USA > Illinois > Jo Daviess County > The History of Jo Daviess County, Illinois, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, etc., a biographical directory of its citizens, war record of its volunteers in the late rebellion history of the Northwest, history of Illinois Constitution of the United States > Part 28
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party of Indians, and two of them, James Boxley and John Thompson, were killed. Major Stephenson with thirty men started immediately on receipt of the news to bury the murdered men and pursue the murderers. The bodies were shockingly mangled and both scalped, and Thompson's heart cut out. The Indians were followed to the residence of Mr. Jordan, on the Mississippi, where they had stolen a canoe and crossed the river. These Indians could hardly have been any of Black Hawk's band, unless they had deserted and were making their way back to the west side of the Missis- sippi.
On the 30th of June, all the inhabitants north of Galena and on the Mis- sissippi, this side of Cassville, came into Galena for safety. It was not then considered safe to go a mile out of town without a strong guard.
Captain George W. Harrison, in command of Fort Hamilton, on the Pick-a-ton-e-ka, thirty miles from Galena, after vainly endeavoring to get a cannon, went to Colonel Hamilton's furnace and cast several lead pieces, intended for two-pounders, which were properly mounted at the stockade, and answered every purpose.
June 20, 1832, the ladies of Galena, represented by Mrs. Nancy B. Lockwood, Mrs. Sarah B. Coon's, and Miss Elizabeth A. Dodge, com- mittee, presented a stand of colors to Captain Jas. W. Stephenson's com- pany. On the 21st, "The daughters of the lead mines " presented a flag " to our Father War Chief," General Henry Dodge. Afterwards, on the 15th of July, the ladies of the mining country, represented by Miss Margaret C. Brophy and Miss Bridget F. Ryan, presented a stand of colors to Captain Bazil B. Craig's company, and about the same time, Misses Catherine S. and Amelia G. Dyas presented colors to Captain Alex. M. Jenkins.
It must be remembered that Black Hawk's forces kept on their march up Rock River, with the evident intention of returning to the west side of the Mississippi, as the forces of General Atkinson below prevented their return by the way they came, and they as evidently believed, after the affair with Stillman, that no flag of truce or proposals for peace would be received by the whites. But various Indian signs were discovered on the Mississippi River. July 6, Lieutenant Orrin Smith was sent, with twenty men, to Jor- don's farm, opposite Dubuque mines, to scour the country there. On the 9th, Indians were in the vicinity of Rountree's Fort (Plattsville), where they held a war dance around the scalp of a woman. On the 10th, the Galenian says : "To-day we learn that the trail of the Indians shows that they must have come from the west of the Mississippi, in a direction from Dubuque's mines."
These facts indicate very plainly that Black Hawk and his band were not responsible for all the outrages committed in the mining district, but that some of them, at least, are to be attributed to Indians from the west, while others, it is now known, were committed by young Winnebagoes.
July 14, Governor Reynolds, Colonel Field (Secretary of State), Judges Smith and Brown, Colonels Hickman, Grant, Breese and Gatewood, Captain Jeffreys and others arrived at Galena from the army. These gentlemen reported that the Indians were entirely destitute of provisions, and were endeavoring to reach and re-cross the Mississippi.
July 15, an express arrived at Galena, stated that Captain Harney, of the U. S. A., had found and pursued the trail of the Indians for thirty miles, passing four of their encampments in that distance, and that he found many signs of their want of provisions, "such as where they had
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butchered horses, dug for roots, and scraped the trees for bark," and it became evident that the military had concluded that Black Hawk was doing his best to escape to the west side of the Mississippi. Orders were sent to troops stationed on the banks of that River " to prevent or delay the Indi- ans from crossing until the brigade sent by General Atkinson could come up with them." Indian outrages had now nearly ceased in Jo Daviess County, and a brief sketch of the movements of the troops from Dixon's Ferry to Bad Axe will close this part of the history.
On the 15th of June, 1832, the new levies of volunteers in camp at Dixon's Ferry were formed into three brigades. The first was commanded by General Alexander Posey; the second by General Milton R. Alexander, and the third by General James D. Henry.
