ii«MMMHMHi iliii&illiil^ : •:• 11 #&&&!&[ iiliis^ilsi :> :;!dS^BffiffiinsbW(s: iffl UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN i! L HIST. SURVEY ILLINOIS SI&TOBICJZ STTBVMX THE TOMB OF JULIEN DUBUQUE OVERLOOKING THE MOUTH OF THE CATFISH Antique Dubuque 1673—1833 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign http://archive.org/details/antiquedubuque1600hoff ANTIQUE DUBUQUE 1673—1833 By M. M. HOFFMANN ^ Dubuque Telegraph-Herald Press 1930 NIHIL OBSTAT:— THOMAS CONRY, Censor IMPRIMATUR:— FRANCIS J. L. BBCKMAN, S.T.D., Archiepiscopus Dubuquensis COPYRIGHT 1930 By M. M. Hoffmann 97 7, 73 ? TO MY SISTERS THREE AN INTRODUCTION The story of Antique Dubuque as told in this volume needs no introduction. It will speak for itself, and it will find its own way, not only into the libraries, but into the hearts of all those who are interested in the history of Iowa and of the upper Mississippi region. I have read this story in manuscript form and I hope to reread it in book form. From first to last I have found it of absorbing interest. Many years ago, when I began to collect materials for "A History of the People of Iowa", I came upon the story of the Miami chief who brought to Nicolas Perrot specimens of the lead ore that the Indians had discovered. Perrot had been sent from far-away Quebec in the wake of the historic discovery of Jolliet and Marquette to serve as "the Commandant of the West". That was probably in 1685. The name of "The mines of Perrot" lingered for more than a century, when Julien Dubuque appeared on the scene and in due time obsequiously renamed them "The mines of Spain", in honor of the country which had come into possession of the Louisiana country. These mines were not unknown in the time of the American Revolution, which touched the banks of the Mississippi River, and they played some part in the War of 1812. The period from 1673 to 1833, and the region from Prai- rie du Chien to St. Louis, are rich in legends, in romance and in potential American history. With Perrot and Dubuque I have loitered on the banks of the great River, and their stor- ies have lingered in my mind. In the story for which these lines are to serve as an introduction, I have found all my in- terest renewed and multiplied. The forests and the prairies primeval in which the ex- plorers and pioneers lived and labored must always have an x ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1333 irresistible appeal in them. What Julien Dubuque brought to the Mississippi River was something taken out of medieval France, and what he left was something of a prelude to mo- dern America. The author of Antique Dubuque has resurrected and reconstructed this fascinating era in history. He has done his work exceedingly well. He has brought historic order out of the chaos of legends. But he has not destroyed the picture. Rather he has made the era more picturesque. Indians and explorers, adventurers and missioners, trappers and traders, soldiers of fortune and merchant princes move across the scenes in this volume. I want to congratulate the Author, and to congratulate more the students of American history in general, and of Iowa history in particular, on the completion of this valuable contribution, embodying a work which ought to have been done long ago, but which it is not too late to do now. CYRENUS COLE. Congress of the United States House of Representatives Washington, D. C. FOREWORD Dr. Clarence Walworth Alvord, probably the most outstanding historian that the Middle West has yet produced, stated several times that only two things justify one in venturing into print on an historical topic, the possession of new mater- ial or a really worth while re-statement and re- interpretation of old material. From both of these viewpoints I hope I have been justified in putting into print the present volume. To all those living in the Dubuque country and in Iowa and to all those who have gone out from these lands, but still look back to them as their home country, I trust that this story will prove of worth while interest. I wish to acknowledge the assistance and en- couragement received from the members of the faculty of Columbia College, Dubuque, Iowa. In particular I am indebted to Professors Wm. H. Rowan and Francis Mullin of the college faculty and to Miss Marie I. Rhomberg of the Dubuque Senior High School faculty. THE AUTHOR. CONTENTS Page Introduction _ _ „ IX Chapter One— Prelude - 19 Two — The Dawn of Antique Dubuque _ 25 Three — The Early Inhabitants of Antique Dubuque. 37 Four — Antique Dubuque and Jean Marie Cardinal 48 Five — Around the Revolutionary Era 63 Six — Introducing the Sieur Julien Dubuque 75 Seven— The Miner of the Mines of Spain _ 87 Eight — The Passing of the First Permanent Settler 101 Nine — An Idyl: Julien Dubuque and Potosa 118 Ten — Antique Dubuque and the War of 1812 126 Eleven — The Dark Age of Antique Dubuque _ 135 Twelve— The White Man on the Fringe . 151 Thirteen — The East of the Dubuque Reynards 161 Fourteen — The Black Hawk War and the "Conquest" of Antique Dub u qu e 1 76 Fifteen— The Settlers at the Gates _ _ 184 Sixteen — Antique Dubuque and the United States Govern- ment _ 194 Seventeeen — Urbs Condita : An Epilogue 201 Index - _ - 209 ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS Page Tomb of Julien Dubuque Frontispiece The Arms of Dubuque _ _._ ..XVII Map of the Upper Mississippi Valley During the Era of Antique Dubuque _ „ _ _ 35 The Fox Village on the Catfish ; and the Oldest House in Iowa „ Opposite 46 Julien Dubuque and the Fox Chiefs at the Mines of Spain _ Opposite 82 Map of the Claim of Julien Dubuque _ 109 The Foxes Viewing the "Virginia" at Antique Dubuque, 1823 - ..- Opposite 146 The Home of Gen. Geo. W. Jones, Sinsinawa, (Wis.) 1827 _ _ 159 The Early Settlers Crossing the Mississippi to the Mines at Dubuque — Opposite 190 THE ARMS OF DUBUQUE The Dubucqs of Normandy in France carried as their heraldic in- signia a coat which was silver with a bend azure, that is, a blue diag- onal stripe on a silver shield. Jean Dubucq came from Normandy to Quebec in Canada in the middle of the seventeenth century, and his great-grandson Julien, who spelled the family name Dubuque, settled permanently in Iowa in 1788. Rietstap's "Armorials." ANTIQUE DUBUQUE 1673—1833 CHAPTER ONE PRELUDE THIS is not the history of old Dubuque, nor of early Du- buque ; Dubuque itself dates its urban existence from 1833. It is the story of an old historic spot in the center of which stands the present city of Dubuque. Nor is it merely the story of Dubuque's Mines ; it is the story also of that long romantic period previous to the coming of Julien Dubuque. "Early Dubuque" and "Prehistoric Dubuque" would obviously be misnomers. That period before the commencement of the city of Dubuque in 1833 was not ancient in the sense that Greece and Rome are ancient, but it may correctly be called "antique," which, as the lexicographers state, means "old, as respects the present age or modern time." The ancient regime or ancien regime are the terms used to designate the former political and social system, as distin- guished from the modern; especially the political and social system existing in France before the Revolution of 1789. The history of the territory, in the center of which the city of Dubuque stands today, was previous to 1833 part and parcel of the ancien regime as the pages of this volume will con- clusively show. Hence, the only term that will fully and justly embrace the spot and its singular history for the pur- poses of this volume is that of "Antique Dubuque." Since the opening of eastern Iowa to white settlers in 1833 by the Black Hawk Treaty of the previous year, the evolution of modern Iowa has been quite meticulously re- corded during the past century by the pens of the pioneers and their successors. The more than a century and a half of eastern Iowa's historical existence previous to 1833, how- 20 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 ever, has not been so faithfully described, because of the general haze of antiquity, the frequent silences of responsible chroniclers of the old days when they came in contact with what is now Iowa, the inevitable blending of legend with fact, and the air of romantic mystery investing the mining country at what is now the site of Dubuque, the then out- standing scene of Iowa history. Even late writers pass over the ancient story of this vicinity with rapid brevity. The most recent work of history dealing with the early West, an authoritative and scholarly volume relating "The Story of the French in America," refers not at all to the achieve- ments of the French pioneers in the Upper Mississippi dis- trict, but passing from Canada and the Great Lakes down the Illinois to the Mississippi continues serenely on to New Orleans without one backward glance at the country border- ing on the shores of the northern section of the mighty Fath- er of the Waters. 1 Perhaps the silences of the early chroniclers and the lack of subsequent records created a barrier of ob- scurity which they did not feel able to penetrate or surmount by a direct attack. But hazy time, rolling on like a misty cloud, shows occasional breaks and apertures, through which the eye of the annalist can perceive facts and names hitherto enveloped in the oblivion of the years, standing out clear and startling and incontestable ; and through some of these aven- ues rushes the light of today and reveals with lustrous clar- ity the connection of new data with what were the facts, not the fancies, of yesterday. The Mississippi river was then the great natural artery of travel ; in the early days this was the only unobstructed highway from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada. The almost impenetrable forests and the wild and rough terrain made any other sort of travel well nigh impracticable, if not im- possible. The canoes of the savages and the boats of the white explorers and adventurers and missionaries found the Mississippi a generous medium for movement and passage. The Spanish conquistador es to the south and the French voyageurs to the north sang their rollicking songs in the valley as their paddles, dripping with the Mississippi's clean waters, glistened in the sunshine. And into the tributaries 1. From Quebec to New Orleans — The Story of the French in America (1929) by J. N. Schlarman. PRELUDE 21 to the Mississippi, those tributaries which run through Iowa and the other lands of the upper valley especially, pressed the traders and the trappers lured on by the animals of the forests and prairies. Natural to believe, is it then, that many a white man passed the eastern shore of Iowa who never gave to poster- ity the benefit of his interesting impressions. In the midst of this uncharted wilderness, this virgin and beautiful land, lay the rich lead mines in the vicinity of present-day Du- buque. Becoming aware of these mines, and of the wealth of fur-bearing beasts in their neighborhood, white men di- rected their acquisitive and inquisitive glances toward the spot. There rolled toward it a wave of French and Spanish contacts from the south, a tide of French and British con- tacts from the north, and finally an inundation of American contacts from the east. Despite these successive waves of white influence and culture, the wooded bluffs about Dubuque, and their inhabitants, retained to a great extent their peculiar and isolated identity until 1833. The special character of the history of this spot, so in- dependent of that of the history of Iowa and the other states contiguous to it and so different from them, has been clearly recognized by the eyes of the historians. The Hon. Cyrenus Cole states this fact in his reference to that romantic figure of this locality from whom it took its name, Julien Dubuque. Although "he was the first white man in those regions who did certain things and they were things which will always be retold in Iowa history," nevertheless, "he did not belong to Iowa, nor to America. He was a remnant of the old French Days, a relic of the empire of which Jean Talon and L,a Salle and Frontenac had dreamed." 2 Neither did the events at the Mines prior to Julien Du- buque's arrival there, nor their subsequent history from the time of his death to 1833, fit in with the stream of Iowa and American history round about. The peculiar antecedents of the locality gave the place a distinct historical background ; they stamped it with an individual mood and a special char- acter deriving from the old Spanish and French and also from the old British regimes. This latter was continued by the third 2. A History of the People of Iowa (1921), p. 67. 22 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 article of Jay's treaty with Great Britain; — that article which gave the British the right to navigate the Mississippi, and to trade with Indians within the limits of the United States, and thus preserved British and French Canadian influence in the up- per valley longer than in any other part of the country. 3 Finally, the place did not pass into the hands of the United States by pur- chase like the lands of western and northern Iowa and of the nearby states, but, as will be clearly shown, it was ac- quired by conquest after a trial of the fortunes of war. Something distinctive and different from the rest of Iowa and of the United States was antique Dubuque. Its story during that early period from 1673 to 1833 is of too real a value to be neglected not only for Dubuque but for Iowa and the whole Middle-West as well. To re- count this story truthfully, legend and mere unsupported assertion, no matter how romantic or how soul-satisfying, must be and will be stripped from the proved fact. Right at the start such an unsubstantiated statement is encountered: that white men not only in 1673 but already in 1655 had seen the Iowa hills to the north of the antique Dubuque country. That those intrepid French explorers, Radisson and Groseilliers, were in the West in 1655 is doubtless true but whether they were at the mouth of the Wisconsin opposite the Iowa shore or anywhere else on the Mississippi is a much disputed question, and until further solid evidence can be presented, our story commences with the Jolliet-Marquette expedition past the Dubuque shore in 1673. 4 The country of antique Dubuque stretched — measuring roughly — from the Turkey river where it flows into the Mississippi some miles to the north of the site of present Dubuque to the Maquoketa river where it joins the Father of the Waters some miles south of Dubuque ; or as the French cartographers would have put it, from the Riviere au DTnde to the Riviere la Garde. This is not to be confused with the claim of Julien Dubuque which was well within these points ; but the influence of those living at the mines, whites and 3. Abridgement of the Debates of Congress from 1789 to 1856 (1858), vol. VII, p. 181. 4. My Minnesota (1929), by Antoinette Ford, p. 10; The Jolliet-Mar- quette Expedition, 1673 (1928), by Francis Borgia Steck, p. 108. PRELUDE 23 Indians, before, during and especially after the time of Julien Dubuque, extended easily to the limits mentioned. 5 It was no symmetric past that had its inning at antique Dubuque. A little land it was with a history under four flags: that of France from 1673 to 1763; that of Spain from 1763 to 1800, actually to 1803; that of England when the British and their red allies in 1780 seized and held the land from the Turkey river to the mines ; and that of the United States after the Louisiana Purchase. A center it was, fre- quently during those years, of rather stirring events. To- day that period from 1673 to 1833 is regarded as one hundred and sixty years of comparative obscurity. It is partly as a protest against that long oblivion, as an assertion of an- tique Dubuque's right to be considered historically by itself, that this story is unfolded. The industrial, commercial and agricultural features of the present-day Middle-West are increasingly exploited and celebrated. "Its writers are eager enough to select such de- tails from its current routine as may enable them to paint that picture of it which they hold so dearly: the picture of a smoky-faced giant, a giant of the commonplace, going about its business with a swagger and a raucous song." There are other things which should also be considered, and among them a development of the consciousness of our past. It is well to be the factory-builder, the hog-raiser and the corn- grower of America so long as pride does not make us for- get our debts. We have a very great debt to the men who tamed the wilderness. It can be paid if we remember oc- casionally that the explorers, the missionaries, the fighters and the pioneers were opening up a land for some better reason than that we should grow fat upon it For a great number of these men were moved by motives that were not mercenary. Careless of comfort and even of their own lives, they were moved by a spirit of high emprise, of daring, of patriotism. These pages strive to remove the veil of unmerited neg- lect that has been thrown over the exploits and achievements of these men. The data gathered here, in some instances 5. Beltrami's A Pilgrimage in Europe and America (1828), vol. II; Annals of Iowa, vol. V, pp. 611-613. 24 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 from dust covered letters hidden away in files for many de- cades, in other instances from hitherto unpublished docu- ments, and in a majority of instances from already pub- lished materials widely scattered in place and in time of publication, some almost forgotten, others seldom seen, are used to bring out the atmosphere and the temper of the times and to present truthfully the high lights of this pic- ture of one hundred and sixty years. Hilaire Belloc notes that "readable history is melodrama," and the recital of the history of the early Upper Mississippi Valley proves dra- matic and romantic, and glows with the colors that emblazon the banner of heroic inspiration. CHAPTER TWO THE DAWN OF ANTIQUE DUBUQUE I. EXPLORERS OF THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI IN THE VICINITY OF DUBUQUE THE forests primeval of the upper Mississippi valley are rapidly passing away ; and with the evanescence of the scent of pine and oak and fir, disappears the fragrance of pioneer romance and adventure. A European culture and civ- ilization transplanted, and modified by American conditions, fill the once mysteriously wild valley with the neat farms of agriculturalists and the smoke-stacks of modern industry. A little more than two and a half centuries is it now since the bark canoes of Jolliet and Pere Marquette were propelled by the paddles of the voyageurs down the waters of the mighty river, an event which announced the ushering of the white man and his ways, commerce, machinery, religion, civilization and all, into the hitherto inviolate Indian paradise. True, this discovery of the upper Mississippi in 1673 was the initial step in the process of the penetration of the north- ern wilderness by the European whites ; but possibly it was not the first time that Europeans had appeared in the forests of the upper valley. Over three centuries before this event, white men, it is claimed, had found themselves in this area. And in all fairness this claim is here presented. In 1898 a farmer near Kensington, Minnesota, while uprooting a pop- lar tree on the side of a hill formed by a glacier, discovered a stone which in the opinion of many historical authorities today establishes the fact of Pre-Columbian European vis- itation of the northern valley lands beyond any honest doubt. This momentous stone is thirty inches long, seventeen inches wide and seven inches thick and weighs two hundred and thirty pounds. Three-fifths of the face of the stone is cov- ered by an inscription and so likewise is one of its sides. The inscription is in Runic characters or letters, such as were used many centuries ago among the Germanic and Scandi- navian peoples, and hence the stone has been called the Ken- sington Rune Stone. 26 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 Because of the strange characters, it was difficult to de- cipher; but Runic scholars were found and their translation of the inscription into English was startling: "Eight Goths and twenty-two Norsemen on an exploring journey from Vinland through the western regions. We had camp by two skerries one day's journey north from this shore. We were out and fished one day When we came home we found ten men, red with blood and dead. Ave Virgo Maria! Save us from evil! "We have ten of our party by the sea to look after our vessels. Fourteen day journey from this island. Year 1362." Not only startling, but unbelievable did scholars first find this inscription. Yet the earnest study and most patient re- search since the day of its discovery has convinced a goodly number of them of its genuineness. It means that in 1362 on a journey of exploration, thirty Swedes and Norwegians found themselves in what is now Minnesota. Vinland, from where they started, lies somewhere along the eastern shore of North America. They had camped probably near Cormor- ant Eake, "by two skerries" (rocky islands in the water). While out fishing on the lake, ten of their men were massa- cred by the savages. They immediately fled southward and on their journey left this inscription behind them. If they continued southward in their flight they would naturally have come into Iowa. Whether these ancient Norse explorers, the first to reach the headwaters of the Mississippi, were swal- lowed up forever by the forests of Minnesota or Iowa, wheth- er they ultimately reached their "vessels by the sea", or whether even the Rune Stone is genuine and credible, may never be definitely known. 6 History however is very definite on the discovery of the upper Mississippi in 1673 by the French explorers. On Thurs- day, June 17, of that year, Louis Jolliet, the leader of the 6. For the best accounts of the Kensington Rune Stone, see Wis. Mag. of Hist., Vol. 3, pp. 153-83, 332-28, 413-19, 478-88; Minn. Hist. Coll., Vol. XV. pp. 221-86. That this subject is still keenly attrac- tive to scholars may be seen from discussion in Minnesota History, Vols. I to VIII, (1915 to 1927). In the Cath. Hist. Rev., Oct. 1920, Dr. F. J. Schaeffer lists fifty-two articles published in prominent magazines in America and Europe on this subject. THE DAWN OF HISTORY 27 expedition, with two men in his canoe, and Father Jacques Marquette with three men in his canoe, reached the mouth of the Wisconsin. "Finding themselves at 42% degrees, they entered happily into that famous river which the savages call Mississippi, as one would say the great river, since in fact it is the most considerable of all those that are in that country." 7 Or as Father Marquette puts it in his Narra- tive, "We safely entered the Mississippi with a joy that I cannot express" — ("avec une joye que je ne peux pas ex- pliquer.") 8 They proceeded down the west bank, and that night the feet of white men for the first time known to history trod on Iowa soil. They had disembarked at a point between present-day Prairie du Chien and Dubuque, and after building a small fire and preparing food, they returned to their canoes and pushing a short distance from shore, they spent there the night. Jolliet and the five rowers relieved one another at sentry duty, as the group slept under the soft shadows of the Iowa hills. 9 It was not till eight days later — June 25 — that they land- ed on the Iowa shore long enough to visit and interview the Indians. They followed a trail across the prairie for five miles and were received by a tribe of Illinois Indians with friendly sentiments and the offer of the peace pipe — the Calumet. Said the chief: "I thank thee, Black Gown" (to Marquette) "and thee, Frenchman," (to Jolliet) "for taking so much pains to come to visit us ; never has the earth been so beautiful, nor the sun so bright as today." It was quite generally maintained that the place of this visit was where the Des Moines river flowed into the Mississippi in Lee County ; but it has now been quite conclusively proved that the location of this event was on the Iowa river in Louisa County, not far from the town of Wapello. 10 7. Relation MS. p. 2. Quoted by Francis Borgia Steck, The Jolliet- Marquette Expedition, 1673, (1928) p 153. 8. Recit, p. 238 in Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi Val- ley (1853) by John Gilmany Shea. 9. The Jolliet-Marquette Expedition, 1673, (1928), p. 154. 10. Recit, p. 243 in Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley (1853); L. G. Weld, Jolliet and Marquette in Iowa, (Iowa City, 1903, pamphlet) p. 16, quoted in the Jolliet-Marquette Ex- pedition, 1673, (1928). 28 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 These explorers, on their return, did not ascend the Miss- issippi to the Wisconsin, as they had come, but turned and entered the Illinois river on their way to Lake Michigan. Many years elapsed before the pale faces of the explorers were again reflected in the waters that wash the eastern shore of Iowa. In 1680, on March 12, Father Louis Henne- pin, a Franciscan friar, and two other Frenchmen, members of La Salle's party, left the mouth of the Illinois, which they had descended from Fort Crevecoeur, and paddled up the Mississippi, doubtless making a number of stops on the Iowa shore. This would make them the first white men in his- tory to have ascended the upper river. However, there is so much of Hennepin's narrative that is outright fictional or at least doubtful, that too much credit should not be con- ceded to his claims. The fact of his capture by the Sioux Indians, nevertheless, is incontestable. According to his de- scription this capture took place somewhere between the present points of Dubuque and Prairie du Chien by a Sioux tribe that was on the warpath against the Miamis. This was on the 12th day of April, and Hennepin in his interesting narrative, describes his life as a captive, mentioning how the savages arrayed themselves in the valuable mass-vestments he had brought with him, but feared to touch the chalice which they believed housed a wicked spirit. Throughout his narrative he refers to the Mississippi as the River Colbert (the name given in honor of the famous minister of finance to Louis XIV). In the following July he and his companions were rescued somewhere on the upper river by the Sieur du Luth and five other French explorers. 11 In 1690 Baron Lahontan sailed down the mighty Father of the Waters past the Iowa shore with a party of French and Indians from the north on his way to the Ohio River. 12 One of the most intriguing of the early explorers in rela- tion to Dubuque and its vicinity is Pierre Charles Le Sueur. In the summer of 1700, with a felucca, two canoes and nine- teen men, he ascended the Mississippi from the Gulf of Mex- 11. Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley, (1853) pp. 99-135. 12. Lahontan, a soldier with a remarkable career, has been proved utterly unreliable in many of his claims. See Lahontan's New: Voyages, Thwaites (1905). THE DAWN OF HISTORY 29 ico, the first to traverse the entire length of the great river. On the 25th of August, he arrived at what is today known as the Fevre or Galena river and which he called the "river of the Mine." His description of it is interesting: "At the mouth it runs from the north, but it turns to the north-east. On the right seven leagues, there is a lead mine in a prairie ; one and a half leagues is only navigable in high water, that is to say, from early spring till the month of June." 13 In the next two days he progressed ten leagues north- ward and in the course of these two days he passed two small rivers, and "made himself acquainted with a mine of lead from which he took a supply." These two small rivers were the Tetes des Morts creek and the Catfish creek south of Dubuque, and the lead he secured was taken either from the Catfish valley or from somewhere in or close to the present site of Dubuque, as all this region then abounded in rich deposits of the metal. 14 Just above Dubuque he met five Canadians, naked and suffering, one of them wounded. Farther up the river they had been seized and beaten by a large party of Indians led by the Outagamis (Foxes) who were on the warpath against the Sioux. L,e Sueur took these Canadians with him. On the first of September he reached the mouth of the Wiscon- sin (where he had already seen the Mississippi and the Iowa hills beyond in 1693), and then continued northward into the "Sioux country" on his voyage of exploration; and then later he descended the river. What is of special interest is the fact that Le Sueur re- turned to France in 1702 and gave an account of his discov- eries and that from that year on the existence of the mines around Dubuque was known in Europe. 13. It was called the "Riviere a la Mine." This account is taken from La Harpe's compilation of Le Sueur's Journal, translated by John G. Shea in his Early Mississippi Voyages, reprinted in Wis. Hist. Coll., Vol. XVI, pp. 177-194. 14. Thwaites, in Wis. Hist. Coll., Vol. XIII, p. 274, thought that these rivers were up farther on the Wisconsin shore. But they were found somewhere within only ten leagues northward from the Galena River, which makes them indisputably the Tetes des Morts and Catfish creeks, and besides, De L'Isle's map of Louisana of 1703, made from Le Suer's observations, plainly indicates the Dubuque mines, proving this to be the spot from which the sup- ply of lead was taken. 30 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 After this period there are no visitors of record to the vicinity of Dubuque for a number of years. That there were however, occasional coureurs des bois and vagabond voyageurs who traversed this section there can be no doubt; occasionally allusions in public documents, in private letters or in geographic works bear this out, but they have left no account of their ad- ventures to posterity. A faint but extremely interesting echo of these almost mythical visitors and travellers must be recounted here. In 1719, John Law, that meteoric Scotch figure, who flashed over the pages of European history as the precursor of the modern giants of high finance, organized the "Mississippi Scheme/' later referred to cynically as the "Mississippi Bub- ble," to colonize the Louisiana part of New France, especial- ly the Mississippi valley. Law distributed numerous pam- phlets in Germany and Switzerland as well as in France, extolling the advantages of this new country. One of these pamphlets printed in German in 1720 refers vaguely to the upper valley country embracing the Dubuque district: "The boundaries of Louisiana are towards the east, Flor- ida and Carolina, towards the north Virginia and Canada. The northern limits are entirely unknown. In 1700, a Can- adian, M. Le Sueur, ascended the St. Louis River ('den Fluss St. Ludewig')" — the Mississippi — "for a distance of 700 miles. But there is still another district known of over 100 miles for which reason it is almost to be supposed that this coun- try extends to the Tolum Articum'." The pamphlet described the soil as "extremely pleasant" and capable of producing four crops a year. The game, which every one might kill, was extraordinarily plenteous : "leopards, bears, buffaloes, deer, whole swarms of Indian hens, snipe, turtle-doves, partridges, wood-pigeons, quail, beav- ers, martens, wild cats, parrots, buzzards, ducks, prairie chicken and other fowls which I cannot now describe." Real or supposed visitors to the Mississippi valley contributed descriptions in their letters. Concerning the minerals they waxed enthusiastic and certainly exaggerated what Le Sueur, at least, had reported: "The land is filled with gold, silver, copper, and lead mines. . . There we shall certainly draw pieces of silver out of the earth. Having discovered these mines we will hunt for THE DAWN OF HISTORY 31 herbs and plants for the apothecaries. The savages will make them known to us." Law's gigantic speculative scheme based on the wealth of the Mississippi valley burst after a few years and wrought terrific financial havoc in many places in Europe. 15 II. THE FORT AT DUBUQUE There was one gallant French soldier on whose exploits in regard to antique Dubuque special stress must be placed. He was the intrepid Nicholas Perrot. One of the members of Le Sueur's expedition of 1700 stated that some twenty leagues south of the "Ouisconsin" — "We found both on the right and left bank" (of the Mississippi which they were ascending) "the lead mines called to this day the mines of Nicholas Perrot." These were the same mines referred to before in L,e Sueur's Journal; roughly, twenty leagues south of the mouth of the Wisconsin — fifty miles — brings one to the present site of Dubuque. And how did it happen that the excavations there were "called to this day the mines of Nicholas Perrot"? 16 Perrot, a distinguished captain and explorer and veteran of the wars against the Iroquois, had come to the upper Mississippi country in 1685. He built several forts on the upper river, one of them at Prairie du Chien at the conflu- ence of the Wisconsin and the Mississippi. In 1690 a dele- gation of Miami Indians, then living on the Mississippi some twenty-four leagues (about sixty miles) south of the Wis- consin river (or the Prairie du Chien fort) conferred with Perrot. Forty of them, loaded with beaver skins "begged him to locate his establishment upon the Mississippi, near Ouiskensing (Wisconsin), so that they could trade with him for their peltries. The chief made him a present of a piece of ore which came from a very rich lead mine, which he had found on a bank of a stream" (a "ruisseau" — a rivulet) "which empties into the Mississippi ; and Perrot promised 15. The pamphlet is described in J. Hanno Deiler's The German Coast of Louisiana, quoted by J. H. Schlarman, From Quebec to New Orleans (1929), pp. 183, 184. 16. Relation de Penicaut in Margry's Decouvertes et Etablissments des Francais dans VOuest et dans le sud de VAmerique Septentrionale, Vol. V. p. 412, quoted by Dan Elbert Clark in Mississippi Valley Historical Ass'n. Proceedings, Vol. IV, p. 97 (1910-T911) ; Wis. Hist. Coll., Vol. VIII, 273-274. 32 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 them that he would within twenty days establish a post be- low the Ouiskonche (Wisconsin) river." 17 Perrot kept his promise, after striking down with a party of Frenchmen through Wisconsin by way of the portage and the rivers. "Perrot's establishment was located below the Ouiskonche, in a place very advantageously situated for se- curity from attacks by the neighboring tribes." The great chief of the Miamis whose "village was four leagues farther down" came to sit with Perrot at the latter's fire and again "presented to the Frenchman a piece of ore from a lead mine." Perrot remained here some time meeting a num- ber of various branches of the Miami nation who had come to confer about war against the Sioux. He dissuaded them from their warlike intentions ; and it is interesting to note that there must have been bison not too far from antique Dubuque, which is apparent from the fact that the great chief to help out Perrot in his pacific plans "broke up the band of his warriors and sent them the next day to hunt buffalo." 18 Perrot departed for a time going probably to the vicinity of Lake Pepin in an endeavor to pacify the Sioux. "Quiet was restored by the good management of Sieur Perrot, who returned to his establishment." Here, after settling affairs with the Mascouten Indians who had come to treat with him, he decided to investigate the sources of lead ore which the Miami chief had given him — the place which was to be known for a long time as "Perrot's mines." "The French discovered the mine of lead, which they found in great abundance ; but it was difficult to obtain the ore, since the mine lies between two masses of rock — which can, however, be cut away. The ore is almost free from impurities, and melts easily; it diminishes by a half, when placed over the fire, but, if put into a furnace, the slag would be only one- fouth." 1 * 17. Histoire de VAmerique Septentrionale (Paris, 1753) by Claude Charles Le Roy Bacqueville de la Potherie (contemporary of and fellow Canadian to Perrot) tomes ii and iv; the first complete translation, as made by Emma Helen Blair in The Indian Tribes of the Upper Mississippi Valley and Region of the Great Lakes* (Cleveland, 1912), Vol. II, p. 59. 18. La Potherie etc. (as above) Vol. II. pp. 66-67-68. 19. La Potherie etc. (as above) Vol. II. pp. 70-73-74. THE DAWN OF HISTORY 33 In the opinion of the best historical authorities today, the only probable place near the "lead mines called to this day the mines of Nicholas Perrot" where this post could have been erected, was at East Dubuque on the Illinois side or a little below; for the establishment was "opposite to the lead mines." General George W. Jones, first United States senator from Iowa, and historic citizen of the State, who was also long resident on the very spot near it, stated that this location especially on the high bluffs to the rear, was strate- gically the best. Moreover, this point fulfills the original description of the fort; namely, that it was a "place very advantageously situated for security from attacks by neigh- boring tribes," should bellicose Indians ever attempt an assault. If, as one writer supposed, this establishment might have been situated across from the Galena mines — also included among Perrot's discoveries — there was a choice location for a fort very strong against assaults on the high eminence above the mouth of the Tetes des Morts creek about eleven miles south of Dubuque on the Iowa side. A few writers (among them John G. Shea) at one time believed that Perrot's post opposite the lead mines was lo- cated near the mouth of the Des Moines river. But this view has been entirely rejected today, as the distance was by far too great by many leagues from the Wisconsin river, and furthermore no lead mines have ever been known to be in that region. It was the old writer, Charlevoix, who led them into this error. The "ruisseau" or rivulet referred to by the Miami chief along whose banks they obtained the lead was evidently the Catfish creek, the location of the earliest mines at Dubuque. Perrot found that it was difficult to secure lead at his mines "since the mine lies between two masses of rock" — in fis- sures ; and at the Catfish mines the simplest form in which lead was obtained was in the vertical or upright fissures and crevices. 20 20. Wisconsin Historical Collections, Vol. X, pp. 321 et seq.; School- craft's Discovery of the Sources of the Mississippi, (1855), p. 172, gives minute geological details about the Catfish mines. 34 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 The village of the Miami chief was four leagues below this new French fort, probably in the Tetes des Morts valley or near the Galena river ; this was an excellent reason for the French to locate their establishment near the Dubuque mines, as they could not only obtain large amounts of rich lead but they could also barter with the Indians for valuable skins and furs. How long this daring outpost was maintained here by the French can not be stated; probably only for a short time. At any rate when L,e Sueur and his companions passed this point in 1700 they made no mention of the fort of Perrot, only of his mines ; but if the log ruins of the establishment were back on the heights behind East Dubuque as General Jones thought — and he had lived in that vicinity many years — it would not have been visible to the exploring party on the river below. 21 "The important point to note in the present connection is that the Le Sueur party found mines opened and in oper- ation on the west bank of the Mississippi on what is now the site of the city of Dubuque." In fact, "the first knowl- edge and finding of lead in America belongs properly to the present Dubuque region." 22 III. ANTIQUE DUBUQUE KNOWN TO CIVILIZATION The knowledge of the existence of "the mines of Nich- olas Perrot" was of course carried back by explorers, trad- ers and soldiers to the Quebec country, from where many of them started on their voyages. Those adventurous traders, Radisson and Grosseilliers, were in the Northwest in 1658-59, and appear to have even then heard of the lead mines in the neighborhood of Dubuque. The reports of Perrot him- self were known in France. L,e Sueur's Journal and the 21. For a complete discussion of Perrot's fort at Dubuque by the lat- est authorities, see "Early Forts on the Upper Mississippi" in Mississippi Valley Historical Ass'n Proceedings, Vol. IV, pp. 91- 101; Lyman C. Draper, "Early French Forts" in Wis. Hist. Coll., Vol. X, 321-363; also C. W. Butterfield's article, same volume, pp. 307-320. 22. "Spanish Mines" by Keyes, in Annals of Iowa, Vol. X — 1912, pp. 539 and 543. All reference to the Annals of Iowa in this volume are from the Third Series. THE DAWN OF HISTORY 35 tfi-' fL. FT DES CHARGES \ ' ('720 A«* (7**) *°,/l.ilcs ;il.|)i .11 iliL iii Ih: Milium- «... . i-iin-il I In h I h. |-li-s> i.l INTRODUCING SIEUR JTTLIEN 83 ment the other, an entirely new mine, is referred to : "more- over, they (the Foxes) sell and abandon to him . . . the con- tents of the mine discovered by the wife of Peosta," and this latter mine may have been any one of the number 1 worked by Dubuque all the way up to the Little Maquoketa. Moses M. Ham gave it as his opinion that the original mine discovered by the wife of Peosta and in his day always known as the Peosta mine was situated in the northern part of the city of Dubuque in what is called Heeb's Hollow about five miles from the village at the mouth of the Catfish. 79 When the writing was executed — September 22, 1788 — Julien Dubuque paid the Indians for the grant in goods. The chiefs of the Fox Indians, a few days afterwards, assented to the erection of monuments, or markers, and these were erected at the mouth of the river Little Maquoketa to the north of the mines and at the mouth of the Tetes des Morts to the south as evidences of the upper and lower bounds of the tract of land. Dubuque occupied the land from the time it was sold to him. Upon his first settlement there, he employed ten white men — among whom were probably several of those who signed the writing — as laborers who removed from Prairie du Chien to enter his services ; these white inhabitants who commenced their residence in the antique Dubuque area were almost entirely persons who had been inhabitants of Prairie du Chien before Julien Dubuque made his settle- ment; other persons from that town entered into his ser- vice in the interval between the date of his contract with the Indians and the time when he applied to the Governor of Louisiana for the confirmation of the sale of the In- dians to him. We have the names of but two of these em- ployes of Dubuque. Wrote Major Thomas Forsythe, the Indian agent in 1819: "My interpreter, G. Lucie, has been upwards of twenty-five years from Canada, and has passed most of his time about the different lead mines and Prairie du Chien, but principally in the employ of a Mr. Dubuque, who died some years ago at what is called Dubuque Mines." The other was said to be a Canadian named D'Bois who accompanied Dubuque to the mines in 1788 and was among 79. In his article "Who Was Peosta?" in the Annals of Iowa, Vol. II, p. 471. 