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1900
Class F542
Book_ . G7H6 Copyright N.º.
COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT.
₱
Johni Roodhouse FOUNDER OF THE TOWN OF ROODHOUSE.
V HISTORY
OF
GREENE COUNTY.
ILLINOIS:
Its Past and Present,
CONTAINING
A HISTORY OF THE COUNTY; ITS CITIES, TOWNS, ETC .; A BIOGRAPHICAL DIRECTORY OF ITS CITIZENS; WAR RECORD OF ITS VOLUNTEERS IN THE LATE REBELLION ; PORTRAITS OF ITS EARLY SETTLERS AND PROMINENT MEN; GENERAL AND LOCAL STATISTICS; HIS- TORY OF THE NORTHWEST; HISTORY OF ILLINOIS; CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES; MAP OF GREENE COUNTY; MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS, ETC., ETC.
ILLUSTRATED.
RESS
,
Nic
CHICAGO: DONNELLEY, GASSETTE & LOYD, PUBLISHERS.
1 87 9.
F541 GHH6
.
COPYRIGHT, DONNELLEY, GASSETTE AND LOYD 1879.
RC-2045
DONNELLEY, GASSETTE & LOYD,
THE LAKESIDE PRESS.
PREFACE.
A single county in the great State of Illinois occupies but an insignificant place upon the map of the world, and its people and its story are comparatively unknown. Yet the grand river of national history is formed by the union of many rills of tradition and record flowing from a thousand counties and states all over the land. The tracing of one of these rills to its source, and the occasional gathering of a blossom from its banks, or a glittering pebble from its bed, is the province of the present volume. The dweller on the shores of a mighty Father of Waters knows more of the busy scenes of commerce than the hardy mountaineer, but the boy whose home is by the side of a rippling brook is familiar with every stone on its bank, with every fish in its bosom, and every tree that shades its tiny wavelets ; so the History of Greene County, though it deals not with the tumults of war or the intricacies of diplomacy, gives, the reader a much clearer view of the thoughts, the habits, and the trials of the people with whom it is connected, than is possible in a more pretentious volume. It is with this view that we issue the present work. It is not a record of the convulsions of nations, but of the lives of a few people who lived for a short time in a very limited territory.
The History of Greene County contained in this volume on pages 221 to 431, inclusive, were compiled by CLEMENT L. CLAPP, editor of the Carrollton Patriot, whose education and profession especially fit him for such a task.
Mr. CLAPP desires us respectfully to apologize for the fact that various events have not received the relative attention that their importance demands. Owing to the haste in which the work was, of necessity, prepared, materials which easily came to hand were freely used, and many events, persons, and institutions worthy of extended notice, are, by the exigen- cies of circumstances, but briefly referred to. He requests us to acknowledge his obligation for valuable material to the writings of the late WILLIAM A. TUNNELL, to the Centennial address of the late Hon. D. M. WOODSON, and to the Greene County Atlas. He has especial occasion for gratitude to Professor R. E. WILDER, of Greenfield, whose history of that town is complete and accu- rate; to the Rev. B. B. HAMILTON, whose extended researches in local history are well known; to PRICE & SONS for the free use of the files of the Carrollton Gazette; to County Clerk L. R. LAKIN, and to Circuit Clerk J. H. SHORT, with his Deputy, Mr. F. M. ROBERTS, for assistance in examining the county records; to Mr. JOHN W. HUITT, JUDGE ALFRED HINTON, Mr. ANDERSON HEADRICK, and Mr. JOHN V. DEE, patriarchs of the Past ; to DAVID PIERSON, EsQ .; to Dr.
xiv.
PREFACE.
C. ARMSTRONG, Secretary of the Old Settlers' Association ; to N. J. ANDREWS, Secretary of the A. & M. Association ; to J. H. VANARSDALE, EsQ .; to E. A. DOOLITTLE, Principal of the Carrollton Public School; to H. H. MONTGOMERY, Principal of the Greenfield Public School ; to Dr. FENITY, Kane; to Mr. JOHN DANIELS, Palmer's Prairie ; to Mr. T. J. ALBERT, Wilmington ; to J. L. PATTER- SON, EsQ., Roodhouse; and to many others, who have very considerably lightened his labors.
The Publishers offer this book to the public, confident that it is by far the fullest and most accurate history of Greene County ever published.
Very respectfully, DONNELLEY, GASSETTE & LOYD, Publishers.
