Indian Creek Massacre and Captivity of Hall Girls: Complete history of the massacre of sixteen whites on Indian creek, near Ottawa, Ill., and Sylvia Hall and Rachel Hall as captives in Illinois and Wisconsin during the Black Hawk war, 1832Scanlan, Charles Martin
History
Indian Creek Massacre and Captivity of Hall Girls: Complete history of the massacre of sixteen whites on Indian creek, near Ottawa, Ill., and Sylvia Hall and Rachel Hall as captives in Illinois and Wisconsin during the Black Hawk war, 1832
Scanlan, Charles Martin
Black Hawk War, 1832; Horn, Sylvia Hall, 1813-1899; Indian captivities -- Middle West; Munson, Rachel Hall, -1870
When Shabona was dying, he said: “I want no monument erected to my
memory; my life has been mark enough for me.” However, his friends
erected at his grave a granite boulder five feet long by three
feet high, which bears only this simple inscription: “Shabona,
1775-1859.”[46]
[46] “Evergreen Cemetery” (printed pamphlet), p. 4.
The state of Illinois purchased a part of the Davis’ homestead,
including the place of the massacre and mill-dam, and named it
“Shabbona Park.”
CHAPTER XV.
CO-MEE AND TO-QUA-MEE.
Some of our readers may ask, Was anyone prosecuted for the massacre
at Indian Creek? Oh, yes! Co-mee and To-qua-mee who had tried to buy
Rachel and Sylvia Hall from their father, as related in Chapter III.,
were, in the spring of 1833, at Ottawa, Illinois, indicted by a grand
jury, and a warrant issued and placed in the hands of Sheriff George
E. Walker who had been an Indian trader and spoke the Pottawatomie
language, to make the arrests. The Indians had gone to Iowa with Black
Hawk and had become members of his tribe.
Alone, Sheriff Walker went to the Sac reservation and placed the
Indians under arrest. The two Indians made no resistance, but
unshackled accompanied the sheriff to Ottawa. They were allowed to go
on a bond signed by themselves, Shabona, and several other Indians,
upon their promises upon their honor to return for trial.
When the time for the trial arrived the Indians were on hand, although
they had told their friends that they expected to be executed. Many
of the friends of the people who had been massacred, armed and
threatening to shoot the prisoners, if they should be liberated,
attended the trial. There was no jail in Ottawa at the time, so the
trial was held under a great tree on the bank of the Illinois. All
through the trial the sheriff with a posse of armed men, guarded the
Indians.
Mrs. Munson and Mrs. Horn, the principal witnesses, could not
positively identify either of the Indians, and as the Indians had
voluntarily stood their trial when they might have escaped, the jury
acquitted them. When the trial was over the Indians’ friends gave them
a banquet at Buffalo Rock (six miles down the Illinois), to which the
sheriff and several other prominent men of the time were invited. A
fat deer and choice game were parts of the menu, and a great red-white
pow-wow was a part of the celebration.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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