WOODRUFF 
 FIFTY YEARS AGO
 
 LIBRARY OF THE 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN 
 
 UttfiiS iOittCAL SIHYEY
 
 Years Ago: 
 
 OR, 
 
 GLEANINGS 
 
 RESPECTING THE 
 
 HISTORY OF NORTHERN ILLINOIS 
 
 A FEW YEARS PREVIOUS TO, AND 
 DURING THE 
 
 3Y 
 
 G. H. WOODRUFF 
 
 AUTHOU OF "FORTY YEARS AGO," AND "FIFTEEN YEARS AGO 
 CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE STATE HISTORICAL 
 SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN. 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 < | J O L I E T : 
 
 JOHKT REPUBLIC AND SUN PRINT. 
 4 1883. 
 
 /T^TTT'TTTT'^T
 
 FIFTY YEARS AGO: 
 
 OR, 
 
 GLEANINGS 
 
 RESPECTING THB 
 
 HISTORY OF NORTHERN ILLINOIS 
 
 A FEW YEARS PREVIOUS TO, AND 
 DURING THE 
 
 BLACK HAWK WAR 
 
 3Y 
 
 G. H. WOODRUFF, 
 
 ATJTHOK OF "FORTY YEARS AGO," AND "FIFTEEN YEARS AGO" 
 
 CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE STATE HISTORICAL 
 
 8OCIKTY OF WISCONSIN. 
 
 JOLIET: 
 
 JOLIKT REPUBLIC AND SUN PRINT. 
 
 1883.
 
 / ' ' ' 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 fl? 
 
 [AVING been somewhat instrumental in fixing on the 2nd 
 day of August as the day for the Pidneers Re-union for 1882 
 in Will county, and in giving to the meeting a semi-centennial 
 odor, we felt called upon to justify our course by a brief review of 
 the events of fifty years ago, particularly as they related to this por- 
 tion of Northern Illinois. Hence, the series of Historical Gleanings, 
 which appeared in the REPUBLIC during the few weeks pre- 
 ceding the meeting. 
 
 It was believed that while there were a few of our older citizens 
 to whom the events were a memory, yet the later generation were, for 
 the most part ignorant of them, and likely to remain so, inasmuch as 
 the accounts of them which have been preserved are scattered through 
 various county histories, local sketches and pamphlets, which are not 
 accessible to the general public without more trouble than most 
 persons would be willing to take. It was thought, therefore, that it 
 would be a good thing to gather up the facts and incidents and 
 4o weave them into a connected narrative, which would post all who 
 desire it in the history of this region fifty years ago. Some of our 
 friends have flattered us with the suggestion that they were worthy 
 of re-publication in a more convenient form for preservation. 
 
 We only claim for them that they are gleanings, although con- 
 siderable has been obtained by personal conversation and correspon^ 
 dence with living survivors, who were actors and sufferers in the 
 events narrated. Wherever we have found a statement bearing 
 apon the subject we have appropriated it without a scruple, giving, 
 generally, the source of information. The first pages go back to an 
 earlier date, but it will be seen that they lead up to the subject.
 
 HISTORICAL GLEANINGS. 
 
 PONTIAC. 
 
 According to a tradition which we are disposed to believe, 
 Will county was for a while the residence of a great historic 
 character, the renowned Ottawa Chief, Pontiac. The long and 
 bloody contest between England on the one side, and the French 
 and Indians on the other, terminated in the treaty of peace at 
 Paris in 1763. The most powerful ally of the French in the 
 war for the possession of the territory included under the term 
 New France, had been this noted Chief. He did not consider 
 himself bound by this treaty, in the making of which the 
 French had not consulted their Indian allies. Pontiac organized 
 a conspiracy of the various tribes over which he was a recognized 
 Chief, and succeeded in capturing various outposts and in butch- 
 ering and stampeding hundreds of frontier families. He besieged 
 Detroit for six months, but was defeated in his attempt to get 
 possession of that post, and the Indians finally sued for peace, 
 and a treaty waft concluded between the English and the Western 
 tribes in August, 1764. Pontiac, disgusted with the result of the 
 contest, left his native region, where he had held so long and so 
 extended a sway, and with a remnant of his Ottawa warriors 
 about 200 and their families retired farther West. According 
 to tradition, he settled on the banks of the beautiful Kankakee. 
 There are various and conflicting traditions of his death. We 
 gave one in " Forty Years Ago," which we found in one of the 
 books of Western Annals, written by N. Matson, of Bureau 
 county. According to this tradition he was assassinated by a Chief 
 of the Illinois at a council held near the Joliet Mound, in 1769.
 
 Northern Illinois Fifty Years Ago. 
 
 Pontiac was without doubt one of the most gifted and brav- 
 est of Indian Chiefs who have figured in our history. It is 
 related of him that while carrying on the siege of Detroit, and 
 running low in funds, he supplied his commissariat by issuing 
 scrip made of birch bark bearing his u totem," as the only 
 security for its redemption. It is also said that he promptly 
 redeemed the issue a thing which c^uld not be said of a large 
 amount of Michigan paper subsequently issued by white men. 
 
 This remnant of Ottawa Indians was ultimately merged in 
 the Pottawatamie tribe, and their principal village is said to have 
 been on the Kankakee, not far from the present city of Wilming- 
 ton. It was at this village that 
 
 SHABBONEE 
 
 an Indian who has figured largely in our more recent frontier 
 history, was born in 1776. This was his own statement often 
 made to different parties still living. He was born of Ottawa 
 parents who accompanied Pontiac in his retirement to the Kan- 
 kakee. Shabbonee became a Chief of the Pottawatamie tribe, 
 by reason of the fact that he had married for his first wife a 
 daughter of a Pottawatamie Chief named Spotka, who had a 
 village near the mouth of the Fox river, and on his death was 
 chosen his successor. As Shabbonee became prominent in the early 
 history of this region, and was well known to the early settlers of 
 this and adjacent counties, and especially because he rendered 
 important service to the whites, his memory should be gratefully 
 cherished, and the leading facts of his life and character should 
 be preserved. N. Matson, Esq., of Bureau county, who was for 
 many years well acquainted with Shabbonee, has written the 
 most extended notice of him that we have seen. As soon as 
 Shabbonee, at the death of Spotka, his father-in-law, became his 
 successor, he removed his village from the Illinois river to a 
 healthier locality on the head of Big Indian Creek, to a beautiful 
 grove in the present limits of DeKalb county. There the tribe
 
 Northern Illinois Fifty Years Ago. 7 
 
 had their home for nearly fifty years, and the grove became a 
 land mark known as Shabbonee's grove. It contained a fine 
 sugar camp and a beautiful spring. The woods abounded in game, 
 the creek in fish, while the adjacent prairie furnished rich com 
 land. 
 
 TECUMSEH. 
 
 In 1807 Shabbonee visited the Wabash country and became 
 acquainted with the Shawnee Chief, Tecumseh, to whom he 
 became warmly attached. Tecum. i eh, who was about sevea 
 years the senior of Sbabbonee, had conceived in his mind the 
 project of uniting all the Western tribes in a league to prevent 
 the further granting of lands to the whites, except on the consent 
 of the whole confederation. In pursuance of this plan Tecumseb 
 traveled very extensively among the Southern and Western 
 tribes. In 1810 he visited Shabbonee, as well as several other 
 Pottawatamie Chiefs, known by the names Saug-a-nash (Billy 
 Caldwell) Senachwine, Black Partridge, Comas and Gomo 
 From none of them did he get much encouragement. Shabbonee 
 accompanied him along the Rock river and Mississippi. 
 
 In 1811 he accompanied Tecumseh to the counsel held witb 
 Gen. Harrison at Vincennee, which broke up without effecting 
 any agreement. They then together visited the southern tribes. 
 About two weeks after the battle of Tippecanoe they returned to 
 the Wabash. This battle had been brought on by Tecumseh's 
 brother, the Prophet, against his wishes, as his plans were not 
 ripe for action. 
 
 Shabbonee, much as he loved and admired Tecumseh, does 
 not seem to have fully sympathized with him in his plans of 
 attacking the white settlements. 
 
 In 1812 Tecumseh sent runners along the Illinois informing 
 the Indians of the war between England and the United States, 
 and offering " big money " if they would take the side of 
 England. Shabbonee intended to remain neutral, but learning.
 
 8 Northern Illinois Fifty Years Ago. 
 
 that a large party from other villages, and some from his own, 
 had left for Chicago, he mounted his pony and followed He 
 reached there a few hours after the massacre, and his mild and 
 peace-loviag spirit was shocked at the blood and carnage there 
 exhibited; and it was, no doubt, largely owing, to his influence, 
 that the survivors were spared. 
 
 Late in the autumn of that year, as Shabbonee's band were 
 about to start out on their winter hunt, emissaries from Tecumseh 
 arrived at Shabbonee's village. They were loaded with gew- 
 gaws so dear to the female heart, whether savage or civilized, 
 supplied no doubt by British gold, Tecumseh had also sent the 
 wampum belt to Shabbonee asking him to join in the war on the 
 side of the British, and promising in their name large reward. 
 These runners also stated, falsely, that all the bands along the 
 river had agreed to aid him. Deceived by these statements the 
 hunt was abandoned, and Shabbonee, with twenty-two warriors 
 started for the seat of war. He remained in the service as an aid . 
 to Tecumseh until the close of the war, and was by the side of 
 the great chieftain when he received his death blow at the battle 
 of the Thames. 
 
 There is no doubt that Shabbonee regretted having joined 
 the side of the British in the war of 1812, and that he fully 
 determined not to join in further hostilities against the white 
 settlers in the West. His subsequent conduct, as we shall see, 
 was so fully in accordance with that resolution that he came at 
 last to be known as the white man's friend. 
 
 At the battle of the Thames there was present aiding 
 Tecumseh also, Saug-a-nash, or Billy Caldwell, who being the 
 son of an Irish officer in the British service, and a Pottawatamie 
 squaw, was entitled to both an English and an Indian name. 
 He was a man of intelligence and education, having been edu- 
 cated by the Jesuits of Detroit; and, at the time of kis 
 death was head chief of the combined nation of Pottawatamies,
 
 Northern Illinois Fifty Years Ago. 9 
 
 Ottawas and Chippevvas. He was a Justice of the Peace at Chi- 
 cago under Peoria county in 1826. Shabbonee had in his 
 possession a paper which he highly valued being a certificate of 
 Caldwell's given at Amherstburg (Fort Maiden) in 1816, in 
 which he certifies to the fact that Shabbonee was with Tecumseh 
 at the battle of the Thames, and concludes by saying, " I also 
 have been witness to his intrepidity and courageous warfare on 
 many occasions, and he showed a great deal of humanity to those 
 unfortunate sons of Mars who fell into his hands. [Signed,] 
 
 B. CALDWELL, 
 Captain I. D. (Ind. Dept.) 
 
 The celebrated Sac Chief, Black Hawk, was also present at 
 the battle of the Thames, fighting on the side of the British.* 
 
 FOOD FOR THE NOVELIST. 
 
 In reading up the aboriginal and pioneer history of 
 Northern Illinois, we have been struck with the abundant ma- 
 terial it furnishes for the novelist. A series of historical roman- 
 ces, rivaling in interest those of Cooper, could be woven out of 
 its veritable history, from the times of Joliet and LaSalle and 
 the Jesuit missionaries, to the close of the Black Hawk war. 
 From Mackinaw to the mouth of the Illinois, and westward to 
 the Mississippi, ample room is furnished for the movement of his 
 characters, with picturesque and interesting localities on which 
 to exercise his powers of description while every stream and 
 
 * NOTE. Since writing the above we have received a new book of Mr. 
 Matson's entitled "Pioneers of Illinois," in which he gives his authority 
 for his version of the settlement of Pontiac on the Kankakee, and the 
 place and the manner of his death. He also explaines at length the way 
 in which the account of his death as given by Parkman and others, 
 originated. Mr. Matson has paid great attention for many years to the 
 aboriginal history of Illinois, and is we think entitled to thanks and credit 
 as a careful historian.
 
 io Northern Illinois Fifty Years Ago. 
 
 grove, every island, mound and bluff, is rich in traditionary lore. 
 And then, what an endless variety of marked, peculiar, repre- 
 sentative characters : Thefirst explorers and Jesuit missionaries ; 
 the fur traders, French, English and American; Indian chiefs 
 and braves; dusky beauties and captive white maidens; the later 
 pioneers and Protestant missionaries; hunters and trappers; 
 saints and sinners, holy men and incarnate devils all are waiting 
 to be made immortal by the pen of genius; while innumerable 
 wars and massacres, hunts, councils, treaties, payments, war 
 dances, dog feasts, pow-wows, and all the peculiar customs, super- 
 stitions and habits of savage and frontier life furnish an exhaust- 
 less fund of incident and illustration. Have we no Cooper 
 among us to utilize thie mine of historic wealth, and to transmute 
 its rough ore into the burnished gold of romance? 
 
 After the war of 1812, Shabbonee and Satig-a-nash, having 
 lost all faith in British promises, visited General Cass at Detroit, 
 and gave their formal adherence to the U. S. Government. Both, 
 no doubt, regretted having espoused the British side. On the 
 24th of August, 1816, at St. Louis, a treaty was concluded by 
 the United States with the Indians of the Northwest, represented 
 by twenty three Pottawatamie, three Ottawa and two Chippewa 
 Chiefs, by which these tribes ceded to Uncle Sam all their lands 
 lying between the Illinois and Mississippi rivers, and also a large 
 district west of Lake Michigan. Shabbonee was present and one 
 of the signers of the treaty. In 1819 this tract was surveyed 
 under the direction of U. S. Commissioners. Shabbonee aided 
 the surveyors, and with his hunters supplied the corps with game. 
 
