Today is the 117th anniversary of the Battle of Kellogg's Grove in Kent township where Chief Blak Hawk's forces were decisively defeated by Col. John Dement's soldiers from Dixon. According to early history of Stephenson county, Black Hawk or Mucata Muhicatah (Indian Spelling) was the Sac chief and had hatred in his heart for the white settlers. He served under the English in the War of 1812 and received training which was to stand him in good stead in his private war with the whites. All Indian chiefs recognized the treaty of 1804 in which Indian lands on the Rock and Pecatonica rivers were ceded to the United States - except Black Hawk. This treaty coupled with the belief that Indians were unjustly imprisoned at St. Louis, Mo., for murder led Black Hawk to ws backed up by about 700 braves. After numerous skirmishes in Ogle County, the Indian chief led his forces to the Apple River and ELizabeth areas where he started an all-out offensive with 150 of his choicest braves in the attack. Miners held out at Apple River for shooting rapidly with the wives molding the bullets - Black Hawk was defeated.

On June 25, 1832, Black Hawk shifted his attack to the south in Kent township when the Apple River area became "too hot to handle". It was here that Dement's forces were encamped. Dement and his troops were attempting to capture seven Indians who had left the Apple River battle. They had traveled about one mile from their home camp. On the return trip, they were ambushed by a force of about 300 Indians. The commander quickly retreated with his soldiers to log cabins of Kirker and Kellogg which had been built to operate a stagecoach traveling between Oregon and Galena. The inn was located against a hill on what is now the John A. Busch farm, occupied by the Howard Busch family. According to the Busch family a fort stood in their yard where their house now stands, and it was in this fort that the soldiers staved off Black Hawk's attack. Two riders were dispatched in a nearby encampment to recruit reinforcements.

General Alexander Posey rushed to the scene with additional forces, but arrived two hours after Black Hawk had beaten a retreat. In the battle, nine soldiers lost their lives and nine warriors were killed. Black Hawk had fled north to Wisconsin when he heard a large force was moving to intercept him. AN interesting but sad phase of the Kellogg's Grove story is that of a small boy, known only as the "little drummer boy". He begged his widowed mother to accompany the settlers on their journey westward to this area. She of course, did not want him to go but finally agreed. The group traveling west agreed to take him. During the battle, the boy offered to go to the spring for water where Chief Black Hawk was camping. He was killed by the Indians. Older neighbors in the vicinity tell of a later trip made by the boy's mother to visit his grave which is among the 23 at the monument. After the battle, the bodies of men who died in the fight were buried along the trail in marked graves. Gil Aurand, father of Mrs. Ferd Phillips of Pearl City, who died five years ago on April 17, 1944, was one who clearly remembered helping to transfer the bodies from their makeshift graves to their present resting places. A monument commemorating the battle was built 54 years later two miles southeast of Kent. In 1886, rock quarried on the ROland Miller farm was constructed into a monument by James Timms. It was at this site where the old fort stood that the first male child in Stephenson county was born, He was Harvey Timms. He had two brothers, James and Ben, the latter serving as sheriff of Freeport at one time. Stephenson county owns about one-quarter of an acre of ground at the monument which was originally donated by James Timms for the purpose of building the memorial.

Contributed by Karen Fyock - Undated scrapbook clipping

South of US 20 near Kent is a monument located on the site of Kellogg's Grove, an early settlement established in 1827 on a mail route between Peoria and Galena, and now on the National Register of Historic Places. It honors those killed in the Blackhawk War, including the final Illinois battle which occurred at this grove in June, 1832.

Abraham Lincoln, a member of the Illinois militia, helped to bury five of the slain men. The remaining soldiers were originally buried throughout the area at the spots where they fell. Fifty years after the war, local farmers collected the remains and buried them in one enclosure on top of this hill overlooking the Yellow Creek Valley. The 34 foot high monument was dedicated in 1886, and the area now includes a shelter, play area and log cabin. [John Holmes, 10/28/2006]
Contributed by Virginia Gorton Bonne

William Ascher was at one time very well known in Freeport. On 4 Aug 1886 he won the bid to build the Black Hawk Monument at Kent. [Built of Stephenson Co. rock, the 30' monument would cost $330 plus foundation, and was completed by 30 Sep.] He was a benevolent man and because he remembered needy children at Christmas he was known to some as Santa Claus Ascher.

William was especially remembered for creating the subdivision called Ascherville, which he accomplished by moving about 50 houses, some built as early as 1836. The houses were originally located on the east side of Freeport, and may have stood in the way of progress. Thus, they had to be moved across the Lancaster Freeport Bridge onto some land William owned (which is now across from the present Sewage Treatment Plant). The moving of the houses was recalled in Letters to the Editor of the Freeport Jl Std, Wed. 10 Apr 1957:

How did Mr. Ascher get the houses across the river?...the oldsters used to tell how he moved the smaller ones on wagons and drays way out across the dry bridge which spans the Milwaukee Road tracks at the termination of South Adams avenue. Some were cut in two and ferried across the Pecatonica, moved up the bank, set where directed and rejoined. It was a demanding task, and engineering job successfully accomplished.

Contributed by Virginia Gorton Bonne