USA > Illinois > Lee County > Early Lee County, being some chapters in the history of the early days in Lee County, Illinois > Part 5
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12
"Forty-four years ago the first log cabin was erected on the site of Dixon. It was the first, and at that time the only habitation after the manner of white men for many miles, in any direction, and, in fact, this was not a white man's house. A half-breed Indian had come to this point to establish a ferry, and was attracted by the tide of emigration that had set in, in the spring of the above year, from the south- ern part of the state, to Galena, where rich lead mines had been discovered. This man's name was O'Gee, and he showed great forethought and a 'long head' in opening his ferry at this point, as it was just here that the greatest amount of travel appeared to undertake the crossing of Rock river, and as soon as it was known that there was a ferry and station here the business that O'Gee did was enormous."
53
EARLY LEE COUNTY
(The reader, doubtless, will note the errors as to date and name.)
Ogee was a man of influence with the Indians, especially so with the Potawatomies, who occupied the country south of the river there. He was possessed of some prop- erty and had the ability to manage it. It is incredible that he would have been entrusted so long in charge of the affairs and property of the American Fur Company, some seven years or more, unless he was capable of man- aging it. He started the ferry and operated it so suc- cessfully that a half interest was sold by him for seven hundred dollars in November, 1829, and Father Dixon had no interest in the business then.
Ogee was at Green Bay, Wisconsin, August 25, 1828, acting as interpreter for the Potawatomies in the making of the treaty the United States made that day with the Potawatomi, Chippewa and Ottawa Indians.
John L. Bogardus published notice in the Miners' Jour- nal, dated October 18, 1828, that he would apply to the county commissioners' court for a "license to establish a ferry across Rock river on each side thereof, at the upper crossing, where the United States' mail now passes from Peoria to Galena." In the Journal of November 1, Alex- ander McNair and G. H. McNair gave notice, dated Oc- tober 25, that they would apply for a "license for the upper ferry on both sides of Rock river." The court did not act upon either of these applications.
It is to be remembered that when Ogee started his ferry the territory north and west of Rock river at this place was Winnebago country, and that south and east of the river was the country of the Chippewa, Ottawa and Potawatomi Indians of the Illinois. The country south of the river was ceded to the United States by the treaty of July 29, 1829, and that north of the river by the treaty of August 1, 1829. The treaty of Green Bay, already mentioned, reads: "It is also agreed by the
54
OGEE SEEKS A LICENSE
Indians that a ferry may be established over the Rock River where the Fort Clark road crosses the same." This may explain what apparently was Ogee's belief,-that he did not need any other license.
His good friend, John Turney, Galena's first lawyer, who was a member of the house of representatives in the Sixth General Assembly, 1828-'9, for the Jo Daviess district, introduced in the house the petition of Joseph Ogee praying that he be given the "privilege of building houses and establishing a Ferry on Rock River at the common crossing place upon the road leading from Fort Clark to the Fever River lead mines," and the committee to which it was sent reported a bill for " An Act authoriz- ing Joseph Ogee to establish a ferry on Rock River." It passed the house December 12, 1828, but the senate killed it by adjourning in January after postponing considera- tion of the bill until the fourth of July following. At this same session of the legislature, the senate amended the house bill for "An Act authorizing James R. Vine- yard to establish a ferry on Rock River," but the house refused to concur in those amendments, and that bill failed. (The Galena Advertiser of February 22, 1830, gives the name of J. R. Vineyard as a member of Galena's volunteer fire department assigned to the third ward. Kett, History of Jo Daviess County, 457. He afterwards moved to Wisconsin, becoming a member, for Iowa County, of the first, second and third councils in the terri- torial legislature, and being expelled from the last for the murder of a fellow member of the council in February, 1842. Wis. His. Coll. v. 11, p. 408.)
In the Journal of January 10, 1829, and other issues following, is the following :-
"Notice. I shall apply to the county commission- ers' court of Jo Daviess county at their March term to obtain a license for a ferry on Rock river at the upper crossing embracing a landing on both sides. Joseph Ogee, Resident, Jan. 3."
55
EARLY LEE COUNTY
The court did not pass upon this application.
The Galena Advertiser of July 27, 1829, says a band of about one hundred and fifty Winnebagoes, from the Spotted Arms village, on their way to Rock Island, the place appointed for the making of a treaty, reached Ogee's Ferry and there learned the treaty would be made at Prairie du Chien. This so enraged them that they declared they would not participate in or respect any treaty made at the latter place. They did go, however, and join in the treaty.
