Kane County, Illinois - Chapter 4: Wh.\t the Pioneers Found, 1908

Chapter 4: Wh.\t the Pioneers Found

\\ hen the first settlers upon the lands of Kane county came here, they found a territory very much different from w^hat now presents itself. To the east, Fox river ran in a winding path from Dundee to Aurora, its waters uninterrupted by any bridge or dam, and everywhere wider than at present. The encroachments of the cities on its banks have at some points filled half the channel. Along its shores were abundant groves of oak and other trees yet common, but at most points now much thinned out. From Aurora northeastward, on the east side of the river, a veritable forest of thick wood extended to where Batavia now stands and two or three miles back from the river, known as the "Big woods." On the west side of the river from Batavia north of South Elgin another smaller wood existed, known as the "Little woods." North of this, the banks of the Fox were thick with trees, but the growth did not reach far from the river. In the back districts, wood and prairie, hill and valley alternated throughout the territory now covered by the county boundaries. About one-fourth was wood land. From the higher ridge of land extending from Hampshire to Burlington, creeks and streams ran east to the Fox river and west to the Rock river. The land was, and is, largely black soil with some clav. and sand and gravel.

The peculiarity of the district as distinguished from the eastern land, to which the newcomers had been accustomed, was the large extent of prairie land. The eastern country is a land of hills and forest. There the farmer cut the trees, and plowing in between the unremoved stumps, raised his crops. But the open prairie, necessitating no clearing, was a new fact wliich it required many years for pioneers to understand and cultivate. The prairie land was everywhere covered with a tall, rank, tough, native grass, often growing ten or fifteen feet high over miles of prairie land. For centuries it had grown and accumulated and thickened until it was with difficulty that a horse could make its way througli some parts of it. This the pioneers found and for years left undisturbed, thinking it unfit for cultivation.

Great prairie fires would at times sweep over this grass, leaving a desolate, blackened waste behind. The general soil at the roots of the prairie grasses was wet and swampy, which fact discouraged the farmer. It was with great difficulty a plow was run through the tangled tough roots, it requiring several yoke of oxen to turn the sod. The cultivation of years, and the constant cropping of the grass by cattle, has entirely changed the nature of the plant life of the soil and rendered its cultivation easy.

Nuts of many kinds were found here native : walnuts, butternuts and hickory nuts being abundant ; and hazelnut bushes everywhere among the trees. Maple trees furnished syrup and sugar. Wild raspberries, gooseberries, strawberries and blackberries were common ; and in the swamps and low places mushrooms were plentiful. The writer has personally gathered all these varieties in the woods of the county within twenty-five years, but most of the trees have been cut down or have died out. Little wild product now grows.

Game of many varieties, most of which have now disappeared, were found throughout the country and adjacent territory and was hunted by the pioneers for food and sport. Deer herded in the wood in large numbers. Old settlers yet living tell of seeing fifty to a hundred in a herd in Plato and Burlington townships. It was a matter of small effort to go out on any morning in the '50s and return with venison for breakfast. The increasing population, however, soon destroyed or drove them away, and by i860 it was a rare event to hunt deer with success. Wild cats were numerous in the wood and preyed on the settlers' chickens. The last were killed within twenty-five years. The lynx was also found in the woodlands until after the war. Wild pigeons came in flocks so numerous as to obscure the sunlight as they flew southward to their feeding grounds. Many a pigeon dinner was enjoyed by the early residents. It is told that in those days a hunter could sit beneath a dead tree and shoot scores of pigeons as they alighted on the bare limbs to rest. The sandhill crane, a bird not seen in this locality by many of this generation, was numerous in the early days. They built huge conical nests of grass and weeds in inaccessible swamps. They stood over four feet high when mature, and their flesh is said to have been of excellent flavor. They were much hunted but difficult to bag. They would alight generally on a high knoll where the surrounding country would be visible. Wild duck and geese in large variety and in very great numbers compared to present meager flights were to be seen every fall and spring. Without decoy or other device for attracting them a hunter sitting in a hidden spot could in an afternoon bring down more birds than he could carry home. Quail by the thousand were found in the brush and field everywhere, but were largely destroyed by the trap and gim years ago. The fear of their extinction necessitated laws for their protection and they are again becoming more numerous and so tame, because not hunted, as to feed in the open field or barnyard. The crow was also present when the pioneers came and is still very numerous, doing now the same depredations he did then, and as wary of hunters and as destructive. Hunters from the settlements would camp out and destroy quail by the thousand. Robins and the smaller birds yet numerous were here when the first settler appeared. Wolves were also plentiful and a continued burden to the white man, who was under the need of at all times protecting his stock and chicken yard against them. It was no unusual thing in the '40s for the men of the county to meet for a wolf hunt. A large number would form a circle many miles in circumference, some with horns and tin pans to raise the wolves and other animals by the noise. In the circle were men on horseback and afoot. All gradually narrowed in on the circle, shooting what came in sight and driving them toward the center. Many wolves were killed, but more of other kinds of game. Trapping and poison were also resorted to to rid the country of wolves, but they were so cunning that until a late day they continued to harass the farmer, and even now an occasional wolf is seen in an outlying district.

