The history of George Davenport ended fifty years ago. He was a pioneer of the Northwest when the Indian border was yet far east of the Wabash. He was the first, and for many years the only, settler on Rock Island, or in that vicinity; and was distinguished as a soldier, as a negotiator with Indian tribes, as a wise public counselor and as a successful business man. The City of Davenport, Iowa, was named in honor of him.
A native of Lincolnshire, England, he was born in 1783, and retained his allegiance to the mother country until he reached his majority.
The master of a merchantman was his uncle, with whom, in his seventeenth year, he became a sailor. During three years his ship traded in the Baltic and at the Mediterranean ports of Europe. In the autumn of 1803, during the short-lived alliance between Napoleon and Alexander I, Emperor of Russia, his ship happened to arrive at Cronstadt, the port of St. Petersburg, where, in common with all British shipping, it was seized and the crew imprisoned. Released in the spring of 1804, after severe hardship, he next sailed to New York, and when the ship was in the very act of weighing anchor for return an accident determined his fate. A fellow-seaman fell over board, and he, seeing him from the deck, jumped to the yawl afloat, breaking his leg, but saving the drowning man by his hair. With no surgeon on board, the gallant youth was obliged to part from his ship and go to a hospital in New York. When convalescent he sought the country, first at Rahway, New Jersey, and then at Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Here he attracted the notice of a lieutenant in the United States army, who offered him a sergeantoy if he would enlist and recruit. He accepted and spent a season recruiting at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, returning to Carlisle barracks for a winter's drill and study. Spanish encroachments on the southwestern border demanded troops, and with his regiment he marched across the mountains to Pittsburgh, thence taking boat to New Orleans. During the years 1806 and 1807 the Sabine expedition against the Spanish, precautions against the Burr enterprise, and the yellow fever gave abundant and thrilling occupation to the troops. Davenport, constantly in requisition for some delicate or hazardous duty, acting in the intervals as the orderly of General Wilkinson, underwent extreme exposure and privation, bearing dispatches, etc., and had many narrow escapes. In 1808 and 1809 recruiting duty carried him again to the eastern cities. In the spring of 1810, with his regiment, he was ordered to Bellefontaine on the Missouri river, and again marched to Pittsburgh, whence, in boats down the Ohio, up the Mississippi, and up the Missouri, they completed their journey. There he remained in the wilderness about two years. In 1812 his company was sent to establish a military post at the mouth of the Illinois river to protect St. Louis and other settlements from Indians incited by the British. At this time the Pottawatomie villages occupied the site of the present city of Peoria, and an expedition was sent to build a block-house on Peoria lake. The regulars, in double planked keel-boats, portholes and swivels, went by the river, a corps of volunteer rangers crossing the country. The work was effected without molestation, and it only remained to provide the well-sweep with a grape vine to which a bucket could be attached. For this article Davenport and another soldier went to the woods, but on emerging beheld the prairie swarming with Indians approaching the fort some miles distant. Hoping to reach the fort in the rear, the two men hastened through the woods to the bank of the lake, under cover of which they made all haste; but the Indians were ahead, and, though not seeing them, cut them off. In escaping then to the armed boats they were seen, and being fired at, those in the boats took alarm, and but for the grounding of one the men must have perished. Reaching the grounded boat it was easily pushed into deep water, and, amid a shower of luckless balls, all escaped across the lake, the vigor of the defense from the fort, in the meantime, having driven off the Indians. Shortly afterward they sued for peace, and a party of thirteen and a squaw were sent to St. Louis to treat with the agent. Davenport, with four men, was detailed to escort them . He saw the imprudence, but obeyed. After the first day's passage the river froze up, and thus in December the party had to abandon the boat and most of their provisions, and set out to St. Louis by land. A keg of whisky was impracticable to carry, yet, the Indians thought, too good to lose. They, therefore, proposed to drink it all on the spot. The consequences might have been fatal. Davenport, by a little strategy and resolution, obviated the danger, but offended the chiefs. In camping, each body set a guard to watch the other, and , with various alarms at war parties of Sacs, white rangers from below, and severe hunger and cold, they arrived safely at St. Louis. Here the Indians were well entertained and a treaty was soon made. The rangers had been ordered to scout as far north as the mouth of the Illinois, and the agent expressed surprise to Davenport that he had come in without seeing signs of them, as they were to protect the settlements from surprise. The lawlessness of the times is curiously illustrated by the fact that on their return, Davenport and his mixed party were obliged to keep the Missouri side of the river to escape the vengeance of the rangers.
