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ceased soldiers as might be left in destitute circumstances. This idea first took form in in 1863, and in the following year a Home was opened at Farmington, Van Buren County, in a building leased for that purpose, and which soon became filled to its utmost capacity. The institution received liberal donations from the general public, and also from the soldiers in the field. In 1865 it became necessary to provide increased accommodations for the large number of children who were seeking the benefits of its care. This was done by establishing a branch at Cedar Falls, in Black Hawk County, and by securing, during the same year, for the use of the parent Home, Camp Kinsman, near the city of Davenport. This property was soon afterward donated to the institution by act of Congress.

"In 1866, in pursuance of a law enacted for that purpose, the Soldiers' Orphans' Home (which then contained about four hundred and fifty inmates) became a State institution, and thereafter the sums necessary for its support were appropriated from the State Treasury. A second branch was established at Glenwood, Mills county. Convenient tracts were secured and valuable improvements made at the different points. Schools were also established and employments provided for such of the children as were of suitable age. In all ways the provision made for these wards of the State has been such as to challenge the approval of every benevolent mind. The number of children who have been inmates of the Home from its foundation to the present time is considerably more than two thousand.

"At the beginning of the war, the population of Iowa included about one hundred and fifty thousand men, presumably liable to render military service. The State raised, for general service, thirty-nine regiments of infantry, nine regiments of cavalry, and four companies of artillery, composed of three years' men; one regiment of infantry, composed of three months' men; and four regiments and one battallion of infantry composed of one hundred days' men. The original enlistments in these various organizations, including seventeen hundred and twenty-seven men raised by draft, numbered a little more than sixty-nine thousand. The re-enlistments, including upward of seven thousand veterans, numbered very nearly eight thousand. The enlistments in the regular army and navy, and organizations of other States, will, if added, raise the total to upward of eighty thousand. The number of men who, under special enlistments, and as militia, took part at different times in the operations on the exposed borders of the State, was probably as many as five thousand.

"Iowa paid no bounty on account of the men she placed in the field. In some instances, toward the close of the war, bounty to a comparatively small amount was paid by cities and towns. On only one occasion-that of the call of July 18, 1864—was a draft made in Iowa. This did not occur on account of her proper liabil

ty, as established by previous rulings of the War Department, to supply men under that call, but grew out of the great necessity that there existed for raising men. The Government insisted on temporarily setting aside, in part, the former rule of settlements, and enforcing a draft in all cases where sub-districts in any of the States should be found deficient in their supply of men. In no instance was Iowa, as a whole, found to be indebted to the General Government for men, on a settlement of her quota accounts."

It is to be said to the honor and credit of Iowa, that while many of the loyal States, older and larger in population and wealth, incurred heavy State debts for the purpose of fulfilling their oblitions to the General Government, Iowa, while she was foremost in duty, while she promptly discharged all her obligations to her sister States and the Union, found herself at the close of the war without any material addition to her pecuniary liabilities incurred before the war commenced. Upon final settlement after the restoration of peace, her claims upon the Federal Government were found to be fully equal to the amount of her bonds issued and sold during the war to provide the means for raising and equipping troops sent into the field, and to meet the inevitable demands upon her treasury in consequence of the war.

STATEMENT showing the number of men furnished and casualities in Iowa regiments during the War of the Rebellion.

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HISTORY OF WINNESHIEK COUNTY.

CHAPTER I.

History: Its Basis of Fact, Tradition and Legend; First Settlement; First Birth; First Marriage; First Death; First Settlements, no Longer Existing; First Public School and School Teacher; County Organization; First Assessment and Tax List; First Tax-Payers and Settlers by Townships.

When some of the old historians wrote their histories they were forced to admit that fact and legend had become so intermingled that it was impossible to clearly separate truth from fiction. The legends of the past were such a mixture of facts, traditions and tales of ancestors, varied in many details, as brought down from father to son, that it was a relief to come to common ground on which all were agreed, and where was found a firm basis for the historian.

And though the settlement of Winneshiek County by the whites has little of fable, and is not invested with mythological tales of gods and demi-gods, yet there are always, in recalling the history of early and pioneer life in new countries, fancies and traditions, generally with some kind of basis of truth, that become so interwoven with facts, that it is difficult to distinguish the one from the other, and the shrewdest head may become bewildered in the attempt. The sooner the separating process is commenced the better, and it is fortunate that even before the present day important facts have been collected, and in many cases placed on recordfacts gathered from the lips of those who were witnesses of the early scenes of pioneer life in this county,-while there are still dwelling among us those who can verify many of the incidents and details of early history.

Our indebtedness to books and papers published in years past is freely and gratefully acknowledged; and it is our purpose to attempt to collate from them, as well as to collect from other sources, and from personal interview and observation, such additional facts and incidents as may help to preserve and continue down to the present time, such history, records and pictures of early life in our county, as we are able to do with the time and resources at our command. Permit us to say at the outset, that we shall draw freely from Mr. C. H. Sparks' history of Winneshiek County, written in 1876, and published early in the year 1878, and from papers from the pen of Mr. A. K. Bailey, quoted in the above volume.

EARLY SETTLEMENT.

It was forty years ago that the first steps toward the coming of white settlers into this county were taken, by establishing the Indian Agency at Old Mission, although it was nearly ten years later before actual settlement commenced. We quote as follows from Sparks' History:

"As early as 1835, Rev. D. Lowery, the man who afterwards established the Old Mission, conducted a school of like nature near the mouth of Yellow River. Mr. Lowery emigrated from Tennessee, and was a strict adherent to the sect known as the Cumberland Presbyterians. In his youth he had received the benefits of a thorough education, and was peculiarly qualified for the arduous duties of ameliorating the condition of the Indians. In 1874 he took up his residence in Pierce City, Missouri, where he died on the 19th of January, 1876, at the advanced age of 82 years. Mr. Lowery was a man of marked ability, and during the more active portion of his life was prominent in all that pertained to the history of the country in which he lived. He was, for perhaps more than fifty years, a minister in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. A man of unusual physical make-up, and possessed of a large brain, which eminently fitted him for the frontier life which he led. He was one of our noble men, and will be long remembered by many of our people, and especially by the early settlers of this portion of the great West.

In 1842 Mr. Lowery was appointed Indian Agent for the reservation which included the tract of land now known as Winneshiek County. The same year he received instructions from the Government to form a Mission and farm on the reservation, for the education of the Indians in husbandry and the English language, in hopes of civilizing and morally benefitting them. The erection of the Mission was commenced, as near as can be ascertained, in June, 1842, the Rev. D. Lowery superintending the work. The Mission was a large, commodious wooden building, located about five miles southeast of Fort Atkinson. A remnant of one of the buildings still exists.

The Government had authorized Mr. Lowery to open a farm for the instruction of the Indians in agricultural pursuits, the expenses incurred thereby to be deducted from their annuity. Mr. Lowery turned over this part of the work to his assistant, Col. Thomas. The first year, under Col. Thomas' supervision, a farm of three hundred acres was opened, and endeavors were made to instruct the Indians how to till the soil, but they were so careless and indolent that but little work could be got out of them. The crops planted began to show neglect. In fact the farm began to retrograde, when Col. Thomas had a force of garrison men detailed to cultivate it-they being paid for their labor out of the Indian annuity. One year served to demonstrate that the Indian as a husbandman was a failure. In 1843, Col. Thomas, under in

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