Ogle County, Illinois - The whole text, 1878 (part 6 of 25)

These important changes in the original bill, says Mr. Ford in his History of Illinois, " were proposed and carried through botli Houses of Congress by Mr. Pope on his own responsibility. The Territorial Legislature had not petitioned for them - no one had suggested them, but they met the general approval of the people." The change of the boundary line, however, suggested to Mr. Pope - from the fact that the boundary as defined by the ordinance of 1787, would have left Illinois without a harbor, on Lake Michigan - did not meet the unqualified approval of the people in the northwestern part of the new state. For many years the northern boundary of the state was not definitely known, and the settlers in the northern tier of counties did not know whether they were in Illinois or Michigan Territory. Under the provisions of the ordinance of 1787, Wisconsin at one time laid claim to a portion of northern Illinois, "including," says Mr. Ford, writing in 1847, "fourteen counties, embracing the richest and most populous part of the state." October 27, 1827, nine years after the admission of the state. Dr. Horatio Newhall, who had then recently arrived at the Fever River Settlement, wrote to his brother as follows: "It is uncertain whether 1 am in the boundary of Illinois or Michigan, but direct your letters to Fever River, 111., and they will come safely." In October, 1828, a petition was sent to Congress from the people of that part of Illinois lying north of the line established by the ordinance of 1787, and that part of the Territory of Michigan west of Lake Michigan and comprehending the mining 'district known as the Fever River Lead Mines, praying for the formation of a new territory. A bill had been introduced at the previous session of Congress for the establishment of a new territory north of the State of Illinois, to be called " Huron Territory," upon which report had been made, in part, favorable to the wishes of the petitioners, but they asked for the re-establishment of the line as ordained by Congress in 1787. They declared " that the people inhabiting the territory northwest of the Ohio had a right to expect that the country lying north of an east and west line passing through the southernmost end of Lake Michigan, to the Mississippi River, and between said lake, the Mississippi and the Canada line, would remain TO(iETHER" as a territory and state. They claimed that this was a part of the compact, unchangeably granted by the people of the original states to the people who should inhabit the " territory northwest of the Ohio." They declared that the change of the chartered limits, when

Illinois was declared a state, was an open invasion of their rights in a body when thej were unrepresented in either territory; that "an unrepresented people, without their knowledge or consent, have been transferred from one sovereignty to another." They urged that the present " division of the miners by an ideal line, separating into different governments individuals intimately connected in similar pursuits, is embarrassing." They asked for "even-handed justice," and the restoration of their "chartered limits." The Miners^ (Galena) Journal^ of October 25, 1828, which contains the full text of the petition, says: "We do not fully agree with the memorialists in petitioning Congress again to dispose of that tract of country which has once been granted to Illinois; but we think that it would be for the interest of the miners to be erected, together with the adjoining county above, into a separate territory. And we firmly believe, too, that Congress departed from the clear and express terms of their own. ordinance passed in the year 1787, when they granted to the State of Illinois nearly a degree and a half of latitude of the chartered limits of this country. "Whether Congress will annex this tract to the new territory we much doubt, but we believe the ultimate decision ot the United States Court will be, that the northern boundary line of the State of Illinois shall commence at the southernmost end of Lake Michigan." The petition was unavailing, and the northern line of Illinois remains unchanged, but the agitation of the subject by the people of this region continued. In 1840 the people of the counties north of the ordinance line sent delegates to a convention held at Kockford to take action in relation to the annexation of the tract north of that line to Wisconsin Territory, and it is said the scheme then discussed embrace'd an efibrt to make Galena the capital of the territory. Charles S. Hempstead and Frederick Stahl were delegates to the convention from Galena, and James Y. Gale, Dr. W. J. Mix, Col. Dauphin Brown, S. M. Hitt and W. W. Fuller were delegates from Ogle. At that convention speeches were made by Messrs. Charles S. Hempstead, Martin P. Sweet, Jason P. Marsh, and others. Resolutions were adopted requesting the senators and representatives in Congress for Ulfnois to 6xert their influence in favor of the project. The labors of the convention produced no results, but until the admission of Wisconsin as a state, there was a strong feeling among the people of northwestern Illinois that they riohtfully belonged to Wisconsin, and a strong desire to be restored to their chartered limits. Perhaps the heavy debt with which Illinois was burdened at that time may have had some influence in causing the feeling.

Until the admission of the state inco the Union in 1818, all the northern and northwestern part of the state was inhabited only by Indians, who claimed this whole region. In 1804, the Sacs and Foxes, then a powerful tribe, by treaty made at St. Louis with Gen. Harrison, then governor of the Territory oi* Indiana, ceded to the United States all their lands l3ang east of the Mississippi; but Black Hawk and other chiefs who were not present at St. Louis, refused to be bound by its terms. All the territory north of the line drawn west from the southern extremity of Lake Michigan to the Mississippi, was in the undisputed possession of the native tribes, wh^ the state was erected, in 1818, except a tract five leagues square on the, Mississippi, of which Fever River was about the centre, which by treaty the United States Government had reserved ostensibly for a military post,' but really to control the lead mines. The government had possessed knowledge for many years of the existence of lead mines here, but their loca- tion was not known, and it was thought that all would be included within the limits of the reservation. The government designed to own and hold exclusive control of these mines.

But leaving the territorial condition of the country of the Illini^'^ we come directly to the state organization and the several county organizations down to 182T, when the County of Jo Daviess was organized. The first election for governor, lieutenant governor, county ofiicers, etc., was commenced on the third Thursday of September, 1818, and continued for that and the two succeeding days. Shadrach Bond was elected governor, and commenced his term of four years in October, 1818, a few weeks after the election. " Governor Bond," says Mr. Ford, in his Illinois History, "was a native of Maryland, was bred a farmer, and was a very early settler among the pioneers of the Illinois Territory. He settled on a farm in the American bottom, in Mv>nroe County, near Eagle Creek. He was several times elected to the Territorial Legislature, and once a delegate to represent the territory in Congress. He was also a receiver of public moneys at Kaskaskia, but was never elected or appointed to any office after his term as governor. Indeed, of the first seven governors of Illinois, onl^ one has ever held any office since the expiration of their respective terms of service; though I believe they have all, except myself, tried to obtain some other office. Governor Bond was a substantial, farmer-like man, of strong, plain, common sense, with but little pretentions to learning or general information. He was a well-made, well-set, sturdy gentleman, and what is remarkable at this day, his first message to the legislature contained a strong recommendation in favor of the Illinois and Michigan Canal."

" Colonel Pierre Manard, a Frenchman, and an old settler in the country, was generally looked to to fill the office of lieutenant governor; but as he had not been naturalized until a year or so before, the convention declared in a schedule to the constitution, that any citizen of the United States who had resided in <4:he state for two years, might be eligible to this office."

Ex-Governor (territorial) Edwards and Jesse B. Thomas, were the first United States Senators from Illinois. Elias K. Kane was appointed secretary of state; Daniel P. Cookf was elected the first attorney general; Elijah C. Berry was auditor of public accounts, and John Thomas was the first state treasurer.

"Under the auspices and guidance of these men Illinois was launched on her career of administration as an independent state of the American Union. At this time the whole people numbered only about forty-five thousand souls. Some two thousand of these were the descendants of the old French settlers in the Yillages of Kaskaskia, Prairie Du Rocher, Prairie Du Pont, Cahokia, Peoria "and Chicago. These people had fields f In 1819 Daniel P. Cook was elected to Congress, and re-elected biennially until 1826, when he was defeated by Governor Duncan. He rose to a high position in Congress, and the last session he was there, he acted as chairman of the important committee of ways and means of the lower house. To his services, at this last session, the people of Illinois are indebted for the donation by Congress of 300,000 acres of land, for the construction of the Illinois and Michigan Canal. For him the County of Cook was appropriately named, as more than half of its great prosperity is owing to his exertions in Congress ia favor of the canal.

in common for farming, and farmed, built houses, and lived in the style of the peasantry of old France an hundred and fifty (1847) years ago. They had made no improvements in any thing, nor had they adopted any of the improvements made by others. They were the descendants of those French people who had first settled the country more than a hundred and fifty years before under La Salle, Ibberville, and the priests Alvarez, Rasles, Gravier, Pinet, Marest, and others; and such as subsequently joined them from New Orleans and Canada, and they now formed all that remained of the once proud empire which Louis XIY., King of France, and the regent Duke of Orleans, had intended to plant in the Illinois country. The original settlers had many of them intermarried with the native Indians, and some of the descendants of these partook of the wild, roving disposition of the savage, united to the politeness and courtesy of the Frenchman."

The first settlement made by people of the United States was in 1784, when a few families from Virginia founded a small colony or settlement near Bellefontaine, in Monroe County. The next American settlements were made in St. Clair County, two of which were made previous to the beginning of the year 1800. ,

The first American settlers were chiefly from Kentucky, Yirginia, Pennsylvania, l^orth Carolina, Tennessee, and some from Maryland, as was Governor Bond and his immediate friends. " Some of them had been officers and soldiers under General Kogers Clark, who conquered the country from the British in 1778, and they, with others, who followed them, maintained their position in the country during the Indian wars in Ohio and Indiana, in the times of Harmar, St. Clair, and Wayne." This whole people did not number more than 12,000 in 1812, but with the aid of one company of regular soldiers defended themselves and their settlements during the war of 1821, against the then numerous and powerful nations of Kickapoos, Sacs, Foxes, Pottawatomies, and Shawnees, and even made hostile expeditions into the heart of their territories, burning their villages and defeating and driving them from the country.

