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It was To-qua-mee and Co-mec who had rushed in, mutilating and slaughtering but selectively taking the two girls unharmed for purposes not quite clear. The Hall sisters, Sylvia and Rachel, knew them because they had visited the homestead several times trying to buy the girls for wives but their father was vehemently against it. Their traditions were very different. As time passed, tempers began to grow short. Then they flared altogether. Will Davis, Sr. who had begun the settlement there on the creek in 1830 and was “modernizing” it with presently, a sawmill in addition to his blacksmith shop. He woke one clear spring day to see an Indian, Kee-waus-see, destroying the dam for the millpoind. Months before there had been many arguments about the dam between the white and the native Americans who lived upstream, the Potawatomies in a village about six miles away. The dam interrupted the fish and finny creatures in their incessant fluid pathways especially during spawning season. Finally, the good chief Shabbona who lived to the northwest became mediator ... One fish upstream, the other downstream. Even that didn’t work out. Will Davis viciously flogged the Indian. So, due to denying the two swains, the daughters hands, and embarrassing the third they all gathered up their own personal bullies and committed the raid on the Davis Settlement. WILLIAM PETTIGREW came to Bailey’s Grove at an early time; meeting there a widow, a Mrs. Campbell, who had two small children (girls), 4 years and four-or-five months. They made a short sojourn to Holderman’s Grove and then to Indian Creek in Spring, 1832. All four were killed at Davis Settlement. ~ ~ ~ WILLIAM & MARY JANE WILBURS HALL. He was born in Georgia. Came to Springfield area in 1825. They went to Tazwell County and had a farm for 3 years. Came to near LaMoille and Bureau County in Spring 1832. Will Davis talked he and the Pettrigrews to stay at Indian Creek because there’d be numbers enough to repel an Indian attack! The Halls had 7 children—three boys escaping, Sylvia and Rachel being held captive, Elizabeth killed in the massacre with the parents. Temperance, the oldest daughter, was married and lived elsewhere. The family had first migrated to the lead mines but felt it was too dangerous so came to Indian Creek. ~ ~ ~ ROBERT NORRIS and HENRY (or Emory) GEORGE, hired hands of Senior Davis, though a discrepancy says “hired by Henderson.” Both killed at Indian Creek. ~ ~ ~ JOHN HENDERSON and WIFE, ELIZABETH moved from Tennessee to Illinois in the Fall of ‘31. Some of the family stayed in Sangamon County till Spring, 1832 then to Indian Creek. Most of family returned to Tennessee after the raid. Henderson had escaped because he was in the far field getting it ready for planting. Henderson returned to Indian Creek following a short time back in Sangamon County. He ran for office three times but was unsuccessful. He died in 1848. ~ ~ ~ JOHN HALL, surviving son and brother of Sylvia and Rachel. Escaped to Ottawa. He married a Miss Horn in Summer 1833. Had been building a house for bride and sisters, telling them they could live with them as long as they wanted. In 1833 joined the 40th Regiment (Putnam County) and commissioned a captain. Voting records show him in Bureau County, the census in 1850 as a farmer. ~ ~ ~ WILLIAM DAVIS, SR. and WIFE had previously lived in West Virginia. Had come to Indian Creek in 1830, built a cabin and blacksmith shop, was building a sawmill with dam, setting off the ill-feelings with the nearby Indians. Had six children, two boys escaping, John and Steven (or Alexander). They perished at the cabin. Boys in the field escaped. WILLIAM DAVIS JR. came to Carroll County, Illinois in 1841 and settled in Woodland Township, marrying Sarah Ann Law in 1848. Had 8 children, lost two. The Davis neighborhood was a longtime landmark in past days. There were other situations that entered into the short tempers of both whites and the natives. Several sources report that the entire State of Illinois and surrounds were in “deplorable condition,” to quote. Very little trade had taken place for some months because of the unrest between the cultures. The natives had been sent across the Mississippi, west, but some had returned, Black Hawk, of course the most belligerent, had been raiding one village or lone cabin for weeks and the frontiersmen were anxious. It was too dangerous to go on the lonely trails so homesteaders were leaving for more safe climes. In fact, Will Davis had talked the Hall family and the Pettigrews into staying at his settlement even though they were loading a wagon and were on their way to Ottawa for safety. Big Bill had said there was safety in numbers, wasn’t there? “Forted up” was the phrase of the day, by the way, as much used as twittering or texting now but of course there’s no comparison in