CONTENTS.
[HISTORICAL.
PAGE
History of Northwest Territory .. 19
Geographical Position ....... 19
Early Explorations .. 20
Discovery of the Ohio. 33
English Explorations and
Settlements. 35
American Settlements 60
Division of the Northwest Territory .. 66 Organizations, etc. 306 Old Settlers' Association ..... 312 Tecumseh and the War of 1812 70 Constitution Old Settlers' As- sociation. 313
Black Hawk and the Black Hawk War. 74
Other Indian Troubles. 79
Present Condition of the
Northwest 87
Illinois. 99
Indiana 101
Iowa ... 102
Michigan.
103
Wisconsin.
104
Minnesota.
106
340
Carrollton Schools ..
Nebraska.
107
History of Illinois. 109
Coal ... 125
Compact of 1787 117
Chicago. 366 132
Early Discoveries. 109
Early Settlements 115
Education.
129
French Occupation 112
Genius of LaSalle. 113
Material Resources. 124
Massacre at Fort Dearborn .. 141
Fire Department .. 369
Carrollton Guards. 370
Business Interests 371 Bluffdale.
Athensville.
427
Barrow .. 428
New Providence. 428
Walkerville 429
Temperance 389
Earliest Settlements. 235 Education. 390
Organization of the County .. 248
Two Episodes of 1821
... 259
Newspapers.
394
The Silver Mine Excitement.267
Societies.
396
Events before the Deep Snow 277
Patriotic Record.
395
PAGE
White Hall.
396
The Deep Snow and Other Events ... .277 Schools. .401 Churches .400
The Mexican War. 295
Statistics.
300
Library Association. 401
The Press. 402
Societies. 403
Masonic. 403
Odd Fellows 403
Temperance. 404
Business Interests. 404
Banks .407
Roodhouse .. 407
Banks 412
Education 412
Schools ... 412 Greene County. .316 Agricultural and Mechanical Churches. 413 The Press 412 Association ... 323.
County Officers 370
Kane:
Business Interests 416
Secret Societies. 417
Masonic. 417
Odd Fellows 417
Knights of Honor 417
Churches 417
Rockbridge. 418
Secret Societies. 419
Masonic
366
Odd Fellows.
367
Knights of Honor.
.367
The Press.
368
Wilmington
Patriot Printing office. 368
Library Association.
369
Business Interests.
421
Literary and Polemic Soci- ety. .423
Fayette.
426
Wrightsville 427
Woodville 429
Berdan.
430
Jalapa.
430
ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
Mouth of the Mississippi.
21
Source of the Mississippi.
Wild Prairie. 23
Village Residence. 86%
LaSalle Landing on the Shore of Green Bay. 25
Buffalo Hunt. 27
Trapping. 29
Hunting
32
Iroquois Chief.
34
Pioneers' First Winter. 92 %
43- Apple Harvest .. 94.
Great Iron Bridge of the C., R. I.
& P. R.R., crossing the Missis-
96
Carrollton Machine Shop and
A Pioneer Dwelling
61 63
Hunting Prairie Wolves at an
Tecumseh, Shawnee Chieftain ... 69 Early Day .. .. 108 Store, Carrollton 373 White Hall Register Office ... .. 402
Indians Attacking a Stockade ... 72 Starved Rock, on the Illinois
Black Hawk, the Sac Chieftain .. River. LaSalle Co., Ill. 110- Big Eagle .. 80. An Early Settlement 116
PORTRAITS.
PAGE
PAGE
PAGE
Husted E. M. ...
. 147 + Price George B.
.219 Roodhouse John ... .Frontispiece -
Jones John ... .20}
..........
Patterson James L.
.183
Capt. Jack, the Modoc Chieftain 83 Chicago iu 1833 .. 133~
Kinzie House. 85
Old Fort Dearborn, 1830. .. 136 Present Site Lake Street Bridge, Chicago, 1833. 136
A Representative Pioneer. 87
Lincoln Monument, Springfield. 88 Ruins of Chicago .. 142-
A Pioneer School House .. 89 View of the City of Chicago ... .. 144-
Farm View in the Winter.
90 Shabbona ... 149
Carrollton School Building. .. 341~
Carrollton Gazette Printing Of- fice .. .368
Pontiac, the Ottawa Chieftain ... Indians Attacking Frontiers- men
56
A Prairie Storm. 59
sippi at Davenport, Iowa ....
