USA > Illinois > Ogle County > The history of Ogle 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, general and local statistics history of the Northwest, history of Illinois etc > Part 25
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Footmen
1212 Cents.
Man and horse.
25
66
Each yoke of cattle
3712
Other cattle per head. or horse
25
Each road wagon.
$1 00
Each horse hitched thereto
25
Each two-horse wagon.
75
Each two-wheeled carriage or cart.
$1 00
Each one-horse wagon.
75
Each 100 lbs. merchandise
6
The tavern rates he was allowed to charge were thus established:
264
1
0 0
HISTORY OF OGLE COUNTY.
Each meal 3712 Cents.
Horse feed
25
Horse per night to corn and hay.
6212
Man per night.
1212
66
Each half pint of French brandy or wine.
25
"
66
Holland gin
25
quart of porter, cider or ale.
25
Mr. Boss says Ogee was " almost an Indian, from his long association with them, and having adopted many of their social and domestic habits." His tavern and ferry were not disturbed by the Indians, and he remained in possession of the ferry until the 11th of April. 1830, when he sold out to John Dixon, of Peoria, after whom the City of Dixon was named.
All was not happiness, however, in Ogee's family. There was a "skel eton in the closet," and, some months before Dixon bought the ferry, a separation between them was agreed upon. The Indian wife went her way, leaving the husband to act as landlord, landlady and ferryman, as best he might. Mrs. Ogee belonged to one of the wealthiest Indian families of the country, and was an heiress, owning nearly one half of Paw Paw Grove, an Indian reservation. After the separation between herself and Jo, she was looked upon as a captivating widow, and was not long in finding admirers. After angling around awhile, she selected one Job Alcott as the " best suited to her mind," to whom she was married. When the Potta- wattomies were removed to Kansas, Job Alcott and his wife accompanied them to their new home.
John Ankeney came up from the southern part of the state. in the Spring of 1829, and located a claim at Nanusha, or Buffalo Grove, near where the old Galena road crossed Buffalo Creek. After making his claim, he returned for his family, and, while he was absent on that mission, Isaac Chambers came down from Galena with his family, and stopped at White Oak Grove, a small growth or patch of timber about half a mile to the west of the present village of Forreston. But, not altogether suited, he remained there only a short time. He reasoned that the timbered parts of the country would become more valuable than the prairie land, because of the superabundance of the latter, and comparative scarcity of the former. After prospecting around for awhile, and examining different localities, he finally settled upon Buffalo Grove, about ten miles south of his first stop- ping place at White Oak Grove. He removed his family there, and com- menced to make arrangements to build a house a few rods above the site of the old bridge over Buffalo Creek, where there was an easy crossing of that stream of water. He also had in purpose a plan to open a road through the timber, and, by building a hotel, divert the travel from the prairie and thus put his time, labor and money where they would do the most good. As it happened, Mr. Chambers had taken the claim previously selected by by Ankeney, and while he was perfecting his plans and arrangements for opening the contemplated road and building a hotel, Mr. Ankeney came back with his family, and was surprised to find that his claim had been "jumped," or taken, by Mr. Chambers, while the latter was no less sur- prised at the appearance of Ankeney. The surprise was mutual, although it is to be presumed that it was not at all agreeable to either. If either had been left alone in undisputed possession of the claim, it would have been a long distance, in any direction, to the nearest neighbor. But this consideration was of no consequence to either of the disputants, and Mr.
whisky or other domestic liquors 1212
V.
265
HISTORY OF OGLE COUNTY.
Ankeney, in no very pleasant mood of temper, went down the creek abont one hundred rods, where he proceeded to erect a "public house," although there was but one road in the whole country, and that one fully two miles distant.
