Spring Valley, Illinois

Ustick Township, on section 32. He remained here cultivating his farm until 1849, when, getting the California fever, he sold his farm to Henry Bond, and commenced his preparations for the new Eldorado. Having completed his preparations, he moved out one April morning, in 1850, with his family, consisting of a wife and seven children, three boys and four girls. His outfit consisted of three wagons, three yokes of oxen and two spans of horses. These wagons contained household goods, clothing and provisions. They joined other emigrant trains on the way and traveled with them for some days, when, having better teams, they went on ahead, leaving'the others behind. They journeyed on very pleasantly until they passed into the Territory of Arizona, - the Indian country, - where they became subjected to constant annoyances. The first of these was the want of feed for their teams. Soon the Indians began pestering them, stealing their horses or cattle, goods, and their provisions. At last they reached a long hill, about 150 miles from Fort Yuma, and stopped for a short rest. They were reduced now to one yoke of oxen and a wagon. The oxen were mere skeletons, and were nearly worn out and starved. They had unloaded the wagon preparatory to carrying the goods up the hill, leaving the oxen to haul up the empty wagon. At this juncture, Dr. John Le Conte, a scientist and geologist, came upon the party. He was traveling to California with an attendant, each mounted on a horse. The Dr. tarried for a while, talking with Mr. Oatman and family, and before he left was fully apprised of their perilous condition. Mr. Oatman urged him to hurry on to Fort Yuma and send troops back to his rescue. Dr. Le Conte promised to do this, and immediately started forward. Arriving at the fort he made known the condition of the Oatman family, and their eminent danger of being at any moment murdered by the Indians. Gen. Samuel P. Heintzelman, who was then in command of the fort, immediately sent out a force for their rescue. The troops on their way came upon the massacred party but a few miles west of the hill where Le Conte had parted from them ! The bodies of Mr. and Mrs. Oatman and four of their children lay about on the ground in a fearfully mutilated condition. The fate of the other three remained a mystery. A grave was dug by the soldiers large enough to receive all the

Passage source: Portrait and Biographical Album of Whiteside County, Illinois : Containing Full-page Portraits and Biographies of All the Governors of Illinois, and of the Presidents of the United States, published 1885.

The boy, Lorenzo, aged 14 years, who had been left as dead by the savages, recovered- sufficiently to walk, and, taking the road his fated parents had so recently passed over, soon came upon the emigrants they had left in the rear. They took up the poor orphan boy, and carried him through with them to California.

Passage source: Portrait and Biographical Album of Whiteside County, Illinois : Containing Full-page Portraits and Biographies of All the Governors of Illinois, and of the Presidents of the United States, published 1885.

The Presbyterians have a society at Spring Valley, where they have a neat little church. This was organized in 1860, by Rev. A. H. Lackey. There were at the organization some twenty members. They worshiped in a school-house until they completed their building, which was in 1866, at a cost of over $2,000. The ministers serving this Church are Revs. J. B. McClure, A. Keigwin, A. H. Lackey, A. W. Colver, A. W. Hanna, W. D. Lummis, and F. J. Prichert.

Passage source: Portrait and Biographical Album of Whiteside County, Illinois : Containing Full-page Portraits and Biographies of All the Governors of Illinois, and of the Presidents of the United States, published 1885.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Ustick Township - it names this place 1 more 1 time.