Trail of Death
Trail of Death Plaque on Old Randolph County Courthouse Lawn
The 1830s were a time when large numbers of people passed through Huntsville. Perhaps at no other period in county history during peacetime prior to the railroad did so many people travel through the county at once. For a county seat whose population was about 450, the passage of these strangers must have had some impact. Huntsville while a settlement since 1821, had not been laid out as a town until 1830. And while the people of Huntsville were no doubt accustomed to new folks coming into the county (around 4,000 people moved into the county between 1830 and 1840), the sight of a group numbering in the hundreds must have been a reason for much excitement or perhaps concern. One has to wonder what the townspeople thought. Unfortunately, Randolph County histories have remained mostly silent on the matter. We only have the accounts of those doing the travelling found in their journal entries and letters describing the migrations of these peoples, and few personal accounts from those living in the county at the time.
The year 1838 was perhaps the year of that decade when the most people travelled through Huntsville. In September of 1838, the Kirtland Camp of the Church of the Latter Day Saints passed through the town. The main group numbered somewhere between 300 and 500 people. A month later the Potawatomi passed through Huntsville on a forced march from Indiana near to what is now Osawatomie, Kansas. They came through headed west only a short time before large numbers of Mormons fleeing Western Missouri were headed east through Huntsville. The Potawatomi numbered about 859 when they left Indiana. With the Potawatomi was also a volunteer militia who numbered about 100. The roads passing to and from Huntsville must have been well trodden after that, with still more travelers to come. Since about 1909 the forced march of the Potawatomi has been known as the Trail of Death. The Trail of Death for the Potawatomi was like the Trail of Tears was for the Cherokee. There were several such relocations of Native Americans in the 19th century and the Trail of Death was one of them.
It all began on May 30, 1830 when President Andrew Jackson, no lover of Native Americans, signed into law the Indian Removal Act. It was only a matter of months before the first group of Native Americans were moved west of the Mississippi River. In 1831, the Choctaw tribe was moved westward peacefully. While the Act was intended to allow for the peaceful movement of the tribes to the West this was not always the case. The Seminole in 1834 went to war to keep their lands, and the Cherokee in 1838 were forced west when only a small number had agreed to leave their lands. The Trail of Death was one of those forced removals.
The Potawatomi had ceded most of the lands in the East to the government, but Chief Menominee and his Yellow River Band at Twin Lakes, Indiana had not and refused to go west. Menominee had not signed the treaties that gave his band’s lands to the government. Settlers in the area became concerned there would be an uprising, so Indiana Governor David Wallace came to the Twin Lakes area to investigate. On the way back to the capitol, he stopped in Logansport and there authorized General John Tipton to raise a group of volunteers and force the Potawatomi to leave their homelands. Tipton arranged a meeting with Chief Menominee and on August 30, 1838, Tipton and his militia met with the Potawatomi and informed them they were prisoners. Menominee objected and was taken prisoner. He and other chiefs would be transported in a jail wagon on the trip west. Tipton then sent his men out to gather all the Potawatomi, and on September 4, 1838 the march began. George Winter, a friend of the Potawatomi travelled with them on the march, and kept a journal. In it he described the situation:
“ It was only by a deceptive (in a moral point of view) and cunning cruel plan, they were coerced to emigrate … By convening a special Council of the principal Chiefs and Head men, at the Catholic Mission at the Twin Lakes, near Plymouth, under the pretence of a Council of Amity, and good will, [Genl. Tipton] secured them as prisoners. A high handed act, for such it was. For its execution, stern necessity, must be the apology. The policy was as painful, as it was successful.”