84 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 those who prospected and mined for Dubuque on the Illinois side a little below the present East Dubuque. 80 Several of these employes of Dubuque married maidens of the Fox tribe, and when the white settlers arrived at the Dubuque Mines in the 1830s they found the graves of some of the children of these couples extant with the palings that had been placed around them still standing. 81 From the first, Dubuque displayed that genius for gain- ing the respect and admiration of the Indians and for win- ning their firm friendship that was more often found among the early French pioneers than among other racial groups. The quick and volatile nature of the French traders and explorers found a certain kinship among the savages. Du- buque seems even to have gained their active and loyal co- operation in all of his enterprises, both trading and mining. During his long residence on the Iowa shore, he exercised great influence over the Indians on both sides of the Miss- issippi river — the Winnebagoes on the east of it and the Foxes on the west of it were in the habit of consulting him on all their more important concerns. His success with them from the very beginning was so striking that some writers have sought to attribute it to his supposed ability in overawing them through tricks of legerdemain. The most popular tradition handed down by tnem is that on one occasion when the Foxes refused to agree to some demand, he threatened to set Catfish Creek on fire, and leave their village high and dry. They still refused him ; so one night his associates emptied a barrel of oil — or turpentine — on the water above the bend, and when it had floated down to the village Dubuque set fire to it. In a few moments the entire creek was apparently in a blaze. The terrified Indians made haste to concede all that Dubuque had asked — and supposedly, by the exercise of his will, the fire went out ! Another legend — told in 1823 to Beltrami by one who claimed that he had known Dubuque — is that Dubuque claimed immunity from snakebites and was accustomed to handle the reptiles without fear. 82 80. For Lucie, see Wis. Hist. Coll., Vol. VI, p. 194; for D'Bois, see Hist. Jo Daviess County, (1873) p. 226. 81. Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. VIII, p. 375. 82. For Beltrami's visit to the Dubuque Mines in 1823, see chapter Eleven of this volume. INTRODUCING SIEUR JULIEN 85 But these games of a master trickster were attributed to others long before the days of Dubuque. Nicholas Perrot, ac- cording to La Potherie, had cowed the savages by turning water into fire ; but instead of burning up an entire creek, he merely set ablaze a cup of water — the legend since Du- buque's time having taken in a great deal more territory — ■ or water. It is adhering more closely to historical facts to admit Dubuque's natural genius for winning over and con- trolling the Indians, than to make him appear a cunning ne- cromancer or to represent the shrewd Foxes as a stupid and credulous crew. 83 According to the records of the Supreme Court trial, Julien Dubuque made many improvements on his lands : he cleared an extensive farm, and constructed upon it houses and a horse mill ; he cultivated the farm and dug lead ore from the land which he smelted in a furnace constructed for that purpose. Unfortunately no eye witness has ever recorded the methods used by Dubuque in mining the rich lead ore found in his lands ; methods, no doubt, ingenious but crude. The system followed by the Indians after his death and probably based on the methods used in his life time will be described below. Julien Dubuque is thought of usually as a miner, but it must not be forgotten that he was also a farmer, and especial- ly that he was one of the great traders of the upper valley. The country was rich in fur-bearing animals, and he made the most of his influence among the red men to exploit the trade in furs. Licensed trader — and the Spanish laws were strict about licenses — he was not ; at least, there is no record extant of his securing a Spanish or American license. Yet he was rigorous in his insistence on his own trading and mining rights, almost jealously so — perhaps competition so made him. Until the province of Louisiana was transferred to the United States, he did not permit anyone to carry on business on his lands without first having obtained his consent. For example, a person named Guerien had come there with goods to trade and Dubuque drove him forcibly from his territory. 84 83. See La Potherie's account of Perrot in the translation made by Emma Helen Blair in The Indian Tribes of the Upper Mississippi V alley and Region of the Or eat Lakes (Cleveland, 1912) Vol. II. 84. Supreme Court Reports, 16 Howard (1855 edition), p. 222. 86 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 Again, the following letter throws a side-light on the min- ing and trading conditions. It was written by Taisont (Tes- son) Honore who had obtained in 1799 a Spanish land grant at the head of the rapids of the river Des Moines on the site of the present town of Montrose in L,ee County, and in it he complains to the Lieutenant-Governor of Louisiana, Don Carlos Dehault Delassus of the actions of Julien Dubuque. "To Monsieur Carlos Deot delassus Commandant, St. L,ouis. Rapids demoin, May 1, 1800. Monsieur, I have just learned through Mess. Sene Calle and Lafargue that the lead which I owed to Mr. Pere has been seized at Mr. Dubuque's place by the order of Mr. Zenon. And monsieur, since I am ignorant of the cause I pray you in case this affair comes to your attention and in behalf of what regards me to have the goodness to hold over the matter until the arrival of Your very humble servant Taisont Honore. " 85 The Mr. Zenon referred to was evidently Zenon Trudeau who had been governor of Upper Louisiana from 1792 to 1799, and who probably had during his term of office given Du- buque certain lead-mining monopolies in pursuance of which Dubuque seized the lead passing his mines as an infringement on his rights. 85. The French original of this letter is in the Pierre Chouteau Col- lections, Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis. CHAPTER SEVEN THE MINER OF THE MINES OF SPAIN BOTH the mining and the trading enterprises of Julien Dubuque seemed to prosper from the very beginning. He carried his mining operations all along the bluffs and ravines of the Iowa shore and extended them a few miles inland. But he does not appear to have restricted his operations to the west side of the river; there is a well founded belief that his prospectors and miners, who enjoyed the full sym- pathy and confidence not only of the Foxes on the Iowa side but of the Winnebagoes across the Mississippi, roved about at will on both sides of the river, and opened leads on Ap- ple River, near the present town of Elizabeth in Illinois ; and as early as 1805 even operated the old Buck and Hog leads on Fevre river. In 1826, at Ottawa (Allenwrath's dig- gings), two miles from Galena, there was found under the ashes of a primitive furnace, a heavy sledge hammer, un- doubtedly left by Dubuque's miners. 86 "Dubuque appears to have largely employed his Indian friends in prospecting for lead mines. When their discover- ies were reported to him, he would send Canadians and half- breeds to prove the claims and sometimes to work them; although, in many cases, he was content with proving the claim and allowing the Indians to work it themselves, the product being brought to his large trading-house on the west side of the river. In this manner the entire region of the lead mines in Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois became more or less occupied by Dubuque's men before any permanent American settlement." 87 It can be fairly inferred that in the antique Dubuque country various Indians themselves had operated the mines in a crude fashion long before the arrival of Julien Dubuque. This was doubtless only to secure bullets for their rifles which they had obtained by trading with the French and English. Presumably the French first showed the Indians how to mine and smelt the ore ; and in Dubuque's time they 86. History of Jo Daviess County (1873), pp. 220 et seq. 87. R. G. Thwaites, "Notes on Early Lead Mining," in Wis. Hist. Coll., Vol. XIII. 88 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 acquired hoes, shovels and crow-bars from the traders to whom they sold lead. "The Indians loaded their ore at the bottom of the shaft into tough deer-skins, the bundle being hoisted to the surface or dragged up inclined planes by long thongs of hide. Many of these Indians leads, aban- doned by the aborigines when the work of developing them became too great for their simple tools, were afterwards taken possession of by the whites with improved appliances and found to be the best of the region. Early writers gen- erally agree that the Indian mining was almost wholly con- ducted by old men and squaws, the bucks doing the smelting. However this may be it is certain that in later days a good many bucks worked in these primitive mines, and many of them are known to have assisted Dubuque." 88 As time passed and his wealth and holdings increased, Dubuque may have become doubtful of the thorough valid- ity of his contract of 1788 with the Fox chiefs. In order to conciliate the Spanish authorities he named his lands "Les Mines d'Espagne" — "The Mines of Spain" ; and he deemed it advisable to make his claim doubly sure by obtaining a formal recognition from the Spanish government of Louis- iana. Doubtless, however, the strongest motive Dubuque had in securing the Spanish title to his grant during the year 1796, was the fact that Baron de Carondelet, the governor of Louisiana at New Orleans, was actually anxious to con- fer such grants; he was seeking settlers, and to them he held out the powerful inducement of lands to be given with- out taxes, in order that New Orleans might become the mar- ket for all their productions. In this year 1796 the reasons had become stronger for populating this province. It had become necessary to defend it. Spain, as the ally of the French Republic, was then at war with England, and their subjects waged against each other throughout the four quart- ers of the globe a momentous struggle. Upper Louisiana was open to invasion from Canada upon the line of Lake Michigan and the Illinois river. It had been so invaded in the year 1780, as was seen in a previous chapter, when Spain was the ally of the thirteen United Colonies. In 1796 the same danger again menaced Upper Louisiana ; the Baron 88. Ibid. THE MINES OF SPAIN 89 de Carondelet looked to the same relief, the settlers and riflemen of the West, and so lands were gratuitously given them, free of taxes. "Kentucky and Tennessee poured their earliest settlers across the Mississippi. The celebrated Daniel Boone went at that time. Emigrants were also drawn from every part of the United States ; and not only they but the European French, flying from the storms of the Revolution, the in- habitants of St. Domingo escaping from massacre and con- flagration, the Irish retiring from the calamities of their country, all found refuge in Upper Louisiana and received gratuitous grants of land from the Spanish Government. It was at this period that Upper Louisiana gained two-thirds of its whole population ; it was then that the chief part of the concessions were made ; and the United States later reaped the benefit of the Baron de Carondelet's policy." 89 So in 1796, Julien Dubuque duly appeared before the Gov- ernor-general, or more probably was represented through others, and had his petition presented for validation. This petition, so important and interesting in relation to the his- tory of antique Dubuque, is here presented in full transla- tion: To his excellency, the Baron De Carondelet : Your excellency's very humble petitioner, named Julien Dubuque, having made a settlement on the fron- tiers of your government, in the midst of the Indian nations, who are the inhabitants of the country, has bought a tract of land from these Indians, with the mines it contains, and of his perseverance has sur- mounted all obstacles, as expensive as they were dan- gerous, and, after many voyages, has come to be the peaceable possessor of a tract of land on the western bank of the Mississippi, to which he has given the name of the "Mines of Spain," in memory of the gov- ernment to which he belonged. As the place of set- tlement is but a point, and the different mines which he works are apart, and at a distance of more than three leagues from each other, the very humble pe- 89. Abridgement of the Debates of Congress from 1789 to 1856 (New York, 1858), Vol. VII, pp. 178, 179. 90 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 titioner prays your excellency to have the goodness to assure him the enjoyment of the mines and lands, that is to say, from the margin of the waters of the little river Maquanquitois to the margin of the Mes- quabysnonques, which forms about seven leagues on the west bank of the Mississippi, by three in depth, and to grant him the peaceable possession thereof, which the very humble petitioner ventures to hope that your goodness will be pleased to grant him his request. I beseech that same goodness which makes the happiness of so many subjects, to pardon me my style, and be pleased to accept the pure simplicity of my heart in default of my eloquence. I pray Heaven with all my power, that it preserve you and that it load you with all its benefits ; and I am, and shall be all my life, your Excellency's very humble, and very obe- dient, and very submissive servant. J. Dubuque. The Governor-general then appended the following pre- cautionary notation to the extremely polite note of the miner: New Orleans, October 22, 1796. Let information be given by the merchant, Don An- drew Todd, on the nature of the demand. The Baron de Carondelet. This Andrew Todd, a "young and robust Irishman," had obtained from Baron de Carondelet a grant to carry on the exclusive trade of all the upper Mississippi. He had won such influence over the Spanish officials that they were per- suaded to give him the exclusive trade privilege in return for a duty of six per cent. 90 His answer follows, pointing out that Dubuque be prohibited from trading with the Indians except with Todd's consent in writing: Senor Governor: In compliance with your superior order, in which you command me to give information on the solicitation of the individual interested in the fore- going memorial, I have to say that, as to the land for which he asks, nothing occurs to me why it should not 90. Iowa Journal of History and Politics, (1914) Vol. 12, p. 366. THE MINES OF SPAIN 91 be granted, if you deem it advisable to do so ; with the condition, nevertheless, that the grantee shall observe the provisions of his Majesty relating to the trade with the Indians ; and that this be absolutely prohibited to him, unless it shall be with my consent in writing. New Orleans, October 29, 1796. Andrew Todd. To all of which the Governor-general fixed his approval in the following note: New Orleans, November 10, 1796. Granted as asked, under the restriction expressed in the information given by the merchant, Don An- drew Todd. The Baron de Carondelet. 91 Dubuque was now fortified in his claim and a princely claim it was ; it stretched twenty-one miles along the Miss- issippi from "the little river Maquanquitois" — the Little Ma- quoketa — to the Mesquabysnonques — the Tetes des Morts, — and nine miles inland. The restrictions of "the merchant Don Andrew Todd" never hampered Dubuque in the least in his exploitation of the Indian trade ; perhaps he received a written consent from Todd but the probability is that he did not for poor Don Andrew fell a victim to the yellow fever shortly after in the final days of 1796. The only competi- tion Dubuque met with in his trading activities was from wandering representatives of the American Fur Company at Mackinac who carried on their operations on the east side of the river. The value of the fur trade, especially, it might be mentioned, was immense at this time. Perrin, a French- man, sent by Napoleon to examine the resources of Louisiana about the year 1800, estimated the furs, robes and peltries taken on the waters of the Upper Mississippi at 1,200,000 livres tournois, — a purchasing power of $240,000 of that day. Major Stoddart, writing in 1804, stated that the value of this trade at St. Louis alone, (where Dubuque sold practically all of the furs he secured at his establishment) averaged $203,000 annually for the fifteen years before the transfer of the province to the United States. 92 91. Dubuque's petition and the subsequent documents may all be found in American State Papers, Public Lands, Vol. Ill, p. 678 et seq. 92. Abridgement of the Debates of Congress from 1789 to 1856 (New York, 1858), Vol. VII, p. 202. 92 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 The war which broke out between Spain and England in 1796 brought excitement to the fringes of antique Du- buque. In the spring of 1797 English traders at Prairie du Chien "were nearly pillaged by the Saques and Renards head- ed by some Traders from St. Louis with authority from the Spanish commandant of that place." It is possible, especially in view of the fact that Dubuque now wished to ingratiate himself with the Spanish authorities, that he and his Renards participated in this campaign. B. W. Brisbois, an early set- tler of Prairie du Chien, referred to these martial activities : "Occasionally the Spaniards at St. Louis would send up a gun boat to seize everything of the kind (especially furs and peltries deposited at Prairie du Chien) as so much confiscated property, having been gathered by British traders on Span- ish territory and without license." And, as we have seen, Dubuque was extremely jealous of his monopoly rights in trade and minerals within his territory. 93 Referring to this attack on the English traders at Prairie du Chien in the spring of 1797, R. G. Thwaites, the Wiscon- sin historian, wrote in 1908 : "So far as known, no other ac- count of this Spanish raid on Prairie du Chien has been pre- served. " 93a But just recently another document has been found which indicates with almost absolute certainty that Julien Dubuque and his Foxes took an active part in this Spanish attack. On June 14, 1797, Lieutenant Colonel Carlos Howard, military commander of the Spanish Illinois, wrote to Baron de Carondelet, in a letter just found in the Ban- croft Library : "The savages of this last nation [the Foxes] who have three villages in the vicinity of the River Aux Indes [Riviere aux Dindes — the Turkey river], having learned of the imprisonment of [Louis Tesson] Honore, at Prairie [du Chien] went up by our river until they arrived opposite it. From there they sent some of their men to demand his liberty, threatening in case it was denied to attack not only those settlers, but also sev- enty-two Sioux savages who had come at the sum- 93. Iowa Journal of History and Politics, (1914) Vol. 12, p. 367; Wis. Hist. Coll., Vol. IX, pp. 289, 290. 93a. Wisconsin Historical Collections, Vol. XVIII, p. 457. THE MINES OF SPAIN 93 mons of the above-mentioned Englishmen. The Sioux, convinced by the Renard of the evil of mixing in the affairs of the white men, withdrew at once." The three Fox villages in the vicinity of the Turkey river were those in the antique Dubuque area and two of them have been repeatedly referred to : the one at the mouth of the Turkey itself, and the one on the Catfish. The continua- tion of the letter shows Julien Dubuque's further connec- tion with the Anglo-Spanish war: "Honore asserts that when he came away he left Mr. Julien Mombuc, who lives opposite Prairie du Chien (and is the same person to whom Your Lord- ship recently granted a section of land), charged with the care of being on the lookout and giving immediate information here of the slightest movement on the part of the English or the Indians." The most likely person who would answer to the name of Julien Mombuc and who lived somewhere opposite Prairie du Chien, would be Julien Dubuque. But what here estab- lishes the identity of Julien Dubuque beyond any doubt, is the fact that he is the only person on record on the Upper Mississippi who was "recently granted by His Eordship" — Baron de Carondelet — "a section of land," namely, seven months before, on November 10, 1796. 93b The ores of antique Dubuque and the peltries of the sur- rounding country made Julien Dubuque of the Mines of Spain an astonishingly wealthy man — relatively speaking — for some years at least. His name became famous up and down the valley and his wealth gave him sufficient prestige to win almost monopolistic concessions from government officials. His establishment on the Catfish with his home, his stables, his warehouses, the cabins for his French-Can- adian and half-breed foremen and workers must have been an impressive one. An early traveller referred to it as "a fortified settlement on the banks of the river." We know he had cannon and probably he had palisades built about his establishment in the old frontier fashion. Twice a year 93b. "Anglo-Spanish Rivalry in the Iowa Country, 1797-1798," by Dr. A. P. Nasatir in Iowa Journal of History and Politics, (July, 1930), Vol. XXVII, pp. 372, 373. 94 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 he went to St. Louis with his boats filled with valuable ores and furs — "the richest argosies on the upper Mississippi dur- ing those years." He brought back to his settlement in the wilderness a wealth of wares, merchandise and trinkets for the Indian trade. 94 His smelting-furnaces for lead-ore were the largest in the West. "He controlled the boats which carried the pro- duct down the river to market. In gaining absolute suprem- acy over the lead industry he displayed remarkable talent. For whatever lead ores he purchased, he established the rate. In market he fixed the price of the refined product. By a hundrd and twenty-five years he anticipated the policies of the Guggenheims and the American Smelting and Refining Company." 95 Naturally one would expect that such a wealthy and pow- erful personage would make somewhat of an impression on the inhabitants of the little city of St. Louis when he visited there. And such was the case. Antoine Soulard, who be- came the Surveyor General for the district of Upper Louis- iana in 1795, was the friend and business representative of Dubuque at St. Louis. His son, James G. Soulard, born in 1798, in later years moved to Galena and there resided as a prominent citizen for many years. This pioneer had the good fortune when a boy to meet Dubuque and he has left with us perhaps the best picture obtainable of the great Miner of the Mines of Spain. He described Julien Dubuque as he appeared in middle life, as "a man below the usual stature, of black hair and eyes, wiry and well-built, capable of great endurance, and remarkably courteous and polite, with all the suavity and grace of the typical Frenchman. To the ladies he was always the essence of politeness." Mr. Soulard well remembered that on the occasion of one of Du- buque's visits, a ball was given in his honor, attended by all the prominent people of the place. It was held in a public hall, in the second story of a building, and he as a small boy had crowded in to see the sights. At one point of the festiv- ities the Sieur Dubuque took a violin from one of the per- 94. U. S. Supreme Court Records, ut supra; and Cole's A History of the People of Iowa (1912) p. 65, 66. 95. Keyes, "Spanish Mines," in Annals of Iowa, Vol. X, p. 546. THE MINES OF SPAIN 95 formers and executed a dance to the strains of his own music, which was considered a great accomplishment, and was re- ceived with tremendous applause. 96 In 1803, antique Dubuque and the Mines of Spain came under the jurisdiction and ownership of the United States of America. This change of sovereignty had no immediate effect upon Julien Dubuque or his projects. In 1805, General James Wilkinson (of rather sinister fame and later the as- sociate of Aaron Burr) was in command of the American forces in Louisiana, and he sent an expedition up the Miss- issippi river under the direction of a young lieutenant, Zebul- on M. Pike. This officer was later the discoverer of the source of the Mississippi in Itasca Lake, the celebrated explorer and the general who lost his life in the battle of Toronto dur- ing the war against England in 1813. Julien Dubuque's repu- tation, his mines and activities on the Upper Mississippi, had aroused the curiosity of General Wilkinson, and Pike was in- structed to confer with him and make a report on his opera- tions. Indeed, this instruction was said to have come from President Thomas Jefferson himself. 97 Of course, this was only one of a number of objectives which Pike had in view on his voyage ; it was a voyage of exploration, and the gov- ernment was anxious to learn how far the activities of the British fur companies had penetrated into American territory. On Sunday, September 1st, 1805, Pike grounded his keel- boat in front of Dubuque's establishment and landed with his twenty soldiers. The Dubuque Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution have commemorated with ai marker at the spot of his landing, the first appearance of the Stars and Stripes in the antique Dubuque country. But it is prob- able that Dubuque, clever politician that he was and always quick to cultivate the good graces of the government under which he lived, may have had Old Glory already floating above his settlement. 96. Articles of M. M. Ham and Judge T. S. Wilson in Annals of Ioioa. For biography of James G. Soulard, see History of Jo Daviess County (1873), p. 651. Another pioneer who had seen and con- versed with Julien Dubuque, was Thomas McKnight of Dubuque, who as a youth had clerked in Chouteau's store in St. Louis where Dubuque did most of his trading. For biography of Thomas Mc- Knight, see History of Dubuque County, (1880) p. 975. 97. M. M. Ham in the Annals of Iowa, April, 1896. 96 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 We quote from Pike's interesting journal, starting our excerpt with August 31st: 98 Aug. 31st. Embarked early. Passed one peroque of Indians ; also, two encampments, one on a beauti- ful eminence on the W. side of the river. This place had the appearance of an old town. Sailed almost all day. Distance 3\y 2 miles. Sunday, Sept. 1st. Embarked early; wind fair; ar- rived at the lead mines at twelve o'clock. A dysentery, with which I had been afflicted several days, was sud- denly checked this morning, which I believe to have been the occasion of a very violent attack of fever about elevent o'clock. Notwithstanding it was very severe, I dressed myself, with the intention to execute the orders of the general relative to this place. We were saluted with a field-piece, and received every mark of attention by Monsieur Dubuque, the propriet- or. There were no horses at the house, and it was six miles to where the mines were worked; it was therefore impossible to make a report by actual inspection. I there- fore proposed io queries, on the answers to which my re- port was founded. Dined with Mr. Dubuque, who informed me that the Sioux and Sauteurs were as warmly engaged in opposi- tion as ever; that not long since the former killed 15 Sauteurs, who on the ioth of August in return killed 10 Sioux, at the entrance of St. Peter [Minnesota riv- er] ; and that a war-party composed of Sacs, Reynards and Puants [Winnebagoes], of 200 warriors, had em- barked on an expedition against the Sauteurs; but that they had heard that the chief, having had an unfavorable dream, persuaded the party to return, and that I would meet them on my voyage. At this place I was introduced to a chief called Raven, of the Reynards. He made a 98. All previous and subsequent references to and quotations from Pike are from: The Expedition of Zebulon Montgomery Pike, To Headquarters of the Mississippi River, Through Louisiana Ter-, ritory, and in New Spain, During the Years, 1805-6-7, (1895). Ed- ited by Elliott Coues. THE MINES OF SPAIN 97 very flowery speech on the occasion, which I answered in a few words, accompanied by a small present. I had now given up all hopes of my two men, and was about to embark when a peroque arrived, in which they were with a Mr. Blondeau, and two Indians whom that gentleman had engaged above the rapids of Stony [Rock] river The two soldiers had been six days with- out anything to eat except muscles [mussels], when they met Mr. James Aird, by whose humanity and attention their strength and spirits were in measure restored; and they were enabled to reach the Reynard village, where they met Mr. B. The Indian chief furnished them with corn and shoes, and showed his friendship by every pos- sible attention. I immediately discharged the hire of the Indians, and gave Mr. Blondeau a passage to the Prairie des Chiens. Left the mines at four o'clock. Distance 25 miles. Sept. 2d. After making two short reaches, we com- menced one which is 30 miles in length ; the wind serv- ing, we just made it, and encamped on the E. side oppo- site the mouth of Turkey river. In the course of the day we landed to shoot pigeons. The moment a gun was fired, some Indians who were on the shore above us, ran down and put off in their peroques with great precipitation ; upon which Mr. Blondeau informed me that all the women and children were frightened at the name of an American boat, and that the men held us in great respect, conceiving us very quarrelsome, much for war and also very brave. This information I used as prudence suggested. When Pike in his entry of August 31st referred to "the beautiful eminence on the west," he had in mind Leopold hill, near Bellevue in Jackson County. He next passed on his left the southern boundary of Du- buque's lands — the Mesquabysnonques Creek — later called the Tetes des Morts. Tetes des Morts means death's-heads, and the creek was so named on account of the number of skulls found there as a result of an Indian fight. Of this place, Bel- trami, the Italian explorer who visited there in 1823, wrote : 98 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 "a place called the Death'sheads ; a field of battle where the Foxes defeated the Kaskaskias, whose heads they fixed upon poles as trophies of their victory." 99 It is probable that besides meeting the chief, Raven of the Reynards, Pike also met Black Hawk, who later became the famous leader of the Sacs. So at least B. F. Gue relates : "Pike met at Dubuque Mines the Sac and Fox chief, Black Hawk, who had just returned from leading a war party against the Sauteurs [Chippewas]." Evidently the young chief had not as yet attained sufficient prestige to receive a special mention by Pike. 100 The Mr. Blondeau, who accompanied Pike from Du- buque's Mines and who later acted as interpreter, was the Fox half-breed Maurice Blondeau mentioned in the previous chapter. If Pike left Dubuque at 4 P. M. he did not get far by night and probably camped at either the Little Maquoketa or Sin- ipee creek. Julien Dubuque and Lieutenant Pike probably conversed in French during their visit, as the latter gentleman spoke that language. However, it is possible that Dubuque through his contact with the English and Americans at Prairie du Chien and St. Louis had learned some English. Pike returned from his long voyage the following spring and we resume his journal for a few jottings from the time he left Prairie du Chien : 1806. April 23d. After closing my accounts, etc., at half past twelve o'clock we left the Prairie; at the lower end of it were saluted by 17 lodges of the Puants. Met a barge, by which I received a letter from my lady. 99. Beltrami in his Vol. II, 1828, p. 160. For Beltrami's visit to Du- buque's Mines see a later chapter in the present volume. 100. Gue's History of Iowa, Vol. I, p. 127. However, Ethyl Edna Mar- tin in the Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. 9, p. 343 (July, 1911) maintains that Pike met Black Hawk at Rock River. "It was here that he met Black Hawk, who recalled the occasion in detail many years later. Although Lieutenant Pike makes no mention of the meeting with Black Hawk, the Indian chief's ac- count of the visit is so accurate in many points, which may be verified, that it is hardly to be doubted." Perhaps Black Hawk and Pike met on two occasions. THE MINES OF SPAIN 99 Further on met one batteau and one canoe of traders. Passed one trader's camp. Arrived at Mr. Dubuque's at ten o'clock at night ; found some traders encamped at the entrance with 40 or 50 Indians ; obtained some in- formation from Mr. Dubuque, and requested him to write me on certain points. After we had boiled our victuals, I divided my men into four watches and put off, wind ahead. April 24th. In the morning we used our oars until ten o'clock, and then floated while breakfasting. At this time two barges, one bark, and two wooden canoes passed us under full sail ; by one of which I sent back a letter to Mr. Dubuque that I had forgotten to deliver. In the previous fall, four days after Lieutenant Pike had left Dubuque, he wrote a letter to General Wilkinson from Prairie du Chien in which he said: "Messrs. Dubuque and Dickson were about sending a num- ber of chiefs to St. Louis, but the former confessing he was not authorized, I have stopped them without in the least dis- satisfying the Indians." This Dickson was Robert Dickson, a friendly competitor of Julien Dubuque's in the Indian fur trade, a leading figure at Prairie du Chien and for years associated with John Jacob Astor in his great fur company. He became a violent and ag- gressive partisan for the British against the Americans in the War of 1812. In his entry of September 1, 1805, Pike states that he pro- posed ten questions to Dubuque about his mines. However, in his subsequent account only eight questions and their answers were listed, and their translation from the French, in which language they were written, follows : "The day of my arrival at the lead mines, I was taken with a fever which, with Monsieur Dubuque's having no horses about his house, obliged me to content myself with proposing to him the inclosed queries ; the answers seem to carry with them the semblance of equivocation. 100 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 1. What is the date of the grant of the mines from the savages ? Ans. The copy of the grant is in Mr. (Antoine Pierre) Soulard's (surveyor-general's) office at St. Louis. 2. What is the date of the confirmation by the Span- iards ? Ans. The same as to query first. 3. 3. What is the extent of your grant? Ans. The same as above. 4. What is the extent of the mines ? Ans. Twenty-eight or twenty-seven leagues long, and from one to three broad. 101 5. Lead made per annum ? Ans. From 20,000 to 40,000 pounds. 6. Quantity of lead per cwt. of mineral ? Ans. Seventy-five per cent. 7. Quantity of lead in pigs ? Ans. All we make, as we neither manufacture bar, sheet-lead, nor shot. 8. If mixed with any other mineral ? Ans. We have seen some copper, but having no per- son sufficiently acquainted with chemistry to make the experiment properly, cannot say as to the pro- portion it bears with to the lead. Z. M. Pike. Dubuque Lead Mines, Sept. 1st, 1805." On reading the answers one is inclined to justify the young lieutenant in his complaint that "the answers seem to convey with them the semblance of equivocation." 101. This "twenty-eight or twenty-seven leagues long" would run from the Turkey river on the north to the Maquoketa river on the south — really the entire limits of the antique Dubuque territory. In Dubuque's petition to Carondelet in 1796 he asks for "seven leagues." CHAPTER EIGHT THE PASSING OF THE FIRST PERMANENT SETTLER THE relation of the antique Dubuque country with old St. Louis was principally commercial. But the connection of Au- guste Chouteau — who with his brother Pierre and Pierre Ligueste Laclede was a founder of St. Louis — and Julien Du- buque, the patronal historical figure of the city that bears his name, was varied and made up of trade and finance and friendship. The mighty name of Chouteau was known up and down the length of both the Mississippi and the Missouri val- leys. That name became in later years very unpopular in Du- buque, after the founding of the city, because of the long and spirited litigation carried on by the Chouteau heirs to secure validation of their claims to the Dubuque lands and to dis- possess the Dubuque settlers of their titles. Auguste Chou- teau was nevertheless as honorable as a gentleman as he was remarkable as a pioneer. He had been assistant to and chief lieutenant of Pierre Laclede in his great trading ventures and in the founding of St. Louis. He became famous both as a trader and a United States government peace commissioner. His character was of the highest. The French inscription on his tomb at St. Louis characterizes his life as a model of the civic and social virtues, and contemporary records attest its truth. Delassus, the Spanish lieutenant-governor, wrote of him (May 31, 1794) as "a man of incorruptible integrity." Du- buque's close friendship with him reflects nothing but credit upon the great Miner. 102 Fickle Fortune began to frown on Julien Dubuque, at least in matters financial, about 1804. Whether his program of com- mercial conquest was too ambitious, or his speculations too daring, he somehow became heavily indebted to that western prince of merchants and captain of finance at St. Louis, Au- guste Chouteau. Unable to meet his payments, Dubuque on October 20th, 1804, conveyed to Chouteau seven undivided 102. Dictionary of American Biography, Vol. IV, (1930), pp. 94, 95; see also articles on Chouteau in the Encyclopedia Americana and Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography. 102 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 sixteenths of all the land included in his claim. The deed be- tween "Julien Dubuque, mineralogist, residing at the Mines of Spain" and "Auguste Chouteau, merchant," provided : "That I, Julien Dubuque, by these presents, recog- nize and confess to have today sold, ceded and relin- quished, now and forever ... to Auguste Chouteau, the aforesaid merchant, who, for the present time ac- cepts and acquires for him, his heirs and assigns, to- wit, a land containing 72,324 arpents to be taken from the south of a concession obtained by me, aforesaid Du- buque, from the Baron de Cardondelet . . . This pres- ent sale done by me, aforesaid Dubuque, for the price and sum of $10,848 and 60 sols, which by the present writing, I recognize to have received cash from the hands of the aforesaid Auguste Chouteau." 103 Dubuque was to enjoy possession of this land during his lifetime, however; but the "works, furnaces, buildings, im- provements, etc., done by me" (Dubuque) "on the aforesaid land will remain to the aforesaid Chouteau after the aforesaid terms mentioned above of my life, so that the aforesaid Chou- teau, his heirs and assigns, may take full and peaceful posses- sion of it and enjoy it as things belonging to him after my death." A first statement on the 12th of November, 1804, signed by Dubuque shows a transfer of 72,324 arpents of land to Chouteau, and leaves a balance due Dubuque amounting to $4,855.82, half of the balance to be paid in 1805, of which $200 was payable in deer-skins at the current price, and the re- mainder to be paid "in merchandise, taffetas or the country's productions." The second payment was stipulated to be paid in 1806, and $400 of this was to be payable in deer-skins "and the balance in merchandise, taffetas, whiskey, etc." A final statement of September 14th, 1806, mentioned the indebted- 103. This deed was used and quoted in the famous Chouteau vs. Mo- lony case referred to previously. See Reports of Cases Argued and Adjudged in the Supreme Court of the U. S., Dec. 1853 (1885) Vol. XVI, 2nd edition; United States Supreme Court Records, 16 Howard, pp. 204, 234, 235. THE PASSING OF THE FIRST SETTLER 103 ness of Chouteau to Dubuque as $1,282.49, "payable in the same terms and conditions" as previously agreed upon. 104 The date of the original contract between Dubuque and Chouteau occurred on October 20th, 1804. Exactly two weeks later, on November 3, 1804, a treaty was arranged at the in- stigation of Auguste Chouteau between the Sac and Fox In- dians and General Wm. Henry Harrison, (later President of the United States), who was plenipotentiary for the United States in dealing with the Indians. This treaty, arranged at St. Louis and later denounced as a very unjust one in its effect on the Indians, stipulated the cession to the United States government of all the Indian lands east of the Mississippi and a number of other claims. These involved the Fox Indians, many of whom lived west of the Mississippi, and to safeguard as far as possible the interests of Dubuque, Auguste Chouteau and Antoine Soulard, the agent or factor representing Du- buque at St. Louis, both very influential men, induced General Harrison to add the following article to the Indian treaty: CERTIFICATE. I, the undersigned, William Henry Harrison, Gover- nor of the Territory of Louisiana, and commissioner plenipotentiary of the United States for treating with the Indian tribes northwest of the Ohio, do hereby cer- tify and declare, that, after the treaty which was made with the Sacs and Foxes, at St. Louis on the 3d of No- vember, 1804, was drawn up and prepared for signing, I was shown a grant from the Governor General of Louisiana to a certain Dubuque for a considerable quan- tity of land, at some distance up the Mississippi, and where the said Dubuque has for many years resided. Finding that this tract could be considered as receded by the treaty as it then stood, the additional article was written and submitted to the Indians (namely, that the treaty should not affect the claim of those who ob- tained grants from the Spanish Government). They readily consented to it; and the undersigned informed 104. Along with these are other business statements in the Pierre*, Chouteau Collections, Missouri Historical Society, Jefferson Mem- orial Building, St. Louis. 