History of the early settlers of Sangamon County, Illinois : "centennial record", Part 8

Author: Power, John Carroll, 1819-1894; Power, S. A. (Sarah A.), 1824-; Old Settlers' Society of Sangamon County (Ill.)
Publication date: 1876
Publisher: Springfield, Ill. : E.A. Wilson & Co.
Number of Pages: 824

USA > Illinois > Sangamon County > History of the early settlers of Sangamon County, Illinois : "centennial record" > Part 8

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than an hour twenty-three Indians were murdered, it might almost be said, in cold blood. Black Hawk now turned all his energies to reach the opposite bank of the river. With that object in view he sent twenty warriors to the high bluff. When Gen. Atkinson reached the bluffs on the morning of August 2d, his men were greeted by firing from behind trees. The tall grass made it impossible to learn anything of the force they had to contend with. According to instructions from Black Hawk, when all became engaged they were to retreat to a point three miles up the river. Dodge's battalion led in the chase after the twenty Indians, followed by the regulars and Alexander's and Posey's brigades, all under the immediate direction of Gen. At- kinson. In the hurried pursuit Gen. Henry was called on for a single regiment to cover the rear of the pursuing forces. Otherwise his whole brigade was left without orders.

Despite the intention to disgrace Gen. Henry and his men, fortune now seemed to favor them. The men under Major Ewing, of the latter brigade, discovered that the trail by which the main body of Black Hawk's forces had reached the river was lower down, and that they were much nearer than the point to which the twenty decoy In- dians were leading the main forces. He who had been placed in the rear as a mark of special disfavor, by the strategy of a few savages, who had thus far triumphed over the veteran General, was now thrown again to the front, and well did he make use of this favorable circumstance. Gen. Henry, being notified of the discovery of the main trail, descending to the foot of the bluff, and there leaving his horses, prepared for an attack. The trail from there to the river was through drift wood, brush and weeds. Eight men were ordered forward to the perilous duty of drawing the fire of the Indians, to ascer- tain where they were. Fully aware of their dangerous mission, they moved boldly forward until they were in sight of the river, when they were fired upon by about fifty Indians. Five of the eight fell, either killed or wounded. Gen. Henry immediately ordered the bugle sounded for a charge. The fifty Indians fell back to the main body, amounting in all to about three hundred warriors. This made the force about equal on both sides. The fight became general along the whole line; the inspiring strains of the bugle cheering on the volunteers; the Indians were driven from tree to tree until they reached the bank of the river, fighting with the most sublime courage, and contesting every inch of ground. At the brink the struggle was desperate, but of short duration. The bloody bayonet in the hands of the excited soldiers drove them into the surging waters, where some tried to swim to the opposite shore, others only aimed to reach a small willow island.

All this was done before the commanding General was aware that the volunteer General and men, whom he intended to punish for having found and defeated the In- dians at the battle of the Wisconsin river, had again found and almost exterminated the main body of the enemy, while he was leading the largest portion of his army after twenty straggling Indians, whom he had not been shrewd enough to detect in their false movements. After the Indians had been driven into the river, Gen. Henry de- spatched Major McConnell to give intelligence to Gen. Atkinson of his movements; but while pursuing the twenty Indians he had heard the firing of Gen. Henry's brigade, and hastening to share in the engagement, met the messenger near the scene of action. Some of the newly arrived forces charged through the water to the island and kept up the fight until all were killed, drowned, captured, or made their escape to the opposite

HISTORICAL PRELUDE.

shore of the river. It was estimated that the Indian loss amounted to one hundred and fifty killed, and as many more drowned, including women and children. But fifty prisoners were taken, mostly squaws and papooses. The largest portion of the Indians es- caped across the river before the battle commenced. The American loss was seventeen killed and twelve wounded. This was called the battle of the Bad Axe, because it was fought in Wisconsin, a short distance below the month of the river Bad Axe. It was above Prairie DuChien.

