EARLY SETTLEMENTS, AND TERRITORIAL
ORGANIZATION.
Julien Dubuque-Spanish Lead Mines-Early
Settlement at Dubuque-Settlement at
Mont
rose-Old Apple Trees-Fort Madison-Keokuk-First
Settlement at Burlington-First
Settlement In Scott County-Organization
of Scott County-Murder of Col. Davenport
- Band of Outlaws broken up-Some First
Things-Territorial Convention-Subject
of Preemptions-Missouri Boundary-Question
of Separate Territorial Organization-Memorials
to Congress.
141
THE first white
men who are known to have set their
feet upon the soil of Iowa, were James
Marquette and Louis Joliet,
in 1673, as we have seen in a former
part of this work. It was 115 years
after the visit of these celebrated
French voyageurs before any white
man established a settlement, during
which time several generations of
the Indian tribes occupied the valleys
of the beautiful rivers of Iowa, or
roamed over her broad prairies. During
all this time they doubtless kept
alive among them the tradition of
the strange Black-Robe Chief and his
pale-faced companions who came in
their canoes to see their fathers
so many years before. It was likewise
a Frenchman, Julien Dubuque,
who had the honor of making the first
permanent white settlement. In 1788,
having obtained permission from the
Indians, he crossed the Mississippi
with a small party of miners for the
purpose of working lead mines at the
place where the city is now located
which bears his name, the lead having
been discovered a short time before
by the wife Peosta, a Fox warrior.
Dubuque was a native of France, but
had emigrated to Canada and become
an Indian trader. While engaged in
that business he reached Prairie du
Chien about the year 1785, and with
two other Frenchmen, laid out a village
which now constitutes the northern
part of that city. As a trader he
acquired great influence with the
Sac and Fox Chiefs. Six years after
he engaged in mining (1796), he wrote
a very diplomatic petition to the
Spanish Governor of Louisiana,
Baron de Carondelet, to confirm
the Indian grant. The governor referred
the petition to a merchant and trader
named Andrew Todd, who recommended
that the grant be confirmed, with
a restriction, prohibiting Dubuque
from trading with the Indians, without
first obtaining Todd's consent in
writing. With this restriction the
petition was .granted. Dubuque, as
was a common custom among the French
traders, had married an Indian woman.
He gave to the district embraced in
his grant the name of the Mines of
Spain, in 1796, in compliment to the
Spanish governor. He remained engaged
in mining, until his death, which
occurred March 24, 1810. He was buried
on a bluff near the present city,
and at his grave was placed a cedar
cross, hewn square,
142
and about twelve feet
high. On the arms of the cross there
was, in French,
an inscription, of which the following
is a; translation:
JULIEN DUBUQUE,
MINER OF THE MINES OF SPAIN,
DIED MARCH 24TH, 1810,
AGED FORTY-FIVE AND A-HALF YEARS.
A
number of Indians were afterward buried
at the same place, and among them
the chief Kettle and his wife, who
both died some eighteen years after
Dubuque. Kettle had requested his
tribe to bury him and his wife in
the vault with Dubuque. In 1828 their
bodies were on the surface of the
ground, wrapped in buffalo robes,
protected from animals by closed walls
and a roof: the cross and vault of
Dubuque, it is said, were torn down
about the year 1854, by some thoughtless
boys, or perhaps men. The vault was
built of roughly dressed limestone
taken from the edge of the bluff only
a few feet distant. But little more
than is here stated is Known of the
first white man who settled on Iowa
soil.
At the death of
Dubuque the Indians claimed that the
right, or lease of the whites to work
the mines had expired, and but little
more mining seems to have been done
there until after the Black Hawk War.
When attempts were made to engage
in mining the military authority interfered
to prevent intrusion upon the rights
of the Indians. .In 1829, James
L. Langworthy, a native of Vermont,
who had been engaged in lead mining
at Galena, Illinois, crossed over
the river for the purpose of working
the mines known then as the "Spanish
Lead Mines." The Indians refused
to give him permission, but allowed
him to explore the country. With two
young Indians as guides, he traversed
the region between Maquoketa and Turkey
rivers. When he returned to the Sac
and Fox village, he secured the good
will of the Indiana, and formed his
plans for operating the mines. The
next year, with his brother, Lucius
H. Langworthy, and some other miners,
he crossed over the river and engaged
in mining. In June, 1830, the miners
adopted a code of laws or rules, reported
by a committee consisting of James
L. Langworthy, H. F. Lander, James
MePhetres, Samuel Scales and E. M.
