Also spelled his name "Van Burklo.
According to a letter written in 1921 from the Emmons Abstract Co. of St. Charles, MO, he died "just about the time he and his wife and younger children were preparing to move to Texas." He married in the early 1800's (1811, according to the account below.) (1) Eleanore (Nellie) Fallis, born in the late 1700's in Virginia, daughter of Isaac Fallis, from Kentucky, and his wife, Susannah (Susan) Martaine, from Virginia. Her brother was a doctor, who lived close by. It is recorded that William sold slaves before the Civil War. His house which is over 150 years old, is still occupied. He also married (2) Mary Blackstone, and (3) Charity (Clarissa) Jane Gilderland. Charity (Clarissa) Jane was younger than her husband's oldest granddaughter.
A letter written by William (Uncle Billy) Van Burkleo about his lifetime experiences has been located in the archives of the Missouri Historical Society, from the Maher Collection, which has been presented by Dr. Ben L. Emmons:
"Written the first day of June 1854. A small sketch of my life and of ancient times from 1794, at which time I was ten years old. I was born in the state of Delaware, Kent Co, in June 11, 1784, and when I was about 4 years old my father moved to the Monangahelah where he stayed two years then moved to Kentucky in the hottest Indian times. Three families of us embarked in a flatboat for Limestone, which is now in Mason County, Kentucky."
"When we arrived there, I saw the first Indian barbarity. There were
three flat boats just landed which started a day before we did. They had been delayed by a large number of Indian canoes. The boats were well made. The attack was made in the night. The Indians attempted to land the boats but were bravely resisted by all in the boats, men women, and children. They fought with guns, axes, knives. And the Indians after a long fight and loss of a great many men, retreated. The boats floated on till they came to Limestone where they got help to land. They had just landed when we got there. The scene was so alarming. I will never forget it. I think there were about 60 souls, big and small, amongst which there was but one man and two women who were not killed or wounded. My father went on board the boats and I went with him, and of all the horrid sights I have ever witnessed, it was the worst. Some dead, some dying, some crying, some mourning. There were horses, cattle, and people laying dead all over the boats."
"We then moved out about 12 miles on the waters of Licking to Miles Station, where times were pretty warm the first night we got there. The Indians stole all our horses from the wagons, which were a few steps from the blockhouse and so when the time while we stay in Kentucky. On the first Sunday morning after we got to the station a young man went out to get his horse, the Indians had tied the horse in the brush with the bell open. They killed the young man and scalped him in sight of the blockhouse. We stayed there and lived on wild meat and hominy or bread made from flour by pounding in a mortar until the war was over. The year that wane(Wayne?) whip(?), my father volunteered and went to Ohio to join the army as a spy. And as soon as wane (Wayne's?) last battle was over, he returned home with the first Indian scalp I ever saw. He brought 2 or 3 scalps and a tomahawk and some other trinkets all of which were a great toast in the station."
"He then moved to Ohio. We arrived in Cincinnati a few days after Wayne's Treaty with the Indians. Cincinnati was a small village. We remained there until the Fall of 1798, when old David Dust(Durst, Darst?) bottom returned home from this country on a visit to see his brother who was taken prisoner by the Indians and brought to this country. Davis (David?) Durst(?) was a close neighbor to us. He brought such great news about the Spanish Country, my father fixed up and we started from the mouth of the Big Miami about the first of October, 1794(1798?) with our family in one small flat boat and our cattle in a large boat, but the Ohio was so [shallow?] that we could not get along. We then turned the cattle out on the Indian side and drove them along the bank and lay with the boat that had the family every night, which was very bad. The buffalo and bear often scared the stock and gave us much trouble. We got to the 6 Mile Island which was six miles above Louisville the last of November where we put up for the winter."