importance! Besides hatred and fear, hunger was a third reason for the turmoil that pervaded the frontier state, only a bit over a dozen years into statehood. Old one-eyed Chief White Crow seemed in charge of the captive sisters, looking out for their well-being. He’d asked them if white people would pay money for them if offered and they’d replied, no, which alarmed him. Perhaps, ironically, that action had already taken place. When the Settlement people had returned from Indian Creek, burying the dead, they were going to Ottawa to pick up supplies to use in following the trail of the sisters whom they found were kidnapped. During this passage they met part of the Army and the brother, John Hall, conferred with General Henry Atkinson, commander of the American forces. He requested of him that a ransom be paid for the girls’ release. Atkinson replied that he had already done that very thing that morning. The price both men suggested was $1,000 each. (It is believed the “purchase” took place May 28.) That amount seems like a large number for the time. We will assume that the government furnished the cost but we didn’t pursue that idea except for one note that stated, “General Windfield Scott ordered payment.” If the girls knew of the ransom being paid at the time, isn’t clear. They sensed a change at one point, that nearing Blue Mounds but perhaps it was the attitude of White Crow who was so protective. It was he whom Henry Gratiot appealed to and asked the Sac and Fox tribes to take money for the sisters and, he of the Winnebagos/Potawatomies would receive a reward also. Gratiot who was the Indian agent for the Winnebagos and whom he loved and respected was kind in his words of the transaction. In praising those who helped them the sisters acknowledged them highly and merely said, almost in passing, that “they were thankful for their redemption.” Certainly, in those frontier times there had to have been a review of the event and circumstance, although in reality there were very few newspapers in Illinois and those that were extant didn’t carry headlines. Really. A few words printed in BOLD type was what called your attention to a story and, yes, the sisters did appear in public along their way homeward across Wisconsin, down the Mississippi and up the Illinois River from St. Louis. But it seems most people were sensitive to their tragedy and their own adventure. How this event was treated in the other books the story was published, we haven’t read! As for that trial in 1834 at Ottawa, the three principles being prosecuted went free without punishment. The girls could easily recognize To-qua-mee and Co-mec but their lawyer pulled a trick on the prosecution. To-qua-mee had a deep scar across his face making him even more identifiable. After recess To-qua-mee painted an elaborate design over his entire face. The sisters couldn’t pick him out. The lawyer for the defense, by the way, was William Hamilton who had a mining camp, Hamilton’s Diggings, just over the state line. He was the son of the famous Alexander Hamilton. When To-qua-mee jumped into the Illinois River after the trial the paint came off and the crowd of curious realized what had occurred and shook their fists at him. Co-mec, part of the charges, disappeared also. For Ke-waus-see and his bondsmen, no judges wanted the trial found mistakes or whatever, in the papers of indictment. He, too, disappeared, never to be seen again. It was certainly a come-down after so exciting a “war” locally. A short time after the massacre a battle took place at “Kellogg’s Old Station. The dead were left to lay till the following day when a burial detail marched up including a future president, Abraham Lincoln from central Illinois. It was a scene he later recalled saying that he’d never forget, the sunrise painting the scalped heads as red as red could be. Having him here put his stamp on the Northwest which we still appreciate. In our neighborhood Tom Crain built a fort at his tavern two and a half miles northwest of present day Lanark but for the most part folks here “forted up” at Galena, wise! Battle action shifted during the summer of 1832 and ended at Bad Axe in Wisconsin, a sad ending to a sad, useless war. It’s almost two hundred years now to its anniversary ... twenty years more. Acknowledgement however should continue because those brave pioneers sacrificed for us. They feeling obligated to stand strong. Every culture has traditions they go by. Those a hundred eighty years ago were steered by their own rules and we can hardly blame them even if so different than ours today. The thing to specifically remember is that each of those people at the Davis Settlement was a living, breathing human. Put a story to them and choose your cast of characters from that chapter in history. Get to know them better in your imagination.
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