USA > Illinois > Bureau County > History of Bureau County, Illinois > Part 17
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Shabbona (or Chamblee, in French) was an Ottawa Indian, and a chief, born on the Ohio
River. The certificate was undoubtedly given him to assist him with the British Government. At the commencement of the battle of the Thames, or of Moravian Town (as Caldwell calls it), the Indian chiefs Tecumseh (Shawnee) (spelled Tecumthe by many), Caldwell (Pottawattomie), Shabbona (Ottawa), and Black Hawk (Sac), were, as Mr. Hickling learned from Shabbona, sitting upon a log, in consultation.
The paper on which this document was written was a half sheet of old-fashioned English foolscap paper, plainly watermarked "C. & S., 1813," and is as follows:
" This is to certify, that the bearer of this name, Chamblee, was a faithful companion to me, during the late war with the United States. The bearer joined the late celebrated warrior, Tecumthe, of the Shawnee nation, in the year of 1807, on the Wabash River, and remained with the above warrior from the commencement of the hostilities with the United States until our defeat at Moravian Town, on the Thames, October 5, 1813. I also have been witness to his intrepidity and courageous warfare on many occasions, and he showed a great deal of humanity to those unfortunate sons of Mars who fell into his hands.
B. CALDWELL, Captain, I. D.
AMHURSTBURG, August 1, 1816.
There was no regular fort in Bureau, and in the spring of 1831 the entire population fled to the east side of the river, and to Peoria, and some continued their flight back to the old States and never returned. Some of the bolder men and their boys would leave their families on the east of the river and re- turn to raise their corn. They were often in the midst of such danger that they dared not sleep in their cabins, but secreting in the coverts, and generally a new place every night.
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IIISTORY OF BUREAU COUNTY.
Henry Thomas' house was fixed up for a fort, and here the frightened people would sometimes gather in alarm. There was but little stuff raised here in 1831-32, and it was only by the Illinois soldiers coming here from southern Illinois that enabled some of the people to get enough to eat during the winter. The gloomy years of Indian troubles had finally passed, and in the fall of 1832 this particular portion of Illinois began to emerge from its severest ordeal.
CHAPTER X.
END OF THE INDIAN TROUBLES-COMMENCEMENT OF PERMANENT SETTLEMENT-ELECTION OF 1834-BRYANT AND BRIGHAM ELECTED-ESTIMATED NUMBER OF PEOPLE-BROWN'S COMPANY OF RANGERS-THE HAMPSHIRE COLONY-WILLIAM O. CHAM- RERLAIN ITS ORIGINAL INVENTOR -E. II. PHELPS' ACCOUNT OF THE COLONY AND OF THEIR COMING, AND THE HISTORY THEREOF -NAMES OF THE COLONISTS AND THEIR FRIENDS.
W HEN the Black Hawk war was ended by the destruction of the invading army, and Black Hawk was a subdued and quiet prisoner, and the Sac and Fox Indians had passed the great river never to return, the people once more began to return to their deserted homes. So far as we can learn those who had fled and were the first to re- turn were the following families: Prince- ton, Elijah Epperson, Dr. N. Chamberlain, Eli and Elijah Smith, John Musgrove, Ro- land Mosely, Mrs. E. Smith, Robert Clark and Joel Doolittle. LaMoille, Daniel Dem- mick; Dover, John L. Ament; Arispie, Micheal Kitterman, Curtiss Williams, and Dave Jones; Selby, John Hall, William Has- kins, John Clark, and Amos Leonard; Wya- net, Abram Oblist, and Old Bulbona; Bureau; Ezekiel and Henry Thomas, Abram Stratton, John M. Gay; Ohio, "Dad Joe" Smith; Walnut, James Magby; Milo, Charles S.
Boyd; Leepertown, Timothy Perkins and Leonard Roth; Hall, William Tompkins and Sampson Cole.
These constituted the places settled in the county and is very near a complete list of all the old settlers who came marching home "when the cruel war was o'er." And those homes that were burned by the Indians were soon rebuilt and the work of repairing the houses and fences, and planting, late as it was, something to furnish food to tide over the winter, gave all these people who
" Hewed the dark old woods away, And gave the virgin fields to day," much to busy themselves about.
Then began to come to this part of Illinois the benefits of the Black Hawk war. It may sonud strange to speak of the advantages of war-a trade that is simply brutal, murder- ous and devilish. But the word had gone out to the world that the war was over, the Indians gone, that is, the Sacs and Foxes, and all about in the older settlements, and away from the seat of war were men and families waiting for this news, and were ready to resume the journey started the year or years before, and came to this particular spot of Illinois. Then the war had sent many soldiers and rangers here and they looked upon the country and determined, if they lived, to return and build them homes on this beautiful land. All these, and still other causes, started a stream of the really permanent settlers.