That Black Hawk brought that great calamity on his people there can be no question, but that he was devoted to their interests his last move testifies beyond a doubt. Find- ing himself and followers almost in a starving condition, pursued by a foe well fed, and otherwise stronger than his own forces, he approached the brink of the river, hoping to reach the opposite bank before his pursuers could overtake him, His means of transportation being inadequate, he finds it impossible to escape. Knowing that his fate is sealed, he doubtless gives hasty orders that the canoes be plied as fast as possible, and looking for the last time upon many who had trusted their all to his guidance, he places himself at the head of a handful of faithful followers, and boldly sallies out to meet the foe one hundred and fifty times stronger than himself, his only hope being to turn them aside until his own people should escape. How his heart must have sunk when he heard the firing and knew there was but one way for it to terminate. When Gen. Atkinson, discovering the ruse, ceased the pursuit of the few and marched to where the battle was raging, Black Hawk, with his twenty followers, made their es- cape up the Mississippi and passed over to the Wisconsin river. They were finally captured, far up that stream, by a party of Sioux and Winnebago Indians, who pro- fessed to sympathize with Black Hawk and his followers, but were ready, like blood hounds, to hunt them down when they most needed friendship, and when there was a seeming opportunity to gain favor with the strong and victorious party. Black Hawk and his friends were delivered to Gen. Street, the United States Indian agent at Prairie DuChien, and sent by Col. Zachary Taylor down to Rock Island. Upon arriving there the cholera was raging, and they were sent down to Jefferson Barracks, Mo., where a treaty was made. Black Hawk and his party were held as hostages for the good behavior of their tribe. They were taken to Washington City, and from there to Fortress Monroe, where they remained nutil July 4, 1833. They were then released, by order of President Jackson, and escorted to Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and other cities, and returned by way of the New York canal and northern lakes, thenee to their own people, west of the Mississippi river. Black Hawk died, October 3, 1840, on the Des Moines river, in Iowa.

Many of the men engaged in that campaign acquired state and some of them national reputation. Among them may be mentioned Joseph Duncan and Thomas Ford, who became Governors of Illinois, Henry Dodge, who became Governor of Wisconsin, and Zachary Taylor and Abraham Lincoln, who became Presidents of the United States.

The most remarkable man of all engaged in that campaign was Gen. James D. Henry, and if that had been an age of newspapers and reporters, he would have ac- quired a national reputation at once. That he was the hero of the two principal bat- tles fought in expelling the Indians in that campaign, was known beyond a doubt, and

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so well understood hy the Illinois soldiers from all parts of the State, that the opinion was freely expressed that if he had lived he would have been elected Governor by an overwhelming majority, against any other man. Strange as it may seem, he was scarcely heard of outside of the State. This was all owing to the fact that there was but one paper in the State north of Springfield, and that was edited and published by the kind of man that brings odium on the press whenever he touches it.

Dr. Addison Philleo was one of the men who almost publicly commeneed dissecting the body of Vay Noy, who was hung in Springfield in November, 1826. He was compelled by the citizens to desist from the disgusting spectacle until the body was re- moved to a more private place. Dr. Philleo had removed to Galena, and at the time of the Black Hawk war was publishing a paper there, called the Galenian. He at- tached himself to the battalion of Major Henry Dodge, of Wisconsin. Major Dodge's battalion was a part of Gen. Henry's brigade when Black Hawk and his forces were discovered by Gen. Henry. Gov. Ford, in his history, describing the chase of Gen. Henry after Black Hawk, says: "On the third day, about noon, also, the seouts ahead came suddenly upon two Indians, and as they were attempting to escape, one of them was killed and left dead on the field. Dr. Addison Philleo, coming along shortly after, scalped this Indian, and for a long time afterwards exhibited the scalp as an evidenec of his valor."

That was the kind of man the world was dependent upon for a history of the Black Hawk campaign. He was the only newspaper man with the army. After the battle of the Wisconsin, Dr. Philleo wrote an account of it for his paper, and that being the first paper it was published in, was copied all over the United States. He chronicled the doings of Major Dodge only, and always spoke of him as General Dodge. Gen. Henry, the real commander, was never mentioned except as a subordinate. By this deception many histories now assert that Dodge was the commander in that war. Gen- eral Henry never made a report of any part of the campaign, and those errors were never officially contradicted. In that campaign he contracted disease of the lungs, and afterwards went south, hoping that the climate and medical treatment would restore his health, but he gradually sank until March 4, 1834, when he died in New Orleans. Sec his name in the biographical department.

