USA > Illinois > The early history of Northern Illinois > Part 4
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Red Wing, the chief of the Indians who did the attacking, was imprisoned at Prairie du Chien to be held as a hostage so as to insure good behavior on the part of the Indians, "but his proud spirit was so broken by the confinement which he felt was unjust that he soon died."
Perhaps this blot would best be forgotten as quickly as possible, but a pertinent question haunts my mind and I have not been able to find an answer.
Just before starting to tell of this Indian trouble, I mentioned that four men in whom we are interested, had gone to Galena. These were Kellogg, Crane, Chambers and Phelps. Chambers had taken his family and may not have shared in the affair. When the appeal was made to the men in the lead-mine region to en- list to help put down the Winnebago Indians, and several hundred men answered the call, I have the feeling that Kellogg and Crane and Phelps would have responded. Possibly some- where is an answer to that question.
Having disposed of this flurry, we return to our main concern. This year of 1827 was impor- tant for another reason : it marked the begin-
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ning of rural mail-delivery in northern Illinois. A man named Clemson obtained a contract from the government to carry mail from Fort Clark to La Pointe. The next year, 1828, this contract was taken over by John Dixon who was Kel- logg's brother-in-law. He or his son drove a hack, or small stage, and a trip was supposed to be made once a week. At this time Dixon made his residence in Fort Clark. There was con- tinuous mail-service from this time on. One of the Stephenson county histories, published in 1880 by the Western Historical Society of Chi- cago, says that "the first mail delivered in the county was during the spring of 1836" when Thomas Crane received letters from the Frink stages, and carried them on foot, etc. But this territory had been having mail-service for seven years before this, with a short interruption dur- ing the Black Hawk war. Of course there was nobody in the vicinity of where Freeport was located to receive mail until 1836. William Baker, founder of Freeport did get his claim staked, about ten days before 1836 arrived but perhaps the snow was so deep that he did not take the trouble to walk out to Crane's Grove station, and notify the proprietor that he had arrived. William Baker's son, Fred, however learned the way to Crane's cabin. Sometime during the year of 1836 when Baker was build- ing his cabin, he broke his augur, and sent Fred on the six-mile walk to Crane's Grove to borrow
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one. When he arrived, the history forgets to say whether he forgot what he went for. But he met Clarinda, one of the Crane girls, and he did not forget the way back. The trail he made to Crane's Grove culminated in a marriage at the Crane home, perhaps the first wedding in Stephenson county.
An interesting thing about what seems like the very primitive mail-service of those years, is that now in 1948, the Kellogg territory has returned to the primitive method of mail-trans- portation of a hundred years ago. After the Illi- nois Central railroad was built from Freeport south in 1853 to 1855, the mail coach on the pas- senger train supplanted the horse and coach; and so it continued for more than 75 years. But a few years ago, the old method was restored. In about 1940, the old system returned, and to- day, the Freeport business-houses send their letters and packages down the old Kellogg trail in a coach, with gas-power instead of horse- power.
From 1825-1829, the travel along the trail had been heavy, but no building had been done. The year 1829 sees the first concerted plan by this group of men. Let us locate them as we come up the trail from the south. Where we cross Rock river, the crossing is still known as Ogee's Ferry, but we will hear from John Dixon in a year. Coming on northwest to Buffalo Grove we meet Isaac Chambers who has brought his
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family back from Galena, and is building his tavern in the angle where the trail bends sharp- ly northward. Following on up the north leg of the trail, to the next angle, we find Thomas Crane building his cabin in the grove, hence- forth to be called Crane's Grove. Going on to the next angle where it turns north again (the site of the Black Hawk monument) Oliver W. Kellogg is putting up his buildings in a grove, henceforth to be called Kellogg's Grove.
There are two places along the way calling for explanations. I am giving the date when Kellogg built his home as 1829. Some of the his- tories give the date as 1827, and that may be right. But I think 1829 is right. When the men came back from the south in 1827, already de- scribed, the three men picked out these three strategic corners for their taverns, and then did the building the second summer after. It is prob- able that all of them staked their claims in 1827. It may be that Kellogg started his building oper- ations in 1827 and completed the work in 1829. I am quite sure that he brought his family from the south in 1829.