Wren. They erected an independent
civil government of their own, the
first government established by white
men in Iowa. Some time after this
the War Department issued an order
to Col. Zachary Taylor, then
in command of the military post at
Prairie du Chien, to cause the miners
to leave the, west side of the river.
Notice was accordingly given them
and the order was reluctantly obeyed,
but not until a detachment of troops
was sent to enforce it.
After the close of the Black Hawk
War, and the treaty went into effect
which allowed settlement, on and after
June 1, 1833, the Langworthy brothers
and some others returned and resumed
their claims, and soon there was a
considerable settlement at Dubuque.
The first school house in Iowa was
erected there the same year, and before
the close of the year there were five
hundred white people in the mining
district. At a meeting of the settlers,
in 1834, the place was named Dubuque.
Except the mining
settlement at Dubuque, the first traces
of the white man in Iowa, are to be
found in Lee county. On the 30th of
March, 1199, Louis Honori Fesson
obtained permission of the Spanish
government to establish himself at
the head of the rapids of the river
Des Moines for the purpose of trading
with the Indians. The place was at
this time occupied by a half-breed
Indian named Red Bird,
143
but known among the whites as Thomas
Abbott. Subsequently the, town
of Montrose was located on the ground
where Fesson had his trading post
and Red Bird his wick-e-up. Settlers
of a later day have felt much interest
in the existence here of, some ful1grown
apple trees which must have been planted
by some hand long before the Black
Hawk War. It has been claimed by some
that they were planted by Fesson as
early as the beginning of the present
century. Ron. D. W. Kilbourne,
one of the early settlers of Lee county,
claimed that they were planted by
Red Bird some time between the years
1795 and 1798. Mr. Kilbourne was personally
acquainted with Red Bird as well as
with Black Hawk and other noted Indians
of the Sac and Fox tribes, and from
them he received what he believed
to be an authentic account of the
origin of the "ancient apple
orchard" at Montrose. It was
the custom of the Indians once a year
to visit St. Louis for the purpose
of obtaining supplies of blankets
and' other articles. The half-breed,
Red Bird, then a young man, made his
customary pilgrimage in the early
spring, and on his return stopped
a few days at St. Charles on the Missouri
river. There a white man made him
a present of about twenty small apple
trees and gave him instructions how
to plant them. Red Bird carried the
trees home with him and planted them
near his wick-e-up, placing stakes
around them. Nearly all of them grew
and remained to excite the wonder
and curiosity of succeeding generations
of white men.
In 1809 a military
post was established where Ft. Madison
is now located, but of course the
country was not open to white settlers
until after the "Black Hawk Purchase."
In 1834 troops were stationed at the
point where Montrose is now located,
but at that time the place was called
"Fort Des Moines." They
remained until 1837, when they were
removed to Fort Leavenworth. At first
they were under the command of Lieut.
Col. S. W. Kearney, who was afterward
relieved by Col. R. B. Mason.
The command consisted of three companies
of the 1st United States Dragoons,
Co. C, Capt. E. V. Sumner,
Co. H, Capt. Nathan Boone,
and Co. I, Capt. J. B. Browne.
Capt. Browne resigned his position
in the regular army in 1837, and remained
a citizen of Lee county. In 1838 he
was appointed by Gov. Lucas as Maj.
Gen. of Militia. He was also elected
as a member of the first, Territorial
Legislature which convened at Burlington,
and had the honor of being the first
President of the Council and afterward
Speaker of the House of Representatives.
At the "Foot of The Lower Rapids"
there was a place which, prior to
1834, was known as "Farmers'
Trading Post." In September of
that year a meeting of half-breed
Indians and their assigns was held
in the old trading house then owned
by Isaac O. Campbell. The object of
the meeting was to petition Congress
,for the passage of a law granting
them the privilege to sell and convey
their respective titles to what was
then known as the "Half-breed
Reservation," according to the
laws of Missouri. In attendance at
this meeting were representatives
from Prairie du Chein and St. Louis.
At this time there were about nine
families residing in the vicinity,
and after the adjournment of the meeting
the resident citizens repaired to
the saloon of John Gaines to
talk over their prospects when the
ha]f-breed title should become extinct.
They looked forward to the time when
a city should grow up at that point.