 CASS AND THE WINNEBAGO WAR. 
 
 In July, in the year of 1827, occurred another speck of 
 war, called the Winnebago war, and sometimes " the 
 Winnebago scare." Fort Dearborn was at this time without a
 
 Northern Illinois Fifty Years Ago. 11 
 
 garrison. It is no wonder then that the few inhabitants of 
 Chicago were filled with alarm. Gen. Cass had gone to Green 
 Bay by appointment to hold a treaty with the Winnebago and 
 Menominee tribes, who failed to meet him there. He learned 
 the cause to be a war with the whites on the upper Mississippi. 
 He at once started on the journey around by the Fox, Wisconsin 
 and the Mississippi rivers to St. Louis, from whence he despatched 
 a steamer with troops to the relief of the whites. On his return 
 by the way of the Illinois and Des Planes, he warned the set- 
 tlers of their danger, and also met various Indian chiefs along 
 the route, making them presents, and using every argument to 
 keep them from aiding the hostiles. Among others ihe had an 
 interview with Shabbonee. This Chief was heartily in accord 
 with Gen. Cass, and used all his influence with his own and 
 other bands to prevent them from taking the war path, 
 
 Cass spent a night at Ottawa with Dr. David Walker, and in 
 consequence of the news he brought a fort was at once com- 
 menced on the south side of the river. Gov. Cass went OB up 
 the river and over the divide through Mud lake, and down the 
 Chicago river, awaking the echos along its classic banks with the 
 boat song of the thirteen voyagers, led by Robert Forsythe, the 
 Governor's Secretary. They gave the people of Chicago the first 
 news of the outbreak. 
 
 And here let us say, parenthetically, that this was not the 
 Governor's first passage up the valley of the Illinois and Des 
 Planes. In 1821, accompanied by Henry R, Schoolcraft and 
 others, under the sanction of the U. S. Government, he made an 
 excursion down the Wabash and Ohio and up the Mississippi to 
 St. Louis, from which place he journeyed to Chicago for the pur- 
 pose of holding a treaty with the chiefs and head men of the 
 Ottawa, Chippewa and Pottawatamie tribes for a large tract of 
 land in Michigan. After voyaging up the Illinois te Starved 
 Rock they obtained horses and made the rest of the journey on
 
 12 Northern Illinois Fifty Years Ago. 
 
 horseback. They turned aside from their route and visited the 
 junction of the Kankakee and Des Planes, for the especial pur- 
 pose of examining the celebrated fossil tree that lies embedded 
 (so much as is left of it) in the Des Planes near its mouth. This 
 fossil is fully described by Schoolcraft in a memoir published by 
 him at Albany in 1822. This is one of the most remarkable 
 fossils ever discovered, of a vegetable origin. Specimens of it 
 have been widely distributed. Gov. Cass obtained several at the 
 time of this visit, one of which he sent to the University of 
 Cambridge. It has been generally thought to have been a black 
 walnut tree. Schoolcraft gives the size of the part exposed, 
 length 51. feet and some inches, and the diameter at large end, 
 three feet. Thomas Tousey, Esq., of Virginia, also visited this 
 locality in 1822 and described the fossil. From this place they 
 passed on over the country to Mount Joliet, and Schoolcraft wrote 
 the description of this Mound, which we quoted in our sketch of 
 the Mound. 
 
 BIG FOOT. 
 
 But we must return from this digression. One of the most 
 interesting reminiscences of the early Chicago is related in the 
 " Fergus series," by Col. Gurdon S. Hubbard, of Chicago, in 
 which he narrates the visit of Shabbonee, in company with Saug- 
 a-nash to the village of the Chief, Big Foot, at Big Foot (Geneva) 
 Lake. Shabbonee had reached Chicago after his interview with 
 Cass before him, and was the guest of his friend Caldwell, On 
 learning the news brought by Gov. Cass, Col. Hubbard suggested 
 to Caldwell and Shabbonee that they should visit Big Foot and 
 endeavor to learn whether he intended to join the hostiles. 
 From some circumstances Col. Hubbard was led to apprehend 
 that this Chief was unfriendly to the whites. Accordingly 
 Shabbonee and Caldwell at once set out on this mission. When 
 they arrived in the vicinity of Big Foot village Caldwell con-
 
 Northern Illinois Fifty Years Ago. 13 
 
 cealed himself in ome thick^ timber, while Shabbonee entered 
 the village. Sbabbonee was at once made a prisoner and charged 
 with being a spy. This made it evident that Big Foot was an 
 enemy to the whites, although he had but lately returned from 
 receiving his payment from the United States at Chicago. The 
 situation of Shabbonee was critical. But he was equal to the 
 occasion. He affected great astonishment and indignation at his 
 arrest, and the suspicions against him; and claimed that he had 
 come to consult with Big Foot in reference to joining the Winne- 
 bagoes. He avowed his conviction that the Winuebagoes were 
 foolish and could not succeed in their schemes, and at the same 
 time promised that if allowed to return to his people he would 
 submit the matter to them, and if they consented he would join 
 Big Foot. After talking all night Shabbonee was allowed to 
 depart, accompanied by one of Big Foot's braves, to visit Shab- 
 bonee's village. As they passed the spot where Caldwell was 
 concealed Shabbonee managed, by talking loudly to his compan- 
 ion, to convey to Caldwell sufficient information to guide him. 
 
 He understood at once that he must not be seen, and he 
 returned to Chicago alone by another route. Shabbonee con- 
 trived, with consummate skill, to warn the people of Chicago of 
 Big Foot's disposition, while his companion waited in conceal- 
 ment, and then the two went n to Shabbonee's village, where his 
 people were called together, and after much talk decided not to 
 aid the hostiles. 
 
 ALAEM AT CHICAGO. COL. HUBBARD TO THE RESCUE. 
 
 The news that Shabbonee brought to Chicago of course 
 increased the apprehensions of the citizens, and a consultation was 
 speedily held as to the best measures in the emergency. It was 
 decided that Col. Hubbard should at once start for Danville for 
 aid to defend the post, although his prpseuce seemed equally neces- 
 sary at Chicago, where most of the men were in his employ, and he
 
 i4 Northern Illinois Fifty Years Ago. 
 
 had great influence with the Indians. But he was the only one well 
 acquainted with the route and with all the settlers about Danville. 
 He accordingly set out at once and made the journey with all 
 possible speed, swimming the swollen rivers and riding all night. 
 He reached the house of a Mr. Spencer, near Danville, the next 
 day at noon, completely used up. Mr. Spencer immediately 
 warned out the scattered settlers, appointing a rendezvous at 
 Danville. The day following a company of 100 men, under an 
 old frontier fighter named Morgan, was organized, and started 
 immediately to the relief of Chicago, Col. Hubbard returning 
 with them. Although compelled to swim the streams and wade 
 the sloughs, they pushed on, and reached Fort Dearborn the 
 seventh day after Mr. Hubbard had left it, to the great joy of 
 the people. A re- organization was had, and a company, 160 
 strong, under Morgan, was now ready for Big Foot and all the 
 Winnebagos. 
 
 Fortunately, at the end of thirty days, news came of the 
 defeat of the Winnebagos, and of their forming a treaty of peace 
 with the commanding officer of the force that Gov. Cass had 
 dispatched by river from St. Louis. And so the Winnebago 
 scare was at an end. 
 
 Shabbonee's course in thus counselling peace and favoring 
 the whites gained for him the appellation of White Man's Friend. 
 It was bestowed upon him in contempt by the hostiles, but it 
 became his proudest title. 
 
 FATHER WALKER. 
 
 In 1823 that self-denying, earnest pioneer and preacher, 
 Jesse Walker, received the appointment of missionary to the 
 Indians from the Illinois conference of the Methodist Church. In 
 pursuance of his duty as such missionary he came to Ottawa, 
 where he is said to have built the first log cabin on the site of the 
 present city in 1824.
 
 ftoi them Illinois Fifty Years Ago. 15 
 
 More than one hundred and fifty years had elapsed since the 
 Jesuit father, Marquette, had established his mission of the 
 ' Immaculate Conception," a few miles below that point. French 
 sovereignty had been superseded by English, and the English 
 again by American. Another race of Indians, too, at this time, 
 held possession of Northern Illinois. The Illini, in the time of 
 Marquette, so proud and numerous, had been conquered and 
 almost annihilated by the combined Pottawatamie and Ottawa 
 tribes, and there was hardly a vestige of the once flourishing and 
 populous town of La Vantam, or of the Kas-kas-kia mission. 
 The only traces of French enterprise or of Jesuit zeal were to be 
 found in tradition and history. All Northern Illinois was still 
 a part of the county of Fulton, and only here and there along 
 the streams had a daring pioneer venture to build his cabin. The 
 Indians were still in almost undisputed possession and looked 
 upon a white man as an intruder, unless he came to buy their 
 furs and peltries, and to supply them with trinkets, blankets, 
 powder and hatchets, and the still more deadly "good-na-tosh."* 
 
 Elder Walker was, at the first, somewhat disheartened by hia 
 cold welcome. The Indians did not seem disposed to be friendly. 
 One morning, while "spreading out his wants and fears before 
 the Lord," he was surprised by a visit from a tall, finely-formed 
 Indian, equipped with the weapons of a brave, and wearing the 
 insignia of a chief, and whose countenance bore a kindly 
 expression, and who introduced himself with the laconic words : 
 " Me Shabbonee," at the same time giving the Elder a hearty 
 hand-shake. 
 
 The chief could speak but little English and the Elder was 
 equally ignorant of Pottawatamie, so that there could be little 
 intelligent conversation between them. But Elder Walker was 
 at no loss to understand that he had at last met a friend, and that 
 his prayers were already answered; and, if he had any lingering 
 
 * Whisky.
 
 i6 Northern Illinois Fifty Years Ago. 
 
 doubts as to the friendly intentions of his visitor, they were soon 
 completely removed. Shabbonee left the cabin of the Elder, 
 giving him to understand that he would return. Tke camp of the 
 Chief was about a mile distant, and he soon reappeared, bearing 
 upon his shoulders a quarter of venison and a wild turkey, which 
 he laid at his feet. It was a welcome addition to the Elder's 
 lean larder. He was also accompanied by a half-breed who could 
 speak English, and by whose help the Elder made 
 known his objects and wishes. Shabbonee expressed his 
 disposition to aid him. 
 
 MISSION ESTABLISHED ON THE FOX. 
 
 Accordingly next day. under the guidance of Shabbonee 
 and George Forqua (the interpreter), the Elder explored 
 the country along the Fox and Illinois rivers, and located 
 his mission on a little creek that empties into the Fox, 
 and which received the name of Mission Creek. The spot 
 selected was on Sec. 15 of T. 35, R. 5, to which also the name of 
 Mission Township was subsequently given. Here the earnest 
 missionary pioneer soon had a flourishing mission, consisting of a 
 school house, a chapel, and two or three dwellings occupied by the 
 Elder and his assistants. Here the mission flourished for a few 
 years, having a large school of Indian children, and a large 
 congregation of native worshipers on the Sabbath, Many 
 professed conversion and were baptised. Shabbonee, although 
 heartily seconding Walker's efforts for the elevation of his people, 
 never became an avowed convert. In 1830 the chapel was 
 burned down and the mission was removed to the vicinity of 
 Plainfield, where he had already started a branch. James 
 Walker, his son-in-law, and one of his assistants, had preceded 
 ihim, and built Walker's mills, famous in the early days of Will 
 ouhty. 
 
 From Father Walker's advent to La Salle county up to the 
 spring of 1832, settlers "squatted " along the Fox, the Illinois,
 
 Northern Illinois Fifty Years Ago. 17 
 
 the Du Page, and their tributaries, and at a few points along the 
 Mississippi. But Northern Illinois was still comparatively a 
 wilderness. But it was a beautiful wilderness, consisting largely 
 of meadow-like, flower-decked prairies, with heavy forests 
 skirting the streams, and forming here and there island groves, 
 breaking in upon the ocean-like monotony of the sea of verdure 
 The country looked as if it had been cultivated in some far past, 
 so far, that the people and their dwellings, and all vestiges of 
 their occupation had perished. The region had only been 
 partly surveyed, and only some canal land had been offered for 
 sale. There were no roads, and the only pathways were the 
 Indian trails. To this statement we must make one exception. 
 As early as 1822 the lead mines in the vicinity of Galena had 
 begun to be worked by white men under the protection of troopa 
 sent there by the war department, and in 1825 and 1826 there 
 was a great rush of adventurers thither, not only from Southern 
 Illinois, but from Tennessee and Kentucky ; not for permanent 
 settlement but with the expectation of speedily realizing a fortune, 
 and then returning to their homes. Many went thither in the 
 spring and returned in the fall. Hence they received the name 
 of suckers as their migrations synchronized with the movements 
 of that well-known fish. The name was ultimately fastened 
 exclusively upon the people of our State. This emigration to 
 the lead mines had led to the opening, in 1827, of the only road 
 in Northern Illinois, from Peoria to Galena. Along this road, 
 at long intervals, pioneers had located for the purpose of keeping 
 tavern in the rude style of the frontier, and soon a stage route 
 was established between these two points. 
 
 The most important trail was that known as the Sac trail, 
 from Rock Island to Detroit. This trail was the only guide for 
 emigrants west of Niles, when the writer came to Joliet in 1834. 
 
