History of Bureau County, Illinois, Part 16

Author: Bradsby, Henry C., [from old catalog] ed
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Chicago, World publishing company
Number of Pages: 776

USA > Illinois > Bureau County > History of Bureau County, Illinois > Part 16

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).

Mr. Moseley and Mr. Musgrove were men of industry and enterprise, improving well their claims, and lived upon them until their deaths.

"Dad Joe Smith."-Among the earliest and certainly one of the most remarkable men of all the early pioneers who came to Bureau County was Joseph Smith, immortal as "Dad Joe." A very powerful physical frame, not tall, but square and heavy built, compaet, and large bones and muscles, a tower of strength, with a capacity of voice that has never been equaled in this part of the world. A big brain, a strong and steady nerve and a heart that never knew fear of anything mor- tal. The Smith family are a long line of he- roic pioneers and soldiers, running back from the late war to the American Revolution. From the early settlements in Maryland they pressed upon the bloody tracks of the savage from Maryland through and beyond the "Dark and Bloody Ground," into Ohio, In- diana, into and through Illinois and beyond the great Father of Waters. They warmed him in their cabins and gave him of their salt when he was a friendly and good Indian, and when he put on his murderous paint, they "met him in his path and slew him." "Dad Joe" Smith was the child of pioneers-"born in the wildwood, rocked on the wave " -- he grew, from inheritance and from the educa- tion of his life, a pioneer, that grandest type of man, of whom it has been well said they were " civilization's forlorn hope," for with- out them limited indeed would be its do- minions. It is a tradition that "Dad Joe " was one of Gen. George Rogers Clark's men, or at least it was the daring and adventurous march of this" Hannibal of the Northwest" into this part of the Mississippi Valley that resulted in eventually bringing him to this part of Illinois. His coming here was the most valuable acquisition of the time to the whole country, for he possessed the "blood and iron " in his nature that awed and mas- tered the crafty and cruel savage and would tame and quiet his fierce, wild nature often when nothing else would. He was brave,

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sincere, manly and honest, and the red man soon learned to know that his friendship was a boon and that his enmity was to be dreaded, that his good-will was easier gained than his ill-will, and that one was to be as much de- sired as the other was to be dreaded. In his heart the untutored savage must have felt that

"The elements so mixed in him That nature might stand up And say to all the world: This is a man."

His stentorian voice and his ever ready " Yes, God bless you!" were equally famed throughout the country, and something of the estimate the people entertained of the man is the fact that he was universally known as "Dad Joe," and to half his acquaintances to have spoken of Mr. Joseph Smith would have been mentioning a strange name-some one they had never heard of; and so marked was this peculiarity that it was quite natural for every one to speak of his boy as "Young Dad Joe," who was a chip of the old block. An inci- dent occurred in the Black Hawk war that was fitly remembered at the old settlers' meeting in Princeton, in September, 1875, in the following lines:

YOUNG DAD JOE'S RIDE .*

" Of Paul Revere, and Collins Graves, * * * *

" And Sheridan's most famous ride, Aud other heroes still beside. Their praise is on the Nation's tongue."

"Our hero is a stripling lad, Who was the darling of his " Dad," Yet scarce from off the apron string; Younger than was the ruddy Dave, Who slew the famed Philistine brave." * ¥ *

The poet then proceeds to almost literally relate the circumstance that actually occur- red. Gov. Reynolds was with the army at

Dixon, and it became very important for him to get a dispatch delivered to the commander at Fort Wilburn, a fortification on the Illi- nois River opposite Peru. He called for a volunteer to carry the dispatch. a dangerous undertaking, as the country swarmed with Indians, supposed to be on the lookout for any couriers that might be passing from one portion of the army to another in this emer- gency.

" Well mindful of his conntry's weal, And fired with patriotic zeal, Old Dad Joe unto him said, God bless you. Goveruor, I will send That message to its destined end." * * *

Then turning to his boy, a lad about fifteen years old, he said:

" God bless you, Joe; Take this dispatch across the plain, To Wilburn Fort and there remain;

Just saddle np old Pat and go!"

The brave boy gladly obeyed, and in a few moments was on old Pat's back: the message carefully tucked away in his clothes, and as he turned his horse's head, and in a quick gallop started upon the perilous voyage, that great voice of "Old Dad Joe's " rang out after him:

" God bless you, boy,

Keep clear of timber-Indians there!"