John Gaines called the meeting
to order and made a speech in which
he said the time had now come to agree
upon a name for the town. He spoke
of the chief Keokuk as the friend
of the white man, and proposed his
name for the future town. The proposition
met with favor and the name was adopted.
In the spring of
144
1837 the town was laid
out and a public sale of lots took
place in June. Only two or three lots
were sold, although many attended
from St. Louis and other points. In
1840 the greater portion of Keokuk
was a dense forest, the improvements
being only a few cabins. In 1847 a
census of the place gave a population
of 620. During the year 1832 Capt.
James White made a claim on
the present site of Montrose, and
in the same year, soon after the close
of the Black Hawk war, Zachariah
Hawkins, Benjamin Jennings, Aaron
White, Augustine Horton, Samuel Gooch,
Daniel Thompson and Peter Williams
made claims at Ft. Madison. In 1833
these claims were purchased by John
and Nathaniel Knapp, upon which,
in 1835, they laid out the town. The
next summer lots were sold. The lots
were subsequently re-surveyed and
platted by the United States Government.
The first settlement
made at Burlington and in the vicinity,
was in the fall of 1832. Daniel
Tothero came with his family and
settled on the prairie about three
miles from the Mississippi river.
About the same time Samuel White,
with his family, erected his cabin
near the river at what is known as
the upper bluffs within the limits
of the present city of Burlington.
This was before the extinction, of
the Indian title, for that did not
take place before June 1st, 1833,
when the government acquired the territory
under what was known as the "Black
Hawk Purchase." There was then
a government military post at Rock
Island, and some dragoons came down
from that place during the next winter
and drove Tothero and White over the
river, burning their cabins. White
remained in Illinois until the first
of the following June, when the Indians
surrendered possession of the "Black
Hawk Purchase," and on that very
day was on the ground and built his
second cabin. His cabin stood on what
is now Front street, between Court
and High streets, in the city of Burlington.
Soon after Mr. White's return his
brother-in-law, Doolittle,
joined him, and in 1834 they laid
out the original town, naming it Burlington,
for the town of that name in Vermont.
The name was given at the request
of John Gray, a Vermonter and
a friend of the proprietors. Thus
White and Doolittle became the Romulus
and Remus of one of the leading cities
of Iowa. During the year 1833 there
was considerable settlement made in
the vicinity, and soon a mill was
erected by Mr. Donnell, on
Flint creek, three miles from Burlington.
In 1837 Major McKell erected
a saw-mill in the town. In June, 1834,
Congress passed an act attaching the
"Black Hawk Purchase" to
the Territory of Michigan for temporary
government. In September of the same
year the Legislature of Michigan divided
this purchase into two counties, Des
Moines and Dubuque. The boundary between
them was a line running due west from
the lower end of Rock Island. They
also organized a county court in each
county, and for Des Moines county
made the seat of justice at Burlington.
The first court was held in April,
1835, in a log house. In 1838 Iowa
was made a separate Territory and
Burlington was made the capital and
so remained until after the admission
into the Union and a State. The Territorial
Legislature met for several years
in the first church erected in Burlington,
known as "Old Zion." In
this same building the supreme judicial
tribunal of the Territory also held
its sessions, as well as the district
court.
The first white
man to settle permanently within the
limits of Scott county, was Capt.
B. W. Clark, a native of Virginia.
He had settled and made some improvement
on the Illinois side of the Mississippi,
but in 1833 he moved across the river
and made a "claim and commenced
an improvement
145 Click
on image for full size 
Breaking
Prairie
146
where the town of Buffalo
was laid out. His nearest white neighbors
on the west side of the Mississippi,
were at Burlington and Dubuque. David
H. Clark, a son of Capt. Clark,
born April 21, 1834, was the first
white child born within the limits
of what is now Scott county.
Before the time,
June 1, 1833, that the Indians were
to give possession to the whites,
Geo. L. Davenport had been
permitted to make a claim. He had
been a favorite with the, Indians
from boyhood, and for this reason
he was permitted to go upon the lands
while others were kept off. The land
upon which a part of the city of Davenport
is located, and adjoining or near
Le Claire's reserve, was claimed by
R. H. Spencer, and a man named
McCloud. Mr. Le Claire afterward
purchased their claim interest for
$150.
The project of
laying out a town upon Mr. Le Claire's
claim was first discussed in the autumn
of 1835, at the residence of Col.
Davenport, on Rock Island. The persons
interested in the movement were Antoine
Le Claire, Maj. Thos. Smith, Maj.