 Another important trail was that from Chicago to Danville,
 
 18 Northern Illinois Fifty Years Ago. 
 
 which came to be called Hnbbard's trail, from the fact that 
 Gurdon S. Hubbard and the men in his employ as the agent of 
 the American Fur Company, passed back and forth upon it. He 
 had a trading post at the crossing of the Iroquois. It was over 
 this trail, under the guidance of Col, Hubbard, the company of 
 volunteers went to the relief of Chicago iti 1827, as we have 
 related, and from his stores at this trading post Colonel Hubbard 
 supplied the deficiencies of the company in arms, ammunition and 
 rations. These supplies had been brought to that point in 
 batteaux by the way of the Des Planes, Kankakee and Iroquois 
 rivers. But we presume that the citizens of Watseka find it 
 much cheaper and quicker to get their supplies by railroad. 
 For over this identical trail now passes the Chicago and Danville, 
 or Eastern Illinois railroad, and just across the river from the 
 old trading post is the pleasant town of Watseka,* the county seat 
 of Iroquois. The Indians were uatural engineers, and the first 
 pioneers good judges of town sites. Col. Hubbard ought to 
 have a free pass over that railroad during his remaining days, 
 which we hope may yet be many, although he has already seen 
 more than any other man since the days of Methusaleh. 
 
 Another important trail ran from the lead mines to Big Foot 
 Lake, and thence to Chicago. The men of wealth and taste now 
 build their handsome summer houses upon the shores of this 
 beautiful sheet of water, but fifty years ago Big Foot and his 
 tribe built their wigwams along its slopes, and fished in its 
 pellucid waters. Perhaps the savage lifted as grateful a heart to 
 the Great Spirit for all its beauty and abundance, as does his 
 civilized successor; and perhaps he was as happy in his frail and 
 rude lodge as his successor, who employs architects, and skilled 
 artisans, to construct and adorn his palatial mansion. 
 
 *So named from a beautiful Indian maiden, who lived thereabout ; 
 whose interesting story we leave to the coming Cooper.
 
 Northern Illinois Fifty Years Ago. 19 
 
 SETTLEMENTS FIFTY YEARS AGO. 
 
 
 
 At the breaking out of the Black Hawk war, fifty year* ago> 
 the largest settlement, except at Chicago, north of the Illinois 
 <river, was on Bureau Creek, where there were about thirty 
 families. A few other settlers had located on the river at Peru 
 and La Salle, and a considerable number at Ottawa. OB Indian 
 Creek, a tributary of the Fox, near what is now known as 
 Munson, in the town of Freedom, La Salle county, there was a 
 settlement known as Davis settlement consisting of eight or ten 
 families. This settlement was soon to have a fearful history. 
 At a place then known as Holdeman's grove, near Newark, 
 Kendall county, there were five or six families. At Walker's 
 Grove, or Plainfield, there were twelve or fifteen families. 
 Along the two branches of the Du Page, partly in this county 
 and partly in Du Page, there were about twenty families. In 
 Yankee settlement which embraced part of the towns of Homer, 
 Lockport and New Lenox, there were twenty or twenty- five 
 families. Along the Hickory in the town of New Lenox, 
 including the Zarley settlement in this township, there were 
 probably twenty families more, and at Reed's and Jackson Grove 
 there were six or eight more. 
 
 The humble cabins of these pioneers were, at a little distance, 
 hardly distinguishable from the groves in whose shelter they were 
 built, and their improvements had barely fretted the edges of the 
 prairies that stretched in illimitable beauty before them. 
 
 NATIVE OCCUPANTS. 
 
 But these pioneers were not the only inhabitants of Northern 
 Illinois at this time. The country between the Wabash and 
 Rock river, and from Peoria Lake to Wisconsin Territory, was in 
 the partial possession of, and claimed by the Pottawatamie tribe
 
 20 Northern Illinois Fifty Years Ago. 
 
 of Indians. It is impossible to state definitely their number, 
 but including the remnants of the Ottawas that had become 
 absorbed by them, they probably numbered not far from six 
 thousand souls. They were divided into many villages or 
 sub-tribes, each having its patriarchal sheik or chief, and all 
 rendering a not very clearly defined allegiance to a head chief. 
 All were as nomadic in their habits as the Arab, although they 
 had attached themselves to particular localities which they claimed 
 as specially their own, and to which they returned with some 
 regularity. Their dwellings could be taken down, loaded on their 
 ponies and squaws, and set up in a oew spot almost as easily as 
 the Arab's tent. These changes were as frequent as the necessities 
 of hunting, trapping and fishing, or the manufacture of sugar, 
 etc., seemed to require. The selling of their furs and peltries, 
 buying the articles they needed or fancied of the traders, 
 attending their festivals and war dances, councils and payments, 
 etc., etc., also required frequent changes of location. They 
 pitched their wigwams in the edge of groves and along the 
 streams, at such points as best subserved the necessities of 
 their mode of life, while at the same time they seemed to 
 have been more or less influenced by the beautiful and picturesque, 
 and, wandering as were their habits they exhibited a strong 
 attachment to the localities with which they had grown familiar. 
 A strange people. They have now passed away frem these 
 
 scenes. 
 
 " Like the fallen leaves those forest tribes have fled. 
 Deep 'neath the turf the rusted weapon lies." 
 
 A remnant of perhaps 1,500 are now in the Kansas river 
 valley and in the Indian Territory, And, while we would not 
 excuse individual or national acts of injustice toward them, or 
 other tribes, and while we cannot refuse a sigh of pity over their 
 sad fate, yet one can hardly regret that these few thousand savages,
 
 Northern Illinois Fifty Years Ago. 21 
 
 themselves usurpers who fifty years ago roamed and hunted 
 over Northern Illinois, have been compelled to make room for 
 the million or more of civilized and enterprising white men that 
 have taken their places. Whether we call it manifest destiuy, the 
 survival ot the fittest, or the working out of a divine and 
 beneficent purpose (may it not be all these?) one can hardly 
 mourn over the fact that the frail and rude lodges which were 
 scattered up and down the streams fifty years ago, have given 
 place to the thousands of tasteful mansions, the churches and 
 school houses, the towns and cities, that now adorn every section 
 of the landscape; and that the Indian trail and canoe have been 
 succeeded by the steamers, and canal boats, and the swift-flying 
 railway trains. 
 
 OUR PURPOSE. 
 
 It is not our design in this historical rehash to give a 
 narrative of the Black Hawk war in its general aspects, or of the 
 circumstances which preceded it. 
 
 These are all amply described and related in Ford's History 
 of Illinois and other State histories. Compared with our later 
 war experiences, it was a very small affair. From first to last 
 the forces of the government, including the Wisconsin volunteers, 
 the friendly Indians, and the six artillery companies, sent forward 
 under Gen. Scott (which took no part in the campaign), did not 
 amount in all to much over 6,000 men. Compared with the 
 great battles of the late war, its heaviest encounters were mere 
 skirmishes. On the part of the Indians, there were only a few 
 hundred at any time mustered under Black Hawk,* so that the 
 forces brought into the field on the part of the government, would 
 seem needlessly large. But it must be remembered that there 
 was reason to fear that other tribes might join Black Hawk, 
 while there was a large territory to be protected. The 
 
 * The best estimate we have seen places their number at 650.
 
 22 Northern Illinois Fifty Hears Ago. 
 
 Winnebagoes and Pottawattamies were not regarded as being 
 entirely reliable ia their professed friendship. It was man- 
 ifestly good policy to make such a demonstration as would 
 convince the hostile^ of the futility of their designs. The advice 
 of Polonius to Laertes is equally good for nations : 
 
 " Beware 
 
 Of entrance to a quarrel ; but being in, 
 Bear it that the opposed may beware of thee." 
 
 ROVING HOSTILB8. 
 
 Besides the force under Black Hawk, there were bands of 
 redskins roving about the country committing all those outrages 
 in which the savage finds delight. Probably during the months 
 of May and June, before the white forces reached the scene, there 
 were not less than fifty of the settlers brutally murdered. From 
 Chicago to Galena, and from the Illinois to the Wisconsin 
 rivers, these bands ecoured the country, carrying terror into every 
 cabin. 
 
 THE WAR IN BRIEF. 
 
 The first encounter between Black Hawk's force and the 
 whites was on the Rock river, near a stream which empties into 
 it, and called afterwards Stillman's run, in honor of the en- 
 gagement. The men engaged were raw recruits, who had at their 
 own request been sent forward under Major Stillman to spy out 
 the whereabouts of the enemy. They found them, May 12th, in 
 greater numbers than they expected, and the result did not confer 
 much glory on the volunteers. Had it occurred in the later years 
 it would have been called a ske dad-die. The next encounter was 
 at Kellogg's grove, where the whites, under Major Dement were 
 assaulted by Black Hawk's band, and the latter were repulsed with 
 a loss of ten or fifteen of their number killed, while the loss of 
 whites was five killed and three wounded.
 
 Northern Illinois Fifty iLears Ago. 23 
 
 The decisive engagements were fought in Wisconsin, then a 
 part of the Territory of Michigan, whither the Indians had fled. 
 They were pursued over the ground between the four lakes, where 
 the city of Madison is now located, and one Indian is said to have 
 been killed on the very epot where the capitol is built. Over this 
 scene of beauty, (then and now), they were pursued and overtaken 
 at the bluffs of the Wisconsin about five o'clock of the afternoon 
 of the 21st of July, and defeated with great loss. Escaping dur- 
 ing the night across the river; the surviving Indians made for the 
 Mississippi, hoping to get upon the western side. But before they 
 could accomplish their purpose they were overtaken, and the de- 
 cisive battle of the war the last encounter with hostile Indians 
 on this side of the Mississippi was fought, August 2d, near the 
 mouth of Bad Ax river. 
 
 According to Governor Ford's history, the best fighting on 
 the 21st of July, had been done by the brigade of militia under 
 Colonel Henry, and lest they might win further honors they were 
 put in the rear on the pursuit. The result of this arrangement 
 was, that General Atkinson with the main army was decoyed, by 
 a small force of Indians, past the place where their main body 
 was left in the rear, without orders. He discovered the mistake 
 of General Atkinson, and the main trail of the Indians going 
 down to the river, which he followed, and coming upon them at- 
 tacked at once, defeating them, before the commanding General, 
 having heard the firing, and discovered his mistake, could return 
 with the main army. 
 
 Black Hawk, with about twenty men, succeeded in getting 
 away, but was captured by some of his treacherous Winnebago 
 friends at the Dalles of the Wisconsin and by them handed over 
 to our army.
 
 24 ftoiihern Illinois Fifty Years Ago, 
 
 NOTABLES IN THE WAR. 
 
 Quite a number of persons played some part in the Black 
 Hawk war whose names have since become famous. 
 
 Our own, well beloved Lincoln enlisted at the first call made 
 by Governor Reynolds, and was chosen captain of a volunteer 
 company, and when the first levy was disbanded, he re-enlisted as 
 a private in the company of Captain lies, and served to the end 
 of the war. 
 
 He was mustered in at Dixon, where Lieutenant-Colonel 
 Zachary Taylor was in command with two companies of regulars, 
 by Lieutenant Robert Anderson, the hero of Fort Sumter, serving 
 as Assistant Inspector General. At the same time there was at 
 Dixou a young Lieutenant of the name of Jefferson Davis. Jt 
 would be hard to find in all history such a meeting of persons, 
 who were to play so conspicuous a part in their country's history, 
 and yet who were then comparatively unknown and altogether 
 unconscious of what the future had in store for them. 
 
 The time came when the green youth of twenty-two, the 
 high private of Captain lies' company, out-ranked them all. 
 
 Hon. I. N. Arnold tells us that when Major Anderson, after 
 the evacuation of Fort Sumter, called to pay his respects to Presi- 
 dent Lincoln, after thanking him for his gallant defense, Mr. Lin- 
 coln asked Major Anderson if he remembered having met him 
 before. The Major replied that he did not. " My memory is 
 better than yours," said Lincoln, " you mustered me into the 
 United States service, as a high private of the Illinois Volunteer 
 at Dixon's Ferry in the Black Hawk war." 
 
 One coincidence relating to the arch traitor, Davis, is worthy 
 of note. After the surrender of Black Hawk, Davia was charged 
 with the duty of delivering him at Jefferson Barracks. The fallen 
 chief was confined for a time at Fortress Monroe, where Davis 
 himself was afterwards a prisoner. They were charged nomi-
 
 Northern Illinois Fifty Years Ago. 25 
 
 nally with the same crime, that of levying war against the United 
 States. But of how much deeper dye was the guilt of the man 
 who had been educated at the nation's expense, and who had en- 
 joyed its blessings and its honors, and sworn allegiance to its laws. 
 
 General Dodge, afterwards Governor Dodge, of Wisconsin, 
 took an active part in the war. Also General Fry, afterwards our 
 Canal Commissioner. 
 
 It was at the breaking out of the Black Hawk war that 
 Shabbonee rendered the most important services to the pioneer 
 settlers of this region. 
 
 SHABBONEE AND BLACK HAWK. 
 
