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PUBLIC LIBRARY FORT WAYNE & ALLEN CO., IND.
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
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ILLINOIS CENTENNIAL PUBLICATIONS PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY OF THE ILLINOIS CENTENNIAL COMMISSION
CLARENCE WALWORTH ALVORD EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
INTRODUCTORY VOLUME
١
ILLINOIS CENTENNIAL COMMISSION
OTTO LEOPOLD SCHMIDT, Chairman JESSIE PALMER WEBER, Secretary
EDWARD BOWE
JOHN SCHULZ
MICHAEL J. DAUGHERTY
THOMAS F. SCULLY
OSCAR WILLIAM ECKLAND
FREDERIC SIEDENBURG
ROYAL WESLEY ENNIS
CHARLES H. STARKEL
EVARTS BOUTELL GREENE
JOHN E. TRAEGER
HUGH STEWART MAGILL, JR.
PETER AUGUST WALLER
JAMES BERNARD MCMANUS
COMMITTEE ON CENTENNIAL PUBLICATIONS EVARTS BOUTELL GREENE, Chairman ROYAL WESLEY ENNIS FREDERIC SIEDENBURG OTTO LEOPOLD SCHMIDT CHARLES H. STARKEL
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https://archive.org/details/illinoisin181800buck 0
PIASAU ROCK NEAR ALTON [From Lewis, Das illustrirte Mississippithal (1858?), in the Illinois State Historical Library)
CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF ILLINOIS INTRODUCTORY VOLUME
ILLINOIS IN 1818 1
BY SOLON JUSTUS BUCK
SECOND EDITION, REVISED
A.CMCCLURG
CHICAGO A. C. McCLURG & CO. 1918
COPYRIGHT, 1917 BY THE ILLINOIS CENTENNIAL COMMISSION
..
366835
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter Page
ORGANIC ACT CREATING THE ILLINOIS CENTENNIAL COMMISSION XV
HISTORY OF THE CENTENNIAL COMMISSION xvii EDITORIAL NOTE xxi AUTHOR'S PREFACE XXV
I. THE INDIANS AND THE FUR TRADE I
II. THE PUBLIC LANDS 36
III. EXTENT OF SETTLEMENT 56
IV. THE PIONEERS 88
V. THE ECONOMIC SITUATION II3
VI. SOCIAL CONDITIONS I59
VII. THE POLITICAL SITUATION 18I
VIII. THE MOVEMENT FOR ADMISSION 207
IX. THE CONVENTION CAMPAIGN 23I
X. FRAMING THE CONSTITUTION 262
XI. A STATE IN THE UNION 294 APPENDIX 318
BIBLIOGRAPHY 321 INDEX 327
Still 1. 75
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Page PIASAU ROCK NEAR ALTON frontispiece CANADIAN Voyageur I
WA-BAUN-SEE, POTTAWATOMI CHIEF - 4
KEE-O-KUCK, CHIEF OF THE SAUK TRIBE 8
NABU-NAA-KEE-SHICK, CHIPPEWA CHIEF 14
SHABBONA, POTTAWATOMI CHIEF, FRIEND OF THE WHITE MAN 20
MONK'S MOUND, ST. CLAIR COUNTY. 26
FRENCH TRADER 26
THE BATEAU
32
Coureur de Bois AND THE SAVAGE.
A TRAPPER
INDIAN LAND CESSIONS IN ILLINOIS, 1818 (map)
32 36 4I
THE FLATBOAT, OHIO-BOAT, OR KENTUCKY-BOAT.
THE KEEL-BOAT
OLD FRENCH HOUSE AT PRAIRIE DU ROCHER
A CLEARING
LEAD-BEARING ROCKS AND FURNACE NEAR GALENA
LANDS ENTERED IN ILLINOIS, 1818 (map) .
