USA > Illinois > Effingham County > History of Effingham county, Illinois > Part 85
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On the following day when preparations - were making to leave the fort, and all the inmates were deeply impressed with a sense of impending danger, Capt. Wells, an unele of Mrs. Heald, was discovered upon the Indian trail among the sand hills ou the borders of the lake, not far distant. with a band of mounted Miamis, of whose tribe he was chief, having been adopted by the famous Miami warrior, Little Turtl .
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When news of Hull's surrender reached Fort Wayne, he had started with this force to assist Heald in defending Fort Dearborn. Ile was too late. Every means for its defense had been destroyed the night be- fore, and arrangements were made for leav- ing the fort on the morning of the 15th.
It was a warm, bright morning in the middle of Angust. Indications were posi- tive that the savages intended to murder the white people; and when they moved out of the southern gate of the fort, the mareh was like a funeral procession. The band, feeling the solemnity of the occasion, struek up the Dead March in Sanl.
Capt. Wells, who had blackened his face with gun-powder in token of his fate, took the lead with his band of Miamis, followed by Captain Heald with his wife by his side on horseback. Mr. Kinzie hoped by his personal influence to avert the impending blow, and therefore accompanied them, leaving his family in a boat in charge of a friendly Indian, to be taken to his trading station at the site of Niles, Michigan, in the event of his death.
The procession moved slowly along the lake shore till they reached the sand hills between the prairie and the beach, when the Pottawatomie escort, under the lead- ership of Blackbird, filed to the right, placing those hills between thein and the white people. Wells, with his Miamis, had kept in the advance. They suddenly came rushing back, Wells exclaiming, "They are abont to attack us; form instantly." These words were quickly followed by a storm of bullets which came whistling over the little hills which the treacherous savages had made the covert for their mur- derous attack. The white troops charged
upon the Indians, drove them back to the prairie, and then the battle was waged be- tween fifty-four soldiers, twelve civilians and three or four women (the cowardly Miamis having fled at the outset) against five hundred Indian warriors. The white people, hopeless, resolved to sell their lives as dearly as possible. Ensign Ronan wielded his weapon vigorously. even after falling upon his knees weak from the loss of blood. Capt. Wells, who was by the side of his nieee, Mrs. Ileald, when the conflict began, behaved with the greatest coolness and courage. He said to her, " We have not the slightest ehanee for life. We must part to meet no more in this world. God bless you." And then he dashed forward. Seeing a young warrior, painted like a demon, climb into a wagon in which were twelve children, and toma- hawk them all, he eried ont, unmindful of his personal danger, " If that is your game, butchering women and children, I will kill too." He spurred his horse towards the Indian eamp, where they had left their squaws and papooses, hotly pursued by swift-footed young warriors, who sent bnl- lets whistling after him. One of these killed his horse and wounded him severely in the leg. With a yell the young braves rushed to make him their prisoner and re- serve him for torture. Ile resolved not to be made a captive, and by the use of the most provoking epithets tried to induce them to kill him instantly. He called a fiery young chief a squaw, when the en- raged warrior killed Wells instantly with his tomahawk, jumped upon his body, ent ont his heart, and ate a portion of the warm morsel with savage delight !
In this fearful combat women bore a
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conspicuous part. Mrs. Heald was an ex- eellent equestrian and an expert in the use of the rifle. She fought the savages bravely, receiving several severe wounds. Though faint from the loss of blood, she managed to keep her saddle. A savage raised his toma- hawk to kill her, when she looked him full in the face, and with a sweet smile and in a gentle voiee said, in his own language, "Surely you will not kill a squaw !" The arm of the savage fell, and the life of the heroie woman was saved.
Mrs. Helm, the step-daughter of Mr. Kinzie, had an encounter with a stout In- dian, who attempted to tomahawk her. Springing to one side, she received the glancing blow on her shoulder. and at the same instant seized the savage round the neck with her arms and endeavored to get hold of his sealping knife, which hung in a sheath at his breast. While she was thus struggling she was dragged from her antag- onist by another powerful Indian, who bore her, in spite of her struggles, to the margin of the lake and plunged her in. To her astonishment she was held by him so that she would not drown, and she soon per- ceived that she was in the hands of the friendly Black Partridge, who had saved her life.