Hotels in those days were of the most primitive character. Generally speaking, they were one-story log structures-round logs, at that, not even " scutched down." If they had more than one room, the extra one was, in all probability, a " shed addition," built on the side. If there was an up- stairs apartment, it was reached by a rude step-ladder, made from a con- veniently sized sapling, cut to the proper length, through which inch or inch and a half augur holes were bored at desired intervals, and then split in halves. The smaller undergrowth of hickory, oak or ash, about the size of common hoop-poles, were next brought into use, cut to the proper length, and the ends dressed down to fit the holes in the side pieces of the ladder. When enough of these were made ready, the ladder was put together, and was ready for use. This ladder would be elevated in one corner of the room, or, may be, set up in the chimney-corner outside, underneath a window or half-doorway, cut in the end of the upper part of the house. The furni- ture of the " taverns" was just as simple as the plans and architecture of the house. Often the floor was nothing but the earth. As likely as not three- legged stools supplied the place of chairs. Tables were often made from punchcons split from logs, dressed down with a broad-axe to a proper thickness, then fastened together by a cross piece underneath, which was held in place by wooden pins. In each corner of the table a hole was bored with a hand augur, which received the legs. Bedsteads were sometimes made by boring a hole in one of the logs at the proper height, in one side of the building, about four feet from the corner. About six feet from the wall a post was driven into the ground. One end of the side rail would be fitted in the augur-hole, and the other end fastened to the post. The foot rail was provided in the same way. Then came the slats (instead of bed-cords), reaching from the side rail to the side of the house, and the bedstead was completed. Mr. Boss says : "These bedsteads were often so made that, by placing one above another, one bed-post would support twelve sleepers. If the family consisted of both sexes, curtains of deer skins or other materials, were hung between the beds, or else the light was put out just before retiring. This was done by covering up or throwing water on the fire in the fire-place, for those were days of economy. If, perchance, fires were extinguished, they were re-kindled by striking flints and catching sparks on tinder."
Such were the tavern accommodations in the Rock River Valley fifty years ago. And in such houses the fathers and mothers of some of the most aristocratic first families of Ogle County set up housekeeping.
'After their houses were built, Chambers and Ankeney proceeded to establish the dividing line between their claims. Other boundary lines were unnecessary, for there were no other claimants in all the country, and, if they so willed it, one of them could claim Rock River for his eastern line, and the other one the Mississippi for his western line. They were, for the time, "monarchs of all they surveyed." But we will quote from Mr. Boss : "One clear, star-light night, when the moon did not shine, and when there were no clouds floating across the sky, they went together to the south side of the grove, and, from a red-oak stump, they started towards the North Star, hacking the trees which stood in their way, the marked trees being the line between them."
266
HISTORY OF OGLE COUNTY.
All things being ready, they went to Ogee's Ferry. and staked out each his road, the two lines running parallel, being at no place more than half a mile apart. Chambers' stakes, of course, ran by his house, and Mr. Ankeney's by his house. The lines intersected north of the grove, and the main line, after continuing a considerable distance, again intersected with the old Boles trail. No difficulty was found in indueing travelers to take one of the two proposed roads, but the question was, which road should they take? Each at once set at work to make his own house the most attractive. Jealousy and rivalry at once arose between them, and were harbored as long as they lived so near together with conflicting interests. Each used every means in his power to injure the eustom of the other, by such acts as fell- ing trees across the other's road, and in many other equally irritating ways, which rendered it quite an unpleasant neighborhood.
Early in 1828 a man named Clempson secured the contraet for carrying the mail between Peoria and Galena, but he soon transferred the contract to John Dixon, who carried it by hack or stage, his son being the driver, and was probably the first stage driver on the old Peoria and Galena route. He commenced to make regular trips some time before Ogee's ferry boat was completed, and often experienced great difficulty in getting the Indians to ferry him over the river. In 1830, as before stated, Dixon bought the ferry and its privileges and moved his family from Peoria to Dixon's Ferry.
In May, 1829, Oliver W. Kellogg settled in what is now Erin Town- ship, Stephenson County. He remained there until the Spring of 1831, when he moved down to Buffalo Grove, and bought the Chambers claim and " tavern." Chambers moved about six miles north and made another claim at what has ever since been known as Chambers' Grove. Kellogg not only succeeded to the ownership of the Chambers property, but to the Chambers line of hostilities against Ankeney.
The same day that Kellogg arrived at Buffalo Grove, Samuel Reed and family eame and made a claim on the south side of the grove, where he continued to live until the time of his death in 1852.
In June of the same year (1829) two Kentuckians, Bush and Brooky, settled on the north side of the grove.
