Kendall County, Illinois - Chapter 9: The Shadow of War, 1877

Chapter 9: The Shadow of War

HILE Booth was building his house, the Ament brothers arrived from Bureau county, where they had been living several years. They were originally from Livingston county, N. Y., in 1824. The eldest, worked a few weeks at Peoria for Joseph Ogee, an Indian interpreter. Then came along John Kinzie and Medore Beaubien - the latter a young man, son of John B. Beaubien - with a Mackinaw boat and a two ton cargo of Indian goods for the fall trade. They were on their way up from St. Louis. Mr. Ament hired to Mr. Kinzie for ten dollars a month, and went with him. They made but slow progress working the heavy boat up the stream. When it would siet aground, Kinzie and Beaubien would leap into the cold water, and one each end of an oar would push it off again. But at Marseilles they found it impos-^ible to navigate further, and Mr. Kinzie, leaving the two young men in charge of the goods, went to Chicao[;o after ox teams and was-ons. He was silverament's early experiences. 61 smith to the Indians, making silver ornaments, brooches, bracelets, &c., which the wealthy Indians freely indulged in, and Mr. Ament's work was to do chores, cut wood, make hay, tend stock, &c. There were but seven families in the place. In 1825 he hired to the Claibornes, four miles up the north branch. There were two brothers. Archibald spent most of his time trading with the the Indians, while Henley helped work the farm. That year Edward helped a man by the name of Vermet raise the first log cabin on the site of Evanston. The logs, instead of being raised up on forked sticks as usual, were pushed up on skids - a much easier process. In 1826 he went to the Galena lead mines, where his brothers were getting twenty-five dollars a month. He spent two years there working leads for himself, and then removed to Red Oak Grove, Bureau county, where he and his brothers were the only settlers between Galena and Peoria - fifty miles on one side and one hundred on the other. Early in the spring of 1831 he came up this way, prospecting, and stopping at Dougherty's, met Peter Specie, his old Chicago friend. Specie had a little farm, formerly, about where Bridgeport now is, two or three miles out on the south branch, and the good man was in such constant difiiculty with his neighbors that he sorely tried the patience of Mr. Kinzie, then Justice of the Peace. Mr. Ament, however, had had no trouble, for he had had no deal, and Peter was glad to see him, escorted him to the cabin which he and Colonel Sweet called home, and there Edward made his claim, and returned for his brothers. Four came with him - Hiram, Calvin, xlnson and Alfred - all unmarried, and the young- est, Alfred, not more than ten years old. The eldest brother, Justus, was married, and remained behind. They arrived about May 10th, and set to work at once to improve their claim. They were entitled to the distinction of being the youngest squatters in Kendall county.

George Havenhill

wife and two sons- - Fielding and Oliver - and his sonin-law, Anthony Litsey, entered the county. Mr. Havenhill was born in Virginia, in 1778, and emigrated to Tazewell county, in Illinois, in 1830, His brother.William was the first white child born in Kentucky. Mr. Litsey had a family of four little children, so that the party consisted of ten persons. Part of Mr. Havenhili's family was for the present left behind. They found temporary shelter at Mr. Dougherty's and Mr. Kellogg's, and, renting a few acres of land, planted it to corn. Mr. Litsey placed his stake on the site abandoned by Mr. Booth, and using the logs already cut, erected his cabin nearly on the site of Mr. Scofield's present residence.

Soon after they arrived, Countryman, who had moved to Pawpaw Grove, came over to get some one to break up a corn patch for him, and Fielding Havenhill was commissioned by his father to do the work. With two yoke of oxen, a plow and wagon, he undertook the journey, crossing the river by the ford at William Smith's and ate and lodged with the Indians while he remained. The squaws followed the plow in a troop, planting the corn and treading it in with their feet. It was a novel experience for the young man, but he acquitted himself well.

The Holderman Family

He brought back seed enough for their own field in Kendall. The summer was spent by the settlers in making clearings, building cabins, and making ready for winter. Geo. Hollenback was gone six weeks after one grist. He waited for the wheat to ripen, cut it with a cradle, ground it in a horse mill, bolted it by hand, and reached home with it just as the last loaf was being divided. On the last day of October, 1831, arrived with his family at Dougherty's and Kellogg's, in search of a new home. He came from Cass county, Ohio, having sold his property there, and was the wealthiest settler that had yet entered Kendall county. Ansel Reed says : " November first was a cold, frosty morning. I was up before sunrise and drove Mr. Booth's oxen and wooden-wheeled wagon over to Kellogg's after a load of pumpkins and there I found the new-comers." Mr. Holderman had eleven children, as follows : Harriet, now Mrs. Peter Miller of Sheridan, lilinois ; Ruianne, now Mrs. Newton Reynolds, New Lenox, 111. ; Matilda, now Mrs. Samuel Hoag, Nettle Creek, 111. ; Caroline, now Mrs. Isaac Hoag, Morris, 111. ; Jane married and removed to Iowa, where she died ; Henry is in Bates county, Missouri ; Burton, ditto ; Abraham is two miles east of Seneca, 111. ; Samuel, at Morris, 111. : Jacob is dead ; Dyson is on the old homestead, at Holderman's grove.

