Sop-Ho-Kab

Sop-Ho-Kab was a seven-year old full-blooded Sauk Indian and survivor of the Battle of Bad Axe (i.e., Bad Axe Massacre), which took place on August 2, 1832, near Victory, Wisconsin. For several painful days after the battle she floated down the Mississippi River in a canoe with a severely wounded Sauk brave. Arriving at Olde Jordan’s Landing (later Dunleith, Illinois) tired, scared, starving, lonely, and exhausted, she was found, adopted, and raised by Thomas and Mary (Whiteside) Jordan, owners of Jordan’s Ferry.

Thomas Jordan died suddenly in 1833 and Mary Jordan raised “Indian Kate” with their fourteen children. Catherine Clare Jordan grew and married Probus Eberle, son of Sales and Antonious (Kist) Eberle, a prominent Prussian immigrant farmer. They raised their eight children on a farm a couple of miles from the Mississippi River in section 21, Jo Daviess County.

Probus died in 1890 and Catherine sold their farm a few years later. She then resided in Wiota, Cass County, Iowa, and Centralia, today west of Dubuque, Iowa, with her son John Bunyon Eberle. She then moved to Cassville, Wisconsin, to stay with Fred and Catherine Clare (her daughter) Fishnick where she died on November 9, 1899. She is buried with her husband, Probus, in the East Dubuque Cemetery in Plots 1 & 2, one mile from the library up Hill Street.

Dedicated August 2017, during the 185th anniversary of Thomas Jordan’s rescue of Sop-Ho-Kab, whom he affectionately called “Katie.”