Scalops argentatus, silvery shrew. Lutra canadensis, otter, by tradition. Fiber zibethicus, muskrat; common. Erethizon dorsatus, porcupine, by tradition. Lepus sylvaticus, hare; common. This list comprises the major part of the mammalian fauna of the county. Further study will correct it, perhaps, by the addition of a few species. This simple enumeration of varieties may aid the future student in the determination of the county's animal resources. THE RED MAN. The red men of the forest, whom the Norsemen of the north, Genoe's adventurer, the Gallic explorers, and Anglo-Saxon Puritans, found upon the American continent, is a race whose origin and ancient traditions are yet matters of mystery. Theory and speculation have offered us all the light we have concerning this wild, uncivilized people, who were thus found in possession of the North American Continent, as far back as the tenth century, when the Northmen landed upon its northeastern coasts. The Mayflower, in 1620, brought to Plymouth Rock, the advance of the Anglo-Saxon race, which was destined to achieve the mastery of the continent over its native occupants, and build up a grand civilization, though at the cost of conquest, and the probable ultimate extinction of the red man, it seems to have progressed. From stride to stride, as the increasing Anglo-Saxon race needed more of the wild domain of the Indians, he was pushed on to the rear, and thus the rear has well nigh ended; and the problem, which to-day, vexes the statesmen and the philanthropist of the Nation, is the "Indian Problem.". For over a hundred years its solution has taxed the genius ot the Anglo-American people, and it bids fair to tax them for generations to come. His condition and treatment have, from time to time, awakened the sympathy of philanthropists, and various humane plans have been devised to ameliorate his savage nature, and bring him under the influence of the laws and civilized teachings. This plan now seems to be the policy of the government, and will doubtless eventually be adopted. From the close of the revolution, and the treaty of peace with the mother country, the Anglo-American population increased rapidly, and reached out for domain, until about half a century-1832-brought them to the great river of the continent-the Mississippi. Iowa then belonged to the Iowas, and the Sacs and Foxes, whose original titles acquired by the right of possession, were secured by various treaties dating from 1832 to 1842, which last cession included Lucas county, and all their territory west of the Mississippi river. These were the tribes that once roamed over the prairie in the buffalo chase, and camped along the Chariton. But in 1846, the last of them were removed beyond the western limit of the state. They left no tradition in this county for historical record. Should the younger generations of this mysterious race of people follow the wild footsteps of their ancestors, and extinction should be the final result, the semi-civilized tribes of the Indian Territory will likely be the only ones to perpetuate the race, which now number some eight thousand persons. They were tribes from the southern states. "Whether the red man has been justly deprived of the ownership of the New World, will remain a subject of debate; but that he has been deprived, cannot be denied. The Saxon came; and his conquering foot has trodden the vast domain from shore to shore. The weaker race has withdrawn from his presence and his sword. By the majestic rivers, and in the depths of the solitary woods, the feeble sons of the bow and arrow will be seen no more. Only their names remain on hill, and stream, and mountain. The red man sinks and fails. His eyes are to the west. To the prairies and forests, the hunting grounds of his ancestors he says farewell. He is gone! The cypress and the hemlock sing his requiem. After the red men had surrendered possession of the soil of Iowa to their Great Father-Uncle Sam-there was a remnant of the Pottawattamies who refused to entirely leave their old grounds, and for several years, from 1849 to about 1854, they camped along the streams in this county, under the chieftanship of John Green. They were harmless and friendly; always begging, and always hungry enough for a hearty meal, and however amply they were supplied, they never left anything upon the table from which they partook; they would invariably hide away under their filthy wraps whatever they could not devour. When curious visitors dropped in upon them at their wigwams, they were friendly, and especially so while their visitors' tobacco lasted. When the white settlers first began to visit them, they would, when asked for tobacco, hand out all they had, whether it be a full paper or a whole plug, and would expect when they had filled their pipes, or taken a chew, they would hand back what remained. But this was contrary to their rule of social life; and instead, they would slily slip the balance in their bosoms, and wink at their red companions, at their cheeky trick, as much as to say, "white man heap good." This trick was short lived however, as their white neighbors soon learned how to manage them. Whenever they took occasion to visit the "hazy sons of the forest" ever afterward, they would take the precaution to cut their tobacco into small pieces, and thus avoid those wholesale levies upon them. The Indian is an an inveterate beggar; and the white people devised a plan to check his too frequent calls upon this mission. They would refuse to give them anything, but would offer to sell them what they asked for, upon their promise to pay for it the next time they came. The next time would never come, and thus the white settlers would invariably get rid of the dusky beggars. THE PIONEERS-THEIR SETTLEMENTS AND CAREERS. Pioneers are those who go before, and clear the way. They are usually brave, hardy and ambitious people, who are prompted by various motives, and governed by various circumstances, to break away from the haunts and associations of their old homes; where, perhaps, civilization has outgrown them, and made them restless and discouraged in their efforts to realize their dreams of, and ambition for, wealth and distinction. They are not usually those who are settled in their eastern homes, surrounded with wealth and the comforts of life; nor the children of those who have been reared in homes of luxury and ease. But