of three counties in Iowa that have been named after noted women, the other two being Bremer and Louisa. Bremer county was named in honor of Frederika Bremer, the Swedish traveler and author. Louisa county was named in honor of Louisa Massey, a young lady of Dubuque, who, a few months be- fore the passage of the act of the ter- ritorial legislature of Michigan at Belmont, in 1836, creating the county,
*See page 58.
115
THE STORY OF POCAHONTAS.
had shot a ruffian named Smith, who and who in the writings of John Smith had threatened the life of her brother and his contemporaries, was called and was believed to be making an op- "King" and "Emperor of Virginia." portunity to execute the threat, he
The name "Pocahontas" signifies "a having previously participated in the rivulet between two hills," and she murder of an other brother. She was was so named because she was a peace- a heroine, and among the early pio- maker between two peoples. She neers, heroes and heroines were highly was born about 1595, and by her respected and honored whenever an friendly offices toward the colonists, opportunity was presented. The pio- saved them on several occasions from
The Grave of Powhatan, "Emperor of Virginia," 1608-19, on the Jamestown river .*
neer law-makers of Iowa were not un- the consequences of her father's hos- mindful of the claims of women for tility. recognition. POCAHONTAS SAVES JOHN SMITH.
This county was named in honor of The most noted instance of this Pocahontas, the Virginia Indian prin- kind is said to have occurred in 1607, cess. She was the daughter of Pow- at a place on York river, in what is hatan, the recognized leader of thirty now Gloucester county, Virginia. subordinate chiefs of the powerful John Smith, captain, knight and ex- Powhatans of the James river valley, plorer, in pushing his canoe through
*This and the three following plates, illustrating this chapter, are inserted through the courtesy of G. P. Putnam's Sons, N. Y., from "Colonial Homesteads" by Marion Harland, per favor of the Interior, Chicago.
116
PIONEER HISTORY OF POCAHONTAS COUNTY, IOWA.
the tortuous creeks of the Chicka- be on a hunting expedition. The In- hominy swamp, fell into an ambush dians killed his two companions while of three hundred Indians. After a asleep in their tent, surprised and desperate defense he was taken pris- captured Smith while seeking food. oner by O-pe-can-chan-ough, the broth- It will be remembered that the er of Powhatan, whom he succeeded English colony at Jamestown was es- in 1618, and who carried out the great tablished June 22, 1607, by the arrival massacre of the colonists, on Good of one hundred and five persons, of Friday, 1622. By him he was carried whom sixty-seven had died from sick- before Powhatan to be tried for kill- ness and starvation by the 8th of Jan- ing two of the Indians. At the time uary following. Never were English- of the trial a long consultation was men left in a foreign country in such held and then two great stones were misery as these first colonists of Vir- brought before Powhatan, when as ginia. Their food consisted of barley many as could, laid hands on Smith, sodden with water, and their drink, dragged him to the stones, placed his the water from the James river, head thereon, and, being ready with which at flood was very salt and at their clubs to beat out his brains, Po- low tide, full of slime and filth that cahontas, "the King's dearest daugh- proved the destruction of many of ter," her entreaties having failed, them. hastened to his rescue by embracing
The country they had settled in was his head and laying her own head up- sparsely populated by numerous tribes on his to save him from death. Her of Indians, who owned as their para- father was moved by this unusual act mount chief, Powhatan, who then of intercession on the part of Poca- lived at We-ro-woc-o-mo-co, a village hontas, and permitted Smith to live, on the Pamunky river, about twelve "to make him hatchets and her bells, miles by land from Jamestown.
beads and copper." About six weeks later, he sent him under escort to Jamestown.
Powhatan, who in 1608, by King James I, was crowned "Powhatan I, Emperor of Virginia," as a matter of
"How could the stern old king deny, courtesy, had twenty sons and ten The angel pleading in her eye? How mock the sweet, imploring grace That breathed in beauty from her face, And to her kneeling action gave A power to soothe and still subdue. " - SIMMIS.
daughters. Whether by beauty and sprightliness, or by force of her daunt- less spirit, Pocahontas had a hold up- on his savage nature that no other creature ever gained. During his
The circumstances that led to the captivity of some six weeks which af- capture of Smith were as follows: On forded many opportunities of familiar December 10, 1607, Captain John discourse with those who kept him, Smith, of whom it was said, "The the knightly soldier, Captain Smith, Spaniard never more greedily desired made her his friend. The influence gold than he victual,"with nine other upon her character and career of men in the barge, left Jamestown to this period and the subsequent intima- obtain some maize from the Indians cy to which it led can hardly be exag- and to explore the upper waters of the gerated. She had inherited with her Chickahominy. At Apocant, he and father's imperiousness, the intellect two of his companions, Jehu Robin- that made him emperor, while his son and Thomas Emery, in a canoe, brothers were but kings. Captain passed twenty miles further up the Smith, who had been assigned the river, where a brother of Powhatan duty of pleasing the fancy of the sav- with about 300 Indians happened to age maiden, was a soldier, traveler,
117
THE STORY OF POCAHONTAS.
dramatist, historian and diplomatist. child, intelligent beyond her years, Pocahontas drew from him the earli- and meeting him at the most impres- est aspirations that led to her conver- sionable period of her life, fashioned sion to christianity. Referring to her ideas of his people. Under her the period he himself remarked, providential tutor her mind, heart "What can a man with faith in relig- and ambitions assumed a new com-
POCAHONTAS, the Indian Princess of Virginia, as she appear- ed in London in 1616.
ion do more agreeable to God than to plexion.
seek to convert these poor savages to Christ and humanity."
