Apple River Fort - History - Construction

Construction

The Apple River Fort was constructed by the early settlers in the region in present-day Elizabeth, Illinois for protection during the 1832 Black Hawk War. At the onset of the Black Hawk War, settlers in southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois constructed a series of hastily built forts; Apple River Fort was one of the forts erected after the Illinois Militia's defeat at Stillman's Run on May 14. The small fort was completed on May 22, 1832 under the supervision of Captain Clack Stone, commander of the settlement's militia garrison, one week after the battle at Stillman's Run. The Apple River settlement, at the time of the fort's completion, was home to about 40 settlers. Relatively few contemporary descriptions of the fort exist. One of the more complete later descriptions is found in the 1878 post-Black Hawk War text The History of Jo Daviess County:

Trees were felled, split, and about one hundred feet square of ground was enclosed by driving these rough posts down, close together, leaving them above ground about twelve feet. One corner of the fort was formed by the log house in which one of the settlers had lived. In the opposite corner, was built a " block house," of two stories, with the upper story projecting over the other about two feet, so that the Indians could not come up near to the building for the purpose of setting it on fire, without being exposed to the guns of the settlers, from above. On one side of the yard were built two long cabins, for dwelling purposes, and in the two corners not occupied by houses, benches were made to stand upon and reconnoitre.