USA > Iowa > Lee County > The history of Lee county, Iowa, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, &c. > Part 38
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In those days, Indians were numerous on both sides of the Mississippi, but were friendly and inoffensive to the few whites amongst them. Vanausdol says that Moses Stillwell and his wife, and their four children, and himself, were the only white residents at the foot of the rapids in the spring of 1828, and if there was a white inhabitant besides them in any portion of the country which now constitutes the State of Iowa, he was not aware of the fact. Stillwell's cabin, where he first located, stood near where is now the foot of Main street, Keokuk, and a little farther up the hill he cut off the trees and cleared and fenced some ground and raised potatoes and corn on it in the summer of 1828. He lived there two years, and then built a cabin on the bank of the river near the foot of High street, which he made the residence of himself and family until his death, about 1834.
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When Vanausdol came to the present site of Keokuk with Stillwell in the spring of 1828, the ground was covered with heavy timber. The woods were full of wild turkeys, deer, squirrels and other wild game native to the country. He saw any number of turkeys and deer killed on the ground now occupied by Keokuk. A person could go out at any time and without going over half a mile from the river, in an hour's hunt load himself down with game.
For several years after their arrival here, their only meat was wild game. Honey was plenty. The woods were full of wild bees, and Vanausdol helped cut down many trees with hives of bees and rich stores of honey in them on the present plat of Keokuk. Stillwell's business between the time of his arrival here and his death, was in cutting wood and selling to steamboats, which occasionally passed up the river, and selling calicoes, blankets, knives and trinkets to the Indians, which he received from St. Louis.
Dr. Isaac Galland comes next in the list of early first settlers. He came from Edgar County. Ill., in 1829. Those who knew him say he was a man of rare genius, and that his busy brain was always forming new schemes, and that his ready pen could describe anything in which he was interested, in glowing colors. He was quite a character in his time, and acheived an almost national reputation because of a number of public and prominent transactions in which he took a leading part, especially when he became opposed to the New York Land Company. Dr. Galland died at Fort Madison, in 1858. Eleanor, his daughter (now Mrs. McPherson, at Ottumwa), says Mr. Isaac R. Campbell, was the first white female child born in the territory of Lee County.
In 1830. Isaac R. Campbell and his family moved over from Nauvoo, or Commerce, as it was then called, and settled at the site of Galland's ideal city -Nashville. He remained there until March, 1831, and then removed to the foot of the falls and occupied a log house that had been built by Dr. Muir. In his letter to Hon. Edward Johnstone and published in the July (1867) number of the Annals of Iowa. Mr. Campbell mentions the name of Berryman Jen- nings, who taught a school at Nashville in 1830. There was also a Dedman family, who first came to the Mississippi River in 1828. and to Nashville in 1830, and remained there until the Black Hawk war excitement, when they re-crossed the Mississippi River and sought safety and protection at Fort Edwards. Tollifer Dedman, one of the sons, is now a resident of Clarke County, Mo.
Samuel Brierly, the father of James Brierly. Lee county's first legislative representatives, occupied the old Lemoliese cabin in 1831.
To this list of early first settlers might be added the name of the present well-known and highly-esteemed Capt. James W. Campbell, although he was a mere lad then. He has grown to manhood on this part of the Black Hawk Purchase, and has seen it redeemed from an Indian wild and made a garden of beauty, wealth and intelligence.
The names herem quoted, according to the best sources of information, rep- resent the entire white and civilized population of what is now Lee County at the close of the year 1831. Counting from the time it is believed Tesson set- tled at the " Old Orchard" (in 1796), thirty-five years have passed since the first attempt was made to plant the standard of civilization in Southern Iowa, instruct the Indians in the arts of agricultural industry and convert them to the religion of the Roman Catholic Church. The progress of settlement was slow as compared with the settlement of new territories nowadays, but there were many hindrances. When Tesson first came here, all that vast region west of the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean was under the dominion of Spain. From April, 1803, until after the Black Hawk Purchase was
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opened to white settlement in 1833, it was as effectually barred against white occupancy as if it had remained under the ownership and government of foreign powers. It was an Indian wild-nothing more-into which a few Indian traders like Tesson, and honest white men whom the Indians liked, as Mr. Isaac R. Campbell, occasionally found their way, and in that con- - dition it remained until the Indian right to possession expired in 1833.
