CHAPTER III
[32] C. C. Carpenter’s Major William Williams in Annals of Iowa (Third Series), Vol. II, p. 150; Senate Executive Documents, 1st Session, 31st Congress, Vol. II, pp. 235, 242, 243.
[33] This fort was established by Brevet Major Samuel Woods, Sixth Infantry, with Company E of the same, from Ft. Snelling, Minnesota. It was established by General Orders No. 19, War Department, Adjutant General’s Office, of May 31, 1850. Major Woods and men were detailed by Orders No. 22, 6th Military District, St. Louis, Missouri, July 14, 1850. Major Woods and men arrived on the site August 23, 1850. See Fort Dodge, Iowa, in the Annals of Iowa (Third Series), Vol. IV, pp. 534, 535; Jacob Van der Zee’s Forts in the Iowa Country in The Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. XII, pp. 197-199.
[34] Fort Dodge, Iowa, in the Annals of Iowa (Third Series), Vol. IV, p. 535.
[35] Flickinger’s Pioneer History of Pocahontas County, Iowa, p. 27; Fulton’s Red Men of Iowa, p. 288.
[36] Samuel J. Albright’s First Organized Government of Dakota in the Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society, Vol. VIII, p. 139; Fulton’s Red Men of Iowa, p. 288.
[37] Fort Clarke, by General Orders No. 34, Army Headquarters, on June 25, 1851, had been changed in name to Fort Dodge. By Order No. 9, Sixth Military Department Headquarters, St. Louis, Missouri, on March 30, 1853, the abandonment of Fort Dodge was ordered. By the same order, Major Woods was directed to establish the new post.—See Fort Dodge, Iowa, in the Annals of Iowa (Third Series), Vol. IV, pp. 536, 537; Carpenter’s Major William Williams in the Annals of Iowa (Third Series), Vol. II, pp. 148, 149; Van der Zee’s Forts in the Iowa Country in The Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. XII, p. 199.
[38] Flickinger’s Pioneer History of Pocahontas County, Iowa, p. 26.
[39] Carpenter’s Major William Williams in the Annals of Iowa (Third Series), Vol. II, p. 151.
[40] While Major Woods’ detail was on its way from Fort Snelling en route to the future site of Fort Dodge it was joined on the Iowa River by Major Williams who became later the post sutler and was destined to play a large part in the history of northwestern Iowa. This was in 1850.—Carpenter’s Major William Williams in the Annals of Iowa (Third Series), Vol. II, p. 147.
[41] Carpenter’s Major William Williams in the Annals of Iowa (Third Series), Vol. II, p. 151; letter from William Williams to Governor Hempstead, September 1, 1854, in the Public Archives, Des Moines, Iowa.
[42] Letters from Governor Grimes to Secretary of State, George W. McCleary, February 14, November 5, and December 1, 1855, and to Congressman S. R. Curtis, February 28, 1855, in the Public Archives, Des Moines, Iowa.
[43] Letter from Governor Grimes to the Iowa Congressional Delegation, January 3, 1855, in the Annals of Iowa (Third Series), Vol. II, pp. 627-630.
[44] Letter from Governor Grimes to the Iowa Congressional Delegation, January 3, 1855, in the Annals of Iowa (Third Series), Vol. II, p. 629.
[45] Letter of Governor Grimes to Congressman S. R. Curtis, February 28, 1855, in the Public Archives, Des Moines, Iowa.
[46] Letter of Governor Grimes to President Pierce, December 3, 1855, in the Annals of Iowa (Third Series), Vol. III, pp. 135-137; Roster and Record of Iowa Soldiers, Vol. VI, pp. 889, 890.
[47] Smith’s The Iowa Frontier During the War of the Rebellion in the Proceedings of the Pioneer Lawmakers’ Association of Iowa for 1898, p. 59.
[48] “He [Secretary of State in Iowa, Geo. W. McCleary] also writes me that these Indians are manifestly making preparations for war, and have been and are now making great efforts to induce all the Mississippi River Sioux to unite with them in hostilities upon the whites. I hear from various sources that several runners have been sent by the Sioux west of the Missouri river, to those in this State, and in Minnesota, with war belts, urging the latter to make common cause with them. The result of all this is a great state of alarm along the whole frontier.”—Letter of Governor Grimes to President Pierce, December 3, 1855, in the Annals of Iowa (Third Series), Vol. III, p. 136. Charles Aldrich in an editorial in the Annals of Iowa (Third Series), Vol. III, p. 566, remarked that “Had the earnest appeals of Gov. Grimes been heeded, the Spirit Lake Massacre would not have occurred.”
[49] The notable depredations charged to Indian outlawry at this time were in Buena Vista County where whole settlements were routed; at Dakota City in Humboldt County; near Algona and Bancroft in Kossuth County. In fact both the spring and summer of 1855 and 1856 were never free from depredations somewhere. For further information consult The Spirit Lake Massacre and Relief Expedition in the Roster and Record of Iowa Soldiers, Vol. VI, pp. 889, 890; Ingham’s Ink-pa-du-tah’s Revenge in the Midland Monthly, Vol. IV, p. 272.
[50] Hughes’s The Treaty of Traverse des Sioux in 1851 in the Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society, Vol. X, Pt. I, p. 117.
[51] Albright’s The First Organized Government of Dakota in the Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society, Vol. VIII, p. 138.
[52] “It is a matter of history that whiskey is, and has been since the advent of white men in this country, the ‘bane of the Indians,’ and that there is scarcely a tribe or an individual Indian but that would at times give all his possessions for whiskey. When under its influence he knows not what he does. All of the depredations committed by them upon the whites; all murders among themselves; or personal injuries inflicted by them upon each other, are perpetrated while under the influence of that destructive bane, or to revenge acts done while laboring under intoxication ... men will wonder why the agent will let whiskey go into the Indian country, as has been heretofore reported, ‘without let or hindrance.’ The same men, being in the Indian country ostensibly, solely for the good of the ‘poor Indian,’ will pass an Indian with a five or ten gallon keg on his back, and not attempt to destroy it; knowing at the same time that he has an equal authority for so doing as the agent, and just as much money furnished for expenses of prosecutions.”—Report of D. B. Herriman, Chippewa Agent, September 15, 1857, in Senate Documents, 1st Session, 35th Congress, Vol. II, Pt. I, pp. 341, 342.
[53] See note 29 above, and Senate Documents, 1st Session, 35th Congress, Vol. II, Pt. I, p. 342.
[54] Pond’s The Dakotas or Sioux in Minnesota as They Were in 1834 in the Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society, Vol. XII, pp. 378, 379.
[55] Ida M. Street’s A Chapter of Indian History in the Annals of Iowa (Third Series), Vol. III, pp. 601, 602.