The first settlers in the area that became Indiantown were the Indians.
"When the Indian title to the lands in western Iowa, of which Cass county is a part, became extinct by Government treaties in 1846, there was not a white person in all the land that is now Cass county. When Iowa became a State in the same year with a population of 97,588, not one of that population belonged in the thirteen counties, which comprise this Congressional district. By a treaty made September 26 h, 1833, this county, though not then named as a county, was part of a five million acre hunting ground, granted to the Chippewa, Ottawa and Pottawattamie Indians, on condition that they would remove from lands lying farther east that they then occupied. The Indians removed to this section of the State in accordance with that treaty, and remained here until by another treaty they agreed to go still farther westward. The treaty last referred to was made at Traders' Point, (now in Mills county) June 5th, 1846. The Indian inhabitants of this county were of the Pottawattamie tribe. They were quite numerous, and during the years they were here had encampments on the streams in various parts of the county. They were peaceable, greasy and lazy. Their principal village was at a point west of the present town of Lewis, not known as Indiantown, but which the Indians called Mi-au-mise (the young Miami) after their favorite chief. The agency and trading post for these Indians was at Traders' Point on the Missouri river. At that place there was an Indian agent, an interpreter, and a store, at which powder, lead, tobacco, etc., etc., could be bought by the child of the forest or any other person. The store was kept by Peter A. Sarpy, a man of St. Louis, a man quite famous in his day—more famous however in Nebraska than in Iowa. Col. Sarpy had a young man from St. Louis, clerking for him at Traders' Point, who fell desperately in love with one of our Cass county girls of the Pottawattamie tribe. When the Indians went away in 1846 or 1847 the young man stuck a feather in his hat and went with them. If he is living to-day he is probably a gray-haired child of nature drawing his rations from the government and stealing from frontier settlers in true aboriginal style. The main body of the Indians left prior to 1847, although stragglers and small squads of them could occasionally be seen as late as 1856. They cultivated no land in this county, so far as we have been able to learn, although in some other counties on the Missouri slope they did leave a few small patches of ground bearing the marks of cultivation. At Mi-au-mise (Indiantown) they had a burying ground, where rest the bones of many of their tribe whom death claimed while the tribe hinted elk and deer along the streams and over the prairies of this county.
"The most noted event that occurred in the county, during its occupancy by the Indians, was the death of the famous chief of the Iowa tribe, Mahaskah. This occurred on the Nodaway, near the south-east corner of the county, in 1834. He was sitting by his camp fire, one evening, (sixty miles from his tribe on the Des Moines) when a skulking, cowardly Indian enemy crawled to a convenient and secluded spot and shot him in the back, killing him instantly. Thus perished, on our soil, a chief who had led his tribe in seventeen successful battles with the Sioux, and whose name is perpetuated by being borne by one of the best counties in the State—from which county, we may remark, Cass has received a number of her best citizens." (1)
"The next inhabitants of the county, after the Indians, were the Mormons, who came through on their westward march from Nauvoo in the fall of 1846. Several thousands of them reached the Missouri river where Council Bluffs now is, in July or August of that year, after a short parley at that point they scattered up and down both sides of the Missouri river, and went into winter quarters. A small number, probably twenty families, got as far eastward as the Nishnabotany river and Indian creek in this county, and on those streams, in the neighborhood of the present town of Lewis, and not far from the deserted Indian village called Indiantown, whose twenty families built cabins, made “dug-outs” and fixed for the winter of 1846-7.
"The Mormons left Nauvoo in January, 1846. Of their departure from that place, and their march across Iowa, Beadle, in his History of the Mormons, says:
“Early in February, 1846, several thousand Mormons crossed the Mississippi, many of them on the ice, and started directly west, along a line near the northern boundary of Missouri. They were divided into companies of ten wagons each, under control of captains, and this semi-military order was maintained throughout. As the spring advanced, many of he able-bodied men scattered to various places in Missouri and Iowa seeking employment of every kind and the remaining men, with a great band of women and children, pursued their way. In that climate and at that season their sufferings were necessarily great. The high waters, wet prairie, damp winds, and muddy roads of Spring troubled them worse than the frosts of Winter, and sickness and death increased. 'All night,' says a woman who made the journey, “the wagons came trundling into camp with half-frozen children screaming with cold, or crying for bread, and the same the next day, and the next, the whole line of march.
“The open sky and bare ground for women and children in February is a thing only to be endured when human nature is put to the rack of necessity, and many a mother hastily buried her dead child by the wayside, only regretting she could not lie down with it herself and be at peace.
"The above portrays graphically the hardships endured by the first white settlers of this county in getting to the homes which they occupied for a few years. Three or four years ago the bones of a human being were exhumed on the Nodaway, in Edna township, near A. J. Stewart's mill, which had probably been buried there by the Mormons on their march above described.