The wife of Sergeant IIolt, a large and powerful woman, behaved as bravely as an Amazon. She rode a fine, high-spirited horse, which the Indians coveted, and several of them attacked her with the butts of their guns, for the purpose of dismount- ing her; but she used the sword which she had snatched from her disabled husband so skillfully that she foiled them; and, sud- denly wheeling her horse, she dashed over the prairie, followed by the savages shout-
ing, " The brave woman! the brave woman! Don't hurt her!" They finally overtook her, and while she was fighting them in front, a powerful savage eame up behind her, seized her by the neck and dragged her to the ground. Horse and woman were made captive. Mrs. Holt was a long time a captive among the Indians, but was afterward ransomed.
In this sharp confliet two thirds of the white people were slain and wounded, and all their horses, baggage and provision were lost. Only twenty-eight straggling men now remained to fight five hundred Indians rendered furious by the sight of blood. They succeeded in breaking through the ranks of the murderers and gaining a slight eminence on the prairie near the Oak Woods. The Indians did not pursue, but gathered on their flanks, while the chief's held a consultation on the sand-hills, and showed signs of willingness to parley. It would have been madness on the part of the whites to renew the fight; and so Capt. Heald went forward and met Blackbird on the open prairie, where terms of sur- render were agreed upon. It was arranged that the white people should give up their arms to Blackbird, and that the survivors should become prisoners of war, to be ex- changed for ransoms as soon as practicable. With this understanding captives and cap- tors started for the Indian camp near the fort, to which Mrs. Helm had been taken bleeding and suffering by Black Partridge, and had met her step-father and learned that her husband was safe.
A new scene of horror was now opened at the Indian camp. The wounded, not being included in the surrender, as it was interpreted by the Indians, and the British
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general, Proctor, having offered a liberal bounty for American sealps, delivered at Malden, nearly all the wounded men were killed and scalped, and price of the trophies was afterward paid by the British govern- ment.
This celebrated Indian chief, Shabbona, deserves more than a passing notiee. AI- though he was not so conspicuous as Tecumseh or Black Hawk, yet in point of merit he was superior to either of then.
Shabbona was born at an Indian village on the Kankakee River, now in Will County about the year 1775. While young he was made chief of the band, and went to Shab- bona Grove, now De Kalb County, where they were found in the early settlement of the county.
In the war of 1812, Shabbona, with his warriors, joined Tecumseh, was aid to that great chief, and stood by his side when he fell at the battle of the Thames. At the time of the Winnebago war, in 1827, he visited almost every village among the Pot- tawatomies, and by his persuasive argu- ments prevented them from taking part in the war. By request of the citizens of Chieago, Shabbona, accompanied by Billy Caldwell (Sanganash), visited Big Foot's village at Geneva Lake, in order to pacify the warriors, as fears were entertained that they were about to raise the tomahawk against the whites. IIere Shabbona was taken prisoner by Big Foot, and his life threatened, but on the following day was set at liberty. From that time the Indians (through reproach) styled him " the white man's friend," and many times his -life was endangered.
Before the Black Hawk war, Shabbona met in council at two different times, and
by his influence prevented his people from taking part with the Saes and Foxes. After the death of Black Partridge and Senachwine, no chief among the Pottawat- omies exerted so much influence as Shab- bona. Black Hawk, aware of this influ- ence, visited him at two different times, in order to enlist him in his cause, but was unsnecessful. While Black Hawk was a prisoner at Jefferson Barraeks, he said, had it not been for Shabbona the whole Potta- watomie nation would have joined his standard, and he could have continued the war for years.
To Shabbona many of the early settlers of Illinois owe the preservation of their lives, for it is a well-known faet, had he not notified the people of their danger, a large portion of them would have fallen victims to the tomahawk of savages. By saving the lives of whites he endangered his own, for the Saes and Foxes threatened to kill him, and made two attempts to execute their threats. They killed Pypeogee, his son, and Pyps, his nephew, and hunted him down as though he was a wild beast.
Shabbona had a reservation of two see- tions of land at his Grove, but by leaving it and going West for a short time, the Government declared the reservation for- feited, and sold it the same as other vaeant land. On Shabbona's return, and finding his possessions gone, he was very sad and broken down in spirit, and left the Grove forever. The citizens of Ottawa raised money and bought him a traet of land on the Illinois River, above Seneca, in Grundy County, on which they built a house, and supplied him with means to live on. He lived here until his death, which occurred on the 17th of July, 1859, in the eighty-
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fourth year of his age, and was buried with great pomp in the cemetery at Morris. Ilis squaw, Pokanoka, was drowned in Mazon Creek, Grundy County, on the 30th of November, 1864, and was buried by his side.
In 1861 subscriptions were taken up in
many of the river towns, to ereet a monn- ment over the remains of Shabbona, but the war breaking out, the enterprise was abandoned. Only a plain marble slab marks the resting-place of this friend of the white man.
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