History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Part 49

Author: Andreas, A. T. (Alfred Theodore), 1839-1900
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago : A.T. Andreas
Number of Pages: 875

USA > Illinois > Cook County > History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time > Part 49

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"CHICAGO'S EARLY DEFENDERS .- In my pursuit of the names of the early settlers of Chicago, a friend has presented me with the following, which he assures me was copied, some years ago, from the original. The of- ficers are all dead. Captain Kercheval, once a promi- nent man in this city, and who represented it in the Leg- islature in 1838, died within a year or two in California, leaving a son who is a printer in this city. His widow resides at East St. Louis, Ill., with her sister, the widow of Colonel Thomas J. V. Owen, once Indian Agent here. The two Lieutenants having been Postmasters in this city, are well remembered. Of the soldiers, I know of but one living, David Mckee, of Ancora, III. If there is another living, he is wanted at the Chicago Historical Society's rooms, corner of Dearborn Avenue and On- tario Street.

" After this organization, Governor John Reynolds sent Major Daniel Bailey to Chicago, and he raised a bat-

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talion of four companies from the citizens of northern Illinois, The pay-rolls of these four companies of vol. unteers, I am told, is still preserved at Washington, D. C., where it was sent for the purpose of procuring land- warrants. It is hoped that a copy of it will soon be in the Chicago Historical Society's library. I doubt not but the names of many persons now living are upon it. " I am inclined to think the paper was drawn up by Colonel Richard J. Hamilton, the stepfather of our present Judge Murry F. Tuley. Thirty-seven is the number capable and willing to bear arms at that date. There was no clergyman here to be their chaplain, if they wanted one .* JOHN WENTWORTH.

"CHICAGO, October 17, 1879.

MUSTER ROLL.

May 2, 1832 .- We, the undersigned, agree to sub- mit ourselves, for the time being, to Gholson Kercheval, Captain, and George W. Dole and John S. C. Hogan, First and Second Lieutenants, as commanders of the Militia of the town of Chicago, until all apprehension of danger from the Indians may have subsided :

Richard J. Hamilton,

Jeddiah Woolley,

Jesse B. Brown,

George H. Walker,

Isaac Harmon,

A. W. Taylor.

Samuel Miller,

James Kinzie,

John F. Herndon,

Davied l'emeton,

Benjamin Harris, James Ginsday,

S. T. Gage, Samucl Debaif,

Rufus Brown, John Wellmaker William H. Adams

Jeremiah Smith,

Heman S. Bond,

James T. Osborne,

William Smith, E. D. Harmon,

Isaac D). Harmon,

Charles Moselle,

Joseph Lafromboise,

Francis Labaque,

Henry Boucha,

Michael Ouilmette,

Claude Lafromboise,

Christopher Shedaker,

J. W. Zarley,

David Mckee.

David Wade,

Ezra Bond,

William Bond,

Robert Thompson,

Samuel Ellis.

This company never entered the service under the command of Captain Kercheval or Lieutenants Dole and Hogan, but the members were pledged to duty when-

The Korcheval

ever and wherever required for defense. So, when the fugitives arrived from the Naper settlement, and the heads of the families indicated their intention to return immediately to look after their property, they found no difficulty in raising a company from the ranks of Ker-

cheval's volunteers to return with them. The company consisted of about thirty men, under the command of Jesse B. Brown and Richard J. Hamilton, and was made

. There were several clergymen accessible. Rev. William See, and Rev. Stephen R. Beggs were at Chicagoat the time.

up from the roster of high privates before given, to- gether with a dozen Naperville settlers, among whom were John and Joseph Naper, Christopher Payne, Baley Hobson, Alanson Sweet, Israel Blodgett, and Robert Strong.