Many interesting stories are also told of the deer hunts of those days. During the winter of 1842 the snow was unusually deep and travel was made more difficult by a hard crust that formed on the surface of the snow after a thaw. The deer's sharp hoofs would cut through the crust, rendering their progress slow and making them easy prey for the dogs and the hunters. Many came to the farm yards for food and were shot down by the farmers.

Fish, too, were found in an abundance now undreamed of. Through the years the seine, hook and spear of an ever increasing population of Waltonians have depleted the fish supply until a few carp, perch, bullheads, with now and then a bass or pickerel of moderate proportions are the onl}' reward of a day's fishing. Then, according to the stories of old residents (before the modern "fish story was needed to give length and number to a catch") the river teemed with fish of many choice varieties, such as bass, pickerel and pike, to secure which required none of the modern fly hooks and casting lines.

For building purposes and fuel the thick wood of high oaks furnished ample supply and were drawn upon as though inexhaustible. Now the original growth has disappeared and throughout the county only second growth timber is to be had. Limestone quarries were found along the Fox river from Aurora to Elgin and much used for buildings.

But aside from these bounties from nature, free for the taking to supply the immediate wants of the settlers while the seed they had sown on their rough plowed land was growing, neighbors w^ere found in the Indians who were encamped along the rivers and creeks. If not the best company, they were at least welcome associates. Of these natives Samuel McCarty, who came to Aurora in 1834, is reported as having written as follows. "It was not a wild, desolate, unpopulated region, for we had plenty of neighbors in the redmen, who had occupied and enjoyed these beautiful prairies and rivers for many and many a year before this, and the viHage of the head war chief of the Pottawattomie nation was but Httle over a mile north of us. On the west side of the river, on the bluff opposite Mr. Tanner's stone farm house and a little north, was the Indian burying ground, a part of which is now occupied by the Catholics for the same purpose. The village and vicinity contained from three hundred to five hundred Indians and we had many visits from them. Quite a commercial trade sprang up between us, especially swapping bread and tobacco for fish, of which we soon found that they had much the largest supply, although we could give but one slke for a large fish weighing from three to five pounds, and then at times they would have several in their canoes to take back. The treaty with our government for the purchase of their reservation had been ratified, I think, about one year previous, and consequently they were peaceable and friendly.

