George H. Gurler House

As has been stated in a previous chapter of the County History, in 1832 the army under General Whiteside, numbering about twenty-two hundred, consisting of one regiment of regulars and tin.' balance of volunteers, marched from Stillman's Run to the month of the Kishwaukee, thence following the south side of that stream to the Pottawatomie village mi section one. where they camped and found some of the plunder taken from Stillman's men by the savages. The Indians had been taken from this locality in about 1S35, lint many marks are found today of their village. When the white men first came to Coltonville they found buried, while a number of papooses were wrapped in bark and suspended among the branches of the trees. It has been stated that a company of United States mounted troops at about 1835 escorted the Indians from this village to Paw Paw grove in the southwest corner of the county, preparatory to removal, and it is also stated that this same company, while marching to their destination, camped on the site of the present village of De Kalb. "While here one of their number attempted to desert ami he paid McClellan a sum of money to secrete him ; but. being threatened by the officer in command. McClellan gave him up again and he was tied to the rear of the army wagon and dragged on foot through the remainder of the route. The neighbors, indignant at McClellan*s treachery, threatened to lynch him and he was obliged to fly the country to secure safety."

Passage source: Past and Present of DeKalb County, Illinois, published 1907.

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

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