USA > Illinois > Lee County > Recollections of the pioneers of Lee County [Illinois] > Part 2
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"When Outaga awoke, he gave thanks to the Great Spirit; he then went back to his tribe, related his dream, and the twenty warriors were forthwith chosen, armed, and placed in ambush, Outaga hiniself offering to become the victim and so perish for the rest of his tribe. From the rising ground where he stood, the brave Indian beheld the Piusa perched on his rock. He drew himself up with majestic bearing, planting his feet firmly on the soil; and laying his right hand upon his calm and unmoved heart, he lifted up his voice and began the death chant of the warrior. The monster spread out his wings, and quick as lightning fell upon the Indian chief. But every bow was ready strained, every warrior let his arrow fly, and each arrow pierced through the body of the Piusa, who sank and expired at the feet of Outaga with a savage and terrific shriek. The Great Spirit rewarded the sacrifice of the generous chief by suspending over his head an invisible shield which preserved him from being hurt by his friends' arrows, or by the talons of the bird."
In remembrance of this event the image of the Piusa was carved on the rock, and no Indian ever goes past this place in his canoe without aiming a shot at the monster's effigy. The rifles have left innumerable marks on the stone, and the whole fable seems to borrow an air of truth from the fact that all the natural caverns in the surrounding hills are filled with bones of thousands of human beings.
The celebrated Methodist preacher, Peter Cartright, D. D., who
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labored for more than sixty years chiefly in the Mississippi Valley, leaves this in his autobiography published in 1856, in describing his first visit to Rock Island Mission, which corroborates the truth of the above.
"Here on the north side of Rock River, on the rising ground from the Mississippi bottom, stands the sight of one of the oldest Indian towns in the north or north-west. It is a beautiful site for a city. There are to be seen lying, bleached and bleaching, the bones of unnumbered thousands of this poor, wild and roaming race of human beings. It was the center of the vast and powerful, unbroken, warlike tribes of the north-west. This particular spot was claimed by the notorious Black- Hawk and his tribe. If they had been civilized, and had known the real arts of war, it would have been utterly impossible for the Americans to have vanquished and subdued them as they have done. When I looked at the fields in cultivation by the whites, where the ground had been for ages the country of the Indians, a spirit of sorrow came over me. Had they been an educated and civilized people there no doubt would now be standing on this pre-eminent site, as splendid a city as New York. But they are wasted away and gone to their long home. I saw a scattered few that there crowded back by the unconquerable march of the white man."
A tradition prevails among the Sacs and Foxes in which we can trace a great analogy to the Mosaic account of the creation of man and the confusion of tongues. According to those Indians the Great Spirit created, in the first place, two men; but on seeing that His work was thus insufficient for its purpose, He took froni each man a rib, of which He formed two women. The Indian race are descended from these two couples. All men were at first united in one great nation; but they became wicked, and after that the Great Spirit visited them and gave them the knowledge of several tongues, thereby creating among them confusion, which compelled them to separate and to form all the differ. ent tribes which are yet in existence.
Before bidding adieu to the first inhabitants of these prairies, let us cast a kindly glance at the departed, and, as it were, leave a wreath of prairie flowers over the remains of that diminishing race whose once loved acres we now inhabit. No longer can the green mounds, their sacred tombs, receive the pathetic care of friend or descendant. The proud race of the children of Nature has drunk of the bitter cup of humiliation and desolation. Let us cherish compassion for their mis- fortune, and in the twilight of their setting sun linger in tender reveries . before we say farewell.
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التناعة مشدـ
مصنعدة.
وا حد
JOHN DEXTER'S CABIN.
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THOMAS J. DEXTER
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John and Margaret Dexter.
THE FIRST WHITE INHABITANTS OF AMBOY.