The other explanation deals with the Buffalo Grove situation. There were two cabins now in what was afterwards called Stephenson county, Kellogg's and Crane's, and two in what was afterwards called Ogle county, Chambers' and that of John Ankeney. This last is a new name to us. Crane and Ankeney were rivals uninten-
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tionally. Both of them staked the same claim, each not knowing what the other did. The stories are conflicting but one started to build and the other returned, and there was a quarrel that was taken into the courts; however both went ahead with building operations, having their taverns on Buffalo Creek, about a hundred rods apart. Their rivalry was so bitter that they laid out parallel trails from Ogee's Ferry and on north to come back into the Kellogg trail. So that at this time there were four distinct trails through this stretch of territory. The real one, the Kellogg trail, that really includes the other three, the two by the Buffalo Grove men, Cham- bers and Ankeney seeking to divert travel to their taverns, and another by a man named Boles to take traffic across the river at a better fording-place. Kellogg originally crossed Rock river a few miles upstream, and that trail I think, passed through the present Walgreen es- tate on the northwest bank of Rock river. But these were minor variations. The Kellogg trail was THE TRAIL from Peoria to Galena, or Fort Clark and La Pointe as they were called during the first years. Peoria was incorporated as a town in 1835 and chartered as a city in 1845. Galena was laid out in 1826 and incorpor- ated in 1835. It was named from the lead ore (sulphite of lead) that was mined there. Chi- cago was incorporated as a village in 1833, and became a city in 1837. John Phelps, one of the
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members of our Northern Illinois Development Company, also comes back into the picture in 1829. He had gone to La Pointe in 1827 and I think stayed there until 1829. It was autumn and the three cabins on the trail were built and occupied. In one of several interesting letters of his that are in print, he tells about coming down from Galena in the autumn of 1829, and spend- ing two or three days with Tom Crane, hunting in Crane's Grove. I am sure that they did not spend all of the time hunting, for Phelps and Crane are the men entitled to the honor of bringing the road across the state from Savan- nah to Fort Dearborn with Crane's Grove as the intersection with the Kellogg trail. And we may also be sure that he visited with both Kellogg and Chambers and that they dreamed together about the coming greatness of this part of our state.
The following year, 1830, John Dixon entered more definitely into the picture. In May of that year he succeeded in buying the Rock river ferry. Until 1828 there had been no ferry. Much of the time the river could be crossed without any aid, but the spring floods or heavy rains made the river impassable. Then the Indians as already described helped the trav- elers across the river. It was a good source of income for the Indians and they refused to let white men build a ferry. One that was partly built was burned by the Indians. But in 1828, a
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man named Ogee (pronounced O-zha) who was either a Frenchman or halfbreed French and Indian, and who had an Indian wife, was per- mitted to build a ferry. I surmise that if Dixon could have bought it in 1829 he would have done it, and the Kellogg trail would have been manned according to schedule. Not succeeding, he kept his family in Fort Clark until the next year when he bought the ferry and moved his family. From that time on, the river crossing was known as Dixon's Ferry.
With John Dixon and Isaac Chambers and Thomas Crane and Oliver Kellogg occupying the four strategic positions, it must be apparent that the road from Fort Clark to La Pointe was quite largely dominated by this group of men.
During the early summer of 1831, the first voting precinct to be established in what is now Ogle county and at least the southern part of Stephenson county (all still a part of Jo Daviess county) was set up by the county commis- sioners.
The voting place was Ankeney's cabin in Buf- falo Grove and the voting precinct was called the Buffalo Grove Voting Precinct. The judges of the election were John Dixon, Isaac Chambers and John Ankeney. The voting precinct ran south to the southern boundary of Jo Daviess county, and far enough north "to include the dwelling of Crane." It extended west to the Lewiston trail with no eastern boundary given,
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probably because nobody lived that way.
(P. 269. Jett's History of Ogle county. Pub- lished in 1878)
For two years from the building of these homes, practically no change took place, but in the year 1831, there was a series of changes that were of great significance.
