Cahokia records, 1778-1790, Part 1

Author: Alvord, Clarence Walworth, 1868-1928
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 856

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0293333

Old Documents from Cahokia and Kaskaskia

T.H.

1952

DEU I 6 7952

COLLECTIONS

OF THE

ILLINOIS STATE HISTORICAL

LIBRARY 47958

GENEALOGICAL SOCIET OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIS VOLUME II OF LATTER DAY SAINTS

VIRGINIA SERIES, VOL. I. CAHOKIA RECORDS 1778-1790

EDITED WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY CLARENCE WALWORTH ALVORD UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

PUBLISHED BY THE TRUSTEES OF THE ILLINOIS STATE HISTORICAL LIBRARY SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS I 907

G.S. Film # 978,492

Vota

977. 3 34, vil. 2

272359

The Lakeside Press R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY CHICAGO

ILLINOIS STATE HISTORICAL LIBRARY

BOARD OF TRUSTEES EDMUND JANES JAMES, President MCKENDREE HYPES CHAMBERLAIN, Vice-President GEORGE NELSON BLACK, Secretary

MRS. JESSIE PALMER WEBER, Librarian

ADVISORY COMMISSION

EVARTS BOUTELL GREENE, Chairman

JAMES ALTON JAMES

HENRY JOHNSON * 1

EDWARD CARLETON PAGE

CHARLES HENRY RAMMELKAMP

EDWIN ERLE SPARKS

* RESIGNED SEPTEMBER, 1906

CONTENTS

PAGE

I. INTRODUCTION xiii

II. PETITION TO CLARK I

III. STRAY LEAVES FROM THE COURT OF THE COMMITTEE OF CAHOKIA . 2

IV. RECORD OF COURT ESTABLISHED BY GEORGE ROGERS CLARK 4

V. ACT OF VIRGINIA ASSEMBLY CREATING COUNTY OF ILLINOIS 9

VI. TRANSCRIPTS FROM THE CAHOKIA RECORD . 12

VII. RECORD OF THE COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF CAHOKIA . . 22

VIII EXTRACT FROM THE REGISTERS OF THE MAGISTRACY OF CAHOKIA 448

IX. CAHOKIA DOCUMENTS, FRENCH 526

X. CAHOKIA DOCUMENTS, ENGLISH 610 · XI. BIBLIOGRAPHY 633

. INDEX .

· 639

ILLUSTRATIONS

OLD DOCUMENTS

PAGE

. Frontispiece

PHILIPPE FRANÇOIS DE RASTEL, CHEVALIER DE ROCHE-

BLAVE

xxvi

CHARLES GRATIOT 4

FACSIMILE OF RECORD BY SAUCIER, CLERK

HOUSE OF FRANÇOIS SAUCIER .

284

FACSIMILE OF RECORD BY LABUXIERE, CLERK

398

MAP OF THE COUNTRY OF THE ILLINOIS .

Inside back cover

PREFACE.

In the fall of 1905, the trustees of the Illinois State Historical Library appointed an advisory commission to formulate a plan for the future publications of the Library. On the recommendation of this commission it was determined that the Illinois Historical Collections should be continued and the volumes numbered consecutively, but also that series should be formed of the volumes of the Collections devoted to the same historical period, such as the French, the British, the Virginia, etc. The present volume is the first which has been published under this new plan and, as its title shows, it is the first volume of the Virginia series. For this reason an introduction has been prepared containing the history of those years, when Illinois formed a part of the commonweath of Virginia and the government established by that state continued to exercise authority over the French villages.

Had not a prior discovery of the manuscripts imposed this selection upon me, I should not have chosen to edit the records of Cahokia first; for, interesting as is the picture of this frontier community which they present, the central movement within the county of Illinois is best traced at Kaskaskia, and as a collection, the records of that village would offer greater variety and interest. How rich is the material, which still remains to be published, may be readily seen from the Introduction.

There will be found in this volume many new interpretations of past events as well as descriptions of those which have been hitherto unknown, the result of a careful comparison of sources, frequently used by previous writers, and a study of much new material recently discovered. In writing the history of these years I have felt very like a pioneer and later researches may not uphold all my conclusions. The work has been done with the sources before me, however, and no important statement has been made without a careful sifting of the evidence as offered by the pri-

ILLINOIS HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS

mary witnesses. It has been my endeavor to tell the story as it is narrated by those who took part in these events and to remain uninfluenced by prejudice for or against either parties or men. If, on the whole, the picture of the misery of the French people under the tyranny of the Virginians appears to occupy too promi- nent a place, it is because the testimony of both themselves and the Americans warrants it. Another reason may be found in the fact that the Americans were the aggressors, and, as the critic of a musical performance describes the action of the performers rather than the instruments, so the deeds of the frontiersmen rather than the merely passive experience of the French people must form the theme of this narrative.