"We wintered finely. Game was plentiful. As soon as the ice broke, he bought a flat boat. and put the cattle aboard and set out again and floated on finally till we came to Fort Massac(?), where there was a garrison of soldiers. There we had to stop and get a passport. We then floated on till we got to the mouth of the Ohio, where we stopped to kill bear meat to do us through the summer, intending to make a pirogue to come up in, but accidentally there was a keel boat which came along going to the solen(island?) after salt. We got the family in that, and we crossed the cattle over the Mississippi, through swamps and marshes, which was a severe job. I waded many times to my waist through the cypress weeds and falling over them in the water till I was half-drowned until we got to Cape Girardeau, which was the first settlement we found. There was Laramore(?), who was an Indian Chief and a Spanish Commandant when we got there. We had not eaten anything for two days. He gave us some hominy and dry venison, which was great nourishment. We then drove on through the Shone and Dilawar (Shoshone and Delaware Indian tribes?) towns where we found a great deal of friendship. They gave us dry venison to last us .... Misear(?)(Missouri), as it was called then, which is where we found the family from whom father rented a house for the summer. He pickedout his in Bobveeta Bottom(?).....move to it in the fall and became neighbors to the Indians, for their town was only four miles from us. He became so dissatisfied that he determined to leave the country and sold out intending to get it all in salt and take it to Nashville. Salt was worth $4 a bushel then in Tennessee and intended buying cotton and taking it up to Ohio. He moved to the Salenes(?) to collect it. He there got his debts all turned over on Speners(?) and left have books they was caring on the salt works. He stayed there a year trying to collect it and thebrook and he lost it all but about 100 bushels."
"He then moved to St. Charles, which was called Petticoat. and stayed there one year being still dissatisfied, took what he had in salt and went toTennessee and sold it for cotton and started up the Ohio. I was going on 14 years old. He gave me the choice of going with him or coming back here. I thought it best to come back here."
"I got back about the last of September. When I got to St. Charles, there were two men by the name of Gardner that were fitting out for an expedition up the Missouri trapping. I joined them and went along. We went about 500 miles up the Missouri and then we got amongst the hostile Indians. There I learned my first lesson about Indians. We were in a canoe and had to dodge from side to side of the river to keep out of their way. Sometimes we would slip up some of the small rivers where we were afraid to shoot, and then we would live on beaver meat, when there was plenty of buffalo and deer all around us. It was seven months in which we saw no white man nor had neither bread nor salt. In the spring we came down to the river Lamen(?). We met two hunters."
"About the last of May we came down to make arrangements to start up again the next fall, but when I got to St. Charles there was a man waiting for me with tidings from my mother that father was dead and she wished me to come to her assistance. I started with the young man and myself in a bark canoe which I brought down with me. We went to the mouth of the Ohio in it, hen walked up the Ohio, killing meat as we went, till we got to the Volking Cave on the Ohio, where I found my mother with seven children. I then bought a large perouge(boat) and hired two young men and started back and before we got to the mouth of the Ohio two of my little brothers died, but we came on, taking us
pretty neigh all summer to get to portage Desoux. I stayed with her till she married old Mr. Gatey."
"Since that time I have been struggling for myself. In 1811 I was married. I then bought 100 arponds of land at one dollar per arpond. It joined hisen. and overall in the point I paid for it with 200 bushels of corn the next fall. I was in debt to old James Morgan 75 dollars for my wedding suit, which consisted of hat, coat, shirt, and pants of a cheap quality, which I paid for the same fall in venison and paltry. Then said I to my wife, "We are out of debt and got a good piece of land. I ask no odds of the world." I then worked on at home and abroad having good luck until the fall of 1812, when the Indian War broke out, when my good luck turned to bad luck some time about the first of October."
