Location “This place [Council Point] is about four miles up the Missouri River from . . . Kanesville.” (1)
The town site was located on a bend in the Missouri River . The Frontier Guardian of 31 October 1849 made clear that the public had legal access to a grove of cottonwoods along the river bottoms north of this bend, and that “None have the claim or right to prevent the citizens of Kanesville and its vicinity from going to the said cottonwoods to get what wood and timber they choose.” (2)
The site is located in the “southwest quarter of section 15, township 74, range 44.” (3) The town was near the Middle Mormon Ferry on the Missouri River . “This was a river port." (4)
History
“Council Point was the first Latter-day Saint town built in the Middle Missouri Valley . It was built in 1846 near the site of the flood demolished 1842/1843 Fort Croghan.
“Council Point was a support town, perhaps a quarter mile west of present Lake Manawa , for the first or Middle Mormon Ferry over the Missouri River . That ferry was south of today's south Omaha (Highway 92) Bridge. Another middle ferry was built further south, between Point aux poules (Traders Point) and Bellevue , but we don't know if it was established by the LDS or by American Fur Company factor at Bellevue , Peter Sarpy.
“Perhaps most unique of Council Point businesses was a rope walk, where hemp was used for the manufacture of rope and cordage. . . .
“Council Point was the most cosmopolitan of LDS towns in Iowa . More than 8,000 LDS from Europe landed at Council Point by steamboat from New Orleans . . . .
“Among the European Saints were more than 160 from Wales . A Welsh Tabernacle was built, probably a little northwest of Council Point.
“There was a warehouse at Council Point where immigrants could store their belongings while they looked for work and a way to gather wagons, oxen, food, tents, and supplies for the 1000-mile trek to the Salt Lake Valley.” (5)
One book claims that Council Point was simply another name for Council Bluffs , but from primary sources, this claim can be dismissed. (6)
“When the Mormons reached that locality, June, 1846, they found the little village of Council Point already named.” (7)
“Council Point was built by the Latter-day Saints in 1846.” (8)
“ Council Point, Emigrant Landing, Welsh Tabernacle Sites:
“First LDS town built in Middle Missouri Valley , support town for Middle Mormon Ferry.” (9)
“May 8, 1847, they [Horace Fish and family] started west again and arrived at the place where they had decided to locate—Council Point—on the 23 rd day of May. This place is about four miles up the Missouri River from Council Bluffs or, as it was then called, Kanesville. Here they remained for three years.” (10)
“It was here in 1846 that acting bishops were named to look after needy Latter-day Saint refugees, particularly the families who were left behind when the Mormon Battalion marched off to New Mexico and California in the Mexican War.
“This was a river port. A steamboat dock was located on a north elbow of the Missouri , then about two blocks south of here, about four blocks west of where Lake Manawa is today. It was called Emigrant's Landing because nearly eight thousand European Latter-day Saints landed here in the late 1850s and early 1850s.
“After the start of the 1849 gold rush, great quantities of merchandise coming by steamboat up river from St. Louis , were landed at Council Point. Large merchandise and supply houses flourished in Kanesville (now downtown Council Bluffs).
“Near the Landing was Reuben Allred's rope walk. . . . The north bank of the river where the boat landing and the rope walk were located is still visible, if you look west from South 20 th Street about three blocks south of Gifford. . . .
