Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Kane County, Part 124

Author:
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: Chicago: Munsell Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 950

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Such is the story of the Black Hawk War, the most notable struggle with the aborigines in Illi- nois history. At its beginning both the State and national authorities were grossly misled by an exaggerated estimate of the strength of Black Hawk's force as to numbers and his plans for recovering the site of his old village, while

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Black Hawk had conceived a low estimate of the numbers and courage of his white enemies, es- pecially after the Stillman defeat. The cost of the war to the State and nation in money has been estimated at $2,000,000, and in sacrifice of life on both sides at not less than 1,200. The loss of life by the troops in irregular skirmishes, and in massacres of settlers by the Indians, aggregated about 250, while an equal number of regulars perished from a visitation of cholera at the various stations within the district affected by the war, especially at Detroit, Chicago, Fort Armstrong and Galena. Yet it is the judgment of later historians that nearly all this sacrifice of life and treasure might have been avoided, but for a series of blunders due to the blind or un- scrupulous policy of officials or interloping squat- ters upon lands which the Indians had occupied to call it by under the treaty of 1804. A conspicious blunder- no harsher name - was the violation by Stillman's command of the rules of civilized warfare in the attack made upon Black Hawk's messengers, sent under flag of truce to request a conference to settle terms under which he might return to the west side of the Mississippi-an act which resulted in a humiliating and disgraceful defeat for its authors and proved the first step in actual war. Another misfortune was the failure to understand Neapope's appeal for peace and permission for his people to pass beyond the Mississippi the night after the battle of Wisconsin Heights; and the third and most inexcusable blunder of all, was the refusal of the officer in command of the " Warrior " to respect Black Hawk's flag of truce and request for a conference just before the bloody massacre which has gone into history under the name of the " battle of the Bad Axe." Either of these events, properly availed of, would have prevented much of the butchery of that bloody episode which has left a stain upon the page of history, although this statement implies no disposition to detract from the patriotism and courage of some of the leading actors upon whom the responsibility was placed of protecting the frontier settler from outrage and massacre. One of the features of the war was the bitter jealousy engendered by the unwise policy pursued by General Atkinson towards some of the volun- teers-especially the treatment of General James D. Henry, who, although subjected to repeated slights and insults, is regarded by Governor Ford and others as the real hero of the war. Too brave a soldier to shirk any responsibility and too modest to exploit his own deeds, he felt

deeply the studied purpose of his superior to ignore him in the conduct of the campaign-a purpose which, as in the affair at the Bad Axe, was defeated by accident or by General Henry's soldierly sagacity and attention to duty, although he gave out to the public no utterance of com- plaint. Broken in health by the hardships and exposures of the campaign, he went South soon after the war and died of consumption, unknown and almost alone, in the city of New Orleans, less two years later.

Aside from contemporaneous newspaper ac- counts, monographs, and manuscripts on file in public libraries relating to this epoch in State history, the most comprehensive records of the Black Hawk War are to be found in the "Life of Black Hawk," dictated by himself (1834) ; Wake- field's "History of the War between the United States and the Sac and Fox Nations" (1834); Drake's " Life of Black Hawk" (1854); Ford's "History of Illinois" (1854); Reynolds' "Pio- neer History of Illinois; and "My Own Times"; Davidson & Stuve's and Moses' Histories of Illi- nois; Blanchard's " The Northwest and Chicago"; Armstrong's "The Sauks and the Black Hawk War," and Reuben G. Thwaite's "Story of the Black Hawk War" (1892.)

CHICAGO HEIGHTS, a village in the southern part of Cook County, twenty-eight miles south of the central part of Chicago, on the Chicago & Eastern Illinois, the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern and the Michigan Central Railroads; is located in an agricultural region, but has some manufactures as well as good schools-also has one newspaper. Population (1900), 5,100.

GRANITE, a city of Madison County, located five miles north of St. Louis on the lines of the Burlington; the Chicago & Alton; Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis; Chicago, Peoria & St. Louis (Illinois), and the Wabash Railways. It is adjacent to the Merchants' Terminal Bridge across the Mississippi and has considerable manu- facturing and grain-storage business; has two newspapers .- Population (1900), 3,122.

