THE DAVIS SETTLEMENT.
The father of our heroines, William Hall, who was born in Georgia,
migrated to Kentucky where he married Mary J. Wilburs, and in 1825
emigrated to Mackinaw, about fifteen miles south of Peoria, Illinois,
where he opened a farm. Shortly afterwards he moved to the lead mines
near Galena where he staid three years, and then returned to Lamoille,
Bureau County, Illinois. In the spring of 1832 he sold out his mining
claim and settled upon a homestead about two miles east of the farm of
William Davis. Prior to that time his oldest daughter, Temperance, had
been married to Peter Cartwright, but the other members of his family,
consisting of his wife, three daughters--Sylvia, aged 19, Rachel,
aged 17, and Elizabeth, aged 8 years, and two boys, were living with
him. Some time prior to the massacre, two Indians named Co-mee and
To-qua-mee, who had been frequent visitors at the Hall home and treated
kindly by Mr. Hall’s daughters, endeavored, after the custom of the
Indians, to purchase Sylvia and Rachel from their father.[10]
[10] “The Black Hawk War,” Stevens, 149.
[Illustration: MRS. DUNAVAN, AGED 16, LIKENESS OF SYLVIA HALL.]
The Halls were noted for their hospitality. Judge Edwin Jerome of
Detroit relates that he was the guest of the family one night in April
1832.[11]
[11] 1 “Michigan Pioneers”, Jerome, 49.
William Pettigrew, also from Kentucky, who had just migrated to the
Davis Settlement and had not yet established a home for himself, with
his wife and two children, was temporarily stopping at the home of Mr.
Davis at the time of the massacre.
In 1830, John H. Henderson emigrated from Tennessee to Indian Creek
and settled on a homestead adjoining the land of Davis on the south.
Subsequently the Hendersons became prominent politicians, both in
Illinois and Iowa.
In the spring of 1830, William Davis, a Kentuckian, and a blacksmith by
trade, settled on a land claim on Big Indian Creek, twelve miles north
of Ottawa, in the northern part of La Salle County, Illinois. He was
the first white settler at that place.
Agriculture and marriage have always been the great necessities to
found permanent civilization. To establish a settlement in the great
west, at that time, a blacksmith shop and a mill were the next two
great necessities, and around those the early settlers broke up the
wild prairie and on the upturned sod sowed buckwheat, turnips and
sod-corn, which within three months produced their first food from the
soil for themselves and their stock. To “break” the tough prairie sod
required a sharp plowshare and colter, which had to be resharpened
frequently. Without the blacksmith the prairie could hardly be
cultivated. The big ox-teams of the neighbors, with which they had
moved into the country, pulled the plow. Next, with the crop produced,
the grist mill to grind the grain was a great necessity. The Indians
and some of the early settlers with hammers and stones pulverized corn
and wheat enough to supply their absolute wants from day to day, but
the whites, who had been accustomed to corn-meal and wheat-flour bread,
were not satisfied with the mashed product. Therefore, Davis, who
supplied both of those great necessities, was a prominent man in the
Davis Settlement.
The mill-site was where the Sauk trail from Black Hawk’s Village at the
mouth of the Rock River crossed Big Indian Creek and continued thence
east to Canada, where the whole tribe of Sacs went every year to get
their annuities from the English Government.[12] Just above the ford
the creek meandered through a flat-bottomed gulch that was about two
hundred feet wide with precipitous banks about fifteen feet high. At
this point the stream flowed southeasterly and was fringed along its
course with woods that grew dense, and here and there expanded into
groves, but at other places there were openings where the prairie
fires annually destroyed the undergrowth and left standing only the
monarchs of the forest. The north bank of the gulch had an incline of
about forty-five degrees to the level of the prairie. On that bank in
a sparsely timbered opening from which the prairie stretched off to
the cardinal points of the compass, William Davis located his home and
erected his cabin. About that cabin there were trees that produced
fruit, fuel and lumber, among whose branches were singing birds of
great variety, including the Cardinal, the Dickcissel, the Carolina
Wren, the Thrush and the Robin. By May the bank was covered with a
carpet of thick, waving grass, diversified with ever-changing colored
flowers, until the cruel frost of Fall destroyed them. It was an
idyllic spot. No doubt Davis hoped that some day the Davis Settlement
would become Davis City, and that his generations would revel in
mansions that would replace the cottage on the bank of that new Jordan,
where he, like King David, in his old age might kneel among his people
to pray.
[12] Blanchard’s History of Illinois, 122, and Historical Map.
[Illustration: SHABONA PARK, SHOWING MILL POND AND STATE MONUMENT.]
However, the hopes and aspirations of the Davis family were soon to be
blasted. Davis was a powerful man and his Kentucky blood fairly boiled
with resentment at any offense, particularly one given by an Indian,
upon whom he looked as an inferior. With his gun and bowie knife Davis
would fight a dozen Indians--aye, a score. It seemed as though he could
play with them in the air as an athlete plays with Indian clubs.
About one hundred and fifty feet south of his cottage, Davis erected
a blacksmith shop and a mill. To obtain water power for his mill it
became necessary for Davis to put a dam across the stream. Six miles
farther up Indian Creek there was an Indian village, and as the fish
naturally went up the stream every spring, there was good fishing at
the village for the Indians. The dam prevented the fish from going up,
and the Indians protested against this invasion of their rights. Davis,
however, insisted on his rights to build and maintain the dam, and bad
feelings were engendered.
One day in April, 1832, Davis discovered an Indian tearing an outlet in
the dam, and with a hickory stick he beat the Indian unmercifully.[13]
Had he killed the Indian it might have ended the affair; but to whip
an Indian with a stick as you would whip a dog, was an insult that
incurred the resentment of the whole Indian village, and instilled in
the Indian a rankling desire for revenge. The incident, however, was
settled by Chief Shabona with the assistance of another Indian chief
named Waubansee, who advised the Indians not to resort to forceful
reparation and to do their fishing below the dam. The Indians followed
Shabona’s advice for some time, but after a while Davis noticed that
they ceased to go below the dam to fish, and being quite familiar with
the Indian character, he took it as an intimation of their anger, and
he prepared for hostilities.
[13] Black Hawk’s Autobiography, Le Claire, Ch. XII.
[Illustration: CHIEF SHABONA.]