The 1814 Wood River, Illinois Massacre.

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In historical writing and analysis, PRESENTISM introduces present-day ideas and perspectives into depictions or interpretations of the past. Presentism is a form of cultural bias that creates a distorted understanding of the subject matter. Reading modern notions of morality into the past is committing the error of presentism. Historical accounts are written by people and can be slanted, so I try my hardest to present fact-based and well-researched articles.

Facts don't require one's approval or acceptance.

I present [PG-13] articles without regard to race, color, political party, or religious beliefs, including Atheism, national origin, citizenship status, gender, LGBTQ+ status, disability, military status, or educational level. What I present are facts — NOT Alternative Facts — about the subject. You won't find articles or readers' comments that spread rumors, lies, hateful statements, and people instigating arguments or fights.

FOR HISTORICAL CLARITY

When I write about the INDIGENOUS PEOPLE, I follow this historical terminology:

• The use of old commonly used terms, disrespectful today, i.e., REDMAN or REDMEN, SAVAGES, and HALF-BREED are explained in this article.

Writing about AFRICAN-AMERICAN history, I follow these race terms:

• "NEGRO" was the term used until the mid-1960s.
• "BLACK" started being used in the mid-1960s.
• "AFRICAN-AMERICAN" [Afro-American] began usage in the late 1980s.

— PLEASE PRACTICE HISTORICISM —

THE INTERPRETATION OF THE PAST IN ITS OWN CONTEXT.

 

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EARLY WOOD RIVER SETTLERS
Thomas Rattan came from Ohio in 1804 to section 13 of Wood River Township, giving the name "Rattan's Prairie" to that neighborhood. He was one of, if not the first, to settle in this area of the Indiana Territory, named after 1800 until 1809 when the area was then in the Illinois Territory.

A pioneer named Tolliver Wright, from Virginia came to the western part of this township and settled near the mouth of Wood River in 1806 with his family. They later moved to the settlement between the forks of Wood River. Wright served as a captain in the Rangers in 1812. The Davidson brothers, natives of North Carolina, settled in 1806 near the Wanda comer. These men were the first settlers in the area.

In 1808, Abel, George, and William Moore came with their father, John, as far as Ford's Ferry on the Ohio River, where they separated from Abel and went on to Boone's Lick, Missouri. 

Abel Moore was one of the pioneer settlers of Illinois in 1808, located in Madison County in the early days of its development. He and his family had come from North Carolina and had made arrangements to join an expedition organized in Kentucky to find a town in Missouri. The project was fostered by Daniel Boone, and the new town was to be called Boonville. Abel Moore and his family, on their way to join this colony, stopped in Illinois at a point opposite the mouth of the Missouri River, which had been agreed upon as a meeting place with others who were to join them, but after waiting for several months and vainly looking for his friends, Mr. Moore decided that he would locate in Madison County. Illinois was then a territory, and the government still possessed much of its land. Mr. Moore secured a claim between the forks of Wood River and developed a farm. He took an active and helpful part in the work of early improvement and progress there, and his name is indelibly inscribed on the pages of the pioneer history of Madison County. 

After their father, John, died in 1809, the Moore brothers and their families came across the Mississippi River to Illinois and settled near their brother Abel in section 10. George and William were gunsmiths, and they manufactured rifle guns. One of them established a crude powder mill. They lived at the fork of Wood River. Philip Creamer manufactured locks and stocked guns. He was an expert workman who lived in the area. Other smiths manufactured plows, hoes, axes, mattocks, and other articles made of iron, as called for. It is a marvelous evolution that now the Equitable Powder Company and the Western Cartridge Company, two of the largest industries of their kind in the West, are located just two miles lower down on the banks of Wood River.

The settlements on Wood River were made, many of them, before the Altons attracted much notice. The Moore brothers, Abel, George, and William, each built a brick house for a residence, which probably was the first of that material used in that portion of the county.

One of the first grain mills in the area was a "hand" mill (wheels working together by the friction of rawhide instead of cogs), belonging to John Finley for grinding com. It was near the present site of Bethalto.

George Moore had a band mill on his farm two miles east of Upper Alton at an early date, which he had brought out from Kentucky. The map coordinates are the northwest quarter of section 10 T5N/R9W. Abel Moore operated his brother George's early grist mill. People came in their ox-carts from miles away in order to have their corn ground.

William Jones, a Virginian and a Baptist minister was a county resident as early as 1806 and was the head of a large family, many of the descendants being now scattered over the county. He was a member of the territorial and state legislature and captain of a company of rangers in 1813. He settled on the sandridge in Wood River Township and soon afterward moved to Fort Russell Township.

Rachel Thomas, Reason Reagan's wife, and Mary "Polly" Thomas, William Moore's wife, were sisters. They also had a brother named Samuel Thomas. Rachel married Reason Reagan on February 3, 1808, in Livingston County, Kentucky, and they moved to the Wood River area in 1810. It is unknown whether the Reagan family moved from Kentucky to Missouri and then back to Illinois, but it appears likely based on family ties.

Mary "Polly" Thomas Moore, sister of Rachel Thomas Reagan, was born May 9, 1788, in Pendleton, Anderson County, North Carolina, and was married December 15, 1803, in Pendleton Dist., South Carolina, to William Moore.

FAMILY GROUP'S BIRTHS AND DEATH
JOHN MOORE (father of Abel, George, and William) 
Born: Approximately 1757 - Place: Surry, NC 
Died: 1808 - Place: Boone's Lick, MO 

NANCY ROBERTS (mother of Able, George, and William) 
Born: Approximately 1761 - Place: Surry, NC 
Died: 1808 - Place: Boone's Lick, MO 

NANCY MOORE 
Born: Approximately 1776 - Place: Surry, NC 
 Died: Before 1814 - Place: Somewhere in Illinois 
 Married: April 8, 1794, to James Beeman - Place: Surry, NC 

ABEL MOORE  
Born: January 3, 1783 - Place: Surry, NC 
Died: February 10, 1846 - Place: Wood River, Madison, IL 
Buried: ? - Place: Wood River, Madison, IL 

GEORGE MOORE 
Born: Approximately 1784 - Place: Surry, NC 

WILLIAM MOORE 
Born: September 11, 1785 - Place: NC 
Died: February 15, 1834 - Place: Adams, IL 
 Married: December 15, 1803 - Place: Pendleton Dist., SC 

MARY "POLLY" THOMAS (wife of William Moore) 
Born: May 9, 1788 - Place: Pendleton, Anderson County, SC 
Died: April 24, 1871 - Place: Dripping Springs, Hays, TX 
Buried: ? - Place: Moore Cemetery, Dripping Springs, Hays, TX 
 Married: December 15, 1803 - Place: Pendleton Dist., SC 
 Father: Irwin Thomas
 Mother: Elizabeth Hubbard Thomas 

THE SIX CHILDREN BORN TO WILLIAM AND POLLY MOORE, BEFORE THE MASSACRE
1) JOHN MOORE 
Born: 1804 - Place: Pendleton, Anderson County, SC 
Died: July 10, 1814 - Place: Wood River, Madison County, IL 

2) ABEL MOORE 
Born: August 6, 1806 - Place: Livingston, KY 
Died: August 6, 1806 - Place: Livingston, KY 

3) GEORGE MOORE 
Born: 1807 - Place: Livingston, KY 
Died: July 10, 1814 - Place: Wood River, Madison County, IL 

4) RACHEL MOORE 
Born: October 5, 1808 - Place: Livingston, KY 
Died: January 28, 1853 - Place: ?

