USA > Illinois > Winnebago County > Rockford > History of Rockford and Winnebago County, Illinois, from the first settlement in 1834 to the civil war > Part 3
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In 1804 a treaty was negotiated at St. Louis between William Henry Harrison and five chiefs of the Sac and Fox nation. Mr. Harrison was then governor of the Indiana Territory, and of the district of Louisiana, superintendent of Indian affairs for the district, and commissioner plenipotentiary of the United States for concluding the treaty. By this treaty the Sacs and Foxes ceded their land on Rock river and territory elsewhere to the United States. The treaty provided that the Indians should retain these lands until they were required for settlement. During the war of 1812 with England, through the influence of Colonel Dixon, a British officer at Prairie du Chien, a portion of this tribe allied itself with the English. This faction was called the "British Band," and Black Hawk was its acknowledged leader. The other portion of the tribe remained peaceable during the war, and reaffirmed the treaty of 1804 at Portage des Siouxs, in September, 1815. The hostile warriors professed repentance for their violation of good faithi, and at St. Louis, in May, 1816, they confirmed the treaty of 1804. A small party, however, led by Black Hawk, persistently denied the validity of the treaty of 1804 as well as all subsequent agree- ments. He contended that certain chiefs, while at St. Louis in an intoxicated condition, were induced to sell the Indian country without the consent of the nation. Competent authorities have differed concerning the equity of the treaty of 1804; but the Saes and Foxes as a nation never disavowed it. On the con- trary, they reaffirmed it in the treaties of 1815 and 1816.
Amicable relations existed between the Sac and Fox nation and the United States from the close of the war with England until 1830. In July of that year Keokuk, another Sac chief, made a final cession to the United States of the lands held by his tribe east of the Mississippi. According to this treaty, his people were to remove from Illinois to the country west of the
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18
HISTORY OF ROCKFORD AND WINNEBAGO COUNTY.
Mississippi, and they quietly removed across the river. This treaty was negotiated without the consent of Black Hawk, and he determined to resist the order of the government for the removal of his tribe west of the Mississippi. This resistance brought affairs to a crisis.
During the winter of 1830-31 Black Hawk and his tribe left their village, as usual, and crossed the Mississippi on a hunting expedition, to procure furs wherewith to pay their debts to the traders, and buy new supplies of goods. They re-crossed the river in April, and on their return they found their village in possession of the pale-faces. The United States had caused some of these lands, which included the chief town of the nation, to be surveyed and sold. A fur-trader at Rock Island had purchased the very ground on which their village stood. Black Hawk ordered the settlers away, and destroyed their property. A truce was arranged, but it did not perma- nently settle the difficulty ; and May 18 eight settlers addressed a memorial to Governor Reynolds, in which they stated their grievances. The governor immediately communicated with General Gaines, of the United States army, who was then in command of the military district. General Gaines repaired to Rock Island in June, with a few companies of regular soldiers. Upon ascertaining the critical situation, he called upon Gov- ernor Reynolds for mounted volunteers, The governor honored the requisition, and in response to his call fifteen hundred vol- unteers from the northern and central counties rallied to his support at Beardstown, and were placed under command of General Duncan, of the state militia. This army, after a few days' march, joined General Gaines below Rock Island, where the two generals formed a plan of action. General Gaines took posses- sion of the village June 26; but Black Hawk and his band had quietly departed during the night in their canoes for the west- ern shore of the Mississippi, where they raised the white flag of truce. They subsequently re-crossed the river, and thus claimed protection. June 30 General Gaines negotiated a treaty with Black Hawk and his chiefs and braves, by which they agreed to remain forever on the western side of the river; and never to re-cross it without permission from the president of the United States or the governor of the state. Notwithstanding . the treaty, in the spring of 1832 Black Hawk attempted to re-assert his right to his former territory.
Hostilities began in April, when Black Hawk and his band
19
DEFEAT AT STILLMAN'S RUN.
re-crossed the Mississippi, under pretense of paying a visit to his Winnebago friends in Wisconsin. The manifest purpose of this visit was to form an alliance with the Winnebagoes in offensive warfare. General Atkinson, who was then in com- mand of Fort Armstrong, sent messengers to warn Black Hawk to return. The warrior did not heed the warning, but contin- ued his march until he reached Dixon's Ferry, where his braves encamped. The news of Black Hawk's return to Illinois reached Governor Reynolds, who raised a force of eighteen hundred men, under command of General Whiteside. This army arrived at Dixon on the 12th of May. Meanwhile Black Hawk had departed and encamped on Rock river thirty miles above.
