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Mrs. Susan Millhouse Simmons.
mother.

Mrs. Susan Simmons Winans.
daughter.

HEROES AND HEROINES

OF THE

Fort Dearborn Massacre.

ROMANTIC AN!) TRAGIC HISTORY

-OF-

CORPORAL JOHN SIMMONS AND HIS HEROIC WIFE.

THE FIRST WHITE CHILD BORN IN CHICAGO. THE LAST SURVIVOR
OF THE HORRID BUTCHERY. A FULL AND TRUE RECITAL
OF MARVELOUS FORTITUDE, MATCHLESS COURAGE
AND TERRIBLE SUFFERINGS DURING THE
BATTLE, THE MARCH, AND IN
CAPTIVITY.

By N. SIMMONS, M. D.

LAWEEXCE, KANSAS:
Journal Publishing Company,
18C6.

COPYRIGHT, 1896.
BY
N. Simmons, M. D.

PREFACE.

Much of the material for this narrative has been
obtained from Mrs. Simmons, an eye witness, and from
her daughter, who was her companion in captivity, and
with whom she resided for many years. Many histories
have been consulted, but they are most unsatisfactory in
their treatment of the details of the Fort Dearborn
massacre, while the only reference to John Simmons on
file in the department at Washington is that he drew
$60 for his first year's service as a soldier.
By the kind courtesy of E. G. Mason, Esq., President
of the Chicago Historical Society, his masterly address,
delivered at the unveiling of the Pullman Memorial
Monument on the 22d of June, 1893, is inserted. In
behalf of the large number of relatives and friends of the
principal parties whose names are mentioned in this
little book, I desire to express here their grateful ac
knowledgments to George M. Pullman, the donor of the
beautiful monument to the memory of the slain of the
massacre, and all associated with him in its conception
and execution, especially E. G. Mason, historian, and
Carl Rorhl-Smith, sculptor of the monument.
My apology for this intrusion into the already over
wrought field of authorship is a desire to do justice to
the memory of a brave soldier and his devoted wife, and
also to add a few facts to the brief history of the Fort
Dearborn massacre.

4 HEROES AND HEROINES
The heroines and heroes of that awful day, whose
blood sank into the sand dunes by the lake, or who
experienced in captivity, an even more dreadful fate, are
almost forgotten, but it may be interesting to know that
the butchers of Fort Dearborn and their descendents
have annually received many thousands of dollars from
the United States government for their support.
The name of the ancestors of John Simmons in
Switzerland was Simons, the additional letter being first
employed after their arrival in America.

fort dearborn massacre.

CONTENTS.

Page.
Preface  3
CHAPTER I.
A Fortunate Meeting in the Wilderness.  9
CHAPTER II.
Married and Enlisted   13
CHAPTER III.
The Storm Gathering   15
CHAPTER IV.
A Tour Through the Wilderness  20
CHAPTER V.
Life at Fort Dearborn  25
CHAPTER VI.
The Order To Evacuate the Fort  28
CHAPTER VII.
Preparing to Evacuate the Fort  31
CHAPTER VIII.
The Battle and Massacre  35

6 heroes and heroines
CHAPTER IN.
Captivity and Ransom  .52
CHAPTER X.
The Massacre of Neighbors Her only
Sister among Them  61
CHAPTER XI.
At Rest  67
CHAPTER NIL
Awaiting the End  69
CHAPTER XIII.
The Pottawatomie Tribe . .  72

BLACK PARTRIDGE RETURNING HIS MEDAL.

N. SIMMONS, M. D.

heroes and heroines of the
fort dearborn massacre.

CHAPTER I.

A FORTUNATE MEETING IN THE WILDERNESS.
One bright evening in the early springtime of 1801
two wagon trains entered simultaneously a beautiful
grove on the banks of a limpid stream in eastern Ohio.
The leaders of these trains at once discovered in each
other friends and associates of boyhood days in the far
away land of their nativity — charming Switzerland. In
early manhood they had emigrated to America and with
out prearrangement become neighbors in Pennsylvania.
Phillip Simmons with his wife and only son, John, had
settled in York county on the Susquehanna river, while
later on, the elder Millhouse located on the opposite
shore of the same stream in Lancaster county. This
opportune meeting in a strange land which both had
sought for new homes was the welcome renewal of the
former acquaintance in dear old Switzerland. This clpse
relation of comradeship between the families continued
for many years and was not fully dissolved until the
year 1800, when Phillip Simmons and his wife having
passed away in the ripened maturity of wholesome lives,

10 HEROES AND HEROINES
John Simmons was left at the head of the family, his
own household consisting of six hardy sons and four
daughters. To provide homes for this large family he
determined to move to West Virginia. A short resi
dence there convinced this descendent of Alpine moun
tains that he had not as yet found a satisfactory abiding
place. The bold freeman resolved that his children
should not live under the blighting influences of human
slavery. This purpose led him to consider seriously the
possibilities of obtaining homes on a soil free from the
hated institution. Fortunately, at that time one of the
grandest domains on earth had been recently dedicated
to freedom.
The ordinance of 1787 forever prohibited slavery in
the Northwest Territory lying north and west of the
Ohio river. The resources of this new land were the
subject of almost fabulous tales of its wonderful pro
ductiveness, the mildness of its climate, the beautiful
streams fed by springs of crystal water, gurgling from
the rocks and hill sides, the magnificent forests furnishing
the finest timber for building purposes and teeming with
wild game, the native grasses furnishing abundant food
for horses and cattle, both winter and summer while the
bountiful mast of the woods maintained the numerous
hogs which ranged through them.
This mere outline of the reports reaching the older
settlements through the soldiers returning from the cam
paigns of Harmer, St. Clair and Wayne had awakened
the spirit of adventure in these home seekers to the
extent that they determined to dare the dangers arising
from the hostility of the savages and seek their fortunes

FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. I I
in the new Territory of Ohio. Simultaneously the
persons composing a train headed by Mr. Millhouse, had
arrived at the same conclusion, hence the meeting in the
wilderness. In the early morning following, the leaders
of the two trains determined to cast their fortunes
together on the remainder of the journey to the great
Miami valley in western Ohio. This combination of
forces enabled the train to present a somewhat formid
able aspect as each male member carried a rifle on his
shoulder or strapped to his back and a serviceable knife
in his belt.
In the Simmons family, John Simmons, Jr., a lad of
but twelve years of age was the favorite, while the
youngest daughter, Susan Millhouse, was most tenderly
regarded by the other party. Though their parents had
been friends and acquaintances, first in Switzerland,
then again in Pennsylvania, John and Susan first met in
camp, as above described. They soon became fast
friends and they are here introduced to the reader as
the hero and heroine of this narative.
Though John Simmons was but a mere boy, he was
tall, strong and alert beyond his years. With his trusty
rifle he furnished his full quota of game for the combined
train and performed regular guard duty besides. Indeed
his general usefulness in camp and on the journey
rendered him a favorite with all. His genial spirit and
cheerful bearing was especially recognized by Susan
Millhouse, who looked upon the young frontiersman as
her ideal of the coming hero, and manifested her
partiality for his presence by little acts of favoritism.
These evidences of deep esteem for John from the

I 2 HEROES AND HEROINES
innocent girl were noticed with chagrin and mortification
by a young man who had lived in the Millhouse family
for some time, and was now emigrating with them to
their new home. Thomas Rodgers was a fine athletic
young fellow, but quiet and earnest. It had been his
dream to win the hand of the youngest daughter of the
Millhouse family, and it was with forebodings of disap
pointment that he witnessed the growing friendship
between John Simmons and his idol. He continued to
discharge his duties faithfully however, and with the
exception of a disposition to ramble alone in the forest,
seemingly without special purpose, and to isolate himself
from society generally, no indication of his feeling was
manifest. " Tom," as he was familiarly called, remained
with the party to the end of the journey and with the
Millhouse family long after the marriage of their daugh
ter. With this simple statement Tom will be dismissed
for the present.

FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. I 3

CHAPTER II.

MARRIED AND ENLISTED.
After months of weary journeying the travelers finally
stood upon the shore of the great Miami river near the
present city of Dayton. Few settlers had preceded
them and the only evidence of advancing civilization
were the few military trails that traversed the wilderness
between the outposts and Indian agencies. After a time
spent in exploring lands along the Miami and its tribu
taries in the vicinity of Troy and Dayton, John Sim
mons, Sr. , selected six quarter sections of fertile land
on upper Lost Creek, six miles east of Col. Johnson's
Indian Agency on the site of the present Piqua. Having
secured titles to these lands, the men who were to
occupy them proceeded to build a large two-story double
log house at a central point near a fine spring of ever
flowing cold water. The walls were pierced with loop
holes; barricades and other means of defense were pro
vided and all trees and bushes within gun-shot distance
of the blockhouse were removed. It was consequently
deemed impossible for an enemy to approach without
exposure to the fire of the riflemen within. Here the
family resided and in times of extreme danger the
neighbors collected. It is needless to say that when Mr.
Millhouse settled near the Simmons blockhouse, John,
Jr., and Susan were delighted. Perhaps the latter had

14 HEROES AND HEROINES
reminded her father that there were six stalwart riflemen
in the Simmons family, whose protection would be
desirable in case of attack by the savages, and possibly
her wishes were consulted in the selection of the home
stead site.
Years passed amid constant dangers from the time the
emigrants crossed the Ohio river. At that time John
Simmons was but twelve years old. Young as he was
he had been constantly on duty and every moment on
the alert to prevent surprise by the Indians or wild
beasts. It was not strange therefore that after eight
years of this mode of life he embraced the first opportu
nity that presented after he had reached the age and
strength required, to enlist in the regular army, some of
the most important duties in which service having been
learned in these individual experiences. In March,
1808, John Simmons, Jr., and Susan Millhouse were
married and in the latter part of 1809 David Simmons
was born. On the 14th of March, 18 10, John Simmons
enlisted in Captain Whistler's Company, First Regiment,
United States Infantry, afterward commanded by Cap
tain Nathan Heald, and was assigned to duty at Fort
Dearborn on the site of the city of Chicago.

FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. I 5

CHAPTER III.

THE STORM GATHERING.
A brief study of the relation existing between the
whites and Indians at this time is indispensable to a
complete understanding of the perils that confronted
the border settlers. As early as 1788 a settlement was
made at Marietta and another at Cincinnati. The
Indians alarmed at these and other aggressions main
tained a constant warfare on the border pioneers, often
crossing the Ohio river into Pennsylvania, Virginia and
Kentucky and robbing isolated settlers and returning to
their villages in the interior. To stop these predatory
incursions and bring the Indians to terms, General
Harmer was sent with an army of 1400 men into the
country of the hostiles. Late in the autumn of 1790
he reached and destroyed the towns of the Miami
Indians on the ground now occupied by Fort Wayne.
The complete loss of their habitations and possessions
was a severe blow to the savages, and doubtless rendered
them desperate. To complete the work of destruction
Gen. Harmer divided his army into three detachments
which were cut to pieces in detail by the Indians under
Little Turtle and Captain Wells.
On November 3d, 1791 , Gen. Arthur St. Clair with
1400 soldiers encamped at Fort Recovery, near the
Ohio and Indiana state line. On the following morning

1 6 HEROES AND HEROINES
at early dawn the savages made a furious attack upon
the camp which resulted in fearful slaughter and dis
astrous route of the surprised whites. Closely pursued
the remnant of the army fled to Fort Washington.
These victories emboldened the exhilarated Indians to
repeated depredations and acts of pillage and murder.
In August, 1794, Gen. Wayne, with 3000 troops attacked
the hostiles near the Maumee Rapids and defeated them
with great slaughter. Captain Wells, the former ally
and son-in-law of Little Turtle acted as captain of
scouts to Gen. Wayne. "Mad Anthony" took no
trivial revenge upon the defeated enemy. Their fields
and villages for fifty miles around were destroyed.
Completely humbled and impoverished the late defiant
victors sued for peace. Accordingly in 1 795 a treaty
was signed between Gen. Wayne and many of the Indian
chiefs. A number refused to recognize the treaty how
ever, and at once began to prepare for the continuation
of hostilities. It was during this enforced peace, late in
1 80 1 that the Simmons settlement was located in the
interior of western Ohio in the midst of Indian villages.
After Wayne's treaty a chain of forts was established on
the border extending from Cincinnati west to Vincennes
and St. Louis, north to Greenville, Fort Recovery, Fort
Wayne, Fort Defiance, Fort Meigs, Detroit, Macinac,
and northwest to Fort Dearborn (Chicago). Within
this chain of posts were scores of Indian villages, teem
ing with old, scarred warriors who delighted in detailing
the wrongs the tribes had suffered at the hands of the
whites. The young warriors listened intently to these
tales, and burned to avenge these indignities and injuries

FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. I 7
without delay. A leader alone was required to begin
hostilities at once, and with the demand came the man.
The leading chiefs of the powerful Shawnee tribe were
Tecumseh and his twin brother Telskwatawa, known as
"The Prophet," two eloquent orators and able leaders.
Tecumseh stirred the young warriors to the verge of
frenzy with his firey recital of the outrages inflicted upon
the Indians by the whites, while the Prophet aroused the
strong religious and superstitious feelings of the tribe by
his mysterious incantations.
In 1806 Tecumseh and the Prophet established a
village at Fort Greenville, twenty-six miles distant from
the Simmons settlement, but in 1808 they removed to
Tippecanoe, Indiana, to the great delight of the Ohio
settlers. Undoubtedly this removal was made prepara
tory to the storm they intended should break upon the
white settlers of the border, being for the purpose of
placing their women and children beyond the doomed
region. In 1809 the apprehension of the whites reached its
climax, and rapid preparations were made for defence.
Block houses, often surrounded with stockades, were
erected in each settlement. Militia companies were
organized, and the whole population of the border put
upon a war footing. In 18 10, house burning, horse
stealing and murders were daily on the increase and
had become so common that Gen. Harrison sent a
message to Tecumseh, declaring that if these crimes
against the white settlers did not cease he might expect
to be attacked. To this message Tecumseh replied in
person, but the interview was stormy and unsatisfactory,

I 8 HEROES AND HEROINES
and each proceeded at once to prepare for. open hostili
ties; Tecumseh by visiting the Indian tribes in the south
to secure their co-operation in the coming struggle,
while Gen. Harrison collected his forces, and at once
marched against the Shawnee village of Tippecanoe,
where, on the 7th of November, 181 1, he defeated the
Indians after a desperate engagement, and destroyed the
village with the accumulated provisions for the coming
winter. The records of history afford no grander episode
than that of the crusade of Tecumseh. This eloquent
champion, stealthy as the panther of his native wilds
sprang from one tribe to another and enkindled every
where the smouldering embers of rapine and revenge
into the fierce fires of war. But one theme was discussed
at the numerous council fires which blazed from the oak
forests of Michigan to the moss covered pines of Alabama.
The whites were to be exterminated or driven across the
Ohio. Many of the settlers had secured homes that
were as dear to them as the lands on which they stood
were to the Indians. So, to both parties it was to be a
battle for their homes, therefore a battle to the death.
With the certainty of an Indian war and- of a conflict
with Great Britain it was evident that the recruits who
enlisted in the American army in 18 10 might confidently
expect a speedy participation in bloody conflict. Against
this assurance of the dangers of battle the government
had only the paltry pittance of five dollars a month to
offer these enlisted men, but the courage and patriotism
that accepted these odds finds no worthy parallel.
Grand as were all these voluntary supporters of the
country in this dark hour, none were more sublime in

FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 1 9
sacrifice than Private John Simmons. A young and
affectionate wife and a babe less than a year old were left
behind while he went to engage in a war with fiendish
savages who took no prisoners but to torture them to
death in the most cruel manner. The only exceptions
to this awful custom was furnished when a captive
woman or child was occasionally spared with intent to
impress as a slave or adopt by a warrior. From such
an enemy no mercy need be expected. The result of
each encounter was to be complete victory or dreadful
death. It is difficult therefore for the men of this gene
ration with its protracted season of peace and the almost
universally acknowledged amenities of warfare to realize
the value of such sacrifice and service.

20 HEROES AND HEROINES

CHAPTER IV.

A TOUR THROUGH THE WILDERNESS.
John Simmons reached Fort Dearborn early in the
spring of 1810 and at once entered upon his military
duties which he performed with skill and fidelity, and at
the end of the first year of service he modestly received
his promotion to corporal, and with it a furlough which
enabled him to visit his family. He had often accom
panied hunting and scouting parties along the lake shore
and the Chicago river. He became enamored of the
country around Fort Dearborn which is now occupied
by Chicago and its suburbs. Swarms of water fowl
covered the lakes and rivers while their waters teemed
with the finest fish. Buffalo, elk, bear and deer, with
a good variety of smaller game were found in abundance.
On the vast prairies and along the wooded river
bottoms the tall grass attested the great fertility of the
soil, while the ease with which a farm could be opened
by merely plowing the prairie as compared with the task
of clearing the timber lands of western Ohio and eastern
Indiana induced the young soldier to determine to settle
there at the expiration of his term of seivice. He
believed and frequently expressed the conviction that a
great city would eventually be built near the fort. It
was with these anticipations that John Simmons left the
garrison and with rapid strides traversed the intervening

FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 21
wilderness to his home in Miami county, Ohio. Looking
back almost a century one can scarcely realize the extasy
with which the returned soldier met his aged father and
mother, his devoted wife and curly headed boy who had
in his absence taken his first steps, and learned to
pronounce the sacred words "Mama" and "Papa."
Equally difficult would it be for us to understand the
emotions of the individual members of the little house
hold as the stalwart young officer, from whom presum
ably nothing had been heard during his absence, passed
the heavy door and entered the well guarded enclusure.
As John Simmons unfolded the marvelous tales of the
Illinois country all members of the rejoicing family
listened with engrossed interest. The vast meadows
covered with luxuriant grass waving in the breeze, and
bounded only to the observers view by the horizon, the
herds of buffalo, deer and elk pasturing on these prairies,
furnishing an abundance of excellent meat, while the
lakes and rivers swarmed with an inexhaustible supply
of food. His enthusiastic description produced un
bounded admiration and the narrator improved the
advantage he had gained by revealing his desire to make
the delectable land his future home, and for that purpose
to take his little family with him on his return. This
proposition startled his aged parents who having emi
grated from Europe to Pennsylvania, thence to Ohio,
shrank from the thought of removing to Illinois. But
the arguments John employed were so reasonable that
they interposed but feeble opposition and contented
themselves by expressing regrets that the parting must
so soon occur and the hope that at the expiration of his

22 HEROES AND HEROINES
term of service he would return to them and make his
home on the land which they had given him. To Mrs.
Simmons, Jr. , the return with her husband to Fort
Dearborn was a momentous matter. It involved a
journey of four hundred miles through an almost track
less wilderness on foot with no shelter save that afforded
by a small canvass stretched over the boughs of trees.
But she had learned to trust her young soldier husband
implicitly and for admirable cause. They had journeyed
together from eastern Ohio to their home in Miami
county, as neighbors and lovers they had been intimately
acquainted for seven years; she had scarcely claimed
him as her own before surrendering him to her country
as a soldier. His promotion in the absence of wealth or
influential friends to urge his cause was to her the best
assurance of his merit. As he stood before her, nearly
six feet in height, with massive frame, in the liberal
endowment of muscular young manhood, clad in the
neat army uniform, a mature man, an experienced back
woodsman and a brave soldier, his young wife felt that
his plea for her companionship during the remaining
period of his enlistment was already granted. Never
had his influence over her been so controling, her love
for him so overpowering. It was, however, no blind
passion which assented to the hard conditions of the
proposition. The devoted wife was no novice in the
knowledge of the dangers to be expected on the con
templated journey. It was therefore with full under
standing of the situation that she gave her cheerful
consent to accompany her husband on his return.

FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 23
Mrs. Simmons, although of but medium height, pos
sessed a physical frame and organization capable of
great endurance. Aware, at least partially, of the
demands to be made upon her constitution, she entered
into the work of preparation for the journey intelligently,
and the progress of the dreary march revealed her wise
forethought in providing as far as possible for the comfort
and relief of her cherished companions. Still, little
time remained to complete the preparations and little
was the amount they were able to transport, as a single
pack horse was expected to carry the cooking utensils,
camp equipage, provisions and extra clothing. John led
the horse and bore his heavy rifle upon which so much
of the safety and supply of the little party depended,
while Susan trudged along carrying the child.. So they
set out one morning in the latter part of March, 181 1.
The last parting had been a trying event. To the
friends who had collected to see the adventurous pilgrims
depart on their fearful journey it seemed the last farewell.
To the aged father and mother of both John and Susan
the parting was indescribably painful. Little David
received a full share of tearful affection of all who had
known him as the sunshine of the home he had so
recently come to bless, and which was to see him no
more. Reasonable as were the sad anticipations of the
sorrowful friends, none could foretell the awful fate of
the small party, but one of whom was to return.
On the first day the family was escorted to Piqua
where they crossed the Miami river and pushed on to
Stillwater, where Covington now stands and there en
camped, having traveled fifteen miles. On the second

24 HEROES AND HEROINES
day they reached Fort Greenville. Here their escort
returned. From Fort Greenville they bore a little west
of north to Fort Recovery, a distance of thirty-five miles.
Their next point was Fort Wayne, distance eighty miles,
where they rested for a day and secured provisions for
the remainder of the journey to Fort Dearborn, the route
traveled being near two hundred miles. The time
occupied in making the trip to Fort Dearborn from Ohio
was about thirty days. To persons acquainted with the
country traveled it is a marvel that they succeeded in
making the journey in that time, as at that season of the
year (April) the streams were usually full and difficult to
ford, and they were compelled to make long detours to
pass around the swamps covered with water which lay
on their way. Then, the constant fear of falling in with
scalping parties of savages required incessant watchful
ness. Wearisome days were succeeded by sleepless nights
and neither of the parents for an hour were free from
apprehension. Long years after this journey, while Mrs. Simmons
enjoyed repose in the society of friends she often declared
that she enjoyed the trip as though it had been a pleasure
excursion, but it is possible that this view was suggested
by the contrast with her subsequent experiences.

FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 2$.

CHAPTER V.

LIFE AT FORT DEARBORN.
It was late in April when the little party entered the
gate at Fort Dearborn, tired and foot sore. The young-
soldier w,as complimented by his comrades in arms for
his bravery in making the journey to and from Ohio. A
universal favorite before, this adventure greatly enhanced
his reputation as a soldier of skill and spirit. His supe
rior officers confided important duties to his care and
command which he always executed with the strictest
fidelity. Mrs. Simmons watched with admiration and
delight the growing confidence reposed in her husband.
For herself, she soon shared with her husband the esteem
of the entire garrison.
The people of the fort, consisting of soldiers, women
and children, were less than one hundred in number.
The imminence of a common danger united all in a
common union. They were far from civilization, far
from succor in case of an attack by a strong enemy.
Rumors of threatened hostilities were frequently brought
to the fort by scouts or friendly Indians. Into such a
community, thus bound together by a tie stronger than
any known to humanity, it was not difficult for the heroic
woman to obtain speedy entrance into any circle in the
limited society of the post. Her splendid courage and
endurance during the long and wearisome march, and

26 HEROES AND HEROINES
her thorough acquaintance with Indian character, ac
quired by long residences in the midst of savage settle
ments, rendered her opinions almost as valuable as those
of her husband. On account of his participation in the
journey, little David, now two years old, was familiarly
called "the little curly headed corporal," and soon
became a pet of all in the garrison.
In November, 1811, Gen. Harrison defeated the
Indians at Tippecanoe and destroyed their village. The
loss to the hostiles of the stores collected for winter
entailed great hardship upon them. The news of this
battle reached Fort Dearborn by the way of Detroit,
Fort Macinac and lake Michigan, and warned the garri
son of impending danger. The gratification over the
success of the engagement was mingled in the minds of
the occupants of the isolated post by the reflection that
while it was then too late in the season for the enraged
tribes to lay siege to Fort Dearborn a renewal of hostili
ties might be expected on the return of spring.
Aggressions and indignities were so frequently inflicted
upon American citizens by the officers and agents of the
English government, that in June, 1812, war was de
clared against Great Britain, and in July the British and
Indians captured Fort Macinac. The officers of this
post first learned of the declaration of war from the
enemy, a fact which suggests incompetency or criminal
neglect on the part of high officials.
On the 1 2th day of February, 18 12, a daughter was
born to Corporal Simmons, being one of the first white
children, if not the first, born within the limits of the
present city of Chicago. She came to brighten the few

FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 27
remaining months of her little brother's life, as a source
of consolation to her mother in widowhood and bondage,
and to sustain and comfort her in her declining years.
At this writing she is reposing at the age of 83 years in
the beautiful California home of her daughter. In honor
of his devoted wife, Corporal Simmons named the little
stranger Susan Simmons.