they are those who prefer the free and unconventional ways of frontier life. The rigid rules and usages of an accomplished civilization are uncongenial to them, and seeing the opportunity to build up homes of their own, and mould social communities after their own taste and standard, they push out to the front. Among these are the children of many well-to-do people, but who are unable to "give them a start" in life, where they are. They, too, with brave hearts, and buoyant and ambitious spirits, go forth to build for themselves in the wilds of the frontier; to emulate the example of their fathers before them, whose industry and economy had enabled them to rear comfortable homes upon the rocky hillsides of New England, or in the forests of New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio, or upon the prairies of Illinois. They bade adieu to homes, comforts and loved ones, and pushed out for the land which the red man had surrendered for their coming. They select from the wild domain the acres upon which are to be carved their future homes and secure them* to "themselves, their heirs and legal representatives forever." Rude abodes are constructed for the time, and frontier life commences. Neighbors are few and far between, but they become neighbors in the full and true sense of the term-who stand by each other in sympathy and assist ance, like true brothers of a household; sharing each other's pleasures and sorrows, they aid each other in their plans and purposes for the future. Buoyed with ambition—with the prospects and hopes of future prosperity, they toil on. Their nights are passed in their rude cabins where they dream of the homes and comforts they had left, and of those their imagination pictures for the future; startled to intervals of wakefulness now and then, by the howling wolf, or the tread of some wild intruder. Thus, the solitude of pioneer days pass on; and they toil on, changing their primitive surroundings into productive fields. The first summer is past, autumn is at hand, and the single young man concludes to return to his old home and friends for the winter; and therefore places his new possessions, his future home, in charge of his nearest neighbor, some miles away, who had come with his family with his all, to stay. With gladdened heart, he takes the trail leading from his western wild into civilization, thence on to greet relatives, friends, old scenes, and— one dearer still, into whose ears he uttered the story of his frontier adventures, together with his hopes and prospects of the future. In these utterances she had a profound regard—a personal interest. With the courage of a true woman she consented to share his fortunes, be they where or what they might. Winter passed with all its pleasures and delights with friends, and among the scenes of their young manhood and womanhood days. Preparations being completed, and the nuptial ceremony pronounced, the happy twain leave for their future home-their little cabin on the western frontier. The two or three families which had gathered and formed the settlement the spring before, were gladdened by the return of their young neighbor; and he and his bride were greeted right heartily to their pioneer home. Though toil and privations were theirs, yet they enjoyed their new life. Crops were planted, improvements were made, and their new home soon began to wear a homelike appearance. Besides, it was their own, around which their hopes and aspirations were entwined, and which nerved them to labor and gain for themselves the surroundings, comforts and enjoyments, equal to, if not better than those they left behind them. This year brought additions to the settlement, which rendered it less monotonous, and social intercourse soon became cordial. Unlike that of to-day, there were no rivalries, no jealousies, no meaningless expressions of civility, no unkind criticisms of each other's ways or dress, and no hypocritical manifestations of interest in each others prosperity and welfare, or of sympathy for each other in their reverses and misfortunes. There are ties of fellowship existing between the pioneers of a settlement which are rarely disregarded-ties of common interest and common sympathy. They form a little empire all their own, so far removed from the conventionalities of social life in the older and more pretentious communities, that they are not affected by them. New arrivals were made welcome, assisted in constructing their cabins; and were always lent a ready and willing hand, without invitation, in anything that would add to their comfort and cheer them in their new homes-in short, they were cordially admitted to their pioneer brotherhood. In this brotherhood there was a common interest-an interest not peculiar to one frontier locality more than another, but in all such localities alike, from the earliest times of our country's settlement-from the landing of the Puritans upon the eastern shore of our continent, to the present time. There were grave reasons for these ties of brotherhood; the very nature of the situation created a spirit of unity for self-protection. The people of these new frontier settlements had come beyond the safely-established reign of law— where local civil authorities had not yet been created. Hence, they must rely upon the law of nature-self-protection. This was their only protection in those times, and to make it effectual, it was essential for each one to have the friendship and good will of his neighbors. For a man to be in ill-repute in a pioneer settlement was generally more detrimental to him, than to be an outlaw under the civil authorities. Hardened characters often found their way into frontier communities-characters who had little fear of the penalties of the law; but, who stood in terror of the aroused indignation of a frontier brotherhood. Though this be but a picture of general outline of pioneers in their frontier settlements, that genius of the forest,* who, for many years was a living exemplification of pioneer life beyond the Sierras, and whose songs of Nature are unexcelled, gives a still more graphic picture of "The Pioneer," as he saw him: THE PIONEER. Lo! here the smoke of cabins curled, The borders of the middle world; And mighty, hairy, half-wild men Sat down in silence, held at bay By mailed horse. Far away What sturdy, uncommon men were these, Men desperate and red of hand, *Joaquin Miller. |