Headlines from the Sunday Herald, dated July 15, 1984.
The article begins with the following:
Students unearth traces of Indian Culture
By Joan Fleischer
Herald Staff Writer
More than 1500 years ago, people were farming in Barrington Hills.
There is no question about that. Artifacts unearthed last week in a soybean field by archaeologists from Northern Illinois University have been traced back to 400 A.D.
As fragments were found after painstaking and meticulous search, they were labeled, placed in plastic evidence bags and taken to the NIU campus to be carbon-dated.
The two test pits are believed to be a Middle Woodland site of Paelo and Aqua-plan Indians, archaeologist Charles Markman said.
For the past month, the university professor has directed 10 students on an archaeological dig on the “Cooke Site,” the home of Henry and Debby Cooke of Barrington Hills.
Because of the extent of the discovery, Markman plans to return with a bigger crew to excavate larger portions of the 27-acre farm. The property is about two miles from the Fox River in the southwest portion of the village.
TRACES OF Archaic, Middle Woodland, an Upper Mississippian peoples over a 1000 year period have been found, Markman said. The land is believed to have been used as a temporary campsite because no burials were found.
"This is an exciting dig," Markman said, "because we've made discoveries and found it (to be) an outlying area which has never been researched."
To Be Continued.....
The Barrington Edition of Paddock Publications, 113th Year, 243, dated Friday, June 14, 1985 carried the following article. The Title:
"Ancient era alive in field"
by Joan Fleisher
Herald Staff Writer
For 65-year old B.A. Duncan of Barrington Hills, the painstaking work of brushing away dirt with delicate sweeps of an archaeological tool was a labor of love. After all, she was helping to unearth a historical Indian site dating back more than 1,500 years.
"This is unbelievable," said Duncan as she wiped smudges of dirt from her sweat-glistened forehead Thursday afternoon. "Can you imagine that where we are standing today in a cornfield in Barrington Hills looking at a fire pit used by Indian families hundreds of years before the first white family ever settled here.?"
Duncan volunteered to assist a team of 15 archaeological students from Northern Illinois University who for the last four weeks have been working on an archaeological dig on the "Cooke Site," the the home of Henry and Debbie Cooke of Barrington Hills.
The site is being re-excavated this summer to continue a research project on the Indians of Barrington Township being directed by archaeologist Charles W. Markman.
The university professor returned to the Cooke Site to gather more artifacts from the early Indian village his team uncovered last July [1984.]
FROM FRAGMENTS painstakingly and meticulously unearthed at the site, it was determined that people were farming in the Barrington Hills area as far back as 400 A.D., Markman said.
Traces of Archaic, Middle Woodland and Upper Mississippian peoples over a 1,000-year period have been found, said Markman.
"We didn't expect to find everything we have found here so far," said the professor. "It's an exciting site because there are bits and pieces of different periods, possibly going back 10,000 years."
Last summer, 14 different features such as fire pits, post holes, garbage pits and other outlines of village life were discovered at the site. By Thursday, the count was up to 39 features.
The rare finds have led Markman to consider nominating the Cooke Site for recognition on the National Register of Historic Places. The site is believed to be the earliest area where man lived in what is now Cook County.
The artifacts includes points, arrowheads, animal bones and pottery pieces.
Markman believes the team also might have found a human finger bone, which leads him to believe a burial ground may lie somewhere in the 27-acre farm, located about two miles from the Fox River.
Debbie Cooke, who as a young girl used to walk the property searching for arrowheads, said she has always believed a burial ground exists on the land which once was owned by the Help family, the original homesteaders, and later purchased by her grandfather in 1932.
It was Cooke who alerted archaeologists to investigate her family's property.
"It's hard work. Shoveling all day by hand. The first three days I didn't think I would survive," said Duncan. "But then I uncovered a piece of pottery. I imagined who the first person to have held that pot might have been. I became excited and realized how important these discoveries could be. And this site is only 10 minutes from where I live."