104 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 them that the intention of it was to embrace particu- larly the claim of Dubuque, the validity of which they acknowledged. Given under my hand and seal at Vincennes, the 1st of January, 1806. William Henry Harrison. 105 As a further safeguard, the claim of Dubuque based on Baron de Carondelet's grant of 1796 was brought before the Board of United States Commissioners at St. Louis on the 20th of September the same year, 1806. The following was the decision they arrived at : Julien Dubuque and Auguste Chouteau claim a tract one hundred forty-eight thousand one hundred and seventy-six arpents of land, at a place called the Span- ish Mines, seven leagues on the river by a depth of three leagues, a superficies of about twenty-one leagues. A majority of the Board ascertain the above claim to be a complete Spanish title. 106 So hitherto Dubuque, and again Dubuque and Chouteau had been successful in maintaining the legality and validity of the claim at the Mines of Spain. But at last a yawning fis- sure appeared in the wall of surety they thought they had built about it. The report of the Board of Land Commission- ers at St. Louis was sent to Washington to Albert Gallatin, the Secretary of the Treasury. From the beginning Gallatin showed a prejudice against the land titles of Upper Louisiana, and especially against that of Dubuque and Chouteau. He made an adverse report, drawn up with care and caution, on Julien Dubuque's claim to the President, Thomas Jefferson ; 107 he held that the right obtained from the Indians was merely a permission to work certain mines, and that "the Spanish Grant had not conformed to the rule of the Spanish govern- ment relative to land grants, and therefore it was not an in- dependent and complete grant." This adverse report to the 105. American State Papers — Public Lands, Vol. II, p. 454. 106. Ibid. 107. Supreme Court Records, 16 Howard (1855 edition), p. 235. THE PASSING OF THE FIRST SETTLER 105 President played an important part in subsequent years in the court litigations of Chouteau's heirs in their claim for the Du- buque lands. 108 But Chouteau proceeded on the assumption that his pur- chase of the Mines of Spain was based on a valid claim. Be- lieving that Dubuque was a success as a miner and trader, but a failure as a financier, he determined to send his nephew, Pierre Chouteau, Jr., a clever and promising youth, to the Mines. When Dubuque was leaving St. Louis in 1806 for the north, his party was accompanied in their canoes by the young man ; and arriving at the Mines of Spain, young Chouteau acted as clerk for Julien Dubuque, with the expectation, be- cause of the Chouteau contracts, of being made his partial heir in the event of his death. He remained as a resident of antique Dubuque for two years, returning to St. Louis in 1808. This young man later became one of the foremost merchants and explorers of the Northwest and a statesman of early Mis- souri. The present capital of South Dakota is named after him ; it first being called Fort Pierre Chouteau, then Fort Pi- erre, and today simply Pierre. 109 In the manuscript department of the Wisconsin Historical Library at Madison is an original letter written by Dubuque from Prairie du Chien ("De la Prerya Da Chients") on June 3, 1807 to the Messrs. Rochebleve and Porlier, merchants at Mackinac. The contents of this letter throw an interesting light on the business affairs of Dubuque at this time. The incidents described reveal how Fortune was continuing to frown upon him. The letter, translated from the French, bears witness to his fin- ancial distress : Sirs — by Mr. Brisebois you will receive twenty-eight packs and four ditto for Mr. Berthelotte all together mak- ing thirty-two packs whose invoice is enclosed, and which you will receive and send on to be sold on the account I owe you. 108. See note 103. Also, Iowa, Its History and Its Foremost Citizens, by Brigham (1915), Vol. I, p. 27. 109. Frederick L. Billon in History of St. Louis City and County, by J. Thomas Scharf, (Philadelphia, 1883) Vol. I, p. 183; Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography (1888), p. 610; Dictionary of American Biography, Vol. IV, (1930), pp. 93, 94. 306 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 I have drawn on you for the wages of only one man to whom is due 689 lvs. The rest I have drawn for Mr. Brise- bois which I suppose will only be to transfer it from one leaf to another of your books. Probably you will be astonished at so small returns this year. It is true, but consider the circumstances which have caused this small result. For seeing the fine appear- ance of last autumn I arranged with 8 men to trap beaver on the Missourye. I had sent them An Outfit to make their entrance into the village and entrench it etc. When they had gone ten days journey or had camped ten times they met the Sioux of Des Moines river, and had a little Broil with them They all gave up the enterprise and came to pass the winter opposite their village eating up their maize since they had no meat to eat. This spring they came to return to me what remained, their guns, traps and Kettles, and I refused to accept them only replying that the loss was total. I told them that these credits remained for another year, which they must make up. But this Mis- fortune makes me wish to give up trading and I will really quit it when affairs have become settled up. I pray you not to be apprehensive for the Balance that remains against me — it is true that I am on the wrong side of the account. But when I die I have funds that belong to me that will more than equal the balance that is owing you. For all the small debts that I owe you I would much prefer to pay in peltry than to draw on you for money. I inform you that I have waited in vain since I had the honor of receiving a letter from you last Autumn and for information of the inheritance that I charged you to recover. I do not know the result but whatever it may be I always await with Great impatience whatever you may have to tell me. I had hoped to go to Mackinac this year but an alarm spread among the Savages renders my presence necessary in my locality and I must postpone my journey until next year. As for the Accounting that you ask for, I make it the same as to what I owe you as you and everyone does But THE PASSING OF THE FIRST SETTLER 107 there are some small differences in regard to the price made on sugar, rum and powder; and after these are set- tled, I will adjust the Balance whenever you wish. Since we have learned from you that I have had my lands confirmed, I await a favorable opportunity to sell a portion of them to satisfy those that I owe, and to have left sufficient to live on the remainder. I am awaiting the honor of one of your letters, and the pleasure of seeing you afterwards, one who has the hon- or to be, Messieurs, Your very humble and very affectionate Servant J. Dubuque 110 The recovery of an inheritance to which Dubuque referred was probably a Canadian claim on the estate of some of his rela- tives. His intention to give up trading was due to his business misfortune and his ever mounting debts. At the time of his death less than three years later he was much indebted to St. Louis and Mackinac traders, and there are extant in the manu- script collections of the Wisconsin Historical Library many let- ters relating to the settlement of his estate. It was intimated before the United States Supreme Court in 1853 that his presents to the Indians, in order to sustain his great influence over them, had been too liberal, and it was plainly stated that he died in- solvent. 111 In 1808 or 1809 he carried on a considerable trade with Jean Baptiste Faribault, a trader who had previously been associated with John Jacob Astor but who at this time was oper- ating an independent business at Prairie du Chien. 112 Further reverses are indicated by the following contest at St. Louis which was finally decided against Dubuque three or four months after his death: Julien Dubuque, assignee of Francois Cayolle, claim- ing seven thousand and fifty-six arpents of land, situate opposite Prairie du Chien; produces to the Board a con- cession from Don Carlos Dehault Delassus, Lieutenant Governor, to said Cayolle, dated 13th August, 1799, for 110. This translation appears in Wis. Hist. Coll., Vol. XIX, pp. 318-320. 111. Supreme Court Records, 16 Howard (1855 edition) p. 205. 112. Minnesota Hist. Coll., Vol. Ill, p. 174. 108 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 AN ORIGINAL MAP OF JULIEN DUBUQUE'S CLAIM Appercu du Plan Figurative de la terre de Monsieur Julien Dubuque establie en 1774, Situee a 600 milles a peupres de cette ville de St. Louis, et de laquelle Monsieur Auguste Chouteau a acquis la quan- tity de 72324 arpens. designes par les lettres suivantes H. I. K. L. M. G. (Translation:) Sketch of the figurative plat of Mr. Julien Dubuque's land, which was settled in 1774, and is situated 600 miles or thereabouts from this town of St. Louis — and of which land M. Auguste Chouteau has acquired the quantity of 72324 arpents, designated by the letters H 1 K L M G. A un chene ayant pour temoins des morceaux de plomb. B un liau ayant les memes temoins que ci-dessus. C maison et batiment du proprietaire. D marais nomme de Mesquabinanque. E parties de terre labourees. F divers trous fouilles pour l'exploitation du mineral de plomb. A an oak having pieces of lead for its witnesses. B a dog-wood having the same witnesses as A. C house and buildings of the proprietor. D marsh called Mesquabinanque. E portions of cultivated lands. F sundry holes dug for the working of lead ore. Copied from original recorded in Book B, p. 81. Recorder's Office St. Louis, Missouri, 30th Nov. 1843 I certify that the above is a true copy of the original plat recorded in Book B, page 81, both on file in this office. J. H. CONWAY U. S. Recorder of Land Titles the State of Missouri Annals of Iowa, Vol. V, Third Series, p, 328 This map is a modified copy of the original plat of Julien Dubuque's claim. The original was drawn up, it would appear, in 1804, just after Chouteau's purchase of one half of the claim from Dubuque. The culti- vated areas (E) show the extensive farms Dubuque maintained on his lands. The house of Dubuque, which is put below the mouth of the Catfish, is a mistake of a copyist probably. All other records as well as the part of the original foundation still standing prove that it was above, or north, of the mouth of the Catfish. The time of settlement mentioned here, 1774, is likewise incorrect, being fourteen years prior to the true date of settlement. THE PASSING OF THE FIRST SETTLER 109 O O M A / A/ £■ O C* MAi a/c 110 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 the land between the mouth of a river Jaune and another river [Bloody river] which empties in the Mississippi about one league lower down said Mississippi, so as the said tract make a quantity equal to a league square, but to include both rivers ; a deed of conveyance from the said Cayolle to said Dubuque, dated 7th May, 1805. Testimony taken. November 12, 1808. Alexander Bel- lisime, sworn, says that about eight or nine years ago he saw a house on the premises, erected and inhabited by Francois Cayolle; that there was a garden of about one half arpent; the year following the said house was also inhabited by said Cayolle, and the garden cultivated; that the house was a large one. Antoine Perrault, sworn, says that said tract has been continually cultivated, and the house occasionally inhab- ited, for nine years past. July 2, 1810: Present, Lucas, Penrose and Bates, com- missioners. It is the opinion of the Board that this claim ought not to be confirmed. 113 Francois Cayolle had probably either been staked by Du- buque or had purchased goods from him, and unable to pay his debts, had assigned and conveyed his property to Dubuque in 1805. Dubuque, to make certain the recovery of some of his losses, sought to have this deed of conveyance recognized by the government authorities at St. Louis. A harsher theory of this transaction has been advanced : namely that Julien Dubuque, possibly after Cayolle's death, desperate because of other losses, simply seized this land and then endeavored to validate his claim by deceiving the officials at St. Louis. There is absolutely noth- ing, however, to support this fantastic theory. It is of interest to note here that "a river Jaune" mentioned in the document is the Yellow river just a few miles north of Marquette, Iowa, and that on the very Mississippi river front of this disputed square league stands a noble marker erected recently by the Daughters of the American Revolution indicat- ing the spot where the troops from Fort Crawford at Prairie du Chien landed in 1840 and formed the military trail to Fort Atkinson on the Turkey river in Iowa. 113. American State Papers — Public Lands, Vol. II, p. 544. THE PASSING OF THE FIRST SETTLER 111 Another interesting letter is extant written by F. Lesueur from Portage des Sioux to ''Monsieur Du Buc — A La Mine" (At The Mine) on March 30, 1809, less than a year before Dubuque's death. Francis Lesueur, a prominent resident of the St. Louis country, had been commandant of the post Little Prairie under the Spanish government. At this time he resided at Portage des Sioux. 114 From the tone and contents of the letter, it is apparent that Lesueur was a close friend and asso- ciate of Dubuque and had been in his company both at the Mines and at Prairie du Chien. He discusses in his letter their mutual friends, "Boillevin" and "B'rise Bois." "Boillevin" was Nicholas Boilvin, an early Indian trader and later United States Indian agent at Prairie du Chien; and the other name refers to Michael Brisbois, the most prominent of the early settlers of that village. It may be mentioned in passing that Dubuque's friendship with these two gentlemen — and business letters re- iterate this amicable relation — reflects credit on him; for both Boilvin and Brisbois were of the noblest type of French Canad- ians who traversed the upper valley in those days. Lesueur cautioned Dubuque to be on his guard against "Mr. Robidoux" who "for the third time has drawn in his sails. Twice have you been told." Joseph Robidoux of St. Louis was perhaps one of Dubuque's creditors, and seems to have been quite ruth- less in his tactics against his debtors; he took over the claim of Louis Tesson Honore (see Chapter Six) at present-day Mont- rose, Iowa, near the Des Moines rapids of the Mississippi for debts in 1806, and later the property was "sold at public sale at the door of the parish church in St. Louis, at the conclusion of high mass, the people coming out in great numbers, after due notice given by the public crier of the town in a high and intel- ligible voice, on three successive Sundays," and Robidoux re- ceived $150 for the land. 115 The letter indicates that Dubuque although only in middle life was subject to severe sicknesses in his last years. "I received your letter by which I learned of your suffering and also from the bearer named Rosin, that you had spent the Winter with our friend and that you had been very ill." And a little later Lesueur 114. American State Papers— Public Lands, Vol. II, pp. 579, 638, 639, 726. 115. Salter's Iowa: The First Free State in the Iowa Purchase, p. 46; Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. XIII, p. 240. 112 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 gives Dubuque a startling warning: "News was brought up by the Indians that you had set out and that you had died on Riviere de la Roche (Rock river). This is the second time that you have been reported dead. Beware of the third time !" 116 The third time proved true ; an early tradition that his death resulted from pneumonia seems plausible in view of the fact of his previous severe winter illnesses. The rumor that was circulated and even put into print almost a half century after his death that he "died a victim of his vices" is utterly unfounded, and lacks even so much as a scintilla of verifica- tion. It is cruel to the memory of him who was called affec- tionately by the Indians "La Petite Nuit" ; it is unjust to the memory of him, who known intimately for so many years by that distinguished and honorable family of pioneers in St. Louis, the Chouteaus, had been so respected and trusted by them as to have had confided to his care young Pierre Chou- teau, Jr., at his distant outpost in the Upper Louisiana wilder- ness. According to the inscription above his grave, the soul of the first permanent white settler of Iowa passed into Eternity on March 24, 1810. Legend has depicted the sorrowful Indian procession wind- ing its way to the top of the noble bluff that overlooked his establishment and the village of the Foxes, and has described the mournful chants and the eloquent eulogies of braves and chiefs as they interred him there with all the splendor and solemnity of their rites. Some time later a cedar cross was placed over his tomb by his faithful French Canadian follow- ers, and on it in French they inscribed: "Julien Dubuque, Miner of the Mines of Spain, Died this 24th Day of March, 1810, Aged 45 years and Six Months." 117 His exact age, how- ever, was forty-eight years and two and a half months. Some time later two Indians were buried on top of the mound above his resting place, and the presence of their skeletal bones, emerging above the sod, gave rise to a fantastic tale, 116. MS. letter of Lesueur to Dubuque in the Pierre Chouteau CoU lections, Missouri Historical Society, Jefferson Memorial Build- ing, St. Louis. 117. An unknown eyewitness writing in the Du Buque Visitor of Aug- ust 10, 1836, gives the original of the inscription in French: "Julien Du Buque, Mineur de la mine d'Espagne, morait le 24 Mars, 1810 — age de 45% annees." THE PASSING OF THE FIRST SETTLER 113 widely credited for a while, that Dubuque in his pride had prepared his tomb during his lifetime, and had ordered that his body, enveloped in a shroud, was to be placed on it, on top of the high cliff which commands "a view of one of the most magnificent landscapes of the world". George Catlin, the eminent painter and traveller, visited the spot in 1835 and painted a striking picture of the great Miner's grave on the bluff. Flourished now for a period the golden age of fantastic legend about Julien Dubuque. Writers and travellers who had never conversed, either through ignorance of language or lack of opportunity, with the French and Indian associates of Du- buque at the Mines, carried off fanciful tales of his fabulous wealth, his eccentric actions and his preternatural powers over the Indian tribes. Some of these tales have endured through the years to this day. Recently, too, an abortive effort was made to rob the great Miner of one of his titles to distinction — that of being the first permanent white settler of Iowa. It was claimed that this distinction belonged to Basil Giard of Prairie du Chien, a contemporary and probably a friend of Julien Dubuque. On October 15th, 1800, Giard had sent to the "Governor of Upper Louisiana," Carlos Dehault Delassus, a petition to grant him validation of ownership over a piece of land opposite the vil- lage of Prairie du Chien near what is now McGregor, Iowa. In this petition which was sent from Prairie du Chien, in the ter- ritory belonging to the United States, Giard referred to him- self as a "subject of the King of Spain," which he was not, as will appear from what follows, and claimed that he had occupied the tract of land "since fifteen years", to use the French term of the document. If his occupation of the land meant settlement this would have established him in Iowa since 1785, and since this antedated Dubuque's settlement at the Mines by three years, it would seem that a strong argu- ment could be set up in behalf of Giard's priority to Du- buque. 118 118. Annals of Iowa — April, 1929, pp. 622-627; this periodical gives only the documents, but the press despatches sent out from Des Moines to the various Iowa newspapers in advance of this per- iodical's issue, promised a probable overthrow of the old histor- ical and traditional view about Dubuque. 114 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 That there were white settlers in Iowa before Dubuque and Giard has been clearly shown in earlier chapters of this volume, so neither of these pioneers can correctly be termed the first settler — but one of them — Dubuque — is justly styled the first permanent white settler. Giard's claim of having occupied an Iowa tract of land for fifteen years is unsupported by any contemporary evidence or witnesses. Government records date his "Possession, In- habitation and Cultivation" of the tract in question from 1796 on, eight years after Dubuque had settled at the Mines. 119 And 1796 is the earliest date mentioned by any witnesses in sup- port of Giard's claim to possession of the tract of land, and these witnesses it would appear are Giard's own. Sworn in 1808 to testify in behalf of Giard's ownership, not one of them claimed Iowa residence for him. One of them stated that it was Giard's "farmer" who cultivated the Iowa land, another swore that it was Giard's "hired man," while the third represented it to be "some of claimant's people." The most that can be made out in behalf of Giard is the statement of one witness "that claimant resides a part of his time on the land claimed." The first witness, Nicholas Boilvin, later United States Indian agent, a man of splendid reputation, swore that he knew that Giard had lived as a trader at Prairie du Chien for twenty-six years. This certainly does not agree with Giard's unsupported claim that he had occupied an Iowa tract of land for the fifteen years previous to 1800. Neither did the contention of the second witness, Pierre Dorion, Senr., in his sworn statement that Giard had "lived at Prairie du Chien as a trader since 1779", agree in the slightest with Giard's claim. 120 Indeed, Giard was always and everywhere regarded as a Prairie du Chien resident. The following document from the American State Papers indicates clearly that during his life he was never considered by those who knew him best as an Iowa settler : Prairie du Chien, Main Vil. Lot 21, 174 ft. wide ex- tending from Mississippi river east to St. Friole Marias 119. American State Papers — Public Lands, Vols. II and III. 120. Annals of Iowa— April, 1929, pp. 622-627. THE PASSING OF THE FIRST SETTL.ER 115 was sold by Basile Giard on April 13, 1816. Testimony: Michael Brisbois and Pierre La Pointe, Sen, being duly sworn, depose and say that the above described tract of land was occupied by Basil Guiard thirty-two years ago; that he lived and died on said land and that the said Joseph Rolette purchased the same three years ago of Basile Guiard and has kept up the occupation till this day. 121 This testimony was given when the Prairie du Chien Land Claims were being settled in 1820. Giard died in July, 1817. As "he lived" on this Prairie du Chien tract of land for thirty-two years "and died" there, and also was buried in Paririe du Chien, he can hardly be made to appear a settler of Iowa. Nor was Giard one of whom Iowa would be proud; although he had called himself in 1800 a subject of the King of Spain, during the War of 1812 he proved himself a friend of the British at Prairie du Chien, trafficking with them, selling them powder and rum. 122 But changing the argument and apparently conceding the utter futility of establishing a claim of priority of settlement for Giard, a recent writer has attempted to impose Giard on Iowa merely as "our first farmer" ! "It is of more importance, it seems to us," he states, "that these men actually resided in Iowa and, respectively, were earlier in establishing a means of liveli- hood in a basic calling, than that one or the other was the earlier 'settler' . . . Dubuque soon addressed himself to the mineral resources in addition to the fur trade and Giard entered what, in our region, is a more basic calling, agriculture ... as agri- culture persisted and mining in effect, disappeared, interest in Giard's place as our first farmer, like Dubuque's as our first miner, is not diminished by one or the other having been first upon our soil." 123 It is a far cry from being "the first settler of Iowa" to that of being "the first absentee landlord of Iowa." For this last is what Giard was and that is his only connection with Iowa. 121. American State Papers — Public Lands, Vol. IV, p. 875. This is the edition by Walter Lowrie, printed by Duff Green, Washington. 122. Michigan Pioneer and Hist. Coll., Vol. 16, pp. 22, 24. 123. Annals of Iowa, October, 1929, "Giard and Dubuque." 116 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 While he resided in Prairie du Chien and worked as a trader, "his farmer" or some of his "people" cultivated the Iowa claim for him. An Iowa farmer himself he certainly was not. On the other hand Julien Dubuque was an Iowa farmer in fact. It was brought out before the United States Supreme Court that Dubuque actually occupied his land from 1788 on ; "that he made improvements on it, cleared an extensive farm, constructed up- on it houses and a horse-mill; that he cultivated the farm." As his establishment was a large one and as he employed a num- ber of white men as traders and miners, it can be inferred that his farm was indeed an "extensive" one. 124 Giard's claim, it should be added, was not looked upon as valid by the members of the Federal Board of Commissioners at St. Louis and they were unanimous in rejecting it as follows : Tuesday, June 5, 1810. Board met. Present : John B. Lucas, Clement B. Penrose and Fred- erick Bates, Commissioners. Bazil Geard, claiming one league square of land. See Book No. 3, page 200. It is the opinion of the Board that this claim ought not to be confirmed. 125 When Julien Dubuque came to the mines at Catfish Creek — the Tonrokeka as the Foxes called the stream — he intended to settle there permanently and he did settle there permanently. He brought other white men there with him. He made his es- tablishment a celebrated point in Upper Louisiana; he opened and operated the mines; he conducted a trading post; he owned and cultivated a farm. He spent all his years there after his arrival and he died there. One tradition even represents him as choosing his tomb on the noble Iowa bluff on which he lies buried. All our evidence shows him as faithful and loyal to the Spanish government when Louisiana was Spanish, and faith- ful and loyal to the American government when Louisiana was American. 124. Reports of Cases Argued and Adjudged in the Supreme Court of the United States, December Term, 1853, Vol. XVI, (1885), p. 236; United States Supreme Court Reports, 16 Howard, p. 221; Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. XIII, p. 9. 125. Annals of Iowa, April, 1929, pp. 622-27. THE PASSING OF THE FIRST SETTLER 117 In 1897 an imposing tower was erected as a monument over his tomb. Wrote Federal Judge Oliver P. Shiras: "When he died he was given sepulture on one of the most sightly spots within the domain claimed by him, and after an undisturbed repose of more than three-quarters of a century, his right to the possession of all of Mother Earth that can be held even by the greatest of her sons, after death, has been assured to him through the action of the citizens of Dubuque." 126 126. Annals of Iowa, April, 1902. CHAPTER NINE AN IDYL: JULIEN DUBUQUE AND POTOSA SN the last few chapters, which dealt with the life of Julien Du- buque, a scrupulously critical effort devoid of sentimentalism was made to scrape the cobwebby myth away from the cold marble of fact. The great Miner was there planted solidly on the ground of factual reality. From what we know of him through unchallenged, historical sources, we can agree with the conclusion of the Hon. Cyrenus Cole in his History of the People of Iowa: "Julien Dubuque was in many ways one of the re- markable men of his times in the West. He is the most pic- turesque figure in the early history of Iowa." The present day knows and understands him better than did the age of lacy folk-lore and sentimental idyls in which Moses M. Ham lived. This gentleman, one of the keenest students of the life of Du- buque, was suspicious of the legends of his day, and explained in the Annals of Iowa how little was really known then of Julien Dubuque: "Some of the plainest facts about him are still mat- ters of dispute among the people who dwell in the city which bears his name, and who would naturally be thought to know the most of him: whether he was a native of France or of Canada: whether he spelled his name Dubuque or DuBuque: whether he had one or more Indian wives or chidren, or none at all." A few of the matters in dispute then, still remain matters of conjecture today. Bits of legendary tradition, by being fre- quently enough quoted, written about and passed on through the years, have crystallized in the popular mind into accepted his- torical fact. Just a few years ago the following alleged occur- rence was cited as actually taking place in the "annals of early Iowa": "Well known is the Biblical story of David and Jona- than. Classic times offer its counterpart in the pledged sacri- fice of Damon and Pythias. Equally dramatic in the annals of early Iowa, was the more than brotherly devotion of the Kettle Chief for Julien Dubuque. Not even death could part this red man and his white companion, for it was the Kettle Chief's frequently expressed wish that he should lie in death by the side of his friend. And thus they lay until a day when a commun- DUBUQUE AND POTOSA 119 ity, inconsiderate of the ancient friendship, erected a tribute shaft to the memory of Julien Dubuque and left unmarked the grave of his loyal and devoted savage brother." 127 Why blame the community for being "inconsiderate of ancient friendship," when the identity of the Indian's remains was a matter of doubt, and the "ancient friendship" a legend? — a nobly sentimental legend, it is true, but still a legend. In no documents connected with Julien Dubuque — business, legal or epistolary — is there any reference to this "ancient friendship," or anything that can pos- sibly be interpreted to mean such. The only Indian name that has been advanced in this connection is that of Peosta, and this only in the merest indirect way. It is no longer a matter of dispute as to how Julien Dubuque spelled his name; the evidence for his Canadian birth is quite overwhelming; but the question of his having a wife, and if so, who she was, is now as much to the fore as ever. What John Smith and Pocahontas are to the romantic history of Virginia, Julien Dubuque and his Indian bride, it is maintained, are to Iowa. There were other early Iowa romances. We know of Rantchewaime and Mahaskah, Indians both; theirs is an histor- ical romance. The marriage of the Chevalier Marois to the daughter of an Iowa chief in 1812 is sometimes quoted. That of Dr. Samuel C. Muir, a Scotch surgeon in the U. S. army, to an Indian maiden, whom he refused to leave in pursuance of army orders, with the words: "May God forbid that a son of Caledonia should ever desert his wife or abandon his child," is historically true. But what of Julien Dubuque and Potosa of the Fox tribe, the oldest Iowa romance of all ? Pageants of early Iowa and early Dubuque have featured the twain. Their pic- tures have graced history book and storied volume. Tradition has embalmed their memory and the printed word kept ever alive the link between their names. Are there not facts to support this romantic tradition, or shall higher criticism step in and ruthlessly prove it all to be but another myth ? It is interesting to note that there is an abundance of author- ities pro and con; and weighty voices are found on either side. Some merely speak of Dubuque having married an Indian; oth- ers even mention the latter by name; and still others flatly deny the truth of such an event. 127. Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. 14, p. 162. 120 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 Among the earliest settlers of the city of Dubuque were the Langworthy brothers. One or two of them, in fact, were on the present site of the city some years before it was founded. One of them, Lucius H. Langworthy, in a lecture "The Early History of Dubuque" spoke of "Julien Dubuque, an Indian trader, who adopted their" (the Indians') "habits and customs, married into their tribe and became a great chief among them." This was undoubtedly the belief of the earliest settlers, but on what authority this was based, we cannot say today. George Catlin, the distinguished painter of Iowa Indians and landscapes, visited in the early thirties of the last century var- ious points in Iowa and among them the Lead Mines of Du- buque in 1835 where he made a special excursion to view the grave of the Miner of the Mines of Spain — Julien Dubuque — and painted a picture of it. In his report to the government he spoke of the "Fox woman, Potosa," who was the wife of Julien Dubuque, and that is the first reference to her by name that we can trace. These views were held by later authorities, but perhaps only in pursuance of these earlier statements. Dr. J. L. Pickard in an article on "Iowa Indians" wrote: "1788: Dubuque mar- ried Potosa, a Fox maiden and established a trading post at McGregor and another at Dubuque. The Foxes, envious of their son-in-law, established a rival village at what is now North Dubuque." Wm. Salter in his history stated : "He took a squaw wife . . . Ten Canadian laborers were employed in working the mines. Dubuque built them cabins and they, too, took squaw wives." And like him B. L. Wick affirmed in the "Annals of Iowa" that "Julien Dubuque had an Indian wife, and so had many of his French Canadians." A source entirely independent of these foregoing, though, is Beltrami, who visited Dubuque's mines in 1823 and stated curt- ly: "His establishment flourished; he had no children." What Beltrami meant is probably explained and confirmed by a statement of Henry R. Schoolcraft, whose famous visit to the Dubuque Mines will be dealt with at length in a later chap- ter. Schoolcraft visited the Fox village of Chief Aquoqua at the site of Dubuque's house on the seventh of August, 1820, and in commenting on this visit and the history of Dubuque, wrote: "After his death, the Indians burnt down his house and DUBUQUE AND POTOSA 121 fences, he leaving no family, I believe. (He had lived with a 'Musquakee squaw')." This is the strongest proof that can be advanced in favor of Julien Dubuque's romantic connection with a Fox maiden, and is from a source entirely independent of Beltrami's. Schoolcraft was a reliable and trustworthy schol- ar, and it is probable that he received his information — only ten years after Dubuque's death — from Aquoqua and the "Messrs. Les Renard" as Dubuque politely called them, with whom School- craft visited on this occasion. 128 Against these statements might be mentioned the negative "argument from silence" of Lieut. Zebulon Pike who visited Julien Dubuque at the Mines of Spain in 1805 when he ascend- ed the Mississippi and again in 1806 when he returned. He was entertained by Dubuque as his guest, made careful obser- vations and many inquiries, all of which he recorded almost meticulously, but not a word did he write about any domestic connections of Dubuque. Of itself, this might mean nothing; but there are statements of others which are very forceful, such as that of M. M. Ham, to whom reference was made before as one of the best informed students of Dubuque: "It is a well established fact that Dubuque had no wife, either Indian or white." Judge T. S. Wilson of the city of Dubuque defended the city's cause against the claims of the heirs of Augustus Chou- teau of St. Louis, in the federal courts in the 1850s. These claims were based on a deed, whereby Julien Dubuque trans- ferred part of the Dubuque territory to Chouteau, and the case was aired not only on the floor of the U. S. Congress but finally had to be adjudicated by the Supreme Court of the land. Dur- ing these years Judge Wilson made a thorough study of the documents and historical facts concerning Julien Dubuque, and as a result be scouted the idea of the latter's marriage. The name of the Fox maiden, "Potosa," seemed to be but the corrup- tion during the years of the name of the Indian chief, "Peosta," supposedly her father. And on February 6, 1887, Judge Wilson 128. This extract from Schoolcraft's description of his visit to the Dubuque mines is quoted from B. F. Gue's "History of Iowa." It should be added however that most editions of Schoolcraft's work recounting this visit, as for example, the 1855 edition of "Exploratory Expeditions to the Sources of the Mississippi River in 1820" do not contain the sentence in brackets: "(He had lived with a "Musquakee squaw'.)" 122 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 wrote in the Dubuque Herald: "According to the statement of one of Dubuque's employes, made to Eliphalet Price, of Clay- ton County" (an early historical writer of those parts) "Du Buque never had a wife." Of course, this is second or third hand testimony but obviously it has merit and weight. Judge Wilson was steeped in early traditions as to Dubuque. 129 As far as can be ascertained the name Peosta occurs but once in the letters and documents connected with Dubuque. In the deed of 1788 whereby the Fox Indians granted to Julien Dubuque the permission to mine in Iowa, reference is made to "la mine trouve par la femme Peosta." This was sometimes translated as "the mine discovered by the woman Peosta," and sometimes as "the mine discovered by the woman (wife) of Peosta," and it was this latter version that was favored and used by the Supreme Court of the United States in its decision of the Chouteau claims in 1853. But Henry B. Schoolcraft cur- iously enough in his article about Dubuque employs in one place the term "the Indian woman, Peosta," and in another "the wife of Peosta, a Fox Indian." And so this mooted question was left in doubt and dispute during the years. Among the small circle of the esoteric and higher critics the romance was simply denied and dropped, but among the populace at large, the tradition of Julien Dubuque and Potosa survived with undiminished vitality. Some schol- ars such as Tasse in his "Les Canadiens de l'Ouest," avoided this question or took a neutral ground. The Hon. Cyrenus Cole in his recent history simply states: "His" — (Dubuque's) — "mar- riage with a woman of the Fox tribe is denied by later histor- ians, though often reiterated by earlier ones." By 1897, not only was the location of Julien Dubuque's grave on the bluff overlooking the Mississippi river and the Catfish 129. Judge Wilson was a rather harsh critic of Dubuque. He wrote (Annals of Iowa, Vol. X, p. 445) : "It was said to be the great object of Dubuque's life to find out how many Indian wives he could get, but he never kept but one at a time." This picture of Dubuque as a manner of Sultan of an Arabian Nights' harem rests upon nothing better than a fantastic legend introduced by the words: "It was said." It is hard to reconcile his statement in one place that Dubuque tried to have as many wives as pos- sible, with his statement in another place that he had no wife at all. DUBUQUE AND POTOSA 123 Creek in doubt, but practically all the other traditions connected with the great Miner were held to possess more fantasy than fact. In that year, a poetically inclined Iowan penned the lines, "No artist's mind could e'er conceive, A scene of beauty so supreme; Such loveliness as pictured here, Has never entered poet's dream; And on this bluff, if Legend's true, Is where Dubuque is laid away. But not a mark of any kind Is raised above his silent clay." "If legend's true"; this was the prevalent note of doubt at this time when a few members of the Early Settlers Association of Dubuque and several other gentlemen decided to erect a mon- ument to perpetuate the memory of the first permanent white settler of Iowa and if possible to place this monument over his grave. Richard Herrmann and Capt. M. E. Erwin, two of the leaders of the movement, began digging at the spot where tradi- tion had always claimed that Dubuque was buried. Their faith and enthusiasm were rewarded. They found not only the remains of Julien Dubuque, but the skeleton of an Indian chief, in a some- what reclining position and the skull and bones of an Indian wo- man. The chief may have been the supposed father of Potosa, Peosta, between whom and Dubuque one tradition had placed the link of devoted friendship ; or he may have been Aquoqua, the Kettle chief, whose almost fraternal relations with Du- buque were narrated by another legend. But what was ex- tremely unusual was the nearby presence of the remains of the Indian woman; it was against the custom of the Indians for women to be buried in the same mound with the great chiefs. Not because of her connection with the Indian chief, then, was the she buried in that grave, but evidently because of her relation to the other occupant, Julien Dubuque. Tra- dition had been found veracious in locating the grave of Dubuque ; was it not found hereby equally true in regard to the romance of Julien Dubuque and the maiden of the Foxes ? But to shatter this tradition, temporarily at least, was the purpose of the following letter, written by a great grand niece of Julien Dubuque to the Home Coming Committee of Dubuque in 1911: 124 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 "1512 East St. Louis Ave., East St. Louis, June 10, 1911. "Dear Sirs: "Your letter was turned over to me to answer by my son, Judge Boneau. I am the great grand niece of Julien Dubuque. John Baptist Dubuque, a brother of Julien Dubuque, was my great-grandfather. The family came to Cahokia in very early times, and there John Baptist Dubuque passed the remainder of his life, but Uncle Julien went to Iowa and there lived and died ; he was never married ; this fact we know. Adeline Chand- ler and my father, Rene Lacroix, were the children of Cath- erine Dubuque and Michael Lacroix. The father of Cather- ine was John Baptist Dubuque. Grandmother Catherine was born in Cahokia September 13,1783, and moved here in 1805. Aunt Adeline and my father were born at a trading post on the Illinois river at a place called Marievois Terre near Peoria. Their father (Michael Lacroix) was an Indian trader. Aunt Adeline died eleven years ago, having lived with me twenty years, being ninety-five years old at the time of her death. My step-grandfather, Governor John Reynolds, as you know, wrote one of the earliest histories, if not the earliest history, of Illin- ois; so we have always kept in touch with its history. Yours truly, (Mrs.) H. A. Boneau." However there is no record that can be found of any inter- communications or contacts between the Dubuques of Cahokia and those of the Mines of Spain after 1788. In those days the distances were too great, the opportunities rare. It is prob- able that the relatives of Julien Dubuque at Cahokia knew less about his domestic life than we do today; and so it is not sur- prising that this great grand niece should deny his marriage. But as she can produce no evidence, her testimony must be evaluated in the light of other known facts. Is there nothing then finally to prove the truth of the old tradition, and confirm the testimony of the grave at Catfish Creek? Yes, at last a conclusive witness has been found. A little more than a year ago in the papers of the old Chouteau DUBUQUE AND POTOSA 125 family at St. Louis was discovered a letter written to Julien Dubuque by F. Lesueur from Portage des Sioux on March 30, 1809 — just a year before Dubuque's death. The letter makes it evident that the writer not only knew Dubuque well but was a friend of several Prairie du Chien residents who were friends of Dubuque. This letter is the only contemporary evidence on record, and of the strongest and most incontestable character. After recounting a number of intimate business details which show the close relationship between Lesueur and Dubuque, the former states: "I beg that you present my respects to MAiDAME Dubuc and to our friend Boillevin and I pray always that you will not for- get me, the two of you." And in concluding the letter, he again refers a second and a third time to the wife of Dubuque: "I remain, in sending you best wishes for your good health and that of Madame Dubuc. My wife also greets you and your lady." What boots it if her name be not Potosa? — by any other name she is as interesting still. Let the pageants depicting the romance of the Knight of the Mines of Spain and the daughter of the chief of the Reynards go on. Far from delivering a death blow to the tradition, the opening of the tomb of Dubuque but confirmed it; and the discovery of the Lesueur letter to his friend Dubuque has transformed the tradition into historical fact. Romance has not been shattered. The Old Dominion still holds to the story of Captain Smith and Princess Pocahontas. Iowa will cling with honest well founded sentiment to the his- toric idyl of Julien Dubuque and Potosa of the Foxes. CHAPTER TEN ANTIQUE DUBUQUE AND THE WAR OF 1812 JULIEN DUBUQUE's span of life in Iowa began and finished with the era of peace between the two wars with England. He settled at the mines a few years after the conclusion of the Revolutionary War and died in 1810, two years before the commencement of the second struggle. But in the War of 1812, the lead mines and the people residing there again played a part in the martial activities of the Upper Mississippi valley. How long the French Canadian companions and workmen of Dubuque remained at the Mines after his death is not known ; some of the earlier American settlers in the neighborhood claimed that a few of them remained as traders on the islands of the Mississippi opposite the various mines and the mouth of the Catfish Creek as late as 1825 or 1827. But a former resident of Dubuque's Mines returned just a few weeks after Dubuque's death — Pierre Chouteau, Jr., who had lived with Julien Du- buque from 1806 to 1808. We quote from official documents: "Having been repeatedly urged by Dubuque to join him in business on the land aforesaid, Pierre Chouteau, Jr., left St. Louis in the spring of the year 1810 for the residence of Du- buque, where he intended to remain for some years at least. Upon his arrival he found that Dubuque had departed this life some few weeks before. Dubuque often spoke to the Indians of the expected arrival of his friend, the said Chouteau, and a short time before his death enjoined it upon them to receive and treat him as a friend. The chief of the said nation re- ceived the said Chouteau with every demonstration of respect and kindness, and informed him that it was the request of Du- buque that he should take possession of his property and oc- cupy his home. In compliance with that request the said chief gave to the said Chouteau the immediate possession of the house formerly occupied by Dubuque. He had frequent conversations with the chiefs of the said nation relative to the claim of Du- buque to the said tract of land and was informed by them that he (Dubuque) was entitled to the same. The said Chouteau did not remain all the time upon the said land after his arrival in THE WAR OF 1812 127 1810, but continued to do business there until the commence- ment of the war of 1812, when he returned to St. Louis." 