|
Iowa: Its History and Its
Foremost Citizens
___________________________________
Part I. The Discoverers
_________________________________________
Historical Biographies�I
_________________________________
Julien
Dubuque
Soldier
of Fortune�Adventurer�Trader�Miner�Prototype of the Modern Captain of
Industry�The First White Man to Effect a Settlement on Iowa Soil.
1762�1810
The story of Julien Dubuque�s active and
adventurous career reads like a historical romance. It develops a most
interesting personality�ambitious, bold, daring, resourceful, grasping,
far-seeing, abounding in initiative, and yet passing out of life
Page 22
into history in an atmosphere of tragic gloom, his
vaulting ambition having sadly o�erreached itself.
Julien Dubuque was born of Norman parents
on the 10th day of January, 1762. His birthplace was the village of
St. Pierre les Brecquets, County of Nicolet, on the south bank of the St.
Lawrence, about twenty leagues above Quebec. Tradition has it that he was of
mingled French and Spanish ancestry.(1)
The
fact that his claim rested upon a Spanish land grant and that he named
his Iowa possessions �The Mines of Spain,� in memory of the government to which
he declared his allegiance, may be the only foundation for the tradition.
The family name was variously spelled �Duboe,�
�Dubueq,� and �Dubuque��but never �Du Buque,� as it sometimes appears. The only
signature thus far discovered�an agreement and statement of account signed by
Joseph Chouteau and the subject of this sketch�is plainly �Julien Dubuque.�(2)
Julien�s great-grandfather, Jean, came from
the Parish of Trinity, Diocese of Rouen, France, and was married to Marie Hotet
in Quebec in 1668. His son, Romain, was born in 1671, and married Anne Pinel in
1693. His son, Noel Augustin, father of Julien, was born in 1707, and married
Marie Mailhot in 1744, and died in 1783, about the time his son left home for
the West.
The boy Julien was educated in the parish
schools and at Sorel, and was able to express himself well both with tongue and
pen.
Julien Dubuque�s advent in the little
village of Prairie du Chien was early in the year 1785. In 1788, Dubuque, the
roving adventurer, settled down to the serious business of life. He was
twenty-six years of age and was looking for a permanent settlement. His
opportunity came on the 22d day of September of that year. At a council of
chiefs and braves of the Fox Indians, held in Prairie du Chien, he obtained from
the Indians a grant which transformed the adventurer into the miner and trader.
At this grant forms the basis of a
contention ultimately carried to the Supreme Court of the United States, it may
be well to examine it. Translated from the French, it appears that the Foxes
agreed to �permit Mr. Julien Dubuque, called by them �Little Night� [La Petite
Nuit], to work at the mine [near Kettle Chief�s village a short distance south
of the present city of Dubuque] as long as he shall please, and to withdraw from
it, without specifying any term to him; moreover, that they sell and abandon to
him all the coast and the contents of the mine discovered by the wife of Peosta,
so that no white man or Indian shall make any pretension to it without the
consent of Mr. Julien Dubuque; and in case he shall find nothing within he shall
be free to search wherever he may think proper to do so, and to work peaceably
without anyone hurting him, or doing him any prejudice in his labors. Thus we,
chief and braves by the voice of all our villages, have agreed with Julien
Dubuque, selling and delivering to him this day, as above mentioned, in the
presence of the Frenchmen who attend us, who are witnesses to this writing.�
This document raises the question: Did
Dubuque intend to clothe the agreement in language susceptible of two
interpretations�one which should be regarded by the suspicious Indians a s a
permit; the other which might be interpreted by a friendly Spanish official as a
sale? Or did Dubuque, unversed in legal phraseology and not having in mind at
the time any such ambitious scheme of land ownership as that which later filled
his imagination, content himself with undisturbed possession with the privilege
of buying?
Prior to the execution of this contract,
Dubuque and his followers had established themselves at Little Fox Village and
made a study of the crude mining in process there. Discovering that the river
bluffs in the vicinity of Catfish Creek were rich in galena, or lead ore, he
proceeded to acquire an influence over the natives. He made numerous presents,
learned their language and adapted himself to their ways of living flattering
their vanity. He is said to have resorted to tricks of necromancy, claiming to
be possessed of supernatural power.
