USA > Illinois > Stark County > History of Stark County, Illinois, and its people : a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 4
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At the beginning of the War of 1812 part of the Saes and Foxes joined the British and became known as the "British Band of Rock River," of which Black Hawk was the leader. Shortly after the conclusion of the war treaties were made with the several tribes or bands which had fought on the side of England, but it was not until May 13, 1816, that Black Hawk and twenty-one other head men of the Rock River Saes could be persuaded to enter into an agreement to keep the peace. On that date, at St. Louis, those twenty-two Indians "touched the goose quill," or signed a treaty reaffirming the treaty of November 3, 1804, though Black Hawk afterward declared that he did not understand what he was signing and repudiated his action.
In 1828 President Adams issued a proclamation deelaring the lands ceded by the treaty of 1804 opened to white settlement and ordering the removal of the Indians to the west side of the Mississippi. As a matter of fact Chief Keokuk and his band had removed to the west side of the river about two years before the proclamation was issued, but Black Hawk refused to vacate until the United States Government actually sold the section of land upon which his village was situated. In 1830 he and his followers crossed the river "under protest," the old chief being far from reconciled to the situation.
In the spring of 1831, with a number of his braves and their families, he reerossed the river and they took possession of their old cabins and cornfields. The white settlers appealed to Governor Rey- nolds, of Illinois, for protection and the governor sent General Gaines to Rock Island with a foree large enough to compel the Indians to go back to their new home west of the river.
During the winter of 1831-32 the Indians underwent severe hard- ships in their new homes. Their houses were poorly built and pro- visions were scaree, so that they suffered from both cold and hunger. About this time Black Hawk fell under the influence of Wa-bo-kie- shiek, a "bad medieine man," who advised him to reeross the Missis- sippi, ostensibly to visit the Winnebagoes, secure the cooperation of that tribe and the Pottawatomies, and drive out the hated pale faces. Accordingly, on April 6, 1832. he again crossed over to the east side of the Mississippi within plain view of the garrison at Fort Arm- strong, giving out the information that he was on his way to visit the Winnebagoes and join with them in raising a erop of corn. His disobedience was construed as a hostile demonstration, however. by
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the military authorities, who feared that he might attempt to take possession of his old village on the Roek River. There is no evidence that he made or attempted to make any such an attempt, and some of the settlers, knowing that an Indian war party was never accompanied by the old men, women and children of the tribe, expressed the opinion that Black Hawk was on a peaceful mission.
Although the settlers felt no special alarm over the expedition, Governor Reynolds took the view that Black Hawk's conduet in the past had been such that he would "bear watching." He therefore ordered out the state militia to the number of 2,000 men, which force, under command of General Whiteside, was sent to the aid of the garrison at Fort Armstrong. There has always been a difference of opinion as to whether Black Hawk's intentions were really hostile. It is certain. however, that the first warlike movement was made by the whites. Major Stillman was sent ont with a force.of 250 mounted men to turn baek the Indians. The detachment eame upon Black Hawk and about forty of his warriors at some distance from where the main body of the Indians were eneamped. Black Hawk sent for- ward five of his men bearing a flag of truee, to ask for a parley, but Stillman's men opened fire and two of the messengers were killed. The Indians then took up the fight according to the tacties of their race. concealing themselves behind trees and rocks and pieking off the white troopers. Stillman's men being mounted fought at a disad- vantage and in a short time were utterly routed, abandoning their provisions and eamp equipage in their flight.
Up to this time no hostile demonstration had been made by the Indians. The killing of the two warriors while engaged in bearing a flag of truce was the beginning of hostilities. This occurred on May 12, 1832, and during the next month some raids were made by the Indians upon the unprotected settlements. But not all the atrocities were committed by the members of Black Hawk's band. A number of Winnebagoes and Pottawatomies took advantage of the disturbed conditions to kill and plunder, though they deelined the invitation to join Black Hawk and "fight like men."