Mr. Valencourt Vanausdol, whom we have already quoted, says, after the American Fur Company commenced business at Puck-a-she-tuck, large crowds of Sac and Fox Indians were generally about the foot of the rap- ids, when not on a hunt. Winnebago, Chippewa and Menominee Indians came here with their furs to trade, sometimes, but, as they were not on very friendly terms with the Sacs and Foxes, they were rather watchful when they came about.
The Indians brought immense quantities of buffalo, elk, deer, wolf, coon, mink, otter, beaver and muskrat skins to trade to the whites for such things as suited them in exchange, especially blankets, knives, trinkets and whisky.
They were excessively fond of whisky, but not much in the habit of drink- ing to excess unless by pre-arrangement to get on a " big drunk," when a cer- tain number were appointed to stay sober and protect the drunken ones from doing harm to themselves or others. Their favorite places for having "big drunks" were at what is now known as the mouth of Bloody Run, and on the bank of the Mississippi, where Anschutz's brewery now stands. During these sprees the days and nights were made hideous with the howls and war- whoops of the Indian bacchanalians.
At the commencement of the Black Hawk war in the early summer of 1832, there were only about a dozen families at Puck-e-she-tuck. There were a num- ber of unmarried men, but the entire adult male population did not exceed fifty. including boys large enough to be made available in repelling an Indian attack. The American Fur Company sold their buildings, etc., to Isaac R. Campbell, and all the traders abandoned the place. This reduced the resi- dent male population to Mr. Campbell and thirty-four employes. Jenifer T. Spriggs, who had come on to survey the half-breed tract of land, and who was an inmate of Mr. Campbell's family, thought it advisable to garrison the place, and a stockade was built. The men were organized into a com- pany to do duty in case of an attack, and Mr. Spriggs was elected Captain. Mr. Campbell wrote to the commandant at St. Louis for arms, and the com- pany was furnished with one swivel, thirty-four muskets and 500 rounds of ammunition. Vanausdol, then a boy, was made to do duty as a scout, and car- ried a weekly express to what was then known as Fort Pike, now St. Fran- cisville, Mo. But the Indians came not, and no one here was injured by them during those troubles.
During the excitement consequent upon the Black Hawk war, the Govern- ment intrusted to Mr. Campbell's care 1,500 barrels of flour and a large quantity of other stores. The company was promised pay for guarding this property, and orders were given to make out a muster-roll for the purpose of payment. Capt. Spriggs took the roll and went to St. Louis to draw the money, but on the way to St. Louis he lost the roll, and that was the end of it.
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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY.
THE BLACK HAWK WAR.
REDIVIVUS.
The history of this war has generally been conceded to belong to the history of Illinois, which accounts for the very brief sketch to be found on pp. 157-8-9 of this volume. The concession is erroneous. It is not so much a part of the history of Illinois as of Lee County and the State of Wisconsin. Before the commencement of hostilities, the Black Hawk Indians were occupants of the lower part of the eastern slope of Iowa. They started on the war-path from Keokuk, rendezvoused at Fort Madison, crossed the Mississippi River to the present site of Pontoosuc, traveled up through Illinois and fought the only two battles of the war in what is now the State of Wisconsin, after which the survivors returned to the Iowa side of the river, many of them to what is now Lee County, where Black Hawk subsequently became well known to the set- tlers, from 1833 to the time of his death in October, 1838. Not one of the battles of the Black Hawk war was fought on Illinois soil. The Stillman's Run affair was not a battle. It was only a big scare brought upon that officer's command and the country by the drunken recklessness of some of his men who fired upon an Indian flag of truce.
These facts are clearly established and completely overturn the generally received opinion that the history of that war belongs to Illinois, and places it where it of right belongs-to Lee County and the State of Wisconsin.
" After Black Hawk and his people returned to the west side of the Missis- sippi River, in the fall of 1831," says Mr. Isaac R. Campbell, "they estab- lished themselves on the north bank of the Iowa River, about two and a half miles above its mouth, where they had a village." [Capt. James W. Campbell locates the village at the present site of Black Hawk village, two and a half miles from the old village of Toolesboro, in Louisa County, and almost directly opposite the town of New Boston, Mercer County, Ill.] " They did not remain there very long, however, when they went to the hunting-grounds on Salt River, in Missouri. In the early spring of 1832, Black Hawk and his full band came to Keokuk, where they had a war-dance, and then went up the Mis- sissippi River. They camped a night or two in the timber along Devil Creek, about six miles west from Fort Madison. Their real starting-point was from Fort Madison. The women and children, cooking-utensils, etc., were trans- ported in canoes. The men followed along on the west bank of the Mississippi, with their horses and ponies, until they reached a point opposite the present site of Pontoosuc, Ill., where they crossed on the 6th day of April." It has been stated that they crossed their ponies by swimming, but the statement is at fault. They were crossed on what was known as "floats." These floats were made by lashing three canoes together, covering them with poles, which, in turn, were covered with leaves to a thickness sufficient to make a plat- form strong enough to carry as many ponies as could be made to stand upon it.