A Western Dwelling.
.100
Breaking Prairie ..
Foundry ...
.. 371
Loomis & Villinger's Jewelry
420
420
Carrollton Machine Shop and Foundry. 371
History of Greene County 221 Banks. 373
Geography of. 221 Greenfield 374
Topography and Geology
.221
Coal 231 Banks 385
Introductory History 233
Churches.
385
351
Secret Societies.
Masonic ... 419
Knights of Honor. 419
Churches. .419
Churches ...
Physical Features. .121 Progress of Development. 123 Religion and Morals. 128 War Record of Illinois. 130
Carrollton, City of. 328
The Haunted House 330
Public Schools. 339
Catalogue of School Cabinet of Natural History 346
Churches ..
Early Settlers in Greene .316
County ...
List of Early Settlers in
PAGE
History of Greene County-
County Officers from Date of Organization 302
Various Institutions 306
Fire Department. 401
Robley Richard
.165
Underwood Angelina.
.......... 332
PAGE
PAGE
Spring Scene. 911
Carrollton Patriot Printing Of- fice
425
Learned Professions.
392
Columbiana
430
xvi
CONTENTS.
GREENE COUNTY WAR RECORD.
PAGE
PAGE
PAGE
Infantry.
Infantry.
Infantry.
7th.
.431
53d.
.439
133d.
459
9th (consolidated).
.431
55th
439
144th ..
461
12th .
431
58th
439
145th.
462
14th .
431
59th
439
146th
462
61st
441
149th. 462
152d
462
14th (reorganized)
.434
64th
450
154th
462
15th
.435
16th
.435
76th
450
18th (reorganized).
.435
91st.
450
6th.
463
19th.
435
97th
457
7th.
463
22d
.435
101st.
.457
9th
463
27th
.435
106th.
.457
10th
463
28th (consolidated)
.435
113th
11th
463
29th
435
114th.
457
119th.
.457
12thi (consolidated).
465
32d
.435
122d.
457
124th.
.459
1st ..
466
34th
438
126th.
459
38th
438
127th.
.459
49th
438
128th.
459
50th
438
129th
459
DIRECTORIES.
PAGE
PAGE
Carrrollton
.469
Town 9 North Range 12 West ... 748
Town 11 North Range 11 West ... 629
Greenfield.
.661
9
13
... 768
11
12
... 642
Kane.
.726
10
10
... 661
11
6 6
13
.4
... 652
Rockbridge.
661
10
11
.. 706
12
10
... 603
White Hall.
.524
10
..
12
... 508
12
11
.... .. 580
Wrightsville.
.661
10
13
... 716
12
12
... 545
Town 9 North Range 10 West ... 720
..
10
46
14
... 719
46
12
13
... 613
9
11
... 726
11
10
... 620
ABSTRACT OF 'ILLINOIS STATE LAWS.
PAGE
Forms:
PAGE
PAGE
Adoption of Children. .160
Bonds.
.176
151
Bills of Exchange and Promls- sory Notes ..
151
Codicil ..
189
Jurisdiction of Courts.
154
County Courts. .155
Lease of Farm and B'ldIngs.179
Limitation of Action ..
155
Church Organizations.
189
Landlord's Agreement.
180
Descent ..
.151
Notes .. .174
155
Deeds and Mortgages.
157
Notice Tenant to Quit.
181
159
Drainage ... 163
Orders.
.174
159
Damages from Trespass. 169
Quit Claim Deed 185
164
Definition of Commercial Terms173
Receipt .. 174
Roads and Bridges.
161
Exemptions from Forced Sale ... 156 Estrays 157 Fences .. 168 Forms:
Suggestions to Persons purchas- ing Books by Subscription .. Taxes ..
.190
Articles of Agreement. .175
Wills and Estates ..
152
Bills of Purchase ... 174
Warranty Deed. 182
Weights and Measures. .158
Bills of Sale. 176
Will.
187
Wolf Scalps.
164
MISCELLANEOUS.
PAGE
Map of Greene County. .front.
Surveyors Measure ..
.211
Constitution of the United States192
How to keep Accounts. .211
Interest Table. 212
Miscellaneous Table. 212
Names of the States of the Union
and their Significations.
213
Population of the U. S .. .214
PAGE
Population of Fifty Principal
Cities of the U. S ... .. 214 Population and Area of the U. S.215 Population of the Principal
Practical Rules for every day .207 use ..
