USA > Illinois > Stephenson County > History of Stephenson County, Illinois : a record of its settlement, organization, and three-quarters of a century of progress > Part 7
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HISTORY OF STEPHENSON COUNTY
BLACK HAWK WAR MONUMENT.
On the site of the battle of Kellog's Grove, stands a monument erected in 1886. A marble slab on the north side of the monument bears the following inscription :
"Black Hawk War. This monument is reared by Stephenson County, A. D., 1886, in grateful remembrance of the heroic dead who died that we might live."
This monument stands on one of the highest points in Illinois and overlooks the beautiful valley of Yellow Creek. It can be seen for miles and miles in all directions. It is built of yellowish, flinty limestone, taken from the quarry nearby on the farm of Mr. J. B. Timms. The monument was built by Mr. William Ascher and is eight feet square at the base, three feet square at the top and is thirty-four feet high, surmounted by imitation cannon balls.
The credit for this monument is due to Mr. J. B. Timms, who has lived on the site of the battlefield of Kellog's Grove since 1835. Mr. Timms' father was a soldier in the Black Hawk War and Mr. Timms, himself, was born in Fort Funk, and as a child witnessed the attack on the fort at Apple River by Black Hawk in 1832. Mr. Timms has always maintained an extreme interest in the stirring events of the war, and it was he who presented the monument proposition to the county commissioners of Stephenson County, 1886.
In March, 1886, Mr. J. B. Timms appeared before the county commissioners of Stephenson County and addressed them on the events of the Black Hawk War, about Kellog's Grove, urging the commissioners to make an appropria- tion to build a monument there. The commissioners looked upon the proposi- tion and appointed a special committee to investigate the matter, consisting of H. W. Stocks, H. S. Keck and Isaac Bogenrief, of the board, and Mr. J. B. Timms. At the April meeting the committee reported and the commissioners voted that a site be secured and the monument built. D. W. Hays, Wm. Dively; Isaac Bogenrief and H. S. Keck, with Mr. Timms, were appointed a commit- tee to draft a plan and secure estimates. At the July meeting, plans were adopted and the committee was instructed to proceed with the work. The con- tract for the monument complete was let to Mr. Wm. Ascher for $535. A con- tract for an iron fence was let to Flachtemeier & Bros. for $144. Incidental expenses, exhuming and reburying the remains of the soldiers brought teh total costs to the county almost to $1,000. The supervisors who voted the funds were: William Ascher, W. H. Barnds, Isaac Bogenrief, W. H. Bolender, W. I. Brady, J. C. Briggs, Ira Crippen, William Dively, T. J. Foley, D. W. Hays, Jacob Jeager, Joseph Kachelhoffer, Henry S. Keck, G. S. Kleckner, J. T. Lease, James Musser, J. M. Reese, S. F. Rezner, D. F. Thompson, J. W. Stocks and T. B. Young. The monument is the idea of Mr. J. B. Timms, who prose- cuted it to its completion. As a boy he had walked over the battlefield and had kept in mind the unmarked burial places of the men who fell in battle. In 1886 he pointed out these places, the bodies were taken up and buried at the foot of the monument. Fifty-four years after the war, the remains of these
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HISTORY OF STEPHENSON COUNTY
men who stood between the Indian and the frontier settlements were decently buried and the place was marked by a suitable monument.
On the east side is inscribed on a tablet :
"Battlefield of Kellog's Grove, where was fought, June 25, 1832, the decisive battle between the forces of the United States and the great Indian Chief, Black Hawk."
The tablet on the west side bears the following:
"Killed on the field of battle-names as far as known- Benj. Scott, the drummer boy; William B. Makenson and Benj. Mc- Daniels of St. Clair County ; Wm. Durley, Charles Eames, Stephen P. Howard and Michael Lovell, of Jo Daviess County; Felix StVrain, the Indian agent; Messrs. Hale and Fowler, escort to StVrain; Wm. Allen, James P. Band, James Black and Abner Bradford of Jefferson County, and Wm. Hecklewad of Jo Daviess County."
The remains of the soldiers who were killed in Captain Stephenson's battle at Prairie Grove between Lena and McConnell, were taken up and interred with the bodies of the men who fell about Kellog's Grove. The committee and Mr. J. B. Timms, accompanied by W. H. Crotzer, Geo. Roush, S. J. Dodds, Ed. Shoesmith, A. Jones, Wm. Dively and sons, C. Shippy and Levi Robey, found the bodies of the three men, about eighteen inches underground. One of the skeletons was almost intact. The soles and heels of the shoes were well pre- served. Pieces of blankets and blue coats were found. With one skeleton was found a bullet mould, a jack knife, part of a wooden ramrod, about thirty bullets, the handle of a camp knife, several rifle flints, etc. Under another body were found several bullets. One of the men killed here, Charles Eames, was a brother-in-law of James Mitchel, of Freeport. There is a tradition that after the battle, a white man and an Indian were found so tightly clasped in each others arms that they could be separated only by severing the head of the Indian. These men were Charles Eames, Stephen P. Howard, and Michael Lovell.
