PIONEER HUNTERS OF i'HE KANKAKEE 

 Indian bounded up out ©f the grass and yelled. 

 This aroused the others and the battle began 

 and the result of that shot is well known. The 

 reader remembers i told in a previous 

 chapter what brought liaskins to the Kankakee 

 Swamps. In 1854 Aaron Broady Sr., and his 

 son, John, entered the land. The land of which 

 the island was originally a part belonged to the 

 State and contains one hundred and twenty 

 acres. The island itself only contains about 

 thirty-five or forty acres. In the early days be-- 

 fore the country was drained it was surrounded 

 by water nearly the whole year round and the 

 only way of getting to the island was with boat 

 or by wading in from the north side. In the dry 

 season when the water v^as low you could drive 

 in with a team but in the winter season when 

 the marshes were frozen up, getting in on the 

 ice was the best time. The Broadies each built 

 a log cabin and cleared up afeout ten acres and 

 put it under cultivation. The island at that time 

 was heavily timbered. The Kankakee swamps 



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