130 The Fox Indians almost immediately after this seem to have taken over complete control of the mine diggings and to have jealously resented the encroachment of any whites on their ter- ritory. In 1811, a Missouri miner, George E. Jackson, built a rude furnace on an island in the Mississippi river near East Dubuque and floated his lead to St. Louis by flatboats; he met with much opposition from the savages who seem to have de- veloped a bitter hatred toward all Americans. 131 With the death of Dubuque disappeared also the loyalty of the Indians to the American government which he had so successfully instilled in them. Nicolas Boilvin, the Indian agent, who, it has been seen, was a close friend of Julien Du- buque's, made an interesting report to the American govern- ment on these Indian affairs. Boilvin was Assistant Indian agent from 1806 to 1808 and was the first Indian agent in the Iowa Country. In 1806 he was instructed by the Secretary of War Henry Dearborn to "visit the Iawe (Ioway) Towns on the Lemoin (Des Moines), the other Sacque Towns and the Prairie due Chien." This territory of course included antique Dubuque. He was further instructed to conciliate the friendship of the Indians, to watch the traders, especially in regard to the sale of rum to the Indians, and to encourage the latter in agricul- tural work. In 1808 he moved to Prairie du Chien to serve as Indian Agent in place of the former Agent John Campbell who had been killed in a duel there with Redford Crawford. Boilvin had various contacts with Julien Dubuque and in pursuance of his official duties he must have visited the Mines and perhaps frequently. 132 About a year after Dubuque's death, on February 2, 1811, Boilvin in a letter written to William Eustis, Secretary of War, referred to the great amount of mineral which the Indians were 130. Senate Documents, 1st Session, 29th Congress, No. 256, p. 12; History of Dubuque County, Iowa (1913) edited by Oldt and Quigley, pp. 37, 38, 47; Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. XIII, pp. 24, 25. 131. Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1893. Washington, D. C. (Thwaites, "Early Lead Mining in Illinois and Wisconsin.") p. 195. 132. Iowa Journal of Hist, and Politics, Vol. XII, pp. 494, 495. 128 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1835 extracting at antique Dubuque, "a mine about sixty miles below Prairie du Chien" : "The Sacs, Foxes and Iowas can well be supplied at the latter place" (Prairie du Chien) "particularly as they have mostly abandoned the chase, except to furnish themselves with meat, and turned their attention to the manufacture of lead, which they procure from a mine about sixty miles below Prairie du Chien. During the last season they manufactured four hundred thou- sand pounds of that article, which they exchanged for goods." The Foxes at Catfish Creek and elsewhere in the vicinity had given up hunting and fishing and had become almost exclusively miners. This was perhaps due to the presence at the mines of Pierre Chouteau, Jr-, and his men. In the same letter Boilvin senses the approaching war with England due to the incitement of Indians by British agents. "Great danger, both to individuals and to the Government, is to be apprehended from the Canadian (British) traders; they en- deavor to incite the Indians against us ; partly to monopolize their trade and partly to secure friendship in case a war should break out between us and England. They are constantly making large presents to the Indians, which the latter consider as a sign of approaching war, and under this impression frequently apply to me for advice on the subject. Hitherto I have been able to keep them friendly." 133 The Fox Indians of antique Dubuque soon showed their in- dependent and resolute spirit. Col. John T. Smith, a celebrated western pioneer and Indian fighter of the Bellefontaine Mine in Missouri, and Mr. Morehead of St. Louis bought from the Chouteaus at St. Louis an interest in Dubuque's grant, now that they had theoretically at least come in possession of it after the great Miner's death. Smith and his party of sixty men arrived at the Mines in a keelboat and took possession of some of the lead works. As soon as they commenced their digging and smelting operations, the Indians protested. They refused to recognize Smith's title, and they maintained shrewdly and perhaps correctly that the grant to Julien Dubuque was a permit or lease to him personally and conveyed no absolute title to 133. The Governor Ninian Edwards Papers (Chicago, 1884); this letter of Boilvin's published in Wis. Hist. Coll., Vol. XI, pp. 251. 252. THE WAR OF 1812 129 the lands and consequently could not be used by other persons. Finally the Fox chief, Pia-no-sky, summoned his warriors and destroyed Smith's buildings, and then drove all the whites out of the village and across to the Illinois side of the river. 134 We hear more of this independent attitude of Chief Pia-no- sky who may have been the ruling chief at the time. In 1824 the Secretary of War, John C. Calhoun of the great triumvirate of genius with Webster and Clay, wrote a letter to Chief Pia- no-sky ("Pee-mash-kee" Calhoun called him) assuring him that the United States Indian Agent had been directed to keep all intruders from the lead mines on the west side of the river. 135 This chief was killed in 1830 by the Menominees. We look in vain however for any reference to Peosta, the alleged friend of legendary tradition of Julien Dubuque. There were other chiefs at antique Dubuque during this era, though, whose names and activities are recorded by history. When Lieutenant Zebulon M. Pike described his visits to the Mines of Dubuque, he gave the names of two of the leading chiefs. The one Fox chief was known in the Indian tongue as Pecit, in French as Petit Corbeau and in English as Little Raven. The other Fox chief, a great warrior, was known to the Foxes as Akaque, to the French as Peau Blanche, and to the English and Americans as White Skin. Others who met him later spelled his name Akoqua and Aquoqua. Aquoqua, so called probably either because of his light complexion or because of some white blood in his veins, became a war chief of more than ordinary distinction on the side of the British during the War of 1812, for the Americans sought to induce him — and succeeded — to sign a treaty of peace and "forgiveness" after the conclusion of the war. Even in the days of Pike's visit he had been known as a primitive war-lord of note, for the young lieutenant wrote of him: "Killed the Osages on their way to St. Louis; now (1806) raising a war party to strike the Sauteux" (Chippewa). And it was this chief Aquoqua who was the ruling Indian in 1820 when Schoolcraft 134. History of Iowa, by B. F. Gue, Vol. I, p. 78; A Record of the Com- memoration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Settlement of Iowa, p. 14; Iowa Journal of History and Politics, p. 41; Herr- mann's Julien Dubuque — His Lifeand Adventures, p. 56. 135. Indian Office Letter Books, 1824, Vol. I, pp. 168, 169; Mahan's Old Fort Crawford and the Frontier (1926), p. 197. 130 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 visited Catfish Creek, and who, badly fever-stricken on the bed of his lodge, received him with open kindness. 136 When the struggle between England and America finally- broke out in 1812, it became a war for trade and trading posts in the Upper Mississippi valley. It is probable that during the first year of hostilities, the Indians of antique Dubuque did not succumb to the bribes and promises of the British agents, as the American posts of Fort Madison and Prairie du Chien were too near. But Black Hawk, the leader and the idol of the younger and more warlike sections of the Sacs, allied himself openly with the British and was joined by some Foxes. Black Hawk himself was made a colonel in the British army and strut- ted about in a red uniform. That the Americans, however, feared the defection of the Foxes at Catfish Creek and possible attacks from other tribes — the Winnebagoes and Sacs — in the general vicinity of antique Dubuque, is evident from the fact that a stockade was built in 1813 probably by troops from Fort Mad- ison (which was burned in September of that year) or by troops from St. Louis, near the present town of Bellevue, in Jackson County, Iowa, some twenty-six miles south of the Mines* in order to intimidate the savages and hold intact that part of the country. 137 With the capture of Prairie du Chien and the little fort which the United States soldiers had erected there by the British forces in 1814, the flames of revolt against the Americans broke out among the savages in the whole upper valley including antique Dubuque. Black Hawk won a striking victory over the Amer- icans at Rock Island, and it is probable that it was in this and subsequent engagements that Aquoqua and another chief of the Dubuque Foxes, Wabassayah, participated with their fol- lowers. A short time later Major Zachary Taylor, later President of the United States, with eight fortified boats and three hun- dred and thiry-four officers and men came up from St. Louis to regain the Upper Mississippi country. At Rock Island he 136. The Expeditions of -zeoulon Montgomery PiTce, To Headquarters of the Mississippi River, etc., edited by Elliott Coues (1895), p. 347; Schoolcraft's Discovery of the Sources of the Mississippi River (1855), p. 171. 137. History of Iowa, by B. F. Gue, Vol. I, p. 113; A History of the People of Iowa, (1912) by Cyrenus Cole, pp. 69, 70. THE WAR OF 1812 131 encountered a large number of Indians. Down from Prairie du Chien at this same time and passing under the shadows of the Dubuque hills, there paddled rapidly a few canoes, contain- ing three small cannon, a three-pounder and two swivels, and a few Indians and Canadian soldiers, under the command of an intrepid young Scotch Highland officer, Lieutenant Duncan Graham. They joined their Indian allies and on the morning of the sixth of September the guns came into action on Credit Island, now a part of Davenport. So effective was their fire that the American boats were compelled to retreat down the river pursued for a short distance by the artillery on the Iowa shore. Prominent again in these activities were the Fox Indians, on the B'ritish side. 138 Meanwhile the Indians at the Dubuque mines carried on an- other type of war activity, one so cleverly practised by civilized nations, namely, confiscating the goods and wealth of the enemy. For a number of years before the war, there had been head- quartering at Prairie du Chien and trading throughout the North- west, Jean Baptiste Faribault, who later became a famous fur- trader and merchant of Minnesota in its early days. His son, Alexander Faribault, founded the city of Faribault, Minnesota. Jean Baptiste Faribault had been connected through long years of faithful service with the John Jacob Astor Fur Company, but in 1808, after forming the acquaintance of Julien Dubuque, he severed his connections with the Astor company and entered up- on business relations with the great Miner. He sold him goods and received lead from the mines in exchange. The lead was sent down the Mississippi in keel-boats to St. Louis, and sold there at a good profit. "Fifteen days," said Mr. Faribault, "was considered a good average trip up the Mississippi from St. Louis to Prairie du Chien." One large consignment of lead that had been left in charge of Dubuque had not been delivered up to the outbreak of the War of 1812, evidently because of the death of Dubuque. With the commencement of hostilities, Faribault found himself in trouble with the British emissaries in the northern territories because of his known loyalty to the Americans, and he was fin- ally arrested and imprisoned by the British agents. When the British and Canadian expedition from Mackinac captured Prairie 138. Anderson's Journal in Wis. Hist. Coll., Vol. IX; Old Fort Crawford and the Frontier (1926), by Bruce Mahan, pp. 50, 60. 132 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 du Chien in 1814 all of Faribault's possessions there, and they were considerable, were confiscated by the invaders. In addi- tion, he received the unwelcome intelligence that the now hos- tile Indians at Dubuque had seized his consignment of lead — valued at $3,000, and the purchasing power of which was of course far higher than that of a similar sum today — which he had left there, and distributed it among themselves. History repeated itself to the extent that Iowa lead as in the previous war was used by the British and their allies against the Amer- icans. 139 After the conclusion of the war, an important treaty of peace was drawn up between the Fox Indians, including those in the antique Dubuque region, and the United States. The repre- sentatives of the United States were Governor Clark of Missouri Territory, Governor Edwards of Illinois Territory and Auguste Chouteau, of St. Louis, the merchant prince of the Indian Coun- try. Among the Fox chiefs who signed the treaty were Aquoqua and Wabassayah of the Dubuque tribe. The meeting was held at Portage des Sioux, a few miles above the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, and the American commission- ers referred to the treaty with the Foxes enacted there as "one of the most important treaties we have made." Here is the document describing the treaty: Fox Tribe "A treaty of peace and friendship concluded between William Clark, Ninian Edzvards and Auguste Chouteau, commissioners plenipotentiary of the United States of America, on the part and behalf of said States, of the one part and the undersigned king, chiefs and warriors of the Fox tribe or nation, on the part and behalf of the said tribe or nation, of the other part. "The parties being desirous of re-establishing peace and friendship between the United States and the said tribe or na- tion, and of being placed in all things and in every respect on the same footing upon which they stood before the war, have agreed to the following articles: Article 1. Every injury or act of hostility by one or either of the contracting parties against the other shall be mutually for- given and forgot. 139. Minnesota Hist. Coll., Vol. Ill, pp. 173-175; Appleton's Cyclopedia, has a good sketch of J. B. Faribault; Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. VIII, pp. 376, 377. THE WAR OF 1812 133 Article 2. There shall be perpetual peace and friendship be- tween the citizens of the United States of America and all the individuals composing the said Fox tribe or nation. Article 3. The contracting parties do hereby agree, promise and oblige themselves, reciprocally, to deliver up all the pris- oners now in their hands (by what means soever the same may have come into their possession) to the officer commanding at Fort Clarke on the Illinois river, to be by him restored to their respective nations as soon as it may be practicable. Article 4. The said Fox tribe or nation do hereby assent to recognize, reestablish and confirm the treaty of St. Louis, which was concluded on the third day of November, one thousand eight hundred and four, to the full extent of their interest in the same, as well as all other contracts and agreements of the parties ; and the United States promises to fulfill all the stipulations contained in the said treaty in favor of the said Fox tribe or nation. "In witness whereof the said William Clark, Ninian Edwards, and Auguste Chouteau, commissioners as aforesaid, and the aforesaid king, chiefs and warriors of the Fox tribe or nation aforesaid, have hereunto subscribed their names and affixed their seals this fourteenth day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifteen, and of the independence of the United States the fortieth. "Done at Portage des Sioux in the presence of — "Signed by the commissioners of the United States and a number of Indian Chiefs." 140 It will be noticed that in Article 4, this treaty calls for the acceptance by both parties of another treaty, the treaty of St. Louis of 1804. That one, enacted under William Henry Har- rison, was referred to in a previous chapter as being an unjust treaty, at least in the eyes of the Indians generally. Black Hawk was present at the meetings at Portage des Sioux in September of 1815, but he refused his assent to the treaty with the Sacs, somewhat similar to the above treaty with the Foxes, and with- held his signature because of his hatred of the treaty of 1804. Some of the minor Fox chiefs did likewise. "They would not consent to the barter of their country and ultimate removal from 140. American State Papers — Indian Affairs, Vol. II, p. 4. 134 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 it/' 141 As this treaty of 1804 referred only to the lands in Illinois east of the Mississippi, Aquoqua and Wabassayah of the Dubuque Foxes were not interested; it had no connection with their lands at antique Dubuque and so they signed the treaty of peace and forgiveness of 1815. The chief Wabassayah as well as Aquoqua was still living at the Dubuque Mines when Schoolcraft visited there in 1820. Present for a time during the proceedings of the treaty-mak- ing at Portage des Sioux, was Colonel John Shaw, later of Mar- quette County, Wisconsin. He had just come from military ser- vice during the 1812 struggle, and he related subsequently an unpleasant aftermath of the War of 1812 in connection with antique Dubuque. "Although the Indians," he stated, "at the treaty of Portage des Sioux, had promised to be peaceful, there were individual exceptions. Relying upon the treaty and the good faith of the Indians, the enterprising whites pushed out up the river, while, as the sequel proved, not a few of the Indians were still hostile in their feelings. Several whites were attacked by these mal- contents during 1815. Among them was John York Sawyer, a Vermonter, afterwards a Circuit Judge of Illinois, who was one of a party in a boat ascending the Mississippi, and had landed on the west bank of the river, about twelve miles below the present city of Dubuque, at a place known as Buttes des Morts, where they were attacked and several killed. Sawyer, a very corpulent man, succeeded in secreting himself in a sink-hole back of the river hill, where he remained three days without food and then escaped. John S. Miller, another of the party, who was a blacksmith, managed, together with his wife, in some way to reach an island, yet known as Miller's island, where they remained nearly a month before they were taken off. Miller afterwards settled at Galena, where he died about 1843." 142 The location of this event was not called Buttes des Morts, as Shaw says, but this place "about twelve miles below the present city of Dubuque" was then known and is now known as Tetes des Morts, and has been referred to several times previously. 141. History of Iowa, by B. F. Gue, Vol. I, p. 78. 142. "The Personal Narrative of Col. John Shaw, of Marquette Coun- ty, Wisconsin/' as dictated to and written down by Lyman C. Draper, in 1855, and published tn the Wis. Hist. Coll., Vol. II, pp. 223. 224. CHAPTER ELEVEN THE DARK AGE OF ANTIQUE DUBUQUE IMMEDIATELY following the death of Dubuque, one writer states, — and his words are echoed by others, — the Indians burned his house and fences and destroyed all traces of mining operations, in order to discourage other whites from coming among them and to retain the rich mines to themselves, a few of which they continued to work. 143 But the documents quoted in the preceeding chapter prove the first part of this statement false, for Pierre Chouteau, Jr. found the house and properties intact and he himself resided there until the outbreak of the War of 1812. That the Foxes guarded the district jealously and oper- ated some of the mines is quite true ; the ore which they extracted they sold to the traders who had smelting furnaces on the islands in the Mississippi. Those who had learned to mine under Julien Dubuque, lured by the profits, even extended their digging op- erations over along the Fevre river. Because of the close vigilance and generally hostile attitude of the Foxes, little of the history of this area from the time of the War of 1812 to the days immediately preceeding the throw- ing open of the Black Hawk Purchase in 1833 to white settlers has become known. It is a period of semi-darkness and semi- mystery to the searcher after facts today. Fortunately, however, occasional white explorers or travellers were permitted to visit the vicinity and peep into the peculiar Indian life there, and a few of them have left us their impressions. Colonel John Shaw of Wisconsin, a veteran of the War of 1812 and one of those who had accompanied Major Zachary Taylor on his ill-fated expedition up the Mississippi river with the eight fortified boats in September of 1814, passed down the river in June of 1816 with a large boat, acting as a common carrier. Of his visit to antique Dubuque and the Fevre river, he wrote later: "Having discharged my load" (at Prairie du Chien) "I descended to Fevre river, as I had orders from St. Louis merchants to bring down lead from the traders in pay- 143. Schoolcraft was among those who made this statement; evident- ly in 1820 when he visited the Dubuque mines the house was already burned. 136 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 merit for goods they had purchased there. Reaching a point then known as Kettle Chief's prairie, some little distance below where Cassville now is, perhaps fifteen or eighteen miles, I there met the traders upon whom I had the orders and some two or three thousand Indians congregated, holding a sort of jubilee just after their corn-planting, swigging whiskey, and invoking the blessing of the Great Spirit upon their crop." This distance below Cassville would bring the Colonel to the general vicinity of the present city of Dubuque. The Fox vil- lage at the mouth of Catfish Creek was often referred to as Kettle Chief's Village (see Chapter III) and Chief Aquoqua was believed by some to be the Kettle Chief, although others main- tain that a later chief of the Foxes carried that name. To re- sume with the Colonel's narration: "The traders requested me to go down to the mouth of Fevre river, and there await the sending of the lead down; they were very anxious that I should take it down to St. Louis for them, and they had it piled up at the very spot where Galena now is. This I refused, as I could not consent to wait so long, and asked to go up" (the Fevre river) "with my boat. This request the Indians refused, saying that 'the Americans must not see their lead mines,' as they were particularly suspicious of Americans, but did not cherish the same feeling toward Frenchmen, with whom they had been so long connected and associated. Speak- ing, as I did, the French as fluently as I did the English, the traders declared to the Indians that I was a Frenchman, and all my boatmen, which was true, were French voyageurs; the Indians with very little persuasion consented that I might go up to their smelting establishments. "About two hundred Indians jumped upon my boat, while others followed in canoes, and we pushed on to the spot. There was no Indian town there but several encampments, and no trading establishment. There were at least twenty furnaces in the immediate neighborhood; and the lead was run into plaques or plats or flats, of about seventy pounds each. These flats were formed by smelting the mineral in a small walled hole, in which the fuel and the mineral were mingled, and the liquid lead run out, in front, into a hole scooped in the earth, so that a bowl shaped mass of lead was formed therein. The squaws dug the mineral and carried it in sacks on their heads to the smelting THE DARK AGE 137 places. I loaded seventy tons of lead on my boat, and still left much at the furnaces. This was the first boat-load of lead from Galena. The Indians had often previously taken lead in small quantities in their canoes to Portage des Sioux and St. Louis for purposes of barter." 144 The previous year, Colonel Shaw had attempted to build a saw mill at an engaging site south of Dubuque, where Bellevue in Jackson County now stands; but despite his numerous gifts and powerful pleadings and arguments the Indians had remained adamant in their refusal to grant him permission. The Colonel who "possessed a fine memory of historical events" referred to Dubuque's grave in another account of what was probably the same trip of 1816 just described. "Dubuque's Tomb. — Julien Dubuque was buried on a very high promontory on the western shore of the Mississippi, at some period prior to 1815, about a mile below the present city of Dubuque. A tomb was erected over the grave, covered with tin, and on a bright day when the sun's rays would reflect from it, it could be seen for a distance of a dozen miles below. So great was the veneration of the Indians for Dubuque's mem- ory, that they constantly kept vigil for years over his tomb, till the whites became quite thickly settled in the country. The tomb has since gone to decay." 145 In 1817 Major Stephen H. Long passed down the Missis- sippi in a skiff and simply comments in his romantic journal: "Passed Dubuque mines in the morning and arrived opposite the River La Fievre at evening." As he had stopped at practic- ally every other interesting point along the river, it is quite evi- dent that he passed up Dubuque because of the known un- friendly attitude of the Indians. 146 In 1818, a traveller, Mr. Edward Tanner, came up the river in company with the Sac Indian Agent, and later in the year 144. "Personal Narrative of Colonel John Shaw," Wisconsin Histor- ical Collections, Vol. II, pp. 197-232. 145. "Indian Chiefs and Pioneers of the Northwest," by John Shaw in Wisconsin Historical Collections, Vol. X, p. 221. 146. "Voyage in a Six-Oared Skiff to the Falls of St. Anthony in 1817." By Major Stephen H. Long. Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. 2, p. 66. 138 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 when he reached Detroit he delivered a lecture before the Ly- ceum of that city. From the Detroit Gazette of January 8, 1819, the following is culled: "On the Mississippi about ninety miles from Prairie du Chien, and seven miles from the west side of the river is a lead mine which is worked by the Fox Indians. The women dig the ore, carry it to the river where they have furnaces and smelt it. The mine is called De Buke's and is very rich and productive. The Indians have lately discovered another in the vicinity, only four feet below the surface and said to be rich. So deeply rooted is the jealousy of the Indians, that they allow no trader to build his hut on the side of the river in the vicinity of these mines . . . This" (Fox) "tribe have a few lodges on the east side of the Mississippi near Fort Armstrong, and about four miles from the Sauk village. Thirty miles above this, at the mine De Buke, on the west side, they have another village, and another on Turkey river, thirty miles below Prairie du Chien. Their whole military strength is about four hundred warriors. They are at this time in a state of war with the Sioux ; and as the Sacs are in strict amity with the Fox Indians, and have the influence and control of them, they are also drawn into the war. This war was in consequence of depradations committed by the Fox Indians on the Sioux." 147 The dauntless and unquenchable spirit of haughty aggres- siveness that had always characterized the Fox nation, still per- vaded the Fox tribe of antique Dubuque; and this period of their history is reddened with blood by their unbroken series of bitter wars with the Sioux — the struggle of the Algonkian against the Dakotah. In 1819, on the 30th of June, Major Thomas Forsythe, the Indian agent mentioned in the earlier chapters, passed the Du- buque mines. In his published Journal, after describing the mines at Fevre river and on the "creek called by the Indians, Sa-se-ne-way-way-nong," now called the Sinsinawa, he refers to the Dubuque mines in this simple statement: "The fifth" (group of mines) "are Dubuque's mines — too well known to require any description." 148 147. "Wisconsin in 1818" in Wisconsin Historical Collections, Vol. VIII, pp. 286, 287. 148. The Journal of this voyage is given in Wisconsin Historical Col- lections, Vol. VI, pp. 188-215. THE DARK AGE 139 But in the following year, 1820, we have two of the most interesting descriptions of this part of the antique Dubuque area. One of these was by Stephen W. Kearny, a gallant soldier, who later, at the beginning of the Mexican War, commanded the "Army of the West," which conquered New Mexico and California. On account of his services he was brevetted major- general. He wrote in his note-book entitled An Expedition Across Iowa in 1820, under the date of August 5th, 1820: "The mosquitoes we found last night very troublesome — Started at 4 A. M. passed 'Bear Creek 'on the West and at break- fast time stopped at a small Island, where we saw a large flock of pigeons, and secured 8 of them for our dinner. At 10 A. M. stopped at a settlement of traders (where we found Dr. Muir, late of the army with his squaw & 2 children) opposite a Fox village of 17 lodges, & 100 Inhabitants — On a high hill at one end of the village, we saw a small building covering the re- mains of Mr. Dubuque, who died in 1808, & who obtained from the Spanish government (previous to the cession of this coun- try to the Americans) the title to the 'Lead Mines,' which com- mence one mile from this place — These mines are at present partially worked by 5 or 6 of the 'Fox Indians.' "We were politely received by Dr. Muir & the traders — On leaving them, passed two canoes, with Indians, descending the river, & were accosted by them with 'How de do, How de do,' a salutation I find every Indian on the Mississippi acquainted with." 149 This Dr. Muir referred to hitherto several times, was one of the romantically interesting characters associated with early Iowa and antique Dubuque history. Baptized Samuel C. Muir, the son of a noted clergyman of Scotland, and educated at Edinburgh, he became a physician after coming to America. He became a surgeon's mate in the army in 1813 and remained in the army after the conclusion of the war. He served at Fort Johnston, on the Illinois shore, opposite the mouth of the Des Moines river in 1814, and in 1815 at Prairie du Chien, probably but a short time. It was while here that his life was threatened by some Winnebagoes, when a maiden of the Fox 149. "An Expedition Across Iowa in 1820", Missouri Historical Col- lections, Vol. III. 140 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 tribe rescued him. In gratitude he took her with him as his wife, (calling her Sophia), when he returned down the river to his army surgeon's service at Fort Edwards. Stung by the sneers of his fellow officers, the "squaw-man" left suddenly with his regiment for Bellefontaine, and abandoned bride and infant son. She followed him later alone in a canoe, undergoing great hardships on a journey of several hundred miles. Touched by such extreme devotion, the surgeon took her to his bosom, and ever after treated her with the utmost affection and respect. She always presided at the doctor's table and was highly re- garded by all who became acquainted with her; but she never discarded her native dress. He left the army, according to the most authoritative ver- sion, because of a government order forbidding and annulling Indian marriages among officers. "The first permanent white settlement on Iowa soil after the coming of Dubuque was in 1820," writes Johnson Brigham in his Iowa, "when Dr. Samuel C. Muir, an army surgeon, built a log cabin on the site of the city of Keokuk." But it was not a permanent settlement, and his cabin must have been built previous to the year mentioned, for in 1819 he was certainly at La Pointe, the Galena district of today, and in 1820, as just narrated by Major Kearny, he was trading at the Dubuque mines. This was confirmed by School- craft who met him there that same year and who will presently be quoted. After this time he seems to have remained in the Galena district, mining and trading as well as practicing his profession. His wife, the forest maiden, bore him four children. Colonel Shaw, who knew him well, claimed that Muir's fond- ness for liquor prevented his rise to distinction. But he died a hero. When General Scott's troops at Galena during the Black Hawk War in 1832 were violently attacked by the cholera, Dr. Muir worked fearlessly among them and after saving many lives himself fell a victim to the dread disease. His wife, left pen- niless, disappeared with several of her children, returning to her Fox tribe of the Upper Mississippi. 150 150. For Dr. Muir: History of Jo Daviess County (1873), pp. 234 et seq.; Gardner's Dictionary of the Army; Sprague's American Pul- pit, Vol. Ill, p. 517; Col. Shaw's references to Muir, in Wisconsin Historical Collections, Vol. II, pp. 212, 224; a good sketch of Dr. Muir, in Wisconsin Historical Collections, Vol. X, pp. 491, 492. THE DARK AGE 141 Another romance of the antique Dubuque district was that of the Chevalier Marois. He had fled to America after the French Revolution, and in 1812 married the daughter of an Iowa chief. He set up a trading post in what is now Clayton County to the north of Dubuque and remained for several years. Nothing else, however, is definitely known of him. 151 The most detailed and authoritative account which we poss- ess of the Dubuque mines in 1820, the Indians residing there, their methods of mining and smelting, and other interesting subjects, comes from the pen of Henry R. Schoolcraft. He was a member of the expedition of exploration under Governor Cass of the Michigan Territory, and visited this spot on August 7th, 1820, just two days after Major Kearny had been there. He must have known of Kearny's visit through Dr. Muir but of this he said nothing in his account, a major portion of which is given here: "I solicited permission of Gov. Cass to visit the lead mines of Dubuque, which are situated on the west bank of the Mississippi, at the computed distance of twenty-five leagues below Prairie du Chien. Furnished with a light canoe, manned by eight voyageurs, including a guide, I left the prairie at half-past eleven A. M. (6th). Passed the entrance of the Wisconsin on the left bank, at the distance of a league. Opposite this point is a high eleva- tion which Pike, in 1806, recommended to be occupied with a military work. This suggestion has not, however, been adopted; military men, probably, thinking that, how- ever eligible the sight might be for a work where civil- ized nations were likely to come into contact, a simpler style of defensive works would serve the purpose of keep- ing the Indian tribes in check. I proceeded nine leagues below, and encamped at the site of a Fox village, located on the east bank, a mile below the entrance of Turkey River from the west. The village consisting of twelve lodges, was now temporarily deserted, the Indians being probably absent on a hunt; but, if so, it was remark- able that not a soul or a living thing was left behind, not even a dog. My guide, indeed, informed me that the cause of the desertion was the fears entertained of an at- 151. Iowa, Its History and Its Foremost Citizens (1915) by Johnson Brigham, Vol. I, p. 20. 