Sources

Knowledge of the Whitesides and William Bolin in particular comes from two primary sources.

John Reynolds

John Reynolds is one of the most prolific writers from frontier Illinois, who served as its fourth governor, one of the original justices of the Illinois Supreme Court, and a representative of Illinois in the U.S. House of Representatives. He wrote two books on frontier Illinois, a memoir titled My Own Times, Embracing also the History of My Life (1855), and a more general history, The Pioneer History of Illinois (1887). Before going off to college and becoming a politician, Reynolds’ life was relatively similar to William Bolin Whiteside’s, and I will be using his works to reconstruct Illinois settlers’ thoughts about landscape and nature. Like Whiteside, he was of Irish descent and followed a similar migration path to Illinois. He was born in Philadelphia in 1788, his family moved to Tennessee when he was six months old, and the Reynolds moved to Kaskaskia, Illinois in 1800. Seven years later they moved to the Goshen Settlement, where Whiteside had been living for five years.¹

Reynolds went on to serve under Captain William Bolin Whiteside in the War of 1812. His brother Robert also married Whiteside’s eldest daughter, Sarah. His two books are thus a useful source for biographical information on the Whitesides.

Who Was William B. Whiteside?

Most of what we know about William Bolin Whiteside is devoid of personality. I have only found two surviving letters written solely by his hand.² Reynolds had this to say about the family as a whole:

He also gave his opinion of William Bolin himself:

Short Biography

This section is for readers seeking a brief account of William Bolin’s life before I get into the details. He was an “Anglo-Irish” frontiersman born to a fighter in the Revolutionary War on December 24, 1777 in the backwoods of North Carolina. The large Whiteside family migrated to frontier Illinois in the early 1790s, and there his father became a leader in wars against the Indians. The family stayed in a fort named Whiteside’s Station in what would become Monroe County. William Bolin and some of his siblings and cousins joined in these wars once they were old enough. He later married Sarah Raines in the late 1790s and went on to have 9 children. In 1802 William Bolin, Sarah, and his brother Uel, along with other family members, moved to the new Goshen settlement near modern-day Edwardsville. William B. later served as captain of a company of mounted Rangers during the War of 1812, serving to defend settlements in the American Bottom from Indian attack. After the war, William served as sheriff of Madison County from 1818 to 1822 and continued to farm his property in the Goshen settlement. In 1831 he fought in the Black Hawk War to force remaining Native Americans out of Illinois. After returning home from the war, he and his wife both died in 1833, possibly from a cholera epidemic brought home by soldiers of the Black Hawk War.

Origins of the Whiteside Family

To give a social background to Whiteside, I will first establish family history. The family name Whiteside originated in England. The earliest record is of a Robert Wyteside appearing in 1230 records in Warwickshire, England. Genealogist Don Whiteside believes most Whitesides throughout the British Isles are descended from Whitesides in the town of Poulton-le-Fylde in Lancashire County, England.⁵

William Bolin’s grandfather, William Whiteside, was the patriarch of a large branch of the Whiteside family in America. He migrated from northern Ireland sometime between his birth in 1710 and his marriage in 1740. He eventually made his way to Goochland County, Virginia, where he married Elizabeth Stockton in 1740, herself the daughter of immigrants from northern Ireland.⁶ They were among a number of families from northern Ireland who migrated to the frontiers of the British colonies. These people are generally called Scotch-Irish, though the term is not entirely correct for the Whitesides. A more appropriate term for them might be “Anglo-Irish,” as the Whitesides originated in England, while the Scotch-Irish originate in Scotland. Reynolds himself said the Whitesides were “of Irish descent and inherited much of the Irish character.”⁷ They may have identified themselves as Scotch-Irish, as they followed their migration pattern. Regardless of the Whitesides’ technical ethnicity, Scotch-Irish history is relevant to their story.

The Scotch-Irish

The origins of the Scotch-Irish ethnic group can be traced far back into the history of the British Isles and the complex, and occasionally violent, relationship between England, Scotland, and Ireland. This complicated history need not be fully repeated here. Most crucially to Whiteside's story, in the 1690s a number of Scots immigrated to the northern Ireland province of Ulster as part of British attempts to colonize Ireland. These Protestant, Scottish colonists, however, met with Catholic, Irish locals unhappy with British imperialism. The ensuing violence in the 1710s and 1720s, combined with a shrinking market for their linen, several poor harvests, and rising rent, led a number of children and grandchildren of the original colonists to migrate to the British colonies in North America beginning in 1718 and accelerating in the 1720s. In total, about 145,000 Scots migrated to the American colonies between 1707 and 1775. About half of those Scottish immigrants came from Ulster.⁸

The Whitesides themselves were not originally Scottish, but English. Based on a decline in Whiteside baptisms in Lancashire between 1650 and 1677, Don Whiteside believes a number of Whiteside families migrated to Ulster around this time.⁹ The ancestors of patriarch William Whiteside were probably among them, and he likely migrated to America for similar reasons as the Scots.

Most of the Ulster Scots were Presbyterian and migrated in groups organized by ministers. The first groups went to Boston, but violent intolerance from Puritanical New Englanders persuaded them and later arrivals to migrate to the more tolerant Pennsylvania, a sparser colony that needed settlers. They, along with Germans, came to gravitate towards the backwood frontiers for a variety of reasons, including the availability of cheap land that allowed groups to migrate together, as opposed to coastal regions already populated by occasionally hostile English settlers.¹⁰

The English colonists often grouped them with the Catholic Irish, which many resented, seeing themselves as "Scots" superior to the "Irish." Compromising, they became known in America as Scotch-Irish.¹¹

The Scotch-Irish often made up the majority of the population on the inland frontier in many of the middle colonies: Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the Carolinas, eventually pushing westward into Kentucky and Tennessee,¹² and thus ultimately southern Illinois. Many famous Scotch-Irish Americans came from this migration stream, such as Andrew Jackson, Davy Crockett, and Ulysses S. Grant.¹³ The Whitesides were also part of this migration stream, along with John Reynolds.

The Whitesides in America

Patriarch William Whiteside and Elizabeth Stockton had thirteen children: Davis, Robert, James, John, William (William B.'s father), Thomas, Margaret, Ann, Elizabeth, Samuel, Adam, Francis, and Sarah, all born within about twenty years.¹⁴

Due to space constraints, this family tree does not depict every child of William and Elizabeth.

In 1758, patriarch William served briefly in the French and Indian War. At some point afterwards, the Whitesides migrated from Virginia to then Tryon County, North Carolina, likely during the 1760s as the Whitesides had become prominent citizens of the county by the American Revolution. Baldwin speculates that they migrated due to soil depletion, as few farmers practiced crop rotation. Instead, they planted on the same fields year after year, draining the resources of the soil. This was especially a problem in Virginia with one of the most nutrient diminishing yet also one of the most profitable crops: tobacco. Land degradation required farmers to exploit new fields every few years, sometimes requiring migration elsewhere.¹⁵ Though there is no direct evidence, this is likely what pushed the Whitesides to North Carolina and later west to Kentucky and Illinois.

