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ILLINOIS GENEALOGY TRAILS
THE
WOOD RIVER MASSACRE
(Read before the Illinois State Lyceum, Dec. 6, 1832)
Illinois Historical Society 1912
BY
Rev. Thomas Lippincott
Typed and Donated by ©Jeana Gallagher
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Among the various incidents of the early settlements of Illinois, and those of the last war with Great Britain, that have commanded the attention of writers, there is one which I do not remember to have seen in print, that well deserves to be preserved among the records of frontier hardihood and suffering. I refer to the massacre of a woman and six children, by the Indians, in the forks of Wood river, in 1814. The following is given as an authentic sketch of the facts, taken from the lips of Captain Abel Moore and his wife, who were sufferers in the transaction.
Travellers who have passed on the direct road from Edwardsville to Carrollton will remember at a pleasant plantation on the banks of the east branch of Wood river, a short distance from the dwelling house and powder mill of Mr. George Moore, an old building composed of rough,round logs, the upper story of which projects about a foot on every side, beyond the basement. this, in times of peril, was a block house, or in the common phrase, a fort, to which the early settlers resorted for safety. Pursuing the road about two miles, to an elevated point on the bank of the west fork, where the road turns abruptly down into the creek, another farm, now in possession of a younger member of the family of Moores, exhibits the former residence of Reason Reagan; and midway between those two points resides Captain Abel Moore, on the same spot which he occupied at the period to which our narrative relates. William Moore lived nearly south of Abel's on a road which passes toward Milton. Upper Alton is from two to three miles, and Lower Alton four or five miles distant from the scene of action.
It appears that while the gallant rangers were scouring the country, ever on the alert, the inhabitants, who for several years had huddled together in forts, for fear of the Indians, had in the summer of 1814, attained to such a sense of security that they went to their farms and dwellings, with the hope of escaping further depredations. In the forks of the Wood river, were some six or eight families, whose men were for the most part in the ranging service, and whose women and children were thus left to labor for and defend themselves. The block house which have described was their place of resort on any alarm; but the inconvenience and difficulty of clustering so thickly induced them to leave it as soon as prudence would at all permit.
Nor had the hardy inhabitants forgotten amidst their dangers the duties of social life, nor their high obligations to their Creator. The Sabbath shone, not only upon the domestic circle, as gathered around the fireside altar, but its hallowed light was shed on groups collected in the rustic edifices which the piety of the people had erected for divine worship.
It was on the Sabbath, the tenth of July, 1814, that the painful occurrence took place which I now record. Reason Reagan had gone to attend divine worship at the meeting house, some three miles off, leaving his wife and two children at the house of Abel Moore, which was on the way. About four o'clock in the afternoon Mrs. Reagan went over to her own dwelling to procure some little article of convenience, being accompanied by six children, two of whom were her own; two were children of Abel Moore, and two of William Moore. Not far from, probably a little after, the same time, two men of the neighborhood passed separately, I believe, along the road in the opposite direction to that in which Mrs. Reagan went; and one of them heard at a certain place, a low call, as of a boy, which he did not answer, and for a repetition of which he did not delay. But he remembered and told it afterward.
When it began to grow dark the families became uneasy at the protracted absence of their respective members; and William Moore came to Abel's and not finding them there, passed on towards Mr. Reagan's too see what had become of his sister-in-law and children; and nearly about the same time, his wife went across the angle directly towards the same place.
Mr. Moore had not been long absent from his brother's before he returned with the information that some one had been killed by the Indians. He had discerned the body of a person lying on the ground, but whether man or woman it was too dark for him to see without a closer inspection than was deemed safe. The habits of the Indians were too well known by these settlers to leave a man in Mr. Moore's situation free from the apprehension of an ambuscade still near.
The first thought that occurred was to flee to the block house. Mr. Moore desired his brother's family to go directly to the fort while he should pass by his own house to take his family with him. But the night was now dark, and the heavy forest was at that time scarcely opened here and there by a little farm, while the narrow road wound through among the tall trees from the farm of Abel Moore to that of his brother, Geo. Moore, where the fort was erected. The women and children therefore chose to accompany William Moore, though the distance was nearly doubled by the measure.
The feelings of the group as they groped their way through the dark woods, may be more easily imagined than described. Sorrow, for the supposed loss of relatives and children was mingled with horror at the manner of their death, fear for their own safety, and pain at the dreadful idea that the remains of their dearest friends lay mangled on the cold ground near them while they were denied the privilege of seeing and preparing them for sepulture.