5) ELIZABETH MOORE 
Born: July 16, 1811 - Place: St. Clair, IL 
Died: September 12, 1812 - Place: Wood River, Madison County, IL (Age 14 months)

6) JAMES MOORE 
Born: July 22, 1813 - Place: Wood River, Madison County, IL 
Died: July 22, 1813 - Place: Wood River, Madison County, IL 

THE REAGAN FAMILY
RACHEL THOMAS (wife of Reason Reagan) 
Born: 1790 - Place: Pendleton, Anderson County, SC 
Died: July 10, 1814 - Place: Madison, IL 
 Married: February 3, 1808 - Place: Livingston County, Kentucky 

ELIZABETH REAGAN (daughter of Reason and Rachel) 
Died: July 10, 1814 - Place: Madison, IL (Age 7) 

TIMOTHY REAGAN (son of Reason and Rachel) 
Died: July 10, 1814 - Place: Madison, IL (Age 3) 

UNBORN REAGAN CHILD Died: July 10, 1814

THE INDIANS AND THE WAR OF 1812
Although there were frequent tensions, only a few of the whites who began settling in the area around 1800 were killed by the Indians, whom they steadily displaced as they settled in and claimed, cleared, and fenced the land. 

In the beginning, Indians were still roaming over this portion of the state, and a man who was cultivating a small farm close to where the glassworks company would be built (Alton, Illinois), was killed in 1811 by Indians.

Ellen Nore, an associate professor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and authority on local history, said, "The Kickapoo Indians, who had been in Illinois since the early 18th century, were being driven out by the American settlers. It was really a matter of people struggling against conquest." Indeed, the "Wood River Massacre" victims may have been casualties of war rather than a random act of violence. At the time, the United States and Great Britain were engaged in what we now call the War of 1812. Several Midwestern Indian tribes were allies of the British, who paid bounties for American scalps. She said the Kickapoos aligned themselves with the British in hopes of benefiting from a British victory. "Massacre" was a term applied to the incident by white historians, according to Nore. 

"This was not an isolated Indian attack," said Alton Township Supervisor Don Huber, a local historian, "it was part of the War of 1812." 

The war would end without a decisive victor, and the Kickapoos would eventually be driven west. The Potawatomi signed treaties in 1817, ending their opposition to the American settlement of Illinois. The Winnebago were moved westward with treaties after the War of 1812. The Sac (Sauk) and Meskwaki (Fox) finally left Illinois for the last time in 1832 at the end of the Black Hawk War.

SUNDAY MORNING AND AFTERNOON SOCIAL
July 10, 1814, was a Sunday, and it started out as a peaceful and pleasant day. The families in the area never knew the day would end in great tragedy. William Moore was on duty at Fort Butler near St. Jacob. Abel Moore had gone to Fort Russell for the day and was on duty there. Samuel Thomas, Rachel's brother, stated that he was accompanied by his sister, Catherine Reagan, who had recently come to the territory when they went to a church service which was probably held at the Baptist Church near Vaughn Cemetery.

That morning, they were probably accompanied partway by Rachel Reagan and her two children, who spent the day with her sister "Polly," Mrs. William Moore. As it was along the way, Polly and her children were there, as was Miss Hannah Bates (who was the sister of Abel Moore's wife). The time was spent peacefully while the women talked and the children played games. They were all going to Abel Moore's cabin for supper that night. 

In the afternoon, all those present at William Moore's house, Polly Moore and her two sons and one daughter, Rachel Reagan and her son and daughter, and Hannah Bates went to Abel Moore's house to begin their preparation of the family group supper that they had planned for that evening. After arriving there, Rachel decided she would go home and pick some beans that would be added to their planned evening meal. Some of the children chose to go along with her. Altogether, Rachel's two children were Rachel's sons, William Moore's son and Abel Moore's son. 

That was a total of seven, but they almost had eight. Hannah Bates decided to go along and visit a little more with them, but a short time later, Hannah returned to the Moore house. Some people thought she may have had a premonition that something terrible would happen. Others say her shoes did not fit well, and she was most uncomfortable. Whatever the reason, against the earnest entreaties of Mrs. Reagan, she retraced her steps to Moore's house, which was closer than Rachel's. It saved her life.

THE MASSACRE
Why were the Indians in the area? Had they been watching the families in the Moore settlement? The following information has been found in the 'Old Settlers of Green County' published in 1873. In the biography of Samuel Thomas, Reason Reagan's brother-in-law, it is stated that on July 8, 1814, two days before the massacre, Reason and Samuel had gone to a deerlick about ten miles west of the settlement and there encamped for the night. At the same time, it was later ascertained, that a company of eleven Indians had been three miles distant and the next morning found the abandoned camp of Thomas and Reagan. The Indians determined the group had been a small one and decided to follow them to their destination. This brought the Indians to the settlement. 

Picture Rachel and Hannah, walking along talking, maybe about the day they were having to this point, or perhaps the task that was ahead of them, picking and cleaning the beans and returning to Abel's home. Rachel's two children were walking with her, and the four older boys were ahead of her, probably being boys and maybe throwing sticks and rocks and exploring as they made their way through the woods. 

At the point where Hannah Bates turned back, she could not have been more than two or three hundred yards from where the dead body of Mrs. Reagan would be found. Mrs. Reagan and the six children were all tomahawked, scalped, and stripped of all their clothing. They remained all night on the ground where they were murdered. 

Mrs. Reagan and her two children were killed nearest Capt. Abel Moore's place; the other children were found lying farther on, two at a place. One, the youngest child, Timothy Reagan, three years old, when found, was still alive. Timothy was found scalped and with a deep gash on each side of his face and so badly wounded that he could not live. The blood had clotted in the hair and staunched the wound. A messenger was sent for the nearest physician, who came and dressed the wounds of the little one. The doctor said that when the wound was washed, the child would bleed to death, and so it was. He did not survive the treatment. 

In an interview with a St. Louis newspaper a few days after the massacre, Reason Reagan stated his wife, Rachel, had been with child, and he described her as being far advanced in pregnancy at the time of the massacre. This would raise the death total to eight. 

The Indians may have reached the empty Reagan cabin first. Looking backward, they probably decided to follow the trail to the next site, whatever it might be. This put them on the trail towards Abel Moore's home as Rachel and the children approached from the other direction. Had the Indians arrived earlier, they probably would have attacked the Abel Moore home, where there would have been a much greater loss of life. If they were a little later, they would have found Rachel at home in the garden. Either way, the outcome would have been tragic.

Friday, July 8 - Reason Reagan and Samuel Thomas hunting at a site 10 miles from the settlement. 

Saturday morning, July 9 - Reagan and Thomas return to the Reagan home. 

Sunday morning, July 10 - Scouts from an Indian encampment find Reagan and Thomas' hunting site and elect the hunters' trail back to their destination, which turns out to be the Reagan cabin. There is no one home, so they follow the path and come upon Rachel Reagan and the six children. 
 
THE GRUESOME DISCOVERY
William Moore, having returned that day to look after the women and children at home, from where he was on military duty at Fort Butler, near the present village of St. Jacobs, became alarmed as night approached and the children had not returned, and went in search of them, first going to his brother, Abel Moore's place to see if they were there. His wife, who was Mrs. Reagan's sister, also started on horseback to look for them, taking a different route from the one her husband took. His wife chose to go through the woods, and he walked along the wagon path. When Mrs. William Moore found the children lying by the road, she thought they had become tired and laid down to sleep. There was not sufficient light to tell the size or sex of the person, and she called over and over again the name of one and another of her children, supposing one of them to be asleep. She got down from her horse to pick up the youngest child, but just then, a crackling noise and flash of light from a burning hickory tree nearby alarmed her and, fearing Indians might be in ambush there, she grabbed the boy, Timothy, and sprang on her horse and reached home in advance of her husband. Although they did not meet until they both returned home, they both found the lifeless bodies in the darkness, lying by the wayside, and each placed a hand upon the bare shoulder of Mrs. Reagan. 

