Late in the afternoon of the 20th, while Capt. George McFadden, Wilbur Walker and others who had been to ask Governor Reynolds and General Atkinson for the four companies ordered by them to go under Colonel Johnson were passing this point, some two miles distant, on their return trip, the shots of that frightful massacre were heard, but in their haste to reach their own settlements they did not pause to investigate the cause.
The following day the company of Capt. Joseph Naper, from Chicago, which had been ranging the country, reached the scene and buried all the dead except little Jimmie Davis, a lad of seven years, who had been spared at first and taken along, but who, being unable to keep the pace demanded, was shot a short distance out. The scene was awful, but the lad showed a spirit of fortitude attained by none other in this war of brutal slaughter. The two Indians who had him in charge held him between them, one by each hand, while another shot him down in cold blood, and then, before life was extinct, his scalp was lifted and his body left a prey for wolves or carrion birds. The little fellow blanched like marble, but received the fatal shot without a quaver. Later his body was fortunately discovered and buried with the others.
To-qua-mee and Co-mee, who were indicted for complicity in the murders, were brought to bar for the crime, but by reason of the uncertainty of the times and judges to try them, the first term of court passed with nothing done except to admit the culprits to bail on the bond of Shab-bo-na, Shem-e-non, Snock-wine, Sha-a-toe, Mee-au-mese and Sash-au-quash, chiefs and head men of the Pottowatomie nation. Before the next term of court could be held the tribe had been removed west of the Mississippi, whither went the two defendants. When needed for trial they were sought by Sheriff George E. Walker, who alone journeyed into the Indian country. He gathered together the several chiefs, according to custom, who decided the two must return, which they did, with no effort or inclination to escape. This conduct, together with the lavish use of paint, rendered recognition almost impossible by the Hall girls, who were the chief witnesses for the State, and procured their acquittal by the jury.[[136]]
A deep scar ran across the face of To-qua-mee, by which the Hall girls easily recognized him at the murder of their parents, and by which they could easily have recognized him on his trial, but, thanks to the ingenuity of counsel, who had him so bedaub his face with paint, recognition was all but impossible. A little later, when he bathed in the Illinois River with his friends, the imposture was discovered and he was forced to flee for his life to escape the wrath of the settlers.
CAPT. ROBERT BARNES.
CAPT. WILLIAM HAWS.