When the state was admitted in 1818, the settlements extended a little north of Ed wards ville and Alton; south along the Mississippi to the mouth of the Ohio; east in the direction of Carlysle (in Clinton County), to the Wabash, and down the Wabash "and the Ohio, to the mouth of the last named river. But within these boundaries there was a very large and unsettled wilderness tract of country between the Kaskaskia River and the Wabash, and between the Kaskaskia and the Ohio - the distance across it being equal to a three days' journey.

Such was the extent of the settlement in Illinois when the territory was clothed with state honors. As before stated, there were but fifteen organized counties represented in the constitutional convention - St. Clair, Randolph, Madison, Gallatin, Johnson, Edwards, White, Monroe, Pope, Jackson, Crawford, Bond, Union, Washington and Franklin, Union, Washington and FrankliA were the youngest, all of them being organized in 1818. ^

Pike County was erected January 31, 1821, and included all the territory west and north of the Illinois River, and its south fork, now the Kankakee River. At the first election after the organization, only thirty-five votes were polled. This was the first county organization under state authority that embraced the territory of which Ogle is a part, and out of which more than fifty counties have been organized. A Gazetteer of Illi- nois and Wisconsin, published about 1822, says that the county "included a part of the lands appropriated l)y Congress for the payment or military bounties. The lands constituting that tract, are included within a peninsula of tlie Illinois and the Mississippi, and extend on the meridian line (4th) passing through the mouth of the Illinois, one hundred and sixty- two miles north. Pike County will no doubt be divided into several counties; some of which will become very wealthy and important. It is probable that the section about Fort Clark (now Peoria) will be the most thickly settled. On the Mississippi River, above Pock River, lead ore is found in abundance. Pike County contains between 700 and 800 inhabitants. It is attached to the first judicial circuit, sends one member to the House of Representatives and, with Green, one to the Senate. The county seat is Colesgrove, a post town. It was laid out in 1821, and is situated in township 11, south, in range 2, west of the fourth principal meridian; very little improvement has yet been made in this place or the vicinity. The situation is high and healthy, and it bids fair to become a place of some importance." 'i'his is all that is known of the Town of Colesgrove, the countv seat of all this region in 1821.

Fulton County was organized from Pike, with the county seat at Lew^- iston, January 28, 1823, and included all the territory north of the base line, and west of the fourth principal meridian, which had been in Pike.

In 1826 the County Commissioners of Peoria County estabhshed a voting precinct on Fever River, now Galena, which they called Fever River Precinct. At an election held on the 7th day of August, 1826, this precinct polled 202 votes. Messrs. JSTehemiah Bates, Jesse W. Shull and Andrew Clamo were Judges, or inspectors of election. Before entering upon the discharge of their duties they were sworn by John L. Bogardus, a Justice of the Peace. This was the first election ever held in the northwestern part of Illinois, including the territory now embraced in Ogle County. Of the 202 names on that old poll book, not one is recognized as representing any of the early settlers of Ogle County, from which we infer that white men had not yet attempted an abiding place within the limits of the county whose history we are writing.

There is a tax-list of 1826 on file at Peoria, containing 204 names of men in the Fever River Settlement; but the deputy collector who undertook to collect the taxes reported that they openly defied him and refused to pay a cent. Evidently there were "tax-fighters" in those days as well as in the present.

Jo Daviess County was organized from Peoria, February 17, 1827, and was bounded as follows: Beginning on the Mississippi River at the northwestern corner of the state, thence down the Mississippi, to the north line of the Military Tract, thence east to the Illinois River, thence north to the northern boundary of the state, thence west to the place of beginning. Galena was named as the county seat. The north line of the Military Tract commenced on the Mississippi River, not far from Keithsburg, in Mercer County, and running east, reached the Illinois River not far from Hennepin, in Putnam County, and included an area equal to 240 townships of six miles square, of thirty-six sections each, covering 8,640 square miles, and embracing 5,529,600 acres.

election, although the act organizing the county was approved January 16, 1836), the territory of Ogle County formed a part, and was subject to the jurisdiction of Jo Daviess County. Daring these years the general and local history of the two counties are almost identical, and in order to perfect the history of events transpiring in Ogle County, it will be indispensably necessary totollow the history of Jo Daviess County up to the period when Ogle was full}^ organized as an independent county.

The earliest history and first occupation of the region of country embraced within the limits of Jo Daviess County, as originally organized, are enshrouded in almost impenetrable obscurity. After the lapse of more than three quarters of a century, the almost total absence of records, and the fact that the whites who visited or lived in this region prior to 1820 have all passed away, render it impossible now to determine with any degree of certainty the name of him who is entitled to the. honor of being recorded as first settler, or who first even temporarily sojourned on the banks of the Sin-sin-ah-wah (the home of the eagle) and the Mah-cah-bee (the fever that blisters), for there the settlement of ITorthwestern Illinois commenced.

Probably the first explorer of this region was Le Sueur, a French trader, who, on the 25th of August, 1700, while on an expedition to the Sioux on St. Peter's River (now the Minnesota) discovered a small river entering the Mississippi on the right side, which he named " The Piver of the Mines." He described it as a small river running from the north, butit turns to the northeast, and he further says, that a few miles up \h\s river is a lead mine. Le Saeur was unquestionably the first white man who ever trod the banks of Fever Piver, and visited the mines then known and probably worked by the natives.

When Julien Dubuque first located near the present town of Dubuque, in 1788, he wns accompanied by one D'Bois, who is said to hav^e located on the east bank of the Mississippi, a short distance below the present town of Dunleith, very nearly opposite his companion's location. But nothing further is known of him, and from that time until about 1810 or '11 no definite information can be obtained. It is said that traces of white occupants at a very early period were discovered on the Sinsinawa by the first settlers or miners. It would be strange, indeed, with the knowledge of the immense deposits of lead and the abundance of game in this region, as well as of the mining operations of Dubuque on the west side of the Mississippi, if no adventurers or traders ever visited the Piviere au Feve, now Galena Piver, or ventured among the Sacs and Foxes on the east side of the Mississippi from 1788 until about 1820. Poving traders and the agents of the American Fur Company could not have overlooked the value of this location as a trading post, even if they made only annual visits, remaining long enough to dispose of their goods and purchase the lead and peltries accumulated by the Indians. But thus far no records of such occupation have been discovered, and the only positive evidence of the occupation of any portion of the territory of Jo Daviess County after D'Bois, and prior to 1819-'20, is the testimony of Captain D. S. Harris, of Galena, the oldest surviving steamboat captain on the Mississippi, and the oldest known survivor of the immigration of 1823, who says that, about 1811, George E. Jackson, a Missouri miner, had a rude log furnace and smelted lead on an island then existing in the Mississippi Piver, on the east side of the main channel, a short distance below Dunleith, and nearly opposite the mouth of Catfish Creek. Here the first smelting now known to have been done by white men, within the limits of Jo Daviess County, was done. Jackson built a flat boat to carry his lead to St. Louis, and had much trouble with the Indians on his way down the river. " lie was joined," says Capt. Harris, " probably about 1812 or '13, by John S. Miller, but soon after the island was abandoned. Jackson went to Missouri, and Miller went down the river and built the first cabin and blacksmith shop on the present site of Hannibal, Mo." It is also said that in 1818, Miller, with George W. Ash and another man, ascended the Mississippi with a boat load of merchandise as far as Dubuque's mines, trading with the Indians, and he probably visited La Pointe and may have spent some time there. Both Jackson and Miller returned to Fever River in 1823. The island has now nearly disappeared, but in the Fall of 1823 two keel-boat loads of scoriae and partially burned mineral were taken from the site of Jackson's old furnace, by Moses Meeker, and carried to his furnace on Fever Kiver and smelted.