In the preparation of this volume I have become indebted to many persons, who have given freely both of time and information. To them I wish to make my acknowledgments and to express my thanks. Several have, however, given me such assistance that a more personal expression is called for. My colleague, Professor Thomas E. Oliver of the department of modern lan- guages, has devoted time and thought to the reading of the text and the elucidaton of its meaning. It has been of the greatest value to me that I have been permitted to use his careful scholarship in all difficult cases. Mr. Benjamin Sulte of Ottawa, Canada, has read all the proof of the French and the translation and his many valuable suggestions have been incorporated into the text and foot- notes. Hon. Walter B. Douglas of St. Louis spent several days with me over the translation of the legal phrases and besides has added much to the completeness of the book from his notes. For their unfailing kindness and courtesy in superintending the search for material and the copying of manuscripts, my thanks are due to Dr. Reuben G. Thwaites of the Wisconsin Historical Society, Dr. Arthur G. Doughty of the Canadian Archives, Dr. J. Franklin Jameson of the Carnegie Institution, and Dr. H. J. Eckenrode of the Virginia State Library. Institutions such as the Missouri Historical Society of St. Louis and the Chicago Historical Society have offered the freest use of their collections and to their officers I desire to express my gratitude. I would

PREFACE

also acknowledge my indebtedness for the help they have given me in reading parts of the manuscript or proof to Dr. Louise Phelps Kellogg of Madison -and my colleagues, Professor Evarts B. Greene, Professor Stephen A. Forbes and Mr. Frank W. Scott. In making the transcription, in preparing the manuscript, and in reading the proof my wife has been my constant assistant and to her sympathetic judgments and criticisms the volume owes many improvements in arrangement, interpretations, and diction. While rendering thanks for the assistance given me by these many friends, it must be understood that they are in no way responsible for any errors which may be found in the volume; for these I hold myself alone accountable.

URBANA, ILLINOIS, May, 1907. CLARENCE W. ALVORD.

INTRODUCTION.

On the banks of the Mississippi in southwestern Illinois, lies the American Bottom, the land most hallowed by romance and history of all the lands of the old Northwest. Taking no account of the prehistoric epoch whose monuments survive in the numerous Indian mounds of the region, we find its history running back over two centuries to the time when the first white settlers placed their villages by the side of the great river of the West in an attempt to realize the idea of a colonial empire as conceived by the Grand Monarch in his palace at Versailles. Here for almost a hundred years, while the dominion over the Northwest was passing from France to England and from England to the United States, these villages endured unchanged amidst the creeks and ponds of the bottom, which mirrored in their quiet waters the old world civilization transported into the heart of the wilderness from feudalized France.

The American Bottom1 extended southward from opposite the mouth of the Missouri for about a hundred miles to the point where the Kaskaskia formerly emptied her waters into the Mississippi; but within recent times the lower part of this tract has been cut away by the greater river's breaking through to the bed of the smaller, thus conveying to the Missouri side a piece of this historic ground. Here is found some of the most fertile land in the United States. Like historic Egypt, it is the gift of a river and, like it, is submerged at intervals, although not periodically, by the fertilizing waters that gave it birth. In breadth the bottom land varies from three to seven miles, the average being about five. When the first settlers came, it pre-

1 The name was given it when the Mississippi formed the western boundary of the United States. It was probably thus named by the Spaniards across the river. (Peck, A Gazetteer of Illinois, 2d ed., 5.) Another explanation of the name has been derived from the fact that the Americans spread their settlements over the bottom land more than the French. This latter explanation must have arisen after the United States acquired Louisiana and the name had lost its earlier significance.

