McClures Magazine, January, 1896, Vol. VI. No. 2 | Page 6

Abe Lincoln." Unhappily there is nowhere
in existence a picture of the original occupant of this humble cabin.
Bowling Green was one of the leading citizens of the county. He was
County Commissioner from 1826 to 1828; he was for many years a
justice of the peace; he was a prominent member of the Masonic
fraternity, and a very active and uncompromising Whig. The friendship
between him and Lincoln, beginning at a very early day, continued
until his death in 1842.--_J. McCan Davis_.]
At that time the State of Illinois--as, indeed, the whole United
States--was convinced that the future of the country depended on the
opening of canals and railroads, and the clearing out of the rivers. In the
Sangamon country the population felt that a quick way of getting to
Beardstown on the Illinois River, to which point the steamer came from
the Mississippi, was, as Lincoln puts it in his circular, "indispensably
necessary." Of course a railroad was the dream of the settlers; but when
it was considered seriously there was always, as Lincoln says, "a
heart-appalling shock accompanying the amount of its cost, which
forces us to shrink from our pleasing anticipations." Improvement of
the Sangamon River he declared the most feasible plan. That it was
possible, he argued from his experience on the river in April of the year
before (1831), when he made his flatboat trip, and from his
observations as manager of Offutt's saw-mill. He could not have
advocated a measure more popular. At that moment the whole
population of Sangamon was in a state of wild expectation. Some six
weeks before Lincoln's circular appeared, a citizen of Springfield had
advertised that as soon as the ice went off the river he would bring up a
steamer, the "Talisman," from Cincinnati, and prove the Sangamon
navigable. The announcement had aroused the entire country, speeches
were made, and subscriptions taken. The merchants announced goods
direct per steamship "Talisman" the country over, and every village
from Beardstown to Springfield was laid off in town lots. When the
circular appeared the excitement was at its height.
[Illustration: THE BLACK HAWK.
From a photograph made for this Magazine.
After a portrait by George Catlin, in the National Museum at

Washington, D.C., and here reproduced by the courtesy of the director,
Mr. G. Brown Goode. Makataimeshekiakiak, the Black Hawk Sparrow,
was born in 1767 on the Rock River. He was not a chief by birth, but
through the valor of his deeds became the leader of his village. He was
imaginative and discontented, and bred endless trouble in the
Northwest by his complaints and his visionary schemes. He was
completely under the influence of the British agents, and in 1812 joined
Tecumseh in the war against the United States. After the close of that
war, the Hawk was peaceable until driven to resistance by the
encroachments of the squatters. After the battle of Bad Axe he escaped,
and was not captured until betrayed by two Winnebagoes. He was
taken to Fort Armstrong, where he signed a treaty of peace, and then
was transferred as a prisoner of war to Jefferson Barracks, now St.
Louis, where Catlin painted him. Catlin, in his "Eight Years," says:
"When I painted this chief, he was dressed in a plain suit of buckskin,
with a string of wampum in his ears and on his neck, and held in his
hand his medicine-bag, which was the skin of a black hawk, from
which he had taken his name, and the tail of which made him a fan,
which he was almost constantly using." In April, 1833, Black Hawk
and the other prisoners of war were transferred to Fortress Monroe.
They were released in June, and made a trip through the Atlantic cities
before returning West. Black Hawk settled in Iowa, where he and his
followers were given a small reservation in Davis County. He died in
1838.]
[Illustration: WHIRLING THUNDER.
From a photograph made for this Magazine.
After a painting by R.M. Sully in the collection of the State Historical
Society of Wisconsin, and here reproduced through the courtesy of the
secretary, Mr. Reuben G. Thwaites. Black Hawk had two sons; the
elder was the Whirling Thunder, the younger the Roaring Thunder;
both were in the war, and both were taken prisoners with their father,
and were with him at Jefferson Barracks and at Fortress Monroe and on
the trip through the Atlantic cities. At Jefferson Barracks Catlin painted
them, and the pictures are in the National Museum. While at Fortress
Monroe the above picture of Whirling Thunder was painted. A pretty
anecdote is told of the Whirling Thunder. While on their tour through
the East the Indians were invited to various gatherings and much done

for their entertainment. On one of these occasions a young lady