USA > Illinois > Kendall County > History of Kendall county, Illinois, from the earliest discoveries to the present time > Part 6
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25
INDIAN CREEK
is a romantic stream that rises near Shabbona Grove, in DeKalb county, and empties into Fox river in the town of Dayton, LaSalle county, eight miles above Otta- wa. At the mouth of the creek, William Davis-with his family-settled in 1830, and in 1831 built him a cabin and a blacksmith shop, and had thrown a dam across the creek, intending to build a mill. The latter incensed the inhabitants of an Indian village a few miles farther up the creek, as it prevented the fish from coming up, but no serious trouble was apprehended.
Early in the spring of 1832, Wm. Hall and family
87
AN INDIAN MASSACRE.
took a claim close by Davis, and was building his cabin when the war began. Mr. Pettigrew and family also occupied a claim in the neighborhood. There were at Davis' house, Mr. Phillips, the mill-wright who was building his mill, his wife and child, and Henry George, a visitor from Bureau county.
When the alarm was given they all went to Ottawa, but after three or four days, by the advice of Davis, they returned, arriving at their cabins about noon, May 21. Several other settlers also returned. Gurty's band drew near the settlement about the same time, and watched their chance, and about four o'clock in the afternoon, crawled along under the creek bank and so came up into the yard before they were seen. The women and younger part of the families of Davis and Hall were in the house, also Mr. Pettigrew and family, who had not yet removed to their own cabin. Davis himself, with Phillips, Hall, George and Robert Norris, who were there getting some work done, were in the shop. Two of Hall's sons and one of Davis' were plowing in the field. They thought themselves strong enough to repel any ordinary attack, and might have done so had they not been so completely surprised. A dog barked, and Mrs. Pettigrew, looking out at the door, said, "O, God, here are the Indians now !" Her husband sprang forward instantly to close the door, and was shot down while doing so ; while the savages pouring in soon completed the work of death. Most of the men at the shop were killed before they could make any defence, but Davis, who was a most powerful man and utterly fearless, did not sell his life so easily. He shot down the nearest Indian, and clubbing his rifle,
88
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
rushed into their midst, and was not slain until he had dispatched three more, and bent his rifle barrel with the fury of his blows. A dozen men like Davis would prob- ably have whipped the entire band, though, if he had been less confident of his strength, perhaps he would have remained longer at the fort, and thus saved his life and the lives of his friends. The young men at work in the field unhitched their oxen and escaped, and another of Hall's sons escaped by running under the creek bank. A little son of Davis, called Jimmy, seven years old, and two of Hall's daughters, Sylvia and Rachel, aged respectively eighteen and sixteen years, were saved alive, through the influence of a petty Sac chief, for the sake of the ransom, and were hurried off by him and his braves through the woods to where their ponies were tied. The others remained to wreak their vengeance on the dead bodies, and on the stock. They shot horses, cattle and hogs, and even the chickens in the yard did not escape their rage, so savagely did the shedding of blood excite them. Then robbing the murdered families of every- thing they could carry, they went on toward Holder- man's. Fifteen persons were killed, viz : Davis, wife, two sons and daughter, Hall and wife, Pettigrew, wife and child, Phillips, wife and child, Norris and George.
The news was published in probably every newspaper in the United States, and awakened a tide of sympathy for the frontier people, and especially for those captive girls.
The next murder, while the Indians were camped, or secreted, at Holderman's, was that of
ADAM PAYNE,
the missionary. He was a large, portly man, with a
89
MURDER OF THE MISSIONARY.
black beard that hung to his waist, and was well known, having preached about through the western settlements for years. He had been to Ohio, and on his return stopped in Chicago a few days to preach. The com- mander at Fort Dearborn, at the same time. was press- ing horses to mount a company of rangers, and Payne, who had a splendid horse, in order to save it, decided to go to Hennepin, below Ottawa, where his brother Aaron lived.