Capt. Love, the commander of a small steamboat, was coming down the river, and arrived at Pontoosuc soon after the Indians had crossed, and his attention was directed to many large bunches of leaves floating on the surface of the water. Some of these bunches were several feet in diameter, and, seem- ingly, a foot or two in thickness. Unadvised of the origin of this vast collec- tion of leaves, Capt. Love characterized their presence as a strange, and, to him. unaccountable phenomenon. It was subsequently explained that, after
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the Indians had crossed their stock, the leaves were thrown into the river and floated along on the surface of the water.
Mrs. Isaac R. Campbell says the Indians were mad and threatening when they started up the river ; that they had on their war-paint, and danced their war-dance near their house at Keokuk ; but Mr. Campbell, who was on friendly terms with Black Hawk, states that the old chief told him they were not going over into Illinois to fight, but to care for the graves of their fathers. Fred- erick Stahl, an old and highly-respected citizen of Galena, states that he was informed by John Dixon, the founder of the city of Dixon, Lee County, Ill., that the Indians stopped at his house, at Dixon, as they were going up Rock River ; that Ne-o-pope, one of Black Hawk's head men, had the young braves well in hand, and that he assured him they intended to commit no depredations, and that they would not fight unless they were attacked.
Whatever Black Hawk's purposes may have been, his crossing the Missis- sippi River was considered an invasion, and the war followed. However, it is the unanimous testimony of survivors of that period now living on the old bat- tle-fields whom the writer has interviewed, that, except the violation of treaty stipulations and an arrogance of manner natural to an Indian who wanted to make a new trade with the " Great Father," the Sacs under Black Hawk com- mitted no serious acts of hostility, and intended none until the alternative of war or extermination was presented to them. It is certain, too, that the people of Galena and of the mining district generally apprehended no war.
The intimation (see pp. 158-9) that Davenport played a conspicuous part in prevailing upon Black Hawk to cross back to the Rock River country, in the spring of 1832, and that his letter to Gen. Atkinson was only a cunning device to enable him to secure what he had come to regard as a bad debt, is not sus- tained by subsequent events. On the contrary, it would seem that he was fully advised of Indian intentions when, on the 13th of April, he wrote to Gen. Atkinson that he was "informed that the British bands of Sacs are determined to make war on the frontier settlements," and that it was their purpose to " commit depredations on the inhabitants of the frontier." The British band did invade Illinois, and kill the Indian Agent, Saver. About the same time, some Winnebagoes also killed one of three or four men who were engaged at work in a field near Oquawka. The other men, among whom was Nathan Smith, now of St. Francisville, took to flight and managed to escape, although they were closely pursued for some distance by the Indians. These acts hastened the conflict.
Gov. Reynolds, of Illinois, called out the militia, and, on Saturday, the 12th day of May, 1832, was at Dixon's Ferry (now the city of Dixon) with about two thousand mounted riflemen, where he waited to be joined by the United States Regulars from Fort Armstrong (Rock Island), under command of Gen. Atkinson. "A day or two previous," said the Galenian of that period, Dr. Philleo, editor, "Maj. Isaiah Stillman, with about four hundred well- mounted volunteers, commenced his march with a fixed determination to wage a war of extermination wherever he might find any of the hostile bands." Just before nightfall, on the evening of the 12th of May, Stillman's forces went into camp in White Roek Grove, in what is now Ogle County, Ill., about thirty-five miles above Dixon. His camp was in close proximity to that of Black Hawk, but he was ignorant of the fact. It has been said that at that very time Black Hawk was making arrangements to sue for a treaty of peace. How true this statement may be is not for the writer to determine, and the reader is left to compare the statement with the declarations made to Isaac R.
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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY.
Campbell, before he started to Rock River from Keokuk, and by Ne-o-ope to Mr. Dixon, when the Indians arrived at Dixon. Whether true or false, it was of no benefit to the Indians.