The Whitesides located their new plantation along the First Broad River in western North Carolina. According to Baldwin, Don Whiteside visited the site of the Whiteside plantation in the 20^th century, and in Don’s opinion, it was one of the least attractive farm sites in the area. The access road was located between “pronounced ridges.” Yet Baldwin believes that patriarch William “had reached an age when he was content to plant fewer acres.” His offspring that were old enough had their own farms in fertile lowlands within a couple of miles of their father’s homestead, possibly including William Whiteside Jr., the future father of William Bolin.¹⁶ He married Mary Booth around 1774 as the American Revolution was simmering throughout the colonies.¹⁷

The county the Whitesides settled in, Tryon County, no longer exists. The county’s namesake was British governor of North Carolina William Tryon, who was despised by North Carolinian patriots. Thus the county was eliminated as North Carolina redrew its county boundaries in 1779, and the Whiteside plantation became part of Rutherford County. The former site of the plantation remains in Rutherford to this day.¹⁸

The Whitesides were among these patriots that favored American Independence. Both William B. Whiteside’s father and oldest uncle, Davis Whiteside, signed one of the earliest local declarations against the British government: the Tryon Resolves.¹⁹ Word of the Battle of Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts had reached North Carolina, and 49 citizens of Tryon issued the following declaration on August 14, 1775, 11 months before the Declaration of Independence:

Many of the male Whitesides went on to fight in the American Revolution, including William Bolin’s father. Their patriarch William Whiteside only lived two years into the revolution, dying in 1777 of unknown causes. He was 69. More than likely he died of natural causes, for if he had died in the war it is probable the story would have survived to the present.

Yet younger Whitesides were starting to be born. William Jr. and Mary had their first child in 1775: Elizabeth.²¹ Two years later, their first son was born December 24, 1777 – almost exactly one year after Washington crossed the Delaware. They named their son after his father and grandfather: William Bolin Whiteside.²²

Before intense warfare reached the southern colonies, many of the elder male Whitesides served in government. The oldest son Davis was appointed to the Committee of Safety which was responsible for securing and distributing arms. Davis later served as justice of the peace in Tryon County in 1778 and 1779 and became one of the first justices of the new Rutherford County in 1779. He was also Rutherford County’s first representative in the North Carolina House of Commons. His younger brother James became a frontier doctor, prospector, and also served as a justice of the peace in Rutherford County from 1781 to 1790. Thomas served in the North Carolina legislature, and was county trustee and treasurer from 1779 to 1782. After the war, he became the third Whiteside to serve as justice of the peace in Rutherford County.²³

Yet not all was peaceful in North Carolina even early in the war. The British allied themselves with Native American war parties along the frontiers, arming them to harass American patriots. No doubt the Whitesides were part of the bloody frontier warfare that ensued. However, there is no direct evidence of this, except for a possible distant relative of theirs, George Russell, who was killed by Indians while on a bear hunt around 1781.²⁴ This is likely when the Whitesides’ hatred for Indians was born, though perhaps it began even earlier when their patriarch fought in the French and Indian War. They would bring this fear of and aggression towards Indians with them to Illinois.

After failing to subdue American rebels in the middle and northern colonies, the British turned their focus to the southern colonies starting in 1778. Lord Charles Cornwallis carried out their new southern strategy: to recruit thousands of Loyalists to help subdue Patriots. The British won a number of victories over American Patriots early in their southern campaign, and in the summer of 1780, Cornwallis sent Major Patrick Ferguson into South Carolina to recruit Loyalist troops. In September, Cornwallis invaded North Carolina and ordered Ferguson to move north into western North Carolina and eventually join with Cornwallis’ army, putting him into the area of the Whitesides.²⁵

Patriot militias rose up to oppose Ferguson. Minor skirmishes sparked between Ferguson’s Loyalists and pursuing Patriots. 900 Patriots eventually caught up to Ferguson’s army of 1,200 loyalists at a rocky hill just south of the border between North and South Carolina. Popular legend states that when Ferguson heard the rebels were coming, he said to his troops, “I am on Kings Mountain, I am king of this mountain and that God Almighty and all the Rebels of hell cannot drive me from it.” The Patriots decided otherwise and drove his forces off the mountain in about an hour on October 7, 1780. Ferguson died in the battle.²⁶

Whiteside genealogists disagree on how many of the Whitesides participated in the Battle of King’s Mountain. Still, all nine Whiteside sons are recorded as having served in the Rutherford County militia except the youngest son, Francis, who was 22.²⁷ Reynolds writes that at least William Bolin’s father fought in the Battle of King’s Mountain.²⁸ The Rutherford County militia was among a number of local militias that fought at King’s Mountain, so it is likely that many if not all Whiteside brothers fought in the battle.²⁹

The Battle of King’s Mountain demonstrates the brutality of frontier warfare. Though the Loyalists tried to surrender after Ferguson was shot from his horse and killed, the Patriots, remembering a previous battle at Waxhaw where the British did not allow them to surrender, continued firing at the Loyalists. In the end, 225 Loyalists died, 163 were wounded, and 716 taken prisoner. Only 28 Patriots were killed and 68 were wounded.³⁰ Among the wounded was the eldest Whiteside, Davis. The nature of his injury has been lost, perhaps a bullet or bayonet wound. In any case, his brothers rushed him to Hillsboro, North Carolina for medical attention, but it was not enough. Davis died not long after reaching Hillsboro.³¹

The Whitesides’ fellow militiamen did not treat their prisoners well on the way to Hillsboro. They beat many of them brutally and hacked some of them with swords. A number of Loyalist prisoners did not make it to Hillsboro alive. The Patriots then appointed a jury to try the Loyalists. 36 were convicted of invading property, burning houses, and killing civilians. Nine were hanged.³² The brutality of this frontier warfare would travel with the Whitesides to Illinois.

Still, the service of the Whitesides at King’s Mountain helped bring the revolution to an end. Having lost Ferguson and his Loyalists, Cornwallis abandoned his invasion of North Carolina temporarily. As the first decisive American victory in the southern colonies, it would come to be seen as the turning point in the south. Patriots throughout the south stepped up their harassment of the British and Loyalists. Just a little more than a year later in late October 1781, the Americans and the French forced Cornwallis to surrender in Yorktown, Virginia. The world had turned upside down.³³

William Whiteside Jr. and Mary continued to have children through the war.  Uel was born shortly after William Bolin, followed by Thomas and Robert. James was born near the war’s conclusion. Mary was born in 1788, the last child born before the move to Illinois. William B. gained two more siblings in Illinois in the 1790s: Sarah and John Davis.³⁴

The Whitesides move to Illinois

Much of the Whiteside clan migrated to Illinois by way of Kentucky in the early 1790s. Likely they knew someone who had migrated to the American Bottom in the 1780s or word spread among backwoods men and women. This was very common among early settlers of the Northwest Territory. The first settlers would send word back to friends and family, who further spread word to others.³⁵ The Whitesides may have known one of the soldiers who served under General Clark in Illinois.

