Bureau County, Illinois - Chapter 10: Jcnd of the Indian Troubles - Commencement of Permanent, 1885

JCND OF THE INDIAN TROUBLES - COMMENCEMENT OF PERMANENT SETTLEMENT - ELECTION OF 1834 - BHTANT AND BRIGHAM ELECTED - ESTIMATED NUMBER OF PEOPLE - BROWN'S COMPANY OF BANGERS - THE HAMPSHIRE COLONY - WILLIAM 0. CHAMBERLAIN ITS ORIGINAL INVENTOR - E. II. PHEI.PS' ACCOUNT OF THF. COLONY AND OF THEIR COMING, AND THE HISTORY THEREOF - NAMES ov THE COLONISTS AND TUEIR FBIRNDS.

~VY~THEN the Black Hawk war was ended VV by the destruction of the invading army, and Black Hawk was a subdued and quiet prisoner, and the Sac and Fox Indians had passed the great river never to return, the people once more began to return to their deserted homes. So far as we can learn those who had fled and were the first to return were the following families: Princeton, Elijah Epperson, Dr. N. Chamberlain, Eli and Elijah Smith, John Musgrove, Roland Mosely, Mrs. E. Smith, Robert Clark and Joel Doolittle. LaMoi lie, Daniel Deramick; Dover, John L. Arnent; Arispie, Micheal Kitterman, Curtiss Williams, and Dave Jones; Selby, John Hall, William Haskins, John Clark, and Ainos Leonard; Wyanet, Abram Oblist, and Old Bulbona; Bureau; Ezekiel and Henry Thomas, Abram Stratton, John M. Gay; Ohio, "Dad Joe" Smith; Walnut, James Magby; Milo, Charles S.

These constituted the places settled in the county and is very near a complete list of all the old settlers who came marching home " when the cruel war was o'er." And those homes that were burned by the Indians were soon rebuilt and the work of repairing the houses and fences, and planting, late as it was, something to furnish food to tide over the winter, gave all these people who

Then began to come to this part of Illinois the benefits of the Black Hawk war. It may sound strange to speak of the advantages of war - a trade that is simply brutal, murderous and devilish. But the word had gone out to the world that the war was over, the Indians gone, that is, the Sacs and Foxes, and all about in the older settlements, and away from the seat of war were men and families waiting for this news, and were ready to resume the journey started the year or years before, and came to this particular spot of Illinois. Then the war had sent many soldiers and rangers here and they looked upon the country and determined, if they lived, to return and build them homes on this beautiful land. All these, and still other causes, started a stream of the really permanent settlers.

Capt. Jesse Browne, with a company of rangers, was in Bureau during the winter of 1832-33. A portion of the time the company was camped in Haskins' Prairie. Capt. Jesse Browne was a brother of Thomas C. , Browne, at one time one of the Justices of the Supreme Court in this State. He was authorized by the Government to raise a company of rangers to guard the frontier. They were called the "Browne Bangers." It is said that some of the settlers were disposed to believe that the Otta was, along Kock River, .were organizing a raid upon the people of Bureau. And it is further told that Mrs. John Dixon, with her children, passed down by the Bureau settlements and terribly frightened some of them by announcing that she was fleeing for her life, as the Ottawas were on the war-path. But the fact is there was at no time any sufficient general scare to interfere with the tending the crops and building cabins by the settlers. And the next two years were times of prosperity and increase in the enfeebled little colonies, which was neither marked nor rapid, yet it was prosperous, and the prosperity was permanent.

In 1834 there was an election in Putnam County, and in the precinct of Bureau John H. Bryant and Joseph Brigham were elected Justices of the Peace. Mr. Bryant was the successor; that is, John M. Gay's books were turned over to him, and as Dimmick had never qualified there were no books for Brigham, and, as was expected, he gave the office little attention, leaving it for Bryant to manage mostly. The population by this time (1834) had increased to probably 250 souls.

The Hampshire Colony. - Dr. W. O. Chamberlain was an apprentice in the printing office of the Hampshire County Gazette, of Hampshire County, Mass., where he served from 1828 to 1831. In the town library he had found a volume of Lewis and Clark's travels, and becoming deeply interested in the book, he published occasional extracts about the Northwest in the Gazette, and these attracted much attention. As a result of these publications E. S. Phelps and some others, called a meeting of those who might wish more definite information about the new, wild country, but especially Illinois.

A larger attendance than was expected responded to this call, and so many expressed a wish to go West, that a colony was soon formed, aud named Hampshire Colony, after Hampshire County, Mass. E. S. Phelps was elected President of the colony.

At a meeting of the society in 1830, Thomas M. Hunt, a druggist, desiring to find a new location, proposed to come and explore the northern part of Illinois, and only asked the colony to pay a part of his expenses. His offer was gladly accepted. The only conveyances at that time were the Erie Canal, the lakes and the old-fashioned stage coaches. So meager was this mode of travel that in the year 1830, only one vessel, a schooner, made one trip around to Chicago. A fourhorse wagon made semi-weekly trips from Detroit to Fort Dearborn. Mr. Hunt came via. Chicago to Peoria; here he found the two-horse stage, running between St. Louis and Galena, via. Springfield. He traveled south to St. Louis, and in his report he said i that he did not see an acre of waste land - south of Peoria.

In 1830, in the fall, Sullivan Conant and Mr. Bicknell, and Rufus Brown, father of j Judge Brown, of Chicago, and Israel P. j Blodgett, father of Judge Blodgett, and their ] families, and D. B. Jones, a young man, | started to come to northern Illinois. Revs, j Lucien Farnham and Romulus Barnes, each ! of whom had married a sister of Butler Denham, of Conway, Mass. , who (Denhani) lately j died a citizen of Bureau County, also came West under the auspices of the colony.

The winter of 1830-31 was probably the severest ever known here. The snow was reported from three to four feet deep, and the cold was intense, and much of the game, especially the deer, perished. Owing perhaps to the severity of the winter the home : colony heard but once from Mr. Hunt during the winter. He was then on the Big Vermilion. The average time, in good weather, then for a letter to travel from here to Massachusetts was four or five weeks.

