# History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/1/23

​THE efforts through many years by the people of Iowa to secure from Congress a grant of public lands to aid in building railroads across the State from east to west, were finally successful. James Thorington, the Republican member from the Second District, had devoted his energies to the accomplishment of this work from the time he took his seat in the House and largely through his judicious and untiring efforts, an act was passed by the Twenty-fourth Congress making a liberal grant. The act was approved on the 15th of May, 1856, and on the 3d of June, Governor Grimes issued his proclamation calling an extra session of the General Assembly to meet July 2d to act upon the grant.
The act granted every alternate section of land six miles in width on each side of three lines of railroad to be constructed from Burlington, Davenport and Lyons, westward across the State, said grants subject to the disposal of the Legislature. The Legislature passed a bill accepting the grant and, with proper restrictions, conveying it to the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad Company, the Mississippi and Missouri Railroad Company and the Iowa Central Air Line Railroad Company. Acts were also passed at this extra session to provide for a commission to revise the school laws; to permit a band of Sac and Fox Indians to reside in the State; to authorize certain towns to issue bonds to aid railroads.
The Democratic State Convention met at Iowa City June 26th and nominated the following ticket: Secretary of State, George Snyder; Auditor, James Pollard; Treasurer, George Paul; Attorney-General, James Baker. The convention indorsed the national Democratic party, ​its policy and candidates. At the August election the vote on the State candidates stood as follows:
| Elijah Sells, Secretary of State, Rep | 40,388 |
| George Snyder, Dem | 32,920 |
| Majority for Sells | 7,468 |
The vote on a constitutional convention was, for a convention, 32,790, against a convention, 14,162; majority for a convention, 18,628.
The Republicans elected Samuel R. Curtis to Congress in the First District, and Timothy Davis in the Second District. They also elected a majority of each branch of the Sixth General Assembly and now had control of every department of the State government. The vote of Iowa for President was cast as follows: for John C. Fremont, Republican, 45,196; James Buchanan, Democrat, 37,663; Millard Fillmore, Whig, 9,669; plurality for Fremont, 7,784.
An election was held on the 4th of December, 1856, for delegates to the Constitutional Convention, at which one delegate was chosen from each Senatorial District and two from the First and Fourth Districts. They assembled at Iowa City on the 19th of January, 1857 and organized by the election of Francis Springer, President and T. J. Saunders, Secretary. The convention consisted of thirty-six delegates, of which twenty-one were Republicans and fifteen Democrats. The session lasted until the 5th of March. The following are the most important changes made in the Constitution:
1. No lease of agricultural lands was valid for more than twenty years.
2. Biennial sessions of the Legislature were begun on the second Monday in January after the election of members.
3. Time of the General Election was changed to the second Tuesday in October.
FRANCIS SPRINGER President of the Constitutional Convention of 1857
no case where a general law could be made applicable.
6. No money was to be appropriated for local or private purposes, unless by a vote of two-thirds of the members of each branch of the General Assembly.
7. The number of Senators was limited to fifty, and the number of Representatives to one hundred.
8. The office of Lieutenant Governor was created.
9. The office of Supreme Judge was made elective.
10. The limit of State indebtedness was increased from $100,000 to $250,000. In case of insurrection, invasion or defense in time of war this limit might be exceeded.
11. Banks could be established under laws enacted by the Legislature, provided such laws were approved by a majority of voters at a general or special election.
12. A State Board of Education was created.
13. The Capital of the State was permanently fixed at Des Moines, and the State University was permanently located at Iowa City.
14. To submit to a vote of the people a proposition to strike the word “White” from the article on suffrage (the effect of which would be to
The census of 1856 gave the population of the State 517,875, an increase in two years of 193,474, more than double the population of four years before. The past two years had been a period of great prosperity in Iowa. The crops had been good, prices satisfactory, railroads were now entering the State, settlements were spreading over the prairies at a rate unprecedented. Spring wheat was the principal crop, yielding often from twenty-five to thirty-five bushels per acre, of plump grain, selling at from $1.10 to $1.35 per bushel. Very often the crop on forty acres would pay for one hundred and sixty acres of the best prairie land. Two years before the first railroad had reached the Mississippi, opposite Iowa, and now two hundred and forty-six miles had been built within its limits.