 Black Hawk, or to give his full name as appended to the 
 treaty of 1816, Muck-eta- me-che-ka-ka, or Black Sparrow Hawk, 
 was at the time of the war, an old man of 72 years of age. He 
 had been a warrior from his youth, and always bitterly opposed 
 to the whites, especially the Americans. He was one of Tecum- 
 seh's aids in the war of 1812, and never gave in his sub- 
 mission to the United States Government, although he signed 
 his X to the treaty of 1815-16, which confirmed that of 1804. 
 He had crossed the Mississippi in 1 831 with his warriors, and 
 committed various depredations on the settlers upon the land 
 .about the mouth of Rock river his old home but had been 
 met by such vigorous movements on the part of Governor Rey- 
 nolds and General Gaines, of the United States Army, that he re- 
 treated to the west side, and, being threatened with pursuit by 
 our forces he submitted, and engaged by solemn treaty to keep 
 thereafter upon the w,est side. But in February, 1832, he called 
 'together a council at Indiantown, of Sac, Fox, Winnebago and 
 Pottawattamie chiefs and head men, to which he presented his 
 cause and his grievances, and endeavored to get them to form an 
 alliance for the purpose of recovering from the whites the terri- 
 tory east of the river, where had been for so many years their vil- 
 lages, and their hunting grounds. The celebrated chief, known
 
 26 floi them Illinois Fifty Years Ago. 
 
 as the Prophet, was his most eloquent backer, an earnest advocate 
 of war. Shabbonee was the principal advocate of peace. He was 
 not much noted for oratory, but his character for honesty and good 
 sense gave him great influence. He could also in a quiet way- 
 present his own views ably, and show the weak points in the ar- 
 gument of his opponent. On this occasion he gave his voice de- 
 cidedly against war, urging that there was no hope of success,, 
 while hostilities on their part would only make their condition 
 more hopeless and uncomfortable. To the high sounding state- 
 ment of the Prophet, that if all the tribes would unite, they 
 could muster a force which " would be in numbers like the trees 
 of the forest in which they had gathered." Shabbonee replied^ 
 " True, we should be like these trees in number, but our enemies 
 would be in numbers as the leaves upon these trees." It was no 
 doubt the decided stand taken by Shabbonee that defeated the 
 scheme of Black Hawk and the Prophet. Black Hawk, when a 
 prisoner at Jefferson Barracks, said that but for him the Potta- 
 wattamie nation would have joined him. 
 
 Notwithstanding his failure to secure such an alliance as he 
 desired, Black Hawk, as we have related, crossed the Mississippi 
 in the spring of 1832 with the disaffected and turbulent spirits of 
 the Sac and Fox nations, to reassert their right to the territory 
 lying along Rock river, which had been their favorite home, and 
 where a few miles above its mouth had been their chief town. He 
 no doubt believed that his appearance on the war path would 
 lead many, if not all the braves of the Pottawattamie and Winne- 
 bago tribes, to join him. 
 
 When Shabbonee heard that Black Hawk and his band of 
 hostiles had crossed the river, he was encamped with his entire 
 band on the Bureau, not far from the present city of Princeton. 
 They had been engaged in the business of making their supply of 
 maple sugar, in the manufacture of which the Indians are experts. 
 He immediately started upon a tour among the other villages to 
 prevent them from joining Black Hawk. For two weeks he was
 
 Northern Illinois Fifty Hears Ago. 27 
 
 engaged in this mission, visiting among other places Ottawa and 
 Chicago. At the latter place he arranged with Che-ehe-pin-que 
 (Robinson) and Saug-a-nash (Galdwell) for a council to beheld 
 the following week, at a village on the Des Planes, where is now 
 the suburb of River Side, for the purpose of agreeing upon a 
 peace policy. The council was held, and such a policy was agreed 
 upon, with little dissent. 
 
 Black Hawk made one more personal application to hia old 
 comrade, and to Waubansie, to induce them to join him, but with- 
 out success, and Shabbonee peremptorily refused to attend a coun- 
 cil which Black Hawk had called, advising him to return at once 
 to the west side of the Mississippi. 
 
 But although Shabbouee, and through his influence mainly, 
 Waubansie and other chiefs, with their bands, refused to aid Black 
 Hawk, there were some of the Pottawattamies from various vil- 
 lages, some even from Shabbouee's, that took sides with Black 
 Hawk, and were the principal perpetrators of the outrages which 
 soon followed. 
 
 SHABBONEE GIVES WARNING. 
 
 When the news of Black Hawk's success in that first encoun- 
 ter at Stillman's Run reached Shabbonee, he knew that hostile 
 bands, encouraged by success, would soon be ravaging about the 
 country, committing murder and every atrocity. He at once sent 
 his son Pypegee, and his nephew Pyps, to Fox river and Holde- 
 man's to warn the settlers of their danger, while he himself went 
 on the same errand to Bureau and Indian creek, all starting be- 
 fore daylight on the 15th of May. 
 
 It was the beautiful spring season, beautiful always and ev- 
 erywhere, but especially beautiful then in this region, still in its 
 pristine glory, as if fresh from the Creator's hand. The streams 
 were mostly lined with timber, which frequently jutted out like 
 capes into the prairie, and also here and there formed detached
 
 28 Northern Illinois Fifty Years Ago. 
 
 islands; all now in fullest, greenest leafage. In the edges of these 
 groves were frequent clusters of thorn and crab apple trees, and of 
 the plum and wild cherry, now in full bloom, loading the air with 
 fragrance, while the red bud or Judas tree and other flowering 
 shrubs gave the grace of color to the landscape. The hum of 
 bees, and the song of the birds, added the charm of music to the 
 scene, and the unbroken prairie stretched out in seas of verdure 
 and color, filling the eye and heart with delight. 
 
 The hardy pioneers whose cabins were scattered along the 
 edges of these groves on the Bureau, the Illinois, the Fox, the 
 DuPage and the Des Planes, and their affluents, were busy plow- 
 ing, sowing and planting, rejoicing in the fertility and beauty of 
 the spots which they had selected for their future homes. 
 
 Over these peaceful scenes of almost paradisaical beauty, 
 came suddenly, the startling news of savage warfare. Shabbonee 
 and his aide rode swiftly up and down the streams and groves 
 giving friendly warning of the impending danger. Leaving their 
 plows standing in the furrows, and their cabins with whatever of 
 goods and comforts they contained, the settlers hastened to the 
 nearest places of refuge. 
 
 GEETY AND HIS BAND OF DEVILS. 
 
 The warning had come none too soon. A half- breed of the 
 name of Girty, who seems to have united in himself all the bad 
 qualities of the two races whose blood coursed through his veins, 
 had left the camp of Black Hawk, and with a band of guerrillas 
 about seventy in number, which was largely composed of dis- 
 gruntled Pottawattamies, coursed through the Bureau and Fox 
 river settlements, searching for victims on whom to glut their 
 savage cruelty. They found that the settlers had fled. 
 
 On arriving at Shabbonee's Grove, and learning that he and 
 his son and nephew had gone to warn the settlers of their danger,
 
 Northern Illinois Fifty Years Ago. 29 
 
 they were greatly enraged, and denounced Shabbonee as a trai- 
 tor, swearing vengeance upon him. 
 
 FIRST VICTIMS JAMES SAMPLE AND WIPE. 
 
 Near the old Sac village, at the mouth of Rock river, a 
 young man by the name of James Sample had made a claim in 
 the fall of 1831. He had just married a beautiful girl by the 
 name of Lucy May, He was a local preacher of the Methodist 
 church, and had for two years preached occasionally at the dif- 
 ferent settlements in the vicinity of the Illinois river. Hearing of 
 the crossing of Black Hawk and his band, he took refuge with 
 the other settlers on the island where there was a fort. After 
 remaining there for a few weeks he concluded to go with his wife 
 to Hennepin, where their friends lived. As Black Hawk and his 
 band were supposed to be between the Rock river and the Mis- 
 sissippi, he thought the trip could be made with safety, although 
 the distance was about seventy-five miles. Accordingly they were 
 ferried across the river, and the young couple, well mounted, 
 started out on a beautiful morning about the middle of May, 
 hoping to reach the Bureau settlement by night, a distance of sixty 
 miles without an inhabitant. Their only guide was the Sac trail. 
 On the west side of the Bureau was a settler's cabin where they 
 hoped to pass the night. Their movements after leaving Rock 
 Island can only be inferred from well known circumstances, until 
 their fatal encounter with Girty's band, and the result of that en- 
 counter was related several years after by members of that band. 
 For a long time their fate was left to conjecture. It is known 
 that on arriving at the house of the settler to whom we have re- 
 ferred, and whose name was Henry Tkoraas, they found the house 
 deserted, and all the doors and windows barricaded as the family 
 had fled at the alarm given by Shabbonee's messengers. About 
 six miles further east was another settler of the name of Smith,
 
 30 Northern Illinois Fifty lears Ago. 
 
 to whose cabin they would naturally go. But this was on the east 
 side of the main Bureau creek, which at the time was very high 
 and unsafe to cross in the darkness, which by this time would 
 have shut down upon them, and they must have passed the night 
 in the grove, and in the morning crossed the creek by swimming 
 their horses. On arriving at Smith's they would be again disap- 
 pointed on finding the cabin empty, and signs of a hasty flight of 
 the inmates. Tired and hungry, and still wet from crossing the 
 creek, the signs of the sudden flight of the settlers, which they 
 could only attribute to fear of hostile Indians, mast then have 
 filled their hearts with alarm. But they press on. A mile fur- 
 ther would bring them to the cabin of Elijah Epperson, on the 
 other side of the timber, which they also found deserted. With 
 increasing fears, which the beautiful prairie stretching out before 
 them, and the songs of the forest angels filling the balmy morn- 
 ing air with music, could not dissipate, they urge on their jaded 
 horses, when suddenly behind them they hear the terrible war- 
 whoop, and looking back, see some twenty Indians pursuing them 
 at full speed. As they urge on their horses they are saluted with 
 shots from the pursuers' rifles and the deadly tomahawk flashes 
 past their heads. Both are slightly wounded, but the attack puts 
 new life into their jaded horses, and they soon leave the ponies of 
 their savage pursuers far in the rear. They begin to have strong 
 hopes of escape, when, in crossing a slough, the horse of Mrs. 
 Sample gets mired and falls, throwing her off. Mr. Sample could 
 still have made his escape had he been selfish enough to leave bis 
 beloved Lucy to her fate. But all the chivalry all the manhood 
 within him forbids this. While assisting his wife to remount, 
 the devils incarnate come up and surround them, with terrific, ex- 
 ultant yells. Sample, very inconsiderately, drew a pistol and 
 shot one of the gang dead. The victims are quickly bound to
 
 Northern Illinois Fifty Years Ago. 3* 
 
 their horses and taken back to the camp of the Indians, about a 
 mile southeast of Epperson's. 
 
 A council was then held, and the fate of the hapless prison- 
 ers was soon fixed. In revenge for the killing of their comrade 
 they determined that they should be burned at the stake. Sample 
 knew Girty, the leader of the band, and offered him everything 
 he possessed as a ransom for himself and wife. But nothing but 
 revenge in the crudest form could satisfy his savage nature. 
 
 We do not care to dwell upon the details of this tragedy of 
 fifty years ago. They are minutely related in Matson's Life of 
 Shabbonee. Suffice it to say that they were bound to a tree, and 
 after suffering every indignity and every torture which savage in- 
 genuity could devise, they were burned while their triumphant 
 foes danced naked around the scene. 
 
 Early settlers afterwards noticed a burr oak standing a little 
 out from the grove whose trunk was charred by fire, and around 
 it they found human bones bleaching in the air, and in a ravine 
 near by a skull. But not until many years after was it known that 
 these were the remains in part of the youthful pair who perished 
 among the first victims of the Black Hawk war. Within sight 
 of this spot, where this tragedy was enacted, now lies in quiet, 
 peaceful beauty, the city of Princeton, with its schools and 
 churches, and its 3,500 inhabitants, the shire town of a county 
 containing 33,000 souls. 
 
 INDIAN CREEK MASSACRE. 
 
 But the cruel murder of James Sample and lovely bride 
 served only to whet the appetite of the savage band for blood. 
 On Indian creek, in what is now the town of Freedom, LaSalle 
 county, about thirty miles due west of Joliet, was a settlement of 
 several families. William Davis had made a claim and built a 
 cabin on the bank of the creek. He had also built a blacksmith
 
 32 Northern Illinois Fifty Hears Ago. 
 
 shop near by, being a blacksmith by trade. He had commenced 
 also to build a mill, the dam for which was nearly completed. 
 About six miles above was the village of a Pottawattamie chief 
 of twenty lodges. This chief, Meau-eus by name, was not par- 
 ticularly friendly to the whites, and took special umbrage at the 
 building of this dam, as it interfered with the ascent of the fish 
 to his village. 
 
 In the vicinity of Davis' cabin had settled two men of the 
 name of Henderson, Allen Howard, William Pettigrew and Wm. 
 Hall, ail of whom had families. The settlement numbered about 
 twenty-five souls. They had been twice warned of their danger 
 by Shabbonee himself. Some had left for Ottawa with their fam- 
 ilies and afterwards returned. Davis was a resolute man, and de- 
 termined for himself, and persuaded his neighbors, to stand their 
 ground. They had frequently been frightened away by false 
 alarms, and believed themselves strong enough to meet any foes 
 that were likely to visit them. 
 
 On the afternoon of May 20, according to the narrative of 
 Mrs. Rachel Munson (then Rachel Hall), as given in the History 
 of LaSalle County, the situation of the settlement was as follows : 
 H. R. Hall, the eldest son of William Hall, Mr. Davis and Mr. 
 Robert Norris were at work in the blacksmith shop near Mr. 
 Hall's house. Two other sons of Hall, Mr. Howard and son, 
 two sons of Mr. Davis, and John R. Henderson were breaking 
 prairie half a mile from the house. Henry, George and William 
 Davis, Jr., were at work on the mill dam near by; while Mr. 
 Pettigrew and wife and three children, Mrs. Hall and three 
 daughters. Sylvia, aged 17; Rachel, aged 15, and Elizabeth, aged 
 8, and Mr. Davis, were in the house. Suddenly a band of In- 
 dians in their horrid war paint entered the dooryard and rushed 
 for the door. Mr. Pettigrew, with child in his arms, endeavored
 
 Northern Illinois Fifty Years Ago. 33 
 
 to shut the door but was shot down. Mrs, Pettigrew, with her 
 arms around Rachel Hall, was the next victim, the flash of the 
 gun burning the latter's cheek. An Indian seized a child of 
 Pettigrew's and beat out its. brains against a stump. A little son 
 of Davis was held by two Indians while a third shot him. The 
 deaths of Mr. Hall, Mr. Norris and of Mr. George, and of Mr. 
 Davis and wife quickly followed. Davis was a strong, powerful 
 man, and defended himself some time, and clubbing his rifle 
 used it vigorously for a while over the heads of his assailants, but 
 was at last overpowered and killed. And so the savage butchery 
 went on until fifteen in all were killed. Some succeeded in mak- 
 ing their escape, but only two were spared from the slaughter. 
 These were the two girls, Sylvia and Richel Hall. 
 