The first permanent settlements by the whites in all Northwestern Illinois, of which any record or reliable knowledge now remains, existed about 1820 on the banks of the river now known as the Galena. This river was tlien known as Feve or Bean River. There is a tradition that the river took its name from one La Fevre, a Frenchman, who first visited that locality, but there is no evidence to confirm it. The Indian name for the river was Mah-cau-bee - Macaubee, which translated, means " fever," or, more literally, "fever that blisters," the Indian term for small pox. They gave it this name, it is said, because, in tlie early history of this country, when the extreme western frontier of the white settlements was many hundred miles eastward, some of the warriors from the populous Indian villages then existing on the present site of Galena, and on the banks of a small creek a little way southward, went to the assistance of their eastern brethren. On their return they brought with them the loathsome disease for which they had no other name than Mah-cau-bee, the fever that blisters. The larger one they called " Moshuck - Macaubee - Sepo," Big Small Pox River, and the smaller " Cosh-a-neush - Macaubee - Sepo," Little Small Pox River. Hundreds of the natives died and the Indians named both streams Macaubee. The smaller one is still called Small Pox Creek, but the larger was changed by the whites to the rather more pleasant name of Fever, and the little frontier hamlet was known as " Fever River Settlement," or La Pointe, until 1826-7, when the name of Galena was substituted. The name " Bean," which was sometimes applied to i^ ever River in early days, came from the fact that the early French traders and adventurers, who were evidently familiar with this locality long before 1820, had changed the Indian name to " Riviere au Feve," which translated into English, means river of the bean;" hence the name "Bean River," * applied to it in the early

* Since this was written some additional light has been thrown upon the origin of the names " B^an " and " Fever." Mr. B. C. St. Cyr, one of the early merchints of Galena, on the authority of his uncle, who traded among the Indians in this region, more than a hundred years ago, stites that the stream was then called by the French Flelle from an old Indian chief, bearing that name, then living on its banks. This name, Flelle, signifymg gall, was afterward corrupted by later French visitors, or by the Indians tliemselves, to Feve, sigiiifving bean, tlie pronunciation being somewhat similar. From Feve the transition was easy to Fevre - Fever. Tlie origin of tlie Indian name Macaubee appears to be mare maln-n. In IS3), Wm. H. Sayaer, Esq., of Galena, spent some time wilh Col. Geo. D.ivenport. Mr. S ly.l^r hid then recently opened one of the ancient mounds on the bluff near the Portage, and found an immense quantity of human bones, evidently of quite modern fazetteers. This is but another indication pointing to the occupation of La 'ointe, prior to the date of its first settlement, as now fixed by some historians. Certainly the names of the men who were first there, and applied the name " Riviere au Feve,'' have passed into oblivion.

As early as 1822, this extreme western frontier settlement had become snfiiciently well known to have a place in the literature of that day. A rare copy of " The Gazetteer of lilinois and Missouri" (now many years out of print), published in 1822, and at present in the possession of William Hempstead, Esq., of Galena, contains the following: -

" Bean River (Riviere au Feve, Fr.,) a navigable stream of Pike County, emptying into the Mississippi three miles below Catfish Creek, twenty miles below Dubuque's mines and about seventy above Rock River. Nine miles up this stream, a small creek empties into it from the west. The banks of this creek, and the hills wiiich bound its alluvian, are filled with lead ore of the best quality. Three miles below this on the banks of Bean River is the Traders Village, consisting of ten or twelve houses or cabins. At this place the ore procured from the Indians is smelted and then sent in boats either to *Canada or New Orleans. The mines are at present extensively worked by Col. Johnson, of Kentucky, who during: the last session of Congres (winter of 1821-2) obtained the exclusive right of working them for three years. The lands on tlii« stream ^yq poor, and are only valuable on account of the immense quantities of mineral which they contain."

In the same work Chicago is simply mentioned as " a village of Pike County, containing twelve or fifteen houses, and about sixty or seventy inhabitants." It is very evident that there was a ^' Traders Village " on or near the present site of Galena in 1822, and that it was a point of more importance, commercially, than Chicago, at that time. The statement of the gazetteer is confirmed by a letter from Capt. M. Marston, then Commander at Fort Edwards, to Amos Farrar, Fever Kiver, dated April 12, 1822. in which occurs the following: - "The Johnsons of Kentucky have leased the Fever River lead mines and are about sending up a large number of men. It is also said that some soldiers will be stationed there. If this is all true, the Foxes, and all the trading establishments now there, must remove."

In 1803, when the United States purchased the province of Louisiana from Napoleon, of France, the existence of lead mines in that region was known. In 1807 Cony.ress enacted that these mines should be reserved from sale, and held in fee simple, under the exclusive control of the government. Leases of three to five years were issued to various individuals to work them as tenants of the United States, but until about 1823, the most of the work being done in Missouri, the mining operations appear to have been carried on without much system. Miners throughout all the lead mining districts paid but slight attention to Congressional enactments. Lessees were not properly supported in their rights, and of course became constantly involved in disputes with claimants and trespassers, which often proved ruinous to their undertakings.

In November, 1821, when the charge of the lead mines was transferred from the General Land Office to the War Department, no mines were known to be worked in any of the mining districts, under leases or legal date. Mentioning tlie circumstance to Col. Davenport, that gentleman said that the Indians living on the streams now called Fever River and Small Pox Creek had taken the small pox, and died in large numbers, the survivors fled, bui while he (Davenport) lived at Portage, about 1816, they returned, gathered up the remains of the victims, and buried them in the mound Snyder had opened. From that time the Indians called both streams "Macaubee," " the fever that blisters," hence the name Fever; the smaller stream being still called Small Pox.

Mr. Seymour, in his history of "Galena Mines," etc., published in 184:8-'49 states, on the authority of Jesse W. Shull, that previous to 1819 " the Sacs and Foxes, noted as warlike and dangerous tribes, had already killed several traders who had attempted to traffic among them," and adds: " It was a current report among the settlers at Prairie du Chien, that a trader was murdered in 1813, at the mouth of the Sinsinawa. His wife, a squaw, had warned him to leave the country, as the Indians meditated taking his life. Disregarding her friendly warnings, he remained, and was murdered the same night."

In 1816, by a treaty made at St. Louis with various tribes to settle the disputes that had arisen under the treaty of 1804, by which the Sacs and Foxes had ceded to the United States all the lands lying between the Illinois and Wisconsin Eiver east of the Mississippi, all the lands north of a line running west from the southern extremity of Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River, were relinquished to the Indians, except a tract one league square at the mouth of the Wisconsin, and another tract iive leagues square on the Mississippi River, of which Fever River was about the centre. These reservations were intended to be sufficie;it to embrace the lead mines known to be worked by the squaws, and presumed to be valuable, although their location was not known to the government.

From the best information now accessible, it appears that the point of land lying between Fever River and the creek now known as " Meeker's Branch," at the junction of these streams, was called " January's Point," when the "first settlers " came in 1819 or '20. John Lorrain, in his History of Jo Daviess County, published in 1876. says: " In 1820 Jesse Shull and Samuel C. Muir opened a trading post near the present site of the City of Galena, then called "January's Point," and by this name it was known to the early settlers, as well as by the French name La Pointe - The Point - by which it was generally called by the traders and miners for years afterwards, until a Frenchman named Frederic Gros Claude settled near the site of January's old post, and then it was sometimes called Frederic's Point. The presumption is that Thomas H. January, a Pennsylvanian, occupied The Point as a smelter and trader long enough before the arrival of Shull and others to give his name to it, or " La Pointe." the name given to it by the French traders, familiar with the location and friendly with the Indians, perhaps, even before January located there. Captain Harris, previously quoted, however, thinks that January, who was from Pittsburgh, was not permanently located here until about 1821 or 1822.

In February, 1810, Nicholas Boilvin, then agent for the Winnebagoes at Prairie du Chien, passed through this region on foot from Rock Island, with Indians for guides, and by them was shown a lead mine, which, from his memoranda, written in the French language, was near Fever River, and was probably what was afterward known to the early settlers as " the old Buck lead."'

The veteran Capt. Harris says, that unquestionably Julien Dubuque operated on both sides of the Mississippi, and mined on Apple River, near the present village of Elizabeth, worked the old Buck and Hog leads, near Fever River, the Cave diggings, in what is now Vinegar Hill Townshio,

Jo Daviess County, and others, as early as 1805, and very probably at a still earlier date. The Indians were on very friendly terms with Dubuque, and when they reported a discovery to him he sent his assistants, Canadian Frenchmen and half breeds, to prove them, and in some cases to work them. All over that region, when Capt. H. came to Fever River, a lad of fifteen, in 1823, traces of old mining operations existed, which were evidently not the work of the Indians. At what was called the Allen wrath diggings, at Ottawa, about two miles from the present City of Galena, a heavy sledge hammer was found under the ashes of one of these primitive furnaces, in 1826. This furnace had been worked long before the date generally assigned to the first white settlement in this region. This ancient hammer, weighing from fifteen to twenty pounds, is still preserved by Mr. Houghton, for many years the leading editor of the Northwest. The Indians never used such an implement, and it was unquestionably left, where it was found in 1826, by some of Dubuque's miners.

All these important considerations, in connection with the. fact that the Mississippi River was the great highway of the pioneers of that day - . that Prairie du Chien was a thriving French village, and had been a French military post as early as 1755, long before Dubuque located above the mouth of Catfish Creek - that a military and trading post existed at Fort Armstrong (Rock Island) previous to the later "first .settlements" on the east side of the Mississippi, now Jo Daviess County, lead almost irresistibly to the conclusion that "La Pointe" was well known to the earlier Indian traders, and that the lead mining region around Riviere au Feve had been visited and occupied, temporarily at least, by white men for many years prior to 1819-'20 But by whom? History is silent, and those hardy pioneers hava left no footprints on the ever shifting sands of time.

