Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 3.djvu/374

 rivers and numerous rapidly flowing creeks of pure water. A series of large sloughs extends along the Mississippi River in width of from one to three miles. The “Iowa Slough” extends from the northern line of the county to near Lansing.

Allamakee was in the limits of the “Neutral Ground” and was long held as a peaceful hunting land over which hostile tribes of Indians pursued the chase without collisions. It was given to the Winnebago Indians in 1833, when they were forced to surrender their Wisconsin homes. In 1846 they exchanged the “Neutral Ground” for lands in Minnesota and two years later removed to their new homes. There is a tradition that as early as 1818 some white trappers and Indian traders made a settlement on the west bank of the Mississippi within the limits of Allamakee County, remaining there many years. But all traces of their cabins had disappeared before the first permanent settlers came. It is known that traders had a station at “Old Mission,” long before the Indian title was extinguished; but no record of their names had been preserved, As early as 1828 Colonel Zachary Taylor, who was in command at Fort Crawford (Prairie du Chien), sent a detail of soldiers across the Mississippi River to erect a saw mill near the mouth of Yellow River where a large amount of lumber was made for buildings at the fort. Lieutenant Jefferson Davis was among the officers at Fort Crawford and the future President of the Southern Confederacy was a frequent visitor to the Iowa shore. In 1835 Colonel Taylor established an Indian Mission not far from the old saw mill. This Mission was in charge of Rev. David Lowrey, who endeavored to educate and civilize the Indians, while Colonel Thomas, in charge of the farm, gave them instruction in growing crops and raising stock. But little success attended these efforts. The warriors considered labor degrading and after a few years the Mission was abandoned.

In 1838 Patrick Keenan and Richard Cassiday settled