The following has been taken from the '1882 Brink's History of Madison County': "What must have been her sensations as Mary 'Polly' Moore placed her hand upon the back of a naked corpse, and felt, on further examination, the quivering flesh from which the scalp had recently been torn? In the gloom of the night, she could indistinctly see the figure of the little child of Mrs. Reagan's sitting so near the body of its mother as to lean its head, first one side, then the other, on the insensible and mangled body, as she leaned over, the little one said - 'The black man raised his ax and cut them again.' She saw no further, but thrilled with horror and alarm, hastily remounted her frightened horse, and quickly hurried home where she heated water, intending by that means, to defend herself from the savage foe." 

William Moore had not been long absent from his brother Abel before he returned, saying that someone had been killed by the Indians. He had discerned the body of a person lying on the ground, but whether wan or woman, it was too dark for him to see without a closer inspection than was deemed safe. 

The habits of the Indians were too well known by these settlers to leave a man in Mr. Moore's situation free from the apprehension of an ambuscade still near. Thinking the Indians were having a general uprising, he wanted to warn the other people in the area and get them to safety. 

From Abel's house, he took Abel's wife and her remaining children along with Hannah Bates; and they headed for William's house and his family, having no idea if his wife had returned from her search. 

The first thought was to find refuge in the blockhouse. Mr. Moore desired his brother's family to go directly by the road to the blockhouse while he would pass by his own house and take his family to the fort with him. The night was dark, and the road passed through a heavy forest. Instead of going on alone without some protection, the women and children chose to accompany William Moore, though the distance to the Fort Wood River was thereby nearly doubled. The feelings of the party as they groped their way through the dark woods can be more easily imagined than described. Sorrow for the supposed loss of their relatives and children was mingled with horror at the manner of their death and fear for their own safety and pain at the dreadful idea that the remains of their dearest friends lay mangled on the cold ground near them while they were denied the privilege of seeing and preparing them for sepulture. Silently they passed on until they came to the home of William Moore, when he exclaimed, as if relieved from strained apprehension, "Thank God, Polly is not killed!" The horse which his wife had ridden was standing near the house. As they let down the bars and gained admission to the yard, his wife came running out, exclaiming, "They are killed by the Indians, I expect." The whole party then departed hastily for the blockhouse, to which place, all the neighbors, to whom warning had been communicated by signals, gathered by daybreak. 
 
BURYING THE DEAD

At dawn, the scene of the tragedy was found, and the bodies of the children (scattered all along the path) indicated that they had tried to escape.

The sight of Rachel and the six children lying by the roadside, all stripped of clothing, must have been horrifying. The bodies all showed signs of being bludgeoned by tomahawk, and all seven were scalped.  

The bodies were collected for burial. They were all buried with boards laid on the bottom and the sides and above the bodies. There were no men to make coffins. The graves were dug with coffin-shaped vaults at the bottom, which was lined with slabs split from trees nearby as nearly like planks as possible; and after the bodies were placed in the vaults, they were covered over with the same kind of split slabs. 

The seven were buried in three graves; Mrs. Reagan and her two children, Elizabeth and Timothy, in one grave; Captain Moore's two children, William and Joel, in another, and William Moore's two children, John and George, in the third. 

Mr. Solomon Pruitt, who was not in the pursuit, assisted in the burial of the victims. He hauled them on a small one-horse sled to the burying ground south of Bethalto. There were no wagons in those days. There, a stone slab marks their resting place. 

The Vaughn cemetery, in section 24, where the victims of the Wood River massacre were buried, was the first regular place of interment in the area. It antedates the year 1809. Here the first Baptist church in the township was built. Rev. William Jones, eminent as a legislator as well as a minister, was the first preacher. His descendants, or some of them, still live in the county and are worthy of their distinguished ancestry. 

In this primitive cemetery, the inscriptions on various tombstones can still be deciphered. Among others appear the names of members of the Ogle, Odell, and Rattan families. 

The original sandstone marker with the inscription: "William & Joel Moore was killed by the Indians July 10, 1814" was taken from this cemetery many years ago but can now be seen at the Alton Museum of History & Art. 
 
PURSUING THE PERPETRATORS
A young man named John Harris, living at Able Moore's home, was sent that night on horseback bearing the sad tidings to Fort Russell, located in the township of that name, Captain Samuel Whiteside (Whiteside County, Illinois was named for General Samuel Whiteside, an Illinois officer in the War of 1812 and Black Hawk War.) commanding, and to Fort Butler, Captain Moore commanding, to give the alarm. Leaving the latter place about one o'clock the same night, about seventy of the rangers from both forts, among whom were James and Solomon Preuitt, had arrived at Moore's Fort about sunrise and proceeded to the scene of the tragedy. 

Seven were missing, and their bodies lay mangled and bleeding within a mile of the fort in the dark forest. There was little rest that night at the fort. The women and children of the neighborhood, with the few men who were not absent with the rangers, crowded together, not knowing but that at any minute, the Indians might begin their attack. 

The news soon spread, and it was not long before Captain Whiteside, and nine others gave pursuit. Among them were James Pruitt, Abraham Pruitt, William and John Sample, James Starkden, William Montgomery, and Peter Waggoner, whose descendants still live in Wood River and Moro townships. 

They were enabled to follow the track of the broken limbs on the bushes which the Indians did, as was supposed to tantalize the helpless women, thinking there were no men able enough to pursue them. Further on, by the way, they made through the tall prairie grass, and also by blood. The Indians, when they learned they were pursued, frequently bled themselves to facilitate their speed and give them greater endurance. 

The weather was extremely hot, and some of the ranger's horses gave out entirely. Their order was to keep up the pursuit. 

The rangers pressed upon the fleeing red men. It was on the evening of the second day between sunset and dark that they came in sight of the Indians at a small stream entering the Sangamon River on the dividing ridge, about seventy miles distant in Morgan County. This site was named Indian Creek to remember what had taken place there. 

There stood on the ridge, at that time, a lone cottonwood tree. Several Indians climbed this tree to look back. They saw their pursuers from that tree. They separated and went in different directions, all making for the timber. When the whites came to the tree, they, too, divided and pursued the Indians separately. 

James and Abraham Pruitt, taking the trail of an Indian, soon came in sight of him, and the former, having the fastest horse, soon came within range of him. He rode up to within thirty yards and shot him in the thigh. The Indian fell but managed to get to a fallen treetop. Abraham soon came up, and they concluded to ride in on the Indian and finish him, which Abraham did by shooting and killing him where he lay. In the Indian's shot-pouch was found the scalp of Mrs. Reagan. The Indian tried to raise his gun to shoot but was too weak to fire. The Indian had also lost his flint, or he might have killed one of his pursuers. His rifle is supposed to be in the Pruitt family yet. The place where the Indians were overtaken was near where Virden now stands. The remaining Indians hid in the timber and the drift of the creek. It was learned, afterward, at the treaty of Galena that only one Indian escaped, and that was the chief who led the party. 