In 1813 Davenport was again sent to Bellefontaine, where he wintered. Meantime the war with Great Britain was at its height; Scott and Brown were pressed on the Canada border, and Davenport's regiment was ordered in the spring of 1814 to join General Brown. By keel-boats to Pittsburgh, thence on foot, by forced marches, the regiment arrived at Fort Erie much exhausted. But the memorable stress of Lundy's Lane demanded instant reinforcements, and Davenport participated in the sternest moment of that fierce collision. From a fallen Englishman on the field he procured a better musket than his own, the former being still kept by the family. During the siege of Fort Erie Davenport was on battery duty night and day, and was one of the party who, at Black Rock, made the celebrated sortie against the British works. This campaign over, once more Davenport's regiment was ordered to Bellefontaine, where, the war and his ten years' service having both ended, he was honorably discharged in 1815.
He now entered the service of the contract commissary of the region, in charge of his men and stock. At the mouth of the Des Moines, with his men, he wintered, mostly in lodges of raw hides stretched on poles. In the spring Fort Edward was built on the site, and the commandant happened to be Colonel Lawrence, the same officer who had first enlisted him in the army. That officer took Mr. Davenport along to assist him in selecting a site up the Mississippi river for a fort. The lower end of Rock Island, at the mouth of Rock river, was selected, and there, on the tenth of May, 1816, Fort Armstrong was founded. Under Mr. Davenport's supervision the troops first erected store houses, bake-houses, etc., which constituted the first structures ever placed there by white hands, though Indians in their villages, including that of Black Hawk, inhabited the immediate vicinity to the number of several thousand. They were at first suspicious, but were easily conciliated under Mr. Davenport's advice, becoming generous neighbors, refusing pay for vegetables and the like while the whites had not yet been able to supply themselves.
Mr. Davenport was known by the name of "Sagonosh” among the Indians of all tribes, a name which arose from an incident. With several men, in 1817, he was passing through an Indian village, when a large number of the savages, grossly intoxicated, attacked them. All fled but Mr. Davenport, who calmly stood while violent liberties were taken with his person, and a persistent effort was being made by one to kill him with a bottle. At this moment an aged Indian, an acquaint ance, called out, "Sagonosh! Sagonosh!" that is, “Englishman! Englishman!” It happened indeed to be true, though not in the sense of one of their late allies, and the appeal instantly transformed their drunken demonstrations into exaggerated favor.
In the spring of 1818 Mr. Davenport, consulting the commandant as to the most eligible site, at the distance of a half mile from the fort, erected a double log house. In this and its successor on almost the same spot Mr. Davenport resided all the rest of his life. He was now thirty-five years of age, with a character for every manly quality and every locally valuable attainment, and with some savings ahead. Under these circumstances he married.