It must be considered as reasonably certain, as previously stated, that the lead mining district now lying in both Jo Daviess County and in Wisconsin, was more or less occupied by Dubuque's men before any permanent settlements were made in the territory. Dubuque, by his wonderful magnetic power, had obtained great influence among the Indians, then occupying this entire region. They believed him to be almost the equal of the Great Spirit, and they feared him nearly as much. They implicitly obeyed him, and it is not a mere chimera to presume that they reported to him the existence of leads on the east, as well as on the west, side of tlie Father of * Waters, and it is reasonable to suppose when such reports were made to him, that he verified them by actual observations made by himself or his men. From the remembrances of the oldest residents of Jo Daviess County now surviving, and the traces of mining done by whites long before any permanent settlements were made, it seems more than probable that Dubuque and his men were the first whites who occupied the Fever River lead mining district, in common with the aboriginal inhabitants.

It must also be considered certain that La Pointe, as the present City of Galena was called by the French traders and miners, was familiar to them as a trading post or point for many years before the first settlements were made, of which meagre, fragmentary and often confused and conflicting accounts have come down to the present day. These were favorite hunting grounds for the native tribes who had populous villages on the banks of . the Macaubee and other streams in this country, and it was undoubtedly a favorite resort for traders, who voyaged up and down (he Mississippi on their periodical trafficking expeditions. That it was known as a good trading point for many years prior to Mr. ShulPs location tliere in 1819, is beyond question. The total absence of records of the local events in these early days, however, renders it impossible now .to determine who they were. Doubtless some of them were tliere after permanent settlements were made, and were among the first settlers.

In 1819, the historic diggings, known for more than half a century as the "Buck Lead," were being worked by the Indians, the most of the work being done by the squaws. It was the largest body of mineral then ever discovered on Fever Kiver, and an immense amount of galena ore was taken out by the natives and sold to the traders before it was worked out by Johnson. Mr. Farrar estimated that several million pounds had been taken from this lead by the Indians, more, in fact, than was taken from it by the white miners afterwards. This lead took its name from the "Buck," a Sac or Fox chief who was encamped, with his band, on Fever River in 1819, and worked it. Its existence had been known to the Indians for many years, and unquestionably by Dubuque, previous to its working by Buck and his band. Close by it, and parallel with it, was a smaller lead, which was called the "Doe lead," in honor of Buck's favorite squaw. Before the arrival of Johnson, in 1820 or '21, the Indians took from this lead the largest nugget of mineral ever raised in the mines. It took all the force they could muster to raise it, and when they had safely landed it on terra tirma, the Indian miners wanted the traders to send it to Washington as a present to the " Great Father." As it never reached there, the presumption is that the traders preferred to purchase the mineral, at the rate of a peck of corn for a peck of mineral.

In 1816, the late Col. George Davenport, agent for the American Fur Company, trading with the Sacs and Foxes, occupied a trading post at the Portage, on Fever River, and lived there. How long is not now known. He soon after left that point and went to Rock Island. The post was afterwards occupied, in 1821, by Amos Farrar, of the firm of Davenport, Farrar & Farnham, agents for the American Fur Company. This important fact in the early history of that region is given on the authority of Wm. H. Snyder, Esq., of Galena, who received it from the lips of Davenport himself, in 1835. ""

In 1819, when the "Buck lead" was being worked by the Indians, as above stated, Mr. Jesse W. Shull was trading at Dubuque's mines (now Dubuque) for a company at Prairie du Chien. That company desired him to go to Fever River and trade with the Indians, but he dijclared that it was unsafe - that the Sacs and Foxes had already murdered several traders - and declined to go unless he could have the protection of the United States troops. Col. Johnson, of the United States Army, was induced to summon a council of Sac and Fox nations at Prairie du Chien, and when the chiefs had assembled he informed them that the goods that Mr. Shull was about to bring among them were sent out by their Father, the President of the United States (it was not considered a sin to lie to the Indians even then), and told them that they must not molest Mr. Shull in his business. Having received from the government officers and from the Indians assurances of protection, Mr. Shull came to Fever River late in the Summer of that year (1819), and erected a trading house on the bottom near the river, not far from the foot of Perry Street, Galena. Mr. Seymour, in his history of Galena, published in 1848, fixes the location as "just below where the American House now stands," but as the " American House " has long since disappeared, this location is not now very definite. Daring that year (1848), Mr. Seymour had a personal interview with Mr. Shull, then residing in Green County, Wisconsin^ and gathered from his own lips the facts as stated above. At that interview Mr. Shull stated that himself and Dr. Samuel C. Muir were the first white settlers on Fever River, at that pointy in 1819, that "during that year Dr. Muir commenced trading there with goods furnished by the late Col. Davenport, of Rock Island." Mr. Shull also stated that later in the same year Francois Bouthillier came and occupied a shanty at the bend, on the east side of Fever River, below the present limits of the City of Galena. It is to be regretted that Mr. Shull had not been more explicit, as it would be very interesting now to know whether Mr. Bouthillier built that shanty there, or whether it had been built by him or some other roving trader before that time, and whether it was occupied temporarily or permanently by him in 1819. Mr. Bouthillier was a French trader known at Prairie du Chien as early as 1812, when, it- is said, he acted as interpreter and guide for the British troops. He undoubtedly knew of the Fever River trading point, and may have frequently visited it and "occupied a shanty," as probably others had, prior to 1819. Mr. Shull himself does not appear to have been a very permanent fixture at that point then, for during " the Fall he moved his goods to the mouth of Apple River, of the Maquoketa, Iowa, and other places, to suit the convenience of the Indians as they returned from their Fall hunts." Mr. Shull does not appear as a trader after that year, although he may have been engaged in the Indian trade somewhat later, but he soon became interested in mining, and remained in the mining district, finally locating in Michigan Territory, now Wisconsin.

At that time all this region was a wilderness, occupied only by a few fur traders and roving tribes of Indians. The nearest settlements at the north were at Dubuque's mines and Prairie du Chien, the latter an old town of great distinction and extensive trade, relatively of as much importance in the Mississippi Yalley at that period as St. Paul and St. Louis are now. On the east, the nearest village was Chicago, consisting of a few rude cabins inhabited by half-breeds. At Fort Clark (now Peoria), on the south, were a few pioneers, and thence a long interval to the white settlements near Vandalia.

Dr. Samuel C. Muir, mentioned by Mr. Shull as trading at Galena, in 1819, may have been there at that time, but whether before, after, or with Mr. S., does not appear. It is very probable that he was there, may have been there before 1819, but if he engaged in trade it was very temporary. It may be that he came there on a tour of observation, and took a few goods with him, like the provident Scotchman he was, "to pay expenses." But Dr. Muir was a physician. He had received his education at Edinburgh, and felt a just pride in his profession. He was a man of strict integrity and irreproachable character. He was a surgeon in the United States Army previous to his settlement at La Pointe. When stationed with his regiment at some post in the northern country he married an Indian woman of the Fox nation. Of that marriage the following romantic account is given.

The post where he was stationed was visited by a beautiful Indian maiden (whose native name unfortunately has not been preserved) who, in her dreams, had seen a white brave unmoor her canoe, paddle it across the river, and come directly to her lodge. She knew, according to the supersti- tious belief of her race, tliat in her dream she had seen her future husband, and came to the fort to find him. Meeting Dr. Muir, she instantly recognized him as the hero of her dream, which she, with childlike innocence and simplicity, related to him. Her dream was indeed prophetic. Charmed with Sophia's beauty, innocence and devotion, the doctor honorably married her; but after awhile the sneers of his brother officers, less honorable, perhaps, than he, made him ashamed of his dark-skinned wife, and when his regiment was ordered down the river to Bellefontaine, it is said he embraced the opportunity to rid himself of her, and left her, thinking that she could never find him again, or, if she could, that she would not have the courage and power to follow him. But, with her infant child, the intrepid wife and mother started alone in her canoe, and, after days of weary labor, at last reached him, but much worn and emaciated, after a lonely journey of nine hundred miles. She said, " When I got there, I was all perished away - so thin." The doctor, touched by such unexampled devotion, took her to his bosom, aild until his death, treated her with marked respect. She always presided at his table, and was respected by all who knew her, but never abandoned her native dress.

In 1819-'20, Dr. Muir was stationed at Fort Edwards, now Warsaw, but threw up his commission, and in the Spring of 1820 built the first cabin erected by a white man on the present site of the City of Keokuk, Iowa, but leased his claim to parties from St. Louis, and, later in the same year, went to LaPointe to practice his profession, and was the first physician known to have located in Northern Ilfinois. He remained in practice there about ten years. He had four children, viz. : Louise (married at Keokuk, since dead), James (drowned at Keokuk), Mary and Sophia. Dr. Muir died suddenly, soon after he returned to Keokuk, left his property in such condition that it was wasted in vexatious litigation, and his brave and faithful wife, left penniless and friendless, became discouraged, and with her children, disappeared, and it is said, returned to her people on the Upper Missouri.

