THE FORTITUDE, the enduring qualities of men like Shaw and Boone are almost beyond understanding; their marvelous
endurance is unapproached by that of the college athletes of today. Shaw, strong as a bear, lithe and sinuous as
a panther, was at home in the trackless wilds, and far from his base could maintain himself for days and even weeks,
hard-pressed every moment by hostile savages.
Dropping into the low crouching gait of the pursued, Shaw, it appears, could outrun the fleetest of the tribes,
hour after hour, mile after mile, through forest and over prairie, as cunning as the savages themselves in bending
to his advantage every means of concealment. Once, in what is now Calhoun county, he outran and eluded pursuing
savages in a hair-raising chase that extended for twenty miles. Again, over the prairies of central Illinois, in
a chase that ended near present Beardstown, he covered sixty miles in a single day in pursuit of a band of Indians
who had butchered some settlers where now is Wood River. Boone once, escaping his Shawnee captors, traveled 160
miles in four days, pausing only once to snatch a meal, hard pressed every step of the way by relentless pursuers.
An instance of Shaw's remarkable agility and powers of endurance appears in the following story of Indian massacre
in what is now Calhoun county. Until recently when Colonel John Shaw, the noted historian and narrator of Marquette
county, Wisconsin, in the middle of the last century, became positively identified as the John Shaw of early Coles'
Grove, nothing was known in this region of the founder of Pike's first capital prior to the massacre herein related.
A former chapter has now shown Shaw stepping upon this wilderness scene in 1813 as the sole white survivor of a
butchery that cost the lives of 13 Rangers. Now comes Colonel John Shaw's own story of that massacre:
"Some time during the summer of 1813," says Shaw, "I crossed the Mississippi to its eastern shore,
two or three miles above Cape au Gris (site of present West Point Ferry in Calhoun), to see if there were any signs
of Indians in that quarter. When about three miles east of the river (approximately the site of present Batchtown),
I described quite a large camp of Indians, somewhere I thought from sixty to eighty in number. I immediately retreated
being observed, and hastened to Cape au Gris (Fort) with the intelligence. It was a once resolved to pursue, and
it was only a question of numbers, and a strife for the command. Lieutenant John McNair of the Rangers, a resident
of St. Charles county, a nephew of Alexander McNair, afterward Governor of Missouri, was permitted to take the
command at his own urgent request, and selected twelve men of the service, together with myself for pilot. I strongly
urged a larger number, but the Lieutenant was headstrong and utterly rejected my advice.
"There were but a couple of small log canoes or dugouts in which to cross, and it required three trips to
convey our small party of fourteen across the river. We immediately pushed forward, I taking the lead as pilot,
and soon came in sight of the encampment where the Indians still remained. Each party described the other about
the same moment, we having crossed a rise of ground which brought us within about 40 rods of the Indians who, when
they espied us, seized their arms and rushed towards us. Seeing that they outnumbered us four or five to one, we
instantly retraced our steps toward Cape au Gris Rock, a distance of some four or five miles. It was a hot chase,
the Indians rather gaining upon us, and when we arrived at the water's edge of the river, about mid-day, we turned
and fired the Indians who were now within a few rods of us. They were momentarily checked and, in turn, fired upon
us, killing McNair and eleven of the men instantly, while the twelfth Ranger, one Webber, dressed in a yellow hunting
shirt, jumped into the river, evidently intending to swim over to the fort, but was soon arrested by a ball, and
his lifeless body was dragged ashore.
