The Land Before the Dutch

The history of the Pella area long predates the Dutch settlement of 1847, as Sac and Fox tribes lived nearby and throughout central Iowa, including around present-day Pella. The Sac, an Americanized name, called themselves the Osakiwug, meaning "people of the yellow earth," while the Fox called themselves the Meskwaki, or "people of the red earth." Because of many cultural and linguistic similarities, the two tribes fought together against the French in the early-1700s French and Fox Wars, eventually merged, and settled along the Des Moines River in south central Iowa. By 1800, they had a solid foundation and settlement in the territory, but in 1842 Sac leader Chief Keokuk agreed to sell the tribe's land to the United States government for $800,000, or seven cents per acre, in the agreement known as the New Purchase. The tribes were given three years to leave Iowa completely and were required to move west of the state's halfway point within the first year, along the Red Rock Line about 10 miles west of Pella. That line became a strategic trading center between Native Americans and white settlers and drew settlement near where Pella stands today. The Sac and Fox later relocated to modern-day Kansas, though in 1856 Meskwaki tribe members secured land in Tama County for a modest reservation. Before the Dutch arrived in 1847, white settlers had already come to the area, beginning with a group in May 1843 in northeast Marion County, including Nancy and Thomas Tuttle in mid-May. Four years later in July, the Rev. Moses Post, an itinerant preacher and local mail carrier, arrived at the Tuttles' log cabin while guiding five Dutchmen. Only one of the five besides Post spoke English, Dominie Hendrik Peter Scholte, who offered to buy the Tuttle claim with gold brought from the Netherlands, and the Tuttles accepted. Some early white settlers then sold their land to the Dutch and left, while others remained and became founding members of Pella alongside the Dutch immigrants. Iowa became a state in December 1846 when President James K. Polk signed it into the union as the 29th state, and after statehood a large campaign drew migrants to Iowa as land newly opened by Native American removal became available for settlement and new communities formed across the state.

Pella, Iowa · United States