Iowa, Early, Marquette & Joliet, The Iowa 1976 (2)
A Pre - Revolutic
BERT VQ<
..-~_.........
Peek at Iowaland
Traders with fur-laden canoes
gliding along waterways, intrepid
explorers greeting tribes of Indians,
the first battle between white men
and Indians on Iowa soil, a
Revolutionary War skirmish and lead
from mines turned into bullets for
rebel Americans - all are part of the
history of the land across the
Mississippi which would eventually
become the state of Iowa.
From the time Marquette and Joliet
first laid eyes on "a large Chain of
very high Mountains" in 1673 until
1788 when Julien Dubuque received
rights to mine lead in the vicinity of
the present-day city bearing his
name, various dramas were acted out
in or near Iowa country in the upper
Mississippi River valley.
The actors were mainly French.
Priests, explorers and traders alike
traveled the vast unknown region
beyond the Great Lakes for numerous
reasons. Among them were the
prospect of making Christians out of
savages, charting territory new to
white men's eyes and gaining wealth
from trade with the Indians. The
presence of the French in Canada and
the access route through the Great
Lakes made their entry into the area
natural.
The British on the other hand were
hemmed in by the Allegheny
Mountains and the Spanish were
preoccupied by their many conquests
in Central and South America. While
Britain and Spain at various times
On a high bluff overlooking the Mississippi,
a circular tower of Galena limestone erect-
ed in 1897 marks the grave of Julien
Dubuque, generally regarded as the first
permanent white settler in Iowa.
made imprints in Iowa country, it was
essentially the French who wrote its
history during the first hundred years
after its discovery.
The tale is one of exploration and
then efforts to keep the Indians at bay
while extracting wealth (mostly furs)
to enrich royal coffers abroad.
Colonization was not here a part of
French policy; indeed, the immense
size and Indian resistance made
governing the Louisiana territory
haphazard at best. The settlement of
Iowa was left to Americans who after
the Revolutionary War streamed
across the Alleghenies in search of
more living room.
The conquest of America by
A mericans.fills another chapter. Here
is chronicled the Iowa story from
forty years before Marquette and
Joliet to a few years after the close of
the War of Independence. While
lacking Plymouth, Salem, Lexington
and Concord, as well as the deeds and
ideas now commemorated during the
Bicentennial year, the interior con-
tinent has its own drama. And for the
Iowa scenes, the definitive work of
Jacob Van der Zee, published in 1914
in several issues of the Iowa Journal
of History and Politics, provides the
framework for the following
chronology.
From the early 1900s, this painting commemorates a historic moment from Iowa's past.
On June 17, 1673, Pierre Marquette and Louis Joliet entered the channel of the Missis-
sippi River and thus, presumably, were the first white men to lay eyes on land that even-
tually would become the state of Iowa.
MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY
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Joliet's map of the North American continent was reconstructed from memory about 1674. The explorer lost all the original maps and
records of the historic Mississippi voyage in a canoeing accident while returning to Montreal to file his report.
1634 Jean Nicolet, a Frenchman
and Indian interpreter, is dispatched
by the Governor of New France os-
tensibly to find a water route to
China. Nicolet travels through the
Strait of Mackinac, then along Lake
Michigan to Green Bay, up the Fox
River to Lake Winnebago where he
learns from Indians of a great water
(the Wisconsin River) just three days
hence. He returns home by another
route and thus misses encoun tering
the Mississippi. During his journey,
he spies a tribe of Winnebagos along a
shore and thinking the natives must
be Chinese dons a "grand robe of
6
Article by Charles W. Roberts
China damask, all strewn with
flowers and birds of many colors."
Later, Nicolet relates his reception
to a Jesuit missionary who described
it as follows:
No sooner did they perceive him
than the woman and children fled,
at the sight of a man who carried
thunder in both hands - for thus
they called the pistols that he
held. The news of his coming
quickly spread to the places
round about, and there assembled
four or five thousand men. Each
of the chief men made a feast for
him, and at one of these banquets
they served at least sixscore
Beavers.
