In 1831 came a new era in our history.  The Indians returned in large numbers, perhaps as many as in 1829, and with quite a different spirit towards the whites.  Black Hawk gave the settlers to understand that after this season they must go south of Rock river, or above Pleasant Valley.  He said this district between the rivers should be occupied exclusively by the Indians, giving several reasons why they could not afford to give up these pleasant hunting grounds.  One reason was that on this side of the Mississippi they were comparatively safe from their enemies and another that the region abounded with game and fish and was suited to their mode of living, and they would not give it up.  Black Hawk said we could all stay this season, except Joshua Vandruff and Rinnah Wells, who lived in the midst of their village and had a large stock of cattle, which troubled the Indians a great deal.  Mr. Vandruff showed Black Hawk that it would be very hard for him to leave on so short a notice, as he was a poor man and had twelve children.  Black Hawk finally consented that he could stay another season, but Mr. Wells must go, and he would give him until the next day to make his choice whether he would go willingly or be put off.  Mr. Wells consulted with his friends, and finally consented to leave in thirty days.  This move on the part of the Indians made it necessary for the settlers to look about and see what they could do for their protection.  We had petitioned the governor of the state in the summer of 1829 without his taking any notice, but now we concluded to try it again.  We made a statement of our grievances, and of the order of Black Hawk for our removal and forwarded it with all possible haste to the governor.  This had the desired effect.  The governor moved immediately, going first to Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, where he found "Old General Gaines."  He told the General that if he would not or could not go, he would do it himself.  The General concluded to undertake the business, and, taking the Sixth Regiment, which was then lying at Jefferson Barracks, he proceeded at once to Rock island.  When here he commenced firing morning and evening guns, which had not been the practice, also target shooting with his cannon.  He had all the white settlers come into the fort, bringing all their horses and cattle onto the island as expeditiously as possible.  When this was done he sent for Black Hawk for a talk with him about the village and a day was fixed for a meeting.  Keokuk and some of his friends came up from their village on the Iowa river and came on to the island.  General Gaines, the officers of the Sixth Regiment, the officers of the garrison, with the citizens, and Keokuk and his friends, met in the council house.  Black Hawk, with seventy-five to 100 warriors, nicely dressed and painted, drew near.  When within about 100 yards of the council house they commenced singing in a very loud voice, which seemed to alarm Keokuk and party so much that they left in great haste.  Those who understood the Indians best thought, from the singing and the manner of the Indians, that there would be a general massacre.  A man that always accompanied Black Hawk as they entered the council house commenced to sing in a very boisterous manner, and gesticulated as though he was very angry, speaking very rapidly.  General Gaines spoke to him very quietly of the sale of their lands.  The Indian said the land had never been sold.  General Gaines then called for the reading of the treaty, which seemed to enrage him still more.  He said, "The white people speak from a paper; but," he added, striking his hand upon his breast, "the Indians always speak from the heart." After the purchase of these lands from the Indians, in 1804, the government had exchanged all the lands north of the old Indian boundary line (ranging from the most southern bend of Lake Michigan due west to the Mississippi, striking the river about where the boat-yard now is, in the lower end of the town), with the Chippewas, Pottawattamies and Ottawas, for land lying about Chicago.  In 1829 the government repurchased these lands of the Indians, giving them $16,000 a year forever (that is the way the treaty reads), and allowing them to select a quarter section for each of their half-breeds.  These selections amounted to a great deal of very valuable land.  Antoine LeClaire and brother selected theirs on the Mississippi river, commencing at Moline and running up as far as Henry McNeil's old place. The first point Black Hawk tried to make when he spoke was that "the land had not been sold, as the men who went to St. Louis had no authority to sell, having been sent on other business."  By this time we began to think Black Hawk was pretty nearly right.  The second point he made was, "if it was sold, they had got nothing for it."  He said, over and over agian, "if a small part of the land was worth $16,000 a year forever, all of it must be worth more than $2,000."  When the General pressed an answer about his leaving, he said all the time, "he would not fight, and he would not leave, but if our people came to drive him off he would sit down in his wigwam and they might do what they pleased with him; for himself he would do nothing."  General Gaines interpreted his talk to mean that he would fight.  The General's force was very small-only about 500 men in all-consisting of the Sixth Regiment, not full, and two companies that belonged at the garrison.  The men and boys of the settlement were all at the fort, away from their homes, doing nothing.  I went with another citizen and called on the General and proposed that the men and boys of the settlement be formed into a company, which was accordingly done.  The company numbered fifty-eight men, and was called the "Rock River Rangers."  