COLONEL JOHN SHAW of Marquette county, Wisconsin, now in concluding his story, definitely identifies himself as
the John Shaw of the earlier chapters of his history. This was the man who in 1821, when the Rosses were bringing
their women from Alton to the newly erected cabins at Ross's Settlement, now Atlas, started a wilderness clearing
wherein arose the settlement of Coles' Grove, first county seat of Pike county and long a bitter rival of the Ross
settlement, and who, in 1822-24, in the time of the county seat wars, became the storm center of state politics
in his memorable contests with Nicholas Hansen and the Ross party at Atlas.
He continues:
"In the early part of 1821, I commenced clearing and setting up a farm between the Mississippi and Illinois
rivers, at a point where Gilead is now located. Year after year I extended my farming interests until I cultivated
1200 acres of land in one year and had nearly 400 head of cattle.
"In 1822, I was chosen to represent Pike county in the Illinois legislature, and my district then embraced
all the country northwest of the Illinois river to the northern limits of the state. I was the anti-slavery candidate,
and in favor of a new Convention. (Note: This is doubtless an error of the transcriber or a slip in dictation,
Shaw being sympathetic with the slavery party which was behind the movement for a new convention.) I was twice
subsequently chosen to the legislature, though others managed to get the certificate of election. I repeatedly
held the office of county commissioners (Shaw, with Leonard Ross and William Ward, was a member of the first Pike
County Commissioners' Court at Coles' Grove in 1821), was 23 years postmaster (at Coles' Grove, Gilead and Hamburg),
and over 20 years a magistrate.
"For 20 years I continued farming and purchasing lands until at one time I owned 30,000 acres in Illinois
and Missouri."
The deed records of Pike county contain conveyances to and from John Shaw representing thousands of acres of valuable
Pike county land. At the door of the state house in Vandalia, where occurred the numerous sales of the bounty lands
for taxes in the 1820 Shaw acquired vast tracts of rich lands for less than nickel an acre; many of the finest
quarter sections in Pike county he acquired for about 3 ½ cents an acre. Many deeds recorded in the county
records, running from the State Auditor to John Shaw, show a consideration of $5.81 (including taxes, interest
and costs) for a quarter section, or 160 acres. A deed executed on January 9, 1828 by E. C. Berry, then State Auditor,
transfers title to an 160-acre tract, the NE 1/4 of Section 9, Derry township (the old Christopher C. Dolbeare
quarter section), to John Shaw for a consideration of $1.84 (taxes for the year 1827, with interest and costs),
representing a price of a little over one cent an acre. This deed is recorded in Vol. 54, Page 91, Deed Records
of Pike County.
On January 16, 1833, Shaw sold to Stephen B. Munn of New York City 1,280 acres of land (eight quarter sections,
six of them in present Pike county and two just north of the present Pike county line and in Brown county) for
$200, a trifle over 15 ½ cents an acre. Shaw made a profit of about 12 to 14 cents an acre on this land.
The deed of transfer was acknowledged before William Wilson, chief justice of the Supreme Court, at Vandalia. The
transfer included the SE of Sec. 17 and the NW of sec. 36 in present Newburg, the SE of Sec. 30 and the NW of Sec.
36 in present Fairmount, the NW of Sec. 2 in present Hadley, and the NE of Sec. 9 in present Derry.
Shaw after reciting his great success in lands continues: "But in 1841, I was induced to build a steamboat,
and it was the first one on the river above St. Louis (Shaw doubtless means it was the first one built on the river
above St. Louis; several other steamboats plied the upper river before that time), and it bore my name by special
desire of my friends. And the total loss of the boat a year after, caused me a loss of $80,000. This so broke me
up that in 1845, I came to Wisconsin (then Wisconsin Territory), and after exploring all the northern part of the
Territory, I finally located the present site of St. Marie on a beautiful bank of the Fox river, in Marquette county,
where I removed in 1846, and where I still reside (1855). On the opposite bank of the Fox river is a large spring,
called by the early French, La Cote St. Marie.