Father Benjamin Marie Petit, a young French priest travelled with the Potawatomi also, as many had attended his church. He met them at Danville, Illinois having had to seek the permission of his bishop before going on the trail. Every Sunday of the march, mass was said by Father Petit, and he also served as a translator along with the translator hired to travel on the march. General Tipton travelled with the group until they reached the Indiana/Illinois state line. There he turned over leadership to William Polke, the federal conductor of the forced march. Father Petit and Polke helped the Potawatomi where they could. Petit was placed in charge of the sick. Father Petit described the march in in a letter dated November 13, 1838 to Bishop Simon Brute, Vincennes, Indiana:
“The United States flag, carried by a dragoon; then one of the principal officers, next the staff baggage carts, then the carriage, which during the whole trip was kept for the use of the Indian chiefs; then one or two chiefs on horseback led a line of 250 or 300 horses ridden by men, women, children singled file, after the manner of savages. On the flanks of the line at equal distance from each other were the dragoons and volunteers, hastening the stragglers, often with severe gestures and bitter words. After this cavalry came a file of 40 baggage wagons filled with luggage and Indians. The sick were lying in them, rudely jolted, under a canvas which, far from protecting them from the dust and heat, only deprived them of air, for they were as if buried under this burning canopy - several died thus.”
The march travelled the width of Illinois. On the Illinois, prairie the Potawatomi and those accompanying them suffered illness and a lack of water. There was a drought and many of the streams had dried up. The water in the streams that had not dried up was stagnant. Father Petit and the physicians assigned to the march did what they could for the sick. However, they lacked medical supplies, so often all they could do is keep folk as comfortable as they could. Several died, and not a few ran away from the march. One teamster was dismissed for drunkenness. In Springfield, the Potawatomi according to Polke dressed in all their finery as they marched through the town single file. They crossed the Mississippi River at Quincy, Illinois via steam ferry. Of the crossing of the Mississippi, William Polke had this to say in his journal:
“In order to reach Quincy and forward the ferriage of the river as much as possible, parties of the emigration were detached and sent a-head at seven o’clock. At 10, a great portion of the emigrants had reached the river, seven miles from the camp of last night. A steam ferry-boat which had been previously employed was in waiting for, and the Indians were immediately put on board.”
According to a letter from Father Petit to his bishop, the Potawatomi suffered less illness in Missouri, and were also allowed to hunt game and forage for plants. This, no doubt, greatly improved the quality of the food available. The band passed through Palmyra, Pleasant Spring, and Paris before entering Randolph County. The first place they reached in Randolph County was Burckhartt’s Station, the stage stop on George Frederick Burckhartt’s land near what is now Old Milton. According to Polke’s journal they had travelled 18 miles from Paris where they had camped. They camped at Burckhartt’s Station and then travelled onto Huntsville which they reached on October 17, 1838. Of the time in Huntsville, Polke had this to say:
“Although the appearances of the weather were unfavorable, we were at an early hour preparing for the day's journey. At 8 the snow commenced falling very fast, and continued during the greater part of the day. Travelling was difficult, the road being exceedingly slippery, and the snow falling so fast as to render very cold and unpleasant the whole journey. At 3 o'clk, we reached our encampment near Huntsville, about thirteen miles from Burkhart's. The Indians travelled without complaint, and seemed greatly to approve of the exertions of government to place them at their new homes. Subsistence flour and beef. Forage corn and hay. The snow at night changed to rain, which almost inundated the encampment. A quantity of straw was procured, which generally distributed throughout the camp rendered the Indians tolerably comfortable for the night.”
He made another entry on the 18th while the band was still at Huntsville:
“To-day owing to the continued rain we were forced to remain encamped. Added to which the state of the roads forbid our travel. Nothing occurred during the day, save the drunkenness of a few of the Indians who had procured liquor at Huntsville. To-morrow we expect to move. Provisions and forage the same as yesterday.”
According to Margaret Louise Block, board member of the Huntsville Historical Society, and descendant of early residents of the town, the Potawatomi came into Huntsville on what is now East Elm Street until it intersected with Main Street, and then continued on Main Street out of town. They set camp on her family’s land north of town, and when they broke camp two days later proceeded across the East Fork of the Chariton River’s.
While in town according to George W. Dameron in his biography, “Early recollections of George W. Dameron,” the Potawatomi attracted a lot of attention. They would come into town and sell trinkets or buy things. The men would buy whiskey, and at one point two of them got in a fight that ended in a draw. No one intervened in the fight. He also said that some of the Potawatomi walked while others rode ponies. According to him they camped in the East Fork river bottoms north of town near an iron bridge. This bridge was probably near the location of the old Route C bridge Huntsville folks knew from before the road was raised and rerouted and the new bridge built in the early 70s.