I have been thus minute in this sketch of the Indian wars, because almost every family among the early settlers of Sangamon county were represented in the army; and, although they were at a comparatively safe distance from the scene of conflict, yet their sympathies were naturally drawn out towards those who were in danger. Another reason why I have given the subject such prominence is that there is no recent history of those wars accessible to the public.

The mention I shall make of the part taken by the descendents of the early settlers of Sangamon county in suppressing the great rebellion will partake of a much wider range, but the comparatively recent date of that event, and the publications in almost every house concerning it, precludes the necessity of my attempting any extended ac- count of it here.

HISTORICAL PRELUDE.

MISCELLANEOUS.

Under this head I shall reeord some events that will occasionally be referred to in the biographical part of the work. By describing them fully here, a bare reference to them hereafter will be understood. The two most important were the " deep snow " and the " sudden change."

THE DEEP SNOW :- What is here spoken of as the " deep snow " must be taken relatively. Snows fall almost every winter much deeper in New York, the New England States, Canada and in the northern latitudes generally. This, however, is distinguished from all others as the " deep snow," because, in this latitude, the like of it was not known before, and has not been known since. A description of it by Rev. J. M. Sturtevant, President of Illinois College, in an address before the Old Settler's. Society of Morgan county, at Jacksonville, a few years ago, is the best authority I can find. Having been brought up where such snows were nothing unusual, he would be less likely to be deceived in his judgment than one who had never witnessed the like before. President Sturtevant says:

" In the interval between Christmas, 1830, and January, 1831, Snow fell all over cen- tral Illinois to a depth of fully three feet on a level. Then came a rain, with weather so cold that it froze as it fell, forming a crust of ice over this three feet of snow, nearly, if not quite, strong enough to bear a man, and finally, over this crust of ice, there was a few inches of very light snow. The clouds passed away, and the wind came down upon us from the northwest with extraordinary ferocity. For weeks, certainly not less than two weeks, the mercury in the thermometer tube was not, on any one morning, higher than twelve degrees below zero. This snow fall produced constant sleighing for nine weeks."

The recollection of some of the early settlers is that rain fell for some days, until the earth was saturated with water, and the day before Christmas the rain turned to snow, and the flakes were so large that in a few hours it attained a depth of six inches. I have, time and again, heard this snow described as much more than three feet deep, and no doubt the experience of those making the statements justified them in it. The situation was rather alarming, even to a New England man. There, a few hours of wind blows all the snow from exposed places, and deposits it in valleys and behind hills, where the wind cannot reach it. It is only where the roads eross these receptacles that it is necessary to break a track. It is made the occasion for a frolic with New England people to turn out with ox teams and sleds to break a road, and then there is no more trouble until the next snow storm. Such work here would have been useless. In this level country the drifting never ceases as long as the snow lasts. Any number of teams might break a track, but it would fill behind them in a few moments. The only way they finally made roads here was by wallowing through it, and going as near the same place as they could, until the snow was trodden hard and rounded up like a turnpike road. Many instances have been related where teams, attempting to pass each other on these raised roads, found it too narrow, and the result was that one if not both the vehicles would be upset, leaving the oeeupants and teams floundering in the snow. To

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regain the proper position on the road was not always an easy task. Long after the great body of the snow melted off, these roads remained. One man, describing them, said they looked like silver threads, stretching over the prairies as far as the eye could reach.

Railroads were not then dreamed of, but they would have been, for several weeks, as utterly useless as though they were sunk out of sight in the earth. Snow plows would be of no avail in such a storm as that, for the track would fill, in less than an hour, behind any train that might force its way though. Quoting again from President Sturtevant, he says: "It is a consolation that such a winter has never occurred but once in the memory of man. But what has happened once may happen again. If it does we shall get a very definite idea how important our railroads are to us, and we shall be very glad that the snow is not over the telegraph wires." In the latter clause he no doubt had reference to the fact that in those days, when everything was right, they did not have or expect a mail more than once a week, but even that was inter- rupted for several weeks during the " deep snow."

