“Eldon, Iowa, July 15, 1881.
“Black Hawk was buried on the Northeast Quarter of Section Two, Township 70, Range 12, Davis County, Iowa, near the northeastern corner of the county, on the Des Moines River bottom, about ninety rods from where he lived at the time he died, and on the north side of the river. I have the ground where he lived for a dooryard, it being between my house and the river. The only mound over the grave was some puncheons split out and set over his grave and then sodded over with blue grass, making a ridge about four feet high. A flagstaff, some twenty feet high, was planted at his head, on which was a silk flag, which hung there until the wind wore it out. My house and his were only four rods apart when he died. He was sick only about fourteen days. He was buried right where he sat the year before when in council with the Iowa Indians, and was buried in a suit of military clothes, made to order, and given to him when in Washington City by Gen. Jackson, with hat, sword, gold epaulets, etc., etc.”
His body was placed on the surface of the ground in a sitting posture, with his head toward the southeast, the body supported in position by a wooden slab or puncheon. On his left side was placed a cane given him by Henry Clay, with his right hand resting on it. Three silver medals, the gifts of prominent persons in the east, hung upon his breast.[[283]] There were also placed in the grave two swords, a quantity of wampum, an extra pair of moccasins and other articles of Indian costume, with a supply of provisions sufficient to last him three days on his journey to the spirit land. Around the body and the articles buried with him two large blankets were closely wrapped. On his head was placed a military cap elaborately ornamented with feathers. Forked sticks were firmly driven at the head and foot of the grave and across these a pole was placed, extending over the body. Against this pole split puncheons were laid to a peak, the gables of the primitive vault being closed with boards and the whole then sodded over. Near by was a hewn post inscribed with Indian characters. Enclosing all was a strong circular picket fence ten or twelve feet high.
One morning about the 1st of July, 1839, Madam Black Hawk, bitterly weeping, called upon Mr. Jordan and informed him that the grave of her husband had been opened and rifled of everything within.[[284]] Mr. Jordan immediately instituted a search and traced the act to a Dr. Turner of Lexington, in the County of Van Buren, who had sent the body to St. Louis, where the bones were cleaned and then removed to Quincy, where they were articulated. Much contention as to the details of the body’s pilgrimage has existed, but the letter to be found on page 10 hereof, written at the time, should conclusively settle the matter.
At once Governor Lucas, then governor of the Territory of Iowa, learned of the location of the bones; he sent for and received them very soon thereafter, but when the sons of Black Hawk called upon the Governor and found them “in a good dry place,” they concluded it was best to allow them to remain in storage. Governor Lucas allowed them to remain in his office for a little while and then deposited them in the collections of the Burlington Geological and Historical Society, where they remained until the year 1855, at which time they were consumed by the fire which destroyed the building and all the society’s collections. Thus all that remained mortal of Black Hawk passed away in fire and smoke after the manner of his stormy life.
It was a spectacular finish and one Black Hawk might possibly have courted in his strenuous days had it been less ignoble; but ignoble it was and unworthy the man. To Madam Black Hawk and her children it was an act of inhumanity which can never be forgiven by civilization. If Black Hawk had faults, they were buried with his body, which by all rules of decency should have remained sacred.
When the Sac nation was again removed to its new reservation in Kansas, Madame Black Hawk with her family followed and there remained until the 29th of August, 1846, when she died at the fine old age of 85 years.