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Subject: Notes regarding Lucius R. Darling at The Council Bluffs
Date: 26 Sep 2001 13:58:10 -0600

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Surnames: Darling, Wilmet, Sands, "Benjamin", Hoecken, Hitchcock, Harvey, Watts, Garraghan
Classification: Query

Message Board URL:

http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/ok.2ADE/569

Message Board Post:

Kay.--I have thirteen (1), (2), (etc.) notes regarding L.R. Darling while he was living along the Missouri river with his wife's band of Potawatomie. I have arranged them in a sort of time line. These notes come from various records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs; from what are called the St. Mary (Kansas) Birth, Marriage and Baptismal Records; and from other sources more secondary in nature which I have read over the past forty or so years. I'm hoping they might add to your knowledge of your ancestor during that time he was living in what is now Iowa.

(1)--9/7/1838 is the date of a record in which it is said Col. Louis H. Sands and his group of emigrating Potawatomies had arrived at The Council Bluffs in 1837, (and therefore could have planted crops in 1838 should they have had the necessary agricultural implements). (2)--On 11/19/1838, it was recorded that L.R. Darling had furnished a wagon for Sands and his group in this emigration but had not been paid for doing so.

(3)--On 6/9/1838, William, an ill son of Lucius R. Darling and Elizabeth Wilmet, was baptized at The Council Bluffs. (4)--When Francis, son of Darling and Eliza (sic) Wilmet, was baptized at The Council Bluffs on 1/5/l840, Sophia Wilmet is shown as his sponsor. (5)--One "Benjamin" was the sponsor on 4/29/l842 at the baptism of George, the two months old son of Lucius Darling and __?___ Wilmet. (6)--When Father Hoecken baptized Lucia, infant daughter of Darling at The Council Bluffs on 11/27/1844, her mother was listed as "Lisette Wilmet". (7)--Lizette Darling had received her annuity payment in 1842 as a member of Waubonsie's band. (Do you think "Elizabeth", "Eliza" and "Lizette" all refer to one person?)

Perhaps this the place to say that this is the FIRST indication that Lucius R. Darling, at any time, ever lived at the south end of that stretch of country along the Missouri river known as The Council Bluffs. This clue comes from the fact that it is known that Waubonsie's band lived west of present Tabor, Iowa. Another occasion, the SECOND, which arose in 1844 provides another weak indication as to the place of Darling's residence: Rufus Hitchcock, who lived in Bluff Township, Nishnabotna Country, Holt county, Missouri along the northern line of survey township 68 just south of present Sidney, Iowa, had been accused of illegal trade with The Council Bluffs Indians. His trading goods had been impounded. Thomas H. Harvey, Superintendent of Indian Affairs at St. Louis, desiring to deal with these contraband goods, ordered that they should be brought from The Council Bluffs, down into Missouri. (8)--On 9/14/1844 Henry Watts, who lived east of present day Hamburg, Iowa, was paid!
$23.62 for having conveyed in August 1844 Hitcock's confiscated articles of trade from The Council Bluffs. But then Supt. Harvey learned that Missouri laws could not be made to apply to The Council Bluffs Country, and that the situation would have to be dealt with in the appropriate Indian Territory. (9)--Accordingly, on 11/13/1844 the records show that Lucius R. Darling had returned them to The Council Bluffs, for which he was paid $15.---Well, the whole point is that these series of events are the SECOND indication that Lucius R. Darling might have at that time been living somewhere in present Fremont county, Iowa. And it is known that his Wilmet brother-in-laws HAD lived in French Village for a while.

(10)--Father Christian Hoecken performed one more baptism for the Darlings at Council Bluffs: On 6/1/l846, Lucius, son of Darling and Lisette (sic) Wilmet, was baptized. His sponsor this time was George Mullin.

(11)--That Darling had lived further away from the Council Bluffs agency might account for the fact that he received pay for but one day for the use of his two-horse wagon on April 17, l843 when Fort Croghan--at the landing for the Council Bluffs Indian Sub-Agency--suddenly had been forced by the flooding Missouri river, to move from the Missouri bottoms to the Block House, located within the limits of present day Council Bluffs, Iowa. Others were employed for several days in this move, so perhaps we have a THIRD indication that Darling could not reach the scene in time to be employed during the whole evacuation!

Kay, I have it in the back of my mind that somewhere I've read that the Darlings had sent their children to a Baptist school immediately after their arrival in Kansas. But even IF I DO REMEMBER CORRECTLY, this could not have been for long. (12)--Garraghan's "Jesuits of the Middle United States", Volume II, page 621, says that William and Francis Darling formally registered in September 1848 to attend the Catholic school at St. Mary's upon the very first day of its existence. And my last note (13) says that when L.R. Darling subscribed to "The Ohio Cultivator" in 1857, he gave his post office as St. Mary's Mission, Kansas.

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