Ed. The photo accompanying the article is not clear enough to copy here. We are seeking original or better photos of the excavation and the artifacts for adding to the website.
The Barrington Courier-Review Article: Thursday February 27, 1986 was made available from the Barrington Area Library, through research by Rose Faber and her associates. The Title:
Archaeologists can really dig area's early days
Stones and Bones from a local farm begin to tell a story of what life in early Barrington was like. Early as in before the first white settlers came to the area. Early as in 400 A.D.
By Kirk Birginal
The last Roman troops were leaving Great Britain, wrestling had long been a highly developed sport, the Franks were settling in parts of Gaul, and Constantinople University was being founded.
The time is 400 A.D., and Indians [Native Americans] living in the Barrington area are starting to shift to an agricultural way of life. For the first time, they are able to grow a strain of corn that can survive the long northern days of summer. And a new invention is attracting a lot of interest: smaller and lighter stone points have made arrows a reality and spears a thing of the past.
THE BOW AND arrow played a role in bringing a greater Indian population to the Barrington area in the 10th Century. With this new invention, hunters could take advantage of the smaller faster game that frequented a glacial upland in the area of Barrington Hills near the edge of an oak forest.....
"This site is significant for the data it's providing on the origins of a corn agriculture," says Markman.....
He told a gathering of about 200 people at Countryside School this week that the digging has unearthed the outline of what appears to have been a large house on the site.....
MARKMAN SAYS THE archaeological discoveries in Barrington Hills are helping complete a picture of the pre-written history of the upper Midwest.....
To Be Continued....
Ed. Notes: The article was accompanied by pictures and artifacts. It mentions the ceramics and animal teeth found at the site and it indicates that further digging would be taking place in 1986 before part of the property would be sold. The PDF - Click here for a viewing until we get better photocopies.
Note: Some articles show the name "Debbie" Cooke and others show "Debby" Cooke. An effort will be made to provide her correct name spelling, but the newspaper articles are quoted as they were written. Barbara Kemp
Ed. Notes: First, thanks to Bob Kosin for bringing attention to this information and Rose Faber for initiating renewed research into this topic. More meetings and research in progress..
As of 2009, current resident Muffy Cooke's home is near the heart of the original family farm site mentioned in the articles. Muffy Cooke is the daughter of Henry and Debby Cooke; she remains the steward of many treasures found by her mother as a child which led to this amazing discovery near Helm Road in what is now Barrington Hills. Much of the property has been subdivided, but the original farmland that was near the site of the dig is intact.
The articles and/or links will continue on this website. We have been given permission to go to Muffy Cooke’s property this spring and take photos of the location and some of her family artifacts. Every effort will be made to gather photos from the original dig which have been included in newspaper articles and in other formal documents.
Early efforts were made by Debby Cooke to get professional support to excavate the property dating back to the 1950s. The years 1984, 1985 and 1986 were the most active research years while Professor Markman was at NIU and had access to students and local resident volunteers to do the work and research on the site. Later newspapers articles indicate that artifacts were found which date the area where early man was present back to 10,000 years ago. The land is the highest point in Cook County, so the site survived even the wettest historical periods. Charles Markman made a presentation at the Barrington Library February 10, 1985. No records were retained by the library. Anyone with a copy is encouraged to share it with Rose Faber so it can be reproduced and returned to the owner..
Again, efforts are being made in 2009 to see if any of the older photos, slides or presentation medium were retained by the library or Barrington Historical Society. Another presentation was made by Charles Markman at the Countryside School in February of 1986.
A formal paper was published by Professor Charles Markman in 1991 entitled, "Above the American Bottom: The Late Woodland-Mississipian Transition in Northeast Illinois" when Markman was at the University of Missouri-St.Louis. Detailed maps, images and records of each artifact are registered in the publication.
Most of the artifacts were found just below the plow zone which is why each year Debby Cooke could walk the property and continuously come up with arrowheads and ceramics of the periods. One finger bone was found, but we [this website editor] do not have information that provides proof of burial grounds on the site. It is termed a "campsite" in the references that were made available.