1659-1660 Pierre Esprit Radis-
son and his brother-in-law, Medard
Chouart des Groseilliers, explore the
upper Mississippi region. In
Radisson's writings about his travels,
references to the "Maingonis," the
name of an Indian tribe later en-
countered by Marquette and Joliet
in Iowa country, suggest the two
French explorers might have been in
Iowa. However, the evidence is in-
conclusive.
Radisson envisions the region as a
.....
kind of Garden
Europeans, yet one
with great effort: .
of Eden for
obtainable only
~
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The Country was so pleasant, so
beautifull & fruitful/ that it
grieved me to see ye world could
not discover such inticing
countrys to live in. This I say
because that the Europeans fight
for a rock in the sea against one
another, or for a sterill land and
horrid country. . . . Contrarywise
those kingdoms are so delicious &
under so temperat a climat,
plentifull of all things, the earth
bringing foorth its fruit twice a
yeare, the people live long & lusty
& wise in their way. What
conquest would that bee att little
or no cost; what laborinth of
pleasure should millions of people
have, instead that millions
complaine of misery & poverty!
It's true, I confess, that the ac-
cesse is difficult, but must say
that we are like the Cockscombs
of Paris, when first they begin to
have wings, imagining that the
larks will fall in their mouths
roasted; but we ought (to
remember) that vertue is not
acquired without labour and
taking great paines.
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1673
Here we are, then, on this so
renowned River, all of whose
peculiar features I have en-
deavored to note carefully. The
Missisipi River takes its rise in
various lakes in the country of the
Northern nations. It is narrow at
the place where the Miskous
(Wisconsin) empties; its Current,
which flows southward, is slow
and gentle. To the right is a large
Chain of very high Mountains,
and to the left are beautiful lands;
in various Places, the stream is
Divided by Islands.
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Such is Marquette's account of the
Frenchmen's discovery of the upper
Mississippi and hence, Iowa. Pierre
Marquette, a Jesuit priest eager to
spread the Christian message, and his
companion Louis Joliet, an ex-
perienced fur trader, are sent by
Count Frontenac, Governor of New
France to look for the "Great River."
On June 17 they enter its channel.
Downstream about a week later,
they see foot tracks of men on the
Iowa shore. They disembark and
follow a trail at a distance of several
miles. They come upon an Indian
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IOWA DEPT. OF HISTORY, MUSEUM AND ARCHIVES DIVI
This map of the upper Mississippi River valley and vicinity was drawn in 1688 by
French cartographer J. B. Franquelin for presentation to Louis XIV. A crude represel
tion, it does show the curve of the Mississippi which delineates the characteristic bl
along the eastern border of the state. It also locates the Wisconsin River (R. Ouisconsi
and the Des Moines River (R. des Moingana).
village on the banks of a river and
note two more camps on hills beyond:
especially when they saw a blac
gown, - or, at least, having J
cause for distrust, as we we
only two men, and had give
notice of our arrival, - the
deputed four old men to come al
speak to us. Two of these bo
tobacco-pipes, finely ornament.
and Adorned with variol
feathers.
We went farther without being
perceived, and approached so
near that we could even hear the
savages talking. We therefore
Decided that it was time to reveal
ourselves. This We did by
Shouting with all Our energy, and
stopped, without advancing any
farther. On hearing the shout, the
savages quickly issued from their
Cabins, and having probably
recognized us as frenchmen,
After ceremonious introduct
during which the Frenchmen
presented a long-stemmed calumE
peace symbol among all India
ki nd of Garden
Europeans, yet one
with great effort: ,
of Eden for
obtainable only
The Country was so pleasant, so
beautiful! & fruitfull that it
grieved me to see ye world could
not discover such inticing
countrys to live in. This I say
because that the Europeans fight
for a rock in the sea against one
another, or for a sterill land and
horrid country. . . . Contrarywise
those kingdoms are so delicious &
under so temperat a climat,
plentifull of all things, the earth
bringing foorth its fruit twice a
yeare, the people live long & lusty
& wise in their way. What
conquest would that bee att little
or no cost; what laborinth of
pleasure should millions of people
ha ve, instead that millions
complaine of misery & poverty!
