History of Vermilion County, together with historic notes on the Northwest, gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and other authentic, though, for the most part, out-of-the-way sources, Part 37

Author: Beckwith, H. W. (Hiram Williams), 1833-1903
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Chicago : H. H. Hill and Company
Number of Pages: 1164

USA > Illinois > Vermilion County > History of Vermilion County, together with historic notes on the Northwest, gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and other authentic, though, for the most part, out-of-the-way sources > Part 37

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The town of Chicago was composed at this time 'of six or seven American families, a number of half-breeds, and a lot of idle, vaga- bond Indians loitering about. I made the acquaintance of Robert and James Kinzie, and their father, John Kinzie.

We kept guard 'day and night for some eight or ten days, when a runner came ;in - I think from Green Bay - bringing word that Gen. Cass had concluded a treaty with the Winnebagoes, and that we might now disband and go home.

The citizens were overjoyed at the news, and in their gladness they turned out one barrel of gin, one barrel of brandy, one barrel of whisky, knocking the heads of the barrels in. Everybody was invited to take a free drink, and, to tell the plain truth, everybody did drink. į

The ladies at Fort Dearborn treated us especially well. I say this without disparaging the good and cordial conduct of the men toward us. The ladies gave us all manner of good things to eat ; they loaded us with provisions, and gave us all those delicate atten- tions that the kindness of woman's heart would suggest. Some of them -three ladies, whom I understood were recently from New York -distributed tracts and other reading matter among our com- pany, and interested themselves zealously in our spiritual as well as temporal welfare.

We started on our return, camping out of nights, and; reaching home on the evening of the third day. The only good water we got going out or coming back was at a remarkable spring bursting out of the top of a little mound in the midst of a slough, a few miles south of the Kankakee. I shall never forget this spring; it was a curiosity, found in the situation I have described.

In conclusion, under the bounty act of 1852 I received a warrant for eighty acres of land for my services in the campaign above nar- rated.

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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY.

TIIE BLACK HAWK WAR.

Were the writer so inclined, it would not be proper, in a mere local history, to enter into all the causes that led to the so-called "Black Hawk War," or detail the movements of the opposing forces over the wide extent of country in which the several cam- paigns of that war were conducted. It will be necessary, however, to premise some facts relating to that war, in order that the reader may the more readily understand the connection which citizens of this county may have had with it.

As stated in the general history, the Sauk and Fox Indians owned the territory north of Rock River, by conquest from ancient Illinois tribes. Their principal village for a long period of time was on the north side of Rock River, near its junction with the Mississippi, and the most populous Indian town within the borders of our state. In 1804 a few Indians of this tribe went to St. Louis, where they made a cession of lands to the United States, embracing a large extent of country, and including the principal village. Subsequently a second treaty was made, by which the terms of the first were substantially ratified. "Black Hawk," a chief of great distinction, claimed that neither himself nor the band of which he was the leader, all of them residing at this village, had any knowledge of this treaty. In 1828, the government having previously surveyed, sold to private parties a quantity of land in and around "Black Hawk's village." The white settlers and Indians soon came in collision. Black Hawk's band refused to leave. They destroyed the crops of the white set- tlers, and acted generally in a menacing manner, claiming that the white people had no business there. The squatters, in turn, pulled down the fences where the Indian squaws had planted their corn, and let their stock destroy the crops. The governments, national and state, interfered with a military force, and, without going to the the extremity of physical force, Black Hawk's band, in 1831, were finally driven across the Mississippi.

Black Hawk had no love at all for the people of the United States. His band were active partisans on the side of the British in the war of 1812. In the winter of 1831-1832, after having solemnly agreed the year before that they would remain peaceably on the west side of the river, Black Hawk and his band recrossed the river and took possession of their ancient village, having with them, says ex- Gov. Reynolds, "about five hundred warriors, and women, children and dogs in proportion." Black Hawk had brought his women and children, cooking utensils and all of the personal property of his band along with him, a circumstance that gives great plansibil-

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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY.