The Sixth and last General Assembly, under the old Constitution, met at Iowa City on the first day of December, 1856. The Senate was organized by the election of W. W. ​Hamilton, President. Samuel McFarland was chosen Speaker of the House. Governor Grimes sent his message to the two Houses on the third day of the month. The financial condition was stated as follows: amount in the treasury, October 1st, 1854, $10,106.86; paid in from that date to October 31st, 1856, $250,399.45. Amount paid out, $249,149.85, leaving a balance of $11,156.46. The Governor recommended an investigation of the affairs of the Des Moines Improvement Company which was not making satisfactory progress with the work.
The Senate of the United States having declared the former election of James Harlan illegal, on the 17th of January, 1857, the Legislature reëlected him for the unexpired portion of the term, ending March 4, 1861. Acts were passed providing for the payment of Statebonds, $57,000, due January 1, 1857; creating the counties of Humboldt and Hamilton; transferring the school fund to the State treasury; providing for the distribution of the five per cent. fund; amending the prohibitory liquor law; fixing the salaries of the Governor, Supreme and District Judges and other officers; authorizing certain cities and counties to issue bonds and subscribe for stock in building railroads; authorizing the McGregor Railroad Company to accept a land grant.
James D. Eads, of Lee County, was elected Superintendent of Public Instruction at the April election, 1854, gave bonds which were approved and entered upon the duties of the office. It was discovered in 1856 that the financial affairs of the office were in a state of confusion, and the funds belonging to the State, in the custody of the Superintendent, were being loaned on doubtful security. The Sixth General Assembly passed an act concerning the school funds in which the Governor was authorized to appoint an agent to make a thorough investigation and report the condition in which they were found. Under this authority Governor Grimes appointed Joseph M. Beck, of Lee County. He soon discovered a state of ​affairs that demanded prompt action, and on the 3d of March the Governor suspended James D. Eads from office and appointed as his successor, Joseph C. Stone, of Johnson County. He was not able to take possession of the office, as Mr. Eads refused to acknowledge the right of the Governor to remove him and retained the books, papers and funds. At the April election the Democratic candidate, Maturin L. Fisher, was elected over the Republican candidate, L. A. Bugbee, and on the 9th of June following he entered upon the discharge of the duties of the office.
The Superintendent was the custodian of the school funds of the State, and it was his duty to apportion them among the several counties and make loans to individuals. In his report to the Governor, made in November, 1857, J. M. Beck says:
After a careful examination of such securities as could be found, the agent reported a deficit of $65,150.78. He says:
Long before the first white settlements in Iowa, the beautiful group of lakes near the head waters of the little Sioux and west fork of the Des Moines River had been a favorite resort of the Dakota or Sioux Indians. As early as 1680, Louis Hennepin in exploring the upper Mississippi Valley, was captured and held a prisoner by the Yanktons. In 1700, when Lesueur was exploring the region about Blue Earth and Minnesota River, he found one of the Sioux nations occupying all of that region, and these Indians gave the name of Minne-Waukon to Spirit Lake, which signifies “Spirit Water,” or as interpreted by Major Long, “Mysterious Medicine.” It was with great reluctance that the Sioux Indians consented to surrender this favorite hunting and camping ground to the whites, as they did by the treaty of 1851.
As early as 1848, when Mr. Marsh, a government surveyor, was running the correction line near Fort Dodge, the party encountered a band of Sioux Indians, under the chief, Si-dom-i-na-do-tah, and were ordered to turn back and leave the country. When they attempted to proceed, the Indians destroyed their wagons, instruments and other property, seized their horses and forced them to re- cross the river and leave the country .