Countries in the World .... .... 215 Population of Illinois ... .216
U. S. Government Land Meas- ure .... 210
Agricultural Productions of Illi- nois by Counties ... ....
.. 218
Chattel Mortgages.
177
Interest.
158
Conveyances. 164
Lease of House ..
180
Liens. 172 Landlord and Tenant.
.169
Married Women Miliers ..
Marks and Brands Paupers.
Real Estate Mortgage to se- cure Payment of Money.
181
Release .... 186
Tenant's Agreement. 180
154
Tenant's Notice to Quit .. .181
2d ..
466
. 4
29th U. S. Colored Infantry. .466
First Army Corps
467
Veteran Battalion, 14th and 15th ...
.433
62d.
450
66th
450
Cavalry.
3d (consolidated) 462
30th
435
Artillery.
33d
438
.457
12th 463
..
4
Game ..
PAGE
Electors of President and Vice- .206 President, 1876.
Surveyors and Surveys 160
"
PAGE
NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
MAP OF GREENE COUNTY ILL.
R.14.W.
R.13. W.
R.12.W.
R. II. W.
R.IO.W.
Bridgeport ..
Morgan Slough
Barrow Ista
Hong
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Wullow I 16
15
10
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Wilmington
T.12.N.
WES 28
ER
28
2.
22
24
R
AthensvilleP.O.
30
Happyille ₹6
BRANCHRE
Treck
+
icare
91
84
34
85
36
86
98
86
82
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& WHIT
2
7
7
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8
8
77
12
TI
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18
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18
17
16
14
13
Little Might stille
20
21
22
23
24
ASweetins Fet
Beat
G
E
GRE
25
29
28
30
29
Harchyuse
HiramBeach Est. 31
84
35.
33
34
37
34
35
36
:36
32
Bluff D'ale 0O.s
12
8
2
7
6
Greenfield
28
Drake Sta. 28
27,
26
25
28
27/ Creek
26
.25
Whitehall
32
34
Land Br 36
PRAIRIE
olf
Beap
T.II.N.
New Providence
21
24
19
20
22 Walkerville ZP.0
243
.ao FROMIDEN 25
25
30
#Berdar
PptE
whitaker
36
86
33
81
88
PROBLE-DRO
RoodHouse
18
75
24
S
P
Jigger
13
ISLAND
28
7
10
9
72
Fayetle ..
18
14
18
18
T.IO.N.
Columbiana
22
18
20
27
22
24
LTO
29
25
130
R
82
35.
36
30
VY woodville
6
3
Sherwood Est
roales
W
0
D
8
10/
H. Heacht
E
18
17
74
+
Jalapa
Cheachs Lantling
20
20
E
Calimas
29
28
29
28
Kan
15
32
CREEK
36
82
93
1844
38
36
30
29
2
Horse
L.
V ~~ Homer
33
CODIN
> T.8. N.
MAC
10
8
12
14-
13
77
16
+ -75
3
(+
78
77
ICARROLLTONYO
St
24
27
F
E
RockbridgeP.Oy 1 344
85
86
32
36
2
88 mi Sheffield
grand
132
9
10
Round
15
74
T.9. N.
yonas'
20
23
20
26
25
25
70
77
72
10
10
2
Creek!
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION.
When the Northwestern Territory was ceded to the United States by Virginia in 1784, it embraced only the territory lying between the Ohio and the Mississippi Rivers, and north to the northern limits of the United States. It coincided with the area now embraced in the States of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and that portion of Minnesota lying on the east side of the Mississippi River. The United States itself at that period extended no farther west than the Mississippi River ; but by the purchase of Louisiana in 1803, the western boundary of the United States was extended to the Rocky Mountains and the Northern Pacific Ocean. The new territory thus added to the National domain, and subsequently opened to settlement, has been called the "New Northwest," in contradistinction from the old "Northwestern Territory."
In comparison with the old Northwest this is a territory of vast . magnitude. It includes an area of 1,887,850 square miles ; being greater in extent than the united areas of all the Middle and Southern States, including Texas. Out of this magnificent territory have been erected eleven sovereign States and eight Territories, with an aggregate popula- tion, at the present time, of 13,000,000 inhabitants, or nearly one third of the entire population of the United States.
Its lakes are fresh-water seas, and the larger rivers of the continent flow for a thousand miles through its rich alluvial valleys and far- stretching prairies, more acres of which are arable and productive of the highest percentage of the cereals than of any other area of like extent on the globe.