Francois Bouthillier, the other and later occupant of that shanty in 1819, was a roving trader, following the Indians. Whether he remained there permanently from that time is very uncertain, but nothing further is known of him until Mr. J. G. Soulard, then on his way to Fort Snelling, found him there in 1821, still an Indiaji trader. " Mr. Bouthillier," says Mr. Shull, " after he occupied a ' shanty at the Bend,' in 1819, purchased a cabin then known as the cabin of Bagwell & Co., supposed to be situated near the lower ferry." But he says, " in 1824, and previous to Bouthillier's purchase, the house and lot had been sold for $80." Here Mr. Bouthillier engaged in trade, and established a ferry, which is the first permanent settlement made by him of which there is authentic account. Captain Harris says he remembers distinctly when Bouthillier built his trading house at or near that point.

In this connection, it is well to add that Mr. George Ferguson and^ Mr. Allan Tomlin, both early settlers and highly esteemed and reliable citizens of Galena, express the opinion that there was a trading post at the Portage, three and one half miles below LaPointe, between Fever Kiver and the Mississippi, even prior to the advent of either of those whose names have been mentioned. However this may be, it must be admitted that there were a large number of Indians encamped or living there at that time, whose women and old men were engaged in raising lead from the '' Buck lead," and the fame of their rude, and, for them, extensive mining operations, mnst'have naturally attracted the attention of traders, who came there to traffic with them. Probably others than Shull, Muir and BouthilHer were in that vicinity with their goods, and the surrounding circumstances would seem to corroborate and justify the opinion expressed by Messrs. Ferguson and Tomlin. The Portage was a narrow neck of land between the Fever River and the Mississippi, so named because the Indians and traders were accustomed to transport their canoes and goods across to save their journey down the same point again, the distance across the neck being only a few rods. A furrow was plowed across this neck of land at its narrowest point, bv Lieut. Hobart, in 1834, and now there is a deep channel, called the " cutoff." That location was very convenient for a trading post.

If the lead mines attracted traders, they attracted miners as well. Among the first, if not the first, to work the mines, of whom any definite account has been preserved, was James Johnson, of Kentucky, said to be a brother of Colonel R. M. Johnson, of historic renown as the slayer of Tecumseh, and vice president with Yan Buren. It has already been shown that "the Johnsons" of Kentucky were engaged in lead mining there in 1822. The date of Johnson's first arrival there must forever remain in obscurity, unless some records not now accessible, shall be found to show it. In a letter written by Dr. H. Kewhall, dated Fever River, March 1, 1828, he speaks of the " Buck lead " as having been worked out by Colonel Johnson while he was at these mines in 1820-'21." Mr. J. G. Soulard,who passed LaPointe in 1821, on his way to Fort Snelling, and stopped there a day or two, says that, on his way up, they met Johnson's boat going down, and that, wh,ile there, he understood that he was mining there,' but did not see him. From the best information now at hand, it would seem that Mr. Johnson first visited that region as a trader, as early, perhaps, as 1819, possibly before, and that, in 1820 -'1, he was mining there without authority from the government, under purchased permission of the Indians. It does not appear that the government exercised any especial jurisdiction there at that time, as the lead mining district was under the control of the general land office until 1821. It may be, also, that he was not mining, but simply smelting the mineral purchased from the Indians.

Some time during the Summer of 1820, Mr. A. P. Yanmeter - or Yanmatre, as the name is spelled in early records - is said to have located at G-alena, probably on the east side of the river, opposite the present woolen mill above Baker's Branch, as he was afterwards there engaged in smelting.

It is more than probable that others came with him, or during the same year, but their names do not appear of record. Mr. D. G. Bates was associated with Yanmatre shortly afterwards in the smelting business, but whether he arrived there contemporaneously with Mr. Yanmatre is not known.

In August or September, 1821, Amos Farrar was managing a trading post on Fever River as agent for the American Fur Company, and was living there with his Fox wife. This fact is established beyond question by a letter addressed to him at the " Lead Mines, Fever River," from Major S. Burbank, commander at Fort Armstrong, dated October 14, 1821, ^' by favor of Mr. Music," presenting Mr. Farrar with " my old black horse, if he will be of any service to you." A letter dated Fort Armstrong, November 21, 1821, signed J. R. Stubbs, a blacksmith, addressed to Amos Farrar,

Fever River, introducing to the latter the bearer of the letter, Mr. Sjmmes, who was accompanied by Mr. Connor and Mr. Bates " - undoubtedly B. Symines and James Connor, and, perhaps, David G. Bates, who have always been considered among the earliest settlers in the mining region. These and other letters and papers belonging to Mr. Farrar were kindly placed at the disposal of the writer by Captain G. W. Girdon, of Galena, one of the oldest steamboat captains now in service on the Mississippi, and enabled him to fix the date of his permanent settlement on Fever River more accurately than can be done with some others. From these letters it appears that Mr. Farrar was, for at least two years before, and up to July 22, 1821, in the service of Louis Devotion, as a trader on the Mississippi, located at Fort Armstrong, bringing his supplies via Green Bay from Canada. At that date he left the service of Mr. Devotion, and, immedi ately after, came to Fever River, as before stated, and probably located at the Portage. In 1823, he had a trading house on the bank of the river, near the centre of what is now Water Street, between Perry and Franklin Streets, Galena. On the 1st of June, 1825, Mr. Farrar received a permit, signed Charles Smith, acting sub-agent United States lead mines, permitting him to occupy five acres of United States land for cultivation, and to build a cabin thereon, situated near the Portage. He must comply with all regulations concerning cutting timber. Mr. Farrar had three children by his Indian wife (now all dead). About two years before his death he married Miss Sophia Gear, sister of Captain H. H. Gear, who still survives him. He died of consumption, at his residence within the stockade, July 24, 1832, beloved and respected by all who knew him. The following copy of a printed notice to the inhabitants will show the esteem in which he was held :

Yourself and family are respectfully invited to attend the funeral of Mr. Amos Farrar this morning at ten o'clock, from his late residence within the stockade. Galena, July 26, 1832.

We have been thus elaborate in regard to the mining regions of Galena, to show the origin of settlements in Northwestern Illinois. The mines naturally attracted attention, and the more they became known, the greater was the influx of immigrants. Up to 1831, the immigration was confined exclusively to the mines at Galena, and but little attention was given to the rich farming lands of the prairies and river valleys, and only a few attempts had been made towards taking claims and making farms in any part of the country away from the Galena section. Early in the Summer of 1825, a Mr. Kellogg "started from Fort Clark for the Fever River Mines, and reached and crossed Rock River a few miles above the present City of Dixon. Passing up the prairie lying between Polo and Mount Morris, touching the western part of West Grove, he continued northward to Galena. Mr. Kellogg was the pioneer traveler from Fort Clark, now Peoria, and thus marked out a course of travel that came to be known as " Kellogg's Trail." During that Summer and Fall, a large number of fortune hunters, some with teams, but more on foot, and all camping out, passed over the same route, which continued to be the line of travel between Fort Clark and Galena until a shorter one was defined in 1826.

There were neither ferries nor bridges over any of the streams in those days, and the method of crossing them was primitive and simple. Indians, particularly the Winnebagoes, were numerous all through this country, and were thickly sett'ed or encamped along Rock River, and were easily persuaded to help the whites cross the river. Two of their canoes would be placed side by side, the two wheels of one side of a wagon placed in one of them, and the two wheels of the other side placed in the other canoe, thus forming a ferry boat, on which they would be transferred from one side of the river to the other. The horses or oxen were made to swim the river, and, safely crossed, they would be hitched up again, and the journey renewed.

As the country came to be understood, the Kellogg trail was regarded as circuitous, and bearing too far to the east to be the shortest, and, in the Spring of 1826, John Boles, who was traveling across the country, left the beaten trail, some miles south of Rock River, and crossed that stream just above where it is now crossed by the Illinois Central Railroad at Dixon. He then passed up through the country, about one mile 'east of Polo ; thence north to White Oak Grove, about half a mile west of Forreston ; thence through Crane's Grove, and so on to Galena. This trail immediately came to be the popular route of travel, and was known as " Boles' Trail." For three years, or until 1829, it was the only route used. It is said that, on the prairie, a few miles east of Polo, traces of this old trail are still to be seen and easily defined.

In the winter months there was but very little travel, probably from the fact that there was but little or nothing doing in the mines, and may be because of the exposure necessarily incident to the trip. In March, 1827, however, a heavy tide of travel set in from Fort Clark, and other parts of the state below there.

Among the first to come up that season and cross Rock River at the Boles trail (now Dixon) was Elisha Doty, who subsequently settled at Polo. "When he arrived at the river it was still covered with ice, over which he essayed to cross, but before he had proceeded far the ice began to give way, and he was obliged to abandon the attempt. " While waiting on the bank (says Boss' Sketches of the History of Ogle County, published in 1859), just before starting on his return, about two hundred teams collected there, all on their way to Galena. We mention this fact that an approximate idea may be formed of the amount of travel to and fro through the country at that early period."

This was not the only trail or line of travel from the southern part of the state, to Galena, at that date. About the same time the Kellogg trail was marked out, another trail, known as the " Lewiston Trail," was established. This trail crossed the river a little above Prophetstown, in what is now Whiteside County, and passed some miles west of the western line of Ogle County. There was probably as much travel on the Lewiston trail as on the Boles trail, and hence the reader will readily infer that there was an immense rush to the lead mines in 1827.