Baldwin however writes that James Whiteside, William Bolin’s uncle, had visited the American Bottom in the 1770s. According to Baldwin, James was a self-taught doctor and prospector, eventually reaching the American Bottom in search of precious ore. James thus spread the word of the American Bottom to the rest of his family. However, Baldwin does not cite this claim, except for a reference to Cleveland’s Genealogy, which stated he was the first white American to visit Illinois. Baldwin even questions that claim.³⁶ William R. Whiteside told me that the only reference that he has found to James visiting Illinois is in 1790 with other Whitesides. It is an issue worth looking into for future researchers, but I find the claim dubious at best.

For whatever reason, at least four of the Whitesides were in Illinois by May of 1790: James, William (William Bolin’s father), John, and another William, likely James’ son and not William Bolin. They were living in Piggot’s Fort near modern-day Columbia in Monroe County, one of a number of forts or stations in the region.³⁷ On May 23, 1790, 46 of the residents of Piggot’s fort issued a petition to Arthur St. Clair, governor of the Northwest Territory, requesting legal right to the land they had built improvements on. This document is very revealing about settler ideas of land improvement, relationship to nature, and how Native Americans have affected both, which I analyze on Arrival Ideology.

For now, I will examine what it means for when the Whitesides moved to Illinois. They could not have been in Illinois for very long, as James had been justice of the peace until 1789, unless his two brothers had gone earlier. Both Baldwin and William R. Whiteside believe that they were visiting Illinois ahead of the rest of the Whitesides to scope out a place to settle. This petition was an attempt to gain land rights in the territory, and ended up going to both Arthur St. Clair and the U.S. Congress. Many of the signers of the document were granted their request, though Baldwin does not mention if the Whitesides were among them. Another signer of the document was a “Daniel Boon,” conventionally thought to be the son of the Daniel Boone.³⁸

According to Don Whiteside, James Whiteside died in 1790, possibly on the hazardous way back to North Carolina.³⁹ William Whiteside (father of William Bolin) and his brother Thomas Whiteside served as executors of James’ estate back in North Carolina. In either 1792 or 1793, a much larger group of Whitesides made the trek to Illinois, likely numbering in the dozens. All of William Bolin’s family went, even his younger sister, Mary, who was four. William Bolin himself was 14 and 15 during the journey. The going was difficult, requiring river forging and crossing the Appalachians into Kentucky. They then passed through Kentucky, and Baldwin believes they used flatboats to float down the Ohio River until they reached the Mississippi where Cairo is today. They then had to row the flatboats upstream on the Mississippi until they reached the American Bottom.⁴⁰ Another possibility is they traveled overland after crossing the Ohio, as Reynolds did in 1800.

Reynolds arrived seven years after the Whitesides, but he likely heard about their reception afterwards or in general was familiar with how frontier folk reacted to the arrival of a clan of settlers. He writes:

Upon their arrival, the patriarchs of the Whitesides went to rebuilding an abandoned fort originally built by the Flannery family. They had abandoned the fort after one of them, James Flannery, was shot and scalped by attacking Indians in 1783. A decade later, the Whitesides gave new life to the fort, and it came to be known as Whiteside Station.⁴²

According to Reynolds, William Bolin’s father had become the new patriarch of the Whiteside family in Illinois. He calls him, “the pioneer, Moses, that conducted [the Whitesides] thro [sic] the wilderness to Illinois, the ‘promised land.’”⁴³ Reynolds further writes about how the new patriarch became involved in the Indian warfare:

Shortly after the Whitesides arrived in 1793, a party of Kickapoo Indians raided the American Bottom and stole a “number of horses.” A group of eight frontiersmen was raised to pursue the Kickapoo on their ride north, captained by William Whiteside. His son William Bolin was still too young, but he was joined by his brother John Whiteside and John’s son, Samuel Whiteside. They were also joined by Samuel Judy, who would settle among the Whitesides in the Goshen settlement ten years later.⁴⁵

Reynolds gives a dramatized account of the ensuing assault by the white attackers, one we must read with caution. Reynolds after all did not arrive in Illinois until 1800, and while he likely heard the story from those who participated in the attack, even that story was likely filled with added frontier drama. He describes them as not having time to even gather food for the raid, only bringing “their guns, ammunition, and bravery.” They were heading into “a country where hundreds of the enemy could be called forth in a few hours” with only eight brave pioneers with an “almost forlorn hope.”⁴⁶

Yet let us not forget the original cause of the whites’ raid: the theft of horses. More than likely there were far fewer Indians behind the theft than Reynolds describes. Though horses were valuable, it seems unlikely that they would risk their lives so carelessly unless it was a matter of rescuing white captives. It was not just the horses that the whites were hoping to recover; far more important was white honor. By responding to the Kickapoo raid, they intended to send a message that Indian attacks would not go unanswered.

William Whiteside and his party caught up to the Kickapoo on Shoal Creek. The ensuing battle is further dramatized by Reynolds. They first found three of the horses grazing and untended by the Kickapoo. They recaptured these horses and proceeded to attack the Indian camp. One of them killed the chief’s son, which Reynolds couches in passive voice, “the son of the chief, old Pecon, was killed,” diminishing the fact that one of the whites killed him. In Reynolds’ account, the Indians quickly and cowardly ran off, leaving behind their guns, making them look like dishonorable fools. Chief Pecon had assumed that there were far more whites than eight and surrendered his gun to William Whiteside. Yet Pecon quickly realized there were only eight of them, and tried to grab his gun back from Whiteside. They struggled for a moment, but “Whiteside retained the gun in triumph and the Indian, altho [sic] a brave man, was forced to acknowledge the superiority of the white man.” To further highlight white supremacy, Reynolds recounts that Whiteside spared Pecon’s life because it would be dishonorable to kill an unarmed man.⁴⁷

It is impossible to know for sure what actually happened in the fight, given the racist overtones of Reynolds’ account. Certainly all of the whites survived. It seems less likely that the episode with the gun actually happened or that the Indians gave up so easily. We must too remember that, in this whole episode, the only person to die was Pecon’s son at the hands of one of the whites.

Whiteside’s party quickly returned to Whiteside’s Station. The next year, 1794, Pecon and a group of Kickapoo made their way to Whiteside Station. 14-year-old Thomas, William Bolin’s younger brother, was playing outside the fort. Pecon tomahawked Thomas to avenge the death of his son. Reynolds writes, “There is no passion in the breast of a savage so strong as that of revenge.”⁴⁸ Baldwin further states that the elder Thomas Whiteside, William Bolin’s uncle, went outside to fight the Kickapoo, along with Samuel Whiteside, but both were wounded. The elder Thomas Whiteside died in 1795, possibly from the wounds he suffered the year before.⁴⁹

The elder William Whiteside had the chance to avenge the death of his son the next year, 1795. That late summer or fall, a Cahokia Frenchman informed Whiteside of an Osage encampment to the north, near modern-day Caseyville. Though the French were previously allied with Indian groups, those that remained in Illinois were generally less friendly to French settlers. Reynolds speculates that this Frenchman anticipated an Indian attack on himself, either to steal horses or kill him. William sprung at the chance to attack.⁵⁰ Word of the Treaty of Greenville that brought a truce between Indians and Anglo-Americans had likely not yet reached the American Bottom. Even if it had, that may not have stopped William Whiteside after losing his son, even though it was a different tribe.⁵¹ He raised a larger group of men than before, including two of his children: William Bolin and Uel. Samuel Whiteside also joined them, as well as his brother William Lot Whiteside. Samuel Judy joined the raid as well. In total, 14 men participated.⁵²