HARLEM, a village of Proviso Township, Cook County, and suburb of Chicago, on the line of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad, nine miles west of the terminal station at Chicago. Harlem originally embraced the village of Oak Park, now a part of the city of Chicago, but, in 1884, was set off and incorporated as a village. Considerable manufacturing is done here. Population (1900), 4,085.

HARVEY, a city of Cook County, and an im- portant manufacturing suburb of the city of Chi-

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HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.

cago, three miles southwest of the southern city limits. It is on the line of the Illinois Central and the Chicago & Grand Trunk Railways, and has extensive manufactures of harvesting, street and steam railway machinery, gasoline stoves, enameled ware, etc. ; also has one newspaper and ample school facilities. Population (1900), 5,395.

IOWA CENTRAL RAILWAY, a railway line having its principal termini at Peoria, Ill., and Manly Junction, nine miles north of Mason City, Iowa, with several lateral branches making con- nections with Centerville, Newton, State Center, Story City, Algona and Northwood in the latter State. The total length of line owned, leased and operated by the Company, officially reported in 1899, was 508.98 miles, of which 89.76 miles- including 3.5 miles trackage facilities on the Peoria & Pekin Union between Iowa Junction and Peoria-were in Illinois. The Illinois divi- sion extends from Keithsburg-where it enters the State at the crossing of the Mississippi-to Peoria .- (HISTORY.) The Iowa Central Railway Company was originally chartered as the Central Railroad Company of Iowa and the road com- pleted in October, 1871. In 1873 it passed into the hands of a receiver and, on June 4, 1879, was reorganized under the name of the Central Iowa Railway Company. In May, 1883, this company purchased the Peoria & Farmington Railroad, which was incorporated into the main line, but defaulted and passed into the hands of a receiver December 1, 1886; the line was sold under fore- closure in 1887 and 1888, to the Iowa Central Railway Company, which had effected a new organization on the basis of $11,000,000 common stock, $6,000,000 preferred stock and $1,379,625 temporary debt certificates convertible into pre- ferred stock, and $7,500,000 first mortgage bonds. The transaction was completed, the receiver dis- charged and the road turned over to the new company, May 15, 1889 .- (FINANCIAL). The total capitalization of the road in 1899 was $21,337, 558, of which $14,159,180 was in stock, $6,650,095 in bonds and $528,283 in other forms of indebtedness. The total earnings and income of the line in Illi- nois for the same year were $532,568, and the ex- penditures $566,333.

SPARTA, a city of Randolph County, situated on the Centralia & Chester and the Mobile & Ohio Railroads, twenty miles northwest of Ches- ter and fifty miles southeast of St. Louis. It has

a number of manufacturing establishments, in- cluding plow factories, a woolen mill, a cannery and creameries; also has natural gas. The first settler was James McClurken, from South Caro- lina, who settled here in 1818. He was joined by James Armour a few years later, who bought land of McClurken, and together they laid out a village, which first received the name of Co- lumbus. About the same time Robert G. Shan- non, who had been conducting a mercantile busi- ness in the vicinity, located in the town and became the first Postmaster. In 1839 the name of the town was changed to Sparta. Mr. McClur- ken, its earliest settler, appears to have been a man of considerable enterprise, as he is credited with having built the first cotton gin in this vi- cinity, besides still later, erecting saw and flour mills and a woolen mill. Sparta was incorporated as a village in 1837 and in 1859 as a city. A col- ony of members of the Reformed Presbyterian Church (Covenanters or "Seceders") established at Eden, a beautiful site about a mile from Sparta, about 1822, cut an important figure in the history of the latter place, as it became the means of attracting here an industrious and thriving population. At a later period it became one of the most important stations of the "Under- ground Railroad" (so called) in Illinois (which see). The population of Sparta (1890) was 1,979; (1900), 2,041.

TOLUCA, a city of Marshall County situated on the line of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé Railroad, 18 miles sonthwest of Streator. It is in the center of a rich agricultural district; has the usual church and educational facilities of cities of its rank, and two newspapers. Population (1900), 2,629.