While at Dixon an ambitious officer named Stillman asked the privilege of making a reconnoissance on Black Hawk's camp. It was granted with reluctance, and Major Stillman started with two hundred and seventy-five men on the advent- ure. When the volunteers approached the camp of Black Hawk, he sent a party of six men to meet them, under protection of a white flag. By some mistake, undisciplined volunteers fired upon them, and two were killed while in retreat. Black Hawk was justly indignant, and he resisted the attack with his usual spirit. The result was the slaughter of eleven volunteers, and the others fled in confusion. This was the first blood drawn in the Black Hawk war. On the following day General Whiteside led his entire force to the scene, near a creek since called "Still- man's Run." To this day the visitor to the little village of Stillman Valley is shown the spot where the eleven soldiers are supposed to have been buried. No stone marks the place, and it is known only by tradition.
The news of the Indian war spread rapidly throughout the east, and the administration sent nine companies to the scene, under command of General Scott. Hearrived at Fort Dearborn in Chicago, July 8. The cholera had broken out among his men on the way, and he was thus detained at thefort. Assoon as the cholera had subsided General Scott removed his quarters from Fort Dearborn to the banks of Desplaines river. From there he sent the main body, under command of Colonel Cum- mings, to the site of Beloit, then a deserted Winnebago village. At that point orders came from the general in chief command for the army to march down Rock river to Fort Armstrong on Rock Island, at which place General Scott had arrived by a hasty march across the country by way of Naperville.
20
HISTORY OF ROCKFORD AND WINNEBAGO COUNTY.
The further details of this war will be briefly noted. Black Hawk retreated up Rock river into Wisconsin, and was hotly pursued. The army trail, made in following Black Hawk's band to the head-waters of the Rock, passed through the First ward of Rockford. Stephen Mack was the guide. This trail met the river bank above the city at the dry run which is now bridged on North Second street, near the residence of H. H. Hamilton. In July Black Hawk determined to try to save himself by crossing the Mississippi river. He was overtaken at Blue Mounds, on Wisconsin river, by General Henry's division. A battle ensued on the 21st, in which the Sac chief lost fifty warriors while crossing the river.
Black Hawk continued his retreat after the battle until he was again overtaken August 2, near the mouth of the Bad Axe river, in Wisconsin. In the battle which followed nearly the entire remnant of Black Hawk's army was killed or drowned in attempting to cross the river. Black Hawk fled to Prairie La Cross, a Winnebago village, where he surrendered to Chaetar and One-eyed Decora, two Winnebago chiefs, who delivered him to General Street, the Indian agent at Prairiedu Chien, August 27. The campaign had lasted seventy-nine days.
The speech of Black Hawk, addressed to General Street, at Prairie du Chien, after his defeat at the battle of the Bad Axe, is a splendid specimen of Indian eloquence, and reveals a patriotism unsurpassed by the "noblest Roman." Eloquence is born of strong passion, and is never a trick of rhetoric nor a mere intellectual feat. The following, from this humiliated savage, is worthy of Burke or Webster:
"You have taken me prisoner with all my warriors. . . I fought hard. But your guns were well aimed. The bullets flew like birds in the air, and whizzed by our ears like the wind through the trees in the winter. My warriors fell around me; it began to look dismal. I saw my evil day at hand. The sun rose dim on us in the morning, and at night it sunk in a dark cloud, and looked like a ball of fire. That was the last sun that shone on Black Hawk. His heart is dead and no longer beats quick in his bosom. He is now a prisoner to the white men ; they will do with him as they wish. But hecan stand torture, and is not afraid of death. He is no coward. Black Hawk is an Indian. . . Farewell, my nation! Black Hawk tried to save you, and avenge your wrongs. He drank the blood of some of the whites. He has been taken prisoner, and
21
DEATH OF BLACK HAWK.
his plans are stopped. He can do no more. He is near his end. His sun is setting, and he will rise no more. Farewell to Black Hawk !"