xiii

xiv

ILLINOIS HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS

sented to the eye a view of almost tropical luxuriance, inviting the beholders to make their homes in a spot that offered more than the land of promise flowing with milk and honey. Along the bank of the Mississippi was a forest of about a mile in width, wherein grew various kinds of nut trees, hickory, pecan, black walnut, and here and there were scattered groves of crabapple and single trees of the persimmon and mulberry. The underbrush was composed of numberless thickets of wild plums, blackberry and other bushes; and all were matted together by the grapevines, which, in their efforts to gain the sunlight, twined serpent-like about the tree trunks, encircled the branches, and almost covered the tops with their broad leaves. On the east side of the bottom was a long stretch of limestone bluffs, rising perpendicularly from the plain to the height of about a hundred feet, effectually cutting off the low land from the prairies beyond. The bluffs presented their rough-hewn faces to the view like the bastions of some cyclopian fortress, but in places they were screened by the trees which clung to their sides and hung from their crests. Between the forest and the cliffs lay an undulating meadow, the surface of which was varied by belts of trees bordering the lakes and ponds or fringing the streams which had found their way through the bluffs and followed their quiet courses to the great river beyond. On both meadow and bluff the growth of the flora was luxuriant. In the marshy places the reeds raised their slender tops far above the head of the passer-by, hiding from view the snowy lilies serenely floating on the surface of the ponds ; while in forest, field, and swamp the bluebells, goldenrod, mallows, and cardinal flowers made the scene on every side gay with their brilliant hues.

Here nature offered her gifts with bounteous hand; but as in all such lands of tropical prodigality the climate was warm and enervating, inducing in man a love of indolence and repose rather than the more virile emotions. The ponds and streams, so beauti- ful with their fringe of foliage in spring, became in summer stag- nant and were the breeding places of myriads of mosquitoes, which scattered the germs of disease among the hardy invaders

INTRODUCTION

of the wilderness. In the springtime the waters of the Missis- sippi submerged the land and occasionally stretched in an unbroken expanse from the bluffs of Illinois to those of the opposite shore.1

This is not the place to tell the earliest history of this region, of the exertions of the French to settle and hold the Mississippi valley, or of that inevitable struggle with England which ensued ; for the narrative of the documents printed in these pages be- longs to a later period. When their story begins the American Revolution was at its height, and the echoes of that struggle, heard on the banks of the Mississippi, had awakened in the hearts of

the French habitants a fond hope of freedom; when their story ends, the constitution of the United States had been adopted and the new-born nation was prepared to attempt the solution of the difficult problems incident to her heritage in the West. Between these dates the American frontiersmen had found their way to the Illinois and the dramatic struggle of Anglo-Saxon energy with Gallic quietism had begun.

In the year 1778 there was a population of less than a thou- sand white settlers and of about the same number of negroes and Indians in the villages of the bottom. At the north was Cahokia with its three hundred whites and eighty negroes; forty-five miles south was St. Philippe, formerly inhabited by a dozen fami- lies, but now, because of the exodus of the French at the time of the transference of the territory to the British, with only two or three remaining ; at Fort de Chartres village, called Nouvelle Char- tres, there still lingered a few French settlers; three miles farther south Prairie du Rocher nestled under the bluffs, from which it took its name, with a population of a hundred whites and almost as many slaves; and at the extreme south was the

1 Hutchins, Topographical Description, ed. Hicks, 106 et seg .; for a good description of the American Bottom, see Flagg, The Far West, in Thwaites, Early Western Travels, xxvii., 106 et seq. At the end of this volume will be found a map of the American Bottom taken from Collot, Voyage dans L' Amerique Septentrionale. This map was originally printed wrong way around, for the river flows north and south instead of east and west as indicated by the caption. I have removed the compass of the original map, but have not made the other necessary alterations, preferring to print it as in the original. The basis of this map was undoubtedly Hutchins' well-known map of the same region. My additions are the names of Prairie du Pont, Grand Ruisseau and Prairie du Rocher. I have also changed the name Fountain to Belle Fontaine.

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ILLINOIS HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS

metropolis of the bottom, Kaskaskia, which boasted eighty houses, five hundred white inhabitants, and almost as many black.