Where was Reason Reagan? Some new light has been shed on reason's whereabouts on the day of the massacre. Samuel Thomas, Rachel's brother, states that reason was accompanied by his younger sister, Cathy, when he went to church on Sunday morning. Cathy was a young single woman who had recently come to the area; and, if she were to visit with anyone after church, she would have to be accompanied. It was summertime on a Sunday with no evident reason for concern. Cathy would eventually marry David Carter, who lived in the area. She may have known him by this time, or perhaps she was visiting with others. This provides a likely scenario for Reason's Sunday away from the family. In that era, it was not unusual to be unaware of happenings just a few miles away. None of our research as of yet had revealed when reason returned home and learned of his family's fate. 
 
THE SURVIVING FAMILIES, MOVING ON
"Of those who took refuge in the fort that night, there is probably but one now living, Mrs. Nancy Hedden, a daughter of Captain Abel Moore. She resides at San Diego, California and was then about a year and a half old," stated V. P. Richmond in 1882. 

George Moore married Peggy McFarlin on December 27, 1814, in Madison County, Illinois. George Moore had two children: Margaret and Walter Moore, while living in Madison County, Illinois. 

Years later, Mr. Thomas S. Pinckard, who at the time was a resident of Springfield, Illinois, had kindly sent the following: "I have a vivid recollection of several of the old settlers who were living when I was a boy. Abel Moore, in his Dearborn wagon, with his wooden leg..." 

One of the members of the church, Mrs. Bates, the mother of the wife of Abel Moore, lived near Jersey Landing; another, Mrs. Askew, sister-in-law of Mrs. Abel Moore, also lived near Jersey Landing, and yet both came monthly, on horseback, exposed to imminent danger and yet with great regularity and delight, to attend the stated appointments of the church. Mrs. Askew was Hannah Bates Askew. She married Josiah Askew. 

Another gallant officer of Wood River township was the son of Abel, Maj. Frank Moore, the famous Civil War cavalry raider and leader. It was said of him by a certain major general on one occasion: "Maj. Moore has captured more prisoners than my whole army corps." 

In the sale of the old Abel Moore's homestead, the Moore children reserved this sacred spot where the cabin of Abel once stood as a lasting tribute to their departed parents. This is where the fenced gravesite in Gordon Moore Park can be seen today. 

Abel Moore died in 1846 at the age of 63. Mary Moore died the day before her husband, aged 61. They lie side by side on the very spot of ground where their pioneer cabin was constructed. 

Before the massacre, William's family consisted of his wife, daughter, and two sons, John and George, both of whom were victims at the Wood River massacre.

Six children were born to the family afterward. When they moved to Pike County, Illinois, in 1830, they took four children with them. Rachel had married five years earlier. Rachel, Lorenzo, Enoch, and Matthew lived to maturity and had families of their own. Louisa, aged 13, died in 1831 in Pike County. 

George had no children when he came to Madison County, but two were born while residing there, Margaret and Walter. The family migrated to Independence, Missouri, in 1837.

A family visits the Wood River Massacre Monument, located off Fosterburg Road. 1910

In Remembrance of The Pioneer Days of This Area, and To The Memory of The Victims of The Wood River Massacre, Who Were Killed by Indians Near This Site on July 10, 1814. Rachel Reagan, Elizabeth 7, Timothy 3, Wife and Children of Reason Reagan. John 10, George 3, Sons of William Moore. William 8, Joel 11, Sons of Capt. Abel Moore.

The Victims Are Buried in Vaughn Cemetery, On Highway 111 South of The Airport. Capt. Abel and Mary Moore Are Buried 100 Yards North of This Site. This monument dedicated July 10, 1980. Erected by Bushrod's Raiders.

"To The Memory Of The Victims Of The Wood River Massacre July 10, 1814, William & Joel Aged 10 & 8 Yrs. Sons Of Capt. Abel & Mary Moore. John & George Moore Aged 10 & 3 Yrs Sons Of William Moore. Rachel Reagan & Her Children Elizabeth & Timothy Aged 7 & 3 Yrs This Occurred About 300 Yds In The Rear Of This Monument. Dedicated September 11, 1910, By The Descendants Of Capt. Abel Moore."

A new monument was dedicated on September 24, 1980, in a more visible spot for public viewing. It is almost directly across the Highway 140 entrance to the Gordon Moore Alton Community Park. Gordon Moore was no relation to the other Moores; however, the park was built on the farm of the pioneer Abel and Mary Bates Moore. Abel Moore and Mary Bates Moore are buried where their house formerly stood, just a short distance from the new monument.

Exclusive permission from author William Wilson.
Edited by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Green Oaks Kiddyland, 95th Street and Crawford Avenue (now Pulaski Road), Oak Lawn, IL. (1946-1971)

Green Oaks Kiddyland (yes... it's spelled correctly), was an amusement park that was located on the southwest corner of 95th Street and Crawford Avenue (now Pulaski Road), was a major family entertainment site for the Oak Lawn area for nearly 25 years. It was also known as Green Oaks Playland. 

Created by Mike "Mickey" Doolin in 1946, he began with only three portable carnival-style rides that sat on twenty-one acres, when it opened just in time for the season.

Mickey Doolin, Owner of Green Oaks Kiddyland.

In 1955 the rides included; Airplanes, Army Tanks, Autos, Boats, Ferris wheel, Fire Engine, Hand Cars, Hobby Horse, Horse & Buggy, Merry-Go-Round, Roller Coaster, Sky Fighter, Train and the Whip.

Green Oaks Kiddyland was the largest entertainment venue in the Oak Lawn area at one time. It was closed in 1971 with 15 rides, when it was sold, torn down, and replaced by a Venture store (now a K-Mart).

NOTE: These photographs were near impossible to find.

The fire truck was used to pick up kids for private parties, at their house, and drive them to Kiddyland. The rest of the time, it was used as a ride in the park.

Identified as Mary Munson by Granddaughter Marci M. Harvey-Utes.

Identified as Clarence Munson by Granddaughter Marci M. Harvey-Utes.

A 1956 Kodachrome Photograph from Susanne Houfek.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

Lost Communities of Chicago - Swede Town Neighborhood.

Later: Little Sicily "Little Hell" Neighborhood.
Later Still: Cabrini-Green Neighborhood.

Chicago's first Swedish settlement emerged in 1846, when immigrants destined for the Swedish religious colony in Bishop Hill, Illinois, decided instead to settle in Chicago. The boundaries indicated for the oldest Swedish district seem very narrow. The examination of the census lists and city directories indicates that nearly all of the 27 Swedish families which, in the summer of 1850 when the census was made, had their homes in the 7th ward on the city's north side, lived within an area near the river bounded by Erie street on the north and Franklin street ("the east part of the river branch") on the east.

Chicago Swedish Family

Swedish settlers in the river area were given notice of eviction by the real estate owners in 1853 or 1854. It has not been verified, but it seems credible in view of the industrial and commercial development of Chicago at that time. The areas along the river banks became quite important because of the city's growing industries, particularly after the opening of the Illinois-Michigan Canal, and of the first railroad, Galena-Chicago Union, in 1848.

Many of these earliest settlers came to work on the Illinois & Michigan Canal. Although the Swedish settlement remained small for the next two decades, reaching 816 people in 1860 and 6,154 in 1870, it represented the largest single cluster of Swedes in the United States. During the 1870s, the Swedish population in the city doubled, outnumbered only by the German, Irish, and British immigrant groups.