The most popular tradition which has come
down to us is that on one occasion when the Indians refused to accede to some
demand, he threatened to set Catfish Creek on fire, and leave their village high
and dry. They still denied him; so one night his associates emptied a barrel
Page 23
of oil�or turpentine�on the water, above the bend, and
when it had floated down to the village, Dubuque set fire to it. In a few
moments the entire creek was apparently in a blaze. The terrified Indians made
haste to concede all Dubuque had asked�and supposedly by the exercise of his
will, the fire went out! Another tradition is that Dubuque claimed immunity from
snakebites and was wont to handle the reptiles without fear, and that he
benevolently doled out an antidote for snake-poisoning.
His tenure thus established by agreement,
Dubuque settled down to his undertakings�the development of mines and smelting
works, the extension of his trade with the Indians, the supplanting all traders
in his field and the development of a monopoly in the carrying trade on the
Mississippi between Catfish Creek and St. Louis.
His ambition rapidly grew with his
prosperity and he became anxious to obtain a title from the Spanish government
which should entirely extinguish the title of the Indians to all that region in
which he was operating, or might in future operate. So he prepared, with great
care and with a courtier�s obsequiousness, a petition to Baron Carondelet,
governor of Louisiana, praying for a title to a tract of land seven leagues up
and down and along the west bank of the Mississippi, and extending three leagues
into the interior, representing that he had bought the land, paying the Indians
in goods at its full value at the time of the agreement, and that monuments were
placed soon after indicating the land included in the purchase.
Dubuque�s petition is a characteristic
document. Without republishing it in full, et us note certain phrases which
reveal the courtier. He represents himself as a �very humble petitioner� who �by
his perseverance has surmounted all the obstacles as expensive as they were
dangerous� to the development of the mines. He has named the property the �Mines
of Spain� �in memory of the government to which he belonged.� The �very humble
petitioner prays your excellency to have the goodness to assure him the quiet
enjoyment of the mines and lands� which he claims he �has bought� from the
Indians. �I beseech that same goodness which makes the happiness of so many
subjects, to pardon me my style, and be pleased to accept the pure simplicity of
my heart in default of my eloquence. I pray heaven, with all my power, that it
preserve you, and that it load you with all its benefits; and I am, and shall be
all my life, your excellency�s very humble, and very obedient, and very
submissive servant,
�J. Dubuque.�
(3)
This plaintive petition brought the desired
response from the governor. The only restriction put upon the petitioner was
that Dubuque should keep his hands off the Indian trade monopolized by �Don
Andrew Todd,� to whom Carondelet referred the case for investigation, and who at
the time held a valuable license from the governor to trade with the Fox
Indians!
It is interesting to note the relations existing between Chouteau
and Dubuque on the 12th of November, 1804, the date of the statements
of account to which Dubuque�s signature is affixed.
The first statement shows a transfer of 72,000 arpents of land as a
basis for credit, leaving a balance due Dubuque amounting to $4,855.82, half of
the balance to be paid in 1805, of which $200 was payable in deer skins at the
current price, and the remainder to be paid �in merchandise, taffetas or the
country�s productions.� The second statement, rendered September 14, 1806,
showed an indebtedness of Chouteau to Dubuque to the amount of $1,282.49,
�payable in the same terms and conditions� as previously agreed upon.
Notes:
1�Given
credence by Judge Lucius H. Langworthy, a pioneer of Dubuque County, in an
address delivered in 1855.
2�Data
relative to Dubuque�s family and early life supplied by the late M. M. Ham in
the Annals of Iowa of April, 1896.
