St. Vrain massacre
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The St. Vrain massacre (although not a massacre by the correct definition of the word) was an event during the Black Hawk War that occurred near present-day Pearl City, Illinois in Kellogg's Grove on May 24, 1832. The massacre was most likely perpetrated by Ho-Chunk warriors who were unaffiliated with Black Hawk's band of warriors. It is also unlikely that the group of Ho-Chunk had the sanction of their nation. The massacre left United States Indian Agent Felix St. Vrain and three of his companions dead. Some accounts indicated that St. Vrain's body was subjected to postmortem mutilation.
St. Vrain and his party were attacked while en route from Dixon's Ferry, Illinois (now Dixon) to Galena, Illinois. He had been ordered by General Henry Atkinson to deliver dispatches to Fort Armstrong. The group was attacked after they had buried the body of the victim of another Native American attack near Buffalo Grove. Colonel Henry Dodge and a detachment of his men interred the remains of St. Vrain and his deceased companions in the days following the massacre.
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[edit] Prelude
United States Indian Agent Felix St. Vrain was traveling with several companions which included, John Fowler, William Hale, and Aaron Hawley. Those men, along with St. Vrain, were all reportedly killed in the attack; also traveling with St. Vrain was Thomas Kenney, Aquilla Floyd and Alexander Higginbotham.
The Native Americans that attacked the group were not part of Black Hawk's band of warriors but they were en route to join that group when the massacre occurred.[1] Older histories described the group as a band of Sac warriors while modern sources indicate that the band were associated with the Ho-Chunk nation.[1][2] Black Hawk asserted that the group was Ho-Chunk and unaffiliated with his band in his autobiography.[1]
In fact, most Ho-Chunk sided with the United States during the Black Hawk War.[1] The warriors that attacked St. Vrain's party acted with no authority or oversight from the Ho-Chunk nation.[1] As the war began to be defined along racial terms most white settlers in the region did not notice the distinction.[1] This led to unwarranted fear of all Native Americans in the area, even those friendly to the settlers' cause.[1] One example of this appeared in an article published in the New Galenian on May 30, 1832. While the article described the events of the massacre it also went on to associate the murders of St. Vrain and his companions with the Sauk and Fox of Keokuk's band.[1]
Keokuk and his band were not near the scene when the murders occurred and had actually volunteered to assist white settlers against Black Hawk and his band of warriors.[1]
[edit] Massacre
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St. Vrain
Michigan Territory (Wisconsin)
Illinois
Unorganized
Territory (Iowa)  |
Map of Black Hawk War sites Battle (with name)  Fort / settlement  Native villageSymbols are wikilinked to article |
The St. Vrain massacre occurred on May 24, 1832 near present-day Pearl City, Illinois, in an area known as Kellogg's Grove. Felix St. Vrain, a U.S. Indian Agent to the Sauk and Fox tribes, was in Dixon's Ferry, Illinois, under the command of General Henry Atkinson at the time of the massacre. He came to join the group that was eventually attacked by Ho-Chunk warriors by happenstance.