Capt. Jesse Browne, with a company of rangers, was in Burean during the winter of 1832-33. A portion of the time the com- pany was camped in Haskins' Prairie. Capt. Jesse Browne was a brother of Thomas C. Browne, at one time one of the Justices of the Supreme Court in this State. He was anthorized by the Government to raise a com- pany of rangers to guard the frontier. They
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HISTORY OF BUREAU COUNTY.
were called the "Browne Rangers." It is said that some of the settlers were disposed to believe that the Ottawas, along Rock River, were organizing a raid upon the people of Bureau. And it is further told that Mrs. John Dixon, with her children, passed down by the Bureau settlements and terribly frightened some of them by announcing that she was fleeing for her life, as the Ottawas were on the war-path. But the fact is there was at no time any sufficient general scare to interfere with the tending the crops and building cabins by the settlers. And the next two years were times of prosperity and increase in the enfeebled little colonies, which was neither marked nor rapid, yet it was pros- perous, and the prosperity was permanent.
In 1834 there was an election in Putnam County, and in the precinct of Bureau John H. Bryant and Joseph Brigham were elected Justices of the Peace. Mr. Bryant was the successor; that is, John M. Gay's books were turned over to him, and as Dimmick had never qualified there were no books for Brigham, and, as was expected, he gave the office little attention, leaving it for Bryant to manage mostly. The population by this time (1834) had increased to probably 250 souls.
The Hampshire Colony .-- Dr. W. O. Cham- berlain was an apprentice in the printing office of the Hampshire County Gazette, of Hampshire County, Mass., where he served from 1828 to 1831. In the town li- brary he had found a volume of Lewis and Clark's travels, and becoming deeply inter- ested in the book, he published occasional extracts about the Northwest in the Gazette, and these attracted much attention. As a result of these publications E. S. Phelps and some others, called a meeting of those who might wish more definite information about the new, wild country, but especially Illinois.
A larger attendance than was expected re- sponded to this call, and so many expressed a wish to go West, that a colony was soon formed, and named Hampshire Colony, after Hampshire County, Mass. E. S. Phelps was elected President of the colony.
At a meeting of the society in 1830, Thom- as M. Hunt, a druggist, desiring to find a new location, proposed to come and explore the northern part of Illinois, and only asked the colony to, pay a part of his expenses. His offer was gladly accepted. The only conveyances at that time were the Erie Canal, the lakes and the old-fashioned stage coaches. So meager was this mode of travel that in the year 1830, only one vessel, a schooner, made one trip around to Chicago. A four- horse wagon made semi-weekly trips from Detroit to Fort Dearborn. £ Mr. Hunt came via. Chicago to Peoria; here he found the two-horse stage, running between St. Louis and Galena, via. Springfield. He traveled south to St. Louis, and in his report he said that he did not see an acre of waste land south of Peoria.
In 1830, in the fall, Sullivan Conant and Mr. Bicknell, and Rufus Brown, father of Judge Brown, of Chicago, and Israel P. Blodgett, father of Judge Blodgett, and their families, and D. B. Jones, a young man, started to come to northern Illinois. Revs. Lucien Farnham and Romulus Barnes, each of whom had married a sister of Butler Den- ham, of Conway, Mass., who (Denham) lately died a citizen of Bureau County, also came West under the auspices of the colony.
The winter of 1830-31 was probably the severest ever known here. The snow was reported from three to four feet deep, and the cold was intense, and much of the game, especially the deer, perished. Owing per- haps to the severity of the winter the home colony heard but once from Mr. Hunt during
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HISTORY OF BUREAU COUNTY.
the winter. He was then on the Big Vermil- ion. The average time, in good weather, then for a letter to travel from here to Mas- sachusetts was four or five weeks.
In March, 1831, the "Congregational Church of Illinois," was organized, with eighteen names. It was expected by the or- ganizers that when they got located in their new home their numbers would be double those given above. In the early spring of 1831, the main part of the colony left, and on May 7, they left Albany, N. Y., in a canal boat, with Captain Cotton Mather in com- mand, with whom the colonists had contract- ed that he would not travel on Sunday. In this company were Dr. W. O. Chamberlain and son Oscar, Levi Jones, wife and five chil- dren, and the families of Rufus Brown-Mrs. Brown and four children, and Mrs. Blodget and her five children. Eli and Elijah Smith and wives, newly married, and the following single men: John Leonard, John P. Blake, A. C. Washburn, Aaron Gunn, C. J. Corss, George Hinsdale, E. H. Phelps aged eighteen years. and Charles C. Phelps aged sixteen, sons of E. S. Phelps.