Wm. Gordon, Phillip Hambaugh, Alexander
W. McGregor, Levi S. Colton, Capt.
James May and Col. Geo. Davenport.
In the spring of 1836, the enterprise
was carried into effect by the purchase
of the land from Mr. Le Claire, and
the laying out of a town to which
the name of Davenport was given, in
honor of Col. Davenport. The survey
was made by Maj. Gordon. Some improvement
had been made upon the ground by Mr.
Le Claire, as early as 1833, but none
of a substantial character until 1836.
During this year
Messrs. Le Claire and Davenport erected
a building which was opened as a public
.house or tavern, by Edward Powers.
During the same year John Litch
from Newburyport, N. H., opened the
pioneer whisky shop in a Front shanty
on Front street. A ferry across the
Mississippi was established by Mr.
Le Claire, who was also the same year
appointed the first postmaster, and
carried the mails in his pocket while
ferrying. The first white male child
born in Davenport was a son of Levi
S. Colton, in the autumn of 1836.
The child died in August, 1840, at
the Indian village on Iowa river.
The first female child was a daughter
of D. O. Eldridge. Alex. W. McGregor,
opened the first law office in 1836.
Rev A. M. Gavit, a Methodist
minister, preached the first sermon
in the house of D. O. Eldridge.
At the close of the year 1836 there
were some six or seven houses in the
town. The Indians still lingered about
the place. Col. Davenport still kept
a trading house open on Hock Island,
and furnished supplies.
When the Sacs
and Foxes removed from the lands embraced
in the first purchase they settled
for a short time on Iowa river, and
after the second purchase removed
to the Des Moines river, where they
remained until the last sale of their
lands in Iowa when they were removed
by the government to Kansas.
Scott county was
organized and named in honor of Gen.
Winfield Scott at the session
of the. Legislature of Wisconsin in
December, 1837. Major Frayer Wilson
was appointed sheriff. The election
for county commissioners was held
on the third Monday in February, 1838,
when the following w.ere elected:
Benj. F. Pike, Andrew W. Campbell,
and Alfred Carter. On the 4th
of July, 1838, by an act of Congress,
Iowa became a separate Territory,
and Robert Lucas, of Ohio,
was appointed the first Territorial
Governor.
He made the following appointments
for Scott county: Williard Barrows,
notary public; Ebenezer Cook,
judge of probate; Adrian H. Davenport,
sheriff; Isaac A. Hedges and
John Porter, Justices of the
peace. D. C. Eldridge received
the appointment of postmaster at Davenport.
The first
top
147
District Court met in
Davenport in October, 1838, Hon. Thomas
S. Wilson, of Dubuque, presiding.
For two years
a contest had been going on between
Davenport and a place called Rockingham
as to which should have the honor
of the county seat. The fourth Monday
of August, 1840, was fixed for holding
an election to decide the vexed question.
It resulted favorably to Davenport,
the citizens of the successful town
building a court house and jail free
of expense to the county.
On the 7th of
July, 1838, Andrew Logan, from
Pennsylvania, arrived with a printing
press, and on the 17th of September
following issued the first number
of a paper called Iowa Sun and
Davenport and Rock Island News,
the first newspaper published in the
county. On the 26th day of August,
1841, the first number of the Davenport
Weekly Gazette was issued by Alfred
Sanders.
One of the most
exciting incidents connected with
the early history of Davenport and
Scott county was the murder of Col.
George Davenport on Rock Island,
July 4, 1845. . The country on both
sides of the river had been infested
by a lawless band of freebooters,
with their supposed headquarters at
Nauvoo, They had organized themselves
into bands and engaged in horse stealing,
counterfeiting, burglary, robbery,
and murder. In some places men in
official positions and of good standing
in community were associated with
them. On the fatal 4th of July, Col.
Davenport's family was away at Stephenson
attending a celebration when three
men attacked him in his house, one
of whom shot him with a pistol through
the thigh. They then bound him with
strips of bark and blindfolded him.
They then made a search for the key
of his safe but were unable to find
it. Returning to the wounded man,
they carried him up-stairs where the
safe was and compelled him to unlock
it The booty obtained was about $600
in money. a gold watch-chain and seals,
a double-barrelled [barreled] gun,
and a few articles of minor value.
Col. Davenport lived long enough to
relate the incidents of the robbery.
For several weeks no trace could be
found of the murderers. Edward
Bonney, of Lee county, Iowa. undertook
to ferret out their place of concealment.