"The old chief, Waubonsie, was a large and powerful man, six feet four inches, w-eighing about two hundred pounds and as straight as - an Indian. The most of their village was composed of movable or temporary wigwams, as the tribe was a wandering and unsettled people. They spent their summers here on Fox river but would emigrate to the south to spend the winter on the Illinois and Kankakee, returning in the spring. The old chief's wigwam, being the capitol of the tribe, was built very substantially, apparently to stand for centuries, the posts and frames being of red cedar. The 'palace' was built with a good deal of mechanical skill, although the mortises through the posts for the girders were chopped with their tomahawks, but in much better style than we would think possible with such a tool. The building, I think, was about twenty feet wide by thirty feet long. It was built by setting the posts firmly in the ground, forming four bents, with girders overhead and ridge pole. The principal rafter and cross-bearers were very ingeniously put together to gain strength to withstand the heavy gales of the prairie. There was a hall about eight or ten feet wide running through the building with a door at each end. Each side there were girders about one and one-half feet from the ground and on these were small poles. On them was placed wide bark taken from the basswood tree, which formed their mattresses or spring beds. These were covered with skins of the animals they had slain, such as wolves, lynx, wildcats and deer. Thus were formed their beds, with government blankets or buffalo skins for covering. They built their fire in the center of the hall and would gather in a circle around it to hold their war councils. The outside of this capitol was covered with the bark of the linn or basswood tree, taken from the standing trees, fitted to the sides and roof of the building very nice and tight. It was fastened by cutting three-cornered holes through the bark and tying to the cross rafters with the inside bark of young basswood trees. The rafters and all of the cross rafters were small straight poles, with the bark all peeled off, which made them appear neat and comely.

"The ladies of honor were quite fond of ornaments and jewelry, generally consisting of nicely worked and ornamented moccasins. The ornaments consisted of the dew-claw or small hoof of the deer, which was a beautiful shining black. These were strung so that they had the appearance of small bells.

They admired leather fringe and tassels. The principal garment was a skirt, formed of a piece of blue broadcloth, just as it was cut from the piece, about two yards long. They ran a small cord in the fold (being of double width), wrapped it around their waist and fastened with the cord. This made a very nice rig, nearly the same size at the top and bottom, but not quite as much pull-back as the present style (1875). The upper garment, or waist, was made of dark blue calico, fashioned very much like a man's plain shirt, without a collar, and reached a little below the waist. The upper classes ornamented this garment considerably, generally with silver brooches. I have seen two rows of these set so closely that they would nearly touch each other; one row around the neck, the other near the shoulder, coming together at the front. The brooches were of solid silver, the smaller about the size of a silver halfdollar, the others a little larger than the old-fashioned silver dollar. They were a little convex, with an engraved border on the outer edge and pins to fasten them. I think I have seen from forty to fifty on one person ; also as many as ten to twelve brass wristlets on one arm, covering the wrist for about two inches. The bonnet, when any was worn, consisted of a man's oldfashioned fur hat, with a silver band from one to two inches wide around the hat. and a few hawk or eagle feathers tucked under the band. The hair, braided, hung down the back, with a large bunch of feathers at the end. Over their shoulders, and sometimes over the head, they wore a large Mackinaw blanket. This comprised a first-class style of costume.

"The government had ratified the treaty with the Indians and bought out their reservation, which included part of Aurora, the whole of the Big Woods, and some prairie lying west of the river. They agreed to go west of the 'Great Father of Waters,' and in the spring or fall ( I do not recollect which) of 1836 the government moved them beyond Council Bluffs, west of the Missouri river, to a large reservation, where they remained until a few years past. About two years after they had been moved west, the old chief came back to view his familiar hunting grounds. He called on me and took a dish of succotash and after he had eaten a tremendous meal, across the table patted me on the shoulder and exclaimed, pointing to the table, 'Good ! good !' Also, to myself, saying, 'Good shemokeman !' That was the last I ever saw of Waubonsie, the war chief of the Pottawattomie nation."

Another Indian village had long existed on the site of what is now Dundee. They were a remnant of the Pottawattomies under Chief Nickoway and were related to those north of Aurora. They occupied about five acres of land on the east side of the river and engaged in a crude cultivation of the soil. Their village was on land now in the village of Dundee. They are described as a lazy lot by the first settlers, with whom they bartered vegetables and trinkets for tobacco, salt, etc., and begged or helped themselves to what they could not get by exchange. They also brought fish, game and honey to the settlers. Rum and tobacco were their chief desires. Jesse Oatman, who arrived at Dundee about 1835, is reported to have described this village as being about eighty rods below the brickyard and comprised six huts or wigwams containing about twenty-five Indians. He visited the chief in his tepee and was royally received. The squaw wife was at the time preparing a sand- hill crane for a meal. She picked out a few of the larger feathers and then placed the bird, after due dressing, it is presumed, into an earthen kettle filled with beans and water, to boil over a fire of coals.

