Encyclopedia Dubuque
"Encyclopedia Dubuque is the online authority for all things Dubuque, written by the people who know the city best.”
Marshall Cohen—researcher and producer, CNN
Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
KEARNEY, Stephen Watts
KEARNEY, Stephen Watts. (Newark, NJ, Aug. 30, 1794-St. Louis, MO, Oct. 31, 1848). Soldier. In his notebook entitled An Expedition Across Iowa in 1820, Kearney wrote under the date of August 5, 1820, his impressions of the Dubuque area. He found a FOX village of approximately one hundred Native Americans living in seventeen lodges. He also reported seeing on a high hill a small building covering Dubuque's grave.
Kearney found that the LEAD mines in 1820 were being worked by five or six Native Americans. Kearney also commented on being greeted by natives with "How de do," an expression he found to be common among Native Americans living in the Mississippi Valley. Later in his military life, Kearney commanded the Army of the West that captured California and New Mexico during the Mexican War.