2 8 HEROES AND HEROINES

CHAPTER VI.

THE ORDER TO EVACUATE THE FORT.
With Macinac, the key to lake Michigan, in possession
of the British and Indians, with Detroit practically
beleaguered, while assistance from Fort Wayne or Vin
cennes was out of the question, Fort Dearborn should
have been evacuated at once. There were no settlers
near to protect, the garrison was too weak to venture
beyond the walls of the fort and too far from other
military posts to render them any assistance or to receive
succor from them in case of attack. Such was the
condition of Fort Dearborn on the seventh day of August,
1 812, when Captain Heald received the order from Gen.
Hull, who had reported to the war department on July
29th, that he would send " at once. " The order being
nine days in transit reached the fort on the 7th of August.
It was obvious that every moment of delay increased the
danger of the garrison. Whether it should be decided
to remain or withdraw, this fact was equally manifest.
Why, therefore, Captain Heald faltered for seven days
is a serious question. The inexplicable delay gave the
Indians an opportunity to collect their warriors from the
Pottawatomie villages in the vicinity. This was done
industriously during the week extending from' the 7th to
the 14th of August.

FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 29
On the 14th of August Captain Heald determined to
evacuate the fort on the following day. On that day he
concluded a treaty with the Indians by the terms of
which the savages were to be given all the stores of the
fort not required on the march in consideration of which
the Indians stipulated to escort the garrison to Fort
Wayne in safety. On the evening of the 14th, after the
treaty had been made and the Indians had doubtless
fully matured their plans for the following day, which
without doubt included the capture of the entire garrison,
when decoyed into the open prairie, Black Partridge,
a Pottawatomie chief, warned Captain Heald of the
determination on the part of the Indians by returning to
him a valuable medal with the statement that his young
men had determined to wash their hands in the blood of
the whites and that he could not restrain them. Then,
•
in tones of sadness, he closed his remarkable speech
with the most emphatic warning, saying: "Linden
birds have been singing in my ears to-day; be careful on
the march you are about to make." The fact that near
five hundred armed warriors had collected in the imme
diate vicinity of the fort of itself boded no good to the
garrison, but the warning of Black Partridge, couched
in the most significant language and delivered in terms
of sadness and sorrow, should have changed doubt and
suspicion in the mind of Captain Heald into positive
certainty. Perhaps the warning came too late for the
commandant to retrace his steps and prepare for defense,
but it should have led to more prudent alignment of the
troops on the line of retreat. The destruction of surplus
stores, notably powder and whiskey, while perhaps

30 HEROES AND HEROINES
justifiable on account of the inevitable excesses their
possession would cause, was made a pretext by the
Indians to excuse their treachery. But the falseness of
this plea is proved by the words of Black Partridge,
which shows that the bloody purpose had been deter
mined on before the evacuation. Still, it may be possible
that the act stimulated the savages to greater cruelty in
their treatment of the whites. If there was any doubt
as to the good intentions of Black Partridge in warning
the garrison on the evening before the evacuation, it
disappeared as the fact of his repeated intervention to
save the lives of the doomed inmates was manifest
It was a rash and ill considered act on the part of the
government in planting a feeble post so far from support.
Immediately upon the declaration of war, and especially
after the fall of Mackinac it should have been evacuated.
Promptly on the receipt of Gen. Hull's discretionary
order Captain Heald should have abandoned the fort,
and marched with all possible speed to Fort Wayne or
he should have made the best possible preparation for
defense and seige, but seven days of indecision coupled
with previous neglect and incompetency caused the
destruction of the brave garrison and the obliteration of
the first Chicago.

FOKT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 3 1

CHAPTER VII.

PREPARING TO EVACUATE THE FORT.
On the evening of the 14th the garrison was busy
loading the wagons for the journey which would occupy
from eight to ten days. Provisions and camp equipage
constituted the principal part of these loads. In the
grave peril which confronted them the members of the
garrison were more united in sentiment and action than
ever before. The soldiers filled their powder horns,
adjusted their flints, loaded their bullet pouches, and
every possible preparation was made for defense, believing
the moment they left the friendly walls of the fort they
would be at the mercy of an overwhelming army of
savages. Many of the little Spartan band vowed to
defend the women and children with their lives, and for
this purpose the best possible preparations were made.
Corporal Simmons fully realized the fearful responsibility
that rested upon him, and n.ot one of the small command
prepared to march through the gate of the fort and out
into the presence of the Indians with a firmer determin
ation to do his whole duty. True not one of them had
greater incentive to perform a soldier's part. His con
stant thought was of the noble woman who had been his
faithful friend on the perilous journey through the
wilderness of Ohio, and later became his idolized wife;
and who in a spirit fitting a soldier's bride, gave him to

32 HEROES AND HEROINES
the service of his country a little more than two years
before. His heart swelled often while engaged in the
monotonous routine of his regular duty as he recalled
her grand comradeship, on the long tramp through the
dense forests in western Ohio and across Indiana to this
forlorn hope. Intimately and inseparably connected
with remembrances of his heroic wife, Corporal Simmons
never forgot their first born, little David, the "curly
headed corporal," full of life and happy in the' love of
papa and mama, and the infant Susan, six months and
two days old, the delight and joy of the little family and
the pet and play fellow of even the roughest soldiers in
the camp. On that sad evening, as John Simmons
looked upon this group confided to his protection he
resolved that harm could only reach them over his dead
body. With what fidelity he redeemed this vow will be
revealed later on.
The great number of warriors camped in the imme
diate vicinity of the fort required a. strong guard for the
night to prevent a surprise. The other soldiers slept a
fitful sleep upon their arms. The women of the garrison,
a majority of whom had small children, were busy in
preparing for the march. Among these was Mrs. Sim
mons, who early in the evening had endeavored to put
her babe to sleep so that she might complete the
preparations necessary for the long march. The " little
corporal," David, had noticed the unusual stir and
preparation going on' around him, and was exceedingly
anxious to know what it all meant. " Where were they
going? " " Would he ride in the big wagon? " "Were
they going to grandpa's in Ohio? " These With many

FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 33
other questions were eagerly asked and years afterward
rang in the ears of Mrs. Simmons when she recalled the
events of that last gloomy night in Fort Dearborn. It
was late in the evening when little David, tired of
watching the busy scene and overcome by weariness,
repeated his little prayer on his mother's lap for the last
time and received his good night kiss from father and
mother. The young soldier and wife now discussed the
probabilities of the morrow. He was familiar with all
the details of the proposed evacuation. During the day
Captain Wells one of the most famous Indian fighters
of the frontier arrived with twenty friendly warriors of
the Miami tribe, for the purpose of rendering assistance
to the beleaguered garrison or to escort them to Fort
Wayne in case of evacuation. Captain Wells was
present and heard the declaration of Black Partridge
that his young men had determined to imbue their hands
in the blood of the whites and that he could not restrain
them. Wells knew the chief intimately and reposed the
utmost confidence in his truthfulness. This statement
therefore convinced him of the danger which confronted
them. Corporal Simmons informed his wife of the order
to secretly destroy the whiskey and ammunition which
Captain Heald had promised the Indians, and of his
belief that should the savages discover this they would
not hesitate to murder the garrison. He did not
conceal from her his opinion that the peril seemed
imminent for he realized that the whites would be com
pelled to fight for their lives with odds of eight to one
against them. It may be well supposed that the night
was far advanced before sleep came to their relief from

34 HEROES AND HEROINES
the heavy burdens which oppressed mind and body, and
that early dawn found them astir and preparing for the
fearful ordeal before them. All night dark objects were
seen moving about outside the fort, showing to the
guards who were ever on the alert that the Indians were
on the watch to prevent the admittance of farther rein
forcements and the dispatch of couriers for succor.
At an early hour on the morning of the 1 5th day of
August, 1 81 2, the troops were mustered within the
stockade and inspected. The roll was called and
answered for the last time. Fifty-four regular soldiers
and twelve militia men stood in line, presenting a feeble
array with which to engage five hundred fierce warriors
on the open prairie. The troops were dismissed for the
last breakfast they were destined to eat together, with
orders to be ready to march at nine o'clock. While the
troops were engaged in eating breakfast and preparing
for the march the Indians just outside the stockade were
eating a meal furnished from the stores of the fort the
day before, and arranging apparently to escort the
garrison on its march to safety, while in reality they
were preparing to decoy it to its doom.

FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 35

CHAPTER VIII.

THE BATTLE AND MASSACRE.
Preparations for the evacuation having been completed
and the fatal hour having arrived, the line of march was
formed within the stockade as described by E. G. Mason,
Esq., President of the Chicago Historical Society, in his
masterly address delivered at the unveiling of the
Pullman Memorial Monument, which is here inserted in
full, as follows:
"The Chicago Historical Society accepts this noble gift
in trust for our city and for posterity with high appreciation
of the generosity, the public spirit, and the regard for
history of the donor. It realizes that this monument so
wisely planned and so superbly executed is to be preserved
not simply as a splendid ornament of our. city but also as a
most impressive record of its history. This group, repre
senting to the life the thrilling scene enacted perchance on
the very spot on which it stands, barely eighty years ago,
and its present surroundings, make most vivid the tremen
dous contrast between the Chicago of 1812 and the Chicago
of 1893. It teaches thus the marvelous growth of our city,
and it commemorates as well the trials and the sorrows of
those who suffered here in the cause of civilization. The
tragedy which it recalls, though it seemed to extinguish
the infant settlement in blood, was in reality one which
nerved men's arms and fired their hearts to the efforts
-vhich rescued this region from the invader and the barba-

36 HEROES AND HEROINES
rian. The story which it tells is therefore of deeper
significance than many that have to do with
' Battles, and the breath
Of stormy war and violent death,'
and it is one which should never be forgotten.
" With its suggestions before us how readily we can pic
ture to ourselves the events of that 15th day of August in the
year of grace 18 12. Hardly a week before there had come
through the forest and across the prairie to the lonely Fort
Dearborn an Indian runner, like a clansman with the fiery
cross, bearing the news of the battle and disaster. War
with Great Britain had been declared in June, Mackinac
had fallen into the hands of the enemy in July, and with
these alarming tidings the red messenger brought an order
from the commanding general at Detroit, contemplating
the abandonment of this frontier post. Concerning the
terms of his order authorities have differed. Capt. Heald,
who received it, speaks of it as a peremptory command to
evacuate the fort. Others with good means of knowledge
say that the dispatch directed him to vacate the fort if
practicable. But General Hull who sent the order, settles
this question in a report to the War Department which has
recently come to light. Writing under date of July 29th,
1812, he says:
" ' I shall immediately send an express to Fort Dearborn
with orders to evacuate that post and retreat to this place
(Detroit) or Fort Wayne, provided it can be effected with
a greater prospect of safety than to remain. Capt. Heald
is a judicious officer and I shall confide much to his
discretion.' "The decision whether to go or stay rested therefore
with Capt. Nathan Heald, and truly the responsibility was
a heavy one. Signs of Indian hostility had not been want-

FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 37
ing. But the evening before Black Partridge, a chief of
the Pottawatomie tribe, long a friend of the whites, had
entered the quarters of the commanding officer and handed
to him the medal which the warrior wore in token of ser
vices to the American cause in the Indian campaigns of
' Mad' Anthony Wayne. With dignity and with sadness
the native orator said :
" ' Father, I come to deliver up to you the medal I wear.
It was given me by the Americans, and I have long worn
it in token of our mutual friendship. But our young men
are resolved to imbue their hands in tl^e blood of the
whites. I cannot restrain them and I will not wear a token
of peace while I am compelled to act as an enemy. '
' • This striking incident has been fitly chosen as the
subject of one of the reliefs on the pedestal of the monu
ment. It typifies the relations between the hapless whites
and their red neighbors at the moment and the causes
which had changed friendship into hatred, and it sounds
the note of coming doom.
"On that dreary day one gleam of light fell across the
path of the perplexed commander. Capt. William Wells
arrived from Fort Wayne with a small party of friendly
Miami Indians to share the fortunes of the imperiled garri
son. This gallant man, destined to be the chief hero and
victim of the Chicago massacre, had had a most remarkable
career. Of a good Kentucky family, he was stolen when a
boy of 12 by the Miami Indians and adopted by their great
chief, Me-che-kau-nah-qua, or Little Turtle, whose daughter
became his wife. He fought on the side of the red men in
their defeat of Gen Harmar in 1790 and Gen. St. Clair in
1 791. Discovered by his Kentucky kindred when he had
reached years of manhood, he was persuaded to ally himself
with his' own race, and took formal leave of his Indian
comrades, avowing henceforth his enmity to them. Joining

38 HEROES AND HEROINES
Wayne's army, he was made captain of a company of
scouts, and was a most faithful and valuable officer. When
peace came with the treaty of Greenville in i795> ne de
voted himself to obtaining an education, and succeeded so
well that he was appointed Indian agent and served in that
capacity at Chicago as early as 1803, and later at Fort
Wayne, where he was also government interpreter and a
Justice of the Peace. Here he heard of the probable
evacuation of the post at Chicago, and knowing the temper
of the Indians, he gathered such force as he could and
made a rapid march across the country to save or die with
his friends at Fort Dearborn, among whom the wife of Capt.
Heald was his own favorite niece, whose gentle influence
had been most potent in winning him back from barbarism
years before. It seemed almost as if he had resolved to
atone for the period in which he had ignorantly antagonized
his own people by a supreme effort in their behalf against
the race which' had so nearly made him a savage.
" He came too late to effect any change in Capt. Heald's
plans. The abandonment was resolved upon, and the
stores and ammunition were in part destroyed and in part
divided among the Indians, who were soon to make so base
a return for these gifts. At 9 o'clock on that fatal summer
morning the march began from the little fort, which stood
where Michigan avenue and River street now join on a
slight eminence around which the river wound to find its
way to the lake near the present terminus of Madison street.
The garrison bade farewell to the rude stockade and the log
barracks and magazine and two corner blockhouses which
composed the first Fort Dearborn. When this only place
of safety was left behind, the straggling line stretched out
along the shore of the lake, Capt. Wells and a part of his
Miamis in the van, half a company of regulars and a dozen
militiamen, and the wagons with the women and children

FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 39
following, and the remainder of the Miamis bringing up
the rear. You may see it all on the panel on the monument,
which recalls from the past and makes very real this
mournful march to death. The escort of Pottawatomies,
which that treacherous tribe had glibly promised to Capt.
Heald, kept abreast of the troops until they reached the
sand hills intervening between the prairie and the lake,
and here the Indians disappeared behind the ridge. The
whites kept on near the water to a point a mile and a half
from the fort and about where Fourteenth street now ends,
when Wells in the advance was seen to turn and ride back,
swinging his hat around his head in a circle, which meant
in the sign language of the frontier: 'We are surrounded
by Indians.'
"As soon as he came within hearing he shouted: 'We
are surrounded; march up on the sand ridges.' And all at
once, in the graphic language of Mrs. Heald, they saw
' the Indians' heads sticking up and down again, here and
there, like turtles out of the water.'
" Instantly a volley was showered down from the sand
hills, the troops were brought into line, and charged up the
bank, one man, a veteran of seventy years, falling as they
ascended. Wells shouted to Heald, ' Charge them ! ' and
then led on and broke the line of the Indians, who scattered
right and left. Another charge was made, in which Wells
did deadly execution upon the perfidious barbarians, load
ing and firing two pistols and a gun in rapid succession.
But the Pottawatomies, beaten in front, closed in on the
flanks. The cowardly Miamis rendered no assistance, and
in fifteen minutes' time the savages had possession of the
baggage train and were slaying the women and children.
Heald and the remnant of his command were isolated on a
mound in the prairie. He had lost all his officers and half

40 HEROES AND HEROINES i
his men, was himself sorely wounded, and there was no
choice but to surrender. , ,
"Such, in merest outline, was the battle, and one of its
saddest incidents was the death of Capt. Wells. As he
rode back from the fray, desperately wounded, he met his
niece and bade her farewell, raying: 'Tell my wife, if you
live to see her — but I think it doubtful if a single one
escapes — tell her 1 died at my post; doing the best I could.
There are seven red devils over there that I have killed.'
As he spoke his horse fell, pinning him to the ground. A
group of Indians approached; he took deliberate aim and
fired, killing one of them. As the others drew near, with a last
effort he proudly lifted his head, saying: 'Shoot away,'
and the fatal shot was fired.
"So died Chicago's hero, whose tragic fate and the hot
fight in which he fell are aptly selected as the subjects of
the'other bas-reliefs of this monument. The bronze group
which crowns it is an epitome of the whole struggle,
revealing its desperate character, the kind of foemeri whom
our soldiers had to meet, and their mode of warfare, their
merciless treatment of women and children, and setting
forth the one touch of romance in the grim record of the
Chicago massacre. It illustrates the moment when the
young wife of Lieut. Helm* second in command of the fort,
was attacked by an Indian lad, who struck her on the
shoulder with a tomahawk. To prevent him from using
his weapons she siezed him around the neck and strove to
get possession of the scalping-knife which hung in a scab
bard over his breast. In the midst of the struggle she was
dragged from the grasp of her assailant by an older Indian.
He bore her to the lake and plunged her into the waves;
but she quickly perceived that his object was not to drown
her, as he held her head above water. Gazing intently at
him she soon recognized, in spite of the paint with which

FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 4 1
he was disguised, the whilom friend of the whites, Black
Partridge, who saved her from further harm and restored
her to her friends. For this good deed, and others, too,
this noble chief should be held in kindly remembrance.
"It is difficult to realize that such scenes could have
taken place where we meet to-day; but history and tradi
tion alike bear witness that we are assembled near the
center of that bloody battlefield. From the place on the
lake shore a few blocks to the north, where Wells' signal
halted the column over the parallel sand ridges southwest
erly along the prairie and through the bushy ravines
between, the running fight continued probably as far as the
present intersection of Twenty-first street and Indiana
avenue, where one of our soldiers was slain and scalped,
and still lies buried. Just over on Michigan avenue must
have been the little eminence on the prairie on which
Heald made his last rally, and right before us the skulking
savages, who had given away at the advance of our men,
gathered in their rear around the few wagons which had
vainly sought to keep under the cover of our line.
"If this gaunt old Cottonwood, long known as the
'Massacre Tree,' could speak, what a tale of horror it
would tell. For tradition, strong as Holy Writ, affirms
that between this tree and its neighbor, the roots of which
still remain beneath the pavement, the baggage wagon
containing twelve children of the white families of the fort,
and one young savage climbed into it, tomahawked the
entire group.*, A little while and this sole witness of that
deed of woe must pass away. But the duty of preserving

*Mrs. Simmons was perhaps the only person who witnessed the details in
and around the government wagon who escaped from captivity, and she
always placed the number of children killed in the wagon at nine, the
other three who were murdered were on foot.

42 HEROES AND HEROINES
the name and the locality of the Chicago massacre, which
has been its charge for so many years, is now transferred
to this stately monument, which will faithfully perform it
long after the fall of the 'Massacre Tree.'
"Capt. Heald's whole part3', 'not including the Miami
detachment, when they marched out of Fort Dearborn
comprised fifty-four regulars, twelve militiamen, nine
women and eighteen children — ninety-three white persons
in all. Of these twenty-six regulars and the twelve militia
men were slain in action, two women and twelve children
were murdered on the field, and five regulars were bar
barously put to death, after the surrender. There remained
then but thirty-six of the whole party of ninety-three, and
of the sixty-six fighting men who met their red foemen
here that day only twenty-three survived. These, with
seven women and sixchildren, were prisoners in, the hands
of the savages. We know of the romantic escape, by the
aid of friendly Indians, of Capt. and Mrs. Heald and
Lieut, and Mrs. Helm; and three of the soldiers, one of
whom was Orderly Sergeant William Griffith, in less than
two months after the massacre found their way to Michi
gan, bringing the sad news from Fort Dearborn. Hull's
surrender had placed Detroit in the hands of the enemy;
but the' Territorial Chief Justice, Woodward, the highest
United States authority there, in a ringing letter to the
British Commander, Col. Proctor, under date of October
8, 1812, demanded in the name of humanity that instant
means should be taken for the preservation of these un
happy captives by sending special messengers among the
Indians to collect the prisoners and bring them to the
nearest army post, and that orders to co-operate should be
issued to the British officers on the lakes. Col. Proctor
one month before had been informed by his own people of
the bloody work at Chicago, and had reported the same to

FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 43
his superior offcer, Maj. Gen. Brock, but had contented
hhnself with remarking that he had no knowledge of any
attack having been intended by the Indians on Chicago,
nor could they indeed be said to be within the influence of
the British.
"Now, spurred to action by Judge Woodward's clear
and forcible presentation of the case, Proctor promised to
use the most effective means in his power for the speedy
release from slavery of these unfortunate individuals. He
committed the matter to Robert Dickson, British agent to
the Indians of the Western Nations, who proceeded about
it leisurely enough. March 16, 1813, he wrote from St.
Joseph's Lake, Michigan, that there remained of the ill-
fated garrison of Chicago, captives among the Indians,
seventeen soldiers, four women, and some children, and
that he had taken the necessary steps for their redemption
and had the fullest confidence that he should succeed in
getting the whole. Six days later he came to Chicago and
inspected the ruined fort, where, as he says, there remained
only two pieces of brass ordinance, three-pounders — one
in the river, with wheels, and the other dismounted — a
powder magazine, well preserved, and a few houses on the
outside of the fort, in good condition. The desolation
apparently was not relieved by the presence of a single
inhabitant. Such was the appearance of Chicago in the
spring following the massacre. Of these seventeen soldiers,
the nine who survived their long imprisonment were
ransomed by a French trader and sent to Quebec, and
ultimately reached Plattsburg, N. Y., in the summer of
1814. Of the women, two were rescued from slavery, one
by the kindness of Black Partridge; and the others doubt
less perished in captivity. Of the children, we only hear
again of one. In a letter written to Maj. Gen. Proctor by
Capt. Bullock, the British commander, at Mackinac, Sep-

44 HEROES AND HEROINES
tember 25, 1813, he says: 'There is also here a boy
(Peter Bell), 5 or 6 years of age, whose father and motner
were killed at Chicago. The boy was purchased from the
Indians by a trader and brought here last July by direction
of Mr. Dickson.' Of the six little people who fell into
the hands of the Indians this one small waif alone seems
to have floated to the shore of freedom.*
"The Pottawatomies, after the battle and the burning of
the fort, divided their booty and prisoners and scattered,
some to their villages, some to join their brethren in the
siege of Fort Wayne. Here they were foiled by the timely
arrival of William Henry Harrison, then Governor of the
Indiana Territory, with a force of Kentucky and Ohio
troops, and condign punishment was inflicted upon a part
at least of the Chicago murderers. A detachment which
Gen. Harrison assigned to this work was commanded by
Col. Samuel Wells, who must have remembered his
brother's death when he destroyed the village of Five
Medals, a leading Pottawatomie chief. To one of the
ruthless demons who slew women and children under the
branches of this tree, such an appropriate vengeance came
that it seems fitting to tell the story here. He was older
than most of the band, a participant in many battles, and
a deadl}' enemy of the whites. His scanty hair was drawn
tightly upward and tied with a string, making a tuft on top
of his head, and from this peculiarity he was known as
Chief Shavehead. Years after the Chicago massacre he
was a hunter in Western Michigan and when in liquor was
fond of boasting of his achievements on the warpath. On
one of these occasions in the streets of a little village he
told the fearful tale of his doings on this field with all its
horrors; but among his hearers chanced to be a soldier of

*It is due Mr. Mason to say that he had no knowledge of Mrs. Simmons
and her child until after he delivered his memorial address.

FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 45
the garrison of Fort Dearborn, one of the few survivors of
that fatal day. As he listened he saw that frightful scene
again, and was maddened by its recall. At sundown the
old brave left the settlement, and silently on his trail the
soldier came, 'with his gun,' says the account, 'resting in
the hollow of his left arm and the right hand clasped around
the lock, with his forefinger carelessly toying with the
trigger.' The red man and the white passed into the
shade of the forest; the soldier returned alone; Chief
Shavehead was never seen again. He had paid the penalty
of his crime to one who could, with some fitness, exact it.
Such was the fate of a chief actor in the dark scene enacted
here. "Many others of the Pottawatomie tribe joined the
British forces in the field, and at the battle of the Thames,
October 5, 1813, they were confronted again by Harrison
and his riflemen, who then avenged the slaughter at
Chicago upon some of its perpetrators. Victor and victim
alike have passed away. The story of their struggle
remains, and this masterpiece will be an object-lesson
teaching it to after generations. Mr. Pullman's liberal and
thoughtful action is a needed recognition of the importance
and interest of our early 'history, an inspiration to its study,
and an example which may well be followed. The event
which this monument commemorates, its principal inci
dents, and the after fortunes of those concerned in it, have
been briefly sketched and much has necessarily been left
unsaid. But we should not omit a grateful recognition of
the able civillian soldier, William Henry Harrison, who
stayed the tide of barbarism which flowed from the Chicago
massacre, and humbled the tribe which was responsible
for that lurid tragedy. The name of Harrison is intimately
and honorably associated with the early days in the North
west, with the war of 1812, and with the highest office in

46 HEROES AND HEROINES
the gift of the American people half a century ago. It is
likewise intimately and honorably associated with the later
days of the Northwest and the great civil war, and again
with the highest office in the gift of the American people
in our own times. It is fitting that the distinguished
descendant of William Henry Harrison should be here to
day. It is a high honor that the eminent ex-President of
the United States should grace this occasion with his
presence, which makes these exercises complete."
Mr. Mason having told the story of the Fort Dearborn
tragedy as it deserves and as it has never before been
told, it remains for this humble sketch to devote itself
chiefly to the fate of the persons with whom our story
especially deals.
Returning to the fort where we left the line of march
forming, Corporal Simmons remained by the wagon until
his duty called him away. He then lifted David, "the
curly headed Corporal," in his arms and, after both
father and mother had kissed him for the last time, he
placed him in the government wagon, then turning to
his wife who held their babe, he embraced and kissed
both, then held the babe up to receive the last kiss from
its little brother. Then bidding his brave and faithful
wife remain close by the children in the wagon he took
his place among the troops who were ordered to guard
the wagons and women and children, a position in which
he had requested to be placed that he might defend his
family to the last. Little David with eight other chil
dren, too small to walk, occupied the government wagon
as it was called. Mrs. Simmons carried her babe in her
arms while Peter Bell, six years old, with seven other
children were with their mothers who were on foot near

FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 47
the vjjtgon, making eighteen children in all. Mrs. Heald
and Mrs. Helm rode on horseback with their husbands
and Capt. Wells, while Mrs. Simmons, Mrs. Bell and
Mrs. Holt with four other women, whose names are
unknown, were on foot near the wagon containing the
children, altogether constituting a group of seven women
and eighteen children.
No sooner had the train left the fort than the Indians
rushed into the stockade to take possession and secure
the booty abandoned and perhaps assure themselves of
the treachery of Capt. Heald in destroying the arms and
ammunition and also to prevent the return of any of the
garrison when attacked.
No more favorable position to suit the purpose of
the Indians could have been selected than that occu
pied by the. line of march. The slender column was
flanked on the left by the lake and on the right by the
sand hills which were occupied by the savages and from
which they suddenly poured down a shower of balls
without exposing their own persons. The column was
instantly halted when Capt. Wells discovered that it was
surrounded by the assailants, and at the suggestion of
Capt. Wells, Capt. Heald formed a line and charged up
the sand hills through the line of Indians, and took a
position on a mound in the prairie where they held the
enemy at bay for a time. In the meanwhile, the bag
gage train, with the women and children remained near
the lake, with the twelve militia men and a mere hand
ful of regulars to guard them. The greater part of the
soldiers who were not already killed or wounded had
escaped with Capt. Heald and were now outside the

48 HEROES AND HEROINES
Indian lines. The savages soon discovered the almost
defenceless condition of the baggage train and of the
women and children, fired a volley upon them and then
rushed in from front, rear and right, with uplifted
tomahawks. The few soldiers having discharged their
rifles and being too closely pressed to reload them,
continued the unequal contest with clubbed guns until
every one was slain.
It was at this time that the brave Capt. Wells returned
through the Indian lines to the defense of the women
and children, and dealt death among the savages until
covered with wounds he fell with his face to the enemy,
confronting death as a brave knight in defense of the
helpless. He might have remained on the mound and
surrendered with Capt. Heald and Lieut. Helm, and
perhaps saved his life, but his cowardly and treacherous
Miamis had betrayed him and fled to the enemy, leaving
him to battle and die alone. His death was a fitting
close to a heroic and honorable life and the name of
Capt. William Wells will ever confer lustre on the list
of American heroes.
When the attack was made Corporal John Simmons,
from his position near the great cotton wood, known as
the " Massacre Tree, " loaded and fired as rapidly as
possible, and more- than one dusky warrior bit the dust
at the discharge of his unerring rifle, but the contest was
too unequal to continue long. When too closely pressed
to load and fire his gun he clubbed it and wielded it with
tremendous effect. Finally covered with wounds he fell
to rise no more. The vow of the previous night had
been redeemed.

FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 49
No sooner had Mrs. Simmons seen her husband fall
beneath the blows of the savages surrounding him than
she realized that all were at the mercy of the infuriated
victors. A young Indian, tomahawk in hand, climbed
into the now unguarded wagon, and in utter disregard of
the tears and importunities of Mrs. Simmons and the
other women, struck his bloody weapon into the heads
of every child within, killing them instantly. The children
unconscious of the danger which beset them had gayly
enjoyed the ride from the fort until the fight began.
The slaughter of these innocents was one of the most
pathetic and fiendish incidents in the fearful annals of
Indian warfare.
At the first fire from the Indians Mrs. Holt was
wounded in the foot and was rendered unable to walk
when the charge was made upon the guard protecting
the women and children. The savages came on enmasse
firing their guns and uttering hideous yells. The horses
harnessed to the wagons became ungovernable and ran
over Mrs. Holt, trampling her to death. Mrs. Bell was
also severely and perhaps fatally wounded and finally
tomahawked to death. Her husband, a soldier, was
slain in action, leaving little Peter Bell, a boy six years
old, the lone survivor of the family, a prisoner in the
hands of the savages. The boy was fortunately on foot
and thus escaped the doom which fell upon all within
the wagon. Three children besides those in the wagon
were murdered on the spot, leaving six prisoners. Of
these but two drifted back to civilization, Peter Bell and
the infant babe of Mrs. Simmons, which escaped the fate
of her little brother and the .other ..children by being held
in the arms of her mother during the massacre.

50 HEROES AND HEROINES
No sooner had the savages completed the destruction
of the little force guarding the baggage train, even
to the last man, than most of them hastened to aid in
the capture of Capt. Heald, who with his party was now
surrounded by an overwhelming force, from which there
was no possible escape. Realizing this, he promptly
surrendered, and the little band was marched to the
captured train, where all were closely guarded while the
soldiers cared for their wounded and disposed of their
dead, making sure that the whites should not learn the
extent of their loss, which was considerable considering
the disparity in numbers of the combatants. The whites,
however, were all experienced backwoods riflemen and
did terrible execution with weapons greatly superior to
the arms of the savages, thus amply avenging their
deaths before they fell. The Indians, not yet satisfied
with their fiendish barbarity, now proceeded to deliber
ately hack and mangle to death five of the captured and
disarmed soldiers in the most diabolical manner. It has
been surmised that this vile deed was done to make the
loss of the whites equal their own. Whether this be
true or false, the act remains one of the most infamous
on record. For the purpose of distressing the other
prisoners, men, women and children were compelled to
witness this horrible butchery. The surviving captives,
as they beheld this deed, almost envied their tortured
comrades as death at length came to their relief. They
could reasonably anticipate a like fate, unless their
heartless captors could realize more ransom money,
whiskey or ammunition for their lives than for scalps,
the life itself being of no value in their view. Mrs.

FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 5 I
Simmons discovered that the delight of the savages was
much enhanced by tormenting their prisoners in every
conceivable manner, thus almost invariably forcing from
them manifestations of pain or anger which were sweeter
than music in their ears. She therefore summoned all
her marvelous fortitude to prevent any expression of the
anguish which was crushing her great soul. She had
scarcely. thus determined until her resolution was put to
the most excrutiating test. The Indians collected all
the murdered children and laid them in a row with their
faces downward. Two burly Indians then held her by
the arms and led her slowly past the children, expecting
that if her boy was one of the number she would make
some demonstration at the sorrowful sight. But al
though her tearless eyes seemed fastened upon her dead
darling's flaxen curls now matted by his blood, she
passed the fearful ordeal and made no sign. Not alone,
nor chiefly did considerations born of pride or hatred
control her in this apparently stoical indifference. True,
the indignation of her pure womanhood was aroused and
fixed forever against a race capable of such hellish
conduct, but to save if possible the corpse of her beauti
ful boy from farther mutilation and her little girl from a
life with these monsters, or to perish as the last resort
with it, ,the grand heroism nerved her to bear un
moved all events, and during the entire period of her
captivity,, eight long months, she met all the insults and
injuries of her captors with defiance, never once during
that period paying them the. tribute of a tear.

52 HEROES AND HEROINES

CHAPTER IX.

CAPTIVITY AND RANSOM.
The arms and ammunition of the fallen and prisoners
were collected. The dead were stripped of everything
of value, were scalped and their scalps were strung on
a pole and carried on their march as trophies of the
campaign. The march was then made back to the fort,
where the Indians camped for the night, and feasted on
the stores, while around and near the old Massacre Tree
lay stark in death thirty-eight soldiers, twelve children
and two women, the mangled trophies of their infernal
treachery and bloodthirstiness. Never was a memorial
more worthy its object, and never were noble and heroic
deeds more appropriately commemorated than by the
Pullman monument. Captain William Wells, Corporal
John Simmons and the other soldiers who fell on that
consecrated spot all deserve to have their names em
blazoned on that monument as brave martyrs to the
folly of their officers.
The horrors of the past and the dread of the future
produced for Mrs. Simmons another sleepless night.
Flushed with their success and indulging great expecta
tions of future triumphs, the Indians were equally wake
ful. In the morning the plunder was divided and the
prisoners were separated, some going to the Kankakee
village, some to Green Bay, and some to Michigan.

FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 53
After moving out of the fort it was set on fire and
burned, and the line of march for the respective villages
was taken up. It fell to the lot of Mrs. Simmons to go
to Green Bay and her captors crossed the Chicago river
on the 1 6th. of August and started for home. The
weather being warm and pleasant the hardships of the
journey to Mrs. Simmons consisted mainly in being
compelled to do the drudgery of the Indians, such as
gathering fuel, building fires and preparing food. On
the march she walked and carried her babe, the entire
distance being over two hundred miles. More than a
week was employed in making the journey, a terrible
week to our heroine who was sufficiently acquainted with
the customs of the savages to anticipate a wild scene
upon arrival at their destination. Her fears were
abundantly verified. Swift runners heralded the ap
proach of the party to the members of the tribe in camp
and upon the first glimpse of the returning column the
women and children sallied forth to meet it. Upon the
announcement of the death of their friends they com
menced a fusilade of insult upon the prisoners in every
conceivable manner, such as spitting in their faces, pull
ing their hair, kicking them and tormenting them in
various other ways. They finally reached the village
where the prisoners were kept under close guard during
the night. In the morning the village was early astir.
The young Indians especially were abroad and clamoring
in a way that boded no good to the unfortunate captives.
Soon, old and young, male and female, were on the open
ground outside the circle of wigwams and formed a long
double line reaching to the verge of the surrounding

54 HEROES AND HEROINES
pines. The prisoners were then marched to one end
of the line and each one of the soldiers was compelled
to run the gauntlet receiving blows from the women and
children who formed the line, and who beat them with
sticks, switches and clubs. Mrs. Simmons witnessed
this characteristic exhibition of savage cruelty and hoped
that her sex and the infant she held in her arms would
exempt her from the cruel ordeal; but to her dismay she
was led in response to the universal clamor to the start
ing point. Looking for a moment in horror at that long
line of women and children armed with implements of
torture and eager to inflict punishment upon the pale-
faced squaw, then glancing at the grim warriors looking
on with apparent delight at the anxiety manifested by
their wives and children, she almost lost heart for a
moment and instantly realizing that in all the sur
rounding multitude there was not a heart to sym
pathize, not a hand to shield, before her was a long
double line of savages awaiting her approach with
uplifted clubs, all seeking to excel each other in wound
ing and bruising their victim. It was an awful moment
for the poor woman but, as she had often done before in
the last twelve days, when overcome with grief and
almost famished with hunger, she turned her face to
heaven and reposed her trust in her creator, her only
source of hope and consolation, and as if inspired with
superhuman strength, she wrapped the blanket about
the babe that was clinging to her bosom for protection,
and folding it in her strong arms to protect it from the
cruel blows of the savages, she ran rapidly down the
line, reaching the goal bleeding and bruised, but with
the beloved object of her solicitude unharmed.

FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 5 5
Immediately after passing the gauntlet Mrs. Simmons
was astonished to receive an act of kindness for the first
time since her captivity began. An elderly squaw took
her kindly by the arm and led her into a wigwam,
where her wounds and bruises were washed, food was
given her and she was permitted to lie down and enjoy
as well as she could a much needed rest. This kindness,
so opportunely and unexpectedly extended was a great
solace to the distressed woman. It revived her drooping
faith and courage to encounter the trials yet before her.
To ordinary view her situation seemed utterly desperate.
She was five hundred miles from friends, the only
exception being the poor savage who had befriended her
at the hazard of her own safety, doubtless, and all the
intervening territory swarming with murderous war
parties of Indians. Bereft of the wise council and
strong support of her husband, she had been taught by
her bitter experiences to rely upon the All-wise and
Almighty for power and guidance.
It will not be out of place to state here that the squaw
who so agreeably surprised Mrs. Simmons with her kind
offices remained her friend so long as they were in the
same camp. Mrs. Simmons ever after spoke of her as
her Indian mother, and regretted that it was not in her
power to repay her for the many favors she had received
from her hands. It was a matter of especial regret to
her that she had forgotten her name. Could the name
and history of this noble daughter of the wilderness have
been preserved along with the life of Black Partridge,
their good deeds would atone somewhat for the cruelties
of the more vicious of their race.

56 HEROES AND HEROINES
After the massacre of Fort Dearborn many of the
more blood-thirsty young savages of the Pottawatomie
tribe hastened east to participate in the siege of Detroit
and Fort Meigs, the former having surrendered to the
British and Indians on the day following the capture of
Fort Dearborn. Sometime in the fall of 1812 the
warriors of Green Bay with their prisoners left Green
Bay and marched to the ruins of Fort Dearborn, thence
around the end of lake Michigan and up to Mackinac,
which was still in the hands of the British and Indians.
It was winter when they reached Mackinac, and nego
tiations for the ransom of the prisoners were opened.
Mrs. Simmons and her babe had suffered terribly while
on the journey to Mackinac. Winter had come on and
found her thinly clad, while she was often compelled to
seek food from under the snow. Still, amid all her
privations and hardships the heroic woman thought only
of the safety and comfort of her child. While in Green
Bay the Indians had, by various devices, attempted to
take her babe from her, under the pretext of friendship.
They declared they would relieve her from the burden
of its care and would rear it as one of their own children.
These repeated offers and their unconditional refusal
led the mother to more closely watch over the babe,
never permitting her to pass beyond her reach.
After many refusals a chief seized the child by the
arm and attempted to drag it from its mother's breast,
at the same time brandishing his tomahawk over her
head with violent contortions and gesticulations, and
threatening to kill her instantly unless she resigned the
infant. With a look of disdain and defiance, she replied

FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 57
to his ferocious demonstrations that he might slay her,
but separate her and her child, never! The chief finding
her spirit unbroken and undismayed, relaxed his hold
upon the child, and kindly though firmly said to Mrs.
Simmons: "Good squaw; heap brave; may keep
papoose." This was the last effort made to take her
babe from her, though she maintained a vigilant watch
upon it while she remained a prisoner. Neither was she
farther molested in caring for it, save that the Indians
compelled her to bathe it daily, for the purpose, as they
said, of washing the white blood out of its veins.
At Mackinac Mrs. Simmons was much encouraged by
the hope of ransom or exchange, and in order to
accomplish release on some terms she was sent in mid
winter from Mackinac to Detroit, a distance of over
three hundred miles. Deep snows with occasional
storms and blizzards impeded their march, which was
on foot through a trackless wilderness. But for the
knowledge Mrs. Simmons possessed that an effort was
being made by government authorities to ransom her
and her child and that every step she now took led her
nearer liberty and friends she must have sat down in
despair. Who can imagine the hidden power which sus
tained the poor woman as she trudged along from day
to day on that long and dreary journey? Her clothing
was woefully insufficient arid in tatters, the weather was
unendurable, and food so scarce that she often appeased
hunger by eating roots, acorns and nuts found under the
snow. Her babe, now a year old, had much increased
in weight, yet with her own diminished strength she was
obliged to carry it in her arms continually while she
perfbrmed the camp drudgery for the Indians.

58 HEROES AND HEROINES
In the latter part of winter, when Mrs. Simmons with
her captors reached Detroit they found that post in
possession of the British and Indians, the latter having
practical control. A large number of prisoners were
captured by these allies at Frenchtown on the river
Raisin in January, after a severe battle. Shortly after,
Gen. Proctor, the British general, left for Maiden, across
the Detroit river, when the Indians butchered part of
the prisoners in cold blood. The wounded had been
collected in two houses: these were set on fire, and when
such of the prisoners as could move attempted to leave
the burning buildings they were pushed back into the
flames by the savages and perished there. The few who
were not butchered or burned to death, were marched
as slaves to Detroit and, dragged through the streets,
exposed to sale as such. The citizens sacrificed every
thing they could spare to ransom them from this pitiful
fate. Here Mrs. Simmons saw and recognized the
¦savage Pottawatomies, and learned with horror of their
barbarities at Frenchtown, and that the entire northwest
was in possession of the Indians. She had fondly hoped
that her perils would end when she reached Detroit, and
expected that safety which it is the boast of England
prevails beneath the British flag, but soon realized that
the English officers had little disposition to restrain the
cruelty of the Indians. From Detroit she was taken to
Fort Meigs, and on the journey witnessed the destruction
effected by the savages. Late in March she arrived at
Fort Meigs; which was in command of Gen. Harrison,
who was laboring day and night to strengthen the forti
fication against the expected attack from the British and

FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 59
Indians. Here, Mrs. Simmons was set at liberty among
friends and joyfully learned that a supply train had just
arrived from Cincinnati-, and would immediately return
under a strong escort. The train was to pass on return
within a few miles of her home: in Miami county, Ohio.
She was still two hundred miles from home, the streams
were swollen, the swamps covered with water, the roads
deep in mud and slush, and the weather chilly, all
combined making the journey disagreeable. But Mrs.
Simmons contrasted it with her recent experience, and
decided that after traveling nearly 400 miles, from
Mackinac to Fort Meigs, through fierce storms and bitter
cold, poorly clad, almost starved, bearing night and day
the growing burden of her child, a slave to savage brutes,
and forced to plod every step of the long way on feet
almost bare, swollen and bleeding, the present trip was
a delightful pleasure excursion. She was now among
friends, with no great apprehension of danger from ene
mies, warmly wrapped in blankets and sheltered in a
comfortable government wagon, enjoying plenty of
civilized food, and conscious that each day's march
brought her nearer her longed for destination.
On a day about the middle of April, 181 3, the train
passed four miles south of her home. Here she left the
wagons and escort with many heart-felt thanks for the
kindness shown her on the march, and taking her babe
in her arms walked swiftly along a dim path through the
forest. The country was infested with predatory scalp
ing bands of Indians, ready to pounce upon defenseless
travelers or isolated settlers for plunder or revenge.
But the thoughts of the lone woman were busy with

60 HEROES AND HEROINES
retrospect of the eventful past, rather than with forebod
ings of the future. Every step was bringing her nearer
the home which she had left two years before in com
pany with her young soldier husband and their first born,
little David. During the short journey to the dear home
what pictures rose before her mental vision. The march
of the little family through the woods, the rumbling of
the coming storm, the heart-sickening details of the
evacuation and the massacre of the soldiers, death of her
brave husband, the slaughter of the innocents, David
among them, the awful death of the captured soldiers,
the fearful gauntlet, the exhausting marches through ex
treme cold, blinding storms and freezing mud and water,
the miseries of starvation, and if it were possible to
represent it, over all and through all the anxiety which
knew neither palliation or cessation. As her heart burned
within her at the remembrance of these experiences she
found herself at the door of the blockhouse. To the
inmates she appeared as one risen from the dead, for
they had long before resigned themselves to the belief
that the entire family of their son had fallen. The
mutual, mingled feelings of grief, joy, thankfulness and
sympathy, may well be left to the imagination of our
readers without attempted description. It was long
before the terrible tidings became an old story in
recital, and as for the narrator herself, her long repressed
emotions were so completely broken down by the return
that to use her own language, she ' ' did nothing but
weep for months. "

FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 6 I

CHAPTER X.

THE MASSACRE OF NEIGHBORS, HER ONLY SISTER AMONG
THEM.
Arrived at home Mrs. Simmons hoped that her trials
were over, but she was spon to be terribly undeceived.
Her only sister married a Henry Dilbone in Lancaster
county, Pa., and they emigrated to Ohio in 1807, settling -
near the Simmons blockhouse where they opened a small
farm. Here in the summer of 18 13 they were living
happily with their family of small children. Occasion
ally an alarm of Indian raids caused therh to take tem
porary shelter in the blockhouse. The situation in the
northwest was truly gloomy. The barbarities of the
Indians and their British allies at Mackinac, Dearborn,
Detroit, Frenchtown, the river Raisin, and Fort Meigs,
where prisoners fell into their hands had brought mourn
ing to almost every family. Many women and children
had been carried away into slavery. So far the savages
had been successful in almost every engagement. They
were therefore frenzied with daring and cruelty. It had
become a war of extermination on both sides, and the
lives of friendly Indians were often sacrificed by the
enraged frontiersmen in retaliation for crimes Committed
by the hostiles. Many camps of peaceable savages
existed all through the settlements, and their inmates
were compelled to endure many hardships as it was not
safe for them to go abroad to hunt or saek food.