In 1849 some adventurers settled on the Des Moines River, near the mouth of the Boone. The Indians soon discovered them, destroyed their cabins and drove them out of the country. These and other collisions led to the establishment of Fort Dodge. Si-dom-i-na-do-tah, signifying “Two Fingers,” was the chief of a roving band of Sisseton Sioux Indians, numbering about five hundred. He had led them in several battles with the Pottawattamies in northwestern Iowa. One was fought near Twin Lakes, ​in Calhoun County. Their last battle was on the Lizzard, in the present limits of Webster County. Si-dom-i-na-do-tah was a brave and skillful commander and had concealed his warriors in the heavy woods and brush of a high bluff.
The Pottawattamies were led into ambush, where they encountered the terrible fire from the concealed Sioux. They fought bravely, but were defeated with great slaughter and the survivors who reached their own country were so few that their tribe made no more raids into the Sioux country.
SIDOMINADOTA
SIOUX CHIEF MURDERED BY HENRY LOTT AND SON
In 1847 a desperado, named Henry Lott, built a cabin, which became a rendezvous for horse thieves and outlaws, near the mouth of the Boone River. Horses were stolon from the settlements below and from the Indians, secreted on Lott’s premises and from there taken to the eastern part of the State and sold. In 1848, Lott’s marauders stole a number of ponies from the Sioux Indians, who were hunting along the river. Si-dom-i-na-do-tah and six of his ​party tracked the ponies to Lott’s settlement, found them concealed in the woods, recovered them and the chief ordered Lott to leave the country within five days. This he refused to do and, at the expiration of the time, the Sioux chief ordered his men to burn the cabin and kill his cattle. Lott was now alarmed and fled down the river with a stepson, abandoning his wife and small children. Upon reaching the Pea settlement in Boone County, he spread the report that his family had been massacred by the Indians. The settlers at once organized a party to punish the Sioux. Che-meuse, or “Johney Green,” a Musquakie chief, was at Elk Rapids, sixteen miles below, with several hundred of his band. He furnished twenty-six warriors for the expedition, which was placed under his command and piloted by Lott. When they reached his claim the Sioux had gone, and the wife and children of Lott were there without food or shelter. A son twelve years old had attempted to follow Lott when he fled, but after wandering twenty miles alone had perished from cold. Lott remained on his claim, where his wife died during the year, as Lott reported, from exposure and abuse from the Indians. Lott swore vengeance upon the Sioux chief, but made no haste to execute it. In the fall of 1853, he and a son passed through Fort Dodge with an ox team and a wagon loaded with provisions, goods and three barrels of whisky. He went into what is now Humboldt County and built a cabin on the bank of the creek which has since been named Lott's Creek.
Here he opened trade with the Indians in goods and whisky. In the month of January, 1854, Lott learned that Si-dom-i-na-do-tah with his family was camped on another creek since named Bloody Run. Taking his son one day, Lott went to the camp of the Sioux chief. Finding that he was not recognized, Lott made professions of warm friendship for the Indians. He told the chief that there was a large herd of elk on the river bottom and induced him to set off to find them. Lott and his son started ​toward their own cabin, but as soon as the old chief was out of sight, they skulked back, hiding in the tall grass, and as the chief returned from the hunt they shot him dead as he rode by on his pony. They then stripped him and, disguising themselves as Indians, waited until night, when, returning to the Indian tepees, they gave the war cry and as the Indian women and children came out in alarm, butchered them one by one. The victims were the aged mother, wife and children of Si-dom-i-na-do-tah and two orphans living with them. One little girl hid in the grass and escaped, and one little boy, terribly wounded and left for dead, recovered. The murderers then plundered the camp of every article of value and left the mutilated bodies of their victims to be devoured by wolves. Returning to their own cabin, they burnt it, to throw suspicion on the Indians, loaded a wagon with plunder and fled down the river. Ink-pa-du-tah, a brother of the murdered chief, was encamped with another band of Sioux Indians a few miles from the scene of the massacre. A few days later he discovered the dead and mangled bodies of his mother, brother and his entire family.
