USA > Illinois > Crawford County > Illinois, Crawford County historical and biographical > Part 124
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close it is said that Black Hawk, having repented the abandonment of his people, returned within sight of the battle-ground, but seeing the slaugh- ter in progress which he was powerless to avert, he turned and, with a howl of rage and horror, fled into the forest. About 300 Indians (mostly non- combatants) succeeded in crossing the river in a condition of exhaustion from hunger and fatigue, but these were set upon by the Sioux under Chief Wabasha, through the suggestion and agency of General Atkinson, and nearly one-half their num- ber exterminated. Of the remainder many died from wounds and exhaustion, while still others perished while attempting to reach Keokuk's band who had refused to join in Black Hawk's desper- ate venture. Of one thousand who crossed to the east side of the river with Black Hawk in April, it is estimated that not more than 150 survived the tragic events of the next four months.
General Scott, having arrived at Prairie du Chien early in August, assumed command and, on August 15, mustered out the volunteers at Dixon, Ill. After witnessing the bloody climax at the Bad Axe of his ill-starred invasion, Black Hawk fled to the dells of the Wisconsin, where he and the Prophet surrendered themselves to the Win- nebagos, by whom they were delivered to the Indian Agent at Prairie du Chien. Having been taken to Fort Armstrong on September 21, he there signed a treaty of peace. Later he was taken to Jefferson Barracks (near St. Louis) in the custody of Jefferson Davis, then a Lieutenant in the regular army, where he was held a captive during the following winter. The connection of Davis with the Black Hawk War, mentioned by many historians, seems to have been confined to this act. In April, 1833, with the Prophet and Neapope, he was taken to Washington and then to Fortress Monroe, where they were detained as prisoners of war until June 4, when they were released. Black Hawk, after being taken to many principal cities in order to impress him with the strength of the American nation, was brought to Fort Armstrong, and there committed to the guardianship of his rival, Keokuk, but survived this humiliation only a few years, dying on a small reservation set apart for him in Davis County, Iowa, October 3, 1838.
Such is the story of the Black Hawk War, the most notable struggle with the aborigines in Illi- nois history. At its beginning both the State and national authorities were grossly misled by an exaggerated estimate of the strength of Black Hawk's force as to numbers and his plans for recovering the site of his old village, while
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Black Hawk had conceived a low estimate of the numbers and courage of his white enemies, es- pecially after the Stillman defeat. The cost of the war to the State and nation in money has been estimated at $2,000,000, and in sacrifice of life on both sides at not less than 1,200. The loss of life by the troops in irregular skirmishes, and in massacres of settlers by the Indians, aggregated about 250, while an equal number of regulars perished from a visitation of cholera at the various stations within the district affected by the war, especially at Detroit, Chicago, Fort Armstrong and Galena. Yet it is the judgment of later historians that nearly all this sacrifice of life and treasure might have been avoided, but for a series of blunders due to the blind or un- scrupulous policy of officials or interloping squat- ters upon lands which the Indians had occupied under the treaty of 1804. A conspicious blunder- to call it by no harsher name - was the violation by Stillman's command of the rules of civilized warfare in the attack made upon Black Hawk's messengers, sent under flag of truce to request a conference to settle terms under which he might return to the west side of the Mississippi-an act which resulted in a humiliating and disgraceful defeat for its authors and proved the first step in actual war. Another misfortune was the failure to understand Neapope's appeal for peace and permission for his people to pass beyond the Mississippi the night after the battle of Wisconsin Heights; and the third and most inexcusable blunder of all, was the refusal of the officer in command of the " Warrior " to respect Black Hawk's flag of truce and request for a conference just before the bloody massacre which has gone into history under the name of the " battle of the Bad Axe." Either of these events, properly availed of, would have prevented much of the butchery of that bloody episode which has left a stain upon the page of history, although this statement implies no disposition to detract from the patriotism and courage of some of the leading actors upon whom the responsibility was placed of protecting the frontier settler from outrage and massacre. One of the features of the war was the bitter jealousy engendered by the unwise policy pursued by General Atkinson towards some of the volun- teers-especially the treatment of General James D. Henry, who, although subjected to repeated slights and insults, is regarded by Governor Ford and others as the real hero of the war. Too brave a soldier to shirk any responsibility and too modest to exploit his own deeds, he felt
deeply the studied purpose of his superior to ignore him in the conduct of the campaign-a purpose which, as in the affair at the Bad Axe, was defeated by accident or by General Henry's soldierly sagacity and attention to duty, although he gave out to the public no utterance of com- plaint. Broken in health by the hardships and exposures of the campaign, he went South soon after the war and died of consumption, unknown and almost alone, in the city of New Orleans, less two years later.