On the 10th of September the Indian prisoners were taken to Jefferson Barracks, below St. Louis. From there Black Hawk was sent to Washington, where he was presented to President Andrew Jackson. April 26, 1833, he was sent to Fortress Mon- roe, where he remained until the 4th of June, when he was permitted to return to his people. Upon his return he was restored to his tribe as a chief subordinate to Keokuk. Black Hawk died October 3, 1838, at the age of seventy-one years. He was dressed for burial in a uniform presented to him when in Washington by the president. The body was placed in the middle of the grave, in a sitting posture, on a seat constructed for this purpose. On his left side, the cane given him by Henry Clay, was placed upright, with his right hand resting upon it. Many of the old warrior's trophies were placed in the grave.
Black Hawk was free from many of the vices that others of his race contracted from their association with the white people. He never used intoxicants to excess. As a warrior he knew no fear, and on the field of battle his feats of personal prowess stamped him as the "bravest of the brave." In social relations he was affable and true. His devotion to his wife, with whom he lived more than forty years, was strong and manly. In the home he was an affectionate husband and father.
The Black Hawk war made no military reputations; but Zachary Taylor and Abraham Lincoln bore an humble part. Mr. Lincoln never alluded to it as anything more than an inter- esting episode in his life. In satirizing the military pretensions of another, he said: "Do you know, Mr. Speaker, I too am a military hero? . . I fought, bled and came away. If he saw any live fighting Indians, it was more than I did; but I had a good many bloody struggles with the mosquitoes."
CHAPTER V.
STEPHEN MACK .- JOHN PHELPS .- JOSEPH KEMP.
ST TEPHEN MACK was the first white man who made a per- manent settlement in Winnebago county. The exact date is unknown, but it was probably about 1829. It is also quite certain that he was the first settler in the Rock river valley. The student of local history is indebted to Edson I. Carr, who has given in his History of Rockton the best information con- cerning this adventurer; and the author is indebted to Mr. Carr for many of the facts given in this chapter.
Mack was born in Poultney, Vermont, during the latter part of thelast century. He was for a time a student at Dartmouth college, but it does not appear that he was ever graduated. His love of adventure was shown in early life. Soon after the war of 1812 he came to Detroit with his father, who held a position under the government. The younger Mack subse- quently joined a government expedition around the lakes from Detroit to Green Bay. While there Mack learned from traders that the Rock river country presented favorable opportunity for a trading post. He accordingly made the journey with an Indian pony, and arrived at a point near the site of Janesville ; thence to Turtle Village, near what is now Beloit. While there he learned of an Indian camp to the south, at Bird's Grove, about a mile and a half from the mouth of Pecatonica river, and he started for that point. He lost the trail and descended the Rock until he came to a Pottawatomie village at Grand Detour, where he remained several years. Mack established trade with the Indians, and took their furs in exchange for merchandise. His journey to and from Chicago were made by Indian ponies. During this time Mack married Ho-no-ne-gah, a daughter of the Pottawatomie chief. This alliance, however, did not establish a perpetual bond of friendship between Mack and the tribe. He incurred the enmity of the red men because he refused to sell them whisky and firearms. While on a trip to Chicago a plan was laid to murder him and take his goods. His faithful Indian wife discovered the plot. She mounted a pony, met him a considerable distance from the camp and gave him warning. Together they started for the camp of the Win- nebagoes at Bird's Grove. There they were made welcome and given protection, and there they made their home.
23
CHARACTER OF HO-NO-NE-GAH.
Ho-no-ne-gah, though born of a savage race, exhibited traits of a more refined womanhood. She was a true wife, and thoroughly devoted to her home and children. Her husband's tribute of devotion was sincere. She was modest and disliked to appear conspicuous. She knew the remedies which the Great Spirit had spread before her in nature, and with these she visited the sick. The needy were also blessed by her gracious ministry. Ho-no-ne-gah always wore the habit of her race. Only once was she known to don the dress of her white sisters. But she felt so ill at ease that she soon cast it aside, and ever afterward appeared in the attire of her tribe. Mrs. Jesse Blinn, who still remembers her, testifies to her excellent taste in dress and to her skill in the use of the needle.
Upon the outbreak of the Black Hawk war, Mack was living at peace with his Winnebago friends. Black Hawk visited this tribe in his flight up Rock river, and attempted to induce the warriors to accompany him into Wisconsin. Mack opposed this alliance, and thereby incurred the displeasure of the Sac chief. The Winnebagoes remained at their old camp, and Black Hawk proceeded without them. But the feeling was so strong against Mack during this visit of Black Hawk that the chief of the Winnebagoes advised him to leave the camp for personal safety. There is a story that he sought seclusion on what is now called Webber's Island, where he was supplied with food by his wife until the storm had passed. It is not certain whether this is history or romance.
