Frontier Isolation

[Marge Smith]

Yes, they had interior roads within the leadmine district. Yes, they are getting their goods from St. Louis via the River. There are accounts of driving animals up by way of the Galena-Peoria road even during the BHW.

But there was no escape route on which to send a family to safety during the BHW. Only the wealthy would get steamboat tickets. There was 200 miles of nothing between the lead mines and the "lower settlements".

The settlers banded together as they did at Apple River Fort. Three communities came together. On your 1829 map you'll find the first community of Craigsville or Craigs Mill which are all farmers. One man is killed by the Indians from that community.

The second community is Lewistown on your early maps which is along the Galena-Peoria road. They are mostly farming with a little mining on the side. A farmer is killed by the Indians from that community.

The third community is shown as Labeaume and St. Vrain on the map, a smelting establishment, which was a community with stables, houses, blacksmith shop. It would seem logical to use this cluster of buildings as a fort against Black Hawk. Forts were built at other smelting establishments in the mining district.

I can't imagine what was going thru their minds with two neighbors already killed by the Indians. Two more men would die at the fort. A fifth man was wounded at the fort and died in October.

After the war was over Jo Daviess County started building roads leading away from the county. It may have been because of increased emigration, but I bet one eye was on how to escape to the "settlements below".

I would be interested in the communities that came together at the forts in Wisconsin for mutual protection.

Marge

[Robert Braun]

Thanks for clarifying your use of "isolation" in terms of the Mineral District settlements and your statement--

The people here were isolated with the closest settlement of any size in Peoria. They had one bad road to Fort Clark (Peoria) or a boat on the Mississippi River to get to the "lower settlements" as they called them.

I am glad we agree that indeed Galena was a village of notable size by 1829, as was presumably Peoria, and that Chandler's map shows at least three roads or trails leading out of Jo Daviess County toward and crossing the Rock River.

You indicate that there were no escape routes from the Mineral District with the advent of the BHW, and in one respect, I agree. For those settlers who thought that "escape" southward was a reasonable alternative, there was little support for them until they reached Fort Clark or Peoria... as you have indicated.

I submit that for the smelters, diggers, and persons with a "vested interest" in the region, "escape" was not their plan. But I believe this was not because they were "isolated."

Some, like George Wallace Jones (the smelter operator at Sinsinawa Mound) and Frederick G. Hollman of Elk Grove, did indeed ship their families down-river to Ste. Genvieve (as did Jones) or St. Louis (as did Hollmann). How many others did is not known to me... however, this shows that the steamer option was available and was used by a few in the District. This activity in 1832 mirrored activity during the previous "Winnebago War."

Others, including Jones, Hollman and most others, risked losing their investments if they abandoned the region entirely. The same would be true for the lowliest lead digger. This was something Col. Dodge fully realized when, in his communications with Gen. Atkinson after the "massacre" at Old Man Creek, he indicated: " I will endeavor to Draw the settlements in immediately and if possible get the inhabitants to fort themselves the mounted men I may be able to bring to the field will act as an immediate cover to the settlements"

The forts of the western Michigan Territory essentially provided protection to population centers... not "communities" in the sense that Galena was a "community"-- with established trades, services, infrastructure, and more of the amenities of civilized society. Since the galena deposits were scattered, so too where people... and correspondingly the forts and strong-points in the region.

The general (and probably unintended) effect was to essentially "ring" the emerging settlement of Mineral Point was a number of forts-- Fort Jackson, a major post within the settlement, itself; Fort Union to the north; Fort Napolean to the west; Fort Defiance five miles south; and Mound Fort several miles east.

Other population centers like Casseville and Platteville themselves erected forts, to which diggers, farmers and their familes flocked from the surrounding area at night or in the event of an alarm.

Other settlements, like Gratiot's Grove and New Diggings reconstituted the old Winnebago War forts in their regions, and used them for defense. However, I am of the opinion that many of the forts, like Fort Hamilton and Jones' stone blockhouse at Sinsinawa Mound, were built to defend local smelting and mining operations... and the employees and persons living in the general vicinity. These folks lived, not in "communities" per se, but in groups of diggers and some farmers, guided by the outcroppings and leads of available mineral.

Like in Illinois, there was no attempt to construct a "Maginot Line" of forts within the district. Rather, locals constructed forts within a reasonable span of the local populace, in an attempt to defend local investment and a local presence.

Conversely, there seems little doubt that some smelters and diggers "evacuated" loved ones to Galena, and a few sent their families even further down the river. I'm sure a small portion of diggers left the region never to return. But the majority stayed---determined to defend what they had established. If we accept this interpretation, I would then conclude that escape per se was not foremost in their plans.

[Greg Carter]

Bob,

I am in agreement with you on this one. Much documentation suggests that while some settlers and lead diggers did leave or send their families along, most did not. I can recall several accounts of places where the nearby settlers flocked to the nearest fort or large settlement to avoid having to run far from their properties, belongings and such. I can't speak much for the MT because my knowledge is not top notch, but in the case of Illinois (kaintuck), there are several examples of people simply heading for the nearest fort or building one so they didn't have to go anywhere- Gum's Fort, Apple River Fort, Dixon's blockhouse/tavern, Fort Payne, Fort "Cribs" and "Fort Deposit" are several examples. In the settlement that is now Warsaw, IL, the populace rebuilt part of a War of 1812 fortification. Fur trader Stephen Mack writes to his sister in Detroit from Fort Dearborn and mentions that "people have come in from all over", but also that "business on the lake has not stopped", indicating that some people seemed to just keep right on doing their thing regardless of the hostiles roaming the area.

The "French Line" along the Illinois River was quite well protected, featuring a combination of large settlements or fortifications erected along the same line that LaSalle and Tonti envisioned about 100 years before (Pardon me for not exactly quoting the number of years at this time).

GMC