In 1828, another trail was laid out to the lead- mines. A modern Illinois map showing the high- ways numbered, routes Highway No. 78, from the neighborhood of Lewiston, almost directly north to cross the Wisconsin state line near our village of Warren in Jo Daviess County. Lewis- ton is northwest of Springfield, and is in Fulton County. It is west of the Illinois river.
From Lewiston north to about the present southern boundary of Jo Daviess County, this trail followed the general course of Route 78, crossing the Mississippi river in the neighbor- hood of where now Prophetstown is located. When it reached the present Jo Daviess County, it veered sharply northwest to the present vil- lage of Elizabeth, and then north into the lead- mine region.
Whiteside and Carroll counties did not settle as quickly as the counties to the east of them, and it is more difficult to locate the trail; but it seems to have made quite a bend to the east, perhaps to dodge the rough territory in the Mt. Carroll area.
If you are checking on your map, you will
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realize that this trail was considerably shorter than the Kellogg trail which ran east of and parallel to the lead-mine region and on beyond it; then swinging west and southwest into the heart of it. And also the Lewiston trail tapped quite a different section of the lead-mine region. The surprising thing is that settlers did not quickly build along this new road.
But the year 1831 brought some significant . changes. A three-cornered move was made which radically affected the situation. The tri- umvirate, Kellogg, Crane and Chambers were the parties involved. O. W. Kellogg sold his property in Kellogg's Grove, and going down the trail to Buffalo Grove, bought out Isaac Cham- bers and continued serving the travelling public as he had been doing farther up the trail. He was now living within much closer range of his brother-in-law, John Dixon, and he had a larger field for his activities. Buffalo Grove, Oldtown and Polo, three names for the same community consisting of three settlements, owe much to this man. But there was another, more imme- diate problem being worked out by these men.
After Chambers sold out to Kellogg, he moved northwest several miles, toward the Lewiston trail, and built a tavern in another grove which was then called Chambers' Grove and is still called by that name. He then carried this wagon- road farther on to intersect the Lewiston trail. We will call this short road, Chambers' trail.
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And Thomas Crane, without giving up his Crane's Grove property, ran a road southwest to intersect the Lewistown trail where it skirted a grove which he called Cherry Grove since one grove already bore his name. He kept his Crane's Grove tavern in action, but built an- other tavern in Cherry Grove at the intersec- tion with the Lewiston trail. The roads made by Chambers and Crane met at this tavern. Let us call this last wagon-road, Crane's trail.
In 1828, three or four families had come down the river from Galena, and built so-called cabins on the river-bank where Savanna now is. Ex- cepting this group, Crane was the first settler in Carroll county according to its histories.
From this point, Crane or perhaps the three men, Crane, Chambers and Kellogg, continued the road on southwest to Savanna, so that this trail ran from his cabin in Crane's Grove to Savanna. We are calling this Crane's trail. This will be a good place to clear up two mistakes in two of the county histories. A Stephenson county his- tory says that Crane came from the south to Carroll county in 1829. A Carroll county history says that he came from the south to Carroll county in 1831. Of course there was no Carroll county at that time, but assuming that there was, each was half right and half wrong. He came from the south in 1929 (Carroll county history wrong about date) to build his home but not to what is now Carroll county ; he came
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to the grove then named Crane's Grove. And he went to Cherry Grove, not in 1829 (Stephen- son county history is wrong) but in 1831. He went to Cherry Grove in 1831 not to build a home but to build a tavern and establish a set- tlement.
If you have followed these trails on the map or in your mind, you must realize how stra- tegically they were placed. The three men now dominated both of the roads leading to the lead- mine region. The short roads were a great con- venience to many travelers. If a man came up the trail to Buffalo Grove, and wished to enter the south part of the lead-region, he would take the Chambers' trail across the Cherry Grove and on north on the Lewiston trail. If he wanted to go to Savannah, he could take Chambers' trail to Cherry Grove, and Crane's trail on to Sa- vanna. And these are only examples of many possibilities.