"Providentially, I was untouched, and quickly turned down the river bank, leaped a small steam at a single
bound, and then running along the side of the dripping rock, closely pursued by three Indians, who kept up the
exciting race for about a mile and a half — all this in full view of about two hundred persons at the fort on the
opposite shore who, from their distance and want of boats, were unable to render the least assistance. I gained
so much on the Indians during that mile and a half race, that they abandoned the pursuit, the guns of the Indians
and myself being alike empty. Not aware that my pursuers had given over the chase, I kept on as rapidly as I could
for two or three miles when, turning a point in the river, and seeing nothing of the Indians, I re-loaded my gun
and kept on at a slackened pace. In the night when some twenty miles from Cape au Gris I made a raft of dry sticks,
fastened together with grapevines, and crossed to the western bank of the river; and, on the morning of the third
day, reached Fort Howard, and the same day was escorted to Cape au Gris, where I was received with unaffected joy.
"I now learned that the Indians had horribly mangled the bodies of my unfortunate companions and left them
with every mark of indecency and indignity their inventions could suggest; they shook the reeking scalps in bravado
in sight of the whites on the opposite shore. Having secured the guns, clothing and scalps of their victims, and
fully indulged themselves in yelling and screaming a while, like so many demons, seeming conscious of their safety
as the whites could not at once cross, they at length departed. Fearing to pass the river with only the two small
dugouts, lest they should be ambuscaded, the Rangers did not venture over till the next day; and not then until
they had brought the cannon in the fort to bear on the spot where their slain companions were. The fragments of
the mangled bodies were gathered up, conveyed over the river and buried near the fort."
Shaw next relates the Indian attack on Fort Madison on July 16, 1813, when the redskins carried the blockhouse
and attempted to dig their way into the fort, but finally gave up, two whites being killed and one wounded in this,
the second attack on Fort Madison.
"August 15, 1813," continues Shaw, "Captain Nathan Boone and a party of spies under his command,
while on a scout between the Mississippi and Illinois, were attacked in the night by three times their number of
Indians, but no lives were lost." This battle, according to Shaw's accounting at another time and place, occurred
on Bay Creek in what is now Pleasant Hill township.
Daniel Boone was 78 in 1812, at the outbreak of the war. Some of the farm property of the younger Boones was destroyed
in Indian raids at the outset of the conflict, and Boone's sons, Daniel Morgan and Nathan, led the troops that
set out for reprisal. In 1813, when the Indian warfare was at its fiercest, Boone's wife died; as the girl, Rebecca
Bryan, she had become his bride in that distant day in North Carolina, and had been a heroic companion through
his long, adventurous life. Her death left Boone alone at the age of 79. Boone then joined the household of his
son Nathan but something "hid beyond the ranges" still lured the famous scout in his old age and when
he was 80 we hear of him in the region of the Yellowstone. Often, accompanied by an old Indian, who was instructed
by Boone's sons to bring the Colonel back dead or alive, he sought far places in the wilderness, through his once
keen eyes were now dimmed until he had to use bits of white paper on his rifle sights. Once he nearly died, lying
for weeks in a remote wilderness. At home, shunning the comforts of civilization, he established himself in a deserted
block-house and roasted his meat on the end of a ramrod as in the days of his great pioneering. Then, in the year
in which the Rosses came (in 1820), at the age of 86, in the house of his son Nathan, after only a few days' illness,
the famous scout crossed the last frontier and discovered that something that was "hid beyond the ranges."
About September, 1813, Shaw says he accompanied General Howard's expedition to Peoria, when a fort was erected
— Fort Clark, named in honor of George Rogers Clark, marking the northern terminal of the famed Fort Clark road
established by the early Pike county commissioners. Major Nathan Boone and Major William Christy of St. Louis,
according to Shaw, were along on this expedition to the site of present Peoria. Near Peoria, with its small French
population, were villages of Potawatomi, Miami and the fierce Kickapoo. Being the center of Indian life, nearest
the settled area, the settlers saw in the Peoria region the breeding place of those numerous Indian forays that
harassed the frontier.
This expedition to Peoria was composed of about 900 men, collected from Illinois, Missouri, Indiana and Kentucky.
At the present site of Peoria, this army, after a march across the broad prairies of Illinois, remained in camp
several weeks, building Fort Clark while there, which was afterwards garrisoned by regulars who remained there
during the duration of the war. This fort gave to Peoria the name of Fort Clark which it bore for a number of years.
