USA > Illinois > Whiteside County > History of Whiteside county, Illinois, from its first settlement to the present time, with numerous Biographical and Family Sketches > Part 5
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ANTIQUITIES AND PRE-HISTORIC MAN.
an edge longer than most other stones that can be easily obtained. Pieces of all of these are found in the drift gravels, and we believe the material used by the ancient manufacturers was obtained from this source in a great measure. A chert precisely like that from which some arrows are made is found in place -- that is in beds-at Utica, Illinois, and no doubt much of the flint or cherts used here was obtained from the Niagara limestone. Mr. J. M. Williamson, of Ustick, and W. C. Holbrook, of Genesee, have some fine specimens of these tools in their collections.
The earthen ware is of various colors, some almost a eream tint, and from this running through all shades to a dark brown. It is generally rough, coarse, as to material, thick, clumsy in form, and ornamented in geometrical designs of straight parallel lines, either of one or two series. Some specimens are how- ever of a higher type, of fine form, and skillfully modeled. It may be seen in the collections named above. One specimen is an oblate spheroidal vessel hav- ing two mouths similar to the neck of a bottle. It is perfect, of a dark brown color, smooth, and well made.
The beads are generally of bone or stone. They are of irregular forms, of various sizes and were probably worn for ornament. Circular and triangular pieces of stone pierced with one or more holes seem to have been intended for the same purpose, but may have been used as amulets or charms. They do not appear to have been numerous, at least we have seen few of them.
The pieces of copper found in these tombs were probably collected from the drift, but that at one time and for a considerable length of time it was mined on Lake Superior cannot be doubted; and it may have been an article of traffic among this people. Masses of it weighing several pounds have however been obtained in the drift of both the Illinois and the Rock River.
W. C. Holbrook, Esq., of Genesee, who has thoroughly investigated the labors of the mound builders in Whiteside County, presents his conclusions and observations as follows: There are fifty one mounds near Albany; a large num- ber in the vicinity of Como. He has examined four mounds and two altars in Clyde. Several groups of mounds and earthworks are to be seen on Rock River above Sterling. Below the Sterling fair grounds are twenty-two mounds, one of which is the largest in the county. The Albany mounds are rounded heaps of loose sandy soil, from two to twelve feet in height, usually circular, of a diameter five times the height. Several of the mounds are elliptical, their long diameter parallel with the river. In these mounds have been found galena, mica and fragments of pottery, the pottery bearing the impression of some kind of woven or matted fabric, bone implements and various portions of human skeletons. Dr. Farquharson, of Davenport, Iowa, by means of a comparative table of the length of long bones, found that none of them belonged to a person higher than six feet. In May, 1877, Mr. Holbrook examined a number of mounds above the Catholic Cemetery, in the vicinity of Sterling, one of which was a large mound, one of a number in a row parallel with the river. On moy- ing the clay it was found that this mound contained a Dolmen built of flat pieces of fossiliferous limestone. The stones used were quite large. The wall was a right angled parallelogram, twelve fect long and five wide, the foundation laid upon clay, the wall built in an artistic manner, no coment having been used. The inner surface was smooth and even, although the stones were unhewn. The inside of the Dolmen revealed fragments of eight skeletons, the bones badly decomposed. Apparently the bodies were cast into the sepulchre promiscuously. The skulls found indicated that this people were acquainted with the division of surgery known as " trepanning"-i. e. removing portions of the bones of the skull, or portions of other bones, A thigh bone that had been
[C-4.]
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HISTORY OF WHITESIDE COUNTY.
fractured was found replaced and united in a manner that would do honor to a surgeon of the present day. With the skulls were found a plummet, fossils which are not found in this locality, finely black polished pebbles, and a number of large teeth. In another mound was found an altar of burned rock, oval in shape, long diameter six feet, short diameter four and a half feet. The altar was of fossiliferous limestone. Over the mounds were found a vegetable growth of from one to ten feet and a decayed stump of a hickory tree, about twelve inches in diameter. On and about the altars were usually found charcoal and charred remains of human beings; also evidence of great and continued heat. At Sterling the indications are that the body was placed upon the clay, covered with black loam, and a great fire built over the whole. After the fire the mound was raised. This is indicated by the thick strata of charcoal and ashes found. As a rule the remains unearthed furnish unsatisfactory evidence. Great num- bers of perfect molar teeth are exhumed, thus certifying that pre-historic man was unacquainted with the pangs of the toothache. In the Sterling mounds were found stone scrapers, but very rude in design and execution. Fragments of pottery were found, also implements made from the antlers of the elk and deer. At Sterling is a work that many judges pronounce a fortress. The two embankments are parallel, four rods apart, direction east and west. The south embankment has two gateways. The north embankment is sixteen rods long and has two gateways. The construction indicates a knowledge of the cardinal points of the compass. This people evidently had a practical acquaintance with astronomy, as the north star appears to have been a governing point with them.