142 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 tack from the Sioux, in retaliation for the massacre late- ly perpetrated by them on the heads of the St. Peters, which was alluded to in the speech of the Little Crow, while we were at his village. "There were frequent thunders, and a rain-storm, dur- ing the night, which, with a slight intermission, character- ized the morning until noon. I embarked at half-past three A. M. (7th), and landed at the Fox village of the Kettle chief, at the site of Dubuque's house, at ten o'clock ; a moderate rain having continued all the way. It ceased an hour after my arrival. "The Kettle chief's village is situated fifteen miles be- low the entrance of the Little Makokety River, consisting of nineteen lodges, built in two rows, pretty compact, and having a population of two hundred and fifty souls. There is a large island in the Mississippi directly opposite this village, which is occupied by traders. I first landed there to get an interpreter of the Fox language and obtained some necessary information respecting the location of the mines, and the best means of accomplishing my object. Meantime the rain had ceased. I then proceeded across the Mississippi to the Kettle chief's lodge, to solicit his permission to visit the mines, and obtain Indian guides. I succeeded in getting Mr. Gates, as interpreter; and was accompanied by Dr. S. Muir, a trader, who politely of- fered to go with me. On entering the lodge of Aquoqua, the chief, I found him suffering under a severe attack of bilious fever. As I approached him, he sat up on his pallet, being unable to stand, and bid me welcome; but soon became exhausted by the labor of conversation, and was obliged to resume his former position. He appeared to be a man of eighty years of age, had a venerable look, but was reduced to the last stage of physical debility. Yet he retained his faculties of sight and hearing unimpaired, together with his mental powers. He spoke to me of his death with calm resignation, as a thing to be desired. On stating the object of my visit, some objections were made by the chiefs who surrounded him, and they required further time to consider the proposition. In the mean- time, I learned from another source, that since the death of Dubuque, to whom the Indians had formerly granted THE DARK AGE 143 the privilege of working the mines, they had manifested great jealousy of the whites, were afraid they would en- croach on their rights, denied all former grants, and did not make it a practice even to allow strangers to view their diggings. Apprehending some difficulties of this kind, I had provided myself with some presents, and conclud- ing this to be the time, because of the reluctance mani- fested, directed one of my voyageurs to bring in a present of tobacco and whiskey ; and in a few moments I received their assent, and two guides were furnished. One of these was a minor chief, called Scabass, or the Yelling Wolf; the other, Wa-ba-say-ah, or the White Foxskin. They led me up to the cliff, where I understood the In- dian woman, Peosta, first found lead ore; after reach- ing the level of the river bluffs, we pursued a path over undulating hills, exhibiting a half prairie, and quite pic- turesque rural aspect. On reaching the diggings, the most striking part of them, but not all of them, exhibited ex- cavations such as the Indians only do not seem perse- vering enough in labor to have made. "The district of country called Dubuque's mines, em- braces an area of about twenty-one square leagues, com- mencing at the mouth of the Little Maquaquity River, sixty miles below Prairie du Chien, and extending along the west bank of the Mississippi River, seven leagues in front by three in depth. The principal mines are situated on a tract of one square league, beginning immediately at the Fox village of Aquoqua, or the Kettle chief, and ex- tending westwardly. This is the seat of the mining oper- ations carried on by Dubuque, as well as of what are called the Indian Diggings. "The ore at these mines is now exclusively dug by the Indian women. Old and superannuated men also partake in the mining labor, but the warriors and men hold them- selves above it. In this labor, the persons who engage in it employ the hoe, shovel, pick-axe, and crow-bar. These implements are supplied by the traders at the Island, who are the purchasers of the crude ore. With these imple- ments they dig trenches, till they are arrested by the solid rock. There are no shafts, even of the simplest kind, and the windlass and bucket are unknown to them — far 144 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 more so the use of gunpowder in the mining operations. Their mode of going down into the deepest pits, and com- ing up from them, is by digging an inclined way, which permits the women to keep an erect position in walking. I descended into one of these inclined excavations, which had probably been carried down forty feet, at the per- pendicular angle. "When a quantity of ore has been got out, it is carried in baskets to the banks of the Mississippi, by the females, who are ferried over to the island. They receive at the rate of two dollars for a hundred and twenty pounds, pay- able in goods. At the profit at which these are usually sold, it may be assumed to cost the traders at the rate of seventy-five cents or a dollar, cash value, per hundred weight. The traders smelt the ore on the island, in fur- naces of the same construction which I have described, and given plates of, in my treatise on the mines. They observe that it yields the same per centum of metallic lead. Formerly, the Indians were in the habit of smelting the ore themselves on log heaps, by which an unusual propor- tion of it was converted into lead-ashes and lost. They are now induced to search about the sites of these old fires to collect these lead-ashes, which consist, for the most part, of desulphuretted ore, for which they receive a dol- lar per bushel. "There are three mines in addition to those above men- tioned, situated upon the Upper Mississippi, which are worked by the Indians. They are located at Sinsinaway, at Riviere au Fevre, and at the Little Makokety. 1. Sin- sinaway mines. They are situated fifteen miles below Aquoqua's village, on the east shore of the Mississippi, at the junction of the Sinsinaway River. 2. Mine au Fevre. Situated on the River au Fevre, which enters the Mississippi on its east banks, twenty-one miles below Du- buque's mines. The lead ore is found ten miles from its mouth. At this locality, the ore is accompanied by the sulphate of barytes, and is sometimes crystallized in cubes or octohedrons. 3. Mine of the Makokety, or Maquo- queti. This small river enters the Mississippi fifteen miles above Dubuque's mines. The mineral character and val- ue of the country has been but little explored. THE DARK AGE 145 "Having examined the mines with as much minute- ness as the time allowed me would permit, and obtained specimens of its ores and minerals, I returned to the banks of the Mississippi, before the daylight had de- parted, and, immediately embarking, went up the river two leagues and encamped on an island. "The present number of the Foxes cannot be accur- ately given. I was informed that the village I visited contained two hundred and fifty souls. They have a large village at Rock Island, where Foxes and Saucs live together, which consists of sixty lodges, and numbers three hundred souls. One-half of these may be Saucs. They have another village at the mouth of the Turkey River; altogether, they may muster from 460 to 500 souls. Yet, they are at war with most of the tribes around them, except the Iowas, Saucs, and Kickapoos. They are en- gaged in a deadly, and apparently successful war against the Sioux tribes. They recently killed nine men of that nation, on the Terre Blue River; and a party of twenty men are now absent, in the same direction, under a half-breed named Morgan. They are on bad terms with the Osages and Pawnees of the Missouri, and not on the best terms with their neighbors the Winnebagoes." 152 In the first paragraph, Schoolcraft refers to a Fox vil- lage on the east shore of the Mississippi, opposite the mouth of the Turkey. In the latter paragraph, he changes the loca- tion, saying it was at the mouth of the Turkey. This latter place was the actual location of the Fox camp. He implies throughout his sketch that the famed Kettle Chief and Aquoqua were the same, but nowhere does he so state di- rectly or definitely. Aquoqua seemed to Schoolcraft to be eighty years of age; but he was quite active only seven or eight years before during the British-American war, and perhaps his sick- ness increased his appearance of senility in the eyes of School- craft. Wabassayah was no longer an active war-chief. Mor- gan was now the great warrior; and of this redoubtable half- white battle leader, more will be heard presently. 152. Summary Narrative of An Exploratory Expedition To The Sources of the Mississippi River in 1820, etc. (1855) by Henry R. School- craft, chap. XV.. 146 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 How little the Washington government knew of the Dubuque region is apparent from the following document sent to the Secretary of War in 1822. Lieut. Colonel George Bomford of the Ordinance Department was to make a report on the various lead mines, and after having given a description of a number of them in detail, he refers to the Dubuque mines in a general way: "Ordinance Department, March 30, 1822. ". . . In addition: Mines at Dubuque, very extensive and rich within the territory detached from the State of Missouri on the west side of the Mississippi, below Prairie du Chien, the title to which appears to have remained unsettled, being claimed by heirs or assignees of Dubuque, and by A. Chouteau, and great injury is supposed to have resulted to the United States from those and other claims not having been satisfactorily adjusted by the former commissioners." 153 Not an up-to-date report was this; it was based on docu- ments all previous to the year 1817. Again in 1826, Lieut. Martin Thomas, Superintendent of the "Upper Mississippi Lead Mines," in a full report prepared for the government, made a few general statements about "Dubuke's celebrated mines" and about the squaws who did the mining and smelting. This information he probably secured from Moses Meeker, who smelted lead ore for a while in the Galena district. 154 In 1823 occurred really an historic event in the annals of the Upper Valley. The first steamboat to enter this area, the "Vir- ginia," puffed proudly against the currents of the Father of the Waters. The year before, in 1822, six steamboats from St. Louis had touched at Fevre River (now Galena) "deeply freight- ed with lead" but none had come to the Dubuque Mines. 155 The 153. American State Papers — Public Lands, Vol. Ill, p. 563. 154. See Wisconsin Historical Collections, Vol. II, p. 166; Vol. VI. p. 296; Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. XIII, p. 38. 155. Genesis of Steamboating on Western Rivers; with a Register of Officers on the Upper Mississippi — 1823 — 1870. Pamphlet pub- lished by State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison, 1912, p. 107. 3 o* 3 X> Q a> s .ST c < THE DARK AGE 147 "Virginia" was a hundred and eighteen feet long and twenty-two feet wide and under the charge of Captain Crawford. Among her passengers were Major Thomas Biddle, Jr. (who was killed in a duel August 29, 1831) and Lieut. John Russel of the Unit- ed States Army, Major Lawrence Taliaferro, United States In- dian Agent at Fort Snelling, and Count Giacomo C. Beltrami, an expatriate Italian of noble family. 156 A writer has described how these first steam vessels, suddenly shooting forth their im- mense clouds of steam and accompanied by the shrill screech of their whistles, had frightened the tribes who in curious admir- ation had come down to the shore, and how they in trepidation had fled yelling into the shelter of the forests. But not so with the Foxes; they gazed down from the noble brows of the Du- buque hills on the "Virginia" and later vessels, in surprise per- haps, but fear they knew not. Arriving on the "Virginia" in May of 1823, was the distin- guished foreigner, Beltrami, just refered to, an eccentric Italian traveller, "formerly a Judge of a Royal Court" in Italy and now a refugee from his country. Deciding to stop and visit Dubuque's mines, the scholarly Italian found them jealously, even religiously, guarded by the Foxes, and he, just as Schoolcraft three years pre- viously, "was obliged to have recourse to the all-powerful whiskey to obtain permission to see them." His interesting description of the Indians and the mines follows : The attachment of the Indians was confined to Julien Dubuque, and to get rid of those who wanted to succeed him, they burned his furnaces, warehouses, and dwelling, and by this measure expressed the determination of the red people to have no other whites among them than such as they liked. . . They still keep exclusive possession and with such jealousy that I was obliged to have recourse to the all-powerful whiskey to obtain permission to see them. They smelt the lead in holes which they dig in the rock, to reduce it into pigs. They exchange it with the traders, but they carry it themselves to the other side of the river, which they will not suffer them to pass. Notwithstanding these precautions, the mines are so valuable, and the Americans so enterprising, I question whether the Indians will long retain possession of them. 156. Ibid. p. 108. 148 • ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 Dubuque reposes with royal state in a leaden chest in a mausoleum of wood, which the Indians erected upon the summit of a hill that overlooks their camps and commands the river. This man was become their idol, because he possessed or pretended to possess an antidote to the bite of a rattlesnake. Nothing but artifice and delusion can render the red people friendly to the whites, for they despise and hate them. A respectable gentleman, a friend of Dubuque, attempted to persuade me that this juggler was in the habit of taking rattlesnakes in his hands, and speaking to them in a language they understood could tame them and render them gentle as doves. . . A little above the river Turkey, which is navigable to a considerable distance inland, is an old village which the Foxes have deserted. Here terminates the pretended territorial jurisdiction of these savages; I say pretended for savages hunt wherever they find no obstacle. . . Their number is much diminished. It scarcely amounts to more than sixteen hundred, who are distributed into four tribes, like the Saukis (Sacs). 157 A hurried and unique visitor to the Foxes at Dubuque later in 1823 was Major Lawrence Taliaferro. This gentleman was at that time and for years thereafter in charge of the Indian agency at St. Peter's, near to Fort Snelling, now Mendota, Min- nesota. It may be mentioned here that his slave girl, Harriet, married Dred Scott, the hero or the victim of the famous Dred Scott Decision. Major Taliaferro, reminiscing in the St. Paul Pioneer and Democrat of 1856, remarked among other things: "We thought nothing of taking a crew of brave Medawakan- tons, with Mr. Alexander Faribault as a companion, and pass- ing down to Dubuque, and rescuing a Yankton Sioux prisoner the Sacs and Foxes had captured in 1823, — performing this act of humanity in a few days; evading the vigilance of a party of Sac braves despatched to intercept and cut us off. It was a dangerous effort, but we determined to risk our lives to save 157. Dr. Moses Meeker said: The Virginia "was the first steamboat that crossed over the rapids" and he stated that there was great speculation at St. Louis as to whether she would ever return. Wisconsin Historical Collection, Vol. VI, p. 277; Beltrami's A Pil- grimage in Europe and America, Vol. II (London — 1828) ; Annals of Iowa, Vol. V, pp. 661-613. THE DARK AGE 149 that of a human being, and we landed safely at St. Peter's, and in due season despatched her off safely to her friend and fam- ily on the Des Moines." In an unpublished manuscript letter in the Minnesota Histor- ical Society is found a reference to the same event: "In 1823, I left this Post with Nine Sioux Indians, and pro- ceeded to the Fox village below Dubuccque, and returned in fifteen days with a Yancton Sioux woman, whom they had in- tended to sacrifice." 158 In 1827, early in September, Colonel Thomas L. McKenney of the United States army, and Superintendent of Indian Trade was descending the Mississippi river, with a party of soldiers in a canoe. Wrote Colonel McKenney years later: "Arriving at Du Buque's, sixty miles below the Prairie, we stopped and visited his grave. This grave is on a high bluff or point of land, formed by the junction of the Black River with the Mississippi on the west side of the latter. A village of Fox Indians occupied the low lands south of the bluff — of these Indians we procured the guide who piloted us to Dubuque's last resting place. The ascent was rather fatiguing. Over the grave was a stone, covered with a roof of wood. Upon the stone was a cross, on which was carved in rude letters, 'Julien DuBuque, died 24th March, 1810, aged 45 years'. Near by was the burial spot of an Indian Chief. We returned to our canoe, embarked, and proceeded sixteen miles farther, to Fevre Riv- er, and up that River to Galena, arriving after nightfall. The river sent forth a most disagreeabie odor. It appeared to be a very hotbed of billious fever. At Galena, I visited the mines and smelting establishments, at that time in their infancy. In the previous July, eight hundred thousand pounds of lead had been smelted, and, perhaps, a million pounds in August." 159 One more glimpse of this antique Dubuque of the Foxes is given by an eye-witness, who visited the spot shortly before the village on the Catfish was entirely abandoned, although the Indians clung to the wild and wooded crown of hills round about 158. From Major Lawrence Taliaferro's Letter Book B, July 12, 1839 (Letter to Gov. Lucas of Iowa Territory) MS. Department, Min- nesota Historical Society Library. 159. Wisconsin Historical Collections, Vol. V, pp. 202, 203. 150 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 it a while longer. John H. Fonda, a noted pioneer of Prairie du Chien, related in 1867 the details of this visit which took place in 1829 or 1830 while he was serving his enlistment period un- der Colonel Zachary Taylor at Fort Crawford. "A depredation had been committed by the Fox and Sauk Indians, on the whites at the Mines." (As there were no whites in residence at the Dubuque mines, this refers probable to the traders on the islands, or to the whites at the Fevre river mines). "A number of horses were stolen and word was re- ceived at the Fort, that assistance from the troops was neces- sary to recover them. Lieut. Gardenier was immediately put in command of a body of soldiers and sent down the river to Dubuque, where the Indians were said to be encamped. I ac- companied Lieut. Gardenier as pilot of the line. We arrived at the mouth of the Slough, after dark one night and encamped. It rained hard all night and next day. And though the bluffs where Dubuque is buried, and all the country was thoroughly searched, yet no Indians were discovered, and we got neither horses nor glory on that occasion; but I got a better knowledge of the Mineral Region than I had previous to the expedition. At Dubuque, the country was rough, wild and wooded, with few indications of civilization; and across the Mississippi at Galena, the face of the country was rugged and rocky, but the discovery of mineral had caused an excitement, that brought emigrants there in swarms, who on their arrival would go to prospecting, frequently making fortunes, but oftener failing to make any- thing." 1 ™ The absence of the Fox Indians on this occasion may easily be explained on various grounds; one is purposeful concealment from the white troops: another is that a Fox war party was about this time engaged in an expedition against the Sioux on the Cedar river: but the most probable explanation is that they were on the chase, for during the hunting season they tempor- arily vacated their villages entirely . 160. Wisconsin Historical Collections, Vol. V, pp. 241, 242. CHAPTER TWELVE THE WHITE MAN ON THE FRINGE THE visitors to antique Dubuque described in the last chap- ter were not the only ones during this period; they have been quoted because of their descriptions of the locality. There were others, especially the traders and trappers alluded to several times, who had contacts with the Foxes and who oc- casionally, especially if they were Frenchmen, were permitted to visit the mines. The Upper Mississippi Valley was a rich territory for the traders and miners and trappers, and round about antique Du- buque their operations were carried on actively in every direc- tion. Pike's visit in 1805 and 1806 had revealed the presence of a few British traders at that time. But from then on and up to the War of 1812, and all during the war and up to 1816, the business of the English and French Canadian agents had constantly increased, radiating out from Montreal and Mack- inac to St. Peter's and Prairie du Chien and down the valley almost to St. Louis. In many ways they were superior to their American competitors. Even in those years when the British paid duties on their goods, they won the Indians over by their better trade methods. One of the American traders put the point tersely : "The British goods were of the very best quality, manufac- tured expressly for the Indian trade. Their rifles were just what the Indian required & the powder of the very best quality ; where- as the goods sent to the American factors" (those in charge of trading-posts) " were of a very inferior quality, in fact it would seem that all the old goods of all our cities were bought up as good enough for wild Indians." 161 161. Statement of George Hunt, quoted in Jacob Van der Zee's article "Fur Trade Operations in the Eastern Iowa Country from 1800 to 1833," Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. XII, pp. 500, 501. Those interested in early business and trade activities in the Upper Mississippi valley and in eastern Iowa can find no more splendid studies of the subject than the one just quoted, and another by the same author, "Fur Trade Operations in the Eastern Iowa Country during the Spanish Regime," in the same volume, p. 360 et seq. 152 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 About this time, the greatest figure in the fur-trading world was coming on the stage. John Jacob Astor, the German from Waldorf, a suburb of old Heidelberg, famous university town, had become so powerful, that in 1808 he incorporated as the American Fur Company. Up to this year Jean Baptiste Fari- bault, the friend of Julien Dubuque, had worked for Astor in various sections of the Northwest and the Upper Mississippi Val- ley. The latter soon established a branch headquarters of one of his companies, the Southwest Company, at Prairie du Chien, and one of its stockholders was Robert Dickson, a famous Indian trader, who formerly had also been a friend and business inti- mate of Dubuque's. When after the War, in 1816, the United States Congress passed an act which forbade foreign merchants and capital from entering into the Indian trade within the United States limits, Astor's American Fur Company found itself prac- tically the only great corporation in the field, and Prairie du Chien became a greater center than ever. Even the govern- ment opened up a "factory", or trading post, there. 162 Numerous private traders made their way up and down the valley, buying and selling goods, especially furs. Many of these men on the frontiers of civilization were, of course, not of the highest character. "The fur trade may have been a source of profit to the white trader, but that gain has been connected with the degradation and wretchedness of the Indian. The whiskey authorized by the Department to be taken among them, was, how- ever, a countervailing measure to destroy the advantages which the English trader would otherwise have enjoyed." 163 Julien Dubuque in trade matters as in everything else had ruled his territory with an iron hand in a velvet glove. He brooked neither competition nor interference. After his death, however, new faces appeared within the territory, occasionally, and on the fringes thereof which he had so singularly dominated. Just a little more than a year after he had been laid away upon the Catfish bluff, a rather active little trading post as well as a smelting plant had been opened on the southern limit of his grant. On January 12, 1812, Governor Clark at St. Louis, young- 162. The American Fur Trade of the Far West, by H. M. Chittenden, deals at length with the growth of the Astor company. For Robert Dickson, see various references in Wisconsin Historical Collections. 163. From Senate Documents, 1st Session, 23d Congress, Vol. IX, No. 512, p. 606, quoted in article referred to in note 161, p. 553. THE WHITE MAN ON THE FRINGE 153 er brother of the hero of Kaskaskia, and himself immortalized through the epochal Lewis and Clark expedition, wrote that he had just learned "by an express, from the commanding officer at Fort Madison, to Colonel Bissell, that a party of Winnebagoes, (part of the Prophet's party) did, on the 1st instant, rob and kill several American traders, near the Spanish mines, on the Miss- issippi." "Near the Spanish mines" meant nine miles south on the Tetes des Morts creek, which formed the lower boundary of Dubuque's grant, and the affair came about in this wise: in the fall of 1811, George Hunt, who had been "sutler" or canteen- keeper at Fort Madison, took five Frenchmen and two discharged American soldiers, Arnold and Peters by name, and came up to antique Dubuque and opened up a trading post at the mouth of the Tetes des Morts. He discharged the Frenchmen but retained the Americans as helpers. From ten to fifteen canoes, carrying two thousand pounds of lead, landed daily from the Dubuque mines and from the Fevre river district across the Mississippi. After weighing the lead, Hunt paid out in goods. Hunt had "no opposition" (competition) "within five hundred miles," a somewhat exaggerated statement. Two hundred yards from his lead house and fur house, Nathaniel Pryor, who had been a sergeant in the memorable Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804- 1806, conducted a smelting furnace. On New Year's Day of 1812, one hundred Winnebagoes who had been among the Indians defeated by William Henry Har- rison at Tippecanoe, camped a mile away. Their chief wore a large, solid silver British medal. Hunt and his two ex-soldiers were surprised by them, and before they could defend them- selves, the two helpers were shot down and their bodies cut to pieces. Hunt, who was believed to be an Englishman, was not harmed that day and when the Winnebagoes became intoxicated during the night on the liquor they had seized while they pillaged his stores, he escaped and finally made his way to Fort Madison without learning the fate of Nathaniel Pryor. The Indians had burned Hunt's house and the lead which was there had melted together. So in May he took a boat north intending to recover this mineral, if possible. Before his boat reached Rock Island, the Americans were warned that the In- dians at that point were holding up the river traffic, allowing Frenchmen and their boats to pass on payment of tribute, but attacking all Americans. Maurice Blondeau, the well known 154 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 interpreter and trader, was coming down the river from Prairie du Chien and invited Hunt to return to St. Louis with him. No sooner was Hunt on Blondeau's boat than he met Nathaniel Pryor whom he had given up as lost. Pryor recounted his es- cape from the Winnebagoes, and added that he had spent the winter until he met Blondeau descending the Mississippi "at a French village 15 miles from our wintering grounds." The only possible "French" village that this could have been was that of the Dubuque Foxes at Catfish Creek, where at this time Pierre Chouteau, Jr. and some of his French retainers from St. Louis were residing in Julien Dubuque's establishment, and at which spot as we know from Pike's account Blondeau occasionally stopped. 164 During the years of the war, which broke out shortly after the above event, (the declaration of war taking place on June 18) the British traders naturally enjoyed without any opposition the full privileges of trade in the entire Dubuque area and the contiguous vicinity, but due to the martial activities of the tribes and the general spirit of unrest in the country, business must have shrunken considerably. Immediately after the war, Colonel John Shaw received a regular license to trade with the Indians from Governor Clark, Superintendent of Indian Affairs, and be- tween 1815 and 1820 he made a number of trips with his trad- ing boat between St. Louis and Prairie du Chien. When he had been attending the treaty meetings at Portage des Sioux, he spoke with the Sacs and Foxes and "asked their permission to build a saw-mill in their country." This project he attempted to put through later that same year. At what is now Bellevue in Iowa, some twenty odd miles south of Dubuque, he endeav- ored to open a trading post and erect the mill. But despite num- erous gifts and persuasive pleadings, the Indians there remained firm in their refusal to grant him the permission sought. 165 George Davenport, an agent of the American Fur Company, is supposed to have been trading in the general Dubuque area as early as 1816, but Shaw, who knew most of the traders at that time, does not mention him in his lists. But from 1818 164. From Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. VIII, pp. 662-669 and Vol. XII, pp. 438-450, reprinted under the title of "Old Fort Mad- ison: Some Source Materials," in Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. II, pp. 517 et seq. 165. Wisconsin Historical Collections, Vol. XII, p. 225. THE WHITE MAN ON THE FRINGE 155 on, it is quite certain that Davenport traded with the Fox Indians in the vicinity of Dubuque and the Fevre river, and that he an- nually obtained large quantities of lead from them. It is also alleged that up to 1819 several American traders who attempted to go among the Sac and Fox miners and run opposition to the Canadians, had been killed. This may have reference, however, to the killing at Tetes des Morts and Bellevue, in 1812 and 1815 respectively, already described. One American trader is said to have lost his life in 1813 on Sinsinawa creek, across the Miss- issippi from the Dubuque mines. But as this was during the war, his death may have been due to that rather than directly to trade competition. 166 In 1819, Jesse W. Shull, the founder of Shullsburg, Wiscon- sin, was trading at the Dubuque mines for a Prairie du Chien company. About this time Dr. Samuel C. Muir appeared here as a trader also. A little later A. P. Van Metre and Capt. David C. Bates opened up their trading establishment on the island op- posite the Dubuque Foxes in the Mississippi. Shull and Van Metre, as well as Muir, had taken Fox maidens as consorts, and probably their wives were from the Dubuque branch of the Foxes. 167 In 1822, a keel-boat had arrived at St. Louis loaded with lead from the Dubuque mines. It belonged to a man named Ander- son who stated that he had been smelting on an island in the Mississippi opposite the Indian village where his establishment was. The Indians refused him permission to build on the main- land, but when he saw a great deal of waste about their furnaces, he made arrangements to buy this waste and the ore and the mineral ashes from them, and by paying in goods, he obtained his lead cheaper than by mining. He gave a glowing descrip- tion of the Fevre river mines. This man, who sold out his es- tablishment that same year to another trader, was known as Ken- tuck Anderson and later served in the Black Hawk war. He was a noted bruiser, was engaged in a number of fisticuff fights, and was finally killed in a feud in the fall of 1837 six miles south- west of Dubuque. 168 166. Wisconsin Historical Collections, Vol. XIII, p. 286; Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. XIII, p. 28. 167. Wisconsin Historical Collections, Vol. XIII, p. 289. 168. Wisconsin Historical Collections, Vol. VI, pp. 272, 275. 156 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 In 1823, Van Metre and Bates, on their island opposite Du- buque, smelted and shipped one hundred thousand pounds of lead. In the following January, 1824, the first marriage ceremony between white persons in this area was enacted on this island. During the winter, Van Metre had just received his commission as justice of the peace from Governor Cass. A young couple from the Fevre river district, William Hynes and Maria Ruth- erford, had been seeking a magistrate to bind them legally in wedlock and they came to Van Metre and had him perform the marriage ceremony. 169 From 1824 on Captain Bates associated himself with Amos Farrar in the Galena district, and their establishment seems to have drawn the trade of the Dubuque Foxes from across the river for some years thereafter. But in 1825 Joseph Rolette, an officer in Astor's American Fur Company, induced Nich- olas Boilvin, the Indian agent, to grant Etienne Dubois, a clerk of Rollette's, a government license to trade with the Foxes be- tween Dubuque's mines and Prairie du Chien. Both Forsyth, who was the agent at Rock Island, and George Davenport, who really owned the establishment at Galena conducted for him by Capt. Bates and Amos Farrar, brought complaints against Dubois and Rolette to Governor Clark at St. Louis; Davenport feared that his Galena establishment would lose out entirely in competition with the American Fur Company for the trade with the Dubuque Foxes. "Many persons have applied to me for Licenses or permits to trade at Dubuque Mines all of which I have refused on the principle that Fevre River being located for the purpose of Trading with the Indians," wrote Forsyth, adding also that Rolette was preparing "to make an establish- ment at Dubuque's Mines to trade lead there the ensuing Sum- mer." Nevertheless, Forsyth himself in September of 1825 granted a year's license to Etienne Dubois upon the request of the Fox chiefs to be allowed to have a trader "at a little Prairie on an Island which is opposite to the Little Macoketey River." The Little Maquoketa, it will be recalled, was the stream forming the northern limit of Dubuque's original grant from the Foxes. In the next three years, 1826, 1827, and 1828, Dubois continued to 169. Wisconsin Historical Collections, Vol. VI, pp. 290, 291. THE WHITE MAN ON THE FRINGE 157 act as the licensed trader with the Foxes at the Dubuque Mines, but in the years 1829 and 1830 he operated upon the "Lit- tle Macquackity" itself. The year following he was succeeded by an agent named John Forsyth who had his station on "Little Prairie," opposite the Little Maquoketa river. 170 And now directly across the Mississippi from the Dubuque mines, on a high plateau, distinctly visible on a bright day to the sharp-eyed Foxes as they stood on the bluff holding the re- mains of their patron, the great Miner, rose the smoking chim- neys, the noisy furnaces and the various houses of the ever nearer encroaching white man. In the spring of 1827, George Wallace Jones, coming up from Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, "squat- ted" upon Sinsinawa Mound and took up a claim of a thousand and one acres This gentleman from the old South, a drummer boy in the War of 1812, an officer in the Black Hawk and other Indian wars, was later the first delegate to Congress from Wis- consin, and secured the passage of the bill creating Iowa a ter- ritory in 1838. He was one of the first two United States Senators from Iowa, and his life was intimately identified with Iowa and Dubuque. 171 In the year 1828 he brought up from the South a few French workingmen and miners and several negroes. The black man was on the fringe of antique Dubuque as well as the white man. Jones built two furnaces and sent out his teamsters with five yoke of oxen to bring in lead from the surrounding country. He brought a stock of merchandise from St. Louis which he sold to the nearby settlers and miners. These goods he also sold to the Fox Indians who crossed over from the Dubuque side and brought him lead as payment; this happened first in the summer of 1828. On this occasion he took his ox-team and wagon and went down to the Mississip- pi shore where East Dubuque now lies and took from the Indian canoes the lead ore which they had transported. Later he lashed two canoes together, forming a transport in which to cross his wagon and oxen to and from the Catfish village and other points on the present Iowa shore. General Jones claimed to have thereby constructed the first ferry to Dubuque, if not to any part of the state of Iowa. 170. Wisconsin Historical Collections, Vol. XX, pp. 375, 380; Iowa Journal of history and Politics, Vol. XII, pp. 544, 545, 547, 548. 171. George Wallace Jones, by John Carl Parish (1912). 158 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 That same year of 1828 saw Mr. Thomas Jordan, on the advice of Jones, settling on the shore opposite the site of Du- buque, and handling Jones' shipping and other activities from that point. 172 During these years the traffic and the travel on the river must have been steadily increasing. At first keel-boats, and later steam-boats on their way to Prairie du Chien and Fort Snelling or returning to the south, would stop at the island op- posite the Fox Village and sometimes even at the mouth of Catfish Creek, and few vessels there were that did not halt in the later years at the even more prosperous and more populous Fevre river district. There is one more interesting side light from the fringe of antique Dubuque to be thrown on the Dubuque Foxes before this chapter closes. The wars of the white men, the violent crimes of the frontiersmen, the unscrupulousness of the trad- ers in their dealings and especially their debauching of the sav- ages through sales and gifts of liquor, did not make them ex- emplars of probity in the eyes of the Indians. Yet these faults were sometimes offset by the noble deeds of the missioner or the teacher. To the Foxes, however, up to this time both of these were suspected and unwelcome strangers. In the history of the Foxes of the Dubuque area, we find only one instance recorded of contact between themselves and the pioneer mis- sionary. In 1827 and in 1829 there was a young missionary priest residing for several months each year in the Fevre river dis- trict and in Galena. He was Father Francois Vincent Badin. In an undated letter written to France he refers to his meet- ing with them: "Les Renards ne sont pas plus nombreux que les Menom- onis; ils se tiennent sur les rives du Mississippi, a la mine a Du- buque; ils se vermillonnent d'une maniere brillante qui fait bien ressortir leur belle corpulence ; douze ou quinze d'entre eux vinrent me rendre visite l'annee derniere." (Translation). "The Foxes are not more numerous than the Menomonis; they hold to the banks of the Mississippi, at the mine a Dubuque; they paint themselves brilliantly with vermil- 172. George Wallace Jones, by John Carl Parish (1912) pp. 86, 95, 96. THE WHITE MAN ON THE FRINGE 159 160 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 lion which shows off markedly their pleasing plumpness ; twelve or fifteen from among them came to return me a visit last year." 1 ™ The "returning the visit" might imply that the missioner had first called on them at their Dubuque village. Etienne Dubois has been mentioned as the licensed trader at Dubuque from 1824 to 1830. He was well acquainted with Father Badin as the haptismal records of the Fevre river and Prairie du Chien districts show, copies of which are found in the Wisconsin Historical Library, Manuscript Department. Du- bois stood as godfather for several children in this part of the territory, and we scan the list with curious interest to find the names of Dubuque Foxes. Some Indian names are there, but they are the names of an Ottawa woman here, of a half-breed Menominee there; no Foxes. They would have none of the white man's medicine; they despised his religion along with his culture. 174 173. Letter in the Lyons Propagation of the Faith Society Collections, State University Library, Madison, Wisconsin. 174. Baptismal Records of Fevre River and Prairie du Chien, Wiscon- sin State Historical Library, Manuscript Department. CHAPTER THIRTEEN THE LAST OF THE DUBUQUE REYNARDS THE civilized Caucasians were slowly but continuously settling on the limits of the antique Dubuque territory, erecting their cabins, furnaces and trading-houses, hewing down the for- est primeval and attacking the virgin soil with their metallic plows. But it was not only this approach of their white breth- ren which caused the ultimate removal of the Foxes ; this last eventuality was brought about to a great extent by the various internecine wars of the Indian tribes of the upper valley. The Foxes carried on a relentless struggle with the powerful Sioux to the north and west of them, and made occasional military excursions into the neighboring lands of the Iowas. 175 The American government decided to make a handsome and dramatic gesture toward harmony among the Indians, to induce them to stop their wars and smoke a final pipe of peace among themselves. A great council of peace was announced to all the tribes of the Upper Mississippi Valley and they were sum- moned to Prairie du Chien in 1825 to enter formally into a pact of harmony. This was called the Great Council of 1825. Gov- ernor Lewis Cass of the Michigan Territory, now performing those stellar achievements which later made him a national figure as Secretary of War, United States senator from Michigan and presidential candidate against Zachary Taylor, and General Wil- liam Clark, of St. Louis, Superintendent of Indian Affairs, ar- rived in person at Prairie du Chien to act as supreme arbiters for the United States. Various Indian agents paddled into Prairie du Chien by way of the Mississippi or the Wisconsin, bringing with them hundreds of Indians from divers points: Sioux and Chippewas and Winnebagoes, Menomonies, Pottawattamies and Ottawas, Iowas, Foxes and Sacs. Schoolcraft was present at the treaty, and although he brought with him one hundred and 175. The matter in this chapter describing the last wars and coun- cils of the Dubuque Foxes is taken, unless otherwise noted, from the following sources: Iowa Historical Record, Vol. XVII, No. 3, pp. 305-335; Old Fort Crawford and the Frontier (1926) by Bruce E. Mahan, Chaps. VII, IX, X, and XI; A History of the People of Iowa (1921), by Cyrenus Cole; and the splendid ar- ticles on early Iowa affairs by Jacob Van Der Zee in Vols. XII, XIII, and XIV of the Iowa Journal of History and Politics. 