The Half Breed Tract
The following comes from:
The History of Lee County, Iowa
Western Historical Company, Chicago, 1879
Pages 164-166
Typed and Submitted by Mary Sue Chatfield for
the benefit of Lee County Researchers
Chief Keokuk
Head of the Fox & Sac Indians
Before
any permanent settlement had been made in the Territory of Iowa, white
adventurers, trappers and traders, many of whom were scattered along the
Mississippi
and its tributaries, as agents and employes of the American
Fur Company, intermarried with the females of the Sac and Fox
Indians, producing a race of half-breeds, whose number was never
definitely ascertained. There were some respectable and excellent people
among them, children of men of some refinement and education. For
instance: Dr. Muir, a gentleman educated at Edinburgh, Scotland, a
surgeon in the United States Army, stationed at a military post located
on the present site of Warsaw (Illinois), married an Indian woman, and
reared his family of three daughters in the city of Keokuk. Other
examples might be cited, but they are probably exceptions to the general
rule, and the race is now nearly or quite extinct in Iowa.
A treaty was made at Washington, August
4, 1824, between the Sacs and Foxes and the United States, by which that
portion of Lee County was reserved to the half-breeds of those tribes,
and which was afterward known as "The Half-Breed Tract." This
reservation is the triangular piece of land, containing about 119,000
acres, lying between the Mississippi and Des Moines Rivers. It is
bounded on the north by the prolongation of the northern line of
Missouri. this line was intended to be a straight one, running due east,
which would have caused it to strike the Mississippi river at or below
Montrose; but the surveyor who run it took no notice of the change in
the variation of the needle as he preceeded eastward, and, in
consequence, the line he run was bent, deviating more and more to the
northward of a direct line as he approached the Mississippi, so that it
struck that river at the lower edge of the town of Fort Madison.
"This erroneous line," says Judge Mason, "has been
acquiesced in as well in fixing the northern limit of the Half-Breed
Tract as in determing the northern boundary line of the State of
Missouri." The line thus run included in the reservation a portion
of the lower part of the city of Fort Madison, and all of the present
townships of Van Buren, Charleston, Jefferson, Des Moines, Montrose and
Jackson.
Under the treaty of 1824, the half-breeds had the right to occupy the
soil, but could
not convey it, the reversion being reserved to the United States. But on
the 30th day of January, 1834, by act of Congress, this reversionary
right was relinquished, and the half-breeds acquired the lands in fee
simple. This was no sooner done, than a horde of specualtors rushed in
to buy land of the half-breed owners, and, in many instances, a gun, a
blanket, a pony or a few quarts of whisky was sufficient for the
purchase of large estates. There was a deal of sharp practice on both
sides; Indians would often claim ownership of land by virtue of being
half-breeds, and had no difficulty in proving their mixed blood by the
Indians, and they would then cheat the specualtors by selling land to
which they had no rightful title. On the other hand, speculators often
claimed land in which they had no ownership. It was diamond cut diamond,
until at last things became badly mixed. There were no authorized
surveys, and no boundary lines to claims, and, as a natural result,
numerous conflicts and quarrels ensued.
To settle these difficulties, to decide the validity of claims or sell
them for the
benefit of the real owners, by act of the Legislature of Wisconsin
Territory, approved January 16, 1838, Edward Johnstone, Thomas S. Wilson
and David Brigham were appointed Commissioners, and clothed with power
to effect these objects. The act provided that these Commissiners should
be paid six dollars a day each. The commission entered upon its duties
and continued until the next session of the Legislature, when the act
creating it was repealed, invalidating all that had been done and
depriving the Commissioners of their pay. The repealing act, however,
authorized the commissioners to commence action against the owners of
the Half-Breed Tract, to receive pay for their services, in the District
Court of Lee County. Two judgments were obtained, and on execution the
whole of the tract was sold to Hugh T. Reid, the Sheriff executing the
deed. Mr. Reid sold portions of it to various parties, but his own title
was questioned and he became involved in litigation. Decisions in favor
of Reid and those holding under him were made by both District and
Supreme Courts, but in December, 1850, these decisions were finally
reversed by the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Joseph
Webster, plaintiff in error, vs. Hugh T. Reid, and the judgment titles
failed. About nine years before the "judgment titles" were
finally abrogated as above, another class of titles were brought into
competition with them, and in the conflict between the two, the final
decision was obtained. These were the titles based on the "decree
of partition" issued by the United States District Court for the
Territory of Iowa, on the 8th of May, 1841, and certified to by the
Clerk on the 2d day of June of that year. Edward Johnstone and Hugh T.
Reid, then law partners at Fort Madison, filed the petition for the
decree in behalf of the St. Louis claimants of half-breed lands. Francis
S. Key, author of the Star Spangled Banner, who was then attorney for
the New York Land Company, which held heavy interests in these lands,
took a leading part in the measure, and drew up the
document in which it was presented to the court. Judge Charles Mason, of
Burlington, presided. The plan of partition divided the tract into one
hundred and one shares and arranged that each claimant should draw his
proportion by lot, and should abide the result, whatever it might be.
The arrangement was entered into, the lots drawn, and the plat of the
same filed in the Recorder's office, October 6, 1841. Upon this basis
the titles to land in the half-Breed Tract are now held.
On page 531 of the same book, it tells pretty much the same thing, just
going into the legal and financial aspects a little more. The only
additional that might help you is this:
"A Member of the Bar" prepared a very full and concise history
of the legal contest, and the status of the titles as they existed at
the time, which was published in the Keokuk "Register" in
December, 1848, where it is preserved, and where it may be reviewed if
any of the points involved ever become subjects of controversy or
dispute.
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