The Indians who li\'ed along the Fox River valley and in DeKalb county along the Kishwaukee river were mostly of the Pottawattomie tribe, which was a branch of the Algonquins. They were associated with the Sacs and Fox members of the same general confederation. These tribes occupied hunting grounds in Michigan and northern Illinois, from which they had in the centuries before driven other tribes, their villages being chiefly along Lake Michigan and the Illinois and Fox rivers. They ceded their lands to the United States September 27, 1833, but were not removed west until 1836. The early settlers who traded with them reported them to have been quiet and inoffensive and not so bad as the white men, who sold them whisky and imposed upon them in trade. An interesting story is told of such a transaction happening in what is now DeKalb county, then a part of Kane county, which doubtless was duplicated many times along the Fox. "A half Yankeefied Frenchman, who will be called Peter, had made a claim on the east side of the Kishwaukee, near where Dr. Harrington now resides, and had engaged a half-civilized Indian boy called Shaw-ne-neese, who had lived some three or four years with the late Hon. James Walker, of Walker's Grove, now Plainfield, in Will county, to drive his breaking team. Now, as ill luck would have it, or 'somehownother,' it came into their heads that for just about one barrel of 'good-ne-tosh' each on their return to Walker's Grove might astonish the settlers with a nice Indian pony. The temptation to play on the 'Anglo- Saxon' was too strong. Shaw-na-neese, who had a mother, sisters, etc., living in the Big Woods, near where Aurora now stands, was supposed to be well acquainted with the Indians and could talk either English or Indian. So off goes Peter for the whisky, never once 'tinking" of the foolish settler, who for fun set a fire on the prairie that burnt up his own stacks. In due time the barrel of good-ne-tosh was regularly set up in the cabin of the settler, and 'where the carcass is there will the eagles be gathered together.' Shaw-naneese talks, Indian talk - ponies plenty - good-ne-tosh plenty - so much pony so much good-ne-tosh. Yes. Humph ! The doping begins ; the chemo-ko-man adding 'Kishwaukee' at the bung by night to supply the deficit made by the faucet by day until there was a normal certainty of perfecting the contract as to measurement. After the barrel was pretty much delivered of its contents and the sharpshooters began to hint that it was time for them 'to walk up,' that is, if they could, to the captain's office and settle, the Indians being really drunk or appearing to be, began to grumble about Peter cheating them, selling no good good-ne-tosh, etc. Explanation was attempted, but the thing could not be explained, expostulation was used, but in vain. 'You cheat poor Indian,' and they grew madder and madder. Peter and his comrades began to have fear for their personal safety. There were no white men near, and if there had been they could not have expected that they would be sustained in such an enterprise, when all of a sudden the terrific warwhoop burst from the whole group, and drawing their long knives they rushed upon the liquor dealers like so many fiends from the pit. Just at this moment an old Indian snatched Sha\v-na-neese onto a pony behind him and galloped off at the top of his speed for what has since been called Charter's Grove. But alas ! and a well a-day for unfortunate Peter, when he cried there was 'none to deliver.' He had a good pair of legs and it came into his heart that 'jess now,' if ever, was the time to use them, and bounding somewhar' about a rod at a jump he 'cut for the bush' and the Indians after him pell mell. As good luck would have it, however, he managed to conceal himself in the thick brush and elude their grasp, until at last, giving up further chase, they returned to Peter's shanty. Here they soon made a finish of the remainder for their 'own special use and benefits'. Peter's bag of flour, fry pan and new blue broadcloth coat they vamoosed, cutting up those dreadful antics which savages, thirsting for blood, alone know how to perform. Peter's predicament was by no means enviable. He knew that he was in the wrong, for 'a guilty conscience needs no accuser.' He had time to think and he did 'tink.' He had time for thought and he 'taught' 'if he ever lived to get out of this scrape he sure to quit tarn liquor business anyhow.' Afar off from the bosom of the thicket he had beheld the plunder of his shanty and the subsequent withdrawal of his enemies. He had no doubt but that they had gone for reinforcements and would soon return and murder him. Perhaps they were still lying in ambush to 'let the life out of him.' Still "tinking' discretion to be the better part of valor, he kept still until it began to grow dark, when what should he hear but the friendly voice of his old comrade 'Shaw-na-neese' cautiously calling to him from the plundered shanty and saying to him that he had 'jest' got away from the Indians, who were intending to come and kill him as soon as it was dark and he was advised further by the redskin not to make his whereabouts very public - was assured that he would get up the oxen, gather up the fragments that remained, hitch on to the 'truckle truckles' and ioin him with all possible dispatch in the grove. Peter and his comrade were at last under cover of night, plodding their way over old logs, sloughs and brush to the west side of the grove, from whence in a cold rain storm, and Peter in his shirt sleeves, they made their retreat toward W^alker's Grove, which they had the good fortune to reach the next day, drenched with mud and water, and where Peter, starved, cold and hungry, was prepared to do up any quantity of muttering and swearing about the 'tam Injuns.' "