EXTENT OF SETTLEMENT IN ILLINOIS, 1818 (map). 59 WOODEN BEAM PLOW 61 HANDMADE OX-YOKE 65 CAHOKIA 68 KASKASKIA 68 PRAIRIE DU ROCHER 74 74
ILLINOISTOWN OR EAST ST. LOUIS
GURDON S. HUBBARD ALEXANDER WOLCOTT, INDIAN AGENT AT CHICAGO. 80 80
MORRIS BIRKBECK
84 84
COTTAGE AT ALBION
BACKWOODSMAN 88
FLAX AND SPINNING WHEELS. 94
JOHN EDGAR
100
GEORGE FLOWER 10.1
44 44 47 48 48 52
Page MRS. GEORGE FLOWER 108 THE PARK HOUSE, ALBION, HOME OF RICHARD FLOWER. IIO
PIONEER SCENE IIO
WEAVING LOOM
ASH HOPPER
GRAIN CRADLE II6 124 PRAIRIE PLOW 130 130 RUINS OF FORT DE CHARTRES 138 A LOG TAVERN 138 JOHN MARSHALL, BANKER AT SHAWNEETOWN 148 HANDMADE SPECTACLE CASE. 159 HANDMADE BABY CRADLE I61 PRINTING PRESS 164 HANDMADE BRACE 168 TROUSSEAU TRUNK 172 PIANO OF MARTHA FLOWER 172 176 FOOT-WARMER 176 CAIRO 178 GERSHOM FLAGG 178 WOOL CARDER 182 FLAX HACKLE 184 OLD-FASHIONED BED 192 PIERRE MENARD'S HOME AT KASKASKIA 192 NINIAN EDWARDS 200 Two FLINTLOCK DUELING PISTOLS 204 BEAR TRAP 204
JOHN MASON PECK
GUN USED BY WESTERN TRAPPERS. 204 210
FLAX BRAKE
DANIEL POPE COOK. 214
NATHANIEL POPE 220
CHICAGO IN 1820. 228
The Illinois Intelligencer 234
A LAND GRANT 238
Page EDWARD COLES 242 GREASE LAMP 247
SHAVING HORSE 252
TITLE-PAGE OF Valley of the Mississippi
256 262
SICKLE
ELIAS KENT KANE
266 284
JESSE B. THOMAS
CONSTITUTION OF 1818
292 295
BUILDING IN WHICH TERRITORIAL LEGISLATURE FIRST MET
SHADRACH BOND 298
GOVERNOR BOND'S HOME IN KASKASKIA
302
ACHSAH BOND 306
PIERRE MENARD
312
XV
AN ACT TO CREATE THE ILLINOIS CENTENNIAL COMMISSION AND TO DEFINE ITS POWERS AND DUTIES
SECTION I. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illi- nois, represented in the General Assembly: That there be and is hereby created a commission to be known as the Illinois Cen- tennial Commission. Such commission shall be appointed by the Governor and shall consist of fifteen members, who shall serve without compensation, but who shall be allowed their actual expenses while engaged in official business of the com- mission and in attending meetings of the said commission. In case any vacancy shall occur on said commission, the Governor shall fill the vacancy by appointment. The Governor shall desig- nate the member who shall be chairman. The commission shall elect from its membership a secretary and may engage such em- ployees as shall be deemed necessary.
SECTION 2. It shall be the duty of the Illinois Centennial Commission :
I-To arrange for and conduct a celebration in honor of the Centennial of the admission of the State of Illinois into the Federal Union.
2-To compile and publish a commemorative history of the State.
3-To report to the Fiftieth General Assembly the arrange- ments for such celebration.
4-To make a complete report to the Fifty-first General As- sembly.
SECTION 3. The Illinois Centennial Commission shall expire when it shall have completed its duties and shall have made a complete report thereof to the Governor and the Fifty-first Gen- eral Assembly, including a complete statement of its receipts and expenditures.
SECTION 4. Whereas, an emergency exists; therefore, this Act shall be in full force and effect from and after its passage.
