Madison County, Illinois - Chapter 6: The Edwards Administrations, 1912

Governor Edwards and Illinois Territory - Mounted Rangers Organized - War Against British and Indians - Governor Edwards and Madison County - Indian Mas¬ sacres in Madison - The Wood River Tragedy - Barbarity of Rangers.

John Boyle, associate justice of the Ken¬ tucky court of appeals, was at first appointed governor of the newly organized territory of Illinois, but declined to accept the office. Thereupon Ninian Edwards, chief justice of the same court, received the appointment from President Madison, April 24, 1809. Nathan¬ iel Pope, of Kaskaskia, late of Kentucky, was appointed secretary of state. Before the ar¬ rival of the governor, who was detained in Kentucky, Secretary Pope organized the gov¬ ernment, and, by proclamation of April 25th, reestablished the counties of St. Clair and Randolph, as before the separation from Indi¬ ana. Governor Edwards arrived in Kaskas¬ kia early in June and assumed his duties.

The new executive came of a distinguished Maryland family, the son of Benjamin Ed¬ wards, a name since honorably perpetuated in Illinois history. Ninian Edwards was born in Maryland March 17, 1775. His early educa¬ tion was under that great lawyer, William Wirt, and he completed his studies at Dickin¬ son college, Pennsylvania. Leaving home at the age of nineteen, he settled in Kentucky and immediately embarked in large enter¬ prises. However, he fell into youthful ex¬ cesses in which he wasted his patrimony. Soon realizing his imprudence, he reformed his course, removed from Nelson to Logan county and settled down to the study and prac¬ tice of law. He was quickly and eminently successful in his profession and, entering upon the political field, served two terms in the Ken¬ tucky legislature, and became, later, chief jus¬ tice of the court of appeals, which office he was filling when he was appointed governor of Illinois territory, in tribute to his eminent ability.

The task before Governor Edwards was a stupendous one. The territory was unorgan¬ ized, save as to two counties. Its area was something immense, as noted elsewhere, stretching from the Ohio river to the Canadian line, with the Wabash and Lake Michigan on its eastern border and the whole course of the Mississippi on its western. It was mainly a vast wilderness, inhabited by warring Indian tribes, with French settlements on the north at Green Bay and Prairie du Chien, Wiscon¬ sin ; military posts at Chicago' and Rock Island ; white settlements at Kaskaskia, Prai¬ rie du Rocher, New Design, Fort Chartres and Cahokia, together with the settlements along the Wabash and at Fort Massac. In addition there were several hundred settlers south of the present north line of Madison, who were not located in villages. This was especially the case in Madison, where there was no town except the flourishing settlement at Goshen. The station of Peters, on the Clover Leaf, about six miles southwest of Edwardsville, oc¬ cupies the original site of Goshen.

Associated with Governor Edwards were the three territorial judges appointed by the President, Jesse B. Thomas, Alexander Stuart and Obadiah Jones. The two last-named soon resigned and their places were filled by Stanley Griswold and William Sprigg, who thus con¬ stituted the territorial Federal court, continued until the admission of the state in 1818. All the laws for the new territory were framed by the governor and the judges, who thus com¬ bined legislative with judicial functions, but all appointments to civic or military offices were made by the governor alone. The people had no part in the choice of local officials until the territory was raised to the second grade when they were given power to elect members of the territorial assembly. This, however, did not take place until 1814. The govern¬ ment for these first five years was not repre¬ sentative but autocratic, yet it was wisely, justly and humanely administered.

The new authorities found the social and civic condition chaotic, due to the distance from the former seat of government at Vin¬ cennes. The people were divided into cliques' and factions owing to differences arising from separation from Indiana, and the harmonizing of adverse elements was the first work to which the authorities addressed themselves. The first code of laws enacted, June 16th, con¬ sisting mainly of those in existence under the former Indiana government, helped to adjust the differences.