As the Swedish settlement moved, the area north of the Chicago River on the Near North Side became known as "Swede Town." It was bounded by La Salle Street on the east, Division Street on the North, Chicago Avenue on the South, and the Chicago River to the west. A second, smaller Swedish area developed on the South Side in Douglas and Armour Square. The third grew on the West Side in North Lawndale. Smaller settlements also emerged in West Town and the Near West Side.

Swedes began leaving "Swede Town" after the devastation of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. The process accelerated in the 1880s as more and more folks left these initial neighborhoods of settlement for less dense surroundings as the community became increasingly prosperous and worked its way up to Chicago's economic ladder. By 1920 Swedes dominated North Side neighborhoods such as Andersonville (also sometimes referred to as "Swede Town"), Lakeview as well as areas such as Grand Crossing and Englewood to the south. The nickname would reemerge in these new Swedish-dominated districts as the original "Swede Town" became Little Sicily also known as "Little Hell" and later still the Cabrini-Green Neighborhood.

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

Lost Communities of Chicago - Little Sicily "Little Hell" Neighborhood

Earlier: Swede Town Neighborhood.
Later: Cabrini-Green Neighborhood.

The name “Little Hell” was derived from the large gas house that was located at Crosby and Hobbie streets, whose nighttime flames lit the skies at night. The roaring thunder of the furnaces could be heard for blocks as coal was poured into the ovens and moistened with water from the Chicago River to create gas that was used for heating, cooking and lighting. Enormous tanks stored the gas during the day.

The Little Hell neighborhood on the North Side of Chicago was bounded by La Salle Street on the east, Division Street on the North, Chicago Avenue on the South and the Chicago River to the west. Between the 1880s and 1930, Chicagoans referred to the heart of the Little Hell slum as “Death Corner,” a wholly understandable moniker given that the intersection of West Oak Street and Milton Avenue (Milton Avenue changed names to Cleveland Avenue in 1909) was the scene of well over 100 unsolved murders. 

The North Side's first great gangster, Dion O'Banion, was a product of this district. Since most of the vice districts in Chicago were on the South and West sides of the city, this area was more or less ignored for many years in the city's fight against crime. It is said that, in the first 51 days of 1906, the police made over 900 arrests.

For two decades, Chicago police remained “hampered at every turn by the silence of the Italian colony” — a reference to the large Italian-American population in the neighborhood. 

Typically, as one newspaper story put it, victims would be “murdered before an audience that vanished with the last pistol flash, much as a loon dives beneath the sheltering water just at the moment the hunter’s gun spits out its flame and shot.” Death Corner, as the district’s “central gathering place,” had gained the “international reputation of being the site of more murders than any other territory of equal area in the world.” 

By the early 1920s, murders in Little Hell continued at the rate of more than 30 per year — more than one-third of the city’s total, although Italians made up only five percent of the population. By this point, many Death Corner victims were casualties of the Prohibition-era “alcohol rivalries” between the bootlegging gangs of Giuseppe “Joe” Aiello and the infamous  Al Capone “Scarface,” leader of Chicago’s most powerful mob. As notorious as Cabrini-Green would become, the violence of Little Hell may well have been worse.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

Lost Towns of Illinois - New Philadelphia, Illinois.

New Philadelphia, Illinois was located near the city of Barry, in Pike County. Founded in 1836, it was the first town in the United States platted and registered by a Negro before the American Civil War. The founder Free Frank McWorter was a former slave who was able to save money from work and his own business to purchase the freedom of his wife, himself and 13 members of his family in Kentucky.

The story of Frank McWorter and New Philadelphia is one of daring, hard work, luck, and shrewd family leadership.

Born a slave in South Carolina in 1777, Frank McWorter moved to Kentucky with his owner in 1795. He married Lucy, a slave from a nearby farm, in 1799. Later allowed to hire out his own time, McWorter engaged in a number of enterprises, notably a saltpeter works, that enabled him to buy his wife’s freedom in 1817 and his own in 1819.

Frank and Lucy McWorter and four of their children left Kentucky for Illinois in 1830, the year the Thomas Lincoln family, with son Abraham, moved to Illinois from Indiana. McWorter bought a farm in Pike County’s Hadley Township and platted the town of New Philadelphia in 1836. The original town plan consisted of 144 lots in a 12 x 12 square, including 22 crisscrossing named streets. McWorter sold the lots.

The plat for the streets and town lots as laid out by Frank McWorter in the Pike County Deed records in 1836.

The town was integrated, albeit with some typical 19th-century segregated facilities, such as cemeteries. There was one integrated public school.

McWorter promoted New Philadelphia strenuously, and engaged in other enterprises, managing to buy the freedom of at least sixteen family members from Kentucky. The town itself became a racially integrated community long before the Civil War, the 1850 and subsequent U.S. Census data showing black and white families living there. 

Frank McWorter lived there for the remainder of his life in New Philadelphia, dying in 1854. A son, Solomon, assumed family leadership. Before the Civil War, New Philadelphia had become one of the stations along the Underground Railroad for shepherding escaped slaves to Canada. With emancipation, more settlers arrived in New Philadelphia. Its population peaked at close to 160 shortly after 1865.

In 1869, the Hannibal and Naples Railroad was built. It bypassed the town on the north; a station was built in nearby Barry, soon to be followed by transit and commerce. New Philadelphia rapidly declined in population thereafter. A small number of residents turned to farming a portion of the former town site. Such changes and abandonment were not unusual for U.S. small towns in the late 19th century, especially those bypassed by changing transportation facilities.

In 1885 a portion of the town was legally dissolved. It reverted to farmland. Modern archaeological studies have indicated the area was inhabited through the 1920s. By the late 20th century, all vestiges of New Philadelphia had vanished save fragments of glass and pottery, and traces of the town's gravel streets.

The town site was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on August 11, 2005; subsequently, New Philadelphia Town Site was designated a National Historic Landmark on January 16, 2009 because of the significance of its history and archaeology.

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Note: Philadelphia, Illinois is an unincorporated community in Cass County and is located on Illinois Route 125, southeast of Virginia, Illinois. It is about 50 miles north east for where New Philadelphia, Illinois was located in Pike County.

Galena Illinois' Old Stockade used during the Black Hawk War 1832.

To have a background for this story of Galena's oldest landmark, "The Old Stockade," you will visualize it more clearly if the era leading up to its building and its use as a refuge, during the uprising of the Sac Tribe under the leadership of Black Hawk in 1832, is given.

So we turn back the pages of Galena's early days; when the first American mining development began; the story of the glittering lead that came from the rocky hills in the distant section, of the North-west, started the trek of adventurers seeking wealth by extracting the mineral from the ground that was filled with the precious ore.

As early as 1820, Julian Dubuque, a French trader, came up the river from "La Salle's Villages" to the locality of the mines. His first operations were on the west bank of the Mississippi River where the city of Dubuque is located. Seeking further ground for mining, he followed a small stream that flowed east for four miles from its junction with the ' 'Great River" that started in the far north and curved its mighty stream south until it reached the Gulf, making the highway for the future development of trade and transportation. Doubtless, Julian Dubuque knew of the tale carried back to France by a trader who gave a report that "Indians were digging lead from the hills on a small stream that flowed east from the 'Great River/ and this stream was called 'The River of Mines' by the early traders."

Reaching this location, Dubuque found a village of Winnebagos with their crude implements taking the ore from the earth and bartering it for corn, corn whiskey and trinkets of adornment that the traders gave them in exchange. He made friends with the tribe and taught them better methods of mining.

