Over at Palm Beach Bike Tours, Ken was kind enough to mention The Spokesrider in a post about “Charlie Hamilton’s Baseball Bike Tour.”

What he mentioned was my historical-themed bicycle tours. But what he might not know is that I, too, got started with a tour to baseball parks. The above map is one I made for a talk that I gave back in early 2001.

Charlie Hamilton rode to a ball game in each of 30 Major League ballparks. It took him 11,741 miles of pedaling and 6 months to do it. You can read all about it on his web site. Along the way he raised over $19,000 for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and five years later is still accepting donations for it.

My ride was more modest. I rode to 14 ball parks in the Midwest League — Class A Minor League baseball. I did 2,000 miles of pedaling in a little over three weeks. It helps that these ballparks weren’t spread over the entire United States like Charlie’s are. The map above shows my route. I started in Battle Creek, went south to Fort Wayne and worked my way around the league, across Lake Michigan (by ferry) and back to Battle Creek.

I had ideas of doing other minor league bicycle tours after that one, but I got distracted by the Black Hawk story. Just before the tour I had read Alan Eckert’s book about him, so in between ball games I rode to some of the sites of the 1832 war. Some of the main ones I knew about at the time are marked on the above map. A red square shows the location of Black Hawk’s home at Saukenuk (now Rock Island, Illinois). A yellow square between Davenport and Burlington shows where Black Hawk crossed the Mississippi in April 1832. The yellow starburst just south of Rockford is where the fighting started on May 14, 1832. That’s the date that I used to connect the old school in the previous post to the Black Hawk story.

The other starburst was an incident that came to be known as the “Indian Creek Massacre.” I thought I had written at least a couple of posts about my ride to the Indian Creek location in 2004, but the only one I can find is here.

Why no photos from 1996? One reason is that a friend had recommended a little point-and-shoot camera, which I had wanted to get so I could leave my relatively heavy Nikon FM at home. It was a big disappointment to see how all my photos turned out. It was partly because of the lack of skill and experience on my part, and partly because it just wasn’t a very good camera. Fortunately the camera didn’t last long. After that trip I carried my Nikon FM with me on every subsequent trip, and I started getting some usable photos. I carried it until 2003, when I went digital.

When I got home from that ride in 1996 I started to read in the local histories about some of the places I where I had ridden in Michigan and Indiana. I learned that the Black Hawk war had involved Michigan, too. All three of the events at the locations marked in yellow had created a big scare when the news got to Michigan. I still haven’t got to the end of the bike ride destinations that are related to anecdotes and reminiscences about them.

On Saturday’s bike ride I came to a corner where this old one-room school stood. It’s almost at the extreme southeast corner of Eckford Township, Calhoun County, Michigan. There is still a swing set in the yard, but I don’t think the building is being used as a school. Back when it was a school, kids’ feet would have worn bare spots in the grass. There is a propane tank in back, but no sign that the place is being used as a residence, either. I don’t know who is keeping it in repair but it’s good that it is not being allowed to fall into disrepair.

Sometimes, with an obscure place like this, I challenge myself to a little game. I try to connect it to the Black Hawk story with the fewest possible degrees of separation. The best I could do with this one (after studying the county histories and atlases, and census records) is as follows:

A plat map from the 1870s shows that the land on which this school stands was taken from a parcel then owned by a W. Burland.

W. Burland is probably William, the son of Thomas Burland, who was the first settler in neighboring Fredonia Township, and who was living very near to this school in the 1870s. In fact, even though this school is located in Eckford Township, it seems to have been part of a Fredonia Township school district. At the time of the 1870 census, Thomas was 70 years old. His son William was 44 and was living in the same household, working the family farm.

The 1869 county history says, “Thomas Burland, the first settler, came and located in the east part of [Fredonia Township], May 14, 1832, and still resides on the old place.”

That date is a significant date in the Black Hawk war. It’s the day when the killing started. The episode is sometimes is called “Stillman’s Run,” and it gave its name to the town of Stillman Valley, Illinois (which is to the south-southwest of Rockford). There is information here about what happened on that date.