A careful examination by Major Williams, of Fort Dodge, and Ink-pa-du-tah, led to the discovery of facts which left no doubt that Lott was the perpetrator of the murders. His heavily loaded team was tracked down the river on the ice to the mouth of the Boone. Lott stated that he had been driven from his claim by the Indians, and he here sold to the settlers the pony, gun, furs and other property belonging to his victims. Lott hurried on his flight down the river, leaving one of his children at T. S. White’s, six miles below Fort Dodge, and his two little girls at Dr. Hull's in Boone County.
Major Williams, with several of the Indians, followed rapidly on the trail of Lott and his son, hoping to overtake and arrest them. But Lott having several days the start, left the Des Moines River, struck out westward upon the unsettled prairie, crossed the Missouri River ​north of Council Bluffs and disappeared on the great plains.
Several years after his flight, it was learned by a letter from his son to an acquaintance in Boone County, that after settling in California, Henry Lott met his fate at the hands of the “Vigilance Committee” for crime committed in the gold regions. Ink-pa-du-tah brooded sullenly over the cruel murder of his mother and brother, believing that some of the white settlers were parties to the massacre and had aided Lott and his son to escape. The Sioux were greatly incensed upon learning that the head of their murdered chief had been taken to Homer and nailed upon the outside of a house, and they threatened to be revenged upon the whites. These facts were all procured from Major Williams, who had been active in his efforts to bring the murderers to justice, and was familiar with the true history of the massacre. Ink-pa-du-tah never fully renewed his friendship with the whites after this slaughter of his relatives, but looked upon them as treacherous enemies. There can be no doubt that he determined to bide his time for retaliation, which resulted a few years later in the Spirit Lake massacre.
During 1855-6, adventurous pioneers had prospected the valley of the Little Sioux and made claims at various places near the river, built cabins and settled with their families at Correctionville, in Woodbury County, Pilot Rock, in Cherokee, Peterson and Gillett’s Grove, in Clay County.
An Irish colony had settled near Medium Lake, on the west fork of the Des Moines River, in Palo Alto, and a Mr. Granger had built a cabin in Emmet County, near the north line of the State. A small colony had ventured farther up the river and made a settlement in Minnesota, called Springfield (now Jackson). Asa C. and Ambrose A. Call, brothers, had settled near the present town of Algona, on the east fork of the Des Moines River, in 1854. ​The settlements at Okoboji and Spirit Lake, in Dickinson County had been made in 1856 and embraced about fifty persons. Most of the Indians had by this time removed from northwestern Iowa, but parties frequently returned to hunt and fish at their favorite resorts of former years. Ink-pa-du-tah, who often came with his band, had professed friendship for the whites in these isolated settlements, but those familiar with the Indian character were apprehensive that some day he would take revenge upon them for the massacre of his relatives by Lott.
The winter of 1856-7 was one of unusual severity. Frequent storms had swept over the prairies, covering them with a depth of snow that made travel very difficult. They continued late into March, filling the ravines with drifts so deep that communication between the scattered settlements was almost impossible for weeks and months. Provisions were for the most part consumed during the long blockade by the fierce blizzards. Ink-pa-du-tah had carefully noted the condition of the settlers and with the relentless cruelty of his race, laid his plans to visit an awful retribution upon the countrymen of Henry Lott. It mattered not to him that these settlers were wholly innocent of any part, knowledge, or sympathy with the murders; they were of the white race to which Lott belonged and their lives must atone for his crime.
During the summer of 1856, Ink-pa-du-tah, with a portion of his band, had visited most of these frontier settlements and carefully noted their helplessness in case of a sudden attack. In February, 1857, the Sioux chief selected about thirty of his warriors and, accompanied by their squaws, to allay suspicion on part of the settlers, started up the Little Sioux Valley. The chief sent detached parties to the settler’s cabins to take their arms, ammunition, provisions and cattle, and leave them defenseless and destitute. The snow was deep, the cold intense, the settlers few and widely separated, beyond reach of aid, and were compelled to submit to every outrage the ​Sioux chose to perpetrate. Resistance would have brought certain death.