On the 18th of May they landed at Buffalo, expecting here to find a vessel to take them to Chicago, but were told that no vessel traveled that route, but being informed a schooner was then loading at Detroit for Chi- cago, and would leave the next Thursday, they shipped by steamer for Detroit, but by stormy weather and other causes they only reached Detroit late Thursday afternoon and found the schooner already loaded and ready to sail, and it could not take their goods. The Captain informed them he would make another trip in two or three months. They stored their goods and hired two teams, a four- horse and a two-horse wagon to bring them through to Illinois. They left Detroit May 25, Monday. and reached Sturgis' Prairie the
next Sunday. Here one of the horses in the four-horse wagou team died. This was the conveyance hired by the eight young men of the party. The driver then informed them it was all his team could do to haul their trunks, and they must foot it. About this time the travelers met a man who had been traveling in Illinois, and from him they learned that their friend, Mr. Jones, was at Bailey's Point, on the Big Vermilion River, where he had built a double log-cabin to re- ceive them in. This was the first they knew exactly what point they were aiming for. The eight young men walked to Mottville, on the St. Joseph River, and here they paid off their teamster. and purchased two canoes. They lashed these together, making a pi- rogue, and putting their luggage on board started dowu the river. They learned that it was about 165 miles to Ottawa, Ill. They expected by traveling night and day to make the trip in three or four days. For this rea- son they had but little provisions. The third day out as they floated along they saw a deer and killed it,and landed and roasted enough to eat, but as they had no salt they left the most of it on the bank and resumed their journey. They passed a large encampment of Indians on the way, the first signs of humanity they saw after leaving Portage. A storm came up Saturday evening and they tied up, and sleeping in their canoes they found them- selves lying in several inches of water in the morning. They built fires and spent the day drying their clothes. Their provisions were entirely out. Under these circumstances the question arose among them, especially as then they could not guess when they could com- plete their trip, as to whether it would be best to travel on Sunday, or stay over hungry and trust in the Lord. About noon they pulled out into the stream and resumed their journey. Sunday night another storm com-
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HISTORY OF BUREAU COUNTY.
pelled them to tie up, and in a grove they passed the night and storm. For two days all they had to eat was elm and basswood bark. They reached another Indian encamp- ment the next day, but as there was trouble with the Indians they could get no food. The Indians pointed on down the river, and gave them to understand that there they could get food. Sailing along with the current, the voyagers eventually heard the glad sound of a cow-bell and landed, and on going to the top of the bluff they saw a cabin. They found a woman and children here and made known their wants. She told them she could not feed them as she had nothing but mush and milk for her family. They informed her that they would consider this most sumptuous fare, and she prepared them a pot full-the woman first shelled the corn and ground it in a hand- mill. They learned it was twenty miles to Ottawa. The hungry men, barring the one good feed of mush, started to complete their journey, and on the way agreed that when they reached Ottawa they would put up at the best hotel (reckless as to price or style) and have the best beds, and for a few days eat, sleep and enjoy the bliss of life. About sun- set they espied a little lonely cabiu on the shore and rounded to, and went to it and in- quired of the woman how far it was to Otta- wa. She smiled and said "this is Ottawa." She informed them that the preceding win- ter there had been several cabins on the op- posite side of the river (the north side) but the spring high waters had washed them all away. This good woman-the then mistress of Ottawa, was French, and her husband a trader. Her father was with her and her husband was off among the Indians trading. The old gentleman had a number of bee hives and they cared for the young travelers the best they could, but all they had to eat was honey and mush, and for beds, each one
picked out his puncheon and its softest side.
They had been six and a half days on the journey. The good woman told them she had known several people to come by the same route they had, and the quickest trip she had known before was nine days. As the voyagers had started with only three day's provisions they felt some new twinges of the stomach when they thought that it was a mere chance that they were not exposed to a six days' fast instead of a little more than the two days they had had a foretaste of.
After enjoying the hospitalities of the city of Ottawa one night, they resumed their jour. ney. and at noon reached Shippingport, across the river from La Salle, and the head of navigation, owing to the rapids. Again this city consisted of one house, which was warehouse, store, dry goods and groceries and family residence, all the property of a man named William Crozier. They learned it was eight miles to Bailey's Point, where their agent was. Storing their trunks they started on foot. and just before night arrived there. Here they were rejoiced to find the other members of their colony who had come through in wagons and had reached the place only a few hours before. This was on the 9th of June, five weeks and two days from leaving home.
