The Opening of the Des Moines Valley
to Settlement

(Part 2 of 5)

 p500  Life at the Sac and Fox Agency

After their return from Washington in November, 1837, the Sacs and Foxes did little but live upon the government's presents of horses and merchandise, drink whiskey, and associate with the whites, many of whom had settled on Indian lands. Had the squaws not raised considerable quantities of corn, beans, and pumpkins in the summer of 1838 the Indians must have died from hunger, for the Foxes had killed very little game and the Sacs had not attempted to hunt because their vicinity was practically destitute of game. The poverty of the tribes resulted from withholding provisions and also from the sale of liquor by small dealers and border settlers, many of whom presented large claims when the government undertook to liquidate the indebtedness of the tribes. The Sac and Fox Indian agent reported that the whites had dispensed more whiskey among the natives in 1838 than at any other time since 1834.

It was to get away from the border whiskey-sellers that Joseph M. Street selected a site for his Sac and Fox Agency some miles west of the new Indian boundary and only an hour's ride from the principal Indian village. The contract  p501 for constructing the necessary buildings was let to the lowest bidder, a citizen of Missouri, who started from his home with teams, some of his slaves, and an ample force of mechanics and laborers, and soon had a large number of men at work on the agency grounds. In August, 1838, the council-house of hewn logs was ready. A visitor to the place also found timbers prepared for the agent's house, two heavy teams of horses breaking up the prairie sod, wagons hauling fence rails, and a blacksmith hard at work: "the hospitable-looking camp of tents and board sheds, . . . . the blazing fire, over which two or three female Africans were busy at the steaming coffee, bacon, biscuits and divers vegetables of the season, excited in his mind an impression of the new agency, the satisfactory contentment of which has never to this day worn off."​42 Although the agency buildings were to have been ready in the autumn, they were not finished until after General Street took possession early in 1839. He had had his office on Rock Island as Indian agent for nearly five years, while his wife and children lived at Prairie du Chien. All now took up their residence in the Sac and Fox country.43

Mr. and Mrs. Richard Kerr, having been appointed farmer and matron to the Indians, soon arrived. A suitable location was selected for the pattern or model farm and operations were begun at once. Agent Street wished to make a practical demonstration of his motto: "Teach him agriculture and his family domestic economy, give him by experience right notions of individual property, and the plan of civilizing the Indian commences with the A, B, C of civilization."​44 Two saw and grist mills were also constructed:  p502 one upon Sugar Creek, the other upon Soap Creek, and Jeremiah and Samuel Smith were placed in charge as millers. The mills were soon destroyed by freshets and even when rebuilt made no appeal to the Indians. The pattern farm and agricultural experiments near the villages succeeded no better. Josiah A. Smart, Charles H. Withington, Joshua W. Baker, Harvey Sturdivant, Job Smith, William and David Fullerton, Henry Plumber, Preston Roberts, and a man named Counon, all came to the agency as government employees in various capacities.45

Street's experience during the summer of 1838 indicated that little good could be done for the Indians unless white people and whiskey could be more effectively excluded from the Indian territory. When Street came to pay the Sacs and Foxes their annuities, not less than one hundred white men crowded into the new log council-house, and upon being requested to retire to permit the tribesmen to enter and receive their money, they went out and removed "all the chinking between the logs to look in and see what was going on." To quote further from the agent's report:

In his annual report for 1839 Agent Street gave 4396 as  p503 the number of Sacs and Foxes dwelling in three villages a few miles from the agency and in Poweshiek's village on the Iowa River •one hundred miles away. Although they now possessed mills and millers and broken fields for agriculture no benefits had yet accrued to the tribesmen because there was too much whiskey. In the summer liquor arrived at the Indian towns in barrels in open violation and defiance of the Territorial law passed in January prohibiting such commerce with the Indians. Some whites had actually crossed the boundary line, planted crops, fenced fields, built houses, and absolutely refused to leave: "in some of these houses the vilest practices take place to defraud the Indians. A man named Reason Jordan has built, •two or three miles above the line, on the Indian lands, and refuses to remove until he shall please." Physical force was needed to drive out the intruders.47