There was another trail from the south part of the state, known as the " Sucker Trail," and is often mentioned by old Illinoisans. One peculiarity of the miners was to apply to the people from the various states, names suggested by some peculiarity of character or surrounding circumstances. Miners and others came in such large number from Missouri as to suggest to the fertile imagination of the hardy settlers the idea that the State of Missouri had taken an emetic, and forthwith all Missourians were dubbed " Pukes." The people of Southern Illinois had the habit of coming up here with their teams in the Spring to haul mineral and work in the mines, but regularly returned to their homes in the Fall. This suggested that they were Hke the iish called ''suckers," which run up the small streams in the Spring, and run down to deeper water at the approach of cold weather. All lUinoisans were called " Suckers," therefore, and here, in \he lead mines of the Upper Mississippi, originated the term which is now applied to all residents of the " Sucker State." Kentuckians were called " corn-crackers; " Indianians, "Hoosiers;" Ohioans, "Buckeyes," etc., and hence the name " Sucker Trail."

Isaac Chambers, the first white settler in Ogle County, passed through the county limits early in the Summer of 1827, en route for Galena, and was so favorably impressed with the beauty of the country and the richness of the soil, that he determined to make it his future home, which determination he carried out in 1829, but of this more anon.

In 1827 the site of Dixon had become a fixed place for travelers to cross the river, but crossing was often attended with a great deal of inconvenience, as up to this time, and until 1828, there was no ferry other than the kind of canoe ferry already described, and the Indians were not always present and in readiness with their canoes. When the water was low, the river could be forded jvithout difficulty, but this was not always the case. The establishment of a ferry at that point was first undertaken by a man named J. L. Begordis, of Peoria, who sent a man up in the early Summer of 1827 to build a shanty 8 by 10, on the bank, and to live there and " hold the fort," or ferry, until Begordis could find and forward the necessary workmen, carpenters, etc., to build the ferry boat. Soon after the shanty was completed, Mr. Doty (the father of Elisha Doty already mentioned), a carpenter, came, and work on the boat was commenced and vigorously prosecuted. When the boat was about half completed, the Indians set fire to it, and informed its builders that they should not build a boat there, and told them to " go to Peoria." Doty and his assistant did not stand upon the order of their going, but went at once, for the command was imperative, if not threatening.

In the Spring of 1828, Joe Ogee, a Frenchman and an Indian interpreter, whose wife was a Pottawattomie woman, settled there, built a house, and established a ferry. The records in the County Clerk's office at Galena, show that on the 7th day of December, 1829, Ogee applied to the Board (»f Commissioners of Jo Daviess County, for license to keep a ferry, although he had maintained one for more than a year. At the same time he made application for license to keep a tavern, both of which were granted. The county commissioners had power to fix both ferry and tavern rates, and as a reminder of times long agone, we copy the following rates at Ogee's Ferry:

Mr. Boss says Ogee was '' almost an Indian, from his long association with them, and having adopted many of their social and domestic habits." His tavern and ferry were not disturbed by the Indians, and he remained in possession of the ferry until the 11th of April, 1830, when he sold out to John Dixon, of Peoria, after whom the City of Dixon was named.

All was not happiness, however, in Ogee's' family. There was a " skel eton in the closet," and, some months before Dixon bought the ferry, a separation between them was agreed upon. The Indian wife went her way, leaving the husband to act as landlord, landlady and ferryman, as best he might. Mrs. Ogee belonged to one of the wealthiest Indian families of the country, and was an heiress, owning nearly one half of Paw Paw Grove, an Indian reservation. After the separation between herself and Jo, she was looked upon as a captivating widow, and was not long in finding admirers. After angling around awhile, she selected one Job Alcott as the " best suited to her mind," to whom she was married. When the Pottawattomies were removed to Kansas, Job Alcott and his wife accompanied them to their new home.

John Ankeney came up from the southern part of the state, in the Spring of 1829, and located a claim at Nanusha, or Bufialo Grove, near where the old Galena road crossed Buffalo Creek. After making his claim, he returned for his family, and, while he was absent on that mission, Isaac Chambers came down from Galena with his family, and stopped at White Oak Grove, a small growth or patch of timber about half a mile to the west of the present village of Forreston. But, not altogether suited, he remained there only a short time. He reasoned that the timbered parts of the country would become more valuable than the prairie land, because of the superabundance of the latter, and comparative scarcity of the former. Aftei" prospecting around for awhile, and examining different localities, he finally settled upon Buffalo Grove, about ten miles south of his first stopping place at White Oak Grove. He removed his family there, and commenced to make arrangements to build a house a few rods above the site of the old bridge over Buffalo Creek, where there was an easy crossing of that stream of water. He also had in purpose a plan to open a road through the timber, and, by building a hotel, divert the travel from the prairie and thus put his time, labor and money where they would do the most good. As it happened, Mr. Chambers had taken the claim previously selected by by Ankeney, and while he was perfecting his plans and arrangements for opening the contemplated road and building a hotel, Mr. Ankeney came back with his family, and was surprised to find that his claim had been "jumped," or taken, by Mr. Chambers, while the latter was no less surprised at the appearance of Ankeney. The surprise was mutual, although it is to be presumed that it was not at all agreeable to either. If either had been left alone in undisputed possession of the claim, it would have been a long distance, in any direction, to the nearest neighbor. But this consideration was of no consequence to either of the disputants, and Mr.

Ankeney, in no very pleasant mood of temper, went down the creek about one hundred rods, where he proceeded to erect a " public house," although there was but one road in the whole country, and that one fully two miles distant.

Hotels in those days were of the most primitive character. Generally speaking, they were one-story log structures - round logs, at that, not even *' scutched down." If they had more than one room, the extra one was, in all probability, a " shed addition," built on the side. If there was an upstairs apartment, it was reached by a rude step-ladder, made from a conveniently sized sapling, cut to the proper length, through which inch or inch and a half augur holes were bored at desired intervals, and then split in halves. The smaller undergrowth of hickory, oak or ash, about the size of common hoop-poles, were next brought into use, cut to the proper length, and the ends dressed down to fit the holes in the side pieces of the ladder. When enough of these were made ready, the ladder was put together, and was ready for use. This ladder would be elevated in one corner of the room, or, may be, set up in the chimney-corner outside, underneath a window or half-doorway, cut in the end of the upper part of the house. The furniture of the " taverns" was just as simple as the plans and architecture of the house. Often the floor was nothing but the earth. As likely as not threelegged stools supplied the place of chairs. Tables were often made from puncheons split from logs, dressed down with a broad-axe to a proper thickness, then fastened together by a cross piece underneath, which was held in place by wooden pins. In each corner of the table a hole was bored with a hand augur, which received the legs. Bedsteads were sometimes made by boring a hole in one of the logs at the proper height, in one side of the building, about four feet from the corner. About six feet from the wall a post was driven into the ground. One end of the side rail would be fitted in the augur-hole, and the other end fastened to the post. The foot rail was provided in the same way. Then came the slats (instead of bed-cords), reaching from the side rail to the side of the house, and the bedstead was completed. Mr. Boss says : " These bedsteads were often so made that, byplacing one above another, one bed-post would support twelve sleepers, if the family consisted of both sexes, curtains of deer skins or other materials, were hung between the beds, or else the light was put out just before retiring. This was done by covering up or throwing water on the fire in the fire-place, for those were days of economy. If, perchance, fires were extinguished, they were re-kindled by striking flints and catching sparks on tinder."

Such were the tavern accommodations in the Kock Eiver Yalley fifty years ago. And in such houses the fathers and mothers of some of the most aristocratic first families of Ogle County set up housekeeping.

After their houses were built, Chambers and Ankeney proceeded to establish the dividing line between their claims. Other boundary lines were unnecessary, for there were no otlier claimants in all the country, and, if they so willed it, one of them could claim Kock River for his eastern line, and the other one the Mississippi for his western line. They were, for the time, '' monarchs of all they surveyed." But we will quote from Mr. Boss :

" One clear, star-light night, when the moon did not shine, and when there were no clouds floating'across the sky, they went together to the south side of the grove, and, from a red-oak 'stump, they started towards the North Star, hacking the trees which stood in their way, the marked trees being the line between them."

All things being ready, thej went to Ogee's Ferry, and staked out eacli his road, the two lines running parallel, being at no place more than half a mile apart. Chambers' stakes, of course, ran by his house, and Mr. Ankeney's by his house. The lines intersected north of the grove, and the main line, after continuing a considerable distance, again intersected with the old Boles trail. No difficulty was found in inducing travelers to take, one of the two proposed roads, but the question was, which road should they take? Each at once set at work to make his own house the most attractive. Jealousy and rivalry at once arose between them, and were harbored as long as they lived so near together with conflicting interests. Each used every means in his power to injure the custom of the other, by such acts as felling trees across the other's road, and in many other equally irritating ways, which rendered it quite an unpleasant neighborhood.