The white population of the territory at that time was about nine thousand, with an esti¬ mated Indian population of twice that number. The governor next turned his attention to the reorganizing of the militia, owing to the threatening attitude of the northern Indians. They had been provoked to hostility by the en¬ croachments of the whites and aroused to ac¬ tion by the fanatical eloquence of Tecumseh. The great battle of Tippecanoe, in Indiana,

November 6, 1811, in which General William Henry Harrison defeated the famous Indian chieftain, served only to intensify the hostility of the Indians in Illinois. The massacre of the garrison of Fort Dearborn, the following year (August 15, 1812), the bloodiest in Illi¬ nois history, also aroused further ferocity on the part of the Indians. Viewing the danger¬ ous situation congress had, in 1811, provided for the organization of a regiment of mounted rangers for the protection of the Illinois coun¬ try, but prior to that Governor Edwards had called out the militia and established a line of stockade forts from the mouth of the Missouri across the country to the Wabash, bearing a large share of the expense himself. The regi¬ ment authorized by congress was commanded by Col. William Russell, of Kentucky, and the captains of the four companies located on the western border were Samuel Whiteside, Wil¬ liam B. Whiteside, James B. Moore and Jacob Short, names well known in later annals.

The declaration of war by the United States against Great Britain was made by congress June 19, 1812. The Pottawatomies and other tribes in northern Illinois and Wisconsin openly sided with the British. Others were friendly to the Americans. The governor con¬ structed a fort near Edwardsville, which he named Fort Russell, in honor of the officer spoken of, and made it his headquarters for the campaign. He organized a force of three hundred and fifty mounted men, with two companies of Rangers under Colonel Russell, and an independent company under Captain Samuel Judy, and, on October 18th, began his march against the Indians near Peoria. They destroyed two Kickapoo villages en route, and, after a five days' march, came in sight of the village that was the object of attack. The Indians were ignorant of the approach of the troops; many of them were friendly, but no discrimination was made by the assailants.

When the attack was made the Indian children were playing on the green. As the soldiers ap¬ proached, the inhabitants fled, but were shot down as they ran. Some thirty Indians were killed and many wounded. It was a massacre, not a battle, in which only one of the Rangers was wounded. John Reynolds and Thomas Carlin, both afterwards governors of Illinois, were among the exultant soldiery. In truth, many atrocities were perpetrated by the pio¬ neers in those days, over which it is well to draw the veil. The campaign was a brief one, Governor Edwards marching his trumphant troops back to Fort Russell after an absence of thirteen days.

In the meantime Capt. Thos. E. Craig had been dispatched up the Illinois with two com¬ panies on boats to capture the ancient French village at Peoria, whose inhabitants had been represented to the governor as sympathizing with the British and Indians, a charge which had no basis. The inhabitants were traders, trappers and hunters, numbering over two hundred. Arriving in front of the town No¬ vember 8, 1812, the Captain heard several shots in the woods made by hunters, which he hastily conceived to be signals for an attack on his forces. Craig, in return, shelled the woods, and advanced on the town. There was no resistance. Reporting the reason of his at¬ tack to Indian Agent Forsyth and others, they made light of his fears, whereupon he became enraged, charged them with being in sympathy with the enemy and took them prisoners, save those who escaped - seventy-five in all, men, women and children. Craig then burned half the town and proceeded down the river with his prisoners, including the Indian agent, a loyal and reliable man. Arriving just below Alton, he put his prisoners ashore, on the east bank, without food or shelter. Winter had already set in and the helpless victims were compelled to make their way to their desolate homes as best they could, or to the nearest French settlements. Some of them, it is said,

Another expedition was sent against the Pottawatomies and Kickapoos on the upper Illinois, in 1813, under General Howard of Missouri, with a regiment of Rangers under Col. Benjamin Stephenson of Madison. They left Camp Russell in August but on arriving at the Indian villages found them deserted. They turned back to Peoria and built a stock¬ ade which they named Fort Clark, in honor of Gen. George Rogers Clark. Leaving a small force at the stockade, they returned to Fort Russell in October, not having accomplished anything of note. This Fort Clark was aban¬ doned at the close of the war and burned by the Indians.