If the treaty made at Prairie du Chien July 29, 1829, with the "Chippewa, Ottawa and Potawatomi In- dians of the Illinois", and the treaty made there August 1, 1829, with the Winnebago Indians are correctly printed in the official edition of the United States Statutes, the execution of the former was witnessed by "Sogee", and that of the latter by "Joge", but it is fairly probable from his signatures that still exist that these are errors of transcription, and that the witness was Joseph Ogee.
The report of the auditor of the War Department, sent to the House February 23, 1830, by the Secretary of War, shows that among the disbursements made by Peter Menard, Jr., Indian sub-agent at Peoria, were items aggregating $433.33 paid to Joseph Ogee for his services as "interpreter of the Potowatamies" from September 1, 1828, to September 30, 1829, and $15 paid to John Dixon November 30, 1828, for "provisions fur- nished the Indians." (21st Cong .; 1st Sess .; Ho. Doc. 87.)
A "Map of the United States Lead Mines on the upper Mississippi River", drawn and published by R. W. Chand- ler of Galena, in 1829, shows "Ogee's Ferry and Tavern".
It appears that he had some knowledge of the law con- cerning stray animals, as he advertised in the Miners' Journal for four successive weeks during July and Au- gust, 1829, that he had an estray horse taken from the
.
56
OGEE'S FERRY P. O.
Indians near the Henderson river, on the road from Ga- lena to Beard's Ferry, and was holding it for the owner at his ferry on Rock river "on the Fort Clark road."
Caleb Atwater's "Remarks made on a tour to Prairie du Chien" was first published in 1831, and it is the first book to mention Ogee's ferry. It says :
"When I crossed Rock river at Ogee's ferry, Sep- tember 1, 1829, there was a lodge of Indians there, consisting of an old man, his son-in-law, daughter and several children. They waited on me, as soon as I stopped for the night, at the house of Ogee, who had married a half-breed and owned the ferry."
On another page he says :
"Rock River, where I crossed it, on the first day of September, 1829, at Ogee's ferry, ninety miles by water from its mouth, was twenty rods wide, four feet deep, and run at the rate of five or six miles an hour."
In the Galena Advertiser of September 7, 1829, this item appeared :-
"A new Post Office is established at Ogee's Ferry on Rock River, in this county, of which John M. Gay, Esq., is appointed Postmaster. Ogee's Ferry is on the mail route, and is the principal crossing place for travellers by land from the Mines to the lower country. This office has been established chiefly for the accommodation of the settlement at the Rapids of the Illinois River, from which it is distant about thir- ty-five miles. Heretofore the people of that settle- ment were dependent upon the post office at Peoria, distant between seventy and eighty miles."
"An Old Timer," who was J. K. C. Forrest, writing in the Chicago Record, July 26, 1894, says Gay was "an em- ploye of Ogee." He moved to Princeton, Illinois, and served as postmaster there.
The Galena Advertiser of September 14, 1829, says the first wagon that ever passed from the Mississippi to
57
EARLY LEE COUNTY
Chicago went in August, 1829, from Galena by way of "Ogees Ferry on Rock River", thence to the Missionary establishment on Fox River and thence to Chicago. (Kett, History of Jo Daviess County, 456; Burgess, Set- tlement of Illinois, 152.)
In the Galena Advertiser of October 19, 1829, and the four succeeding issues, Joseph Ogee gives notice, dated October 19, that he will apply to the county commission- ers' court, at the next term, to be held the first Monday in December, for a license to keep a ferry across Rock river "at the place where the road now crosses said river from Galena to Peoria."
The record of the county commissioners' court of Jo Daviess County of December 7, 1829, reads,
"On the application of Joseph Ogee it is ordered that a license be granted him to keep a tavern at his house on Rock River by his paying into the County Treasury the sum of twelve dollars and the fees of the clerk and entering into bond in the penal sum of three hundred dollars with J. M. Strode and Regis Laurent 'Sect'.
"On application of Joseph Ogee it is ordered that a License be granted him to keep a ferry on Rock River where he at present resides by giving bond with James M. Strode and Regis Laurent his security conditioned as the law directs and paying into the Treasury of the County the sum of ten dollars and the fees of the clerk."
Those familiar with the events of the Black Hawk War know considerable of James M. Strode, and we will only add that he appears on the account books of Mr. Dixon as a frequent borrower of cash.
