History of Lee County, together with biographical matter, statistics, etc., Part 1

Author: Hill, H.H. (Chicago) pbl
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, H.H. Hill
Number of Pages: 910

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NYPL RESEARCH LIBRARIES

3 3433 08182121 1

IVF ( LEE CO.)

History

rançais faiblette 1

dan- 1882

Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2008 with funding from Microsoft Corporation

http://www.archive.org/details/historyofleecoun00hill

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOR. LENOX AND TIEREN FOUNDATIONS

BAKER-CO

JOHN DIXON.

HISTORY 1

LEE COUNTY,

TOGETHER WITHI

BIOGRAPHICAL MATTER, STATISTICS, ETC.

GATHERED FROM INTERVIEWS WITH OLD SETTLERS, COUNTY, TOWNSHIP AND OTIIER RECORDS, AND EXTRACTS FROM FILES OF PAPERS, PAMPHLETS, AND SUCH OTHER SOURCES AS HAVE BEEN AVAILABLE.

CHICAGO: H. H. HILL AND COMPANY, PUBLISHERS. 1881.

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY 379109B ASTOR, LENOX AND TILJEN FOUNDATIONS R 1946 L

PREFACE.

IN presenting the History of Lee County to the public the editors and publishers have had in view the preservation of certain valuable historical facts and information which without concentrated effort would not have been obtained, but with the passing away of the old pioneers, the failure of memory, and the loss of public records and private diaries, would soon have been lost. This locality being com- paratively new, we flatter ourselves that, with the zeal and industry displayed by our general and local historians, we have succeeded in rescuing from the fading years almost every scrap of history worthy of preservation. Doubtless the work is, in some respects, imper- fect ;- we do not present it as a model literary effort, but in that which goes to make up a valuable book of reference for the present reader and future historian, we assure our patrons that neither money nor time has been spared in the accomplishment of the work. Per- haps some errors will be found. With treacherous memories, per- sonal, political and sectarian prejudices and preferences to contend against, it would be almost a miracle if no mistakes were made. We hope that even these defects, which may be found to exist, may be made available in so far as they may provoke discussion and call attention to corrections and additions necessary to perfect history.

In the writing of the general county history Dr. Cochran has had the advice and constant counsel of many of the early settlers of the county, to whom the manuscript was submitted and by them approved; and while there may be some mistakes, it is thought that it would hardly be possible, after so many years with nothing to depend upon for many of the facts but the memories of the early settlers. that it is as nearly correct as it could possibly be made. Certain it is that at no time in the future conld such a work be undertaken with circumstances so favorable for the production of a reliable record of the early times of Lee county.

PREFACE.

The township histories, by E. S. Ricker, Prof. J. H. Atwood, C. F. Atwood, and others, will be found full of valuable recollections, which but for their patient research must soon have been lost for- ever, but which are now happily preserved for all ages to come. These gentlemen have placed upon Lee county a mark which will not be obliterated, but which will grow brighter and broader as the years go by.

The biographical department contains the names and private sketches of nearly every person of importance in the county. A few person, whose sketches we should be pleased to have presented, for various reasons refused or delayed furnishing us with the desired information, and in this matter only we feel that our work is incom- plete. However, in most of such cases we have obtained, in regard to the most important persons, some items, and have woven them into the county or township sketches, so that, as we believe, we can- not be accused of either partiality or prejudice.

LIST OF PORTRAITS.

JOHN DIXON (Frontispiece).

J. A. WERNICK,

ABIJAII POWERS,

C. C. HUNT, .

ABRAM BROWN,

JOHN H. PAGE,

481

J. N. HILLS, .

115

GEORGE H. PAGE,

497

ALEXANDER CHARTERS.

133

E. H. JOHNSON,

515

JOSEPH CRAWFORD,

151

W. W. BETHIEA,

169

JOHN YETTER,

549

W. H. VAN EPPS, .

187

ISAAC THOMPSON,

565

G. W. HEWITT

583

U. C. ROE,

599

JAMES A. HAWLEY,

241

E. B. STILES,

259

RILEY PADDOCK.

277

DAVID SMITH,

671

LEWIS CLAPP,

311

WILLIAM MCMAHAN,

689

ALVAII HALE,

327

J. H. BRAFFET, .

707

JAMES H. PRESTON,

345

W. M. STRADER,

725

CHESTER S. BADGER,

361

GEORGE M. BERKLEY,

743

WILLIAM J. FRITZ,

761

ISAAC EDWARDS,

379

JOHN B. WYMAN, .