APPROVED January 21, 1916.
xvii
THE ILLINOIS CENTENNIAL COMMISSION
Many citizens of the state of Illinois urged that the year 1909, the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lin- coln, be observed with some fitting and permanent memorial ; but, though the nation and the state, and indeed many foreign na- tions observed the great anniversary with patriotic assemblies, and eloquent addresses, Illinois did not erect a permanent memo- rial in the form of an impressive temple or shaft to the memory of her greatest citizen, nor did she give to the world a complete and authoritative history of the life and achievements of Abra- ham Lincoln.
When the Lincoln centennial year had past, thoughtful per- sons began to look forward to the centennial anniversary of the admission of the state of Illinois into the federal union. Among those who early appreciated the significance of the occasion and the opportunity which it offers the people of Illinois to show to the world the wonderful development of the state in the first one hundred years of its existence as a commonwealth of the Amer- ican republic, no one was more interested than the late Honorable Campbell S. Hearn of Adams county, a senator in the Illinois General Assembly.
Senator Hearn introduced in the Forty-eighth General As- sembly a resolution creating a commission, the duty of which was to arrange for and prepare plans for a fitting celebration of the state's one hundredth birthday. This commission under the resolution was to be composed of fifteen members: five state senators and five representatives in the General Assembly ; E. J. James, E. B. Greene, and J. W. Garner of the University of Illinois; and Otto L. Schmidt and Jessie Palmer Weber of the Illinois State Historical Society.
The commission met and organized July 23, 1913. Campbell S. Hearn was elected chairman and Jessie Palmer Weber, sec- retary.
Senator Hearn died August 28, 1914. He gave to the com- mission during the first year of its organization enthusiastic, faithful, and self-sacrificing service, not sparing himself when
xviii
pain and sickness came upon him. During his illness he often expressed the hope that he might live to participate in the observ- ance of the centennial. While this hope was not realized, yet his name will ever be associated with the commission, its labors and results, as the originator of the bill creating the commission and its chairman for the first year of its activity.
Senator Hugh S. Magill, Jr. succeeded Senator Hearn as chairman.
The commission has been subject to some vicissitudes caused by doubt as to the legality in form of the resolution which created it. This uncertainty was the result of the fact that the Centennial Commission was one of the state commissions whose legality was questioned by the so-called "Fergus suits." Changes in the personnel of the commission were made because in the opinion of the attorney-general of the state, members of the commission appointed as members of the legislature, could not serve as members of the Centennial Commission on the expiration of their legislative terms. A later decision of the attorney-gen- eral declared that under the constitution of the state, members of the General Assembly are not eligible to appointment to any civil office in the state, and thus are excluded from membership in the Centennial Commission.
Happily these matters have been adjusted by the passage of a law approved by Governor Edward F. Dunne, January 21, 1916, authorizing the appointment by the governor of a commission of fifteen members. Under this last mentioned act the present commission was appointed. It held its first meeting February 26, 1916, and elected its secretary, the chairman having been under the act of organization designated by the governor.
There have thus been three organizations of the commission. The personnel of the first commission 1913-1915 was: State Senators Campbell S. Hearn, Hugh S. Magill, Jr., Logan Hay, Henry W. Johnson, Kent E. Keller; Representatives John S. Burns, John Huston, C. C. Pervier, James F. Morris, George B. Baker ; President E. J. James, Professor E. B. Greene, Professor J. W. Garner of the University of Illinois; Otto L. Schmidt and Jessie Palmer Weber of the Illinois State Historical Society.
xix
The following members composed the second commission : State Senators E. S. Smith, chairman, John Dailey, M. W. Bailey, Kent E. Keller, Edward J. Hughes; Representatives John S. Burns, John Huston, William J. Butler, Thomas Boyer, Homer J. Tice, and the same representatives from the Univer- sity of Illinois and the State Historical Society.
The commission under its present organization is composed of the following members: Otto L. Schmidt, chairman, Jessie Palmer Weber, secretary, Edward Bowe, M. J. Daugherty, Oscar W. Eckland, Rev. Royal W. Ennis, Evarts B. Greene, Hugh S. Magill, Jr., J. B. McManus, John Schultz, Thomas F. Scully, Rev. Frederic Siedenburg, Charles H. Starkel, John E. Traeger, Peter A. Waller.