Mrs. Reynolds was noted as a fearless rider, and rode all the way from Ohio on horseback. Mrs. Miller was married, and she and her husband did not come until the next spring. Mr. Holderman's first act was to buy out Walter Selvey, who owned one hundred and sixty acres, of which one-half lay in the grove. The sale was made before Daniel Kellogg, Justice of the Peace, and and the deed was recorded Nov. 14, 1831. It is the earliest sale on record in the county.

Two days after, he bouo!;ht out John Dougherty and Pierce Hawley - eighty acres each. The latter sale was made before Stephen J. Scott, a Naperville Justice, who happened to be present. Willard and Hadassah Scott were witnesses. The other was made before Mr. Kellogg, with Bailey Hobson as witness. Edmund Weed, with his one hundred and twenty- eight acres, held out for a month, and then sold. The affidavits were made at Mr. Kellogg's, with Edward A. Rogers as witness. Deed recorded December 20th. Mr. Vermet did not sell until the following year. Mr. Holderman now owned the largest part of the Seminary section - the only land in Kendall county which was in the market, and to which a title could be given. Mr. Dougherty and Mr. Selvey went over to the Aux Sable grove and took up claims near the Lawton reservation, where they remained several years, but finally emigrated to Oregon.

Walter Selvey was undoubtedly the first settler in Na-au-say, his claim covering the farm now owned by David Goudie. Mr. Dougherty went into the timber nearly a mile north of Selvey's, where was a fine spring of w ater, and cleared up a little field with as much labor and patience as if prairie flowers did not bloom all around him. Mr. Selvey returned a few years ago to Aurora, and died there in 1876.

First White Chilb In Kendall

December 1, in George Hollenback's cabin, Geo. M. Hollenback was born, the first white child born in Kendall county, and to-day is one of our most valued citizens.

The Winter

set in early, and was known as "the winter of the deep snow." The Indian ponies were unable to find their usual feed, and some of them died. It was a lonely time for the settlers, though none of them suffered for want of provisions, of which corn was the chief. It was ground by beating it in a pestle made out of a block cut from a tree. An iron wedge answered for a mortar to pound it with. The mail facilities were far between. The nearest office was at Ottawa. The next nearest was at Chicago, where a half-breed was the mail carrier. He made trips twice a week from Niles, Michigan, and easily carried the entire mail in one pouch, pony-back. So closed the year 1831. It was signalized by new cabins, and clearings, but the next was to be signalized by the

Terror Of War

Not all the Indians were involved ; it is Black Hawk and his turbulent Sacs who must bear the blame. And yet there were, doubtless, those who were more blameworthy still, viz: Indian agents, who, to secure treaties, often made utterly false representations and promises that were never kept - and then cheated in the payment of the annuities, so as to secure a share for themselves. There was a current conviction with some classes that among white men Indians had no established rights. As a gigantic instance of this see the

The Cherokee nation owned one million acres of land in Georgia. There were gold mines on some parts of it. The Georgians wanted it. The Cherokees declined to sell. The State declared the land seized and ordered it disposed of by lottery. The gold lands were divided into 35,000 lots, of forty acres each, and the remainder into 18,000 farms of one hundred and fifty acres each. Any freeholder was to send in his name and have a chance of securing, without any adequate money or price, a share of the coveted spoils. Eighty-five thousand men wanted farms, and sent in their names. The gold fields were more attractive, and were competed for by one hundred and thirty-three thousand persons. There were about four blanks to a prize. The drawing was made at Milledgeville. There were two missionaries of the American Board, Messrs. Worcester and Butler, with the Indians. They w^ere their pastors and teachers, and feeling the utter injustice of the entire proceeding, gave their counsels against it. Refusing to remove from ther fields of labor, they were forcibly taken, and spent sixteen months in the penitentiary. Again and again they were offered their freedom if they would cease teaching among the Cherokees ; but they would not yield. The U. S. Supreme Court decided against the State courts, but the decision was not regarded. At last they were released, and went back to their work.

Black Hawk's warriors had no such provocation, but were simply irritated by a long accumulation of causes. It was a war of revenge, in which they expected not to