History of Franklin County

CHAPTER I

FOUR SCORE YEARS AGO RED MAN, WILD GAME AND VIRGIN PRAIRIE -INDIAN CONFLICTS AND INDIAN TREATIES-IOWA TERRITORY BECOMES A LAND TITLES-STATE INSTITUTIONS.

STATE-TOPOGRAPHY-FIRST

Four score years ago all that part of the great and beautiful State of Iowa, of which the county of Franklin is a part, was practically terra incognita, a vast wilderness, given over by the Almighty to wild beasts, birds of the air and their masters, the Indians, who roamed the plains and forests at will, claiming and securing an existence from the bounteous hand of nature. Here the deer, buffalo and other fur-bearing animals found a habitat, and the main streams gave generously of the palatable fish. The red man had no care for the morrow. No thought came to him that his possessions would ever be disturbed by the pale face. So he continued his dreams. The hunt was his daily avocation, broken in upon at intervals by a set-to with a hostile tribe of aborigines, that was always cruel and bloody in its results and added spoils to the victor and captives for torture. He knew not of the future and cared less. But the time was coming, was upon him, when he was called upon to make way for a stronger and a progressive race of men; when the fair land that was his birthright and his hunting grounds, resplendent with the gorgeous flower and emerald sod, must yield to the husbandman. The time had come for the buffalo, deer and elk to seek pastures new, that the alluvial soil might be turned to the sun and fed with grain, to yield in their seasons the richest of harvests.

It is hard for the present generation to realize the rapid pace of civilization on the western continent in the past one hundred years; and when one confines his attention to the advancement of the State

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of Iowa in the past seventy-five years, his amazement is all the more intense. Evidences of progress are on every hand as one wends one's way across the beautiful state. Manufacturing plants are springing up hither and yon; magnificent edifices for religious worship point their spires heavenward; schoolhouses, colleges, and other places of learning and instruction make the state stand out prominently among her sisters of this great republic. Villages are growing into towns, and towns are taking on the dignity of a city government, until today Iowa is noted throughout the Union for the number, beauty and thrift of her towns and cities. The commonwealth is cobwebbed with her telegraph, telephone and railroad lines, and all these things above mentioned have been made possible by the thrift, determination and high character of the people who claim citizenship within her borders.

the indian and his fate

It is conceded by historians who have given the subject deep thought and careful research that this country was inhabited by a race of human beings distinct from the red man. But that is beyond the province of this work. The men and women who opened up the State of Iowa and the county of Franklin to civilization had only the red man to dispute their coming and obstruct their progress; and in that regard something should be recorded in these pages.

So far as the writer can ascertain, the Indians were the first inhabitants of Iowa. For more than one hundred years after Marquette and Joliet had trod the virgin soil of Iowa and admired its fertile plains, not a single settlement had been made or attempted; nor even a trading post established. The whole country remained. in the undisputed possession of the native tribes. These tribes fought among themselves and against each other for supremacy and the choicest hunting grounds became the reward for the strongest and most valiant of them.

When Marquette visited this country in 1673, the Illini were a powerful people and occupied a large portion of the state, but when the country was again visited by the whites, not a remnant of that once powerful tribe remained on the west side of the Mississippi. and Iowa was principally in the possession of the Sacs and Foxes, a warlike tribe which, originally two distinct nations residing in New York and on the waters of the St. Lawrence, had gradually fought their way westward and united, probably after the Foxes

had been driven out of the Fox river country in 1846 and crossed the Mississippi. The death of Pontiac, a famous Sac chieftain, was made the pretext for war against the Illini, and a fierce and bloody struggle ensued, which continued until the Illini were nearly destroyed, and their possessions went into the hands of their victorious foes. The Iowas also occupied a portion of the state for a time, in common with the Sacs, but they, too, were nearly destroyed by the Sacs and Foxes and in the "Beautiful Land," these natives met their equally warlike and bloodthirsty enemies, the Northern Sioux, with whom they maintained a constant warfare for the possession of the country for a great many years.

In 1803, when, under the administration of Thomas Jefferson, then President of the United States. Louisiana was purchased from Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France, the Sacs, Foxes and Iowas possessed the entire State of Iowa and the two former tribes also occupied most of Illinois. The Sacs had four principal villages, where most of them resided. Their largest and most important town, from which emanated most of the obstacles encountered by the Government in the extinguishment of Indian titles to land in this region, was on the Rock river, near Rock Island; another was on the east bank of the Mississippi, near the mouth of Henderson river; the third was at the head of the Des Moines rapids, near the present site of Montrose; and the fourth was near the mouth of the Upper Iowa. The Foxes had three principal villages. One was on the west side of the Mississippi, six miles above the rapids of Rock river, another was about twelve miles from the river, in the rear of the Dubuque lead mines; and the third was on Turkey river.

The Iowas, at one time identified with the Sacs of Rock river, had withdrawn from them and become a separate tribe. Their principal village was on the Des Moines river, in Van Buren county, on the site where Iowaville now stands. Here the last great battle between the Sacs and Foxes and Iowas was fought, in which Black Hawk, then a young man, commanded one division of the attacking forces. The following account of the battle has been given:

"Contrary to long established custom of Indian attack, this battle. was commenced in the daytime, the attending circumstances justifying this departure from the well settled usages of Indian warfare. The battlefield was a level river bottom, about four miles in length and two miles wide near the middle, narrowing to a point at either end. The main area of this bottom rises perhaps twenty feet above the river, leaving a narrow strip of low bottom along the shore