On its organization in July, 1913, the commission outlined a general and comprehensive plan for the centennial observance. Committees were appointed which immediately began their work. The principal features of the celebration as planned are general local celebrations throughout the state, a great official celebra- tion at the state capital with impressive exercises and distin- guished guests, and a pageant depicting the history of Illinois, which will be historically true and artistically beautiful.
It is hoped that there will be erected a centennial memorial building which will be an enduring monument of this great his- toric anniversary. It is impossible that this building can be com- pleted but the laying of the corner stone of it can be made a part of the ceremonies of the centennial celebration.
One of the greatest and certainly the most enduring of the state's observances of the centennial anniversary will be the publication of a centennial memorial history, on a scale not before attempted by a state of the union. This history will con- sist of the volume hereby presented, Illinois in 1818, which is preliminary to the Centennial History, which will consist of five volumes, namely :
Volume I. Illinois, Province and Territory, 1673-1818
Volume II. The Frontier State, 1818-1848
Volume III. The Era of Transition, 1848-1870
Volume IV. The Industrial State, 1870-1893
Volume · V. The Modern Commonwealth, 1893-1918
XX
These volumes are being prepared by several editors espe- cially fitted for the work. The whole series has been prepared under the supervision of Professor C. W. Alvord.
The first chairman of the publication committee was Dr. Otto L. Schmidt. When Dr. Schmidt was by the governor appointed chairman of the Centennial Commission, Professor E. B. Greene became chairman of the committee on publications. It is hoped that the entire history may be completed and published during the. centennial year.
Nations and states best prove their devotion to their ideals by the reverence they pay to their history and to the memory of their heroes. The Centennial Commission offers to the people of Illinois the centennial memorial history with the hope that through these volumes the memory of the pioneers of the state, those who founded it, and set in motion its official machinery, may be forever preserved from oblivion.
JESSIE PALMER WEBER Secretary of the Commission
xxi
1
EDITORIAL NOTE
A leading purpose of the Illinois Centennial Commission in planning for the coming celebration of the one hundredth anni- versary of the admission of the state to the union has been to mark the year by some work of permanent value. In accord- ance with this idea, the General Assembly has been asked to appropriate the necessary funds for the erection of a centennial memorial building, in which provision may be made for the con- centration, safe keeping, and orderly arrangement of the public archives and other historical records. Of equal importance is the plan for the Centennial History to be issued in five volumes covering the history of Illinois from the coming of the first Eu- ropeans to the present time. In addition to these five volumes of narrative history, it was decided to publish the present pre- liminary volume giving a view of the state at the beginning of the centennial period.
In all this series of publications two principles have been kept in view. They are intended, first, to tell the story accurately and in a scientific spirit. It is needless to say that they do not pre- tend to be "definitive;" but they are based on a careful use not only of the familiar printed sources, but also of rare newspapers and a large amount of manuscript material. In many cases, they will change materially the accepted views on the subjects with which they deal. For the assistance of serious students who may wish to pursue their inquiries further each volume is provided with footnotes and a bibliography. A second and not less im- portant object agreed upon from the outset is that of making books which will have sufficient human interest and literary quality to interest the intelligent general reader. In further application of this principle, it has been thought necessary to limit the number and length of footnotes much more closely than would be thought appropriate in a monograph primarily intended for students. Generally speaking, citations have been given for quotations, but in many other cases when the sources of information appeared to be fairly obvious to the special student, detailed references have been omitted. For much of this information the reader is referred to the bibliography.
xxii
The illness of the general editor, Professor Clarence W. Al- vord, and other circumstances alluded to by the author have made it necessary for the undersigned, as chairman of the Publication Committee, to assume a responsibility as to the final form of the manuscript and various other matters involved in the publication of this volume which would not otherwise have been required. In the discharge of this responsibility, errors of judgment have doubtless been made for which neither the editor nor the author should be held accountable. It is hoped, however, that the final result will be in some measure worthy of the great common- wealth whose history it commemorates.