Mr. Jones told them that the best country he had found was on the Bureau. After a few days' rest some of the men of the party came over to inspect the land, and examined the prairie as far north as Dover, a little west of which they found three bachelors: Sylvester Brigham, James G. Forristall and Elijah Phillips, who came the year previous from New Hampshire. The few settlers here at that time were mostly east of the river on account of the Indians. The men returned to their friends and gave a very favorable report of the country. They found Elijah Epper-
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HISTORY OF BUREAU COUNTY.
son on the east side of the river. His cabin was one mile north of where the Princeton depot now is, where a Mr. Stoner now lives, and he told them that if they were not afraid of the Indians they were welcome to occupy his cabin and whatever they could find there to eat. A part of the young men who did not know yet enough of the red man to fear him, started to come with two yoke of oxen and wagon. They arrived on the 2d of July, and the first news they heard was that a treaty had been made with the Iudians. The result was, the next week Eli and Elijah
Smith and wives came, and these and the six young men lived in the cabin together for some months. The next week came Roland Moseley and Daniel Smith. They had come from Northampton. They came by the Ohio
River, and had left their families at Beards-
town as they did not know where the colony Was. On their way from Beardstown they
fell in company with John Musgrove, from New Jersey, who was looking for a place to settle. The three located on the south side of the prairie, put up cabins and returned to Beardstown for their families. E. H. and
Charles Phelps, expecting their parents in
August, put up a cabin. E. S. Phelps and Amos C. Morse left Massachusetts July 13, with their families, and sent their goods by ship by way of New Orleans, the families coming by way of the Ohio River. Mr. Phelps shipped his stock of jewelry, which he intended selling in St. Louis or some other large place. Failing in this he took his stock and located in Springfield, Ill., where he remained until 1838, when he came
to Princeton. Mr. Morse located in Jack-
sonville. The Phelps boys here heard nothing
of their parents until in the fall, when they joined their parents in Springfield. When the Black Hawk war broke out the next spring, Eli and Elijah Smith and wives went
to Springfield and remained there during the summer. Thus the colonists were scattered,
and as the fall of 1831 was a very sickly time among the settlers, this and the war drove several of them away who never returned, consequently in the beginning of
the year 1834 but four of the church mem- bers were living in Bureau. That year Elisha Wood and family, who started here in 1832, but had stopped in Tazewell County came. None of those who started West in 1830 finally settled here. Sullivan Conant had settled in Springfield, Mr. Bicknell, in Fulton, and Blodgett and Brown at Brush Hill, about twenty miles this side of Chicago. D. B. Jones settled in Fulton County. Dan- iel Smith died in less than thirty days after his arrival. (Full account of this in a pre- ceding chapter). Mr. Morse died in Jack- sonville, and Levi Jones at Bailey's Point. All these deaths were soon after their arrival. John Leonard married Mrs. Levi Jones, and
removed to Galesburg. A. C. Washburn set-
tled in Bloomington, John P. Blake in Put-
nam County. Aaron Gunn near La Salle,
George Hinsdale on West Bureau, Alva Whitmarsh and family came in 1841. Scat- tered as was the Hampshire Colony, yet it was the final cause of many of Bureau'e best citizens coming here. In September, 1832, Cyrus and John H. Bryant came from Jack- sonville. They had visited Hinsdale Phelps in Springfield to inquire about this country. He advised them to come and see, and judge for themselves. They did so, and they fixed their claims, and through their influence came J. S. Everett, 1835; Lazarus Reeves,
the Wiswalls, William P. Griffin, and John
Leeper and family, 1833. The fall of 1832
came N. O. and W. C. Chamberlain, and their sister, Mrs. Flint and her family. In 1833, Asher Doolittle, Joseph Brigham, Horace Winship, Harrison Downing and the
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HISTORY OF BUREAU COUNTY. .
Mercer families. In 1834 there was added to the settlement: Caleb Cook and family, and Johu Clapp, from Massachusetts. From Ohio were the Mercer families and Tripletts, and Galers and Elliotts. The Masters, Ellis and Durham families came with Hinsdale Phelps from Springfield.