The war scare had started a few weeks earlier, when Black Hawk and his people crossed the Mississippi. The excitement had already started to die down by the middle of May, but when the news of Stillman’s Run reached Michigan, it stimulated renewed militia activity. We don’t know when the newly arrived Thomas Burland heard the news, but he is not one of the settlers who served in the local militia. (The nearest militia company that was formed was from Marshall, six miles to the north.)

Anyhow, that’s the Black Hawk connection to this school house. It’s not much, but it was the best I could do. I did learn a little bit about the settlement of this part of Calhoun County in the process, so I’ll plead that it wasn’t a complete waste of my time. Whether it’s a waste of the reader’s time is another matter.

googlemap

The location of the school is shown by the yellow pushpin on the above map.

YTD mileage:  336.5

]]> http://www.spokesrider.com/2009/04/22/burland-to-black-hawk/feed/ 0 http://www.spokesrider.com/2008/09/16/black-hawk-and-john-mccain/ http://www.spokesrider.com/2008/09/16/black-hawk-and-john-mccain/#comments Tue, 16 Sep 2008 07:05:10 +0000 Spokesrider http://www.spokesrider.com/2008/09/16/black-hawk-and-john-mccain/

This is the National House in Marshall, Michigan. The photo was taken in 2002, a year when I did not do much bicycling. I’ve ridden to this place many times, though. It’s about 20 miles from home. There are several stories in Marshall connected to the Black Hawk war scare, and the town is a stop on the way to parts of the old Sauk Trail in Hillsdale and Lenawee counties. The place came to mind today because of the puzzlement some people have expressed over the news that John McCain’s former captors have endorsed his candidacy:

Yet now, even the jailers who once tortured Sen. McCain are lining up to offer effusive — if somewhat embarrassing — endorsements for his presidential candidacy. “If I had a vote in the U.S., I would choose McCain,” beams retired Col. Tran Trong Duyet, the camp’s former commander. “I want him in the White House.”

Some people have expressed puzzlement, but it didn’t surprise me. Nor do I think there is much partisan gain to make of it one way or another.

It reminded me of what I learned about a meeting that took place in the National House in 1852, when the building was a hotel, not a bed and breakfast. It was the 20th anniversary of the Black Hawk war. There was a get-together of old settlers. The local newspaper reported that Andrew Hays regaled the crowd with stories and jokes about the Black Hawk war.

This account is told in the local county histories, but several years ago I went to the library to look it up on microfilms of the 1852 issues of the Marshall Statesman, to see if there were any additional details that weren’t repeated in the histories. The above is an image from the March 31 issue, which reported about the Old Settlers meeting. That’s not the part that reminded me of the McCain endorsement, though.  (By the way, in case you are inclined to take this information at face value, don’t believe the parts about “General” and “Commander-in-Chief.”)

I also looked through several other issues of the paper to see if it ever had anything else to say about the meeting. I learned that The Marshall Statesman was a strong Whig newspaper. 1852 was an election year, and the editor took every chance to talk up the Whig candidates and bash the Democrats. There was no pretense of anything other than wholehearted media bias.

Here it is in the September 8 issue, criticizing the Democrat candidate, Franklin Pierce, for voting against pensions for the veterans of the Indian wars.

And here is the Statesman, a week later, in the September 15 issue, pointing out that the Indian leader, Black Hawk had endorsed General Winfield Scott for president.

I have a good opinion of the American war chiefs generally with whom I am acquainted, and my people, who had an opportunity of seeing and becoming well acquainted with the great war chief (Gen. Winfield Scott), who made the last treaty with them, in conjunction with the great chief of Illinois (Governor Reynolds), all tell me that he is the greatest brave they ever saw, and a good man—one who fulfills his promises. Our braves spoke more highly of him than of any chief that had ever been among us, or made treaties with us. Whatever he says may be depended upon. If he had been our Great Father we never would have been compelled to join the British in the last war with America, and I have thought that as our Great Father is changed every few years, that his children would do well to put this great war chief in his place, for they cannot find a better chief for a Great Father anywhere.