On Saturday, May 21, this Chicago Militia company, known as Captain Brown's, left Fort Dearborn for the seat of war. They stopped at night at Laughton's and on the next day reached Naper's settlement, where they found everything had remained undisturbed since the fugitives had left the place. Thence they proceeded to Plainfield, where the settlers had erected a rough log fort and were apparently secure against attack. From there they marched to Holderman's Grove, where they spent the night and a part of the following day. While there an express from Ottawa came to them, bringing the intelligence that a party of Sacs had fallen upon the settlement at Indian Creek, and murdered all the set- tlers. The company immediately proceeded to Ottawa, and from thence to the scene of the tragedy, where they found, amidst a scene of complete destruction and deso- lation, the mangled and lifeless remains of fifteen of the settlers. The victims had all been scalped, and their bodies mutilated according to the extreme standard of savage warfare, the children being hacked in pieces, the bodies of the women nailed, suspended by their feet, to the walls of the.houses, and those of the men mutilated in a manner so shocking as to be indescribable. They buried the dead and returned to Ottawa. From thence. with a reinforcement of twelve volunteers, under Major Bailey, they started on their return march. At Holder- man's Grove they found everything laid waste, and pro- ceeded to Plainfield, where they found the settlers with- in the fort in a state of great alarm, occasioned by the news they had just received of the Indian Creek mas- sacre. The following morning the Plainfield fort was abandoned, and the settlers, under the escort of the soldiers, set out for Fort Dearborn-all but Rev. Adam Payne, a peripatetic preacher, who refused to join the company. He started in the opposite direction for Ot- tawa, and was never again seen alive. His body was found some days after. His scalp and his long flowing beard had been torn off hy the merciless band at whose hands he met his death. The company reached Chi- cago, with the new accession of fugitives and terror, on the evening of the 26th, after an arduous and heart-sick- ening, if not dangerous, campaign of five days.

With no regular garrison at the fort, it was deemed · necessary to keep a volunteer patrol force constantly on the watch, to guard against the near approach or sud- den surprise of the dreaded and wily foc. The Michi- gan Militia in the garrison did good picket duty, but it devolved on the Chicago men and such allies as might be drawn from the men who had their families in the fort to make more extended reconnoissance. Soon after the return of Captain Brown's company two new com- panies were organized to reconnoiter the country toward the Fox River. Very meager accounts of these com- panies appear, as they were never mustered into the regular service, and no rosters of the companies have been preserved. In one of the series of articles entitled " By-Gone Days," published in the Chicago Times, in 1875, the remembrance of these two companies is re- vived as follows : " Meanwhile the Chicago heroes had left no opportunity unimproved to cover themselves with laurels. Robert Kinzie had a company of fifty Pottawatomies under his command, who acted as scouts and runners, while Captain Jean Baptiste Beaubien, with a company of twenty or more whites, scoured the country about Naperville, Plainfield and Ottawa, in a

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style that was exceedingly lively." Hurlbut's "Chi- cago Antiquities," p. 308, says : " During the Indian excitement of 1832, Mr. Beaubien had command of some twenty-five men, who, as scouts, did duty for a short time." The only extended campaign of these two companies of which any account is preserved occurred in June, 1832.

BEAUBIEN AND KINZIE'S CAMPAIGN .- On the return of Captain Brown's company, a new company was raised to revisit the deserted settlements near Fox River, to ascertain whether the enemy had visited them, and look after the property left behind and the growing crops, if they had not been destroyed. Robert Kinzie was already on duty with a company of fifty Pottawatomie scouts, Captain Beaubien's company numbered some twenty- five mounted men, among whom were several of Brown's men who had re-enlisted. The two Napers and Alan- son Sweet were members. The command set out from Chicago on the morning of June 1. At noon they reached the Desplaines River, where they found Captain Kinzie already encamped with his band of Pottawato- inies. It was agreed that Kinzie with his scouts should proceed directly to the Naper settlement, while Captain Beaubien should make a detour to Captain Boardman's to look after the property there, it being expected that the latter, being better mounted, would reach the place of rendezvous first. Beaubien's company rode quite rapidly, found Boardman's property safe, and before sunset reached Ellsworth's Grove. A skirt of timber hid the settlement from view, but smoke was seen rising from the point where Naper's house was located; whether it was from its smouldering ruins or not was a question, to solve which John Naper volunteered to leave the company and go alone to the settlement. He was to fire one shot in case he found friends. He was watched by the little party until he disappeared in the woods. Soon after two shots were heard in quick suc- cession, and, as Naper did not reappear, the natural conclusion was that the Sacs had killed him. Two of the Chicago company, one mounted on a pack mule and the other on a diminutive pony which he had borrowed from the American Fur Company. manifested great trepidation, and without orders turned the heads of their slow and unreliable steeds toward the East Branch timber. Captain Beaubien was not slow to discover the depletion in his ranks, and rose to the exigencies of the occasion. He rode rap- idly after the fugitives, vociferating, " Halt ! Halt !! " Disregarding the orders of their commander, they con- , were re-assured by their return that there was no imme- tinued their flight, now hotly pursued by Captain Beau- bien. He soon ran them down, drew his pistol, and brought them to a halt and return to the ranks by the following statement of the case : "You run ? By Gar, you run, I shoot you." Soon after the return of the deserters Naper inade his appearance bringing the re- lieving intelligence that friends only awaited them at the settlement. Kinzie and his Indian scouts had out- marched them, and were already encamped there. They rode with haste to the village, with light hearts and empty stomachs. A fat steer, somewhat wild, was run down by the Pottawatomies with a din of yells, dispatched and brought in with great exultation over the success of the hunt, and the commissary still further supplied by breaking into the log store which had escaped the depredations of the Sacs, and bringing forth ample sup- plies of rum and tobacco for the Indians. In the even- ing the Pottawatomie scouts were prevailed upon to perform the " war dance " with all the variations that free rum and tobacco could suggest, after which enter- tainment the tired soldiers slept the sound sleep which

