Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 July 1885 — Who KiHed Tecumseh? [ARTICLE]

Who KiHed Tecumseh?

In the year 1846 I became acquainted with Shabbona, an Indian chief of the Sttawa tribe, wTio was the aid-de-camp Tecumseh at t he battle of the Thames. Shabbona was living on a reservation, then and since/ known as Shabbona’s Grove, in De Kalb County, Illinois, about seventy-five or eighty miles west from Chicago. He was nearly, seventy years old, full six feet in height, straight as an arroy, and with the step and bearing of a prince. No man bore a higher reputation for truth and uprightness than he. There are still many living in the vicinity who can attest the accuracy of this representation. When I learned of the position he formerly held under Tecumseh, 1 took the opportunity to converse with him on the manner of the great warrior’s death, in order to satisfy my own mind; for till then I had regarded the story of his fall by the hand of Col. R. M. Johnson as a tale devised for electioneering purposes. That conversation settled the question with me forever, and I have no doubt that Col. Johnson actually killed him; and I write this in order to settle a point of history of importance. A year or two before I met Shabbona he was in the city of Washington, D. 0., walking along the street with Mr. W. Gates; he suddenly stopped, pointed to a man across the street, and said to Mr. Gates: “That is the man that killed Tecumseh.” He had only seen Col. Johnson in the fight when Tecumseh fell, about thirty years before, still he recognized his old foe. Mr. Gates related to me this incident. Shabbona said that Col. Johnson rode a creamcolored horse, and was at the head of his men, leading them on. The battle had reached the crisis. The Indians of the enemy occupied a strip of timber land. Col. Johnson charged to drive them out; Tecumseh sprang forward and seized the bridle of Johnson’s horse, and raised his tomahawk to cut him down. Then Johnson shot him with a little gun, which he took, from a leather case before him—before Tecumseh had time to strike. (The little gun, of course, was a pistol taken from the holster.) * Shabbona said that he had just fired, and his gun was empty; he commenced to load in order to shoot Johnson. But just then the Indians began to flee, and they shouted to him: “Shabbona, puck-a-chee! Shabbona, puck-a-chee!”. Puck-a-chee means run. So Shabbona said that he puck-a-cheed, and left Johnson alive to enjoy the fruits of his conquest over the mighty Indian. After the treaty of peace was made, Shabbona changed sides, and became a fast friend of the United States Government. No complaint was ever heard of his loyalty as a subject or his integrity as a man. When Black Hawk made war, and filled the newly settled country of Northern Illinois with terror, Shabbona kept ahead of his vindictive band of warriors, and warned the defenseless settlers of his coining, thus affording them time and help to escape, and undoubtedly saving many lives and much property by his faithfulness. After some years he was induced to part with his title to the beautiful grove and adjacent prairie where his name yet remains, and, with the small remnant of his people who acknowledged his chieftainship, he made a home on the Illinois River a few miles south of Morris, in Grundy County, where he died. If he, in his young life, had enjoyed the advantages of civilization, he would have stood among the foremost of his age.— S. Stover, in the Current. The Right Reverend Bishop Gilmour, Cleveland, Ohio, is one of the many eminent church dignitaries who have publicly adde d their emphatic indorsement to the wonderful efficacy of St. Jacobs Oil in cases of rheumatism and other painful ailments.