 WHY THEY WERE SPARED, AND THEIR SUBSEQUENT HISTORY. 
 
 The massacre on Indian creek was the most noted one of the 
 war. Accounts of it are to be found in all our State, and many 
 county histories. The most detailed account both of the massa- 
 cre, and of the subsequent treatment of the two girls during their 
 brief captivity, is given in Matson's " Life of Shabbonee," as it 
 was obtained from one of the girls. The massacre was attended 
 by the usual horrors of Indian warfare. The poor captive girls 
 were compelled net only to see their parents butchered and scalped 
 before their eyes, but to be constantly reminded of the harrowing 
 sight by seeing the Indians, after having dressed their scalps, se- 
 cundum artem, wear them upon their necks, when not suspended 
 upon poles during the dance of triumph which followed the mas- 
 sacre, and was several times repeated. A council was held by the 
 savages after getting to their camp, to decide upon their fate, 
 Girty was in favor of killing them, but was overruled by others, 
 and their lives were spared, although another prisoner, a boy of 
 seven years, the son 'of Davis, was killed after going about half
 
 34 Northern Illinois Fifty Years Ago. 
 
 a mile, because he could not keep up, and his scalp was added to 
 the horrid collection. 
 
 The reason usually given for the escape of the two girls, has 
 been the hope of obtaining a large sum for their ransom. We 
 shall presently give another reason which throws the only light of 
 romance upon the dark tragedy. 
 
 The girls were mounted upon ponies, and placed each be- 
 tween two mounted Indians, and were taken with all speed north- 
 ward, the Indians fearing pursuit from the mounted rangers. We 
 shall not detail the circumstances attending the journey. They 
 traveled rapidly a good share of the night, and the ensuing day, 
 and about nine o'clock of the second night they reached the camp 
 of Black Hawk, which was near the site of the. present city of 
 Madison, Wisconsin. From thence after some days they were 
 taken to the camp of the Wmnebago Indians on the Wisconsin, 
 and from thence again to the fort at Blue Mounds, where they 
 were delivered up to the commandant. Here, at the fort, they 
 were made happy by meeting their two uncles. They were de- 
 livered up on the 3d of June, thirteen days after the massacre. 
 Their ransom was effected by the efforts of their brother, J. W. 
 Hall, who had escaped at the time of the massacre by jumping 
 into the creek and hiding under the bank. Many shots were fired 
 at him, and the Indians, supposing he was killed, did not look for 
 him, and thus he got away and went to Ottawa, where he joined 
 a regiment of volunteers about to march northward in pursuit of 
 Black *Hawk. He reported the case of his sisters to Colonel 
 Gratiot, the agent of the Winnebagos, who employed two Win- 
 nebago chiefs to effect the ransom. It required the payment of 
 $2,000 cash, forty horses, and a quantity of blankets, beads, etc., 
 to rescue the girls. 
 
 It is, as we have said, for the hope of such ransom, that the 
 sparing of these girls from the general butchery at Indian creek 
 is generally attributed. But there is another fact which seems to
 
 Northern Illinois Fifty Years Ago. 35 
 
 have had a great, if not the chief weight, in inducing the band 
 to spare them against the wishes of Girty, the leader. For this 
 fact we are again indebted to Mr. Matson. 
 
 Belonging to the village of Meau-eaus, of which we have 
 spoken, located about six miles above the white settlement, were 
 two young braves named To-que-me and Co-mee. These young 
 men were well acquainted with the settlers on the creek. One of 
 them is said to have been a convert and baptized by the good 
 missionary. They were frequent visitors at the Hall cabin, and 
 each had taken a strong fancy to one of the Hall girls, both of 
 whom were very pretty and attractive. They had made propo- 
 sals to the girls' father to buy them, which is the Indian style of 
 getting a wife. Now, as the story goes, these young braves had 
 made it a condition, when they joined Girty's band, that the two 
 girls should be spared. They, in common with the rest of Meau- 
 eaus' village, were enraged at the building of the dam by Davis. 
 Three years after they confessed to Louis Ovilmette, a half-breed, 
 that they were in the massacre, and that it was through their in- 
 fluence that the girls were spared. And here we will give an 
 episode to this affair which illustrates the strange and contradic- 
 tory ingredients which are sometimes found in the Indian char- 
 acter. 
 
 These two young men, To-qua-me and Co-mee, were recog- 
 nized by the Hall girls at the time of the massacre, and were aft- 
 erwards indicted by the Circuit Court at Ottawa for their com- 
 plicity in the outrage. To-qua-me was a tall, handsome youth, 
 but his face was marked by a deep scar on his cheek, which ren- 
 dered his identification easy. 
 
 For some reason the case was not brought on at that term of 
 
 
 
 court, and they were allowed to go on bail given by six Potta- 
 wattamie chiefs. Before another term of court the tribe had all 
 moved to the Indian country west of the Mississippi, the two in-
 
 36 Northern Illinois Fifty lears Ago. 
 
 dieted men going with them. George E. Walker, a nephew of 
 the missionary, was at this time the Sheriff of LaSalle county, 
 and was to some extent responsible for their forthcoming when 
 wanted for trial. He was an Indian trader, well acquainted with 
 the Pottawattamie language, and with Indian customs and char- 
 acter. A little before the term of court when their trial should 
 come on, he went alone to the Indian country, found the refugees, 
 and told his errand. A council of the chiefs was called, at which 
 it was decided that the two young men must return with Walker, 
 and stand their trial. In obedience to this decision the young 
 men, although they expected to be convicted and executed, did 
 not hesitate to obey, but bidding their friends farewell, set out 
 with Walker, who traveled through the wilderness alone with his 
 prisoners, camping with them nights, and depending in great 
 measure upon the game procured by them, for subsistence on the 
 way. They could easily have made their escape at any time, or 
 could have murdered their captor. 
 
 They were put upon their trial, and were acquitted by the 
 jury. It is probable that their course in thus voluntarily return- 
 ing to stand their trial had made a favorable impression upon the 
 jury. Besides this, they were not identified by the Hall girls very 
 fully. To-qua-me had taken the precaution to avail himself of 
 his Indian right to paint, and had done it so skillfully that the 
 scar upon his cheek did not show, and consequently the girls could 
 not swear positively to his identity, and it may be that the girls 
 were not altogether untouched with pity for their old admirers. 
 This is a surmise which we make for the benefit of the coming 
 man, or woman, who shall weave a thrilling romance from the in- 
 cidents of our early history. 
 
 There may be some who would like to know the subsequent 
 history of the two girls. 
 
 The Legislature, at their next session, voted each one a do- 
 nation of land from the canal tract, and it is related in the history
 
 Northern Illinois Fifty Years Ago. 37 
 
 of LaSalle County that Congress voted a donation of money. 
 Rachel Hall was married in March, 1833, to William Munson, 
 Esq., of LaSalle county, and they became comfortably wealthy 
 She died in 1870. Before she died she placed a monument over 
 the graves of the victims of the massacre. She lived near the 
 scene of the tragedy. Sylvia Hall was married in May of the 
 same year to Rev. William S. Home, who, so far as we know, is 
 still living at Lincoln, Nebraska. In 1833 she and her husband 
 sold to James McKee, Esq., then of Jacksonville, the " float " to 
 an eighty of canal land, which he located on the w | of s e of 
 s 9; which piece of land had the good fortune to lie on the west 
 bank of the then humble and obscure, but now famous, historic, 
 classic and fragrant Des Planes river, and which became West 
 Joliet. 
 
 There were several other murders of settlers in this vicinity 
 and on the Bureau, but we will not stop to particularize them. 
 
 WHISKY AND TOBACCO. 
 
 We return to our narrative of events. When the alarm 
 was given to the settlers on Fox River, by Pyps, the nephew of 
 Shabbonee, they at once fled in the direction of Walker's Grove 
 (Plainfield.) Among the fugitives was one Clark Hollenbeck, 
 who kept a store on Fox river, not far from what is now York- 
 ville, Kendall county. The two principal articles of his stock in 
 trade were whisky and tobacco. Of course he had to leave every- 
 thing behind. And here occurred a notable instance of the good 
 which these commodities, against which fanatics declaim so much, 
 can do. If it had not been for this whisky and tobacco of Hollen- 
 beck's, it is beyond doubt the settlement at Walker's Grove would 
 have shared the fate of the one on Indian creek. For when 
 Girty's band entered the store and found the whisky and tobacco, 
 they could not resist the temptation to stop and have a big drunk
 
 38 Northern Illinois Fifty Hears Ago. 
 
 and a big smoke. So, instead of pursuing the fleeing settlers, 
 they turned out their ponies to grass and spent the night in a 
 drunken pow-wow. This gave the fugitives time to reach the 
 DuPage and warn the settlers in the vicinity of Walker's Mills. 
 Yes, it was Clark Hollenbeck's whisky that saved the pioneers 
 at Walker's Grove from massacre; and yet, such is the ingratitude 
 of men! the good people of Plainfield are bitterly opposed to 
 whieky, and Father Beggs, who would no doubt have had his 
 scalp lifted but for it, loses no opportunity to denounce it! 
 
 And here we have to relate another incident of the flight 
 which illustrates the strange and contradictory elements of the In- 
 dian character : Among the settlers on the Fox river was a Mr. 
 Harris, who, with his sons, was absent hunting their horses at the 
 time the warning came, and the rest of the family left on foot 
 with the Aments and Clarks from the same vicinity. But the 
 father of Mrs. Harris, Mr. Combs, was an old man, and at this 
 time he was entirely disabled by an attack of inflammatory rheu- 
 matism. It was a terrible quandary for Mrs. Harris and her 
 neighbors. But Mr. Combs solved it by saying, " Flee, and 
 leave me to my fate; I am an old man and have but a little while 
 to live at best." There was no other way to do but leave him, or 
 stay and perish with him. Soon after Mrs. Harris and children 
 had gone, the cabin was entered by a party of Indians, showing 
 that they went none too soon, although they left their supper 
 upon the table, untouched. The Indians, however, did full jus- 
 tice to Mrs. Harris' cuisine. Mr. Combs, who, of course expected 
 to be killed at once, was surprised to find himself treated with 
 kindness. The Indians administered to his wants during the 
 three or four days they remained in the neighborhood ; so that 
 when the place was visited a few days after by a company of 
 rangers he had improved in health, and was able to be taken to 
 Walker's Grove. 
 
 It is probable that the Indians regarded a man prostrated by 
 disease with a kind of superstitious reverence; or, they might
 
 Northern Illinois Fifty Hears Ago. 39 
 
 have thought that a man suffering under inflammatory rheuma- 
 tism was already tortured beyond their power to add, any thing to 
 his torment. 
 
 The appearance of the fugitives, some on foot, some on horse- 
 back, and some in wagons, some bareheaded and barefooted, and 
 crying out ' r Indians! Indians!" was the first notice that the set- 
 tlers at Walker's Grove and vicinity had got of their danger. 
 The consternation produced can better be imagined than described. 
 The leading men in the settlement hastily consulted together as to 
 the best course to be adopted. Some were for flight in one direction 
 or another. It was concluded that the best course, at least for the 
 present, was to get together and make a defense. The cabin of 
 Father Beggs, on section 16, was thought the best one for the 
 purpose, and accordingly, they gathered there and hastily put it 
 into the best condition to resist attack. By common consent 
 James Walker, a man of great energy and good judgment, was 
 made generalissimo. Barricades were erected by tearing down 
 fences and out-buildings, and they soon had a stronghold which 
 became known as " Fort Beggs." Everything that could be of 
 service as a means of defense, such as axes, pitch-fork?, etc., were 
 collected and brought to the fort. The women made themselves 
 useful in melting up their stock of pewter ware more valuable 
 then than silverware now and running musket balls. Only 
 four guns, however, could be mustered that could be relied upon. 
 Here they remained in anxious suspense for several days expect" 
 ing every moment t hear the yells of savage foes coming to 
 attack them. 
 
 The following families and person were living in this vicinity 
 at this time : * 
 
 Jesse Walker, the pioneer missionary, and family ; James 
 
 *We are mainly indebted to Father Beggs, who still lives, for this list,.
 
 40 ft oi them Illinois Fifty lears Ago. 
 
 Walker and family ; Reuben Flagg and family ; Timothy B. 
 Clark and family ; Rev. Stephen R. Beggs and family ; John 
 Cooper and family ; Chester Smith and family ; Wm. Bradford 
 and family ; Peter Watkins and family ; Samuel Shively and 
 family ; Thos. R. Covel and family ; James Matthews and family ; 
 Mr. Elisha Fish and family ; Rev. Wm. See and family ; Ches- 
 ter Ingersol and family ; James Gilson and family ; Robert W. 
 Chapman, James Turner, Orrin Turner, John Shutleff and 
 Jedediah Wooley, Sr. 
 
 These, with the fugitives from Fox river, made the number, 
 old and young, gathered in Fort Beggs, one hundred and twenty- 
 five. As may be readily imagined the cabin was uncomfortably 
 full. 
 
 While here, expecting every hour to be attacked, their fears 
 were greatly increased by the visit of a man named Lawton, with 
 some friendly Indians, who reported the country full of hostiles 
 and advised the people in the fort to leave at once for Chicago, 
 He made but a brief stop, he aud his company hurrying on to 
 that place. 
 