Tales of the fabulous wealth that was in this new found El Dorado was far flung, reaching not only to the new Republic, but over the sea. Spain, France, and the British Isles had eyes open for the North-west and its unbroken wilderness.

By 1822, the first American Klondike was in full swing. In New England, the story was heard by the sturdy men whose lives had been bounded by the narrow rocky farms that held a meager livelihood. Professional men and college graduates from the larger towns came with men for business enterprises, all having the call as well as the urban population and joined the caravan headed for the "Lead Mine District, "Virginia, Kentucky and the Louisiana country that had promoted the fur companies and traders "up the River," followed the newer adventure and cast their lot with the uncertain undertaking. The journey to this land of promise was filled with hardships; transportation by stage, team and boat; peril from Indian ambush and unbroken virgin forests to break through, locating a road that lead to the prospective wealth they hoped to find at the "End of the Trail."

The setting given this locality way back in the yesterdays of the ice and glacial period made one of the most beautiful landscapes in which to plant a home or found a city. It was surrounded by entrancing hills and bluffs, deep and fertile valleys between them, and lime stone rocks rising from the heights like sentinels or fortified castles guarding the steep incline that rose hundreds of feet above the level of their base.

In such surrounding beauty the first settlement in this locality was made. The early French traders had chosen a site on the top of the high bluff that rose from the "River of mines" (now the Galena River) to a height of several hundred feet. A log shack served as a post for barter and trade with travelers, Indians and miners. This location was called LaPoint.

In the spring of 1820 Thomas January and his wife emigrated from far off Kentucky. This brave pioneer woman was the first white wife to settle in this untamed wilderness. She must have had the spirit of endurance and courage to be willing to face Indian warfare and forego all life's comforts. Soon January Point became the center of the growing community. One by one log cabins were built near the post and on the river bank. For two years these pioneers were isolated from the outside world with only the natives, prospectors and settlers as the companions of January and his wife.

An intelligent Frenchman, named Francis Bouthillier, established a rude shack for trade down on the levy. He had an eye for future business. By 1822 steam boats began to make regular trips as far north as Fort Snelling. The first boat to land on the Galena River (that was three hundred fifty feet wide) was The Virginia, it came from New Orleans by way of St. Louis. So an active trade was started in the lower part of the village though January's Point was the real center of the increasing population.

By 1825 the settlement had spread out over the hillsides and along the river. It included the settlers, the miners, the Indians and travelling adventurers. About a thousand people lived in its outpost in temporary cabins, tepees and shelters of rude construction. The log houses were built from virgin timber of oak and walnut, devoid of comforts and conveniences, but able to withstand storms and Indian warfare. "The population of Januarys Point at this time was seven hundred souls." On December 27th, 1826 the importance of January's Point became significant enough to receive a new name and at the same time a post office. It was officially and most appropriately named "Galena" which is the scientific name for the valuable sulfide of lead ore found in the deposits deep in the earth of the age old hills on which the expected city was to be built.

In 1830 Galena was the center of interest in the state. It had made great advances in population, commerce and building. Young Chicago to the east was slowly awakening to be a city. It was the terminal of the Frink & Walker Stage Line from Galena with its relay stations for refreshing men and beast along its route.

In this historically minded day, many of these old taverns and inns have been preserved and marked, especially in the vicinity of the Black Hawk country. Local chapters of the Daughters of American Revolution, true to the tradition of preserving American history have placed these markers along the old stage route, showing to this generation the hard struggle that their ancestors endured to make our land the great republic that now stands for what all the world is fighting for today.

The population was ten thousand. Quite a town. It was incorporated and lots and building sites were sold. A motely gathering with all sorts and conditions of men and women made this population. Being located between Fort Armstrong to the south and Fort Crawford to the north, it was the center of gay social life. One eastern writer describing his visit to the mining district said, "The lead district is an island of white people surrounded by thousands of Indians, adventurers and miners." The gay dances, the open hospitality of the people, the friendly hand of friendship that was extended without formality or convention to all comers, gave this period the reputation that one pioneer lady described vividly, "A girl did not have to be beautiful or wealthy to be a belle, if she could ride, or dance a quadrille, sing a song, laugh and be merry, she was sought after. We were a happy-go-lucky lot of youngsters among the hills in that old Galena town."

The dawn of the year 1832 brought fear to this peaceful settlement. To the south where the Rock River flows into the Mississippi, Black Hawk, the Sac chief, had his land and village that was faithfully guarded on a high rocky island. The fur traders who went up and down the river, the emigrants who travelled by ox team, or the enemy Indian tribes, did not escape the watchful eye of "Black Hawk" who held his land according to the sacred treaty made in 1804 in St. Louis. Black Hawk, chief of the Sacs, and Keokuck, of the Mesquakie (Fox) and four other chiefs were makers of the treaty that was signed under the direction of the President, Thomas Jefferson, and officers of the state and army. The treaty was signed by citizens of St. Louis who were Charles Gratiot, Francois Vigo, and Auguste and Pierre Chouteau; All attached their names to the treaty in the presence of Major Stoddard of the army.

By this treaty, the Indians gave up fifty million acres for white settlements east of the Mississippi River. However, Black Hawk, who was in complete sympathy with the British, was violently opposed to this disposal of the Indian's rights to the land of their fathers. Regularly, as years went by, he and Keokuck journeyed to St. Louis to consult Governor Clark in regard to their lands and their people, to the emigration, of the white man was day by day coming nearer to the border of the Indians' sacred hunting ground on the edge of Black Hawk's village. The government was making every effort to induce the tribes to move westward, but such policy stirred the wrath of Black Hawk, and he avowed in council that "The Sacs never sold their lands as Keokuck sold the land of the Foxes." General Gains, in command of Fort Armstrong at Rock Island, asked, "Who is Black Hawk? By what right does he speak?" The reply by the haughty chief warned the "Pale face" intruders who they had for a foe. He said, with dignity "I am a Sac. I am a warrior. Provoke our people to battle, and you will not ask who Black Hawk is."

In the early spring of 1832, he saw from his watch tower on the Rock River, a train of settlers moving near his island retreat. Calling his warriors and their women and children, he headed up the Mississippi, and Governor Reynolds dispatched the frightful news "Black Hawk has invaded Illinois," and Galena was in that state. So the people were warned that they must be prepared for an attack.

When the news of the uprising of the Sac and Fox Indians was confirmed and that they were headed for the Illinois country, Col. Henry Gratiot the government agent for the Winnebago Indians in the Lead mine District, was hurriedly sent to "Prophetstown" below Farmersburg with power to offer a treaty to Black Hawk, But it was most indignantly refused and at once the enraged warriors attempted to take Gratiot prisoner. The "Prophet Chief" interceded and took him into his wigwam, saying "He is good man; friend of Indian; he my friend. I keep him with me in my wigwam." Gratiot attempted to escape during the night in canoes up the river but the "Braves" gave him a frightful race for his life before he reached safety back in the Illinois lead district.

The Winnebagos in the district were friendly, and had no resentment to the white settlers and miners. Especially were they devoted to Col. Henry Gratiot, who, with understanding and friendship, had won their loyalty. However, some of them were drawn into sympathy with the Sacs.

