In May 1832, during the Black Hawk War, a war party attacked the Davis settlement on Indian Creek near Ottawa, Illinois, killing the settlers gathered there and carrying off two teenage sisters, Sylvia and Rachel Hall. Scanlan pieces together the massacre, the girls’ journey into the Wisconsin wilderness and the efforts to ransom them, using interviews with relatives and visits to the ground.
A detailed local history of the frontier; its portrayal of Native Americans reflects the attitudes of its time. Download the free EPUB.