 The people of Chicago, hearing of the exposed position of 
 the settlers on the Du Page and the Fox rivers, had hastily organ- 
 ized a company of volunteers to go to their relief. It consisted 
 according to most accounts of twenty-five or thirty mounted 
 men. Some accounts say it was under command of Captain 
 Naper, of the Naperville settlement, while others say it was com- 
 manded by Captain Sisson, from the Yankee settlement, and in 
 other accounts it is spoken of as Captain Brown's company. It 
 is probable that all these persons were along, and being active 
 men in getting it up, were all captains. We know no other way 
 to reconcile the different statements. The writer knows from 
 personal conversation with Mr. Sisson, that he was with the com- 
 pany. At the same time Lawton, above named, a man who had 
 settled on the Des Planes, near the present village of Riverside,
 
 Northern Illinois Fifty Years Ago. 41 
 
 and who was well acquainted with the Indians, and had a squaw 
 for a wife, with about the same number of friendly Indians 
 accompanied the mounted rangers. They stayed the night of the 
 21st at Lawton's place, and on the next morning Lawton and his 
 company started for the Big Woods settlement, near the present 
 town of Aurora, where there was at the time an encampment of 
 Pottawatamies. The rangers struck for Holderman's. They 
 agreed to meet at the cabin of George Hollenbeck, The company 
 arrived at Plainfield and stayed over night and then proceeded 
 on to Holderman's grove. They met Cunningham and Hollen- 
 beck on the way who intormed them of the destruction of their 
 property, telling them it was useless to go farther. Notwith- 
 standing this, they went on to Holderman's, and stopped over 
 night, from whence they sent an express to Ottawa to notify the 
 settlers of the safety of their property. This express returned 
 early next morning with the news of the massacre on Indian 
 creek. They then went to Ottawa and from thence to the scene 
 of the bloody tragedy, where they collected and buried the 
 remains. The scene presented was horrid beyond description. 
 While the company was engaged in this painful duty, Lawton, 
 after going to the Big Woods, had gone to the cabin of Hollen- 
 beck, where, instead of meeting the rangers, he found himself in 
 the company of a hundred hostile Indians, who took him prisoner 
 and threatened to kill him, but his relations with and knowledge 
 of Indian character served him a good purpose. He had old 
 friends in the crowd who effected his liberation, when he and 
 his companions hastened with all speed for Fort Beggs, reaching 
 it with the news as before stated. He supposed that the company 
 of rangers had been all butchered. 
 
 The visit of Lawton greatly increased the excitement and 
 consternation at the Fort, Father Beggs says : " The stoutest 
 
 DO J 
 
 hearts failed them, and strong men turned pale, while women
 
 42 Northern Illinois Fifty Hears Ago. 
 
 and children wept and fainted," The first impulse of most was 
 to seek safety in flight. But this might be jumping out of the 
 frying pan into the fire. Mrs. Flagg, a woman of great judg- 
 ment and resolution, strongly supported those who thought it 
 best to "hold the Fort." To this decision, most fortunately, 
 they came. It was afterwards ascertained that there were Indians 
 lying in wait for them. They made what preparations they 
 could to meet the attack of the redskins. They built bon-fires 
 and kept them burning around -the Fort all night, so that the 
 approach of the enemy could be seen. On the second day after 
 Lawton's visit the rangers put in their appearance on their return, 
 bringiag the news of the Indian creek massacre and other out- 
 rages. It was then unanimously concluded to go under the 
 protection of the rangers to Chicago. It is a tradition that a 
 party of Indians were lying in wait for them at Flagg creek, bu^ 
 seeing they were so well protected did not venture to attack. 
 
 FATE OF PAYNE ANOTHER VICTIM. 
 
 Of the incidents and experiences of the refugees at Chicago 
 we will speak bye and bye. There was one man who had taken 
 refuge in the Fort for a night from Chicago, who, when the 
 settlers left, as related, also left Fort Beggs, but in another 
 direction. This man was Rev. Adam Payne, a preacher some- 
 thing after the independent style of Lorenzo Dow, and who is 
 said to have been a man of great piety, earnestness and eloquence. 
 He was on his way from Chicago to some place in Putnam 
 county where his family resided. He. was strongly urged to 
 treturn to Chicago with the rest. But this he declined to do. 
 He had been with the Indians a good deal, and preached to them 
 often, and numbered some of them among his converts. It is 
 said that Simon Girty had sometimes acted as his interpreter. 
 He was a man of commanding and reverend appearance, tall and 
 finely formed, wearing his hair and beard very long. He was
 
 Northern Illinois Fifty Years Ago. 43 
 
 well mounted, and being armed with a spy-glass by which he 
 could discover an Indian at a great distance, he thought he might 
 safely proceed to his destination. So when the citizens and 
 rangers left Fort Beggs for Chicago, he started for Ottawa. 
 
 That his confidence was unwarranted was afterwards 
 apparent. His body, mutilated of the head, was found a day or 
 two after by a company of mounted rangers, among whom were 
 Gurdon S. Hubbard and George Walker, about five miles north- 
 west of Marseilles, and by them it was buried. It was identified 
 by his bible, spy glass and pocketbook, with a sum of money. 
 These articles having for some reason escaped the notice of his 
 murderers, they were sent to his family. It is a tradition that 
 the Indians had taken his head as a trophy and performed their 
 war dances about it, and that Girty, who was not with the party 
 that murdered him, when he recognized the face of Payne, was 
 very much grieved over the affair, and had it buried. 
 
 ON THE DUPAGE. 
 
 While these events were transpiring at Walker's Grove and 
 elsewhere, as we have related, a similar state of things was trans- 
 piring in the settlements on the DuPage. There were two settle- 
 ments, one on the east and one on the west branch. That on the 
 east, including the junction, is now embraced in Will county, and 
 the other about Naperville in DuPage county. Of course at the 
 time both were included in Cook county. On the east DuPage 
 were the families of Pierce Hawley and wife, Stephen J. Scott 
 and wife, Willard Scott and wife, Walter Stowell and wife, Israel 
 P. Blodgett* and wife, Rev. Isaac Scarrett and wife, Harry 
 Board man and wife, Robert Strong and wife, Seth Wescott and 
 wife, Lester Peet, and a hired man at Hawley's and another at 
 Boardman's. 
 
 *Fatber ol Judge Blodgett, of Chicago.
 
 44 M oi them Illinois Fifty Hears Ago. 
 
 Up the west branch was the Naper settlement, probably 
 embracing about the same number of settlers. Among these 
 were the families of Baily Hobson, Uriah Payne, Capt. Joseph 
 Naper, John Naper, H. T. Wilson. Lyman Butterfield, Ira 
 Carpenter, John Murray, R. M. Sweet, Alanson Sweet, C. Foster, 
 J. Manning, H. Babbit and others. 
 
 The startling news, that Black Hawk was on the war path, 
 and they were in danger from hostile bands, was brought to their 
 settlement by Shata, an express from the Potttawatamie village at 
 Big Woods. There was of course the same excitement and alarm 
 that obtained at Walker's Grove. Chicago presented the nearest 
 haven of refuge, and thither the settlers went as soon as possible, 
 with such means of conveyance as they could command, arriving 
 at Chicago the 20th of May. The families remained in Chicago, 
 mostly at the Fort, for some weeks, with the refugees from other 
 settlements. Several excursions, however, were made by the men 
 to their homes to look after matters, and ascertain the state of the 
 few crops that had been planted. Among others, the company 
 of which we have spoken, who went to Plainfield by the way of 
 Naperville. 
 
 FORT PAYNE ANOTHER VICTIM. 
 
 A short time after, also, Capt. Jo Naper, Capt. Harry Board- 
 man, and about a dozen others, after going from Chicago to the 
 settlement, kept on to Ottawa to get assistance from Gen. Atkin- 
 son to build a fort. They succeeded in getting an order from 
 Gen. Atkinson for a company of men stationed at Joliet, as we 
 shall hereafter relate, to go to Naperville. They built a fort near 
 the present residence of Lewis Ellsworth, which they called Fort 
 Payne, in honor of the Captain. It was a stockade with two 
 'block houses. While the Fort was building an incident occurred 
 which showed its necessity. Two men, named Brown and
 
 Northern Illinois Fifty Years Ago. 45 
 
 Buckley went to Sweet's Grove to obtain a load of shingles. 
 While on the way, and near the Grove, Buckley got out of th e 
 wagon to open the fence; Brown drove through and on, while 
 Buckley followed leisurely behind. Suddenly Buckley heard the 
 sharp report of a rifle and saw his comrade fall dead from the 
 wagon. Greatly alarmed he turned back and fled toward the settle- 
 ment, reaching the Fort with hardly strength enough to tell the 
 story. About twenty men started out to the scene of the disaster. 
 They found that the horses had been carried off, and the body of 
 Brown was pierced with three balls. It was taken to the Fort 
 and buried. Many of the men had returned to the settlement 
 and occupied the Fort, and made occasionally excursions into the 
 surrounding country. Of course Capt. Joseph Naper was the 
 leader in all such scouts. Willard Scott, who is now a resident of 
 Naperville, was also one of the most reliable men in the emergen- 
 cies of the time, having a thorough knowledge of Indian charac- 
 ter, great influence with them, and a thorough frontiersman. 
 Serious as was the condition of affairs it did not prevent the men 
 from indulging in some practical jokes. Such men as Jo Naper, 
 Harry Boardman, Robt. Strong and Willard Scott, could not be 
 repressed for a great while at a time. Among other stories of the 
 period we copy the following from the history of DuPage county. 
 
 " About this time Messrs. Hobson, Goodwin, Boardman and 
 Strong, were returning from Chicago with two ox teams. Hobson 
 and Goodwin were riding in one wagon, and Boardman and 
 Strong in the other. It was a warm summer's day, and Strong 
 laid down in the wagon and fell asleep. Discovering that his 
 companion was taking a nap, and ever on the qui vive for a little 
 fun, Boardman called to Hobson to come and fire his gun near 
 Strong's head and see what the effect would be. Hobson did as 
 directed, when Strong suddenly awakened by the report, and 
 supposing himself beset with Indians, made a desperate attempt 
 to go down through the bottom of the wagon box. The joke
 
 46 Northern Illinois Fifty Years Ago. 
 
 was now on Strong, and after the laugh had subsided they drove 
 on. Bye and bye, Strong concluded to try Hobson's courage 
 A plan was secretly devised between him and Goodwin, by 
 which Strong was to secrete himself in a thicket some distance 
 ahead, and when Hobson came along, get up some demonstrations 
 that would lead him to think there were Indians there. Aa 
 Hobson's team approached the place the war-whoop was sounded 
 and one or two shots were fired. Goodwin manifested extreme 
 terror, and seizing both guns ran off, leaving Hobson alone with 
 nothing to defend himself with but an ox gad. But he was not 
 much intimidated, and, without altering his course, rode past the 
 thicket, standing erect in his wagon, with a fixed and searching 
 look upon the place from which the manifestations proceeded. 
 Strong abandoned the idea of attempting again to frighten Hob- 
 son, and Goodwin was coolly informed that if he ever meddled 
 again with Hobson's rifle he would be in danger of getting the 
 contents through his own head." 
 
 Mr. Strong and his wife still survive the dangers of that day 
 and of the intervening fifty years as well, and if this story is not 
 correctly reported he can give his version on the 2nd of August 
 next, when we hope to see him and all other survivors of the 
 Sank scare at the pioneers' picnic at the Joliet Fair Grounds. 
 
 During the period we are reviewing a company of mounted 
 rangers was organized at the settlement of which we will give 
 the muster roll bye and bye, with others organized at Plainfield 
 and Yankee Settlement. 
 
 YANKEE AND HICKORY SETTLEMENTS. 
 
 The alarm was carried to the ' ' Yankee " and " Hickory 
 Creek " Settlements by Hiram Pearson, of Chicago, and Daniel 
 Mack, of Hadley, who had started for Danville and encountered 
 fugitives from the west, somewhere near the DesPlanes river.
 
 Northern Illinois Fifty lears Ago. 47 
 
 They returned at once and gave the alarm. Most of those in 
 Yankee Settlement fled to Chicago, while those on the Hickory 
 and in the groves along the DesPlanes and on Jackson creek 
 sought safety at Danville and on the Wabash. 
 
 There were residing then in Yankee Settlement, including in 
 that name Homer and Lockport, and part of New Lenox, the 
 following men, most of whom had families : 
 
 Benjamin Butterfield, Thomas Fitzsimmons, James Glover, 
 John McMahon, Joseph Johnson and two sons, James Ritchey,* 
 Edward Poor, Joseph and James Cox, John Helm, Salmon 
 Goodenow, Joseph McCune, Selah Lanfear, Peter Polly, David 
 and Alva Crandall, Uriah Wenthworth, John Blackstone, John 
 Ray, Mr. Ashing, Mr. McGahan, Armstead Ruuyon, Holder 
 Sisson, Calvin Rowley and Oren Stevens. 
 
 On the Hickory, from the DesPlanes to Skunk's Grove, 
 were the following, most of whom had families : 
 
 Reason Zarley, Philip and Seth Scott, Robert G. Cook and 
 father, Wm. Billsland, Daniel Robb, Jesse Cook, Robert Stevens, 
 David Maggard, John Grover, Isaac and Samuel Pence, Thomas 
 and Abram Francis, Aaron Ware, Wm. Gougar and sons. Joseph 
 Norman and son, Judge Davidson, Lewis Kercheval and son 
 Aaron Friend, Ruf'us Rice, James Savers, Michael Run von. Wm. 
 Rice, John McGovney, Wm. Osborn, C. C. Van Horn and 
 Abram Van Horn and Henry Watkins. 
 
 In Jackson and Reed's Groves were Charles Reed, Joseph 
 and Levi Shoemaker, George and John Kilpatrick, James 
 Hemphill, Wesley Jenkins, Charles Coons, Jefferson Ragsdale, 
 Henry and George Linebarger and sons, Charles Longmire and 
 Daniel Height, most of them having families. 
 