The Publication Committee is under special obligations to certain institutions and individuals. The preparation of this vol- ume and of those to follow would not have been possible without the cooperation of the State Historical Library and the Illinois Historical Survey, a division of the Graduate School of the Uni- versity of Illinois. The Trustees of the State Historical Library have accepted the centennial publications as a temporary substi- tute for their regular series of Collections and the members of their editorial staff have devoted themselves largely to the serv- ice of the Centennial Commission.
Other institutions which have responded generously to the appeals of the commission by furnishing illustrative material and in various other ways, are the following: The Illinois State His- torical Library, The Chicago Historical Society, The Missouri Historical Society, The Minnesota Historical Society, Harper and Brothers, The A. H. Clark Company, and The Bobbs- Mer- rill Company.
The commission is also indebted for similar services to Mr. W. O. Converse, Springfield; Mr. Ray I. Barry, Mr. William Wilkinson, and Dr. W. H. Smith, Roodhouse; Mr. Thomas M. Cisel, St. Francisville ; Mr. Herbert W. Fay, De Kalb; Mr. Wal- ter Colyer, Albion; Hon. W. T. Norton, Alton; Mr. W. E. Ste- vens, Avon; and Judge Frank Perrin, Belleville.
Mrs. Jessie Palmer Weber of the Illinois State Historical
xxiii
Library and Miss Caroline M. McIlvaine of the Chicago His- torical Society have been exceedingly helpful in many ways and especially in the gathering of illustrative material.
Miss Lucille M. Allen, historical clerk of the Illinois State His- torical Library, Miss Leila O. White of the Centennial Commis- sion staff, and Miss Agnes Wright of the Illinois Historical Sur- vey have given valuable assistance at various stages of the work.
To Dr. Theodore C. Pease and Miss Ruth E. Hodsdon, assist- ant editor of the Illinois Historical Collections, the committee is especially indebted for expert service in seeing the volume through the press.
I desire, finally, to place on record my high appreciation of the fine public spirit shown at every stage of our work by the chair- man of the commission, Dr. Otto L. Schmidt of Chicago.
EVARTS BOUTELL GREENE
URBANA, ILLINOIS April 9, 1917
XXV
AUTHOR'S PREFACE
The state of Illinois is about to celebrate the centennial of its admission to the union. If the observance of this anniversary is to be of any permanent value to the commonwealth, it should furnish the occasion for a survey of progress during the century that has passed in order that future development may be built upon a solid foundation. The full significance of one hundred years of statehood cannot be understood without a knowledge of the Illinois of 1818, when the state had its beginnings. This work is an attempt to portray the social, economic, and political life of Illinois at the close of the territorial period, and, in addi- tion, to tell the story of the transition from colonial dependence to the full dignity of a state in the union. It opens with a de- scription of certain elements, then dominant in the whole north- ern part of the state, which have long since disappeared from its boundaries-the Indians and the fur trade. The next chapter contains a discussion of the system by which the United States disposed of the soil to settlers and a survey of the extent to which such disposition had been effected by the close of 1818. An ex- amination of the distribution of population, with an attempt to locate the extreme frontier of settlement in the year of admis- sion, leads to a study of the settlers themselves-who and what manner of people they were and whence they came. The two succeeding chapters deal with economic, social, and intellectual conditions, which are depicted principally by means of extracts from contemporary newspapers and books of travel.
The first half of the book is primarily descriptive; the latter half, narrative. Chapter 7, which furnishes the transition, con- sists of a rapid sketch of political developments during the ter- ritorial period designed to bring out the political situation in 1818. The movement for admission is then narrated from its inception under the influence of Daniel Pope Cook to the passage of the enabling act by congress. Chapter 9, dealing with the campaign for the election of members of the convention, con- tains extensive quotations from newspaper communications, and finds its principal significance in the slavery issue. The work of
xxvi
the convention in framing a constitution for the embryo state is then discussed on the basis of a careful study of its journal recently rescued from oblivion. The last chapter tells of the establishment of the state government-the first election and the first session of the legislature-and finally of the passage by con- gress of the act which made Illinois one of the United States of America.