The Indians, strongly attached to Agent Street because he had their best interests at heart, were plunged into deep grief when they received word of his death at the agency in May, 1840. In the hope of succeeding to Street's position and also of preventing Mrs. Street and her children from being turned out of their new home, a son-in‑law, John Beach, made a rapid twelve-day journey from Dubuque to Washington and obtained the appointment as Indian agent. Arriving at the agency in June, he found the following persons in residence: Mrs. Street and nine children, interpreter Josiah A. Smart and his Sac wife, blacksmith Charles H. Withington, gunsmith Harvey Sturdivant, and some half-dozen people on the pattern farm. Not far away lived William Phelps, the trader, and on Sugar Creek lived the millwright and miller, Jeremiah Smith, with his family. Then south of the river dwelt a West Virginian named Van Caldwell. It seems that he and others had unknowingly  p504 gone across the boundary and settled in the Indian country. He alone was allowed to remain upon condition that he maintain a ferry across the Des Moines River so as to make the mill on Soap Creek •seven miles away to the southward accessible to government employees and all other persons during times of high water. Also, •from five to seven miles west of the agency across the Des Moines stood the villages of Keokuk, Wapello, and Appanoose with their improved fields. Farther up the river was the village of Hardfish and •ten miles north of it another village on the Skunk River (in 1841).48

In his first report in the autumn of 1840 Beach notified the government that a Sac and Fox war party had attacked and killed several Sioux and Winnebago Indians, that the mills had been destroyed by freshets, and that the farms did not yield much. Indeed, at one time the Indians took down a fence and drove their ponies into a field of young wheat.​49 Such was their inclination to farm. A year later one mill had been rebuilt, a bolt had been set up for the manufacture flour, and the farm contained •one hundred and seventy-seven acres of cultivated land, most of which with its crops of corn and oats had been fenced in with rails. Potatoes and turnips were expected for distribution. Agent Beach also made the following interesting statement:

 p505  As early as the year 1834 a difference of opinion had arisen among the Sacs and Foxes about the government method of paying annuities. At that time the chiefs of two Fox villages, Poweshiek and Appanoose, sent to the President a petition signed by over four hundred Fox hunters and warriors. They complained that the annuities paid to Keokuk had been given by him to the American Fur Company and they had received nothing.​51 In time Hardfish, head of the upper village, became the leader of those who objected to having the money paid to irresponsible chiefs: they favored the direct payment of government annuities to the heads of families, and were supported in their contention by the Iowa legislators. At the council which was held in the agency house on September 28, 1840, in the presence of Governor Robert Lucas, the Indians could not conciliate their differences and so the payment was deferred. In the month of July, 1841, Governor John Chambers visited the Indians and probably discussed their dissensions with them, for not long afterward John Beach, the Indian agent, notified him that the two bands had at last solved their difficulty. Hardfish's band was to receive a part of the money due for distribution to the heads of families, while Keokuk's band was to receive the remainder for payment to the chiefs.52

On October 12, 1841, Governor Chambers and T. Hartley Crawford, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, arranged to pay the Sac and Fox annuities to the heads of families in proportion to numbers. A census was accordingly taken, twenty-three hundred souls were counted, and the money for two years was distributed. Enriched by the sum of $82,000, they paid some of their debts and spent the rest for whiskey, horses, and merchandise: they bought from the traders everything they wanted for cash and more on  p506 credit.​53 It was under such unfavorable conditions that a few days later the United States commissioners, John Chambers, James D. Doty, and T. Hartley Crawford, with their secretary, James W. Grimes, met the Sacs and Foxes at the agency according to instructions to obtain a cession of all the land they possessed in Iowa. The Indians were requested to deliberate and answer "without allowing themselves to be influenced by the counsel of white men, who were excluded from all participation in their deliberations."​54 Mr. Crawford, just arrived from Washington, offered them one million dollars and money enough to pay all their debts, and added:

Governor Chambers asked the chiefs and braves why the white people increased like leaves on the trees and why the Indians had decreased to only 2300 persons, and answered the question by telling them that white people lived in comfortable houses and had enough food to eat and sufficient clothing to wear. Besides, the red men used too much "liquor, impregnated with pepper and tobacco and other poisonous ingredients." The Sac chief Keokuk asked to have the proposal explained more fully the next day, and on Sunday, October 17th, the commissioners met the Indians in council to hear their answer. The Sac chief Hardfish declared that all were of one mind: they could not subsist in the poor prairie country offered them in exchange for their homes in the timber. Poweshiek, Pashepaho, Kishkekosh, Wishewahka, Keokuk, Wapello, and Appanoose all made short speeches and reiterated what Hardfish had said. Governor Chambers replied that they were mistaken about the region farther north, that there was timber, and that the government had only their best interests at heart and wished to remove them out of their present degraded condition. The Indians, however, were not to be won over, ended the negotiations, and went upon a spree such as they had never before known.55

Not long after the failure of these negotiations the Territorial  p508 legislature of Iowa passed a resolution in favor of further negotiations early in 1842. A purchase of Indian territory had become absolutely necessary in view of "the great and unprecedented influx of people" who wanted fertile lands and expected the government to buy and open to settlement more of the western country. Besides, it was understood that the Sacs and Foxes were willing to dispose of at least a part of their lands.​56 On the other hand Governor Chambers' description of drunkenness among the red men struck no sympathetic chord in the legislature and hence no provision was made to suppress the illegitimate sale of liquor.​57 Then, in the month of February, 1842, the heads of the four Des Moines River villages called upon Agent Beach and expressed a desire to sell some of their country. In the spring and summer the destitute Pottawattamies and the Ioways visited them and as unwelcome guests helped to eat up their scanty supplies and game; revengeful whites burned down the mills; and the Sac and Fox census revealed a rapid decrease in numbers due to drunkenness. To such a condition had debt and poverty reduced them that they met the United States commissioners in council and disposed of the remainder of their territory in Iowa.​58 (See the terms of the treaty of 1842 below.)

The treaty of October, 1842, required the removal of the Indians to lands farther west and the abandonment of all the trading houses and the agency buildings. Only the pattern farm was to be operated for another year.​59 George Wilson, the farmer, took charge in November, finished a  p509 house for visiting Indians, and two corn cribs, and distributed the produce of the farm to the tribesmen, thus preventing much suffering during a winter of unusual length and severity. Owing to the malicious burning of the Indian mill on Soap Creek, Wilson was obliged to journey •from forty to sixty miles to have wheat ground into flour. This with corn, potatoes, pork, beef and oats and fodder for horses comprised the supplies furnished to the Indians. In the spring of 1843 the chiefs asked that the whole farm be planted in corn, but interminable rains made it impossible to comply with their wishes. Then, owing to a summer drouth not more than one‑third of the usual crop was gathered, besides a small quantity of oats and hay. Such was the end of the history of the Sac and Fox Agency.60

A Fort near the Sac and Fox Agency: Fort Sanford

John Beach, the Indian agent, had work to do when over-anxious, land-grabbing whites sought to gain a foothold in the Sac and Fox country. In his first annual report dated September 1, 1841, he made the following statement:61

 p510  During the first two years of his incumbency Beach found it necessary three times to call in dragoon detachments from Fort Atkinson to drive out the intruders. Early in the year 1842 Governor Chambers asked the federal government to aid in expelling the squatters and preserving order. During the month of June a squad of dragoons under Lieutenant Leonidas Jenkins removed many persons from the Indian lands south of the Des Moines and returned to Fort Atkinson.​62 His opinion that a sufficient military force should be stationed near the agency received the endorsement of the Governor when he urged the United States Commissioner of Indian Affairs to prevent the lawless element from returning to the Indians. Beach in the autumn of 1842 reported that incendiaries had burned the agency mills out of revenge for being removed from the Indian country and that they had terrorized the agency families by their acts of violence. Whiskey-sellers produced the most disgusting scenes of drunkenness; Beach and the Governor were shot in effigy; and Jeremiah Smith secretly removed a band of Indians to tour the country for exhibition purposes.​63 Concerning all these disorders and difficulties Beach wrote:

In view of the disturbances narrated above and in preparation  p511 for the time when the next annuities were to be paid to the Sac and Fox the War Department gave orders that a dragoon post be established wherever the Governor of Iowa Territory might direct.​65 On a journey to visit the agency early in September, 1842, Chambers found hundreds of landseekers infesting the border line, "ready to swoop across and take up the new land" as soon as they heard that a treaty of purchase had been made. Although some behaved themselves well, others drunkenly "threatened the Agent, the dragoons, and the Governor, and created so many kinds of disturbance that they must needs be placed under guard." According to Chambers obtained a full company of dragoons from Fort Atkinson. These troops under Captain James Allen arrived at the agency early in October in time to preserve order during the important treaty negotiations between Governor Chambers and the Indians.​66 They were needed to guard against disturbances by the thousand or more whites in attendance, but an eye-witness took offence at their presence, as is shown by the following statement:

On the twelfth of November the dragoons left their camp near the agency and found quarters in abandoned log cabins •four miles to the westward, thanks to the kindness of John  p512 F. A. Sanford, a son-in‑law of Pierre Chouteau, Jr., and a member of the American Fur Company. Captain Allen named the post Fort Sanford, built log huts for two officers and stables for the horses in preparation for the winter, and during the month of November made an expedition with a portion of his company to the mouth of the Raccoon River. Once a week mail was carried by express from Fairfield, the nearest postoffice, •twenty-one miles away. In official military circles the station went by the name of "Sac and Fox Agency".68

The Sac and Fox Treaty of 1842

Upon receipt of instructions from the United States government Governor John Chambers at once began to make preparations for treaty negotiations with the Sacs and Foxes. Knowing beforehand that the Indian traders were a factor first of all to be taken into account, he appointed Arthur Bridgman and Alfred Hebard to investigate and adjust the claims of all persons against the confederated tribes. When this work had been completed in three weeks time by weighing the testimony of both the Indians and the traders, Chambers with the interpreters, Antoine Le Claire and Josiah Smart, and a few others met the chiefs in a large circular tent set up for the occasion — the Governor in the uniform of a Brigadier General and the Indians in their best blankets, fresh paint, and fine feathers. When, after many days of oratory and counselling and dancing almost every night, the terms of the treaty had been agreed upon and signatures affixed on October 11, 1842, the Sacs and Foxes had parted with their title to all lands within the Territory of Iowa.69

 p513  Besides retaining the right to occupy their villages until May 1, 1843, and to occupy all their country to the west of a line drawn north and south through "painted or red rocks on the White Breast fork of the Des Moines river [in Marion County]," from then until October 11, 1845, the Indians were to receive each year an income of five percent on a fund of $800,000; their debts were to be paid; and a tract of land on the Missouri River was to be assigned to them. Each of the principal chiefs became entitled to spend five hundred dollars annually as he saw fit. Moreover, a sum of $30,000 was to be kept out of the annual payment for tribal and charitable purposes such as the support of the poor, the burial of the dead, the employment of physicians, and for provisions in case of necessity. The Indians were also to be free to ask for the payment of annuities in goods or provisions or for agricultural purposes. Among the minor stipulations were two of a sentimental nature: the Indians left one hundred dollars in the hands of John Beach for a tombstone in memory of their chief, Wapello, who lay buried beside their former agent, Joseph M. Street; and feeling under obligations to Mr. Street for many acts of kindness and wishing to give "his widow Mrs. Eliza M. Street one section of land to include the said graves, and the agency-house and enclosures around and near it", the United States agreed to give Mrs. Street "•six hundred and forty acres of land in such legal subdivisions, as will include the said burial ground, the agency house, and improvements around, and near it, in good and convenient form, to be selected by the said E. M. Street or her duly authorized agent."70

It will be noticed that, although many Indian tribes of the time had schools, the Sacs and Foxes obstinately refused to let the government establish schools among them, and during  p514 the treaty negotiations "they resisted every effort to induce them to make provision for the establishment of the pattern farm, which, under a former treaty, had been very successfully conducted for them, near their principal villages; and equally unsuccessful was the exertion of the commissioner to induce them to permit a portion of the proceeds of their land to be expended in the erection of comfortable houses for them, and the enclosure of small lots of land for cultivation."71

The Raccoon River Agency from 1843 to 1845

Owing to the endless rains of April and May, 1843, the Sacs and Foxes found it impossible to move westward in compliance with the treaty provisions, but they abandoned their villages soon after the first of May. •Ninety miles away, •twenty-eight miles across the line which became the Indian boundary on that day, a location was selected for the Raccoon River Agency, so named because its buildings stood •about half a mile east of the Des Moines and •one mile and a quarter below the mouth of the Raccoon River. Not far from the agency house arose the residences of the interpreter and the smiths, as well as two blacksmith shops and two gunsmith shops, one set for each of the tribes. The new agency site, "in regard to beauty of appearance, quality of soil, and general position of ground," was far superior to any other in the vicinity — "a consideration of some importance in the final sale of the property." Practically everything was in readiness for a two years occupancy by the first of October, 1843.

