Twilight Of Empire - Part Six - Major John Garland

Twilight Of Empire by Allan W. Eckert basically ends with Major John Garland escorting Black Hawk and others to the East Coast, then back through the Midwest and eventually toFort Armstrong at Rock Island, Illinois, at the end of the Black Hawk War. [See my June 2009 blog about Garland and his family and its connection to Flint, Michigan].

Page 620: "Major Garland, leading the erstwhile prisoners, who had suddenly become tourist celebrities, took them for a visit of the Gosport Navy Yard at Norfolk, Virginia....". "...next morning embarked up the length of Chesapeake Bay to Baltimore on the steamboat Columbus."

Page 622: President Andrew Jackson told Black Hawk that..."Major Garland, who is with you, will conduct you through some of our towns. You will see the strength of the white people." "Major Garland then escorted Black Hawk's group to Philadelphia, including a visit to the Philadelphia Mint...".

Page 623 - A trip to Boston was cancelled, so "they started up the Hudson River in a steamboat, and along the way Major Garland pointed out to Blackhawk the United States Military Academy at West Point and explained what was done there." Blackhawk replied that "it surprises me that you have a place of national dance for your young men, as I did not think the whites understood our way of making braves," and that "we (the Indians) have a national dance to make our warriors--where the old warriors recount to their young men what they have done, to stimulate them to go and do likewise."

Page 625 - "A short stay was made in Detroit, but once again affairs got ugly when Black Hawk and the other five Indians of his party were hanged and burned in effigy in the streets."

Page 625: At Prairie du Chien Wabokieshiek and his adopted son were released to the custody of Joseph Street and "the remaining four were taken down the Mississippi River by Major Garland to Fort Armstrong on Rock Island."

In The Life and times of Stevens Thomson Mason, the boy governor of Michigan, was the following quote: "But the greatest event of the day came when at about three o'clock in the afternoon the steamship Superior arrived with the old warrior Black Hawk, his son, The Thunder, and a few members of his band under the escort of Major John Garland in whose suite was young Lieutenant Jefferson Davis."

Twilight of Empire - Part Five - A George Washington Connection?

My first blog post regarding Twilight Of Empire, a non-fiction book about the Black Hawk War by Allan W. Eckert, can be found here.

While researching General Alexander Posey, it turned out that Posey's father, Thomas, who died in 1818 in Shawneetown, Gallatin Co., Illinois, years before the start of the Black Hawk War, loomed large. General Thomas Posey, Alexander's father was also the father-in-law of Joseph M. Street, a Winnebago Indian agent in the midst of the Black Hawk War.

Page 95: "His (Nicholas Boilvin's) place as Indian agent at Fort Crawford was filled by the appointment of Joseph Street, a general in the Illinois Militia." [Twilight Of Empire]

Black Hawk was seized on August 25, 1832, and delivered to General Street, which signaled the end of the Black Hawk War.

It was in this article, in the Milwaukee Sentinel, dated May 19, 1907, entitled "Romantic career was Gen. Street's," where I first read that General Joseph Street's father-in-law, Thomas Posey, was considered by many to be George Washington's natural son! Additional information about a possible familial connection between Posey and Washington can be found here, here and here.

Another surprise ending while researching.

Twilight Of Empire by Allan W. Eckert - Part Four - Prophetstown

We were recently camped near Prophetstown, a deserted town burned by the company of Abraham Lincoln during the Black Hawk War (see more about Abraham Lincoln's experience here):


I wanted to read Twilight of Empire by Allan W. Eckert while we were staying in the area where events in that book took place (and I did).

Twilight Of Empire - Part Three - The Posey Connection

My first blog post regarding Twilight Of Empire, a non-fiction book about the Blackhawk War by Allan W. Eckert, can be found here.

Page 486 in the book stated, "The generals of the first, second, and third brigades were, respectively, Alexander Posey, Milton K. Alexander and, --once again in a commanding role--James D. Henry."

Page 487 - "Traveling with Posey's brigade was the independent company of Captain Jacob M. Early, in which Abraham Lincoln had just enlisted as a private--his third enlistment of this campaign--following his discharge after the twenty day enlistment."

Page 501 - "To General Posey, presently at Fort Hamilton [on 29 June 1832], he [General Henry Atkinson] sent an order to attach his brigade to Colonel Dodge's troops and rendezvous with him at Lake Koshkonong."

