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How
Sergeant Bluff Got its Name...
The
Louisiana Purchase
marked
the beginning of a new era in the history of the United States. Land that
had known only Indian inhabitants had the drawing power of a magnet and
civilization again started its steady creeping westward.
In
the early Nineteenth century the Sioux Indians along with the Sacs and Fox
were the main inhabitants of this great land, along with a few transient
fur traders. In 1803 the territory was purchased by the United States
from
France; and so it was that in 1804 the United Army sent Captains Lewis and
Clark exploring up the Missouri River
on
their way to the Pacific
Coast.
During the course of this trip Sergeant Charles Floyd took sick and died
and was buried on a high bluff south of a stream they named the Floyd
River.
The grave was marked with a cedar post which stood there for many years.
By 1856 spring's freshet wiped out the last hundred feet between river and
grave. The skeleton lay exposed somewhat more than one hundred feet above
the water. The remains were rescued and re-interred about two hundred feet
farther from the river. The Floyd
Monument
was
erected on that spot in 1895.
The
territory along the eastern shore of the Missouri River was ceded by the
Sioux, Sac and Fox Indians on July 15, 1830, and settlers began to flock
into the Iowa Territory. In 1839, steamboat "Antelope" for the
upper Missouri
region
where they engaged in trade for the American Fur Company. Many of these
men later returned to Sergeant Bluff with their families to settle.
William
Thompson with two other men settled south of the Floyd
Monument
in
the summer of 1848. A town was laid out and named Thompsontown. One large
cabin was built at this site. Others following preferred a location a
couple of miles farther south and this settlement was known as Floyd's
Bluff. This early town in 1850 was inhabited mostly by trappers, traders,
and hunters who dealt in trade among the Indians.
On
January 15, 1851, the Iowa Legislature created the boundary lines of the
forth-nine new counties in western Iowa. One of these was Wahkaw, an
Indian name, and it included all of northwest Iowa. From it have since
been made ten other counties. During this same term of the legislature,
Wahkaw County was renamed Woodbury, in honor of the Hon. Levi Woodbury, an
eminent man of his time who had served on the Supreme Court bench. An act
was passed appointing three commissioners to locate the county seat near
its center and to organize the county
Woodbury.
The Commissioners were further instructed to name the selected site
Sergeant's Bluff. Thompson's plat of Floyd's Bluff was chosen. Thus the
village
of
Sergeant Bluff
was
started in 1852, a year after the organization of the county. Under the
name of Sergeant's Bluff
City
it
was registered as the first formally platted town in Woodbury
County,
on November 20, 1854. Thus Woodbury
County
and
Sergeant's Bluff were organized before Sioux City
was
even thought of.
The
town has been known by several names. Thompson called it Floyd's Bluff.
The residents themselves preferred the name Woodbury, and indeed, most
deeds and titles to lots in the town will show that it was registered with
the land offices as Woodbury, and that its first mail came under that
address. However, the state legislature had passed a law decreeing that
the town be called Sergeant's Bluff, and so the residents were forced to
agree but only after the Dun Shipper's Guide and the federal post office
had both listed it as Sergeant Bluff.
The
town's name appears on all early records and plats with a final
"s" to both words Sergeant and Bluff, but local residents
dropped the "s" from Bluffs. The post office recorded it with no
final "s" and so it is legally known now as Sergeant
Bluff. |