The assault became known as the Battle of Canteen Creek, but it might be better described as a slaughter. The 14 Americans killed every Osage, including women and children. The assault happened at night, with dozens of Osage men, women, and children sleeping in a large lodge. One of the participants in the battle, David Everett, recalled 60 Indians present, but Baldwin believes that this number was likely exaggerated. Everett was recalling the attack as an old man, and it is unlikely the Americans could kill all 60 with single-shot muskets.⁵³

Reynolds also dramatizes his account of this battle. According to him, both Uel and his father William were injured. Uel suffered a shot to his arm, making him unable to operate a gun, while William thought he had suffered a mortal injury. Lying prone, he urged his men to keep fighting, not give up an inch of ground, and not let the Indians touch his body once he died. Uel, unable to fight, examined his father’s wound and discovered that the bullet had not gone through the body. Instead, it had bounced against his ribs and “glanced off towards the spine.” It had lodged near the skin. Uel took out his knife and, despite his own injury to his arm, cut the bullet from his father’s body. He said, “father, you are not dead yet.” William jumped to his feet and cried, “Boys, I can still fight the Indians!” Supposedly none of the 14 men died, while all Indians were slaughtered. Their bodies were left to lay where they died; leaving their skeletons behind for many years.⁵⁴ This served as a warning to future Indian raiders.⁵⁵

After the battle on the way back to Whiteside’s Station, the Whitesides and company stopped in Cahokia to dress the wounds of William and his son Uel. In 1795 Cahokia was largely French, so they stopped at the home of one of the Anglo-Americans then living in Cahokia: Elizabeth Raines, the widow of Abraham Raines. William Bolin and Uel became acquainted with Elizabeth’s two daughters:  Sarah and Ann. As Reynolds writes, likely romanticizing the incident, William B. was “quite young and very handsome and at last the two brothers married the two sisters… It is singular that such small circumstances may decide the destiny of a person during life.”⁵⁶

Uel and Ann were married that year on December 29 in St. Clair County. There is no existing marriage record for William Bolin and Sarah, but their first daughter was born in 1799. She was given the name of her mother. Before moving to the Goshen settlement they had a second daughter, Mary Elizabeth, in 1801.⁵⁷

Trouble with the Law

Horse Stealing

In any case, William Bolin did not suffer long term consequences for his kidnapping of Bob and Teria, as he would later serve as sheriff. Still, there were numerous other crimes William Bolin committed. He, Uel, and his father were accused of aiding Elias Fisher in stealing five horses, also in 1796.

Fisher testified that he discussed stealing horses from Indians with the three Whitesides in the early spring of 1796. Uel in particular said Fisher would be justified in stealing horses from the Indians, as Indians had stolen horses from Fisher. On June 11, according to Fisher, he and William Bolin left Whiteside Station for Cahokia to steal horses. They found a group of five horses near the village of Prairie du Pont (now known as Dupo) just south of Cahokia. William Bolin believed only Indians let their horses range that close to Prairie du Pont, so the pair gathered the five horses and brought them to a spot two miles away from Whiteside Station. William B. then told his father and brother what they had done. His father warned him to be careful and keep the theft secret, as while he believed stealing horses from Indians was justified, other whites disapproved of any horse theft, even against Indians. Uel agreed.

The next day, William B. and Fisher left to sell the horses in Kentucky. Along with his father, William B. agreed to sell the horses under Fisher’s name, but William B. would receive half the profit from the sale. Here is a list of each horse and their destination:

1. A gray mare was sold at Vincennes in what is today western Indiana for $36.
2. A brown mare with an uncertain brand was sold for $30 at an unknown location
3. A bay mare with the brand J.S. was claimed by William B. as his share for $40.
4. A bay, lean stallion died before he could be sold.
5. A brown filly or colt was left with Fisher’s mother. It is unknown where she lived.

Unfortunately for the Whitesides and Fisher, when they returned there was “noise made about the stolen horses.” Apparently the horses did not belong to Indians, but instead to various Anglo-Americans, namely James Piggot, William Arundel, Louis Gervais, John Baptist Lolarde, and Charles Germain. Fisher, according to his testimony, hoped to come to pay the horse owners back to settle the dispute, and the elder William Whiteside offered to pay. However, Fisher was arrested for horse stealing and held at the jail in Cahokia and gave the aforementioned testimony accusing the Whitesides of aiding and abetting his theft. The Whitesides were then themselves indicted for horse stealing.

It is possible Fisher acted alone and lied in his testimony, as the previous year he was accused of trespassing against the three Whitesides. Thus he accused them for revenge. However, John Johnson Whiteside, William B.’s cousin, testified that he saw the horses outside Whiteside Station the same day Fisher and William B. left for Kentucky and knew they did not belong to the people of the station.

Once again, there are no records of the eventual conviction or punishment, though The Laws of Indiana Territory claims that the horse stealing case was continuously deferred.⁶¹

Finally on August 31, 1798, the St. Clair County sheriff was ordered to bring William B. Whiteside and his cousin William Lot Whiteside to court to answer concerning “divers trespasses, contempts, riots, assaults, and offenses of which they stand indicted.” The exact nature of these crimes is not discussed in detail, and may refer to the previously mentioned crimes.⁶²

While these crimes are somewhat serious, it seems they did little damage to the Whitesides’ reputation. Indiana Territory Governor William Henry Harrison, the future president, appointed three of the Whitesides as justices of the Quarter Sessions despite being indicted for horse stealing. Presumably these were William Sr., William B., and Uel. In 1809, Shadrach Bond Jr. and William B. disputed the office of lieutenant-colonel of the St. Clair County militia, and governor Ninian Edwards asked Bond to enter into an election to resolve the dispute.⁶³ Bond refused. He wrote back to governor Edwards:

I shall send you the Certificate of Thomas Todd Esqr which will enable you to judge whether or not Whiteside has been that terror to Disorganisors as represented in his Potition [sic]. he has been indited [sic] for horse stealing and now lies under an inditement [sic] in this County Court for harboring runaway Negroes, these with other reasons I believe induced governor Harrison to give me the appointment over Whiteside — as I never wrote to brake on the Corrector [character] of anyman, I am sorry to be compeled [sic] to Do it now nor would I but to show your Excelency the Corrector [character] of the man which you Propose for me to go into an election with .... I cannot condesend [sic] to put myself on a level with such a character as Major Whiteside⁶⁴

Laws of Indiana Territory speculates that Edwards chose William B. over Bond for political reasons, as Edwards had previous disagreements with Bond.

It is likely that the Whitesides did not suffer significant consequences because frontier Illinois was fairly lenient with crime. Because workers were scarce, lengthy incarcerations and executions cost society valuable labor, so these punishments were only reserved for the most serious of crimes. Fines and indentured servitude were far more common punishments.⁶⁵

Frontier attitudes about crime as seen through the Whitesides, criminals who became agents of the law, is a rich topic worth exploration for future researchers.