When Powhatan offered him a prin- cipality if he would cast in his for-
He was the model, without fear and tunes with the tribe, his unselfish re- without reproach, upon which the ply was made in the form of a request
118
PIONEER HISTORY OF POCAHONTAS COUNTY, IOWA.
for a safe conduct to Jamestown. to his home in England for surgical This favor he acknowledges was se- aid. cured through the successful inter- As soon as the savages had learned cession of Pocahontas with her father. that Captain Smith had left the
On September 10, 1608, soon after colony they decided to make war upon his return to Jamestown, the presi- it. dency of the colony was forced upon POCAHONTAS A CAPTIVE. him. Under his administration James- Though humbled as a slave, town became a village of nearly five To more than queenly sway, she grew. hundred inhabitants, and a church was erected for public worship.
When starvation was staring the colonists in the face, Pocahontas, who was then "a well featured young girl, fleet of foot, black-eyed and brown- skinned," frequently visited James- town with her "wild train" following her in single file, each bearing gifts of corn and game. Asa King's daughter, she wore a white heron's feather in her hair and bands of coral on her wrists and ankles. Her slender, graceful form was wrapped in a robe of doe skin, lined and edged with the down of pigeons. A queen in miniature, once in every four or five days she and her "wild train" laden with food, vis- ited the colony until the peril from famine had passed.
In 1609, President Smith and eigh- teen companions, having visited Pow- hatan at his special request, Pocahon- tas, on a dark night and traveling alone through the woods to where they were encamped, gave them warning of an intended immediate attack by the Indians. She was not yet fourteen years of age, but showed herself a wom- an in depth of devotion to her friends, brave even to recklessness, and holding her own life as nothing by comparison with her loyalty. The at- tack was made as she had predicted and the catastrophe planned by the cunning chieftain was prevented only by the coolness and courage of Captain Smith.
In the meantime, the secret mission by night of Pocahontas had been dis- covered to her father, and he wreaked his wrath upon her until existence with him became unendurable and she sought an asylum of refuge in the wigwam of Japazaws, a chief of the Potomac tribe, an old acquaintance of Captain Smith and friendly to the English.
Captain Samuel Argall, a privateers- man, being sent up the Potomac for corn and learning that a daughter of Powhatan was the guest of the In- dian's squaw, by the gift of a burnish- ed copper kettle succeeded in get- ting Pocahontas to visit his vessel. When she stepped aboard the vessel, the captain told her before her friends she must go with him and make peace between Powhatan and the colonists before she should see her father. Thus she became a prisoner and was held by the colonists for the purpose of exact- ing a ransom from her father and as a. means of maintaining peace with the Indians.
She was now (1612) nearly eighteen years old, had soft, wistful eyes, deli- cately arched brows, a mouth at once proud and tender, and slender hands and feet. She was not tall, but erect, and carried herself, as a daughter of a king, with a sort of imperious grace that rebuked familiarity.
When the message had been sent to Powhatan that his daughter, Pocahon- tas, whom he loved so dearly, must be
A few months after this visit to ransomed by the return of all white Powhatan, Captain Smith wasserious- prisoners and stolen property it troub- ly injured while on the river and on led him greatly, but three months October 4, 1609, was obliged to return passed before he sent any reply or took
119
THE STORY OF POCAHONTAS.
any notice of the humiliating intelli- gence.
This reply displeased him and noth- ing more was heard from him for a
He then returned seven white pris- long time afterward. With a pride oners, each with . an unserviceable equal to his own, Pocahontas brooded musket, and sent word that when his over this public insult offered her by daughter was delivered he would make his silence and seeming indifference. satisfaction for all injuries done, give But if she was branded as an outcast 500 bushels of corn and forever be from her father's heart and tribe the a friend of the colonists. people of Jamestown received her
CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH.
To these advances the colonists with affectionate hospitality. "The made answer that his daughter would long repressed craving for refinement be well used, but that they could not and knowledge of the great, beautiful believe that the rest of their arms world-the echo from which had first that had been captured were either thrilled her untaught soul during the lost or stolen from him, and therefore golden month passed in her forest- until he sent them they would keep home by the superb stranger with the kind eyes and winning smile == was
his daughter:
120 PIONEER HISTORY OF POCAHONTAS COUNTY, IOWA.
now to be gratified." *
In a subsequent conference with her brothers she remarked: "If my father had loved me he would not value me less than old swords, guns and axes; wherefore, I will still dwell with the Englishmen who love me. "
POCAHONTAS WEDS JOHN ROLFE, AS "LADY REBECCA. "
born is unknown. The banks of the beautiful river from Jamestown to Henricus .are now & gratefully _conse- crated to her dear memory.
June 12, 1616, in the fourth year after marriage, she, her husband and her little son," crossing [the Atlantic ocean, landed in Plymouth, England, and there she became the object of admiring interest in“ fashionable cir- cles. Before she" reached London,
The separation was now complete, Captain Smith petitioned Queen Anne and believing Captain Smith was on her behalf, and it is in this peti- dead, she fell in love with John Rolfe, tion of June, 1616, that the account of "an honest gentleman of good behav- his deliverance_by_ the Indian girl, ior, fairly educated, a staunch church- first appears. man possessing a missionary spirit, a
After a pleasant sojourn of about well-to-do widower and a protege of seven months in England, during Sir Thomas Dale." Renouncing the idolatry of her own people and accept-
which time she was well received both by the court andaby the people, ing the christian religion, she present- she became affected with that dread ed herself for baptism at the font in disease, rapid consumption, no doubt the church built at Jamestown, by due to the effect of a northern winter Lord De la Ware, and was christened upon her semi-tropical constitution. "Rebecca." Under this name Poca- Preparations were hastened for her hontas was wedded to John Rolfe, return to Virginia, but she died at about April 1, 1613. The tower still Gravesend the day before the one set stands in which hung the two bells for their departure, and, according to that rang joyfully as bride and groom
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