Increased ferocity marked the attacks of the savages and the British in 1814, and maraud¬ ing bands took many scalps along the border, but only on a few occasions penetrated to the lower settlements. A government expedition was sent up the Mississippi with the intention of strengthening the fort at Prairie du Chien. It was under the command of Major Camp¬ bell of the regular army. It did not get to its destination. At Rock Island the expedition encountered a large force of Sacs and Foxes, under the renowned Black Hawk. The Ameri¬ cans were defeated and retreated down the river.

Another expedition was dispatched up the river, the same year, under Maj. Zachary Tay¬ lor, afterward president. But "Old Rough and Ready," as he was later called in the Mex¬ ican war, fared no better than his predecessor. In his command were two companies from Fort Russell commanded by Captains Samuel Whiteside and Nelson Rector. At Rock Island the British were discovered in possession, with a battery of artillery and backed by a large force of Indians. Another battle took place. The Americans were partially successful, but Maj. Taylor, finding his force insufficient, also withdrew down the river. He halted at the present site of Warsaw and built Fort Ed¬ wards. The Americans were compelled to re¬ tire from this point, also, and returning home, were discharged at Fort Russell October 18, 1814. In the frontier wars of 1812-4 the Illi¬ nois troops were not greatly successful, as shown above, in their aggressive campaigns, and at the close of the war the Indians had re¬ tained complete possession of northern Illi¬ nois. Still the Rangers had rendered good service, under Gov. Edwards' command, in protecting the southern settlements and in pre¬ venting any serious raids into their home ter¬ ritory by the British and Indians from the north.

Among the Ranger officers who bore them¬ selves gallantly during these border conflicts were William B. and Samuel Whiteside, Wil¬ liam Jones, James B. Moore, Joseph G. Lofton, Jacob Short, John Murdock, William and Na¬ than Boon, William, Nelson and Stephen Rector, Nathaniel Journey, Willis Hargreave, Jacob and Samuel Judy, Benjamin Stephenson and William Henry. These served as colonels or captains, the majority of them being resi¬ dents of Madison. Other commissioned offi¬ cers from this county, under the rank of cap¬ tain, were Lieutenants Titus Gregg, John Suagart, John Springer, Thomas Kirkpatrick, Samuel G. Moore and Ensigns Henry Taylor and Thomas Finley. Fort Russell was the headquarters of the troops for the several campaigns and a rallying point for settlers seeking protection from Indian raids.

Says Judge Moses, in his valuable "History of Illinois : "Although the treaty of peace be¬ tween the United States and Great Britain was signed at Ghent, December 24, 1814, the for¬ mal treaty with the latter's Indian allies was not concluded until the following year, when articles between the United States and the hos¬ tile tribes were signed at a point on the Missis¬ sippi (in Madison county) below Alton. The

American commissioners were Governor Ed¬ wards of Illinois, Gov. William Clark of Mis¬ souri, and Auguste Chouteau of St. Louis. Most of the northern tribes, including the Pottawatomies, were represented."

