called a lung fever - of this she was sick eight or nine days and died. She was sensible to the last moment and took leave of her children and friends a few hours before she died. "You say that by the notice in the paper you perceive she died a Christian. "If I know what a Christian is, she was one, not by profession but by her every act, her every deed proclaimed her a follower of Christ. In her the hungry and the naked have lost a benefactor, the sick a nurse and I have lost a friend who taught me to reverence God by doing good to his creatures. "Her funeral proved that I am not the only sufferer by her loss. My house is large, but it was filled to overflowing by mourning friends who assembled to pay the last sad duties to her who had set them the example how to live and how to die." Years later William C. Blinn related that after Hononegah's funeral, "a little knot of neighbors were speaking of the loss. George Stevens, the postmaster, one of the parties, said most impressively, 'The best woman in Winnebago County died last night', the neighbors all nodding in agreement." Legacy Today, the spirits of Hononegah and Stephen Mack live on in Rockton and the surrounding communities. There is Hononegah High School, Stephen Mack Middle School, Whitman Post Elementary School, Hononegah and Macktown forest preserves, and various other parks, buildings, and businesses that use the names Macktown or Hononegah. A cheerleader from the high school is designated "Princess Hononegah" and performs a dance at most major school sporting events. Sources Bishop, David, History of the Forest Preserves of Winnebago County, Illinois. Carr, Edson I, The History of Rockton, 1820-1898, (1898, reprinted 1980). Clikeman-Miller, Diane J. The Old Settlers Remembered, A History of Phillips Cemetery, Macktown, Friends and Neighbors of Stephen Mack and Hononegah, (2000). Jipson, N.W., M.D. "Winnebago Villages and Chieftains of the Lower Rock River Region" The Wisconsin Archaeologist NS 2:125-139 McAffee, Jim (ed.) Stephen Mack Letters, available at the Talcott Free Library. McMakin, Dean, Hononegah, A New Biography, (2003), available at the Talcott Free Library. Rowland, Katherine E. The Pioneers of Winnebago and Boone Counties, Illinois Who Came Before 1841, (1990). Schmaeng, Janice E. Stephen Mack and the Early Settlement of Macktown and Rockton, (1974), available at the Talcott Free Library.