Stillman's forces were well supplied with whisky, some authorities having asserted that they had with them a barrel of "fire water." and that a number of the men and officers were drunk. They were eager to get sight of an Indian. and boastful that they could never be happy again until each one of them had the scalp of a Sac dangling from his belt.
Soon after Stillman had gone into camp. Black Hawk became aware of the near presence of an armed force, and sent a small party of his braves to Still- man's camp with a flag of truce. Their approach was discovered by some of Still- man's men. who, without reporting to their commander, and without orders. hastily mounted their horses and dashed down upon the approaching Indians. The flag of truce party of Indians, not understanding the sudden movement. and no doubt suspicious. retreated toward the camp of their chief. The whites fired upon them, killing two of their number and captured two more. The others escaped but were closely pursued by the reckless volunteers. When Black Hawk and his war-chief Ne-o-pope saw them dashing down upon their camp. that their flag of truce had been disregarded. and believing that their overtures for peace had been rejected. they raised their terrible war-whoop and marshaled for the fray.
It was now the turn of the volunteers to retreat, and, after killing their two captives, they turned and fled as rapidly as their horses could travel. Supposing that they were being followed by a thousand savage Indians. they dashed through their camp. spreading terror and consternation among their comrades. but late so eager to meet the foe. The wildest panic ensued ; there was " mounting in hot haste," and, without waiting to see whether there was anything or anybody to run from, every man fled. and never halted until they reached Dixon's Ferry or some other place of safety. or had been stopped by Indian bullets and tomahawks. The first man to reach Dixon was a Kentucky lawyer. who, as he strode into Dixon, thirty-five miles away. reported that every man in Stillman's command had been killed except himself. Another man. named Com- stock, never stopped until he reached Galena, where he reported that "the men were all drunk. as he was, got scared, and made the best time they could to get out of danger, but that he didn't see a single Indian." All accounts agree that the men were drunk, and that the white flag displayed by the Indians was fired upon in utter disregard of all recognized rules of warfare. even among Indians.
The whites had commenced the work of murder. and the Indians, losing all hope of a peaceable solution of the difficulties, determined that a war of exter- mination was a game at which both parties could play, and, who can blame them for their determination to sell their lives as dearly as possible.
Gen. Whiteside was in command at Dixon, and at once proceeded to the fatal field : but the enemy had gone, the main body having moved northward. while the rest scattered in small bands to avenge the death of their flag-of-truce bearers upon the unoffending settlers. Eleven of Stillman's men were killed. among whom were Capt. Adams and Maj. Perkins. The mutilated remains of those who had fallen because of the drunken recklessness of the men who fired upon the flag of truce were gathered together and buried. and to this day the place is known as Stillman's Run.
The Stillman's Run affair was the beginning of active hostilities, and pre- cipitated all the horrors of border warfare upon the white settlements in Jo
-
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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY.
Daviess County, * and in the adjoining portion of Michigan Territory (now Wis- consin). Truth of history compels the impartial historian to record the fact that the whites were the aggressors, a fact that was appreciated by many of the volunteers themselves. It was not such rare sport to kill Indians when it was" found that Indians might kill them, and especially when war had been com- menced by firing upon and killing the bearers of a flag of peace. The vol- unteers commenced grumbling, and demanded to be mustered out, and were dismissed soon after by Gov. Reynolds. Another call was issued, and a new regiment of volunteers was mustered in at Beardstown, with Jacob Fry as Colonel ; James D. Henry, Lieutenant Colonel, and John Thomas, Major. The late commanding General, Whiteside, volunteered as a private.
Among the first results of "Stillman's defeat" was the descent of about seventy Indians upon an unprotected settlement on Indian Creek, in what is now La Salle County, Ill., where they massacred fifteen men, women and children of the families of Hall, Davis and Pettigrew, and captured two young women, Sylvia and Rachel Hall. These girls, aged seventeen and fifteen years respectively, were afterward taken by Winnebagoes to Gratiot's Grove, where they were ransomed by Maj. Henry Gratiot, by the payment of $2,000 in horses, wampumt (Indian currency or medium of exchange) and trinkets. Gratiot subsequently took the girls to Galena, from whence, at a later period, they were restored to their surviving relatives.