And a backward wave of the boy's hand told the father that his boy understood him, as he sped away, bending forward his head and steadily looking straight before him with every sense drawn to sharpest tension. The boy feeling the greatness of his mission- the destiny perhaps that hung upon his suc- cessful voyage, thundered across the plains, and heeding the advice of his father in bear- ing off from the timber, was able to ride in triumph from starting-point to destination, although from several coverts the armed In- dians on ponies discovered him, and rode out and chased him for many a mile on his way.

*Read by A. N. Bacon.

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Their ponies were over-matched by old Pat, and they would soon abandon the chase as the young rider would disappear in the tall grass and the distant view, as he sped on and on over the swelling prairie.

" He onward sped and reached the goal. * * * *

" When they the youthful horseman saw, And from its hiding place to draw The Governor's will, that they might know, A shout went up from that lone band That should be sounded through the land, Hurrah! Hurrah! for young Dad Joe.

* * *

" Our story may be growing old, The ineident that we have told, Was more than forty years ago; Some may our hero never know; Yet Bureau folks may well bestow

Three times three cheers on Young Dad Joe."

The poetry is not very much, but the heroic feat it celebrates is a part of the Black Hawk war that should not be lost in the history of Illinois. It was a brave act by this "little man, in crownless hat and legs of tan."

" Dad Joe" was among the first to settle at Fort Clark, at Aukas, at the mouth of Rock River, at the lead mines and in Bureau County. He spent the most of his life here and lived and died without an enemy. He got his name of " Dad Joe " from the trader Ogee, who spoke very broken English, who found no other way of designating Joseph Smith, Sr., from his son Joe. His heart was as kind as his exterior was rough. He was a native of Kentucky, and although his parents owned slaves, he had no educa- tion, and refused to own a human being. He was a strong temperance man, and a good judge of a horse; altogether a most remarkable pioneer, and whose memory will be always carefully preserved by the good people of the county.

It was said of " Dad Joe" that he was a

very moral and pious man, never profane in his language, but we infer from an anecdote of him related by John H. Bryant, at the old settlers' meeting Angust 30, 1884, that he once broke over his rule in this respect. He discovered a prairie fire approaching his farm and he and all his family were out to fight it off in order to save his wheat-stacks that were exposed. In this as everywhere the good old man worked with a will beating out the fire. His strokes flew fast and furious as the fire kept advancing, and at each stroke he would say, "God bless the fire! God bless the fire!" and yet it advanced toward the wheat-stacks, and faster and faster he fought and also faster and faster would he ejaculate, "God bless the fire! God bless the fire!" And finally the fatal flames by a bound were upon the near- est wheat-stack, and then the old man threw down his weapon and exclaimed, “ God damn the fire!" and hurriedly left the scene.

Was not this only oath of the good man like Lawrence Sterne's saying of Uncle Toby's oath: " The accusing spirit flew up to heaven's court of chancery and blushed as he handed it in, and the recording angel as he wrote it down dropped a tear upon it that blotted it out forever."

Capture of the Halt Girls. - William Hall settled where LaMoille now stands, in 1830, and the next year sold to Aaron Gunn (the only survivor who was in the cabin when Elijah Phillips was killed, and who is living in La Salle), and settled on Indian Creek, a few miles north of Ottawa. He had been at his new home but a few weeks when the Black Hawk war broke out. The people had generally fled to the forts. The massacre occurred on the 21st day of May, 1831, at the cabin of a man named Daviess, on In- dian Creek. Fifteen persons were killed, and the two Hall girls, Sylvia, aged eighteen, and Rachel, aged sixteen, were taken prisoners

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and carried off captives. The attack was in the afternoon, by about seventy-five painted Indians. and was so sudden and unexpected that the people in the cabin could make but little defense. William Hall and Robert Morris were at once shot dead. Daviess, the owner of the cabin, made a heroic defense, clubbing his gun and breaking it to pieces and bending the barrel. Henry George jumped into the mill-pond, but was shot and killed while swimming across. Daviess' son, aged fourteen, was caught as he was cross- ing the mill-pond, and tomahawked, and his body thrown into the water. William Hall's son, John W., by running to the creek bank, and as volleys were fired at him, he jumped over the embankment and es- caped. Mrs. Phillips was found with her child in her arms, and their heads had been split with a tomahawk. An infant was snatched from its mother's arms and its brains knocked out against the door-frame. The Hall girls and Miss Daviess jumped on the bed. Miss Daviess was shot dead, and the muzzle of the gun was so near Miss Hall's face as to burn a blister.

