TO THE RESCUE.
When John W. Hall arrived at Ottawa he did not know that his sisters
had been taken prisoners, but he supposed that they had been massacred
with the rest of the people at the Davis cottage. His first impulse was
revenge, and he rushed wildly about, urging men to arm and go with him
to the scene of the massacre. The spirit of adventure was rampant among
the people at the time, and John soon found himself at the head of a
considerable number of mounted men armed with all kinds of guns, who
followed him like a mob, from Ottawa to the Davis Settlement.
On their way out they met some of the men who were defeated at
Stillman’s Run, returning to Ottawa. John endeavored to have these men
accompany him to the Davis Settlement, but they had enough of Indian
adventure, and instead of assisting John, discouraged the men with him
from engaging in a fight with the Indians.
When John’s squadron arrived at the Davis cottage there was presented
an awful sight--thirteen murdered and mutilated bodies in and about
the cottage, some hung on shambles like butchered pigs, just as they
were left by the Indians. On the creek below the cottage were found the
bodies of Norris and George where they fell from the bullets of the
Indians. The absence of his sisters Rachel and Sylvia from among the
dead, presented to John a new quandary. A careful search was made about
the premises but no traces of the girls could be found.
After having seen the awful deaths of their fellow-whites, the men who
accompanied John had their desire for adventure changed to a feeling
of fear, which they tried to hide under the excuse that it would be
impossible to proceed after the Indians without rations and tents.
The situation was a trying one for John. In vain did he appeal to the
men to help him rescue his sisters. Not one would volunteer to go with
him, and after burying all the dead in one grave in front of the little
cottage, John and his squadron hastily returned to Ottawa.
In hopes of rescuing his sisters, John again recruited a force and
obtained the necessaries to follow up the Indians. Early on the second
day after the massacre, with about forty men and two days’ rations,
without any commissary, John led his little army to the Davis
Settlement and along the Indian trail until he lost it on the great
prairie. He concluded that the Indians had taken the “Kishwaukee Trail”
to where the Kishwaukee flows into the Rock River, and he followed
that route until he arrived at his objective point without attaining
his chief aim. Disappointed in not even getting any information of
his sisters and in not finding further track of the Indians, and his
rations having run out, John was again obliged to return with his
troops to Ottawa for a fresh supply, when once more he started on a
fruitless search for his sisters.
[Illustration: COL. HENRY GRATIOT.]