The Winnebago and Boone Counties Genealogical Society has placed online at the Cherry Valley Public Library District website, numerous genealogical indices which cover the counties of Boone, Cook, McHenry, and Winnebago. These free genealogy records are PDF’s downloadable to your computer.
There always have existed among the North American Indians, and still exist, many examples of intellectual ability, of genius, of high moral feeling and as noble and pure patriotism as was ever found in any nation of people and as proof of this fact I relate the following: Some twenty-five years ago a photographer of Chicago, being in Arizona on a vacation trip, found and rescued from an Apache camp an abandoned Indian male infant of full blood. The photographer became possessed with a desire to take the boy home with him and adopt him. In spite of warnings that the … Read more
The meeting in 1811, of Tecumseh, the mighty Shawnee, with Apushamatahah, the intrepid Choctaw. I will here give a true narrative of an incident in the life of the great and noble Choctaw chief, Apushamatahah, as related by Colonel John Pitchlynn, a white man of sterling integrity, and who acted for many years as interpreter to the Choctaws for the United States Government, and who was an eye-witness to the thrilling scene, a similar one, never before nor afterwards befell the lot of a white man to witness, except that of Sam Dale, the great scout of General Andrew Jackson, … Read more
By treaties concluded by the agents of the United State government at different periods, nearly all of the Indian tribes have been induced to remove west of the Mississippi. Those who remain in the haunts of their fathers are chiefly converts to Christianity, and in a half civilized state. Many of the tribes have dwindled into insignificance, yet the few who remain are proud to maintain their distinctive appellation, and support the independence of their old clan. The most powerful and numerous tribes in the northwest are the Sioux, or Dacotahs, the Blackfeet, Crows, and Pawnees. A few of the … Read more
The close of the troubles with the Florida Indians resulted in their removal to a reservation almost within the shadow of the Rocky Mountains. The tribe, the Seminoles, lost much of their prestige, and became discouraged upon the death of Osceola. The last battle of those terrible swamp skirmishes could be called by the legitimate term of regular pitched battles and occurred December 8th, 1842. The first conflict occurred on the 19th of July, 1835. This second war followed closely upon the treaty which was supposed to have removed beyond any possibility the chance of another outbreak. But only with … Read more
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.
Black Hawk (Ma´katawimeshekÄ´käa, from ma´katäwi ‘it is black, mishi ‘big,’ kā´käa the name referring to the description of a bird, or sparrow hawk. W. J.) A subordinate chief of the Sauk and Fox Indians and leader in the Black Hawk wars of 1832. He was born at the Sauk village at the mouth of Rock River, Illinois, in 1767, and belonged to the Thunder gens of the Sauk tribe. When only 15 years of age he distinguished himself in war; and before he was 17, at the head of a war party of young men, he attacked an Osage camp of … Read more
Steamboat Warrior’s Fight
Stillman’s Defeat
Major Dement’s Battle with the Indians
Kilbourn’s Narrative, A Reminiscence of Black Hawk
On the 12th of April, 1832, soon after our arrival at Rock Island on a visit to relatives, (the family of Col. Geo. Davenport) a steamboat came down from Galena with officers to Fort Armstrong, for the purpose of laying in supplies and medical stores for a brigade then being formed at that place. One regiment, composed principally of miners, who had abandoned their mines and came in to offer their services as soldiers in the field, were unanimous in the election of Henry Dodge as Colonel. They had long known him as a worthy, brave and accomplished gentleman, the … Read more
Fox Murderers Wanted
Black Hawk as a Young Brave
Black Hawk’s Tower
Black Hawk’s Removal to the Des Moines River
Starts for a New Home
Black Hawk’s Last Visit
Embracing The Traditions Of His Nation, Various Wars In Which He Has Been Engaged, And His Account Of The Cause And General History Of The Black Hawk War Of 1832, His Surrender, and Travels Through the United States. The changes of fortune and vicissitudes of war made you my conqueror. When my last resources were exhausted, my warriors worn down with long and toilsome marches, we yielded, and I became your prisoner. The story of my life is told in the following pages: it is intimately connected, and in some measure, identified, with a part of the history of your … Read more
