Davenport Man Witnesses Wilbur Wright Flying At Le Mans France

 

The Daily Times. February 1, 1909.

In February 1909, the Davenport Daily Times talked with Dr. A. L. Hageboeck, who’d seen something few Americans could imagine—an airplane in flight.

 

Hageboeck had spent three days in Le Mans, France, watching Wilbur Wright fly, and what he saw left him shaken.

 

He said the real secret of the Wright brothers’ success was simple, almost too simple. The canvas wings of the machine could be tilted up or down at either end, allowing the pilot to adjust to the wind—just like a bird shifting its wings in flight.

 

That one idea changed everything.

 

He said Wilbur Wright wasn’t polished or impressive in the usual sense. He was thirty-five years old, tall, awkward, and quiet. There was nothing graceful about him. He barely spoke.

An Early Attack On Fort Madison

George Catlin painted this picture of a Sauk & Fox war dance in the early 1830s

 

The following passage has been reprinted from “Old Fort Madison: Some Source Materials” by Jacob Van der Zee, published in the Iowa Journal of History and Politics. October 1913. P. 520-525. It is part of a journal entry from a soldier or trader stationed at Fort Madison in 1808 and 1809.

 

[The Indians] kept in a body and counseled among themselves, the best manner of surprising Fort Madison, or rather the temporary stockade before the new fort could be occupied. They knew the new fort could not be occupied before the following summer; the soldiers hauled all the pickets and timber in the winner, hitched to sleds, 10 or 15 men to a sled, for want of horses or oxen.

 

Whilst they were occupied, the Indians were debating on the best mode of attack, several head, men and warriors spoke in council, each submitting his favorite mode of attack. They kept themselves posted up in regard to the progress of the new fort, which was to be of picket work and blockhouses. The pickets were to be about 15 feet high and sharpened at the top. The month of May was decided upon as the time for attacking the troops and kill every man if they could.

Black Hawk Purchase And The Opening of Iowa Territory

 

Chief Keokuk signing the Black Hawk Purchase

It ended at the Bad Axe River in August 1832.

Black Hawk and his followers were trying to cross the Mississippi. They were tired, hungry, and running. U.S. troops caught them at the river. What followed wasn’t much of a battle.

It was a massacre.

Soldiers fired from the shore. A steamboat moved into position and opened fire. People tried to swim across. Many didn’t make it. Men, women, and children were shot in the water or cut down on the shore.

By the time it was over, hundreds were dead.

That ended the war.

Black Hawk escaped with a small group and headed north, but he didn’t get far. Ho-Chunk men captured him and turned him over to U.S. forces.

He was taken to Jefferson Barracks near St. Louis and held there as a prisoner.

While he was in custody, the future of his people was being decided.

Chief Keokuk In The Black Hawk War

When Black Hawk crossed back into Illinois with his band, it lit a fuse. Panic spread fast. Settlers ran. Militias formed. War was coming whether or not anyone wanted it.

Keokuk didn’t join him, even though a lot of his people expected it. Black Hawk was a war leader with a following, and tradition said you stood with your own. Keokuk saw it differently. He warned his band that this was a fight they couldn’t win. The Americans had too many soldiers and guns.

Hs decision to keep his band out of the war split the Sauk Nation. Some followed Black Hawk, but most stayed with Keokuk. It wasn’t a popular call, but it held.

While the fighting moved north and west, Keokuk stayed put. He worked with U.S. officials, kept his people from getting pulled in, and did what he could to keep things from getting worse.

When it was over, Black Hawk’s band was shattered. Keokuk’s people were still there.

That didn’t mean they won. The Americans still took their land, but they weren’t wiped out in a lost war.

Chief Wapello

 

Chief Wapello was born around 1787 and grew up in a world the Meskwaki (Fox) people understood—rivers, trade, alliances, and long-held ground in what’s now Iowa. By the time he became a leader, that world was coming apart. American soldiers, settlers, and traders kept pushing in, taking their lands.

He’d  been a warrior when he was younger, but as things changed, Wapello leaned into diplomacy. He worked closely with U.S. Indian agent General Joseph Street, a man he trusted more than most. That didn’t mean Wapello trusted the system. It meant he understood what he was up against.

He signed treaties that gave up huge chunks of land. Nobody on his side thought those deals were good. They were damage control. The alternative was war, and Wapello had seen enough to know how that usually ended.

Americans called him steady and honest. His own people followed him because he didn’t pretend things were better than they were.

When he died in 1842, he asked to be buried next to Joseph Street near Agency City.

Pioneers of Fort Madison Iowa

This sketch of the early pioneers of Fort Madison was published in Illustrated Fort Madison, 1896.

Augustus Caesar Dodge Iowa Politician

Augustus Caesar Dodge was a delegate to Congress from Iowa Territory in 1840. After Iowa became a state in 1846, he became one of its first United States senators.

In 1855, President Franklin Pierce appointed him minister to Spain. He ran for governor when he returned to the country, and later served as mayor of Burlington.