"In 1852 I lost my eyesight which I have partially regained, early in 1855, as the result of surgical operations
in New York City, but not sufficient restored to enable me to read or write. I am now (1855) in my 73rd year, five
feet five inches in height, with dark eyes, hair and complexion, and weighing about 140 pounds; never having drank
spirituous liquors, used tobacco, or indulged in games of chance, I am still generally healthy and active. I was
never married. I have been almost 50 years a western pioneer and during this time have served my country to the
best of my ability. I have run many a narrow chance of my life in defense of the exposed frontier settlers. Commencing
40 years ago, I have been a pioneer in the commerce, navigation, milling, lumbering and lead trade of Wisconsin,
and in every situation in life, I have endeavored to prove myself honest, patriotic, enterprising and useful —
these reflections are a comfort and consolation in my old age."
Thus ends the eventful story of John Shaw, "the Black Prince" of early Pike county days. The story is
Shaw's own narrative, dictated in his nearly blind old age to Dr. Lyman C. Draper, noted early day secretary of
the Wisconsin State Historical Society, and collector of the notable Draper Manuscripts relative to the Boone family.
Shaw in this, his own narrative, makes scant reference to those thrilling and tumultuous 20 years (1821-41) which
he spent in early Pike and Calhoun counties, being, for many years of that period, engaged in a bitter and relentless
feud with his great adversaries, the Rosses at Atlas. To John Shaw, in his declining years, looking back over his
past, those 20 years appear to have been regarded as a closed book, the pages of which he did not care to turn.
Those readers who, in earlier chapters, have seen John Shaw in his role of ruthless dictator, riding roughshod
over any and all opposition, controlling the early Pike elections by his tremendous influence over a band of half-breed
henchmen, cunning and relentless as the savage tribes among whom he had lived, bending to his own advantage every
trick and subterfuge as he had learned to do in the wilderness wars, those readers doubtless had formed a mental
picture of Shaw that will be measurably tempered and softened in outline by the foregoing narrative, revealing
as it does a great pioneer, possessed of an unconquerable spirit, akin to the Boones and Simon Kenton and Logan
and others of that glorious company who opened the wilderness. Truly, John Shaw was one of the most vigorous and
colorful characters of early western settlement, a character who will live long in the memories of those who have
followed his story.
Shaw's last interview with Black Hawk, recorded in his "Sketches of the Indian Chief and Pioneers of the Northwest,"
found in Volume 10 of the Wisconsin Historical Collections, is too important from an historical standpoint to be
omitted here. Shaw's last meeting with Black Hawk was in September, 1832, when, the Black Hawk war over, the noted
chieftain, then a prisoner of the Americans, gave to John Shaw a version of that war that, so far as known, he
gave to no other man.
Shaw thus records this memorable meeting:
"Not long after Black Hawk's capture, I descended the river on a steamboat with him from Galena, and having
been a number of years acquainted with him, he appeared glad to see me, and talked freely about the recent war.
He said he had been in irons, but was then unshackled; several other Indians were also prisoners with him, one
of whom was Wau-pel-la (He-Who-Is-Painted-White, a Fox chief, a signer of the treaties of 1822-30-32-36). Black
Hawk had an interpreter present, a Frenchman, so we could converse. He said he was glad to meet with one who could
comprehend his grievances, and spoke of the misfortune that resulted from the misapprehension on the part of the
white people of the object he had in view. That he had long been in the habit of visiting the British post at Malden
(at the mouth of the Detroit river), generally yearly, and received with his people liberal presents. That early
in 1832, thinking it was a tedious undertaking to make that long journey so frequently, and that the whites were
then over-running and gaining possession by pretended treaties, of all their fine country, and but little game
remaining, he started for Canada with such of his people as might choose to follow him, with the design of remaining
there; that he had been fore-warned by Ke-o-kuck and other chiefs that in going the direct route he proposed through
the settled portions of the country, he and his party would be regarded by the inhabitants as making a hostile
movement; but that he, Black Hawk, thought it better that his people should keep embodied rather than get scattered.
That after they had progressed a few days in upper Illinois he found he was pursued by the whites. He said he was
still in hopes, if he could have an opportunity, to be able to explain satisfactorily the reason for the embodied
movement of his people, but, he said, he had been grievously disappointed in the hope of a peaceful retirement
to Canada. He was set upon by armed men (Colonel Stillman's pursuit), which he supposed was only the advance detachment,
and now concluded that war was inevitable.