It's true, I confess, that the ac-
cesse is difficult, but must say
that we are like the Cockscombs
of Paris, when first they begin to
have wings, imagining that the
larks will fall in their mouths
roasted; but we ought (to
remember) that vertue is not
acquired without labour and
taking great paines.
1673
Here we are, then, on this so
renowned River, all of whose
peculiar features I have en-
deavored to note carefully. The
Missisipi River takes its rise in
various lakes in the country of the
Northern nations. It is narrow at
the place where the Miskous
(Wisconsin) empties; its Current,
which flows southward, is slow
and gentle. To the right is a large
Chain of very high Mountains,
and to the left are beautiful lands ;
in various Places, the stream is
Divided by Islands.
Such is Marquette's account of the
Frenchmen's discovery of the upper
Mississippi and hence, Iowa. Pierre
Marquette, a Jesuit priest eager to
spread the Christian message, and his
companion Louis Joliet, an ex-
perienced fur trader, are sent by
Count Frontenac, Governor of New
France to look for the "Great River."
On June 17 they enter its channel.
Downstream about a week later,
they see foot tracks of men on the
Iowa shore. They disembark and
follow a trail at a distance of several
miles. They come upon an Indian
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IOWA DEPT. OF HISTORY, MUSEUM AND ARCHIVES DIVISION
This map of the upper Mississippi River valley and vicinity was drawn in 1688 by the
French cartographer J. B. Franquelin for presentation to Louis XIV. A crude representa-
tion, it does show the curve of the Mississippi which delineates the characteristic bulge
along the eastern border of the state. It also locates the Wisconsin River (R. Ouisconsing)
and the Des Moines River (R. des Moingana).
village on the banks of a river and
note two more camps on hills beyond:
especially when they saw a black
gown, - or, at least, having no
cause for distrust, as we were
only two men, and had given
notice of our arrival, - they
deputed four old men to come and
speak to us. Two of these bore
tobacco-pipes, finely ornamented
and Adorned with various
feathers.
We went farther without being
perceived, and approached so
near that we could even hear the
savages talking. We therefore
Decided.that it was time to reveal
ourselves. This We did by
Shouting with all Our energy, and
stopped, without advancing any
farther. On hearing the shout, the
savages quickly issued from their
Cabins, and having probably
recognized us as frenchmen,
After ceremonious introductions
during which the Frenchmen are
presented a long-stemmed calumet (a
peace symbol among all Indians),
7
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_ :r/.,u .lIfI' fill yn(n,1 /hllllf,I't
']-,OUISIANE
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IOWA DEPT. OF HISTORY, MUSEUM AND ARCHIVES DIVISION
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Beginning in 1703, the noted French
grapher, William Delisle (1675-1726) dre
series of increasingly accurate maps of
Louisiana territory showing the course of
Mississippi River. From the 1720s, this
sion includes such details as the routl
De Soto's ill-fated expedition across
southern part of North America in the 15
Lead mines (mine de Plomb) near the I
ent-day Dubuque, the Des Moines Rivel
Moingona R.) and a fur traders' trail (ChE
de Voyageurs) across northern Iowa are
tails of lowaland from the Delisle map.
there is a great feast. The four
courses include: cornmeal boiled in
water, seasoned with fat and then fed
by the spoonful to the Frenchmen;
boiled fish, de-boned and hand fed;
roast dog which the guests decline;
and finally roast buffalo, with the
choicest bits popped by their hosts
into the Frenchmen's mouths.