Aside from contemporaneous newspaper ac- counts, monographs, and manuscripts on file in public libraries relating to this epoch in State history, the most comprehensive records of the Black Hawk War are to be found in the " Life of Black Hawk," dictated by himself (1834) ; Wake- field's "History of the War between the United States and the Sac and Fox Nations" (1834); Drake's " Life of Black Hawk " (1854); Ford's "History of Illinois" (1854); Reynolds' "Pio- neer History of Illinois; and "My Own Times"; Davidson & Stuve's and Moses' Histories of Illi- nois ; Blanchard's " The Northwest and Chicago" : Armstrong's "The Sauks and the Black Hawk War," and Reuben G. Thwaite's "Story of the Black Hawk War" (1892.)
CHICAGO HEIGHTS, a village in the southern part of Cook County, twenty-eight miles south of the central part of Chicago, on the Chicago & Eastern Illinois, the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern and the Michigan Central Railroads; is located in an agricultural region, but has some manufactures as well as good schools-also has one newspaper. Population (1900), 5,100.
GRANITE, a city of Madison County, located five miles north of St. Louis on the lines of the Burlington; the Chicago & Alton; Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis; Chicago, Peoria & St. Louis (Illinois), and the Wabash Railways. It is adjacent to the Merchants' Terminal Bridge across the Mississippi and has considerable manu- facturing and grain-storage business; has two newspapers. Population (1900), 3,122.
HARLEM, a village of Proviso Township, Cook County, and suburb of Chicago, on the line of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad, nine miles west of the terminal station at Chicago. Harlem originally embraced the village of Oak Park, now a part of the city of Chicago, but, in 1884, was set off and incorporated as a village. Considerable manufacturing is done here. Population (1900), 4,085.
HARVEY, a city of Cook County, and an im- portant manufacturing suburb of the city of Chi-
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HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.
cago, three miles southwest of the southern city limits. It is on the line of the Illinois Central and the Chicago & Grand Trunk Railways, and has extensive manufactures of harvesting, street and steam railway machinery, gasoline stoves, enameled ware, etc .; also has one newspaper and ample school facilities. Population (1900), 5,395.
IOWA CENTRAL RAILWAY, a railway line having its principal termini at Peoria, Ill., and Manly Junction, nine miles north of Mason City, Iowa, with several lateral branches making con- nections with Centerville, Newton, State Center, Story City, Algona and Northwood in the latter State. The total length of line owned, leased and operated by the Company, officially reported in 1899, was 508.98 miles, of which 89.76 miles --- including 3.5 miles trackage facilities on the Peoria & Pekin Union between Iowa Junction and Peoria-were in Illinois. The Illinois divi- sion extends from Keithsburg-where it enters the State at the crossing of the Mississippi-to Peoria .- (HISTORY.) The Iowa Central Railway Company was originally chartered as the Central Railroad Company of Iowa and the road com- pleted in October, 1871. In 1873 it passed into the hands of a receiver and, on June 4, 1879, was reorganized under the name of the Central Iowa Railway Company. In May, 1883, this company purchased the Peoria & Farmington Railroad, which was incorporated into the main line, but defaulted and passed into the hands of a receiver December 1, 1886; the line was sold under fore- closure in 1887 and 1888, to the Iowa Central Railway Company, which had effected a new organization on the basis of $11,000,000 common stock, $6,000,000 preferred stock and $1,379,625 temporary debt certificates convertible into pre- ferred stock, and $7,500,000 first mortgage bonds. The transaction was completed, the receiver dis- charged and the road turned over to the new company, May 15, 1889 .- (FINANCIAL). The total capitalization of the road in 1899 was $21,337,558, of which $14,159,180 was in stock, $6,650,095 in bonds and $528,283 in other forms of indebtedness. The total earnings and income of the line in Illi- nois for the same year were $532,568, and the ex- penditures $566,333.