Stark County was at that thne a part of Putnam, and though at some distance from the seat of war the settlers were greatly alarmed for fear that some straggling war party would reach the Spoon River Valley. Mrs. Shallenberger. in her "Stark County and Its Pioneers," says: "Many settlers along the frontiers of Northern Illinois, in dread of the untold horrors of savage warfare, fled from their lands and homes, some of them never to return. It was at this erisis that
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volunteers from Spoon River rendezvoused at Hennepin, as related by Mr. Clifford, under the direction of the gallant Colonel Strawn in 'Bonaparte hat and laced coat.' and it is said that no less than fifteen hundred men reported themselves for service at that point."
Colonel Strawn's name does not appear in any published account of the war and it is possible that his men were employed for local defense. Immediately after Stillman's defeat volunteers were called for and on June 15, 1832, there were three brigades in camp at Dixon's Ferry, commanded by Gens. Alexander Posey, Milton R. Alexander and James D. Henry. In addition to these volunteer brigades, there were the regular troops at Fort Armstrong, commanded by General Atkinson, and the state militia under General Whiteside. And all this military array was considered necessary to overcome the little, half-starved band of Saes and Foxes, whose hostile intentions had not yet been made certain.
General Atkinson being between Black Hawk and the Mississippi River, the chief started for the Wisconsin River, intending to descend that stream and reeross the Mississippi. Early in June Maj. Henry Dodge. with his Galena Battalion, joined the forees at Dixon's Ferry. When it was learned that Black Hawk was making for the Wisconsin River, General Henry and Major Dodge started in pursuit. On July 21, 1832, they overtook the Indians at the Wisconsin, about fifty miles above its mouth, and Black Hawk was forced to make a stand until the women, children and old men could retreat across the river. With his few warriors he held the white soldiers at bay until the squaws constructed light rafts for the transportation of the goods and small children. These rafts they pushed across the stream, at the same time leading the ponies. When the noncombatants were out of danger on the other side, Black Hawk sent half his fighting force over. From the opposite shore these braves opened fire to cover the retreat of the chief and the remainder of his little band. who then swam aeross to safety. This feat was accomplished with fewer than two hundred warriors in the face of a vastly superior force, with a loss of only six men. Jefferson Davis, then an officer in Dodge's Battalion. afterward president of the Southern Confederacy, said of this maneuver:
"This was the most brilliant exhibition of military tactics that I ever witnessed: a feat of most consummate management and bravery in the face of an enemy of greatly superior numbers. I never read of anything that could be compared with it. Had it, been performed by white men it would have been immortalized as one of the most wonder- ful achievements in military history."
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The last battle of the Black Hawk War was fought at the mouth of the Bad Axe River on August 2, 1832. Here all the white troops were concentrated against Black Hawk, and a steamboat had been sent up the river from Fort Crawford to prevent the Indians from crossing the Mississippi. The force on this boat kept up a fire on the red men in front, while from all sides the Indians were assailed by the land forces. Yet, in spite of the great inequality in the strength of the two armies, Black Hawk held out for about two hours, hoping vainly for some fortimate turn in the battle that would permit at least a part of his people to escape. Some even attempted to swim the Mississippi, but the steamboat ran in among them, capturing a few and drowning others.
After the battle of the Bad Axe, Black Hawk escaped to the Winnebago village at Prairie la Crosse. Through the treachery of two Winnebago Indians, he was turned over to General Street, the Indian agent at Prairie du Chien, as a prisoner. His two sons were also captured and held as prisoners of war. They were confined at Fortress Monroe, Va., until JJune 4, 1833, when President Jack- son ordered their release. Under the escort of Major Garland the three Indians were then taken on a tour of the country, in order that they might behold the greatness of the United States and the futility of agam making war against the white men. When taken before President JJackson, Black Hawk said:
"I am a man; you are only another. We did not expect to con- quer the whites. They had too many men. I took up the hatchet to avenge injuries my people could no longer endure. Had I borne them longer without striking, my people would have said Black Hawk is a squaw; he is too old to be chief; he is no Sae. These reflections caused me to raise the war whoop. The result is known to you. I say no more."
This speech has been quoted to show that Black Hawk really crossed the Mississippi with a hostile objeet in view. At its conclusion President Jackson presented the old chief with a beautiful sword- "a gift from one warrior to another." Black Hawk then rejoined the remnant of his band in Iowa and died there on October 3, 1838, Au old Atlas of Stark County states that Black Hawk onee had an eneampment in what is now Goshen Township, but there is no eor- roborative testimony to show that he ever sojourned, even for a brief period. in the present county of Stark.
