Agent Businessman editor Soldier
Joseph was born on December 18, 1782, in Lunenburg County, Virginia, United States; the son of Anthony Waddy and Mary (Stokes) Street, and the grandson of John Street of Bristol, England, who settled in New Kent County, Virginia, early in the eighteenth century.
In 1806, in Frankfort, Kentucky, he and his friend John Wood began publishing the Western World, a fiery broadside that was responsible for instigating investigations of such people as Aaron Burr. Because of his outspokenness, Street was constantly involved in lawsuits, a situation that continued during his years as an Indian agent in Illinois, then Wisconsin and Iowa territories from 1827 until his death in 1840. His friends Henry Clay, Andrew Jackson, and Zachary Taylor often had to intervene on Street’s behalf so that he was not removed from his position as agent.
Married to Eliza Maria Posey Thornton and eventually the father of 14 children, Street moved his family to the frontier town of Shawneetown, Illinois, in 1812. There he was active in local politics and became brigadier general of the local militia, resulting in his being known afterward as “General” Street. On August 8, 1827, President John Quincy Adams appointed him as an Indian agent to the Winnebagos, headquartered in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin Territory. Throughout his term as an agent, Street advocated fair but firm treatment of the Indians. In his early years as an agent, he often requested federal troops to help him drive away white settlers who were illegally encroaching on Indian territory, but because he seldom received them he began to think that the best way to protect the Indians was to remove them from harm’s way. From that point on, he worked tirelessly for Indian removal to the West. His most powerful adversary in that fight was the American Fur Company, whose business would have suffered without the availability of Indian trappers.
During the Black Hawk War of 1832, most Winnebagos gathered at the agency, where Street convinced them to remain neutral. The Winnebagos turned Black Hawk over to Street, who in turn reported their cooperation to Washington. A transfer to Rock Island in 1834 added supervision of the tribes known by the federal government as the Sac (Sauk) and Fox (Meskwaki) to Street’s oversight of the Winnebago. He vigorously opposed the move, which meant leaving his family as well as abandoning the new Winnebago school he had just opened in Prairie du Chien. Due in large part to the efforts of representatives of the Ameri- can Fur Company, who thought the school would discourage the Indians’ nomadic lifestyle, enrollment at the school kept decreasing until late in 1837 when Street was allowed to return. His efforts soon doubled the enrollment, but when he left in January 1839 to oversee the Sauk and Meskwaki tribes at the newly created Des Moines River Agency, the school floundered again, finally closing in 1840.
Street was an agent for the Sauk and Meskwaki during the time that Keokuk, Appanoose, Wapello, and Poweshiek were chiefs. He died on May 5, 1840, and was buried at the Des Moines River Agency. Two years later a dying Wapello asked to be buried near Street, and their monuments can be seen there today.
Joseph Montfor Street was a co-founder of the Western World. He also was a U. S. Indian Agent to the Winnebago and later to the Sauk and Fox tribes after the Black Hawk War. He worked, that westward removal would help the Indians and advocated mission schools, training in agriculture and industrial crafts, division of land in severalty, and the curtailment of the influence of the fur traders.
Recognizing the scarcity of game in the region, Joseph encouraged the federal government to introduce farming to the agency as well as the establishment of Presbyterian missions to provide education to the local tribes.
On October 9, 1809, Joseph married Eliza Maria (Posey) Thornton, the daughter of Thomas Posey. The couple had a son, Joseph H. D. Street.
Anthony was a prosperous planter, a member of the county court, and vestryman of Cumberland Parish.
Mary was the sister of Montfort Stokes.
Joseph was the first appointed registrar of the Council Bluffs Land Office in western Iowa.
Thomas was a governor of the Indiana Territory and a Louisiana Senator.