62 HEROES AND HEROINES
At this time there was an Indian camp at Piqua on
the Miami river, and others in the vicinity. About the
middle of August, 1813, three or four Indians in a canoe
dropped down the river to near the mouth of Spring
creek, where they were seen late in the evening by Dr.
Coleman, of Troy, and from this action were supposed to
be a fishing party. On the following day, about four
o'clock in the afternoon they fired on and killed David
Gerard, near his residence, about two miles north of the
mouth of Spring creek. Having secured his scalp they
fled north about four miles to the Dilbone farm. Henry
Dilbone and his family were at some distance from the
house in a field, which was surrounded by woods on
three sides, engaged in pulling flax, from which to make
clothing for the household. Adjoining the flax patch
was a small field of corn within which an Indian had
secreted himself, waiting an opportunity to slay the entire
family. The sinking sun casting its lurid glare on the
surrounding forest, and the evening shades fast settling
down upon that sultry August day, warned the tired
laborers that their day's work was nearly completed.
Little did they dream how near the end of their earthly
toil approached. Their faithful dog discovered the
savage lying in wait, gave the alarm and almost simul
taneously with his loud bark a gun was discharged, Mr.
Dilbone receiving a ball from the rifle of ,the Indian in
his breast. The assassin at the same instant sprang
from his place of concealment and rushed forward to
tomakawk and scalp his victim, but Mr. Dilbone as
quickly recovered from, the shock and ran rapidly south,
leaping over the fence into the thick brush bordering a

FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 63
swamp where he fell. The savage abandoned the pursuit
of Mr. Dilbone, perhaps not aware of the severity of his
wound, being deceived by his speed, now turned his
attention to Mrs. Dilbone, who at a glance saw the
situation and fled into the corn on the west for conceal
ment, but was overtaken by the fiendish savage. A
single blow from his tomahawk felled her to the earth,
where, after taking her scalp, he left her weltering in her
blood. During the time in which this terrible tragedy was
being enacted, the four little children were horrified
witnesses, and momentarily expected the same fate.
The eldest son, John, being less than ten years of age,
took his little brother, now in his seventh month, in his
arms and set out for the house, but being encumbered
with the babe and his little sisters who were but three
and four years old, made slow progress over the rough
ground. They had gotten but a little way when the
fiend left his other victims and started toward them.
But to the report of his own gun, the continued barking
of the dog and the screams of Mrs. Dilbone, was now
added the report of another fire arm a short distance
away, which so alarmed the Indian that he instantly fled
into the the deep forest leaving his rifle and blanket
where he had dropped them in pursuit of his victims.
He then, as stated in the History of Ohio, ' ' hastened
north to receive the bounty for his scalps from the
British authorities." More probably, from the agents
of the British Hudson Bay Company. The fact that
the savage fled without his gun is evidence that he was
terribly alarmed, and this belief in his imminent peril

64 HEROES AND HEROINES
was the salvation of the helpless children. The neigh
bors were speedily alarmed and collecting at once went
in quest of Mr. and Mrs. Dilbone, accompanied by the
eldest son as a guide. The dead body of Mrs. Dilbone
was found which, with the children, was taken to the
Simmons blockhouse for safety. In ignorance of the
number of the assailants and fearing an ambuscade,
darkness having already settled upon the dense forest,
farther search for Mr. Dilbone was postponed until the
following morning when a company of militia, under
Capt. Wm. McKinney, which had rallied at the Sim
mons blockhouse during the night, started with the
rising sun in search of the wounded man. In searching
the neighboring woods the company passed so near him
that he saw and heard them. As the rear soldier, Jacob
Simmons, was passing by where he lay, Mr. Dilbone
cried out in the accents of despair, " For God's sake,
don't all pass me again! " The poor man lay just where
he had first fallen, so exhausted that he was unable to
rise or make any outcry audible to his son and the party
which on the previous evening removed the body of his
wife, and whom he heard distinctly. All night he had
lain between two oaks, one of which has been spared by
time and the woodman and still stands, a living monu
ment to the memory of Henry Dilbone. How little can
the men of this generation realize the dreadful anguish
under that veteran oak during that awful August night.
Uncertainty regarding the fate of his loved and helpless
family prompted him to rise and drag himself to them.
Failing utterly in this attempt, he strove to staunch the
streaming wound in his bosom. Tortured with the

FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 65
agony of pain and consuming thirst, he could only lie help
less and well nigh hopeless and wait for the morning.
Beside such anguish of body and mind how trivial seem
many of our loudly lamented calamities.
The almost unconscious man was borne to the block
house, and a messenger was sent to summon the dis
tinguished Dr. Coleman from Troy — the only surgeon
then residing in Miami county, who came and attended
the dying sufferer until the following day when he expired
in the presence of his children.
It was a sad coincidence when the dead and mangled
body of the only sister of Mrs. Simmons was brought to
the Simmons homestead on the first anniversary of the
murder of her husband and son and her own capture.
Surely her vivid remembrance of the events of the
massacre and consequent captivity had been sufficiently
bitter without this final draught of the cup of sorrow on
the first recurrence of the black day. Mrs. Simmons
and the other inmates of the blockhouse had been in
formed by a runner of the hellish deed and awaited the
coming of the mournful procession which bore the mortal
remains of her beloved sister accompanied by her four
small orphan children. Another coincidence connecting
this transaction with her own sad story which profoundly
impressed Mrs. Simmons was the fact of the babe in its
seventh month being bereft of its parents as her own
infant -had been robbed of -its father a year befof e at the
same tender age. That night of sorrow was a painful
vigil for Mrs. Simmons. Her only sister, beloved as a
cherished companion for almost a life time, lay a bloody
corpse in the house. The- cries of bereaved children, her

66 HEROES AND HEROINES
own thoughts mingling ghastly memories with we'll*
founded forebodings of future outrages from the savages
believed to be prowling in the neighborhood, together
with the agonizing uncertainty regarding the fate of her
wounded brother-in-law, all combined to render the
watch of the terribly tried woman the extremity of
mental torture.
Mr. and Mrs. Dilbone were buried near where they fell,
a few feet north of the section line, five miles east of
Piqua on the turnpike and old military road over which
a stream of emigrants have passed for more than eighty
years, unconscious that they trod upon the unmarked
graves of these martyrs to civilization.

FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 6j

CHAPTER XI.

AT REST
During the years of peace and rural plenty which
followed the eventful era of exploration and conquest
the infant child of Mrs. Simmons, whose life morning
opened so wild and ominous, grew to womanhood and
became a happy wife and mother. Her husband, Moses
Winans, settled in Shelby county, Ohio, when her aged
mother took up her residence in her daughter's family.
In 1853, Mrs. Simmons removed with the Winans family
to Springville, Linn county, Iowa, where she died,
February 27th, 1857, at the mature age of eighty years.
The friends of Mrs. Simmons applied for and secured
a pension for her, but she only received one payment,
the pitiful sum of thirty dollars. The reason for the
suspension of this payment was never known to her.
In all the annals of the race no grander exhibition of
courage, devotion and fortitude can be found. No
Spartan mother could have more effectually fortified her
feelings against expression, when the slightest manifesta
tion of weakness had been fatal. Upon this lone woman
culminated all the horrors which the most ingenious
tortures could devise, while she endured so well the
extremity of mental anguish, yet these almost incredible
sufferings could not force from her proud, heroic spirit
the tribute of a solitary tear to her tormentors. She

68 HEROES AND HEROINES
passed the awful ordeal unscathed from dishonor or
weakness and is entitled to a leading place among Amer
ican Heroines.
A few words may be properly devoted at this place to
a character previously introduced and well worthy
mention on account of his exemplary and useful life.
Tom Rodgers passed the three years of the war in the
woods scouting and watching the movements of the
Indians. He slept in the houses of settlers only in very
cold weather. After the war he built for himself a small
cabin in the forest on the banks of Spring Creek, in the
vicinity of which he spent his life alone, hunting to sup
ply himself with food and clothing, until about 1850,
when he became feeble from age and was taken to the
county asylum, near Troy, where he died a year or two
later. The service which he rendered during the war so
endeared Tom Rodgers to the settlers that he was at all
times a welcome guest, but he very seldom took advan
tage of their generosity, preferring the life of a hermit.
He lived more than the allotted three score years and
ten- -a life which experienced the marvelous transition
from the unbroken solitudes of a trackless wilderness to
the perfect civilization of a mighty commonwealth.

FOKT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 69

CHAPTER XII.

AWAITING THE END.
Mrs. Winans has unquestionably for many years been
the sole surviyor of. the Fort Dearborn massacre. Cer
tainly for more than thirty years has this claim been
true. It is also almost certain that she was the only
person born there who escaped death on that fatal day,
Peter Bell being the only competitor for this distinction
with the weight of evidence in her favor.
In the number of the "Illustrated Pacific States" for
June, 1893, the following article with an excellent cut
of the subject appears, contributed by Mrs. Florence M.
Kimball. "It is interesting to know that there is now living the
first white child born in the famous city by the lakes.
Mrs. Susan Winans of Santa Ana, Orange county, Cali
fornia, enjoys this distinction. When old Fort Dearborn
was standing on the site of one of the greatest cities on
the American continent, and savage Indians held supreme
sway, Susan Simmons first saw the light in that historic
fort. ' ' Her father, John Simmons, a Pennsylvanian by birth,
married Miss Susan Millhouse, also a Pennsylvanian.
He enlisted in the war of 1812, and was sent to the
frontier, Fort Dearborn. While on a furlough he visited
his young wife and persuaded her to return with him,

70 HEROES AND HEROINES
taking with them their little two-year old son, David.
On February 13th, 1812, Susan was born. The dis
comforts and trials of the young mother, surrounded by
hostile Indians, and the life of her husband constantly
endangered, can never be told. Her devotion to her
family and wonderful heroism sustained her; even when
in the following August her husband and little son were
killed at the terrible Indian massacre, and she, with her
infant, Susan, were taken prisoners, she still maintained
her courageous bearing. In April of the next year an
exchange was effected, and the bereaved mother and little
daughter returned to the parental roof in Ohio. In 1828
Susan Simmons was married to Mr. M. P. Winans. Nine
children were born to them, six of whom are living, three
in Orange county, Cal., and three in Iowa, to which state
Mr. and Mrs. Winans moved in 1853. Born in the midst
of dangers, her life has been one of heroic acts, noble
sacrifices and gentle, womanly deeds of love and kind
ness. Although eighty-three years of age, she might easily
be taken for sixty; her handwriting is that of a much
younger person, and all her faculties are unimpaired.
Enveloped in the domestic sunshine of her daughter's
happy home, Grandma Winans' declining years are made
bright and pleasant by its members. The children of
the neighborhood love her as if she were their own. I
visited her on May Day and found the vine-embowered
cottage porch gay with May baskets left by the little
ones, with the message, "For Grandma."
' ' Anxious that Mrs. Winans should be represented
either in the Woman's building at Chicago, or the recon
structed Fort Dearborn, I have made partial arrangement

FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 7 1
for a life-size crayon portrait to be made by her grand
daughter, who is a fine artist. Mrs. Potter Palmer has
asked for the glass of jelly made by her, and placed by
the citizens of Santa Ana on a handsome silver stand,
for the Woman's building. In reply to the question if
she would not like to visit the Exposition, she replied,
with a smile of satisfaction: ' Oh, no; I have lived in
the delightful climate of Southern California too long to
be willing to encounter the storms of the East.' "
"Such, in brief, " concludes an article in the San
Francisco Evening- Clironicle of corresponding date with
the issue of the Illustrated Pacific States, ' ' is the life
history of the first white child born in Chicago." And
this humble sketch may fittingly conclude in the graphic
language of another review of this eventful life:
" In winterless California one of the most notable
vestiges of the formative life of the nation abides in
peace and quiet the inevitable change. Into her infant
ears dinned the reveille of camp and the war hoop of the
savage; her innocent eyes beheld father and brother fall
in awful death. At a mother's breast she clung close
that no club might bruise her tender frame. From that
terrible dream of destruction and death to the vast
Chicago, hostess of the nations in her peerless palaces
by the illuminated lake, "from the awful glare of the
burning fort upon its unburied victims to the dazzling
lights of Fairyland, from the temporary triumph of
savagery to the eternal victory of the arts of civilization
spans the extent of this phenomenal life."