395

W. E. IVES,

413

VOLNEY BLISS,

429

IRA .BREWER,

447

C. B. THUMMEL,

463

A. P. DYSART,

531

H. T. NOBLE,

205

JOHN DEMENT,

223

S. F. MILLS, .

617

N. A. PETRIE, .

635

WALTER LITTLE,

653

GEORGE RYON,

293

HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY.

DISCOVERY AND EARLY HISTORY.

IN sketching the history of Lee county we must take the reader back to the early days of the northern part of the State of Illinois, embraced in the great territory lying northwest of the Ohio river. This territory, embracing northern Illinois, was discovered. by Jacques Marquette, and Louis Joliet in 1673. Marquette was a. French Jesuit missionary, and Joliet was a Quebec fur-trader. These men had penetrated the wilderness of Canada to the upper lakes, each engaged in his appropriate occupation. The French: missionary, while at La Pointe, received information through the Illinois tribes who had been driven by the Iroquois from their hunt- ing grounds on the shores of Lake Michigan to a region thirty. days' journey to the west, that there existed a "great river " flow- ing through grassy plains on which grazed countless herds of buffa- loes. The same information had been received by Dablon and Allouez, two missionaries, who were exploring Wisconsin from the Miamis and Maskoutens. This information resulted in the appoint- ment, by the governor of Canada, of Joliet to explore the "Great River." Pierre Marquette was chosen to accompany him, "for in those days religion and commerce went hand in hand." Joliet fitted out the expedition, which consisted of "two canoes and five voy- ageurs, and a supply of corn and smoked meat; and May 27, 1673, the little band left St. Ignace for their perilous voyage through an unknown country, preoccupied by wild beasts, reptiles, and hostile savages." Coasting to the head of Green Bay, they "ascended the Fox river ; crossed Lake Winnebago, and followed up the quiet and tortuous stream beyond the portage ;" launched their canoes in the waters of the Wisconsin, and without their Indian guides they swept down this stream until they caught sight of the hills which bound the valley of the "Great River," and at nightfall landed, to eat their evening repast on the banks of the broad Mississippi, for which they launched their canoes one month before. They floated

HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY.

down the mighty current to the Arkansas, where they were com- pelled to return because of the hostility of the Indians, who on the lower Mississippi were furnished with rifles by the Spaniards.

Having determined to return to the north, on July 17, one 'month from the discovery of the Mississippi, they launched their canoes and started on the returning voyage; and reaching the mouth of the Illinois river they ascended this stream until they came to a small village, then known as Kaskaskia, about seven miles below Ottawa. Here they procured guides, who conducted them up the stream to the head of the Des Plaines, when by an easy port- age they entered the Chicago river, and thus reached Lake Illinoise (now Lake Michigan), and were the first white men to visit what is the present site of the city of Chicago, more than two hundred years ago. From that point they passed up the western coast of Lake Michigan northward, reaching Green Bay late in the month of Sep- tember, after an absence of four months, and having traveled more than twenty-five hundred miles. Here Joliet separated from his traveling companion, Pierre Marquette, and "hastened to Quebec to announce to the governor the results of the expedition ; but almost in sight of Montreal, in the rapids of La Chine, his canoe upset, a portion of his crew were drowned, and he himself narrowly escaped, with the loss of all his papers."

Joliet never returned to this territory; but engaged in the fur trade with the Indians of Hudson's Bay. After receiving from his government, "in consideration of his services, a grant of the islands of Mignan and Anticosti, he engaged in the fisheries," and subsequently explored the coasts of Labrador. "He was made royal pilot for the St. Lawrence, and also hydrographer at Quebec. He died poor, about 1699 or 1700, and was buried on one of the islands of Mignan."