The bones of the men exhumed at Kellog's Grove were fairly well preserved. In one grave, a shattered hip and a flattened bullet were found. The bones of fourteen victims of the Black Hawk War, scattered over the county, in some cases a dozen miles apart, were exhumed and reburied at the base of the monument. Although fifty years had passed, some were in a good state of preservation. The lonely grave of Bennie Scott, the drummer boy, was marked by his initials, B. S., cut on trees near his burial place.
The monument was publicly dedicated September 30, 1886. The services were conducted by the William R. Goddard Post, No. 258, G. A. R. of Lena, G. S. Roush commanding.
DEDICATION.
Two thousand people attended the dedication of the monument, September 30, 1886. At 10:30 A. M. the W. R. Goddard Post and other G. A. R. members present fell into line at command of Commander Roush. The remains of the
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BLACK HAWK MONUMENT
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LIL MARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
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HISTORY OF STEPHENSON COUNTY
fourteen men as they lay in a rough box were viewed for the last time. The pallbearers, Messrs. Peter Yeager, A. S. Crotzer, W. W. Lowis, Isaac Bogen- rief, Henry Bryman and John Winters lifted the box and, followed by the G. A. R. marched with solemn step, following John Van Sickle, fifer, and F. J. Harris, snare drummer, playing a military dirge. The coffin was lowered into its resting place and three volleys were fired over the open grave by a squad of eight from the Lena G. A. R. Post. The post then formed a half circle on the north side of the monument and after music by the Kent and Ward's Grove band, the president of the day delivered over the monument in the following brief words: "Commander of William R. Goddard Post, No. 258, G. A. R., Department of Illinois : I have been authorized by the people of Stephenson County, through their legal representatives, to invite your post to dedicate this memorial shaft to the noble purpose for which it had been erected. I present it to you for dedication." A guard was then placed at the four cor- ners of the monument by Captain Sherry, the flag was raised by the color bearer, Mr. Sisson, the army symbol consisting of a musket and accoutrements were placed against the shaft and the beautiful dedicatory service of the Grand Army of the Republic, appropriately revised for the occasion, was read by Com- mander Roush, assisted by Mr. Charles Waite, representing the/ navy, and Captain W. S. Barnes, representing the army, Captain Geo. Sherry and Chap- lain John M. Rees. At the close of the prayer, Commander Roush closed the services as follows: "In the name of the Grand Army of the Republic and of the people of Stephenson County, I dedicate this monument to the memory of the brave men and true, who suffered death but not defeat, at the hands of the red men. I dedicate it to the memory of the pioneer soldiers who fell while valiantly serving their country in the Black Hawk War." The guard of honor with drum, the symbols and the flag was removed; the salute was given and the dedication of the Black Hawk War monument was complete.
At 1:30 after the basket picnic, the people assembled in the grove just across the road, north of the monument. A stand had been erected and seats provided. A stirring air was played by the band and Dr. Naramore, of Lena, called the meeting to order. "America" was rendered by the Yellow Creek Quartette, composed of J. P. Betts, Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Goodrich and Mr. John Seabold, with Mrs. Hart at the organ.
Mr. S. J. Dodds, of Lena, explained that not all of the fourteen bodies were those of soldiers. Two were bodies of drivers; one, Rogers, dying of illness in the cabin and the other, Hallett, being slain in a quarrel by a companion, east of the grove, while St. Vrain was an Indian agent of the government.
Mr. J. B. Timms has frequently advocated that the State of Illinois should buy a part, or all, of the site of the battlefield and convert it into a state park. The people of Stephenson County, and especially the young people, may well afford to make the trip to the battlefield and at the foot of the monument, give serious thought to the lives of the men and women of the pioneer days, and especially to the sacrifice of those men who drove back Black Hawk's British band with flintlock guns, and gave up their lives on the battlefields, about Kellog's Grove, now Timms' Grove.
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HISTORY OF STEPHENSON COUNTY
REUNIONS OF SURVIVORS OF BLACK HAWK WAR.