3�Through
the kindness of col. Pierre Chouteau, son of Auguste Chouteau, the pioneer
merchant of St. Louis, Curator Aldrich was, years ago, given the loan of the
only then known signature of Julien Dubuque, a facsimile of which is herewith
given:
Page 24
Meantime, Dubuque had cleared the land,
built a commodious log house, opened new mines and extended the old, erected a
horse-mill and a smelting furnace�all in the vicinity of what is now known as
Dubuque Bluff, where the pioneer�s remains now lie. The actual mining was
chiefly done by squaws and old men. The brave were above work, but not averse to
profiting by the labor of others. Dubuque�s white followers, now augmented from
two to ten, served him as overseers, smelters and rivermen. The mining was
primitive. No shafts were sunk. Drifts were run into the hills and the mineral
was carried out in baskets and deposited in the smelting furnace. No gunpowder
was used. The pick and crowbar, hoe and shovel, were employed instead of the
engine and the complicated and costly machinery of modern mining.
After securing a confirmation of his title
from the governor of Louisiana, Dubuque redoubled his activities. He soon
obtained complete control of all the lead mines on both sides of the river. He
�built and operated furnaces. He conducted extensive prospecting parties. He
controlled the boats which carried the product down the river to market. In
gaining absolute supremacy over the lead industry he displayed remarkable
talent. For whatever lead ores he purchased he established the rate. In market
he fixed the price of the refined product. By 125 years he anticipated the
policies of the Guggenheims and the American Smelting and Refining Companies.�
(4)
Dubuque made two river trips to St. Louis every year,
exchanging his lead for goods for his Indian trade. The traders and people of
St. Louis received the well known trader with much consideration, an his
biennial visits were events in the little frontier city.
James G. Soulard, of Galena, was the son of
a prominent citizen of St. Louis. This pioneer has left with us perhaps the best
picture obtainable of �the first white man in Iowa.� Mr. Soulard describes
Julien Dubuque, as he appeared in middle life, as �a man below the usual
stature, of black hair and eyes, wiry and well-built, capable of great
endurance, and remarkably courteous and polite, with all the suavity and grace
of the typical Frenchman. To the ladies he was always the essence of
politeness.� Mr. Soulard well remembered that on the occasion of one of
Dubuque�s visits, a ball was given in his honor, attended by all the prominent
people of the place. It was held in a public hall, in the second story of a
building, and he as a small boy had crowded in to see the sights. At one point
of the festivities M. Dubuque took a violin form one of the performers and
executed a dance to the strains of his own music, which was considered a great
accomplishment and was received with tremendous applause.
II
An impressionistic picture of Dubuque comes
down to us from the journal of Maj. Zebulon M. Pike, the discoverer of the
source of the Mississippi River in Itasca Lake. Major Pike had been instructed
by General Wilkinson, in general terms, to report on mining conditions, etc. and
Mr. Ham is authority for the statement that President Jefferson had given him
definite instructions �to find out all he could relative to M. Dubuque, his life
among the Indians, the extent and situation of his mines, the amount of lead
produced, and the like.�
On the 1st day of September,
1805, Lieutenant Pike landed from his keel-boat at the mouth of Kettle Chief�s
Creek.
In his �journal of a Voyage from St. Louis
to the Source of the Mississippi, performed in the years 1805 and 1806,� Major
(then Lieutenant) Pike writes of his meeting with Dubuque as follows:(5)
�Sunday, 1st September.�Embarked early, with
the wind fair; arrived at the lead mines at 12 o�clock.�
Recovering from a brief but severe attack
of fever, he resumes:
�I dressed myself, with an intention to
execute the orders of the general [Wilkinson] relative to this place. We were
saluted with a field piece and received with every mark of attention by Monsieur
Dubuque, the proprietor. There were no horses at the house, and as it was six
miles to the mines, it was impossible to make report from actual inspection. I
proposed, in consequence, ten queries, on the answers to which my report was
formed.
�Dined with Mr. D., who informed me that
the Sioux and Sauteurs were as warmly
Notes:
4�Keyes, �Spanish Mines, etc.� Annals of Iowa, October,
1912.
5��Exploratory Travels Through the Western Territories
of North America, etc.� London, 1811, p. 13.
