Shabbona, who was the son of a chief, had a life filled with sorrow and
disappointment in trying to be friendly to the white man and at the same time
leading the Indians in the right way. His father was an Ottawa war chief, and
Shabbona married the daughter of the Pottowatomie chief.
He was born in
1775 or 1776, on the Kankakee river, near where Joliet is now. When still a boy
he moved to Canada. He returned later to the Kankakee river. He lived to be 84
years old.
Shabbona did good throughout his whole life. He helped both
Indians and white men. He had a hard time coaxing the Indians not to start war
with the settlers.
During the War of 1812 he joined the British against
the Americans, but only because he was told that all of the other Indians along
the river had joined also. This was not the truth, out Shabbona didn't know it.
Black Hawk stopped fighting because he did no1 like to fight where there was a
great a chance of getting killed.
The Indian boundary line marked where
La Salle county was, west of the Illinois river to the Mississippi, from the
mouth of the Rock river to the Illinois, also a tract of land southwest of
Chicago.
A man named John Kinzie, who was a trader, had a store at
Chicago. He was saved by Shabbona when he was taking goods to his store. While
crossing the rapids at Starved Rock, a half-breed named George Forque, inquired
where they were going and what they had with them. He gave the information to
Mason and ten other Indians as murderous as Mason. Their plan was to steal the
goods after attacking and killing the men.
Forque wanted to steal the
goods but he opposed the murdering part. He rode, to Shabbona on his pony and
told him the plans. Shabbona waited with his Indians behind trees until Mason
with his Indians arrived. He frightened them and they went back. He left some
Indians to guard them while Kinzie was in Chicago. Kinzie knew nothing about
this, but after he was dead, Shabbona told his son about it.
Black Hawk
tried to get the Indians to drive the white settlers out of the country, but
Shabbona knew it was useless. Black Hawk went from village to village trying to
get a large band of Indians to help him.
Shabbona went from village to
village, trying to get them to see how useless it was. Black Hawk gained nothing
by trying to get Shabbona into the war.
Shabbona was given land by the
government in DeKalb county on which he made his home. When his tribe was sent
across the Mississippi he sold all of his land but the corn land, which he
rented. He saved a grove, where his sons were buried. On returning to collect
the rent he found that it had been sold for $1.25 per acre. This saddened him so
much that his feeble limbs shook.
He took his family to Morris, where
the people were very kind. Some land was given to them, and the women gave a
dance to raise enough money to build a house on the land. The women lined up and
Shabbona was to choose the most beautiful. He chose his four-hundred-pound wife.
In this way there was no hard feelings. They never lived in the house, but their
children did. They lived in their wigwam beside a brook near the house. Shabbona
died two years after the dance.
Shabbona Park has been made in memory of
Shabbona's services during the Black Hawk war, when he warned and almost made
the settlers leave their homes for the safety of their wives and children,
because of the murderous Indians who were trying to drive them out of the
country.
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 58.
| Lee | DeKalb | Kane |
| Bureau |
 |
Kendall |
| Putnam | Grundy | |
| Marshall | Woodford | Livingston |