The chiefs of the tribes that lived in Kane and DeKalb counties were Waubonsie (mentioned by Samuel McCarty in quotation above) and Shabbona or Shau-ba-nee. Shabbona's settlement was in DeKalb county, in the township now known as "Shabbona," although he often set his wigwam in the beautiful grove on the banks of Mill creek, just south of Batavia, now known as "Pottawattomie Park" and much used for summer picnics. Waubonsie had his headquarters in the Big Woods, south of Batavia and east of the Fox river. They were at these points when the first pioneers arrived, numbering in all possibly o\'er a thousand warriors, squaws and pappooses.

They have been described as having been powerful men physically, above the average American in size, muscular, courageous and intelligent above the average Indian. They had emigrated from Canada at an early day and were allied with the French against the English, and later with the English against the Colonies in the Revohitionary war. Shabbona is said to have been born in Canada in 1775. He died in 1859. The government at Washington set aside land near what is now Shabbona Grove, DeKalb county, and permitted him to remain, when the tribe was removed westward in 1836, because of his services in the Black Hawk war.

Shabbona and Waubonsie both sided with the Americans in the Black Hawk war of 1832 and refused to take any part against the settlers. In a great council of Pottawattomies held on the Des Plaines river, west of Chicago, they both spoke against Black Hawk and after the council volunteered a company of one hundred braves under Shabbona to cooperate with the United States troops in protecting the settlers of northern Illinois. Shabbona is said to have visited Black Hawk at his camp in Iowa and sought to persuade him against a war upon the whites. But Black Hawk believed himself robbed of his lands and power by the government and would not stay his hand. Shabbona at once returned to Illinois and set about warning all the settlers of Black Hawk's plans, himself going from cabin to cabin and sending his sons and members of his tribe as far south as Ottawa.

The government not only rewarded Shabbona with land at Shabbona Grove, but settled upon him a pension of $200 per year. He removed to the Kansas reservation given to his tribe in 1836, but returned to DeKalb county in 1840 with his family, numbering about thirty persons, and lived at Shabbona Grove some time. But at frequent intervals he would go west to visit his friends and about 1847 remained so long that the government believed the statements of persons who desired to secure the land and in 1849 sold Shabbona's property at public sale, the grant to Shabbona being so worded as to give him the use of the land so long as he desired to occupy it but without power to sell it. Shabbona returned that same year. It is said he came in the night with part of his people, possibly twenty-five in all. They camped at their old camping place for the last time, for in the morning the settler who had purchased the land ordered them ofif with curses and threats. It is said that for days this faithful redman, who in so many ways disproved the ancient maxim that the only good Indian is a dead one, wandered about in the woods. He painted his face black and fell prone upon the graves of his children. For a time he would not sleep or eat, but constantly beat his breast and fasted until he grew weak and weary. His mind wavered and he wandered about aimlessly, to be found lying upon the ground on Rich creek in Kendall county, distracted and starving. He never returned to Shabbona Grove, of which he had been deprived by the white man's cupidity, but it is said that the Indian women would at intervals return to the graves of their dead and mourn for them, departing as silently as they came. For many years Shabbona, then seventy-five years of age, spent his time between his friends in central Illinois and his kinsmen in the west. He was a familiar figure upon the pony he always rode, taking usually the old Indian trails through the woods rather than the roads of the settlers. Sometimes he traveled alone; at other times with a company of his tribe, and was always welcomed by the settlers, all of whom knew him and of his services to the pioneers. On public occasions he was a center of attraction and made much of as a public character.