SPARTA, a city of Randolph County, situated on the Centraha & Chester and the Mobile & Ohio Railroads, twenty miles northwest of Ches- ter and fifty miles southeast of St. Louis. It has
a number of manufacturing establishments, in- cluding plow factories, a woolen mill, a cannery and creameries; also has natural gas. The first settler was James McClurken, from South Caro- lina, who settled here in 1818. He was joined by James Armour a few years later, who bought land of McClurken, and together they laid out a village, which first received the name of Co- lumbus. About the same time Robert G. Shan- non, who had been conducting a mercantile busi- ness in the vicinity, located in the town and became the first Postmaster. In 1839 the name of the town was changed to Sparta. Mr. McClur- ken, its earliest settler, appears to have been a man of considerable enterprise, as he is credited with having built the first cotton gin in this vi- cinity, besides still later, erecting saw and flour mills and a woolen mill. Sparta was incorporated as a village in 1837 and in 1859 as a city. A col- ony of members of the Reformed Presbyterian Church (Covenanters or "Seceders") established at Eden, a beautiful site about a mile from Sparta, about 1822, cut an important figure in the history of the latter place, as it became the means of attracting here an industrious and thriving population. At a later period it became one of the most important stations of the "Under- ground Railroad" (so called) in Illinois (which see). The population of Sparta (1890) was 1,979; (1900), 2,041.
TOLUCA, a city of Marshall County situated on the line of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé Railroad, 18 miles sonthwest of Streator. It is in the center of a rich agricultural district; has the usual church and educational facilities of cities of its rank, and two newspapers. Population (1900), 2,629.
WEST HAMMOND, a village situated in the northeast corner of Thornton Township, Cook County, adjacent to Hammond, Ind., from which it is separated by the Indiana State line. It is on the Michigan Central Railroad, one mile south of the Chicago City limits, and has convenient ac- cess to several other lines, including the Chicago & Erie; New York, Chicago & St. Louis, and Western Indiana Railroads. Like its Indiana neighbor, it is a manufacturing center of much importance, was incorporated as a village in 1892, and has grown rapidly within the last few years, having a population, according to the cen- sus of 1900, of 2,935.
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35
CRAWFORD COUNTY
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
BOUNDARIES AND AREA OF CRAWFORD COUNTY- SURFACE CONDITIONS- TIMBER AND PRAIRIE LANDS-STREAMS AND THE REGION WHICH THEY DRAIN - GEOLOGIC FORMATIONS - DIFFERENT STRATA AND THEIR EXTENT- COAL MEASURES ARE MEAGER-IRON AND BUILDING-STONE-SOIL AND TIMBER-VARIETIES OF TREES AND AGRICULTURAL CROP PRODUCTS.
In the official report of the geological survey of the State of Illinois, Crawford County is de- scribed as containing "seven full and several frac- tional townships, making an aggregate area of about 438 square miles. It is bounded on the north by Clark County, on the east by the Wa- bash River, on the south by Lawrence and Rich- land counties, and on the west by Jasper County. With the Wabash River on its eastern border, it is traversed by several small streams tributary thereto. The surface is generally rolling, and was originally mostly covered with timber, which, in course of time, has largely disappeared. enough remaining, however, to supply the pros- pective demand for many years. The south- west portion of the county, from the Shaker Mills on the Embarras River, nearly to Robin- son, is quite broken, and there are also belts of broken land of greater or less extent on all the streams. The principal water courses in the county tributary to the Wabash River are the Embarras, which runs diagonally across its southwest corner; the North Fork, traversing its western border from north to south; Crooked Creek, also in the southwest part, and Brushy Fork. Lamotte Creek, Sugar Creek. Hutson
Creek, and a few other smaller streams in the eastern portion of the county. Only a small pro- portion of the land is prairie. The few prairie stretches are generally small, and for the most part rolling, and are mainly confined to the northern and western portion of the county and to the bottom and terrace lands adjacent to the Wabash River."