only fatigue can bring. The following morning Beau- bien's company rose refreshed. They had slept off the fatigue of the day before, and with renewed strength came renewed ardor for a conflict with the Sacs of whom they had failed to find traces thus far. Fearing that in the heat of some possible conflict, they might slay some of their allies, the Pottawatomies, they took from the stores a web of sheeting, tore it in strips, and as a pre- cautionary insignia, tied them about the head and waist of cach friendly Indian. Thus having secured the safe- ty of Kinzie's Indian scouts, Captain Beaubien and his company left them, and started for the Big Woods in search of the enemy. All day they scoured the plains, without meeting a trace of the foe, returning quite jaded and disheartened to the Naper settlement late in the evening. On the following morning they set out on their return to Chicago, leaving Kinzie and his Indian scouts to keep watch for the Sacs, who never afterward appeared in force in that region. They had already gone up the Rock River, beyond the present boundaries of Illinois. Nothing exciting occurred during the re- · turn journey except a slight emeute in the ranks. One of the soldiers who had hastily enlisted without any preliminary drill in the manual of arms, placed the whole command in jeopardy by allowing his gun to fire itself off at unseasonable and unexpected times. Asthe guns were all strapped to the horse's sides, each had the full range of such members of the company as happened to go before. It is not strange that three unexpected discharges from the young man's gun before reaching Brush Hill, a distance of ten miles, should spread dis- content in the front ranks. They had steeled their hearts to all the terrors of Indian warfare, the deadly ambush, the savage assaults, the tomahawk and the scalping knife ; but this new element of annihilation which belched from an unmanageable gun at such un- certain seasons, and with such uncertain aim had a most demoralizing effect on the entire force. When, on reaching Brush Hill, and dismounting, the young man's gun fired itself off for the fourth time, Captain Beau- bien asserted his authority and ordered him to give up the dangerous weapon, which, in a mutinous and defiant manner, he refused to do, whereupon he was collared by the Captain, and after an exhibition of ground and lofty tumbling, such as the prairies had never smiled on before, disarmed. Equanimity, discipline, and safety being thus restored, the company resumed their march, reaching Chicago the same evening. The fugitives

diate danger. Occasional excursions were made during the succeeding weeks to the deserted settlements, each party returning with the welcome news that they had discovered no traces of Indians and that the crops were growing undisturbed. It was, nevertheless, not deemed prudent for the settlers to return to their homes, while the hostile Sacs were known to be still unconquered only one hundred and fifty miles away. They might return and repeat on some defenseless hamlet the horrors of Indian Creek. So all through the summer days of June the fugitives remained quar- .tered in and about Fort Dearborn. Major Whistler arrived July 2, with a small detachment of soldiers from Niagara, to re-occupy the fort as a military post and prepare quarters for General Scott and his com- mand, whose arrival was daily expected. He arrived July 8, and on the following morning the dread news was known that with him had come an enemy more terrible than that from which they had fled. It was the scourge of cholera in its most fatal form. The soldiers died of like distempered sheep. The corpses were too

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numerous for formal or Christian burial, and were hud- dled hastily into common graves. The terror of this new enemy, which was the only one before which the hero Scott ever quailed, drove the refugees from the fort, They chose to face the possible danger of the tomahawk and scalping knife, rather than the ghostly pestilence that "walked at noon-day," striking the silent death-blow with unseen hand. The settlers accordingly returned precipitately to their deserted homes, and, by the 10th, Chicago was aban- doned to the pest-stricken garrison and the few stout- hearted residents who, in the interests of humanity, chose to remain, to assist in caring for the sick and burying the dead. August 3, Black Hawk's fugitives were surrounded and utterly routed at the mouth of Bad Axe River, and the war was at an end. It is not the purpose here to give a full sketch even of the Black Hawk War, except so far as may be necessary to show the participation in it of Chicago soldiers. From the story as told, it is shown that every able-bodied citizen volunteered," and nearly all in some capacity did service until the danger had passed away. Gholson Kercheval, Colonel Owen, and many others were kept busy in pro- viding for the wants of the homeless fugitives as they came in.