He now went regularly into the fur trade with the Indians, and as the peltries of the Winnebagoes were abundant and valuable, and their name was so bad that other traders were afraid to visit them, he saw no obstacle to his fortune but danger, against which his experience qualified him to gauge his personal resources. On announcing his purpose of penetrating the Winnebago country high up Rock river with goods, the French traders assured luim he would perish, as that tribe considered the slaughter of the owner the shortest bargain for his valuables. He adopted his plan. On arriving in the Winnebago country he assembled the chiefs and made them a speech , in which he recited what warnings had been given him, and with what confidence he had come to test their honor. They received him with enthusiasm, pledged a fulfillment of his trust, and sent a crier to proclaim his arrival through the villages. He drove an unexampled trade, sending for fresh supplies, and finally returned to Rock Island with extraordinary profit. For many years he enjoyed with those simple people the rich fruits of his trust, notwithstanding several instances in which their sullen dislike for all white men broke into fury even against him. On one occasion he arrived at the lodge of his friend Wetaico, an aged chief, who received him with warmth but with regret, as a war party, headed by the younger chief, the Crane, was at that hour in that ferocious tumult which attends the moment of departure to war, and would certainly kill him and his men. Immediately the yells were heard without; the old brave bade Mr. Davenport and his men show no signs of fear, and went forth appealing to the ancient laws of hospitality and the sanctity of his lodge, adding that as the traders would remain some days, during which they would not be his guests, they could defer their purpose until they could execute it without violating sacred usage. Satisfied with this they retired, and the traders, strictly following advice which Wetaico then gave them, passed to the river bank, tethered their horses, lighted their fires, and made elaborate camp preparations, giving every token of a purpose of opening trade the next day. As quick as it was dark they stole to the water, found the canoe provided by the faithful old chief, pushed into the stream , and when far enough to safely do so paddled down with all speed. After several nights, lying through the day in the grass, they arrived at home, learning afterward with what terrific impetuosity the hostile party had rushed to their camping place the morning after their escape, sure of their prey, but maddened by disappointment.
In the fall of 1819 a Winnebago party of about twenty, headed by the Crane as before, made a very bold attempt at revenge and plunder. Their plan was to arrive at Mr. Davenport's house at nightfall, induce him to go into his store to deal, there tomahawk him and then his family, all without a shot which might be heard at the fort. When they came Mr. Davenport refused to waive his custom of not opening his store at night, but offered them entertainment, food, pipes, tobacco, and one of his two rooms with his two employés.
Before long one of the latter reported something suspicious, and Mr. Davenport directed him and the other man to come into his family room. He examined the dozen loaded guns, always at hand, saw everything ready, and after all had lain down, the men with their guns and ammunition, one of the Indians entered complaining of the crowded state of the other room, and was permitted to remain. During the night one of Mr. Davenport's men turned in his sleep, rattling his powder horn, at which the frightened Indian yelled and instantly escaped. The whites in a moment had guns pointed at the opposite door, through which the whole party of Indians were now rushing. But Mr. Davenport's intrepid warning drove them back to their room , and each party barred their door against the other. All three of the whites stood guard till daybreak, when it was found that the Indians had gone. It seems that when all should be asleep the intruding Indian, since the first plan had failed, was to tomahawk as many as he could, yelling at the same moment to bring the others into that room; but this was frustrated by his suspecting the sleeping man of beginning the attack on him.
Mr. Davenport's trading-posts were scattered at various points in Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin, to which his access was regular, on horseback, foot or by canoe, with his Canadian employés. The Michigan territory included Wisconsin, between which and Illinois the line was not traced, while quite a village was growing up at Fever river, of which the inhabitants knew not the jurisdiction. By Mr. Davenport's exertions the matter was settled. Meantime Southern Illinois was growing populous, immigration was rife, and the Indians were feeling the pressure. Still, up to 1825, the nearest postoffice was at Clarksville, Missouri, when the Postmaster-General appointed Mr. Davenport postmaster at Rock Island, though as yet he was the only civilian resident in the neighborhood. In 1823 the first steamboat to ascend the upper waters arrived, and Mr. Davenport piloted it over the rapids. In 1826 he united his fur trade with the American Fur Company; in above service he continued as long as he remained in the trade. In 1827, after twenty-three years' absence, he revisited England, remaining a year. In 1828 white men for the first time settled in his vicinity, though for ten years Illinois had been a member of the Union. Mr. Davenport, who had never wronged an Indian, had to witness in the first. acts of the settlers the seeds of the subsequent bloody wars. It was the practice of the tribes to abandon their villages in the spring — the old men and women to go to the lead mines and smelt ore, the young men to take the summer hunt. Of late years their return had been less punctual. These new settlers arrived while the wigwams were vacant, and without scruple usurped the villages. The winter was at hand, shelter and provisions were necessary, and Mr. Davenport's generosity on the one hand and his influence with the savages on the other carried the newcomers safely through the first year. The Indians were naturally indignant, but only Black Hawk and a few adherents withstood the powerful persuasions of Mr. Davenport to go west. The antecedent treaty was an acknowledged and shameful fraud, but the great Keokuk, with Waupello and others, submitted to rebuild in Iowa. The Fox tribe, being offered by Mr. Davenport one thousand barrels of corn, declined it, lest their allies should charge them with selling their homes, and mournfully set out empty.