In 1831, settlers were scattered along the route between Peoria and Galena as follows: The first was at LaSalle Prairie, about fifteen miles north of Peoria. The second was John Boyd, about twenty miles above LaSalle Prairie, at what is known as Boyd's Grove. Bnlbony came next, about eight miles north of Boyd's. Henry Thomas lived at the head of Bureau Timber, twelve miles distant from Boyd's Grove. Joseph Smith was the next settler northward, and lived at a grove which was called "Dad Joe's Grove," in honor of this first settler at that point, which was nineteen miles south of Dixon's Ferry. The first settlement north of Dixon was Buffalo Grove. Then came Cherry Grove, Crane's Grove, John Flack's on Rush Creek, John Winters, on Apple River, where the Village of Elizabeth now stands. Mr. Winters afterwards removed to Buffalo Grove. North- ward, between Elizabeth and Galena, there were only two or three miners' huts, one of which belonged to Wilham Durley, who was subsequently shot by the Indians at Buffalo Grove.
For many years these were noted places. Their settlement had been made in the midst of Indians. The Winnebagoes had not left the country, and the Pottawatomies, while a smaller tribe, still occupied their old hunt- ing grounds. They were peaceable, however, and never manifested any
1
R& Shumway POLO
d. Win. S. Hamilton 284
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269
HISTORY OF OGLE COUNTY.
disposition to pilfer or do any of those trifling acts that characterized many other tribes of Indians when they professed peace and friendship.
In the Spring of 1831 the settlers of Buffalo Grove made the first attempts at cultivating the soil. Some prairie sod was turned over and planted to corn. We again quote from Boss' Sketches of the History of Ogle County: "The ' first moon in June' was the time at which the Indians held their annual council, and when they met at Rock Island it was rumored that they were going to make war upon the whites. Decming it imprudent to remain here, the settlers started for Galena. On arriving at Apple River, their numbers were considerably increased by the addition of several per- sons from other points, and they concluded to stop and build a stockade. They had been there just a week and commenced entting the timbers for a fort, when a dispatch was received from Rock Island informing them that a treaty had been made, and that they might safely return to their farms. On their return, the farms were fenced, in order to secure the growing crops. Before the crops could be harvested, provisions grew short, and the settlers were obliged to go to Peoria County for supplics.
" When Autumn came the corn crop was light and late. After being harvested, the grain was grated on a grater to get meal for bread, until it was too dry, when it was pounded in a mortar. [The more appropriate name would be a hominy block.] The mortar was made by boring and burning out the end of a log prepared for the purpose. The pestle was made by fastening an iron wedge to a 'spring stick ' attached to an upright post (much in the fashion of an old fashioned well sweep); handles were then put on, when the operator commenced pounding, the elasticity of the stick lightening the labor by raising the wedge after it had struck the corn. This rude mill was generally used once a day. The Indians, who were the nearest neighbors, supplied them with venison during the Winter, receiving corn and pumpkins for their compensation. The Winter (1831-'2) was long and tedious, with deep snows and high winds."
June 8, 1831, the first voting precinct ever established within the limits of the territory of Ogle County, was defined by the County Com- missioners of Jo Daviess County. On that day the commissioners afore- said entered the following order:
It is considered that the persons residing within the following limits shall constitute voters within Buffalo Grove Precinct, viz .: East of the Lewiston road and south of a line to include the dwelling of Crane and Hylliard, running to the southern boundary of the county inclusive.
It is considered that John Dixon, Isaac Chambers and John Aukeney be and they are hereby appointed judges of elections for the Buffalo Grove Precinct.
It is ordered that the house of John Ankeney be the place of voting in and for the Buffalo Grove Precinct.
The Lewiston trail crossed Rock River at Prophetstown, and passed np through Carroll County not far (as some of the settlers of 1836 tell us) from Lanark. Crane's Grove, according to the same authority, was on the dividing ridge between the headwaters of Straddle (now Carroll) Creck and Plum River. Thus it will be seen that Buffalo precinct embraced a wide range of territory. In all that region at that time there were not to exceed fifty voters-probably not twenty-five, and may be not even that number. We sought to find the original poll-book at Galena, but like a good many of the other early papers it had been lost or carried off. It is a lamentable fact that there was not that care in the preservation of early documents there should have been-a carelessness that is now deeply regretted. That
16
270
HISTORY OF OGLE COUNTY.
old poll-book of forty-seven years ago would be a valuable document, and the names of the voters at the first election in August, 1831, would make an interesting paragraph in the history of Ogle County.
