Honey War - Timeline

Timeline

  • 1803: Louisiana Purchase
  • 1804: Treaty of St. Louis - Sac and Fox tribes cede Missouri from the mouth of the Gasconade River through Illinois and Wisconsin
  • 1808: Treaty of Fort Clark - Osage Nation cedes Missouri and Arkansas east of Fort Osage
  • 1812-1815: War of 1812 - Tribes protesting the treaties side with the British in Missouri and Mississippi Valley skirmishes
  • 1815: Treaty of Ghent ends the war and requires tribes to be treated as before the war
  • 1815: Treaties of Portage des Sioux includes wording that the Osage, Sac and Fox agree to their earlier treaties
  • 1816: John C. Sullivan surveys the Indian Boundary Line (1816) from the mouth of the Kansas River in modern day Kansas City, Missouri to approximately Sheridan, Missouri and then east to the Des Moines River near Farmington, Iowa
  • 1818: Missouri considers various boundary options for statehood.
  • 1820: Missouri enters the Union with its western boundary being the Indian Boundary Line and its northern boundary being the Sullivan Line. Wording in the Constitution refers to the rapids on the river Des Moines which some perceive as ambiguous since the Des Moines has no rapids but the Mississippi nearby has rapids called the Des Moines Rapids.
  • 1824: Sac and Fox cede all remaining land in Missouri and ceded the land south of the Sullivan Line between the Des Moines and Mississippi as Half Breed Tract. Missouri makes no effort to extend its claim to Half Breed Tract.
  • 1830: Indian Removal Act - Efforts begin to remove all tribes to west of the Indian Boundary Line
  • 1832: Black Hawk War as tribes resist the removal order
  • 1834: Congress opens up Half Breed Tract to settlement but Missouri again makes no claim on the territory.
  • 1836: Iowa is removed from Michigan Territory to Wisconsin Territory
  • 1836: The federal government in the Platte Purchase buys the land west of the Indian Boundary line and it is annexed to Missouri with its northern border being the Sullivan Line.
  • 1838: Iowa Territory is organized
  • 1839: According to legend a Missouri tax collector in Iowa cuts down three hollow trees containing honey bee hives to collect the honey in lieu of taxes.
  • 1839: Clark County, Missouri sheriff is arrested by Van Buren County, Iowa sheriff while attempting to collect Missouri taxes in the disputed territory.
  • 1839: Militias from both sides assemble at the border
  • 1839: Matter is referred to the U.S. Supreme Court
  • 1846: Iowa enters the Union
  • 1849: Supreme Court issues an opinion that since Missouri never challenged its straight line border ending at the Des Moines River for more than 10 years, the border was valid. The court further upholds the Sullivan Line as the correct border but orders it resurveyed to correct quirks in Sullivan's Line which had jogs.
  • 2005: Following various disputes, the State of Missouri contracts to have the border resurveyed, which finds many of the markers from the Supreme Court survey of 1850.

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