Page 25
engaged in opposition as ever; that not long since the
former had killed fifteen of the latter, who, in return, killed ten Sioux��
Here ends the reference to Dubuque. The
impression left upon the reader�s mind by these extracts the is that Dubuque was
determined that Lieutenant Pike should not visit his mines. To that end he
pleaded inability to convey his guest to the mines, exaggerated the distance to
be covered in order to reach them, and made much of disturbed conditions
existing between rival tribes in the vicinity.
Not feeling very well, Lieutenant Pike
contented himself with his series of questions which Dubuque was doubtless
pleased to answer�thereby ridding himself of an inquisitive guest. The two
parted with the utmost cordiality, and on his way up the river the lieutenant at
his leisure read the answers. Though Lieutenant Pike mentions ten queries, the
English translation includes only eight.(6)
The questions and answers are as follows:
�1. What is the date of your grant of the
mines from the savages?
�Ans. The copy of the grant is in Mr.
Soulard�s office at St. Louis.
�2. What is the date of the confirmation by
the Spaniards?
�Ans. The same as to query first.
�3. What is the extent of your grant?
�Ans. The same as above.
�4. What is the extent of the mines?
�Ans. Twenty-eight or twenty-seven leagues
long, and from one to three broad.
�5. Lead per annum?
�Ans. From twenty to forty thousand pounds.
�6. Quality of lead per hundredweight of
mineral?
�Ans. Seventy-five per cent.
�7. Quality of lead in pigs?
�Ans. All he makes, as he neither
manufactures bar, sheet-lead or shot.
�8. If mixed with any other material?
�Ans. We have seen some copper, but having
no person sufficiently acquainted with chemistry to make the experiment
properly, I cannot say as to the proportion it bears to the lead.�
The unsatisfactory answers given to the
first three questions�the only vital questions�coupled with the evident
intention of Dubuque to deter the explorer from personally inspecting his mines,
made a decidedly unfavorable impression upon his guest, for he is quoted as
referring to the master of the mines as �the polite but evasive M. Dubuque�!
III
On the
24th of March, 1810, at the early age of forty-eight, the restless
spirits of Julien Dubuque found rest in death. It is said, though apparently
without any well-authenticated foundation, that his death resulted from
pneumonia caused by undue exposure. Judge Langworthy in 1854 declared that
Julien Dubuque �died a victim of his vices,� but the statement lacks
verification.
The Indians, whose confidence Dubuque had
managed to retain to the last, were filled with consternation when apprised of
his death. Though he had juggled with them in the matter of a title to their
lands, his shrewdness and worldly wisdom, his affability and his occasional
resort to the apparently supernatural, enabled him to retain to the last his
powerful hold upon their respect and admiration. There seems to be some
foundation for the long prevalent impression that Dubuque married a squaw.(7)
But the fact remains that he left no heirs and no claimant to his estate.
The Foxes buried Dubuque with funereal
honors as became a chief. Their chiefs vied with one another for the honor of
carrying his body to the grave. They joined in chants and their orators bemoaned
their loss and sounded his praises. For many years afterward they were wont to
visit his grave and make contribution of stones to the cairn erected over his
remains.
Notes-
6�Annals of Iowa, April, 1896.
7�George H. Catlin says: �He married a Fox woman, Potosa.�
Smithsonian Reports, 1885, Part 2, p. 237.
Page 26
There was a tradition among the Foxes that
he would some day reappear among them and resume his former place as their
counselor and guide.
The burial place chosen by the Indians was
one befitting the adventurous spirit of their lost leader. It is a high and
precipitous cliff rising some two hundred feet above the river valley, about tow
miles south of the city, across Catfish Creek and near the site of Little Fox
Village, his Iowa home.