For the last twenty years the increase of population in the North- west has been about as three to one in any other portion of the United States.
(19)
20
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
EARLY EXPLORATIONS.
In the year 1541, DeSoto first saw the Great West in the New World. He, however, penetrated no farther north than the 35th parallel of latitude. The expedition resulted in his death and that of more than half his army, the remainder of whom found their way to Cuba, thence to Spain, in a famished and demoralized condition. DeSoto founded no settlements, produced no results, and left no traces, unless it were that he awakened the hostility of the red man against the white man, and disheartened such as might desire to follow up the career of discovery for better purposes. The French nation were eager and ready to seize upon any news from this extensive domain, and were the first to profit by DeSoto's defeat. Yet it was more than a century before any adventurer took advantage of these discoveries.
In 1616, four years before the pilgrims "moored their bark on the wild New England shore," Le Caron, a French Franciscan, had pene- trated through the Iroquois and Wyandots (Hurons) to the streams which run into Lake Huron ; and in 1634, two Jesuit missionaries founded the first mission among the lake tribes. It was just one hundred years from the discovery of the Mississippi by DeSoto (1541) until the Canadian envoys met the savage nations of the Northwest at the Falls of St. Mary, below the outlet of Lake Superior. This visit led to no permanent result ; yet it was not until 1659 that any of the adventurous fur traders attempted to spend a Winter in the frozen wilds about the great lakes, nor was it until 1660 that a station was established upon their borders by Mesnard, who perished in the woods a few months after. In 1665, Claude Allouez built the earliest lasting habitation of the white man among the Indians of the Northwest. In 1668, Claude Dablon and James Marquette founded the mission of Sault Ste. Marie at the Falls of St. Mary, and two years afterward, Nicholas Perrot, as agent for M. Talon, Governor Gen- eral of Canada, explored Lake Illinois (Michigan) as far south as the present City of Chicago, and invited the Indian nations to meet him at a grand council at Sault Ste. Marie the following Spring, where they were taken under the protection of the king, and formal possession was taken of the Northwest. This same year Marquette established a mission at Point St. Ignatius, where was founded the old town of Michillimackinac.
During M. Talon's explorations and Marquette's residence at St. Ignatius, they learned of a great river away to the west, and fancied -as all others did then-that upon its fertile banks whole tribes of God's children resided, to whom the sound of the Gospel had never come. Filled with a wish to go and preach to them, and in compliance with a
SOURCE OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
000
BRIGHAM
MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
21
22
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
request of M. Talon, who earnestly desired to extend the domain of his king, and to ascertain whether the river flowed into the Gulf of Mexico or the Pacific Ocean, Marquette with Joliet, as commander of the expe- dition, prepared for the undertaking.
On the 13th of May, 1673, the explorers, accompanied by five assist- ant French Canadians, set out from Mackinaw on their daring voyage of discovery. The Indians, who gathered to witness their departure, were astonished at the boldness of the undertaking, and endeavored to dissuade them from their purpose by representing the tribes on the Mississippi as exceedingly savage and cruel, and the river itself as full of all sorts of frightful monsters ready to swallow them and their canoes together. But, nothing daunted by these terrific descriptions, Marquette told them he was willing not only to encounter all the perils of the unknown region they were about to explore, but to lay down his life in a cause in which the salvation of souls was involved ; and having prayed together they separated. Coasting along the northern shore of Lake Michigan, the adventurers entered Green Bay, and passed thence up the Fox River and Lake Winnebago to a village of the Miamis and Kickapoos. Here Mar- quette was delighted to find a beautiful cross planted in the middle of the town ornamented with white skins, red girdles and bows and arrows, which these good people had offered to the Great Manitou, or God, to thank him for the pity he had bestowed on them during the Winter in giving them an abundant " chase." This was the farthest outpost to which Dablon and Allouez had extended their missionary labors the year previous. Here Marquette drank mineral waters and was instructed in the secret of a root which cures the bite of the venomous rattlesnake. He assembled the chiefs and old men of the village, and, pointing to Joliet, said : " My friend is an envoy of France, to discover new coun- tries, and I am an ambassador from God to enlighten them with the truths of the Gospel." Two Miami guides were here furnished to conduct* them to the Wisconsin River, and they set out from the Indian village on the 10th of June, amidst a great crowd of natives who had assembled to witness their departure into a region where no white man had ever yet ventured. The guides, having conducted them across the portage, returned. The explorers launched their canoes upon the Wisconsin, which they descended to the Mississippi and proceeded down its unknown waters. What emotions must have swelled their breasts as they struck out into the broadening current and became conscious that they were now upon the bosom of the Father of Waters. The mystery was about to be lifted from the long-sought river. The scenery in that locality is beautiful, and on that delightful seventeenth of June must have been clad in all its primeval loveliness as it had been adorned by the hand of
23
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
Nature. Drifting rapidly, it is said that the bold bluffs on either hand "reminded them of the castled shores of their own beautiful rivers of France." By-and-by, as they drifted along, great herds of buffalo appeared on the banks. On going to the heads of the valley they could see a country of the greatest beauty and fertility, apparently destitute of inhab- itants yet presenting the appearance of extensive manors, under the fas- tidious cultivation of lordly proprietors.