The name Alexander Posey, a general in the Blackhawk War, sounded familiar to me; and indeed, it was. Alexander Posey was the grantee on Deed C-362 where my ancestor, William Roark, was the grantor in Gallatin County, Illinois, in 1830 (see my "In Deeds" blog post).

...Consideration of sum of two dollars....as also for medical services by A. Posey of second part to my wife Charlott....being in value twenty-eight dollars receipt already acknowledged...a parcel of ground containing one quarter of an acre...town plat of Shawneetown, Gallatin County, Illinois, ...Lot Number 487...granted to said William Roark by patent from the United States bearing date of the 10th of November 1830.....
Signed: William Roark

Alexander Posey was the son of Thomas Posey and the brother-in-law of Joseph Street. Street, a Winnebago Indian agent, was also involved in the Blackhawk War.

General Alexander Posey, Joseph Street and my ancestor, William Roark, all lived in Gallatin County, Illinois, at one time. To find out who else, in addition to Gen. Posey, enlisted to serve in the Blackhawk War from Gallatin Co., search the Illinois SOS site here.

Twilight Of Empire - Captive Hall Girls - Part Two

Twilight Of Empire (Narratives Of America - Book VI), by Allan W. Eckert, included the capture of sisters Sylvia and Rachel Hall at the Indian Creek Massacre in May of 1832 in LaSalle County, Illinois (see Blog Post Part One). As this reference stated, "...Stillman's defeat by Blackhawk many private quarrels between Indians and whites provided the pretext to settling scores, including the one between Keewassee and William Davis." The Hall family and others stayed in the Davis Settlement in a futile attempt to find a safe place against frontier violence.

Sylvia & Rachel Hall were captured by Mike Girty's band of Pottawatomi [see the Mike Girty at Wikipedia]. The girls were ransomed and released in June of 1832. Both married and lived long lives.

Rachel Hall married William Munson and had the following children:

Amanda Miranda Munson who married Samuel Dunavan

Elliott Munson

Irena Priscilla Munson m. George Vance

Melissa Fidelia Munson who married George Debold Shaver

Phoebe Matilda Munson married John F. Reed
The daughter of John & Phoebe (Munson) Reed, Winifred, married Mountain Kennesaw Landis (see his entry at FindAGrave)
Frances, daughter of John & Phoebe (Munson) Reed married James H. Eckels, Comptroller of Treasury under President Grover Cleveland (see Wikipedia entry for Mr. Eckels here)

William Marcy Munson m. Dora E. Shaver

Infant

Lewis Cass m. Emma Belle Mallay

Sylvia Hall married Reverend William Stribling Horn in 1833 in Putnam County, Illinois. The girls were brought to Rock County, Wisconsin in 1832 per the History of Rock County found here. (The FindAGrave entry for Sylvia (Hall) Horn).

Charles Martin Scanlan, author of Indian Creek Massacre and Captivity of the Hall Girls..., written in 1915, was given this account by descendants of the Hall girls, including Mrs. A. Miranda Dunavan, daughter of Rachel (Hall) Munson, and Miss Sylvia E. Horn of Lincoln, Nebraska, Mr. C.L. Horn of Mackinaw, Illinois, grandchildren of Sylvia (Hall) Horn.

Twilight of Empire by Allan W. Eckert - Part One

Twilight of Empire by Allan W. Eckert featured events on the Illinois frontier that resulted in the Blackhawk War. Careers were bolstered (including A. Lincoln's) on one side. On the other side, Blackhawk's "British-backed" splinter group of the Sac Tribe was decimated. They were unwilling to remain west of the Mississippi River after tribal land east of the Mississippi had been ceded in various treaties.

Much of the war is spent chasing the elusive Blackhawk and keeping others from joining him. Many of the Indians were firmly in the American camp and/or enemies of the Sacs and were not apt to join Blackhawk. Some of the Indians were sympathetic to Blackhawk; the Indian agents worked to keep them out of the war. The whereabouts of Blackhawk or those sympathetic to him were often known by evidence of massacred settlers on the Illinois frontier.

Chronology of the Blackhawk War can be found here.

One of my families, the Trousdales, were in Illinois early so it was not surprising to find a Trousdale or two (Abner & James Trousdale) in the rosters of those who fought in the Blackhawk War.

The Patillos were another one of my early Illinois families. Alexander T. Sullenger (AKA Alexander T. Patillo), who was the half brother of my Felix Grundy Patillo, participated in the Blackhawk War. Another Patillo, Nathan, was listed as "on furlough."