A tomb, partly of rock and partly of wood,
was erected over the grave, and this was surmounted by a cedar cross, bearing
the inscription, �Julien Dubuque, miner of the Mines of Spain, died March 24,
1810, aged forty-five years and six months.� Near the tomb was the grave of an
Indian chief who died not long after his death, leaving with his survivors a
request that he be buried near his friend. On the authority of George Catlin, it
has been accepted as fact that Dubuque himself had written the inscription which
was graven upon his tombstone; but the baptismal register in Canada dates his
birth January 10, 1762, instead of September 24, 1764, as the inscription would
indicate. The baptismal date is doubtless correct. As the inscription gives the
date of Dubuque�s death it must have been written by another than himself.(8)
In 1897 the citizens of Dubuque decided to erect a
monument to the memory of the man whose name their city bears. To that end they
purchased several acres of land, including the bluff on which Dubuque�s body had
been buried. There they erected a monument to his memory. The design of the
monument took �the form of a circular tower of stone, thirty-eight feet in
height.� Its base �contains a sarcophagus quarried from the stone of the
neighboring hills, in which was placed a walnut casket containing the skeleton,
which was found well preserved, of Julien Dubuque.�
(9)
Under the auspices of the Dubuque County Early Settlers
Association, dedicatory services were held on Sunday, October 31, 1897, on which
occasion a commemorative address was delivered by the Hon. James H. Shields.
Concerning this veritable man of mystery,
who for twenty-two years dominated the Indians and whites alike on both sides of
the Upper Mississippi, Mr. Ham well says:
�He left no family, no connections, no
papers, no business relations, none of those things that usually keep alive the
memory of a man.� And yet his impress upon his time was deep and lasting and his
undertakings on Iowa soil constitute one of the most interesting chapters in the
history of Iowa.
It will be recalled that in 1796 Dubuque
named his property �the Mines of Spain.� Though Spain soon after turned over its
possessions to France, and France to the United States, the pioneer held on to
the name to the last, and it was engraved upon his tomb. But, after his
personality was withdrawn, the mines became known as �Dubuque�s,�; and in the
early thirties when a village began to grow up in that vicinity, the name of the
first white resident in Iowa was given the village. Later, when the village
became a city, it was incorporated under the name �Dubuque.� The Christian name
Julien was long attached to the principal hotel in the city, though fire had
several time burned the building to the ground. Dubuque Township and Dubuque
County also commemorate the pioneer�s successful attempt at permanent
settlement.
IV
The
death of Dubuque was followed by one of the most complicated cases that ever
reached the court of last resort. The case in outline,(10)
exclusive of much documentary evidence mad part of the record, covers
forty printed pages. The conditions leading down to the bringing of the suit
were, briefly as follows:
Dubuque somehow became deeply indebted to
that pioneer master of finance, Auguste Chouteau. Pressed for settlement, in
October, 1804, the debtor conveyed to the creditor seven undivided sixteenths of
all the land included in his claim�said to be about seventy-three thousand three
hundred and twenty four acres. In further protection, the shrewd merchant
obtained an agreement that in case of Dubuque�s death, the remaining
nine-sixteenths
Notes:
8�Mr. Richard Herrmann, of Dubuque, a student of his
city�s early history, is of the opinion that the cross and the inscription were
placed there by Frenchmen about 1825.
9�From �The Mines of Spain,� by Judge Oliver P. Shiras.
Annals of Iowa, April, 1902.
10�Reported in 16 Howard.
Page 27
should go to Chouteau, or his heirs. In may, 1805,
Dubuque and Chouteau jointly filed their claim with the Government for
possession.
At about this time Lieutenant Pike visited
Dubuque and found him singularly unwilling to impart information relative to his
mines.
In September, 1806, a majority of the board
of land commissioners sustained the claim of Dubuque under the Spanish Grant and
held that therefore the grant was entitled to recognition by both France and the
United States, under the terms of the treaties duly ratified by the three
governments.
The report of the commissioners was by
Secretary Gallatin made the subject of an adverse report to President Jefferson,
wherein the secretary held that the Spanish Grant had not conformed to the rules
of the Spanish government relative to land grants, and therefore it was not an
independent and completed grant.
Years passed, and no further effort had
been made to obtain recognition of the Dubuque-Chouteau claim. Meantime the
region in question was slowly filling with settlers.