The Mound Builders wore cloth, and dressed the hides of animals, carved rude ornaments and engraved characters upon stone; ate food from earthen dishes, and worshiped at altars erected upon high hills and in low valleys. There is abundant reason for believing that human sacrifice was common with them. Trepanned skulls are frequently met with on opening mounds, evidence being presented that the operation was made prior to death. The superstition of the Mound Builders seems analogous to that of the South Sea Islanders and tribes of savages of the present day who trepan for vertigo, neuralgia, etc., believing that these complaints are demons in the head that should be let out. Metal was worked in an imperfect manner by the people. Galena was a promi- inent ornament. Mr. J. M. Williamson, of Ustick, says these charms are found in the northwestern part of the county. Copper was apparently the king of metals among the Mound Builders. Anatomically considered the Mound Builders were no larger nor stronger than the men of the present day. Their skulls differ widely from the Indian or Caucasian, and have been thus described: "The frontal bone recedes backwards from a prominent supercilliary ridge, leaving no forehead, or rather the eye looks out from under the frontal plate, very similar to a turtle shell, and no more elevated." Their jaws were protruding, promi- nent and wide. The evidence is that the Mound Builders were a half-civilized agricultural people, prominently differing from the Indians in manner of burial and habits of life. The scientifically developed fact that bones undergo great changes by age, as applied by Dr. Farquharson and Mr. Holbrook, prove the great antiquity of the bones found in the mounds of this county. Lack of space precludes the presentation of the interesting and conclusive table show- ing the results of their examination of the bones.
In relation to the Stone Age of Whiteside County, Mr. Holbrook says that stone implements are occasionally found in all parts of the county. The num- ber of implements found in some localities indicate that primitive man lived in villages, and that each village had at least one arrow maker. The men of the Stone Age evidently admired the beautiful and sublime in nature, for the sites
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INDIAN HISTORY.
of their ancient villages are in the most picturesque and grand localities in the county. In one of these villages in the south-western part of the town of Genesee, eighty-four arrow heads and spear points were found while plowing an aere of ground. A number of small, sharp and triangular pieces of flint that had perhaps been used for " teeth " of war-elubs were also found. In another village, on the farm of Mr. Deyo in the town of Clyde, we find the number of domestie implements to greatly exceed that of the weapons. More than one hundred scrapers, a number of stone hoes, several corn pestles, and some imple- ments of doubtful or unknown uses, have been found here. Mr. Deyo plowed up about twenty scrapers that had been carefully buried near the roots of a large white oak; only a small portion of the decayed stump of the onee vener- able oak now remains. Some of the scrapers found in this "nest " are very interesting on account of being but half finished and revealing the method of their manufacture. The implement maker-for some were undoubtedly devoted to that business-found, or broke from some larger piece of flint or horn stone, a flat piece of rock; he then began to break off small flakes near the edges on one side, finishing it before he began to chip off the other side; when finished these scrapers were oval in form, about four inches long and two and one-half broad, one side convex resembling in shape a turtle shell, the opposite side nearly flat or slightly coneave. Stone hoes somewhat resemble the seraper in form; they are, however, longer, less oval, edge upon one end instead of the side, and the end opposite the edge smooth for the hand; they had no handles. Pestles for crushing corn are about eight inches in length and two inches in diameter. Fish spears are sometimes found among the pebbles in the bottoms of the smaller streams; unfortunately many of these specimens are broken, so it is not an easy matter to determine their prevailing form. Broken arrow heads and spear points are sometimes found. Arrow heads onee broken and chipped into specimens of different forms have been found; others bear evidence of having been broken at the point and afterwards repaired. Implements for dressing hides have been found; a good specimen of this class of implements was found by J. M. Williamson, in Ustiek; it is a small oval boulder about eight inches in diameter and two inches thick; on one side there is a flat and very smoothly polished surface. The materials from which the implements of the Stone Age are manufactured are all found in the drift of Whiteside County. There are, however, several exceptions: a pipe of the Minnesota pipe-stone has been found in Genesee, and a spear head of a peculiar quality of quartzite found at Devil's Lake, Wisconsin, has been picked up in Clyde. Arrow heads were made from almost every variety of horn-stone; a few were made of milky quartz, and one in the collection of J. M. Williamson is pure yellow jasper. Stone axes weighing from four ounees to thirteen pounds have been found. An ax in the collection of Mr. Holbrook weighs eleven pounds, and is unfinished. Large quantities of flint chippings are found in some localities; they prove that the arrow-makers understood the conchroidal fracture and planes of cleavage of the materials used. Some specimens are very rude and imperfect, others are perfeet and exhibit great skill; some appear to be very ancient, for their sur- faces are weathered or corroded by the tooth of time.