"GEOLOGICAL FORMATION. - The quaternary beds in Crawford County consist of buff or drab marly clays belonging to the Loess, which are found capping the bluffs on the Wabash, and at- taining a thickness of ten to twenty feet or more, and from twenty to forty feet of brown gravelly clays and hard-pan, the latter resting upon the bed rock, or separated from it by a thin bed of stratified sand or gravel. These beds, if found in a vertical section, would indicate the following order of succession : buff and drab marly clays or sand, ten to twenty feet; brown and yellow gravelly clays, fifteen to twenty feet; bluish gray hard-pan. ten to twenty-five feet; sand or gravel, three feet. The superficial deposits are thin, and at most places the bed rock will be found within fifteen or twenty feet of the surrace. Small boulders are frequently met with in the branches, but large ones are quite uncommon, and they are more often derived from the lime- stone and hard sandstone of the adjacent coal- measure beds than from the metamorphic rocks beyond the confines of the State, although some of the latter may be seen.
"COAL MEASURES .- The stratified rocks of Crawford Conuty all belong to the upper coal measure, the lowest of them appearing in the bed of the Wabash River, and the highest along the western borders of the county, including the horizon of coals, Nos. 11, 12 and 13, of the Ill1- nois Section. Our only knowledge of the under- lying formations is derived from a shaft and boring made at Palestine Landing. This shaft was sunk to reach a coal seam reported In a boring previously made for oil, to be four feet
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CRAWFORD COUNTY
thick, and at a depth of 123 feet. The boring showed two thin beds of limestone above the coal, and the bituminous shale proved to be two feet thick, and the coal only six inches. In the western portion of the county but little coal has been found, and mining has been carried on in a systematic way only to a limited extent.
"IRON AND BUILDING-STONE .- Numerous bands of carbonate of iron occur in the shales on La- motte Creek and in the river bank at Palestine Landing. Robinson is located on a sandstone de- posit overlaying all the rocks found in the bluffs at Palestine Landing, and the outcrops of sand- stone, on the small branch of Sugar Creek that drains the section on which the town is built, show from fifteen to twenty feet in thickness of soft brown rock, in which considerable quarry- ing is done. North of Robinson, on the northeast quarter of Section 16, Township 7, Range 12, a much greater thickness of strata is exposed. The massive brown sandstone obtainable here affords very durable material for commercial uses. The best building stone to be found in the county is obtained north of Robinson. On La- motte Creek, affording a cheap and lasting stone for foundation walls, bridge abutments, etc., and near Palestine Landing, has been obtained a good quality of carbonate of iron, good brick is manufactured from the subsoil of the uplands, and sand is found in the Loess deposits of the river bluffs and in the beds of the streams.
"SOIL AND TIMBER .- From Hutsonville south there is a belt of alluvial bottom and terrace land, from one to three miles in width, extending to the mouth of Lamotte Creek, a distance of about ten miles. This is mostly prairie, and the soil is a deep sandy loam and very productive. The upland prairies have a chocolate colored soil, not so rich as the black prairie soil of Central Illinois, but yielding fair crops of corn, wheat, cats, clover, etc. On the timbered lands the soil is somewhat variable. Where the surface is broken the soil is somewhat thin, but on the more level portions, where the growth is com- posed in part of black walnut, sugar tree, linden, hackberry and wild cherry, it is very productive, and yields annually large crops of all the cereals usually grown in this latitude. The variety of timber observable in the county are the common species of oak and hickory, black and white wal- nut, white and sugar maple, slippery and red elm, honey-locust, linden, hackberry, ash, red birch, cottonwood, sycamore, coffee-nut, black
gum, pecan, persimmon, paw-paw, crab-apple, wild plum, sassafras, rosebud, dogwood, iron- wood, etc., etc."
CHAPTER II.