This database provided by the Illinois Secretary of State can be searched for veterans of the Blackhawk War.

From The Farm And Back - The Family of Dr. Bertha Van Hoosen

Petticoat Surgeon by Bertha Van Hoosen included details of pioneer life in Oakland County, Michigan, where her ancestors, including Lemuel Taylor, his wife, Sarah (Boardman), and other family members settled. See the biography of Lemuel Taylor here. Lemuel & Sarah (Boardman) Taylor are mentioned here on Page 39.

[Click on "Petticoat Surgeon" above to read the book online.]

Bertha Van Hoosen was born on 26 March 1863 at Stony Creek, MI at the "Van Hoosen" farm.
She was the daughter of Jacob & Sarah (Taylor) Van Hoosen and the granddaughter of Elisha & Mary (Miner) Taylor.

A biography of Lemuel Taylor, brother of Sarah (Taylor) Van Hoosen, was online here:

Lemuel Taylor, a prominent citizen of the town of Jordan, was born in the State of New York, on the 26th of March, 1823. Shortly after his birth his parents moved to Oakland Co., Mich., where he remained till 1843, when he removed to Janesville [WI]. He remained at the latter place until he came to this county. He learned the trade of millwright in Michigan. He was a son of Elisha and Mary (Miner) Taylor, both of whom are buried in Michigan. He owns 365 acres on section 7, besides other lands in the county. He rents his land out, as his attention is kept on his inventions. He is an inventor, having invented many useful articles. He has on hand, at present, a portable automatic gate and portable fence. He commenced life with limited means, and has arose to affluence only by hard labor and economy. He was married Nov. 28, 1859, to Mary E. Stevens, of Franklin Co., Maine. They have seven children — Mary M., married to William Nelson; Lee, Jane, Ellen, Annie, Julia C. and Alice L., who is buried in the cemetery near Jordan Center. Mrs. Taylor is a member of the Free Will Baptist Church. Mr. Taylor is a republican politically.

Here is the Van Hoosen family in 1880:

1880 Census MI Oakland Co., Avon
Joshua VANHUSEN Self M W 50 QUEBEC Farmer NY VT
Sarah VANHUSEN Wife M W 49 MI Keeping House NY NY
Alice VANHUSEN Dau S W 25 MI At School QUE MI
Bertha VANHUSEN Dau S W 17 MI At School QUE MI

An excerpt from Petticoat Surgeon:

She [Sarah (Taylor) Van Hoosen] had been confined to her bed only two weeks when, as Father had done twenty-five years before, she fell into coma, and in a few days ceased her efforts to breathe. We took her from our Chicago home back to the farmhouse in Stony Creek, that had been her home since 1830. On the 27th of June, 1921, the ninety-eight June of the Taylor migration, the village flag flew at half-mast.... .

A chapter in the book profiled the incarceration of her friend, Dr. Lindsay Wyncoop, for the murder of her (Mrs. Wyncoop's) daughter-in-law. Drama found in an unexpected place (Petticoat Surgeon).

After a long and varied life, Bertha Van Hoosen died in 1952 and is buried at the Stony Creek Cemetery.

Bertha's niece, Sarah Van Hoosen Jones, took over the family farm at Stony Creek where she (Sarah) was buried in 1972. Sarah was the daughter of Joseph C. and Alice (Van Hoosen) Jones.

From the Michigan Archives site the following quote was found:

Her [Sarah Van Hoosen Jones] 1921 graduation heralded another event of even greater portent. On her deathbed Sarah's ninety-year-old grandmother gave her determined granddaughter the deed to the farm. "There upon, with a trembling of the lips she thrust into my outstretched hand the deed to the farm. The 'girls' had not sold the farm but rather, together with their mother, had handed it down to the fifth generation." And after an eventful trip to China, Dr. Sarah Van Hoosen Jones returned to her ancestral home—the Van Hoosen Farm—to fulfill the desire of a lifetime. For all her deeply rooted feelings for the acres of Stony Creek, she was no impractical dreamer: "I am working for perfection through efficiency," she said, and had cultivated a magnificent background for such a venture.

Not only does Petticoat Surgeon provide "color" for the Oakland County, Michigan, area, it is also the story of strong women, one of whom (Bertha) became a medical doctor decades before women were allowed to vote.