Marquette, however, through love of humanity and devotion to the cross and the work of the Master, returned to the Illinois valley late in the following autumn to preach to the benighted people of that region. Leaving Green Bay in October of 1674, he with two voyageurs started for the Chicago river, up which stream they ascended to a point about six miles above the present locality of the city of Chicago. Here he built a hut to shelter him from the storms of winter, in which he remained until the following spring, when he performed his last acts of devotion to his favorite cause-the mission of the cross to the children of the forest-and with which were associated the romantic sadness and sweet peace of the closing scenes of the life of this noble man. Through the exposures of the expedition to the Mississippi and Illinois the previous summer, he

DISCOVERY AND EARLY HISTORY.

contracted a disease which proved to be fatal. Having suffered much from hemorrhage he was illy prepared for his return to the mis-

sion field. His frail constitution suffered much from the exposures of the voyage to Chicago, being late in autumn. The cold October winds swept the lake and tossed them on a rough sea and drenched them with cold rains. Their rude tents and camp-fires were insuf-

good man seemed conscious that he was making his last voyage in hemorrhage from which he had previously suffered, returned and the cient to give protection in the cold, damp October nights. The

time, and that the day was not far distant when he would cross that river from beyond which there is no return. In their lonely hut he and his two voyageurs spent the winter, surrounded by the wild

beasts that roamed over the prairies and wandered through the for-

ests from the waters of the Ohio on the south to the snowbound

regions of the north; and from their hut could be seen in their

native wilderness the buffalo, the deer, the bear, and the wild

turkey. The historian says, "with the return of spring his disease

passing around the head of the lake beneath the great sand-dunes he returned to Lake Michigan, when he embarked for Mackinac, whose protection he had specially invoked. A few days after Easter preached to them concerning heaven and hell, and the Virgin, Ottawa, where he gathered the people in a grand council, and relented, when he descended the river to the Indian village below

which line the shore, and thence along the eastern margin to where a small stream discharges itself into the great reservoir south of the promontory, known as the 'sleeping bear.' Marquette had for some time lain prostrate in the bottom of the canoe. The warm breath of spring revived him not, and the expanding buds of the forest did not arrest his dimmed gaze. Here he requested them to

a bark hut. He was aware that his hour had come. Calmly he land. Tenderly they bore him to the bank, and built for his shelter

gave directions as to the mode of his burial, craved the forgiveness of his companions if in ought he had offended them, administered to them the sacrament, and thanked God that he was permitted to die in the wilderness." The darkness of the night settled over the scene, and ere the dawn of the morning light the noble spirit of Pierre Marquette had crossed the river that flows between this and the brighter worlds beyond. Thus closed the life of him who accompanied the first exploring expedition which discovered the territory of this commonwealth, and he was the first christian mis-

sionary to raise the standard of the cross to natives of the north-

west. He died on May 18, 1675, and was buried on the bank of the stream that bears his name. His remains were subsequently re-

HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY.

moved to St. Ignace and deposited beneath the floor of the chapel in which he had so often administered the sacred rites of his church.

The xext white man to tread the verdant soil of this territory was a Frenchman residing at Fort Frontenac (now Kingston), by the name of Rene-Robert Cavelier Sieur De La Salle, commonly known as La Salle. He was born at Rouen, France, in 1643, of an " old and affluent family." He left his native country and arrived in Canada in 1666. He learned through the Seneca Iroquois that there was a river called the Ohio which flowed to the sea at a dis- tance of many months' journey. Having resolved to explore this stream, he sold his possessions in order to procure the necessary funds to carry out his plans. Connecting his enterprise with other parties, they left La Chine with a party of seven canoes and twenty- four men, attended by two canoes filled with Senecas, who acted as guides to the party ; in all, a fleet of nine canoes, which ascended the St. Lawrence to Lake Ontario, and along the southern shore of that water to the mouth of the Genesee ; then passed Niagara under the sound of the great cataract to the village, where, in September, 1669, he separated from the seminary party, who started with him, and alone plunged into the unknown wilderness of the west. Pass- ing Onondaga he reached an affluent of Ohio twenty or twenty-five miles from Lake Erie. and followed down thiss tream to its junction with the Ohio, which he descended to the falls of Louisville, where his voyageurs deserted him, which compelled him to abandon his ex- plorations and return to Canada. The following year, 1670, he passed the head of Lake Michigan and penetrated to the waters of the Illinois, by which he reached the Mississippi, which he de- scended to some miles below the mouth of the Ohio. But little is known of the route over which he returned to Canada. This expe- dition, however, prepared him for his future enterprise in the local- ity of Illinois, which has perpetuated his name in history for succeeding generations.