About the middle of August he went
to Nauvoo where he obtained. trace
of them by representing himself as
one of the gang. On the 8th of September
he arrested a man named Fox
at Centerville, Indiana, and committed
him to jail there. On the 19th he
arrested two others, Birch and
John Long, at Saudusky. Ohio,
and brought them to Rock Island by
way of the lakes and, Chicago. These
three men were known at the west as
leaders of gangs of desperadoes, but
operated under different names. Three
others were also arrested as accessories,
Richard Baxter and Aaron Long,
near Galena, Illinois, and Granville
Young, at Nauvoo. Aaron
was a brother of John Long.
On the 6th of October all of them
were indicted by the grand jury of
Rock Island, county, except Fox, who
had escaped from jail in Indiana on
the 17th of September. On the 14th
of October the two Longs were put
upon trial, found guilty, and sentenced
to be hung on the 27th of the same
month. Birch, the greatest
villain, turned States evidence. Baxter
was tried separately, convicted and
sentenced to be hung on the 18th of
November. In his case a writ of error
was obtained and a new trial granted,
when he was again found guilty and
sentenced to the penitentiary for
life, where he died two years after.
Birch took a change of venue to Knox
county, and while awaiting trial escaped
from jail. Upon the gallows John
Long confessed all, but died a
hardened wretch without sign of repentance
or fear of death.
148
During
the year 1834 settlements were made
at various points besides those mentioned,
in what are now the counties bordering
on the Mississippi river, and soon
other settlements began to extend
to the western limit of the Black
Hawk Purchase.
The first post-office
in Iowa was established in Dubuque
in 1833. Milo H. Prentice was appointed
postmaster.
The first justice
of the peace was Antoine Le Claire,
appointed in 1833, as "a very
suitable person to adjust the difficulties
between the white settlers and the
Indians still remaining there."
The first Methodist
Society in the Territory was formed
at Dubuque on the 18th of May, 1834,
and the first class meeting was held
June 1st of that year.
The first church
bell brought into Iowa was in March,
1834.
The first mass
of the Roman Catholic Church in the
Territory was celebrated at Dubuque,
in the house of Patrick Quigley, in
the fall of 1833.
The first school
house in the Territory was erected
by the Dubuque miners in 1833.
The first Sabbath
school was organized at Dubuque early
in the summer of 1834.
The first woman
who came to this part of the Territory
with a view to permanent residence
was Mrs. Nob1e F. Dean, in the fall
of 1832.
The first family
that lived in this part of Iowa was
that of Hosea T. Camp, in 1832.
The first meeting-house
was built by the Methodist Episcopal
Church, at Dubuque, in 1834. The first
newspaper in Iowa was the Dubuque
Visitor, issued May 11th, 1836.
John King, afterward Judge
King, was editor, and William C.
Jones, printer.
By the year 1836
the population had increased so that
the people began to agitate for a
separate Territorial organization.
There were also several other matters
in which they were deeply interested.
In November, 1837, a convention was
called at Burlington to take action.
Some account of this first Iowa convention,
and the action taken by it, will be
of interest to every citizen of the
State.
TERRITORIAL CONVENTION.
On Monday the
6th of November, 1837, a convention
of delegates from the several counties
in that portion of Wisconsin Territory
west of the Mississippi river, then
sometimes called Western Wisconsin,
convened in the town of Burlington.
Among, the principal purposes for
which this convention was called were:
To memoralize Congress for the passage
of an act granting the right of pre-emption
to actual settlers on government lands;
2. To mernoralize Congress on the
subject of the attempt then being
made by the State of Missouri to extend
her northern boundary line so as to
embrace territory claimed as being
a part of Wisconsin; 3. To memoralize
Congress for the organization of a
separate territorial government in
that part of the Territory of Wisconsin
west of the Mississippi river.
The following
were the accredited delegates in the
convention from the several counties:
Dubuque County. - P. H. Engle,
J. T. Fales, G, W. Harris, W. A. Warren,
W. B. Watts, :A. F. Russell; W. H.
Patton, J. W. Parker, J. D. Bell,
and J. H. Rose.
Des Moines County. - David
Rorer, Robert Ralston, and Cyrus S.
Jacobs.
149
Van Buren County.
- Van Caldwell, J. G. Kenner, and
James Hall.
Henry County.- W. H. Wallace,
J. D. Payne, and J. L. Myers.
Muscatine County. - J. R. Struthers,
M.. Couch, Eli Reynolds, S. C. Hastings,
James Davis, S. Jenner, A. Smith,
and E. K. Fay.