On the same day there was entered by the court an order fixing the rates at this ferry as follows :
Crossing footman $ .12}
Man and horse .25
Horses or cattle per head, other than cattle yoked .25
Each yoke of cattle .37↓
58
TAVERN RATES
Road wagon 1.00
For each horse hitched to said wagon .25
Each two-horse wagon .75
Each two-wheeled carriage or cart 1.00
One-horse wagon .75
Each hundred weight of Merchandise, etc. .06
There was in force at that time a general order fixing all tavern rates in the county as follows:
Each meal .37↓
Horse feed .25
Horse per night at corn and hay .62}
Man per night .123
Each half pint of French brandy or wine. . .25
Each half pint or whiskey or other domes- tic liquors .12}
Each half pint of Holland gin. .25
Each quart of porter, cider or ale .25
By an agreement dated at "Ogee's Ferry Joe Davies County," November 21, 1829, filed for record Febru- ary 18, 1830, Ogee sold to George "Skillinger" a half interest in the establishment, including the ferry and the farm, for seven hundred dollars, the wagon and five horses already furnished by "Skillinger," which were declared to be firm property, being taken at five hun- dred dollars. From a mortgage dated January 29, 1830, it appears that the firm had been dissolved, Ogee keeping all the property and agreeing to pay "Schellinger" one thousand and sixty dollars for his in- terest, thus showing a very substantial increase in the value of a half interest, and indicating that the ferry was doing a very good business. February 10, 1830, "Schel- linger" assigned this mortgage to Lawrent Rolette by an instrument that was not acknowledged, but its execution was witnessed by John M. Gay and "Paskal Pinsonault," the latter signing by making his mark. (Possibly this John M. Gay is the Gay who was the first postmaster at Ogee's Ferry. "Paskal Penseno" appears
59
EARLY LEE COUNTY
on the account books of Mr. Dixon as a debtor May 21, 1830.)
The Galena Advertiser of January 4, 1830, says that, pursuant to the order of the county commissioners' court, a road had just been laid out and marked from St. Vrains furnace on Apple river, near Woodbine, "to Ogee's Ferry on Rock river," lessening the distance about thirty miles and making the road from Galena to Ogee's Ferry about fifty-five miles. "The mail stage came this way the last trip."
On October 28, 1830 Laurent Rolette assigned to Joseph Rolette of Prairie du Chien whatever inter- est he had "in and to certain ferry privileges origin- ally granted by the General Assembly of the State of Illinois to Joseph Ogee to keep up and maintain a ferry across Rock River at the place where the public road from Fort Clark to Galena Crosses," reciting that his interest was acquired through a mortgage to "Schillin- ger." (The spelling of these names is in strict accord with the record. The account books of Mr. Dixon show charges against "Skelinger.")
Joseph Rolette settled in Prairie du Chien as early as 1804, remaining there until his death in 1842. For many years he represented the American Fur Company "on the upper Mississippi river." He acted as justice of the peace and was one of Wisconsin's quaint characters. (Hurlbut, Chicago Antiquities; Durrie, Annals of Prairie du Chien.) Laurent (improperly spelled Lawrent) Ro- lette was with the American Fur Company as early as 1824, being then, and for several years thereafter sta- tioned at Drummond's Island in Lake Huron. (Ameri- can Fur Co. letter book.) He and Skellinger were living in or near Galena at the time of these transactions with Ogee.
Jefferson Davis, then a Lieutenant in the First In- fantry, was at Dixon in 1831. In "Jefferson Davis, A
60
FIRST ROCK RIVER BRIDGE
Memoir," Mrs. Davis states that he said he was going through Illinois that year with his scouts, and, upon reaching Rock River, "found the mail coach, and num- bers of wagons with persons going to the lead mines detained at the river. There was no bridge. The water was frozen, yet not sufficiently so for them to pass over. No house except that of the ferryman, whose name was Dixon. His log cabin was near. The whole party put themselves at his command. He told them to keep a good fire in the cabin, and set the men to hewing blocks of ice. They worked faithfully and ere long the- struc- ture began to assume shape. As each was set in posi- tion, water was poured over, which froze it in its place. Sometimes a workman would fall overboard, and he was ordered to run into the cabin and turn round and round before the blazing log fire until dry. Soon the bridge was pronounced safe, and the whole party of men, women, children and vehicles passed safely over. The ferryman, Dixon, remembered the young army officer ever afterward, and some years ago when Mr. Davis was invited to Illinois, a letter came from the old man, expressing his happy anticipation of meeting him once more on earth. . Mr. Davis could not then accept the in- vitation, and not long since Mr. Dixon died."