The morning he left he preached his last sermon, at the northern end of the military parade ground, corner of South Water street and Michigan Avenue. His ser- mon was two hours long, but he held his audience of traders, soldiers, citizens and Indians, spell-bound to the close, as he pressed upon them the reality of eternal things. When he came to Plainfield to put up for the night, he found the people in a state of great excitement over the news of the Indian Creek massacre. They imagined that the country was being over-run by an army of savages, who would not spare a soul alive, and that the woods all around were full of them. Besides this, the stockade there was too small to accommodate the multitude, so that it had been decided to break up and go to Chicago. They were to start the next morn- ing after Payne's arrival, and tried to prevail on him to go with them, but he would not. He wished to see his family, and believed that his profession and his acquaint- ance with the Indians, and, if it came to the worst, the fleetness of his splendid bay mare, would carry him through safely. So, in the morning, Plainfield was deserted-the settlers going eastward and Payne going
7
90
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
west. He rode on without being molested until he passed Holderman's Grove, when there was a sudden report of guns, and a bullet pierced his shoulder, and another struck his horse. The Indians probably saw him from their hiding-place. They used to cut bushes and make a little barricade by the road, where they watched for travelers. One such hiding-place was found in a tree at the north-west corner of Kellogg's Grove, where they could overlook all the surrounding country. Payne immediately put his horse on the run, and out- stripped the savages. who would probably have given up the chase but for the fact that they knew he was wounded. Across the country they went like the wind, pursuer and pursued. Across the slough and up the next rise of ground west of Holderman's the fugitive urged his panting steed, but the race was nearly over. A little beyond the grove the horse dropped from exhaustion and loss of blood, and Payne deciding that his best course was to bravely stand his ground. waited until the Indians came up. and with his Bible in one hand and the other pointing heavenward, he appealed for mercy. Two of the three Indians were moved at this, but the third struck him on the head from behind, and he expired in a few moments. His head was placed on a pole, and at night the whole band assembled, laden with spoils from the houses of the settlers, and held a wild war dance around the spot where their victim fell. The body was found a few days afterwards by a company of rangers, or volunteer cavalry, and buried. The scalp was stuck up on a ramrod, with fifteen or sixteen little sticks around it, indicating the number they had taken.
91
ANOTHER STORY OF THE MURDER.
It was as large as the palm of a man's hand, and as thick as a little finger. It was probably left by the Indians through the belief that ill-luck would attend them by having the scalp of a man of God.
ANOTHER STORY,
or Indian tradition, says that Gurty had once been Payne's interpreter, and when he recognized the body, after the dance was over, he was filled with remorse, and having buried it he burnt his most valuable articles over the grave to appease the Great Spirit. If that is true, the remains of Adam Payne sleep to-day not far from the south-west corner of Big Grove township, and the body found was that of a Dunker preacher who was also missed about the same time. As the Indians themselves gave this account, there is so far an air of great prob- ability about it. Mr. Cummins was Payne's step-son, and Mrs. Payne and her family went down with him and the Holdermans to a prairie camp in Putnam county. She never received any of her husband's effects, though she lived for a long time in the hope that she should.
The following, from Vetal Vermet, who lived here at the time, corroborates the main features of the story, while differing in some minor parts. He says :
" Rev. Mr. Payne lived at Holderman's Grove at the time of the Indian war. Just before it commenced he had to go to Chicago on business, and when he returned found his family and the other settlers gone. He re- sumed his journey, but coming across some Indians hid in the grove, they chased him about seven miles in a southern direction, when they shot him, and he fell from
92
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
his horse some time after he was killed. There we found and buried him, but his head we never found."
Mr. Vermet gives the following particulars of
OTHER DEATHS.
"While at the Ottawa fort, Capt. McFadden with James Beresford and Zeke Warren wanted me to go with them to pick strawberries at Indian creek, but I refused, as there was too much danger. They went, and Warren soon returned bringing the bad news. Then a company of us went out and found McFadden hid in a bunch of willows. He was wounded in the leg, and his injured horse had carried him three miles and fell dead. We then searched for Beresford, and found him dead and scalped where he was first attacked.
" Mr. Schemerhorn and his son-in-law, Mr. Hazleton, owned a farm at Mission Point. After we had been at the fort a week or two they wanted me to get ready and go back with them to our homes to look after our house- hold goods, and I agreed to go with them the next day. But when they came for me my horse was gone. I had turned him out to feed on the prairie, and could not find him, so they went without me, taking a young man with them. About seven miles from Ottawa they were sur- rounded by Indians and killed, though the young man escaped. We at once went out and found the bodies, bringing them back to Ottawa, but the Indians had gone."
CHAPTER XIV.
THE WAR ENDED.