Shaw relates that the troops, after they had built fort Clark, returned the latter part of October in the snow,
suffering bitter hardships. He says that some wore out their shoes and killed their horses and wound strips of
hide around their feet, or made hide shoes.
Shaw next tells of the evacuation and burning of Fort Madison, early in November, 1813, for the reason that the
contractor had failed to supply the garrison with provision. The settlers were greatly alarmed by the evacuation
of this fort and there was thereupon erected another fort, called Fort Johnston, on the eastern or Illinois bank
of the river, on a high promontory opposite the mouth of the middle fork of the Des Moines river. The next spring
this fort also was evacuated and destroyed for the same reason as a Fort Madison. Subsequently, Shaw says, Fort
Johnston was rebuilt and called Fort Edwards. Fort Edwards was built in September, 1814, after Major Zachary Taylor's
disastrous expedition against the Upper Mississippi Indians. Fort Johnston and Fort Edwards stood on the present
site of Warsaw, being the northern terminus of the Fort Edwards road laid out by the early Pike county commissioners
from Ferguson's Ferry on the lower Illinois river to Fort Edwards on the Mississippi.
Shaw's references to the evacuation and burning of old Fort Madison, site of the present city of Fort Madison,
is interesting, in view of the disagreement of historical writers in reference to this early fort. One writer relates
that in September, 1813, following several bristling battles between soldiers of the garrison and besieging Indians,
"the garrison moved out of the fort under cover of darkness and before embarking down the river in canoes
the soldiers applied the torch to the fort to distract the attention of the attackers."
Other writers have also stated that Fort Johnston was built in 1814 following the building of Fort Edwards and
it was abandoned soon after. Fort Johnston or Johnson stood about a half-mile south of the present monument marking
the site of early Fort Edwards. Fort Edwards was, when first erected, the most westerly outpost of the United States
and was occupied until 1824, when it was abandoned as a post but remained for many years as a place of refuge.
No trace of the fort is left but the logs are incorporated in a granary on a farm within the Warsaw city limits.
Fifty miles from present Pittsfield, and six miles from West Point Ferry in Calhoun, near Fort Howard, on the Missouri
side of the river, on the 24th of May, 1814, occurred the memorable battle of the Sink-Hole which is thus described
by Shaw:
"Some two or three nights previously (to May 24, 1814) I made a narrow escape in riding in the night from
Cape au Gris to Fort Howard. When about one-half mile from the latter, I heard a whistle on the charger of a powder
horn, and soon heard a party of Indians endeavoring to cut me off from the fort, when I took a circuit and evaded
them, by taking a by-path, when they had waylaid the main trail; thus I reached the fort in safety.
"Not long before the Sink-Hole affair, one Bernard was killed at Dardenne river, one Wetley was killed near
the crossing of the Peruque, and William Linn, a Ranger, within 30 rods of Cape au Gris Fort. Linn had gone into
the woods to visit a whiskey jug he had secreted there, when the report of several guns was heard. Lieutenant Massey
went out in pursuit but the Indians escaped. On the Cape au Gris Rock (on the Calhoun county shore), opposite the
fort, the Indians deliberately showed themselves, when a young warrior, about a dozen years of age, advanced, exhibiting
Linn's scalp, and exclaiming in Sauk language: ‘Come here, you Americans, and we will serve you in the same way.'
Linn's family, at the time of his death, were living in Wood's Fort (the site of present Clarksville).
"Within a few days of this affair, a young man named Bolles went to a deer lick at the foot of the bluff,
about two and one-half miles from Cape au Gris, and was there shot and scalped.
"Of the Sink-Hole battle, fought on the 24th of May, 1814, near Fort Howard, I shall be able to give a full
account, as I was present and participated in it. Capt. Peter Craig commanded at Fort Howard; he resided with his
father-in- law, Andrew Ramsey, at Cape Girardeau, and did not exceed 30 years of age. Drakeford Gray was first
lieutenant, Wilson Able the second, and Edward Spears third lieutenant.