In 1830 Mr. Davenport was deputed to visit President Jackson at Washington, and propose that a few thousand dollars be given the Indians, he engaging, with that comparatively trifling adjunct, to effect the great object of inducing a voluntary emigration of Black Hawk and all the rest. With incredible puerility that great man stood upon his spirit and declared that Black Hawk and all should go. Hence the first and second Black Hawk wars. The great chief testified to Mr. Davenport's salutary influence for peace by his express purpose of seeking to destroy him. Mr. Davenport stockaded and fortified his house, provided a swivel and bastions, and trained his men; but the war did not get to his door. Governor Reynolds now appointed him Quartermaster-General with the rank of colonel. The war soon ended. Black Hawk was deposed, and the red man crossed the Mississippi. Immigration now rapidly poured in, settlements multiplied, towns were laid out, roads and bridges provided, etc., in all of which Colonel Davenport was the leader. In 1835 a city on the Iowa shore, opposite Rock Island, was founded by a company of which he was one, and named after him. In 1837 he was again deputed to visit the national capital, in company with Black Hawk, Keokuk, Waupello, Poweshiek and some forty other distinguished braves, where, with his assistance, the Government effected a treaty for the larger portion of the Iowa lands. For the remainder of Iowa he was connected with two negotiations. The first, in 1841, failed, when the Indians, learning that the agent had confined the traders, including Colonel Davenport, indignantly refused to treat. In 1842 an agent of more judgment requested the Indians to select friends for consultation, and they having selected Colonel Davenport and three others, a treaty was soon effected, by which they agreed to go beyond the Missouri and give up all the lands behind them.
After this treaty Colonel Davenport ended a fur, peltry and lead trade with the Indians which he had conducted for twenty-three years , during which he had twenty times gone to St. Louis with his keel-boats, where his goods were noted for their superior quality and condition. He enjoyed unanimous confidence, and while a public servant of the most obvious and various usefulness, official and especially unofficial, he had become a rich man, with no luck and no shrewdness but what had been abundantly backed by hardship, toil and courage. His intercourse with the savages, whether regard be had to success in the white man's objects or justice to the Indian's human fellowship, presents a contrast to the modern trader which no honorable man can contem plate without horror. Instances in which Colonel Davenport evoked good faith from Indians are numberless. When, during the Black Hawk War in 1832, the cholera was destroying one-quarter of the population of the island in ten days, and all who could were escaping, two chiefs were at the fort who had been surrendered for trial for murder. Colonel Davenport interceded on their behalf for the liberty of the island. They gave their word, and when the alarm was over presented themselves at the fort again. He was for twenty years accustomed to trusting chiefs, at large in the woods, with fifty or sixty thousand dollars' worth of goods in a year, and declared that none ever disappointed him.
We add little of the less stirring events which follow for some years. Colonel Davenport had a large interest in every rising town in his vicinity, with a variety of business affairs to which he gave general supervision, spending his winters generally in St. Louis or Washington city, always surrounded with a listening crowd. With the iron of his constitution yet unrusted at sixty-two, the evening of life must have been pleasantly in prospect. How strange and fearful, after such dangers and escapes, that this noble citizen should have been slain in his peaceful home by a vulgar robber. This event, of which we forbear further particulars, took place on the fourth of July, 1845.
BIOGRAPHIES