“ Fort Croghan was built here by the United States Dragoons in 1842, but it was nearly all washed away by floodwaters the next year. After the Mormons left for the West in the mid 1850s, Council Point and the Welsh Tabernacle were also washed away by floodwaters.” (11)
“Artemus Millet , of Council Point, and Mrs. Nancy Leemaster , of Silver Creek, [were married] 11 March 1849, at Kanesville, by Orson Hyde. ( Frontier Guardian , 21 March 1849)” (12)
“James W. Webb and Mrs. Sarah C. Botsford , both of Council Point, [were married] 1 July 1849, at Council Point, by William Snow.” (13)
A rather singular occurrence was noted in the 5 September 1849 number of The Frontier Guardian . About two hundred students from “three schools [met] at the Tabernacle [in Kanesville], one from Council point, taught by Mr. Brown and two at this place [Kanesville], taught by Mr. Grant and Mr. Poulterer.” The students marched to the Tabernacle from “about a quarter of a mile distant, . . . after a splendid band of music, with beautiful banners and various and appropriate inscriptions thereon,” and after a picnic lunch (“dinner”), they displayed their feats of scholarship, to the reported great enjoyment of those present. (14)
An inflammatory article in The Frontier Guardian on 21 February 1851 accused Indians of “enter[ing] unprotected houses, and rob[bing] them of every thing most valuable, which we hear they have done to Council Point.” (15)
A citizen of Council Point, “Dr. George Coulson . . . closed by prayer” a meeting of elders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at “the Grove” on Sunday, 20 April 1851. (16)
“One of the severest gales ever known in this section of country, passed over our town [Kanesville] on Wednesday evening, the 16 th inst., between the hours of seven and eight o'clock. In aspect it threatened the demolition of houses and the entire destruction of crops. The wind blew terrific—the thunder and lightning was tremendous, while the rain fell in torrents for about half an hour. . . .
“The people of Ferryville, and Council Point, shared in common with the rest; miles of fences were thrown down through the violence of the wind, leaving the crops exposed to the mercy of the numerous herds of cattle ranging around them at this season of the year. Our farmers are busily engaged in repairing their fences, so as to secure their crops from any further damage.” (17)
A Mr. D. S. lived in Council Point and dispensed advice concerning how to make one's wagon more perfectly through The Frontier Guardian. (18)
The majority of the families of Council Point left with the John Tidwell Company of 1852. (19)
Council Point did have a Frontier Guardian representative. In April 1851, it was James Allred. In June of the same year, it was George Coulson. Something odd occurred between 17 October and 28 November 1851, because on the latter date, the Guardian lists no representative for Council Point. (20) On 23 January of 1852, the Guardian has Mr. Tidwell listed as being its representative in Council Point. In June 1852, when the paper had changed hands and had become The Frontier Guardian and Iowa Sentinel , it was still Mr. Tidwell who served as the “agent.” (21)
The Frontier Guardian of 7 February 1849 advised that “Emigrants to this place [Kanesville], by the Missouri River , should land at Council Point, some three miles above Trading Point or Bellevue . . . . This is the most eligible point on the river for the accommodation of emigrants to get removed to their friends in the various settlements in this region, and also the nearest point to this place.” (22)
The Frontier Guardian proclaimed to “all our principle business men . . . [that the] Kanesville Landing is at Council Point,” indicating that shipments to Kanesville should be dropped off at Council Point. (23) Hence one reason Council Point was so important. Another indication of the town's importance is the sheer number of times it is mentioned in The Frontier Guardian. (24)
“Tabernacle for saints coming from Wales in British Isles just NW of Council Point. Emigrant Landing probably built in 1838 as landing for Government Farm of 40 (later 80) acres to show Pottawattamie/Ottawa/Chippewa Indians how to live without hunting, which had angered older residential tribes of this district (Oto-Missouri & Omaha in Nebraska; Sac-Fox in N Central Iowa; Dakota Sioux in SE S Dakota). Here, more than 8,000 LDS used hemp to manufacture cord, rope, and hemp cable. The cable was used as guide ropes between the Iowa dugway and Nebraska dugways for the Middle Mormon Ferry, pushed back and forth between shores by force of river flow. The dugways allowed loading and unloading without river flow moving the properly caulked boat, capable of carrying two loaded wagons and teams. Here Abraham Lincoln landed in 1859 a few months before he was elected U.S. President. . . . See marker with text South of Gifford Road and just west of 1 st farm driveway south.” (25)
“Council Point, roughly halfway between present Lake Manawa and Twin City Plaza , south and southwest of Kanesville/Council Bluffs, was built in June 1846 as a support town to Middle Mormon Ferry. It was the third most important LDS community in the Missouri Valley .
