Kendall County, Illinois - Chapter 10: The First Bloodshed, 1877

Chapter 10: The First Bloodshed

He belonged originally to the Ottaw^as, of Canada, and was born near Montreal, about 1775. While yet a young man, in company with a number of his tribe he joined the Pottawatomies, who were also from Canada and had emigrated to the Northwest in an early day. He subsequently removed to Northern Illinois, where detachments of his tribe had for many years had their hunting grounds. In 1832 Shabbona came into prominence as the firm opposer of the fiery chief of the Sacs and Foxes They were both old men - one near sixty and the other near seventy years of age - and had been associates under the mighty Tecumseh. Black Hawk's town, at Rock Island, had been burned and he and his tribe driven over the river into Iowa : and the treaty stipulations under \yhich it was done, he claimed had been obtained frandulently. He burned for revenge. The Winnebagoes, occupying the country west of Rock river, spoke a dialect of the Sac language and were, therefore, foreigners to the Pottawatomies. But they were neighbors, with common interests, and upon these two tribes the aged Black Hawk depended for help in the contemplated war. He sent messengers to them to represent his cause, and finally worthy of preservation - those old chiefs, life-long friends as they had been, now drifting apart on the old and hard question of devotion to the white man. One, determined and bitter - the other, anxious and pleading ; one, burn- ing under a sense of insult and injury - the other, conscious of friendship and favor. 0, the hard lines of some lives ! It is the rule that every man is the architect of his own fortune ; yet, is there not something to be said about the election of circumstances? We often go a way we know not. Fate is the child of sin, but is none the less sad. How good it is that in the great gulf stream of the gospel all counter life- currents may be swallowed up, and forever ! And it is, whosoever will ! Shabbona's arguments were in vain. The die was cast. The dark-visaged Sac chief and his eager warriors had set out for Illinois and ruin - and that so speedily that there was no time to be lost. Meantime the Kendall county settlers were busy about their

Spring Work

Beins: once assured that their own Pottawatomies were peaceful, they dismissed all serious thoughts of danger from their minds, and went on plowing and sowing and laying many plans for the future. The plans were not all of work, either, for Cupid visited those virgin groves. On May 1st, Edward G. Ament was married to Miss Emily Ann, daughter of Wm. Harris. Rev. Isaac Scarritt performed the ceremony. It was the first marriage within the present limits of Kendall county, and they took their wedding trip two weeks afterward, when they fled from the Indians.

Early In May

the ao-ed Black Hawk and his turbulent braves crossed the Mississippi at Rock Island, then Fort Armstrong, and passed up the north side of Rock river. Gen. Atkinson, in command at the Fort, followed them as soon as possible, passing up on the south side, and so the long threatened war was fairly begun. At Dixon's a force of volunteers had assembled, under Major Stillman, which probably deterred the Indians from showing themselves at the ferry there ; for, making the circuit of the great bend, they crossed at Byron, thirty miles above. Major Stillman's company marched up on the other side of the river, and on the edge of a grove at stillman's run, near Byron, they discerned some mounted Indians. At once a part of the volunteers - without any military order - dashed away in pursuit, but soon found themselves attacked by a larger force than they anticipated, and began to retreat. A panic seized the others, and it was at once apparent that nothing more could be done that day but for each man to save himself They struck out for Dixon's, and from midnight until morning continued to arrive in parties of three and four on horseback and on foot. The serious part of it appeared the next morning at roll call, when forty-two did not answer their names, though all but twelve afterward turned up. The ludicrous side was illustrated by the speech, after roll call, of a volunteer who had formerly been a Kentucky militia captain. Mounting a stump, he congratulated his brethren in arms on their escape from a savage foe, expressed sorrow for those who had fallen, and concluded: "Sirs, Bonaparte or Wellington never commanded better disciplined forces. But the most imposing scene of all was their outflanking us ; they outflanked us in the majesty of their greatness, and their muskets glistened in the moonbeams!"

Indians In Council

Gen. Atkinson arrived that day, and at once proceeded to the scene of action, and buried the twelve dead. They were shockingly mutilated and dismembered, and were reverently gathered and interred in a common grave. Thus the soil of Ogle county drank the first blood of the war. Afterwards, at the battle of the Wisconsin, the war cry of the whites was, '' No Stillman's Run here!" and the issue proved it.

Passing rapidly through the territory of the Winnebagoes, who were more than half friendly to his cause, his bands scouring the country in various directions, Black Hawk, on the evening of the 14th, or early in the morning of the 15th, reached at Post's Mill. He was met by the Pottawatomie chiefs and their braves on that remarkable hill, or natural fortress, sometimes called Black Hawk's Mound. It is a spur of limestone sixty or eighty feet high, isolated from the main ridge by a wide ravine, and washed on the remaining sides by Little Rock creek. The top is covered with trees, and is broad enough for a tribe to encamp at once. It has probably been used from ancient times as an Indian fortress and council ground, as many old relics have been found there. At this council, so tradition tells us, Black Hawk made the leading speech, and used all his eloquence to persuade the others to rescind their action at the O'Plain council, raise the tomahawk, and help to drive the white man from their lands. On the other hand Shabbona, with less eloquence but more reason, again presented the argument for refraining from war. It was in vain. Not only were the Sacs unconvinced, but many of the Pottawatomies were in sympathy with them. Upon Shabbona now depended the safety of the little settlements in Kendall county, with their seventy souls. Messengers had been dispatched from Dixon's to alarm them, but were intercepted and probably put to death by one of Black Hawk's bands, and the peaceful Pottawatomie chief alone remained.

It seems strongly probable that the Indians who made the trouble in this county were Pottawatomies, neighbors of the settlers, with perhaps a few Sacs for leading spirits. It is certain that many Pottawatomies left their tribe and joined the various marauding bands under Black Hawk, and others, doubtless, who did not go away, were as eager for plunder at home. They had decided, as a tribe, not to engage in the war, and this gave a false idea of security to the settlers and came near costing them their lives.

When Shabbona found that he could not control the council, and that even his own people were breaking awav from him, he at once acted. It was the middle of the afternoon, and a short space of sunlight was all that was left, for he felt that with the darkness would fall. He had a nephew, a fine young fellow by the name of Pyps - called Peppers for short by the settlers - and who was well known to all acquainted with Shabboiia's camp. Tliis young man Shabbona at once despatched, telling him to go by way of George Hollenback's. For some reason, however, he did not go there, but gave the alarm first at George B. Hollenback's, and passed on to Holderman's. Shabbona himself waited until the assembly broke up, and then stole away and rode at express speed to spread the alarm further south.