Mack foresaw that a speedy settlement of the Rock river valley would follow the Black Hawk war. The Pecatonica was then considered a navigable stream for one hundred miles from its mouth, and Rock river for one hundred and fifty miles into Wisconsin Territory. Mack believed that the bluff at the mouth of Pecatonica river was an available site for a town. Accord- ingly in the autumn of 1835 he took possession of this tract, upon which he resided until his death. He planted a village, which was called Macktown. The place still retains this name, although the promising settlement of sixty years ago, save the old substantial farm house, has disappeared. Mack had a bold policy of expansion, and valued a corner lot near his store at one thousand dollars. When he was told that hisland was too uneven for a town, he replied that "it is far better than Mil- waukee."
Mack engaged in various business enterprises. He kept a
24
HISTORY OF ROCKFORD AND WINNEBAGO COUNTY.
general store and did a successful business. He brought his goods from Chicago on Indian ponies, before the advent of wagons. In 1838 he established a ferry across Rock river, which was managed for a time by William Hulin. It was then purchased by Jesse Blinn, who carried on the business under a license issued by the county commissioners' court. About 1842 Mack built, mainly at his own expense, a bridge in the place of the ferry. This was the first bridge across Rock river in the state. This structure was carried away by a freshet June 1, 1851. Another bridge, which had been built previous to the freshet one mile farther down the river, changed the course of travel, and Macktown fell into decline.
Political honors came to Stephen Mack. He was elected associate justice in 1849, and held the office until his death. He was appointed the first township treasurer of the school fund of Rockton. Upon the adoption of township organization in 1850, he was a candidate for supervisor, but was defeated by a few votes by Sylvester Talcott.
Mack had taken Ho-no-ne-gah to be his wife under the Indian form of marriage. In order to fully protect the title of his children to his estate, he and his wife were re-married September 14, 1840, by William Hulin, a justice of the peace. This action, however, was probably unnecessary. It is a principle in inter- national law that a marriage is recognized as legal whenever it is held to be such in the country in which it was solemnized. This principle would be applied to the marriage rite among Indians and similar races. On the 4th of April, 1840, Mack executed his will. The full text of this instrument is given in Mr. Carr's History of Rockton. By this will he divided his property equally among his wife and eight children.
Ho-no-ne-gah died in 1847. She was the mother of eleven children, two of whom died in infancy. Louisa and Mary were students at Rockford seminary for a time, but their free Indian nature could not long endure such restraint. Louisa and her husband, according to latest information, were residing in Chippewa county, Wisconsin. Caroline, the youngest, was a babe when her mother died.
In 1848 Mack married Mrs. Daniels, of Harrison. The cer- emony was performed at Beloit. His subsequent domestic life was not as happy as it had been with Ho-no-ne-gah. February 14, 1849, Mack executed a codicil to his will. Since the date of the former instrument changes had occurred in his family.
25
MACK'S LIFE A MYSTERY.
Three children had been born, one child and Ho-no-ne-gah had died, and he had remarried. The codicil equally divided his estate among his wife and children.
Stephen Mack died very suddenly April 10, 1850. At the time of his death he owned land in several adjoining sections, which aggregated about one thousand acres. He was buried on his farm beside his Indian wife. Thirty years later, May 19, 1880, their remains were removed and buried in the Phillips cemetery, near Harrison.
Many reasons have been given why this educated gentleman of New England should have sought a life on the frontier, and married a woman of a savage race. It is said death claimed the idol of his first love. Others believe an insidious appetite drove him to this western wilderness. It may have been a keen foresight by which he caught a glimpse of the marvelous devel- ment of the west. Whatever the motive, he kept his secret. until he passed beyond the judgment of men. His career was strange and romantic. Heisremembered as dignified in bearing, genial and courteous, a kind husband and father, a true friend, and an honest man.
In the summer of 1833 John Phelps. in company with a Frenchman, started down Pecatonica riverfrom Mineral Point, Wisconsin, in a canoe, on a voyage of discovery. These men descended the Rock, and made a brief stop at the mouth of the creek where Germanicus Kent and Thatcher Blake located claims a year later. Mr. Phelps and his companion were pleased with the site, and would have located there had it not been for the scarcity of timber. For thisreason they continued their journey down the river, and selected a site now occupied by the town of Oregon, in Ogle county.
