to which the said tribes have any title or claim included within the following boundaries, to-wit:

"Beginning on the Mississippi River at the point where the Sac and Fox northern boundary line, as established by article 2 of the treaty of July 15, 1830, strikes said river; thence up said boundary line to a point fifty miles from the Mississippi, measured on said line; thence in a right line to the nearest point on the Red Cedar of Ioway, forty miles from the Mississippi; thence in a right line to a point in the northern boundary line of the State of Missouri fifty miles, measured on said line, to the Mississippi River; thence by the last mentioned boundary to the Mississippi River, and by the western shore of said river to the place of beginning."

The territory included within the above described boundaries embraces about six million acres and was taken by the United States as an indemnity for the expenses of the Black Hawk war. This "Black Hawk Purchase," as it was commonly called in early days, included the present counties of Dubuque, Delaware, Jackson, Jones, Clinton, Cedar, Muscatine, Scott, Louisa, Henry, Des Moines and Lee and portions of Clayton, Fayette, Buchanan, Linn, Johnson, Washington, Jefferson and Van Buren. It was the first Iowa land obtained from the Indians for purposes of settlement.

TREATY OF 1842

The western boundary of the Black Hawk Purchase was rather irregular and it was not long after actual settlement commenced until disputes arose between the settlers and the Indians as to its exact location. To settle these difficulties some of the Sac and Fox chiefs were taken to Washington, D. C., where they entered into a treaty on October 21, 1837, to cede to the United States a tract of 1,250,000 acres lying west of and adjoining the former cession. The object of this cession was to straighten the boundary line, but upon survey it was found that the number of acres ceded was not sufficient to make a straight line, and in a short time the Indians again accused the whites of encroaching upon their domain. Some of the wiser chiefs of the Sacs and Foxes saw that it was only a question of time when the tribes would have to give up all their lands in Iowa. Keokuk, Wapello and Poweshiek advised a treaty peaceably ceding the lands to the United States, rather than to wait until they should be taken by force. These chiefs asked for a council, which was called to meet at the Sac and Fox Agency (now Agency City) in what is now Wapello County.

John Chambers, then governor of Iowa Territory, was appointed commissioner on the part of the United States to negotiate the treaty. A large tent was set up near the agency. On one side of the tent was a platform, upon which sat Governor Chambers, John Beach, the Indian agent, Lieut. C. F. Ruff, of the First United States Dragoons, and the interpreters, Antoine Le Claire and Josiah Swart. Around the tent the Indians were arranged, leaving an open space in the

center.

When the time came to open the council, Governor Chambers, attired in the uniform of an army officer, made a short speech, stating the purpose for which they were assembled. At the close of his remarks, Keokuk, clad in all his native finery and wearing all his ornaments and trinkets, stepped into the open space in the center of the tent and replied. After that there was "much talk," as nearly every chief present had something to say. The result of the council was that on October 11, 1842, the Indians agreed to cede all their lands west of the Mississippi River to the United States, but reserved the right to occupy for three years from the date of signing the treaty "all that part of the land above ceded which lies west of a line running due north and south from the Painted or Red Rocks on the White Breast fork of the Des Moines River, which rocks will be found about eight miles in a straight line from the junction of the White Breast and Des Moines."

The tract of land ceded by this treaty includes practically all of Central Iowa, extending southward to the Missouri line. The line passing through the Painted or Red Rocks runs near the center of the cession, and the northern boundary line was not far from the present towns of Waterloo, Eldora and Stratford. The United States agreed to pay for the land thus ceded the interest at five per cent upon $800,000 annually, to assume the payment of certain debts owed by the Indians to licensed traders, and to "assign a tract of land suitable and convenient for Indian purposes to the Sacs and Foxes for a permanent home for them and their descendants, which tract shall be upon the Missouri River or some of its waters.'

Governor Chambers appointed Alfred Hebard and Arthur Bridgman to audit the claims of the traders and see that they were not unjust or exorbitant. Claims to the amount of $312,366.24 were filed with the two auditors, the largest accounts being presented by Pierre Chouteau & Company and W. G. & G. W. Ewing. The account of the former firm, amounting to $112, 109.47, was allowed, but the account of the Ewings was reduced about twenty-five per

cent, the amount allowed them being $66,371.83. The total amount of indebtedness allowed by the auditors was $258,566.34.