On the 15th of May, 1832, Capt. James W. Stephenson arrived at Galena with full particulars of Stillman's disastrous defeat, and the intelligence that the Indians had commenced bloody hostilities. The news spread like wildfire. and created intense excitement and alarm. The settlers and miners were called together at the old race-course, on the bottom near Fever River, where a com- pany of mounted rangers was organized, with James W. Stephenson as Captain. At 3 o'clock on the morning of Saturday, the 19th of May, Sergt. Fred Stahl (now a banker at Galena) and privates William Durley, Vincent Smith, Redding Bennett and James Smith, started to bear dispatches to Gen. Atkinson, at Dixon's Ferry, with John D. Winters, the mail contractor, for a guide ; but, on Sunday, the 20th, Sergt. Stahl, from whom these particulars are gathered, returned to Galena and added to the alarm of the people by reporting that his party had been ambuscaded by the Indians just on the edge of Buffalo Grove (now in Ogle County), fifty miles from Galena, about 5 o'clock on Saturday afternoon, and that Durley was instantly killed and left on the spot where he had fallen. Stahl received a bullet through his coat-collar, and James Smith afterward found a bullet-hole in his hat, and became intensely frightened. After the war, the leader of the ambuscading Indians told Dixon that he could have killed the young fellow (Stahl) as well as not, but he had a fine horse, and in trying to shoot him without injuring the horse he shot too high, as Stahl suddenly stooped as he pulled the trigger.
On the 23d of May, Felix St. Vrain, agent for the Sacs and Foxes, bearer of dispatches, left Gen. Atkinson's headquarters on Rock River, accompanied by John Fowler, Thomas Kenney, William Hale, Aquilla Floyd, Aaron Haw- ley and Alexander Higginbotham. At Buffalo Grove, they found the body of the lamented Durley, and buried it within a rod of where it was found. The
* At that time, Jo Daviess County included a large part of Northern Illinois-Ogle, Stephenson, Carroll, White- side, Winnebago, Boone, Lee, and other northern counties, as they are now organized.
+ Wampum is also called pe-se-me-knk. This consists of strings of small sea-shells, about the size of barley - corns, or somewhat larger, being perforated lengthwise, are strung on thread-like fibers of animal sinews, and has constituted the ancient currency of many tribes. Its valne has been varionsly estimated at different periods in American history, as would seem from the statement that the Colony of New York was purchased from the Indians for a few pounds of these shells, while at later dates a string containing about thirty shells has been estimated at one dollar. B
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next day (the 24th), they were attacked by a party of thirty Indians, near Kellogg's old place (in Ogle County). St. Vrain, Fowler, Hale and Hawley were killed. The other three escaped and arrived at Galena on the 26th.
May 23, 1832, the Galenian said : " The tomahawk and scalping-knife have again been drawn on our frontier ; blood of our best citizens has been spilt in great profusion within the borders of Illinois. -x- *
* The Indians must be exterminated or sent off."
The people were thoroughly alarmed. Blockhouses and stockades were built in nearly all the settlements. The men were organized into companies, and every possible preparation was made for protection and defense. Farming and mining operations were suspended, and nothing was thought of but the Indian war. Some of the settlers who had made claims and were breaking ground for their first crops when the news that hostilities had commenced reached them, unhitched their teams, left their plows in the furrows and hurried to convey their families for safety and protection to some one of the numerous stockades and then to join the forces that were being raised for the war. Scatter- ing bands of Indians-Winnebagoes and others-harassed the outskirts of the settlements, occasionally killing a man and carrying off his stock.
On the night of June 8, fourteen horses were stolen from just outside the stockade at Elizabeth, on Apple River, and on the night of the 17th, ten more were stolen. On the morning of the 18th, Capt. Stephenson and twelve of his Galena company and nine more from the Apple River stockade (twenty-two men in all) started on the trail of the red thieves, and overhauled them about twelve miles east of Kellogg's Grove, where a hot chase commenced, and was continued for several miles. At little northeast of Waddam's Grove (Stephen- son County, Ill.), the Indians, seven in number, says Capt. Green, took refuge in a dense thicket and awaited the attack. Stephenson dismounted his men, and detailing a guard for the horses, led his men in gallant charge against the concealed foe, received their fire and returned it, and then retired to the open prairie to reload. Three times they charged upon the fatal thicket, each time losing one of their number. After the third charge, Stephenson retreated, leaving his dead where they fell, and returned to Galena on the 19th. Only one Indian was known to be killed. He was bayoneted by Private Hood and stabbed in the neck by Thomas Sublet. The slain Indian was scalped several times, and a piece of his scalp is still in the possession of William H. Snyder, Esq., of Galena. Capt. Stephenson himself was wounded. The three men killed were Stephen P. Howard, George Eames and Michael Lovell.
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