Agent Beach succeeded only partially in his attempt to induce the Indians to take up their residence as near the agency as possible. About half of the Sacs and one band of the Foxes built their villages near by, while the other Sacs settled  p515 down •about eight miles away and "the great majority of the Foxes, comprising the bands who had resided upon the Iowa and Skunk rivers, entertaining some jealousy of the other portion of the nation, as well as an aversion to the Des Moines country," fixed themselves •about fifteen miles distant upon the Skunk River, not far from the new boundary line with its numerous whiskey shops.​72 Inasmuch as the Indians had delayed their removal to this region on account of heavy rains and bad roads, they arrived too late to prepare the soil for the little corn and vegetables which their women usually raised. This fact, together with the losses and inconveniences incident to moving, reduced them to a condition of want and obliged the agent to purchase provisions for them. The next year, however, they cultivated considerable ground and raised a good quantity of corn. As an indication of their gradual decline in numbers the agent reported sixty-eight deaths for the year 1843‑1844.73

Rev. Benjamin A. Spaulding, a pioneer minister among the settlers, who occupied the old Sac and Fox Agency in Wapello County, visited the white population of nearly two hundred persons at the Raccoon River Agency and Fort Des Moines in 1844. He preached "to as many of these as could be crowded into a single room, officers, soldiers, merchants, mechanics, farmers, gentlemen, ladies, children and servants, both black and white." There had been much sickness and some deaths in the settlement. Mr. Spaulding, like the "circuit riders" of his day — among them a Methodist clergyman who had already called at this frontier place — expressed a willingness to make frequent visits to  p516 the agency, should other engagements permit. His description of an Indian village near by is worthy of repetition:74

Nothing of particular interest occurred at the agency during the ensuing year: periods of employment and of idleness recurred as did the seasons, "idleness and its attendant dissipation greatly preponderating over that devoted to any serviceable occupation." After receiving their annuities in September, 1844, the Indians dispersed "over the country for the purpose of hunting and remain so scattered until spring, inhabiting their temporary lodges made of mats, which they erect under the protection of some densely wooded bottom land, and moving from place to place as circumstances may require." Scarcity of game compelled the Foxes and Hardfish's Sacs to visit and remain about the border settlements during the winter, "the former visiting their old haunts upon the Iowa, to which they are much attached, while the latter went upon the borders of Missouri." Agent Beach continued his report on the habits and customs of his charges as follows:

The site of the Raccoon River Agency proved to be an unfortunate choice. Nearly all the residents, civil and military, suffered severely from malarial disorders. Mrs. Beach died in the summer of 1845 and was buried near her father at the old Sac and Fox Agency. Beach himself also became very ill, and during the year seventy-nine Indians died, including Chief Pashepaho.75

The month of September, 1845, was a busy one for the red men who were preparing for their final departure from the Iowa country. Keokuk aided Beach in every way, displaying more than his usual capacity and firmness.​76 Governor Chambers considered the chief a remarkable man but exclaimed: "What a noble Indian that would be, but for his intemperate habits!" Before the Indians set out on their journey to the reservation in the Kansas country, arrangements were made for the distribution of the government annuities. The last money was doled out to the Indians in Iowa, followed by the same scenes of drunkenness as had characterized the payments of previous years.77

 p518  Before their rights of occupation by the treaty of 1842 expired on October 11, 1845, Keokuk and the Sacs were on their way southwestward. The Foxes, however, made a show of refusing to accompany their confederates: the illness of Agent Beach "enabled evil-disposed and interested persons to act upon the credulity of a portion of the tribe, and by keeping them drunk, and misrepresenting the character and situation of the land designated for their future residence, to prejudice them against it, and render them unwilling to remove."​78 Nevertheless, with the exception of about one hundred, including many of the sick and infirm, the Sacs and Foxes passed out of "a country endeared by the tenderest recollections: their cradle, the home of their youth, the sepulchre of their ancestors, and of many dearest friends". They emigrated within the time prescribed by the treaty, the Sacs before the last day of September and the Foxes a few days before the eleventh of October and, owing to their abundant supply of horses and a plentiful crop, they needed no assistance from the government in removing to the region which they selected about the headwaters of the Osage River. Agent John Beach once more set up headquarters, this time on the Kansas reservation.79