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F AR out in the Atlantic ocean, there is, or was, an enormous, sub- merged forest called "gulf weed," from its connection with the great "Gulf Stream" from the Gulf of Mexico. This is so dense as some- times to impede the progress of ships, and when encountered by Colum- bus on his exploring voyage westward, it was thought by the superstitious sailors to be a barrier placed there by an angry Providence to prevent their passage; or at all events, to warn them against further progress. But Columbus was a man with a purpose too grand to be overawed by the ocean forest and a thousand other ills, and his fearless perseverence reaped a rich reward.
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How many a Columbus we have met and have not known it. How many grand spirits have crossed our pathway and, perchance, walked and talked with us day by day, whose earthly environments have blinded us to the regal honors we were receiving in sharing their company. They may have been rough in speech, unlettered and awkward, and coarsely clad, and yet all these external appearances were but as the husks which had hidden and protected the finest, noblest souls that shall be un veiled in Paradise. C And through marsh and fen and bog and slough and dangers seen and unseen, in the years gone by these Columbians, both men and women, have pressed on, hoping and believing that somewhere in the Great West, sweet Mother Nature with smiling face and green and sunny garments, was waiting to receive them to an earthly home which, to the wanderer's vision, appeared a type of "Canaan's Happy Land," beyond the swelling flood of Jordan.
On a day in the latter part of May, 1835, when not a human habita- tion, save the ruins of some Indian lodge, marked the landscape, two heavily laden wagons, each drawn by two horses, and containing house- hold goods, a tent, two men, two women and four children, moved slowly onward until they reached some rising ground, sheltered by trees near
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the banks of Green river, just east of the present locality of Binghampton. Here they alighted and pitched a small tent,' the two men preparing for an encampment, while the women were busy in making ready the even- ing meal. The elder woman tended and watched the twin babies, two little boys; the younger woman performed the more active service. The older man was smaller than the younger and wore spectacles. The younger was a great, strong, stalwart man, ruddy and grey eyed, his step fearless, the work of his hands as if a determined will reached through every fiber to finger tips. The elder woman was thin and quiet, with a look in her face as if motherhood was in her heart but perchance not in her life, while she lavished on the little ones the tenderness of a real mother. The young mother was a "perfect woman nobly planned," of full habit, finely proportioned, with large blue eyes and beautiful complexion. The little Thomas, five years old, and Mary, three, with the twins, Matthew and Mark, complete the group of the first white inhabitants of Amboy-the Dexter family.
The older man was he whom we have heard spoken of as "Old Doctor Dexter," and was an uncle of John Dexter. He married a maiden lady just before emigrating west, and they soon located in a little cabin be- tween Lee Center and Inlet Grove.
John Dexter was born October 8th, 1803, of hardy Welsh parentage, whose ancestors emigrated to America in the early part of the 17th cen- tury and settled in Connecticut; their descendents emigrating to Maine, New York, Canada, Michigan, Illinois, and later on, to Iowa, Kansas, California, and the Sandwich Islands.
Mrs. Dexter's maiden name was Margaret , McInarrie Dudgeon, of Scotch-Irish Presbyterian ancestry, that came to America the latter part of the 17th century and settled in the state of New York, their descendents moving into Canada and the western reserve; and from Canada came John and Margaret Dexter with their four children.
They first reared a cabin twelve feet square with a shed roof, and in this they lived for some time before building the addition as represented in the engraving.
The country around seemed inexpressibly beautiful to our new inhabi- tants, and Mr. D. named the place Palestine, because it seemed to him the Promised Land. If not "flowing with milk and honey" it yielded wild honey and fruit, and every kind of game in abundance.
Here was the grove with its singing birds and the music of the running river, far broader and more beautiful then than now, since the swamp lands from which it takes its rise have been drained. The voices of
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children and all the sweet sounds of nature broke upon the sublime and majestic silence of the vast expanse around them; and on a clear morning, sometimes the whole country from Palestine Grove west, and from Dixon to Sterling on Rock River, was mirrored on the sky in the wonderful mirage.