After the close of the war, in 1815, the in¬ habitants of the territory entered upon a new era of peace and prosperity, under the wise guidance of Governor Edwards and legisla¬ tures guiltless of graft or "job pottery." Ex¬ ecutive and legislatures worked together for the common good. An unprecedented growth set in and no county advanced more rapidly than Madison. When the state was admitted to the Union the number of organized counties had increased to fifteen, covering the southern one-fourth of the state. Shadrach Bond was elected the first governor. The first general asembly elected Governor Edwards and Jesse B. Thomas as United States senators. The latter was the author of the Missouri Com¬ promise of 1820. Governor Edwards, in the senate, voted for this measure, but his son-inlaw, the brilliant Daniel P. Cook, voted against it in the house, of which he was a member. The town of Edwardsville was laid out in 1815, on the site named by the governor in his proclamation organizing the county, as the seat of government, viz : "the house of Thomas Kirkpatrick." It was named in honor of the governor and later became his residence. At the first senatorial election Governor Ed¬ wards had drawn the short term., which would expire March 3, 1819. There was a strong opposition to his election for a second term, considerable hostility having been engendered against him during his ten years of public service. In the anti-slavery contest of 1824 Senator Edwards took no active part on either side. His real position on that great question has been variously stated. One writer asserts that "no one knew where he stood," but the late Rev. Thomas Lippincott cleared the mat¬ ter up in one of his papers on "The Conflict of the Century." Mr. Lippincott and the senator were both at that time residents of Edwardsville. Mr. Lippincott had been secretary of the senate in the legislature which passed the convention resolution. He writes as follows, in reply to a statement in Governor Ford's history: "I had opportunity, very frequently, during the time occupied by the contest, which Senator Edwards spent at home, to see him and hear his sentiments. He was opposed to the introduction of slavery into Illinois - not active, it is true, but free in his conversation to make his influence felt among his personal friends, and I am not mistaken if there was not a communication or two in the Edwardsville Spectator setting forth the impropriety of the act. The mistake of Governor Ford, if I am right, grew naturally out of the fact that Governor Edwards was a slave owner, and not under any strong anti-slavery influence. He had, in the United States senate, voted for the admission of Missouri with slavery. His language in our contest was : 'I have no scru¬ ples against holding slaves, but I will not con¬ sent to bring the curse of slavery on the state for my accommodation. If I cannot live with¬ out them I will go to a slave state.' Such and similar statements I heard him make during the contest ; and there are others still living who heard him speak in the same strain more frequently than I did."

This unbiased statement clears the Senator's record in that great contest. Governor Ed¬ wards was, in 1824, appointed minister to Mexico by President Monroe, and resigned his seat in the senate, but in an unfortunate controversy with William H. Crawford, sec¬ retary of the treasury, in regard to the deposit of public funds in the Edwardsville bank, which institution had proved a defaulter in the sum of $40,000, Governor Edwards claimed that he had informed the secretary of the in¬ solvent condition of the bank and the latter claimed that he had not. The congressional committee vindicated both parties, it being proved that Governor Edwards had written such a letter, but it was not proved that the secretary had received it. But the controversy had been so bitter that Governor Edwards re¬ signed his mission, to avoid embarrassing the administration, refunded all the money he had drawn for expenses of his trip, and returned to Illinois. In 1826, in order to vindicate him¬ self before the people, he became a candidate for governor. His opponent was Thomas C. Sloo, Jr., an able and popular man, a former state senator. The campaign was a bitter one but Edwards won by a vote of 6,280 to 5,854. Of the Governor's method of campaigning Judge Moses says, in his "History of Illinois:" "Consulting only the policy marked out by himself, and soliciting aid from none of the leading politicians, he conducted his campaign with the boldness of a Jackson, the persistence of an Adams and the eloquence of a Clay. Despising the arts of the demagogues of that day, who went about electioneering in old shabby clothes, to ingratiate themselves with the poorer classes ; who drank whisky with the crowd and went about unshaven and unshorn - he, on the contrary, arrayed himself in the style of an old-fashioned country gentleman, in his broadcloth coat, ruffled shirt and hightopped boots, and traveled over the state in his carriage, or on horseback, attended by his col¬ ored servant, notwithstanding the prejudices engendered by the recent agitation. The peo¬ ple who, it was supposed, would be driven away by his aristocratic appearance, were really attracted to him and deemed it an honor to vote for 'such a high-toned, elegant old gen¬ tleman.' "

The Governor delivered his inaugural in person, and, true to the instincts of propriety which distinguished him, appeared before the joint session of the assembly arrayed in a gold laced coat. An exciting incident of his admin¬ istration was the charge of mismanagement he brought against the officers of the bank at Edwardsville. An investigation followed, and the legislative committee reported that "noth- ing was proved against the officers of the bank - Shadrach Bond, Thomas Carlin, Abra¬ ham Prickett, Elijah Isles and Theophilus Smith - which would justify the belief that they had acted corruptly, or in bad faith in the management of said bank."