Early in 1828 a man named Clempson secured the contract for carrying the mail between Peoria and Galena, but he soon transferred the contract to John Dixon, who carried it hj hack or stage, his son being the driver, and was probably the first stage driver on the old Peoria and Galena route. He commenced to make regular trips some time before Ogee's ferry boat was completed, and often experienced great difficulty in getting the Indians to ferry him over the river. In 1830, as before stated, Dixon bought the ferry and its privileges and moved his family from Peoria to Dixon's Ferry.

In May, 1829, Oliver W. Kellogg settled in what is now Erin Township, Stephenson County. He remained there until the Spring of 1831, when he moved down to Buffalo Grove, and bought the Chambers claim and "' tavern." Chambers moved about six miles north and made another claim at what has ever since been known as Chambers' Grove. Kellogg not only succeeded to the ownership of the Chambers property, but to the Chambers line of hostilities against Ankeney.

The same day that Kellogg arrived at Buffalo Grove, Samuel Reed and family came and made a claim on the south side of the grove, where he continued to live until the time of his death in 1852.

In 1831, settlers were scattered along the route between Peoria and Galena as follows: The first was at LaSalle trairie, about fifteen miles north of Peoria. The second was John Boyd, about twenty miles above LaSalle Prairie, at what is known as Boyd's Grove. Bulbony came next, about eight miles north of Boyd's. Henry Thomas lived at the head of Bureau Timber, twelve miles distant from Boyd's Grove. Joseph Smith was the next settler northward, and lived at a grove which was called " Dad Joe's Grove," in honor of this first settler at that point, which was nineteen miles south of Dixon's Ferry. The first settlement north of Dixon was Buffalo Grove. Then came Cherry Grove, Crane's Grove, John Flack's on Rush Creek, John Winters, on Apple River, where the Tillage of Elizabeth now stands. Mr. Winters afterwards removed to Bufialo Grove. Northward, between Elizabeth and Galena, there were only two or three miners' huts, one of which belonged to William Durley, who was subsequently shot by the Indians at Buffalo Grove.

, For many years these were noted places. Their settlement had been made in the midst of Indians. The Winnebagoes had not left the country, and the Pottawatomies, while a smaller tribe, still occupied their old hunting grounds. They were peaceable, however, and never manifested any disposition to pilfer or do any of those trifling acts that characterized manyother tribes of Indians when they professed peace and friendship.

In the Spring of 1831 the settlers of Buffalo Grove made the first attempts at cultivating the soil. Some prairie sod was turned over and planted to corn. We again quote from Boss' Sketches of the History of Ogle County: " The ' first moon in June ' was the time at which the Indians held their annual council, and when they met at Rock Island it was rumored that they were going to make war upon the whites. Deeming it imprudent to remain here, the settlers started for Galena. On arriving at Apple River, their numbers were considerably increased by the addition of several persons from other points, and they concluded to stop and build a stockade. They had been there just a week and commenced cutting the timbers for a fort, when a dispatch was received from Rock Island informing them that a treaty had been made, and that they might safely return to their farms. On their return, the farms were fenced, in order to secure the growing crops. Before the crops could be harvested, provisions grew short, arid the settlers were obliged to go to Peoria County for supplies.

" When Autumn came the corn crop was light and late. After being harvested, the grain was grated on a grater to get meal for bread, until it was too dry, when it was pounded in a mortar. [The more appropriate name would be a hominy block.] The mortar was made by boring and burning out the end of a log prepared for the purpose. The pestle was made by fastening an iron wedge to a ' spring stick ' attached to an upright post (much in the fashion of an old fashioned well sweep) ; handles were then put on, when the operator commenced pounding, the elasticity of. the stick lightening the labor by raising the wedge after it had struck the corn. This rude mill was generally used once a day. The Indianr-, wdio were the nearest neighbors, supplied them with venison during the Winter, receiving corn and pumpkins for their compensation. The Winter (1831-'2) was long and tedious, with deep snows and high winds."

June 8, 1831, the first voting precinct ever established within the limits of the territory of Ogle County, was defined by the County Commissioners of Jo Daviess County. On that day the commissioners aforesaid entered the following order :

It is considered tliat the persons residing within the following limits shall constitute voters within Bufialo Grove Precinct, viz. : East of the Lewiston road and south of a line to include the dwelling of Crane and Hylliard, running to the southern boundary of the county inclusive.

It is considered that John Dixon, Isaac Chambers and John Ankeney be and they are hereby appointed judges of elections for the Butfalo Grove Precinct.

The Lewiston trail crossed Rock River at Prophetstown, and passed up through Carroll County not far (as some of the settlers of 1836 tell us) from Lanark. Crane's Grove, according to the same authority, was on the dividing ridge between the headwaters of Straddle (now Carroll) Creek and Plum River. Thus it will be seen that Buffalo precinct embraced a wide range of territory. In all that region at that time there were not to exceed fifty voters - probably not twenty-five, and may be not even that number. We sought to find the original poll-book at Galena, but like a good many of the other early papers it had been lost or carried off'. It is a lamentable fact that there was not that care in the preservation of early documents there should have been - a carelessness that is now deeply regretted. That old poll-book of forty-seven years ago would be a valuable document, and the names of the voters at the first election in August, 1831, would make an interesting paragraph in the history of Ogle County.

The history thus far written has been of a general character and not confined to Ogle County, but has been considered necessary to show the origin and spread of the settlements in I^orthwestern Illinois. We have quoted from what is believed to be good and reliable authority. Some of the statements are gathered from personal interviews with old Galenians - men who came there as boys of fifteen years in 1823, and who have remained there ever since, helping to develop the country, and taking an active part, as their years increased, in all of the public enterprises of the country. Men of good minds and observant characters, it is reasonable to suppose that their statements are authentic and accurate. In other instances, we have quoted from printed history, written years ago, when the memory of early incidents and happenings was fresh in the memory of the people. So there is no reason to question the accuracy of the incidents we have thus far grouped together. Having followed the settlement of the country from its first occupancy by white men at Galena in 1819, to the erection of the first voting precinct within the limits of Ogle County in 1831, we will now ask our readers to go back with us to review the incidents of the two Indian Wars - the Winnebago War of 1827, and the Black Hawk War of 1832. When -we liave written of the causes that conspired to bring on these wars - wars in which the first settlers were directly interested, and in which they participated - of their prosecution and final conclusion - the local history and development of the county will be taken up in- chronological order and followed down to the present era.

It will be noticed by critical and studious readers that the theory herein presented as to the origin of these wars, especially of the Winnebago War, is at variance in some important respects from the theories and causes advanced by earlier writers. The time has now come, if never before, when the people can afibrd to be just to the memory of the rights of the people who once occupied the beautiful and fertile valleys of Kock River and its tributaries. It is not our purpose to divest the Indians of all responsibility or immunity from wrong doing in all cases, but simply to deal with facts as we have found them. These facts are gathered from intelligent, unprejudiced minds - from men who saw and were a part of the army against the Indians, and who know whereof they aflSrm.

The Winnebago War

As has already been shown, when Jo Daviess County was first organized in 1827, it embraced within its jurisdiction all the country within the following boundaries : "Commencing at the northwest corner of the state, thence down the Mississippi River to the north line of the military tract (not far from Keithsburg, in Mercer County); thence east to the Illinois River ; thence north to the State line ; thence west to the place of begining." These lines included a vast area of territory - much larger and richer than the territory embraced within several of the New England States.

Histoey Of Ogle Countt

Minnesota, Iowa and ]S"ebraska have been organized as states and settled by millions of civilized and intelligent people, and the great territory of Dakota knocking for admission into the Union), but as being the period of the first serious troubles experienced by the pioneer settlers with the Indians, and now dignified by the title of the " Winnebago War." All the territory north of the Ordinance line of 1787 was in the undisputed possession of the Indians, except the reservations at the north of the Wisconsin and on Fever River, and the mining district in Jo Daviess County and Michigan Territory, outside these reservations, was occupied largely by the Winnebagoes. Early in 1827, miners, settlers and adventurers flocked hither in great numbers, and inevitably extended their explorations for mineral beyond the " Ridge," recognized as the line of the " five leagues square," although it does not now appear that the limits of the reservation were ever accurately determined. Many rich leads were discovered on Indian lands, and miners persisted in digging there, in direct disobedience of the orders of the Superintendent of the United States Lead Mines to desist and withdraw from lands on which the United States were not authorized to even explore for mineral. In exceptional instances, the right to mine was purchased from the Indians, but in most cases the restless searchers for mineral wealth totally disregarded the orders of the Superintendent and the rights of the Indians, who, according to the acts of the trespassers, " had no right which a white man was bound to respect." Frequent disputes occurred in consequence between the miners and the Indians. Mr. Shull, who had discovered a fine lead and had erected a shanty near it^ was driven ofi", and his cabin destroyed by the Winnebagoes, who, owning the land, did no more, and perhaps not as much, as whites would have done under similar circumstances, to protect and preserve their rights and property. The dissatisfaction and ill feeling engendered by these encroachments upon their territory was, perhaps, a minor cause of the outbreak, but had no other cause operated to further exasperate the Indians, the difficulties might, and probably would, have been amicably adjusted without bloodshed.