In March, 1831, the "Congregational Church of Illinois," was organized, with eighteen names. It was expected by the organizers that when they got located in their new home their numbers would be double those given above. In the early spring of 1831, the main part of the colony left, and on May

. 7, they left Albany, N. Y., in a canal boat, with Captain ^Cotton Mather in comi mand, with whom the colonists had contracted that he would not travel on Sunday. In this company were Dr. W. O. Chamberlain and son Oscar, Levi Jones, wife and five children, and the families of Rufus Brown - Mrs. Brown and four children, and Mrs. Blodget and her five children, Eli and Elijah Smith and wives, newly married, and the following single men: John Leonard, John P. Blake, A. C. Washbura, Aaron Gunn, C. J. Corss, George Hinsdale, E. H. Phelps aged eighteen years, and Charles C. Phelps aged, sixteen, sons of E. S. Phelps.

On the 18th of May they landed at Buffalo, expecting here to find a vessel to take them to Chicago, but were told that no vessel traveled that route, but being informed a schooner was then loading at Detroit for Chicago, and would leave the next Thursday, they shipped by steamer for Detroit, but by ' stormy weather and other causes they only reached Detroit late Thursday afternoon and found the schooner already loaded and ready to sail, and it could not take their goods. The Captain informed them he would make another trip in two or three months. They stored their goods and hired two teams, a fourhorse and a two-horse wagon to bring them through to Illinois. They left Detroit May 25, Monday, and reached Sturgis' Prairie the next Sunday. Here one of the horses in the four-horse wagon team died. This was the conveyance hired by the eight young men of the party. The driver then informed them it was all his team could do to haul their trunks, and they must foot it. About this time the travelers met a man who had been traveling in Illinois, and from him they learned that their friend, Mr. Jones, was at Bailey's Point, on the Big Vermilion Eiver, where he had built a double log-cabin to receive them in. This was the first they knew exactly what point they were aiming for. The eight young men walked toMottville, on the St. Joseph Eiver, and here they paid off their teamster, and purchased two canoes. They lashed these together, making a pirogue, and putting their luggage on board started down the river. They learned that it was about 165 miles to Ottawa, 111. They expected by traveling night and day to make the trip in three or four days. For this reason they had but little provisions. The third day out as they floated along they saw a deer and killed it,and landed and roasted enough to eat, but as they had no salt they left the most of it on the bank and resumed their journey. They passed a large encampment of Indians on the way, the first signs of humanity they saw after leaving Portage. A storm came up Saturday evening and they tied up, and sleeping in their canoes they found them- ' selves lying in several inches of water in the morning. They built fires and spent the day drying their clothes. Their provisions were entirely out. Under these circumstances the question arose among them, especially as than they could not guess when they could complete their trip, as to whether it would be best to travel on Sunday, or stay over hungry and trust in the Lord. About noon they pulled out into the stream and resumed their journey. Sunday night another storm com- pelled them to tie up, and in a grove they passed the night and storm. For two days all they had to eat was elm and basswood ba*k. They reached another Indian encampment the next day, but as there was trouble with the Indians they could get no food. The Indians pointed on down the river, and gave them to understand that there they could get food. Sailing along with the current, the voyagers eventually heard the glad sound of a cow- bell and landed, and on going to the top of the bluff they saw a cabin. They found a woman and children here and made known their wants. She told them she could not feed them as she had nothing but mush and milk for her family. They informed her that they would consider this most sumptuous fare, and she prepared them a pot full - the woman first shelled the corn and ground it in a handmill. They learned it was twenty miles to Ottawa. The hungry men, barring the one good feed of mush, started to complete their journey, and on the way agreed that when they reached Ottawa they would put up at the best hotel (reckless as to price or style) and have the best beds, and for a few days eat, sleep and enjoy the bliss of life. About sunset they espied a little lonely cabin on the shore and rounded to, and went to it and inquired of the woman how far it was to Ottawa. She smiled and said "this is Ottawa." She informed them that the preceding winter there had been several cabins on the opposite side of the river (the north side) but the spring high waters had washed them all away. This good woman - the then mistress of> Ottawa, was French, and her husband a trader. Her father was with her and her husband was off among the Indians trading. The old gentleman had a number of beehives and they cared for the young travelers the best they could, but all they had to eat was honey and mush, and for beds, each one

They had been six and a half days on the journey. The good woman told them she had known several people to come by the same route they had, and the quickest trip she had known before was nine days. As the voyagers had started with only three day's provisions they felt some new twinges of the stomach when they thought that it was a mere chance that they were not exposed to a six days' fast instead of a little more than the two days they had had a foretaste of.

After enjoying the hospitalities of the city of Ottawa one night, they resumed their journey, and at noon reached Shippingport, across the river from La Salle, and the head of navigation, owing to the rapids. Again this city consisted of one house, which was warehouse, store, dry goods and groceries and family residence, all the property of a man named William Crozier. They learned it was eight miles to Bailey's Point, where their agent was. Storing their trunks they started on foot, and just before night arrived there. Here they were rejoiced to find the other members of their colony who had come through in wagons and had reached the place only a few hours before. This was on the 9th of June, five weeks and two days from leaving home.