Goshen

With relative peace reached with Native Americans, many of the younger Whitesides, along with a number of other settlers, migrated a short distance north to the new settlements of Ridge Prairie and Goshen in 1802, according to Reynolds.⁶⁶ It was likely then that William Bolin, his brother Uel, their wives Sarah and Ann, along with their young children, established their settlement on the land that would become part of the SIUE campus in the Goshen Settlement. Other Whitesides may have lived with them as well.

In an 1815 plat map of the Edwardsville Township, three land claims are located in one cluster along Cahokia Creek, all claimed by the Whitesides. The 300-acre land claim furthest north belongs to both William Bolin and Uel Whiteside, with the original claimant listed as Abraham Raines, their deceased father-in-law.⁶⁷ The brothers had presumably inherited the land through their marriages to Abraham Raines’ two daughters.⁶⁸ Abraham Raines or his widow Elizabeth were donated the land as part of an act of Congress which granted 400 acres to each head of family in “the district of Kaskaskia.”⁶⁹ The Congressional record states that the claim was 400 acres, while the plat map shows only 300.⁷⁰

The 400-acre claim furthest south belongs to just William Bolin, with Alexis Dennis listed as the original claimant. Less is known about this original claimant, who is also occasionally referenced as Alexander Dennis. Reynolds describes the death of a man named Dennis, likely the same man:

The final land claim is a smaller strip listed as belonging to “the heirs of James Whiteside.” This strip was only 100 acres and was granted to James Whiteside as part of “a list of militia donations granted by the Governors of the North-West and Indiana Territories” on January 4, 1813.”⁷² It is unknown if this is William B.’s uncle James who died in 1790 or his younger brother James, who died in 1794, or yet another James Whiteside. It is also odd that it was granted by “the Governors of the North-West and Indiana Territories,” since by 1813 Illinois was a territory. It is possible their uncle James was granted the land for his service in the American Revolution and William B. and Uel were his heirs.

Land speculation was very common on the frontier, where settlers would buy land as soon as it was for sale and then sell it later for a profit. William Bolin was no exception, owning land in Alton, Bethalto, and other areas in Madison County by his death in 1833. Yet there is little doubt William Bolin had made his residence along these claims, based on numerous sources and the fact that he is buried on the land.⁷³

On December 31, 1809, William Bolin’s southernmost claim in the Goshen Settlement was recommended for approval “on the ground of actual improvements having been made.” It was among 12 claims in present day Madison County recommended for approval by land commissioners. These commissioners defined these improvements as “not a mere marking or deadening of trees, but the actual raising of a crop, or crops, such, in their opinion, being a necessary proof of an intention to make a permanent establishment,”⁷⁴ meaning the Whitesides had already “improved” their land with the raising of crops by 1809.

The southern claim was described as:

The northern claim was among five recommended for approval on January 4, 1813:

With the privileges of a land owner, William Bolin and Sarah expanded their family. Already with two daughters, they had their first son in 1803: Moses, a highly symbolic name. Elizabeth Ann was born in 1806, followed by another daughter in 1807: Hester Ann. William Bolin Jr. was born in 1810, the last child before the War of 1812. After the war, Elvira and George Washington were both born in 1814, likely twins. Finally Ninian Edward was born in 1819, named after Illinois’ territorial governor.⁷⁷

Lewis and Clark

It is highly likely that either William Bolin or Uel met William Clark while he and the Corps of Discovery were wintering at Camp Dubois in the winter of 1803 and 1804. Clark mentions their father visiting the camp on January 2, 1804 in his journal:

William B. was appointed captain in 1802, but his first son Moses would have been an infant. Either William Bolin or Uel could be the son they refer to, or perhaps their younger brother Robert. William B. and Uel were far more prominent locally, so it was probably one of them, or perhaps both came and Clark did not remember the older Whiteside having two sons. Though many members of the Corps of Discovery were volunteers from the American Bottom, William R. Whiteside does not believe any people from the elder Whiteside’s neighborhood (still Monroe County) actually went along.⁷⁹

Clark makes further mention of an unknown Whiteside who visited two days later. He sold the Corps of Discovery commissary 12 pounds of tallow, beef fat used for soap making, at $3 per hundredweight.⁸⁰ This could be any number of Whitesides.

Clark makes a final mention of a Whiteside on January 31. He and Lewis were heading up “the river” (likely the Mississippi), which he described as “ice running.” The Mississippi was frozen over during the especially cold winter of 1804, so they either navigated between frozen areas on the river, or had to walk alongside it. In either case, Clark writes, “Mr. Whitesides & Chittele crossed from the opposit Side of the Mississippi.”⁸¹ It is unknown which side either party was on or, again, if the Mississippi was even navigable. However, Clark seems to recognize this particular Whiteside from a distance, indicating that he knew him well enough to recognize him.

The War of 1812

As relative Indian peace started breaking down in 1810, William Bolin also experienced a series of major earthquakes in the winter of 1811 and 1812. We do not have record of the Whitesides’ experience in the earthquake, but based on other eyewitness accounts it was likely harrowing.⁸²

To deter the rise in Indian attacks, in 1811 Congress authorized the creation of 10 companies of mounted Rangers to protect Anglo-American settlers in the Northwest Territory. Four of these Ranger companies were charged to protect Illinois. Because of his military experience, William B. Whiteside was appointed captain of one of these companies, and his cousin, Samuel Whiteside, was appointed captain of another.⁸³

As captain, Whiteside was responsible for the protection of his family from Indian attacks. His company traversed the landscape between settlements in search of Indian bands poised to attack. They both prevented raids and pursued Indians following attacks. Whiteside though was required to supply his own horses and equipment, but was paid $1 a day.⁸⁴

I have not focused closely on Whiteside’s precise activities during the war, though I am sure there are plenty of records. I leave that to future researchers. John Reynolds served under Whiteside during the War of 1812, so it is worth looking at his account of his experiences in the war to determine what Whiteside was doing.⁸⁵

One likely development from Whiteside’s war experience was a relationship between him and Illinois’ territorial governor, Ninian Edwards. Shortly after the war in 1819, Whiteside named his youngest son after the governor, just as Edwardsville was named for him around this time.⁸⁶

We also have record of three letters from the War of 1812 because they were in the papers of Ninian Edwards. Two were sent to Whiteside, one sent from Whiteside to Edwards.

The first letter was written by Samuel Whiteside to his cousin William Bolin, from a block house or small fort near the confluence of the Illinois and Mississippi on July 24, 1811. Samuel writes, “I conceive it my duty to give you a statement of an affair that took place here since you left the block house.” He then spends the letter describing a confrontation between the residents of the fort and a group of Sac Native Americans and French the day before.

