Hononegah and Stephen Mack Jr. met in Grand Detour, Illinois in approximately 1828.
"It is difficult to affix a date when Mack and Hononegah began living as man and wife. Such a date may be reckoned by the date of birth of their eldest child. Some sources believe the first child died as an infant. No date of birth for this presumed child has survived. Their eldest surviving child was Rosa, born November 14, 1830. It is also seen that in February 1829 Mack purchased LaSallieur's cabin...the timing of the sale combined with the date of Rosa's birth might suggest that Mack and Hononegah began living together as man and wife at the time of the sale."
-Dean McMackin (2010)
The Native American History of Macktown and Stephen Mack's Pecatonic Settlement
Mack arrived in Grand Detour in 1820. Although we will never know when he and Hononegah first made each other's acquaintance, it is not likely that their romance begun any earlier than 1828 as Hononegah was born in 1814.
Mack and Hononegah left Grand Detour some time during the later half of 1829. Grand Detour would later become the home of inventor John Deere, who created the first commercially successful steel plow in 1837 and founded Deere & Company. He settled in Grand Detour in 1836.
John Deere moved to this mansion in Moline, Illinois in 1875.
His son Charles built this house in 1872.
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