The administration of Governor Edwards, while a stormy one, closed with expressions of good feeling and satisfaction. In 1832 he became a candidate for congress. There were, four candidates in the field besides himself and he was defeated, Charles Slade receiving a plurality. The Governor then proceeded to his home in Belleville whence he had removed from Edwardsville and where, on July 20, 1833, he fell a victim to cholera, in conse¬ quence of his humane exertions for the relief of his stricken neighbors. "In person he was large and well-made, with a noble and princely appearance, a magnificent specimen of a man physically and intellectually. In private life he was kindly benevolent and hospitable." He served the territory and state as governor, thirteen years, piloted it safely through the perils of its formative period, and guided its later affairs with fearlessness and wisdom. He organized the original Madison county, ruled over the destinies of an empire in ter¬ ritorial extent, and was one of the greatest men and most striking characters of an event¬ ful epoch. His residence in Edwardsville ex¬ tended from 1818 to 1825.

We have dealt with Governor Edwards, so far. entirelv as his public service affected the destinies of Madison county, but there was an¬ other phase of his career not without interest. He was a great and successful business man and accumulated a large estate. Judge Moses says of him: "Governor Edwards was the foremost merchant of his day. Abandoning the practice of law after his removal to the territory, he engaged in mercantile pursuits in addition to his farming interests, on the most extensive scale. He established saw and grist mills, and stores in Kaskaskia, Belleville, Car¬ lyle, Alton and Springfield, Illinois, and at St. Louis, Chariton and Franklin, Missouri. He gave them his personal attention, so far as his official duties would permit, himself purchas¬ ing the immense stocks of goods required."

Thus we see that, in addition to his public services, he did a great work in developing the farming, manufacturing and commerc interests of the state.

The early settlers in Goshen, the outpost of civilization in Madison county, had lived for years in dread of raids by their savage foes of the forest. In 1802, Turkey Foot, the cruel chief of a band of the Pottawatomies, and his party, returning home from Cahokia to their village in northern Illinois, fell in with two men named Dennis and Van Meter, at the foot of the bluff, about five miles southwest of the present site of Edwardsville. Turkey Foot, seeing the Americans extending their settle¬ ments towards his country, was filled with wrath, and with savage ferocity wreaked his vengeance on the first white settlers who crossed his path. No further acts of hostility were committed at this time and the murders seem rather to have been acts of individual enmity with which the tribe, as a whole, had nothing to do.

Prior to the outbreak of the War of 1812 with Great Britain the hostility of the Indians along the border became more pronounced, and resulted in several murders of isolated pioneers. One of these occurred on the site of the present city of Alton. A man named Price had opened a farm, on a piece of land at the foot of what is now Spring street. On the Twentieth of June, 1811, Price was en¬ gaged with his son, a mere boy, in plowing the land, when they saw the Indians approaching them at the spring where stood a small cabin. As the Indians came near the spring the Amer- icans asked them if they came in peace. In re¬ ply the leader, a man of great size and strength, laid down his gun and extended his hand to Price, who took it unsuspectingly, when he was held fast in the Indian's grasp and immediately tomahawked by the other savages. During the struggle Price's son leaped upon the plow horse, and made the animal jump the brush fence around the field. At this instant the Indian shot at him. The ball struck the middle of the horse's back, be¬ tween the horse and the rider, and missed the boy entirely, while he was in the air, due to the jump. Maj. Frank. Moore, in his reminis¬ cences, tells the story as told to him by his father: "The boy rode out to my father's house between the forks of Wood river, to give the alarm. All the neighbors went in pur¬ suit of the Indians. Among them were my father, Abel Moore, Solomon Pruitt, William Montgomery, James Pruitt, John Vickery, a Mr. Dobbs and several others. They went to the spring and found Mr. Price dead, as the boy had stated. They pursued the Indians by following the trail through the grass. They followed it two or three miles above the mouth of Piasa creek. There they killed one Indian. The other Indians made their escape by cross¬ ing the creek into the brush, and night com¬ ing on prevented further pursuit. Every man, woman and child took an active part in the re¬ sulting Indian war. After the Price murder and its penalty the Indian would shoot at every white man he saw, and vice versa. The white people found it necessary to build a fort and also to organize a company of Rangers. My father was chosen captain and served in that capacity all through the war of 1812. A num¬ ber of hard battles were fought over at Port¬ age des Sioux, in St. Charles county, Mis¬ souri." which William Whiteside was captain. The spring where this murder occurred, one hun¬ dred and one years ago, is still flowing at the northeast corner of Second and Spring streets, and throws out quite a large stream which now discharges under Second street into a sewer.

