Smitli — The Lead Region of loiva. 223 



tlie consent of Mr. Julien Dubuque; and in case he shall find 

 nothing within, he shall be free to search wherever he mav 

 think proper to do so, and to work peaceably without any one 

 hurting him or doing him any prejudice in his labor. ^ 



Dubuque began mining at once with a force of ten men, and 

 in 1795 he got a confirmation of this title by the governor of 

 Louisiana, Baron de Carondelet. But, through negligence, this 

 was never confirmed by the king of Spain, so that his claim to 

 the Spanish mines, extending sixteen miles along the river and 

 as far back as the mines went, including in all about seventy 

 thousand acres, was defective and the part that he sold to 

 Auguste Ohosteau in 1S04 was retained by the United States, 

 and the part uusold reverted to the United States in spite of 

 the protests of his heirs. "^ 



In 1810 Julien Dubuque died and his settlement was aban- 

 doned and remained so for nearly twenty years on account of 

 the incessant Indian warfare. But in 1827, Galena was incor- 

 porated and many settlers were attracted there by the lead, and 

 a few of the hardier ones crossed the Mississippi to Dubuque, 

 or as it was known then, the Spanish Mines, and there settled 

 as miners. 



The people brought together by the discovery of valuable 

 minerals, whether in Australia, Africa or America, have gen- 

 erally settled in the regions to which they emigrated before the 

 advent of any government, and consequently the miners were 

 obliged to make a temporary government for themselves. Du- 

 buque proved no exception, and in 1830, under the lead of I. L. 

 Langworthy, the miners, having previously obtained permis- 

 sion from the Indians to work the mines, met about an old Cot- 

 tonwood log near the banks of the Mississippi River and pro- 

 ceeded to enact a miners' agreement. Thev affirmed that thev 

 would l:)e governed by the regulations in force at the Galena 

 mines on the other side of the river, excepting that each man 

 was to hold two hundred yards square of ground by working 

 one day in six, and also that an arbitrator, to be elected by them, 

 was to settle all disputes. 



1 Picard, Dubuque in Territorial Days, Iowa Historical Record, Oct. 1S93, p. 542. 

 "^ SeeUnited States Supreme Court Case of Chosteau vs. Malouey, 15 Howard, 203. 