Edward and Greenbury Hall, and a son of Mr. Daviess, were at work in a field near the cabin, when the murdering was going on. They heard it, and knew it was their fami- lies being butchered. They hurried to the scene and cautiously approached and saw the number of the Indians, and all they could do was to fly and try and save them- selves. Near the cabin of Daviess lived two families named Henderson-grandfather and uncle of Gen. T. J. Henderson, of Prince- ton. But these families had gone to the fort, and thus escaped.

After the slaughter the savages seized Sylvia and Rachel Hall, placed them on horses, and, a buck at each side to hold them, they started off. They had three

prisoners when they started, having the two girls and an eight year old son of Mr. Daviess; but they soon killed the child, as he seemed troublesome to take along. Two days after the massacre a company of rangers went from Ottawa to bury the dead. The bodies were shockingly mutilated. The captives were carried north of Galena, and their captors, the Sacs and Foxes, turned them over to the Winnebagoes.

A day or two after the capture, John W. Hall, the brother who escaped, at the head of a company of rangers followed in pursuit of the Indians. When the company reached the lead mines Mr. Gratiot and Gen. Dodge, of that place, employed two friendly Winne- bago chiefs to buy the prisoners of the Foxes. They soon effected the purchase and a ran- som of $2,000 and forty ponies and some blankets were paid over to the Indians, and the rangers conducted the girls to the fort. Nicholas Smith, of West Bureau, was a team- ster in the army, and took the girls in his wag- on to the fort near Galena, where they were put on a boat and sent to St. Louis, where they were met by Rev. Erastus Horn, an old friend of their father, who tenderly cared for them until John W. Hall married and settled on the Seaton farm, when the girls returned to Bureau County again. The Illinois Legisla- ture gave the girls a quarter section of canal land near Joliet, and Congress donated them a bounty.

Sylvia married Rev. William Horn, a son of their protector, and moved to Lincoln Neb. Rachel married William Munson, and moved into La Salle County, where she died in 1871.

A remarkable Indian characteristic was manifested as the finale of this massacre. Two Pottawattomie Indians had been indicted in La Salle County for participating in the tragedy. They had been fully identified by

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the Hall girls. They were arrested, indicted and bound over, and before they were tried their tribe moved west of the Mississippi, and in ignorance of what they should do, these criminals went with their tribe. George E. Walker, an Indian trader, was Sheriff of the county, and with others he was security for the appearance of the savages. He went alone into the Indian country west of the river, in pursuit of the prisoners. He found them and made known his mission. A coun- cil was called, the matter considered, aud it was decided the Indians must accompany the Sheriff and stand their trial. The pris- oners bade an eternal farewell to all their friends, and in the firm conviction they would be executed, started willingly with the Sher- iff for the place of trial and execution. For many days the Sheriff traveled through the Indian country, camping at night and the three sleeping together. He would often send the prisoners off to hunt in order to have something to eat, and thus the long slow trip was made through the wild coun- try, and there was not an hour they were on the road but that these criminals could have walked off in perfect security. There is no one thing that so fully portrays the stoicism and indifference of death, and a peculiar sense of Indian honor for their pledged word, as this incident. They felt that they were going to their certain execution-they were dejected and sad all the way, because there is nothing to an Indian so abhorrent as to be hung-choked to death. This is not only death but it is to be damned, because when they die, they believe the soul passes out of the mouth with the last breath, and, if choked, this cannot take place, and the soul is lost. To be shot or burned is nothing to these savage stoics, because then they can sing their death chants, and it is glorious to die.

They were duly tried at La Salle, and ac- quitted. They had so cunningly painted themselves when they appeared at the trial that the Hall girls could not positively iden- tify them.

Alex Boyd's Ride .- In the spring of 1832, Alex Boyd being about the same age of "Young Dad Joe," also had some ex- perience as a rider through the dangerous wilds and Indian coverts, bearing important messages from the commander to the fort at Peoria.