INDIAN HISTORY. 851229
A part of a chapter devoted to the race of people who inhabited the lands now embraced in Whiteside County, prior to and for some time after the advent of the white man, is appropriate and necessarily connected with the subsequent history of the lands, settlers, etc., of the county. The history of the men, savage and uncivilized though they were, who once peopled the lands now the
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HISTORY OF WHITESIDE COUNTY.
property of the white man, is of peculiar interest; a people who lived happily on the banks of the gleaming Sinnissippi, its beautiful tributaries, and the roll- ing Mississippi, wandered at will through the magnificent forests and over the boundless prairies, of whom but a miserable remnant now remain on distant res- ervations, where through the influences of disease, changed habits, and vices, introduced by the civilized whites, they are rapidly passing away.
The Rock River Valley, with its forests and prairies abounding in game, and streams teeming with fish, was always the favorite home of the red man, and to it he clung tenaciously, the Sacs and Foxes in 1831-32 waging a fierce war, known in history as the "Black Hawk War," before they would all consent to leave their lands and villages and cross the Mississippi. Portions of the Winnebago tribe remained as late as 1838, and for years afterwards straggling parties of them occasionally appeared to once more view their old hunting grounds.
By the treaty of 1804, the Sacs and Foxes ceded to the United States all the lands between the mouths of the Illinois and Wisconsin rivers. In 1816, that portion of the territory lying north of a line drawn west of the southern extremity of Lake Michigan, which would be on the line of the present south- ern boundary of Whiteside County, was retroceded by the Government to the Ottowas, Chippewas and Pottawattomies. The Winnebagoes were not included in the grant. Subsequently a war broke out among the tribes in regard to boundaries, and the United States Commissioners interposed to adjust the differences. By the new arrangement the rights of the Winnebagoes were recognized. They had been in the country for years, and firmly maintained the land belonged to them.
The Sacs and Foxes who, under Black Hawk, refused to cross the Missis- sippi, and by other acts provoked a war, were originally of the Algonquin tribe, turbulent and warlike. In early times they lived east of Detroit. They were driven west and settled at Saginaw. Thence they were forced to Green Bay by the Iroquois. Finally the latter tribe, and the Winnebagoes, forced them to the Fox river. In the early part of the eighteenth century they made war upon the French, who with the Monominees and Chippewas, drove them to the Wis- consin river. In 1804, several chiefs of the Sacs and Foxes sold lands, extending 700 miles along the Mississippi river, for $2,234.50 and an annuity of $1,000. Black Hawk refused to recognize the arrangement, asserting the chiefs were drunk when they signed the compact, and influenced by cheap presents. The tribes sided with the British during the war of 1812, and in 1816 made peace at Fort Armstrong, where Rock Island now is, by which large bodies of land were ceded and the treaty of 1804 ratified. This treaty was signed by Black Hawk. The treaty of 1804 had divested the Sacs and Foxes of their title to the Rock River country. A treaty was again entered into in 1830, by which they were to remove from the lands they had sold to the Government, and peaceably retire west of the Mississippi. The treaty of 1804 provided that so long as the lands remained the property of the United States the Indians should enjoy the privilege of living and hunting thereon.