Barrington Hills Administrator Robert Kosin provided copies of correspondence and newspaper articles for use on this website. Added research is required to determine if the property was indeed ever put on the National Historical Register and what the full significance of the site is today in 2009. So far we know the property was not entered to the National Historic Register as verified by the library on Earth Day April 22, 2009.
More Sites:
Robert Kosin has anecdotal information that there were similar findings of artifacts near Chapel and Church Road inside the Village. A farmer used to take visitors by wagon onto his property to see the arrow heads in the time when Chicagoans and other were prone to take a train to Fox River Grove and spend a weekend near the Fox River in their vacation homes or rentals.
Another tidbit of information shared by Robert Kosin:
Route 62, Algonquin Road, appears to be many thousands of years old, taking natives along the Summer Equinox up to their fishing grounds on Lake Michigan. They followed the sun.
Route 68, Dundee Road, appears to be similar in age, but it follows the Winter Equinox.
The Village Hall is near those 2 intersections which explains why Barrington Hills has artifacts that can be traced back to early man after the last Glacier.
That explains the "sun in our eyes as we travel west to east" to work each morning, and the reverse each evening if we travel to and from Chicago and Lake Michigan.
This is truly historical!
Indian References for the general area
"Barrington Hills is a nesting place for its 3,930 residents and a myriad of wildlife. It has always been a special place even to the time of the Potawatomi, Macoutin, and Fox Native Americans. Each community and each species nestled here amidst nature’s beauty and the abundant morainic resources created by Wisconsin glaciation. Today, the Village is a historical and geological continuum of a special relationship between man and nature." - 2030 Comprehensive Plan of Barrington Hills - header for the Barrington Hills government website.
Although the spelling is different for the Indian Tribe in the following Internet sourced reference, no doubt the Potawatomi tribe referenced in the Comprehensive Plan is one and the same with the tribe prevalent in the northern Illinois area. Comments in this Internet reference bring the reader up to the year 1836,, around the time the first settlers we consider the original Barrington Hills residents started to make this land their own.
Source:http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/pottawatomie/shu_be_na_pottawatamie_chief.htm
Shau-be-na Pottawatamie Chief
By N. Matso Sr.
The following incidents in the early history of Shau-be-na are principally taken from his own statements, and the truth of them, no person acquainted with the old chief will doubt. My first acquaintance with Shau-be-na occurred nearly forty years ago, while his whole band, one hundred and forty-two in number, were hunting on Bureau River, Illinois. Being encamped near my father's residence, I visited them almost daily for many weeks, and always felt myself at home in the old chief's wigwam.
Shau-be-na was above the medium size, tall and straight, with broad shoulders and intelligent face, while his bearing and general appearance showed him to be no ordinary Indian. According to his statement, he was born in the year 1775 or 1776, at an Indian village on the Kankakee River, now in Will County. He was of the Ottawa tribe. His father came from Michigan with Pontiac, about the year 1767, being one of the small band of warriors who fled from their native country with that noted chief, after his defeat.[1] Shau-be-na married a daughter of a Pottawattamie chief who had a village on the Illinois, a short distance above the mouth of the Fox River; and, at his death, which occurred a few years afterwards, Shau-be-na was made head chief of the band. The following year they abandoned their village on the Illinois River, on account of sickness, and made a new one at Shau-be-na's Grove, now in DeKalb County, where they were found in the early settlement of the country,
In 1810, Tecumseh after meeting Governor Harrison, in council at Vincennes, came west for the purpose of enlisting the different Indian tribes in repelling the encroachments of the whites. On a warm afternoon in the early part of Indian summer, Tecumseh accompanied by three other chiefs, all mounted on spirited black ponies, arrived at the village. On the following day, a dog was killed, a feast made, and the succeeding night spent in songs and dances. Shau-be-na accompanied the visitors to a number of villages on the Illinois River, and listened to Tecumseh's stirring eloquence in behalf of his great scheme of uniting all the Western tribes in a war against the whites. After visiting many Pottawattamie villages, they went on Rock River among the Winnebago and Menomonie, touching at Green Bay and Prairie du Chien, and descending the Mississippi as far as Rock Island. At this point, Shau-be-na parted from his companions, and returned home; while Tecumseh and his friends continued their journey as far southwest as Missouri.