In 1834 Hinsdale Phelps had returned here while the remainder of his father's family remained in Springfield. During the summer he severely cut his foot and returned to Springfield. While there he met C. D. Col- ton, who had come from St. Lawrence County. N. Y., the previous fall with a colony, but not liking the location in Sangamon, young Phelps pursuaded him to come with him and see this country. He did so and made a claim and through his influence came the other Coltons, his relatives, and Alba Smith, David Robinson, Nathaniel and Joseph Smith, and Benjamin Newell all came in 1835. In the year 1834 came Butler Denham from Con- way, Mass., and with him S. H. Burr, S. L. Fay, Anthony Sawyer, Adolphus Childs and C. C. Corss, all single men. They all soon be- came however, the heads of happy and pros- perous families. In 1835 Rufus Carey, Alfred Clark, S. D. Hinsdale, Noadiah Smith, J. H. Olds, from Massachusetts, and Ralph Wind- ship, from New York. In the spring of 1835 Charles Phelps, brother of E. S. Phelps, came out to look at the country. He attended that year the land sale at Galena, and bought the land he afterward lived on, northeast of Princeton. He brought his family the next June, and there came with or soon after him, all from Massachusetts, Seth C. Clapp, Lew. is Clapp, George Brown, Cephas Clapp, O. E. Jones and Miss Childs, now Mrs. J. S. Everett, of Princeton.
Of those who came here in 1831 there are now living in the county: George Hinsdale, Daniel P. and Dwight Smith and their moth-
er, Mrs. Daniel Smith, E. H. Smith, Mrs. Eli Smith, Michael Kitterman, John Cole and Mrs. J. H. Fisher. Of the eight young men who came with the colony, five are still living: John Leonard, the oldest of the com- pany, died in 1864. Charles Phelps died in 1866. and C. G. Corss in 1866.
What are the results? Looking back fifty- four years! Then there were not half as many inhabitants in the State as are now in the city of Chicago. Fifty-four years ago, when the colony came here, the Indians, deer, prairie wolf and rattlesnakes held undispu- ted possession of all this land. Fifty-four years ago and all the northern part of the State, including Quincy, Jacksonville, and Springfield, to Danville, on the Wabash, were in one Congressional district. But the pop- ulation increased so rapidly in 1840, when Hon. John T. Stuart was our Representative in Congress it was said he represented the larg- est constituancy and territory of any member of Congress. Fifty- four years! What great re- sults the world over. Probably greater than in any previous century. What has been accom- plished in Bureau County ? There were then about a dozen families-forty or fifty per- sons all told; but one wagon road in the county, the St. Louis and Galena stage road by Boyd's Grove, and Bulbona's. Look about you, and remember all you now see of roads, bridges, houses, barns, shops, factor- ies, mines, farms, railroads, depots, cities, towns, villages, schools, churches and all these evidences of wealth, contentment and prosperity are the product of this short half century. *
*We are indebted to E. H. Phelps for the above account of the Hampshire Colony.
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LOWwhiting
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HISTORY OF BUREAU COUNTY.
CHAPTER XI.
"CURT" WILLIAMS-THE MAN OF MARKS-SMILEY SHEPHERD- THE DEEP SNOW OF 1831-JOHN, JOB, TIMOTHY BROWN AND DAVID SEARLE-GREENBURY HALL-LEWIS CORE-THE CHOLERA OF 1832-SCOTT'S ARMY-THE TERRORS OF THE PLAUOE-FIRST STEAMBOATS ARRIVE IN CHICAGO, 1832-" I SURRENDER, MR. INDIAN !"-BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF MANY OLD SETTLERS- HENRY F. MILLER-M. STUDYVIN-DAVID CHASE-JAMES COD- DINGTOY-ENOCH LUMRY-JAMIES GARVIN-E. PIPER-JAMES WILSON-JACOB GALER-JOHN LEEPER-JOHN BAGGS-THE WISWALLS AND TRIPLETTS-HALLS-A NEGRO HERE IN 1829.
"THE man who made his mark or rather several "marks" here in the squatter days was Curtis Williams-"Uncle Curt"- as he was generally known. His main busi- ness was to keep well ahead of the settlement and staking out a claim and doing enough work on it to identify and hold it, and then sell out to a new comer. If he had a brush cabin up, so much the better, as the new arriv- al's first want was some place to store his family -- get them out of the wagon, where they sometimes had already been stored for weeks. "Uncle Curt" commenced east of the river, and in the course of time passed nearly across Bureau County. If he found an un- occupied claim so much the better. He was the man that Micheal Kitterman found in his cabin when he "returned with his woman." The spot where this cabin was located is uow occupied by Mr. E. C. Bates' fine residence in South Princeton. But "Uncle Curt " was a bold and valuable pioneer. He was not afraid to go ahead, and he was full of that industry and public spirit which goes so far in developing a new country. He was the pioneer to that portion of the county where Buda now stands, which place was known as French Grove until after the building of the railroad and laying out of the new town. He built a carding-machine at Leepertown, and was the first to aid the good women in this portion of the country in
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