72 HEROES AND HEROINES

CHAPTER XIII,

THE POTTAWATOMIE TRIBE.
To perfect this narrative a brief history of the Potta
watomie Indians is essential. They are of Algonquin
stock, crafty and hardy, possessing strong passions and
as enemies are fierce and relentless. The establishment
of Fort Dearborn in the center of their territory in 1 803
excited their jealousy. Gen. Harmer had penetrated to
the border of their domain and laid the country waste
in the fall of 1790. In November, 1791, Gen. St. Clair
had reached the vicinity of the Indian villages for the
purpose of destroying them. In 1 794 General Wayne
killed many of their warriors and laid the country waste
early in the fall. In November, 181 1, Gen. Harrison
defeated the Indians at Tippecanoe and destroyed the
village with the food provided for the winter. These
campaigns, although not uniformly successful, entailed
great hardships upon the Indians. The destruction of
their winter supplies at the approach of cold weather
was exceedingly exasperating. These events recalled to
their minds by the firey eloquence of Tecumseh became
more provocation for war at each fresh recital. The
Pottawatomies had long waited for the opportunity
which now presented itself to seek revenge for these
wrongs and to drive the Americans from- their territory.
The remembrance of the excesses perpetrated by vicious

FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 7^
whites upon peaceable Indians added to the natural
resentment of the fierce tribes. It is therefore not to be
deemed surprising in view of the peculiarities of Indian
character that the atrocities of Dearborn, Frenchtown,
Meigs and Detroit should have been committed.
We have written the bloody record of the Pottawato
mies as we found it, but desiring to do the tribe justice,
we note with pleasure the good deeds of Black Partridge
and the noble Indian mother to whose care and kindness
Mrs. Simmons probably owed her life and the life of her
child, and through the efforts of the chief her restoration
to her friends. Black Partridge deserves more than a
passing notice for his timely warning to the doomed
garrison and his heroic efforts to save the lives of the
whites on the battle field at the hazard of his own. His
identity concealed beneath war paint, he was liable to
be shot down by those whom he endeavored to save.
There may have been others as noble as those we have
mentioned whose names will forever remain buried in
oblivion. Later in the history of Chicago and northern
Illinois, Chief Shabbona was prominent as an advocate
for peace. He stood by the side of Tecumseh when
that warrior fell, and soon after became the fast friend
of the whites and devoted the remainder of his life to
sincere efforts to maintain peace between the settlers
and Indians, and between the several tribes. Pokanoka,
squaw of Chief Shabbona, faithfully seconded him in his
labor of love and mercy. The lives of many of the
earlier settlers were saved by the timely warning given
them by these noble missionaries of mercy.

74 HEROES AND HEROINES
There are a few Pottawatomies in Michigan, a few in
Nebraska, Wisconsin and the Indian territory, but the
majority of the tribe, consisting of the Prairie Band,
reside on their reservation in Jackson count}', Kansas.
This reservntion is twelve miles square. They pay no
taxes and maintain their tribal relation. The United
States government sustains a very extensive boarding
school here. During the last quarter of 1895 eighty-
nine boys and fifty-four girls from the Pottawatomie tribe
also attended Haskell Institute, an Indian Training
School maintained at Lawrence, Kansas, by the general
government. A school is also in operation in Nebraska
for the benefit of the Pottawatomies. They have now
standing to their credit on the books of the Interior
Department at Washington a total of $635,816.28.
Thus whatever were the provocations furnished by the
whites to inspire the cruelties of the Pottawatomies in
the remote past, it is obvious that the surviving members
of the tribe are in receipt of especial favors from the
pale faces of the present time. These figures also
contrast with the pitiful sums paid by the same gov
ernment to the brave men who left homes and families
exposed to the assaults of the merciless savages and
from whose sacrifices and sufferings sprang the mighty
empire of the northwest. While the descendants
of the butchers of Fort Dearborn are lavishly pro
vided for by the government, it is not too much to
expect that the memories of the men and women who
planted the outposts of civilization and defended them
with their blood and lives shall be held in everlasting
remembrance by the millions who shall occupy the fair
heritage these heroic pioneers won from the wilderness.

FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE. 75
The tribe touches by one link the period of the massa
cre. The present chief, Shaugh-nes-see, was born on
the Kankakee in 1812. His grandfather, Suna-we-wone,
was in command of the Pottawatomies at the Fort
Dearborn fight. His father, Wab-sai was also a par
ticipant in the slaughter of the garrison. Shaugh-nes-
see lives on the tribal reservation in Jackson county,
Kansas. In a recent interview with him, he stated in
reply to questions that the evening before the battle a
white man (meaning probably Capt. Wells) who had been
raised by Indians rode into the stockade, and that he
tried to escape the next day but was killed by the
savages. Also that a party of soldiers escaped to a
mound but were captured and killed. To the question
as to the number and disposition of prisoners taken, he
believed that no captives were taken, the entire garrison
having been slain. He had understood that the treach
ery of the officers in destroying the stores of the fort
was one of the main causes of the massacre. All these
statements were of course founded upon the traditions
of the tribe often repeated in the hearing of the chief,
and furnished an illustration of the reliability of such
evidence as the sole support of history.

N. SIMMONS, M. D,
Proprietor of Simmons Liver Tablets or Ginger Snaps.

The following extract is from the Select Friend the organ of the order
of that name:
"The Doctor has been one of the leading Physicians of Lawrence for
many years. He is also one of our most reliable citizens. He has been
a member of the Legislature; Mayor of our city; member of the State
Board of Health, Coroner; County Health Officer; President and Secre
tary successively of the State Medical Association, etc.; and has always
acquitted himself with credit in whatever position he has been called.
His Tablets were first made to use in his practice but soon, by reason of
their intrinsic merit, acquired a local reputation, and for several years
their use has been gradually extended until now their manufacture and
sale has become a bu-iiness of considerable magnitude. We know of
families who would not think of keeping house without them."

THE HUMAN SYSTEM:.

By the harmonious action of this mechanism it is constantly renewing
itself. Worn, effete material is eliminated by the excretory organs, while
fresh supplies are prepared and assimilated to take its place. If the
equilibrum between these functions is disturbed, and elimination proceeds
rapidly, while assimilation is suspended, the system becomes emaciated
and blood impoverished, resulting in anemia, vertigo, neuralgia, cramps,
nervous headache indigestion, constipation, paresis, paralysis, palpita
tion, irregular action of the liver, kidneys, skin, brain and heart, with
horrid mental forebodings and fleeting pains in all parts of the body.
To attempt to correct this condition with active cathartics, only in
creases the danger, by hastening excretion and farther impairing assimila
tion. To attempt this correction with opiate or alcoholic narcotics is
equally fallacious, for while excretion is delayed, assimilation is also im
paired, and life endangered by the retention of the morbid material.
On the other hand, if excretion is retarded and assimilation active,
perversion of the blood follows. The process of th? renewal of life is
arrested, colonies of microbes find lodgment in the accumulated detritis
which clog the free circulation of the blood, resulting in congestion, tu
berculosis, scroffula, eczema, tumors, cancers, consumption, epilepsy,
paralysis, apoplexy, rheumatism, gout, dropsy and Bright's disease,
with blood poison and physical degeneration of the brain, lungs, heart,
liver, stomach and kidneys.
The proper remedies to employ are those that vitalize all of the func
tions of the system, and restore lost action of the stomach and bowels,
strengthen and energize the brain and nervous system, stimulate the liver
and kidneys, and give force to the heart and circulaton of the blood,
thereby relieving congestion and preventing the development of the
many dangerous diseases above enumerated before organic disintegra
tion has proeeded too far to admit of recovery.
There is no household remedy on the market that is equal to
SIMMONS LIVER TABLETS OR QINOER SNAPS
to correct these morbid functional processes and restore normal action.
They are so accurately compounded that while they hasten the removal
of waste, they stimulate assimilation and maintain harmony in the organ
ism which is indispensible to health.

(Jj) RIO I N_ OF JTHE__ 3ft AJTE.^
THE UNIQUE NAME OF
SIMMONS LIVER TABLETS OR GINGER SNAPS.

Did not originate in an eccentric freak of the proprietor.
They were widely known by this name many years before
printed labels or circulars were prepared and could not
well be changed without causing unavoidable confusion.
HOW TO DO GOOD.
Call on your neighbor who has sick headache and
often complains of constipation, biliousness, torpid liver,
weak stomach and is generally miserable and don't let him
or her rest until made happy by the exhilerating effects of
Simmons Liver Tablets or Ginger Snaps.

NOTICE.
It is due the public to say that Simmons Liver Tablets
or Ginger Snaps will not cure all organic diseases in their
advanced stage; notably cancers and consumption, but
their timely use will prevent organic disintegration by ar
resting the morbid processes leading to their destruction.

They keep the Life Renewing Mechanism Running.
If the dotage of age or decline is creeping upon you take
Simmons Liver Tablets or Ginger Snaps and stimulate
the renewal of life and you will be surprised at the happy
results, that aged and haggard look and feeling due to
general debility will be replaced by youthful freshness and
vivacity.
A HINT.
Persons who use Simmons Liver Tablets or Ginger
Snaps seldom have to call in a physician.

To the Despondent.
Do not abandon hope while you can purchase 200
doses of Simmons Liver Tablets or Ginger Snaps for Si. 00
and remove the physical condition which makes you mel
ancholy and miserable.
R&flD THE FOLLOWING SPECIAL DIRECTIONS.
For Constipation: — Take 1 to 6 tablets, or as
many as may be required 3 times a day until action is es
tablished. Then enough daily at bed time to produce a
free operation on the following morning.
For Sick Headache, Vertigo and Dizziness: —
Take the same as for Constipation and it will only be a ques
tion of time when you will be free from your tormentor.
For Indigestion, (Dyspepsia): — Take as many
as the bowels will bear immediately before or after each
meal. Congestion or Inflamed Liver:— Symptoms; fulness,
pain and soreness at the lower edge of the ribs on the right
side. Take 1 to 4 tablets every 3 hours until free action is es
tablished; then repeat from 1 to 3 times a day as long as
required. Weakness of the Kidneys and Bladder: — Elderly
persons, especially who are much disturbed of their rest
at night will be greatly relieved by taking as many as the
bowels will bear at early bed time.
For Old Age: — Use freely and postpone its ravages.
Threatened Paralysis and Apoplexy: — Symptoms;
numbness, tingling in the extremities, pain and dizziness in
the head, weakness, unsteady gait and loss of memory.
Take as many as the bowels will bear from 1 to 3 times a
day.

For Heart Failure, Weakness:— Take as many as
the bowels will bear 2 or 3 times a day as a tonic to the
pneumogastric nerve and muscles of the heart.
In all Fevers:— Take enough daily to keep the bowels
in good condition.
For Diarrhoea:— Take a tablet every 2 hours until
the discharges are corrected their 2 or 3 times a day. If
chronic take 1 from 1 to 3 times a day.
For Dysentary: — Take 2 to 5 tablets every 3 hours
until natural stools are produced; then repeat 3 times a
day. Explanation: — As many as the bowels will bear means
not to exceed two or three operations daily.
Containing no mercury, Simmons Liver Tablets or Gin
ger Snaps may be taken by persons of all ages and condi
tions for an indefinate period without injury. Children must
take less in proportion to age.
Call for Simmons Liver Tablets or Ginger Snaps and re
fuse all substitutes as there is no similar remedy on the
market that can be safely employed in their stead.
For Sale by all Druggists, or sent
by Mail on receipt of Price.

ASINGLE BOX FOR 25 CENTS.

Five Boxes for $1.00.

-^**t**b*«'7fc>'&*9-

ADDRESS, N. SIMMONS, M. D.,
Lawrence, Kansas.