These stopping-places were of great value to the travellers. They were usually called taverns but they were not taverns as known today-de- generated saloons. They were not extensive enough to be called hotels, but that might be the best designation. Crane's tavern has been a landmark to me from earliest boyhood. The cabin or home or tavern or hotel stretched east and west along the lip of a modest bluff at the foot of which one of the two springs broke forth and flowed into Crane's Creek, a few yards
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away. Limestone bluffs or hills covering beds of limestone which furnished abundant mate- rial for buildings, later on, formed the valley along which the creek flowed. The cabin was quite long as still evidenced by the remains of the cellar at the west end and of a big cistern at the east end. Paralleling it was a long stable furnishing room for stage-horses as the two lines of stages from Fort Clark to La Pointe and later from Chicago to Savanna passed through here. The rotting walls of the stable still re- mained during my boyhood days, while the stone wall on which the logs rested stood for many years, until recent times. The present owner of the farm, Richard Seuring, within the last 25 years tore it down and used the stones to fill the old cistern, that being a hazard to the cattle.
The remains of a small blacksmith shop are not far away but now on a different farm. When the present owner of the land where it stood was a young man of perhaps 18 years of age (his father owning the land at that time) he and his brother did considerable digging among the ruins as the local tradition was that a miner had buried $10,000 in the neighborhood of the shop, he being afraid to take the money into the lead- mine country because of the numerous tough characters there. The boys did not find the money but they did find some long-buried tools which are now in my museum.
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These stations along the way were quite in- dispensable. Some traveller might be sick and needing a few days of rest to recuperate. Here was a resting-place and extra bed for emer- gency cases. If somebody's food-supplies were exhausted, here was a chance to replenish the supply. If a wagon had broken down or was in need of repairs, here was the opportunity to get it in shape for the journey ahead. It was a good place to relax, to talk with other travellers, and get information from the owners of these tav- erns. Kellogg, Crane, Chambers and Dixon were the daily newspapers of that age. These men knew the country for miles around ; knew where groves or prairies could be found; where set- tlers had recently staked claims, and perhaps laid out villages to be, and what was of very great importance, knew where there were springs. It is difficult for us to realize, with our modern methods of getting our water-supply, how our forefathers were so greatly dependent upon springs. Nearly every cabin would be built near one. As late as the early eighties that re- mained true. I am living at the southern edge of Crane's Grove. A tiny bit of it forms the north- ern border of my property. This village of Bail- eyville was called Crane's Grove until shortly before the Civil war when most of the home- owners had built on the adjoining prairie. But even then most of the farmers built their homes where there was a spring. To the east of us there
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is an extensive prairie. About 1880, a creamery was built near our home, and much of the cream used came from these prairie-farms. Occasion- ally I, a small boy, was permitted to make a trip with one of the cream-haulers. The trip con- sisted of driving from farm to farm and going to the spring-houses for the cream. They were built over springs which furnished the cold wa- ter for the cooling of the milk. Now with the modern methods of farming, nearly every one of these springs has ceased to flow and the creeks have become correspondingly smaller. But those early station-keepers were asked that vital question over and over, "Where is there a spring ?"
It seemed during these years of 1831-1832 that the Kellogg territory would be speedily set- tled, but the Black Hawk war brought sharp in- terruption. Interested readers can refresh their memories about it by consulting any one of nu- merous histories. Let me limit my consideration of it quite closely to that part of it associated with the Kellogg trail.
For generations, this territory had been the hunting and fishing grounds of the Indian tribes known as the Sacs and Foxes. They were now under the leadership of a strong, capable man, Chief Black Hawk. Some years before this date, the government had removed the Indians from Illinois to Iowa. But the Indians were restless, homesick for the groves and waters of the Rock
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River valley. Some time in 1831, they had re- crossed the Mississippi river in the neighbor- hood of Rock Island, and in the spring of 1832, all of them, men, women and children, with their baggage had started up the Rock River valley. When they had reached the neighborhood of where Byron is now located (since then as Stillman's Run and where a progressive village, Sillman Valley, is located), a body of soldiers taking too much whiskey with them, started in pursuit.