ity to his often-repeated avowal, that his intentions were peaceable, and that if his women were not permitted to plant a crop in their old fields, he intended to accept the invitation of the Winnebagoes and plant corn near some of their villages. His presence on the east side of the Mississippi caused the greatest alarm. In fact, the memorials and petitions addressed to the governor for protection, together with his own flaming proclamations based thereon, spread a panic throughout the whole country. The frontier was threat- ened, and the governor promptly called out the militia to protect it. A force of mounted volunteers was soon collected, embracing in its numbers many of the best and most influential citizens in the state. A concentration of forces, says Benjamin Drake in his "Life of Black Hawk," was made at Dixon's Ferry, on Rock River, about thirty miles below the encampment of Black Hawk and his party. Had a conference now been sought with the Indians, their prompt submission cannot be doubted. Black Hawk, whatever might have been his previous expectations, had received no addition of strength from other tribes ; he was almost destitute of provisions ; had com- mitted no act of hostility against the whites, and with all his wo- men, children and baggage, was in the vicinity of an army, princi- pally of mounted volunteers, many times greater than his own band of braves. He would probably have been glad of any reasonable pretext for retracing his precipitate steps: Unfortunately, no effort for a council was made. A body of impetuous volunteers dashed on, without caution or order, to Sycamore Creek, within three miles of the camp of Black Hawk's party. He instantly sent a white flag to meet them, for the purpose of holding a conneil, and agree- ing to return to the west side of the Mississippi. Unfortunately for the cause of humanity, as well as the good faith of the United States, this flag was held to be but a decoy. The bearers of it were taken into camp. "Shortly after," says Gov. Reynolds,. " six armed In- dians appeared on horseback. Without orders some officers and a few soldiers immediately gave chase, following the armed Indians some three or four miles, in which two Indians were overtaken and killed. During the skirmish, which extended some four or five miles over the smooth prairie between the encampment and the mouth of Sycamore Creek, the volunteers at the camp, knowing that blood was shed, attempted to kill the three unarmed Indians who had been taken into custody as hostages under the protection of the white flag. One Indian was killed, but in the dark and con- fusion the other two escaped unhurt." While this fight was going on, Black Hawk (wholly ignorant that hostilities had begun, and

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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY.

not even anticipating any) was at his camp at the time entertaining a number of his Pottawatomie friends with a feast on dog meat. "The retreating Indians," says Gov. Reynolds, "had almost reached Black Hawk's camp, where the feast was broken up by the whooping, yelling Indians with the whites at their heels. The uproar alarmed Black Hawk and the Indians at the feast. and they, in a hasty, tumultuous manner, snatched up their arms. mounted their horses and rushed out in all the fury of a mad lioness, in defense of their women and children. Black Hawk took a pru- dent and wise stand, concealing himself behind some woods, it being then nearly dark, and suffered the straggling forces of Maj. Stillinan to approach him. This aged warrior and his band (all he could muster at the moment)." continues Gov. Reynolds, "marched out from their concealment and fell with fury and havoc upon the disorderly troops of Stillman, who were scattered for miles over the prairie. It was a crisis-they fought in defense of all they held most sacred on earth. Black Hawk turned the tide of war and chased the whites with great fury." Such were the circumstances under which the first blood in the Black Hawk war was shed, and the battle became known as "Stillman's Defeat."

Emboldened by his brilliant success in this engagement, and finding that he would not be permitted to capitulate, he sent out his war parties, removed his women and children up Rock River, and a regular border war was commenced. The murders which his men committed upon the frontier settlers naturally increased the alarm throughout the state. additional volunteers rushed to the seat of war. and the commanding general commenced his military oper- ations for a regular campaign. One of Black Hawk's war parties, striking across the country southeast from Sycamore Creek, fell upon the Hall family at the mouth of Indian Creek, on Fox River, a few miles above Ottawa, and most brutally murdered them all except two girls, whom they carried off into captivity. At this time there were a few infant settlements, above Ottawa, and upon the Du Page River, at Naperville, and along Hickory Creek that empties into the Des Plaines, near the present city of Joliet. There were no people living nearer those neighborhoods, south and east, than the settlements in Vermilion county. Hence. the endangered settlements looked in this direction as the speediest source of relief. The reader will bear in mind that in those days there were no means of quick transmission of intelligence, and that the people in this part of the state (beyond a few who took the Springfield papers may have known that Black Hawk was again in Illinois) had no

