The Honey War

In 1839, Missouri tax collectors arrived in Van Buren and Davis counties of the Iowa Territory; Iowa would not be a state until 1846, though Missouri had achieved statehood in 1821.  In 1837, Missouri had commissioned a new survey of the northern border and moved it 9 miles into Iowa Territory.  Of course, this didn't go over well with the Iowans.  The tax collectors were chased out but not before they chopped down a few trees with behives; honey was a valuable commodity that could be sold to make up the tax bill.  Sheriff Uriah Gregory of Clark County, Missouri, went to support the tax collectors, but instead found himself arrested and jailed.

Governor Lilburn Boggs of Missouri dispatched General David Willock with 11 mounted state militia.

Governor Robert Lucas of Iowa Territory called out the militia and sent them to the border.  It was a less impressive bunch, armed with pitchforks, antique guns, and even a sausage stuffer.

General Willock wasn't about to get into a bloodletting over a boundary dispute.

The war fizzled without bloodshed and the issue of the border was argued in court.  It was eventually decided by the Supreme Court in 1849, settling on the Sullivan Line that was surveyed in 1816.

This was not the first 'war' between states over the borders.  Michigan and Ohio had the Toledo War several years before the Honey War.

Exploring Iowa in 1844

Captain James Allen (1806-1846) graduated from West Point in the same year as Robert E. Lee.  Trained as an engineer, Allen was posted at Sault Ste. Marie in Michigan Territory.  In 1832, he was part of an expedition along the upper reaches of the Mississippi River.  Attached to the First Dragoons, he saw duty throughout the west, from St. Louis to Chicago to Fort Leavenworth.  In 1842, he was posted in Iowa, Captain of Company I.  In 1843, he established and commanded Fort Des Moines.  The following year, he set out to explore north and west.

The details of his 2-month expedition (August to October 1844) are available here.  Often, such documents are mostly an account of daily tasks, the lay of the land, notable flora and fauna, and the occasional bit of excitement.  This one certainly has most of these but lacks the excitement.  Indeed, the most exciting parts are when the men are stuck in the mud during a heavy rain or one of the wagons breakdown.  On several occasions, the column - Allen's command consisted of approximately 70 men - encountered Souix warriors, but nothing came of it.  The Souix monitored the soldiers but there were no hostilities.  Allen's account was submitted to the House of Representatives in March of 1846.

There are multiple maps and even an additional account of the expedition from an anonymous soldier in his command.  Having lived in Iowa for many years, it is interesting to see it as a wilderness to be explored.

In 1844, Joseph Smith - founder of the Mormon Religion - was murdered in Illinois and his followers fled.  Many were encamped in Iowa with plans to migrate further west.  In 1846, the United States declared war on Mexico.  Troops were needed.  Captain James Allen recruited 500 Mormons from among those in Iowa; thus the Mormon Battalion was formed.  The battalion set out from Council Bluffs, Iowa, to rendezvous with the Army of the West in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.  N.B. Neither Iowa nor Kansas were states yet.  Lt. Col. Allen fell ill and was unable to depart with his troops, remaining at Fort Leavenworth with the intention of catching up later.  He died on August 23, 1846.

Iowa became the 29th State on December 28, 1846.

The Homesman (2014)

It is 1854 in Nebraska Territory and a trio of women are suffering prairie madness, a fairly common ailment at that time.  Obviously, the sparsely populated region cannot care for them and it is determined to send them east.  Mary Bee Cuddy (Hillary Swank), who is an unmarried woman, is selected to transport them.  On her way to her farm with the wagon, she comes across a man (Tommy Lee Jones) with a noose around his neck and sitting on a horse.  She agrees to release him if he will agree to accompany her to Iowa.  Of course, he agrees.  The pair retrieve the three women - one is catatonic, one is bound and shrieking, and the last is listless.  The journey across the desolate prairie begins.

Hillary Swank is excellent as the lonely but self-sufficient frontier woman.  Her precise backstory is not detailed but she has a fine plot of land that is well-maintained.  She grew up in New York, can sing and play piano, knows how to handle a rifle, and is viewed as the equal of most men in her community.  Though she has tried to marry, she has thus far failed to attract a husband.  It is soon clear that she has a prepared script for proposing to single men.  However, she has been rejected for being plain and too bossy.  Mary is a caring and compassionate woman, but intensely lonely.  Swank embodies this beautifully.  Outstanding performance.

Tommy Lee Jones plays a disreputable prairie tramp who, through his association with Mary and the trio of mad women, is somewhat reformed.  Though he didn't want this task and has opportunities to abandon it, he sees it through.  His character is less well-developed than Mary's.  His motives run the gamut from duty to mercenary to compassion to vengeance.  In his final scene, he's a singing drunkard who is not paying attention to his property or the propriety of his actions.  Has he resumed his status as a prairie tramp?  Probably.

As I had no idea what a homesman was when I watched the movie, I looked it up.  A homesman is one who escorts settlers from the frontier to civilization.  "Go east, young man!"  One supposes that a person who led the wagon train on the westward journey was called a scout or guide, but he became a homesman when he traveled the other way.

Based on a story by Glendon Swarthout (who also wrote John Wayne's last movie, The Shootist), it deals with the real affliction of prairie madness.  People who were used to close neighbors in the East or, more especially, in Europe, were subject to deep depression in the sparsely-populated isolating prairies of North America.  One cure was often to just return east to counter the isolation.

The movie is mostly a tragedy - how could it be otherwise - but still engaging.  Certainly not a feelgood movie.  Nonetheless, recommended.