162 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 fifty Chippewas, it was of the Foxes and Iowas and Sacs that he later wrote in admiration. No tribes attracted the degree of attention that they did. They landed in compact ranks and marched to the treaty grounds armed and dressed as though for war. They carried flags of feathers, they beat drums and ut- tered yells. "Their martial bearing, their high tone, and whole behavior during their stay in and out of the council, was im- pressive and demonstrated in an eminent degree to what high pitch of physical and moral courage, bravery and success in war may lead a savage people." The Foxes, Sacs and Iowas had arrived a little late. Keo- kuk, the leader of this group, had picked up a few Fox chiefs and braves as they passed the Dubuque mines, and the party arrived at Prairie du Chien in a flotilla of seventy canoes. On August 5th, a cannon from Fort Crawford boomed forth the summons to the council. The numerous tribesmen gath- ered about a raised platform on which sat the representatives of United States might and sovereignty. Blue- jacketed and white-trousered soldiers from the fort sat nearby on log benches, and many ladies from the fort and from the town of Prairie du Chien lent their presence. General Clark spoke in behalf of the President of the United States, the "Great Father." He explained the purpose of the council and made an appeal for peace. At the conclu- sion of the speech, the peace-pipe was smoked and thereupon a great feast took place. Tobacco and even a little liquor were served and the Indians devoured the rations, generously served by the government, to the last crumb. The following day, at the reconvening of the council, a number of chiefs spoke. "My Fathers," said a Fox chief, "I am glad to see all my relations, these red skins, assembled together. I was glad to hear what you said yesterday; how could it be otherwise when what you said were my own thoughts." The days passed on, sometimes the debate grew animated., but finally the boundaries separating the various tribes from one another were drawn and agreed upon. The most important boundary of all was that between the Sioux to the north of it and the Foxes and their friends the Sacs to the south of it. This boundary started at the mouth of the Upper Iowa river, on the west bank of the Mississippi, some miles to the north of the antique Dubuque area, and ran west by north for a short THE LAST OF THE DUBUQUE REYNARDS 163 distance and then generally west by south to the Missouri river. The tribes were to hunt only in the lands on their own side of this boundary. Finally the calumet was smoked, one hundred and thirty-four chiefs signed the peace pact, and the tribes dispersed. And so, with a colorful flourish, the tomahawk was buried, but alas, not for long. Clashes again took place, by small parties at first, be- tween those inveterate foes, the Foxes and the Sioux; in the Cedar valley, on the prairies to the west, out as far even as Spirit Lake. The missioner, Father Vincent Badin, working between Prairie du Chien and Fevre river, and coming in oc- casional contact with the Foxes, wrote in 1828 to a friend in France : "It's not two months ago that seventy-three Renards (that's the name of the tribe) surprised a cabin of the Sioux where they found two women and a child; they killed one of the wo- men and took her scalp (et lui enleverent la chevelure). Ac- cording to their last treaty with the United States, they are forbidden to carry on war among themselves; consequently, the government agent who resides at the Prairie du Chien, sent his vice-agent to the Dubuque mines (a la mine a Dubuque), to reclaim the prisoners, the Sioux woman and her child. They received him in a very ill manner and demanded a ransom of 300 piastres" (dollars). 176 The sub-agent referred to in the letter was John Marsh, rep- resenting Joseph M. Street, United States Indian agent at Prairie du Chien. In a letter written by the latter to General Wm. Clark at St. Louis we find the concluding chapter of this incident de- scribed by the missioner. "Hearing where the Sioux captives were I hastily des- patched a messenger with a small party to demand them. The Fox chief Morgan who led the war party who took them came and surrendered the captives without ransom to me at this place. I reprimanded him for his conduct, and told him that it was the will of his great F(ather) the P( resident) under whose protection he and his people were, as well as the Sioux, that they should not go to war with each other — that if any differences came between 176. Letters of Francois Vincent Badin in the Annals of the Propaga- tion of the Faith, Lyons, France, 1828 to 1830, from the French Edition in the University of Wisconsin Library, Madison. 164 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 them he wd. upon application settle them. He plead pre- vious hostility, and the taking a horse and the unsettled state of line between them and the Sioux from the Upper Iowa to the Missouri. It is unmarked; and he and his people believe the Sioux were hunting on the best hunt- ing grounds of his nation. But if it was displeasing to his Father he would no more go to war unless assailed in his own land. Yet he hoped his father wd. cause a good line to be marked between the Sioux and his people. "The prompt obedience of Morgan to my request and his mild and conciliatory behavior determined me to prom- ise some presents and give him, which he had solicited for himself & people. Finally he declared that his people desired to do nothing that would displease their Father." 177 But Marsh, the sub-agent, who was a friend of the Sioux and had a Sioux wife, did not so easily forgive the chief, Mor- gan. He inserted an article in a Galena paper, the gist of which he hoped would be carried across the river to the Dubuque Foxes to alarm them, stating that 4000 Sioux would descend the Miss- issippi in the spring. Street, his superior, was displeased by this article and wrote to General Clark : "Morgan has more sense than he" (Marsh) "imagines — he knows that Indians cannot do without food — and that if 4000 Indians were ever collected they could not remain together without starving for more than a few days unless subsisted by white men." 178 The Sioux, aroused by Marsh, demanded revenge on the Du- buque Foxes and especially on Morgan. Their chiefs sent word to Street: "We will wait & see what our G(reat) F(ather) will do — if he will order Morgan to be given to us — or in what way he means to prevent any more murders of Sioux by the Foxes." 179 In 1829, Caleb Atwater of Ohio, a commissioner, was on his way by steamboat from St. Louis to Prairie du Chien to at- tend a conference there between various Indian tribes and the United States for the purpose of settling a number of land claims. He stopped at Galena to purchase supplies, and then tarried at 177. Written, Prairie du Chien, March 20, 1829. Original in the In- dian Office Files, Washington, D. C; Annals of Iowa, Vol. 16, p. 32. 178. Ibid, p. 34. 179. Written, Prairie du Chien, April 8, 1829, Street to Gov. Clark. Original in Indian Office Files, Washington, D. C; Annals of Iowa, Vol. 16, p. 37. THE LAST OF THE DUBUQUE REYNARDS 165 the Dubuque mines and paid a visit to the Fox chief, the half breed Morgan, a noted warrior. Atwater saw "Dubuque's tomb on a high hill where the cross on his grave can be seen from the river." He notified Chief Morgan, as he had notified other chiefs previously, of the coming conference at Prairie du Chien. The conference when it did take place proved to be a very well attended affair and almost broke up through a threatened in- surrection by the Winnebagoes. But just at that hour there arrived two hundred friendly Foxes and Sacs, the former un- der Morgan of Dubuque, and the latter under the great Sac chieftain, Keokuk. They began their war dance for the United States and dampened the fiery temper of the Winnebagoes. After the conclusion of the land treaties and the departure of the other tribes, the Sac and Fox Indians remained, and in a conference with the United States commissioners, were asked if they would sell the Dubuque mines and other mineral lands in Iowa, and if so, to state the terms. Keokuk in his reply com- plained that some white men had already settled upon the Indian lands along the Mississippi and were trading with people navi- gating the river and selling wood from the Iowa forests to the steamboats. No bargain was effected, the commissioners post- poned the discussion of the purchase, loaded the Indians with liberal presents, and in a few days the latter departed down the river after a friendly farewell. In addition to their clashes with the Sioux, the Dubuque Foxes had become embroiled with the Winnebagoes, and early in 1830 the chiefs of the latter tribe informed Wynkoop Warner, the sub-agent for the Sacs and Foxes, that they would be glad to iron out their difficulties at a conference to be held at Prairie du Chien. Warner brought the message to the Indian village on the Catfish, but finding nearly all the Foxes drunk, immed- iately departed across the river. The Indians, however, when they had become sober a few days later, sent a deputation to Warner and arranged to attend the proposed council at Prairie du Chien on April 24, 1830. When the date agreed upon arrived, the Fox chief informed Warner that he and his party were not prepared, and so the sub-agent departed on April 28th alone for Prairie du Chien to attend to other affairs. General Street, the Winnebago agent at Prairie du Chien, sent Warner a warning message to cancel the Fox visit, as there had arrived at Prairie du Chien a body 166 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 of Menominees who declared that they would receive no wam- pum from the Foxes. It was also known that a number of Sioux were to be present who were, to say the least, most unfriendly toward the Dubuque Foxes. Wrote Major For sy the to General Clark from "Rocky Island" "that the Sioux, Winnebago, and Menominee Indians had joined together in confederacy to make war against the Sauk and Fox Indians, and were shortly coming down for that purpose; that the belt of wampum sent by the Sauk Indians to the Winnebago Indians . . . was torn to pieces by the Winnebago Indians and destroyed; that there were many Sioux, Winnebagoes and Menominee Indians at Prairie du Chien continually drunk." 180 Warner, on his return down the river, must have passed the Foxes on their way to the council, and he failed to warn them or they paid no heed to his words. It is peculiar how the bloody event that now transpired and which had so much influence on subsequent Indian and Amer- ican affairs in the upper valley has been confused as far as the date of its occurrence is concerned. Most writers have placed the date either in 1828 or 1829, when the government documents and official letters of the time place the date of the affair clearly and incontestably as the end of April or com- mencement of May, 1830, just a century ago at this writing. The Sioux, on their arrival at Prairie du Chien, had accident- ally discovered from an official the secret information concern- ing the date of the arrival of the Foxes. Joining forces with the Menominees, they slipped out of Prairie du Chien, sending their scouts ahead of them, to spy on the oncoming Foxes. The latter were about half-way between the Turkey River and Prairie du Chien at sunset, and decided to land; they ran their canoes up onto the Wisconsin shore and leaped out. The party con- sisted of a chief, a squaw, a fourteen year old boy, and a num- ber of warriors. Because Aquoqua was so long associated in the minds of the pioneers with antique Dubuque, a number of writers believed he was the leader of the Fox group. But Aquo- qua was long since dead. The chief who accompanied the Foxes was Pi-a-no-sky, the same who had prevented John Smith and other claimants from taking possession of Dubuque's establish- ment a couple of years after the great Miner's death. The Foxes in landing that evening, carried their goods on shore and left their weapons in the canoes. The Sioux and Menom- 180. Letter dated, May 6th, 1830. Original in Indian Office Files, Wash- ington, D. C; Annals of Iowa, Vol. 16, p. 41. THE LAST OF THE DUBUQUE REYNARDS 167 inees, who had been hiding among the trees and bushes round about, suddenly leaped forward with blood-curdling yells and began firing murderous volleys into the astounded Reynards. All were massacred, including Chief Pi-a-no-sky, except one warrior and the fourteen year old boy, who, probably being near a canoe, bounded into it and pushed off and finally reached the Dubuque mines with the terrible news. According to Lucius H. Langworthy, who was in the Galena district at that time, one of these two who escaped was wounded and never reached home, while the other shot through the body lived only to tell of the disaster. "He arrived in their village after swimming streams, hiding and skulking along, and starving with hunger, in time to die among his kindred and friends." 181 The account of this act of carnage written by Major For- syth, the Indian agent at Rock Island, differs in detail from that of the other writers, but is somewhat more informative and ap- parently more authentic. He despatched it in haste to General Clark at St. Louis. 7th May, 8 o'clock evening. About four o'clock this afternoon, four Fox Indians arrived express from up the river. They said that four or five days ago, all the principal Fox Indians at Du- buque's mines, set out in canoes to go to Prairie du Chien, on the invitation of Captain Warner, the sub-agent at Fev- er River, to meet the Sioux Indians and have a talk with them, at a prairie below the mouth of the Wisconsin river, on the east side of the Mississippi. The Fox party amount- ing to sixteen men and one woman, put to shore the day before yesterday, for the purpose of cooking; that while there the Fox party was attacked by a large party of Sioux, Winnebago and Menominee Indians, and every one killed except one of the Fox party ; that this one that was spared, is a half Winnebago & half Fox, and he has one of his arms broken; that he was put in a canoe and pushed off from the shore, and told by some of the Sioux party, to go to his home (at Dubuque's mines) and tell the news; that none of the Fox party were armed, as they were go- ing up to the Prairie to do a good work, therefore had 181. "Dubuque: Its History, Mines, Indian Legends, Etc,", by Lucius H. Langworthy, in the Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. VIII, pp. 370, 371. 168 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 no means of defence, not having taken any guns with them ; that Piemosky, two brothers of the late Kettle Chief, and the Broken or Cut Head are among the slain. Mor- gan remained at home and escaped the vengeance of the Sioux and Menominee Indians. . . It is impossible but many persons about Prairie du Chien must have known of the Fox Indians going up to P. du Chien, and also known of the preparations made by the Sioux, Winnebago, and Menominie Indians to attack the Fox Indians on their way up; and I must certainly say it will make some of the Agents of Government look little in the eyes of the Indians hereafter. From this affair happening to the Fox Indians, it will put an end (in my opinion) to any meeting this summer at Prairie du Chien, among the hostile nations of Indians. I remain, very respectfully Genl. William Clark Your Obt. Sevt. Supt. Ind. Affs. St. Louis Thomas Forsyth 182 The bodies of the Foxes after the slaughter on the Wiscon- sin shore were cruelly mutilated and parts were cut away to be retained as souvenirs. The following day, the jubilant Sioux and Menominees paraded through Prairie du Chien, doing the scalp dance and waving aloft on poles the scalps of the unfor- tunate Foxes. They roasted and ate the heart of Chief Pi-a- no-sky in order to be inspired with his courage. They then departed unmolested and unpunished by either the government officials at the Indian agency or the troops at Fort Crawford. The reverberations of this bloody massacre echoed up and down the Mississippi valley. There was fear and lamentation in the lodges of the Foxes on Catfish creek, and in dread of further attacks, these Dubuque Indians abandoned their village and fled to Rock Island to join their tribal brethren. There was dismay among the traders of the American Fur Company at Prairie du Chien who were strongly suspected of being the authors of the plan to bring the Foxes to Prairie du Chien to settle their affairs. There was anger at St. Louis in the hearts of General William Clark and the government officials. An Indian Agent, hearing of this bloody clash, wrote: 182. Letter sent from "Rocky Island." Original in Indian Office Files, Washington, D. C, Annals of Ioioa, Vol. 16, p. 42. THE LAST OF THE DUBUQUE REYNARDS 169 "Humanity directs that these people who sport so with each other's lives, should be counselled frequently, and led, if pos- sible, to cherish the more agreeable state of peace and friend- ship. The great sufferers in general contests of this sort, next to the Indians, are the traders. The hunting parties are broken up by these wars, and there is a corresponding reduction in their returns, and of loss to the companies : for they furnish the In- dians upon credit, with their annual outfits. If they are killed the traders lose finally; or, if they quit hunting to go to war, payment is delayed." — A good deal of this grief seems indeed to be based on commercial reasons. 183 Twelve Sac and Fox chiefs appeared in St. Louis on May 26th to confer with General Clark. Early in June five came again, including Keokuk of the Sacs, Wapello of the southern Foxes, and Morgan, the half-breed chief of the Dubuque Foxes. When the whites in the Galena country heard that the Foxes had fled from their village to Rock Island, they made a rush across the Mississippi to take possession of the mining country. Wynkoop Warner sent the following letter to Major Forsyth, the Indian agent at Fort Armstrong (Rock Island) : Galena, June 3, 1830 Dear Sir : Since writing you, I was disappointed in getting a horse and have deferred going until morning. I have the promise of two men to take me up in a canoe. I have since understood to a certainty, that there are at least one hundred men mining in the Indian country, and are determined to remain there. I will, on the morrow, go and order them to leave there. I have hired a guide to show me where they are, but my belief is from what I can hear, they will laugh at me. Rumor says that Mr. Gratiot has gone over, with forty men, to take possession in the name of the claimants, John Smith, and others, and that it has been a concerted plan to dispossess the Indians for that purpose; if, sir, they refuse to go, I shall send express to Colonel Taylor, and inform him what your in- structions are ; for I think it a most flagrant outrage, and a breach which we should not suffer imposed on the In- 183. House Executive Documents, 1st Session, 21st Congress, No. 2, p. 166, quoted in Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. XII, p. 559. 170 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 dians. I would be very glad to hear from you as early as possible. Very, etc. W. Warner/' 184 Gratiot was representing not only the same John Smith who had attempted to settle at Dubuque years before but also the Chouteau heirs of St. Louis. Among the one hundred men re- ferred to in the letter who had rushed over to the Dubuque mines was Lucius H. Langworthy, who later described the scene he found : "We crossed over the Mississippi at this time, swim- ming our horses by the side of a canoe. It was the first flow, or the first tide of civilization on this western shore. There was not a white settler north of the Des Moines, and west of the Mississippi to Astoria, on the Columbia river, with the exception of Indian traders. The Indians had all along guarded this mining district with scrupulous care. They would not allow the white people to visit the place, even to look at the old grass grown diggings of Dubuque, which were known to exist here, much less would they per- mit mining to be done, or settlements to be made. It was like the ancient Canaan to the Iraelitish leader, "a forbid- den ground." To pass over was the Ultima Thule to many an enterprising miner; but up to this time only a glimpse of the promised land had been permitted. "The country had just been abandoned by the Red Men, their mocassin tracks were yet fresh in the prairie trails along which the retiring race had fled on their mysterious mission westward, and the decaying embers were yet cool- ing on their deserted hearths within their lonely and silent wigwams. Where Dubuque now stands, corn fields stretched along the bluffs, up the ravines, and the Coule valley, and a thousand acres of level land skirting the shore, was covered with tall grass, as a field of waving grain. But the stalks of the corn were of last year's growth, the ears had been plucked and they withered and blighted, left standing alone Mournful Representatives of 184. Senate Documents, 23d Congress, No. 512, Vol. VIII, pp. 62, 64, 68, quoted by Van Der Zee in Iowa Journal of History and Pol- itics, Vol. XIII, pp. 40, 41. THE LAST OF THE DUBUQUE REYNARDS 171 the Vanishing race. A large village was then standing at the mouth of Catfish Creek, silent, solitary, deserted — no one remained to greet us but the mystic shadows of the past. About seventy buildings constructed with poles and the bark of the trees, remained to tell of those who had so recently inhabited them. Their council house, though rude, was ample in its dimensions, and contained a great number of furnaces, in which a kettle had been placed, to prepare the feasts of peace or war. But their council fires had gone out. On the inner surface of the bark there were paintings done with considerable artistic skill, representing the buffalo, elk, bear, panther, and other animals of the chase ; also their wild sports on the prairie, and even their feats in wars where chief meets chief, and warriors mix in bloody fray. Thus was retained a crude record of their national history. Could the place have been preserved on the canvass, or by the Daguerrean art, it would have been an interesting relic, but nothing now remains of it, and but few know that such a place ever existed." 185 When Major Forsyth replied to Wynkoop Warner's letter, he commanded him to prevent any persons from injuring the Indian bark-huts or working the mines, or else to call upon Col- onel Zachary Taylor of Fort Crawford for assistance. The Foxes had not as yet heard of the white invasion of the mines, so Major Forsyth hastily wrote a letter to General Clark at St. Louis in which he said: "Permit me to observe to you, that the Sac and Fox Indians are sufficiently soured against the whites, by their people hav- ing been killed going to Prairie du Chien last month, on an invitation of some of the Government agents. You must know what will be the consequence when they are informed that their mineral land is occupied by the whites, and permitted to re- main. If the whites are driven off, the Indians will then say that the Government is friendly disposed towards them. This, in my opinion, is the moment for the Government of the Unit- ed States to show their affection for the Sac and Fox Indians." 186 185. Lucius H. Langworthy in "Dubuque: Its History, Mines, Indian Legends Etc.", as above. 186. "Indian AgeDts in Iowa" by Ruth A. Gallaher, in Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. XIV, p. 360. 172 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 General Clark acted swiftly and effectively. He immediate- ly called upon General Henry Atkinson — on June 16, 1830 — for troops to remove the intruding whites. Atkinson forward- ed his orders to Colonel Zachary Taylor in command of Fort Crawford, and the latter officer warned the whites at Dubuque about the 4th of July to depart within one week. The miners at first objected strenuously; the country they occupied they had found vacant and in it they had struck valuable lodes; the land would soon be purchased by the United States anyway and they intended to retain possession. And to all this the col- onel replied : "We shall see to that, my boys." Knowing Taylor to be a good soldier and speedily expecting the arrival of the troops, the intruding miners hastily recrossed the river. A few days later, when a steamer brought down a contingent of regu- lars, who according to one authority were led on this occasion by Colonel Taylor himself, they took but three obstinate miners prisoners. But General Clark did not stop there. Believing that Major Forsyth, the Indian agent at Rock Island, and his sub-agent, Wynkoop Warner were partially responsible for the Sioux-Fox massacre, he had them dropped from the service, and Felix St. Vrain was appointed Sac and Fox Indian agent at Rock Island. Meanwhile, having conferred with the Washington authorities, he determined to hold another general council with the Indians at Prairie du Chien to end once and for all such clashes in the future. The sessions of the council commenced on July 6th, 1830, with General Clark himself presiding. Large numbers of In- dians were present, and the troops at Fort Crawford were con- tinually under arms to discourage any possible friction among them. The Sacs and Foxes had at first refused to come: "the land had been reddened with the blood of their people," and they preferred to have the meeting at Rock Island, but they finally yielded, after presents were given to those who had lost relatives in the recent slaughter. Among the many nations present were the various tribes of the Sioux with the excep- tion of the Yankton Sioux who, although starving in their camps, refused to come because of fear of the Sacs and Foxes who recently had scalped twelve of their women. THE LAST OF THE DUBUQUE REYNARDS 17$ Clark was successful in arranging for the establishment of the Neutral Ground, a strip forty miles wide, that is twenty miles on either side of the boundary decided on at the Great Council of 1825. This was bought from the warring tribes in the northern Iowa country with the hope that it would definitely keep the Sioux to the northern side of the Neutral Ground and the Sacs and Foxes to the southern side of it. Various other tribes were concerned in this transaction and all of them were to receive $20,000 a year for ten years. Meanwhile, the region of the Dubuque mines while the sol- diers from Fort Crawford were still there saw the return of the Foxes to their village on the Catfish, and to the rugged, wooded hills round about, which they loved so jealously. They seized the lead which they found and which had been extracted by the white intruders and discovered new lodes. From one of these, with the assistance of traders along the river, they are reported to have extracted more than a million pounds of ore. They had signed the treaty in regard to the Neutral Ground but in their hearts this proud race nursed fiery sentiments of revenge. In the spring of 1831, Wabasha and the Sioux in the Minnesota country complained that the Sacs and the Foxes had crossed the Neutral Ground and invaded their country. Con- sequently, in response to orders issued by the authorities at Prairie du Chien, fifteen Dubuque Foxes arrived at Fort Craw- ford on May 21st, 1831, and not only denied that a war party had invaded the Sioux lands, but smoked the pipe of peace and joined in a dance with Wabasha and his Sioux and depart- ed from Prairie du Chien seemingly in peace and friendship. But the smouldering embers of savage vengeance in the Fox village at Dubuque finally burst into flame. There is evidence indicating that the Foxes were urged to retaliation against their enemies by traders of the American Fur Company who hoped to bring about a crisis in Indian affairs which would force the government to purchase the Indian lands and pay off to the American Fur Company the debts which the Indians had con- tracted through a number of years. Towards the latter part of July, a war party under Chief Morgan "with blackened faces, chanting the death song," left the Dubuque village by canoes and ascended the Mississippi on a campaign of revenge. They had learned that a party of Menominee braves with their wo- 174 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 men and children were encamped on an island near Prairie du Chien almost under the very cannon of Fort Crawford. The Foxes secluded themselves in the bluffs on the Iowa shore and under cover of night stealthily paddled across the Mississippi, and before the fort could be aroused suddenly attacked their sleeping enemies. Some of the Menominees had been imbib- ing liquor secured from the traders, and the squaws, to prevent them from harming one another, had hidden their weapons. The attack was over in a few minutes, but the slaughter was terrible. A missioner was almost an eye witness of the affair, and as his account has never been published in English, its trans- lation is here given as a new authoritative side-light on the event. The Abbe Rondot writing from St. Louis to the Vicar General of Lyons, France, stated: "We have just received a letter from Father Lutz who at this very time is at Prairie du Chien. The savages of four nations had given signs, about two months ago, of great rest- lessness, but peace had been made among them. All of a sud- den, the Renards, a savage tribe, came up secretly in canoes by following the course of the Mississippi. The Missioner who found himself by hazard that night on the bank of the river, heard the sound of paddles without suspecting what this might portend, the darkness being already complete. Hardly had he returned to his house, situated at a half-mile from the camp of the Memonis, a savage allied nation of the United States, when he heard the firing of rifles and frightful yelling. The Mem- onis had been surprised in their sleep, the greater part indeed being drunk. There were thirty victims, men, women, children. The Foxes withdrew before the warnings had reached the fort. War is now inevitable." 187 The daring Foxes before leaving the vicinity also called up- on a small military force "making lime upon the west shore of the Mississippi, a mile above the mouth of the Wisconsin, be- haved saucily, and objected to the United States making lime in their country" 187. Letter from the Abbe" Rondot to the Vicar General of Lyons, in the Annals of the Propagation of the Faith, Letters of 1831, from the French Edition in the University of Wisconsin Library, Mad- ison. THE LAST OF THE DUBUQUE REYNARDS 175 One Fox brave was shot through the heart, and a few others are said to have been struck by pursuing Menominees as they paddled swiftly away down the river. Reaching Dubuque, the war party assembled the rest of the tribe, and again they aban- doned their village, this time forever. They feared pursuit by the troops from Fort Crawford. They left behind them for- ever the graves of their ancestors and kindred, the towering cross of Julien Dubuque on the bluff which had stood like a benediction over them for so many years, and the group of pic- turesque lodges on the bank of the Catfish which for so long had been the scene of their vicissitudes from savage triumphs and drunken debauches to scenes of death and terror and sor- row. Soon after the hand of some vandal set fire to the bark lodges and the village was utterly destroyed. It is true that during the next two years, some Foxes ven- tured back under the protection of the federal troops for an occasional hunt or spasmodic efforts at mining, but the Black Hawk Treaty of 1832 put an official and legal finis to the Fox stay in antique Dubuque as of June 1, 1833. When the Foxes left the Dubuque village after their massa- cre of the Menominees, they proceeded to the settlements of their Fox brothers and Sac friends in the neighborhood of Rock Island with their canoes lashed together and the scalps and heads of their enemies carried in triumph on poles. What is now Davenport was called Morgan to honor the valor of the half white chief who had led them. At Fort Crawford steps had been taken to pursue and ap- prehend the Foxes, but without success, and a message was sent to Fort Armstrong at Rock Island demanding the capture of violaters of the treaty. But Black Hawk, the great leader of the Sacs and Foxes, when asked to deliver up some of the Indians for trial, indignantly refused, since the Sioux and Men- ominee attackers of the Foxes the year before had gone entirely unpunished. And even Keokuk, otherwise always friendly to the whites, said daringly to Agent Felix St. Vrain in a confer- ence held at Fort Armstrong in September, 1831 : "If what they (the Menominees) did and what we have now done was put in scales it would balance." 188 188. The Black Hawk War, by Stevens, pp. 107, 108; Old Fort Craw- ford and the Frontier, by Mahan, p. 161. CHAPTER FOURTEEN THE BLACK HAWK WAR AND THE "CONQUEST" OF ANTIQUE DUBUQUE THE Dubuque country played no direct part in the Black Hawk War. But indirectly the threads of its history are knotted up at many points with that Indian conflict and especially its aftermath. The war itself, short and one-sided, swung its rapid course around the fringes of antique Du- buque, to the southeast, to the east and to the north. And it resulted through the Black Hawk Treaty in the inclusion of all of the Dubuque territory in the Black Hawk Purchase. There had been considerable discussion about the purchase of the valuable Dubuque lands, and several attempts were made to effect this during the years immediately preceeding the Black Hawk Treaty. In the last chapter it was stated that at the conclusion of the council of 1829 at Prairie du Chien, the Sacs and Foxes were asked by the United States com- missioners if they would sell the Dubuque mines and other mineral lands in Iowa and were even asked to specify the terms. But the Indians appearing unwilling, the matter was dropped for the time being. Again, at the time of the council of July, 1830, in Prairie du Chien, when General Clark purchased the Neutral Ground and other lands in Iowa, a trader made the assertion that the Sacs and Foxes were willing to sell all their country contiguous to the Mississippi river if the federal government would take over all their debts to Farnham and Davenport who now had become the representatives of the American Fur Company. Al- lusions have been made previously in this volume to these two traders who for years had been in the vicinity of Dubuque and on the Fevre river near Galena. The city of Davenport was named after George Davenport. At the conclusion of this council, General Clark declared that he wished to purchase the Fox mineral lands in the vicinity of Dubuque. When he learned of the Fox demands, however, he did not push the matter; for he discovered that they were asking "$32,000 per annum for fifty or sixty years, with salt, THE CONQUEST OF ANTIQUE DUBUQUE 177 tobacco, and the payment of about sixty thousand dollars to- ward debts due their traders." Although he knew these mines were vastly richer than those in the Galena district, he felt that he could not meet the Indian demands without further instruc- tions from Washington. A group of Sac and Fox chiefs were expected by him in St. Louis in the following October to make arrangements about the sale of the lead district, but again this matter failed of fruition. 189 Again, in February of 1832, George Davenport, the trader, came to Washington prepared to bring the complaints of the Sacs and Foxes before the government. These complaints dealt almost entirely with the Dubuque district and some of them follow : "They further complain that the citizens of Illinois and the Michigan territory, having crossed the Mississippi, took possession of and worked their lead mines, and car- ried off mineral to the amount of several thousand dollars ; at the same time they acknowledge the promptness of the United States' troops in removing those trespassers. "One officer and six or eight soldiers were stationed at those mines during the last summer; but they do not expect the United States to keep troops there constantly to defend their mines. As soon as the troops are removed, the citizens of Michigan Territory will, without doubt, again cross over and renew their depredations. "To prevent all difficulties in the future, therefore, they propose to sell to the United States those mines, with a considerable extent of adjoining country. This will be an advantage to the Sacs and Foxes in adding to their annuities, and in removing them further from the bank of the Mississippi, and will secure the frontier settlements of the State of Illinois and of Michigan Territory. "They believe that the Government has treated them more harshly, and with greater injustice, than any other Indian nation." 190 189. "Early Lead Mining in Iowa" by Jacob Van der Zee, in Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. XIII, p. 45. 190. Senate Documents, 1st Session, 23d Congress, Vol. IX, p. 223, quoted by Van der Zee in Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. XIII, p. 420. 178 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 "Had the government at once acted upon this announcement, the expense and the loss of life of the Black Hawk War two or three months later might perhaps have been avoided. Hence, in the annals of American Indian policy the acquisition of east- ern Iowa from the Sacs and Foxes came to represent not an outright purchase but an indemnity — the title to western and northern Iowa passed into the hands of the United States by purchase, but the title to eastern Iowa was acquired by conquest after a trial of the fortunes of war." Thus it was that antique Dubuque was actually won to the United States by conquest. 191 The Black Hawk War was simply an attempt made prin- cipally by the Sacs under Black Hawk, at that time residing in Iowa, to regain their former lands in Illinois. "For Illinois it was the riddance of a few Indians ; for Wisconsin the war served as an object lesson to the Winnebago and prepared the way for subsequent removal of these Indians to the Neutral Ground across the Mississippi; while for Iowa the war was a prelude to settlement by the whites." About the fringes of antique Du- buque there were gathered during this short struggle a great galaxy of men who were destined to play a powerful part in shaping the future of the United States. Henry Dodge, later the governor and still later the first United States senator from Wisconsin, was a prominent figure; his son, Augustus Caesar Dodge, and General George Wallace Jones, both later to be- come the first United State senators from Iowa; Albert Sydney Johnston and Joseph E. Johnston, both future famous generals of the Confederate armies during the Civil War; General Win- field Scott, the leading soldier in America at the time and later a candidate for the presidency of the United States; the active and debonair, able and heroic, Jefferson Davis, the future Presi- dent of the Confederate States of America; and two future Presidents of the United States, Colonel Zachary Taylor of Fort Crawford, and Captain Abraham Lincoln of the Illinois volunteers, — these and many others who later gained promin- ence participated in this Indian war. 192 Directly across from the present site of Dubuque, some mil- itary preparations were carried out for the war. Immediately 191. Van der Zee, in Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. XIII, p. 46. 192. Old Fort Crawford and the Frontier, (1926) by Bruce E. Mahan, Chap. XI. THE CONQUEST OF ANTIQUE DUBUQUE 179 after its outbreak, George W. Jones at Sinsinawa Mound built a log fort or block house for the protection of his family. This consisted of his wife and children, ten or twelve negro slaves, and fifteen or twenty hired men. Jones' brother-in-law was Felix St. Vrain, the government Indian Agent of the Sacs and Foxes, and he and three others were murdered and scalped by the Indians some miles east of Galena. St. Vrain's body was cruelly mutilated, and his heart was cut out and cut into small pieces and given to the young Indian boys to swallow. It is interesting to note that St. Vrain's full name was Felix de Hault de Lassus St. Vrain and that he was a nephew of Governor de Lassus, referred to in earlier chapters, the Lieutenant-governor of Louisiana under Spanish rule, when Julien Dubuque presided at the Spanish Mines. 193 Other blood spilled in this war near Dubuque is spoken of in an account in an early newspaper, The Boonslick Advertiser and Intelligencer, of Columbus, Missouri, on June 29, 1832: "Three men at work in a cornfield near Cincinaway mound were attacked and two were killed. Maj. Stephen- son immediately started from Galena with 30 men to pur- sue the Indians. With a forced march, he reached the place and found James Boxtey, and John Thompson killed and scalped, the heart of Thompson had been taken out. Men were left to bury them. The others pursued and tracked them to the bank of the Mississippi where it was found that they had crossed in a canoe. Having no means of crossing the company returned to Galena." 194 Lucius H. Langworthy's recital of this event differs in a number of details from that of the Missouri newspaper. He recounts that two men had "foolishly remained on their farm" on the Menominee — which is a short distance from the Sinsin- awa. One of them was killed, named Durgan, and the other made his escape. The troops, twelve in number, came not from Galena but from Platteville. They scoured the islands, "where the Indians were thought to be secreted, and the woods gener- ally, until they arrived at Mr. Jordan's place [now East Du- 193. George Wallace Jones (1912) by John Carl Parish, pp. 115, 116, 117. 194. Quoted in the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Vol. II, No. 3, p. 60. 180 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 buque] where they found by indubitable signs that the Indians had crossed the river, for they had cut in two the large canoe of Mr. Jordan, and made their escape in half of it." 195 If these Indians crossed the Mississippi at East Dubuque they must have fled to the wilds of the Dubuque bluffs. Most accounts of this war refer to Black Hawk leading the Sacs and Foxes against the United States. It is very doubtful if there were any but a very few Foxes who followed Black Hawk. Keokuk, the great rival of Black Hawk for the lead- ership of the Sacs, refused to follow him and by his action re- strained a great many Sacs. Practically all of the Fox chiefs and warriors disapproved of Black Hawk's invasion of Illinois and refused to follow him. Wapello and Poweshiek, the two outstanding Fox chiefs, held entirely aloof from the war. "The few Fox adventurers who joined Black Hawk during the fight, did so on their own responsibility, but when the treaty of peace was made, we again behold the imperialism of the soldier grasp- ing for more land, and the land of the Foxes confiscated as free- ly, by the arbitrament of a war in which they had no part, as the land of the Sacs." 196 Moreover, the Dubuque Foxes remained loyal to the Unit- ed States during the entire period of the fray. An unsigned diary found among the papers of Charles Gregoire of Dubuque and donated to the State Historical Society of Iowa reflects posi- tive light on this fact: "1832, April 18. Wapala and Morgan's band arrived with some Rock Island. of the Manomininie Murderers, a consultation was held among the Indians on the subject of delivering the murderers." By Wapala was meant Wapello, the southern Fox chief, and Morgan's band was none other than the Dubuque Foxes who arrived at Rock Island with some of the Menominies who had attacked and massacred the Fox party on its way to the council at Prairie du Chien in 1830. To continue: 195. Lucius H. Langworthy's narrative in Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. VIII, pp. 380, 381. 