Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1911-08-17
lowa's First White Settler
Member of Fox Indian Tribe

From the Dcs .Moines Register and Leader
Along the course of the upper rapids
Oh the Mississippi q ride of 10 miles
brings enc to 4 point where the hithcr-
I" broad valley is shut off by Il bold
pfaclpltous bluff rising directly from
the waters edge. Skirting his bluff on
IL massive ledge we come into full view
OF IL large island which rises high from
lne Water surface and comprises some
~ acres of II fertile land which is now
occupied as a farm. Like Il huge craft
nloorcd to the west shore at one end.
lts upper end swings out toward the
channel. giving it the appearance OF
having slplighed off from the main
shore.
This is Smiths island, and it has Il
romantic history dating back some
Years previous to the opening up of
the territory of Iowa by the Black
Hawk treaty in 1882.
Martin w. Smith can truthfully be
said to have been the very first actual
settler OF what was then Wisconsin
territory. now Iowa.
Having lived with the Indians for
many years. as one of them he was
unimolested by the watchful troops at
Fort Armstrong, being regarded as be-
longing to the Fox tribe Of Indians.
This region was long the home OF the
uid luIte Lilies 10 lne HOftncaSt,
where the village of lie Claire now is,
the first Fox village was built. Gen.
Zebulon Montgomery Pike, who was
sent by the government with 20 MEN
and a keel boat to- explore the upper
Mississippi In the year OF 1905. twice in
ms journal mentions this village:
April %. lS05-Passed the first Rey-
nard (Eox) village near the head of
Rock rapids on the west side at IL
O'Clock: counted Is lodges"
TN: early settlers are witness to the
fact of the frequent return of the In
dians to this spot for many Years: they
were 10th to cav and fingered about
m their teepees or wickiups and pad
ding In canoes up n down over the
P~an-ke-she-tuck (swilt water) where
they oun abundance of Ash and
game. AS late as 1897 there were 1000
Indians encamped at once in this re-
gion.
The Sac and Fox Indians. although
having an offensive. and defensive all
lance. lived separately. except in some
cases when they had intermarriea; the
Foxes on the west bank of the river.
Sacs on the east. AT the foot of
the rapids near Rock Island the Sac
village numbered over 1900 population,
Black Hawk being their chief The
Fox Indians followed Keoisuk to the
village on the Iowa river before hos
tllities with the whites commenced i'm
1899. They We're more friendly to the
whites than the Sacs, who We're called
British Indians. having helped the
British in the war of 1912.
AS noted before. Martin w. Smith
and his brother Nathan, who have
many descendants i'm this lccality. had
lived with Tho Sc Indians adopting their
garb n habits. NJ; than Smith mar
ried an Indian girl. Il sister Of a fine
looking and considerable chief named
Wishita. Judge John w. Spencer in
his EARLY "reminiscences OF Rock Is
land speaks of him as az interpreter
and as explaining the peculiar customs
Of the Indians which were otherwise in
comprehensibls-this was in the year
1928.
Martin w. Smith first lived i'm a wig
wan on the island made of POLES and
bark. He cleaned 10 acres out OF the
dense forest and planted it to corn and
pumpkins in 1882. The next ycar he
built a comfortable log house with a
large fireplace at one cnG-a hearth of
stone brought from the waters edge
n also a huge chimney-whcn logs a
foot through and six feet long. cot.i be-
burned. For the floor. he wrecked the
n hull of a keel-boat left by Maj.
John Campbell. of Campbells island.
when attacked by the Indians in 1914.
This boat had been sacked and burned
by Indians. but having sunk into the
SAND, many OF the plankS were SOCrG.
He RATED them together and brought
them to the island. and used them in
various ways. He constructed Il rude
ferry with the planks aid across two
Indian canoes which "a used from the
island to the main shore.
About the time this work was com
pleted the Indians were removed TO
their reservations and Martin Smith
bethought him of prospective homes for
his needy brother whom he had left
back in Green county. Pennsylvania. 10
years before. He cut and piled cord
wood on the bank of his island selling
It to passing steamboats,. and so pro-
cured money to make the journey by
water down the Mississippi and up the
Ohio.
A brother blowing a field one morn
ing saw a man climb the rail fence and
sit awaiting his coming to the end OF
the furrow. Ira F. Smiths joy at recoy-
milton Of his long mourned brother can
be imagined. The experience Of each
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