While the townspeople sold or gave the Potawatomi straw to sleep on, and sold them supplies not all dealings between the town folk and residents were honest. George W. Dameron tells it of himself in his biography:
“There was with the tribe a big old Indian called Pap-poo-see. I think he was a chief among them. He rode a very nice saddle pony. One night about 9 o'clock an Indian boy came in the store and made me understand that he had a pony to sell. I went and looked at the pony and finally bought it from the boy for five dollars cash. I wanted the bridle too, but the boy said no. I went back to the store, got a halter, gave it to the boy and told him to put it on the pony and leave it tied to a post, and come and get his money. He did so, and left for camp, tying the bridle to the tree where he got the pony to make it appear the pony had slipped its bridle and gone. When I learned this the next morning, I suspicioned that something was wrong, but the Indian boy had gone with my five dollars. I was not sick of my trade, but rather thought I had decidedly the best of the bargain and to hold it. I thought it best to hide the pony out for a few days, or until the Indians left the country. I left Bill Hodge in the grocery and lost no time in hiding the pony in a little stable on the outskirts of town. It was not long; it was the next day, in fact, when old Pap-poo-see came into town looking for the pony. He asked several boys for information about his pony, but got nothing to encourage him. The old Indian did not take to the idea that the pony had slipped the bridle and skipped the country. I suppose the boy had told him that the pony had slipped the bridle and gone, but the old Indian believed someone had stolen the pony, for he hunted all over town and looked in every stable for it. I kept my eye on the old fellow, and if he started towards the place I had the pony hid, I intended to beat him there.”
Dameron went on to say he traded the pony for a big horse, and understood the man he traded the pony with was able to sell it for $100 not soon after in Glasgow.
When the Potawatomi broke camp, they crossed the East Fork and then travelled along what was then the old stage road (what is now Route O off Route C outside Huntsville). From there they continued on and camped on the Middle Fork of the Chariton River and then proceeded to Keytesville. From there they passed through Dewitt and Carrolton. At Richmond it was asked that they help the residents in case of Mormon attack. Polke informed the residents that such was not within his line of duty. There was a concern of the Potawatomi being drawn into the conflict between the Mormons and Protestants, but luckily being approached this one time was it.
From there they travelled onto Lexington where they crossed the Missouri River on October 26, 1838. Their journey took them through what is now Kansas reaching their destination on November 8th. The journey lasted two months, and they had travelled over 600 miles. Forty-two Potawatomi died on the trip. There, Father Petit took ill, and travelled back east staying in contact with his bishop via letters on the way. He died on February 10, 1839 in Saint Louis at the age of 29.
The forced relocation of the Potawatomi was a dark spot in our nation’s history. It is a sad tale of a people being forced to leave their homes which they had had for centuries. The new lands they came to were barren and unfamiliar. Game was scarce and the land not as good for farming as the lands they had left. They suffered illness and death on the journey to their new homes.
That Huntsville played a role in not one, but four mass migrations including the Trail of Death in the 1830s is almost bewildering. What the residents of Randolph County thought of these mass migrations is anyone’s guess. From Dameron’s account in his biography, one would assume it was with much excitement. The county’s population was a little over a quarter of what it is now, and Huntsville was having groups of people travel through town whose numbers were equal to or exceeded the population. No doubt it put a drain on the resources of the county so there may have been a bit of concern as well. The travelers that passed through no doubt needed food and water and other supplies. In Polke’s account he talks of getting straw, food, and other provisions for the Potawatomi at Huntsville. Imagine though if 20,000 people suddenly came upon Moberly, and camped in Rothwell Park? This was much the position the people of Huntsville were in. It is truly a shame that the history books written about the county in the late 19th century failed to record what the older citizens’ thoughts were on these migrations. The only book that appears to mention the passage of the Potawatomi is George W. Dameron’s biography. Others have not been located. One would hope not all the towns people were like Dameron and his shady dealings about the pony. Without more stories though we may never know what most of the townspeople of the 1830s thought of these travelers who had left their homes, and were relocating having had their dreams crushed.