The Nankin Township Historical Society

Alton Daily Courier , May 25, 1854 This is the second variation of the story of Tonquish and his son's deaths that differ from the standard version in Tonquish Tales by Helen Frances Gilbert. While in another newspaper rendition the death spiral started over a kicked dog whereby Tonquish's son shot and killed Tom Sargent for the misdeed. It was then that Capt. Macomb and his militia tracked down and killed the pair. In this version it starts over a shot deer which Tom Sargent, presumably though not named, claims the deer after Tonquish Jr. had shot and t racked it to him. Tonquish Jr. killed Sargent and the posse comes looking for him. When confronted with the story Tonquish denies knowledge of his son's whereabouts. One militiaman caught sign of Jr. hiding in the brush and raised to shoot at him whence Tonquish raised his gun in reply. Before he could fire both he and his son were gunned down and died. Which of these stories is true is left to the ages.

Since I've found 4 different versions of the death of Tonquish and his son I think it important to post all of them. This is the version from Tonquish Tales by Helen Frances Gilbert The deaths ensued after Tonquish and his son had raided a cabin after smelling fresh bread. Tom Sargent returned to the homestead during the robbery and was shot dead by Tonquish's son. A militia was hastily formed, led by Capt. Macomb, and the tribe was tracked down near Nankin Mills where they were caught save for Tonquish and son. They were soon enough tracked to near Schwarzburg where Tonquish and son were shot, the latter after running away and the former in a battle after his son was felled. I don't know where I placed my scanned copy of the book so I took some shots from my physical copy. So as not to destroy the spine some pages are a bit skewed but should be readable. I hate posting shoddy pics like that but I can always scan the two short chapters at a later point to make it presen...

Detroit Free Press , December 9, 1852 The translation from reality to the written page for the Free Press was often an adventure of misinformation. While they usually got the story almost correct they seemingly misspelled, misnamed and misapplied every rule of fact-checking to get the paper to press as soon as humanly possible. In essence, publishing the story was more important than the story itself. In the case of the death of Chief Tonquish and his son by the same moniker, Tonquish, there are at least four renditions of the story. This one seems to be semi-faithful to the others in some regards and disparate in others. All seem to include a main participant by the name of Tom Sargent (sometimes Sargeant). In this instance the sect of Pottawatomie led by Chief Tonquish were returning to their home on the Livonia/Nankin border, where Schwarzburg was situated in the better portion of the last 75 years of the 19th century, after a day of trading their wares and gathering supplies. They ...