"The Mormon settlement in the county at Indiantown, was merely a branch of the main camp on the Missouri river. Other small settlements, were to be found in Mills and other counties contiguous to the Missouri river. The first year that they were in this county (and the same was true of all their settlements in western Iowa) they were almost destitute of all provision. No supplies could be had for one hundred miles in any direction. A Mr. A. G. Pettengill, now a resident of Utah, and who resided at Indiantown during all the years that the Mormons were in the county, writes us from Salt Lake, in reply to an inquiry as early days, writes us from Salt Lake, in reply to an inquiry as to early days, that 'we ground corn, (some we brought with us,) in mills whose burrs were made of common boulders, picked up in Union county. Deer and elk were plenty and afforded us all the meat necessary.' Mr. P. also says they got some corn at St. Joseph, Missouri, where there was a ferry in operation across the Missouri. In 1847 they raised enough sod corn to feed themselves and their stock. In that year also they secured the establishment of a post office at their settlement. The post office was called 'Cold Spring' although the settlement was known as Indiantown. Mr. Pettengill was the first postmaster, and from him we learn that the mail was carried to Cold Spring once-a-week from the main Mormon camp at Kanesville, (now Council Bluffs). The mail carrier also went on to Union county and supplied the Mormon settlement at 'Mt. Pisgah in that county, with mail facilities.
"In 1849, the Mormon settlers at Indiantown or Cold Spring had the privilege of voting for the first time after settling there. The 'Mormon vote' was worth having then, the population of the State being small, and the 'leaders of the church' were treated with great consideration by men seeking political preferment. At the election mentioned, Orson Hyde, the leading Mormon at the Kanesville settlement, came out to tell the sovereigns at Cold Springs how to vote, but our informant assures us that they let Orson say all that he had to say and then voted as they pleased--which custom prevails in Cass to this day. James Ferrin was the Bishop who took the tithings from the brethren at Cold Spring. Messrs Warner and Bunnell were the preachers. The Mormons did not devote themselves entirely to agriculture and religion. There were two violin players in the settlement, and the folks gathered in each other's houses every night or two and held social dances. One of the Mormon preachers would dance with his parishioners, while the other would not, but it is said that the other one's lack of sin in that respect was more than made up for in another respect. The joists in the cabins being low, the tall men would take positions when they danced, that would allow their heads to extend up between the basswood poles that crossed over head." (2)
'Several of the Mormon families left for Utah, in 1849-50, and when Jeremiah Bradshaw, and family, arrived at Cold Spring post office, May 15th, 1851, they found but seven Mormon families there, namely, the two Pettengills, and Messrs. Marsh, Bunnell, Warner, Ferrin and Wicks and their families. There were also two charming Mormon widows who were supported and cared for by the families named. Mr. Bradshaw assures us that he found the Mormons to be upright people, and good neighbors, and that he liked them all except “old Ferrin,” whom he considered to be a scheming, selfish old sinner, who simply stuck to the Saints for the 'loaves and fishes.' Mr. Bradshaw arrived in the spring of 1851, and the last of the Mormons did not leave until 1852, so he had a year's residence with them and ample opportunity to learn what kind of people they were. The only Gentiles living in the county when Mr. Bradshaw came, that he recollects of, were Wm. S. Townsend and John D. Campbell and their families, neither of whom, or any of their relatives, reside in the county now. Campbell settled in the grove near Atlantic's present site, on what is now known as the Reesman farm, known for many years as the Keyes farm, and lived there a year or two. His cabin was built in 1852 and still stands on the west side of the road, not far from Miller's brewery. His grove had an unusual attraction for hunters, as he had several captivating daughters. Campbell removed from Cass to Pottawattamie, in 1853 and his present whereabouts are not known. Townsend then resided in the vicinity of Indiantown. Some of the old settlers tell us that he then lived in a cabin on the ‘Botna not far from the present bridge west of Lewis.
"Besides having his own family with him, Mr. Bradshaw was accompanied by his son, V. M. Bradshaw and wife; Jesse Hyatt and wife; Lewis Hyatt and wife; and James Sprague and family. They all located land in Audubon county [. . .]
"After the Mormons had gone westward, Jeremiah Bradshaw, succeeded Mr. Pettengill as postmaster at Cold Spring.
"June 12th, 1852, R.D. McGeehon, Morris Hoblit and George Shannon arrived in the country. They came up through the southwestern portion of the county, having left the river at St. Joseph, Mo. They were all young, single men, and roamed over the hills and valleys of the county considerably before making claims and setting stakes. Mr. McGeehon took a claim near Turkey Grove and began to build a cabin immediately, cutting and hewing the logs—in fact doing all the work himself. The house still stands and is occupied by J.L. Smith, esq. It was the first house in the county that had good large modern windows in it. The sash and glass were bought in Glenwood, Mills county, which then had about twenty cabins. Mr. McGeehon had just $52 when he landed. In the fall of 1852, after his house was completed and ready for occupancy, he went back to Logan county, Illinois, and was married to Miss Mary J. Hoblit. He returned with his wife at once, staging over four hundred miles. Their household furniture the first year was scanty enough, but they managed to get along. During the first six months of her residence at Turkey Grove Mrs. McGeehon saw but one person of her own sex. A very sever storm occurred in the winter of 1852, beginning December 17th, and continuing several days. Morris Hoblit was on his way from Turkey Grove to Glenwood for supplies, with an ox team, and it was with much difficulty that he kept from freezing to death. He was but five miles from his destination when the storm began or he certainly would have perished." (3)
View article about Indiantown by Floyd E. Pearce
Notes:
1. Lafe Young, History of Cass County, Iowa, Together with Brief Mention of Old Settlers (Atlantic, Iowa: Telegraph Steam Printing House, 1877), 1-7.
2. Young, History of Cass County, Iowa, 1-7.
3. Young, History of Cass County, Iowa, 1-7. |