In contemplation of a return to the Illinois country, La Salle de- signed the building of a vessel for a voyage around the lakes ; and in the spring of 1680 the "Griffin " was launched at the mouth of Cayuga Creek ; and on the 7th of August her sails were spread and she started on her voyage, being the first vessel that ever plowed the waters of the notrhern lakes. On reaching the islands at the en- trance of Green Bay he disembarked all his stores and sent the " Griffin " back ladened with furs with orders to return to him ; but he never saw her again, and it still remains a mystery as to what her fate was, or what became of her crew. La Salle, however, was not to be deterred from his purpose by even the loss of his favorite

€

DISCOVERY AND EARLY HISTORY.

vessel, but having swept down the western shore of Lake Michigan, passed the mouth of the Chicago, and rounded the head of the lake to the mouth of the St. Joseph, which he called the Miamis, and landed on the 1st of November. On the 3d of December he left the waters of Michigan, and with fourteen men and four canoes he ascended the St. Joseph to the present site of South Bend, Indiana, where he crossed a portage of five miles to the waters of the Thealike, or Haukiki, now Kankakee, conveying their canoes and cargo, by which they descended the Kankakee, down through the swamps, and meandered out into the great prairies to the valley of the Illinois, and reached Peoria Lake on the 30th of January, 1680. He con- structed a fort on the southern bank of the stream below the lake, and named it Creve-cœur. "This was the first civilized occupation of Illinois." After commencing the building of a vessel for the waters of the Mississippi valley, La Salle returned for an outfit to Canada, a journey of fifty-five days, and reached Fort Frontenac May 6, 1680. Soon after his departure from the new settlement on the Illinois, which he left in charge of Lieut. Tonty, it was destroyed by a band of Iroquois. He returned in the autumn of the same season, and finding all laid waste he returned to St. Joseph, where he spent the winter ; and in the following spring returned to Cana- da, leaving the St. Joseph in May, 1681, passing Mackinac, where he rejoined Tonty, and proceeded to Fort Frontenac, where he accumulated the necessary resources, and late in the season re- turned to the Illinois with twenty three Frenchmen, eighteen Mohegan warriors and their ten women and three children. The expedition consisted of fifty-four persons, and their journey, from Fort Miamis on the lake to Fort Creve-cœur on the Illinois, was beset with hardships and perils. "It was in the dead of winter when they set out. La Salle placed the canoes on sledges, and thus they were conveyed around the head of the lake to Chicago, thence across the portage to the Des Plaines and even to Peoria Lake, where open water was reached." Here they launched their canoes, and passing the lake they swept down the Illinois to the Mississippi, and on the 6th of April reached the Gulf of Mexico, where they erected, on a " dry spot," near the mouth of the Mississippi, a column to France and decorated it with the French arms. The last of the summer they returned to Illinois, and stopping at a point on that stream known as the " Starved Rock, " La Salle began at once to fortify that bluff, which has become famous in the history of Illinois. This fort he named St. Louis, which crowned the summit of a natural fortress. "At the base of the cliff he gathered about him the Indian inhabitants who were sheltered in log cabins and bark

HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY.

lodges. The resident aboriginal inhabitants in the region amounted to about 4,000 warriors or 20,000 souls." We must here turn aside from this great man, and refer the reader to "The Discovery of the Great West," by Francis Parkman, for the study of his character and wonderful career in the wild's of America.

From the building of Fort St. Louis the French continued to oc- cupy Illinois. As early as 1720 they had a chain of forts extending from Canada to the month of the Mississippi.

In 1762, by the treaty of Fontainbleau, all the territory east of the Mississippi with the reservation of the island of New Orleans was ceded to the British, and the territory west of the great river, including New Orleans, was granted to Spain. In 1765 the British took formal possession of the country through the military authority of Capt. Sterling, a British officer who was sent to exact allegiance from its in- habitants.

The cession of this region to Great Britain and their occupancy of the territory caused dissatisfaction among the natives, who were un- willing to abandon their hunting-grounds, to which many of them were attached as the inheritance of their fathers. They determined to drive the invaders from their soil, and under Pontiac, an Ottawa chief, who was an ally of the French, had seen much service and was famous as a great warrior. "He organized one of the most formidable combina- tions that the English on this continent were ever called upon to en- counter. Having embraced in the league all the tribes from the lakes to the Carolinas and from the Mississippi to the Alleghanies, he con- ceived the idea of attacking simultaneously all the English forts throughout the west, stretching from Mackinac to Cumberland, and numbering not less than sixteen. He assigned particular tribes to per- form a particular work, and on the appointed day the assault was made and all but three of the forts succumbed. Pontiac himself led the assault on Fort Detroit, but his scheme having been divulged by a squaw the night previously, was unsuccessful."

