William Gay Butler letter to Jonathan Butler 2nd, 1832 June 2 and 13

Letter addressed from Kalamazoo Harbour on Lake Michigan, and sent from the Prairie Ronde post office with no postmark, for 25 cents postage. The paper is torn and stained with wax residue where it was sealed. William Gay Butler writes to his father Jonathan Butler in West Hartford three years after their last correspondence. He and his family have settled on the Kalamazoo River in Michigan Territory, and William describes at length the local situation and politics. They live and trade among the Ottawa people as the only white family in the area. William is seeking a preemption to entitle him to the land. While at the land office to register the township site, he was informed of local conflicts with the Indians including depredations by the Sauk warriors and their allies in Illinois. He describes a council called by the settlers of Niles Township on May 30, wherein the Potowatomi offered a pledge of neutrality. On his next visit to the office, William learns of the recent Battle of Stillman's Run and defeat of 275 Illinois militia troops by the Sauk warriors of Black Hawk's British Band, marking the beginning of the Black Hawk War. He describes the subsequent deployment of 2000 Illinois militia troops by Governor John Reynolds, and reports that General Henry Atkinson was at last account surrounded, his supplies cut off. On the day William was at the land office, June 13, a company assembled to march the following morning.