That snow come so early in the season that it caught nearly all their corn in the fields, and it was very difficult to obtain enough of it to keep stock from perishing. Few had any milling done, and the devices were numerous to reduce the grain to a condition fine enough to be baked into something resembling bread. Some of them will be described. I will here give a few incidents illustrating some of the straits the people were put to in order to preserve life and property.

Among the earliest settlers on Sugar creek was a man by the name of Stout-no re- lation to any of that name now in the county. He had raised a family, but his wife had died, and his children had married and left him alone. Hle built a small cabin in the woods, and in that he did his own cooking, slept, and worked at making bread trays, wooden bowls, rolling pins, wooden ladles, and such other implements as every household was in need of. He traded the products of his labor for something to eat or wear, seldom receiving or expecting any money. He lived very comfortably until the "deep snow " come. Then his open cabin and scant supply of bedding was not suffi- cient to keep him warm. He went around among his neighbors and tried to obtain some addition to his bedding, but found them all deficient in that respect themselves. He finally solved the difficulty by felling a large tree near his cabin, took a cut from it of suitable length, and made a trough inside, the full length of his body, and hewed it off on the outside until it was light and thin enough for him to handle easily. Hc would then make his bed on some chips or shavings, as he had done before, first bring- ing his trough along side, and when snugly covered up, he would take the trough and turn it over himself for covering. As soon as the warmth of his body filled the space he would be comfortable, and could lay snug and warm until morning. There was neither floor nor chimney to his cabin, so he made the fire on the ground. When the weather was extremely cold he would move his fire just before retiring, scraping the coals and ashes carefully away, and then make his bed where the fire had been during the day. This is a new proof of the oft repeated adage, that " Necessity is the mother of invention."

DEATHS IN THE SNOW :- Very many cases occurred of persons being lost in the snow, ending in death. I will mention a few here, but others will be referred to in the succeeding parts of the work.

HISTORICAL PRELUDE.

A man named William Saxton lived on Lick creek, above Loami. He went hunt- ing, and failing to return, his friends and neighbors went in search of him, and found his body about one mile from his home, where he had sunk down, and appeared as it asleep.

Samuel Legg started from Sugar creek, not far above where the C. and A. railroad now crosses, intending to go to Richland timber, near where Pleasant Plains now stands. He was not heard of until the next April, when the remains of himself and horse were found, nearly consumed by wolves. He had gone but a few miles, as the body was found on what is now the farm of John B. Fowler, a few miles west of Chatham. A bottle with a small quantity of whiskey was found near his remains.

A man started from the timber on Horse creek to chase a wolf while the snow was falling. He was not seen nor heard of until the next spring, when his body was found at a place called Willow grove, in Shelby county. His horse and dog were found with him, and all had perished together. The distance was about forty miles from where . he started. It was thought that he became bewildered by the falling snow, and con- tinued his efforts until his horse, dog and himself sank down to die.

William Workman went hunting in the Lick creek timber, south of Loami. He walked on the crust of the snow, and was approaching a deer for the purpose of shoot- ing it. Without being aware of it, he was over a ravine of considerable depth. The crust broke and he went down. Raising his rifle gun he could barely reach the crust with it. By tramping the snow under his feet until it became solid, he found himself gradually rising with the slope of the ground, and by reaching up with his gun and breaking the crust, he finally escaped, but he says it was a long and laborious operation. Simeon Vancil relates an experience very similar.

So completely did the snow cover everything that wild game was accustomed to feed upon, that the deer, turkey, and some other kinds of game, were almost extermi- nated. There was another reason why it was destructive to the deer. That animal runs by a succession of leaps, and, as a natural consequence, the faster they ran the greater would be the force with which they struck the snow. When pursued by dogs, a few vigorous leaps would stop them short, their small, sharp hoofs breaking through the crust, would leave them helpless, with their bodies resting on the snow. At the same time a dog or wolf of equal weight would pass safely over, because, by their manner of running, they did not strike the snow with such force, and even if they had, their soft, pad-like feet would be less likely to break the crust.

It required but a short time, thus shut off from food, for the deer to become too lean for venison. All thoughtful people then abstained from killing them, but there were others who thought only of the sport, and destroyed them where and when they could. Dogs and wolves, learning that they could be made to break through the crust and be- come disabled, chased down and destroyed great numbers of them. From all these causes the deer were, almost exterminated, and they never become plentiful afterwards.

