The Honey War by Cassie Dinges

Dinges 1 The Honey War by Cassie Dinges Cassie Dinges is currently a junior at William Jewell College. Next year, she plans to graduate with a degree in both English and Psychology. Cassie has a passion for journalism, and is on the editorial staff of the College’s newspaper, the Hilltop Monitor . In her spare time, she helps with the Lion and Unicorn Reading Program in Liberty, reads, and questions the grammar of others. After graduation, her largest aspiration is to move to New York City to pursue a graduate degree in English, as well as procure an editing position at a publishing house. The concept of a border war is not new to many, especially residents of the Midwest region. Many Missourian children are brought up with tales of civil war scuffles between their state’s Bushwhackers and the Kansan Jayhawkers. The nation still has reminders of these guerilla warfare showdowns today in the form of museums and the mascot of Kansas University. While the border war between Missouri and Kansas is still alive and well known, few know that the Show-Me State almost declared war with the fledgling territory of Iowa. Thirteen miles of land into modern-day Southern Iowa, as well as many profitable honeybee trees became the fodder for a border battle in 1839. This dispute is nicknamed “The Honey War” and was not dismissed after months of bloodshed but rather by a ruling of the Supreme Court. The trouble between Missouri and Iowa can be traced back to the vague state boundaries established for the former when it gained its statehood in 1821. Missouri’s state constitution defined its northern border to be “parallel of latitude that passed through the ‘rapids of the river Des Moines.’” The boundaries of the state were established by a survey performed by J. Sullivan in 1816, when Missouri was still considered a territory. The area that was later called into question was in the possession of the Sac and Fox Native American tribe at the time of Missouri’s admittance into the union. As soon as the Native Americans were forced from the strip of land, Missourians demanded the land to be a part of their state. About sixteen years elapsed between Missouri’s initiation into the United States and their seizure of the Northern property. This was long enough for the territory of Iowa to form and prepare to gain its statehood. Noting Iowa’s intentions to become a state, on February 4, Dinges 2 1837, Missouri Governor Lilburn Boggs commissioned surveyors to look at the boundary once more. The men tasked with resurveying the area included Colonel Daniel Boone—son of the explorer—from Jackson County, Captain Stephen Cooper of Howard County and Elias Bancroft who hailed from the independent city of St. Louis. Officials from Wisconsin—who were in charge of the Iowan land at the time—neglected to commission their own surveyors. The 1837 survey of the Missouri-Iowa border is where state relations started to sour. Hundreds of trees humming with bees were found along the area of questionable possession, and Missouri saw money in the sweet, golden substance, as well as the comb the bees produced. At the time of the survey, sugar was a rare and expensive commodity, making honey a sensible sweetener substitute. A gallon of honey could fetch up to 37 cents, provided the market was right. The inedible parts produced by bees were also of value. Beeswax could be pressed into cakes to be used in candle making or to create seals. In emergent situations, cakes of wax— nicknamed “yellow boys”—were also used as currency on the frontier trails. Because the border land was home to hundred of trees and so many viable sources of income, Missourians wanted to take possession of the property, or tax Iowa for keeping such wealth for itself. Individuals desired to claim a bit of the money to be had in the land—it was almost as if the hum of the insects and the promise of wealth hypnotized them. Oftentimes when a man happened upon an unclaimed bee tree, he would carve his initials into the trunk to signify it was his property. Unrest began slowly emerging from this practice. Neighbor would rise up against neighbor for the wealth honey and wax could bring. Passions ran high for the commodities the land offered. Some say there were killings over the rights to trees. Others call the war a heated but bloodless dispute. Although frustration was nearly tangible at this point, things were destined to become much worse. On April 12, 1838, Iowa became an official territory, taking the power to govern its own land away from Wisconsin. Since Iowa was soon to become a state, Congress shortly authorized a survey of the borders once more. The state lines were established once more