"About noon, five of the men went out of the fort (Fort Howard) to Byrne's deserted house on the bluff, about
a quarter of a mile below the fort, to bring in a grindstone. In consequence of backwater from the Mississippi,
they went in a canoe; and on their return were fired on by a party supposed to be 50 Indians, who were under shelter
of some brush that grew along at the foot of the bluff near Byrne's home and about 15 rods distance from the canoe
at that time. Three of the whites were killed, and one was mortally wounded. As the backwater, where the canoe
was, was only about knee-deep, the Indians ran out and tomahawked their victims.
"The people in the fort ran out as quick as possible, and fired across the backwater at the Indians, but as
they were nearly a quarter of a mile off, it was of course without effect. Captain Craig with a party of some 25
men hastened in pursuit of the Indians, and ran across a point of the backwater a few inches deep; while another
party, of whom I was one, of about 25, ran to the right of the water, with a view to intercepting the Indians,
who seemed to be making towards the bluff or high plain west and northwest of the fort. The party with which I
had started and Captain Craig's soon united.
"Immediately on the bluff was the cultivated field and deserted residence of Benjamin Allen (who died in Montezuma
township in 1821), the field about 40 rods across, beyond which was pretty thick timber. Here the Indians made
a stand and here the fight commenced. Both parties treed, and as the firing waxed warm, the Indians slowly retired
as the whites advanced. After this fighting had been going on perhaps 10 minutes, the whites were reinforced by
Capt. David Musick of Cape au Gris, with about 20 men. Captain Musick had been on a scout towards the head of Cuivre
river, and had returned, though unknown at Fort Howard, to the crossing of Cuivre river, about a mile from the
fort, and about a mile and a half from the scene of the conflict; and had stopped with his men to graze their horses.
Hearing the firing, they immediately remounted and dashed towards the place of battle, and dismounting in the edge
of the timber on the bluff, and hitching their horses, they rushed through a part of the Indian line, and shortly
afterwards the enemy fled, a part bearing to the right of the Sink-Hole towards Bob's Creek, but the most of them
taking refuge in the Sink-Hole, which was close by where the main fight had taken place.
"About the time the Indians were retreating, Captain Craig exposed himself about four feet beyond his tree
and was shot through the body and fell dead. James Putney was killed before Captain Craig, and perhaps one or two
others. Before the Indians retired to the Sink-Hole, the fighting had become animated; the loading was done quickly
and shots rapidly exchanged, and when one of our party was killed or wounded, it was announced aloud.
"This Sink-Hole was 60 feet in length, and about 12 to 15 feet wide, and 10 or 12 feet deep. Near the bottom,
on the southeast side, was a shelving rock, under which perhaps some 50 or 60 persons might have sheltered themselves.
At the northeast end of the Sink-Hole, the descent was quite gradual, the other end much more abrupt, and the southeast
side was almost perpendicular, and the other side about like the steep roof of a house. On the southeast side,
the Indians, as a further protection in case the whites should rush up, dug under the shelving rock with their
knives. On the sides and in the bottom of the Sink-Hole were some bushes, which also served as more or less of
a screen for the Indians.
"Captain Musick and his men took post on the northeast side of the Sink-Hole, and the others occupied other
positions surrounding the enemy. As the trees approached close to the Sink-Hole, these served in part to protect
our party. Finding we could not get a good opportunity to dislodge the enemy as they were best protected, those
of our men who had families at the fort, gradually went there, not knowing but a large body of Indians might seize
the favorable occasion to attack the fort, while the men were mostly away, engaged in the exciting contest."
Black Hawk and his tribesmen and no less than a dozen persons later associated with early Pike county were participants
in this battle, the story of which is continued in the next chapter.