By the various treaties made with the Sacs and Foxes, the Government paid them $80,000 annually. In the treaty of October 11, 1842, it was stipulated that $30,000 should be retained at each annual payment "in the hands of the agent appointed by the President for their tribe, to be expended by the chiefs, with the approbation of their agent, for national and charitable purposes among their people; such as the support of their poor, burying their dead, employing physicians for the sick, procuring provisions for their people in cases of necessity, and such other purposes of general utility as the chiefs may think proper and the agent approve."

Chief Wapello, who had assisted in the beginning of the negotiations, did not live to see the treaty concluded. He died on March 15, 1842, and was buried by the side of his white friend, Gen. Joseph M. Street, former Indian agent, at the Sac and Fox Agency. At the request of the Indians the sum of $100 was set apart to purchase a tombstone for his grave. Likewise, at their request, a section of land, including the two graves and the agency buildings, was given to Mrs. Eliza M. Street, widow of the general.

The Indians agreed to vacate that part of the cession east of the Red Rock line by May 1, 1843, and the United States agreed to remove the blacksmith and gunsmith tools at the agency west of the said line and establish two shops for the accommodation of the Indians until their removal to the new lands assigned them "upon the waters of the Missouri." The treaty was signed by forty-four of the chiefs and head men of the Sacs and Foxes, among whom were Keokuk and his son, Appanoose, Pashepaho, Kiskekosh, Poweshiek, Kaponeka, Chekawque and a number of others whose names are still remembered in Iowa. In the fall of 1845 most of the Indians removed from the country and the rest departed in the spring of 1846.

With the exit of the red man the territory now comprising the great State of Iowa became the undisputed possession of the paleface. The period of preparation for a civilized people was completed with the treaty of 1842, and what were once the hunting grounds of the Sacs and Foxes are now the cultivated fields of the white man. Where was once the Indian trail is now the railroad or the improved highway. The shriek of the factory whistle is heard instead of the howl of the wolf or the war-whoop of the savage. The modern residence has been built upon the site of the Indian tepee, the halls of legislation have supplanted the tribal council. Indian villages have disappeared and in their stead have come cities

with paved streets, electric lights, magnificent school buildings, street railways, libraries and all the evidences of modern progress. The primeval forest has practically disappeared and the great trees have been manufactured into lumber to build dwellings for civilized man, or turned into furniture for his comfort and convenience. About all that is left of the native race are the names from their language that have been conferred upon some of the towns or streams in the country they once inhabited. And all this change has come within the memory of persons yet living. To tell the story of these years of progress and development is the province of the subsequent chapters of this work.

CHAPTER IV

SETTLEMENT AND ORGANIZATION

PROGRESS OF SETTLEMENT IN IOWA—INDIAN TREATY OF 1842—EARLY TRADING POSTS IN MARION COUNTY-FIRST SETTLERS-WEST OF THE RED ROCK LINE CLAIMS AND CLAIM ASSOCIATIONS—PIONEER LIFE AND CUSTOMS-AMUSEMENTS ORGANIZATION OF THE COUNTY-THE "CORNSTALK CONVENTION"-THE ORGANIC ACT— LOCATING THE COUNTY SEAT-FIRST ELECTION-ELECTION PRECINCTS-ROAD DISTRICTS-SECOND ELECTION-VOTE ON THE STATE CONSTITUTION-EVOLUTION OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM OF COUNTY

GOVERNMENT.

From the time Marquette and Joliet landed in what is now Lee County, Iowa, in 1673, as stated in a previous chapter, more than one hundred years passed before any attempt was made to found a permanent settlement within the present limits of the state. In 1788 Julien Dubuque, a French trader, obtained permission from the Indians to open and work the lead mines on the west side of the Mississippi and founded a small settlement that has grown up into the city that still bears his name. Eight years after Dubuque began the development of the "Mines of Spain," as his establishment was called, Louis Honore Tesson obtained from the Spanish authorities of Louisiana a grant of land on the west bank of the Mississippi at the head of the Des Moines Rapids, where he built a trading house and planted an orchard. No further efforts to establish settlements in Iowa until after the beginning of the nineteenth century.

In the fall of 1808 a small detachment of United States troops, under command of Lieut. Alpha Kingsley, built a military post where the City of Fort Madison is now located. Starting from the settlements on the eastern seaboard, the white man's civilization gradually extended westward, and soon after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 had reached the Mississippi River. West of that stream the land was still in the hands of the Indians, and it was not until after the Black Hawk Purchase of 1832 that any portion of Iowa was legally subject to settlement by the whites. A trading post had been established at Keokuk in 1820 and a few other estab