A tour of the villages, presentation
of gifts, and an overnight rest upon
fur robes in the chief's lodge precede
Marquette and Joliet's departure the
following day for a continuation of
their voyage downstream. They take
with them a slave boy, the calumet
and various baubles. According to one
account, the trinkets are hastily
thrown into the river once the French-
men are out of sight of the Indians.
Footnote: Marquette with two
French companions journeys to
Illinois country during the winter of
1674-75. While returning to the mission
at St. Ignace after the visit to an
Illinois tribe, an ailing Marquette
succumbs and is buried on a high bluff
along the eastern shore of Lake
Michigan. Joliet returns to Montreal
in 1674 to file his report with the
Governor of New France. Ap-
proaching Montreal, he overturns his
canoe, drowning his companions
including the slave boy from Iowa and
destroying all his records and maps.
He barely escapes death and lives to
reconstruct from memory an account
of his travels.
1679-1680 The French explorer
Rene Robert Cavelier de la Salle
dispatches two seasoned explorers,
Michel Accau and Picard du Gay, and
a priest, Louis Hennepin, on a
scouting expedition of the upper
reaches of the Mississippi. They pass
by Iowa and eventually reach the
Falls of St. Anthony (so named by
Hl:mnepin for his patron saint, St.
Anthony of Padua), site of the
present-day Minneapolis.
1690 About this time, another
Frenchman, Nicholas Perrot, a
familiar face among the Indian tribes
of the Great Lakes region as early as
1665, receives an invitation from the
Miami Indians to construct a fort for
fur trading some miles below the
mouth of the Wisconsin River. He is
CURATOR, JAMES FORO BEll LIBRARY, MINNEAPOLIS
Seventeenth-century Europeans were fascinated by accounts of the exploration of the
interior North American continent. From Father Louis Hennepin's "New Discovery"
(1688), an illustration of a buffalo and other creatures in a fanciful setting suggests the
extent of exaggeration in some of the reports.
given lead ore and comes to in-
vestigate the presence of mines in the
region. He finds them, but whether
they are located at Galena or Dunleith
on the Illinois side of the Mississippi,
or at Dubuque on the Iowa side,
remains unanswered to this day.
Records of the time indicate that
Perrot constructed a fort opposite the
lead mines "in a situation very strong
against the assaults of neighboring
tribes." His own writings report the
activities of Indians in Iowa country.
1700
It is called the Riviere de
Moingona, the name of a nation of
Savages who dwelt upon its
banks. Beyond its mouth, a
league up the Mississipy, there
are rapids broken up into
cascades.
Thus writes Jean Penicaut of the
Des Moines River. Penicaut ac-
companies an expedition of 19 men led
by Pierre Charles Ie Sueur up the
Mississippi to negotiate a peace
between the Sioux and the Chippewa
Indians.
He describes the Iowa countryside,
not to be broken by the white man's
plow until more than 130 years later:
To the left of these rapids is an
open prairie country extending
inland for more than ten leagues
from the bank of the Mississipy.
The grass of these prairies is like
sainfoin (a European herb) and
does not quite reach up to the
knee. There are all kinds of
animals upon these prairies.
When we had passed these rapids,
which made us very tired, we
found upon the right and the left
mines of lead which are called to
this day the Mines of Nicolas
Perrot, which is the name of the
man who discovered them.
The same year, an Englishman, Dr.
Daniel Coxe of Carolina, arms two
vessels and sends an exploring party
up the Mississippi. From it, he learns
of some of the river's tributaries,
including "a fair river, which our
people were at the mouth of, but could
not learn its name. I suppose it's the
same the French call Moingona."
1703 The noted French car-
9
tographer William Delisle draws a
map of the Louisiana territory which
shows some of the rivers of Iowa as
well as identifies the approximate
location of Perrot's lead mines,
1712 Increasingly concerned about
the French intrusions in their
territory, the Fox Indians begin a
campaign of resistance which lasts
for almost 30 years.