Mr. Jones told them that the best country he had found was on the Bureau. After a few days' rest some of the men of the party came over to inspect the land, and examined the prairie as far north as Dover, a little west of which they found three bachelors: Sylvester Brigham, James G. Forristall and Elijah Phillips, who came the year previous from New Hampshire. The few settlers here at that time were mostly east of the river on account of the Indians. The men returned to their friends and gave a very favorable report of the country. They found Elijah Epper- son on the east side of the river. His cabin was one mile north of where the Princeton depot now is, where a Mr. Stoner now lives, and he told them that if they were not afraid of the Indians they were welcome to occupy his cabin and whatever they could find there to eat A part of the young men who did not know yet enough of the red man to fear him, started to come with two yoke of oxen and wagon. They arrived on the 2d of July, and the first news they heard was that a treaty had been made with the Indians. The rSsult was, the next week Eli and Elijah Smith and wives came, and these and the six young men lived in the cabin together for some months. The next week came Roland Moseley and Daniel Smith. They had come from Northampton. They came by the Ohio River, and had left their families at Beardstown as they did not know where the colony was. On their way from Beardstown they fell in company with John Musgrove, from New Jersey, who was looking for a place to settle. The three located on the south side of the prairie, put up cabins and returned to Beardstown for their families. E. H. and Charles Phelps, expecting their parents in Augiist, put up a cabin. E. S. Phelps and Amos C. Morse left Massachusetts July 13, with their families, and sent their goods by ship by way of New Orleans, the families coming by way of the Ohio River. Mr. Phelps shipped his stock of jewelry, which he intended selling in St. Louis or some other large place. Failing in this he took his stock and located in Springfield, 111., where he remained until 1838, when he came to Princeton. Mr. Morse located in Jacksonville. The Phelps boys here heard nothing of their parents until in the fall, when they joined their parents in Springfield. When the Black Hawk war broke out the next spring, Eli and Elijah Smith and wives went to Springfield and remained there during the summer. Thus the colonists were scattered, and as the fall of 1831 was a very sickly time among the settlers, this and the war drove several of them away who never returned, consequently in the beginning of the year 1834 but four of the church members were living in Bureau. That year Elisha Wood and family, who started here in 1832, but had stopped in Tazewell County came. None of those who started West in 1830 finally settled here. Sullivan Conant had settled in Springfield, Mr. Bicknell, in Fulton, and Blodgetfc and Brown at Brush Hill, about twenty miles this side of Chicago. D. B. Jones settled in Fulton County. Daniel Smith died in less than thirty days after his arrival. (Full account of this in a preceding chapter). Mr. Morse died in Jacksonville, and Levi Jones at Bailey's Point. All these deaths were soon after their arrival. John Leonard married Mrs. Levi Jones, and removed to Galesburg. A. C. Washburn settled in Bloomington, John P. Blake in Putnam County. Aaron Gunn near La Salle, George Hinsdale on West Bureau, Alva Whitinarsh and family came in 1841. Scattered as was the Hampshire Colony, yet it was the final cause of many of Bureau's best citizens coming here. In September, 1832, Cyrus and John H. Bryant came from Jacksonville. They had visited Hinsdale Phelps in Springfield to inquire about this country. He advised them to come and see, and judge for themselves. They did so, and they fixed their claims, and through their influence came J. S. Everett, 1835; Lazarus Reeves, the Wiswalls, William P. Griffin, and John Leeper and family, 1833. The fall of 1832 came N. O. and W. C. Chamberlain, and their sister, Mrs. Flint and her family. In 1833, Asher Doolittle, Joseph Brigham, Horace Winship, Harrison Downing and the

Mercer families. In 1834 there was added to the settlement: Caleb Cook and family, and John Clapp, from Massachusetts. From Ohio were the Mercer families and Tripletts, aad Galers and Elliotts. The Masters, Ellis and Durham families came with Hinsdale Phelps from Springfield.

In 1834 Hinsdale Phelps had returned here while the remainder of his father's family remained in Springfield. During the summer j he severely cut his foot and returned to Springfield. While there he met C. D. Colton, who had come from St. Lawrence County, N. Y., the previous fall with a colony, but not liking the location in Sangamon, young Phelps pursuadedhim to come with him and see this country. He did so and made a claim and through his induence came the other CoJtons, his relatives, and Alba Smith, David Robinson, Nathaniel and Joseph Smith, and Benjamin Newell all came in 1835. In the year 1834 came Butler Denham from Conway, Mass., and with him S. H. Burr, S. L. Fay, Anthony Sawyer, Adolphus Childs and C. C. Corss, all single men. They all soon became however, the heads of happy and prosperous families. In 1835 Ruf us Carey, Alfred Clark, S. D. Hinsdale, Noadiah Smith, J. H. Olds, from Massachusetts, and Ralph Windship, from New York. In the spring of 1835 Charles Phelps, brother of E. S. Phelps, came out to look at the country. He attended that year the land sale at Galena, and bought the land he afterward lived on, northeast of Princeton. He brought his family the next June, and there came with or soon after him, all from Massachusetts, Seth C. Clapp, Lewis Clapp, George Brown, Cephas Clapp, O. E. Jones and Miss Childs, now Mrs. J. S. Everett, of Princeton.

Of those who came here in 1831 there are now living in the county: George Hinsdale, Daniel P. and Dwight Smith and their mother, Mrs. Daniel Smith, E. H. Smith, Mrs. Eli Smith. Michael Kitterman, John Cole and Mrs. J. H. Fisher. Of the eight young men who came with the colony, five are still living: John Leonard, the oldest of the company, died in 1864. Charles Phelps died in 1866, and C. G. Corss in 1866.

What are the results ? Looking back fiftyfour years! Then there were not half as many inhabitants in the State as are now in the city of Chicago. Fifty-four years ago, when the colony came here, the Indians, deer, prairie wolf and rattlesnakes held undisputed possession of all this land. Fifty-four years ago and all the northern part of the State, including Quincy, Jacksonville, and Springfield, to Danville, on the Wabash,were in one Congressional district. But the population increased so rapidly in 1840, when Hon. John T. Stuart was our Representative in Cougress it was said he represented the largest constituancy and territory of any member of Congress. Fifty-four yeare! What great results the world over. Probably greater than in any previous century. What has been accomplished in Bureau County ? There were then about a dozen families - forty or fifty persons all told; but one wagon road in the county, the St. Louis and Galena stage road by Boyd's Grove, and Bulbona's. Look about you, and remember all you now see of roads, bridges, houses, barns, shops, factories, mines, farms, railroads, depots, cities, towns, villages, schools, churches and all these evidences of wealth, contentment and prosperity are the product of this short half century. *

"CCRT" WILLIAMS - THE MAN OF HAUKS - SMILEY SHEPHEED - THK DEEP SNOW OF 1831 - JOHN, JOB, TIMOTHY BROWN AND DAVID SEABL - GKEENBUKY HALL - LEWIS COBB - THE CHOLERA OF 1832 - SCOTT'S ARMY - THE TERRORS or THE PLAUOE - FIRST STEAMBOATS ARRIVE IN CHICAGO, 1832 - "I SUERENDER, ME. INDIAN!" - BIOOEAPHIOAL SKETCHES or MANY OLD SETTLERSHENRY F. MILLER - M. STUDYVIN - DAVID CHASE - JAMES CODDINUTON - ENOCH LUMRY - JAMES GARVIS - E. PIPER - JAMES WILSON - JACOB OALER - JOHN LIEFER - JOHN BAGGS - THE WISWALI.S AND TBIPLETTS - HALLS - A NEOEO HERE IN 1829.