The ensuing summer, Shau-be-na was with Tecumseh in his council with Governor Harrison, at Vincennes, and accompanied that chief South, spending the summer and fall among the different Southern tribes, in efforts to induce them to join Tecumseh's Indian confederacy. It was late in the fall when they reached home, about two weeks after the battle of Tippecanoe; and passing over the field of slaughter, they saw the remains of the soldiers which had been disinterred by the Indians, and scattered over the ground. Runners from Tecumseh visited many of the Pottawattamie villages in the ensuing summer of 1812, informing the people that war had been declared between the United States and Great Britain, and offering the warriors large rewards to fight for the latter. They also wanted a force raised to go immediately to Chicago and take Fort Dearborn before the garrison was aware that war had been declared. Shau-be-na intended to stay at home and take no part in the contest; but on learning that a large company of warriors from other villages, as well as a few of his own band, had gone to Chicago, he mounted his pony and followed them, arriving there after the soldiers were massacred. The part he took under the leadership of Black Partridge in saving the lives of prisoners and guarding the house of John Kinzie, was thus related by Shau-be-na himself to the writer.
Sketch Of Shau-Be-Na.
It was in the afternoon of the fatal day, a few hours after the battle, when, in company with twenty-two warriors, he arrived at Chicago. Along the beach of the Lake, where the battle was fought, lay forty-one dead bodies "the remains of soldiers, women and children" all of which were scalped, and more or less mutilated. The body of Capt. Wells was lying in one place, and his head in another; these remains were gathered up by Black Partridge, and buried in the sand near where he fell. The prisoners were taken to the Indian encampment, and closely guarded, to prevent their escape. John Kinzie, an Indian trader, whose house stood on the north side of the river, opposite to Fort Dearborn, had been for some years trading with the Indians, and among them he had many friends. By special favor he was allowed to return to his own house, accompanied by his family, and the wife of Lieut. Helm, who was badly wounded.
That evening, about sundown, a council of chiefs was called to decide the fate of the prisoners; and it was agreed to deliver them to the British commander at Detroit, in accordance with the terms of the capitulation. After dark, many warriors from a distance came into camp, who were thirsting for blood, and were determined to murder the prisoners, regardless of the stipulated terms of surrender. Black Partridge, with a few of his friends, surrounded Kinzie's house, to protect the inmates from the tomahawks of these blood-thirsty savages. Shau-be-na said that he and other warriors were standing on the porch, with their guns crossing the doorway, when a body of hostile warriors, with blackened faces, rushed by them, forcing their way into the house.
The parlor was now full of Indians, who stood with their tomahawks and scalping knives awaiting the signal from their chief, when they would commence the work of death. Black Partridge said to Mrs. Kinzie: "We have done everything in our power to save you, but all is now lost; you and your friends, together with all the prisoners of the camp, will be slain.'' At that moment a canoe was heard approaching the shore, when Black Partridge ran down to the River, trying in the darkness to make out the new comers, and at the same time shouted "Who are you, friend or foe?" In the bow of the approaching canoe stood a tall, manly personage, with a rifle in his hand; and as the canoe came to shore, he jumped off on the beach, exclaiming in a loud clear voice, the musical notes of which rang forth on the still night air: "I am the San-ga-nash!'"[2] ''Then,' said Black Partridge, "hasten to the house, for our friends are in danger, and you alone can save them." Billy Caldwell, for it was he, ran to the house, entering the parlor, which was full of Indians, and by threats and entreaties prevailed on them to abandon their murderous design; and by him Kinzie's family, with the prisoners at the Fort, were saved from death. Such was Shau-be-na's unvarnished narrative.