“Welsh Tabernacle later was built in or near Council Point. West of the town was Middle Mormon Ferry, built between June 15 and 29. . . . A steady stream of ox-drawn covered wagons passed Council Point on their way, day and night, to the Middle Ferry. They crossed the Missouri River, continued on west four miles and waited at Cold Spring Camp for the signal to continue on to Grand Island , Nebraska territory or on to the Rocky Mountains .”
“Emigrant Landing was about a quarter mile south-southeast of Council Point. . . . Davis Hardin and family, including teen-age boys, opened the [government] farm in 1837 . . .
“The Pottawattamie (who far outnumbered the Ottawa and Chippewa) had agreed in Washington , D.C. treaty negotiations just weeks before the LDS arrived, to give up southwest Iowa and remove to northeast Kansas in 1847. The steamboat landing likely remained and was used by more than 8000 European LDS coming from western Europe and the British Isles . Contract ships took them to New Orleans . Then they were transported up the Mississippi and Missouri to southwest Iowa by steamboats to Emigrant Landing.
“Here they landed to find a warehouse for their goods and to make arrangements to buy wagons, oxen and other supplies for the trek to the Great Salt Lake Valley . Or, they were parceled out to more than 80 communities in southwest Iowa where they might work for one or two years to earn and gather the equipment and supplies they needed to move on west.
“A rope walk near Emigrant Landing, established by Reuben Allred, is where the great ropes were manufactured for the Middle Mormon Ferry. Substantial farming also was done around Council Point, but large supplies of grain were brought to Emigrant Landing by travelers from St. Louis . Some of them didn't know, in the late 1840's and early 1850's, they would find large supplies of grain and flour produced by LDS communities. Further south, where Mosquito Creek ran into the Missouri River, east across the Missouri from Bellevue , was Jonathan Browning's gunsmithing shop. There probably were many other business ventures in and around Emigrant Landing and Council Point of which, over the years, we have lost trace.
“We do know, however, that when Abraham Lincoln visited Council Bluffs in 1859 he was able to hire a buggy to take him four miles north, past tall corn fields and patches of sunflowers, from what the LDS had called Emigrant Landing to Council Bluffs , which in 1853 had replaced the name Kanesville. Today, if you want non-LDS to know what you are talking about, you need to refer to Emigrant Landing as Lincoln 's Landing.” (26)
The following is a direct quote from a facsimile of an advertisement in The Frontier Guardian , the newspaper published at Kanesville during the Saints' stay in the Middle Missouri Valley:
ROPE MAKING
Reuben H. Allred, has erected an extensive Rope-walk at Council Point, directly on the river, near the emigrant landing ; and is prepared to supply merchants, citizens, and emigrants with all kinds of rope and cordage, from a fish line to a cable. Rope of various kinds constantly on hand, and manufactured to order. He solicits the patronage of a generous and liberal public.
The rope walk later changed hands twice, to be owned by John F. L. Allred and later by Orrin D. Farlin. (27)
“ Council Point -A place shown on maps from 1855-1868 near the shore of Lake Manawa some three miles south of the business section of Council Bluffs.” (28)
James Needham opened a “dry goods and groceries” store in Council Point around the end of July, 1849. (29)
Charles Bird, a resident of the Council Point area, put up “for sale his improvement, situated at the landing at Council Point, said farm [having] been under cultivation for about fourteen years, containing eighty acres of well improved land, has about thirty-five acres of wheat growing, most of it was sown in August, also four dwelling houses; one good barn, corn cribs, root house, &c., and all out houses that is calculated to make a farmer comfortable. Any person wishing to purchase, so as to double his money cannot do better than call; for the price will be so that I think the grain on the ground will refund the money advanced and have the farm clear. Call and see for yourselves.
“Council Point, Jan. 9, 1850.” (30)
A group of teamsters who contracted to haul freight for a local merchant met at Council Point on Tuesday, 6 May 1851 to organize and start their journey west. (31) They probably met at Council Point because of the ferry there.
William Watts posted a very sad notice in The Frontier Guardian issue of 6 February 1852. He advised “all whom it may concern, not to harbor or trust; on my account, my wife, ELIZABETH WATTS, who has left my bed and board, without any just cause or provocation, as I shall pay no debts of her contracting after this date.” (32)
Council Point served also as a disembarking site for gold rushers traveling up the Missouri river by boat. (33)
Cholera broke out five miles from Council Point in May 1849. “[Four people] died very suddenly. There are two or three cases more reported up to Saturday last.