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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY.

knowledge of the hostile acts which we have enumerated until in- formed in the following manner: Mr. Kingsbury was conducting religious services in the upper story of Cunningham's store (which was used for such as well as for court purposes). The inhabitants of the Fox River country and Hickory Creek were fleeing from their homes, says the Rev. R. S. Beggs, in his interesting book, through fear of the dreaded enemy. They came with their cattle and horses, some bare-headed and others bare-footed, crying, "the Indians ! " " the Indians ! " Those that were able hurried on with all speed for Danville. Two or three of them, one without a hat, found their way to Danville, and on that bright sabbath day, all breathless with fatigue and fear, alarmed the town and broke up Mr. Kingsbury's meeting with the dreadful stories. Fast on this came the word that Stillman had been defeated. This was soon exaggerated into rumors, supposed at the time to be well grounded, that all of the white troops had been killed or scattered, and that all of the Indians, having joined Black Hawk's victorious warriors, would soon be down upon us, destroying, burning and killing in every direction.

True there was, as it was afterward learned, no cause for all of this alarm ; but at the time the people acted in the full belief that the hour was one of extremest peril. The flying fugitives must be re- lieved at once from the murderons pursuit of the Indians. Not a moment was to be lost. A call was made for a forlorn force to go to their assistance. "Volunteers were called for, and in less than two hours," says Col. Othneal Gilbert, "thirty-one of us were ready and on the march to save the settlers." The families of the advance expedition hastily cooked them some provisions ; shot-guns, squirrel-rifles, flint-lock muskets, and other inferior weapons, were got together hastily, with which the company were armed. Those who had no horses were promptly provided by other citizens, who cheerfully loaned them. A meeting was held by the members of the company for the election of officers, as was customary in all volunteer expeditions, and commanders chosen for the occasion without regard to the position they may have held in the regularly enrolled militia. Dan Beckwith, major of the Vermilion county militia, was elected captain, and by three o'clock in the afternoon the men were on the way toward Joliet. Night overtook them at Bieknell's Crossing of the North Fork, where they went into camp. The next morning they went out upon the great prairie, and in the course of the day got between the retreating families, which they met coming this way, and the Indians, who were supposed to be

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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY.

in close pursuit. After passing the fugitives, and seeing no sign of Indians, they pursned their course northward still farther for several hours, when they deflected their line of march more to the west, crossing the Iroquois near Spring Creek, that being the more direct route to Hickory Creek. They went into camp late, at the close of a hard day's march. During the next day they crossed the Kankakee River, near the present city of that name, and held their way toward the settlements supposed to be in the greatest danger. Hoping still to render assistance to other settlers, or rescue their property. They went on to Hickory Creek, and scoured the country and groves in that direction. They saw nobody, white or red, ex- · cept some Pottawatomies along the Kankakee, who were friendly and personally known to the officers and many of the men. Aside from the fatigue and privations endured, the men met with no incident or loss going or coming. However, they were very near one of Black Hawk's war parties, secreted, as they afterward learned, in a grove - supposed from its description to be "the twelve mile grove." One evening Dr. Fithian and George Beekwith were sent out as spies to reconnoiter this grove, with instructions to return to a designated spot, where it was intended the company should go into camp for the night. The dusk had fallen as the spies were per- forming the work assigned. They approached quite near the grove, when, from some cause they could not explain, their horses were seized with a fright that rendered them entirely beyond the control of their riders. They became frantic at every effort to urge them forward. By this time it was so dark that the scouts deeming it imprudent to penetrate the grove, returned toward the place where they expected to find their comrades. The latter were alarmed at the protracted absence of their scouts, not knowing what had be- come of them ; and as they approached, the sound of their horses' feet aroused the camp, now all strung with a sense of danger. "Who goes there ?" rang out in the still night air. Dr. Fithian says that immediately on hearing the challenge, his ear also caught the click- ing sound of the guns as they were being cocked all along the line, a few rods in front of them. He answered, quickly as he could, in a choking way, "friends !" to which the reply instantly followed: " If friends, advance at once and give the counter-sign, or we wil blow you to h-1."