About six miles from Mr. Dexter's cabin lived Adolphus Bliss, who had settled there the year before. This was considered a near neighbor. Mr. Dexter planted a garden and some sod corn, and with cows and . chickens, which he had obtained, they made out to live and wait for the future. But a cold winter was at hand, and notwithstanding the joy of the summer days, the hardships of pioneer life were at the threshold. The hungry. wolves prowled about the dooryard, and Mrs. Dexter had often to drive them away and watch to keep her children safe from them as well as from rattlesnakes; and later on, from fever and ague and the diseases of a new country. The only roads then were the Indian trails. The nearest grist mill was fifty miles away, and when out of flour they ground wheat in the coffee mill, and instead of bread, often ate hulled corn. The long winter wore away, and in the spring James Doan and wife arrived and settled near; in the autumn Mr. John Doan and family came, and three miles east the Ingals family settled. Andrew Bainter came in the spring of 1837. Asa B. Searles and Benjamin Wasson in the fall, and the Blairs and others soon followed.
From different sources we have glimpses of the home life at Mr. Dex- ter's. We hear of Mrs. Dexter lending books, among them the "History of the Reformation," and an ancient bible, its leaves yellow with age, yet in good preservation as if evidently cared for, is in possession of the family. On a blank page is the following in Mr. Dexter's writing:
The Bible is the best of books With which this world is blest. Take that away and do but look What nonsense is the rest.
Therefore that Book. the Bible true, My heart shall ever prize, And when despise its truths I do, May darkness close my eyes.
John Dexter is my name, Great Britain is my nation,
Vaughan is my dwelling place, In Christ I hope for salvation .- March 17. 1833.
Mr. Thomas Dexter, now living in Woodland, California, writes: "Of my mother, I remember her struggles to care for her little brood. There were angels, as Emerson says, hovering around ;- Toil and Want and Hope and Mutual Faith ;- and other angels-Gracious Mother Wasson
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and Doan and Frost and Bainter and Badger and Bridgeman. The un certain eye of youth made me see them as unapproachable. In 1837 an old Congregational minister from Maine, Mr. Stinson, stopped with us. He was thoroughly orthodox, and drilled us on the King's Highway. Don't forget that he and Mr. DeWolfe, an Episcopalian, and James Hawley, a happy Methodist, helped to lay the foundation of Amboy's Spiritual Zion. Mr. De Wolfe used to hold services about once a month in our old log house, and Father Corbett alternated,"
Mrs. Dexter let no opportunity be lost for her children's benefit. As the years went by and the new settlers moved in and a school-house was built, at every meeting and on every school day they were sent, dressed with perfect neatness, their bright faces and shining hair reflecting the mother's love. A lady who used to see them at church, says: "I never saw sweeter looking children. I knew very little of their mother, but I can recall her lovely complexion and large blue eyes." Mrs James Doan, still living, says: "You cannot say too much in praise of Mrs. Dexter. She was exquisitely neat and an excellent cook; a most devoted wife and a very affectionate mother. As intimate as I was with her, I never heard her complain throughout the years of her hardships. Every one loved her." She was always busy. In her husband's absence she had the whole care of ten cows. She sold butter and eggs at Dixon, the nearest market, and paid for a cooking stove with butter at five or six cents a pound giv- ing $66.00 for it. The stove was oblong, about three feet by eighteen inches, with an upper story about half way the length of the stove for an oven, and three griddles on top. But after all her sacrifices to obtain it, she soon discarded it and went back to the old fireplace. She made crab- apple dumplings for a treat for the children and stewed green grapes for a feast with their bread; and let the neighbor's boys come to play in the house, never frowning at the noise they made.
After the Dexter's had settled here the Indians encamped near them and raised corn on land where Mr. Badger now lives. The young Indians were playmates with the white children and there was no little spirit of emulation between them in the skillful use of the bow and arrow. Mr. Thomas J. Dexter writes: "On our old farm wandering bands of Potto- wattomies, Sacs, (or Sauks), Foxes and Shawnee Indians would pitch their tents, and never offer violence to any one unless first aggravated. Shab- bona was a grand Indian who loved peace, and undertook to save white families from the rage of other warriors who had determined to slaughter all in northern Illinois. Many times I have gone with him when a boy to Chicago. As to trips to Chicago, I recollect, as yesterday, taking a faithful old team that knew if they followed Lewis Clapp, or "Uncle"
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MARY J. DEXTER. (MKS. TOURTILLOTTE.)