Louisa County. - J. M. Clark,
Wm. L. Toole, and J. J. Rinearson.
Lee County.-Henry Eno, John
Claypool, and Hawkins Taxlor.
The officers of
the convention were: President, Cyrus
S. Jacobs; Vice Presidents, J. M.
Clark, and Wm. H. Wallace; Secretaries,
J. W., Parker, and J. R. Struthers.
The following
committees were appointed:
To draft and report
.a memorial in relation to the right
of pre-emption —
Messrs. Engle, Kenner, Payne, Struthers,
Patton, Rorer, and Smith.
To draft and report
a memorial on the subject of the boundary
line — Messrs. Eno, Claypool,
Kenner, Ralston, Davis, Watts, and
Toole.
To draft and report
a memorial on the subject of a separate
territorial organization—Messrs.
Rarer, Hastings, Caldwell, Myers,
Claypoal, Rinearson, and Harris.
The convention
continued in session three days, and
on the afternoon of the last day all
the committees reported, and their
reports were unanimously adopted.
MEMORIAL ON THE SUBJECT, OF PRE-EMPTIONS.
To the Honorable Senate and: House
of Representatives:
A convention of
citizens representing all the counties
in that part of Wisconsin Territory
lying west of the Mississippi river,
have assembled at Burlington, the
present seat of government of said
Territory, far the purpose of taking
into consideration several measures
immediately affecting their interests
and prosperity. Among the most important
or these is the passage by your honorable
bodies, at the session about to be
commenced, of a preemption law by
which the settlers an the public land
shall have secured to them at the
minimum price, the lands on which
they live, which they have improved
and cultivated without fear of molestation,
or, over-bidding an the part of the
rich capitalist and speculator. It
is a fact well known to your honorable
bodies, that none of the land in Wisconsin,
west of the Mississippi river, in
what is called the "Iowa District,"
has yet been offered for sale by the
government. It is equally true that
that tract of country is now inhabited
by twenty-five thousand souls, comprising
a population as active, intelligent,
and worthy as can be found in any
other part of the United States. The
enterprise of these pioneers has converted
what was but yesterday a solitary
and uncultivated waste, into thriving
towns and villages, alive with the
engagements of trade and commerce,
and rich and smiling farms, yielding
their bountiful return to the labors
of the husbandman. This district has
been settled and improved with a rapidity
unexampled in the history of the country;
emigrants from all parts of the United
States, and from Europe, are daily
adding to our numbers and importance.
An attempt to force these lands thus
occupied and improved into market,
to be sold to the highest bidder,
and to put the money thus extorted
from the hard earnings of an industrious
and laborious people into the coffers
of the public treasury, would be an
act of injustice to the settlers,
which would scarcely receive the sanction
of your honorable bodies. In most
cases the labor of years and the accumulated
capital of a whole life has been expended
in making improvements an the public
land, under the strong and firm belief
that every safeguard would be thrown
around them to prevent their property,
thus dearly earned
150
by years of suffering,
privation and toil, from being unjustly
wrested from their hands. Shall they
be disappointed? Will Congress refuse
to pass such laws as may be necessary
to protect a large class of our citizens
from systemized plunder and rapine?
The members comprising this convention,
representing a very large class of
people, who delegated them to speak
in their stead, do most confidently
express an opinion that your honorable
bodies will at your present session,
pass some law removing us from danger,
and relieving us from fear on this
subject. The members of this convention,
for themselves, and for the people
whose interests they are sent here
to represent, do most respectfully
solicit that your honorable bodies
wi1l, as speedily as possible, pass
a pre-emption law, giving to every
actual settler on the public domain,
who has made improvements sufficient
to evince that it is bona fide his
design to cultivate and occupy the
land, the right to enter at the minimum
government price, one-half section
for that purpose, before it shall
be offered at public sale.
MEMORIAL ON THE SUBJECT
OF THE MISSOURI BOUNDARY LINE.
To the Honorable, the Senate and
House of Representatives of the United
States in Congress assembled:
The Memorial of
a Convention of Delegates from the
several counties in the Territory
of Wisconsin, west of the Mississippi
river, convened at Burlington, in
said Territory, November 6 1837; respectfully
represent:
That your memorialists are desirous
of asking the attention of Congress
to the adjustment of the boundary
line between the State of Missouri
and the Territory of Western Wisconsin.