Dr. Fithian tells the writer that Major Beckwith interviewed Black Hawk after the war, at Jefferson's barracks, while the latter was held a prisoner. Black Hawk there told the Major that a band of his warriors had been watching the movements of Beckwith's men dur-

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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY.

ing the day, and that they were secreted in the grove named on the evening that Fithian and his companion reconnoitered it. The details here given of the first expedition that went out in the Black Hawk . war is taken from the accounts given to the writer by Alvan Gilbert, whose lamented death is only of recent occurrence, Dr. William Fithian and Samnel Russell, who still survive. They all actively par- ticipated in the events respectively narrated by them. The eminent standing of these gentlemen is so well known that any comments of the writer would be superfluous.

In the meantime, while the advance corps were ont, the Vermil- ion county militia were concentrated at Danville, and put upon the march. Previous to this Col. Isaac R. Moores had been notified by Gov. Reynolds to have his regiment, the Vermilion county militia, in readiness, in the event their services should be required. No marching orders had been given, and no intimation of hostilities had been received. Immediately on the alarm the volunteers got in readiness, and Col. Hubbard furnished several four-horse wagons, loaded with provisions, for their subsistence. The force consisted of three hundred mounted men. Every part of the county was repre- sented in this body by. many of its best citizens, - Col. Hubbard among the number,-under command of Col. Moores, John H. Mur- phy acting as his Aide. Many names of these patriotic citizen-sol- diers will be found in the several township histories and biographical sketches, prepared by other writers. The route of the regiment was by way of " Hubbard's trace " to his trading-post on the Iroquois, and from thence northwest by another Indian trail to Joliet. The first night out the regiment encamped at Bicknell crossing. The next morning, after they had gotten well out on the prairies, they saw ahead of them Major Beckwith's command, filing over the dividing ridge, on their return. The meeting was very cordial on both sides. Most of Beckwith's company fell right in with the regiment and went on. A few others, Beckwith among them, returned to Danville to see their families for a moment, when they hastened back, overtook and joined the regiment. From Joliet Capt. Morgan L. Payne, and his com- mand, were dispatched north some thirty miles on Du Page River, with instructions to there erect a block-house and protect property which had been abandoned by the inhabitants in their flight. Col. Moores also commenced a fortification at Joliet, and was prosecuting this work when his command was ordered to Ottawa, the headquar- ters of Gen. Atkinson. By this time a much larger force of volun- teers had been mustered in than the state needed. Black Hawk's Indians, except a few straggling war parties, were being closely pur-

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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY.

sued up Fox River toward the Four Lakes country, as the little lakes in the vicinity of Madison, Wisconsin, were then called. There was no use or room for any more troops, and Col. Moores' regiment was discharged and, except Payne's command, allowed immediately to return home.

The writer will relate a few incidents, the first as told by Col. Hubbard and Dr. Fithian. As the regiment was moving from Joliet to Ottawa, Dr. Fithian, Bolilvin, Col. Hubbard and several others struck across the prairie in advance of the troops, Hubbard leading the way, as he was well acquainted with the country. On their way they saw a place where the grass was disturbed, as if by parties who had followed a course nearly at right angles to the direc- tion Hubbard's squad was pursuing. The latter at once followed this trail, while the regiment, which had now come up. was halted. Soon a pair of saddle-bags was found. then a prayer book. then a miniature portrait. The tall grass was bent and broken down, as if a fearful struggle had taken place. A camp kettle was picked up, and just beyond the mutilated remains of a white man. The body was that of the Dunkard and itinerant preacher, Payne, a man well known to the early settlers between the Wabash and Illinois Rivers, as a harmless and eccentric religious enthusiast. He had left the vicinity of Naperville having no fears of the Indians, whom he said would do him no harm. When his friends tried to dissuade him from crossing the county at such a dangerons time, he said, even if the Indians should show an unfriendly disposition, his fine gray mare conld outrun any Indian pony. He was mistaken ; for falling in with one of Black Hawk's war parties, he was by them most foully murdered. The Indians scalped off his long flowing white beard, which extended quite to his loins, and fastened it to a pole. On the top of the pole, stuck upright in the ground, they fastened a whisp of grass, pointing in the direction they had gone. The beard and the grass waved defiantly, as much as to say, " We killed this man. This is our trail. If you white people do not like it, just come on and help yourselves if you can."