When the work on this volume was begun, I was connected with the University of Illinois. My departure from the state and the assumption of obligations to the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota Historical Society delayed and made difficult the completion of the work; and that it has been accomplished at all is due largely to the assistance which I have received from others. I am especially indebted to Dr. Wayne E. Stevens and Mr. Ralph Linton, who furnished most of the material for the first chapter ; to Dr. Frances Relf, who served as my assistant in the assembling of material and the drafting of the other chap- ters; and, above all, to Dr. Otto L. Schmidt, the chairman of the Illinois Centennial Commission, whose personal support alone made much of the essential material available and enabled the work to go on during the interval between the two commissions. After the manuscript left my hands it received extensive revision at the hands of the editor, Professor Clarence W. Alvord, and his staff. Because of the illness of Professor Alvord, the work of seeing the book through the press has been supervised by Pro- fessor Evarts B. Greene, with the assistance of Dr. Theodore C. Pease. The selection of the illustrations and the compilation of the bibliography and index have been handled by the editorial staff.
SOLON J. BUCK
ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA
February, 1917
ILLINOIS IN 1818
CHAPTER I
THE INDIANS AND THE FUR TRADE
One hundred years ago, the Illinois country formed the far western edge of the wave of American civilization which was slowly ad- vancing across the continent from the Atlantic seaboard. Less than a third of the area in- cluded within the boundaries of the state of Illinois, when admitted to the union in 1818, was occupied by permanent settlements of white men. North of an east and west line drawn through the mouth of the Illinois river, the vast treeless prairies, interspersed with wooded valleys along the streams, were still the domain of the Indian and the fur trader. The irresistible westward movement of the CANADIAN VOY- AGEUR American people, seeking new homes in the [From Hall, Forty Etchings, owned by Illinois State Historical Library] wilderness, had carried them across the Alle- ghanies, down the Ohio valley, and into the region of mingled forest and prairies in southern Illinois. Already extensive cessions of land in the northern part of the state had been secured from the Indians; and, although they continued to live and hunt in the ceded as well as the unceded districts, their elimination as a factor in Illinois history was soon to be completed. Nevertheless, no account of Illinois in 1818 would be complete without some con- sideration of these remnants of the aboriginal inhabitants and their relations with the white men.
When the French explorers first came to the Mississippi valley, they found a confederacy of five tribes inhabiting the country which was named, after them, the Illinois. During the eighteenth
(1)
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2
ILLINOIS IN 1818
century, these tribes were alniost annihilated by the surround- ing peoples. By 1818, the Cahokia, Michigamea, and Tamaroa had disappeared as distinct tribes; the Kaskaskia, much weak- ened, lingered on in a reservation of 350 acres left them by the whites near the town of Kaskaskia; while the remnants of the Peoria still lived near the former habitat of the confederacy on the Illinois river.
Next to the Kaskaskia, the nearest neighbors of the white settlers in the south were the Kickapoo, who were scattered along the valley of the Sangamon from the headwaters of the Kaskaskia river to the Illinois. They also appear to have had one or two villages west of the Illinois. Farther north were the Sauk and Fox, who although not completely amalgamated, mingled with each other a great deal and sometimes lived in the same villages. In spite of the nominal cession of all their lands in Illinois, the principal villages of these tribes were still located near the mouth of Rock river with other villages extending along both banks of the Mississippi and into the interior. Generally speaking these tribes may be said to have occupied the western part of the triangle between the Missis- sippi and the Illinois and between the Mississippi and the Rock rivers. The greater part of the domain of the Winnebago was in what is now Wisconsin, but a small wedge-shaped portion of it extended into Illinois between the Rock river and the eastern watershed of the Mississippi. Some of the villages of this tribe were located on the Rock. The whole northeastern part of Illi- nois was occupied by the Potawatomi with the associated bands of Ottawa and Chippewa. They had villages on the Rock, the Fox, the Kankakee, the Illinois, and also in the interior between these streams and in the neighborhood of Chicago.1
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