As the Indians advanced their depredations began to assume a savage character. At Gillett’s Grove ten armed warriors forced an entrance into a house occupied by two families, seized the women and girls and subjected them to horrible outrages. They destroyed the furniture and beds, killed the cattle and hogs and robbed the terrified families of every article they took fancy to. Near midnight the settlers fled through the deep snow wandering for thirty-six hours, thinly clad, until they reached the house of Abner Bell, the nearest neighbor, utterly exhausted and nearly frozen to death. The Indians went from cabin to cabin, perpetrating outrages too horrible to relate, carrying off some of the girls to their camps where they were held until the savages moved on. Up to this time, however, no one had been killed.
As soon as the Indians moved on toward the lakes, Abner Bell, Mr. Weaver and Mr. Wilcox made their way through the deep snow to Fort Dodge, seventy miles distant. Their story of the Indian outrages created great indignation and excitement, as all realized that the frontier settlements were in imminent danger. But several days elapsed, no one knew where the Indians had gone; the snow was so deep that there was no hope that they could be overtaken by the time an organized force could be fitted out to pursue them.
FRANCIS SPRINGER President of the Constitutional Convention of 1857
no case where a general law could be made applicable.
6. No money was to be appropriated for local or private purposes, unless by a vote of two-thirds of the members of each branch of the General Assembly.
7. The number of Senators was limited to fifty, and the number of Representatives to one hundred.
8. The office of Lieutenant Governor was created.
9. The office of Supreme Judge was made elective.
10. The limit of State indebtedness was increased from $100,000 to $250,000. In case of insurrection, invasion or defense in time of war this limit might be exceeded.
11. Banks could be established under laws enacted by the Legislature, provided such laws were approved by a majority of voters at a general or special election.
12. A State Board of Education was created.
13. The Capital of the State was permanently fixed at Des Moines, and the State University was permanently located at Iowa City.
14. To submit to a vote of the people a proposition to strike the word “White” from the article on suffrage (the effect of which would be to
The census of 1856 gave the population of the State 517,875, an increase in two years of 193,474, more than double the population of four years before. The past two years had been a period of great prosperity in Iowa. The crops had been good, prices satisfactory, railroads were now entering the State, settlements were spreading over the prairies at a rate unprecedented. Spring wheat was the principal crop, yielding often from twenty-five to thirty-five bushels per acre, of plump grain, selling at from $1.10 to $1.35 per bushel. Very often the crop on forty acres would pay for one hundred and sixty acres of the best prairie land. Two years before the first railroad had reached the Mississippi, opposite Iowa, and now two hundred and forty-six miles had been built within its limits.
The Sixth and last General Assembly, under the old Constitution, met at Iowa City on the first day of December, 1856. The Senate was organized by the election of W. W. ​Hamilton, President. Samuel McFarland was chosen Speaker of the House. Governor Grimes sent his message to the two Houses on the third day of the month. The financial condition was stated as follows: amount in the treasury, October 1st, 1854, $10,106.86; paid in from that date to October 31st, 1856, $250,399.45. Amount paid out, $249,149.85, leaving a balance of $11,156.46. The Governor recommended an investigation of the affairs of the Des Moines Improvement Company which was not making satisfactory progress with the work.
The Senate of the United States having declared the former election of James Harlan illegal, on the 17th of January, 1857, the Legislature reëlected him for the unexpired portion of the term, ending March 4, 1861. Acts were passed providing for the payment of Statebonds, $57,000, due January 1, 1857; creating the counties of Humboldt and Hamilton; transferring the school fund to the State treasury; providing for the distribution of the five per cent. fund; amending the prohibitory liquor law; fixing the salaries of the Governor, Supreme and District Judges and other officers; authorizing certain cities and counties to issue bonds and subscribe for stock in building railroads; authorizing the McGregor Railroad Company to accept a land grant.