Gurdon S. Hubbard, still surviving, and residing in Chicago, did service in Colonel Moore's regiment of Illinois volunteers. He was at time living at Danville, although his business brought him frequently to Chi- cago. He was Second Lieutenant in Captain Alexan- der Bailey's company, and, according to the records, was mustered into the service May 23. 1832, and was mustered out June 23. The record would be incomplete without the roster of Captain Joseph Naper's company. It was raised during July, too late to take active part in the war. The members were all residents of Cook County, and many of them afterward residents of Chicago. The roster appears in the " Record of the Services of Illinois Soldiers in the Black Hawk War 1831-321 and in the Mexican War (1846-48," by Isaac Elliott, Adjutant-General of the State of Illinois, pp. 149-50. In March, 1880, it was published in the Chicago Evening Journal, with the following letter :

To the Editor of the Chicago Evening Journal:

1 send you a list of the soldiers who volunteered from this county to go with General Scott in pursuit of Black Hawk. The most of these gentlemen are dead, but they have left descendents who constitute some of our most valuable citizens, There are many citizens of Chicago now living who had a personal acquaint- . ance with nearly all of them. I have given the residence of those whom 1 know are now living. Probably others are living whose . residence I do not know. This list has been sent to Washington and compared with the original. Many of them resided in that part of Cook County which is now Iul'age County.

The Fourth Corporal is now the County Judge of DuPage County, and would be a good man for gentlemen of historical tastes to interview. JouN WENTWORTU. Cmcwio, March 2, 1880.

MUSTER ROLL of a Company of Mounted Volunteers in the Sero- ice of the United States, in defense of the Northern frontier of the State of Illinois, against the Sac and Fax Indians, from the County of Cook, in said State, in the year 1832. under the command of Captain Joseph Naper :

Joseph Naper, Captain, afterward member of legislature.

Alanson Sweet, First-Lieutenant, now living at Evanston, 111. Sherman King, Second-Lieutenant, lived at Brush 1till, til.

S. M. Salisbury, First-Sergeant, afterward Cook County Commis- sioner, at Wheeling. III.

John Manning, Second-Sergeant.

Walter Stowell, Third-Sergeant, afterward Postmaster, at Newark,

Jobn Naper, Fourth-Sergeant, lived at Naperville, brother of Jo- seph.

T. E. Parsons, First-Corporal.

I.yman Butterfield, Second-Corporal.

(*) See roster of Kercheval's company.

I. I'. Blodgett, Third-Corporal, father of Judge H. W. Blodgett. Robert Nelson Murray (Naperville), Fourth-Corporal, now County Judge.

PRIVATES.

P. F. W. Peek, died at Chicago, Uriah Paine (Naperville).

William Barber. John Stevens,

Richard M. Sweet, Seth Westcott,

John Stevens, Jr ..

llenry T. Wilson (Wheaton).

Calvin M. Stowell,

Christopher l'aine.

John Fox, Basley 1lobson,

Denis Clark,

Josiah 11. Giddings

Caleb Foster,

Anson Ament.

Augustine Stowell,

Calvin Ament,

George Fox.

Edmund Harrison,

T. Parsons,

Williard Scott ( Naperville),

Daniel Langdon,

Perez Hlawicy.

William Gault. Peter Wicoffe.

ORGANIZATION OF THE COOK COUNTY MILITIA .- In 1829 the Legislature of the State of Illinois en- acted the following law regulating the militia of the State:

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That there shall be one regi- mental and one company muster, and oue regimental muster of officers in each year: the company muster shall be held on the first Saturday in September, unless changed to some other day by order of the commandants ol regiments or odd battalions, in which ease sixty days notice of each change shall be given to the commandants of each company. Regimental drill musters shall be held on the Friday and Saturday next preceding the regimental musters. l lereafter, no brigade inspector shall be required to attend regi- mental or drill musters.

SECTION 2. For the purpose of review or drill inspection, the brigadier-general may change the time fixed by law for regimental musters, by giving to the several commandants of regiments, or odd battalions, under their command, a notice to that effect, on or be- fore the first day of March in each year.

SECTION 3. Commandants of companies may receive any lawful excuse of non-commissioned officers or privates under their com- mand, for a failure to attend muster, or for not being properly equipped.

SECTION 4. No non-commissioned officer or private shall lx fined more than one dollar for failing to attenil any regimental muster nor more than fifty cents for failing to atttend any company muster.