The first reunion of the survivors of the Black Hawk War was held at Lena, on the M. E. camp grounds, August 28, 1891, and an association was formed. Mr. J. B. Timms, of Kent, was chairman of the committee on ar- rangements and presided at the meeting. The following officers were elected :
President, Mr. J. B. Timms, Kent; vice president, H. S. Townsend, War- ren ; secretary, Samuel J. Dodds, Lena; treasurer, Wm. Lawhorn, Lena.
The Lena Star Band furnished the music. Judge Andrew Hinds gave the address of welcome. Dr. Monroe, of Monroe, Wisconsin, made a brief response. In the afternoon, the principal address was delivered by Mr. S. J. Dodds. Other speakers were, Hon. Peter Parkinson, of Fayette, Wisconsin, and Hon. Robert R. Hitt, member of Congress from this district. A photograph was taken of seventeen survivors of Black Hawk's War.
Mrs. Wm. Lawhorn, who was in Apple River Fort at the time of the Indian attack, gave an interesting account of the event. D. S. Hawley, of Evansville, Wisconsin, sang an Indian song and startled the audience with an Indian war- whoop.
The second annual meeting of the survivors of the Black Hawk War was held in Lena, June 24, 1892. The day was stormy and the exercises in the after- noon were held in the Opera House. President J. B. Timms called the meet- ing to order and a welcome address was given by S. J. Dodds. The officers were elected as follows :
President, Henry Dodge Dement, Joliet, Illinois; vice presidents, J. B. Timms, Kent, and H. S. Townsend, Warren, Illinois; secretary, S. J. Dodds, Lena; treasurer, Wm. Lawhorn, Lena.
Hon. Henry Dodge Dement, of Joliet, delivered eloquently the annual ad- dress on the battle of Kellog's Grove. A stirring address was given by Rev. B. H. Cartright, Oregon, Illinois.
The third annual reunion was held in a grove near Pearl City, Illinois, June 26 and 27, 1893. The Shannon Cornet Band, and the Pearl City Drum Corps furnished the music. The address of the day was made by General Geo. W. Jones, of Dubuque, who was an officer in the Black Hawk War. General Jones. was once senator from Iowa and at this meeting was eighty-nine years old. An address was also given by Mr. Henry Mann, of Darlington, Wis- consin, who was seven years old at the time of the war. He explained that St. Vrains correct name was Savery. An interesting address was given by Gen- eral Smith D. Atkins, of Freeport, and another by Hon. R. R. Hitt.
Officers were elected as follows:
President, Hon. Peter Parkinson, Fayette, Wisconsin; first vice president, J. B. Timms, Kent; second vice president, Hon. H. S. Townsend, Warren; secretary, S. J. Dodds, Lena; treasurer, Henry Mann, Darlington, Wisconsin.
The following survivors attended the reunions of the Black Hawk War Sur- vivors Association in 1891, 1892, or 1893:
W. G. Nevitt, L. B. Skeel, J. M. Rees, Jacob Burbridge, Peter Parkinson, Cyrus Lichtenberger, Geo. W. Williams, H. S. Townsend, Samuel Hathaway, Henson Ireton, W. D. Monroe, D. S. Hawley, Mrs. Sarah Lawhorn, Mrs. Eliza Rice, Mrs. Jacob Burbridge, Mrs. L. B. Skeel, J. B. Timms, Fred Chel-
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HISTORY OF STEPHENSON COUNTY
tain, Robert Hawley, Wm. Lawhorn, Henry Mann, General Geo. W. Jones, Samuel L. Dark, D. W. C. Mallory, Samuel Paisley, M. B. Pearsons, W. H. Lee, Colonel Daniel F. Hitt.
BLACK HAWK-AN HISTORIC PLAY.
During the spring of 1910, Miss Alice Bidwell, head of the department of English in the Freeport High School, wrote an historical play based on the Black Hawk War. The play was given by the senior class 1910, of the high school to crowded houses two nights.
THE FIRST SETTLEMENTS-1833-1837.
The first permanent settlement in Stephenson County was made by Wil- liam Waddams, in West Point Township, at Waddams Grove, in the summer of 1833. Brewster's Ferry was established in the spring of 1834 by Lyman Brewster, near Winslow. In the spring of 1835, James Timms and family set- tled in the cabins at Kellog's Grove. In 1835, Miller Preston, who had evi- dently prospected in the county in 1833, brought a drove of cattle through from Galliopolis, Ohio, and settled in what is now Harlem Township, on section 22 near the old Galena stage road. Benjamin Goddard and family settled between Freeport and Cedarville in December, 1835, and December 19, that year, Wil- liam Baker came to the present site of Freeport and built a cabin before the close of the year on the Pecatonica near the present location of the Illinois Central Railroad station.
