CAPT. JOSEPH NAPER.
REV. STEPHEN R. BEGGS.
FORT DEARBORN.
In what is now Will County, Plainfield was the designated refuge, and to the little fortification, which was built of logs and fence rails, around the log cabin of Rev. S.R. Beggs, the name of Fort Beggs was given. It was not much of a fortification, but it served the purposes of protection to the people, who placed themselves under orders of Chester Smith as captain until Captain Naper called with his little company, after the Indian Creek murders, and escorted the entire garrison to Chicago for better protection. They went none too soon, for the entire country along the Illinois, Fox, DuPage and Auxplaines (Desplaines) was very soon overrun with murderous bands of Indians, invariably led by prominent Sacs. As their actions became more and more annoying and then distressing, men from Chicago and vicinity, under Capt. James Walker, constituted themselves a band of rangers, doing yeoman service, ranging through to Ottawa as an independent company, until placed under Major Buckmaster when he later came to take charge of the DuPage River district, and under whom the Indians were soon dispersed.
The murder at this time of Rev. Adam Payne, a Dunkard preacher, was as pitiful as it was atrocious. He was a man found at all times sacrificing his personal comforts and his substance to alleviate the distresses and discomforts of his fellowman, and particularly the Indian. His ministrations to their needs had been rewarded by professions of religion from numbers, and among the Pottowatomies he was venerated to the last degree. His family had been stopping at Hollenback’s Grove, where he expected to find them at or near the home of Mr. Cummings, his stepson.[[143]]