rr~AHE man who made his mark or rather JL several "marks" herein the squatter days was Curtis Williams - "Uncle Curt'' - as he was generally known. His main business was to keep well ahead of the settlement and staking out a claim and doing enough work on it to identify and hold it, and then sell out to a new comer. If he had a brush cabin up, so much the better, as the new arrival's first want was some place to store his family - get them out of the wagon, where they sometimes had already been stored for weeks. ' ' Uncle Curt" commenced east of the river, and in the course of time passed nearly across Bureau County. If he found an unoccupied claim so much the better. He was the man that Micheal Kitterman found in his cabin when he ' ' returned with his woman." The spot where this cabin was located is now occupied by Mr. E. C. Bates' fine residence in South Princeton. But "Uncle Curt" was a bold and valuable pioneer. He was not afraid to go ahead, and he was full of that industry and public spirit which goes so far in developing a new country. He was the pioneer to that portion of the county where Buda now stands, which place was known as French Grove until after the building of the railroad and laying out of the new town. He built a carding-machine at Leepertown, and was the first to aid the good womea in this portion of the country in the drudgery of making woolen clothes for the people. His aged widow is the motherin-law of Henry F. Miller. Curtis Williams made more claims than any other one man who ever came to the county, and as a " claim maker" his name will go down in the history of the county for all time.

Smiley Shepherd died at his home near Hennepin, April 4, 1882. Born March 3, 1803. Thomas Shepherd, his great-grandfather came to this country in the sevententh century and settled near Harper's Ferry. Shepherdstown, Va., gets its name from this family. In August, 1828, Smiley left his father's home on horseback for a visit to the new State of Illinois. He came to Bond County, to which place the Moore family had come from Red Oak, some years before. From Bond County he came to Putnam County, in company with J. G. Dunlavey. They found Capt. Haws at Point Pleasant, now Magnolia; James Willis was on the farm now owned by Mr. Shering, near Florid. Thomas Hartzell kept an Indian trading house on the river, on the site now the home and grounds of A. T. Purviance. A few other persons located claims this year in the county, but none had been on the ground over a year but Mr. Hartzell. Some time was spent visiting with the few settlers, who were overjoyed to see new comers, and their prospective friends and neighbors. The best timber lands, springs, town sites, etc., were looked at, and their future value estimated carefully by these first settlers. During the visit he selected the site of the home he so long occupied. Its scenery and extensive views outweighing, in his estimation, the considerations which induced others to pass it by. While looking at the locality, he spent his first night in the neighborhood, on what is now the northwest corner of Mrs William Allen's apple orchard, sleeping alone on the prairie grass, with his saddle for a pillow, and his horse fettered near by. During the night a wolf managed to steal from his stock of provisions a tin cup of butter, but like some other thieves, he did not know what to do with it when he had it, and instead of licking out the butter closed the mouth of the cup with his teeth and left it. Leaving Putnam, he gratified his strong love for romantic scenery by visiting Starved Book, Sulphur Springs, Buffalo Bock, and the present site of Ottawa. From this point he crossed the country to Bock Biver and the Mississippi, below the mouth of Bock Biver. On his way back he and his companions made the trip from the Mississippi to Fort Clark, (now Peoria) in one day. From this he made his way back home by way of Vandalia, Vincennes and Cincinnati.

In a letter dated February 16, 1831, Shepherd thus tells of the deep snow. " The snow fell between Christmas and New Year to the depth of two feet, and has since that time, by repeated accessions, been kept up full that depth." From the facts before us, the difficulties these pioneers had to contend with, can be better imagined than described. During the winter of 1831-32 Smiley, assisted by Nelson, built a log-house on his first chosen site, and moved into it in Febru ary, before the chimney was built, or a shut ter made for the door. Here he lived until death - a period of over fifty years.

During these first years he became well acquainted, personally, with Shabbona, Shickshak, and other Indians who, before the Black Hawk war, were residents of the country, and on friendly terms with the whites, who treated them kindly. During the Indian troubles of 1832, he shared the fort life, the many alarms, real and false, of his now numerous fellow citizens; was pressed into the service of the United States as teamster by Gen. Atkinson, and taken to

Chicago, with a regiment of troops on its way to Fort Dearborn. It is remarkable, that with his experience and knowledge of Indians, he should have been their friend and defender through life. For over thirty years he sent, annually, a barrel of bacon, and for some ten years in the early history of the Mission, two barrels of flour, in addition to the bacon, and frequently other articles needed by the families at the Mission of T. S. Williamson and S. B. Bigga, among the Dakota Indians.

He was among the first to grow the grape successfully, by vineyard culture, in northern Illinois. His vineyard of Catawbas and Isabellas was planted in 1849, and bore a fine crop in 1851, which sold at 15 cents per pound. He successfully fruited nearly all the fine varieties of pear, plum, peach, cherry and strawberry of his day. Naturally enough, he loved those of similar tastes and occupation with himself. From these years until the infirmities of old age prevented his attendance on its meetings, he was an enthusisiastic laborer in the cause and objects of the State Horticultural Society. Served the society one year as President, and considered many of its members among his dearest friends.

The presence of a large number of friends at the funeral testified of the kindly regard in which he was held. He was buried at Union Grove by the side of his wife, who died in 1873. The last of that little band of noble men Father John Dixon, Charles S. Boyd, "Dad Joe" Smith and the very few others who were here, neighbors, companions and friends in the long ago, when the daring white man first began to feel his way into this part of the wilderness.

through the north part of the county. If he was not greatly mistaken, which he probably was, then the fact is established that the great General and his army were really once on the soil of Bureau County.

