Rock Island

Black Hawk Celebrates After Riggs’ boat had gone, Black Hawk’s warriors began to plunder Campbell’s boat. The first thing that the chief did was to knock the head in of several barrels of whiskey, which he termed, “bad medicine” and emptied their contents on the ground. He says, “I next found a box full of small bottles and packages, which appeared to be bad medicine also: such as the medicine men kill the white people with when they get sick, this I threw into the river.” The rest of the plunder, which consisted of guns, clothing, provisions, powder, etc., was […]

Black Hawk Forced to Sign the Treaty General Gaines on the 27th sent a notice to Black Hawk that if he did not come to Fort Armstrong he would come after him with his army, a few of the Indians appeared but not Black Hawk. Gaines then sent a peremptory order to the chief and in a few days Black Hawk and his chiefs and head men to the number of twenty-eight appeared at Fort Armstrong, and on June 30th, 1831, a new treaty was signed by which the British band of Sacs again agreed to make their homes on

Benjamin F. Pike’s Affidavit “State of Illinois, St. Clair County. “Present, Benjamin F. Pike, before me, a justice of the peace in and for the said county, and made oath and deposed, that he has re-sided in the vicinity of Rock River, in the State of Illinois, for almost three years last past; that he is well acquainted with the band of the Sac Indians whose chief is the Black Hawk, and who have resided and do now reside near the mouth of Rock River in this state; that he understands so much of the said Indian language as to

Black Hawk and Keokuk At the commencement of the nineteenth century and up to the Black Hawk War, the principal and central figure of the Native American in the upper Mississippi Valley was the Sac chief, Black Hawk, who was born at the Indian village on Rock River in 1767. Black Hawk was of middling size and as Catlin says. “with a head that would excite the envy of a phrenologist; one of the finest that heaven ever let fall on the shoulders of an Indian.” Another Sac chief who had risen from the ranks was Keokuk. His advancement was

Banks of Rock Island County Before entering into details of the banks of Rock- Island County it would be well to recall early conditions and incidents. Within the last fifty-six years there have been numerous panics, but none so disastrous locally as that of 1857 and 1858. Four banks in Rock Island were reduced to one (Mitchell and Cable) as the immediate result, and that bank and the bank of Gould, Dimock and Company, Moline, were the only banks in the county for several years. The bulk of the currency in this section in those days was issued by the

The Battle of Campbell’s Island On the morning of July 19, before breakfast, the boats all set sail and started up the river, with a fine breeze. During the night a .party of Indians arrived at the Sac village from Prairie du Chien, coming down Rock River, Black Hawk said they brought the Sacs six kegs of powder and told them that the fort at Prairie du Chien had been captured by the British. These messengers also told the Sacs that the British wished them to again join them in the war against the Americans, which the Indians agreed to

Augustana College, Illinois Augustana College and Theological Seminary was founded in 1860, making it one of the older educational institutions of the State. At a meeting held in Chicago, April 27, 1860, the founders of the Augustana Synod (feeling the urgent need of teachers, preachers and citizens prepared to take the lead in religious and intellectual work) decided to erect an institution where young men could be prepared for the great work of life. This date has been generally observed ever since as “Founders Day ” by the churches of the synod; the income from all these celebrations to be

Address By Hon. William J. Jackson May it please the Court: I desire to make a motion for the adjournment of this court, but preliminary thereto I wish to say a few words, which I hope may be deemed appropriate to this occasion and the circumstances under which this court is now in session. This day is an interesting one to the members of this bar and the people of this county. We have just withdrawn forever from a forum that for more than sixty years has stood in the midst of the people, as the visible place or temple

The Agent Fears Trouble “Rock Island, June 12, 1831. “Sir: I have the honor to report to you that, agreeably to my intimation to you I visited the village of Sac Indians near this place yesterday for the purpose of persuading off the Winnebago Prophet and some young men of his band whom I knew had previously been there and, I believe, with an intention to support the Sac Indians. I found that the Prophet had just left there for his village, which is within my agency upon Rock River, and although he had previously promised that he would return

Argillo Works Argillo Works, one of the leading industries of Rock Island County, and located at Carbon Cliff, Illinois, was incorporated in 1865 by William S. Thomas, Adoniram L. Wait and Jeremiah Chamberlin, with a capital stock of $100,000. Jeremiah Chamberlain was the first president, having been elected at the time the plant was launched, and serving four years. Mr. Chamberlin was succeeded in 1869 by Mylo Lee, who served from that time until 1896. To these two men can be attributed the success of the plant, as it was they who piloted it through from a mere experiment to

A Rock Island Company It seems the martial spirit of the citizens of Rock Island County was not stilled or satisfied by the march of the Rock River Rangers in 1831 from Fort Armstrong to the Sac village, for in 1832 we find one company enrolled in the service where every member save one was from Rock Island County, that one being a brother of the captain, and he came from Adams County to enlist under his brother. The following is from the rolls as corrected and now on file in the War Department at Washington. They all resided in