Daily Davenport Democrat

Details of early legislation in the territory are worthy of preservation, from an historical point of view. We extract the following, entitled, "Sketch of the Sac and Fox Indians, and the early settlement of Scott county," by Uriah Biggs:

"Black Hawk died in the fall of 1838, near Iowaville, the scene of his triumph under Pash-e-pa-ho over the Iowas, in the early part of his warlike career. He was buried in a sitting posture, in a frail tomb made of wooden slabs set in the ground, in the form of an inverted V. His war club, a shaved post four or five feet high, was placed in the front of his rude tomb, upon which a great number of black stripes were painted, corresponding with the number of scalps he had taken during life. Openings were left in his tomb, so that his friends and curious visitors could witness the process of decay. Some time after the removal of his friends higher up the river, and after the flesh had wasted away, a Dr. Turner, of Van Buren county, removed his skeleton to Quincy, Ill., and had the bones handsomely polished and varnished preparatory to connecting them by wires in the skeleton form. When his wife heard of the exhumation, she affected great and uncontrollable grief, and poured out her sorrows to Robert Lucas, Governor of the territory, and ex officio superintendent of Indian affairs, who promptly recovered the bones and placed them in a box in his office at Burlington, and dispatched a message to the bereaved family, then staying on the Des Moines, some ninety miles distant. A cavalcade was soon in motion, bearing the disconsolate widow and a retinue of her friends to Burlington. On the evening of their arrival the Governor was notified by a messenger of their readiness to wait upon him, who fixed the audience for 10 o'clock in the forenoon of the next day. Several visitors were in attendance. The box containing the august remains opens by a lid, and, when the parties were all assembled and ready for the awful development, the lid was lifted by the Governor, fully exposing the sacred relics of the renowned chief to the gaze of his sorrowing friends, and the very respectable audience who had assembled to witness the impressive scene.

"The Governor then addressed the widow through John Goodall, the interpreter of the Hard Fish band, giving all the details of the transfer of the bones from the grave to Quincy and back to Burlington, and assured her that they were the veritable bones of her deceased husband, that he had sympathized deeply with her in this her great affliction, and he now hoped that she would be consoled and comforted by the return of the cherished relics to her care, under a strong confidence that they would not again be disturbed where she might choose to entomb them. The widow then advanced to the lid of the box, and without the least feeling or emotion, picked up in her fingers bone after bone, examining each with the seeming curiosity of a child, and replaced each bone in its proper place, and turned to the interpreter and replied, through him, to the Governor, that she fully believed they were Black Hawk's bones; that she knew he was a good old man, or he would not have taken the great pains he had manifested to oblige her, and, in consideration of his benevolence and disinterested friendship so kindly manifested, she would leave the bones under his care and protection. The conference then closed, and the distinguished visitors took leave of the Governor and assembled auditors. This scene was detailed by the Governor to the present writer, while standing at the side of the famous box, soon after its occurrence.

"On the accession of Gen. Harrison to the presidency, Gov. Lucas was removed from the gubernatorial office of the territory, and he removed his private office into the same room with Dr. Enos Lowe, now of Omaha City, Nebraska. An historical society was organized in Burlington about this time, and efforts were made to get these relics into their cabinet and under the control of the society. This arrangement was never formally accepted, but in the course of events they happened to be in the same building with the society's collection, and the whole were consumed in the burning of the building in 1842."