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Ben Wasson, Andy Bainter, Uriel Bridgman, Simon or Chester Badger or Asa Searles they would get to Chicago all right, and sell wheat, threshed with a flail for 30 or 40 cents a bushel. It is hardly probable your average Lee County boy of today, from 11 to 15 years of age, would care for that sort of a job. It was a good school, nevertheless. Mrs. John Doan, mother of ,James Doan and Mrs. Andy Bainter, was good as gold refined. She was earnest in all that makes men better. Mrs. Bridgeman, Mrs. Wasson, Mrs. Badger, Mrs. Patience Searles, and on Memory's walls I find high toward heaven 'Aunt' Mary, a good Catholic and christian, wife of Elisha Dexter, and Mrs. James Hawley, and Mrs. Farwell and Mrs. Davis. Are their names not written in the Book of Life?"
The night cometh as well as the day. and Mrs. Dexter had need of the ministry and sympathy of these good neighbors. Sickness often came to her and twice death had entered her home and left the cradle empty.
"The last sad act is drawing on. A little while by the golden gate Of the holy heaven to which you are gone, Wait, my darlings, wait."
Through the long vista of years and with the aid of others' eyes, we · glance again into the home of the Dexter's. The mother is pale and her light step gone and her face carries a look of sadness. So much to do and her strength waning; yet she quilts and knits and sews, and is always busy. Mr. Dexter, with Mr. Warren Badger and Mr. Palmer, has built a flouring mill. The little Thomas, five years old when we first knew him, is a lad of fourteen now; Mary, who was three, is a Miss of twelve; the twins, Matthew and Mark, are in their eleventh year, andSimon, the first white child born in Amboy, is nine years old; Martha is seven and the little Harriet is but two. Between her and Martha, two little ones, Jesse and Harriet Elizabeth have folded their wings here for a while and then gone to the skies. The cabin has been enlarged, but still in the largest room, where the family lives, there is a bed in one corner, and the old fire-place, with its chimney outside to give more room, sends out its cheerful home light on this wintry March evening.
. The flickering fire throws the shadows o'er The cabin's well swept puncheon floor; The tea-kettle sings on the swinging crane, And a bannock browns in the ruddy flame. . The children, weary of work and play At home or at school all the live long day, Sleep sweetly, nor dream of coming care, While the gentle mother watches there.
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And tirelessly ever the wintry gale Through the burr-oak trees sings its lonely tale; Its tale of the home of long ago, So far away. yet remembered so!
A light is set in the window for him Who is coming home in the starlight dim; By the cheerful hearth stands his vacant chair, And the fragrant supper is waiting there.
Above the rude couch where the children rest, She bendeth low like a heavenly guest; She stops by the youngest in loving guise, And shades the light from the tender eyes
Then rocks the cradle with gentle swings, And softly the notes of a lullaby sings; Her needles flash bright in the fire-light's blaze, As she knits and dreams of the coming days.
And she knits and rocks and dreams again, And the lullaby sings with its sweet refrain, While the stockings grow for the little feet, And the weary mother fain would sleep.
Fold up the work and lay it by; The moon is bright in the bending sky. The one thou hast watched for is at the door, And thy loving vigil. at length is o'er.
Rest, rest weary mother. nor care for life's pains, As heaven grows nearer and earth life wanes; Just as thou art watching their needs to see,
So the white winged angels are guarding thee!
Heaven's light they are shading from thy dear eyes, Not ready yet for the glad surprise;
He who had not where for His beautiful head Is breaking for thee thy daily bread.
"The spirit is willing, the flesh is weak," Thou hearest not what the angels speak ;-
"As is thy day so thy strengh shall be," "The arms everlasting are underneath thee."
