224 Wisco72sin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 



Tliev had been at work hwi a few niontlis when the United 

 States government stepped in and sent a body of troops from 

 Prairie dii Chien to move the settlers back across the Missis- 

 sippi. In 1832, at the close of the Black Hawk "War, when the 

 Sacs and Foxes ceded a strip forty miles wide from the upper 

 Iowa River to the northern bonndarv of Missouri ; the miners 

 returned but were again driven back. In the year 1833 

 the troops were withdrawn and the United States government 

 took control of the land. Thev reserved all mineral lands from 

 sale and leased the mines to the individual. This system was 

 soon discontinued, but not until 1839 were the titles to mineral 

 lands secure. 



During this period many people, drawn hither by the great 

 richness of the mines, came to Dubuque. At first this mining 

 area was called the Spanish Mines, and later the Dubuque 

 Mines. These names did not seem to give any hint of civiliza- 

 tion, nor were they in accord with the dignity of the place. So 

 by a vote of the citizens this lead mining district of Iowa was 

 called Dubuque. 



In 1834 the district had increased largely in size and was peo- 

 pled, so far as we Avere able to discover, by the usual mining 

 class. In 1836, the year in which territorial government went 

 into operation, Dubuque had a town site platted and the next 

 year the village was incorporated. At their first election, when 

 the community had a population of about thirteen hundred, six 

 hundred and tw^enty-one votes were polled, showing that a ma- 

 jority of the citizens were men of voting age. That this region 

 was growing with wonderful rapidity is attested by the incor- 

 poration of Dubuque under a city charter four years after it 

 was incorporated as a village. By 1846, the year Iowa was ad- 

 mitted to statehood, Dubuque was no longer a detached settle- 

 ment on the frontier, but an important center of population and 

 trade in a well-ordered commonwealth. With this date we may 

 bring our historical sketch to a close. 



In this, as in other mining regions, the surface of the land 

 gives to a tyro no inkling of the wonderful possibilities beneath 

 the exterior. Peru, Julien, Jefferson and Center Townships, 

 those in which great quantities of lead were found, extend about 

 twelve miles along the river and back about the same distance. 



