As  early  as  1824,  a  French  trader  named  Hart  had  established  a  trading
post,  and  built  a  cabin  on  the  blufis  above  the  large  spring  now  known  as
"Mynster  Spring,"  within  the  limits  of  the  present  city  of  Council  Blufis,  and
had  probably  been  there  some  time,  as  the  post  was  known  to  the  employes  of
the  American  Fur  Company  as  Lacote  de  Hart,  or  "  Hart's  Blufl"."  In  1827,
an  agent  of  the  American  Fur  Company,  Francis  Guittar,  with  others,  encamped
in  the  timber  at  the  foot  of  the  blufis,  about  on  the  present  location  of  Broad-
way, and  afterward  settled  there. In  1839,  a  block  house  was  built  on  the
bluff  in  the  east  part  of  the  city. The  Pottawatomie  Indians  occupied  this  part
of  the  State  until  1846-7,  when  they  relinquished  the  territory  and  removed  to
Kansas. Billy  Caldwell  was  then  principal  chief. There  were  no  white  settlers
in  that  part  of  the  State  except  Indian  traders,  until  the  arrival  of  the  Mormons
under  the  lead  of  Brigham  Young. These  people  on  their  way  westward  halted
for  the  Winter  of  1846-7  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Missouri  River,  about  five
miles  above  Omaha,  at  a  place  now  called  Florence. Some  of  them  had
reached  the  eastern  bank  of  the  river  the  Spring  before,  in  season  to  plant  a
crop. In  the  Spring  of  1847,  Young  and  a  portion  of  the  colony  pursued  their
journey  to  Salt  Lake,  but  a  large  portion  of  them  returned  to  the  Iowa  side  and
settled  mainly  within  the  limits  of  Pottawattamie  County. The  principal  settle-
ment of  this  strange  community  was  at  a  place  first  called  "  Miller's  Hollow,"
on  Indian  Creek,  and  afterward  named  Kanesville,  in  honor  of  Col. Kane,  of
Pennsylvania,  who  visited  them  soon  afterward. The  Mormon  settlement
extended  over  the  county  and  into  neighboring  counties,  wherever  timber  and
water  furnished  desirable  locations. Orson  Hyde,  priest,  lawyer  and  editor,  was
installed  asjresident  of  the  Quorum  of  Twelve,  and  all  that  part  of  the  State
remained  under  Mormon  control  for  several  years. In  1846,  they  raised  a  bat-
talion, numbering  some  five  hundred  men,  for  the  Mexican  war. In  1848  Hyde
started  a  paper  called  the  Frontier  Guardian,  at  Kanesville. 