Plume, plume thy wings for the sparkling air; They are making ready thy dwelling there! If thou leavest thy darlings a little space, More surely shall they behold His face! *
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A few weeks have passed away and April's smiles and tears have come and gone. Another little girl, but eight days old has joined the other children under the sunny espaliers of heaven. There is pain and sorrow
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SIMON B. DEXTER.
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and a nameless dread around the place where the dying mother lies. Over the prairies, the white faced, black horses of Dr. Adams are speed- ing to the stricken home, and from Dixon Dr. Nash is hurrying to meet him. Mr. Thomas Dexter writes: "I remember our faith that they could cure her, and our poor, helpless prayers. I remember the mournful cortege of friends who bore her body to that sand hill burial place; Rev. Luke Hitchcock's prayers and the presence of Father Birdsall, the Wassons and Badgers and Doans and Hawleys and Frosts and others-all are photographed on my memory.
Forty-eight years have passed away since these scenes were enacted. Mr. Dexter died May 22, 1888, in the Soldiers' Home at Quincy, Ill. His last wife, Mrs. Leapha M. Palmer, who was the widow of his partner killed in the mill, died May 15, 1863, and Mr. Dexter, although sixty years of age, enlisted in the 46th Ill. Infantry. He had been in the army while in Canada. He had a martial spirit and, like the brave Massena, he loved the terrible music that rolled and reverberated over the battle field; withal he was a stern lover of justice, and he believed he was enlisted in a holy cause. Had he lived in the time of the Crusade he would surely have followed Richard Cœur-de-Lion to Palestine.
Thomas J. Dexter married Miss Eliza Hills, a sister of Dr. Harmon Wasson's wife, and ex-Sheriff Hills, of Dixon, in 1852, and had four daugh- ters. The eldest was named by her aunt, Mrs. Wasson, Nina Lee, for one of Columbus' ships and for Lee county. Who has a prettier passport to a place in our Lee County Columbian book? Her home is in Honolulu. Mr. D., her father, lives in Woodland California.
Mary Jane married John Tourtillott, of Sublette, Oct. 5, 1856, and died Oct., 1878. Two of her four children are living-Thomas and Ella Mary. Matthew died some years ago. Mark is living at Clear Lake, Iowa. Simon is at Rice Lake, Minn. He served through the war in the 34th Illinois Infantry with honor.
Martha Ann married Lyman B. Ruggles and removed to California. She, too, has passed away. Harriet married Mr. Fessenden and lives near Mason City, Iowa.
FAMILY RECORD.
Copied from the old family bible, as recorded by Mr. Dexter.
John Dexter, son of Elisha Dexter, was born in the state of Connecti- cut on the 13th day of February, 1773. Died, Oct. 30, 1815.
Jane Dexter was born Feb. 11, 1772. Died, July 14, 1839.
John Dexter and Jane Niece were married at Genesee, N. Y., 1796.
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CHILDREN.
Amos Dexter was born February 3, 1797.
Elizabeth Dexter was born October 31, 1798. Died, September 1816. Hiram Dexter was born April 24, 1801.
JOHN DEXTER was born October 8, 1803. Died, May 22, 1888.
Mary Dexter was born July 27, 1805. Died, December, 1849.
Elisha Dexter was born June 8, 1807. Died, April, 1859. Asahel Dexter was born March 14, 1809.
Ahijah Dexter was born February 6, 1811.
John Dexter and Margaret Dudgeon were married September 24, 1829, at Youngstown, N. Y., by Mr. Hinman, both being residents of Vaughan Upper Canada. Margaret (Dudgeon) Dexter was born Sept. 5, 1812, in Masonville county, N. Y., and died at 7 o'clock a. m., May 21, 1845, at Amboy, Lee Co., Illinois; then called Palestine Grove.
CHILDREN OF JOHN AND MARGARET DEXTER.
Thomas J., born October 22, 1830.
Mary Jane, born November 8, 1832. Died October, 1878.
Mathew Ralph and Harvey Mark, born July 27, 1834.
Simon, born July 22, 1836.
Martha Ann, born May 13, 1838. Died August 8, 1887.