---

The Author's Notes:

42 The History of Lee County (1879), pp363, 364.

43 Annals of Iowa (First Series), Vol. III, p530; Annals of Iowa (Third Series), Vol. VI, p373. Joseph M. Street was appointed Sac and Fox agent on Rock Island on March 4, 1835.

44 Annals of Iowa (Third Series), Vol. II, p103.

45 Annals of Iowa (Third Series), Vol. VI, p368; The History of Lee County (1879), pp160, 362; Senate Documents, 1st Session, 26th Congress, No. 126, p4.

46 Annals of Iowa (Third Series), Vol. VI, pp367, 368.

47 Senate Documents, 1st Session, 26th Congress, No. 1, pp498‑500.

48 Fulton's The Red Men of Iowa, p354; The History of Lee County (1879), p365; Annals of Iowa (First Series), Vol. III, p531; Annals of Iowa (Third Series), Vol. II, pp101, 387; Senate Documents, 2nd Session, 27th Congress, No. 1, p351.

49 Senate Documents, 2nd Session, 26th Congress, No. 1, pp327‑330.

50 Senate Documents, 2nd Session, 23d Congress, No. 1, pp350, 351.

51 House Executive Documents, 2nd Session, 23d Congress, Nos. 63, 64.

52 Senate Documents, 2nd Session, 27th Congress, No. 1, p349.

53 Parish's John Chambers, pp170‑176; Senate Documents, 2nd Session, 27th Congress, No. 1, pp275‑277.

54 Senate Documents, 2nd Session, 27th Congress, No. 1, pp253, 269.

55 For James W. Grimes' minutes of the treaty negotiations see Senate Documents, 2nd Session, 27th Congress, No. 1, pp270‑275. See also Parish's John Chambers, p176.

56 House Executive Documents, 2nd Session, 27th Congress, No. 86.

57 Parish's John Chambers, p177.

58 Senate Documents, 3rd Session, 27th Congress, No. 1, pp424‑427; Parish's John Chambers, p178.

59 Kappler's Indian Affairs, Vol. II, p406 (Article VII of the treaty).

60 Senate Documents, 1st Session, 28th Congress, No. 1, pp384‑386.

61 Senate Documents, 2nd Session, 27th Congress, No. 1, pp349, 350.

62 Annals of Iowa (Third Series), Vol. IV, pp289, 290.

63 Parish's John Chambers, p179.

64 Senate Documents, 3d Session, 27th Congress, No. 1, pp425, 426.

65 Annals of Iowa (Third Series), Vol. IV, pp290, 291.

66 Annals of Iowa (Third Series), Vol. I, p400; The Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. X, p261.

67 The Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. X, pp263, 264.

68 Annals of Iowa (Third Series), Vol. IV, pp164, 291, 292; The Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. XII, pp190‑192.

69 Parish's John Chambers, pp179, 181, 183; The Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. X, p262.

70 Kappler's Indian Affairs, Vol. II, pp404‑407.

71 Senate Documents, 1st Session, 28th Congress, No. 1, p374.

72 Senate Documents, 1st Session, 28th Congress, No. 1, pp374, 379‑381. Poweshiek and Kishkekosh had their villages in Jasper County. — Fulton's The Red Men of Iowa, pp266, 268.

73 Senate Documents, 2nd Session, 28th Congress, No. 1, pp417, 421, 422.

74 Annals of Iowa (Third Series), Vol. V, pp57, 58.

75 Senate Documents, 1st Session, 29th Congress, No. 1, pp485, 486.

76 The Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. XII, p195.

77 The Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. XII, p195.

78 Senate Documents, 1st Session, 29th Congress, No. 1, pp480, 481.

79 Senate Documents, 2nd Session, 29th Congress, No. 4, pp298, 299.

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