Hurriedly the United States government erected two block houses in Galena, forts or stockades as they were called, on opposite hill tops. The most important was erected one hundred fifty feet above what is now Bench and Perry streets. It was commanded by Colonel Strode of the 27th Regiment of the Illinois Militia. The block house was garrisoned by one hundred fifty regular soldiers. From this vantage point the country for miles around could be seen, and the fort was supplied with cannons, guns and ammunition to fight the invader. Col. Strode proclaimed martial law for the district May 31st, 1832. Every able bodied man, regardless of occupation or position, was ordered to work on a run-way from the block house to the large underground room in Amos Farrar's log house, the logs placed upright according to the French plan of building. This room was excavated from the rock hillside. It was walled with limestone and upheld by giant oak timbers rudely cut from the virgin forests nearby. The man power of the settlement fell in line and worked day and night to build the run-way from the block house to the stockade in the Farrar place of refuge. This run-way was made by digging a deep trench and placing timbers upright in it. These timbers were from six to twelve feet in diameter and from ten to fifteen feet in height. They were cemented together after being placed in the trench with clay mud and in so doing formed a solid wall of wood with port holes on either side so that guns could be used by the people if they were attacked from the outside.

It was planned to fire the cannon at the block house when danger threatened the settlement. At this signal all were to flee to the stockade for safety. A large bell was kept and rung in the stockade simultaneously with the firing of the cannon. At midnight June 4th, the dreaded sound came and the cannon gave the alarm.

The scrambling of the inhabitants to reach the shelter was vividly described by Dr. Horatio Newhall, a pioneer physician, writing to his brother in Lynn, Massachusetts. He said, "On Monday we had the alarm that the attack was imminent, for the Indians were close at hand. All the men, women and children fled to the stockade. Within fifteen minutes after the alarm was sounded there must have been seven hundred in the shelter, some with dresses put on back to front, men putting on their trousers, some with only night clothes on. All were wildly screaming and shouting to each other. Three babies were born during this mad scramble for safety."

When the grand stampede into the shelter of the stockade at the midnight hour came, the following pioneers must have been a part of that excited group for they are listed in an old diary as some of the inhabitants at that time - June 1832: Major Campbell, Dr. Muir and Indian wife, Miss Emily Billon, Mr. Moses Meeker, the Nicholas Dowlings, James Johnson, the Chetlains, the Soulards, the Gears, the Stahls, the Gratiots, the Hempsteads, the Harris', the Hunts and the Newhalls.

The Indians were met by the Militia west of the village, but hurried away on their ponies with their leader to a point on Horse Shoe Mound. When they saw the fort with its cannons and gun on the high hill, and its block house, they made a wild dash overland to the north, where, seven miles from Galena, they were met by Colonel Henry Gratiot and Thomas Wylley, a scout for the inhabitants of the district. Black Hawk was in a mood to call his war ended. The council was filled with understanding, and the chief gave his word that the Illinois country would no longer be molested. This council was held in the yard of the Branton House, under a large white oak tree. It was a hot summer day and the Indians were weary of their war fare, feeling that the superior military tactics of the well-trained militia was too great for them to try and conquer. However, the treaty was only a matter affecting the Illinois Lead Mining District. The "war hawk" had other places and other settlements that he planned to destroy when he could get help from other tribes.

The location of the Branton Tavern was on the highway where the Frink and Walker Stage Line, making its forty-eight hour trip from Chicago to Galena, passed. The hotel was used for a relay for the horses and a rest for the weary travelers. After the treaty, the location was called the "Hill of Council," later the shorter name of Council Hill was used.

After this pipe of peace the Indians dashed off to the West. There were only four hundred of their braves left and they had the burden of caring for their squaws and children, and the aged men. A sad caravan of worn men, they left the Mississippi River, crossing it at the mouth of the Bad Axe River in the state of Wisconsin. There they were met by General Armstrong, with his army of trained men, amounting to one thousand, and the poor red man had no chance of victory against such skilled soldiers. This battle of Bad Axe is called one of the bloodiest and most disgraceful battles in the history of American Indian warfare.

Colonel Jefferson Davis, who was the commandant of Fort Crawford (Prairie du Chien) in the name of the United States, took "Black Hawk" prisoner; and in chains he was carried down the River to St. Louis and incarcerated in Jefferson Barracks, much to the sorrow of Governor Clark, who interceded with President Jackson for his release. This was granted and Black Hawk was invited to visit Washington as a guest and honored citizen of the United States.

He passed into the Indians Happy Hunting ground Oct. 3, 1838 and his burial place is in sight of his beloved river and island home. Like a Sac chief he was buried sitting upright, clad in a military uniform.

And now we come to the story of the old historic site which is in Galena as we of this generation have known it. Before the Indian uprising, a group of log houses were built on the hillside going up to Elk and Prospect streets. They were the homes of some of Galena's most enterprising citizens, and this section might well be called "exclusive."

The locality in which the stockade and cabins were built at the time of the Black Hawk war were those of Colonel Strode, Dr. Hancock, Amos Farrar and Nicholas Dowling, his was a stone house, the first substantial structure to be built in Galena. Across the narrow cobblestone street, he built a stone store which was -used as a trading post and early court house, with a public hall over the entire building. Colonel Amos Farrar's log cabin had a large, under-ground room that was to be used for protection if the Indians ever attacked the town. It had seats and benches around the wall where people could rest. Reflecting mirrors were placed to the north, south, east and west so that an invader could be seen if they approached the stockade. It had high timbered boards around the enclosure to the south of the cabin.

Colonel Farrar was one of the important men of the settlement, being the factor of the local American Fur Company. From his name, he doubtless was of Scotch ancestry, and, like many pioneers who came into the wilderness, he married an Indian woman, who, with their three children, died during the Small Pox epidemic. Later, he married Miss Sophia Gear, daughter of Captain Gear, who was a leader and a progressive man on the range. His daughter was an educated and refined lady, with an ambition that led her to establish a school in her home, the second one in the district.

Colonel Farrar died suddenly during the summer of the Black Hawk war and it was then that Colonel Henry Gratiot, the government Indian agent, became the commander of the stockade. With two brothers he had made the treacherous overland journey from St. Louis in the spring of 1826 and was appointed by the government for care and supervision of the Indians in the district. The early solution of the Indian problem needed men like Colonel Gratiot to befriend them and understand their problems. He had experience in those earlier days in St. Louis, being a brother-in-law of Manual Lisa whose history with the Indians and development of the west is part of history. He was also the direct descendant of Laclede, the founder of St. Louis, and related to the fur trading Chouteau Brothers. In the history of the Indian wars of Wisconsin, Mr. Moses Strong said, "There never was a white man in his time or any other time that had so much influence over the Indians of the Northwest as Colonel Gratiot." The knowledge of the Indian character was obtained by him from his contact with these very pioneer spirits, who were his ancestors. To obtain confidence and influence with the Indians he knew it was necessary for him to deal with them with kindness and good faith and never practice deceit. He obtained an almost unbounded control and influence over the Winnebago Tribe, which in his time claimed all the country which is now southwest Wisconsin and Northwest Illinois.

Mrs. Sophia Gear Farrar lived in her stockade home until her death. There being no heirs it was sold at auction and was bought by Mrs. Mary E. Gardner, February 16th, 1884. She and her daughter, Margaret A. Gardner, beloved teacher in Galena, guarded this old heirloom home with most patriotic zeal. This remarkable teacher held a place in the educational life of Galena that few women are privileged to attain. She started teaching before she completed her college education and continued it in Galena for over half a century. Her life as a teacher was devoted to three generations of Galenians who passed under her guidance and inspiration.