FEW days after the flight of the settlers, Peter Miller and wife, now of Sheridan, came out from Ohio and headed towards Ot- btawa. While crossing Grundy county, south of the Illinois river, they inquired their way of two drovers who were driving cattle to an Eastern market, and were then first informed of the war. They arrived, however, without accident at Ottawa, to the great relief of their friends- the Holdermans-who were anxiously expecting them. In June
JOHN N. SCHNEIDER,
the pioneer miller of Kendall county, arrived at Ottawa, having accomplished the entire distance from Pittsburg a-foot and alone. He was unmolested throughout the entire journey. His brother Peter, now living in the Big Woods above Aurora, came with his family by steam- boat around the lakes, but when the captain heard there was cholera in Chicago, he put off before half the goods were unloaded, and the unfortunate Peter never saw them again.
The war now went on vigorously. Mr. Booth enlisted as a volunteer to fight the Indians, and so also did others
94
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
from among the settlers. Those who had taken refuge in Chicago were at first housed in the fort, but when Major Whittlesey arrived with his regulars they occupied the fort, and the settlers moving out upon the prairie were gathered in shanties built of a raft of lumber just received by the Noble family. Half a dozen families were in some cases packed in a room fourteen feet square, and the confusion was great. Children quarreling, mothers chaffering, and men disputing, working, play- ing, or going on scouting expeditions, as they had oppor- tunity. Black Hawk did not trouble them. He made a vigorous siege of the fort at Galena, but he was re- pulsed, and besides that seemed to avoid any open engage- ment. But a foe more deadly than the savage Indian was creeping up the country. It was the
ASIATIC CHOLERA.
It started in Canada, and followed the highways and navigable streams westward, leaving lines of dead behind to mark its fatal track. On July 8th, a steamer arrived having on board Gen. Winfield Scott and two hundred United States troops, and the Cholera. The latter was shipped at Detroit. The boat anchored a mile from the beach, as there was no harbor, and small boats and canoes put out to bring off the men and cargo. Some had died on the trip, others were sick, and all were in fear. After landing it spread frightfully, defying all efforts to arrest or confine it, and in a few days ninety men had perished and were buried in a common grave, corner Lake street and Wabash Avenue. Those streets were not laid out at that time, though Lake street was surveyed the same
95
THE CHOLERA ARRIVES.
fall, and the spot was included within the military ground. As soon as the news came to the ears of the settlers they fled again, being more willing to risk the Indians in the field than Cholera in the camp. While they needed an escort of forty men to bring them to Chicago, they needed none to guard them back, but fled in hot haste to the stockade at Plainfield, to Reed's Grove, to Hickory Creek, to Ottawa, wherever there was promise of safety. ยท Gen. Scott's headquarters, while in Chicago, was at John Wentworth's tavern, familiarly called "Rat Cas- tle," in allusion to a large number of its regular board- ers. It stood at the east end of Lake street bridge. The government sent two steamboat loads of provisions up the Illinois river, and they made their way as far as Lemont, the highest point ever reached by steamboat on the Illinois. There was great rejoicing when they came, both on account of the prospective opening up of com- merce, and because of the present need, for as the corn- fields were not planted there was danger of famine. The provisions were intended for the troops, and to be given as government supplies to the friendly Indians and the settlers. But the agent in charge sold to the settlers, and whether unjustly or not, was popularly supposed to have made a dishonest purse for himself. However, it was better to buy than to starve, though it was hard on many of the people, who had all they could do to live before.
The war finally ended in the latter part of July by a decisive battle on the Wisconsin river, after which the Indians retreated to the Mississippi, marking their route by their dead, and were defeated again. Dr. L D.
96
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
Boone, a relative of Daniel Boone, and one of the oldest living pioneers of Chicago, was regimental surgeon under Gen. Henry, and was present at both engagements. These reverses settled the policy of the wavering Win- nebagos, who pursued and captured Black Hawk, of their own accord, and delivered him up to the whites.