"I was warned to be at Portage Desoux the next morning by sun up, armed and equipped, for there was a great body of Indians at the south of Illinois. I started before daybreak the next morning and was there by daylight. The company met and was mustered by Capt. Samuel Griffith and was ordered up the Mississippi, near the mouth of the Illinois, where we stood guard that day and night and the next day without anything to eat except a few apples we got at portague. In the evening we was called in and sent home after provisions to return next morning, which was good luck for me. If it had not been so, my family would have all been murdered, for the Indians attacked my house that night. They fired a platoon in the bed where my wife and myself was asleep, broke my wife's leg, and hit me
with seven buck shot in my thigh which awoke me. I knew what was up and sprung to my gun which was hanging in the rack. "One stepped in the house," my wife said. He pointed his gun at me and fired and sprung out of the house. The powder burnt me and blinded me so that I never got to see them for they dodged round the house. The ball hit me in the hip, but I did not fall. I got behind the foot of the bed that stood behind the door, intending to make the best fight I could. I set waiting for them to break in for some time with my gun cocked in my hand and my butcher knife in my mouth. Hailed them, but no answer. I spoke in French and in Indian and told them to come in, that they was squaws and was afraid to come in, but they made no answer. I told my little brother-in-law, who was setting to my back to shut the door, which he did. At that moment they attempted to burst the back door. I got there as soon as I could and held it to till the boy secured it. I then, by the help of the boy and a hand ladder that was in the house, got up in the loft where I opened holes that I could see out, but never got sight of them. They found out I was there and left. I lay there all night and watched with great difficulty when I would raise up to look out. I would faint before I could lie down. My wife, lying below, bleeding but never moaned. She told me her leg was broke. When daylight came, the boy took a horse and went for assistance, which came as soon as possible."
"We was taken to St. Louis County to her brother, Dr. Fallis, where we stayed till the next spring. I got so I could walk with crutches. I then came back to the point to Squire Ayrses, for my house was burnt down a few nights after we was shot and they burned my house with everything that we had and from that my fence took fire and burned one whole string of it, and I lost my whole crop which was 30 acres of corn and all my truck. They shot one horse and stole two."
"I then moved where I now live and was determined to see them out. I made strong doors and made port holes all around the house, but they never tried me again, but when they had the fight at the sinkhole, I could hear the guns so plain, I expected it would be my turn next, and when they killed Dreling in Gore Sealy's yard, standing talking to Sealy in the door. They fired 21 guns at the door. Sealy shut the door and got his gun. They come running from the brush. Some stopped to scalp Reling (Dreling?) and the rest come running to burst the door when they got in a few feet of the door, George was at a port hole and let the foremost one have it. He fell with his head against the door step. Several of them gathered him and packed him off and they left there to be. Two rangers stayed there that night but had no guns, one of them had just stepped on his business and had just returned and set down as he saw an Indian slipping on him, he sprung with his britches in his hand. At that moment the guns all fired and Indians took after him but soon lost sight of him. Charley ran to the white's fort, which was two miles from there, then gathered about ten or twelve men and put out for Sealy's. Before they got there, they saw the Indians in the prairie, carrying the dead Indian. They hurried on to the house and found Sealy unharmed but David Realing killed and scalped. They immediately pursued to the bank of the Quiver, where the Indians took water. Realing was a ranger. He had his gun broke in a battle and was to home doctoring it. The next was Elick(?) Sencor, near Kooks Spring. He was a-horse, hunting. The Indians was in ambush, shot him off of his horse and scalped him. He was a fine young man."
"I was never able to do military duty again, but had many scouts after them in the settlement."
"Governor Clark sent me three men to stay with me all the time and my brother-in-law stayed, all brave fellows. We made it a rule to never open the door till sun up. Then we would scout round a little to see if there was any signs. One morning we found a trail in the weeds, so fresh that the dew was knocked off the weeds. It appeared to be ten or twelve of them about a half mile back to a small prairie. I went about 50 yards ahead on the trail. The rest followed, each one about 25 steps behind another, so that they could not get much advantage of us. I went about 100 yards and then discovered a small patch of trash(?) I beckoned to the boys to stop. When I got to the little patch, I beckoned to them to come on. The Indians had stopped there and had been eating lying down. They had bent
the bushes and vines together, made a sort of blind. We then followed them across the little prairie into the brush. We then turned back and raised some men andpursued them but they scattered and we could not find them. We had many such chases as that, have run them several times till they took water, for the river was all over the prairie in '15(1815?)."