Samuel writes that the militia stationed at the fort have treated all travelers up and down the Mississippi, “both Indians and whites,” with civility until the day before. That afternoon they discovered “two canoes on the river near the Louisiana shore;” the opposite side of the Mississippi. Following the orders of William Bolin, Samuel says they hailed the passengers of the canoes for them to come to the fort, but they did not. Instead, they slipped alongside one of the islands at the confluence. Samuel took two men along to meet them. Once near enough to the canoes to hear the strangers talking, Samuel hailed them again. He told them he was ordered to determine what Indians passed by the station. One of the Frenchmen responded in what Samuel considered “very insulting and abusive language,” and they continued up the river. Samuel warned he would fire on them if they did not stop, and the Frenchman replied, “Fire and be damned!” Samuel shot ahead of the canoe about twenty or thirty feet. The Frenchman grew angry and fired at Samuel, nearly hitting him. Samuel was “irritated, knowing they must have seen I did not aim at them.” Samuel returned fire, but he did not believe he hit the Frenchman as he was two or three hundred yards away, which is odd since he said the Frenchman had nearly hit him. The canoe men fired at the Anglo-Americans with two more guns, but did no damage. The Anglo-Americans returned to the station.

Samuel then writes that the day before that, July 22, a Sac Chief had come and told the Anglo-Americans that Indians would follow him in the evening and stop at the station. Samuel writes:

This incident angered the governor of the Louisiana Territory, Benjamin Howard. He wrote a letter on July 27 to Illinois Territorial Governor Ninian Edwards expressing his displeasure. He stated that the group the Illinois militia fired on were a party of Sac Indians with women and children on their way from St. Louis to Fort Madison. He writes from St. Louis:

Ninian Edwards then wrote to William Bolin Whiteside on August 2 regarding Howard’s letter. I have not found this letter, but William Bolin responded from Goshen on August 4, including with it a copy of Samuel’s letter. He writes:

On February 7, 1812, 18 militia officers of St. Clair County met in Cahokia to discuss the Indian situation. Patriarch and Colonel William Whiteside was appointed chairman of the meeting. Also present were a Major Whiteside and Captain Whiteside, presumably William Bolin and Samuel respectively. At this meeting the officers issued two resolutions expressing their displeasure regarding Indian attacks and listed recommendations to the government of Illinois. I analyze these two resolutions on War of 1812 Ideology.⁹⁰

Finally, William B. received a letter from Ambrose Whitlock on August 18 that seems to be concerned with military salaries. I leave it to future scholars to decipher.⁹¹

Postwar Life

One year after the war ended, 1815, Illinois patriarch William Whiteside died at the age of 68, likely of natural causes. Possibly there was a disease outbreak in the American Bottom from the soldiers returning from the war, much as there would be in 1833 following the Black Hawk War, but it could just have easily been old age. In any case, according to Reynolds the elder Whiteside died and was laid to rest at Whiteside Station.⁹² In addition, his younger brother Uel died in 1818 of unknown causes, and William Bolin served as executor of his estate.⁹³

Though he lost his father and brother, Whiteside could settle down after the war and “tame the wilderness” as a peacetime farmer. His last child was born shortly after the war, Ninian Edward in 1819, and served as the sheriff of Madison County.

In 1816, William Bolin killed 14 wolves and claimed a bounty of 75 cents each for a total of $10.50, likely to protect his livestock. He killed by far the most in the county that year: about 11 percent of the total 121 bounties claimed. In second place was William Howard with nine scalps. His cousin Samuel only killed three.⁹⁴

On March 15, 1817, William B. Whiteside wrote a letter to his cousin William F. Whiteside, the son of the late Davis Whiteside who had died at King’s Mountain. William F. was still living in North Carolina. In the letter, William B. describes the health and status of various members of the Whiteside family, including describing his uncle John as “inSain [sic] and has got intirely [sic] helpless.” Still, Whiteside writes, “We have now peace with the Indains [sic] and people Emigrits [sic] to our country very fast and I am sure we have one of the best Countrys [sic].” Numerous details in this letter are worth pursuing for future researchers. In general, it indicates a lasting connection between the Whitesides of Illinois and the remaining Whitesides of North Carolina. William B. even tells William F. that “if they were to change N. Carolina for the Illinois they will get the Best of the Bargain.”

The main purpose though of the letter is slavery. William B. indicates that their shared uncle Adam Whiteside made an agreement with William B.’s father to retrieve an enslaved girl from the Louisiana territory. His father and Adam entered a bond of $1000. However, Adam never returned or sent any letters back. William B. thus discusses legal matters with William F. to earn recompense for the $1000. I leave it to future researchers to sort out the legal details.⁹⁵

The Whitesides and Slavery

Whiteside was undoubtedly a slave owner, as were a number of his relatives. They were among the many settlers from the south who brought their slaves with them to the supposedly free Northwest Territory, usually skirting the prohibition of slavery by signing their slaves on as indentured servants.

In addition to the controversy with Bob and Teria I discussed previously, here is a list of known people owned by William B. Whiteside or his brother Uel. As is often the case with enslaved people, they are often given a physical description:

• Caty Smith, a “Bond servant of William B. Whiteside” listed in court records between 1813 and 1815. She is described as “21 years old 5 feet five inches high, yellow,” meaning multiracial. She was apparently manumitted (in other words, freed) by John Kirkpatrick of Madison County. She also had two children, 2-year-old Billy and 8-month-old Issac, both described having a “yellow complection [sic].” It is unclear if Billy and Issac also belonged to Whiteside. Caty Smith also had a husband, Cupid Smith, though little else is said about him.⁹⁶
• Tamor, a “negro woman” purchased by William B. Whiteside in 1814 “to serve him faithfully” for 22 years. She is given no further description.⁹⁷
• Sam, a 15-year-old “Negro Boy” purchased by Uel Whiteside in 1815 “to serve… as a faithful servant the full Term of fifty years.” The only further description of Sam is his birthday: March 1^st.⁹⁸

William R. Whiteside has further records of enslaved people owned by various other Whitesides.

With this evidence alone, it is easy to demonize Whiteside as a slave owner. Yet this is complicated by a convention address signed by a William Whiteside of Madison County from the summer of 1818. This address was part of the statehood convention, signed by 13 men, and gave strong opposition to efforts to maintain slavery in Illinois under the state constitution. It reads:

Both William R. Whiteside and The Laws of Indiana Territory do not think the “William Whiteside from Madison” is William Bolin.¹⁰⁰ Given the frequency of the name William Whiteside, they may be right, but owning slaves and opposing slavery are not mutually exclusive. Thomas Jefferson believed slavery to be morally wrong yet owned hundreds of slaves. Whiteside might have been of a similar mindset; holding profound moral qualms about the institution yet unable to free himself of it for financial reasons.

It is also possible that Whiteside himself differentiated between the chattel slavery of the south and the pseudo-slavery and indentured servitude system he participated in. Perhaps he justified the system as a paternalistic way to help freed slaves. Whiteside also may have wanted to stop the spread of official slavery to avoid competing with planters who owned hundreds of slaves. This was the frequent criticism of slavery from yeoman farmers like Whiteside.¹⁰¹ As a small slave owner, Whiteside benefited financially from restricting the flow of slavery into Illinois.

Winny v. Whitesides (1824)

Perhaps the most significant role any Whiteside would have in American history resulted from the issue of slavery. An enslaved woman, Winny, successfully sued for her freedom from her owner, the widow Phebe Whiteside, in Missouri. The case helped set the legal basis for Dred and Harriet Scott’s lawsuit for freedom in St. Louis in the 1850s.