Vol. 1-3
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HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY
THE POTTAWATOMI
Tribal traditions and accounts in the Jesuit relations go to show that the Pottawatomi once constituted one of the powerful tribes of the Algonquian family. French missionaries and traders first came in contact with them near the northern limits of the lower Michigan peninsula, where they were known as the "Nation of Fire." Nicollet met with some of them in Wisconsin as early as 1664. Bacqueville de la Potherie, an early French writer, says: "In 1665 or 1666 the Pottawatomi took the southern and the Sac the northern shores of Green Bay, and the Winnebago, who were not fishermen, went back into the forests to live on venison and bear meat."
A few years later the Pottawatomi moved southward in large numbers and took possession of the country around the head of Lake Michigan. In 1674 some of this tribe met Father Marquette on his return from the Mississippi River and acted as his escort part of the way back to Canada. As already related, they joined with the Ottawa and Chippewa tribes in a war with the Illinois Indians after the death of Pontiac, and as a result of that war became possessed of a portion of the lands once inhabited by the Illinois.
About the close of the Revolutionary war a part of the tribe moved eastward and in the early years of the nineteenth century occupied practically all that part of Indiana lying north of the Wabash River. By the treaty of August 24. 1816. they ceded their lands along the shores of Lake Michigan to the United States and received in exchange some of the Sac and Fox lands in Western Illinois. This brought them into the valley of the Illinois River and some of the tribe established their homes along Walnut Creek. in what is now Stark County. In 1830 the band removed to Indian Creek. in the present townships of Goshen and Toulon, where they were joined by others, and for a time this region was the principal hunting ground.
The leading Pottawatomi chief in this part of the state was Shab- bo-nee, who was really an Ottawa, but became chief through his mar- riage to a Pottawatomi maiden, daughter of a chief. In the War of 1812 he listened to the blandishments of the Shawnee ehief. Tecumseh. and joined the British, but afterward proved to be a good friend to the white settlers. In 1832, at the time of the Black Hawk war. he visited the settlers on the Spoon River and warned them to leave. as the war was likely to extend to that part of the country. Acting upon his information David Cooper and the three Essex families went to the
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fort at the foot of Peoria Lake, though they all returned to their homes in Stark County with the exception of Thomas Essex, Jr., who settled near Peoria. Shab-bo-nee died in Grundy County, Illinois, July 17, 1859.
On August 17, 1821, a couneil was held at Chicago, when Gen. Lewis Cass, as the commissioner of the United States, defined the Pottawatomi country as "extending along both sides of the Illinois River and all its tributaries, and along the western shore of Lake Michigan to Green Bay, with certain lands south of Lake Erie." At the same time the tribe relinquished title to about five millions of aeres in Michigan and Northern Indiana.
Another eouneil was held at Chicago on September 26, 1833, when the Pottawatomi chiefs and head men ceded all their remaining lands in Indiana, and all their possessions in Illinois, to the United States. Two years later they received their last annuity east of the Mississippi and soon afterward removed to reservations in lowa and Missouri. A few of this onee powerful tribe are still living in Kansas.
Says Mrs. Shallenberger: "Our pioneers report those they found here as a dirty, shiftless, set. the men of the tribe eking out a precarious living by hunting and fishing, while the women broke the sod, built the 'pony fences,' and raised paltry erops of corn. They were given to begging most importunately, if not to stealing from their white neighbors; their villages or encampments, of which there were several within our present county limits, formed rendezvous, especially on Sundays, for the idle and vicious, where horse trading and liquor drinking went on, much as in later days at a gipsy camp. So destitute of any element of poetry or romanee were the last days of the red man in this region, and their trails, their corn pits, and the graves of their dead were the legacies they left us when they took up their enforced march west of the Mississippi about 1835-36."
THE WINNEBAGO
Originally this tribe belonged to the Sionan family, but far back in the past they became allied with the Algonquian tribes living about the Great Lakes, and some ethnologists class them as being one of the Algonquian tribes. They are first mentioned in history as early as 1669, when they were allied with the Pottawatomi, Chippewa. Sae and Fox and other members of the Algonquian group.