James D. Eads, of Lee County, was elected Superintendent of Public Instruction at the April election, 1854, gave bonds which were approved and entered upon the duties of the office. It was discovered in 1856 that the financial affairs of the office were in a state of confusion, and the funds belonging to the State, in the custody of the Superintendent, were being loaned on doubtful security. The Sixth General Assembly passed an act concerning the school funds in which the Governor was authorized to appoint an agent to make a thorough investigation and report the condition in which they were found. Under this authority Governor Grimes appointed Joseph M. Beck, of Lee County. He soon discovered a state of ​affairs that demanded prompt action, and on the 3d of March the Governor suspended James D. Eads from office and appointed as his successor, Joseph C. Stone, of Johnson County. He was not able to take possession of the office, as Mr. Eads refused to acknowledge the right of the Governor to remove him and retained the books, papers and funds. At the April election the Democratic candidate, Maturin L. Fisher, was elected over the Republican candidate, L. A. Bugbee, and on the 9th of June following he entered upon the discharge of the duties of the office.
The Superintendent was the custodian of the school funds of the State, and it was his duty to apportion them among the several counties and make loans to individuals. In his report to the Governor, made in November, 1857, J. M. Beck says:
After a careful examination of such securities as could be found, the agent reported a deficit of $65,150.78. He says:
Long before the first white settlements in Iowa, the beautiful group of lakes near the head waters of the little Sioux and west fork of the Des Moines River had been a favorite resort of the Dakota or Sioux Indians. As early as 1680, Louis Hennepin in exploring the upper Mississippi Valley, was captured and held a prisoner by the Yanktons. In 1700, when Lesueur was exploring the region about Blue Earth and Minnesota River, he found one of the Sioux nations occupying all of that region, and these Indians gave the name of Minne-Waukon to Spirit Lake, which signifies “Spirit Water,” or as interpreted by Major Long, “Mysterious Medicine.” It was with great reluctance that the Sioux Indians consented to surrender this favorite hunting and camping ground to the whites, as they did by the treaty of 1851.
As early as 1848, when Mr. Marsh, a government surveyor, was running the correction line near Fort Dodge, the party encountered a band of Sioux Indians, under the chief, Si-dom-i-na-do-tah, and were ordered to turn back and leave the country. When they attempted to proceed, the Indians destroyed their wagons, instruments and other property, seized their horses and forced them to re- cross the river and leave the country .
In 1849 some adventurers settled on the Des Moines River, near the mouth of the Boone. The Indians soon discovered them, destroyed their cabins and drove them out of the country. These and other collisions led to the establishment of Fort Dodge. Si-dom-i-na-do-tah, signifying “Two Fingers,” was the chief of a roving band of Sisseton Sioux Indians, numbering about five hundred. He had led them in several battles with the Pottawattamies in northwestern Iowa. One was fought near Twin Lakes, ​in Calhoun County. Their last battle was on the Lizzard, in the present limits of Webster County. Si-dom-i-na-do-tah was a brave and skillful commander and had concealed his warriors in the heavy woods and brush of a high bluff.
The Pottawattamies were led into ambush, where they encountered the terrible fire from the concealed Sioux. They fought bravely, but were defeated with great slaughter and the survivors who reached their own country were so few that their tribe made no more raids into the Sioux country.