Black Hawk sent several of his men back with a flag of truce, for a conference. The soldiers welcomed that WHITE flag with a volley which killed several of the Indians and the war was on. (I quote from Jett's History of Ogle County) "Stillman's drunken soldiers fired on his flag of truce. * * All accounts concur that the men were drunk and that the white flag displayed by Black Hawk was fired upon in utter disre- gard of all rules of warfare. * * The whites had commenced the work of murder." If the whiskey had been eliminated, it could easily be that the war would have been avoided.
While Black Hawk with some of the men and all of the women and children went on up the river valley, many of the warriors worked up and down the Kellogg trail. There was no road along the river so that settlers and soldiers alike would be found along the short cut from Dixon to the Wisconsin state line. The Indians were
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looking for white men to kill.
One of the first men to be killed was with the mail-carier whose name was Winters, he having succeeded Dixon. The mail-carrier had gone up the trail to La Pointe under threatening condi- tions. For his return trip, the officer in command at Galena, furnished an escort of six soldiers. One of these men named William Durley had been a miner between Elizabeth and Galena but had volunteered in the state militia. Without interruption, the little band came through Kel- logg's Grove and Crane's Grove and was near- ing the Buffalo Grove station when some In- dians in ambush fired into the party and killed Durley. The remainder of the party fled for their lives and reached Dixon's Ferry where troops were stationed, without further mishap.
Shortly after this, a small body of soldiers with the Indian agent, St. Vrain, went up the trail toward Galena. It was thought that the agent might settle the difficulty. They found Durley's body where it had fallen in the woods and buried it there within a few feet of the Kel- logg trail. Today a large boulder with suitable inscription marks the grave, and during the past forty years, it has been my privilege several times to place wreaths upon it. The burial party proceeding up the trail had gone through Crane's Grove and was nearing the Kellogg stockade when it ran into an ambush. The In- dian agent and several of the soldiers were
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killed. They are buried with others who were killed later, around the Black Hawk monument, now marking the site.
Most of the soldiers were volunteers recruited especially for the Indian war. All of the three members of the triumvirate, Kellogg, Crane and Chambers were captains, and Captain Crane re- ceived "honorable mention" and a considerable tract of land in the Cherry Grove neighborhood, for the service he rendered during the war. Some of that distinction came because of his understanding of military technique. This sends us searching again through his past life for light. One incident which has come to light was the building of an "abatis" around his Cherry Grove property when rumors of the coming war were circulating. This was large enough not only to surround the buildings including a stock- ade, but also to enclose a good-sized garden. It offered protection and shelter during the war, and housed many incoming settlers in the years after peace had been restored. The records say that Crane must have had considerable help in building the "abatis." It is easily possible that the men of his company were the workers, and that this work was done as a protection to the west flank of the troop movements.
But where did Crane gain this knowledge of military technique? Here is a reasonable sur- mise. My story reveals the close friendship be- tween John Phelps and Crane. We know posi-
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tively that Phelps was a southerner who fought against the British in the War of 1812 in the New Orleans campaign. And Thomas Crane was a Georgian. My surmise is that Phelps and Crane fought together there and so became friends, and Crane gained the knowledge that later stood him in good stead.
Other chapters dealing with the war could be written about the men of the Kellogg terri- tory, but let us look now at the greatest man of them all, Kentuckian and Illinoisian, Abraham Lincoln. He too was a captain in the volunteer troops, having been chosen by a company of men recruited in the neighborhood where he lived. They had marched upstate to Peoria and on to Rock river at Dixon's Ferry, now over- populated by women and children brought in from dangerous settlements like Buffalo Grove. Crossing the river they had marched through Buffalo Grove by the fresh mound marking William Durley's grave. They had gone on north along the ridge within plain view of where I am sitting as I write these words. Perhaps they paused on Kellogg's Lookout while someone pointed out Kellogg's Grove across the wide, heavily-wooded valley. They had gone a little further to Crane's cabin, the family perhaps be- ing at Dixon's Ferry. They may have stopped here to eat and camp for the night, water their horses (those who had them) at the creek, and then on, headed for the Kellogg stockade.
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