WEST HAMMOND, a village situated in the northeast corner of Thornton Township, Cook County, adjacent to Hammond, Ind., from which it is separated by the Indiana State line. It is on the Michigan Central Railroad, one mile south of the Chicago City limits, and has convenient ac- cess to several other lines, including the Chicago & Erie; New York, Chicago & St. Louis, and Western Indiana Railroads. Like its Indiana neighbor, it is a manufacturing center of much importance, was incorporated as a village in 1892, and lias grown rapidly within the last few years, having a population, according to the cen- sus of 1900, of 2,935.

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HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.

CHAPTER I.

INDIANS.

ABORIGINAL OCCUPANTS-INDIAN TRIBES IN ILLI- NOIS TERRITORY-SOME NOTABLE INDIAN CHIEFS -THE STORY OF WAUBONSIE AND NEOQUA- WATER ROUTES AND PORTAGES CONNECTING THE LAKES WITH THE ILLINOIS AND MISSISSIPPI RIVERS-INDIAN CONFEDERACY OF THE ILLINOIS -INDIAN MOUNDS AND BURIAL GROUNDS.

To note the development of a great State is a rare privilege, and to observe the transition of any considerable portion of a great common- wealth, from its primal wildness to a condi- tion of high culture, both in its material fea- tures and in the mental and moral character- istics of its inhabitants, is wonderfully interest- ing. In no fuller measure has such peculiar opportunity been given to any people than to the early settlers of the Fox River valley in Northern Illinois. Less than four-score years have passed since the untutored savage, with nature's countless forms of animal and vege- table life, alone had lived and died, through countless ages, on the banks of its beautiful streams, amid its lovely woodlands and across its verdant prairies. For untold centuries no sound, save nature's multitudinous voices, had broken the vast solitude. With the advent of 619-I

the white man, the Indian vanished as a pass- ing vapor; he disappeared and left no trace of his long occupancy. Whoever attempts to trace the history of Indian tribes, delves amid mists and shadows.

Speaking from uncertain data, it appears that the Pottawatomies, who were the im- mediate predecessors of the white man, were a branch of the Algonquin stock, differing in dialect, customs and characteristics from the Sioux, the Iroquois, or the Illinois ( Illini-Lin- ni-wek). We find the Pottawatomies first men- tioned in 1639, as then located upon the north- erly bank of Lake Huron. A half century later, they showed Pere Marquette the narrow summit between the waters of the Fox River of Wisconsin, emptying into Green Bay, and of the Wisconsin River, tributary to the Mississippi, near the present city of Portage; and placed him upon the long, marvelous waterway, through the heart of the continent to the Southern Gulf. Steadily they pushed the different branches of the Miamis down the western shore of Lake Michigan, and about 1718 the Weas-a branch of the Miamis- abandoned their village at Chicago, through fear of the "Canoe Indians"-the Pottawat- omies. Their name signifies "we are making a fire;" and, from their roaming habits, other Indians spoke of them as "squatters." A care- ful enumeration of the Indians in Illinois made by Governor Edwards showed that, in 1809, the Pottawatomies had about three hun- dred and fifty warriors on the Little Calumet and Kankakee Rivers-about three hundred near Chicago, and one hundred and eighty on the Calumet, DesPlaines and Fox Rivers. Of

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HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.

these Waubonsie was the head War Chief. In Thomas L. McKenney's "History of the Indian Tribes of North America," published hy the War Department of the United States Govern- ment, we have a sketch of his life and a colored portrait of the great chieftain. It says: "He was the principal war chief of the Pot- tawatomies of the prairie, who sold their lands in Illinois and Indiana to the United States, and accepted other territory west of the Miss- issippi River, to which they agreed to remove. In 1835 he visited Washington for the purpose, he said, of taking his Great Father by the hand, and the next year he led his people to their new home near Council Bluffs, Iowa, where, in 1838, he is still living."