Silently they passed on till they came to the dwelling of William Moore, and when they approached the entrance he exclaimed, as if relieved from some dreadful apprehension "Thank God, Polly is not killed." How do you know?" inquired one. "Because there is the horse she road." My informant then first learned that his brother-in-law had feared, until that moment, that his wife was the victim that he had discovered.
As they let down the bars, Mrs. William Moore came running out, exclaiming " They are all killed by the Indians, I expect!" The mourning friends went in for a short time, but hastily departed to the block house, whither by daybreak all or nearly all the neighbors, having been warned by signals, repaired to sympathize and tremble.
I have mentioned that Mrs. William Moore went, as well as her husband, in search of her sister and children. Passing by different routes, they did not meet on the way, nor at the place of death. She jumped on a horse and hastily went in the nearest direction, and as she went, carefully noted every discernible object until at length she saw a human figure lying near a burning log. There was not sufficient light for her to discern the size, sex or condition of the person, and she called the name of one and an other of her children, again and again, supposing it to be one of them asleep. At length she alighted and approached to examine more closely. What must have been her sensations on placing her hand upon the back of a naked corpse and feeling, by further scrutiny, the quivering flesh from which the scalp had been torn! In the gloom of night she could just discern something, seeming like a little child sitting so near the body as to lean its head, first one side, and then the other, on the insensible and mangled body. She saw no further, but thrilled with horror and alarm, remounted her horse and hastened home; and when she arrived, quickly put a large kettle of water over the fire, intending to defend herself with scalding water, in case of an attack.
There was little rest or refreshment as may well be supposed, at the fort that night. The women and children of the vicinity, together with a few men who were at home, were crowded together, not knowing but that a large body of the savage foe might be prowling about, ready to pour a deadly fire upon them at any moment, a neighbor and six of the children of the settlement were probably lying in the wood, within a mile or two dead and mangled by that dreadful enemy! What about subjects of thought and feeling? About three o'clock a messenger was dispatched to Fort Russell with the tidings.
In the morning the inhabitants undertook the painful task of ascertaining the extent of their calamity, and collecting the remains for burial. The whole party, Mrs. Reagan and six children, were found lying at intervals along the road, tomahawked and scalped, and all dead, except the youngest of Mrs. Reagan's children, which was sitting near its mother's corpse, alive, with a gash, deep and large, on each side of its little face. It were idle to speak of the emotion that filled the souls of the neighbors, and friends, and fathers, and mothers, and husband, who gathered round to behold this awful spectable. There lay the mortal remains of six of those whom, but yesterday, they had seen and embraced, in health; and there was one helpless little one, wounded and bleeding and dying, an object of painful solicitude, but scarcely of hope.
To women and youth, chiefly was committed the painful task of depositing their dear remains in the tomb. This was performed on the six already dead on that day. They were interred in three graves, which were carefully dug, so as to lay boards beneath, beside and above the bodies-for there could be no coffins be provided in the absence of nearly all the men- and the graves being filled, they were left to receive in aftertimes when peace had visited the settlement, a simple covering of stone, bearing an inscription descriptive of their death.
It was a solemn day, observed my informant, to follow seven bodies to the grave, at once, from so small a settlement; and they, too, buried under such painful circumstances. Could we have followed that train to the grave in which their little church and cemetery were embowered, would we not feel that the procession, the occasion, the ceremony, the emotions were of a character too awful, too sacred to admit of minute observation then; or accurate description now? The seventh, however, was not then buried. The child found alive, received every possible attention; medical aid was procured with great difficulty, but in vain. It followed within a day or two at most.
On the arrival of the messenger at Fort Russell, a fresh express was hastened to Captain (now General) Samuel Whiteside's company which was on Ridge Prairie, some four miles east of Edwardsville.
It was about an hour after sunrise, on Monday morning, when the gallant troops arrived on the spot-having rode some fifteen miles-ready to weep with the bereaved and to avenge them of their ruthless foes. Abel Moore who was one of the rangers then on duty, and of course, absent at the catastrophe, was permitted to remain at home to assist in burying his children and relatives, and the company dashed on, eager to overtake and engage in deadly conflict with the savages. I regret that I have no recent account of the particulars of this interesting pursuit; and that my memory does not hold them with sufficient distinctness to warrant an attempt at the narration. At Indian creek, in what is now Morgan county, some three or four of the Indians were seen, and one killed and it is a current report among the rangers that not one of the ten that composed the party, survived the fatigue of the retreat before the eager troop--Western Monthly Magazine. From the Sangamon Journal, April 2, 1841
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