June 17, Captain Adam W. Snyder, of Colonel Fry's regiment, sent to scout the country between Rock River and Galena, while encamped near Burr Oak Grove, in what is now the Township of Erin, Stephenson County, was fired upon by four Indians. He pursued and killed them, losing one man mortally wounded. Returning, he was attacked by seventy Indians, both parties taking positions behind trees. General Whiteside, then a private, shot the leader of the band, and they retreated, but were not pur- sued. Snyder lost two men killed and one wounded.
June 25, a detachment of General Posey's brigade, commanded by Major John Dement, and encamped at Kellogg's Grove, or Burr Oak Grove, as it was then called, was attacked by a large party of Indians and a sharp skirmish ensued. Major Dement lost five men and about twenty horses killed. The Indians left nine of their number stretched upon the field. General Posey, then encamped at Buffalo Grove, hastened to the relief of Dement, but the Indians had retreated two hours before he arrived. He returned to Kellogg's Grove to await the arrival of his baggage wagons, and then marched to Fort Hamilton, M. T.
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Gen. Atkinson commenced his slow and cautious march up the river about the 25th of June, and finally reached Lake Kushkanong, where he was joined by Gen. Alexander's brigade, and then continued his march to White River or Whitewater, where he was joined by Posey's brigade and the Galena battalion under Maj. Dodge. Gen. Alexander, Gen. Henry and Maj. Dodge were sent to Fort Winnebago for supplies. Here they heard that Black Hawk was making his way toward the Wisconsin River, and, disobeying orders, Henry and Dodge started in pursuit (Gen. Alexander and his brigade returning to Gen. Atkinson), struck the broad, fresh trail of the Indians and followed them with tireless energy. Ever and anon they would find old men, women and children, who could not keep up and had been abandoned to their fate by the flying Indians; some were killed. One old man left to die was sitting against a tree, and was boldly shot and scalped by a surgeon, who afterwards exhibited the scalp as a trophy of his valor.
Black Hawk was overtaken at Wisconsin River, and his braves offered battle to enable the women and children to cross the river. The battle of Wisconsin Heights, at which the Indians were badly whipped by our troops, and "worse whipped by starvation," says Mr. Townsend, was fought on the 22d of July, 1832. Skirmishing commenced a little after noon, but the heav- iest fighting was about sunset. The first Indian killed was discovered walking ahead of the troops with a pack of meat on his back. A soldier fired but missed him, when he turned and threw down his gun but was bayonetted after his surrender by Sample Journey. The fighting ceased about 10
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o'clock P. M., and the men bivouacked for rest on their arms. "About daybreak," says Capt. D. S. Harris, then a lieutenant in command of Stephenson's Company, "the camp was alarmed by the clarion voice of the Prophet from a hill nearly a mile away. 'At first we thought it was an alarm, but soon found that the Prophet wanted peace. Although he was so . far distant I could hear distinctly every word, and I understood enough to know that he did not want to figlit. The interpreter said that he said that they ' had their squaws and families with them and were starving-that they did not want to fight any more, but wanted peace and would do no more harm if they could be permitted to cross the Mississippi in peace.'" Mr. P. J. Pilcher, now of Elizabeth, who was also there, says that they were awakened by the shrill voice of the chief, and that he plainly understood: "Ne-com, P-e-e-1-0-0-0;" "Friends, we fight no more." Mr. Pilcher says he told Henry what the Indian said, but Henry said "pay no attention to any thing they say or do, but form in line of battle." The Winnebagoes in camp also informed the officers of the meaning of the Prophet's mes- sage, and " early in the morning," says Pilcher, " they went with us to the spot where the Indian had stood, when he proclaimed peace, and there we found a tomahawk buried," an emphatic declaration that so far as Black Hawk and his band were concerned hostilities were ended. No attention was paid to this second attempt to negotiate peace. It is said that the offi- cers had no interpreter and did not know what the Prophet said until after. the war closed. This excuse is exploded by the direct and emphatic testi- mony of Capt. Harris and Mr. Pilcher, but the starved and dying Indians must be exterminated.
The next morning not an Indian remained on the east side of the Wis- consin. Gen. Henry pushed back for supplies and Gen. Atkinson's " bottled forces" coming up, the pursuit was renewed, and the battle of Bad Axe was fought August 2, 1832. "For eight miles," says Townsend, "we were skirmishing with their rear guard," and numbers of squaws and children were killed. Mr. Townsend says he passed one squaw that liad been shot and fallen on her face. On her back was strapped a child. The same shot that killed its mother had broken its arın, but in spite of this it was sitting on the back of its dead parent gnawing in its ravenous hunger the raw flesh from a horse-bone.