The history thus far written has been of a general character and not confined to Ogle County, but has been considered necessary to show the origin and spread of the settlements in Northwestern Illinois. We have qnoted from what is believed to be good and reliable authority. Some of the statements are gathered from personal interviews with old Galenians- men who came there as boys of fifteen years in 1823, and who have remained there ever since, helping to develop the country, and taking an active part, as their years increased, in all of the public enterprises of the country. Men of good minds and observant characters, it is reasonable to suppose that their statements are authentic and accurate. In other instances, we have quoted from printed history, written years ago, when the memory of early incidents and happenings was fresh in the memory of the people. So there is no reason to question the accuracy of the incidents we have thus far grouped together. Having followed the settlement of the country from its first occupancy by white men at Galena in 1819, to the erection of the first voting precinct within the limits of Ogle County in 1831, we will now ask our readers to go back with us to review the incidents of the two Indian Wars- the Winnebago War of 1827, and the Black Hawk War of 1832. When we have written of the canses that conspired to bring on these wars-wars in which the first settlers were directly interested, and in which they par- ticipated-of their prosecution and final conclusion-the local history and development of the county will be taken up in chronological order and followed down to the present era.
It will be noticed by critical and studions readers that the theory herein presented as to the origin of these wars, especially of the Winnebago War, is at variance in some important respects from the theories and causes advanced by earlier writers. The time has now come, if never before, when the people can afford to be just to the memory of the rights of the people who once occupied the beautiful and fertile valleys of Rock River and its tributaries. It is not our purpose to divest the Indians of all responsi- bility or immunity from wrong doing in all cases, but simply to deal with facts as we have found them. These facts are gathered from intelligent, unprejudiced minds-from men who saw and were a part of the army against the Indians, and who know whereof they affirm.
THE WINNEBAGO WAR.
As has already been shown, when Jo Daviess County was first organ- ized in 1827, it embraced within its jurisdiction all the country within the following boundaries : "Commencing at the northwest corner of the state, thence down the Mississippi River to the north line of the military tract (not far from Keithsburg, in Mereer County); thence east to the Illinois River ; thence north to the State line ; thence west to the place of begin- ing." These lines included a vast area of territory-much larger and richer than the territory embraced within several of the New England States.
The year 1827 is not only memorable to the people of this country as being the year in which the great Northwest was organized (since when
271
.
HISTORY OF OGLE COUNTY.
Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Nebraska have been organized as states and settled by millions of civilized and intelligent people, and the great territory of Dakota knocking for admission into the Union), but as being the period of the first serious troubles experienced by the pioneer settlers with the Indians, and now dignified by the title of the " Winnebago War." All the territory north of the Ordinance line of 1787 was in the undisputed possession of the Indians, except the reservations at the north of the Wis- consin and on Fever River, and the mining district in Jo Daviess County and Michigan Territory, outside these reservations, was occupied largely by the Winnebagoes. Early in 1827, miners, settlers and adventurers flocked hither in great numbers, and inevitably extended their explorations for mineral beyond the " Ridge," recognized as the line of the "five leagues square," although it does not now appear that the limits of the reservation were ever accurately determined. Many rich leads were discovered on Indian lands, and miners persisted in digging there, in direct disobedience of the orders of the Superintendent of the United States Lead Mines to desist and withdraw from lands on which the United States were not authorized to even explore for mineral. In exceptional instances, the right to mine was purchased from the Indians, but in most cases the restless searchers for mineral wealth totally disregarded the orders of the Superin- tendent and the rights of the Indians, who, according to the acts of the trespassers, " had no right which a white man was bound to respect." Fre- quent disputes occurred in consequence between the miners and the Indians. Mr. Shull, who had discovered a fine lead and had erected a shanty near it, was driven off, and his cabin destroyed by the Winnebagoes, who, owning the land, did no more, and perhaps not as much, as whites would have done under similar circumstances, to protect and preserve their rights and prop- erty. The dissatisfaction and ill feeling engendered by these encroachments upon their territory was, perhaps, a minor canse of the outbreak, but had no other cause operated to further exasperate the Indians, the difficulties might, and probably would, have been amicably adjusted without bloodshed.