Then came the Black Hawk war, ending in the
defeat of the Indians at Bad Axe, in August, 1832. The battle was soon followed
by a treaty, signed by General Scott and Governor Reynolds for the Government,
and by Keokuk and a number of minor chiefs, for the Sacs and Foxes, whereby the
Indians ceded to the United States, as a requital for the injuries inflicted by
the war, all the lands lying along the west bank of the Mississippi including
the land which had been claimed by Dubuque.
The Indians were given till June, 1833, to
vacate. But the immigration prior to that date was too strong to be prevented.
The fast-increasing value of the land in
and about the village of Dubuque aroused the dormant claim of the Chouteaus. An
agent was sent to the mines near Dubuque was sent to the mines near Dubuque with
authority to execute miners� leases.
On the retirement of the Indians there was
a rapid inrush of settlers. In 1836 the Government directed the sale of lots in
the Town of Dubuque designated as �Mineral Lots,� including the area supposed to
be underlaid with lead ore. The settlers already on the land bid in the lots at
a fixed price previously agreed upon among them. One of the purchasers was
Patrick Molony, afterward defendant in the celebrated case of �Chouteau vs.
Malony.�(11)
Meantime, the claimants, having made
several ineffectual appeals to congress, consented to a submission of their
claim to a United States court. Accordingly, action of brought by Henry, son of
Auguste Chouteau, in the Dubuque District Court, against one of the purchasers
of the �Mineral Lots,� setting forth that the Chouteau claim was a valid title
to the land in fee, and therefore, Molony�s title, direct from the Government,
was invalid.
Justice Dyer held in favor of the
defendant; and by writ of error the case was carried to the Supreme Court. Not
until December, 1853, was a decision reached. Reverdy Johnson appeared for the
plaintiff and Thomas S. Wilson and Platt Smith for the defendant Judge Wilson in
his recollection says:
�Mr. Johnson made a powerful speech for the
appellant; one which surprised and alarmed Mr. Smith and myself, as we did not
think that so good an argument could be made in so weak a case.�
There were a number of grounds for the
repudiation of the Dubuque-Chouteau claim�the lack of evidence of a sale, or a
purpose to sell, by the Indians at Prairie du Chien; a lack of conformity to
Spanish law and rules governing grants of land. �The true point here,� read the
decision, �is not what he [Dubuque] meant to ask for, but what he had a right to
ask for under his contract with the Indians and what the governor [Carondelet]
meant to grant and could grant under that contract.
The court held that by treaties the title
had passed from Spain to France and from France to the United States, and from
the Indian occupants by treaty to the united States, and that by acts of
congress authorizing the laying off of lots in the Town of Dubuque, and by the
public sale of same, the title to the land in dispute had passed to the
purchasers at such sale.
The decision was hailed with delight by
every owner of property located within the
Notes:
11�Stiles, Annals of Iowa, July, 1912.
Page 28
district in question, for had the decision of the lower
court been reversed many would have been ruined and many families would have
been homeless.
It is interesting to note in this
connection the question raised by an eminent jurist.(12)
After a careful and exhaustive study of the case, Judge Shiras concludes with
this suggestive comment:
�But while it is the fact that the grantees
of Dubuque failed to maintain a title under him to the land in question, is it
not also a fact that Dubuque personally maintained his claim to ownership and
enjoyed all the benefits thereof, both living and dead?�
�From the time of the execution of his
agreement with the Indians in 1788, until his death in 1810, he lived upon the
premises, carrying on his mining and trading operations thereon without let or
hindrance, and to the exclusion of all other white men.�
The Judge then philosophizes on the vanity
of vanities�the land-lust which burns out the hearts of many:
�When he died he was given sepulture on one
of the most sightly spots within the domain claimed by him, and after an
undisturbed repose of more than three-quarters of a century, his right to the
possession of all of Mother Earth that can be held even by the greatest of her
sons, after death, has been assured to him through the action of the citizens of
Dubuque.�
Notes:
12�Annals of Iowa, 1902.
|
Dubuque
County IAGenWeb