The battle of Bad Axe terminated the war, and Black Hawk's surrender, subsequent visit to Washington, and return to his people in Iowa, are events familiar to the reader. After nearly half a century has passed since the stirring events narrated occurred, and the Indians have long since disappeared before the westward advance of civilization, it is but just that the truth should be recorded. Passion and prejudice have passed away, and it must be admitted that "when the tomahawk and scalping knife were drawn" in 1832, it was only after the whites had commenced the carnival of blood by first firing on the flag of truce at "Stillman's Run." The vindictive pursuit and murder of women and children after the Prophet had, in person informed his ruthless pursuers that "his people were starving and wanted peace," can not be justified. It was as savage an act as the savages themselves had committed. It must be added also that after Stillman's defeat, Black Hawk, then an old man, lost all control of his young braves, who were led by Ne-o-Pope. But for that fatal act of Stillman's drunken soldiers, in all human probability the subsequent acts of savage barbarity by both Indians and whites had remained undone. "Fire-water"
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was the active cause of the Black Hawk War, as it was of the Winnebago affair.
LOCAL HISTORY.
AN ACT ESTABLISHING JO DAVIESS COUNTY.
SECTION 1 .- Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, that all that tract of country lying within the following boundaries, to wit: Beginning on the northwest corner of the state, thence down the Mississippi River to the northern line of the military tract, thence east with said line to the Illinois River, thence north to the northern boundary of this state, thence west with said boundary line to the place of beginning, shall constitute a county, and to perpetuate the memory of Colonel Joseph Hamilton Daviess, who fell in the battle of Tippecanoe, gallantly charging upon the enemy at the head of his corps, the said county shall be called Jo Daviess.
Origin of the Name .- The singular name of Jo Daviess was not given to the county by its citizens. The name Ludlow was incorporated in the original bill, and was intended to honor and perpetuate the memory of the naval hero of that name. When the bill was under consideration in the House of Representatives, a member moved to strike out " Ludlow," and insert the name of " Daviess," in honor of Colonel Jo Daviess, a Kentuck- ian, who fell at the head of his regiment at the battle of Tippecanoe, Indiana. Another member moved to amend the amendment by inserting before Daviess the word " Jo," giving as a reason that as there wasa mem- ber of the House of the name of Daviess, the people might think the honor was intended for him, and that it would be indelicate for the House, by any direct act, to transmit their names to posterity. This motion, made in jest, was carried by a large majority, and the name Jo Daviess was incorporated in the bill with the expectation that "Jo" would be struck out by the Senate. The Senate, however, passed the bill without amendment, and the name by common use has become as pleasant to the ear as the ordinary names of counties.
An old Gazetteer of Missouri and Illinois, published in 1822, now in the possession of William Hempstead, Esq., says the military tract referred to in the act creating Jo Daviess County, commenced at the mouth of the Illinois River, extended north 162 miles to a line running east from the Mississippi to the Illinois River, and included all that country between the two rivers, an area equal to 240 townships of six miles square, covering 8,640 square miles and embracing 5,529,600 acres.
This tract of land was appropriated by Congress to pay military boun- ties for the war of 1812, and hence its designation as the military tract. This Gazetteer is the only accessible authority for the extent of this tract, and it may or may not be exactly accurate or authentic. There must be some law of Congress on the subject, but the writer was unable to find it during the lim- ited time assigned for the compilation of these pages.
SECTION 2 of the law creating Jo Daviess County further provided that the qualified voters residing within said county "shall meet at the Village of Galena, on the first Monday of June next (1827) and elect three County Commissioners, one Sheriff and one Coroner for said county; and Charles St. Vrain, David G. Bates and Patrick Hogan are hereby appointed judges of said election, who shall give notice, appoint two clerks, and conduct the said election as other elections for the same officers are now required by law to be published and conducted."
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HISTORY OF JO DAVIESS COUNTY.
SECTION 3. That, for the present, until the true boundaries of the county be known and provision therefor be made by law, for establishing the permanent seat of justice for said county, all courts shall be held at the said Village of Galena.
SECTION 4 provided that Jo Daviess should be a part of the first judi- cial circuit, and that the justices of the peace of the county or any three of them, might hold court. Section five defined the duties of prosecuting attorneys, and section six declared that the county should vote in all gen- eral elections, in conjunction with Peoria, Fulton, Schuyler, Adams and Pike Counties.