1718 Delisle improves his 1703 map
with a revised version which records
a traders' trail running westward
across northern Iowa to the vicinity of
the Okoboji-Spirit Lake region and
then on to a final point near the
present-day Sioux Falls, South
Dakota.
1721
The Moingona issues from the
midst of an immense meadow
which swarms with Buffaloes and
other wild beasts. Its course from
north to west is said to be two
hundred and fifty leagues in
length. . . Going up the Moingona,
we find great plenty of pit coal;
one hundred and fifty leagues
from its mouth there is a very
large cape, which causes a turn in
the river, where its waters are
red and stinking. It is said that
great quantities of mineral stones
and some antimony have been
found upon this cape.
A French traveler and writer, Pere
Pierre Francois Xavier Charlevoix,
provides this description of the Des
Moines River and its vicinity during
his journey through Louisiana
terri tory.
1727-1728 The Governor of New
France dispatches Pierre Boucher,
Sieur de Boucherville, and other
Frenchmen to establish a fort among
the Sioux in the upper Mississippi
River valley region for trading and
defense against the warring Foxes. In
the fall of 1728, de Boucherville
abandons the fort and with his
companions proceeds south along the
Mississippi between Iowa and Illinois.
On October 16,1728, de Boucherville
and his men are detained by some
Kickapoo and Mascoutin Indians at a
village along a stream (believed to be
the present Iowa River).
De Boucherville and his men are
10
Captain Jonathan Carver, a
Connecticut Yankee shoe-
maker and soldier, explor-
ed the upper Mississippi
valley in the 1760s. He fail-
ed to capitalize personally
on an account of his ex-
plorations, "Travels through
the Interior Parts of North
America" (1778), and died
in poverty in London in
1780. His book, however,
ran through many editions
and for years was consider-
ed the authoritative source
on the subject.
titpt::fOJVATIL1iV (/dRYER.
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ILI>IMA/d _lkki4ra*'.t, b..r<<I'fUe..W'J7~4I"G!~'k.llr/hmr,:t;,y.;t<,JiS('.
CURATOR, JAMES FORD BELL LIBRARY, MINNEAPOLIS
treated courteously as he recounts
la ter :
Afterwards they held a council
and came to the conclusion to
lodge us in the cabin of Ouiskouba
whose relatives had just been
killed by the French acting with
the Illinois. All our baggage was
carried into this cabin; Father
Guignas was placed upon a mat
and upon a very fine bear skin; an
equally honorable place was
prepared for me opposite the
Reverend Father; we were
regaled with deer flesh. We had
no lack of company throughout
the night as a great many of these
barbarians had never seen a
Frenchman and were attracted
by curiosity . . .
Soon after, to protect themselves
from the Fox, the Kickapoos move
their camp to an island (location
uncertain). The Frenchmen remain
with the Indians until spring at which
time an uneasy peace, largely
engineered by de Boucherville, is
negotiated between the two tribes. De
Boucherville and his men then depart
for Montreal.
1735 On April 19, forty years to the
day before Concord, the first recorded
battle between Indians and white men
on Iowa soil takes place along the Des
Moines River, possibly near the site of
the present-day Des Moines.
During the months previous,
Captain Nicholas Joseph de Noyelles
leads a band of 80 or so well-armed
Frenchmen and about 150 Indian
allies - Iroquois, Hurons and
Potawatomis - on a grueling trek
across Iowa territory in pursuit of the
allied Sac and Fox. De Noyelles en-
counters the enemy encamped along
the Des Moines River. Several days of
skirmish end in a draw. De Noyelles
departs leaving the Sac and Fo}(
unwilling to participate peaceably in
the fur trade and even more resentful
of the French.