196. Iowa Historical Record, Vol. XVII, No. 3, p. 327. THE CONQUEST OF ANTIQUE DUBUQUE 181 "April 19. This day, a council was held at the camps near Fort Armstrong, by General Atkinson with the friendly Indians, after addressing a few words to the Genl they delivered up three of the prin- cipal Foxes who were engaged in the Prairie du Chien affair, Genl Atkinson express'd his satis- faction at the good behaviour of the Foxes, and the friendly bands of Sacs" 197 The Foxes to show their good will surrendered three of their members who led the party in retaliation against the Menomin- ies in July of 1831. Evidently Morgan, the chief and leader of that expedition, was not delivered up because of his position of chief tancy. If he had been, his name would doubtless have been mentioned. At any rate, this definitely clears the Dubuque Foxes of any complicity with Black Hawk in his uprising, and also disposes entirely of that old charge that "in 1832 the mil- itary force" (at the Dubuque mines) "was withdrawn and sent against the same Indians, whose lands they had so long guard- ed" ; "the same Indians," the Dubuque Foxes, had remained loyal to the United States government. 198 The defeat and slaughter of the Sacs at Bad Axe on the Mississippi above Prairie du Chien took place in the beginning of August, 1832, and the war was over. In the following Sep- tember the historic Black Hawk Treaty was drawn up. Prac- tically all writers in discussing this treaty state that it took place on the west bank of the Mississippi on the site of the present city of Davenport, as the cholera had broken out on Rock Is- land. However, the treaty itself states, "Done at Fort Arm- strong," and that it actually was done at Rock Island is gath- ered from a letter of General Scott stating that the cholera had disappeared from Rock Island, and that he was about to enter on important negotiations, that is, the treaty which ceded eastern Iowa to the United States. 199 197. This "Diary of the Black Hawk War", was donated by Mr. J. C. Gregoire of Dubuque and appeared in the Iowa Journal of His* tory and Politics, Vol. VIII, pp. 265-269. 198. Langworthy papers in Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. VIII, p. 379; History of Dubuque County, Iowa, (1880) p. 169. 189. Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. XIII, p. 422. 182 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 This treaty between the United States and the Sacs and Foxes took place on September 21, 1832. The Indians were compelled to cede to the federal government a strip of land ly- ing on the west bank of the Mississippi which included the an- tique Dubuque territory extending from the Neutral Ground on the north to the northern Missouri state line on the south, and from forty to fifty miles in width. It was first known as Scott's Purchase but today it is called the Black Hawk Purchase. As most of the Foxes and a large part of the Sacs had not engaged in the war, the government agreed to pay the Indians $20,000 a year for thirty years, and also agreed to pay their debts, an important item, according to the following clause: The United States at the earnest request of said con- federated tribes, further agree to pay to Farnham and Davenport, Indian traders at Rock Island, the sum of forty thousand dollars without interest, which sum will be in full satisfaction of the claims of said traders against the said tribes, and by the latter was, on the tenth day of July, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-one, ac- knowledged to be justly due for articles of necessity, furn- ished in the course of the seven preceeding years, in an instrument of writing of said date, duly signed by the Chief and Headmen of said tribes, and certified by the late Felix St. Vrain, United States' agent, and Antoine Le Claire, United States Interpreter, both for the said tribes. 200 The United States government also agreed to furnish the Indians with "one additional black and gun smith shop, with the necessary tools, iron and steel ; and finally make a yearly al- lowance for the same period, to the said tribes of forty kegs of tobacco, and forty barrels of salt, to be delivered at the mouth of the Ioway river." The Sacs and Foxes agreed to leave this territory by June 1, 1833, when their residence, mining, hunting and planting should officially and actually cease. And so the antique Dubuque territory was finally won by conquest, as definitely stated in the treaty: 200. Kappler's Indian Affairs, Vol. II, p. 254, quoted in the Iowa Journ- nal of History and Politics, Vol. XII, p. 563. THE CONQUEST OF ANTIQUE DUBUQUE 183 The United States partly as indemnity for the expense incurred and partly to secure the safety and tranquility of the invaded frontier, demand of the said tribes for the use of the United States, a cession of a tract of the Sac and Fox country, bordering on said frontier, more than proportional to the number of the hostile band who have been so conquered and subdued. 201 What had formerly been the Dubuque Foxes agreed with the other Foxes and Sacs at the council of 1842 at Agency City near the present city of Ottumwa to give up their remaining Iowa lands for a money consideration and move to Kansas. Reaching Kansas they bceame dissatisfied and unhappy. The plains were not the prairies of Iowa, and there were no forests. A group of the Foxes returned to Iowa and settled in Tama County on the Iowa river. The Iowa Assembly in 1856 passed a law permitting this and later the Washington government also gave its consent. Among these Indians on the Tama Reserva- tion today are descendants of the Dubuque Foxes ; some of them are direct descendants of the half-breed chief, Morgan, and one of these, George Morgan (Ash-e-ton-e-quot), was from 1901 on for some years secretary of the tribe. 202 201. In the Preamble of the Black Hawk Treaty, quoted in the Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. XIII, p. 423. 202. Mahan and Gallaher's 8tories of Iowa for Boys and Girls, (1929) Chaps. XX and XXII; Iowa Historical Record, Vol. XVII, No. 3, pp. 318, 332. CHAPTER FIFTEEN THE SETTLERS AT THE GATES FjplHE Romans, when Hannibal was in Italy with his Carthag- I inian legions, looked out from the hills on the Tiber with dread in their hearts as they viewed the awful activities of the enemy armies. "Hannibal ante portas" — "Hannibal is at the gates" — was the cry which a thousand times during those years froze the blood in the Roman veins. The Foxes, from their Dubuque hills along the Mississippi, could see the ever nearer approaching line of white settlers. Their chiefs must have known that they could not hope to keep the gates of antique Dubuque for many years against the advancing Caucasian hordes and that their day of doom was rapidly rushing toward them. "The Settlers at the Gates" meant their expulsion and removal. Speaking of events in June, 1830, Lucius H. Langworthy gave it as his opinion that there was not then a white settler north of the Des Moines, and west of the Mississippi to Astoria, on the Columbia river, with the exception of the Indian trad- ers. Benjamin F. Gue in his work on Iowa advanced the be- lief that two years later on June 1, 1832, there were not more than fifty white people living within the limits of the future state of that name ! Late, indeed, was the descent of the whites upon antique Dubuque and Iowa, but great was the avalanche when the gates were finally thrown open. 203 It is claimed, and there is every indication of truth to sub- stantiate the claim, that in 1829, James L. Langworthy crossed the Mississippi and with the permission of the Foxes explored the entire Dubuque region from the Maquoketa river on the south to the Turkey river on the north and penetrated some distance inland. 204 The statement in a Dubuque newspaper, the Herald of November 2, 1865, and repeated by some writers since, that on July 4th, 1828, a party of people from Galena held a picnic at the Little Fox Village on the Catfish, may be dismissed 203. Gue's History of Iowa, Vol. I, p. 156; Lucius H. Langworthy's "Dubuque; Its History, Mines, Indian Legends, Etc.," in the Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. VIII, p. 371. 204. The Langworthy sketches in the Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. VIII. THE SETTLERS AT THE GATES 185 as utterly improbable as to the elate, although some years later when both the Indians and the United States troops had disap- peared, such an occurrence may have taken place. It was in June of 1830, after the Dubuque Foxes had for the first time fled south from their village in consequence of the fear inspired by the massacre of a number of their braves by the Sioux and Menominees on the Wisconsin shore, that the first great attempt was made by the whites to gain possession of the Dubuque district. In a previous chapter was quoted a letter written by Wynkoop Warner, the sub-agent at Galena, which stated that a hundred men had crossed to the Dubuque mines from the Galena district upon receipt of the news of the flight of the Foxes. This settlement about the Fevre river had earlier been known as La Pointe. As early as 1819, Colonel James Johnson of Kentucky had commenced mining and trading here without a license for either activity. He secured a government lease in 1822, and greatly extended his works, employing some white men and a number of negro slaves, and brought into use a supply of good tools. He operated several keel-boats to haul his minerals. Almost immediately a horde of prospectors and squatters flocked into the Fevre river district from the South and East. In 1823 the number of lessees in the district was only thirteen but by August 31, 1826, the number had increased to four hundred and fifty-three, and in the next few years the number of inhabitants leaped into the thousands. It was in 1827 that the name Galena was applied to the largest settle- ment on the Fevre river, six miles from its junction with the Mississippi. This horde of miners and adventures of every sort, hitherto kept on the Illinois side of the river, looked with longing eyes toward the rich mines of the Dubuque district. 205 Among those who arrived during this ''peaceful penetration" of the Dubuque area in 1830 were the following: W. S. Ander- son, Lemuel Cook, H. B. Philips, H. Smead, Lucius H. Lang- worthy, James L. Langworthy, John Dougherty, Fred Dixon, Wm. McDowell, Pleasant Ewing, John Paul, H. Gilbert, J. B. Jordan, Thomas Gray, Thomas Humes, Mathias Ham, who had traded at the Dubuque Mines three years earlier, 1827 ; R. La- mont, J. McCabe, S. Lemon, Dr. R. S. Lewis, Antoine Loire, 205. The Wisconsin Historical Collections, Vol. XIII, pp. 288-291. 186 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 R. Murphy, P. O'Mara and John O'Mara, John O'Regan, H. Redman, W. H. Smith, T. Sheeter, W. B. Whitesides, E. McE. Whitesides, A. R. Whitesides, I. Whittaker, J. Curran, John Campbell, M. Dickerson, H. L. Dodge, J. R. Ewing, J. Gil- more, J. Hillis, A. and J. Hurd, B. Kilbourn, J. McPheeters, H. Ogan, Owen Reilly, S. Streeter, E. M. Urn, J. Wooley, Jesse Yount and A. McNear. Some of these struck lead among the diggings left by the Indians or in new veins, and the goddess of fortune smiled especially on James L. and Lucius H. Lang- worthy. 206 Others, disappointed in their prospects after a few days, returned across the river to Galena and the Wisconsin settlements, then in the Michigan Territory. Among those who remained there speedily arose the necessity of drawing up a set of rules by which all should abide in order to avoid fric- tion among the rougher and more avaricious set and to pre- serve a semblance of order among them all. So on the 17th of June, 1830, a meeting of the miners was held around an old cottonwood log at the spot now facing the Dubuque Municipal Docks. What is probably the first set of laws ever drawn up by whites within the limits of the present state of Iowa was there prepared as follows : Dubuque Mines, June 17, 1830 We, a committee having been chosen to draft certain rules and regulations, by which we, as miners will be gov- erned; and, having duly considered the subject, do un- animously agree that we will be governed by the regula- tions on the east side of the Mississippi River, with the following exceptions, to wit: Article I. — That each and every man shall hold two hundred yards square of ground by working said ground one day in six. Art. II. — We further agree that there shall be chosen by the majority of the miners present, a person who shall 206. The list of names of the first wave of whites to come to the Dubuque mines in 1830 Is of course very incomplete. It is taken from the 1880 compilation of the History of Dubuque County, Iowa and is probably from the pen of C. C. Childs. Doubtless there are inaccuracies: some of those on the list may have come in later waves, and those mentioned as coming later may have been in the first group. The early settlers who later in life gave ac- counts of this period failed more often in reliability as to dates than otherwise. THE SETTLERS AT THE GATES 187 hold this article, and who shall grant letters of arbitration, on application being made, and that said letter (of) ar- bitration shall be obligatory on the parties concerned so applying. To the above we the undersigned subscribe J. L. Langworthy, H. F. Lander, James McPheeters, Samuel H. Scoles, E. M. Urn. In pursuance of Article II, Dr. Francis Jarret was chosen to hold this document and issue letters of arbitration. This "Miner's Compact" so delights one writer as to cause him to declare that "it occupies as important a position in early Iowa History as the Mayflower Compact does in the story of Massa- chusetts." 207 In July, however, when a steamboat with soldiers and In- dians for Fort Crawford, under command of Colonel Zachary Taylor himself, according to one authority, arrived at the mines, the settlers were forced to give up their mineral claims and re- cross the Mississippi. This steamboat was the Planet, with Cap- tain Butler in charge, and the three hundred Indians on board were en route to the conference at Prairie du Chien. Colonel Willoughby Morgan read an official proclamation from General Henry Atkinson to the miners and settlers commanding them to remove within two weeks or suffer the penalties which would be meted out to them as trespassers on Indian territory. A meeting was immediately called by the miners to discuss what action should be taken, and, when troops from Fort Crawford arrived soon afterward, all but four of the invaders had de- parted and these were taken prisoners. The Galena paper recorded each week the interest the entire town took in the proceedings across the river. 208 The Fox Indians returned and seized and sold all the lead that the white miners had ex- tracted during their stay. 207. Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. XXVIII, p. 21; see also article by Jesse Macy in Annals of Iowa, Vol. Ill, p. 322. 208. Miners Journal, (Galena, Illinois) July 3, 24, 31, 1830; Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. XXVIII, p. 17. 188 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 In the summer of 1831, the Foxes after their massacre of the Menominees at Prairie du Chien, fled from their village to Rock Island again, this time abandoning their Dubuque haunts forever. Again some hardy white adventurers ventured across the river. But the Indian title to these lands not being ex- tinguished, and the government not as yet having purchased them or acquired them by other means, the War Department again sent troops to the mines, this time under the. command of Lieut. Jefferson Davis, later President of the Confederate States of America. Davis, being an eyewitness to some of the events of this period of the history of antique Dubuque, wrote a letter to General George W. Jones in 1882 in which he de- scribed his experiences there : "In 1831, the Sacs" (really the Foxes) "sent a war party against the Sioux, and this breach of the peace they feared would bring upon them punishment by the U. S. ; such at least was then understood to be the cause of their abandonment of their settlement at the lead mines of Dubuque. I was sent there by Col. W. Morgan in the fall of that year, to watch the Indians, who were semi-hostile, (and) to prevent trespassing on the Indian territory. Smith, of Bates and Smith, had a smelting establishment on the east bank just above Mr. Jordan's residence" (at what is now East Dubuque, Illinois) "where they smelted the mineral brought to them by the Indians, but when the In- dians left, their operations were confined to smelting the 'ashes'. I remained on duty there until the spring of 1832, and though I made frequent reconnaissances into the country, never saw an Indian or any indication of their presence in that neighbor- hood. In the spring of 1832 I was relieved by Lieut. J. R. B. Gardenier, as private matters required me to go to Mississippi, my home. In a short time reports of Indian hostilities caused the withdrawal of Lieut. Gardenier and soon followed the cross- ing of the river by the little war party mentioned in the sketch. After the campaign of 1832 Lieut. Geo. Wilson with a few soldiers was sent to DuBuque for the same purpose as that for which I had been sent there in the previous year; but on his reporting to the commanding officer of Prairie du Chien, that trespassers were, in spite of his prohibition, crossing the river, a larger force was despatched to enforce the orders of the government, and the laws relating to intercourse with the Indian tribes. Lieut. J. J. Abercrombie and I were the officers THE SETTLERS AT THE GATES 189 of this reenforcement. It was in the winter, so cold that we went all the way on the ice. I had known many of the miners when they were on the east side of the river, and on me mainly devolved negotiations with them, to induce them peaceably to retire. I went to their residences, explained the absence of any power on our part to modify, or delay the execution of our orders; and being an intimate friend of Capt. Legate, the su- perintendent of the lead mines, volunteered my services to se- cure through him to every man, the lead or prospect then held; if, and as soon as, the treaty should be ratified, to extinguish the Indian title. It has always been to me a happy memory, that the removal was accomplished without resort to force; and as I learned afterwards, that each miner in due time came to his own." 209 So at first Lieut. Davis with a few troops, and later Lieut. Gardenier remained at Dubuque until the spring of 1832, when the Black Hawk war broke out and the troops were withdrawn in order to join their units in that struggle. Davis narrated on another occasion in his later years that while he was stationed at Dubuque, he occasionally penetrated into the country to the west with scouting parties for the purpose of watching the movements of the Indians; and when he was asked how far he had gone, he answered that sometimes he went as far as the Maquoketa river to the west and returned the same day — which would mean almost across Dubuque county and back, a dis- tance which, by foot or horseback on the rough terrain of that day, would be truly remarkable. 210 With the conclusion of the hostilities of the Black Hawk War and even before the Black Hawk Treaty was drawn up or signed in September of 1832, miners and settlers again crossed to the Dubuque Mines. A number of them had been there two years before. They knew that neither troops nor Indians were there, and the wealth in the hills beckoned to them seductively, although they knew that the Black Hawk Purchase lands were not to be opened to settlers until later. Many of those who arrived at this time had served in the Black Hawk War. Prom- 209. Davis to Gen. Geo. W. Jones, Aug. 8, 1882. Published in the Dubuque Herald soon after, and later published in Annals of Iowa, Vol. IV, pp. 231, 232. 210. Annals of Iowa, Vol. IV, p. 231. 190 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 inent among the arrivals were James L. and Lucius H. Lang- worthy who reopened the lodes which they had worked two years previously; J. Parker, I. E. Wooten, J. Daugherty, W. Thompson, William Carver, Leroy Jackson, John O'Regan, Ed- ward Langworthy, L. W. Carter, Woodbury Massey, John Cun- ningham, Basil Godair, J. McKenzie, J. A. Langton, Robert Waller, George Snowdon, John James, Mr. Hurd; and Thomas McCraney and O. Smith who brought their families as did sev- eral others. In this group also was Thomas Kelly, who later attained to almost legendary fame because of his wealthy strike on "Kelly's Bluff" and because of his eccentric life. In all there were between two and three hundred persons who settled down on the Dubuque side of the Mississippi. 211 In December of 1832, Marmaduke S. Davenport, the new Indian agent at Fort Armstrong, on strict orders from the War Department, demanded the removal of the intruders. Most of them began to leave immediately, but because of scarcity of teams, ten days' time was given to men with families. The dis- tress and disappointment at giving up their claims was keen, and the miners prepared and signed a petition to the Secretary of War in which they stated: It is with regret we learn that the Government issued its orders to have us expelled east of the Mississippi. We have made some improvement, such as built us cabins &c, to shelter us from the inclemency of the winter, peculiar to this latitude. We have not come here as intruders. It is not our intention to wrong Government for the mineral or ore that is now raising at these mines will not be manufactured into lead before next spring. And then we will hold ourselves in readiness to pay such rent as is, or may be, established by law, from time to time, on the upper Mississippi lead mines. We would also state that if the order of the department be promptly executed, it would leave us, (and some with large and helpless fam- ilies) in a suffering condition, houseless and pennyless, in the dead of winter; pennyless we say, not as yet hav- ing received our pay after a long and aggravated sum- mer's war. And as for danger being apprehended by Government of a collision between whites and Indians, we would say such apprehension is groundless, for there 211. History of Dubuque County, Iowa, (1880) p. 347. h .5 en O 6 C/3 w THE SETTLERS AT THE GATES 191 is not, nor has there been any Indian within one hundred and fifty miles of this place, to our knowledge since the treaty. 212 This last statement of the ejected miners agrees with that of Lieut. Jefferson Davis in the letter quoted above that though he had made frequent reconnaissances into the country, he had never seen an Indian or any indication of their presence in the Dubuque neighborhood. Lieutenant George Wilson was then sent down from Fort Crawford with a small detachment to prevent trespassing on the territory. Lieut. Wilson was the brother of two gentlemen who afterwards became very prominent in Dubuque and Iowa affairs, Judges Thomas S. Wilson and David S. Wilson. In fact just as at this period Wilson, the soldier, was holding the Du- buque soil with the sword against intruders, so did his brother, Judge Thomas S. Wilson, twenty years later, but with forensic word as his weapon, hold the Dubuque soil intact before the United States Supreme Court against the claims of the Chou- teau heirs. On the 22nd of February, 1833, Marmaduke Davenport, the Indian Agent at Rock Island again received disquieting news, namely, that "from eighty to one hundred persons had gone over to Dubuque's mine, and were engaged in mining, smelt- ing, etc." Among these were some of the St. Louis claimants of the Spanish grant to Julien Dubuque, and they took pos- session of the land and erected houses on it. They hoped to hold it under their title until it could be pronounced valid or invalid by the United States courts. But ejected with the oth- ers, they found themselves nonplussed, "for they could not in- stitute any proceedings against the United States for quieting the title; nor could they sue the armed men who ejected them, to recover the possession, as no court had jurisdiction at that spot for those purposes." 213 One of these claimants even went to Galena to institute legal proceedings but found no court of competent jurisdiction 212. Senate Documents, 1st Session, 23d Congress, No. 512, Vol. IX, pp. 558-560, quoted in Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. XIII, p. 48. 213. Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. XIII, p. 40. 192 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 as Galena was in Illinois and there was also no federal court there. Thereupon he brought an action for the recovery of a quantity of lead dug at Dubuque which had been brought to Galena for the purpose of testing the title. Being unable to identify the lead, however, he was non-suited. 214 Lieutenant Wilson believed in a kindly policy toward these later intruders, and he may even have winked at the operations of certain miners. At any rate the task seemed distasteful to him and he obtained a three months' furlough on April 1. But before his departure, when it was still cold and wintry, a larger force of troops marched down on the ice of the Mississippi from Prairie du Chien to Dubuque, under the command of Lieuts. Jefferson Davis and J. J. Abercrombie to assist in the expulsions. As Davis mentioned in his letter, his acquaintanceship with many of the miners when they had resided on the east side of the river, made the task an embarrassing one for him, but he acquitted himself with such kindly tact and gentleness, that the removals were accomplished peaceably and without any bitterness towards him and his troops. 215 Many of those expelled never returned. But a number of others moved out to the islands in the Mississippi opposite the mines, taking their effects with them, and marked time till the day the Black Hawk Treaty should become effective. They believed they had a right to the mineral they had already ex- tracted from the troop-guarded mines; at any rate they took with them three hundred thousand pounds of lead, and from behind these mineral piles on the islands, they sent irritated glances at the mainland where the soldiers were complacently living in the comfortable cabins from which the miners and squatters had been ejected. Although his name is not mentioned in Jefferson Davis' let- ter, the last officer in command of the troops at Dubuque dur- ing the duration of the Indian title was Lieut. E. F. Covington. A far stricter officer than the preceeding commanders, he han- dled the trespassers severely and was cordially hated by the miners. However it may be mentioned, in mitigation of his severity, that the continued and obstinate defiance of the 214. Supreme Court Records, 16 Howard (1855 edition) pp. 205, 206. 215. Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. XIII, p. 50, and Jef- ferson Davis' letter quoted above. THE SETTLERS AT THE GATES 193 government's orders by some of the rougher element among the miners, was sufficient to test the virtue of a far more patient man than Lieut. Covington. 216 And thus, according to the treaty, on June 1, 1833, the gates of antique Dubuque, closed against the rest of the world for so many years, were at last thrown open, ay, pulled down and destroyed by the rush of the white settlers into what Was soon to be a part of the modern Territory and State of Iowa. 216. Langworthy sketches in Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. VIII, and Mahan's "Old Fort Crawford and the Frontier," p. 200. CHAPTER SIXTEEN ANTIQUE DUBUQUE AND THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT 'ELD as a feudal estate by the Sieur Julien Dubuque ; after his death jealously guarded by the Reynards for years as a land of mystery and fabulous wealth; brought di- rectly under United States authority by military conquest; — what had been antique Dubuque was still after 1833 in a pe- culiar and unsettled civil state. Its legal title was under a cloud. Probably no other district in the entire West, certainly no other district in what is now Iowa, has had such a history of bitter and long drawn out legal disputes before legislatures and courts, and involving many noted American statesmen, as the old claim of Julien Dubuque. 217 The early documents dealing with this claim during his life time have been given, and most of them in full, in previous chapters, and have been commented upon. Auguste Chouteau had acted, as he thought, very carefully. He regarded the grant which Dubuque had secured from the Spanish governor of Louisiana in 1796, Baron de Carondelet, as a right to perman- ent possession and ownership. And William Henry Harrison, afterwards president of the United States, but in 1804 the Amer- ican governor of Indiana Territory of which the present States of Iowa and Missouri were then a part, regarded it at that time also apparently as such a right. In fact, years after this, in 1816, he wrote a letter to Auguste Chouteau, in which he con- firmed his previous view with the statement: "Enclosed you have the certificate on the subject of Dubuque's claim. I hope it will be sufficient for the purpose. I have no doubt of the validity of your claim and never had any." 218 It will be recalled 217. For this famous case of "Chouteau against Molony," the fol- lowing sources have been drawn upon: Reports of Cases Argued and Adjudged in the Supreme Court of the United States, Dec. 1853, (1885) Vol. XVI, 2nd edition, "Henry Chouteau vs. Patrick Molony"; Judge Shiras' study of this suit, in Annals of Iowa, Vol. V. pp.325-337; History of Dubuque County, Iowa by Franklin J. Oldt. 218. Letter dated January 4, 1816, Vincennes; quoted in History of Dubuque County, Iowa (Oldt), p. 35. THE CHOTEAUS AGAINST DUBUQUE 195 that Chouteau had purchased one half of Dubuque's claim dur- ing his life, and, as will be seen in a moment, secured the other half after Dubuque's death. What strengthened Chouteau in his belief of security was that the Federal Board of Commis- sioners at St. Louis had on the 20th of September, 1806, with one commissioner dissenting, ascertained his claim to be a com- plete Spanish title. But Albert Gallatin, notable Secretary of the Treasury, un- der both Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, during his years in office had become prejudiced against the land titles of Upper Louisiana, and among others, particularly against the one of Julien Dubuque and Auguste Chouteau. His principal objec- tion to this latter follows: "The principal question made on this claim is one which, perhaps, in the whole history of Louis- iana titles, is peculiar to itself. There is no fraud imputed; no want of authority to make the supposed grant ; no uncertainty of its location. It is not challenged for want of being possessed in good faith; and no exception is taken to the capacity of the grantee. But conceding all these facts, it is objected, that, on the face of the papers, in their purpose and meaning, no title of any sort in the land was intended or has been created; that the whole transaction was but to obtain a personal privilege, or usufruct at will; and whatever of concession or stipulation there is, was but for a temporary personal protection and which has not been otherwise validated as a title." 219 What Gallatin meant was this : Dubuque in good faith, but mistakenly, thought that he owned the lands, but all that he had was a temporary concession to mine and use the lands. After his death they were to revert to the Foxes. Consequently, it was maintained later on that in the Black Hawk treaty these lands were secured by the United States unencumbered by any claims of Dubuque or Chouteau, and therefore could be sold by the United States directly to the new settlers. This report of Gallatin's was rendered in 1810, and so in De- cember of 1811, the Board of Land Commissioners at St. Louis reversed their decision of 1806. Nevertheless, by an order se- cured from the probate court of St. Charles County, Missouri, Chouteau sold Dubuque's interest in the mining lands for pay- 219. Laws of the United States, Vol. I, p. 562; quoted in History of Dubuque County, Iowa (Oldt), p. 33. 196 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 hient of his debts. The purchasers were John P. Cabanne, Pierre Chouteau, Jr., William Russell and others. "Their claim to Dubuque's Mines became the most notorious case in and out of the halls of Congress for over forty years." 220 In 1832 the heirs and descendants of this St. Louis group endeavored to take up their claims on the Dubuque lands as was mentioned in the preceeding chapter. "But," they com- plained later, "so far from doing this, the extraordinary spec- tacle was exhibited of an ejectment by military force under an order of the secretary of war." They saw in 1833 and suc- ceeding years countless newcomers moving into the Dubuque regions and buying up and securing from the United States government the land which they claimed under Dubuque's Span- ish Grant. These settlers seemed either ignorant or oblivious of the fact that there was a possible prior claim to these valuable mineral lands which might prove an obstruction to their ulti- mate ownership of them. They were not interested in legal quib- bles and judicial scruples as to whether Julieti Dubuque had merely received the right from the Fox Indians to mine these lands only during his life or had actually received full possession and ownership of these lands which he could lawfully pass on to his heirs. At the public sale of lots at the United States Land Office in Dubuque, the settlers who were already in poss- ession of these lands combined for their own protection in order to procure a title to their diggings from the United States. 221 That they were regarded as unlawful intruders and inter- lopers by men in high places can readily be seen from a speech delivered in the United States Senate by John C. Calhoun, that distinguished statesman from South Carolina. "If He was rightly informed the Iowa country had already been seized on by a lawless body of armed men, who had parcelled out the whole region, arid had entered into written stipulations to stand by and protect each other — and who were actually exercising the right of ownership and sovereignty over it — permitting none to settle without their leave — and exacting more for the license to settle than the government does for the land itself." 222 220. Senate Documents, 1st Session, 29th Congress, No. 256, p. 12: Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. XIII, p. 25. 221. Ibid; Annals of Iowa, Vol. V, p. 329. 222. Speech delivered on January 2?, 1838. Calhoun's Works, Vol. Ill, p. 135. THE CHOTEAUS AGAINST DUBUQUE 197 The members of the St. Louis group who petitioned Con- gress regarding the Dubuque claim and title in 1835-1836 were Elisabeth Mullanphy, Octavia Mullanphy, Ann Biddle, Mary- Harney, William S. Harney, Bryan Mullanphy, James Clemens, Jr., Eliza Clemens, R. Graham, Catherine Graham, Charles Cham- bers, Jane M. Chambers, Cerre Chouteau (in her own right and as executrix of Auguste Chouteau, deceased), E. Chouteau, Henry Chouteau, Gabriel S. Chouteau, Auguste P. Chouteau. Their attorney-in-fact was Pierre Chouteau, Jr. 223 The Senate at one time and the House of Representatives at another passed a bill to allow the claim, but not at the same congress. Had they done so, the Chouteau parties' claim would have been established, and they would have obtained possession of the Dubuque lands. Leading statesmen in both houses of Congress interested themselves in the case, one of the most prom- inent being Daniel Webster. The Senate committee on one occasion, "thought it very ob- vious that the grant, permit or concession, by whatever name it may be called, of the Indians in council to Dubuque, was never intended by either of the parties to give any greater interest in the land or mines to Dubuque than a mere personal permit or privilege of working the mines as long as he pleased and of leaving them whenever he should think proper." Therefore, they concluded, Dubuque or his heirs had no possessive rights in the land and settlers could preempt land there as on any other land owned by the United States. This conclusion was that of July 1, 1842. 224 But on another occasion, March 3, 1847, the Senate committee reported itself as being "fully satisfied that justice demands that the report of the board of commissioners aforesaid should be approved and that the title to the said tract of land should be confirmed by the United States to the said Julien Dubuque, his heirs, assignees, or legal representatives; and in conformity to these views they have reported a bill and recommended its passage." 225 Iowa, admitted as a state the previous year, had as yet no Senators in the Nation's upper house to bespeak the cause of 223. American State Papers, Public Lands, Vol. VHI, p. 387. 224. Senate Documents, 2nd Session, 27th Congress, Vol. V, No. 341. 225. Senate Documents, 2nd Session, 29th Congress, Vol. Ill, No. 218. 198 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 the settlers and land claimants in Dubuque against the St. Louis claim. On March 3, 1847, the date mentioned above, it had two Representatives in the lower house, who had taken their seats but two months previously, December 29, 1846, Servanus Hast- ings and Shepherd Lefller, and they saved the day for the city of Dubuque. Judge Thomas S. Wilson, one of the attorneys for the Dubuque claimants against the St. Louis claimants in the great trial before the Supreme Court later, wrote of this event many years afterwards: "Afterwards when the lands were ordered to be sold and the proclamation of sale was duly made, and when Iowa was unrepresented in that body, the United States Senate passed a resolution requesting a withdrawal of the land from sale. This startled our people, and Messers. Hastings and Lefller, our rep- resentatives in Congress, were interviewed. They called upon the President and learned that the act of the Senate could not be disregarded; but they learned that if the House should pass a resolution ordering the sale, it would proceed. Mr. Hastings accordingly presented such a resolution in the House, where- upon a Missouri member violently protested against it and raised such a commotion that when the vote was taken it was difficult to decide whether it was passed or not. The clerk thought it was lost and so entered it on his memorandum. At the adjourn- ment, Mr. Hastings (familiarly known as 'Old Red') went to him for a copy of the resolution. The clerk replied : T thought the resolution failed to pass/ He replied: 'No, sir, give me a certified copy to be handed to the President.' The clerk did so, the copy was presented to the President and the sale pro- ceeded. This act of Mr. Hastings was one of more benefit to our city and county than any other single act in the history of our legislation. Had that sale not taken place at that time, it might never have taken place, for the claim of Chouteau might have been confirmed by Congress and this confirmation would have depopulated the eastern half of this county, or if the sale had ever been made it would have been after years of delay, fraught with destruction to our city and county." A little further on in his article, Judge Wilson added : "An- other temporary incubus upon the prosperity of our city and county was the attempt to take the mineral leads from our early miners by pretended government agents, who claimed to have authority to lease these lands. Certain adventurers procured THE CHOTEAUS AGAINST DUBUQUE 199 such appointments and granted to their own secret agents and tools, leases of rich lodes discovered after much labor and ex- pense by such men as Richard and Robert Waller, the Lang- worthys, Antoine Loire, and many others, and these pretended agents, asked the judge here for an injunction to prevent all working of our mines without a license from him. The judge decided that the law authorizing this leasing did not apply to Iowa, whereupon the secretary of war, Mr. Spencer, wrote to the judge to prepare himself for a removal from office for the reason that the law did apply to that part of Iowa which was east of the Mississippi. Daniel Webster hearing of this, called upon Mr. Spencer, gave him a short lesson in geography and the judge was not removed." 226 Finally, because of the difficulties encountered in Congress to settle the Chouteau-Dubuque claim, a case bearing on the validity of the deed was tried before the learned jurist, Judge John J. Dyer, of the United States District Court for Iowa and judgment rendered for the settlers and against the Chouteau heirs. The decision in this case was then appealed to the Su- preme Court of the United States and was called up for ad- judication in December of 1853. The suit was the center of widespread interest. Every mem- ber of the Iowa delegation in Congress was present during the judicial sessions. The case was listed as that of "Henry Chouteau vs. Patrick Molony" — Molony being one of the early Dubuque settlers living in Table Mound township; the papers and documents in the case stated the issue to be "the claims of Monsieur Dubuque." The principal legal counsel for the Chou- teau interests was Reverdy Johnson of Maryland. Johnson was perhaps the most distinguished barrister of his day in America. During his long and active life he had been United States At- torney General, United States Senator and Minister to the Court of St. James at London. He was ably assisted by the other Chouteau lawyer, Mr. Cormack. For the Dubuque settlers, the great champion was Judge Thomas S. Wilson, formerly a mem- ber of the Supreme Court of the Territory of Iowa. He drew excellent support from Piatt Smith of Dubuque, a leading mem- ber of the Iowa bar at that time, and Caleb Cushing, formerly commissioner to China and general in the Mexican war, and 226. Dubuque Herald, September 4, 1883. 200 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 at this time United States Attorney General under President Pierce. 227 Said Judge Wilson in his recollections: "Mr. Johnson made a powerful speech for the appellant; one which surprised and alarmed Mr. Smith and myself, as we did not think that so good an argument could be made in so weak a case." But the Supreme Court leaned toward Judge Wilson's contention that both the Fox Indians and Governor de Carondelet gave Julien Dubuque only a permission to work the mines, but no right of possession of the lands or of transmission to his heirs, that therefore the Chouteau claim was not valid, and that therefore the United States could lawfully sell the mineral lands to the settlers who had established claims thereon. The hearings lasted through January of 1854 and in March Justice Wayne deliv- ered the unanimous opinion of the Supreme Court in favor of the settlers. 