In 1833 the principal village of this portion of the tribe extended loosely along the west bank of Fox River from the site of the present city of Aurora to Mill Creek; and a smaller village in command of Nic-o-wah was located on the east bank of the river, just below where Dundee now stands, in the sheltered glade known as "Granny Russell's Hollow." The few settlers who lived near these Indians before their re- moval, say they were lazy, dirty vagabonds, slightly sheltered in comfortless te-pees, des- titute of furniture or conveniences of any kind. They were quite respectful, almost subservient, in their intercourse with the whites; not truth- ful, incorrigible beggars, and inclined to pilfer. A venerable lady. who for months lived near the much superior wigwam (or council house) of the chief, describes him as a large, fine-look- ing, powerful man, over six feet in height, with a kindly and pleasant bearing. She says he was an intelligent, considerate husband and father, and ruled his people well. She declares that his name was not Waubonsie, but that the Indians pronounced it as spelled Wah-bn-seh -- the accent being upon the first and the last syllables, especially upon the last, while the second was a mere buzzing or humming sound.

Captain Charles B. Dodson, late of Geneva, Ill., contracted with the Government to furnish transportation for the tribe to their new reser- vation; and he is recorded as saying the chief promised him "to be ready with his people on a certain morning to start upon the long journey, but he found on reaching the old chief's wig- wam at the time designated, only a portion of the tribe had assembled. Waubonsie, a portion of his warriors and his squaws, were nowhere to be found, and the escort was compelled to

start without the head of the tribe. This, how- ever, so troubled Captain Dodson and the United States officers of the escort, that, although several days distant upon the journey, Dodson with only three men returned, and surprised " the chief surrounded hy the remnant of his people. An entire day was spent in trying to induce him to follow his trihe in accordance with his promise, but only a sullen dissent was the result until just at evening, when, hy prom- ises and presents, the Captain succeeded in getting the squaws aboard his wagons and started westward. This was too much for old Waubonsie who could not live without his squaws, and, with a last, sad look over the lovely valley of the Fox, which had heen his hunting grounds and where he had marshalled his dusky warriors, he took up the line of march, following his people with a suhdued and broken spirit." It is said that his son, the young chief, Neoqua, was a pleasant fellow and a great favorite with the settlers; but, true to his Indian nature, he would not work; he said: "Me hunt the meat, squaw hunt the corn." It is reported that Waubonsie's system and discipline were such that he could assemhle five hundred armed warriors in six hours' time; but this is doubtless an exaggeration. It is also reported that, during the great war, Neoqua raised a regiment of his people in Kansas, and served faithfully in the Union Army.

The Indians, the hunters and trappers, and the "voyageurs" and priests of the days where tradition and history dimly merge, had three water routes and portages connecting the great system of northern rivers and the lower lakes with the Illinois and Mississippi, viz: By the St. Joseph to South Bend or "Mish- waukie," with portage to the head-waters of the Kankakee or Theakiki; by the Calumet with portage to the Kankakee; and by the South Chicago and Mud Lake with portage to the Des Plaines, and from these several portages down the rivers named to the Illinois. Along this great highway to the Mississippi many sad and thrilling tragedies of savage life were en- acted; and along this route, and the trails con- nected with it, the first soldiers and settlers found their way into the new land.

The "Illinois" was the collective name of a confederacy of five separate tribes, namely: the Kaskaskias, the Cahokias, the Tamaroas, the Peorias, and the Mitchigamies; and they

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HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.

possessed the country along the Illinois River from the Kankakee and Des Plaines to the Mississippi, and southerly past the center of the State. "Pere Membre" states that, in 1680, their chief village, which he called "La Van- tum," contained some seven thousand souls, and was situated about a mile southerly from Starved Rock (Fort St. Louis), near the site of the present village of Utica. Doubtless they were the most manly and humane of any of the western tribes, with a stronger inclination toward progress and civilization. Their com- plete annihilation, under the repeated assaults of the Iroquois, the Foxes and the Pottawat- omies, is among the most pathetic tragedies of Indian tradition or history.