Lewis Cobb, of Wyanet, was one of the soldiers in Scott's army that came to Chicago in 1832, in the two vessels that were stricken so severely with the cholera plague of that year. One of the gloomiest pages in our western annals is the account of that trip, and the horrors of the ghastly plague that beset them. Gen. Scott arrived in Chicago, July 8, 1832, on the steamer "Sheldon Thompson," Capt. A. Walker, the first steamboat trip ever made to Chicago. His delay in Chicago on account of the cholera, was such that he only reached Rock Island late in August, just at the close of the negotiations of peace, which were finally and fully concluded in September. The Government had charted four boats and loaded them with troops. The "Henry Clay, "Superior," "William Penn," and "Sheldon." The first two were turned back when the cholera broke out, and the other two came on to Chicago. So it will be seen that the first steamboat was ' ' two boats. ' '

The cholera was so fatal that thirty bodies were thrown overboard between Chicago and Mackinaw, and about 100 died at Chicago. The deaths were so sudden and the burial so instantaneous thereafter, that the victims, in their last agonies, feared that they would be buried alive, if it could be called a burial, for they were thrown into a pit at the northwest corner of Lake Street and W abash Ave^ nue. Gen. Scott described this as the most affecting scene of his life. Gen. Humphrey Marshall, a member of Congress from Ken- j tucky, who was a Second Lieutenant, gave a | description of the scene, and though thickly settled as Chicago then was, he could find the place where he assisted in depositing the remains of the victims, many being thrown into the pit in a few hours after they had assisted in depositing their comrades there. The people all through the Fox and Rock River Valleys had fled to Fort Dearborn for protection against the Indians; but they soon fled back, having a greater dread of the cholera than of the Indians.

John Wentworth says: Black Hawk, chief of the united tribe of Sacs and Fox Indians, was born about 1767, near the mouth of the Rock River, and there were his headquarters, until he made a treaty, ceding his lands to the United States, and agreeing to go to Iowa. He went there, and settlers went upon his lands and began to cultivate them, when he repudiated his treaty, returned to Illinois and commenced massacring them. Before the United States could take up the matter, the Governor called for troops, and most of the prominent politicians volunteered their services, and raised more or less soldiers, to go under their own particular leadership. Black Hawk was chased up into Wisconsin, captured, and sent to Washington to see Gen. Jackson. Jack Falstaff never slew as many men in buckram as each and every one of these Illinois politicians did. Squads would often go out from camp, and hasten back with accounts of their miraculous escapes from large bodies of Indians, when there were none in the vicinity. An alarm was given, one night, when one of the most distinguished men in the State mounted his horse, without unhitching him, and gave him a spur, when, mistaking the stump to which he was tied for an Indian taking hold of the reins, he immediately exclaimed: "I surrender, Mr. Indian!" An alarm was given that a large body of Indians was approaching the Kankakee settlements; volunteers turned out, and found them to be nothing but sand-hill cranes. If an Indian was found dead on the prairie anywhere, several would exclaim: "That's the one I killed!" Mr. Lincoln had an inexhaustible supply of stories based upon his experience in this war, but he never claimed that his services there made him President. He made more, in his Presidential campaign, out of the rails he had split, than out of the Indian scalps he had taken.

James Coddington came to Bureau in 1831. He was a native of Maryland, born in Alleghany County, of that State, January 25, 1798. In the general hegira of the Indian war, he returned to his native place, and then came back in 1833, and settled on Section 17, in Dover. He married Catharine Fear, of this county. She was born in Maryland, in 1814, and with her family came to this county in 1834. Of this union there were ten children, five of whom are living, two of the sons and two daughters in this county.

Mr. Coddington died, June, 1876, while on a visit to his friends in the East. He was thrown out of a wagon and died of his injuries. (See biography of J. H. Coddington).

David Chase was born in Royalston, Mass. , April 30, 1811. When yet a child his parents removed to Fitzwilliam, N. H., where he was reared, where he married Lucy Brigham, a sister of Joseph Brigham (I3ee biography) and immediately after marriage started for Illinois, arriving in 1834, and settling in the village of Dover, on the farm now owned by his son David, where the widow now resides. Mr. Chase died July 1, 1882. He was a very quiet, unobtrusive, good man, father and neighbor. They had three children - one son and two daughters. Lucy Abagail married Oscar Mead, of Dover, and died, November, 1879. And Mary Ellen is the wife of Arthur Fruett.

Madison Studyvin was born in Virginia, near Grayson Court House, January 16, 1810. In 1824 went to Sangamou County; in 1829, to Hennepin County and in 1832, to Bureau. His father, William Studyvin, died in Putnam County aged ninety years and fifteen days. The mother, Nancy (Williams) Studyvin lived to the age of ninety-two years. They were the parents of nine sons and three daughters, six of whom are living. Mr. Studyvin was a soldier in the Black Hawk war. In 1835 he married Frances Ellis (see biography of Abbot Ellis) in this county. They have two children: W. C. in Brookville, Mo., and Emily, married Simon Ogaw, and resides nine miles from Clinton, Mo. Mr. Studyvin is a Democrat, an estimable and universally respected old settler.

Ezekiel Piper came in 1836; he was born in Maine, December 27, 1795, died December 31, 1875. He married Ann Roberts, of Bucks County, Penn. The family came to Illinois in wagons across the country, and settled in Leeper Township, where they lived two years and moved into Selby. They had seven chil dren, five of whom are now living. An industrious, frugal farmer, who filled the complete measure of his earthly ambition in providing and rearing a respectable family.

James Garvin came to Putnam County in 1829. A native of Kentucky. He married Mary Studyvin who still survives. Mr. Garvin settled in Dover in 1832. He is now a very old man. (Since this was written, he

Enoch Lumnj was born in New York in 1810; he came to Bureau in 1836. His father was Andrew Lumry, of New Jersey. Enoch married in 1837, Amelia Mason, of Kentucky, born in 1811. and came to this county with her folks in 1834.

James Wilson was born in Dover, Penn., and reared in Kentucky, and came to Bureau in October, 1833, and improved the farm he now lives on. He came to this county in company with Marshall Mason. His uncle Thornton Wilson was living here and it was merely to visit him and see the country that Mr. Wilson made the trip, but on seeing it remained.

Harrison Hays was an early settler in Peru. He kept what was long known as "Hays' Ferry," and afterward settled in this county where he died. His son now lives iu Princeton.

Henry F. Miller. - Nothing can convey to posterity a stronger picture of the real pioneers than the story in their own language of their coming, how they came, what they saw, their trials and troubles and final triumphs. To give it in their own language, is like borrowing their eyes and looking back over a real panorama of fifty years of the most important part of American history. It is a story - the plainer and simpler the better - surpassing in interest any possible picture of the imagining of the poet or historian. It is the reproduction of the past, true in all its shadings, and standing out in the picture is the living, breathing man, and, if not now, surely in time all will contemplate it with unflagging interest. To thus borrow the eyes of the very few that were here among the first is now barely possible; to-morrow the last will have been gathered to the fathers.

pleasing task of his life, his interviews and social chats with these early settlers as he has here and there come across the small remnant in the county. He was in the pursuit of dates and figures, and facts on disputed points in the legends of the pioneers. Piled upon his writing-table are these bundles and scraps and "pads" of notes, and taking one at random from the confused mass, it chanced to be those gathered, almost verbatim as they came from Mi-. Miller's lips, in the different interviews. If this picture is placed side by side with the others given, especially Stratton's, Kitterman's, "Dad Joe's," the members of the Hampshire Colony and many others found in this work, the whole will round out the view most completely.