On the first of March, 1832, there was filed for record in Jo Daviess County an instrument reading as follows :
"Know all men by these presents that I, Joseph Ogee of the county of Jo Daviess & State of Illinois have this day sold and by these presents do bargain and sell to John Dixon of the County and State aforesaid all my right title interest and claim of, in and to the improvement ferry and apper- tainances at or near the place usually known as Ogces Ferry on Rock River in the County and State aforesaid with all the priviledges an- nuities and property belonging to or pertaining to me at or near said place to have and to hold
61
EARLY LEE COUNTY
the same without molestation forever except the mortgage given to George Skelenger on part of said property, which I do not bind myself to prevent the opperation of and to release the said Dixon from all rents and undertakings by virtue of his renting the said premises by an article of agreement entered into in March 1830. In consideration of the foregoing the said Dixon has given me his two several notes one for the sum of one hundred and fifty dollars and one for the sum of four hundred dollars payable in four months after this date.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this twenty-seventh day of
January 07.21832 1 6.00
JOHN M. SMITH. witness
STATE OF ILLINOIS, COUNTY OF JO DAVIESS.
Be it known that on this thirtieth day of January A. D. 1832 before me William Smith a justice of the peace in and for said county came John M. Smith proved by the oath of John R. Coons a credible wit- ness to be the person whose name appears subscribed to the above deed as a witness to the execution there- of, and made oath that J. Ogee the person whose name appears subscribed to said deed is the real person who executed the same, and that he the said John M. Smith subscribed his name thereto as wit- ness in presence of said J. Ogee and at his request.
62
DIXON'S FERRY
Given under my hand & seal at the county aforesaid the day & year above written.
WILLIAM SMITH, J. P. (Seal.)"
Mr. Dixon's account books do not show the state of his account with Ogee at the date of this instrument, and it is impossible to tell exactly what Mr. Dixon paid for the ferry. He assumed the payment of a mortgage indebtedness of one thousand sixty dollars and gave his own notes for five hundred fifty dollars, so the pur- chase price may have been sixteen hundred ten dol- lars. There is nothing remaining now from which we can know how much rent Mr. Dixon paid for the ferry.
There are many charges for merchandise and several for payments of cash against Ogee, and several credits in Mr. Dixon's account books, one of the latter being an item of two hundred dollars, January 24, 1831, for "Rent." There is, also, another credit in Ogee's favor of one hundred dollars for "rent," but it is not dated.
He is charged with the county ferry tax of fifteen dol- lars for the year 1831, but the date of the payment is not shown.
The first printed mention of Dixon's Ferry that has been found is a statement in the Galenian of May 16, 1832, that "An express has just arrived from Dixon's Ferry across Rock River."
This incident may serve to give some idea of the busi- ness done at the ferry. Frank H. Funk, member of the State Public Utilities Commission of Illinois, is a grand- son of Isaac Funk, who settled at what is now Funk's Grove, McLean county, in 1823, and who acquired a large fortune by raising and selling cattle and hogs. Isaac Funk had a brother named Absalom. Frank II. Funk says that there is in his family a tradition that Absalom Funk, finding that there was no market for hogs in Chi- cago, once drove three thousand hogs from Funk's Grove
63
EARLY LEE COUNTY
to Galena, as there were about five thousand people in and around Galena and he thought that would be a good market. In examining the old account books kept by Mr. Dixon we find these items that sustain this tradi- tion :--
1830. Mr. Funk, Dr.
Apl. 30 to dinner for two .50
ferriage of cattle, Dear- 1.25
bourn horse & 2 men
1830. Absalom Funk, Dr.
Deer. 20. To 10 meals 1.87
to 4 horses 1 night
1.50
Lodging for 5 0.62}
3.99₺
By the treaty of Fort Armstrong, September 15, 1832, with the Winnebagoes, provision was made, at their request, for the payment of two hundred two dollars and fifty cents to Ogee in satisfaction of his claims against them. There is a provision in the treaty of Chicago, Sep- tember 26, 1833, with the Chippewa, Ottawa and Pota- watomi Indians for the payment of two hundred dollars to "Joseph Ogie."
James Simons published notice in the Galenian of Oc- tober 24, 1832, that he held, at his place on the East Fork of Fever river, a horse "recently given up to Joseph O'Gee, by the Winnebago Indians," from which it seems Ogee had not left the country at that time, though the notice does not tell where he was.
The old account books show charges against him for "mockasins," caps and shoes furnished his sons John and Louis (sometimes spelled Lewis), and a charge May 15, 1830, for cash "to Margaret to go to Fort." The last item indicates that Ogee had a daughter, but no other trace of her has been found. There are three charges against him for postage on letters, one being for ten cents July 26, 1831, one for twelve and one-half cents
64
THE OGEE SECTION
August 5, 1831, and one for ten cents that is not dated, though it evidently is later than the others.