He delighted to attend country fairs with his family, where he was ever the observed of all observers. At Ottawa on July 4, 1857. he and his children and grandchildren led the procession and in the evening attended a grand ball, where he was made judge of which lady excelled in beauty and grace. He examined all critically and when called upon for his decision is said to have turned to his squaw. Coconako, who weighed near 400 pounds, and touching her shoulder with much pride, said, "Much heap, big prettiest squaw. During the campaign of 1858 he occupied the platform from which Lincoln and Douglas delivered their famous debate at Ottawa. He was then eightythree years of age. In 1857 a sum of money was raised by his white friends sufficient to purchase him twenty acres in Norman township. Grundy county, Illinois, and build him a house. He lived there until his death, July 27, 1859. He was buried at the cemetery in Morris, Illinois, on a lot donated by the cemetery. Here his wife, upon her death in 1864, was also interred. On October 23, 1903, a monument consisting of a huge boulder bearing the inscription, "Shabbona, 1775-1859," was placed at his grave in honor of his memory.

The first thing I knew about Shabbona mj" father went to his wigwam to buy enough trees of him to build a log house. He told him who he was. Then Shabbona introduced himself and family thus :

"This rrte Pokenoquay" (meaning his squaw), and then he pointed to Siboquay as his pappoose and pointing to her three children, "These are my pappoose's pappooses.' The introduction over, ni}' father made known his business, but the old chief thought it beneath his dignity to sell trees to a Shemokaman and would not let him have a single tree. Consequently he bought the trees of Peter Aliller, and we had a shanty to cover our heads made from them, in which we lived five years.

Shabbona was generous with the white people and he would bring a quarter of a venison to his neighbors frequently, and once in a great while a wild goose and a duck. Often he would go from house to house and eat with anyone that would ask him. One Saturday he came to our house and father asked him to sit up to the table and have some breakfast. He looked around the table and made the remark, "Me no see um, me no eat um." We had eaten every bit of bread that there was in the house for our breakfast and were going to bake that morning, but that did not help us out for the meal. He had asked Shabbona to eat, so I frowningly said in a whisper, "We have not a particle of bread in the house." The keen-eyed old fellow saw the maneuvering and said, "Lazy squaw." He thought I did not want the trouble of getting his breakfast, but father said, "Bake him some pancakes." So I did and it proved to be the very thing he liked best, and I retained my good name in his opinion, which I have highly valued, being only about sixteen years old.

The Indians in those days would not work. They would hunt and the squaws did all of the drudgery, such as cutting the wood and hauling it by hand, and they had to keep the fires in the wigwam, and they cooked the succotash to eat, and the corn and beans were some of their own planting and harvesting the summer before. The Indians furnished the meat for them.

They generally had a tame skunk running around for a pet and they would play with them as we play with kittens. The government gave each of Shabbona's children a pony and they never went on foot anywhere. They never provided anything for the ponies to eat during the winter, so the ponies had to steal what they ate. As none of us had barns we had to stack the hay outdoors. The ponies used to eat nights. The boys of the neighborhood would catch them and ride them down as far as Somonauk creek, ten miles away. They would drive all they did not ride and leave them in the woods and would keep about three ponies and then get on their backs and come home. In about three days Shabbona would come along and ask, "You no see um ponies?" Then we would innocently ask, "How long have they been gone, Shabbona?" and he would say, "Maybe snee days; Ite know know." But they always managed to find their way back in a few days and then there would be more fun for the boys.