In the winter of 1831 Charles S. Boyd's house, a large two-story log-house with L, burned, and in the flames was destroyed nearly everything in the house except the people. The fire occurred in the dead of the night, and when the family were aroused they could only save themselves. One bed was all that was saved in this line, and the most of the clothing of the family was de- stroyed. Alex's recollection is that he saved a shirt-the one he was sleeping in. The family moved into a little smoke-house.

Some time in June James P. Dixon, son of John Dixon, in company with five soldiers, arrived at Charles Boyd's late at night. They stopped for the night, and in the morn- ing young Dixon told his uncle that he was the bearer of important dispatches from Ap- ple River to Governor Reynolds, who was then supposed to be at the Peoria Fort. He was worn out and exhausted with his long ride through the dangerous country; he begged his uncle to have the message con- veyed to Peoria. Alex was called up and asked if he would take it. He replied if his father would let him ride "Kit" he would not be afraid. His wardrobe was increased to a straw hat, breeches and shirt. He was warned by his father what particular points to avoid and where to be on the lookout for covert red-skins, especially the old empty

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cabin of Joe Meredith's that stood near the road, about five miles this side of Simon Reed's. It was forty-five miles to Peoria, and the rider left Boyd's Grove at 1 P. M., and delivered the message to Gen. Stillman, he thinks it was before sundown of that day.

People Driven Away .- From the time of the commencement of the Winnebago war, 1827, to the close of the Black Hawk war in June, 1832, the few scattered settlements of northern Illinois were often harassed by bands of savages on their marauding expedi- tions. Word was passed around, and at all hours of the day and night people would start at a moment's notice, often so closely pressed that they would gather the babies in their arms and flee on foot, and sometimes their way was lighted up by the burning cabins they had just quitted. At night the families would doubly bar their doors and crawl into the cabin attics and sleep in ter- ror, the men lying with hands upon their rifles. In the day the men and boys would work in the field, one standing sentinel, while the others with their guns strapped on their shoulders would work. During these dreadful years of terror and suspense, every man, woman and child was on constant picket duty, painfully alert for the sign of the ap- proaching murderers. The horses, the cattle and the dogs, with their keener sense of smell, were most valuable protections often, and would give their warnings to the people. The poor, dumb domestic animals dreaded and were terrified at the sly approach of the dirty, stinking savages, and the people well understood their language of fear and terror, and saved their lives by heeding their notes of warning.

Some of these were false alarms, but others were only too real. The false alarms which several times set the whole people in rapid motion for the fort on the east side of the

river, would be started by some trivial cir- cumstance or the sudden fright of some hunter or nervous traveler, and thus the cry of alarm would pass around and the literal stampede of the people would commence.

Shabbona or Chamblee .- The most valua- ble friend the whites of Illinois ever had was chief Shabbona. He professed and was the white man's friend. He admired the superior intelligence of the white race, and desired their friendship and their civiliza- tion for his ignorant savages. He was a man of natural good sense, and above the low cunning and treachery of the average Indian. His superiority gave him great influence over his people, and although he several times suffered outrages and grievous wrongs at the hands of the rangers and soldiery, he re- mained unfaltering in his friendship to the pioneer settlers, whose cabins he delighted to visit, and smoke the pipe of friendship, par- take of their salt, and learn their better ways of living. Although a chief and one of power he was not loth to see come the com- forts of industry and civilized life, and it is now well understood he would have gladly seen his people become like the white man and abandon their tribal life, and be good and industrious citizens of the white man's government. His good sense must have detected the evils that came with people who had preachers, powder and fire-water, yet he could look over and beyond surface evils to the much good that would come to the savage by institutions that would lift him from his degrading ignorance. There were other Indians that were true friends to the white man, but none so valuable as Shabbona. It is said he would go himself or have spies among the Winnebagoes, Sacs and Foxes, and when they had organized to raid the set- tlers, Shabbona would make long and hard night rides and warn every endangered set-

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tlement, and thus time and again he saved their lives-and especially the people of Bureau County, in the years 1831-32.

After the Black Hawk war Shabbona and his 150 followers were for some time en- camped on Bureau, near the crossing of the Dixon road. He was born in the Ottawa tribe; married the daughter of a Pottawatto- mie chief, upon whose death he succeeded to power. He was with Tecumseh in 1811, on his mission to the Creek Indians, in Missis- sippi; was present at the Vincennes Council. He was an aid of Tecumseh's, and by his side when he was killed by Dick Johnson at the battle of the Thames.