The last entry on the account books that mentions Ogee is a charge of one dollar for "tin beeswax and nails to mend canoe," June third, 1832.
The Potawatomies, says Judge Caton, in The Last of the Illinois, were removed to a reservation in Clay County, Missouri, in 1837. About two years later they were re- moved to a place near Council Bluffs, Iowa, where they remained a short time, then being placed on a reserva- tion in Kansas, where they lived about thirty years. Then they were taken to the Indian Territory, now Okla- homa.
One of the Potawatomi chiefs signing the treaty of November 15, 1861, made in Kansas, was L. H. Ogee. Perhaps he was a son of Joseph Ogee.
By the terms of the Prairie du Chien treaty of July 29, 1829, there was granted to "Madeline Ogee, a Potawatomie woman, wife of Joseph Ogee, one section west of and adjoining the tract herein granted to Pierre Leclerc," which was at the village of As-sim-in-eh-kon, or Paw Paw Grove. It is not difficult for one to believe that Ogee had a part' in securing this grant for his wife.
The next mention of him that we have found is by Mrs. Kinzie in Waubun. Speaking of her visit at John Dixon's, March 13, 1831, on her memorable journey to Chi- cago, she says she saw there a boy dressed in the full Indian costume, and was told, in response to her inquiries, that he was John Ogee, a son of the old ferryman, and that his mother, "unable to endure the continued ill-treat- ment of her husband, a surly, intemperate Canadian, (she) had left him, and returned to his (sic) family among the Pottowattamies. Years after, this boy and a brother who had also been left behind with their father, found their way to the Upper Missouri, to join their mother, who, with the others of her tribe, had been re-
.
65
EARLY LEE COUNTY
moved by the Government from the shores of Lake Michigan."
Dr. Everett told the writer that he never knew what caused the separation of the Ogees. Mrs. Ogee married Job P. Alcott on or before November 14, 1842. It is quite probable that Ogee was then dead for while the Potawatomi and other Indian tribes had a custom where- by the man could divorce his wife (Haines, American Indians, p. 288; Meese Early Rock Island, p. 15, and Gurdon S. Hubbard so divorced his Indian wife Watseka; Fergus Historical Series, no. 31, p. 50), the wife could not obtain such a divorce.
Boss says that Ogee and "his wife were not without their share of domestic difficulties. As they had no neigh- bors near enough to quarrel with, they managed to stir up a quarrel between themselves, which resulted in the sep- aration of the family, and Joe was left to run his boat and broil his broth alone. Ogee had been run- ning the ferry nearly two years; his wife had forsaken him, and withal he was much disposed to change his course of life," when Mr. Dixon came and took charge of the ferry in April, 1830.
Whatever the cause of the separation may have been, it is to be noted that the wife left both husband and chil- dren behind when she went away.
It is said that Ogee died in Dixon and was buried there, first at the corner of Peoria avenue and First street and then in the cemetery, but we have not been able to verify this. There is no record of his burial in the ceme- tery, but no record of burials there was kept prior to 1880, so that fact does not aid us.
Kurtz says that a man named Lafferty died in the fall of 1836, "and this was the first interment in the ceme- tery." If he is right, and Ogee was buried at the corner of First street and Peoria avenue, it is reasonably certain that Ogee died before 1836.
66
DAD JOE
No evidence of the date or place of his birth has been found.
November 14, 1842, when the Potawatomies were living on a reservation in Iowa, Mrs. Madeline Alcott, "of the territory of Iowa, upper Missouri, within the Council Bluffs sub-agency," and her husband Job, executed the first of the deeds by which she parted with her land in this county. In Captain Enoch Duncan's Company of Mount- ed Riflemen enlisted for the Black Hawk War, there was a sergeant Job Alcott of Galena, who was enrolled May 19 and discharged September 14, 1832. A man of that name settled in the town of Wyoming in 1836. (Hill, History of Lee County, p. 648.)
Dr. Everett believed that Mrs. Ogee was the daughter of La Sallier, the Frenchman who lived in the cabin near Grand Detour in 1822, whose wife was an Indian woman. Keating had La Sallier for a guide from Fort Dearborn to the Pecatonica in 1823, and in his Narrative of An Ex- pedition to the Sources of St. Peter's River, published in 1824, says La Sallier "had taken a wife among the Win- nebagoes."
That Mrs. Ogee was a Potawatomi is shown by the fact that she is so called in the treaty of Prairie du Chien, and it is reasonable to believe that the man who wrote the treaty obtained his information as to her nativity from the Potawatomi interpreter-her husband. John K. Robinson says she was a Potawatomi, and so do Judge McCulloch and Kett's History of Ogle County.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.