In the meantime,
THE HALL GIRLS
had been rescued by a ransom. They had lost little Jimmy Davis. Before he had gone many miles he became so tired as to be a burden to the Indians, and they stood him up by a tree and shot him. The two sisters were taken into Wisconsin, and were ransomed by the government for two thousand dollars and forty horses. Their case excited much interest, and the leg- islature voted them a quarter section of canal land at Joliet. Congress also voted them a small sum of money. They were taken to St. Louis, and from there by Rev. Erastus Horn, a friend of their father, to his house in Morgan county, Ill. Sylvia afterwards married William Horn, and lives at Lincoln, Nebraska. Rachel married William Munson, and moved to Freehold, LaSalle Co., where she died a few years ago.
The war being closed,
SCOTT'S TROOPS
were not needed, and about August 1st the remnant of the little army, with baggage wagons and a drove of cattle for supplies, marched through the northern part of Kendall county, on their way to Rock Island. Fresh deaths occurred every day, and nearly every camp was marked by its graves. The second night out they
97
END OF THE WAR.
encamped near Little Rock, and the three soldiers' graves left behind were seen for years by the early set- tlers. Black Hawk, the cause of all the misery, was taken to Washington, where he made his celebrated speech to President Jackson, beginning : " I am a man, and you are another." He was confined in Fortress Monroe for the Winter, and released in the Spring, after making the tour of the eastern cities. He was lionized by the ladies, whom he complimented by saying, "pretty squaws." He returned by the way of the lakes to his tribe in Iowa, and died a very old man, Oct. 3d, 1840. He was far inferior to Pontiac or Tecumseh, having lit- tle to distinguish him but his bravery.
As to Mike Gurty, the outlaw and murderer, the
RETRIBUTION
that followed his crimes is worthy of mention. He was taken prisoner at the final defeat of the Indians, and for subsequently killing a guard, was confined at hard labor, with ball and chain, in the garrison at Prairie Du Chien, for four years. It was probably the first honest work he ever did. When he was so far gone with consumption as to be unable to work, he was released and suffered to wander off to Bureau county, in this State, in search of his family. It was the locality of his murders, too, and where one poor man and his young wife had been burned alive. He entered Princeton in the last stages of con- sumption, with a violent cough, emaciated, and tottering under his load of blankets, copper kettle, pot, gun, tom- ahawk, knife, and a piece of venison. When told that the Indians had all moved west of the Mississippi, he groaned in his despair, and shed the tears for his own
98
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
misery that he could never shed for others. Reeling to and fro from weakness, he took up his march for the West. A week afterwards a body, eaten by wolves, was found on the prairie, and around the neck, attached to a buckskin cord, was a silver medal, on which was engraved, "A token of friendship, Lewis Cass, U. S. A." It was the last of Mike Gurty, the assassin of Indian Creek. And over him might be raised the epitaph : "He showed no mercy in his life ; he received none in his death."
In August, 1832, John and Walter Pearce and
WILLIAM WILSON
arrived with their families. They were from the Mad river country, Ohio, and started almost the moment they heard the war was over, with horse teams, driving their cattle and sheep before them. It was a tedious journey, and the prospect, when they reached the quaking swamps around Chicago, anything but inviting. But from that point they struck for Fox river, and after a day's travel in that direction were better pleased. They touched the river at Aurora, though there was not one solitary cabin then to mark the spot, and passed on down the south bank to the present site of Oswego. There Mr. Wilson drove his stake, while the Pearces crossed the river and made their claims on the other side. Oswego is there- fore, by a few months, the oldest inhabited town in Ken- dall county, being now in the forty-fifth year of her age. Mr. Wilson built his cabin near Walter Loucks' present residence. A few weeks afterwards, Ephraim Macomber and family arrived and claimed the place now owned by J. Budlong, on the Newark road, two miles west of Oswego. There were then two cabins on each side of the river.
99
THE SETTLERS RETURN.
This was not only the first settlement on Fox river in Kendall county, but, so far as known, they were the only settlers on the river, at that time, between Indian Creek and Geneva. During the same fall
MR. SEE,
an unlearned and rather tedious preacher, well known in the early days of Chicago, made a claim covering the present site of Plattville. It was then known as The Springs, and was on the trail from Plainfield to Hol- derman's. Mr. See, no doubt, was charmed with the gushing fountain, beside which travelers used to camp, and wondering that no claim-stake had yet been driven there, resolved to drive his own. But he never occupied his claim. In September and October most of the set- tlers returned to their claims, which they found plun- dered of everything movable, so were obliged to begin over again. Some, however, wintered in other parts. George Hollenback and family and Mr. and Mr. Combs went to Ohio ; Mr. Harris went to his former home near Ottawa; Mr. Ackley had gone on to Ohio on the breaking out of the war. Mr. Booth returned from Macomb and arrived on his claim October 31st. Mr Holderman sold his field of corn at Pekin, and returned so full of vigor that he was able to buy out Mr. Vermet, the last remaining old settler at the Grove. The sale of eighty acres was made November 16th, before J. Cloud, Justice of the Peace. John Hollenback and L. L. Robins were witnesses.