Putting his answers to questions iu a narrative form. He said: " Henry F. Miller is the son of Jonathan and Susanah Miller; he was born in Green County, Perm., near the junction of Cheat River with the Monongahela, March 30, 1807. Practically, all the schooling he enjoyed was between the age of five and seven years. There were no English grammars or geographies in school. As soon as able he went to work on his father's farm; at sixteen was apprenticed to a joiner and cabinet trade, and during harvest time would return and help his father on the farm. When of age he crossed the mountains for the first time and made a trip to Baltimore. In August, 1830, started for Illinois, crossing West Virginia on foot to the Ohio River, at the mouth of Fish Creek. The river was very low, and he footed it down along the river to Marietta; there he boarded a small steamer, and after sticking fast at every riffle and with the other passengers getting out in the water and pushing the boat off, they finally reached Cincinnati."

my father could blacksmith, make shoes, harness, and I helped him build his houses and barns, " and his eyes sparkling with the recollection, he said: "I saw La Fayette in 1824 at Gallatin, and shook hands with him." (The writer asked him to hold out that hand and let him feel it, and is content that he and La Fayette have touched the same hand. ) Resuming his story: "I changed boats and got along better. I landed and footed it across the State of Indiana, and reached Terre Haute September 30. Just as I reached this place word was passed around that the great Lorenzo Dow was in town, and would preach at the court house. Everybody turned out to hear him. After hearing him I thought he wanted to be a great prophet in his day, but as most of his prophecies failed, I concluded he was much overrated. I remained here until July, 1831, when I went to Lafayette and stayed until October, working at my trade. I bought a horse and started for Pennsylvania, passed through La Fayette and Wayne Counties to Richmond, Ind., Columbus, Wheeling, and thence to my old home, where I remained until January, 1832, when, in company with Dr. Shelby, 1 started South and reached New Orleans, and to Port Gibson, Miss. ; remained there until June, 1832, and left for Illinois and came to Beardstown, and after a few days there went to Jacksonville and to Springfield. Here I saw the great Methodist circuit rider, Peter Cartwright; he was a candidate for the Legislature against A. Lincoln, and there was a report that he had made a bargain with the candidate for Sheriff, that if the Sheriff would vote for him he would give 500 Methodist votes. Cartwright was reading certificates he had from the Sheriff denouncing the story. Cartwright declared that he would cry persecution through the district; then went to New Salem in Sangamon County, and worked a short time, and boarded with a Mr. Rutledge; Mr. Lincoln boarded there at the same time. But as he was only Abe Lincoln then, and as no one thought he would ever be President, I did not try to get much acquainted with him.

" I then went to Hennepin, and found the people had fled from the west side of the river.and in Hennepin the people were living in block-houses and picket forts. While in Hennepin I slept all alone in John Simpson's house; the family were afraid and were in the fort. I did not know enough about Indians to be afraid of them. Remaining a few days in Hennepin,! went to Petersburg, and helped build the first house of any size in that place. Remained there until November, and in company with a young man, we bought a canoe and started for St. Louis. The river was very low; covered often with wild fowls, which at the approach of our canoe would rise in the air and often make a noise like distant thunder. Our canoe was very short and difficult to manage; we camped on the banks, generally with hunters we would find_ hunting furs and deer. At Alton the wind was so strong we had to lay to for it to fall, and my companion having no baggage, left me here and went on foot, and I then literally had to paddle my own canoe. When the sun set, the wind lulled and I pulled out for St Louis. This was about as lonesome and dreary a night as I ever experienced. The weather was frosty, and I was stiff with cold when 1 reached St. Louis just at daybreak. The hotels were closed, and it was my good luck that a steamboat just then arrived, and I went and warmed at her fires. The next day I shipped for Grand Gulf, Miss., and from there I went to Fort Gibson; I worked here until 1833, and then I returned to Hennepin ; in a few days I went to Ottawa and visited the spot on Indian Creek where the

Hall and Davis families had been massacred, and the Hall girls captured by the Indians. I then came across by Troy Grove and stopped over night, and bought a claim of a man named Thornton. I then started to hunt up the settlers on Bureau Creek, that was known as the Yankee settlement. I got as far as Lost Grove and night came on; seeing a cabin I went to it, but it was deserted. I went out on the prairie, tied my horse to my wrist, and lay down with my saddle for a pillow. In the morning early I resumed my search for the Yankees, but all northeast of where Princeton now is I could see nothing but wild prairie, and so I rode to Hennepin for my breakfast I then came over to work on Griffin & Wilson's Mill on Bureau Creek, in now Arispie. I worked here some time; in October I was taken very sick - fever and ague; the foreman of the mill died in Hennepin, and Griffin's family were all down sick and the work stopped. As soon as I was well enough to travel, I went south, stopping in East Feliciana, La. Here I remained until after the 4th of July, 1834, when I returned and stopped in Hennepin and built a shop and worked at my trade part of 1834-35. In the winter of 1834 I bought the Spring Mill at Leepertown, which had been built by A. W. Leonard. I improved this property, making a better house, adding a cardingmachine. The railroad finally so injured this property it was closed, and eventually from sparks from the railroad engine or by the act of some miscreant, it was fired and burned down. Mr. Leonard was the first mill builder here, and built about all the first mills in the county. Spring Mill was built of round logs, clapboard roof, and the chest was made of large split, hewn logs (such a mill chest would be a veritable curiosity now).

where, except six months in McLean County, and nearly two years in La Salle County, I have been ever since. By my first marriage had five children, two now living, both daughters, in La Salle County, Mrs. R. W. Brower, widow, and Miss Celeste Miller; Mrs. Jane Miller died July 26, 1846. In 1847 I purchased 500 acres of land in Berlin Township, and in October, 1847, was married to Mrs. Elizabeth Winslow. I moved into Leeper Township, and improved my land in Berlin. By this marriage there were three children, only one living, Asa F., in Iowa. In June, 1856, Mrs. Elizabeth Miller died. I then moved to Galesburg to school my children. Lived there one year, and then broke up housekeeping and boarded my family and gave all my attention to improving my land up to 1860. I had rented my farms, but in this year I commenced farming them myself, although it was my first experience as a farmer, and as I was then over fifty years of age and alone, you can imagine I had a lonely time of it. I then married Mrs. Martha Bryan, my present wife, and in the fall of 1869 quit farming, and for two years lived in Ottawa. In September, 1873, came to Princeton, and have been here since. I was successful as a farmer, more so, no doubt, than the average.

