In the spring of the year 1830 William Davis had made a claim on “Big Indian Creek,” erecting a cabin, blacksmith shop (being a blacksmith by trade), and later a mill. When Black Hawk invaded the state in 1832, Davis was finishing a dam for the purpose of furnishing power to run the mill, preventing thereby the running upstream of the fish, as was claimed by the Indians. A numerous band of Pottowatomies, under their chief, Meau-eus, lived in their village on this creek, six miles above the dam, subsisting largely on the fish caught in that little stream. Meau-eus, having been always a fine hater of the whites, grew excessively angry at this obstruction, and in an attempt to destroy it resistance followed, in which the Indians claimed one of the band was unmercifully flogged by Davis, a man of powerful physique. For final adjustment, the controversy was carried before Shabbona, who, in conjunction with Wau-ban-se, concluded an arrangement whereby the Indians were persuaded for the future to fish below the dam, which involved but little additional labor and which they did for a time with apparent good will, but beneath the surface a hatred lodged, only to be spent when, through the assistance of Black Hawk’s braves, the settlement perished.
John and J.H. Henderson, Allen Howard, William Pettigrew, William Hall and others, with their families, had from time to time settled near the place, until the settlement had grown to be one of the most promising in northern Illinois.
After Black Hawk passed Dixon’s Ferry, it was not long before his emissaries discovered the situation and made the best of it by recruiting to his ranks the entire band, the very thing the Governor attempted to prevent when he sent out his express from Dixon’s. The Indians at once ceased to fish, a circumstance which Davis and J.H. Henderson proceeded to investigate by visiting the village. They found it abandoned, as they had feared, as was that of Wau-ban-se, who, by the advice of Shabbona, had taken his men to the village of the latter after both had sent their women and children to Ottawa for protection.
Stillman’s defeat followed, and then came Shabbona’s famous ride to warn the settlements of the dangers which he too well realized were in store for the Davis settlement. Never lived there a more devoted and upright Indian than Shabbona! From the day he left the fortunes of Tecumseh he neglected no opportunity to manifest his friendship for the whites, and never was a more perilous ride projected in a frontier country than the one he took with his son, Pype-gee, and his nephew, Pypes, that memorable day down the Fox River Valley, on to Holderman’s settlement, and, separating, thence on to Bureau Creek, passing through the Indian Creek settlement on the route, missing none in all that vast territory.
Howard and the two Hendersons took their families to Ottawa and then returned to work their farms. Pettigrew likewise took his wife and two children to the same place, but finding no trouble in sight at the end of a few days, he brought them all back again, reaching Davis’ house at noon of the day of the massacre. Robert Norris and Henry George, young men from the neighboring settlements, were also at the Davis house, so on that particular day Davis naturally thought their numbers sufficient to resist any attack; in fact, he had urged against any member of the settlement removing to Ottawa for protection.
Pypes, or Pipe, as he was sometimes called, carried his messages safely on down as far as Rochelle’s village, below the Illinois River, where he tarried, as we are told, to urge his suit with a maid of great beauty at that village. Returning home by way of the Indian Creek settlement, he discovered, toward dark of the 19th, a large band of Indians entering the timber, which fact he reported to Shabbona so soon as he reached the latter’s village, about midnight.[[134]]
Once more the grand old chief mounted his pony and rode out into the night, as he had before done so many times, to spread a warning. By sunrise, every person in the settlement had again been notified and given a chance to flee to Ottawa, but Davis, again protesting, prevented.
As Shabbona subsequently told the story, these Indians camped near the head of the timber on the creek, while reconnoitering parties surveyed and learned the exact location and pursuit of each settler and determined on a propitious moment for the assault. These did their work thoroughly, leaving no possibility for escape by any number of the intended victims. About 4 o’clock of May 20th the scattered settlers were suddenly confronted by seventy Indians, led there by two Pottowatomies named To-qua-mee and Co-mee, all of whom had so adroitly covered their movements as to be able to reach the very dooryards before discovery. The barking of a dog attracted the attention of Mrs. Davis, who exclaimed, on looking out the door: “My God! Here they are now.”
Mr. Pettigrew attempted to barricade the door, but was shot down amidst shrieks and whoops, signals for the slaughter which followed. The men at the blacksmith shop were so completely surprised that no opportunity for defense was offered. Hall was instantly dispatched. Norris attempted resistance, but his gun was seized and in another instant he, too, was dead. Davis, the strongest of the party, fought desperately by clubbing his rifle, but to no purpose against such frightful odds, for no sooner would he dispose of one antagonist than others would take his place with added ferocity, for Davis was the man they most of all hated and feared, and well he earned the distinction of being a fighter on that dreadful day. The ground about his dead body was torn and bloody, indicating a conflict second only to the hand-to-hand contest of gallant Captain Adams at Stillman’s defeat. The brains of children were dashed out against a stump; the women were butchered, and, after the most revolting mutilations, their bodies were hanged, heads downward, to neighboring trees.[[135]] Young William Davis and John W., a son of William Hall, made their escape after desperate chances. Henry George, in attempting to escape, jumped into the mill pond, but a bullet quickly disposed of him. Spears, knives, tomahawks and rifles performed their bloody and deadly offices, and the fiends afterward confessed they relished the sight because the women squawked like ducks as the steel penetrated their flesh. Mrs. Davis, in her fright, threw both arms about Rachel Hall, and when shot down the muzzle of the rifle had been so close as to burn the flesh to a blister. Aside from the few who escaped, but two, Sylvia and Rachel Hall, aged, respectively, seventeen and fifteen years, were spared, whether from a sentimental demand made by the two Indians, To-qua-mee and Co-mee, before consenting to act as guides, or for the purpose of ransom, cannot be definitely determined, but from subsequent developments it is probable that both reasons were factors in their preservation.
These two Indians, who subsequently confessed their part in the affair to Louis Ouilmette, after their acquittal, insisted that it was agreed the two young ladies should be spared because of the infatuation of those young red men for them. They had been frequent visitors at the Hall home, and endeavored, after the fashion of the Indian, to purchase the girls from Mr. Hall.