Mr. Simeon Vancil, who came to the county in the fall of ISIS, says that it was very common to see large quantities of buffalo bones on the highest points of land. In explanation of that there was a tradition among the Indians who remained in the country to hunt, after the white settlers come in, that there had been a " deep snow " about thirty years before, say about 1800, and that the buffalo, herding together on the

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highest ground, because the snow was thinnest, remained there and perished with cold and hunger. Of course this was only given as a tradition, coming from the Indians. There could be no corroborative testimony from civilized men, for the simple reason that there were none in the country.

THE SUDDEN CHANGE :- Soon after commencing the collection of materials for this work, I was frequently asked the question. " Has any person told you about the sudden change?" My answers at first would, for obvious reasons, be in the negative. The interrogator would then undertake to give me an account of it, but I was never able to learn that any person in the county had kept a record of the indications of a thermometer at that time, or that there was a thermometer in the county; and for a long time I could not ascertain the year in which it took place.

In an interview with Mr. Washington Crowder, the date was settled in his own peculiar method. Mr. Crowder remembers that on the morning of December 20, 1836. he started from a point on Sugar creek about eight miles south of Springfield, to the latter place, for the purpose of obtaining a license for the marriage of himself and Miss Isabel Laughlin. He had finished his courting on the nineteenth, with the understand- ing that the marriage was to take place on the twenty-first, leaving the twentieth for obtaining the license. There were several inches of snow on the ground, but rain was then falling slowly, and had been, long enough to turn the snow to slush. Every time the horse put his foot down it went through the slush, splashing it out on all sides. Mr. Crowder was carrying an umbrella to protect himself from the rain, and wore an overcoat reaching nearly to his feet. When he had traveled something like half the distance, and had reached a point about four miles south of Springfield, he had a fair view of the landscape, ten or twelve miles west and north. He saw a very dark cloud, a little north of west, and it appeared to be approaching him very rapidly, accompanied by a terrific, deep, bellowing sound. He thought it prudent to close his umbrella, lest the wind should snatch it from his hands, and dropped the bridle reins on the neck of his horse for that purpose. Having closed the umbrella and put it under his arm, he was in the act of taking hold of the bridle rein. when the cold wave struck him. At that instant water was dripping from every thing about him, but when he drew the reins taut, ice rattled from them. The water and slush was almost instantly turned to ice, and running water on sloping ground was congealed as suddenly as molten lead would harden and form in ridges if poured on the ground. Mr. Crowder expressed himself quite sure that within fifteen minutes from the time the cold blast reached him his horse walked on top of the snow and water, so suddenly did it freeze.

When he arrived in Springfield he rode up to a store at the west side of Fifth street, between Adams and Monroe, a few doors south of where Bunn's bank now stands. He there attempted to dismount, but was unable to move, his overcoat holding him as firmly as though it had been made of sheet iron. He then called for help, and two men come out, who tried to lift him off, but his clothes were frozen to the saddle, which they ungirthed, and then carried man and saddle to the fire and thawed them asunder. After becoming sufficiently warm to do so, Mr. Crowder went to the county clerk's office, obtained his license, and by driving his horse before him, returned to where he had started in the morning. The next day he started on horseback, but found the traveling so difficult on the ice that he dismounted, tied up the bridle, left his horse to -9

HISTORICAL PRELUDE.

find the way back home, and went on foot to the house of his affianced, where he was married at the time appointed. Mr. Crowder admits that it was a very thorough test of his devotion, but it must be conceded that he proved himself equal to the emer- gency.

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History of the early settlers of Sangamon County, Illinois : "centennial record", Part 8

Author: Power, John Carroll, 1819-1894; Power, S. A. (Sarah A.), 1824-; Old Settlers' Society of Sangamon County (Ill.) Publication date: 1876 Publisher: Springfield, Ill. : E.A. Wilson & Co. Number of Pages: 824

Author: Power, John Carroll, 1819-1894; Power, S. A. (Sarah A.), 1824-; Old Settlers' Society of Sangamon County (Ill.)
Publication date: 1876
Publisher: Springfield, Ill. : E.A. Wilson & Co.
Number of Pages: 824