The Oskaloosa herald., 1905-01-26
CHAPTER THREE.
Important Land Deals With the
Indians.

80 ~ ~ VA 00ANA # = ~ A1C
between Lake Michigan and the
Mississippi river. The Wisconsin
river was the north line and IL
river was the north line and the IL
linois bounded it on the south.
This extensive area was called Iowa
county in 1929. It was SO named be
cause it had been the former home
of the Iowa Indians. In. about the
year 100 they migrated westward,
crossing the Mississippi and locat-
ing on the Iowa river. This tribe OF
Indians gave their name totheriver
which they located and from it the
territory and state were named.
On the Both of April 1903, France
coded to the United States her ter
ritory between the Mississippi river
and the Rocky Mountains, known as
the Louisiana Purchase for $15,.
100000. In 1904 what is known as
the state of Iowa was included in the
District of Louisiana. March 3,
1905, it was organized into the Ter
ritory of Louisiana. In 1912 it was
included in the jurisdiction of the
Territory of Missouri. June %, 1884,
congress provided that "All that
part of the territory of the United
States bounded on the east by the
Mississippi river, on the south by
the state of Missouri, on the west by
the Missouri and White Earth riv-
ers and on the north by the north
ern, boundary of the United States,
shall be attached to Michigan Terri
tory"
The state of Iowa was embraced
in this territory and for judicial pur-
poses was made a part Of Michigan.
In September Of 1884 the Michigan
Assembly DIVIDED the Iowa District
into two counties by running a line
due west from the lower end of the
island Of Rock Island. The terri
tory north of this line was named
Dubuque county and all south Of the
line was called Des Moines county.
Courts were organized in each
county. The place of meeting for
the county or the north was Du-
buque, and Burlington on the south.
The first court was held in a log
house in Burlington in April, 1885. The
governor of Michigan appointed the
judges for these new counties. Is
aac Loeffer was appointed to preside
in Des Moines county and John
King in Dubuque county. Judge
King was the founder and publisher
of the Dubuque Visitor, the first
newspaper established within the
limits of the state of Iowa.
A census taken in 1886 gave the
two counties in the Black Hawk
Purchase, Dubuque and Des Moines,
a population of 1851.
The first book ever published de-
scriptive of Iowa. or Iowa District,
as it was then called, was published
in 1886 by Lieutenant Albert NJ.
Lea, for whom Lee county was nam
ed. Lieut.. Lea was a civil engineer
and a skilled draughtsman. His
work as a soldier enabled him to ex-
plore much of the then unknown re-
gion in central and southern Iowa.
Mr., Lea pays this tribute to the
Iowa pioneers he had met while
scoring about over the new country:
1.-THE character of the population
settling in this beautiful coun-
try is such as is rarely
found in other new terri
tories. With few exceptions there is
not a more industrious, orderly and
energetic population west of the Al
leghenies than are found in the
Iowa District"
Mr.. George Catlin, a famous In
dian painter and historian, visited
the Indian tribes in Iowa some years
earlier than Mr.. Lea and has many
enthusiastic descriptions Of the beau
ty and solitude of these western
prairie lands. We give a short ex-
tract: "The stately march of
growing population to this vast gar
den spot will surely come in surging
columns and spread farms, houses,
orchards, towns and cities all over
these remote wild prairies. Half a
century hence, the sun is SURE toI
SHINE on countless villages, silvered
spires and domes, denoting the
march of intellect and wealth's re-
inement in this beautiful and far-off
solitude Of the west, and we may
perhaps hear the tinkling of the
bells from our graves"
In the Louisiana Purchase from
France on April 80, 1903, as in all
purchases made by the United
States, it was always the policy of
the government to recognize the
claims of the various Indian tribes
to the territory which they occupied.
No bona fide grant or guarantee
could be given by the government roI
any of these lands until the Indians
title had been satisfied by treaty
and purchased.
A number of treaties were made
with the Sacs and Foxes, who occu-
pied almost all of eastern Iowa.
A treaty made Sept. 21, 1892,
known as the Black Hawk Purchase,
opened the first lands in Iowa for
settlement by the whites. This