In 1829 a few sections of land were sold near the mouth of Rock River, apparently with the object of having the government title to the lands pass into the hands of private individuals, thus furnishing a pretext for removing the Indians westward. The settlers were guilty of many excesses toward the Indians, and preferred grave charges against them. The site of the celebra- ted Indian village near the month of Rock River was surveyed and sold. All this had its effect upon Black Hawk, and, inspired by his natural hatred of the Americans, his love for his native village, and believing that he had been
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INDIAN HISTORY.
imposed upon, he resolved upon war. He represented to his tribe that their rights to the soil were inalienable, and the previous cessions and treaties null and void. In 1831 Black Hawk re-crossed the river with his women, children and three hundred warriors. The Chief by signing the treaty of 1816 had ratified that of 1804, but he was bent upon war, and ordered the settlers away, killed their cattle and otherwise injured their property. Gov. Reynolds called for seven hundred troops from the northern and eastern counties of the State, and sixteen hundred responded. This force soon appeared at Rock Island, and Black Hawk and his band fled across the river. Upon a threat to pursue him across the Mississippi the Chief and his braves sued for peace and then entered into a treaty to forever remain on the west side of the river, and to never recross it without permission from the President, or Governor of the State. The ancient Indian village was burned to the ground.
Despite the treaty Black Hawk and the disaffected Indians recrossed the river in 1832. The greater part of the nation remained on the west side, being restrained by Keokuk, a friend of the whites, who was wise enough to for- see that it would be ruinous to enter upon the plans of Black Hawk. Black Hawk, after crossing the Mississippi, marched up Rock River into the country of the Pottawatamies and Winnebagoes, hoping to induce them to unite in the war with him. Previous to this the Chief second in command to Black Hawk, had consulted Wa-bo-kies-shiek, or White Cloud, the Winnebago prophet, who had informed him that the British, Ottawas, Chippewas, Pottawatamies and Winnebagoes would assist his tribe in regaining their village and lands. This prophet resided in a village named " Prophet's town," located near where the town of Prophetstown now stands, and which gave the place its name. This prophet had much influence. He was a shrewd man, and by his prophetie pre- tensions easily imposed upon his people. He is described in 1831 as being about forty years of age, a stout, fine looking Indian. A full and flowing suit of hair graced his head, which was surmounted by a fantastic white head-dress several inches in height, resembling a turban, emblematie of his profession. He claimed that one of his parents was a Sac, the other a Winnebago. This prophet was captured with Black Hawk after the latter's defeat in Wisconsin. He is believed to have been one of the chief instigators of the war.
Upon the second invasion of Black Hawk a large force of volunteers were called out, and put under the command of Gen. Samuel Whiteside, after whom this county is named. The regulars were under Gen. Atkinson. The volun- teers marched up Rock River and burned Prophetstown, thence continued their march to Dixon. A slight engagement took place in Ogle County where the volunteers rendered themselves famous by the rapidity of their retreat. Dur- ing the summer two thousand volunteers were called for and sent to the fron- tier, making the whole volunteer force three thousand two hundred, besides three companies of rangers. The object of the large force being to overawe the Winnebagoes, who were disposed to join Black Hawk. This force steadily pressed Black Hawk's party up the river, and through the present State of Wisconsin, to near the mouth of the Bad Axe, on the Mississippi, when Gen. Henry, in command of the volunteers, with the assistance of the regulars under Gen. Atkinson, nearly exterminated the band about August 1st, 1832. Black Hawk with about twenty followers, and the Winnebago Prophet, escaped and fled. Gen. Street informed the Winnebago Chiefs that if they would pursue, and bring in Black Hawk and the Prophet, the Government would hold them as friends. The Winnebagoes had been treacherous to the whites, Winnesheik, one of their chiefs, with his sons, participating in the battle of Bad Axe. A small party of Winnebagoes and Sioux started in pursuit of the fugitives, and
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HISTORY OF WHITESIDE COUNTY
soon captured them near the Dalles on the Wisconsin River. Black Hawk and his son, Naapape, Wishick and the Prophet, were held as hostages for the good behavior of the hostile Indians. The Chiefs were confined until 1833 in Fortress Monroe, when by order of the President they were returned to their own country. They passed through many of the principal cities and attracted much attention. At the close of the war a treaty was made by which the Sacs and Foxes ceded large bodies of lands for an annuity of $20,000 for twenty years. They were removed to the neighborhood of Des Moines. By the treaty of 1842 they were removed to the Osage River country in 1849. In 1859 and 1868 they ceded their lands in Kansas to the Government. In 1872 they num- bered four hundred and sixty-three. The tribes are scattered in Nebraska and Kansas, there being a small number in Iowa who are partially civilized, raise crops and stock, and are industrious farm laborers.
