Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 June 1910 — TO MARK LINCOLN’S MARCH. [ARTICLE]

TO MARK LINCOLN’S MARCH.

His Route in Black Hawk War Across Illinois and lowa Defined. Congressman Frank O. Lowden of Illinois, a former Burlington resident, has taken up the prosecution of a historical project of interest to western Illinois and to this part of lowa. By the donation of a sum of money he has furthered the project of setting up permanent markers to outline the march which Abraham Lincoln took up in the Black Hawk war. Only the oldest inhabitants in those regions now have any memory of the course of that campaign, which is not adequately outlined in history. The object of the markers will be to fix permanently the line of march and the* camping grounds planned by the martyr President. The way led across the prairies of Illinois to the Mississippi River at a point near Burlington, then known as Flint Hills. The inarch was made from Beardstown, 111., to Oquawka, then known as the Yellow Banks on account of the peculiar coloring of the river shore line. From Oquawka the route was laid to the mouth of the Rock River.

There were two expeditions in the Black Hawk war, one in 1831, when Black Hawk escaped from the pursuers and crossed the Mississippi, and the second in the following year, when Black Hawk returned to the Illinois shore with the determination to remain. Lincoln was made captain of one of the companies which took up the campaign against the Indians. The expedition gave a number of names to the localities along the route which are still borne. It is interesting to note that twenty-five years after his brush with Black Hawk, Lincoln, when he was coming into prominence, again visited Yellow Banks and after making a speech there came to Burlington by boat. Yellow Banks had become Oquawka and was a thriving village. v The markers to be placed along the route will be of stone and with-suit-able inscriptions, and a map of the march will be drawn and copies kept on file among the public records at various points.—Burlington correspondence Chicago News.