SIDOMINADOTA
SIOUX CHIEF MURDERED BY HENRY LOTT AND SON
In 1847 a desperado, named Henry Lott, built a cabin, which became a rendezvous for horse thieves and outlaws, near the mouth of the Boone River. Horses were stolon from the settlements below and from the Indians, secreted on Lott’s premises and from there taken to the eastern part of the State and sold. In 1848, Lott’s marauders stole a number of ponies from the Sioux Indians, who were hunting along the river. Si-dom-i-na-do-tah and six of his ​party tracked the ponies to Lott’s settlement, found them concealed in the woods, recovered them and the chief ordered Lott to leave the country within five days. This he refused to do and, at the expiration of the time, the Sioux chief ordered his men to burn the cabin and kill his cattle. Lott was now alarmed and fled down the river with a stepson, abandoning his wife and small children. Upon reaching the Pea settlement in Boone County, he spread the report that his family had been massacred by the Indians. The settlers at once organized a party to punish the Sioux. Che-meuse, or “Johney Green,” a Musquakie chief, was at Elk Rapids, sixteen miles below, with several hundred of his band. He furnished twenty-six warriors for the expedition, which was placed under his command and piloted by Lott. When they reached his claim the Sioux had gone, and the wife and children of Lott were there without food or shelter. A son twelve years old had attempted to follow Lott when he fled, but after wandering twenty miles alone had perished from cold. Lott remained on his claim, where his wife died during the year, as Lott reported, from exposure and abuse from the Indians. Lott swore vengeance upon the Sioux chief, but made no haste to execute it. In the fall of 1853, he and a son passed through Fort Dodge with an ox team and a wagon loaded with provisions, goods and three barrels of whisky. He went into what is now Humboldt County and built a cabin on the bank of the creek which has since been named Lott's Creek.
Here he opened trade with the Indians in goods and whisky. In the month of January, 1854, Lott learned that Si-dom-i-na-do-tah with his family was camped on another creek since named Bloody Run. Taking his son one day, Lott went to the camp of the Sioux chief. Finding that he was not recognized, Lott made professions of warm friendship for the Indians. He told the chief that there was a large herd of elk on the river bottom and induced him to set off to find them. Lott and his son started ​toward their own cabin, but as soon as the old chief was out of sight, they skulked back, hiding in the tall grass, and as the chief returned from the hunt they shot him dead as he rode by on his pony. They then stripped him and, disguising themselves as Indians, waited until night, when, returning to the Indian tepees, they gave the war cry and as the Indian women and children came out in alarm, butchered them one by one. The victims were the aged mother, wife and children of Si-dom-i-na-do-tah and two orphans living with them. One little girl hid in the grass and escaped, and one little boy, terribly wounded and left for dead, recovered. The murderers then plundered the camp of every article of value and left the mutilated bodies of their victims to be devoured by wolves. Returning to their own cabin, they burnt it, to throw suspicion on the Indians, loaded a wagon with plunder and fled down the river. Ink-pa-du-tah, a brother of the murdered chief, was encamped with another band of Sioux Indians a few miles from the scene of the massacre. A few days later he discovered the dead and mangled bodies of his mother, brother and his entire family.
A careful examination by Major Williams, of Fort Dodge, and Ink-pa-du-tah, led to the discovery of facts which left no doubt that Lott was the perpetrator of the murders. His heavily loaded team was tracked down the river on the ice to the mouth of the Boone. Lott stated that he had been driven from his claim by the Indians, and he here sold to the settlers the pony, gun, furs and other property belonging to his victims. Lott hurried on his flight down the river, leaving one of his children at T. S. White’s, six miles below Fort Dodge, and his two little girls at Dr. Hull's in Boone County.
Major Williams, with several of the Indians, followed rapidly on the trail of Lott and his son, hoping to overtake and arrest them. But Lott having several days the start, left the Des Moines River, struck out westward upon the unsettled prairie, crossed the Missouri River ​north of Council Bluffs and disappeared on the great plains.