Pontiac being disappointed in his attempt returned from further warfare, and leaving his native haunts in the vicinity of Detroit, he lodged on the banks of the Mississippi, near Cahokia, and here he was assassinated by an Indian of the Peoria tribe. This assassina- tion is laid to the charge of the English, who resorted to this method to remove a formidable enemy. It is presumed that his remains rest near the place where he met his fate. The treacherous murder of the great chief created great hostility against the tribes of Illinois from those of the north, and the former were well nigh exterminated by the latter.

"In 1765 Col. George Croghan was sent west as a commissioner

DISCOVERY AND EARLY HISTORY.

to conciliate the Indians. He descended the Ohio as far as Shawnee- town, and thence proceeded to Vincennes, when, after pausing a few days, he ascended the Wabash 210 miles to the Ouiatonon, or Weastown as it was called by the Americans, and thence crossed over to Detroit."

In 1776 the relations of the colonies with the mother country were severed by the Declaration of Independence. This territory was held under the state authorities of Virginia. At this time the French were still occupying the posts all along the Mississippi, and had manifested a want of sympathy with the revolution struggle ; as they had affiliated with the natives for nearly a century and had intermarried into the various tribes, had done but little to improve the country but were satisfied to live in a rude and uncivilized state, and looked with but little favor upon any change of government or civilization that would tend to disturb their manner of life. That they might be made feel and acknowledge the sovereignty of the United States, the governor and council of Virginia sent an expedition of two hundred men, who enlisted for three months, under the command of George Rogers Clark, a Kentucky backwoodsman, to occupy this territory. Clark embarked with his force at Pittsburgh, and descended the Ohio river to within forty miles of its mouth, where he landed, and after conceal- ing his boats " he marched across the country to Kaskaskia, where the first surrender was made without resistance ; their example being fol- lowed by a general surrender and acknowledgment of the sovereignty of the United States by taking the oath of allegiance to the constitu- tional authorities of the government."

In October of that year (1776) the general assembly of the State of Virginia constituted the county of Illinois, which embraced all the territory north of the Ohio river. In this relation it remained until 1783, in which year that " state passed an act authorizing the cession to the United States of this territory, and during the subsequent year the deed was executed."

At a session of congress held in New York an ordinance was passed June 11, 1787, titled " An ordinance for the government of the territory of the United States Northwest of the Ohio." This act forever excluded slavery from this part of the country, which has proved to be a very important measure, in having much to do with the future of this great nation ; for had this vast territory been open to the introduction of American slavery it would have been quite different with the progress and freedom which now characterize the political and social economy of the nation; and no people have greater cause to be grateful for the wise enactment than those who live on the fertile soil of the vast prairies of the northwest.

HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY.

There were at this time but few Americans in this territory. Vir- ginia having found it impracticable to maintain an outpost at so great a distance in a wilderness, the men were " quartered on the French residents, but ultimately were compelled to shift for themselves. And a few Americans who had accompanied this expedition found their way into the French villages along the Mississippi and remained."

In 1781 an expedition started from Maryland consisting of five men, James Moore, Shadrach Bond, Robert Kidd, Larkin Ruther- ford and James Garrison, who, taking their wives and children with them, pushed out into the western wilds. They crossed the Allegha- nies to the Ohio river, down which they passed to the Mississippi ; thence up that stream to Kaskaskia, where they separated and settled in different localities of that part of the territory. The first three settled on what was known as the " American Bottom," while the other two pushed on to Bellefountaine.

In the year 1781 a small colony from the State of Massachusetts, under the direction of Gen. Rufus Putnam, settled on the Ohio at the mouth of the Muskingum river, on the present site of Marietta, Ohio. It is claimed that this was the first organized English settle- ment in this vast northwestern territory, and that Marietta is the oldest town of the same origin northwest of the Ohio river.

"Prior to the year 1788 there were about forty-five improve- ments made by Americans, which entitled each to 400 acres of land under a subsequent act of congress, which was passed in 1791."

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History of Lee County, together with biographical matter, statistics, etc., Part 1

Author: Hill, H.H. (Chicago) pbl Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago, H.H. Hill Number of Pages: 910

Author: Hill, H.H. (Chicago) pbl
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, H.H. Hill
Number of Pages: 910