Late in the fall of 1812, as Shau-be-na and his band were about going to Bureau for their winter hunt, a runner from Tecumseh arrived with a large package of presents, consisting of rings, beads, and various kinds of ornaments, mostly for the squaws, and with an offer of money, goods, etc., if he and his warriors would join him. The winter hunt was abandoned, and on the following day, Shau-be-na and twenty-two warriors started for the River Raisin. On the St. Joseph's River they overtook Col. Dixon's recruits of about five hundred warriors under the command of Black Hawk, who had followed around the Lake from Green Bay.
Shau-be-na was aid to Tecumseh, and stood by his side when the noted Shawanoe chief was shot by Col. Johnson, at the battle of the Thames. Shau-be-na related that Johnson's mounted men charged the Indian line at a gallop, and the forlorn hope of the party were all killed or wounded except a single one; and the old chief added, that he was by Tecumseh's side when the officer on a white horse "whom he always referred to as Col. Johnson" shot him with a pistol; and at the same moment Shau-be-na sprang forward to tomahawk the slayer of the great chief; but Johnson's horse reared and fell dead, having been pierced by many bullets, and his wounded rider was rescued by his white comrades. With the fall of their chief the Indians fled, and Shau-be-na with them, and, he said, he never after fought for the British cause. He was fond of talking about this battle.[3]
Years after, when Col. Johnson was Vice-President, Shau-be-na visited Washington and called on the Colonel, and together they talked over the incidents of the Thames campaign, after which the Vice-President took the old chief by the arm, and introduced him to the heads of the Departments. On leaving Washington, Johnson gave him a heavy gold ring as a token of friendship, which he wore on his finger to the day of his death, and by his request it was buried with him.
In the summer of 1819, John C. Sullivan, under the direction of Commissioners Graham and Phillips, surveyed the old Indian boundary line [4] extending from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi, at the mouth of Rock River. Shau-be-na was employed by this surveying party, and accompanied them over the whole route, while his hunters supplied them with meat.
When the early pioneers settled in this section of the country, he became a frequent visitor to their cabins, and was known everywhere as the white man's friend. During the year 1831, '32, and '33, as the settlers were frequently alarmed by reports of threatening hostilities, Shau-be-na was often consulted, and his advice generally taken. Thus he became known personally, or by reputation, throughout the country, and all that was necessary for him to receive a hearty welcome at any cabin was his peculiar manner of introducing himself as "Mr. Shau-be-na."
In February, 1832, the chiefs of most of the Pottawattamie villages met in council at Indiantown. Black Hawk and the Prophet were in attendance, and made long speeches in favor of uniting all the different tribes to make war on the frontier settlements. After the death of Black Partridge and Sen-ach-wine, no chief among the Pottawattamie exerted so much influence as Shau-be-na. Although not a great orator, his knowledge of human nature, and his earnest manner of making his appeals, more than counterbalanced the eloquence of others. At this council, no Pottawattamie chief of note, except Wau-bun-sie, spoke in favor of union. Thus Black Hawk's scheme was thwarted and the council broke up. Shau-be-na said to the writer a few years afterwards, if he had favored this union, all the Pottawattamie from the Lake to the Mississippi would have taken part with Black Hawk.
In the spring of 1832, when the Sacs and Foxes crossed the Mississippi, Black Hawk sent two runners, one of whom was his own son, to notify the Indians on Bureau, and to obtain volunteers among the warriors. At that time Shau-be-na with his band were encamped at a point of timber about two mile, south-east of Princeton; and Joel Doolittle, whose cabin stood near by, noticed these emissaries, with painted faces, and their heads adorned with eagle feathers, enter the camp. Their arrival appeared to cause much excitement and "confusion" the camp was broken up, ponies caught, and Shau-be-na and his band left for their home, saying to one of the settlers as he took his departure, he feared there was trouble ahead.