The boundaries and regulations thus established were not disturbed in any essential particular until January, 1836, when the Counties of Winne- bago, Whiteside, Kane and Ogle were organized.
In accordance with the provisions of section two of the law under which Jo Daviess County was erected, an election was held on the first Monday in June, 1827, for the officers named in that section. There are no records to be found in the archives of the county to show the number of voters in the county at that time. It is a lamentable fact that in nearly all the counties whose history we have attempted to write, there seems to have been an inexcusable carelessness or negligence about preserving official papers. For this carelessness no valid excuse can possibly be offered, and, in fact, none should be accepted. On the other hand, there ought to have been a heavy penalty imposed upon all officials who failed to preserve intact the official papers of the offices they filled. If this had been the practice in the early days of Jo Daviess, Carroll and other counties, to write their history would be a comparatively easy task. As it is, with many important documents unpreserved, the task is an arduous and difficult one. The loss of the pioneer poll-book of Jo Daviess County, with only one voting pre- cinct within its boundaries, is an important link missing from its chain of history. To determine the number of votes polled at Galena on the first Monday in June. 1827, with any degree of accuracy, is an impossibility. To arrive at any thing like accuracy, the only recourse is to an old poll-book of Fever River Precinct, Peoria County, under date of August 7, 1826, which is probably a record of the first election held in the Galena section of Northwestern Illinois. At that election, as is already elsewhere stated, Nehemiah Bates, J. W. Shull and Andrew Clamo were judges or inspectors, and B. Gibson and Joseph Hardy, clerks. That poll-book bears the names of. 202 voters-not one of whom is known to be alive now. In June, 1827, there must have been at least one hundred and fifty more voters, as under the laws in existence at that time no territory could be organized as a county with less than three hundred and fifty qualified voters. There may have been more than this number of voters in Fever River Precinct at the time of the first election for county officers for Jo Daviess County, but cer- tain it is there was but one voting precinct in all of that territory now so densely populated.
This election was held on the first Monday in June. On the 5th day of that month, there seems to have been a session or meeting of two of the county commissioners elected-James Harris and Jonathan Browder. This meeting of the county commissioners was held at the "tavern " of Messrs. Abbott & Swan, on the site now occupied by Waggoner's book store, at the corner of Main and Green Streets. On the 11th and 18th days of June, special or called sessions were held, but no record of their proceedings
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seems to have been made until 1833, when the following transcript of them was entered of record by Moses Swan, County Clerk :
Transcript of the Proceedings of the Board of County Commissioners of .Jo Daviess County, at the First Session, June 5, 1827.
STATE OF ILLINOIS,
JO DAVIESS COUNTY,
GALENA, June 5, A. D. 1827.
This day James Harris and Jonathan Browder, two of the County Commissioners for said County, met at the house of Abbott and Swan, in thic town of Galcna, in said county, at which mecting thic said two commissioners appointed Hugh R. Coulter to act as County Commissioners Clerk in and for said county. Said clerk, after appointed, as aforesaid, delivered a bond to the County Commissioners of said county for the use of the same in the penal sum of one thousand dollars, agreeably to the statute in such cases made and pro- vided, with David G. Bates and John Ray his securities. The Court then organized itself and proceeded to business.
Stroder Inman was recommended to said Court as a proper person to fill the office of Constable in and for said county, who gave a bond as the law directs (after receiving liis appointment), with John Foley his security. Said Constable then took the several oatlis prescribed by law in open court, before entering on the duties of his office.
Ordered, That this Court adjourn till Monday, the 11th inst., at 11 o'clock A. M., tlicn to meet at the above place.
GALENA, June 11, 10 o'clock A. M.
The County Commissioners Court met pursuant to their adjournment. . Present, Jas. Harris and Jonathan Browden, as before. Ebenezer Orn, one of the commissioners elected for said county, appeared, received a certificate of his election, took the several oaths pre- scribed by law (which were administered by the clerk), all of which being done in usual form, said Commissioner took his seat, and the Court tlicn procecded to business.
Stroder Inman, constable, was appointed as an illisor to attend on said court and to perform the duties of Sheriff, according to the statute in such cases made and provided.