Then the notes give many particulars of his travels in Europe, the countries visited, the celebrated places, persons, etc. , with frequent quaint and original comments as he passed over the world's historic spots. Doubtless the reader will regret that we do not give all these, but our space is limited.

In the sketch there is much that the intelligent reader will read between lines. It is full of the general story of the actual daily life and experiences of the young men who footed their way to this new country over fifty years ago. People come now in train loads every day, indeed, almost every hour - flying across the country upon the railroads in coaches, palace, sleeping, dining and buffet cars, with no experiences except yawning, eating and sleeping - seeing nothing, experiencing nothing; hardly able to realize that they have stepped out of their splendid parlors and dining-rooms in the eastern cities or their cottages along the sea- shore. The story of their traveling now from ocean to ocean across the continent would be as monotonous as mentally counting an endless row of sheep jumping an imaginary fence. How great a change is here! How insignificent, how completely is the individual now swallowed up in the crowd. Human individuality is literally gone, it is merged in the great mass, until a man now can only think of himself as the inscrutable atom, a mere protoplasm in the body politic. The realization is not pleasant, it's like living in a limitless cave and peering eternally into the silent gloom.

The young pioneers were alone in their hour of severe ordeals and sore trials - nionarchs each and every one, but monarchs of the waste and wilderness. They were a part and parcel of nature in her grandest aspects, fashioned in character and high purposes by the play of her supreme forces. Without rank, alone, and mostly ' ' without a dollar in the world," the story, simple but sublime, when contemplated by an intelligent posterity, then these unlettered heroes of the new world will easily take their deserved places in the highest niche of fame. Grant it, cynic, that they builded wiser than they knew, yet their works are here, they will remain forever, blessing already millions in this great valley, and will grow and multiply in their benign influences for the unborn generations to come after us.

Jacob Oaler - Now a resident of Seattle, W. T., says: "I married my first wife, Miss Kuth Burson, the 31st of October, 1844. By her I had four children, the eldest, now Mrs. Lizzie G. Pratt, of Seattle, W. T., was the only one that lived to be grown. My first wife died of consumption, October 5, 1856. On May 8, 1858, I married Lydia Berry, of Milo, Bureau County, 111. By her I had two children - both died in infancy. My second wife died here in Seattle, W. T., June 15, 1878. I lived in Bureau County, from August, 1834, until April, 1860, when I moved to Kansas. I was the first Coroner of Bureau County after it was organized, and my nearest neighbor here in Seattle, was the first County Clerk, Thomas Mercer. He has been on this coast since 1852. His first wife was a daughter of Squire Brigham of Dover. She died on this coast, leaving him four daughters, three of whom are still living and are an honor to their father. He is hale and vigorous for a man of his age, seventy-one years the 13th of last March. He is well to do in this world's goods and has a kindly heart ready to respond to the downcast and destitute."

John Leeper, son of James Leeper, and grandson of Allen Leeper, was born in Cumberland County, Penn., August 23, 1786. The grandfather, Allen Leeper, was born in in County Down, Ireland, where his ancestors had fled from Scotland on account of religious persecutions, and he was seven years old when he came to America. James Leeper, the father, went to Georgia when John was but a beardless boy. Here he grew to manhood, and was married at the age of twenty, to Fidilis McCord, October 28, 1806. He moved to Marshall County, Tenn., in the year 1808, with their first born daughter - Fanny - and cleared out a farm in the canebreaks of Rock Creek. Being a very bitter opponent of slavery he left the slave States and moved to Illinois Territory in the year 1816, starting April 5, iind arriving at Madison County May 23, a journey of forty-eight days, which can now be accomplished by rail in ten hours. Remaining here until fall he removed to Beaver Creek, four miles south of Greenville, Bond County. Mr. Leeper remained here until the fall of 1823, when he removed to Morgan County, arriving on the spot where now the city of Jacksonville stands, November 2. Here he opened up a farm of 400 acres. The city of Jacksonville was laid out in 1825. The county soon began to till up, and Mr. Leeper's family becoming quite large, having nine sons and five daughters, there was a demand for more land. It was necessary to make another move to supply this demand, so on the 10th of October, 1831, Mr. Leeper removed to Putnam County and settled three miles northeast of the present town of Hennepin and made a claim of 2, 500 acres of land. Here he opened up a large farm, in the summer of 1832, in the time of the Black Hawk war, building a stockade around his log-house for safety, while three of his sons were out on the war-path of the Indians. In the fall of 1833 Mr. Leeper sold his farm and moved into Bureau County and bought an unfinished saw-mill of Timothy Perkins, on Bureau Creek, one and one-half miles northwest of Bureau Junction. At the land sales of 1835, 900 acres of land were entered around this mill site, and the saw-mill was finished and a flouring-mill and other machinery was added, and completed in the fall of 1835, and was considered one of the finest mills in the State, and sawed the lumber and ground the wheat and corn, and carded the wool for the people for fifty miles around. At this place Mr. Leeper died December 14, 1835, aged fortynine years three months and twenty-one days, and was buried - his being the second grave in Oakland Cemetery. His death was not caused by ordinary sickness. By lifting heavy timbers in constructing his mills he became ruptured, and taking cold in the wound an abcess was formed which broke and emptied itself inwardly, and mortification set in which soon caused his death.