"I will say something about the battles and defeats, the time Capt. James Callaway was defeated. There was a large body of Indians come into this settlement near Luter Island and did some mischief. Capt. Callaway raised a company and pursued them. He was a courageous and inexperienced fellow, rushed along without a spy and when they came near the narrows on Luter, where the bluff come close to the bank, old Capt. William Ramsey proposed to go up the bluff and go around. He said there was danger in following through the pass. Callaway laughed at him, and told him he was a coward. Ramsey was an old experienced Indian fighter. Said he, "You may call me what you please, I shall go round," and before he had got a half mile he heard the guns. Him and one more man they went near enough to ascertain the whole fact, then made their retreat with the news that Callaway was defeated. They fought to the last, but the Indians killed and defeated them all. Capt. Ramsey's battle on the Mississippi, near the mouth of Salt
River. He come on a body of Indians camped on the bank of the river. He sent his brother, Allen Ramsey, and three other men as spies. They crawled so near up behind the camps, one old Indian, having a looking glass in his hand, saw them, threw the glass sprung to him. Allen Ramsey, being foremost, shot him. The five(?) then commenced to tree themselves and fought for some time till there was several killed and in both sides, till at length the Indians retreated, one by one slipping under the bank of the river. Ramsey left at the same time, knowing that there was a large body of Indians near on their way home, near Buffalo Lick. The Indians waylaid the trace, fired on them, and they had a hot battle. There was several killed and on both sides, so got....took more men, went back to take care of the dead and wounded."
"The time of the battle at Sinque(?) Hole, the Indians attacked Fort Howard by firing on some men that went out of the fort to an old house that was near. They lay in the brush by the roadside as the men was on their return to the fort over a slough of backwater, where the men had their canoe in sight of the fort. The Indians fired on them and killed them all. At the same time the Indians fired on the fort from another quarter. Capt. Craig(?), leaving a few men in the fort, rallied on them where they killed the boys, but having to go around the slough. The Indians retreated to the brush. Craig soon overtook them, about the same number that attacked they boys. They fired and ran and in a short distance their army was placed. They fired killed Capt. Craig as he was foremost and wounded several more. They retreated and fought back until they came to the mouth of the hollow that heads near the sink hole. Lieutenant Spears took command of the men, pursued them. The Indians got across the hollow on the hillside where they had the advantage of the ground. There they made a stand. Spears pushed on them. They kept retreating up the hollow till all length. Spears got on the other sillside. There they fought for some two or three hours until Capt. D. Musick got there with a part of his men. After some time the Indians began to scatter and finally retreated and the wounded and such as could not make their escape run in the sink hole. Spears attempted to charge on them, but they was so well concealed that he found he could do nothing with them after making many attempts, and had several men killed and wounded. They sent and got a pair of cart wheels and made a battery on them against. They got that done, it was getting dark. Musick took a part of the men and went around the sink hole on one side and Spears on the other side and the battery was to move down at the same time. Spears rushed too fast, was shot in the head. Old Saint Scoot shot the Indian in the head at the same moment. It was dark and they left - When they went back next morning, the Indians had put the dead Indian on Spears, had cut off Spears' head. From the signs, the Indians had fixed the sink hole for that purpose, had dug with their tomahawks so they could hide. There was a great deal of blood there."
Thus ends his fascinating insight into life in the Midwest in the first half of the 19th Century.
Note from Louise Conner: " William settled in St. Charles Co., Missouri in 1798 where he followed the occupations of horse racing and farming. He was a Ranger in Captain Musick's Company."
William and wife Charity inherited 1/9th of son Henry's estate.