 Most of the settlers on the Hickory and in the groves we 
 
 *Still living.
 
 48 Northern Illinois Fifty fears Ago. 
 
 have named sought safety "in flight toward Danville and on the 
 Wabash. The same terror and excitement prevailed, and they 
 left in haste, taking but little with them, save the clothes they 
 had on. Some ludicrous scenes used to be related by some of the 
 participants in|the stampede. The narrators perhaps " drew a 
 long bow," and we will not repeat the stories. 
 
 On their wayftoward Danville they met the detachment of 
 four companies of rangers, and some of them turned back under 
 their protection. 
 
 When the report of Indian hostilities and outrages on the 
 Fox, DuPage and DesPlanes rivers reached Danville, Hon. 
 Gnrdon S. Hubbard, then residing there, pursuaded Col. Moore, 
 who commanded the Vermillion county militia, to call out his 
 regiment for the scene of war without waiting for orders from the 
 Governor. At his own expense Mr. Hubbard bought provisions 
 and ammunition, and also furnished transportation wagons. 
 The news was received on Sunday. By Tuesday the detachment 
 marched with rations for ten days, arrangements being made for 
 more to follow. They reached the DesPlanes river at the point 
 now known as Joliet. They commenced at once to build on the 
 highest point of the bluff overlooking the river on the west side, 
 on ground aow occupied by the residences of Frank Marsh and 
 Charles C. Russell, a stockade with a block house. Mr. Hubbard 
 reported to Gen. W. Atkinson at his headquarters below Ottawa,: 
 by whom he was directed to leave one company to complete and 
 garrison the fort, and to report with the rest of the regiment at 
 his headquarters, which was done immediately. 
 
 Among those who turned back from their flight were Jesse 
 Cook and Reason Zarley and his family. They assisted in the 
 building of the stockade, and Zarley and his family remained in 
 it some three weeks, until the company left. 
 
 Joseph Naper, of the Naper Settlement, had applied to Gen. 
 Atkinson for assistance to protect his settlement, and had sue-
 
 Northern Illinois Fifty Hears Ago. 49 
 
 ceeded in getting an order for its tramsfer to that point. For this 
 act Mr, Zarley never forgave Capt. Jo Naper. Our " Cal " was 
 then a lad of about nine years of age, and remembers very 
 distinctly the residence at Fort Nonsense, (as it was called) and 
 also of seeing a company of friendly Pottawatamies, who had 
 encamped under the bluff about the old McKee spring. So that 
 fifty years ago, the spot from whence we are writing these glean- 
 ings, was an Indian camp. 
 
 The Vermillion regiment was soon disbanded, and Col. 
 Hubbard joined a spy company, composed of officers and Indian 
 fighters, for sixty days. Mr. Zarley and family, after stopping a 
 while at the Sisson Fort, again took up their retreat for Danville, 
 where they remained until the trouble was over, and while there 
 James C. was added to the family. 
 
 Robert Stevens and David Maggard also returned and made 
 a private stronghold in a rocky ravine which then existed in the 
 bluff opposite the present paper mill, and which was con- 
 cealed from sight by a thick growth of red cedar and other shrubs 
 and vines. 
 
 AT CHICAGO. 
 
 Having conducted the fleeing settlers from various localities 
 to Chicago, it is time that we should turn our attention to that 
 point and see what kind of a " Zoar" it proved to be. Like the 
 oity where Lot found refuge, it was then chiefly noted for its 
 smallness. Besides the Fort and its barracks, and the light 
 house, there were but five or six buildings, mostly log huts, on all 
 that ground now covered by immense business blocks and palace 
 hotels. Of course such a place could but very poorly accommo- 
 date the families that fled thither. Fort Dearborn had been 
 evacuated by an order of Gen. Macomb, issued in 1831, and, 
 although in February, 1832, he had issued an order that Major 
 Whistler, of the 2nd Infantry at Niagara, on being relieved at
 
 50 Northern Illinois Fifty Years Ago. 
 
 that place, should repair with the troops under his command to- 
 Fort Dearborn at Chicago, yet he did not arrive until the 17th of 
 June. Consequently the Fort and barracks were unoccupied by 
 a garrison at the breaking out of the war. The fugitives there- 
 fore mostly found a refuge in the quarters at the Fort, but it was 
 so crowded as to be very uncomfortable. Father Beggs saysi 
 " Two or three families of our number were put into a room 
 fifteen feet square, with as many more families, and here we stayed 
 crowding and jamming each other for several days," 
 
 But this was not the only trouble. In their hasty flight 
 most of the settlers had hardly thought of the matter of supplies, 
 and little or nothing was to be found in Chicago, so that it 
 seemed as though the choice was between being scalped or starved. 
 Archibald Clyburne bad been contractor to supply the garrison- 
 with beef and also for the Pottawatamie Indians, and from him 
 some relief was obtained. 
 
 Father Beggs relates, in his book, two startling incidents, 
 which added greatly to the misery of the situation. The first 
 was a severe thunder storm, during which one end of the room, 
 in which he and others were quartered, was struck by lightning, 
 the fluid passing down through a room below, in which was a keg 
 of powder within a few inches of the track. The other incident 
 or incidents we give in the Elder's own words : " The next 
 morning our first babe was born, and dnring our stay fifteen 
 tender infants were added to our number. One may imagine the 
 confusion of the scene children were crying and women were 
 complaining within doors, while without the tramp of soldiers, the 
 rolling of drums, and the roar of cannon added to the din." 
 No words of ours could add anything to this graphic statement. 
 
 The soldiers at this time must have been the volunteer 
 organizations that had been formed for defense before the arrival 
 of the regulars.
 
 Northern Illinois Fifty Years Ago. 51 
 
 There is still extant a muster roll of the organization of the 
 citizens formed early in May on the first alarm. We copy it 
 entire from one of the Fergus pamphlets : 
 
 " May 2, 1832. We, the undersigned, agree to submit our- 
 selves, for the time being, to Gholson Kercheval Captain, George 
 W. Dole and John S. C. Hogan, First and Second Lieutenants, 
 as commanders of the militia of the town of Chicago, until all 
 apprehension of danger from the Indians may have subsided :" 
 
 Rich I. Hamilton, Jeddiah Woolley, Jesse B. Brown, 
 Oeorge H. Walker, Isaac Harmon, A. W. Taylor, Samuel Miller, 
 James Kinzie, John F. Herndon, David Pemeton, Benj. Harris, 
 James Gindsay, 8. T. Gage, Samuel Debaif, Rufus Brown, John 
 Wellmaker, Jeremiah Smith, Wm. H. Adams, Herman S. Bond, 
 James T. Osborne, Willian Smith, E. D. Harmon, Isaac D. 
 Harmon, Charles Moselle, Joseph Lafromboise, Francis Lebarque, 
 J. W. Zarley, Michael Ooilraette, Henry Boucha, Christopher She- 
 daker, Claude Lafromboise, David McKee, David Wade, Ezra 
 Bond, William Bond, Robert Thompson, Samuel Ellis. 
 
 This must have comprised nearly all the abled-bodied citizens 
 of Chicago at the time, and of this number some were from 
 outside. Jeddiah Woolley and J. W. Zarley were from our terri- 
 tory; the last named being the oldest son of Reason Zarley, and 
 George H. Walker belonged in Ottawa. 
 
 When we remember that only twenty years before Chicago 
 had been the scene of a most brutal massacre, in which the 
 Pottawatamie Indians had joined, we cannot wonder that the few 
 settlers there, in the spring of 1832, were filled with alarm, and 
 that they looked anxiously for the arrival of Major Whistler and 
 his command. On June 17th they arrived, but their arrival, 
 much as it had been desired, was not without its disadvantages. 
 He demanded possession of the government barracks for the use 
 of his own family and officers. Father Beggs says : a The
 
 52 Northern Illinois Fifty lears Ago- 
 
 Major and bis family came into our room and we were turned 
 into the pitiless rain storm that afternoon. We found shelter in- 
 an open house, where, from the dampness and exposure, Mrs. 
 Beyers and the child took a severe cold. Col. Hamilton then 
 
 DC 
 
 gave us the use of one of his small rooms." 
 
 The history of Du Page county says : "When the regular 
 troops came on from Michigan the settlers were ordered to quit 
 the Fort, and every hovel that would afford a shelter was imme- 
 diately crowded with occupants. At this time there were several 
 women and children in the Fort, whose husbands and fathers- 
 were at Naper Settlement, building the fort there. These would 
 have been turned out of doors had it not been for the entreaties 
 of the volunteer company. By an exceedingly liberal provision 
 Mrs. Hawley and six children, Mrs. Blodgett and four children,* 
 and Mrs. Hobson and five children, were allowed to occupy an 
 upper room in the establishment, about ten feet square." 
 
 Such was the uncomfortable position of the fugitives in 
 Chicago that many preferred to return to their homes and take 
 the risk of Indians, and as time passed, and the Indians 
 seemed to have left the vicinity and the cloud of war was passing 
 north and west, their apprehension in a great measure subsided, 
 
 ARRIVAL OF GENERAL SCOTT AND THE CHOLERA. 
 
 On the evening of the 10th of July Gen. Scott arrived at 
 Chicago. Four steamers had been chartered by the government 
 for the transportation of troops and supplies to Chicago. At this 
 time no steamers had ever plowed the waters of Lake Michigan t 
 and from Mackinaw to Chicago there were no light-houses, no 
 beacon lights, DO piers or wood stations, and the few natural 
 harbors were unimproved. At Chicago a sand bank prevented 
 the ingress, of any craft that drew over two feet of water, the 
 mouth of the river being then as far south as Madison street. 
 
 * One of these children is Judge Blodgett, of Chicago.
 
 Northern Illinois Fifty Tears Ago. 53 
 
 The steamers chartered by the United States were the Henry 
 Clay, Superior, Sheldon Thompson and William Penn. On the 
 voyage the cholera broke out among the troops and crews on 
 board these vessels so violently and fatally that two of them were 
 were compelled to abandoned the voyage, proceeding no further 
 than Fort Gratiot, at the entrance of Lake Huron. The scene on 
 the Henry Clay was especially terrible. All discipline was at an 
 end. As soon as the boat reached the wharf every man sprang 
 ashore, and sought refuge in the woods, and some lay down in the 
 streets, and under cover of the river bank and died unaided and 
 alone. On the Sheldon Thompson, one of the boats which came 
 on, the disease did not break out until after passing the Maniton 
 Islands, but before reaching Chicago thirteen were committed to 
 the waters of Lake Michigan. Three more died during the night 
 making sixteen. In the course of the next day and night 
 eighteen others died and were buried near the corner of Lake 
 street and Michigan avenue. In the four following days fifty- 
 four more died, making an aggregate of eighty-eight. These 
 facts are related by Capt. A. Walker, commander of the Sheldon 
 Thompson, which reached Chicago July 10th, the first steamer 
 that had ever anchored off Chicago. She carried Gen. Scott and 
 staff and troops, who were landed in yawls. The William Penn 
 with troops and military stores arrived a week later. 
 
 No language can describe the alarm and distress produced by 
 this arrival, which had been so ardently hoped for. All were as 
 anxious to escape from Chicago as they had been a few weeks 
 before to get there. This was the first visitation of cholera in the 
 United States, and the terror which the mere name then produced 
 cannot be imagined. 
 
 This outbreak of cholera of course, for a time, delayed the 
 advance of Gen. Scott. On the 20th of July he moved his 
 camp to the DesPlanes river, hoping that the change would be
 
 54 Northern Illinois Fifty Hears Ago. 
 
 for the benefit of his men. His camp was founded on the ground 
 now occupied by Riverside. Leaving Col. Cummings in com- 
 mand he, with twelve men and two baggage wagons, started in 
 advance. He ordeded Col. Cummings to advance as soon as the 
 health of the troops would admit. The train of wagons and 
 horses had been brought overland from Ohio, where they were 
 purchased. Other men and teams from the surrounding country 
 were pressed in the service. Selah Lanfear and his team from 
 Yankee Settlement was among the number so employed, and one 
 of the teamsters was a lad of seventeen of the name of Robert 
 N. Murray, the son of a settler at Naperville. This lad is now 
 the Hon. Judge Murray of DuPage county. 
 
 Col. Cummings, with the main body of Scott's forces, started 
 on in about ten days, and had reached the present site of Beloit, 
 on Rock river, when the news of the battle of Bad- Ax was brought 
 to them with orders to move to Rock Island. 
 
 At this point the cholera again broke out among the troops 
 that had gathered there from various points, including the ran- 
 gers or volunteer companies that had been organized. Here Gen. 
 Scott displayed as great heroism as in the battle-field. He fear- 
 lessly exposed himself in his attentions to the sick, both privates 
 and officers, showing the utmost kindness while, at the same 
 time, enforcing the most rigid sanitary regulations. Four officers 
 and about sixty men were the victims of the scourge at this point. 
 
 As may readily be imagined the arrival of Gen. Scott with 
 the cholera produced a stampede of the settlers from Chicago 
 quite as sudden and as hasty as the one produced a few weeks 
 before by the alarm of Indian outrages to Chicago. Fort Dear- 
 born, although now garrisoned, was no protection from the 
 enemy which had crossed the ocean and which travelled every- 
 where, without any regard for quarantine regulations or State or 
 army lines.
 