Capt. Payne, according to instructions, built a fort and block- house not a great way from Naperville, and inclosed them with about one half acre of ground, with a palisade about ten feet high. The fort was erected about forty rods from the Du Page River, a short distance west of a large spring. The day after the company arrived at Naperville, William Brown and a boy some fifteen years old were detailed to go with a wagon to Butterfield's pasture, some two miles from camp, and bring in a lot of clapboards that had been

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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY.

made there by some citizen before the Indian disturbances. A party of five Indians fired upon Brown and the boy. Brown was killed and scalped, the boy escaped to the camp. The Indians captured the wagon and horses. They cut the harness to pieces, and ran the wagon against a tree, and broke one of the fore wheels. It was the only wagon the company had. It was mended by Leander Rutledge, and the harness was repaired by somebody else of the company, and both were brought home. The horses, which were the property of Peleg Spencer, sr., were taken off by the Indians. Young Brown was the only person from this county killed by the enemy. He was the son of a widow lady living near Kyger's Mill. The inhabitants about Naperville had fled, seemingly with great precipitation, aban- doning their property. Mr. Naper had left his store unlocked, with a large quantity of goods inside. Cattle and other live stock were roaming about. Mr. Samuel Russell who was assisting in the quar- termaster's department, informs the writer that Payne's command, as well as the other companies of the regiment in charge of Col. Moores, would take cattle as their necessities required, and issue requisitions for future payment when the owners might be found. Some seventy women and children, who had escaped to Chicago on the first attack from the Indians, when the cholera broke out in Chicago, were conducted back to Naperville, and placed within the fort for safety. Within a short time after the discharge of Col. Moores' forces, Capt. Payne's command was also relieved, when they returned home, after an absence of between thirty and forty days. For the account here given of the movements of Capt. Payne the writer is indebted to Leander Rutledge and Greenville Graves, both members of Payne's company, and still living.

The early citizens of Vermilion county and Danville, like the present inhabitants, were not lacking in enterprise. We will give a few illustrations in support of this assertion. On the 3d of January, 1831, they memorialized the governor to secure the location of a gov- ernment land office at Danville. The land office was secured. Samuel McRoberts was the first receiver and J. C. Alexander the register. The land office remained at Danville for a period of nearly twenty-five years, and contributed largely toward attracting settlers to the county. In 1832 a postal route was established from Chicago, via Danville, to Vincennes, and in 1836 from Danville, via Decatur, to Springfield, and in the same year another postal route was secured from Danville to Ottawa, and a fourth route from Indianapolis, via Danville (Indi- ana), Rockville, Montezuma and Newport, to Danville. A few years later still another mail route was established between Springfield and

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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY.

La Fayette, via Danville. In this way was Danville and the county connected with the principal mail routes through the forethought and energy of her citizens. The reader will bear in mind that our county and city labored under serious disadvantages as long as the water or river routes were the only highways of commerce. Being back from the Wabash our farmers and the business men in Danville were compelled to take their products to river towns and haul all merchandise and other commodities back. The whole country as far west as the Sangamon was thus made tributary to and wholly de- pendent upon La Fayette, Attica, Covington, Perryville, Eugene and Clinton for their supplies. It was not until after the modern system of transportation by railroads was successfully inaugurated that we were released from our bondage to the Wabash river or the canal running alongside of it. Had the people been less enterprising it is doubtful if their condition to-day would have been any better, and that railways were not sooner secured was only because the country was not then sufficiently developed to justify a construction of these costly highways.

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History of Vermilion County, together with historic notes on the Northwest, gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and other authentic, though, for the most part, out-of-the-way sources, Part 37

Author: Beckwith, H. W. (Hiram Williams), 1833-1903 Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Chicago : H. H. Hill and Company Number of Pages: 1164

Author: Beckwith, H. W. (Hiram Williams), 1833-1903
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Chicago : H. H. Hill and Company
Number of Pages: 1164