Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 1.djvu/230



In 1830 a trading post was established on the Iowa River in the present limits of Johnson County. John Gilbert was the agent in charge and was probably the first white man to make a home in that part of the State. The post was near Poweshiek’s Indian village. Goods were brought up the river in keel boats to be used in exchange with the Indians for furs and skins. The following year Colonel George Davenport explored the Cedar River in a canoe to a point above the mouth of Rock Creek, where he established a trading post and carried on a profitable traffic with the Indians up to 1835.

In 1831 Mr. Campbell settled at Puch-e-chu-tuck. The earliest settlers at this place after Dr. Muir and Moses Stillwell, were Amos and Valencourt Vanausdol, John Connelly, John Forsyth, James Thorn, John Tolman, John Gaines and William Price, most of whom had Indian wives. Here the American Fur Company had erected on the river bank a row of hewn log buildings for the use of their agent in his traffic with the Indians and for the collection of skins and furs. The place was called “Farmers’ Trading Post.”

In September, 1834, a meeting of half-breed Indians was held at this place to prepare a petition to Congress requesting the passage of an act to authorize them to sell their lands in the tract known as the “Half-breed Reservation.” There were nine families living in that vicinity and, after the adjournment of the meeting above mentioned, the citizens held a council at John Gaines’ saloon, to consider the prospect of building a city at this place. After some consultation, John Gaines proposed, and it was agreed, that the future city should be named for the Sac chief, Keokuk.

In August, 1835, Major Gordon with an escort of troops crossed into the Black Hawk Purchase, traversing the region lying between the Mississippi and the upper Des Moines rivers. He described the country as surpassing