 Northern Illinois Fifty lears Ago. 55 
 
 John Wat-kins, the well known ancient pedagogue, and who 
 is now a resident of this city, tells us that when Gen. Scott sent 
 word from the steamer that he was going to land, he thought he 
 would rather risk the Indians than the cholera, and he started for 
 his father's, Henry Watkins, on Hickory creek. But on arriving 
 at his father's cabin he found it empty, the family having gone to 
 the Wabash with the settlers in that vicinity. He then turned 
 his face once more for Chicago, but on his way he met Col. 
 Hamilton and Gen. Brown, who, notwithstanding their high 
 military titles, were fleeing from this new enemy. They reported 
 such a fatality among the troops that he joined them in their 
 flight to Danville. 
 
 After the alarm was over he returned to Chidago and opened 
 his school. His name appears as one of the witnesses to the 
 Indian Treaty of 1833, and he is one of the few remaining survi- 
 vors of that period. 
 
 EARLIEST WAR RECORD OF WILL COUNTY. 
 
 Many of the settlers hai alreidy venture 1 to return to their 
 locations, Besides the two forts we have already named a block 
 house was built in Yankee Settlement on the Sisson place, and 
 the men placed themselves under the command of Holder Sisson, 
 a soldier of the war of 1812. 
 
 Many of the settlers also returned to Walker's Grove and 
 Napier Settlement, and looked after their crops and farm work 
 during the day, and found refuge in the block houses at night. 
 
 Capt. Joseph Naper was in command at the block house in 
 Napier Settlement, James Walker at Walker's Grove, and Holder 
 Sisson, at Yankee Settlement. 
 
 A company of mounted rangers was organized at each of 
 these three localities, and they were duly mustered into the 
 United States service, and they would, unquestionably, have made 
 a brilliant military record if they had had an opportunity. They
 
 56 Moithern Illinois Fifty lears Ago. 
 
 each one, no doubt, drew their land warrants. 
 
 We give the muster roll of each of these companies, taken 
 from the Adjutant-General's office at Washington. 
 
 Muster roll of a detachment of mounted volunteers^ com- 
 manded by Captain James Walker, enrolled June 25th, 1832, in 
 Cook county, Illinois, and mustered out of service August 
 12th. 1832: 
 
 James Walker, Captain. 
 
 Lieutenants First, Chester Smith ; Second, George Hollen- 
 beck. 
 
 M 
 
 Sergeants Wm. See, Edmund Weed, Chester Ingersoll. 
 Corporals Elisha Fish, Reuben Flagg, Peter Watkins. 
 Musician Edward A. Rogers. 
 
 Privates B. F. Watkins, Henry Jones, Thomas Woolley, 
 Henry Weakley, Ralph Smith, Elisha Curtiss, Samuel Fountain, 
 Thomas R. Covell, E. G. Ament, Peter Watkins, J. Woolley, A. 
 C. Ament, James Gillson, Hiram Ament, D. J. Clark. Total, 
 25 men. 
 
 Rev. S. R. Beggs was also a member of this company, but 
 being detained in Chicago, his name was riot on the muster roll, 
 but he got his land warrant. 
 
 Muster roll of a company of mounted volunteers, com- 
 manded by Capt. Holder Sisson, enrolled July 23, 1832, in Cook 
 county, Illinois, for defense of northern portion of the State of 
 Illinois, against the Sac and Fox Indians, and mustered out of 
 service August 13, 1832: 
 
 Captain Holder Sisson. 
 
 Lieutenants Fiwt, Robert Stevens; Seccond, W. T. Bradford. 
 
 Sergeants James Sayers, Uriah Wentworth, John Cooper, 
 Abraham Francis. 
 
 Corporals Armstead Runion, Thomas Coombs, Edward 
 Poor, Cornelius C. Van Horn.
 
 Northern Illinois Fifty Years Ago. 57 
 
 Privates William Gougar, John Gougar, Nicholas Gougar, 
 Daniel Gougar, Aaron Moore, Daniel Robb, Daniel Height, 
 Aaron Friend, Joseph Norman, David Maggard, Aaron Wares, 
 Thomas Francis, John McDeed, James McDeed, Abraham Van- 
 Horn, Simon O. VanHorn, Wm. Rogers, Calvin Rowley, Selah 
 Lanfear, David Crandall, Alva Crandall, Daniel Mack, Wm. 
 Barlow, Joseph Johnson, James Johnson, Silas Henderson, Pat- 
 terson Frame, Oren Stevens, Joseph Cox, Alfred Johnson, Lucius 
 Scott, Benjamin MacGard, Anderson Poor, Samuel Fleming, 
 David Smith, Peter Lemesis, Timothy B. Clark, Barrett Clark, 
 Wm. Clark, Enoch Darling, John Wilson, Wm. Chapman, O, L. 
 Turner, James Mathews, Peter Lampseed. Total, 60 men. 
 
 Of the DuPage and Naper Settlement Company we have not 
 the dates of enrollment and muster out, but probably it would be 
 about the same as in the other companies. 
 
 Captain Joseph Naper. 
 
 Lieutenants First, Alanson Sweet; Second, Sherman King. 
 
 Sergeants First, S. M. Salsbury; Second, John Manning; 
 Third, Walter Stowell; Fourth, John Naper, 
 
 Corporals First, T. E. Parsons; Second, Lyman Butterfield; 
 Third, I. P, Bledgett; Fourth, R. N. Murray. 
 
 Privates P. F. W. Peck, William Barber, Richard W. 
 Sweet, John Stevens, jr., Calvin M. Stowell, John Fox, Dennis 
 Clark, Caleb Foster, Augustine Stowell, George Fox, T. Parsons, 
 Daniel Landon, William Gault, Uriah Paine, John Stevens, Seth 
 Westcott, Henry T. Wilson, Christopher Paine, Bailey Hobson, 
 Josiah H. Giddings, Anson Ament, Calvin Ament, Edmund 
 Harrison, Willard Scott, Percy Hawley, Peter Wickoff. 
 
 Of this last campany, six, viz : Walter Stowell, I. P. 
 Blodgett, Seth Westcott, Josiah H. Giddings, Willard Scott and 
 Percy (or Pierce) Hawley, were from the present bounds of Will 
 county.
 
 58 Aoithern Illinois Fifty Hears Ago. 
 
 In Captain Walker's company are some of the Fox river 
 settlement, who had fled thither. The Second Lieutenant was of 
 this number, who, no doubt, wanteti revenge for the loss of his 
 whisky and tobacco. 
 
 In Sisson's company there are several from the Walker's 
 Grove or Plain field Settlement, and 'some names which are 
 entirely new to us. For the Naper and DuPage list we are 
 indebted to Wm. Naper, a son of the Captain, and the list of the 
 two other companies was kindly copied for us by our young friend 
 Nat Rowell; the clerical force in the Adjutant-General's office at 
 Washington being altogether inadequate to the herculean labor. 
 
 THE LAST OF 3ABBONEE. 
 
 Before closing our gleanings of fifty years ago we wish to 
 say something more respecting Shabbonee, the white man's friend. 
 After giving the settlers warning of the danger, as we have 
 related, he, with his band of braves, joined the forces of Gen. 
 Atkinson, and rendered important aid in the brief campaign, 
 acting in the capacity of scouts 
 
 After the war (in 1833) a treaty was held at Chicago, by 
 which the Pottawatamies disposed of their remaining lands to the 
 United States, except some specific reservations to Caldwell, 
 Robinson, Shabbonee and others, Indians and half- breeds. Two 
 .sections, including the grove, which Shabbonee for so many 
 years made his home, were reserved to him. It was duly sur- 
 veyed under direction of Major Langham, Surveyor- General of 
 Illinois and Missouri at the time, and Shabbonee supposed that 
 it was secured to him and heirs forever. In 1837, he accompanied 
 his band, 130 in number, to their reservation in Missouri. He 
 had been notified by the Indian agent that al! of the band, except
 
 Northern Illinois Fifty lears Ago. 59 
 
 himself and family, mast remove thither. He could not endure 
 the thought of parting with his tribe, and therefore he accompa- 
 nied them. But now he had to pay the penalty of his acts of 
 friendship toward the white settlers in 1826 and 1832, The 
 reservation of the Sacs and Foxes was very near that of the 
 Pottawatamies. Black Hawk was still living, (be died October 3, 
 1838,) and he and his tribe cherished teelings of revenge against 
 the white man's friend, the brave, by whose side he had fought 
 for the English in 1812. No sooner had Shabbonee and his 
 family reached their new home than a bitter warfare was com- 
 menced against them, which resulted in the death of his son, 
 Pypagee, and of his nephew, Pyps, and in driving Shabbonee and 
 the rest of his family back to Illinois. He narrowly escaped with 
 his life from the vengeance of his Indian enemies. 
 
 Shabbonee and his family, about twenty in number, 
 lived on his reservation in the grove which bears his name 
 until 1849. At this time the Pottawatamies had been again 
 removed to a new reservation in Kansas, and Shabbonee again 
 sought with bis family a home among them. He remained with 
 them about three years, when he felt a strong desire to return 
 again to bis old kome in DeKalb county. He fondly supposed 
 that his rights would be respected by the people for whose safety 
 he bad incurred the deadly hatred of his red brethren. But on 
 his reaching the beautiful grove, which he and his family had 
 occupied for more than forty years, he found it in the possession 
 of a stranger that it was lost to him forever. 
 
 When the survey of the public lands lying north of the 
 old Indian boundary was made the Deputy Surveyor, under 
 instructions from the Land Department, ignored the former sur- 
 vey of the reservation, and included it in the regular section 
 lines of the general U. S. survey, and during Shabbonee's absence 
 in Kansas the land had been sold at public auction at Dizon.
 
 60 Northern Illinois Fifty Years Ago- 
 
 When an appeal was afterwards made in Shabbonee's behalf to 
 the Commissioner of the Land Department, the answer was 
 returned that Shabbonee had forfeited and lost his title to the 
 lands by leaving them. It is said that when he 'came to a full 
 conviction of his forlorn condition, "albeit, all unused to the 
 melting mood," he shed bitter tears. The brute who had got 
 possession of his old home cursed him for having cut a few lodge 
 poles in the grove which he thought was his own, and unfeelingly 
 ordered him to leave the grove with bis family. This he did, and 
 never again visited it. 
 
 Let it be said to the credit of Ottawa that the citizens of 
 that place raised a fund, bought him twenty acres of timber land 
 on the Mazon, built him a comfortable house, and supplied him 
 with means to start housekeeping again. Here he lived until his 
 death, the 17th of July, 1859, in the 84th year of his age. 
 
 Gurdon S. Hubbard, who knew Shabbonee well, bears this 
 testimony to his character : " From my first acquaintance with 
 him, which began in the fall of 1818, to his death, I was im^ 
 pressed with the nobleness of his character, Physically, he was 
 as fine a specimen of a man as I ever saw tall, well proportioned, 
 strong and active, with a face expressing great strength of mind 
 and goodness of heart. 
 
 It is a curious fact that in the memorable Harrison campaign 
 of 1840, there was published in the Chicago Daily American, a 
 letter signed by "Chamblee," (Shabbonee) aid to Tecuraseh," and 
 " B. Caidwell, (Saug-a-nash) Captain," in which they contradict a 
 campaign slander of Harrison's opponents, charging him with 
 cowardice and inhumanity. This is dated at Council Bluffs, 
 March 23, 1840. They say : "The first time we got acquainted 
 with Gen. Harrison was at the council fire of Old Tempest, the
 
 Northern Illinois Fifty Hears Ago. 6t 
 
 late Gen. Wayne, at his headquarters on \he Wabash at Green- 
 ville, in 1796. From that time till 1811 we had many a friendly 
 smoke with him, but in 1812 we changed our tobacco smoke into 
 powder smoke. Then we found Gen. Harrison was a brave 
 warrior and humane to his prisoners," etc. 
 
 In 1861 a subscription was taken up in Ottawa, Morris and 
 other river towns, to erect a monument to Shabbonee, but 
 the breaking out of the war led to its abandonment. He was 
 buried with considerable public demonstration in the cemetery at 
 Morris, and only a plain marble slab points out where repose the 
 remains of THE WHITE MAN'S FEIEKD. 
 
 The Black Hawk war, of which we have given a brief sketch 
 in the preceding pages, was not without its compensation. The 
 officers and soldiers who were sent to the aid of the settlers, and 
 who marched across our prairies and along our rivers carried 
 back with them glowing accounts of the beauty and fertility of 
 the country, which served to direct attention and emigration to 
 Northern Illinois, then the Far West, and almost a wilderness. 
 It is not easy to realize as one is whirled by the winged horse at 
 will by cultivated farms, past pleasant homes and through the 
 flourishing towns and cities that now cover this region, that fifty 
 years ago the few scattered settlers were fleeing from their log 
 cabins to escape the murderous raids of savage Indians. And as 
 one visits the great Briareus of the North west, and sees how it 
 reaches with its giant arms two oceans, and gathers up the spoil 
 of many States, that fifty years ago were without a name, how it 
 has covered with palace hotels, with cathedral churches, with great 
 warehouses and elevators, with miles on miles of compact, well- 
 built business blocks, and with beautiful villas, the low, wet 
 prairies and sloughs of fifty years ago, it is hard, we say, for a
 
 62 Northern Illinois Fifty lears Ago. 
 
 stranger to believe that at the period of which we have been 
 writing, Chicago afforded but scant room, and poor protection to 
 the few pioneer families that fled thither from the narrow circuit 
 of forty miles. And yet there are still living some who can say, 
 <% Lo, our eyes have seen all this !" 
 
 JOLJET, August, 1882. 
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 On page 23, before the 10th line from bottom,* these word* 
 should be supplied : was concealed. Col. Henry
 
 PRESSBOARD 
 
 .PAMPHLET BINDER 
 
 Manufactured by 
 
 JGAYLORD BROS. Inc. 
 
 Syracuse, N.Y. 
 
 Stockton, Calif.
 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 
 
 977.3W85F C001 
 
 FIFTY YEARS AGO: OR, GLEANINGS RESPECTIN