THE WILD PRAIRIE.
On June 25, they went ashore and found some fresh traces of men upon the sand, and a path which led to the prairie. The men remained in the boat, and Marquette and Joliet followed the path till they discovered a village on the banks of a river, and two other villages on a hill, within a half league of the first, inhabited by Indians. They were received most hospitably by these natives, who had never before seen a white person. After remaining a few days they re-embarked and descended the river to about latitude 33°, where they found a village of the Arkansas, and being satisfied that the river flowed into the Gulf of Mexico, turned their course
24
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
up the river, and ascending the stream to the mouth of the Illinois, rowed up that stream to its source, and procured guides from that point to the lakes. " Nowhere on this journey," says Marquette, " did we see such grounds, meadows, woods, stags, buffaloes, deer, wildcats, bustards, swans, ducks, parroquets, and even beavers, as on the Illinois River." The party, without loss or injury, reached Green Bay in September, and reported their discovery-one of the most important of the age, but of which no record was preserved save Marquette's, Joliet losing his by the upsetting of his canoe on his way to Quebec. Afterward Marquette returned to the Illinois Indians by their request, and ministered to them until 1675. On the 18th of May, in that year, as he was passing the mouth of a stream-going with his boatmen up Lake Michigan-he asked to land at its mouth and celebrate Mass. Leaving his men with the canoe, he retired a short distance and began his devotions. As much time passed and he did not return, his men went in search of him, and found him upon his knees, dead. He had peacefully passed away while at prayer. He was buried at this spot. Charlevoix, who visited the place fifty years after, found the waters had retreated from the grave, leaving the beloved missionary to repose in peace. The river has since been called Marquette.
While Marquette and his companions were pursuing their labors in the West, two men, differing widely from him and each other, were pre- paring to follow in his footsteps and perfect the discoveries so well begun by him. These were Robert de La Salle and Louis Hennepin.
After La Salle's return from the discovery of the Ohio River (see the narrative elsewhere), he established himself again among the French trading posts in Canada. Here he mused long upon the pet project of those ages-a short way to China and the East, and was busily planning an expedition up the great lakes, and so across the continent to the Pacific, when Marquette returned from the Mississippi. At once the vigorous mind of LaSalle received from his and his companions' stories the idea that by fol- lowing the Great River northward, or by turning up some of the numerous western tributaries, the object could easily be gained. He applied to Frontenac, Governor General of Canada, and laid before him the plan, dim but gigantic. Frontenac entered warmly into his plans, and saw that LaSalle's idea to connect the great lakes by a chain of forts with the Gulf of Mexico would bind the country so wonderfully together, give un- measured power to France, and glory to himself, under whose adminis- tration he earnestly hoped all would be realized.
LaSalle now repaired to France, laid his plans before the King, who warmly approved of them, and made him a Chevalier. He also received from all the noblemen the warmest wishes for his success. The Chev-
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THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
alier returned to Canada, and busily entered upon his work. He at once rebuilt Fort Frontenac and constructed the first ship to sail on these fresh-water seas. On the 7th of August, 1679, having been joined by Hennepin, he began his voyage in the Griffin up Lake Erie. He passed over this lake, through the straits beyond, up Lake St. Clair and into Huron. In this lake they encountered heavy storms. They were some time at Michillimackinac, where LaSalle founded a fort, and passed on to Green Bay, the " Baie des Puans" of the French, where he found a large quantity of furs collected for him. He loaded the Griffin with these, and placing her under the care of a pilot and fourteen sailors,
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