by Major Albert Lea and reported back to the government. Lea’s assessment was partial to Missouri, so Governor Boggs declared that he sanctioned the boundary on August 23, 1839. Boggs was pleased to gain such profitable acreage, but his victory was short-lived and not so sweet. Since Dinges 3 Iowa was now a territory Boggs had a much larger opponent to contend with than wayward settlers on the frontier trail. Robert Lucas, governor of Iowa, countered with a threat to arrest any Missourians that “trespassed” on the thicket that lured with promises of money but only delivered trouble. Boggs couldn’t leave Lucas’ threat of arrest untested, so he sent Sheriff Uriah S. Gregory of Clark County, Missouri, to the border with the task of collecting taxes on the bee trees. Gregory was met with the hostile faces of Van Buren and Davis Counties. The Iowans, armed with distain and strength in numbers, told Gregory to “go home,” to which he complied. Boggs was displeased with Gregory’s cowardice and told him to try again. This time—on November 30, 1839—Gregory was arrested and held in the jail located in Muscatine, Iowa. Before his arrest, however, Gregory managed to chop down three of the trees as apparent payment of the taxes Boggs thought Iowa owed his state. Upon his recognizance, Gregory was released from jail shortly after his arrest. Gregory’s release did not prove to be enough to appease the anger felt by Governor Boggs and the people of Clark County. Boggs commanded Major General David Whillock to raise a militia from Missouri’s capable young men—about 2,200 men in total rose to defend Missouri. On December 7, the troop gathered marched off to war with Iowa without a single tent or blanket to defend from the cold and bleak winter weather. The men gathered around the Fox River near Waterloo, Missouri to wait for Lucas’ men to come. While some were more than willing to fight for Missouri with little protective measures or provisions, some opposed the action. A poem written by John Campbell of Missouri—to the tune of “Yankee Doodle”—highlighted the dissent concerning The Honey War. “Why shed our brother's blood in haste, / Because big men require it? / Be not in haste our blood to waste, / No prudent man desires it.” When Governor Lucas’ force of 1,200 men met Boggs’ militia they did so with weapons of blunderbusses, flintlocks, swords and a variety of farming equipment. However well-armed both sides were, the weather was not on their side, nor did any man have much desire to kill over what seemed to be an assertion of power between the two governors. While the sides fumed at one another, they decided to negotiate and refer the matter to the Supreme Court. The decision to hand over the query to the Court was made on December 12, and was called the Treaty of Waterloo. The troops left the area to await the government’s decision, was not made until Dinges 4 1849. The men of Missouri frustrated at Bogg’s decision to send them out with no supplies and the difficulties presented by Governor Lucas cut a ham in half, labeled each half as one of the governors and filled both pieces with bullets. In 1849, Associate Justice John Catron delivered the unanimous decision in the case of Missouri v. Iowa. The justices decided that Missouri’s true borders were established by the survey ordered by J. Sullivan in 1816, five years before Missouri gained statehood. Sullivan’s survey did not include the land of blood and honey within Missouri’s limits, which meant the area belonged to Iowa. Missouri failed to legally challenge Sullivan’s survey within ten years of its completion, and the state is smaller today for it. This is how The Honey War ended, with both whimpers and bangs. Works Cited Campbell, John. "Honey War's Poem." Wild West 2002: 68-. ProQuest Central; ProQuest Psychology Journals. Web. 22 Mar. 2012. <http://search.proquest.com/docview/201463924?accountid=15047 >. "Iowa History Project: A Little Border War." Iowa History Project . N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Mar 2012. <http://iagenweb.org/history/moi/moi25.htm>. Kallestad, Stephen. "Territorial Militia." Iowa National Guard . N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Mar 2012. <http://www.iowanationalguard.com >. "Missouri v. Iowa- 48 U.S. 660 (1849)." Justia . N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Mar 2012. <http://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/48/660/case.html>. “The Honey War.” Missouri Historical Review . Oct. 2008: 22-23. Print. "The Honey War With Iowa." Daviess County Historical Society . N.p., 12 Jul 2008. Web. 20 Mar 2012. <http://www.daviesscountyhistoricalsociety.com/>. .

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