Black Hawk’s words are taken directly from his autobiography which was published a couple of years after the 1832 war. In the book, the following paragraph follows immediately after the one quoted above:

I would be glad if the village criers (editors), in all the villages I passed through, would let their people know my wishes and opinions about
this great war chief.

Black Hawk apparently wanted his words to be used the way the Marshall Statesman was using them. And a week after complaining that Franklin Pierce opposed pensions for veterans of the Indian wars, the Marshall Statesman was praising one of the defeated Indian adversaries:

These are the sentiments of a warrior, and a patriot, a chief of distinguished rank of keen sagacity, if not a prophetic vision.

Black Hawk wasn’t literate and didn’t speak English, so his interpreter was an important player in the production of his book. We can wonder if he encouraged Black Hawk’s remarks. But if so, that raises an interesting question. John S.D. Eisenhower, in his biography of Scott, says nobody thought of running Scott for President already in the 1830s. Well, I suppose it’s possible that Eisenhower was mistaken. Or maybe people naturally looked at Scott and thought of future presidential material.

But whether prompted to endorse Scott or not, it’s not surprising to me that one warrior would have words like this for another — after the war was over.

Incidentally, Scott was not involved in the fighting of the Black Hawk war. He was sent out to take charge of the war, which seemed at the time to be mismanaged. But he brought a cholera epidemic with him from the east.  He and his men spent most of his time holed up in Chicago so as not to spread the disease to those who were doing the fighting. He took charge only after Black Hawk had been captured.

This story is not an exact parallel to the situation with McCain and his Vietnamese captors. But it’s an example of how it’s not unheard of for someone to speak well of a former enemy and recommend him for high office.

(slightly edited for clarity, 16 Sep)

The latest book I started reading is “The Geographic Revolution in early America : Maps, literacy, & national identity” by Martin Brückner (2006).

Whether it’s a good book or not I’m not yet sure. I just barely got started.

But in the introduction, Brückner calls attention to something I hadn’t ever thought of before. The literal meaning of the Greek word geography is, “to record, draw, and write the earth.” In other words, as he points out, geography is about the verbal as well as the visual. Geography is “a material form and stylistic device of literary production.”

I’m pretty sure he’s talking about more than just maps, but it’s true, a map consists of words as well as pictures, even if it’s just some sort of legend.

Here’s another map, showing section 7 in Porter Township, Cass County, Michigan, from an 1872 atlas. (This map fragment is courtesy of historicmapworks.com. If you click on the map, you’ll be taken to the county map from which it was taken.)

This map, too, has words as well as pictures. The words I’m interested in are Schellhammer and Schelhamer. (I’m not sure if the different spellings are significant.) Two Schellhammers served in the militia during the Black Hawk war, and these places may have a connection to them. I’m hoping to go for a ride, soon, to check the places out, and to see if either of the residences marked on the map are still standing. I’ve already ridden on some of the roads that are shown, but it has been a while. And I didn’t know about the Schellhammers when I did it.

I’ve marked Black Hawk’s old route from the 1820s in yellow.

I had been telling myself that of the several accounts of the building of Fort Hogan on Nottawa Prairie, only one was by a first-hand participant. But now I see that there is another. I’ve had it in my files for a long time, but found it today when looking through some of my St. Joseph County (Michigan) materials.

Sue I. Silliman told about it in her 1931 book, “St. Joseph in Homespun” (which I now see is online here, and apparently has been there for some time). On page 37 she has this:

The Hon. William Connor of Nottawa, gives the following description of the settler’s fort: “The contemplated site of Ft. Hogan was on the lands of J. Foreman, in the northeast corner of Colon. For its erection, a file of one dozen men was appointed each day to work upon the fortificatons. On the very first day, after a trench had been partially dug and two loads of stumps drawn to the spot, the sun shone with such intense heat that the workmen grew tired, handsomely cussed the Sauks and regarding discretion the better part of valor, abandoned the enterprise.