About this time, and while these disputes between the miners and Indians were occurring, two keel-boats, belonging to the contractor to fur- nish supplies for the troops at Fort Snelling, while on their way up the river, stopped at a point not far above Prairie du Chien, where were encamped a large number of Winnebago Indians. John Wakefield, Esq., in writing from memory an account of the war, if it can be called such (and it must be admitted now, writing in a spirit of bitter prejudice against the Indians, who had been peaceable and friendly with the settlers here, until provoked beyond endurance), says that these boats were run by "Capt. Allen Lindsey, a gentleman of the first respectability in our country," and that he was with his boats on this particular trip, but it is to be hoped that Wakefield was in error, for no "respectable gentleman " could have per- mitted men under his command to indulge in such fiendish excesses, not only endangering their own lives, but imperiling the safety of all the frontier settlements as well.
Reynolds says that after stopping at the Winnebago camp "the boatmen made the Indians drunk-and no doubt were so themselves-when they captured six or seven squaws, who were also drunk. These captured sqnaws were forced on the boats for corrupt and brutal purposes. But not satisfied with this outrage on female virtue, the boatmen took the squaws with them in the boats to Fort Snelling." Another version given by
272
HISTORY OF OGLE COUNTY.
Harvey Mann, of Vinegar Hill. Jo Daviess Connty, and others who were familiar with the events of that year, is that the boatmen and the Indians had a drunken frolic : that several squaws were kept on board the boats all night and put ashore the next morning before any of the tribe had recovered from the effects of their " spree," and the boats continued on their voyage up the river. These accounts agree as to the main fact that the boatmen committed a gross outrage npon the Indians, and provoked an attack.
When the duped and injured Winnebagoes liad slept off the effects of their debauch and become sober enough to comprehend the outrage com- mitted upon their women, and the injury done them in "this delicate point," they were intensely exasperated, and resolved to wash out the stain upon their honor in blood. What white people would not have done the same, under similar circumstances? Runners were sent out in all directions summoning the warriors to the scene of action at once for an attack on the boats when they returned. A war party of the Winnebagoes went from Jo Daviess County, in the vicinity of Galena, to aid their northern brethren in avenging the insult they had received. Capt. D. S. Harris states that at this time a band of fifteen or twenty of these Indians stopped at his father's house on the way up the river, and were very insolent. "Old Curley," a friendly Indian, had notified the family of the intended visit, and the younger members had sought refuge in the neighboring cornfield, leaving only Smith and Scribe in the house with their mother. "The Indians," says Smith Harris, " were very insolent, as was not unusual for that tribe. They offered no personal injury, for Seribe (Smith's brother) and I stood by our guns. They did attempt to take some articles of goods we had, but we told them if they didn't let things alone we would shoot, and they knew we meant it. They finally left without doing any harm, and we felt much relieved." This band went north, and, it is said, mur- dered a family near Prairie du Chien. Four Winnebago Chiefs called upon the Gratiots, at Gratiot's Grove, and informed them that on account of the action of the whites they should be unable to restrain their young men from declaring war, and as they did not desire to harm the "Choteaus" (as the Indians always called the Gratiot family), they had come to tell them that they had better remove. But careful inquiry among these who were at Galena during that year fails to develop any evidence that any outrages were committed by the Indians in the mining district at that time, either before or after the insult by those drunken keel-boatmeni, and which the injured party intended to avenge upon the guilty parties themselves.
Wakefield says that some of the Indians " came aboard of Lindsey's boat on his way up and showed such signs of hostility that he was lead to expect an attack on his return, and provided himself with a few fire arms, so that in case of an attack by them he might be able to defend himself." Other accounts state that the boatmen anticipated an attack upon their return. Why, if they had done nothing to provoke an assant? The Indians were peaceable, and even in the mines, where they had reason to complain of the encroachments of the whites upon their territory, they had done noth- ing more than to drive off the trespassers.
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