Exhibit illuminates Floyd Monument leaders

  (Aug. 18, 2006) – The Center will open a new exhibit Sunday that celebrates the effort that built the Floyd Monument.

  Dedicated in 1901, the monument commemorates the death and burial of Sergeant Charles Floyd, the only member of the Corps of Discovery to die in the course of the Lewis & Clark Expedition. The 100-foot tall monument marks Floyd’s fourth burial site. It is the largest monument to the memory of any member of the Expedition. Floyd died on Aug. 20, 1804.

  The first 100 visitors who answer a Floyd Memorial Association history question correctly on Sunday will receive a Lewis & Clark Bicentennial brass ornament or pin.

  “The Floyd Memorial Association is a fascinating story of local imagination and leadership, civic pride and just plain hard work,” says Marcia Poole, director of the interpretive center. “The story involves a broad range of local people and organizations, from The Sioux City Journal to the Sioux City Stockyards Company. These local connections make the story particularly compelling for Siouxlanders.”

  Businessmen, an attorney, a U.S. Congressman, engineer, judges, a law enforcement officer, and a banker were among those who worked for more than five years toward completion of the Floyd Monument and its dedication on May 30, 1901. John H. Charles, a pioneer businessman, served as the tireless president of the Association during its crucial period of progress. Congressman George Perkins, The Journal’s founder, publisher and editor, was the single most influential member in terms of promoting the project and generating local, regional and national support for the Association’s goals. Elliott Coues, editor of the Lewis & Clark Journals and noted 19^th century naturalist and taxonomist, was a driving force.

  The story includes a number of Siouxland pioneers, such as Dr. William Remsen

Smith; Isaac Struble; and the Holman Family of Sergeant Bluff. F.L. Eaton, who served as president of the Sioux City Stockyards Company for almost 25 years, is at the heart of the story. In 1895, the land that held Floyd’s grave was stockyards’ land. Eaton negotiated the sale of the land to the Association for $1,000 cash.

  The new exhibit includes text, photographs and an original Floyd Memorial Association Certificate of Membership donated to the Center by Bob and Helen Davenport, of Sioux City. Bob is a descendent of W.C. Davenport, who was among the people who signed the Association’s articles of incorporation in 1895. He became one of the longest surviving leaders of the original group.

   W.C. was elected Woodbury County Sheriff in 1893 and served as Sioux City’s Chief of Police. As a deputy sheriff, he responded to the murder scene of prohibitionist Rev. George C. Haddock on Aug. 3, 1886, at the corner of Fourth and Water streets. In 1916, he sold the old Combination Bridge in a receiver’s sale, having been appointed in the Federal Court to make the sale. W.C. was founder of Davenport Cleaners. He died in 1959.

  The Association’s roots can be traced to the spring of 1857 when Sioux City was booming. Local pioneers rescued Floyd’s remains when the almost 53-year-old grave was giving way on the crumbling face of a bluff over the Missouri River near the south edge of town. With impressive military and religious ceremony the pioneers reburied Floyd’s remains about 200 yards from the original grave site. The historic event commanded considerable public interest and stirred enthusiasm for building a monument to commemorate Floyd’s death and burial, the Lewis & Clark Expedition and the Louisiana Purchase. But a plan never materialized. Sioux City’s boom went bust. The population plummeted and thoughts of a monument languished.

  Dr. William Remsen Smith, a Sioux City physician and a key public official, and W.P. Holman, of Sergeant Bluff’s Holman Brick and Tile Works, tried to keep interest alive. In the 1880s, they gathered signatures for a petition, hoping Congressman Isaac S. Struble (R-Iowa) would push for federal funding. But plans for other public structures took priority. Then, in 1893, Reuben Gold Thwaites discovered Floyd’s journal at the State Historical Society of Wisconsin and Elliott Coues’ edition of the Lewis & Clark journals was published. In 1894, the American Antiquarian Society announced it would publish Floyd’s journal.

  Another factor may have figured into renewed interest in the monument dream: the Sioux City area’s struggle to recover from the Panic of 1893 which ruined some of its richest citizens and imperiled key projects, including the burgeoning livestock marketing and meatpacking industries. The area’s unique slice of Lewis & Clark history may have presented an opportunity to promote Sioux City and help rebuild its once-robust reputation.

  Leading the promotion was The Sioux City Journal. Both Perkins and Journal reporter A.F. Statter were Association members. As a member of the Associated Press, The Journal dispatched reports to newspapers throughout the country. Elliott Coues credited The Journal with stimulating local, area and national interest in the proposed monument and providing the best record of the Association’s history.

  Incorporated after the second reburial of Floyd’s remains on Aug. 20, 1895, the Floyd Memorial Association made progress toward fulfillment of the monument dream. It flourished to include prominent local, area and national figures, including descendents of Capt. William Clark. Federal and state funding, supplemented by local and area public and private support, paved the way for construction of the 100-foot obelisk under the supervision of Col. Hiram M. Chittenden, of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

  The concrete foundation was laid on May 29, 1900. The cornerstone was placed on Aug. 20, 1900, and the remains of Sergeant Charles Floyd were deposited in the structure, making it the soldier’s fourth burial site. The Floyd Monument was dedicated on May 30, 1901. In 1960, it became the first National Historic Landmark designated by the National Park Service and the U.S. Department of the Interior.

  The interpretive center will continue to research the history of the Floyd Memorial Association. Additions to the exhibit and a publication are part of the plans to illuminate the Association. “Telling stories is the work of the interpretive center,” says Poole. “The Floyd Memorial Association reveals dozens of connections that lead us to the people and the context wrapped up in one of Siouxland’s most enduring and significant landmarks.”

  The Sioux City Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center, exit 149 off I-29, is a private, non-profit institution built and sustained by Missouri River Historical Development, Inc. (MRHD). Admission, all programs, exhibits, activities and materials are free. For more information, contact 224-5242.

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