The group St. Vrain eventually joined, which included Aaron Hawley, John Fowler, Thomas Kenney and Alexander Higginbotham who had been in Sangamon County, Illinois purchasing cattle when word of the trouble with Black Hawk's band reached them. They immediately set out to return to northern Illinois to protect their homes. On May 22, 1832 the group left Dixon's Ferry for Galena, Illinois; they traveled as far as Buffalo Grove. At Buffalo Grove the party discovered the body of William Durley, the only victim of the Buffalo Grove massacre. The group immediately returned to Dixon's Ferry to report their find and remained in the town overnight.[2]
General Atkinson returned to Dixon's Ferry on May 23 with dispatches destined for Fort Armstrong in hand. Atkinson ordered St. Vrain to travel to Galena with the Hawley party and deliver the dispatches down the Mississippi River from Galena to the fort.[2] The party traveled north from Dixon's Ferry and back to Buffalo Grove where they found and interred the remains of Durley.[1][2] The group traveled an additional ten miles toward Fort Hamilton before settling in and camping for the night.[2]
The next morning, May 24, the party set out once again but stopped for breakfast after about three miles of progress. After the group finished eating, a band of about 30 native warriors approached the men. St. Vrain and his party retreated but as they did, four of them were shot.[1] One account of the massacre, from Gen. George W. Jones who was St. Vrain's brother-in-law as well as the man who identified the body, noted that in the immediate aftermath the band of native warriors scalped all of the dead men, cut off the hands, head and feet of St. Vrain and removed his heart.[2] They then reportedly passed around pieces of his heart for the braves to eat.[2][4] At least one source indicated that this mutilation began before St. Vrain was dead.[4]
However, three of the men managed to evade capture. They traveled, eluding the warriors, and arrived safely in Galena, Illinois three days later.[1] It is also said that Aaron Hawley was initially able to retreat from the scene but it is conjectured that he too was later killed by the native band as they pursued the other escapees.[2]
[edit] 'The Little Bear' incident
In Frank Stevens' 1903 history of the war, The Black Hawk War, it is stated that the band of Natives were Sauk and led by The Little Bear, a chief who had purportedly adopted Felix St. Vrain as a "brother." Upon noting The Little Bear's presence, St. Vrain reportedly assured his companions that there was nothing to fear but the warriors attacked the group anyway.[2] The same assertions were put forward in the 1887 book by Nehemiah Matson, Memories of Shaubena; Matson's narrative described St. Vrain pleading for his life with The Little Bear in detail.[4]
The entire premise that The Little Bear had adopted Felix St. Vrain is summarily disregarded in another 1887 history, by Perry A. Armstrong. Armstrong asserted that The Little Bear had never existed as a Sauk or Fox chief and the idea that a Sauk chief would have adopted St. Vrain as a brother was preposterous.[5] Matson, Stevens and John H. Kinzie, whom Armstrong's information was in part based on, all cited the St. Vrain assailants as Sac, when in fact they were more likely Ho-Chunk.[1][4][2][5]
[edit] Aftermath
According to the New Galenian the three men who evaded the band that attacked the St. Vrain party, Floyd, Higgenbotham and Kenney, arrived in Galena at 7 a.m. on May 26, 1832. They provided their own description of events which the newspaper account detailed.[3] However, at least one source indicated that Floyd was a victim of the massacre and his remains are interred in the cemetery with the other victims of the massacre at a public park within Kellogg's Grove near present-day Kent, Illinois.[6]
Following the massacre a detachment led by Colonel Henry Dodge buried the bodies of St. Vrain and some of the other victims of the massacre.[1] Dodge and his men recovered the remains of St. Vrain, Hale and Fowler, the body of Aaron Hawley was never recovered, nor was he ever heard from again.[7]
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n "The Killing of Felix St. Vrain", Historic Diaries: Black Hawk War, Wisconsin Historical Society. Retrieved 28 July 2007.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Stevens, Frank E. The Black Hawk War, Frank E. Stevens 1903, pp. 169–171. Available online at Northern Illinois University Libraries Digitization Project.
- ^ a b "War News From Galena", Historic Diaries: Black Hawk War, Wisconsin State Historical Society. Published in: New Galenian, 30 May 1832; and Whitney, Ellen M., ed. The Black Hawk War, 1831-1832. (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Society, 1970), p.488. Retrieved 28 July 2007.
- ^ a b c d Matson, Nehemiah. Memories of Shaubena: With Incidents Relating to the Early Settlement of the West, (Google Books), D.B. Cooke & Co., 1887, pp. 207–210. Retrieved 31 July 2007.
- ^ a b Armstrong, Perry A. The Sauks and the Black Hawk War, (Google Books), H.W. Rokker, 1887, pp. 415-416. Retrieved 31 July 2007.
- ^ Dameier, Evelyn. "Kellogg's Grove", (PDF), National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form, 18 January 1978, HAARGIS Database, Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. Retrieved 26 July 2007.
- ^ Memoir of Thomas Pendleton Burnett "Wisconsin Historical Collections, Volume II", 1856, Wisconsin State Historical Society, pp. 340–341.