“Every person should keep free from fear if possible, as this is a powerful auxiliary to help on the disease. Be temperate in your labor, moderate in exercise, calm in your feelings, and guard against exposure. If you are troubled with diarrhea, check it as soon as you can, for this is almost invariable precedes the more powerful attack.” (34)
As many pioneers needed things made of iron, including “irons for yokes . . ., chains, and various other repairs,. . . Dr. George Coulson, of Council Point” showed wisdom, whether he knew it or not, in opening his blacksmith shop in Council Point, where so many pioneers went in order to cross the river and start on their journey west. (35)
Council Point was the endpoint for an 1850 mail route that began in Eddyville and stopped at “Half-way Prairie, Clark 's Point, Wynaldville, Charlton Point, Pisga, Nichnabotna, Silver Creek and Kanesville” along the way. (36)
“Main part of Council Point would have been just north of the present tiny segment of Gifford Road linking 24 th and 20 th Streets.” (37)
“South of Council Bluffs at Gifford Rd , just off South 24 th St, west of Lake Manawa. . . . The road connecting Council Point (then about an eighth of a mile north of the Missouri River) to Kanesville ran NNE, lined with houses referred to as String Town . The road is linked to today's W Graham Ave , over bluffs to E Graham Ave and north on now S 1 st Street (then Hyde St ) to Kanesville business district.” (38)
“Middle Mormon Ferry Site:
“Half mile south of E end of South Omaha Bridge (Hwy 92); first of three LDS ferries over the Missouri River . Project started June 15, ferry with properly caulked boat started officially July 1, 1846. Boat tested at night only by general authorities of the Church June 29. It was to haul powder, shot, and guns out of Iowa and into Nebraska territory, then designated by Congress as ‘Indian Country.'” (39)
“‘At Council Point, west of Manawa, a settlement of Mormons started a cemetery in 1848. A large number of them were buried there while the Mormons occupied this section of the county. After the cemetery wa[s] abandoned it was in after years washed into the river, and the exact location of it could hardly be determined at this date.
“‘In 1850 another burying ground was established by George Schofield on a farm owned by him about three miles northeast of Council Bluffs. Several of his family and relatives were first buried there, after which it became a public cemetery. It is still in existence an[d] is occasionally used now. William Garner, a veteran of the Meican war and one of the three men who built the Ogden hotel, in 1870 started a cemetery adjoining the one on the Sch[o]field farm. [G]arner and many of his relatives are buried there. There is a fine monument which marks the Garner grave.
“‘In 1852 D. V. Clark [e]stablished a cemetery on the Lincoln Avenue road about a mile and a half south of the city limits. Several members of his family are buried there and the place is now in good condition. It is occasionally used now.” (40)
The following died and were probably buried in Council Point:
“Allred, John F. I., 17 July 1850 at Council Point, of cholera, 23 years old. (Frontier Guardian, 7 August 1850)
“Clouson, George, Dr., 8 October 1851, at Council Point, of congestive fever, 50 years and 18 days (Frontier Guardian, 17 October 1851)
“Farlin, Orliva, daughter of Orrin D. and Falvilla Farlin, 8 January 1852, at Council Point, 19 Months old (Frontier Guardian, 20 February 1852).
“Matthews, George W., infant son of James and Mary Matthews, 24 July 1851, at Council Point, 3 months and 18 days (Frontier Guardian 8 August 1851.
“Muir, James, 15 July 1850, at Council Point, 21 years and 4 months (Frontier Guardian, 24 July 1850).
“Raymond, Elizabeth, wife of Samuel G. Raymond, 2 November 1850, at Council Point, 40 years, 6 months, and 10 days (Frontier Guardian, 25 December 1850).
“Smith, Jane, late from England , 31 December 1850, at Council Point, of acute bronchitis, 21 years old (Frontier Guardian, 8 January 1851).” (41)
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