The first settlers came from the west. The attraction of lead mining was too strong for the time for the simple agricultural and trading life that might be offered in Stephenson County. The tide of settler pioneers swept around or through this county, and went on to Apple River, Galena, Gratiot Grove or Mineral Point.
The first man to build a cabin in Stephenson County was a man named Kirker. It appears that he left St. Louis in 1826 and went to the lead mine regions about Galena. Here he was in the employment of Colonel Gratiot for a year. Then in 1827, he came into Stephenson County and built a cabin at Buffalo Grove. His idea was to establish a trading station there. Nothing is known of Kirker after that. He remained in his cabin less than a year and it is very probable that he left because of impending trouble with the Indians.
As far as the definite records go, the first white man to cross Stephenson County was Colonel E. H. Gratiot. His father had come to the lead mine district soon after the discovery of lead there. In the fall of 1827, Colonel Gratiot with a single companion, traveled on horseback from Jacksonville, Illinois, to Gratiot's Grove in Wisconsin. After leaving Peoria, Colonel Gratiot and his camp did not see a white man until they reached the Apple River district. There was no ferry at Dixon, and they forded the Rock River at that place. They rode on through Stephenson County by way of Kellog's Grove.
The outlying settlements of advancing civilization were approaching Steph- enson County in all directions from 1825 to 1830. Peoria and Ottawa were set-
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tled and the lead mine regions were overflowed from 1824 to 1832. It is be- lieved that there were from seven to ten thousand people in that district in the summer of 1827. Dixon was settled in 1827; Polo in 1831; Rockford in 1835; and Chicago in 1830.
In 1827 several men, including William Baker and the Prestons, came into the county. Their stay was only temporary, but Baker in passing what is now Freeport, was impressed with the value of the point as an Indian trading station. From the discovery of lead about Galena, no doubt, many traders and adventurers crossed the county. It is no more than likely that at times the county was visited by those traders and trappers, a kind of Courier de bois, which formed the skirmish line of advancing civilization. They took no permanent possession of the land. They lived in simple log cabins and only to a very small exten engaged in agriculture. They depended mainly on fish and game and the Indians for a living. These were men of a peculiar type; men who were here to enjoy the solitude of the prairie and the forest, and were not cordial to the first permanent settlers who came near their cabins. In fact, they were more antagonistic to the advance of civilization than the Indians themselves. They were silent men, anti-social, by nature constituted in such a way that they preferred life just beyond the frontier set- tlements, between the Indian and civilization. As the line of permanent settle- ments closed about him, he became restless and suspicious and suddenly and quietly, he gathered together his few simple household effects and moved out into the wilds, away from what was to him the monotonous life of permanent civilization. The rule with them was, "When you hear the shot of your neigh- bor's gun, it is time to move on west."
George Flower, in his "History of the English Settlements in Edwards County, Illinois," gives us the best description of the home of one of these men who was blazing the way for the advance guard of permanent settlements. "Following a trail through a dense grove, I came suddenly on a worm fence enclosing a small field of fine corn, but I could see no dwelling. Looking closely I observed between two rows of corn a narrow path. In twenty steps, I came in sight of a cabin. Looking in the direction of a voice calling back a savage dog about to attack me, I saw a naked man fanning himself with a branch of a tree. What surprised me as I approached him was the calm, self- possession of the man. There was no surprise, no flutter, no hasty movements. He quietly said, he had just come from mill 35 miles away and was cooling himself.
His cabin was 14 feet long, 12 feet wide and 7 feet high. The floor was of earth. There was a bedstead made by driving four posts in the ground. The posts were sprouting and had buds, branches and leaves growing upon them. A small three-legged stool and a rickety clapboard table were the only other furniture. Two heavy puncheons made up the door. The culinary ap- paratus for this family of seven, consisted of a rim of an old wire sieve fur- nished with a piece of buckskin, with holes punched through it for sifting the corn meal, a skillet and a coffee pot. There was an axe at the door and a rifle leaned against the wall. The man and his boys wore suits of buckskin and the wife and her three daughters wore dresses of flimsy calico, sufficiently soiled
AN OX TEAM OF THE EARLY DAYS
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HISTORY OF STEPHENSON COUNTY
and not without rents. The wife was a dame of some thirty years, square built and squat, sallow and smoke-dried, with bare legs and feet. Her pride was in her two long braids of shining black hair which hung far down her back. Two or three slices of half dried haunch and a few corn pones made us a relishing supper. As night advanced, my host, Captain Birk, reached up among the clapboards and pulled down a dried hogskin for my especial comfort and re- pose. The entire family of seven slept in the one bed and I lay my hogskin upon the floor and myself upon it."