Phebe and John Whiteside were relatives to William Bolin, but their connection is currently unproven, according to William R. Whiteside. Court records state they came from “Carolina” in 1794 or 1795 to Illinois, bringing the enslaved Winny with them. William R. Whiteside is uncertain if they came with the rest of the Whitesides at that time or came after. He told me that records indicate they stayed at Whiteside Station for a time, implying a relationship between the different Whitesides.

John, Phebe, and Winny stayed in Illinois for a few years before moving to St. Louis in 1798 or 1799. They continued to hold Winny as a slave, and John died shortly after 1814.

Winny sued Phebe for her freedom in 1818. We can only speculate why she waited 20 years after first moving to the supposedly free Northwest Territory to seek freedom. Perhaps she had met others in St. Louis who told her she could sue for her freedom. By then she was in her thirties with nine children, some of whom might have been nearing legal age. She might have hoped to gain their freedom as well.

Possibly because of legal reorganization upon Missouri’s statehood in 1820, Winny’s case did not reach trial until 1822. The jury decided in favor of Winny and awarded her $167.50 in damages. Phebe appealed and the case reached the Missouri Supreme Court in 1824, which also decided in Winny’s favor because she had lived in a free territory.¹⁰²

Winny v. Whitesides set crucial legal precedent in Missouri: that a slave could sue for freedom on the basis of living in a free territory. Missouri courts freed ten slaves on this basis over the next thirteen years. Dred and Harriet Scott’s lawyers used Winny v. Whitesides as a legal basis in their freedom suit in 1846, but by then slavery advocates were far more entrenched. The Scotts’ case famously led to probably the most disastrous Supreme Court decision ever in 1857, in which Chief Justice Roger Taney declared African Americans were “so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect." Backlash to this decision helped ignite the American Civil War.¹⁰³

The Whitesides held a complex relationship with slavery, one which reveals the many dimensions of the peculiar institution in frontier Illinois. It is a rich topic worth further examination.

Sheriff of Madison County

William B. also served as sheriff of Madison County once Illinois became a state. In the first election in Madison County under the state constitution on September 17, 18, and 19 in 1818, William B. won with 260 votes, the incumbent sheriff Isom Gillham received 169 votes, and Joseph Borough 106.¹⁰⁴ Gillham had previously served as the first sheriff of Madison County from the county’s founding in 1812 until the election of 1818, making Whiteside the second sheriff and the first under the state government.¹⁰⁵

Court records from 1819 to 1821 indicate that, as sheriff, Whiteside was responsible for tax collection and management. For example, on September 8, 1819, he was paid $15 for “making out an alphabetical tax list for the year 1819.”¹⁰⁶

The Next Generation

William Bolin and Sarah’s children also started marrying and having children following the war.

• In 1817, his eldest daughter Sarah married Robert Reynolds Jr., the younger brother of future governor John Reynolds.
• In 1819 his second daughter Mary married James Harvey Gilham, a possible relative of the first sheriff of Madison County, Isom Gilham.
• In 1820 Elizabeth Ann married her second cousin Jacob Judy, son of Samuel Judy and Margaret Whiteside and grandson of John Whiteside, William Bolin’s uncle.
• In 1825 Hester Ann married Jacob Swiggart.
• In 1826, Moses Whiteside also married a second cousin, Jacob Judy’s sister Nancy.
• In 1831 Elvira Whiteside married Jacob Marshall.

William B.’s remaining three sons were not married until after his death in 1833: George Washington Whiteside in 1839, William Bolin Jr. in 1842, both married in Galena, Illinois, and Ninian Edward Whiteside in 1853 in California.

William B. had numerous grandchildren and further descendants, and it is very possible many have yet to be identified. Some may still live in the area.

Many of these marriages did not last. Moses and Nancy Whiteside divorced in 1833. Baldwin writes that Moses “disappeared several months after marrying the second Nancy Judy and was believed to have been killed by Indians in the wilderness.” After seven years, Nancy filed for divorce in 1832 and remarried in 1833.¹¹³

William R. Whiteside has found some details that complicate this story. For starters, Moses did not die in the “wilderness” but remarried in Wisconsin. Further, according to court records for the divorce, the couple had two children: Elizabeth Ann Whiteside and Jacob Judy Whiteside, and the divorce was actually granted in 1833. Moses could not have left as quickly as the story tells. Still, it appears Moses was absent by this point; he never came to court despite being summoned, and the children were put into the custody of Jacob Swiggart, Hester Ann’s husband.

Where then did this story come from? Baldwin apparently had heard it from Emma Schoen, Nancy’s great-granddaughter through a third marriage after her second husband died. William R. Whiteside had called Schoen, who told him that the story had been handed down in their family. Possibly Nancy never heard back from Moses and assumed he had died. Or she did know he left her and remarried and told her children a more palatable story.

Sarah also divorced Robert Reynolds in 1834 and remarried that same year to George Swiggart. She died and was buried with the name Swiggart only one year later, 1835, with her parents, assuming the details on the obelisk are correct. For more on this date problem, see Whiteside Cemetery.

Though Hester Ann was not divorced, her husband Jacob Swiggart remarried six years after she died in 1836. In 1842 he married Mary Nix, the marriage was annulled in 1842, and they were remarried to each other in 1850, after which they had three children.

Elizabeth Ann was not divorced, but widowed in 1850 when her husband Jacob Judy died. There is no evidence of them having children, though they were married for thirty years. She married Dr. John Claypoole in 1853, himself a widower with 5 children and 7 adopted children. Elizabeth and Dr. Claypoole moved to Fort Madison, Iowa at some point. Elizabeth likely moved back to the Edwardsville area after he died in 1866, and she died in 1867 and was buried with her sister and parents. See Whiteside Cemetery for more on her death.

The Black Hawk War

When war broke out once more with Native Americans, this time in northern Illinois, William Bolin and his cousin Samuel participated again, much as they had in the War of 1812.

Both Whitesides participated in the campaign of 1831, which saw limited action. In that campaign, governor John Reynolds responded to Black Hawk’s return across the Mississippi by calling for a militia force of 700 mounted soldiers to force the Sauk and Fox Indians "dead or alive over to the West side of the Mississippi." The two Whitesides ended up among the 1,400 militiamen that went with Reynolds to Rock Island on June 25, 1831 where they met with another force under the command of General Edmund Pendleton Gaines, commander of the Western Division of the U.S. Army. With the threat of war and superior numbers, Gaines managed to force Black Hawk and his band back west of the Mississippi on June 30, 1831 without any significant bloodshed.¹¹⁴

During this brief campaign, Major Samuel Whiteside commanded the Spy Battalion made up of four companies. William B. Whiteside captained one of these companies with about 50 men under his command. The formal name of the company was “Captain William Whiteside’s Company Odd Battalion of Spies of Mounted Volunteers,” and was formally put into service on June 13, 1831. Whiteside had enrolled all but two of the company members that day in Edwardsville. Two days after Black Hawk agreed to move west, July 2, the company was formally discharged and disbanded.¹¹⁵

That day, a muster roll was conducted of the company. William B. is listed as the captain and present, but also as sick. Perhaps this is why he is not listed as a commander in the bloodier 1832 campaign when Black Hawk’s band returned. By then, Samuel Whiteside had been promoted to Brigadier General and commanded the first army, known as Whiteside’s Brigade. Under his command was a recently enlisted and promoted captain of one of the companies, a 23-year-old New Salem merchant named Abraham Lincoln.¹¹⁶

Death

The last recorded activity of William B. Whiteside is a land deed he sold on September 6, 1833. His wife Sarah had died in July of 1833, and he died November 18, 1833. She was 54, he was 56.

