Mathias Trumbo was a Scotchman. He came direct from Scotland. He was married
at the age of twenty-three. The Indians were angry at the white people at the
time of my story, so he went to the fort at Ottawa for protection.
He
soon grew tired of fort life, so he took his long rifle and started out to find
a home for his wife, children and himself.
Mathias forded the Fox river
at Dayton and went up the east side until he came to the second stream on that
side. He followed this stream to its head. The stream started at a spring. He
drank from the spring and found it to be clean and cool. He looked around the
spring and saw tracks of game. Then looking out from the spring he saw a large
prairie covered with all kinds of wild flowers. He decided this would be a good
place for his cabin. For here was plenty of cold, pure water, plenty of game,
enough ground for what little farming he wanted to do. He intended to make his
living by hunting and trapping. He took another drink of the cool water and
started back to the fort. On the way he shot a deer, which he hung up in a tree
so that the wolves could not get it.
The next morning he took his broad
ax and went back to the place selected for his home. He made just a common cabin
with only one room, two beds, one on legs and another on the floor in a corner,
a large fireplace, two chairs and a table. In the spring another cabin took the
place of this one.
There were a lot of Indians around in the woods. At
one time five Indians came to the cabin, the woman was much frightened for she
was all alone. Her husband had been away all day in the woods hunting. The
redmen walked silently to the door of the cabin. The chief knocked at the door
and waited till it was opened by the woman. The chief made signs that they were
hungry and wanted something to eat. The woman had a cake and some meat on the
table. She took them out of the room and placed them on a stump just outside of
the cabin. The Indians squatted around the stump and began to eat. They used
their fingers to tear the meat apart.
When they had eaten all of the
meat and cake, the chief gave a shrill whistle with his fingers. Out of the
woods came two more Indians. They looked at the crumbs and bones on the stump
with greedy eyes. The woman saw how hungry they were so she went back into the
cabin and got some more meat. She had no cake left. The two Indians made short
work of it.
The chief took from the bags that the other Indians had
brought, two beaver skins. He laid them on the stump to pay for the food the
woman gave them. The two Indians picked up the bags and all walked silently away
into the forest.
When the Indians were gone she picked up the two skins
and saw that they were in the best of shape.
One time five families were
moving to another part of the country when they lost one of the little girls.
They were at the fort at Ottawa when they missed her. Mathias and two more men
started out to hunt her. When they came to the place where the people had moved
from they found only ashes and moccasin tracks of Indians. Then they knew that
the Indians had got the little girl. They found the Indians on a small creek
about one-half mile north of the place where the Grove schoolhouse now stands.
The three men were captured before they could get away. They tied all three of
them up till night. The first man to be cut loose started fighting as soon as
the last rope fell from his body. All the Indians fell upon him with whoops of
joy, for they wanted action. The man was killed, but he left some battered
Indians behind him. One Indian's nose was broken and blood was streaming from
it. Another had an eye that was turning to a pretty black.
The second
man was hanged. When it came Mathias' time one Indian said it would be a good
night for a fire. At once all the Indians began to gather wood for a fire. When
they had the fire started they untied Mathias. As soon as he was free he jerked
loose from his captors and jumped into the creek. He swam along under the water
and came up under the bank for air. After he had gone far enough he got out of
the creek and went back to the fort. The little girl was returned to her parents
by the Indians.
Mathias' children grew up and married. Mathias lived to
be ninety years of age.
Today the third generation occupy the land that
their forefathers fought for and tamed. His grandson sold the hilly part of the
farm because it is much easier to make a living on the fertile plains.
One of the men who occupy the land is Franklin Trumbo. He has some of the old
things his great-grandfather had, such as a candle maker, yoke for oxen, and an
old flute.
There is a large rock about one-half mile back from his house
in his pasture. On this rock is carved the date and who settled the land.
The spring that Mathias found is still running. It is over one hundred years
old. It has cut a deep ditch, with three falls of about ten feet high. One of
the largest falls fell a year ago. The rock was about one foot thick and twenty
feet wide.
Extracted 08 Nov 2018 by Norma Hass from Stories of Pioneer Days in La Salle County, Illinois, by Grammar Grade Pupils, published in 1932, page 36.
| Lee | DeKalb | Kane |
| Bureau |
 |
Kendall |
| Putnam | Grundy | |
| Marshall | Woodford | Livingston |