We were mustered into service on the 5th of June, 1831.  An election of officers was held, which resulted in the election of Benjamin J. Pike as captain; John W. Spencer, first lieutenant; Griffith Aubery, second lieutenant; James Haskill, Leonard Bryant, and Edward Corbin, sergeants; Charles French, Charles Case, Benjamin Goble and Henry Benson corporals.  The members of the company were:  Archibald Allen, William T. Brashar, John Bane, Michael Bartlett, Joseph Been, Jonah H. Case, Joseph Danforth, Thomas Davis, Russell Dance, Isaiah Frith, Thomas Gardner, George W. Harlan, Uriah S. Hultz, Thomas Hubbard, Goodridge Hubbard, Cyrus Henderson, Moses Johnson, John W. Kinney, Samuel Kinney, Conrad Leek, Thomas Levit, Henry McNeil, George Miller, Gentry McGee, Amos C. Noble, Thomas Syms, Robert Syms, William F. Sams, Martin W. Smith, Sevier Springfield, Joel Thompson, Joshua Vandruff, Henry Vandruff, Samuel Vandruff, Benjamin Vannetta, Gorham Vannetta, Edward Varner, Levi Wells, George Wells, Joel Wells, Sr., Joel Wells, Jr., Huntington Wells, John Wells, John Wells, Samuel Wells, Rinnah Wells, Asaph Wells, Eri Wells, Ira Wells.  General Gaines now called on the governor for help, and he collected aobut 1600 mounted men, with a rendezvous at Beardstown. At the second meeting with Black Hawk he brought up an old Indian by the name of Quashquama, or Jumping Fish, who was one of the five men who sold the land.  He was a very old man and seemed to be in his second childhood, and to have lost all memory of the sale.  He was the only one of the five living and his testimony was of no use.  At the fourth and last meeting came a middle-aged squaw, who introduced herself to the general and said she was a granddaughter of a prominent chief, and then began to speak of the sale of the lands.  She said "the men could not sell the cornfields, for they belonged to the women - they had made them."  She said, "it is very hard work to dig up the ground," and putting her hand on her back she said, "it made their backs ache."  Another reason she gave was, "that if the men had sold them they would have told them of it, which they had never done."  While they were waiting for the arrival of help and parleying with the Indians, General Gaines fitted up the steamboat "Winnebago" with a cannon on the bow of the boat, and a company of soldiers and proceeded up Rock river to their village, passing within fifty yards of their wigwams.  Strange to say, although a steamboat was seldom seen in those days, the Indians seemed not to take the least notice of the boat, not even looking at it, and even the women and children showed no signs of wonder or fear.  As soon as the governor's troops were collected together they marched for Rock island, camping the last night within about ten miles of the island.  The Indians, being aware of their approach, crossed the Mississippi at night, taking with them all their effects, women, children, horses and dogs.  The next day was fixed for the attack upon Black Hawk.  It was arranged that General Gaines should take the boat, with one company of men from the garrison, and ascend Rock river, while Major Bliss, with the rest of the forces, should cross over and form on this side and march for Rock river.  Just about where the Rock Island railroad freight house now stands we were met by an Indian named Black Buffalo, a man I knew very well.  He had a bridle in his hand and was hunting his horse.  He had swapped horses with Jonah H. Case, the year before; the horse did not like to go with the Indians and had given them the slip.  Major Bliss wished me to ask him about the Indians, where they were, etc.  He told me they had all crossed the Mississippi.  The Major told me to tell him if he did not tell the truth he would kill him.  The Indian still affirmed that what he said was true.  He was sent to the fort a prisoner for that day. Major Bliss formed our company of Rock River Rangers in an extended line of half a mile, in front of the regulars, with one cannon in the rear, for our march for Rock river.  We marched near where the road is now traveled until we reached General Rodman's land, then turning to the left until reaching the top of the bluff, taking the direction of Black Hawk's watch tower.  On arriving there we planted the cannon on the brow of the bluff, and then commenced throwing grape and cannister into the bushes on Vandruff's island.  It was here we expected to find the Indians.  General Gaines arrived with the boat and stopped about where the bridge crosses the main stream, near Sears' floouring mill, and commenced firing on the island also.  This island was very bushy and commanded the only ford that the governor and his forces could cross at.  But it proved that Black Buffalo had told the truth.  The governor's troops, after corssing the river, burned the Indians' wigwams and marched for Rock Island and camped on the river, from the ferry landing to the freight house.  This force amounted to 1,600 mounted men.  They turned their 1,600 horses loose on the prairie and the next thing was to procure fuel to cook their supper.  I had a field of twenty acres of corn and potatoes and the volunteers went for the fence.  We tried to stop them from taking the rails but could not; going to the governor and General Gaines they went out to the field and told the men they must not take the fence.  While they were present the men stopped operations, but as soon as they turned to return the men, to the number of 400 or 500, each took a rail on his shoulder and marched behind them into camp.  By this operation I lost all my crop for one year, for which I never received a cent, the soldiers doing me ten times as much damage as the Indians had ever done.  