In the Revolutionary war some of the Winnebago fought with the British, and in the summer of 1794 some took part in the battle
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of Fallen Timbers against the white forces commanded by Gen. Anthony Wayne. A few were engaged in the battle of Tippecanoe in November, 1811, and with the Pottawatomi were active in the massaere at Fort Dearborn (now Chicago) in 1812. Shortly after that they located in that part of Illinois lying north and west of the Rock River, though they frequently visited their Pottawatomi breth- ren farther south, and it is quite likely that some of them passed through Stark County. They were friendly to Black Hawk at the time of his invasion of Illinois in 1832, though it was through the treachery of two members of the tribe that Black Hawk was captured. Not long after that they were given the strip known as the "neutral ground" in lowa for a reservation in exchange for their lands east of the Mississippi. They intermarried freely with the Sacs and Foxes and were closely allied to those tribes-so closely in fact that some of the last treaties made by the Sacs and Foxes were submitted to the Winnebago chiefs and head men before they became effective.
The foregoing ineludes probably all the Indian tribes that inhab- ited or hunted over that part of Illinois now included in Stark County. As the march of civilization proceeded westward the Indian retired before the superior race, and about all that is left as a reminder of their former occupation of the country are the names of certain streams and towns which are of unquestionable Indian origin. The county seat of Gallatin County, in the southern part of the state. bears the name of Shawneetown, in memory of the Indian tribe that once lived in that region. Kaskaskia, Randolph County: Cahokia. St. Clair County; Tamaroa, Perry County; and the city and county of Peoria all bear names of minor tribes of the great Illinois eonfed- eraey. and Indian Creek, in Stark County, marks the site of the Potta- watomies' old hunting grounds.
CHAPTER IV
THE PERIOD OF PREPARATION
EARLY EXPLORATIONS IN AMERICA-SPANISH, FRENCHI AND ENG- LISHI CLAIMS TO TERRITORY IN THE NEW WORLD -- THE JESUIT MISSIONARIES DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI -- MARQUETTE AND JOLIET -- LA SALLE'S EXPEDITIONS-LOUISIANA-CROZAT AND LAW -THE MISSISSIPPI BUBBLE-CONFLICT OF INTERESTS-FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR-ILLINOIS A BRITISH POSSESSION-THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION-CLARK'S CONQUEST OF THE NORTHWEST-ILLINOIS UNDER VARIOUS JURISDICTIONS-ADMITTED AS A STATE-EVOLUTION OF STARK COUNTY-RECAPITULAATION.
Bastiat, the eminent French writer on political economy, once wrote an essay entitled "The Seen and the Unseen." People of the present generation see the conditions around them, but they are not always so well acquainted with the conditions of former years, and therefore do not fully appreciate the influence of the past upon the present. Civilization is the outgrowth of a gradual evolution. Stark County, like all the political subdivisions of the United States, is the produet of a series of events running back for many years. The part of each event may have been small. but the gradual development constitutes the "unseen" history of the county. It is therefore deemed advisable to devote a chapter to this subjeet, in order that the reader may be able to form some general idea of the evolution of the State of Illinois and the County of Stark.
In 1493. the year following the first voyage of Columbus to America, the pope granted to the King and Queen of Spain "all countries inhabited by infidels." At that time the extent of the conti- nent discovered by Columbus was not known, but in a vague way this papal grant included the present State of Illinois, the region then inhabited by Indian tribes who knew not the religion of the Catholic Church, and therefore came within the category of infidels.
Three years later Henry VII of England granted to John Cabot and his sons a patent of discovery, possession and trade "to all lands
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they may discover and lay claim to in the name of the English crown." Before the close of the century the Cabots had made explorations along the Atlantic coast from Cape Hatteras northward, and their discoveries formed the basis of England's claim to all the central por- tion of North America.
While Spain was pushing her explorations through the West Indies and along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, and England was operating along the Atlantic seaboard farther north, the French Gov- ernment sent Jacques Cartier on an expedition to the New World. Ile discovered and laid claim to the Valley of the St. Lawrence River and the country about the Great Lakes, from which base the French subsequently pushed their explorations and claims westward to the Mississippi River and southward into the Ohio Valley.