A petition was presented, signed by several of the inhabitants of said county, praying said Court to recommend John Foley and Hugh R. Coulter as suitable persons to fill the office of Justices of the Peace in and for said county, whereupon it was
Ordered, That John Foley and Hugh R. Coulter be recommended to the Governor of this state as suitable persons to fill the office of Justices of the Peace within and for said county, agreeable to the petition of P. Hogan and others.
A petition was presented by sundry citizens, praying said Court to recommend Geo. "W. Lott, of said county, to the Governor of this state, to fill the office of Justice of the Peace in and for said county, whereupon it was
Ordered, That George W. Lott be recommended to the Governor of this state as a suitable person to fill the office of Justice of the Peace within and for said county, at the petition of P. Hogan and others.
Ordered, That this court adjourn sine die.
At a special term of the County Commissioners Court of Jo Daviess County, held at the house of Messrs. Abbott and Swan, in the Town of Galena, June 18, 1827-present, Ebenezer .Orn and Jonathan Browder, county commissioners, and Hugh R. Coulter, clerk. Samuel Kain was appointed an illisor to attend on said court.
A petition was presented by Patrick Hogan, Esq., requesting said court to prepare a safe place of confinement for John Kelley, who stood com- mitted for an assault and battery with an intent to murder, committed on the body of Elisha Eldredge; whereupon it was ordered that Stroder Inman, constable, is hereby authorized to provide a safe place of confinement for John Kelley, who now stands convicted of an assault and battery with an attempt to murder, on the body of Eldredge, and to provide for said Kelley comfortable board until he can be further dealt with according to law.
Ordered, That a tax of onc fourthi per cent be levied on all personal property (belong- ing to the citizens of said county) made taxable by law.
Ordered, That Martin Warren be, and he is, hereby appointed by this court an assessor to assess the tax of said county, agrecably to the statute in such cases made and provided.
Ordered, That this court adjourn till the next term in course.
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HISTORY OF JO DAVIESS COUNTY.
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It is hereby certified that the foregoing is a true copy, verbatim et literatim, from the loose papers in my office, and entered in this book by order of the court this 20th day of March, A. D. 1833, and of the Independence of the United States the fifty-seventh.
Attest : MOSES SWAN, Clk.
From this certificate there is no reason to doubt that the proceedings of these sessions of the first Board of County Commissioners of Jo Daviess County were kept on loose slips of paper, and that six years had passed before any attempt was made to preserve them as matters of record.
July 24, 1827, the commissioners selected the following named citizens to serve as the first grand jury:
P. Hogan, David G. Bates, John Foley, Benson Hunt, Jas. Craig, Richard Chandler, Amos Farrar, Michael Murphy, Chas. Gear, Frederick Hollman, Jas. Foley, Mitchel Coe, Thos. McCraney, Jesse W. Shull, Michael Finley, Jas. Lynch, Stanlus Hudd, Jno. Ewins, John W. McClintoc, William Morrison, H. Dodge, and Owen Riley.
From the reason that n'o term of the Circuit Court was held in Jo Daviess County until June, 1828, it is fair to presume that the above named citizens never qualified or served in the capacity for which they were selected.
July 23, 1827, a special session of the County Commissioners Court was hield, when the county was divided into three election precincts- Galena, Centreville and Shullsburg. The Galena precinct was described as follows:
Commencing at Lockwood's furnace and running on a parallel line to James Folcy's Vinegar Hill, thence due west to the Mississippi River; thence down said river to Applc Creek ; thence up said river and embracing all settlements on said river to Vanmatre's furnace and its vicinity ; thence to the place of beginning at Lockwood's furnace.
P. Hogan, John S. Miller and Moses Meeker were appointed to be judges of elections in this precinct.
Centreville precinct was described as follows:
Beginning at Vanmatre's old furnace, on Apple River; thence on a parallel line to White Oak Springs; tlicnce to G. W. Lott's establishment; thence to Chandler's Fort; thence to intersect the Galena precinct line at the Mississippi River.
F. Hollman, Charles Gear and James L. Langworthy were named as judges of elections.
The Shullsburg precinct embraced all that territory defined by the following boundaries :
To embrace all that tract of country beginning at Vanmatre's old furnace, and run- ning east to the county linc; thence north on said line twenty miles; thence to J. (or I.) Boner's, intersecting Centreville precinct linc.
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