Black Hawk was a Sac, born at the ancient village of his tribe in 1768, and died at an Indian village on the Des Moines in 1838. He refused to rec- ognize the cession of lands made in 1804, but ratified the treaty in 1816. He declined to give up his village in 1831, and engaged in acts that caused the war heretofore detailed. He always sided with the English interests, and he, and his band, known as the British Band, received an annual sum for many years after the war of 1812 from the English Government. Black Hawk was an intelligent and brave Indian, and caused the United States much trouble. He was very patriotic and warmly attached to his home. His last speech con- tained the following words: "Rock River was a beautiful country. I like my towns and my corn fields, and the home of my people; I fought for it; it is now yours. It will produce you good crops." Black Hawk disregarded the treaties, yet he suffered many grievous wrongs, and believed war was his only hope of redress.
It is proper in treating of the Indian History in connection with that of the County to briefly sketch the Winnebago tribe, the former occupants of Whiteside County. The Winnebagoes were a tribe of the Dakota family, for- merly numerous and powerful, and ruled by terror over the neighboring Algon- quin tribes. Early in the seventeenth century a general alliance was formed of other tribes, and they attacked the Winnebagoes who were driven into one town, where their warriors suffered great slaughter. After this the tribe was small, but haughty and turbulent. In 1812 they took sides with the English. In 1820 the Winnebagoes had five principal villages on Lake Winnebago and four- teen on Rock River. Treaties in 1826-27 fixed their boundaries, but their land containing rich lead mines, which some of the Indians refused to sell, led to white intrusion and murders, and Red Bird, with others, was seized and con- victed. In 1829, for $300,000 in goods and a 30 year annuity of $18,000 they, under Heretshonsarp, ceded lands from the Wisconsin to Rock river.
The Winnebago Prophet, White Cloud, as will be seen by the sketch of the Black Hawk war, supported the Sacs and Foxes, and projects were formed for the removal of the Winnebagoes. By a treaty made September, 1832, they ceded all lands south of the Wisconsin and Fox rivers, 2,530,000 acres, the United States agreeing to give them a reservation on the Mississippi above the Upper Iowa, and pay them $10,000 for 27 years, maintain schools, etc. They became unsettled and wasteful, and in 1837 made provision for a debt of $150,000 by ceding more land. In 1842 there were seven hundred and fifty-six of them at Turkey river in Iowa, with as many in Wisconsin and smaller bands else- where. All had become roving. By the treaty of Washington in 1846, they surrendered their former reservation of 800,000 acres north of the St. Peters for $195,000. The site to which they were removed above the Wataub, west
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INDIAN HISTORY.
of the upper Mississippi, was totally unfit, and they lost largely by disease, but were kept there by force. In 1853 they were removed to Crow river, and by the treaty of 1856 they were again removed to Blue Earth County, Minn. Here the tribe was more settled, but when the Sioux war broke out the people of Minnesota demanded their removal, and in 1863 they were disarmed and re- moved to Crow Creek above Ft. Randall in Dakota. This place was utterly unsuited, offering no means of livelihood, and surrounded by wild Indians. Although troops tried to keep them there, 1,985 succeeded in reaching the Omaha reservation where they appealed for shelter. They had lost largely by famine and disease. In 1866 they were transferred to Winnebago, Nebraska, where all had to be commenced anew. In 1869 they were assigned to the care of the Friends, their chiefs deposed and others elected. Lands were allotted to such as wished to take up farms. In 1874 there were in Nebraska 1,445 with farms, cottages and stock; they had three schools and dressed like the whites. The Winnebagoes left in Juneau, Adams and Wood Counties, Wisconsin, num- bered nearly 1,000. In the winter of 1873-74 they were mostly removed to Nebraska, a smaller tract of 128,000 acres near the main reservation being purchased for them, but most of them deserted as soon as they reached the reservation. The Catholics and Presbyterians have tried at various times to christianize them, but with poor results.
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