Neither Mack nor Phelps ever lived within the limits of Rockford; but a history of the city would scarcely be complete without a record of the facts given in this chapter.
Joseph Kemp was in this section from 1830 to 1840, and again from 1842 to 1844. He has not been in this county since the latter date. Mr. Kemp first came from a point below Rock Island on the Mississippi, then to Rockford by way of Rock river. He did not, however, permanently reside in what is now the city of Rockford. In July, 1899, he was still living, at Mich- igan City, in his eighty-ninth year, and was seen by Charles L. Williams.
CHAPTER VI.
GERMANICUS KENT AND THATCHER BLAKE.
T was stated at the beginning of Chapter IV. that the Black - Hawk war was the immediate occasion of the settlement of the Rock river valley. There were, however, remote and more general causes. The peace following the great Napoleonic con- flict in Europe had stimulated emigration to this country. President Monroe's administration had passed into history as the "era of good feeling." The Erie canal and the construction of railroads, steamboats and stage lines had created a period of expansion. The great undeveloped northwest, east of the Mississippi river, was then quite well known, and presented a splendid opportunity for capital and enterprise. Illinois occu- pied a central position. The Illinois and Michigan canal had been chartered, and a large number of railroads had been subsidized by the state. A tide of inflated prosperity was swiftly carrying every department of industry and speculation toward the financial breakers of 1837. Under these conditions the actual history of Rockford began.
Germanicus Kent was born of English ancestry in Suffield, Connecticut, May 31, 1790, nearly one hundred and ten years ago. In early manhood he went from his native state to New York. In 1819 he went from there to the south with testimonials of first-class business ability. He first stopped for a short time in Blacksburg, Virginia. About 1822 Mr. Kent went to Hunts- ville, Alabama, where he was for some years engaged in the dry goods business in partnership with Preston Yeatman. June 7, 1827, Mr. Kent married Miss Arabella Amiss, who was born in Culpepper, Virginia, April 9, 1808. The ceremony was per- formed at Blacksburg. Mr. Kent was subsequently a partner in the firm of Patton, Donegan & Co., at the Bell Cotton factory on Flint river, about nine miles from Huntsville. The firm owned a dry goods store at Huntsville at the same time, but Mr. Kent was not personally interested in it. It has been said Mr. Kent was an abolitionist, but this statement is not fully
27
FIRST ARRIVAL IN ROCKFORD.
established. At one time he owned several slaves, and brought one of them to this state.
Mr. Kent went from Alabama to Galena, Illinois, where his brother, the Rev. Aratus Kent, a Presbyterian elergyman, was stationed as a home missionary. This brother was deeply interested in higher education, and his name will re-appear in this book. At the time Aratus Kent left Huntsville he possessed an amount of ready money that was considered a competence for those days.
Thatcher Blake was born at Turner, Oxford county, Maine, March 16, 1809. He resided in his native state until 1834, when he started for the west by way of Boston, Albany, Buf- falo, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Louisville and St. Louis. At St. Louis he conversed with the soldiers who had been in the Black Hawk war, who gave interesting descriptions of the Rock river country and Galena. The latter was then being rapidly populated by reason of its extensive lead mines. Mr. Blake therefore visited Galena. There he became acquainted with Germanicus Kent. This acquaintance ripened into friendship, and they arranged to explore the Rock river valley.
In June, 1834, these gentleman started from Galena, in a democrat wagon, on their tour of exploration. They went north into Wisconsin Territory to the Pecatonica river, about four miles from what was then known as Hamilton's Diggings, a small mining village operated by a son of Alexander Hamil- ton. A man named Ransom had settled on the Pecatonica at this point, of whom they procured a canoe. Their purpose was to explore the Pecatonica and Rock rivers with a view of settlement if the country should meet their expectations. Their first landing was at a point now included in thecity of Freeport. It was then an Indian camp, known as Winneshiek's Village. Winneshiek was the name of a chief of a band of Indians which numbered from two to three hundred. Mr. Kent went ashore and explored the country some distance from the river. The Indians gathered about Mr. Blake in such numbers that he became alarmed, and was compelled to row from the shore and remain in the middle of the stream, as a precaution against robbery of their moderate supply of provisions. From Winne- shiek's Village they continued their journey and made frequent landings to explore the country. They ascended the Pecatonica to its junetion with Rock river, and came down the latter until they arrived at the mouth of the small tributary to which the
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