d with
Tecumthe, and I have been since informed, on good authority, that he was
in the battle of the Thames and in several other engagements with that
distinguished chief."

In September, 1838, he started with the head men of his little band to
go to Rock Island, the place designated by the Agent, to receive their
annuities, but was taken sick on the way and had to return to his
home. He was confined to his bed about two weeks, and on the 3d day of
October, 1838, he was called away by the Great Spirit to take up his
abode in the happy grounds of the future, at the age of seventy-one
years. His devoted wife and family were his only and constant attendants
during his last sickness, and when brought home sick, she had a
premonition that he would soon be called away.

The following account of his death and burial we take from the
Burlington Hawk-Eye, and as we knew the writer as a reliable gentleman,
many years ago, we have no doubt of it being strictly correct.

Captain James H. Jordan, a trader among the Sacs and Foxes before Black
Hawk's death, was present at his burial, and is now residing on the
very spot where he died. In reply to a letter of inquiry he writes as
follows:

ELDON, Iowa, July 15, 1881.

Black Hawk was buried on the northeast quarter of the southeast quarter
of section 2, township 70, range 12, Davis county, Iowa, near the
northeast corner of the county, on the Des Moines river bottom, about
ninety rods from where he lived when he died, and the north side of the
river. I have the ground on which he lived for a door yard, it being
between my house and the river. The only mound over the gave was some
puncheons split out and set over his grave and then sodded over with
blue gross, making a ridge about four feet high. A flag-staff, some
twenty feet high, was planted at the head, on which was a silk flag,
which hung there until the wind wore it out. My house and his were only
about four rods apart when he died. He was sick only about fourteen
days. He was buried right where he sat the year before, when in council
with Iowa Indians, and was buried in a suit of military clothes, made to
order and given to him when in Washington City by General Jackson, with
hat, sword, gold epaulets, etc., etc.

The Annals of Iowa of 1863 and 1864 state that the old chief was buried
by laying his body on a board, his feet fifteen inches below the surface
of the ground, and his head raised three feet above the ground.