Following the usage of that period, each of these three great Euro- pean nations claimed title to certain territory "by right of discovery." Spain's papal grant was strengthened by the expedition of Hernando de Soto into the interior in 1540-42, one result of which was the dis- covery of the Mississippi River. De Soto died in the wilds and his body was buried in the great river. The few survivors, after many hardships, finally reached the Spanish colony at St. Augustine and upon their report Spain, in 1543, claimed all the land bordering upon the Mississippi as well as the gulf coast. In this way what is now the State of Illinois became Spanish territory.
In 1620 the British crown, ignoring the authority of the pope and the explorations of De Soto, issued a charter to the Plymouth Company including "all the lands between the fortieth and forty- eighth parallels of north latitude from sea to sea." The southern boundary of this grant crossed Illinois about fifteen miles north of the present city of Springfield, and what is now Stark County was there- fore included in the old Plymouth Company grant.
Eight years later (in 1628) the Massachusetts Bay Company received a grant that included a strip of land about one hundred miles wide "extending from sea to sea." The northern boundary of this strip crossed the Mississippi River not far from the present city of Prairie du Chien, Wis., and the southern crossed the State of Illinois about ten miles north of the north line of Stark County. Thus at least a part of the state was elaimed by both Spain and England "by right of discovery." but no effort was made by either nation to extend colonization into the interior. Spain was so busily engaged in the search for the rumored rich gold and silver mines that she paid but little attention to the establishment of permanent settlements, while
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the English were apparently content with the little colonies at James- town. Va .. and in New England.
Meantime the French were not idle. Quebec was founded by Samuel Champlain in 1608, only one year after the English colony was planted at Jamestown. In 1611 Jesuit missionaries from Quebec visited the Indian tribes living about the Great Lakes, and in 1616 a French explorer named Le Caron visited the country of the Huron and Iroquois tribes. The reports of Le Caron and the missionaries convinced the French authorities that it was possible to open up a profitable trade with the natives, particularly in furs, and explorations were pushed still farther westward. In 1634 Jean Nicollet reached the Fox River country, in what is now the State of Wisconsin. For more than half a century. however, after the founding of Quebec. no systematic effort was made to establish anything like a colony in the Great Lake basin.
In the fall of 1665 Claude Allonez, one of the most zealous of the Jesuit missionaries, held a couneil with the Indians at the Chippewa village on the southern shore of Lake Superior. Chiefs of the Sioux. Chippewa. Sac. Fox, Pottawatomi and Illinois tribes were present and to them and their people Allouez promised the protection of the great French father, thus opening the way for the establishment of trading posts in the Indian country. Some of the Sioux and Illinois chiefs told Allouez of a great river farther to the westward, "called by them the Me-sa-sip-pi, which they said no white man had yet seen (they knew nothing of the expedition of De Soto), and along which fur bearing animals abounded."
This same Father Allouez and another missionary named Claude Dablon founded the Mission of St. Marys-the first white settlement in Michigan-in 1668. Friendly relations were soon established between the people of the mission and the neighboring Indians. In 1671 Jacques Marquette, one of the most influential of the Jesuit missionaries in America. founded the Mission of Point St. Ignace. near the present city of Mackinaw. for the benefit of the Huron Indians. For many years this mission was considered as the key to the great, unexplored West.
Father Marquette had first heard of the great river through the report given by Allouez of the council held at the Chippewa village in 1665, and as time passed he grew more desirous of verifying the Indian accounts of its existence. Fearing hostility, or at least opposi- tion. on the part of the natives, he made no attempt to reach the river until after the founding of the mission at Point St. Ignace. Some
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time was then spent in making his preparations and in obtaining the consent of the Canadian colonial officials. In the spring of 1673, armed with the proper credentials, he went to Michilimackinae to complete his final arrangements for the expedition. It is said that the friendly Indians, when they learned of his intention, tried to dissuade him from the undertaking by telling him that the Indians who lived along the great river were cruel and treacherous, and that the river itself was the abiding place of great monsters that could easily swal- low a eanoe loaded with men.
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