Of more hardship to the French and
their allies than the fighting is the
march to the Des Moines during a
bitter Midwest winter. The troops
ford streams in ice-cold water up to
their necks, suffer frostbite and en-
dure extreme hunger - desperate
conditions which de Noyelles records
later on: "For four days our party
had nothing to eat but twelve dogs and
a horse that was killed near the
Foxes' fort. Several soldiers were
obliged to eat their moccasins."
1738-1740 According to sources, in
order to keep a watchful eye on the
Indians, a French officer, Pierre
Paul, Sieur Marin, builds and
maintains a fort during these years al
the head of Magill's Slough on the
Iowa bank of the Mississippi in what
is now Clayton County.
1739 The Fox Wars are closed "by
leniency and diplomacy on part of the
French officials."
1750 A French trader is killed by
the Little Osage Indians on the upper
part of the "Riviere des Mouens."
1760 The French regime in the
upper Mississippi begins to collapse
(a consequence of the ongoing French
and Indian War). Beaujeu evacuates
the French post at Mackinac and
heads south down the Mississippi,
wintering at a Sac and Fox village
near the mouth of the Rock River in
Illinois.
The same year, the first English
colonists reach the Mississippi River
from over the Alleghenies, inviting
the Indian tribes along the Rock River
to trade.
1762 One year before the treaty
ending the French and Indian War,
the French secretly convey to Spain
all the territory west of the
Mississippi. Henceforth, until 1800,
when it passes back to France, Iowa
territory is under the jurisdiction of
Spanish officials at New Orleans.
1766
For it would not only disclose new
sources of trade, and promote
many useful discoveries, but
In 1788, the Fox Indians granted Julien Dubuque the right to mine lead in the vicinity of Catfish Creek on the Iowa
side of the Mississippi. This facsimile of the original land plat shows the tract of approximately 189 square miles,
encompassing the present-day city of Dubuque, deeded to the young French Canadian. Also noted is land sold in
1804 to Auguste Chouteau. a Saint Louis merchant, to whom Dubuque was heavily indebted. The date of 1774 is
possibly a clerk's error.
1711
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11
would open a passage for con-
veying intelligence to China, and
the English settlements in the
East Indies, with greater ex-
pedition than a tedious voyage by
the Cape of Good Hope, or the
Straits of Magellan will allow of.
One of the last hopefuls of
discovering the route to China, as
revealed later in the above excerpt
from his book Travels through the
Interior Parts of North A merica in the
Years 1766, 1767, and 1768, Jonathan
Carver sets out from Mackinac with a
party of English and Canadian
traders to explore the upper reaches
of the Mississippi. After a stopover in
Prairie du Chien, the former Con-
necticut shoemaker and soldier of
fortune, travels up the Mississippi,
and from the following account,
presumably spends time in Iowa.
A little farther to the west, on the
_contrary side, a small river falls
into the Mississippi, which the
French call Le Juan Riviere, or
the Yellow River. Here the
traders who had accompanied me
hitherto, took up residence for the
winter. I then bought a canoe, and
with two servants, one a French
Canadian and the other a Mohawk
of Canada, on the 19th proceeded
up the Mississippi.
After several years of wandering in
the upper Mississippi and western
Great Lakes region, Carver heads
east to tell his story. Unable to in-
terest revolutionary-preoccupied
Bostonians in his tale, he travels to
London to seek a publisher. There,
after exploring several alternatives
for cashing in on his adventures, he
finds an interested party.
Travels is published, however not in
the form of the original manuscript.
Extensively edited, the book contains
embroideries, tales not reported by
Carver and excerpts from other
authors, as well as several hundred
pages devoted to inaccurate
descriptions of Indian life.
For various reasons, Carver fails to
share in the book's success. It is
translated into several languages and
for more than a century goes through
numerous editions. The man who
provided the raw material for this
work dies destitute in London in 1780.