The settlement of the white men in the bottom had not driven out the aborigines, for the French have always dwelt in peace with the American Indians, the management of whom they under- stood far better than did the Anglo-Saxons. Near the French villages were the homes of these children of the prairies, who numbered at the time less than five hundred members of the four remaining tribes of the Kaskaskias, Peorias, Mitchigamies, and Cahokias. The French and British travelers are unanimous in describing these Illinois Indians as degenerate descendants of a once warlike people. Their association with the French, instead of fitting them better to meet the trials of life in the wilder- ness, had corrupted the qualities of bravery and physical courage and made them the debauched parasites of their white neigh- bors,1

Besides these settlements of the American Bottom on the Mississippi River, there were in the valley of the Wabash the two important posts of Ouiatanon and Vincennes, the latter of which rivaled the Illinois villages in population and importance; for it was by the Wabash that the principal trade route between the more western posts and Canada ran.2 Many smaller settlements were scattered throughout the region; at Peoria on the Illinois river, where lately Jean Bte. Mailhet had revived an older trad- ing post; at St. Joseph on the river of the same name, and at Miami; and here and there smaller groups of French traders might be found in the Indian villages and elsewhere. These smaller posts served only the purposes of trade. Their white inhabitants, being migratory in their habits, either followed the Indians on their periodic hunts or went from one post to another merely to buy the furs when the Indians returned.

The British dominion ended with the Mississippi River. On the western bank were other French villages such as St. Louis and

1 Pittman, European Settlements on the Mississippi, ed. Hodder, 84 et seq .; Hutchins, Topographical Description, ed. Hicks, 107 et seq.

2 Benton, The Wabash Trade Route, J. H. U. Studies, xxi .; Dunn, Indiana, passim; Craig, Quiatanon, in Ind. Hist. Soc. Publications, ii .; Franz, Die Kolonisation des Mississippi- tales, 199.

xvii

INTRODUCTION

Ste. Genevieve, belonging to the government of Spain. They did not differ greatly in character or population from these of the British shore; but since the rule of the Spaniard was on the whole more congenial to the Gallic temperament, many of the more progressive settlers from the eastern bank had made their homes there during the last decade, and the Spanish bank enjoyed greater prosperity and a more rapid increase of population than did the British, advantages which the events of the succeeding years tended to augment, so that at the end of the period under review the Spanish shore had profited by the misfortunes of the neighboring villages.1

Most of the French of the western posts came from Canada, with which country they retained constant communication through trade and exchange of messages on family affairs. Very few had come directly from France and the number from southern Loui- siana was relatively small.2 Here in Illinois and on the Wabash which under both the French and British regime were subject to the same jurisdiction,3 they had lived for one or two generations, engaged in the pursuits of trade and the cultivation of their small farms. The majority, known as the habitants, coming as they did from the lower classes of France, were illiterate and ignorant; and their life in the wilderness, far removed from the restraints of civilized society, had not improved their mental or moral qualities, but had developed those best fitted to their mode of living. Like the Indians with whom they associated and even intermarried,4 they were active, adroit and hardy, but

1 See post, pp. cxlii et seq.

2 See notes to census on pp. 624 et seq. Reynolds (My Own Times, ch. xii.) says that the population of Kaskaskia and Cahokia showed differences due to their origins, the former being settled from Mobile and New Orleans and the latter from Canada. Although I have not traced out the origin of all the families of Kaskaskia as I have of those of Cahokia, I have noticed no indications of such a difference. Certainly all the prominent families of Kaskaskia were Canadian and the names of the other families are easily recognized as coming from the same place. Although it is necessary to make some use of Reynolds' books, they must be recognized as the most unreliable sources for the early period that we have. More errors in the histories of the state may be traced back to his statements than to any other one source.

3 This is true only of the more important village, Vincennes; for Ouiatanon was under the government of Canada, and Vincennes with the Illinois villages in the province of Loui- siana during the French period. Dunn, Indiana, 58.

4 All writers testify to the intermarrying between the French and Indians, but I have been surprised at the infrequency of the occurrence of marriage contracts between repre- sentatives of the two races among their records. This may be due to the fact that contracts on such occasions were not used. I am inclined to believe, however, that the frequency of such marriages has been somewhat exaggerated by the travelers.

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also cunning and treacherous. At their best the voyageurs and coureurs de bois could be seen laboriously pulling their flat boats laden with produce up the rivers or gliding in their canoes on the wood-girt streams and ponds in pursuit of game. In such labors they were merry, patient, and industrious; as a rule they were faithful in the performance of their engagements and were warm in their friendships, but to their enemies revengeful and ready to take the meanest advantage. Yet their life amidst the dangers of the forest did not develop in them physical courage, for in the presence of an unexpected attack from Indians or others they were generally timid and resourceless.1 Without doubt many individual examples of pluck and bravery might be enumerated ; but in comparison with the American frontiersmen the French voyageurs and coureurs de bois exhibited little boldness and initia- tive in action. Returned to the settlement they were careless and pleasure loving, dissipating their energies in drinking, gam- bling, and gossiping; and, as irresponsible as children, they were easily turned aside from the pursuit of their real interests. It can be readily understood that to the men who followed the wilderness trace or tracked the wild beasts in the dark forest, agriculture and the mechanic arts would offer little or no attrac- tion ; but even in the pursuit of their calling one looks in vain for a sign of the enterprising spirit of the Anglo-Saxon.

