Kendall County, Illinois - Chapter 12, 1877

Chapter 12

It was a pleasant morning, and soon after daylight I was up and went down a little piece from the house, to rive shingle bolts. While at work I heard three reports of guns, close together, from the direction of Newark, and soon after saw three men horseback galloping over a rise of ground toward Holderman's. I supposed then that those three men had fired the guns, and thought little more of it. There had been a talk of war for years, but we did not know as it would ever come. There was a pond a little out from the edge of the grove - a quarter of a mile from the house. Mr. Booth wished to plant a patch of potatoes by it, and after breakfast I went out to drive up the oxen to do the plowing. While looking for the cattle, Booth came out too, and crossed the fresh horse tracks. They were made by large horses that were shod, and so he knew they were not Indians. Yet, in thinking about it, I remembered that the Indians had appeared unusually busy that spring. Their trail ran along by the grove, about on the line of the Newark and Lisbon road. There were three or four trails side by side. In some places, where the rain had washed them out, they were three feet deep. Indians passed along these every day, sometimes riding at the top of their speed. Booth's oxen were a fine, large, spotted pair ; well known because of their strength and color, and the pride he took in them. He plowed the ground, while I spent the forenoon chopping for sod corn with a wooden ax. There were seventeen acres in the field ; the pond was in the same enclosure. We worked on so all the forenoon, not knowing we were left nearly alone in Kendall county, and that the savages were so near us. They had set Clark Hollenback's cabin on fire, and I saw the smoke all the afternoon. Mr. Booth saw it, too, but thought it was burning brush. If the Indians had come then, they certainly would have killed us all, but they probably supposed we had fled. In going to work in the afternoon I met two Frenchmen, half-breeds, riding each a mare with a colt following. They said they lived in Kankakee and were going north for seed corn, and asked if I could not get them some din- ner. I directed them to the house, but they would not go unless I went too. I knew if I went back without permission, Mr. Booth would not like it, so I declined. They talked a little while longer and passed on toward Newark. The trail did not run through the present site of Newark, but left it a little to the right, and about there it was crossed by the Chicago trail. Mr. Booth came out and had made two or three turns in furrowing out the potato land, when the Frenchmen returned in a great fright and told Mr. Booth what they had seen. He sent them on to alarm Anthony Litsey, and beckened to me to hurry, saying, as I came near, "I don't know but we shall all be killed." We had heard Litsey calling to his oxen during the forenoon. He had joined teams with William Parcell, a bachelor who lived at Cherry's Grove, and they were breaking ground together. Parcell had a two-wheeled cart, which was the only vehicle on the place, as Litsey had none. Booth's wagon had a rack on it, but no box. It had solid wheels, a sapling for a tongue, and was wholly of wood - not even a nail about it. We put on some maple sugar and a loaf of bread, and then I was sent to drive up the cows, but could not find them. I ran around the prairie, but they were nowhere in sight. In coming back I met Mrs. Booth, carrying the youngest child. She looked frightened, and said, as she passed,

The road that led up to the house was the same that leads to it now, and when I came up Mr. Booth said, '' Let down the bars and get your shoes and coat and come on." I did so, and then ran on after him. He had fastened the door by planting a heavy stick against it on the inside. When we had gone a little way he saw his steers, and let me drive while he went back to the house to yoke them up. But in a moment he said, " I don't think it's safe to go back," and, turning, ran on after his wife. They walked a mile and a half to the north-west corner of Collins' Grove, then called Duck Grove, because there was a large pond in it and wild ducks were plenty there. The thicket was very dense, and Booth hid his wife near where the wagon would pass, while he ran on to alarm Kellogg and the other families. It was about three-quarters of a mile further. Mr. Kellogg had built a better house, of hewed logs, a few rods from William Stephens' residence. I reached Mrs. Booth and took her on board, and soon Booth came running down, hat in hand, tired out and frightened, and reported that the Kelloggs had gone, leaving their breakfast table set and the coffee poured out in the cups. We were afraid now to go on, and hoping to keep hid until dark, we went over logs and fallen limbs, and then I unhitched the cattle and took them down to the duck pond, where there was a good bite of grass. I remember that the ring in the yoke staple made such a horrible noise, as the oxen walked, that I believed the Indians must surely hear it. In the meantime, Litsey and Parcell had started, and Booth went up to hail them as they passed. On his way he saw a number of Indians entering Big Grove, north of his house, as if intending to enter it by the rear ; we left, therefore, none too soon. Mr. Litsey did not think it best to wait until dark, so Mr. Booth returned and brought his wagon out of the almost impenetrable timber. Parcell's cart wheels were making a terrible squealing, and they greased them with some pork Booth had with him. The sun was now about an hour high. Litsey had two horses, and rode one while Booth rode the other, and Parcell and I drove the teams. He had three yoke of oxen in his team, but in the slough this side of Holderman's my wagon mired, and he had to pull me out, and after that we drove two yoke each. From Holderman's, where we found the breakfast table still spread, we struck across the prairie toward Marseilles - Booth and Litsey riding ahead, Parcell following, and I in the rear. The night was cloudy, and about midnight there came a very heavy thunder shower, which compelled us to stop and take off the cattle, and cover the women and children with quilts. We struck the Illinois river timber below Marseilles, near where a Mr. Shaver lived, but they had gone. The next settler was Samuel Parr, and the next Mr. Milligan. They were all gone. By this time it was broad daylight. When we came within two miles of Ottawa, our neighbors at the Fort recognized Booth's oxen, and were alarmed, for we had been reported

Dead And Scalped

But when we had approached near enough for them to know us their alarm was turned into joy, and we had a glad reception. Booth's cattle that he had left behind followed the next day, and were found at their old home on Covin's creek. A company was at once formed to go back to the settlements and reconnoiter, but before they

Started Mr. Kellogg came in on his return journey. He rejected the idea that there was any real danger, and against the persuasion of his friends went on alone to his farm. He found everything quiet, and the table set as it was left, so he sat down in his accustomed place and ate a hearty meal. He then started back, intendino; to bring his fiimily up, and met a military company barely in time to be saved from assassination at the hands of an Indian who had been watching him and was lurking in the bushes until he should pass. He did not remove his family. The very thought of how certain the bullet and scalping knife of that lurking Indian would have found him if his neighbors had not met him at just that point, made the shudders creep over him. The company numbered twenty-five men. They found the cabins at Newark burned to the ground, but at the other groves they were undisturbed, except that milk and provisions had been taken away. After that companies used to come up nearly every day, and found no considerable damage done until three weeks had passed, when, at every house, some animal was found killed and beheaded. It was the Indian declaration of war.

One day, while Booth was at Big Grove, a boat arrived at Ottawa with a family bv the name of Kino^, who afterwards settled toward Joliet. They had apples on board, and a French half breed stepped up and bought some. I at once recognized him as one of the men who first warned us of the danger. As he turned to go away he was arrested as a spy, and held under guard for trial, but I felt they did not mean to try him, for I heard some say significantly, "Only wait till night comes," and I was very much alarmed. At dusk Booth arrived, and as soon as I told him about it he hurried over and procured his release, and did not leave him until he was safely away.

When the fort was built on the bluff in South Ottawa, though only a boy, I drove the oxen to help haul the logs, and enjoyed it, too. I had few cares of my own, and there was something exhilarating about seeing so many people at work. As soon as it was safe to travel we removed to Macomb, and remained there during the summer.