Much excitement already prevails among
the inhabitants situated in the border
counties of the State and Territory,
and it is much to be feared that,
unless the speedy action of Congress
should be had upon the subject; difficulties
of a serious nature will, arise, militating
against the peace and harmony which
would otherwise exist among them.
At the last session of the legislature
of Missouri, commissioners were appointed
to run the northern boundary line
of the State. They have recently been
engaged in the work, and, according
to the line run by them, there is
included within the limits of the
State of Missouri a considerable tract
of country hitherto supposed to belong
to the Territory of Wisconsin, and
which is still believed of right to
belong to it. The northern boundary
line of Missouri was run several years
ago by commissioners appointed by
the State of Missouri, and will cross
the Des Moines river at a point about
twenty-five miles from its mouth.
This line, if continued on due east,
would strike the Mississippi river
near the town of Fort Madison, about
ten miles above the rapids in said
river, long since known as the Des
Moines rapids; and this line, so run
by the commissioners, has always been
considered as the boundary line between
the State and Territory. The present
commissioners, appointed by the State
of Missouri, giving a different construction
to the act defining the boundary line
of the State, passed up the Des Moines
river in search of rapids, and have
seen proper to find them some twelve
or fourteen miles further up the river
than the other commissioners of Missouri
formerly did, and, selecting a point
which they call the rapids in the
Des Moines river, have from thence
marked out a line which is now claimed
as the northern boundary line of the
State. Were this line extended due
east, it would strike the Mississippi
river at the town of Burlington, some
thirty miles above the rapids known,
as stated above, as the Des Moines
Rapids.
151
Missouri was created
into an independent State, and her
boundary line defined, in June, 1820.
At that time the country bordering
on the Des Moines river was a wilderness,
and little was known, except from
the Indians who lived on its banks,
of its geographical situation. There
was at that time no point on the river
known as the Des Moines rapids, and
at the present time between the mouth
of the river and the Raccoon forks,
a distance of two hundred miles, fifty
places can with as much propriety
be designated as the one selected
by the commissioners of the State
of Missouri.
Your memorialists
conceive that no action of the State
of Missouri can, or ought to, affect
the integrity of the Territory of
Wisconsin; and standing in the attitude
they do, they must look to the general
government to protect their rights
and redress their wrongs, which, for
so long a period of time, existed
between the Territory of Michigan
and the State of Ohio relative to
their boundaries, will, it is hoped,
prompt the speedy action of Congress
on this existing subject. Confidently
relying upon the wisdom of the general
government, and its willingness to
take such means as will settle this
question, the people of Wisconsin
will peaceably submit to an extension
of the northern boundary line of the
State of Missouri, if so be that Congress
shall ordain it; but until such action,
they will resist to the utmost extremity
any attempt made by the State of Missouri
to extend her jurisdiction over any
disputed territory.
We, therefore,
pray that Congress will appoint commissioners,
whose duty it shall be to run the
line between the State of Missouri
and the Territory of Wisconsin according
to the spirit and intention of the
act defining these boundary lines
of the state of Missouri, and to adopt
such other measures as in their wisdom
they shall deem fit and proper.
MEMORIAL PRAYING FOR A DIVISION OF
THE TERRITORY.
To the Honorable,
the Senate and House of Representatives
of the United States in Congress assembled:
The memorial of
a general convention of delegates,
from the respective counties in the
Territory of Wisconsin, west of the
Mississippi river, convened at the
capitol at Burlington, in said Territory,
November 6, 1837, respectfully represents:
That the citizens
of that part of the Territory west
of the Mississippi river, taking into
consideration their remote and isolated
position; and the vast extent of country
included within the limits of the
present Territory, and the utter impracticability
of the same being governed as an entire
whole, by the wisest and best administration
of our municipal affairs, in such
manner as to fully secure individual
right and the right of property, as
well as to maintain domestic tranquility,
and the good order of society, have
by their respective representatives,
convened in general convention as
aforesaid, for availing themselves
of their right of petition as free
citizens, by representing their situation
and wishes to your honorable body,
and asking for the organization of
a separate Territorial government
over that part of the Territory west
of the Mississippi river.
Without in the
least designing to question the official
conduct of those in whose hands the
fate of our infant Territory has been
confided, and in whose patriotism
and wisdom we have the utmost confidence,
our memorialists cannot refrain from
the frank expression of their belief
that, taking into consideration the
geographical extent of her country,
in connection with the probable population
of Western Wisconsin, perhaps no Territory
of the
152
United States has been
so much neglected by the parent government,
so illy protected in the political
and individual rights of her citizens.