Although priests and governors made loud complaint of the dis- orderliness of these habitants, yet their pleasures and vices were of a far milder type than those of their counterparts, the Ameri- can backwoodsmen. The French always retained a respect for law and constituted authority and preferred to be guided rather than to lead. The expression of their individualism was checked in the presence of officials, for government meant to them authority with a divine right to rule. In all their dealings, busi- ness and social, they never neglected to call in the assistance of notary or judge, whose legal papers they preserved, as their records show, with the greatest care and reverence. In their

1 This is abundantly proved by the following pages. Such is also the testimony of the fur traders of the far West, who employed the descendants of these French as voyageurs and hunters. Chittenden, American Fur Trade, i. 57.

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INTRODUCTION

petty quarrels with each other the Frenchmen saw no disgrace in seeking from the court a "reparation of honor" instead of ending them with the brutal fights common among the Americans. Though given to drinking and gambling, the dance was their favorite amusement, and to the weekly frolic came the men and matrons, the young men and maidens; and even the priest graced these festive gatherings. Here all danced until the small hours of the night or even to daybreak with no appearance of rowdy- ism or vulgarity to mar their simple festivities.1

It is due to the remembrance of this lower class, the habitants, that travelers, both French and English, have condemned in such unmeasured terms the Illinois French settlers; but the pic- ture of the village society would be incomplete if limited to a description of the coureurs de bois and voyageurs; for it was never wholly vulgarized and depraved, owing to the presence here of many persons from the better classes of France and Canada - the gentry, Clark called them - who, accustomed to greater refinements of life than those of the log cabin, endeavored to surround themselves with such little elegancies as might be brought from Canada or elsewhere. Some of the residents could claim nobility of birth. The acting commandant in 1778 was son of the seigniorial lord of Savournon, the sieur de Rocheblave. Timothe Boucher, who a few years later held a similar position, was the sieur de Monbreun,2 a grandson of Pierre Boucher several times governor of Three Rivers, who was ennobled for his services in 1660. Among the gentry, which was a rather elastic term, were also many well-to-do men, who had risen to prominence in the Illinois or else possessed some patri- mony, before migrating to the West, which they had increased by trade. Such was Jean Bte. Barbau of Prairie du Rocher, the members of the Bauvais 3 and Charleville families of Kaskaskia

1 Reynolds, My Own Times, ch. xii.

2 For an account of his place in Illinois history, see post, p. cxxiv. The name is spelled in Canada Montbrun, but this member always wrote it as given above, except in one place, which I have noticed, when he placed after it a superior t.

3 Reference to the family will be found at various places in the Introduction see pp. xx., n. 5, li., n. 3, cvii., cxvi., cxxxv. The members of the family always wrote the name as spelled above. They commonly used their second name in preference to their surname St. Gemme.

ILLINOIS HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS

and their neighbors and friends, the Viviats, the Lachances, and the Janis ; and at Cahokia, the Sauciers, François Trottier, Antoine Girardin, and J. B. H. LaCroix.1 Next to the acting commandant the most important individual of the American Bottom was Gabriel Cerré, who had acquired his wealth in the fur trade. He was well educated and had correspondents in Canada and elsewhere.2 Among the rising young men must be reckoned Charles Gratiot, who had established himself at Cahokia in 1777 and was associated in business with three Canadian merchants. He had had an excellent education, spoke several languages, was something of a dandy in dress, and had by his address won for himself a place of influence in the community.3 These were the men and others like them to whom Sir William Johnson, the British Indian commissioner referred, when he wrote that the French traders were gentlemen in character, manners, and dress, and "men of abilities, influence, and address."4

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Cahokia records, 1778-1790, Part 1

Author: Alvord, Clarence Walworth, 1868-1928 Publication date: Publisher: Number of Pages: 856

Author: Alvord, Clarence Walworth, 1868-1928
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 856