The most startling and cruel atrocity ever committed by the Indians within the present limits of Madison county was what is known as the Wood river massacre, in which a woman and six children were butchered. It oc¬ curred on the Tenth of July, 1814. Various versions of this tragedy have been published. We prefer the one given by the late Maj. Frank Moore, as written by his father, Capt. Abel Moore, for the Alton Spectator, the first paper published in Alton, this version appear¬ ing about 1835: "This tragedy took place at the forks of Wo'od river, two miles east of Upper Alton. The victims were the wife and two children of Reason Reagan, two children of William Moore and my two brothers, Wil¬ liam and Joel, sons of Abel Moore. At the be¬ ginning of the War of 1812 the citizens of the county who lived in exposed locations, sought refuge in the forts and block houses, but as no Indians made their appearance, and the Rang¬ ers were constantly on the alert scouting the country, they began to feel so secure that in the summer of 1814 they began returning to their farms and homes. There were eight or ten families residing then in the forks of Wood river. The men were nearly all absent from home in the Ranger service. At the home of George Moore, on the east fork of Wood river, a block house had been built to which the women and children could flee should danger be apprehended. The massacre occurred on a Sabbath afternoon. Mr. Reagan had gone two or three miles to church, leaving his wife and two children at the home of Abel

Moore, about a mile from the Reagan home and half way between it and the block house. About 4 o'clock in the afternoon Mrs. Reagan started home, intending to return to Abel Moore's in a short time. She was accompanied by her two children, two of William Moore's and two of Abel Moore's. When it began to grow dark uneasiness was felt at the absence of the Moore children. William Moore came to his brother's and, not finding them there, passed on to Reagan's, while his wife started in a direct line, not following the road, for the same place.

"William Moore came back with the startling intelligence that some one had been killed by the Indians. He had discovered a body ly¬ ing on the ground, which, by reason of the darkness and his haste he had been unable to identify. The first thought was to find refuge in the block house. Mr. Moore desired his brother's family to go directly by the road to the block house, while he would pass by his own house and take his family to the fort with him. The night was dark and the road passed through a heavy forest. The women and chil¬ dren chose to accompany William Moore, though the distance to the fort was thereby nearly doubled. The feelings of tie party as they groped their way through the dark woods can be more easily imagined than described. Sorrow for the supposed loss of their relatives and children, was mingled with horror at the manner of their death and fear for their own safety. Silently they passed on till they came to the home of William Moore, when he ex¬ claimed, as if relieved from strained apprehen¬ sion, 'Thank God, Polly is saved.' The horse that his wife bad ridden was standing at the gate. As they let down the bars I gained ad¬ mission to the yard, when his wife came run¬ ning out, exclaiming, 'They are all killed by the Indians, I think!' The whole party hastily departed for the block house.