Shabbona, Black Partridge and Senach- wine, were three of the most noted chiefs of the Mississippi. They were the friends of the white man, they labored for peace and friendship, and to protect their white friends they more than once risked their lives. They possessed intelligence far above their people. When they looked upon civilization they desired their people might become civilized, and not, as their superior intelligence pointed out to them, foolishly try to live after the white race came, as savages and enemies, because this was to waste away and slowly perish from the face of the earth.

Shabbona and Black Partridge were at the Chicago massacre, drawn there in the hope to save the white people. They did not reach there in time to save all, but there is but lit- tle question that the few who did escape owed their lives to them.

At the commencement of the Black Hawk war, Shabbona went to Dixon's ferry to offer the services of himself and warriors of his band to Gov. Reynolds, to fight against the Sacs and Foxes. Mounted on his pony, and alone, he arrived at Dixon's ferry on the same day that Stillman's army reached there. The soldiers, believing Shabbona to be an

enemy in disguise, dragged him from his pony, took away his gun and tomahawk, and otherwise mistreated him, telling him they had left home to kill Indians, and he should be their first victim. A man, running at the top of his speed, came to Dixon's house, and told him that the soldiers had taken Shab- bona prisoner, and were about to put him to death. Mr. Dixon, in all haste, rau to the rescue, when he found the soldiers (who were somewhat under the influence of liquor), about to stain their hands with innocent blood. Dixon, claiming the prisoner as an old friend, took him by the arm and conduct- ed him to his own house, when he was after- ward introduced to Gov. Reynolds, Gen. Atkinson, Col. Taylor, and others.

Shabbona, with his warriors, joined Atkin- son's army, although he had sided with the British under Tecumseh and Capt. Billy Caldwell, but now he was the friend of the Americans, and participated in all the battles during the last Indian war. In the fall of 1836 he and his band abandoned their reser- vations of land at the grove, giving way to the tide of emigration, and went west of the Mississippi. But Shabbona's fidelity to the whites caused him to be persecuted by the Sacs and Foxes. In revenge they killed his son and nephew, and hunted him down like a wild beast.

Two years after going West, in order to save his life, he left his people, and with a part of his family returned to this county. For some years he traveled from place to place, visiting a number of Eastern cities, where he was much lionized, and re- ceived many valuable presents. His last visit to Princeton was in 1857, while on his way eastward. Shabbona died in July, 1859, on the bank of the Illinois River, near Seneca, in the eighty-fourth year of his age; and was buried in Morris Cemetery. No monument

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marks the last resting-place of this friend of the white man.

Hon. John Wentworth, of Chicago, says: William Hickling, of this city, has exhibited to me the original of the following docu- ment, proving that Billy Caldwell, our Jus- tice of the Peace in 1826, was an officer in the British service, after the treaty of peace; and that he styled himself Captain of the Indian Department, in 1816, at Amherstburg (Fort Malden). Mr. Hickling resided in Chicago before its incorporation, but resided many years thereafter at Ottawa, and was a partner of George E. Walker, nephew of Rev. Jesse. Whilst at Ottawa the Indian chief, Shabbona, often visited him and remained with him over night. Not long before his death he gave him the document, asserting that he had always worn it upon his person. The manuscript proves that Caldwell was a man of education, as we all knew he was of intelligence. He was edu- cated by the Jesuits, at Detroit, and, at the time of his death he was head chief of the combined nations of Pottawattomies, Ottawas, and Chippewas. He married a sister of the Pottawattomie chief, Yellow Head, and had an only child a son-who died young. On the authority of Shabbona, Mr. Hickling denies the commonly received idea that Cald- well was a son of Tecumseh's sister. He confirms the report that he was the son of an Irish officer in the British service, but he insists that his mother was a Pottawattomie. and hence he became chief of the Pottawat- tomies. Tecumseh was a Shawnee, and, he contends, had but one sister, Tecumapeance, older than himself, whose husband, Wasego- boah, was killed at the battle of the Thames. She survived him some time, but died in Ohio.

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History of Bureau County, Illinois, Part 16

Author: Bradsby, Henry C., [from old catalog] ed Publication date: 1885 Publisher: Chicago, World publishing company Number of Pages: 776

Author: Bradsby, Henry C., [from old catalog] ed
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Chicago, World publishing company
Number of Pages: 776