After her public school service was over, she could not give up her desire to have youth about her and unfold to them, in her own splendid methods, the constructive elemental education of the child mind. So, for several years, she had a kindergarten in her own home, and proudly told of having as a pupil the five-year old great, great grandson of Colonel Gratiot, Meade McKinlay Morris, Jr., whose grandparents, the William Grant Bales, lived in the Dowling mansion across the street that was built in 1845 by James Dowling, the son of Nicholas Dowling. In addition to her educational part in Galena's life, she was an accomplished musician, being organist for many years in Grace Episcopal Church, although she was a member of "St. Michael's" parish, founded by the Italian missionary priest, Father Samuel Mazzuchelli. The organ in Grace church is over one hundred years old, brought to Galena from New York City via New Orleans and the Mississippi River in 1840.

On June 14th, 1932 the City of Galena, with Priscilla Mullins Chapter, D. A. R., the city council, and city school board celebrated the building of the one hundred year old stockade, and paying tribute to Margaret Gardner, who was devoted to its preservation. Doubtless the one historic and necessary place of refuge would have been obliterated had not her interest kept the treasured beams, walls and entrance intact; that we who survive that passing generation can venerate these ardent pioneers who built for the future. A member of Priscilla Mullins, Daughters of the American Revolution gave the following tribute to Galena's Margaret Gardner, "The Daughters of the American Revolution are vitally interested in the preservation of historic spots all over the United States, and the local chapter has marked the site of the blockhouse and the old stockade. We are grateful to Miss Gardner for her cooperation and her patriotic devotion to Galena's early history.

"The ancient Talmud has a proverb, 'Yesterday is a dream, tomorrow a vision, today is a reality.' After today may some of the coming generation catch the vision of the future and keep the old stockade as a memorial of the pioneers of an early day.

The D. A. R., committee consisting of Miss Jessie Spensley and Miss Helen Boevers, communicated with as many of the pupils of Miss Gardner as could be contacted and invited them for a "homecoming" picnic in Grant Park thus celebrating her 62 years of her school year with a picnic and thus celebrating her 62 years of teaching in Galena with a fitting "dismissal of school."

Galena's Old Stockade on the Cobblestone Street.

The old stockade was restored and modernized home that has the underground room for its foundation. From the window, one can look up the steep hillside to the site of the old blockhouse and visualize those stirring events on the spot that the run-way to the old stockade was built.

On May 29, 1941 Margaret Gardner passed on in her venerated home and the place became the property of her nephew James Marcellus Rouse and his sister May Belle Rouse.

The oldest home in Galena Illinois, the Nicholas Dowling stone house, built in 1826.

They have carried on the tradition of the old building and treasure it as did their aunt; being a friend of man in time of war and peace, they have "The May Belle Tea Room" in it. Hundreds of interested guests desire the history of the century old building, and with deep reverence for its part in Galena's pioneer days and for its "Keeper of the Stockade" Margaret Gardner.

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

Raising Chicago Streets Out of the Mud in 1858. The feat of an era.

During the 19th century, the elevation of the Chicago area was not much higher than the shorelines of Lake Michigan, so for many years, there was little or no naturally occurring drainage from the city's surface. The lack of drainage caused unpleasant living conditions, and standing water harbored pathogens that caused numerous epidemics. Epidemics, including typhoid fever and dysentery, blighted Chicago six years in a row culminating in the 1854 outbreak of cholera that killed six percent of the city's population.

The crisis forced the city's engineers and aldermen to take the drainage problem seriously, and after many heated discussions — and following at least one false start — a solution eventually materialized. In 1856, engineer Ellis S. Chesbrough drafted a plan to install a city-wide sewerage system and submitted it to the Common Council, which adopted the project.

Workers then laid drains, covered and refinished roads and sidewalks with several feet of soil, and raised most buildings to the new grade with hydraulic jacks.

The Briggs House, corner Randolph Street and Fifth Avenue (today Wells Street).

The work was funded by private property owners and public funds.

The first masonry building in Chicago was raised in January 1858. It was a four-story, 70-foot long, 750-ton brick structure situated at the northeast corner of Randolph and Dearborn Streets. It was lifted on two hundred jackscrews to its new grade, 6 feet 2 inches higher than before, "without the slightest injury to the building." This was the first of more than fifty similar-sized buildings raised that year.

By 1860, confidence was sufficiently high that a consortium of no fewer than six engineers, James Brown, James Hollingsworth, and George Pullman. They took on one of the most unique locations in the city and hoisted it entirely up to grade in one go. They lifted half a city block on Lake Street, between Clark Street and LaSalle Street, a solid masonry row of shops, offices, printer shops, etc., 320 feet long, comprising of 4 and 5-story brick and stone buildings. The footprint took up almost one acre. The estimated all-in weight, including sidewalks, was 35,000 tons.

It was business as usual while the buildings were being raised. People worked and shopped in them as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening.

In five days, the entire assembly was elevated 4 feet 8 inches in the air by a team of 600 men using 6,000 jackscrews. The next step is to build a new foundation. The spectacle drew crowds of thousands, and people were permitted to walk under the lifted buildings among the jackscrews on the final day.

The following year a team led by Ely, Smith, and Pullman raised the Tremont House hotel on the southeast corner of Lake Street and Dearborn Street. This building was luxuriously appointed, was of brick construction, was six stories high, and had a footprint of over 1 acre. Once again, business as usual was maintained as this vast hotel parted from the ground it was standing on. Indeed some of the guests staying there at the time, among whose number were several VIPs and a US Senator, were utterly oblivious to the feat as the five hundred men operating their five thousand jackscrews worked under covered trenches. 

The street level looks like it was raised by about 8 feet.

One patron was puzzled to note that the front steps leading from the street into the hotel were becoming steeper every day and that when he checked out, the windows were several feet above his head, whereas before, they had been at eye level. This huge hotel, which until just the previous year had been the tallest building in Chicago, was, in fact, raised fully 6 feet without a hitch. Property owners found creative uses for the empty spaces beneath the vaulted sidewalks, from outhouses to storage for businesses.

Another notable feat was raising the Robbins Building, an iron building 150 feet long, 80 feet wide, and five stories high, located at the corner of South Water Street and Wells Street. This was a big building; its ornate iron frame, twelve-inch thick masonry wall-filling, and "floors filled with heavy goods" made for a weight estimated at 27,000 tons, a large load to raise over a relatively small area. Hollingsworth and Coughlin took the contract and, in November 1865, lifted not only the building but also the 230 feet of stone sidewalk outside it. The total mass of iron and masonry was raised 27.5 inches, "without the slightest crack or damage. 

There is evidence in primary document sources that at least one building in Chicago, the Franklin House on Franklin Street, was raised hydraulically by the engineer John C. Lane of the Lane and Stratton partnership. These gentlemen had been using this method of lifting buildings in San Francisco since 1853.

Many of central Chicago's hurriedly erected wooden frame buildings were now considered wholly inappropriate to the burgeoning and increasingly wealthy city. Rather than raise them several feet, proprietors often preferred to relocate these old frame buildings, replacing them with new masonry blocks built to the latest grade. Consequently, the practice of putting the old multi-story, intact and furnished wooden buildings, sometimes entire rows of them all at the same time — on rollers and moving them to the outskirts of town or to the suburbs was so common as to be considered nothing more than routine traffic. 

The raising of Chicago became the talk of the nation. Still, for the people of Chicago, the enormous undertaking solved a problem and testified to the young city's character. "Nothing," noted an early historian, "better illustrates the energy and determination with which the makers of Chicago set about a task when once they had made up their minds than the speed and thoroughness with which they solved the problem of the city's drainage and sewage."

It still stands at 1478 West Webster Avenue, Lincoln Park, Chicago, 1988.

Raised this house to new street level.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.