Several years after his flight, it was learned by a letter from his son to an acquaintance in Boone County, that after settling in California, Henry Lott met his fate at the hands of the “Vigilance Committee” for crime committed in the gold regions. Ink-pa-du-tah brooded sullenly over the cruel murder of his mother and brother, believing that some of the white settlers were parties to the massacre and had aided Lott and his son to escape. The Sioux were greatly incensed upon learning that the head of their murdered chief had been taken to Homer and nailed upon the outside of a house, and they threatened to be revenged upon the whites. These facts were all procured from Major Williams, who had been active in his efforts to bring the murderers to justice, and was familiar with the true history of the massacre. Ink-pa-du-tah never fully renewed his friendship with the whites after this slaughter of his relatives, but looked upon them as treacherous enemies. There can be no doubt that he determined to bide his time for retaliation, which resulted a few years later in the Spirit Lake massacre.
During 1855-6, adventurous pioneers had prospected the valley of the Little Sioux and made claims at various places near the river, built cabins and settled with their families at Correctionville, in Woodbury County, Pilot Rock, in Cherokee, Peterson and Gillett’s Grove, in Clay County.
An Irish colony had settled near Medium Lake, on the west fork of the Des Moines River, in Palo Alto, and a Mr. Granger had built a cabin in Emmet County, near the north line of the State. A small colony had ventured farther up the river and made a settlement in Minnesota, called Springfield (now Jackson). Asa C. and Ambrose A. Call, brothers, had settled near the present town of Algona, on the east fork of the Des Moines River, in 1854. ​The settlements at Okoboji and Spirit Lake, in Dickinson County had been made in 1856 and embraced about fifty persons. Most of the Indians had by this time removed from northwestern Iowa, but parties frequently returned to hunt and fish at their favorite resorts of former years. Ink-pa-du-tah, who often came with his band, had professed friendship for the whites in these isolated settlements, but those familiar with the Indian character were apprehensive that some day he would take revenge upon them for the massacre of his relatives by Lott.
The winter of 1856-7 was one of unusual severity. Frequent storms had swept over the prairies, covering them with a depth of snow that made travel very difficult. They continued late into March, filling the ravines with drifts so deep that communication between the scattered settlements was almost impossible for weeks and months. Provisions were for the most part consumed during the long blockade by the fierce blizzards. Ink-pa-du-tah had carefully noted the condition of the settlers and with the relentless cruelty of his race, laid his plans to visit an awful retribution upon the countrymen of Henry Lott. It mattered not to him that these settlers were wholly innocent of any part, knowledge, or sympathy with the murders; they were of the white race to which Lott belonged and their lives must atone for his crime.
During the summer of 1856, Ink-pa-du-tah, with a portion of his band, had visited most of these frontier settlements and carefully noted their helplessness in case of a sudden attack. In February, 1857, the Sioux chief selected about thirty of his warriors and, accompanied by their squaws, to allay suspicion on part of the settlers, started up the Little Sioux Valley. The chief sent detached parties to the settler’s cabins to take their arms, ammunition, provisions and cattle, and leave them defenseless and destitute. The snow was deep, the cold intense, the settlers few and widely separated, beyond reach of aid, and were compelled to submit to every outrage the ​Sioux chose to perpetrate. Resistance would have brought certain death.
As the Indians advanced their depredations began to assume a savage character. At Gillett’s Grove ten armed warriors forced an entrance into a house occupied by two families, seized the women and girls and subjected them to horrible outrages. They destroyed the furniture and beds, killed the cattle and hogs and robbed the terrified families of every article they took fancy to. Near midnight the settlers fled through the deep snow wandering for thirty-six hours, thinly clad, until they reached the house of Abner Bell, the nearest neighbor, utterly exhausted and nearly frozen to death. The Indians went from cabin to cabin, perpetrating outrages too horrible to relate, carrying off some of the girls to their camps where they were held until the savages moved on. Up to this time, however, no one had been killed.
As soon as the Indians moved on toward the lakes, Abner Bell, Mr. Weaver and Mr. Wilcox made their way through the deep snow to Fort Dodge, seventy miles distant. Their story of the Indian outrages created great indignation and excitement, as all realized that the frontier settlements were in imminent danger. But several days elapsed, no one knew where the Indians had gone; the snow was so deep that there was no hope that they could be overtaken by the time an organized force could be fitted out to pursue them.