On the day after Stillman's defeat, Shau-be-na knowing that more parties would immediately attack the frontier settlements, lost no time in notifying the people of their danger. He sent Py-pa-gee, his son, and Pyps, his nephew, to Fox River, and Holderman's Grove settlements, while be hastened to give warning to the settlers on Bureau and Indian Creek. The morning of May 16th was bright and clear, and the settlers on Bureau were busy putting in their crops, not knowing that hostilities had commenced, nor thinking of danger from their red foe, when Shau-be-na was seen riding at full speed, without gun or blanket, his long hair streaming in the wind, and his pony covered with foam, calling at each cabin, and in his bad English telling the people to flee for their lives, as the enemy would in all probability be on them before the setting sun. A few hours afterward, not a family was left in the Bureau settlement; and the sequel shows they had no time to lose, as the notorious half-breed Girty, with seventy or eighty warriors, visited some of the cabins, while the fire was still burning on the hearth. Shau-be-na continued his mission of mercy to Indian Creek settlement; some of the settlers fled from their homes, but the families of Davies, Hall and Pettigrew "disregarded the warning, and paid the forfeit with their lives" fifteen persons were slain, and two girls taken prisoners.
In 1836, the Indian Agent notified Shan-be-na's band that they must go west to lands assigned them by the Government, in accordance with treaty stipulations. As no one but the chief and his family could remain on the reservation. Shau-be-na concluded to accompany his people, as he could not think of parting with them. Accordingly in August of that year, they left their ancient homes, came to Bureau, hunted about two months, and then left for the west.
About one year after going west, Shau-be-na, with his family, returned to this country, saying that he barely escaped with his life. The Sacs and Foxes, on account of the part he had taken in the late war, tried to kill him; they killed his son and nephew, and hunted him down as though he was a wild beast.
Shau-be-na, with his two wives, children and grand children, making in all some twenty-five persons, lived at the Grove until 1849. Some time previous to this, he sold a tract of land to Azel and Orrin Gates, and with the proceeds of the sale had his farm improved so that the rents of it would clothe his family. In the spring of 1819, Shau-be-na with his family went to Kansas, leaving his farm in care of Mr. Norton, who agreed to collect and save the rents until he came back. He was gone three years, and on his return found his land had been sold by the Government at a public land sale at Dixon, the Land Office Commissioner having decided that it was only a reservation to Shau-be-na, not a title in fee simple, and when he left it, his title failed. When Shau-be-na returned and found all his possessions gone, he cried like a child. The owner of the land, where he camped, cursed him for cutting tent poles, and ordered him to leave. This Grove had been his home for nearly fifty years; here was the grave of his first wife and two of his children, as well as many of his friends, and with a sorrowful heart he left it forever.
The friends of Shau-be-na raised money to buy for him a small tract of land on the Illinois River near Seneca, on which they built a house, and put part of the tract under cultivation. Shau-be-na used the house for storing purposes, while he lived in a tent near by. The old chief died on the 10th of July 1859, at about the age of eighty-four years, and was buried with much pomp in Morris cemetery. In 1861, money was subscribed to raise a monument over his remains; but the war broke out, and the scheme was abandoned. Only a small board marks the resting place of this friend of the white man.
Indian Genealogy
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1. It was in 1764. See Parkman's Pontiac. L. C, D..
2. Billy Caldwell, called by the Indians Sau-ga-nash, or Englishman, was a half-breed, said to have been a son of Col. Caldwell, a British officer. He was one of the principal chiefs among the Pottawattamie, and was well known by the early settlers of Chicago.
3. Another account of Shau-be-na's, relative to the battle and Tecumseh's death, maybe found in the IVth Vol. of Wis. Hist. Collections, p. 375-76, as communicated by Hon. John T. Kingston. L. C. D.
4. In 1840, Wisconsin claimed all of the land north of this line under the Ordinance of 1787.
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Princeton, Bureau Co., III.