"Black Hawk related that he then said to his young men that inasmuch as the whites had commenced making war
upon them, they should make the best defense they could. He expressed his surprise that the Americans could, in
so brief a period, have assembled so large a force, and still more surprised to find some Indians among them. That
he and his party endured great fatigue and suffering in their march, with their women, children and baggage, and
discovering that the whites and their Indian associates were steadily gaining on him, he sought an opportunity
of speaking with the Indians who were accompanying the Americans; but finding none, he went back some distance
the night after the battle of Wisconsin Heights and ascended a tree, as near the American encampment as he thought
it prudent to venture, and spoke in as loud a voice as he possibly could, desiring the American Indians to inform
the whites that he was not for war; that he was only endeavoring to leave the country and hoped he would be permitted
to do so in peace.
"But he said, he knew, but the renewed pursuit of the whites the next morning, that further conflict was inevitable,
and he felt convinced that in the then enfeebled condition of his people he had nothing favorable to hope for in
the result. He now changed his route, and directed his course towards the Mississippi; and to facilitate the more
rapid movements of himself and people, they were compelled to throw away all their heavy and most cumbersome articles.
The whites also increased their speed, and he and his jaded followers were overtaken at the Bad Axe River - an
indiscriminate massacre took place - many were killed and drowned; and Black Hawk and his people, believing that
no quarter would be shown them, escaped as best they could and dispersed. As he spoke of the slaughter of his people
at the Bad Axe, in their helpless and forlorn condition, tears coursed down his aged cheeks. The old chief added
that he was soon captured and put in irons; but finding that he would not attempt to escape, the irons were taken
off; but he did not know what the Americans would do with him.
"This is substantially the story Black Hawk related to me. I never saw him afterwards. In conversation with
him at the treaty of Portage des Sioux in 1815, he said that he had seen me on the Missouri frontier many times
during the war of 1812-15 - I think he said he saw me when I escaped in the canoe at the mouth of the Cuivre river.
I saw him several times before the Indian troubles of 1832, at Prairie du Chien and elsewhere, and he had stopped
at my house and enjoyed my hospitality. He consequently seemed to rehearse to me his griefs and misfortunes with
the freedom of an old friend. Of his sons I have no knowledge."
It should be stated that the above remarkable story related by Black Hawk to John Shaw in September, 1832, concerning
the tribal movements that precipitated the war, can in no way be reconciled with the chief's account of those movements
dictated in his autobiography of the following year.
That Black Hawk wept as he spoke to Shaw of the battle of the Bad Axe is little wonder. History records that many
painful incidents occurred in that battle, in which 50 mounted Pike county riflemen under Captain Ozias Hale (a
Missionary Baptist minister who organized the first Baptist church in Pike county) and Lieutenant David Seeley
(a brother of Dr. E. M. Seeley of the old Pittsfield hardware firm of Seeley & Loyd), participated. A Sauk
woman, the sister of a warrior of some notoriety, found herself in the thickest of the fight, but at length succeeded
in reaching the river, when, keeping her infant child safe in its blankets by means of her teeth, she plunged into
the water, seized the tail of a horse with her hands whose rider was swimming in the stream, and was drawn safely
across. A young squaw during the battle was standing in the grass a short distance from the American line, holding
her child - a little girl of four years - in her arms. In this position a ball struck the right arm of the child,
shattering the bone, and passed into the breast of the young mother, instantly killing her. She fell upon the child
and confined it to the ground till the Indians were driven from that part of the field. General Anderson of the
United States Army, hearing its cries, went to the spot, took it from under the dead body and carried it to the
surgeon to have its wound dressed. The arm was amputated, and during the operation the half-starved child did not
cry, but sat quietly eating a hard piece of biscuit. It was sent to Prairie du Chien, where it entirely recovered.
These and other well authenticated incidents of that battle were often related at Pike county firesides by Lieutenant
Seeley, Robert Goodin, Joseph Turnbaugh, Frederick Franklin and other Pike veterans of the Bad Axe.
Shaw, shortly after his interview with Black Hawk, witnessed another harrowing scene upon the wild Mississippi
shore where now stands Keokuk, wherein he secured a close-up of the great chief, Ke-o-kuck, in action, which is
described in the ensuing chapter, together with the last days of Shaw and the coming of the early Boones to Pike
county.