Shabbona understood the geography of the United States and Canada to perfection. Just give him a piece of chalk and start him on some stream or lake, say Lake Superior, and he would mark every bit of water and tell you what it was named and what the Indians called it. In fact, he would mark over a whole floor and tell us just where the different bodies of water were located. One time he told us he was Tecumseh's aid and saw Johnson kill him with a little gun that went "Ping !" My brother. Harvey Allen, was there when he was telling it and he said, "Why didn't you rush in between them and kill Johnson?" "Oh," said Shabbona, "two big men. let um fight." Then he shook his sides with silent laughter, as though he always liked the white man best. He had the faculty of going through gestures in all his talk, which made it doubly interesting to his hearers.

For a few years the white men came from the east, so many in number, and all wanted a few acres of timber to fence their farms and get wood for their fires that Mr. W^arham Gates, of Paw Paw, bought the grove of Shabbona and he persuaded Uncle Sam to sell it at one dollar and a quarter an acre. Then poor old Shabbona felt as though this grove was no longer his. He never would live in the log house that Mr. Gates had built for him. He wanted to go away (his old place is now owned by William Rusk) and my brother took them to Chicago in a double wagon and when half-way there they stopped and camped out all night. They had brought a hog with them and proceeded to kill and dress it Indian fashion. They built a big fire made from rails which they took from the farmers' fences and killed the hog, and four of the Indians tied it by the legs and tossed it through and through the blaze until every bristle was singed off. They then took out the intestines and old Pokenoquay took them and run them between her thumb and front finger and they were ready to cook without a particle of water having been on them until thev were in the kettle over the fire, and that was all thev had for their supper. They offered my brother some of the stew, but he dechned it. for he had brought his own lunch with him. Then they told him to get some of the meat from the hog, which he did, and after taking off the skin and broiling it on the end of a sharpened stick he took some of the butter off his biscuits and spread it on the meat. He called it delicious. You know the Indians never eat salt on any occasion. When Shabbona and his family came back to their place my father had passed away. I had married and I had never seen any of the Indians since their return. I met the old chief just turning in at our back gate. He was on his pony and sat there like a statue. I hurried up to him and held out my hand and said, "How do you do, Shabbona?" and he said, "Show-in" (which meant No), "me no Shabbona." "Yes, you are Shabbona," I said. "I know you." He still kept his face straight and kept saying "Show-in" for five minutes and then he gave in and said I was right. I asked him to come into the house, where my mother was. He shook hands with her and said, "Me no see um big Injun." We told him he was dead, but he would not believe it and wanted to go upstairs to see if we were fooling him, so we gratified him and at last convinced him of the truth. He seemed to feel bad and kept saying, "Dead, dead." We had a good visit with him, but he wanted to see my Indian and I told him he had gone east. Then he laughed and said, "Ite know know maybe, Ite know, me no see um."

You all know Shabbona was gone from here a few years and then came back, thinking it would be home again, but he didn't like it, for it was so changed. He felt as though the white man didn't want him any more and he went to Morris, Grundy county, and died. I do not know any of the dates of his going away or the death of him or his squaw, Pokenoquay.

"Sitting upright, with bony hands folded in contentment, as they had died more than one hundred years ago, Pottawattomie Indians were found recently in what apears to have been an Indian burying ground on the C. M. Van Der\-olgan farm, two miles east of St. Charles and about thirty feet south of Person creek on a bluff above the water's edge.

"The discovery was made by Charles Van Dervolgan, son of Mr. and Mrs. Frank M. \'an Dervolgan, of West Second street, St. Charles, and a grandson of the owner of the farm.

Boxes Are Well Preserved

"While digging in the sand on the bank of the creek the boy unearthed a well preserved human skull with the lower jaw bone attached and the most perfect set of teeth ever discovered in a skull in this part of the state. Almost perfect human bones were also discovered beneath the skull, showing that the body, of medium height, had been buried sitting in an upright position.

"Beyond were found traces of four other skeletons, none, however, being in as good condition as the first, which seemed to have been in a dryer portion of the gravel pit where the graves so far opened were discovered.

"Dr. W. E. Constant, of St. Charles, who examhied tlie skull in the possession of young \'an Dervolgan, has given his opinion that it is that of a man ahout sixty-five years of age at the time of death.

"The teeth are the most remarkable feature of the skull, being nearly as perfect as at the time of death and unusually sound for a man past middle life. Efforts will be made to make further excavations on the \'an Dervolgan farm."