When we asked Black Hawk why he did not do as he said he would, "sit down in his wigwam and let them do as they pleased with him," he said, "If General Gaines had come with only the regular troops at the island he should have remained in his wigwam, but to have done so with men that the officers had no control over would have been sure death to him."  In this he acted wisely, as among these volunteers were many frontier men who had had friends killed by the Indians and were prepared to avenge their death on these or any other Indians. In a few days there was another meeting with Black Hawk and a treaty concluded that  the Indians should stay on the other side of the river and the government would give them as much corn as they could have raised if they had not been disturbed.  The government appointed two men, Mr. Rinnah Wells and myself, to go over their fields and make an estimate of the corn they might have raised.  I do not now remember the estimate, but it amounted to several thousand bushels.  Thus ended this season's operations.  Now commences the more serious part of our story.  In the spring of 1833, notwithstanding the agreement of the Indians to keep on the west side of the river, they came over, breaking their treaty made only the summer before.  They crossed at Burlington and came up, as ususal, with their canoes and horses.  As soon as the government ascertained this General Atkinson was sent from Jefferson Barracks with a regiment of men, reaching here before the Indians.  The Indians did not make more than ten miles a day, but came along regularly, reaching here soon after the general, and keeping on the south side of the big island, in Rock river, which I had never known them to do before.  When they were nearly up to where Milan now stands, I crossed the river by fording, to see if I could ascertain their movements.  The first Indians I saw were four young men.  They had fine looking guns, and seemed to be well armed.  One of them was Black Hawk's son, Seoskuk, who was one of the finest looking Indians I ever saw.  He was about thirty years of age and a splendid looking fellow.  I asked him where they were going.  He answered by saying, "Maybe they should go over to their old village, or they might stop where they were, or go up Rock river to Prophetstown."  Seoskuk asked me if there were many soldiers at the fort.  I told him there were a good many.  I was the only white man who had any communication with them at this point.  They finally went up Rock river about two miles and camped for the night.  The next morning, at the old fort, we could hear them beating their drums and singing so plainly that they seemed but a short distance from us.  They were probably five miles distant, and it was quite remarkable, the country being so hilly between them and us, that we should hear them so distinctly.  It is hard to tell what this demonstration was for.  I have thought it might have been on account of their passing this point without being molested by General Atkinson, as they knew he was at the island with an extra regiment.  This same morning General Atkinson, not understanding their movements, was anxious to inform the frontier settlers of their danger, but the only ford on the river was so near the Indians that it was not thought safe to make a crossing.  I proposed to take the dispatch to the nearest settlements.  To avoid the Indians I took a canoe and went down the river until I passed the mouth of Rock river.  Here I took great pains to hide my canoe, as my getting home depended on this, and made the rest of my journey on foot.  The dispatch from General Atkinson to the settlers was to this effect, "That there was now no doubt but what we were to have a conflict with the Indians, urging them to take care of themselves and get out of the way."  I had to camp out the first night and after walking forty miles the next day reached the settlement.  I went to the different settlements, gave the warning of General Atkinson, and returned home.  On coming to the river I very fortunately found my canoe where I had hid it, and then came on up to the island.  We all supposed the general would stop the Indians at this point but he did not, but called on the governor for help.  He was soon here with 1,800 mounted men.  About 300 men had already rendezvoused at Dixon and were waiting for orders.  All was depending upon General Atkinson getting ready to follow the Indians up Rock river.  The stream being too shoal for steamboats they had to resort to the next best thing, the old keel-boat, and it was a hard matter to get supplies on them for so short notice.  He succeeded in getting one that would carry eighty tons, the largest I ever saw.  This boat was manned by seventy regular soldiers; they had another of thirty-five tons and several Mackinaw boats, also well manned.  These were loaded with provisions, and after two hard days' work we got over the rapids of Rock river, and on the 8th of May started on the war expedition.  General Atkinson had several hundred regulars with him, so in manning these boats he changed hands every other day, as it was very laborious work, Rock river being a very rapid stream at that time of the year.  Our first camping place was about two miles above the Chicago & Rock Island railroad bridge.  Our second at the mouth of Canoe creek, our third at Sand Prairie.  This part of the river was so crooked that we made but slow progress.  Our fourth encampment was about two miles above Prophetstown.  I remember this as though it were yesterday. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Debbie Clough G-erischer G-erischer Family Web Site http://gerischer.rootsweb.com/ Assistant CC, Iowa Gen Web, Scott County http://www.celticcousins.net/scott/ List Manager for: IASCOTT-L * G-erischer-L * D-encker-L Fitzpatirck-L * V-lerebome-L * Huntington-L * Otis-L * Algar-L EIGS-L * Pickens-L * McNab-L * Patris-L - Rankin-L