A NEW SALEM CENTRE TABLE.
This table is now owned by W. C. Green of Talula, Illinois. Originally it was part of the furniture of the cabin of Bowling Green, near New Salem.
A CLARY’S GROVE LOG CABIN.—NOW FIRST PUBLISHED.
From a water-color by Miss Etta Ackermann, Springfield, Illinois. “Clary’s Grove” was the name of a settlement five miles southwest of New Salem, deriving its name from a grove on the land of the Clarys. It was the headquarters of a daring and reckless set of young men living in the neighborhood and known as the “Clary’s Grove Boys.” This cabin was the residence of George Davis, one of the “Clary’s Grove Boys,” and grandfather of Miss Ackermann. It was built in 1824, seventy-one years ago, and is the only one left of the cluster of cabins which constituted the little community.
CHAPTER XI.
OUTBREAK OF SACS AND FOXES.—LINCOLN VOLUNTEERS AND IS MADE A CAPTAIN.—INCIDENTS OF HIS SERVICE AS CAPTAIN.—STILLMAN’S DEFEAT.
One morning in April a messenger from the governor of the State rode into New Salem, scattering circulars. These circulars contained an address from Governor Reynolds to the militia of the northwest section of the State, announcing that the British band of Sacs and other hostile Indians, headed by Black Hawk, had invaded the Rock River country, to the great terror of the frontier inhabitants; and calling upon the citizens who were willing to aid in repelling them, to rendezvous at Beardstown within a week.
NANCY GREEN.
Nancy Green was the wife of “Squire” Bowling Green. Her maiden name was Nancy Potter. She was born in North Carolina in 1797, and married Bowling Green in 1818. She removed with him to New Salem in 1820, and lived in that vicinity until her death, in 1864. Lincoln was a constant visitor in Nancy Green’s home.
The name of Black Hawk was familiar to the people of Illinois. He was an old enemy of the settlers, and had been a tried friend of the British. The land his people had once owned in the northwest of the present State of Illinois had been sold in 1804 to the government of the United States, but with the provision that the Indians should hunt and raise corn there until it was surveyed and sold to settlers. Long before the land was surveyed, however, squatters had invaded the country, and tried to force the Indians west of the Mississippi. Particularly envious were these whites of the lands at the mouth of the Rock River, where the ancient village and burial place of the Sacs stood, and where they came each year to raise corn. Black Hawk had resisted their encroachments, and many violent acts had been committed on both sides.
Finally, however, the squatters, in spite of the fact that the line of settlement was still fifty miles away, succeeded in evading the real meaning of the treaty and in securing a survey of the desired land at the mouth of the river. Black Hawk, exasperated and broken-hearted at seeing his village violated, persuaded himself that the village had never been sold—indeed, that land could not be sold.