her husband had gone in search of the children by different routes. They did not meet on the way, or at the place of the massacre. Mrs. Moore, on horseback, carefully noted as she went every discernible object, till at length she saw a human figure lying near a log. There was not sufficient light to tell the size or sex of the person, and she called the name of her children, again and again, thinking it might be one of them asleep. At length she alighted from her horse and examined the object more closely. What must have been her sensations when she placed her hand on a naked corpse, and felt the quivering flesh from which the scalp had recently been torn. In the gloom she could indistinctly see the figure of the little child of Mrs. Reagan, sitting so near the body of its mother that it sometimes leaned its head on one side and then on the other of its in¬ sensible mother. As Mrs. Moore leaned over the little one it said : 'The black man raised his axe and cut them again.' She saw no further, but thrilled with horror and alarm, she hastily remounted her horse and hurried home, where she heated water, intending to defend herself from the savage foe. The wounded child died next day.

"There was little rest that night at the fort. The women and children of the neighborhood, with the few men who were not absent with the Rangers, crowded together, not knowing but that at any time the Indians might begin an attack. Seven were missing, and their bodies lay mangled and bleeding within a mile of the fort in the dark forest. At three o'clock in the morning a messenger was dispatched with the tidings to Fort Russell. At dawn of day the scene of the tragedy was sought and the bodies collected for burial. They were all buried in the same grave, with boards laid on the bottom and the sides, and above the bodies. There were no men to make coffins.

large party. The news soon spread and it was not long before George Whiteside and nine others gave pursuit. Among them were James Pruitt, Abraham Pruitt, James Starkden, Wil¬ liam Montgomery, and Peter Waggoner, whose descendants still live in Wood River and Moro townships. The weather was extremely hot and some of their horses gave out entirely. Their order was to keep up the pursuit. It was on the evening of the second day that they came in sight of the Indians near the Sanga¬ mon river, on the dividing ridge. There stood on the ridge, at that time, a lone cottonwood tree. Several Indians climbed this tree to look back. They saw their pursuers from that tree. They separated and went in different direc¬ tions, all making for the timber. When the whites came to the tree they, too, divided and pursued the Indians separately. James and Abraham Pruitt, taking the trail of an Indian, soon came in sight of him, and the former, having the fastest horse, soon came in range of him. He rode up to within thirty yards and shot him in the thigh. The Indian fell, but managed to get to a fallen treetop. Abraham soon came up and they concluded to ride in on the Indian and finish him, which Abraham did by shooting and killing him where he lay. In this Indian's shot-pouch was found the scalp of Mrs. Reagan. The Indian tried to raise his gun to shoot but was too weak. His rifle is supposed to be in the Pruitt family yet. The place where the Indians were overtaken was near where Virden now stands. The remain¬ ing Indians hid in the timber and the drift of the creek. It was learned, afterward, at the treaty of Galena, that only one Indian escaped.

He hauled them on a small one-horse sled to the burying ground south of Bethalto. There were no wagons in those days. There a stone slab marks their resting place.

"Buried in the same cemetery is an Indian girl, who was captured by Abraham Pruitt during one of the campaigns of the war of 1812. The Indians had been pursued to the Winnebago swamps and Pruitt heard firing in a distant part of the swamp and went in search of the cause thereof. On nearing the spot he found David Carter and another man shooting at the child, about six years old, who was mired in the mud, and so closely were the Indians pursued that they had to leave her there. ,Mr. Pruitt called them cowards and ordered them to cease firing at the helpless child. Mr. Pruitt then, noble-hearted man that he was, went in and rescued the child from the swamp. He placed her on the horse behind him and brought her home with him and raised her to the age of about sixteen when she died. She was of a very mild disposition." We remarked, in another place, that the deeds of some of the Rangers were no better than those of the savages, and the attempt of Carter and com¬ panion to shoot a helpless child, illustrates the fact.

The feeling of the people towards the aborigines was reflected in a law passed by the territorial legislature in .1814, which offered a reward of fifty dollars for each Indian taken or killed in any white settlement, and of one hundred dollars for any "warrior, squaw or child, taken prisoner or killed in their own territory."