FIRST SETTLEMENT-COUNTY ORGANIZA- TIONS.
ERAS OF THE MOUND BUILDERS AND AMERICAN INDIANS-THE FRENCH FIRST WHITE OCCUPANTS -WILLIAM LAMOTTE, THE FIRST WHITE SETTLER IN VICINITY OF PALESTINE, LEAVES HIS NAME ON THE COUNTY MAP-OTHER EARLY FRENCH SETTLERS-COMING OF FIRST AMERICANS-FIRST LAND TRANSFER-ACT CREATING CRAWFORD COUN- TY-FIRST OFFICERS-PRECINCT ORGANIZATION AND TAX RATES-PALESTINE BECOMES THE FIRST COUNTY SEAT-IS SUCCEEDED BY ROBINSON IN 1843-REWARDS FOR WOLF SCALPS-TAVERN LI- CENSES AND LIQUOR PRICES.
After the eras of the mysterious mound build- ers and their successors, the American Indians, the French were the first occupants of the coun- try where Crawford County is now outlined upon the map, and the earliest settlement of that people were in the vicinity of the present town of Palestine, the original representative of the pioneer element being Lamotte, who perpetuated his name in connection with Lamotte Creek, La- motte Prairie, and Fort Lamotte, on the site of which the above named village had its inception. The few French families who first established their homes in this region are supposed to have removed at an early period to Indiana, or settled at St. Louis or Kaskaskia.
FIRST LAND TRANSFER .- The records of the County Clerk's office show that the first convey- ance of realty in Crawford County was from John Dunlap, of Edwards County, to Samuel Harris, the deed bearing date December 10, 1816. The names of a number of families have been handed down as residents at an earlier date, and among the first were those of Kitchell, McGahey, Eaton, Pierson, Woodworth, Van Win- kle, Newlin, Cullom. Kennedy, Wood, Houston, Hutson, Waldrup, Hill, Wilson, Brimberry and
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CRAWFORD COUNTY
Lagow. The arrival of the Eaton family-Benja- min, Joseph, John, Stephen and Richard- is be- lieved to have occurred in 1809. David and Al- len are thought to have arrived the same year ; the Van Winkles -- Green and Dan-in 1810, the Woods following the next year, and Isaac Hutson a year later, as also the Piersons- Isaac, Joseph and William. In November of 1814 twenty-six families were domiciled within Fort Lamotte, and the fort built at the beginning of the War of 1812 was guarded by a body of ninety frontier troopers, commanded by Capt. Pierce Andrew. Edward N. Cullom, who after- wards became quite prominent in the affairs of the county. bought the land where the fort stood -the present site of Palestine,-for $4.16 per acre, together with a dwelling on it built by one of the Brimberrys.
Considerable numbers of Indians roamed about the country at this period, and they were gen- erally peaceful, but during the War of 1812 they became disaffected, preying upon horses and stock, and in some cases took human life. As a result of one of their raids the entire family of Isaac Hutson, consisting of a wife and six chil- dren, perished in the midst of fiendish atroci- ties. Hutson, himself, after whom Hutson Creek and the town of Hutsonville were named, soon afterwards fell a victim to the same blood- thirsty band.
The territory covered by the State of Illinois was originally one of the counties of Virginia, created thus by act of the Virginia House of Delegates passed in 1778, and John Todd was appointed by Governor Patrick Henry as Civil Governor of what was then called the New Illi- nois Country. At the session of the Legislature of the Illinois Territory in 1816, several counties were formed in Illinois, among them being Craw- ford, the eleventh in succession, St. Clair, Ran- dolph, Madison, Gallatin, Johnson, Edwards, White, Jackson, Monroe and Pope having pre- ceded it. It was organized from what had pre- viously constituted a part of Edwards County, and is understood to have been named in honor of Gen. William H. Crawford, of Georgia, who had served as United States Senator, Minister to France, Secretary of War, and Secretary of the Treasury and was a candidate for President in 1824. The act dividing Edwards County and creating Crawford, provided as follows: "Be it enacted by the Legislative Council and House of Representatives of the Illinois Territory, that all
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