Hennepin Illinois

Black Hawk’s War – Indian Wars

Black Hawk

We have now to record the events of a war “which brought one of the noblest of Indians to the notice and admiration of the people of the United States. Black Hawk was an able and patriotic chief. With the intelligence and power to plan a great project, and to execute it, he united the lofty spirit which secures the respect and confidence of a people. He was born about the year 1767, on Rock river, Illinois. At the age of fifteen he took a scalp from the enemy, and was in consequence promoted by his tribe to the rank of a brave.

Illinois Indian Land

Black Hawk

With the rapid increase of a white population between the Lakes and the Mississippi, which followed the conclusion of hostilities with England and her Indian allies, new difficulties began to arise between the natives and the settlers. Illinois and Wisconsin were inhabited by various tribes of Indians, upon terms of bitter hostility among themselves, but united in their suspicions and apprehensions at the unprecedented inroads of emigrants from the east. The Winnebago, dwelling in Wisconsin; the Pottawatomie, situated around the southern extremity of Lake Michigan; and the Sac, (afterwards mingled with the Foxes, and usually coupled with that tribe,) of … Read more

Biography of Eugene F. Skinner

EUGENE F. SKINNER. – Eugene F. Skinner, whose name is a household word throughout the length and breadth of Lane county, located in June, 1846, the Donation claim on which Eugene City, named for him, now stands. He was born at Essex, Essex county, New York, September 13, 1809, and is the youngest son of Major John Joseph Skinner of East Windsor, Connecticut, and a brother of St. John B.L. Skinner of New York, who was an influential officer in the Postoffice Department at Washington City, District of Columbia, under President Lincoln, and first assistant postmaster-general under President Johnson. Having … Read more

Biography of George B. Keeler

There is no man who has taken more active and helpful part in the development of Bartlesville and Washington county than George B. Keeler. He has resided in this section of the state from early pioneer times and was adopted into the Cherokee tribe in 1872. He understands the sign language of all of the Indian tribes and speaks the Osage tongue. He has been in a way a connecting link between the Indian life and customs of an early day and the modern civilization and progress. His business activity has covered a wide scope, leading directly to the improvement, … Read more