Despite Carver's ignominious end,
12
he does recognize in Travels the value
of the Mississippi region for set-
tlement, as had Radisson 120 years
previous. With a few exceptions, the
Connecticut Yankee hits the mark in
predicting what will be eventual
products of this fruitful land - "wine,
oil, beef, tallow, skins, buffalo, wool
and furs; with lead, copper, iron,
coals, lumber, corn, rice and fruits,
besides earth and barks for dyeing."
1770 The Governor of Upper
Louisiana, headquartered in St.
Louis, informs his superior at New
Orleans that a fort should be
established at the mouth of the Des
Moines River to prevent the British
from using it as an easy route to the
Missouri.
1773 Peter Pond, a New England
trader visiting Prairie du Chien,
camps at a Fox village on the Iowa
side of the river and with untutored
spelling describes the highlight of his
day's stay in Iowa - fishing for
catfish:
We (Pond and some fellow
traders) were Incampt Near
Each other. We Put our Hoock
and Lines into the Water and Leat
them Lyall nite. In the Morning
we Perseaved thare was fish at
the Hoocks and went to the Wattr
Eag (water's edge) and halld on
our line. Thay Came Heavey. At
Length we hald one ashore that
wade a Hundered and four
Pounds - a Seacond that was One
Hundered Wate - a third of
Seventy five Pounds. The Men
was Glad to Sea this for thay Had
not Eat mete for Sum Days nor
fish for a long time. We asked our
men How meney Men the Largest
would Give a Meale. Sum of the
Largest Eaters Sade twelve men
would Eat it at a Meal. We
Agread to Give ye fish if thay
would find twelve men that would
undertake it. Thay Began to Dres
it. The fish was what was Cald the
Cat fish. It Had a large flat Head
Sixteen Inches Betwene the eise.
Thay Skind it - Cut it up in three
large Coppers Such as we have
for the Youse of our men. After it
was Well Boild thay Sawd it up
and all Got Round it. Thay Began
and Eat the hole without the least
thing with it But Salt and Sum of
them Drank the Licker it was
Boild in. The Other two was
Sarved out to the Remainder of
the People who finished them in a
Short time. Thay all Declard thay
felt the Beater of thare Meale Nor
did I perseave that Eney of them
ware Sick or Complaind.
1780 A year after Spain's
declaration of war on Great Britain
(already embroiled with her colonies
in their war for independence), a
British Lieutenant, Alexander Kay,
stationed at Mackinac, leads a band
of men down the Mississippi against
the Spanish at St. Louis. It is reported
that lead from the Dubuque mines is
reaching George Rogers Clark for use
in American bullets.
In April, at the mouth of the Turkey
River, Kay and his men capture the
crew - "twelve men & a Rebel
Commissary -" and cargo of an
American trader's barge. The British
continue to the lead mines and seize 17
Spanish and Rebels, a quantity of lead
ore and other provisions. These two
skirmishes are the only Revo-
lutionary War engagements fought on
or in close proximity to Iowa soil.
1781 Dispatched by the Spanish
Governor at St. Louis, a Monsieur
Boucher de Monbruen and a detach-
ment of 40 militiamen establish an
outpost above the mouth of the Des
Moines River near the present town of
Montrose in order to observe the
movements of the enemy Sac Indians.
1788 On September 22, the Fox
Indians grant permission to Julien
Dubuque to mine lead near Catfish
Creek on the Iowa side of the
Mississippi. A 26-year-old French-
Canadian, Dubuque claims for
himself land stretching more than 20
miles along the river and nine miles
inland, a tract including the present-
day city of Dubuque.
He calls his digging operations the
"Mines of Spain" in recognition of the
country which governs the entire
Louisiana territory. Dubuque clears
the land, builds a smelter and cabins,
and mines the lead with the help of
squaw labor. Thus, he is the first
permanent white settler and resident
businessman in Iowa country - 15
years before the Louisiana Purchase
and 45 years before the territory is
officially opened to settlement by the
American people.