SECTION 5. No person conscientiously opposed to doing military duty by reason of religious opinions, shall be compelled so to do in times of peace; Provided such person shall work two days in each year, on the public roads, in the ilistrict in which such person or persons may reside, in addition to the road labor now required of them, under the regulations prescribed in the second section of "An act for the relief of persons having conscientious scruples against bearing arms," or pay into the county treasury seventy-five cents. "The first section of the act, entitled "An act for the relief of per- sons having conscientious scruples against bearing arms," approved February 6, 1827, is hereby repealed.

SECTION 6. So much of the act, to which this is an amendment, as required battalion musters to be held; so much of said act as fixes the time for holding regimental drill musters; so much thereof as allows compensation lo division and brigade inspectors; so much thereof as requires two company musters to be held in each year, and prescribing the holding of the same; be and the same are hereby repealed. This act to be in force from and after its passage.

( Approved, January 9. 1829.1

The above law was certainly not calculated to bring the militia of the State to any great degree of efficiency. as it provided cheap ways and means whereby every sallier enrolled could be exempt from service. Under this general law a special act was passed by the Illinois Legislature in 1833, organizing the militia in Cook County. The act was as follows:

SECTION I. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, that all the citizens of Cook County liable 10 perform militia duty, shall organize themselves iuto a regiment, two hattalions, and not less than four nor niore than eight companies. After the election of colonel, which shall be held on the 20th day of March next, at the house of David Lortou, on the Desplaines River, in said county, and before the people separate, the colonel elect, and the people present, may divide the county off into two battalion districts, and not less than four nor more than eight company districts, and the militia present, when the bounds of the said battalions and companies are described in

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writing. shall proceed forthwith to elect two majors, and not less than four nor more than eight captains, and a first and second lieutenant to each company : Provided always, that none shall be eligible to the several offices herein provided for, unless he shall at the time of said election be a resident citizen in such battalion dis- triet, if a major, or in said company distriet if a captain or lieu- tenant ; nor shall any militiaman, not residing in the battalion or company distriet, be allowed to vote for any officer, so to be elected, but in all cases the militamen shall elect their own officers in their own districts.

SEC. 2. After the organization of the militia so to be made at the house of David Lorton, on the said 20th day of March next, the colonel elect shall give to each major, captain, and lieu- tenant, a certificate of election ; and if they cannot elect all their officers in one day, they may continue said election from day to lay, not exceeding three days. After said elections shall be elosed, and the results ascertained, the colonel shall cause each captain to furnish him within three days a company roll : Provided, that in no case shall any company be recognized as such, unless there be thirty-two privates in the same.

SEC. 3. The said colonel, when so elected, shall be allowed to receive, for the use of the militiamen of his regiment, two hundred stand of the State arms, to wit : one hundred rifles and one hun- dred muskets. with their accouterments.

SEC. 4. The Governor is hereby authorized, whenever in his discretion he shall deem it necessary, to deliver to the colonel of Cook County the complement of arms mentioned in the preced- ing section of this act ; but the colonel, before he shall receive said arms, shall execute to the Governor a bond, in the penal sum of $3,200, conditioned that the said arms shall be at all times here- after forthcoming to the order of the Governor ; after which, each captain shall execute a bond in the penal sum of $16 for each gun, to the colonel, conditioned that said gun shall be at all times hereafter forthcoming to the order of the colonel ; and each private, before he shall receive from his captain any of the said arms, shall give him a receipt for the gun, describing It, conditioned that if he fails or refuses to return it to the order of his captain, he will pay, or cause to be paid to his sald captain, the sum of $16 as a penalty for such failure or refusal : l'rovided always, that the said arms, or any of them, be lost In battle, of by any unavoidable accident, the said bonds, or receipts, to that exient, shall be null and void : Pro- vided also, that the sail colonel shall be allowed to execute the bond herein requiredl of him in the Clerk's office of the county com. missioner's court, with sureties to be approved by the Clerk thereof, payable to the Governor of this State for the use of the people ; which bond shall be filed in the office of the Secretary of State within sixty days, after which certificate of said colonel's bond, by the said Clerk, the quota of arms herein allowed to said county of Cook shall be delivered to the order of said colonel, who shall make equal distribution of them among the captains, who shall dis- tribute them to those who have no arms in the several companies, as shall be equal and just : Provided, that the cost of transportation of said arms shall be paid by the county requiring them.

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History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Part 49

Author: Andreas, A. T. (Alfred Theodore), 1839-1900 Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Chicago : A.T. Andreas Number of Pages: 875

Author: Andreas, A. T. (Alfred Theodore), 1839-1900
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago : A.T. Andreas
Number of Pages: 875