Jesse, born March 18. 1840. Died, March 21, 1840.
Harriet Elizabeth, born May 2, 1841. Died, March 17, 1843.
Harriet Elizabeth, born April 7, 1743.
A daughter, born April 22, 1845, Died, April 30, 1845.
Thomas, Mary, Mathew and Mark were born in Vaughan, Home Dis- trict, York County, Upper Canada. Simon, Martha Ann, Jesse, Harriet Elizabeth and Harriet Elizabeth 2d, and a daughter, (eight days old) born in Palestine Grove, Inlet Precinct, Ogle County, III., now Amby, Lee County, Illinois.
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The Doan Family.
A NOTHER family was soon to be added to the settlement, and in the spring of 1836 James Doan and his young wife took up their abode here. She is still living to relate her recollections.
Susan, Daughter of Frederick and Margaret Bainter, was born in Montgomery county, Ohio, May 17, 1819, where she lived until eleven years of age, when she removed with her parents to South Bend, Indiana. She remained here four years and then removed to Berrian county Mich. Here, on March 27, 1836, she was married to James Doan, and on the 24th of the next month they started for Palestine Grove, in company with Mr. D.'s father, brother, and sister, where after a fatiguing journey of twenty-one days, they arrived May 13, 1836. They found the country beau- tiful and felt compensated for their great struggle for a home in what then seemed the " far west." There were a great many Indians here, but this did not trouble her as she had been accustomed to seeing many of them from childhood and could speak their language quite well.
Soon after their arrival they commenced making a temporary shelter to protect them from the rain and sun, living in the wagon in which they had journeyed until it was done. The mosquitoes were a terrible annoyance, a large brush fire being the only protection from them.
They began immediately to break prairie and to plant crops for the coming summer and winter. This being done, James' father, John Doan, with son Gibson and daughter Jemima, returned to Michigan for the remainder of the family, leaving James and Susan in care of the crops, etc. The few months following are strongly impressed on her mind as being some of the most lonely and desolate of those early times. After the routine of household duties was over for the morning and noon she would go where James was at work and spend the time as best she could until he could go back to the house with her. At that time she was but seventeen years old. Tears were plentiful and cheap with her in those days, yet she felt it was best for them to remain and she would not ask to return to the old home.
At last a day of rejoicing came. On the 19th day of September they saw in the distance the returning family, John and Charlotte Doan with their sons and daughters.
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Young hands in a new country cannot be idle, and James set to work to build a better house. The site he selected was on the bank of a small creek that they called Willow Branch, a lovely, picturesque place. The house must be made of logs, the one thing plentiful. He hewed them on both sides, and then made a raising to place them one above another. The men who helped him do this were Darius, Cyrrino and Cyrenus Saw- yer, Mr. West, Mr. Stearns, Mr. Reynolds from Inlet Grove, John Dexter and C. F. Ingals, The dinner that Susan prepared on this occasion was pronounced delicious by the hungry house-raisers. It consisted of mashed potatoes, wild squirrels, pumpkin pie, coffee, wild honey and bread and butter. This was the second house built and occupied in this section. The first was John Dexter's. A small shanty had been made by Mr. James Hawley, half a mile farther south, but he and his family occupied it but a few days. It was afterwards improved and used for a while by Asa Searles on his first arrival, and still later was owned and lived in by Mr. Bridgeman, but James Doan's was the second house that was occupied. The Hawley place was the regular camping ground of the Indians, and used by them forseveral years after the white settlers came, many Indians camping there at different times. They were peaceable and quiet and were not feared by any one. Their little tents or nuts made of poles and bark in the old Indian style remained for several years. There were a number of graves made of poles and dirt, but unlike similar graves of the Pottawattomies in Indiana, there was no dead Indian seated in one corner, surrounded by gun and camping outfit asif en route to the "happy hunting grounds." In one place, near, the remains of a child were fastened to the top of a small tree. James bent the tree so that they could see the little bones that lay in the rude_open casket of Indian manufacture.
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