Ogle County, Illinois - Chapter 7, 1859

The same restive spirit which has marked the character of the red man, ever since the pale-face was planted on American soil, was not yet quite asleep. The number of miners had, in 1827, increased to about sixteen hundred; and, proud of their numbers, they had committed some depredations well calculated to kindle the smouldering flime, besides trespassing beyond their own properly prescribed limits. The whites and Indians viewed each other with jealous eyes, and the latter only waited for an opportunity to show their ill-will. Finally, matters grew worse. A keel boat was attacked while passing down theMississippi. The Indians murdered a family at Prairie duChien; and when the murderers were demanded, they refused to give thera up. It suddenly became apparent that a war could not be avoided, and the people in all parts of the mining country began to prepare for defence. Major General Gaines, in command of the regular troops, scoured the country, in order to learn what to expect from the Indians, and General Henry Dodge raised several companies of volunteers, and assisted in this work. In one of his expeditions, General Dodge visited the Winneshiek village, situated where the city of Freeport now stands, and found that the old chief, who had always been firm in his friendship to the whites, had gone with his band to attend the great council which, it was reported, was being held on the Wisconsin.

At the time of General Dodge's visit, the Winneshiek band numbered almost two hundred. The chief himself was near sixty years of age, and is described as "a short fleshy man, very taciturn, very h»nest, and, more wonderful than all for an Indian, very temperate." Winneshiek is still living at Blue Earth, Minnesota, and is about ninety years old.

Finding effective measures taken against them, the Indians began to retreat, as was supposed, for the Chippewa country. They were pursued up the Wisconsin to near Fort Winnebago, where they were overtaken. An attempt to meet the whites in a contest would be useless. They were more than a match for the Indians in arms and numbers. A treaty was made, by which they were to receive §20,- 000 for the daa.ages they had sustained, and the whites were to be allowed to occupy a part of the mineral lands. Thus ended the Winnebago diifieulty. "About a year afterwards, a large tract of mine-

Tal country was purchased from the Indians. Two strips of land, tlie one extending along the Wisconsin and Fox rivers, from the ea.st to the west, giving a passage across the country from Lake Michigaq to the Mississippi, and theotlier reaching from lloek Ishmd to the Wisconsin, were at the same time purchased."*

When the Winnebagoes were told that they must cross the Wisconsin, and at aome not very far distant period the Missi.ssippi also, because they and the whites could not live in peace together, they replied, "We have to do just as you say; we are now weak and cannot help ourselves; we once were a powerful nation. Those blue hills you see yonder used to echo far and wide with our war-cries, while the smoke of our council-fires ascended to the blue vault of heaven to tlie Great Spirit, the Father of tlie red man. But our bow is now unstrung, our hatchet is buried, our warriors sleep on yonder mounds ; their leaf is withered, and the green turf covers their bosoms; our arrows sleep in the Cjuiver. Tell our great father, the President, we must subtuit to his wishes."

The miners had no time to till the suil, and, as a consequence, were dependent o:i the provisio js brought up the Mississippi. They were sometimes reduced to sore «xtremities, particularly when the navigation opened very late in the Spring. As a couiujuuity, they were governed by such laws as would suit their particular emergencies; for when the commission of any crime occurred, they organized a

In 1829, an attempt was made by some Galena miners to take possession of Dubuque's old mining grounds, but they were frightened away by some one from St. Louis, who pretended to have claims against Dubuque's property; but when they afterwards learned that at Dubuque's death his interest there reverted to the Indians, and any other claim could not be sustained, they returned to the works, making such temporary arrangements with the Indians as from time to time might be required. Since the first movements in the Upper Mississippi Lead mines, a company had been formed consisting of Farnham. Davenport and Farrar, the first of whom had located a trading post at Flint Hills, now Burlington. The second. Col. Davenport, had established a post at Rock Island, and Farrar was the manager of the interests of the company, at Galena.

The next neighbors our Galena friends had, south of them, at the period of which we are speaking, were at Peoria; and between the two places was a vast wilderness of uninhabited territory, to the settlements of Vandaliaand the region just about it. In 1830, this territory was here and there dotted with habitations which occupied the most attractive and inhabitable situations along the banks of the creeks and rivers. Settlers were sparsely located along the Mississippi up to Galena, and even the rough country above, sonjetimes at a distance of a hundred miles from each other ; and, like-

on the Illinois up to Chicago. The country lying between Galena and Chicago, embracing nearly one-third of the State, and the part, too, which is now regarded as most desirable for habitation, was yet to be peopled.

As the West thus began to open her resources to civilization, the institutions of civilization must of necessity follow in its train. The old manner of navigation by the slow and tedious keel-boats had to give way to the steamboats, of which, the first to ascend the rirer so far as the Des Moines Rapids, was the Western Engineer, in 1819. The Virginia was the first steamboat to touch at Galena. Thus early introduced, the navigation of the Mississippi by steam became a prominent feature of western improvement, and to it we are not a little indebted for the rapid strides of advancement in this portion of the country. But, living in so rich a country, it was poor policy for the miners to depend entirely upon importation for their subsistence. Grain was produce I "which must be ground, and consequently grist-mills must be built; the first of these erected in the Northwest, was at Oalena - a corn-cracker - the hopper containing about a peck, and the building containing it was a dry-goods box. Besides the mail coming up the river from St. Louis, a one horse mail was established from Galena to Vandalia, (opass over the route every two weeks ; this was in 1826. The Iliners' Journal was published at Galena, commencing July 4th, 1826, by James Jones, who, in 1832, sold out to Dr. Philleo, who changed the name to the GaUnean. In 1829, Newhall, Philleo

& Co. commenced the publication of the Galena Advertiser, which is still a successful and popular newspaper in the hands of H. H. Houghton. In the southern portion of the State, the Vanda' lia Intelligencer commenced its publication about the time Vandalia was made the seat of government. Mr. Rice started the first school in the Northwest, at Galena, in 1829.

Rev. A. Kent, a Presbyterian missionary, arrived at Galena early in 1829 ; and about a week later, Rev. Mr. Dow, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, also came, and together they at once set about the great work before them. Four years later, a missionary arrived at Chicago. At their own expense, the early missionaries traversed the wilderness, slept in the open air, swam rivers, suffered cold and hunger, traveled on foot and on horseback, to preach the Gospel, to establish churches and schools, in short, to make the West what it now is, so far as their exertions have had any influence.

Rev. Mr. Kent commenced a school after two or three others had been started. He relates, as an incident of the^^ school-teaching days, that on one occasion he had punished a girl for some infringement of the rules, and was brought before the usual tribunals on a charge of assault and battery, but was triumphantly acquitted. As an evidence that the former animosities have died away, Mr. K. says that he was recently called upon to perform the marriage ceremony for the same girl and her lover.