About this time, and while these disputes between the miners and Indians were occurring, two keel-boats, belonging to the contractor to furnish supplies for the troops at Fort Snelling, while on their way up the river, stopped at a point not far above Prairie du Chien, where were encamped a large number of Winnebago Indians. John Wakefield, Esq., in writing from^ memory an account of the war, if it can be called such (and it must be admitted now, writing in a spirit of bitter prejudice against the Indians, who had been peaceable and friendly with the settlers here, until provoked beyond endurance), says that these boats were run by " Capt. Allen Lindsey, a gentleman of the first respectability in our country," and that he was with his boats on this particular trip, but it is to be hoped that Wakefield was in error, for no " respectable gentleman " could have permitted men under his command to indulge in such fiendish excesses, not only endangering their own lives, but imperiling the safety of all the frontier settlements as well.

Reynolds says that after stopping at the Winnebago camp "the boatmen made the Indians drunk - and no doubt were so themselves - when they captured six or seven squaws, who were also drunk. These captured squaws 'were forced on the boats for corrupt and brutal purposes. But not satisfied with this outrage on female virtue, the boatmen took the squaws with them in the boats to Fort Snelling." Another version given by

Harvey Mann, of Yinegar Hill, Jo Daviess County, and others who were familiar with the events of that year, is that the boatmen and the Indians had a drunken frolic ; that several squaws were kept on board the boats all night and put ashore the next morning before any of the tribe had recovered from the eifects of their " spree," and the boats continued on their voyage up the river. These accounts agree as to the main fact that the boatmen committed a gross outrage upon the Indians, and provoked an attack.

When the duped and injured Winnebagoes had slept off the effects of their debauch and become sober enough to comprehend the outrage committed upon their women, and the injury done them in " this delicate point," they were intensely exasperated, and resolved to wash out the stain upon their honor in blood. What white people would not have done the same, under similar circumstances? Hunners were sent out in all directions summoning the warriors to the scene of action at once for an attack on the boats when they returned. A war party of the Winnebagoes went from Jo Daviess County, in the vicinity ot Galena, to aid their northern brethren in avenging the insult they Jiad received. Capt. D. S. Harris states that at this time a band of fifteen or twenty of these Indians stopped at his father's house on the way up the river, and were very insolent. " Old Curley," a friendly Indian, had notified the family of the intended visit, and the younger members had sought refuge in the neighboring cornfield, leaving only Smith and Scribe in the house with their mother. "The Indians," says Smith Harris, " were very insolent, as was not unusual for that tribe. They offered no personal injury, for Scribe (Smith's brother) and I stood by our guns. They did attempt to take some articles of goods we had, but we told them if they didn't let things alone we would shoot, and they knew we meant it. They finally left without doing any harm, and we felt much relieved." This band went north, and, it is said, murdered a family near Prairie du Chien. Four Winnebago Chiefs called upon the G-ratiots, at Gratiot's Grove, and informed them that on account of the action of the whites they should be unable to restrain their young men from declaring war, and as they did not desire to harm the " Choteaus" (as the Indians always called the Gratiot family), they had come to tell them that they had better remove. But careful inquiry among these who were at Galena during that year fails to develop any evidence that any outrages were committed by the Indians in the mining district at that time, either before or after the insult by those drunken keel-boatmen, and which the injured party intended to avenge upon the guilty parties themselves.

Wakefield says that some of the Indians " came aboard of Lindsey's boat on his way up and showed such signs of hostility that he was lead to expect an attack on his return, and provided hinaself with a few fire arms, so that in case of an attack by them he might be able to defend himself." Other accounts state that the boatmen anticipated an attack upon their return. Why, if they had done nothing to provoke an assaut? The Indians were peaceable, and even in the mines, where they had reason to complain of the encroachments of the whites upon their territory, they had done nothing more than to drive off the trespassers.

Of course the boatmen expected an attack on their return trip, for they knew they deserved it, and the dispassionate judgment of humanity, after the lapse' of half a century, concurs in that opinion. Knowing this, they attempted to run^by the Winnebago Yillage on their return, in the night. The watchful, vengeful Winnebagoes, however, were not to be eluded. The boats were forced to approach near the shore in the narrow channel of the river at that point, and there, says Reynold's, " the infuriated savages assailed one boat and permitted the other to pass down " unmolested. The presumption is that the boat assailed contained the offenders whom they wished to punish. Reynolds' account of the light is as follows :

The boatmen were not entirely prepared for the attack, although to some extent they were guarded against it. The^ had procured some arms, and were on the alert to some degree. The Indians laid down in their canoes and tried to paddle them to the boat; but the whites, seeing this, fired their muskets on them in the canoes. It was a desperate and furious fight for a few minutes, between a good many Indians exposed in open canoes and only a few boatmen protected, to some extent, by their boat. One boatman, a sailor by profession on the lakes and ocean, who had been in many battles with the British during the war of 1813, saved the boat and those of the crew who were not killed. This man was large and strong, and possessed the courage of an African lion. He seized a part of the setting pole of the boat, which was about four feet long and had on the end a piece of iron, which made the pole weighty and a powerful weapon in the hands of " Saucy Jack," as the champion was called. It is stated that when the Indians attempted to board the boat, Jack would knock them back into the river as fast as they approached. The boat got fast on the ground, and the whites seemed doomed, but with great exertion, courage and hard fighting, the Indians were repelled. ("Jack," unmindful of the shower of bullets whistling about, seized a pole, pushed the boat into the current, and it floated beyond the reach of the assailants.) The savages killed several white men and wounded many more, leaving barely enough to navigate the boat. Thus commenced and thus ended the bloodshed of the Winnebago War. No white man or Indian was killed before or after this naval engagement.

The arrival of these boats at Galena and the report of their narrow escape, created great alarm, intensified by the arrival, the same day, of a party who had fled to Galena for safety, anticipating war, and by the warning given to the Gratriots. All mining operations ceased ; the miners and scattered settlers hurried to Galena for safety, built stockades and blockhouses in their own neighborhoods, or left the country. A little fort was built at Elizabeth, another at Apple River, and still another in Michigan Territory. These forts, although not needed then, were afterwards found " very handy to have in the family."

Governor Edwards received information, on which he relied, that the Winnebago Indians had attacked some keel-boats, that the settlers and miners on Fever River were in imminent danger of an attack from a band of the same and other Indians (although the facts, as reported to him and upon which he acted, have never been made public), and called out the Twentieth Regiment Illinois Militia, under Col. Thomas M. ^N^eale, who were to rendezvous at Fort Clark (Peoria), " and march with all possible expedition to the assistance of our fellow citizens at Galena." The brave citizens of Sangamon rallied to the rendezvous, and, with ten days rations, marched to Gratiot Grove, and - finding no hostile Indians there, disbanded and - marched home again.

Gen. Lewis Cass, Governor of Michigan Territory, who had been appointed by the government to hold a treaty with the Lake Michigan Indians, at Green Bay, arrived there about this time, but, finding but few there and hearing that the Lake Indians had received war messages from the interior, hastened to communicate the startling intelligence to the military commander at St. Louis. He ascended Fox River from Green Bay, descended the Wisconsin and Mississippi, and in nine days arrived at St. Louis. It is said that " among the Winnebagoes he discovered warlike preparations, but his sudden and unexpected appearance among them in a birch canoe, of larger size than that used by ordinary traders, filled with armed 'men, with the U. S. fiag flying, led the Indians to suspect that he was accompanied by a superior force. To this fact and the rapidity of his movements may be attributed his safety and the men under his command." A single birch bark canoe, with armed men enough in it to overcome thousands of hostile savages for hundreds of miles, must have been worth seeing.

On his way down, G-en. Cass stopped at Galena, where Gen. Henry Dodge and Gen. Whiteside had raised a company of volunteers, ready to march against the terrible foe. An eye witness of his arrival says that in the midst of the alarm then prevailing the excited people heard singing, and thought the Indians were coming, but soon their fears were allayed, for they saw, gliding gracefully up the river, around the point below the village, a large canoe flying the United States flag and containing an American officer and six Canadians dressed in blue jackets and red sashes, with bright feathers in their hats, who were singing the "Canadian Boat Song" as they bent over their oars, and with measured strokes sent it flying to the bank, when Gen. Cass stepped ashore amid the cheers of the assembled population. "Armed men " were few and far between in that boat.

Immediately upon receipt of news from Governor Cass, General Atkinson marched with 600 men to the " seat of war," and formed a junction with the Galena Yolunteers at Fort Winnebago. " Thus far they had marched into the bowels of the land without impediment." During all this period of alarm, excitement and feverish expectation of a descent of the hostile Indians upon the defenceless frontier settlements in the mining district, what were these Indians doing ? They had had time enough to have swept the white settlers on Fever River out of the country, or out of existence, before the "imposing display of such a large number of troops in the heart of their country, dampened their war spirit and induced them to surrender their chiefs," but it does not appear that they murdered a single settler, or committed any serious depredations after they had punished the keel-boatmen who had so grossly insulted them.