But Kane County, situated some distance up the valley of the Fox, was a little removed from this great water highway, and there is no tradition of any encounter of the aborigines within its peaceful borders. Indolent, im- provident, gluttonous and cruel, they had roamed over these fertile lands during count- less generations. As a race, they developed no intellectual or moral force, evolved no national or governmental system worthy of perpetua- tion, indicated no inventive genius whatever, and seemed utterly incapable of progress toward better conditions. No enduring monu- ment did they rear, no structure of beauty or utility did they erect, and there is no trace of literature or art in all their traditions or history. They left absolutely nothing to mark their long, long occupancy, save the narrow trail which the elements and vegetation almost obliterated in a single year, and the low mounds above their dead warriors that cultiva- tion quickly smoothed into utter oblivion. Old settlers at Elgin well remember the group of such mounds thickly covering some fifteen or twenty acres between Highland Avenue and Wing Street, on the southeast quarter of Sec- tion 10. Three of them, protected by the orchard fence and sod near the Washington Wing homestead, are still plainly visible on the north side of Wing Street. A map of the State, published in 1837, indicates them by stars as "old Indian mounds" situated just west of Fox River, although the old map shows no settle- ment of any kind between Chicago and Galena, except Bloomingdale at Meacham's Grove.

The fine cities along the Fox River, and from thence westward, were then but names, or a few settlers' cabins. Now and again among

the Indians, individuals appeared who rose far above their low environment; yet their rarity but flashes into more vivid distinctness the brutal characteristics of the race. They passed as the wild beasts and birds have per- ished, and, while there is pathos and pity that it should be so, nevertheless it is well.

CHAPTER II.

TOPOGRAPHY AND FLORA.

UNWILLING MIGRATION OF THE POTTAWATOMIES WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI- THE FOX RIVER VALLEY-NATURAL BEAUTY OF ITS SCENERY AND FERTILITY OF ITS SOIL-RICH TIMBER LANDS AND MINIATURE LAKES-INDIGENOUS FRUITS, FLOWERS AND PLANTS.

The Pottawatomies very reluctantly turned their unwilling footsteps westward, for they had some appreciation of the beauty and bounty of the land they were leaving forever. In this middle valley of the Fox there were no bad lands. It was all easy to traverse, de- lightful to the eye, and wonderfully productive of the food suited to savage life. The seasons were temperate with few heavy snow falls in winter, and the climate healthy and invigorat- ing. The woodland and prairies abounded in game, and the streams were teeming with ex- cellent food-fishes. There were no tangled forests, no large impenetrable swamps nor vast prairies, but a continued succession of gentle, sloping hills and smiling valleys, covered with rich verdure and beautiful forest glades. The flower-bedecked prairies were bordered by fair woodlands and dotted with shady groves.

Through that portion of the valley now in- cluded within the boundaries of Kane County, the Fox River held its course from the north nearly due south. Its waters were clear and pure, fed by innumerable creeks and springs, and it was not connected with any large sloughs or swamps. Its bed was clean gravel with a few short stretches of limestone rock; its channel of quite uniform depth, with a quick, steady flow or current, while its banks, both

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in prairie and woodland, along its whole course, sloped gently to the water's edge. On its west bank, Tyler, Ferson's and Mill Creeks were its principal tributaries, while from the east Popple Creek was the only stream of similar size contributing its waters. Yet, upon each bank, very many fine brooks and contiguous springs were feeding its whole course with their pure, cool waters. In ordinary times it was never a deep stream; but in those early days, when the whole surface of the land was covered with the tough prairie sod, like an almost impenetrable thatch, the heavy rains and, in spring, melting snows, poured volumes of water into all its tributaries, that frequently overflowed their banks and so filled the river that it became a torrent impassable to man or beast. And, when the ice broke after a severe winter and came sweeping down with the spring freshet, its force was irresistible, and the first bridges and dams were swept away like straws before the mad floods. Probably the river itself, and also each of these tributary streams, have diminished nearly one-half in size and flow of current. The winter cutting of thou- sands and hundreds of thousands of tons of ice from its frozen surface, and the erection of so many dams and bridges, together with the constant diversion of so much of its water for the use of the fine cities and towns along its bank, have so diminished its volume and current that it is now easily controlled. The river valley is very narrow, as the summit toward Lake Michigan is but eight or ten miles eastward, while, from ten or twelve miles west- ward, the drainage flows to the distant Rock River.

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Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Kane County, Part 124

Author: Publication date: 1904 Publisher: Chicago: Munsell Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 950

Author:
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: Chicago: Munsell Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 950