IT WAS HARD TIMES
that winter. Corn was the principal food. It was cracked in a mortar at Holderman's. What little wheat could be
100
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
got was ground in a coffee mill. Pork was supplied from the pigs that survived the war, feeding on acorns in the woods. But one by one the cold snowy days passed by.
CHAPTER XV.
THE YEAR OF THE EARLY SPRING.
IIE YEAR 1833 opened out splendidly, as if to make amends for the hardships of the year before. The snow went away in February, and early in March the sheltered valleys and nooks by the groves were beautifully green, and by the end of the month, stock could live on the prairies anywhere. It was an exceedingly favor- ing Providence for the few pioneers who remained on their claims ; for had the spring been cold and back ward, much more suffering must have followed. The tide of emigration set in early, and in one summer more than trebled the population of the county. This was partly because the emigration of the summer preceding had been held back by the war, and partly because in con- nection with the war Northern Illinois had come promi- nently before the people. The beauty of the groves and richness of the soil had been extolled in the letters of
101
RE-SETTLEMENT OF NEWARK.
correspondents and reports of soldiers, and thus many of the better class were induced to come, who, in the ordinary course, would scarcely have thought of going so far west. Clark Hollenback and family had wintered at Holderman's, and as soon as the season opened, moved into Hobson's old cabin, in the Newark timber, while another was being built on the site now occupied by the residence of Edward Wright. The exact site of the Hob- son cabin was in the timber between Needham's and Taylor's, where Pat Cunningham afterward had a brick- yard. The spot may be easily recognized to-day, after a lapse of forty-six years.
GEO. B. HOLLENBACK,
the store-keeper, sold his claim on the hill to Col. Camp- bell, of Ottawa, and crossing the little creek built a new store on the rise of ground opposite, in the edge of the timber. It is now well known as the Barnett corner, opposite Thuneman's, in Newark. That town is there- fore next to Oswego in age and only eight months younger. The new store was no pretentious affair, being only twelve feet square, built of rough logs, but it was large enough to accommodate the business of those days and shelter the store-keeper's family besides. The only part of the old stock saved was a keg of powder that was buried by Pat Cunningham before the flight, and a keg of tobacco that was hidden by the Indians in the top of a tree. The burial of the powder prevented the foe from replenishing their ammunition, and the tobacco they probably expected to return for, but found no opportu- nity. The store was well patronized that summer, and the place was soon known far and near as "George-
102
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
town," after its indefatigable founder, and it bore that name for more than fifteen years. George Hollenback, his uncle, returned with a young man by the name of John Perry, and put his crops in before he brought his family. Mr. Ackley returned with his family, as did also most of the other settlers. Mr. Ament had re- turned to his claim in the fall, at the same time with Booth and Holderman. Mr. Harris wintered in Naper- ville, and selling his claim to John Matlock took up an- other in Long Grove. Dougherty and Selvey returned to Aux Sable, and after a few years went to Oregon. Of
THE AMENT BOYS,
Hiram took a claim next to Edward, and the following vear married Miss Nancy Harris. Calvin remained until 1840, when he returned South and became a Protestant Methodist prcacher. Anson, next younger, in 1848 married Miss Tamar White, of Batavia, a sister of Hi- ram's second wife, and went with Hiram to Oregon.
In the spring of 1833 Mr. Litsey and Mr. Havenhill also returned, and in the fall the latter located perma- nently on the east side of Big Grove.
As soon as the roads were settled,
EARL ADAMS
set out for the claim he made two years before. Ebene- zer Morgan came with him, leaving his family to follow the ensuing spring. He took Mr. Adams' family in a wagon drawn by horses, and Mr. Adams followed with an ox team and the goods. They came by way of Chi- cago. At Oswego they found Mr. Wilson settled, and stayed with him over night, proceeding the next morn-
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.