HISTORY OF
POTTAWATTAMIE COUNTY, IOWA

THE FOUNDING OF COUNCIL BLUFFS.

Although Pottawattamie county was not organized until as Late as September, 1848, its real history begins at a much earlier date. During the administration of President Jefferson, in 1804, an expedition was fitted out under Captains Lewis and Clark to explore the country just purchased from France, or that part lying along the Missouri river to its source. On referring to the journal kept by Patrick Gas on this expedition we read: "Tuesday, August 2, L804, two of our men had none out from camp to bunt for horsethat had strayed, returned with them, and also two large bucks and a fawn. Others brought in an elk they had killed."

The Indians we had expected came in at dark: Captain Lewis and Clark held a council with them, who seemed well pleased with the change of government and what had Keen done fur them. Six of them were made chiefs, three Otoes and three Missouri. This place we called Council Bluffs, and on taking observation found it to he in latitude 41 degrees. 17 minute

Although the exact spot is not positively known, this brings us to the Mynster spring, just at the north limit of the city, where the great bluff comes down to within a few rods of the river, and must have been a favorite meeting place for the tribes, as shown by a burying ground back on one of the bluffs, where are buried hundreds of all ages and both sexes, but covered so lightly that the boys used to dig them up. This is the first we hear of Council Bluffs and brings us on to the soil of Pottawattamie county, and, although no permanent settlement was made for many years, it was a recognized point and designated on the early maps of the country and visited by trappers and traders that exploited this region with St. Louis as their base of operation.

I am aware that other points claim the distinction of being the original Council Bluffs, notably Fort Calhoun, about fifteen miles above Omaha, and another at Traders Point, six or seven miles south of the city of Council Bluffs, but as there are no bluffs at either of these places, the name would not be appropriate. Again, their journal describes the broad bottoms, and jungles abounding with wild grapes and alive with wild turkeys and other game, exactly as they were fifty years later, and further, if we accept the Fort Calhoun theory, in place of 41° and 17" it would be 41" and 30", while Traders Point would fix it at 41° and 7". We also find them on the eastside of the river when Sergeant Floyd died and was buried on the top of a high bluff a few miles below Sioux City, which still bears his name, as well as the little river close by.

At all events our first settlers found the name lying around loose and when granted our city charter we appropriated it. like it. and intend to hold it until some one with a bigger stick than ours takes it from us.

The conditions above described continued until 1838, when, during President Van Buren's administration, the Pottawattamie Indians were assigned to a reservation here, and Davis Hardin was appointed to instruct them in fanning. He with his family and a company of soldiers arrived here on the steamer Antelope from Fort Leavenworth in the spring of that year. This was an event. As before stated, many trappers and traders had frequented this region, intermarrying with the Datives, but here was a family of refined Americans conic to stay, backed and protected by the government. Arriving here they found the country a solitude. They located by a big spring on what is now East Broadway and the soldiers immediately commenced building a house for the Hardins, and then a fort on a promontory that was a continuation of the hill between Franklin and Lincoln avenues, and which at that time jutted into what is now Broadway, where the dwelling of the late John Clausen now stands. The Pottawattamies, escorted by a company of cavalry, arrived a few days later, having come across the country. They found il indeed a goodly land, and it is doubtful if the landscape revealed to Moses from the top of Pisgah, extending from the cedars of Lebanon to the palm trees of Zoar, equaled in beauty that of Pottawattamie county as viewed from the summit of these bluffs. Though not possessing the awful grandeur of mountain scenery, tor natural beauty it is doubtful if it can be excelled on this little world of ours. To the north the bluffs almost assume the dignity of mountains, visible for forty miles. To the south they roll away until they appear blue in the distance of fifty miles. At your feet lies the broad bottom lands, compared with which, for fertility, the valley of the Nile is a desert. A vast natural meadow sprinkled with flowers, while the great Missouri sweeps by in great graceful curves until lost in the distance, while to the east and west the view extends until lost in the curvature of the earth's surface.

During their stay here the Indians continued to advance in the ways of civilization. A Catholic mission was established and many of them embraced Christianity. A cemetery was established on the hill some distance above the fort, which remained until grading Franklin avenue, some thirty years ago, the Tierce street school ground, and Yoorhis street, necessitated their removal, which was done, and the remains interred in Fairview cemetery. The government, during their stay here, built a gristmill on the Mosquito creek, three miles northeast from the city, which was run by L. E. Wicks, who was married lo a half-breed, by whom he reared quite a family, and when the Indians left for Kansas the Wicks family remained, and he continued to make an excellent quality of Hour as late as 1857 or 1858.

HISTORY OF POTTAWATTAMIE COUNTY 7

The French traders had established posts all along the Missouri river at a very early day. They intermarried with the Indians and some of them became wealthy. Among them one being at Traders Point nearly opposite the mouth of the Platte river by Peter A. Sarpy, in honor of whom Sarpy county, Nebraska, was named.

Contemporaneous with him was Francis Guittar, of Council Bluffs, who married an American woman and reared a family and continued in business until 1857. His son Theodore is a prominent man. has rilled several positions of honor and trust, among which was sheriff of the county, and at this writing his father's widow is living in the Bluffs.

Another of this class, a Mr. Busha, is still with us and. although one hundred and twelve years of aye. blind and quite deaf, his mind seems clear, bis appetite good, as well as his general health. Lewis and Clark encountered one of these, whose squaw wife. Sacajawea (the Bird woman), rendered great assistance in piloting the expedition from the head waters of the Missouri across the Rockies. She has been called the Pocahontas of the west and has been immortalized by a statue erected by the women of the United States and unveiled at the Portland exposition; this was modeled by a woman. Miss Alice Cooper, now of Chicago, but a native of Iowa, and for which she received seven thousand dollars.

During the year 1846 the Pottawattamies sold their lands to the government and by treaty were assigned a reservation in what is now Kansas.

POTTAWATTAMIE COUNTY, IOWA
FROM THE EARLIEST HISTORIC TIMES TO 1907
BY
HOMER H. FIELD and HON. JOSEPH R. REED
ALSO BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF
SOME PROMINENT CITIZENS
OF THE COUNTY

ILLUSTRATED
VOL. I.
CHICAGO
THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING CO.
1907