228 The Court stated: "We do not doubt that Dubuque meant to ask for lands as well as mines" (from the Indians and the Baron de Carondelet), "and that his object was to get a grant for his large body of land. But the true point here is not what he meant to ask for, but what he had a right to ask for under his contract with the Indians and what the Governor meant to grant and could grant under that contract." Federal Judge Oliver P. Shiras of the Northern District of Iowa in commenting on this case, asks : "But while it is the fact that the grantees of Dubuque failed to maintain a title un- der him to the land in question, is it not also the fact that Du- buque personally maintained his claim to ownership and en- joyed all the benefits thereof, both living and dead?" 229 227. Reports of Cases Argued and Adjudged in the Supreme Court of the U. S., Dec. 1853, (1885) Vol. XVI, 2nd Edit. "Henry Chouteau vs. Patrick Molony." 228. Ibid; Iowa, Its History and Its Foremost Citizens, (1915) by Johnson Brigham, p. 28. 229. Annals of Iowa, Vol. V, p. 335. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN URBS CONDITA; AN EPILOGUE THE sometimes almost sanguinarily romantic and sometimes almost monontonously halcyon days of antique Dubuque were thus suddenly, almost rudely, in the year 1833, changed into days of modern and noisy progress and prosperity. The vestiges of Spanish and French and Indian occupation disap- peared quickly and forever. Miners' cabins and smelting fur- naces dotted the sides and summits of the hills. Here huge gashes grievously wounded the still picturesque bluffs, and there countless smaller orifices dappled the soil. The pick and shovel, the windlass and bucket, charcoal and ore and ashes met the eye on every side. Farther back the woodsman's axe smiled glitteringly in the sunlight as it merrily toppled the lofty forest giants, and in the cleared patches the pioneer farmer furrowed the virgin earth with his crude plow. At first, however, it was still difficult to gain ingress into this long coveted district. John P. Sheldon was appointed Su- perintendent of the mines by the government, and a system of permits to the miners and licenses to smelters who wished to enter the old "Mines of Spain" was adopted, similar to that which had been in vogue in the Galena district. All other per- sons who were found in the new Black Hawk Purchase with- out these evidences of authority were to be reported to the government agents at Rock Island and Prairie du Chien. With these permits, the miners and settlers immediately began to trans- form this "lonely but coveted section of the Iowa wilderness into a prosperous frontier community." During the remainder of this year of 1833, after the Indian title was fully extinguished, about five hundred people arrived at the mining district, about one hundred and fifty of them from the Galena district. The miners were required by law to sell their minerals to licensed smelters, and the smelter was required to give bonds for the payment of six per cent of all lead manufactured to the gov- ernment. This had been the rule in force in the United States mines in the Fevre river district in Illinois, except that until 202 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 1830, the Illinois miners were compelled to pay a ten per cent tax.230 The nucleus of the little town that was then "abornin' " lay about where the harbor and levees of present-day Dubuque are situated. Only a few settlers toot up their residence on Catfish Creek. Steamboats from the south arrived occasionally and their shrill whistles announced the arrival of freight and of groups of adventurers and squatters who hoped to obtain a foothold in the new settlement or sought to gain permits to woo the goddess of fortune at mining. Other often strange characters drifted across the river from Galena. Naturally the social and moral conditions of this new frontier town were of the same character as in all the primitive, though civilized, set- tlements of the West. The merely apparently contradictory views of two brothers, both pioneer members of the commun- ity, are here given to show the bad and good as they existed in those days: Said Lucius H. Langworthy: "At this time there were but few men in the whole country who did not indulge in drinking and gambling. ' Poker' and 'brag' were games of common pas- time, while the betting often ran up to the hundreds of dollars at a single sitting. It pervaded all classes; the merchants and other passengers to and from St. Louis while on the steamboats occupied their time chiefly in this way, and it was considered no disgrace to gamble. Balls and parties were also common and it was not an infrequent occurrence for one to treat his partner in the dance at the bar, if he did not, he generally performed that delicate and flattering attention to himself. The Sabbath was regarded as a holiday, and vice and immorality was preval- ent in every form." 231 Comes Edward Langworthy, his brother, and states: "Much has been said and written of the morals of highly educated and enlightened communities. My experience proves that nowhere has ever such a state of society existed for honesty, integrity, and high-toned generosity as was found among the miners in 230. Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. VII, pp. 383-385. The History of Dubuque County, Iowa (1880), pp. 169-170; Old Fort Crawford and the Frontier (1926), p. 200. 231. The Langworthy documents in the Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. VIII, p. 385. URBS CONDITA; AN EPILOGUE 203 the early days of mining in this country. No need here for locks to keep out burglars. We had none. No fear of being injured by others. It was never done. No one was left to suffer from cold or hunger. All the cabins stood open to receive the weary, the wardrobe open to those needing clothing, and the table ever full for those that were hungry. While tools, provisions, and clothing were always free to all the needy, and piles of val- uable mineral were at all the diggings unguarded and exposed, cases of theft or misappropriation were unknown. And if a crime was committed, retribution and punishment followed, dealt by the hands of justice without law, but systematically and in accordance with the usages of older societies." 232 And indeed the little town almost immediately began to as- sume an attitude of educational and religious uplift. One ac- count states that in the same year of 1833, one of the Langwor- thy brothers assisted other miners in building the first school house in this part of the Territory. The Reverend Erastus Kent, a Presbyterian minister of Galena, preached what is claimed to be the first sermon delivered in Dubuque, in an unfinished log cabin on the second Sunday of August, 1833. A little later that year, two Methodist divines, the Reverend Barton Randle and John T. Mitchell, came over from the Galena Mission to provide the settlers in and about Dubuque with church services. 233 And existing records show that on July 10, 1833, at "Cadfish near Dubuque Mines," a Jesuit from St. Louis, Charles Van Quickenborne, who the year before had visited in the Half Breed Tract in southeastern Iowa, baptized the children of a half-breed Fox Indian, Kennoche, and the grand children of Denis Julien, a widely known trader of the Northwest, who at Prairie du Chien had supported the British in the War of 1812. On July 12, 1833, he performed a marriage at "Cadfish" and two days later he married three more couples in the Dubuque village. These are the first marriages on record in the Dubuque country. 234 232. The Langworthy documents, p. 355. 233. The History of Dubuque County, Iowa, (1880), pp. 170, 354; Iowa, Its History and Its Foremost Citizens, (1915) Vol. I, 72 p. 234. Van Quickenborne's Record Book, MSS., St. Louis University, St. Louis. In the Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. XXVII, p. 43, (Jan. 1930) the statement that "It was not until June, 1834, that the first marriage was performed in Dubuque county by Father Fitzmaurice" is manifestly incorrect, as are several other assertions of "first events" in and about Dubuque. 204 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 It is impossible to identify the first white woman to settle in the Dubuque area. Inconclusive arguments have been ad- vanced in behalf of several persons. It is certain that in 1832 a number of wives accompanied their husbands when they at- tempted to settle at the mines and perhaps several of these, ar- riving simultaneously, must divide the honor among themselves. All of them, however, were compelled to depart by the federal troops. After June 1, 1833, some of them returned and other wives swelled the number. It is very improbable that any one can claim the distinction singly. 235 With the passing of the autumn months the village began to take shape. The limits of the city, or what it was believed would be comprehended within the limits of any city that should be built, were surveyed during the fall by George W. Harrison, an engineer from Galena, and included about forty-five mod- ern city blocks immediately to the north of the present-day Dubuque harbor. At the southern side of what is now the harbor there arrived early one November morning in 1833, the first raft of lumber that ever landed at Dubuque. It had been piloted down the river from the Wisconsin forests by William Lockwood, and before night the entire freight of lumber had been bought and delivered, to be used by the new- ly arrived settlers for building their home and business es- tablishments. 236 A few miles to the north of Dubuque there sprang up quickly the little village of Peru, whose history, though vivid, was short-lived. Communication was kept up with the outside world during most of that fall by a weekly mail between Dubuque and Galena. Milo A. Prentice is mentioned as the first postmaster, and the mail was delivered from a candle box in the mercantile store which Mr. Prentice conducted. 237 The summer of 1833, which had dawned upon the settlement, rich in the promise of a prophetic spring, was followed by a 235. Claims and arguments advanced in The History of Dubuque Coun- ty, Iowa, (1880), Oldt's History of Dubuque County (1915), Herr- mann's Julien Dubuque, His Life and Adventures, (1922). 236. The History of Dubuque County, Iowa, (1880), p. 353. 237. Ibid; "First Things in Iowa," by L. F. Andrews in Annals of Iowa, Vol. II, p. 394. URBS CONDITA; AN EPILOGUE 205 winter of distress, disease and despair. In that inadequately- housed community, five hundred men were crowded in rude and hastily built huts and cabins. Supplies ran low, fuel was scarce; the winter was long and relentless, the snows were heavy and there was no communication with the rest of the world during that severe season. Starvation stared into the faces of the set- tlers. The demon of intemperance during those awful wintry days and nights stalked everywhere; and a sanguinary murder occurred on Christmas Eve. Before the end of the summer, a still more ruthless enemy of man, the dread Asiatic cholera, had laid its scourge upon the devoted little community. First a miner named Fox, then a blacksmith, James Frith, then "a beautiful and estimable woman," Mrs. Cullom, and her infant child succumbed, and these three latter persons were the first to be laid away in the new churchyard to the north of the settlement, which today is Jackson Park in the heart of the city. In their wake followed scores of other deaths. Many fled the village, never to return, and this was especially true of the women and children. But the more sturdy among the pioneers survived the hor- rors of that winter, and with the coming of the spring, the eternal hope that lives in men's breasts, flamed up again. "The grass as it crept in green over the hills and the birds as they came back from the southland made all men glad again. But better than birds or flowers was the return of the women. And with them came a horde of new settlers." The city was defin- itely founded and its population which had survived the catas- trophes, had come to remain in the land. 238 "The population of Dubuque," wrote Lucius H. Langworthy, "was unlike that of most other communities . . . The German liberalism, the New England Puritanism and the Celtic nation- alism mixed and mingled in all the elements of society." But the Gallic and Hispanic atmosphere of the older days had for- ever vanished. "The Mines of Spain" have become merely a name of a romantic legend. All that remains of antique Du- buque outside of the tomb of the great Miner, is a few stones and logs of the foundation of his house beneath the bluff on 238. Cole's A History of the People of Iowa, (1921), pp. 131, 132; the Langworthy documents, ut supra; A History of Dubuque County. Iowa, (1880), pp. 351, 352. 206 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 Catfish Creek, and a solitary log- cabin that rests today in Eagle Point park at the north end of the city that bears his name. In 1834 when it stood at what is now the corner of Second and Locust streets, it was occupied by a pioneer settler, William Newman, whose nieces still reside in Dubuque. Mr. Newman stated that this house had been in existence for years before he arrived, having been built and occupied by French hunters and miners. Sometimes the year 1827 is mentioned as the date of its construction, but no authority can be found for this asser- tion. It may possibly date from the days of Julien Dubuque. It certainly is the oldest house in this part of the country, and probably is the oldest still standing in the entire state of Iowa. 239 239. The Langworthy documents in the Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. VIII, pp. 396, 397; The Witness, Dubuque, March 28, 1928; Mrs. James J. Sullivan and Mrs. Norman Hurd of Du- buque are nieces of wm. Newman, who gave to them the authen- tic data on the old cabin. INDEX INDEX Abercrombie, Lieut. J. J., com- mands troops at Dubuque mines, 188, 189. American Fur Company, com- petes with Julien Dubuque, 91; reference to, 152. Anglo-Spanish war of 1796, in vi- cinity of antique Dubuque and Prairie du Chien, 92; connection of Julien Dubuque therewith, 93. Antaya, Pierre, early resident of Prairie du Chien, leads Fox chiefs to St. Louis to ask pro- tection of Spanish flag, 74; sign- er of Dubuque's contract with Foxes, 80, 81, 82. Apple River, Illinois, lead mines opened by miners of Julien Du- buque, 87. Aquoqua, Fox war chieftain, re- ferred to, 121; 123; met by Pike and Schoolcraft, 129, 130; signs peace treaty, 132; mentioned 134; known as Kettle Chief, 136; interviewed by Schoolcraft. 142; dies, 166. Astor, John Jacob, fur merchant, 131; activities, 152. Atkinson, Gen. Henry, proclama- tion from, 187; reference, 172. Atwater, Caleb, Indian commis- sioner, notifies Chief Morgan of coming conference, 164, 165. Austin, Ala, witness for Foxes and Julien Dubuque, 80, 81. Badin, Rev. Francois Vincent, mis- sioner, meets the Foxes, 15S, 159; describes Fox attack on Sioux women, 163. Bates, Capt. David C, trader with Dubuque Foxes, 155, 156. Bellerive, Louis St. Ange de, cap- tain commandant of the Ilinois. petitioned by Miloney Duralde for land in antique Dubuque, 55; grants petition, 56; com- mander at Fort des Chartres and later at St. Louis, 57. Bellin's map, of 1744, indicates lead mines in antique Dubuque, reference to, 35. Belloc, Hilaire, quoted, 24. Beltrami, J. C, Italian explorer, states limits of antique Du- buque,, 23; quoted on Dubuque's marriage, 120; explains deriva- tion of Tetes des Morts, 97, 9S, describes visit to antique Du- buque, 147, 148. Beaujeu-Villemond, Louis Li6nard, French officer, leads French troops past antique Dubuque and camps nearby, 65. Black Hawk, Sac chieftain, met by Pike in antique Dubuque, 98; leads Sacs and Foxes against Americans, 130; refuses to sign peace treaty, 134; refuses to surrender Foxes, 175; in the Black Hawk war, 178, 180, 181. Black Hawk treaty, references to, 19, 176, 189, 192; drawn up at Fort Armstrong, 181; contents thereof, 182 et seq. Blondeau, Maurice, Indian trader and interpreter, witness of Du- buque's treaty with Fox Indians, 80, 81; sketch of, 82; met by Pike in antique Dubuque, 97, 98; rescues Nathaniel Pryor, 153, 154. Boilvin, Nicolas, trader and Indian agent, friend and associate of Julien Dubuque, 111; reports on Indian restlessness, 127, 128; knows Basil Giard, 114; grants license to Etienne Dubois, 156. Bomford, Lieut-Col. George, de- scribes mines at Dubuque, 146. Boneau, Mrs. H. A., great grand niece of Julien Dubuque, letter from, quoted, 124. Brisbois, Michael, early Prairie du 210 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 Chien settler, 105; friend and business associate of Julien Du- buque, 111; deposition of, 115. Butler, Captain, in charge of steamboat "Planet," 187. Cahokia, references, 51, 66, 70, 77, 78. Calhoun, John C, U. S. Senator, writes to Chief Pia-no-sky, 129; denounces intruders at Du- buque, 196. Cardinal, Jean Marie, in the Pra- rie du Chien country, 50, 51; kills Abraham Lansing and his son, 51; in the Illinois country, Fort des Chartres, St. Louis, 51, 52; in antique Dubuque, 53, 54, 58-62; land claim in the St. Charles District, 58; marries Anne Marie, 59; children prob- ably born in antique Dubuqu«f>, 60; trade activities described, 61, 62; killed during British and Indian attack on St. Louis in 1780, 71, 72; sketch of, by Judge Douglas, 73, footnote. Cardinal, Jno. Baptiste, captured at Turkey river, 66; imprisoned at Montreal, 67. Cardinal, Marie Anne, Pawnee wife of Jean Marie, quoted, 51; in Prairie du Chien, 54; baptism and marriage, 59; children, 60; captured by British in antique Dubuque, 72; residence and death at Prairie du Chien, 73. Carondelet, Baron de, Governor- general of Spanish Louisiana, anxious to confer land grants to settlers, 88; beneficial policy of, 89; petitioned by Julien Du- buque, 89, 90; grants Dubuque's petition, 90; letter to concern- ing Julien Dubuque's activities against British, 92, 93. Cass, Lewis, governor of Michigan Territory, heads exploratory ex- pedition, 141; presides at Great Council, 161. Catlin, George, painter of Iowa In- dians, paints Dubuque's grave, 120. Catfish Creek, visited by Le Sue- ur, 29; Foxes establish village, 42, 70, 76; description of village, 42, 43; description of Dubuque's establishment on Catfish, 93; on map, 109. Cayolle, Francois, deed of convey- ance to Julien Dubuque, 110. Chouteau, Auguste, founder of St. Louis, friend and business asso- ciate of Julien Dubuque, sketch of, 101; secures one-half of Du- buque's Spanish grant, 101-106; map of claim in antique Du- buque, 109; U. S. commissioner for Fox treaty, 132; claims Du- buque mines, 146; Wm. Henry Harrison supports him, 194. Chouteau, Pierre, Jr., acts as clerk to Julien Dubuque, 105; takes possession of antique Dubuque after Julien Dubuque's death, 126, 127, 128; mentioned, 135, 196, 197. Clark, Wm., governor of Missouri Territory, concludes 1815 treaty with Foxes, 132, 133; learns of killing of Americans near the mines of Spain, 152, 153; grants license to Col. Shaw, 154; pre- sides at Great Council, 161, 162; is interviewed by Fox chiefs, 169; presides at 1830 Indian con- ference, 172, 173; wishes to pur- chase Fox mineral lands, 176, 177. Cole, Cyrenus, Iowa statesman and historian, quoted, 21, 118, 122. Covington, Lieut, E. F., commands troops at Dubuque mines, 192, 193. Cruzat, Don Francisco, Spanish Lieutenant - Governor at St. Louis, grants trader's passports to Jean Marie Cardinal, 59; vis- ited by Fox Indians from an- tique Dubuque territory, 74; sends letters to Foxes and con- INDEX 211 fers medal, 65; dismisses charg- es against Charles Gratiot, 67. Cullom, Mrs., first woman to die in Dubuque village, 205. Gushing, Caleb, U. S. Attorney- General, defends Dubuque set- tlers against Chouteaus, 199. Davenport, George, trader, in an- tique Dubuque, 154, 155, 156; city of Davenport named after, 176; goes to Washington in be- half of Foxes, 177. Davenport, Marmaduke S., Indian agent at Fort Armstrong, de- mands removal of intruders in antique Dubuque, 190; again, 191. Davis, Jefferson, Confederate pres- ident, in Black Hawk war, 178; commands troops at Dubuque mines, 188, 189; scouts through Dubuque county, 189. D'Bois, Canadian, employe of Jul- ien Dubuque, 83. Delassus or De Lassus, Felix de Hault, Iiieutenant-Governor of Spanish Upper Louisiana, letter from Louis Tesson Honore to, 86; eulogizes Auguste Chouteau, 101; uncle of Felix St. Vrain, 179. Be L'Isles' map of New France, indicating lead mines in an- tique Dubuque, reference to, 35. Des Noyelles, Sieur, French offic- er, pursues Foxes and attacks them on the Des Moines, 40, 41. Dickson, Robert, fur trader, met by Pike in antique Dubuque, 99; relations with Julien Dubuque, 152. Dinde (Riviere au Dinde), French term for Turkey river, 22; men- tioned in letter of Commandante Carlos Howard, 92. Dodge, Augustus Caesar, U. S. Senator from Iowa, in Black Hawk war, 178. Dodge, Henry, U. S. Senator from Wisconsin, in Black Hawk war, 178. Draper, Lyman C, historian, quot- ed, 49, 50. Dubois, Etienne, trader, receives licenses, 156, 157; acts as bap- tismal sponsor in antique Du- buque district, 159. Dubuque, Augustin, father of Jul- ien Dubuque, 76, 79. Dubuque, Augustin, cousin of Jul- ien Dubuque, in Cahokia, 78; be- comes citizen of United States, 78, 79. Dubuque, Catherine, niece of Jul- ien Dubuque, marries Governor Reynolds of Illinois, 77; men- tioned, 124. Dubuque, Jean Baptiste, brother of Julien Dubuque, 77, 78; men- tioned, 124. Dubuque, Julien, ancestry and family, 76,77; education, 77; voyages, 79; treaty with Fox In- dians, 80, 81; finds traces of Spanish occupation of antique Dubuque, 60; activities as a trader, 61, 62; occupation of an- tique Dubuque, 83, 84; trading and mining in antique Dubuque, 85, 86; relations with Indians, 84, 85; petitions Baron de Car- ondelet for grant and receives it, 88-91; relations with Don An- drew Todd, 90, 91; participates in Anglo-Spanish war of 1796, 92, 93; his wealth and business reputation, 93, 94; physical de- scription of, 94; visited by Lieut. Zebulon M. Pike, 95-100; de- scription of establishment on Catfish, 93; conveys one-half of his claim to Auguste Chouteau, 101-105; meets business and leg- al reverses, 105-110; plat of Du- buque's claim, 108; relations with F. Lesueur and Joseph Ro- bidoux, 111; death, 112; priority of claim as Iowa settler and farmer over Basil Giard, 113- 117; marriage with Potosa dis cussed, 119-125; grave exhumed, 123; monument erected over grave, 117, 123. 212 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 Duralde, Martin Miloney, Spanish- Irish resident of St. Louis, files claim for land in antique Du- buque, 55; claim granted, 56; claim not located at Galena but on Iowa soil, 57; claim not con- firmed, 58. Dyer, John J., Federal judge, de- cides against Chouteau heirs, 199. Edwards, Ninian, governor of Illi- nois Territory, 132, 133. Eustis, William, Secretary of War, 127. I Faribault, Alexander, founder of Faribault, Minn., 131; rescues Sioux captive from Foxes, 148. Faribault, Jean Baptiste, fur trad- er, trades with Julien Dubuque, 107; during War of 1812, 131, 132. Farrar, Amos, trader with Du- buque Foxes, 156. Fevre river, discovered by Le Sueur, 29; lead mines opened here in 1805 by miners of Julien Dubuque, 87; mines at, de- scribed by Schoolcraft, 144; mines visited by Col. John Shaw, 136, 137; references to, 52, 57, 138, 155, 176, 185, 201. Fonda, John H., Prairie du Chien pioneer, seeks horses and Fox Indians at Dubuque mines, 150. Fontigny, Joseph, witness to Fox- Julien Dubuque treaty, 80, 81. Forsythe, Major Thomas, Indian agent, describes Fox Indians, 47; passes the Dubuque mines, 138; issues license to Etienne Dubois, 156; informs Gov. Clark of Indian confederacy against Foxes, 166; describes massacre of Foxes, 167-168; attempts to save Catfish village, 170-171; dropped from service, 172. Fort Armstrong, mentioned, 42, 175, 190; Black Hawk treaty drawn up, 181; on map, 35. Fort at Dubuque, established by Perrot in 1690, 30-34; on map, 35. Fort Crawford, scene of Great Council and other Indian coun- cils, 161 et seq.; references to, 173, 175, 178, 181, 187, 191; troops from, 187; on map, 35. Fort des Chartres, reference to, 51, 57; on map, 35. Fort Edwards, reference to, 44, 140; on map, 35. Fox Indians, origin, 38; name, 38; wars against French, 39 et seq.; commence residence at Rock Is- land and on Iowa shore, 41; lo- cation of villages in Iowa and in antique Dubuque, 42, 43; hunt- ing, farming, weaving, 43, 44; population statistics, 45; govern- ment, 45; burials, 47; serve un- der Langlade and Joseph Mar- in and Montcalm during French and Indian war, 64; treaty of five villages of Foxes with Jul- ien Dubuque, 80, 81; participate in Anglo-Spanish war of 1796, 92, 93; follow policy of exclud- ing whites from, antique Du- buque, 127 et seq.; principal chiefs, 129; treaty of peace with the United States, 132, 133; trade with Gen. Jones of Sin- sinawa Mound, 157 ; visit Father Badin, the missioner, 158, 159; attend Great Council, 161, 162; sixteen massacred by Sioux and Menominees, 166-168; flee from Dubuque to Rock Island, 168; return to Catfish village, 173; massacre thirty Menominees at Prairie du Chien, 173-175; aban- don Dubuque mines forever, 175; remain loyal to U. S. dur- ing Black Hawk war, 181; at Tama reservation, 183. Frith, James, blacksmith, one of first cholera victims in Dubuque village, 205. Frontenac, mentioned, 21. Fur trade, in antique Dubuque and in Northwest, 63, 64; value of in Upper Mississippi valley, 91; be- INDEX 213 tween Julien Dubuque and Mac- kinac, 105, 106; by Jean Bpte. Faribault, 131; about Prairie du Chien, 152. i Galena, Illinois, sketch of its or- igin, 185; references to, 169, 176; 184, 185, 186, 192, 202, 203, 204. Galena river (see Fevre river). Gallatin, Albert, U. S. Secretary of the Treasury, shows preju- dice toward claims of Julien Du- buque, 104; makes adverse re- port to Jefferson and Madison, 195. Garde (Riviere la), French term for Maquoketa river, 22. Gardenier, J. R. B., Lieut., seeks Fox Indians at antique Dubuque, 150; relieves Jefferson Davis at Dubuque mines, 188, 189. Giard, Basil, early resident of Prairie du Chien, probable sign- er of Dubuque's treaty with Fox- es, 80, 81, 82; petitions Delassus for land grant, 113; land grant in Iowa, 114; lives and dies in Prairie du Chien, 115, 116. Goths and Norsemen, in Upper Mississippi country, 25, 26. Graham, Duncan, service of, in War of 1812, 131. Gratiot, Charles, sends armed boat to Prairie du Chien which is captured by British, 66; sued oy boatmen for wages, 67. Gregoire, Charles, donates manu- script to State Historical Soci- ety, 180. Groseilliers, in West in 1655, 22; heard of lead mines in antique Dubuque in 1658-59, 34. Gue, Benj. F., Iowa historian, quot- ed, 184. Guerien, trader, expelled from an- tique Dubuque, 85. Ham, Mathias, trader at the Du- buque mines, 185. Ham, Moses M., Dubuque writer. quoted, 118; denies Dubuque's marriage, 121. Harrison, George W., makes first survey of new Dubuque village, 204. Harrison, William Henry, gover- nor of Louisiana Territory, safe- guards claim of Julien Dubuque and Auguste Chouteau, 103, 104; mentioned, 133; defeats Winne- bagoes, 153; writes to Auguste Chouteau, 194. Hastings, Servanus, U. S. Repre- sentative from Iowa, services of in behalf of Dubuque, 198. Hennepin, Louis, explorer, as- cends Mississippi past Iowa shore, 28; map of, indicating lead mine in antique Dubuque, reference to, 35. Herrmann, Richard, Dubuque archaeologist, quoted, 46, 47; finds Dubuque's grave and skel- eton, 123. Hesse, Emmanuel, British soldier- trader, organizes expedition against antique Dubuque during Revolutionary war, 66; leads campaign against St. Louis, 70. Honore, Louis Tesson, early Iowa settler, complains of Julien Du- buque's seizure of his lead ship- ment, 86; imprisonment of by British, 92; charges Julien Du- buque to watch British activit- ies at Prairie du Chien, 93; Iowa claim seized by Joseph Robi- doux, 111. Hunt, George, trader, quoted, 151; attacked by Winnebagoes, 153; meets Blondeau, 154. Hurd, A. and J., early settlers at Dubuque, 186. Indians, Miamis, near antique Du- buque, 32; move to Chicago, 37; Mascoutens, near antique Du- buque, 32; see Fox, Iowa, Men- ominee, Winnebago, Sioux In- dians. Iowa Indians, serving with 214 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 French, 64; references to, 161, 162. Jay's Treaty, mentioned, 22. Jackson, George E., builds lead furnace in antique Dubuque, 127. Jefferson, Thomas, U. S. Presi- dent, 95; receives adverse re- port on Dubuque's and Chou- teau's claim, 195. Johnson, Reverdy, U. S. Attorney General, Senator, Minister to England, upholds Chouteau heirs against Dubuque settlers, 199-200. Johnston, Albert Sydney, Confed- erate general, in Black Hawk war, 178. Johnston, Joseph E., Confederate general, in Black Hawk war, 178. Jolliet-Marquette expedition in 1673, commences history of an- tique Dubuque, 22; explorations of, in Upper Mississippi, 27, 28. Jones, Gen. Geo. W., early settler in antique Dubuque, opinion quoted on Perrot's fort at Du- buque, 32; takes up claim oa Sinsinawa Mound, 157; builds ferry to Catfish village, 157; in Black Hawk war, 178; builds block house, 179; letter to, from Jefferson Davis, 188, 189. Jordan, Thomas, pioneer, settles opposite Fox village, 158; canoe seized by Indians, 179, 180. Julien, Denis, Prairie du Chien trader, grandchildren baptized at "Cadfish," 203. Kaskaskia, references to, 49, 51, 70, 77. Kay, Alexander, English lieuten- ant, captures American armed boat at mouth of Turkey river, 66. Kearny, Gen. Stephen W., de- scribes visit to antique Du- buque, 139. Kelly, Thomas, strikes lead on "Kelly's Bluff," 190. Kennoche, half-breed Fox Indian, children baptized, 203. Keokuk, Sac chief, attends Great Council, 162; refuses to sell Iowa mineral land, 165; confers with Gen. Clark, 169; defends Fox attack on Menominees, 175. Kensington Rune Stone, describes exploratory visit of Goths and Norsemen to Upper Mississippi country, 25, 26. Kent, The Rev. Eratus, Presbyter- ian minister, preaches first ser- mon in Dubuque, 203. Kettle Chief, Fox leader, village of, 42, 75, 142; Indian name, Aquoqua, 143; two brothers of killed by Sioux, 167. Labuxiere, Joseph, judge of the royal jurisdiction of the Illinois, petitioned for land in antique Dubuque by Duralde, 55; grants petition, 56. Lafleur, Peter, captured by British at Turkey river, 66; escapes and sues Gratiot, 67. Lahontan, Baron, descends Miss- issippi past Iowa shore, 28. Langworthy, Edward, early su- tler, quoted on conditions of newly founded village, 202, 203. Langworthy, James L., explores Dubuque region, 185. Langworthy, Lucius N., quoted on Fox massacre, 167; on invasion of antique Dubuque, 170, 171; on Indian raid near antique Du- buque, 179, 180; on conditions of newly founded village, 202; on population of early Dubuque, 205. La Salle, mentioned, 21. Law, John, attempts to colonize Mississippi valley, 30. Lead mining in antique Dubuque, methods, 87, 88; sales, 92, 93; Pike's questions about, 100; by Fox Indians, 128, 135, 136, 138; description of by Schoolcraft, INDEX 215 141-145; carried on by Gen. G. W. Jones, 157. Leffler, Shepherd, U. S. Repre- sentative from Iowa, services of in behalf of Dubuque, 198. Lesueur, Francis, letter to Julien Dubuque, 111, 112; testimony concerning wife of Julien Du- buque, 124, 125. Le Sueur, Pierre Charles, explor- er, visits antique Dubuque area and secures lead, 29; Journal of, known at court of Louis XIV, 34-35. Leyba, Don Fernando de, Spanish Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Louisiana, gives Joseph Parent permission to trade in antique Dubuque, 68; repulses British and Indian attack against St. Louis, 71; referred to as Com- mandante of St. Louis, 72. Lincoln, Abraham, U. S. President, in Black Hawk war, 178. Little Maquoketa river, (Little Makonite), scene of Joseph Par- ent's resistance to British attack on antique Dubuque, 68, 69; marked as upper limit of Julien Dubuque's claim, 83; referred :o in Julien Dubuque's petition for land grant by its Indian name, 90, 91; mines at, described by Schoolcraft, 144; on map, 109. Little Raven, Dubuque Fox chief, addresses Pike, 96, 97; men- tioned, 129. Lockwood, William, pilots first raft of lumber to new Dubuque village, 204. Loire, Antoine, early settler at Dubuque, 185, 199. Long, Major Stephen H., visi's antique Dubuque, 137. Longe, M., works mines in an- tique Dubuque, 53. Louis XIV, reference to, 28, 35. Lucie, G., interpreter, employe of Julien Dubuque, 83. Lutz, Father Joseph, Indian mis- sioner, at Menominee massacre. 174. Maillot, maternal family name of Julien Dubuque and name of distinguished relatives, 76. Maquoketa river, marks southern limit of antique Dubuque, 22; on map, 35. Marois, Chevalier, Indian romance mentioned, 119; near antique Dubuque, 142. Marin's Fort, built by French, 63; on map, 35. Marin, Sieur Joseph, employs Fox Indians from Mississippi val- ley during French and Indian war, 64. Marin, Sieur Paul, builds French fort north of antique Dubuque, 63; pacifies Fox Indians, 64. Marquette and Jolliet, explora- tions of, in Upper Mississippi valley, 27, 28. Marsh, John, Indian agent, visits antique Dubuque, 163; attempts to threaten the Foxes, 164. Marston, Major, quoted, on Fox Indians, 42, 43, 45. Massey, Woodbury, early settler at Dubuque, 190. Mazzuchelli, Samuel Charles, Do- minion missioner of Upper Miss- issippi valley, quoted in refer- ence to Jean Marie Cardinal in Dubuque, 52, 53. McKenney, Col. Thomas L., Su- perintendent of Indian Trad 3, describes visit to antique Du- buque, 149. McKnight, Thomas, clerk for Chouteau in St. Louis, meets Julien Dubuque, 94. Menominees, massacre Foxes on Wisconsin shore, 166-168; are massacred by Foxes at Prarie du Chien, 173-175. Miami Indians, found in antique Dubuque, 31-35. Michilimackinac, references, 66, 67, 69, 91, 107. "Miner's Compact" drawn up at Dubuque, 187. Mines of Spain, mines in antique Dubuque so named by Julien 216 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 Dubuque, 88, 89; reference to, 105; on maps, 35, 109. Mitchell, The Rev. John T., early Methodist minister in Dubuque, 203. Mississippi Bubble, colonization scheme for Louisiana country* 30. Molony, Patrick, early Dubuque settler, sued by Chouteau heirs, 199-200. Morgan, half-breed Fox chief, kills nine Sioux, 145; leads war- party against Sioux, 163; obeys Agent Street, 164; brings Foxes to conference, 165; goes to St. Louis, 169; conducts campaign against Menominees, 173, 174; village at Davenport named in honor of, 175; hands over Men- ominee captives to U. S. govern- ment, 180. Morgan, George, (Ash-e-ton-e-quot) descendant of Chief Morgan, 183. Morgan, Col. Willoughby, reads official proclamation to miners, 187; sends Jefferson Davis to Dubuque mines, 188. Mounds, burial and ritualistic, in antique Dubuque and along Up- per Mississippi, 45-47; foot-note, 46. Muir, Dr. Samuel C, army sur- geon and pioneer, romance men- tioned, 119; in antique Dubuque, 139; sketch of, 139, 140; men- tioned by Schoolcrapt, 142. Musquakenuk, Fox village at Dav- enport, 42. Neutral Ground, decided on at 1930 conference, 173; Winne- bagoes removed to, 178. Newman, William, pioneer settler, first known occupant of oldest house in Iowa, 206. Norsemen and Goths, in Upper Mississippi country, 25, 26. O'Mara, John and P., settlers at the Dubuque mines, 186. O'Regan, John, early settler at Dubuque, 186. O'Reilly, Count Alexander, gov- ernor of Spanish Louisiana, reg- ulations of, in force during era of antique Dubuque, 55, foot- note. Pia-no-sky, Fox chief, preserves Indian integrity of Dubuque lead mines, 129; leads party to Prairie du Chien, 166; killed by Sioux, 167; heart eaten by en- emies, 168. Parent, Joseph Baptiste, trader in antique Dubuque during Revo- lutionary war, resists and then surrenders to British on Little Maquoketa river, 68, 69. Penicault, member of Le Sueur's party, 35. Peosta, Fox chief, mentioned in Fox treaty with Julien Dubuque, 80, 81; mentioned, 119. Perrot, Nicholas, explorer and sol- dier, at Prairie du Chien, 31; builds fort a Dubuque, 32; ex- tracts lead from mines, 33; sub- dues savages, 85. Peru, sister village to Dubuque, 204. Petitioners from St. Louis for the Dubuque-Chouteau land claim, list of, 197. Pike, Lieut. Zebulon M., explor- er, gives population statistics of Fox Indians, 45; exploratory trip to Upper Mississippi, 95; describes visit to Julien Du- buque and his establishment, 95-100; mentions Fox chiefs, 129. "Planet," steamboat, at Dubuque mines, 187. Potosa, traditional wife of Julien Dubuqu, 118-125; buried in same grave, 123. Prairie du Chien, early history of, 48-50; derivation of name, 49; petition of villagers to U. S. Congress, 50; attacked by Span- ish and Indians, 92, 93; head- INDEX 217 quarters British campaign of 1780, 66-69; Giard land claim in, 114, 115; captured by British, 130; scene of Great Council and other Indian councils, 161 et seq. Prentice, Milo A., first postmaster in Dubuque village, 204. Pryor, Nathaniel, conducts smelt- ing furnace in antique Dubuque, 153; escapes from Winnebagoes to Catfish village, 154. Quinantotaye, interpreter with the Foxes, 80, 82. Quirneau, Blondeau de, witness to Fox-Julien Dubuque treaty, 80, 81. Radisson in West in 1655, 22: heard of lead mines in antique Dubuque 1658-59, 34. Randle, The Rev. Barton, early Methodist minister in Dubuque, 203. Robidoux, Joseph, creditor of Jul- ien Dubuque, 111. Rolette, Joseph, Prairie du Chien trader, 156. Salter, William, Iowa historian, quoted, 111; refers to Dubuque's marriage, 120. Schlarman, J. N., author, refer- ence to, 20. Schoolcraft, Henry R., explorer and writer, quoted on Fox In- dians, 38; on Julien Dubuque'3 marriage, 120, 121; inspects an- tique Dubuque country, 141-145; attends Great Council and de- scribes Foxes, 161, 162. Scott, Gen, Winfield, troops at- tacked by cholera at Galena, 140; in Black Hawk war, 178; letter states cholera has disap- peared, 182. Senex, John, map of, published in London, indicating mines in an- tique Dubuque, reference to, 35. Settlers of 1830 at Dubuque mines, list of, 185, 186. Settlers of 1832, at Dubuque mines, list of, 190. Shaw, Col. John, early trader, quoted, 134; visits antique Du- buque, 135-137; knows Dr. Muir, 140; refused permission by Fox- es to build saw-mill, 154. Sheldon, John P., superintendent of the Dubuque mines, 201. Shiras, Judge Oliver P., quoted, 117; comments on Chouteau \a. Dubuque case, 200. Shull, Jesse W., founder of Shulls- burg, Wisconsin, trader at Du- buque mines, 155. Sinclair, Patrick, Lieutenant-Gov- ernor of Canada, headquarters at Michilimackinac and organ- izes expedition against Spanish posts on Mississippi, 66; sends Indians to watch the Lead Mines, 69-70; referred to as St. Clair in letter of Joseph Parent of antique Dubuque, and shows kindness to Parent, 68. Sinsinawa river, mines at, 138; de- scribed by Schoolcraft, 144. Sioux Indians, references, 96, 161, 166, 173. Smith, Col. John T., Missouri min- er, driven out of antique Du- buque, 128, 129; his representa- tives attempt to seize mines in 1830, 169, 170. Smith, Piatt, Dubuque attorney, defends settlers' rights, 199, 200. Soulard, Antoine, Surveyor-Gener- al of Upper Louisiana, business representative of Julien Du- buque at St. Louis, 94; induces Gen. William Henry Harrison to safeguard Julien Dubuque's Claim, 103. Soulard, James G., as a boy meets Julien Dubuque, 94. Steck, Francis Borgia, historical authority on Jolliet-Marquette expedition, 22. St. Louis, connected with antique Dubuque, 48; known as San Luis d'lllinois and St. Louis des Illinois, 57; British attack on, 218 ANTIQUE DUBUQUE: 1673-1833 66-72; references to, 51, 52, 70, 76; relation with Chouteau and Dubuque, 101; mentioned, 130, 154, 168, 170, 192, 195. Street, Joseph M., Indian agent at Prairie du Chien, negotiates with Foxes, 163, 164; attempts to warn Foxes of Sioux attack, 165. St. Vrain, Felix de Hault Delass- us, appointed U. S. Indian agent for Foxes, 172; confers with Keokuk, 175; murdered by- Black Hawk's followers, 179; mentioned in document, 182. Taliaferro, Major Lawrence, In- dian agent, passenger on "Vir- ginia," 147; rescues Sioux cap- tive from Foxes, 148, 149. Talon, Jean, mentioned, 21. Tama Reservation, descendants of Dubuque Foxes, 183. Tanner, Edward, a traveller, de- scribes antique Dubuque, 138. Taylor, Zachary, U. S. soldier, de- feated by Sac and Fox, 130, 131; at Fort Crawford, 150; opposed for presidency by Cass, 161; warns invaders out of antique Dubuque, 171, 172; in Black Hawk war, 178. Tetes des Morts creek, discover- ed by Le Sueur, 29; marked as lower limit of Julien Dubuque's claim, 83; referred to in Julien Dubuque's petition for land grant by its Indian name, 91; derivation of name according to Beltrami, 97, 98; Indians attack Americans, 134; Winnebagoes burn Hunt's house and kill Americans, 153; on map, 109. Thwaites, Reuben G., historian, quoted, 52, 61, 62. Todd, Don Andrew, merchant and trade monopolist, consulted by- Baron de Carondelet in regard to Dubuque, 90, 91; dies, 91. Tonrokeka creek (Catfish), 116; on map, 109. Trudeau, Zenon, Lieutenant-Gov- ernor of Spanish Upper Louis- iana, 86. Turkey river, marks northern lim- it of antique Dubuque, 22; Fox village founded, 42; Fox villages in vicinity of participate in An- glo-Spanish war of 1796, 92; visited by Schoolcraft, 141; on map, 35. Upper Louisiana, population of in 1785 and 1788, 54; gains two- thirds of its population from 1796 on under Baron de Caron- delet, 89. "Virginia," steamboat from St. Louis, visits antique Dubuque, 146-7. Van Metre, A. P., trader with Du- buque Foxes, 155; as justice of peace, performs first marriage service, 156. Van Quickenbourne, Charles, Jes- uit missioner, gives first bap- tisms in Dubuque, 203. Wabassayah, Dubuque Fox chief, wars against Americans, 130; signs peace treaty, 132; men- tioned, 134; met by Schoolcraft, 143. Waller, Richard and Robert, early- settlers at Dubuque, 190, 199. Wapello, Fox chieftain, visits Gen. Clark at St. Louis, 169; holds aloof from Black Hawk war, 180; delivers up Menominee prisoners, 180. Warner, Wynkoop, Fox sub-agent, summons Indians to council, 165; mentioned in Forsythe's letter, 167; informs Forsythe of white invasion of antique Du- buque, 169, 170; dropped from service, 172. Wilkinson, Gen. James, sends Pike on exploratory expedition, 95; receives letter from Pike, 99. Wilson, Lieut. George, commands troops at Dubuque mines, 188; INDEX 219 brother of Judge T. S. and D. S. Wilson, 191; follows kindly policy towards intruders, 192. Wilson, Judge T. S., Dubuque jurist and writer, denies Du- buque's marriage, 121, 122; de- scribes congressional contest on Dubuque land sales, 198; de- fends settlers' rights before U. S. Supreme Court, 199-200; quot- ed, 200. Winnebago Indians, friends and colaborators of Julien Dubuque, 87; mentioned, 130; kill Ameri- cans on the Tetes des Moris creek, 153; join Sioux in the Massacre of the Foxes, 1G6-168. Yellow River, (Jaune), claim of Cayolle on, 110. IIP llllllltlllll- i Hail ;W> ' : J:" III m mm J!j:jJ!Jj:jj2j mm 5 !i ;;; :