Such was the type of home life among these peculiar men who lived always just beyond the borders of our civilization. Yet they served a purpose. They broke out the trails. They were experts with the axe and aided the settlers to build their cabins. Then, when the settlements crowded about them, they moved on to live alone, without neighbors, without law and beyond the irksome restraints of law and civil government. Yet in our midst we have after types of these men, who yield grudgingly, small pittances to public good, unsocial to the end.
The close of the War of 1812 and the crushing defeat of Tecumseh in 181I had paved the way for the great advance. The Winnebago scare gave a slight check to the advancing tide, and the Black Hawk's "bad heart," threats of war, and the war itself kept back the would-be immigrants. The removal of Keokuk and the peaceful Sacs and Foxes into Iowa and the final defeat of Black Hawk and the restriction of his power at the battle of the Bad Axe, August 2, 1832, removed the last formidable barriers to the permanent occupation of Stephen- son County. The settlements followed closely on the defeat of Black Hawk, He was defeated August 2, 1832, and in the fall of that year, William Wad- dams came into the county and selected the site at Waddams Grove as a good place to settle. In the spring of the next year, 1833, as stated above, he built his house and brought his family. William Waddams moved from Jo Daviess County into Stephenson County. He had first lived down on the Ohio River, then in southern Indiana, then near Peoria, Illinois, then in Galena when he built the first water mill, Shullsburg, Wisconsin, Apple River, and White Oak Springs. He was evidently pleased with the country at Waddams, for here he remained till death.
The first permanent home built in Stephenson County was the typical fron- tier log cabin. It was, in fact, hewed out of the forest. The trees were se- lected, cut down and shaped into logs, notched near the ends. The rafters and joints were cut and split out of the green saplings. The puncheon floor was of the usual order. The boards were rived on the ground and the window frames were smoothed up by use of a jack-knife. The great fireplace occupied almost all of one end of the house. Such a house could be built, as many of them were, with no other tools but an axe and an auger. A thatched roof log barn was quickly built and afforded protection for grain and stock. Mr. Waddams was a native of the State of New York and Mrs. Waddams of the State of Vermont. There were no schools in the first years of Mr. Waddams life in Illinois but, being interested in the education of his children, he procured the services of a private teacher for his children. He was forty-seven years old when he built the first permanent residence in this county on section 13, in
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West Point Township. He was a man of decided opinions and in politics was first a whig and then a republican. Mr. Waddams was the pilot who led the way for many a family into Stephenson County. Many a settler partook of his hospitality while on his way to select a claim here. Frequently he hitched his team to the end of the newcomer's wagon tongue and pulled him through mud holes or across the fords on the Pecatonica. He was for a long time justice of the peace, and earned the title of Squire Waddams. One of his specialties as justice was marriages. On such occasions, joy was unrestrained and rule was "to let melody flow," and "all was as happy as the marriage bells." The "fiddle" played an important part, and the old time "fiddler" who knew not one note from another sawed to hearts content way into the morning hours on "Fisher's Hornpipe," "The Devil Lookin' up the Lane," "Dan Tucker," "The Squawking Hen," etc. The dancing if not as finely polished as today was quite as full of glee and vigorous enthusiasm.
In the fall of 1834 the Robeys came to Stephenson County. Levi settled in Waddams Township, February 14, 1835, and his father took up a claim near Cedarville. Of the Robeys there were, Wm. Robey and wife, Levi Robey and wife and John, Wm. W., Thomas L., Frances L., Elizabeth and Mary, all children of Wm. Robey. Levi Robey's grandfather was in George Rogers Clarke's army when it conquered the Northwest Territory in 1778-9.
With an axe and a jack-knife, Levi Robey built a log house on his claim in 1835. With a yoke of steers, he hauled the logs over the river on the ice. The logs were with great difficulty placed in position, but he persevered until `he had completed his frontier home.
George W. Lott had settled in a cabin between Winslow and Oneco. It is claimed that a son was born in the Lott family in 1835. If true, this was the_ first white child born in the county. Others claim that the first white child born in the township was Amanda Waddams, born at the Waddams home in February, 1836. Lucy, the daughter of Dr. Bankson, was also born early in 1836, and the honor of being the first white child born in the county is also claimed for her. .
In 1835, James Timms and family moved from Jo, Daviess County into Stephenson County and settled at Kellog's Grove. Mr. Timms bought the old Kellog site from a man named Green, who got his title from Lafayette, a French adventurer who was the next in possession after Kellog. Lafayette left at the opening of the Black Hawk War. The old house stood till 1862, when a new house was built on the site.
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