Western, Wisconsin came into the possession
of our government in June, 1833. Settlements
were made, and crops grown, during
the same season; and even then, at
that early day, was the impulse given
to the mighty throng of emigration
that has subsequently filled our lovely
and desirable country with people,
intelligence, wealth and enterprise.
From that period until the present,
being a little over four years, what
has been the Territory of Western
Wisconsin? Literally and practically
a large portion of the time without
a government. With a population of
thousands, she has remained ungoverned,
and has been quietly left by the parent
government to take care of herself,
without the privilege on the one hand
to provide a government of her own,
and without any existing authority
on the other to govern her.
From June, 1833, until June, 1834,
a period of one year, there was not
even the shadow of government or law
in all Western Wisconsin. In June,
1334, Congress attached her to the
then existing Territory of Michigan;
of which Territory she nominally continued
a part, until July, 1836, a period
of little more than two years. During
the whole of this time, the whole
country west, sufficient of itself
for a respectable State, was included
in two counties, Dubuque and Des Moines.
In each of these two counties there
were holden, during the said term
of two years, two terms of a county
court (a court of inferior jurisdiction),
as the only Sources of judicial relief
up to the passage of the act of Congress
creating the Territory of Wisconsin.
That act took effect on the third
day of July; 1836, and the first judicial
relief afforded under .that act, was
at the April term following, 1837,
a period of nine months after its
passage; subsequently to which time
there has been a court holden in one
solitary county in Western Wisconsin
only. This, your memorialists are
aware, has recently been owing to
the unfortunate disposition of the
esteemed and meritorious judge of
our district; but they are equally
aware of the fact, that had Western
Wisconsin existed under a separate
organization, we should have found
relief in the services of other members
of the judiciary, who are at present,
in consequence of the great extent
of our Territory, and the small number
of judges dispersed at two great a
distance, and too constantly engaged
in the discharge of the duties of
their own district, to be enabled
to afford relief to other portions
of the Territory; Thus, with a population
of not less than twenty-five thousand
now, and of near half that number
at the organization of the Territory,
it will appear that we have existed
as a portion of an organized Territory,
for sixteen months, with but one term
of courts only.
Your memorialists
look upon those evils as growing exclusively
out of the immense extent of country
included within the present boundaries
of the Territory, and express their
conviction and belief, that nothing
would so effectually remedy the evil
as the organization of Western Wisconsin
into a separate territorial government.
To this your memorialists conceive
themselves entitled by principles
of moral right-by the same obligation
that rests upon their present government,
to protect them in the free enjoyment
of their rights, until such time as
they shall be permitted to provide
protection for themselves; as well
as from the uniform practice and policy
of the government in relation to other
Territories.
The Territory
of Indiana, including the present
States of Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan,
and also much of the eastern portion
of the present Territory of Wisconsin,
was placed under one separate territorial
government in the year
153
1800, at a time that
the population amounted to only five
thousand six hundred and forty, or
thereabouts.
The Territory
of Arkansas was erected into a distinct
Territory, in 1820, with a population
of about fourteen thousand. The Territory
of Illinois was established in 1809,
being formed by dividing the Indiana
Territory. The exact population of
Illinois Territory, at the time of
her separation from Indiana, is not
known to your memorialists, but her
population in,1812, one year subsequent
to that event, amounted to but eleven
thousand five hundred and one whites,
and a few blacks,—in all, to
less than twelve thousand inhabitants.
The Territory
of Michigan was formed in 1805, by
again dividing the Indiana Territory.
of which, until then, she composed
a part. The population of Michigan,
at the time of her separation from
Indiana, your memorialists have been
unable to ascertain, but in 1810 a
period of five years subsequent to
her separate organization, her population
amounted to but about four thousand
seven hundred and sixty; and in the
year 1820, to less than nine thousand-so
that Michigan existed some fifteen
years, as a distinct Territory, with
a population of less than half of
Western Wisconsin at present; and
each of the above named Territories,
now composing so many proud and flourishing
States, were created into separate
territorial governments, with a much
less population than that of Western
Wisconsin, and that too at a time
when the parent government was burdened
with a national debt of millions.
Your memorialists therefore pray for
the organization of a separate territorial
government over that part of the Territory
of Wisconsin west of the Mississippi
river.
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