“The committee which was appointed to draw the plans for Ft. Hogan, included Amos Howe, Rev. Mr. Alvord and Dr. McWilliams. They drew the ground plans for the square fort which, covering five acres and earth two feet high, topped with grubs, fortunately was never completed.”

I’ll have to see if I can find where she got that. I’m pretty sure it’s not in the William Connor file at the regional archives at Western Michigan University. And it doesn’t seem to be in any of the county histories that were published. It sounds like something Conner said many years after the event.

On the above map, William Connor’s land entries in Nottawa Townshipo are circled and identified with the initials WC. I’m pretty sure that’s where his farm was, too. Fort Hogan is the other circled item, and was on the parcel of land marked JF. The map is a work in progress.

The gray areas are parcels that were bought at the Monroe Land office, before the land office moved to White Pigeon in 1831. In other words, they are the earliest of the land purchases.

I’m not sure whether or not the angling road between Connor’s place and Fort Hogan was already in existence in 1832. The photo below is one I took on that road on a bike ride last July 15. I was facing northeast, i.e. toward Fort Hogan.

Nottawa Prairie is a great place for some flatland riding.

]]> http://www.spokesrider.com/2008/01/07/william-connor-and-fort-hogan/feed/ 1 http://www.spokesrider.com/2007/11/07/fort-beane/ http://www.spokesrider.com/2007/11/07/fort-beane/#comments Thu, 08 Nov 2007 03:29:22 +0000 Spokesrider http://www.spokesrider.com/2007/11/07/fort-beane/

I must confess that I didn’t ride my bicycle to take this photo of the marker for Fort Beane in Goshen, Indiana. I’m not exactly sure why. I’ve ridden in, around, and through Goshen many times. But this marker isn’t on any of my usual routes. It’s on Hwy 33 and Reynolds Street. As far as I have learned, the exact site of the fort is not known.

Highway 33 is the successor to one of the earliest roads through the region. It’s a busy one, now.

This fort is on the lists of North American Fortifications compiled by Phil and Pete Payette at www.northamericanforts.com. That list is missing a couple of Indiana forts from the Black Hawk war that I know about, but it has also filled me in on some that I’ve missed. I used it once when planning some riding in Illinois. There are a LOT of Black Hawk fort sites in that state, which is not surprising given that’s where some of the fighting took place. I don’t pretend to be familiar with all of them.

Another place for information about Black Hawk fort locations is the Black Hawk War Message Board at http://blackhawkwar.proboards9.com. The people there deal mostly with Illinois and Wisconsin locations.

The Rice Creek dam in Marshall, MI was my 2nd stop after the Ceresco Dam, on a ride to Lenawee County in fall 2005. There is a park here, and a place to make lunch. (I’m posting this now because someone on the Phred mail list is asking about Trangia stoves. What I have here on the bench is the model 27.)

This site was used for water-powered mills already by the time of the Black Hawk war in 1832. The first complete dam may have been built shortly after that. Now there is a plan to remove the dam to restore the stream to its earlier condition, so fish can once again go upstream to spawn.

In a way it’s sad to have to destroy history in order to restore history, but conflicts over dams are nothing new. One such conflict out in Illinois was a part of the Black Hawk war.

The initial war scare had started to die down in Michigan when news came of the Indian Creek massacre. This was an event that took place near present-day Earlville, Illinois. It was the only place where Potawatomi people were involved in the killing. They may have had a personal score to settle over a settler’s refusal to remove a dam that was interfering with fish spawning. I rode there in fall 2004 and have my own photos, but for now I’ll just link to this Wikipedia article.

A militia contingent from Marshall did get called out but seems to have gone no further than Schoolcraft. Marshall is a historic-minded place, and there are a lot of sites here in addition to this dam that are connected to the story of the Black Hawk war. So there will be a lot left even after the dam is torn out.