Mr. Leeper in size was about five feet, nine inches high, weight one hundred and sixty pounds. A very energetic, active man, a hard worker, kept well abreast with the most prosperous of his neighbors in accumulating property. In politics he was a Whig of the Adams type. In religion a Presbyterian, for many years a Ruling Elder in churches of that order. As a neighbor, one of the most kind, generous, and universally beloved by all who knew him. It was often said that Judge Leeper had no enemies and was ever ready to help the needy. His house was always open to entertain the weary traveler, the pioneer preacher and the polite politician. Living as he did most of his life on the frontier, and before the church was built, his house was occupied as a church by the preachers of every denomination who chose to accept it. Mr. Leeper was always ready and the first to move in building up churches and schools in every place where he lived. At Jacksonville, before any church building was erected, the first organization was affected in his barn - the Presbyterian Church - in 1827.

with in frontier life. Old Father John Brich often preached in Mr. Leeper's house, which was built of hewn logs. The chimney was made of sticks and clay and near the upper end it receded from the house, leaving a narrow space which was always warm from the fire below. Here was a warm retreat and the hens often sought it as a convenient place to lay, and hatch their young. It so happened on a Sabbath day when Father Brich, a corpulent, old English bachelor, was preaching, in his prayer occurred this sentence, " The Lord bless all the h-ends of the earth. " Just at this juncture two hens were disputing about the possession of said nest. To decide the controversy promptly, Father Brich called a halt in divine service, took his cane, stepped out of the door and proceeded to remove one of the hens and then returned to conclude the exercises. This created no little amusement in the congregation but did not upset the preacher. Mr. Leeper's home having always been on the thin edge of civilization, it was never his lot to enjoy many of the privileges and luxuries ! of an old settled country, but never was behind the first in effort to subdue the wilderness and make it blossom and bud as the rose, and to plant the church and the school.

Possessed of a modest and retiring nature, he never sought office, but it rather sought him. He was a member of the Legislature of Illinois as early as 1827; was elected County Judge of Morgan County, but refused many offers of public honors, preferring the quiet of a retired life. Mr. Leeper and all his family were radically opposed to slavery and to intoxicating drinks and the use of to- I bacco. Only four of his once large family are now living: Charles, Mary B., Harvey B. and William H. A modest slab of marble now marks the place where his mortal remains were buried in Oakland Cemetery.

John Baggs had married a relative of the Thomases. He is a native of Ohio; his sister Sally was Mrs. Abram Stratton, and Elizabeth married George C. Hinsdale. Mr. Baggs removed to Iowa nearly thirty years ago, where he is now living. Another of the Baggs girls, Mrs. Avery, also lives in Iowa. John M. Gay, the Strattons, the Thomases and the Baggses and Hinsdales were all very early settlers, all prominent and important people, and by marriages were all related.

Wiswalls. - This family were Elijah Wiswall, the father, and Mrs. John H. Bryant, Miss Emily and Noah Wiswall. They came to Bureau in 1834, from Jacksonville. The family were from Bristol County, Mass., and came to Illinois in 1821, first stopping in Bond County and soon from there to Jacksonville. Noah and Elijah were each widowers when they came here. The first year they made their home with Mr. Bryant. Elijah Wiswall then built a frame business house with residence back, on the corner opposite - west from the present American House. Renting the front to Salisbury & Smith, and occupying the rear; and Wiswall, Sr., died here in 1840. Emily married Micajah Triplett, and she and husband kept house for her father. After his death they moved to their farm, where she died in 1874, leaving daughters: Mrs. T. P. Streator, Princeton; Mary, now with Mrs. Streator and a son residing in Wyanet. Triplett was from Ohio, and came with his father to this county in 1834. Stephen Triplett and wife kept hotel for a long time in Princeton. Both died here. Noah Wiswall married Elizabeth Lovejoy, a sister of Owen Lovejoy. They had four sons - three now living: Austin, in Chicago; Charles, in New York; Edward, at Pike's Peak; Clarkson died in the army.

Five brothers came to this county; Brown and Job came in 1834; David, 1835; and Timothy and John, in 1836. A big family of big men, and the five sons were a little over a 1,000 pounds of as brave pioneer blood and bones as ever gathered on the borders. (See John S. Searl's biography).

The Huffakers. - Israel Huffaker was a soldier in the Black Hawk war, and thereby came to see the glories of Bureau County. He came in 1835 and entered land, and brought his family and permanently located in 1837. In 1838 Jacob Huffaker came. They were from Kentucky, and by marriage some of the family were related to Abraham Lincoln. They were a hard-working, quiet and economical people.

John Welch was born in New York in 1825, of Irish descent. Came to Bureau in 1838. In 1866 he was married to Lucy Dunham, in Princeton; a daughter of John Dunham.

John Wise was born in North Carolina in 1814. His wife, Lucinda Bunch, was a native of Kentucky. They came to Bureau in 1834, living the first winter in Robert Maston's cabin in the forks of Big and Little Bureau; near them was an Indian encampment. Wise made many chairs that were used in the cabins for years.

Peter Ellis - A Black Hawk war soldier. He was known everewhere as Capt Ellis. A native of Ohio, came in 1830, and settled near Magnolia. Mrs. Peter Ellis died in this county in 1844.

Reason B. Hall and his brother Edward came in 1828, and built a cabin in the east part of the county. After occupying it a short time, on account of the many Indians and the entire absence of neighbors, they abandoned the claim and moved south of the

In the fall of 1829, a negro named Adams built a cabin at the mouth of Negro Creek, and from this circumstance the stream gets its name. He was frightened across the river by the Indians and never returned.

Cyrus Langworthy settled in the southeast corner of Princeton Township; had five children - three sons and two daughters - two sons now living. Franklin the eldest is in Wisconsin, and Warren is a printer by trade. Mr. Langworthy was the first Sheriff of Bureau County. He served in this capacity three terms. In 1842 he was elected to the State Legislature and served out the term with creditable efficiency. He was a soldier of the war of 1812, and was in every respect a man much superior to the average of his surroundings. As Sheriff he had to bring the new and sometimes wild elements of border life under the strong arm of the law. The rough law-breakers at times made it necessary for the officer of the law to exercise the coolest courage in facing these men. Mr. Langworthy, except a lameness, was a man of remarkable physical strength and endurance and his courage was equal to his physical strength. He was crippled when a young man in this way. He was cutting down a tree and as it commenced to fall he noticed one of his small children playing just where the tree was going to fall. He rushed forward and gathered the child and threw it out of danger and saved it, but was caught himself, and his thigh broken. It was never properly set, it seems, and made him lame through life.