There is some confusion regarding the exact dates of these deaths, though I am confident that these are correct. Though the dates are literally carved in stone on their obelisk grave, William B.’s death year contradicts other sources. The obelisk lists his death as occurring November 18, 1835, yet the Sangamo Journal first reported on his death in its January 4, 1834 issue. Though his obituary does not give a death date, it does state it occurred “a few weeks since,” indicating a death in late 1833.¹¹⁷ William Bolin’s probate papers from February 1834 state he died “on or about the 18^th of November, 1833.”¹¹⁸ Both of these sources make a death year of 1835 impossible.

For reasons I discuss here, it is highly likely that the obelisk was not erected until 1867, by which time the family may have misremembered the exact birth or death dates of those who had died in the 1830s. We must therefore also be suspicious of Sarah Whiteside’s listed death date: July 30, 1833. The Sangamo Journal once again contradicts the grave, stating in an issue on August 17, 1833, “Mrs. Sarah R. consort of Major Wm. B. Whiteside, age 54" died the previous month on the 20^th.¹¹⁹ Either way, Sarah died in July of 1833.

Less certain is the cause of death; however, some evidence suggests cholera killed both William and Sarah.

Cholera is spread through food and water contaminated with human feces containing the bacterium Vibrio cholera. As a result it is common in areas with poor sanitation, which was certainly the case for frontier Illinois. 80% of those infected with cholera do not develop symptoms, but the bacteria will be present in their feces for as long as ten days, further spreading the disease. Those who develop symptoms have acute diarrhea with varying severity, which leads to severe dehydration if left untreated. Without rehydration techniques of modern medicine, cholera can kill about half of those it infects.¹²⁰

A massive outbreak of cholera began in 1832 in Illinois and claimed the lives of thousands.¹²¹ It is conventionally believed the disease was brought to the area by troops under the command of Winfield Scott in the Black Hawk War.¹²² The concurrence of the Black Hawk War and a cholera epidemic is no coincidence. With large groups of people from throughout the state and country converging in one area of poor sanitation made the barracks ripe for the spread of disease. As the troops went home, they then spread the disease throughout the state and nation. Anthropologist Anthony F. C. Wallace, who in 1970 called the Black Hawk War a disaster for both sides, considered the subsequent cholera epidemic one of the major consequences of the war, killing far more whites than actual bloodshed.¹²³ Both the diseases of the American Civil War and the influenza outbreak after World War I are more famous examples of this phenomenon.

Reynolds observed cholera firsthand amongst Winfield Scott’s troops in August of 1832. He met General Scott in early August to negotiate a treaty with Black Hawk’s band near Rock Island, and Reynolds disbanded his militia troops. According to Reynolds, Scott’s troops first showed signs of cholera on their way from the eastern states to Chicago, presumably traveling by ship through the Great Lakes.¹²⁴ Reynolds writes:

William B. Whiteside is listed as sick on July 2, 1831, but it is important to remember that this was a whole year before General Scott’s troops arrived carrying cholera. Additionally, once he or she catches cholera, the infected person’s symptoms appear at most five days later and, if improperly treated, death occurs within hours.¹²⁶ If Whiteside died of cholera, he could not have survived with the disease for two years, unless he survived the first attack from cholera, only to catch the disease again. More likely, he was infected with another disease in 1831 while in the camps, possibly weakening his immune system against the disease he died of two years later.

A significant cholera outbreak occurred in Belleville in 1833, only about 30 miles south of Edwardsville. We know this because it is what killed former governor Ninian Edwards, who was living in Belleville at the time and provided free medical care to local residents. When cholera reached the town, he provided treatment to those afflicted until he caught the disease. He died July 20, possibly the same day as Sarah Whiteside.¹²⁷

Finally, the issue of the Sangamo Journal that lists Sarah Whiteside’s death lists 25 deaths from cholera in Carrollton, Illinois. In the obituary section that lists Sarah, the Springfield paper states that some believed three deaths in Springfield deaths were cholera-induced.¹²⁸ While the lack of a cause listed for Sarah may indicate a cause other than cholera, her death was far less local and the paper had less ability to speculate on the cause of her death.

Short of finding a definitive source or exhuming the bodies, it is impossible to definitively prove a cause of death. Likely they both died of natural causes, as death by Indians, accident, or suicide would have a better chance of being remembered by the family. Since they were both in their 50s and they died only a few months apart, their deaths were more likely caused by a pathogen rather than an internal disease like cancer or heart attack. Pathogen diseases killed many on the frontier, and any number of them could have killed the Whitesides. However, the only disease known to infect the area at the time was cholera.

Legacy

Names left by the Whitesides

Probably the most prominent name left by the Whitesides in the Metro East is Whiteside School, an elementary and middle school in Belleville. It began as a one-room schoolhouse in the early 1850s, named after William Lot Whiteside, William Bolin’s cousin and son of John Whiteside. William Lot and his wife Sarah had deeded one acre of his land for the building of the school for $100.¹²⁹

Another cousin had a whole Illinois county named after him, Samuel Whiteside. The most successful Whiteside, after serving in the War of 1812 he became the first representative of Madison County in the new state legislature in 1818. In 1819, he served on a commission to select a new state capitol, helping to decide to move the capitol from Kaskaskia to Vandalia. He then served in the Illinois General Assembly from 1819 to 1821. Instead of seeking reelection, he returned to military service, fighting in both the Winnebago War in 1827 and the aforementioned Black Hawk War in the early 1830s. After his wife died in 1851, he sold his farm in Madison County and moved in with his adult children in Christian County, Illinois. He died and was buried in Christian County in 1866.¹³⁰

Whiteside County, located in northwestern Illinois, was established in 1836; named for Samuel Whiteside likely because he had fought the Indians in that part of the state.¹³¹

Legacy of William B. Whiteside

William B. Whiteside’s obituary was printed in the January 4, 1834 issue of the Sangamo Journal. It reads:

DIED—In Madison county, Illinois, a few weeks since, Major William Bohlen Whiteside, aged about 55 years. Major W. was among the earliest of the settlers of the Illinois territory, and whilst yet a youth often encountered the savage enemies of the country; he was captain of Rangers in the late war with Great Britain, and one of the bravest of that daring corps:
[Illinois Advocate.
In St. Louis, on the 15th November, Gen. Daniel Bissell.¹³²

In other words, Whiteside’s contemporaries considered his military service and killing of Native Americans his most important service to the people of Illinois and defined his identity.

Over the years after his death, Whiteside’s land was divided and sold to multiple owners, including William Tyler Brown, whose second wife, Mary E. Swaggart, was William Bolin’s granddaughter.¹³³ The land continued to change owners until the 1960s, when it was bought up for the campus of SIUE.