The History of Jo Daviess County, Illinois, 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 history of the Northwest, history of Illinois Constitution of the United States, Part 1

Author: Kett, H.F., & co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Chicago : H.F. Kett & co.
Number of Pages: 878


USA > Illinois > Jo Daviess County > The History of Jo Daviess County, Illinois, 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 history of the Northwest, history of Illinois Constitution of the United States > Part 1


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UNIV SIT ILLIN.


1 AT CHAMPAIGN-UR_ANA


ILLINOIS HISTORICAL SURVEY


Harries 83. Brush


Palmas &


THE LIBRARY OF THE


U. S. Grant


-


THE HISTORY


OF


JO DAVIESS COUNTY


ILLINOIS,


CONTAINING


AH ISTORY OF THE COUNTY-ITS CITIES, TOWNS, ETC.


A BIOGRAPHICAL DIRECTORY OF ITS CITIZENS, WAR RECORD OF ITS VOLUNTEERS IN THE LATE REBELLION, GENERAL AND LOCAL STATISTICS,


1


PORTRAITS OF EARLY SETTLERS AND PROMINENT MEN,


HISTORY OF THE NORTHWEST, HISTORY OF ILLINOIS, MAP OF JO DAVIESS COUNTY, CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES, MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS, ETC.


-


ILLUSTRATED.


1


CHICAGO: H. F. KETT & CO., TIMES BUILDING. 1878.


PREFACE.


· Nearly sixty years have come and gone since white men came to occupy and develop the rich mineral and agricultural lands of the Fever River country. These years were full . of changes and of history, and had some of the vigorous minds and ready pens of the early settlers been directed to the keeping of a chronological journal or diary of events, to write a history of the country now would be a comparatively easy task. In the absence of such records, the magnitude of the undertaking is very materially increased, and rendered still more intricate and difficult by reason of the absence of nearly all the pioneer fathers and. mothers who came here more than half a century ago. Of those who came here in pursuit of fortunes and homes, between 1821 and 1827, and who founded the City of Galena, only a very few are left to greet those who now come to write the history of their county-a county second to none in point of historic interest. The struggles, changes and vicissitudes that! fifty years evoke are as trying to the minds as to the bodies of men. Physical and mental strength waste away together beneath accumulating years, and the memory of names, dates and important events become buried in the confusion brought by time and its restles: unceasing changes. Circumstances that were fresh in memory ten and twenty years afte. their occurrence, are almost, if not entirely, forgotten when fifty years have gone, and if not. entirely lost from the mind, they are so nearly so that, when recalled by one seeking tu preserve them, their recollection comes slowly back, more like the memory of a midnight dream than of an actual occurrence in which they were partial, if not active, participants. The footprint of time leaves its impressions and destroying agencies upon every thing, and t- hence it would be unreasonable to suppose that the annals, incidents and happenings of .. more than fifty years in a community like that whose history we have attempted to write, could be preserved intact and umbroken.


The passage of several years was recorded on the pages of time after the first settle- ment was made at Galena by white men, before any written records of a public nature were made. The first and only record we were able to find was a poll book of an election held in Fever River Precinct, Peoria County, August 7, 1826-one year previous to the organi- zation of Jo Daviess County-and this record, with the names of 202 voters, was procured from the archives of the County Clerk's office at Peoria. With this single exception the gentlemen entrusted with the duty of writing this history were forced to depend upon the memory and intelligence of the few surviving pioneers for a very large share of facts and information herein presented, until after the organization of the County and the first sessi of the County Commissioners Court, in June, 1827. For reasons already indicated, it is no to be expected that this volume will be entirely accurate in all its details of names, dat, etc., or that it will be so perfect as to be above and beyond criticism, for the book is yet to be written and printed that can justly claim the meed of perfection; but it is the publishers hope, as it is their belief, that it will be found measurably correct and generally accurate and reliable. Industrious and studied care has been exercised to make it a standard book of reference, as well as a book of interest to the general reader.


In the absence of written records, recourse was had to the minds of such of the " Old Settlers " as have been spared to see the wilds of 1821-'5 reduced from Indian hunting grounds and camping places to the abode of thrift, wealth, intelligence, refinement-schools, colleges, churches and cities. In seeking to supply such missing links by personal inter- views, different individuals would render different and conflicting, although honest ande sincere, accounts of the same events and circumstances. To sift these statements and arrive


H629 Ilx


PREFACE.


it the most reasonable and tangible conclusions, was a delicate task, but a task we sought to discharge with the single purpose of writing of incidents as they actually transpired. If in such a multiplicity of names, dates, etc., some errors are not detected, it will be strange, indeed. But, such as it is, our offering is completed, and it only remains for us to acknowledge our obligations to the gentlemen named below for the valuable information furnished by them, without which this history of Jo Daviess County would not be so nearly perfect as it is.


To Captain DANIEL SMITH HARRIS, Dr. E. G. NEWHALL, WILLIAM HEMPSTEAD, Esq., JOHN LORRAIN, Esq., DANIEL WANN, Esq., Capt. GEORGE W. GIRDON, H. H. HOUGH- TON, Esq., J. M. HARRIS, R. S. NORRIS, Esq., Judge W. R. ROWLEY, L. A. ROWLEY, Esq., FREDERICK STAHL, Esq., GEO. FERGUSON, Esq., ALLEN TOMLIN, Esq., D. W. SCOTT, Esq., WM. H. SNYDER, Esq., W. W. HUNTINGTON, Esq., B. C. ST. CYR, Esq., A. M. HAINES, Esq., STEPHEN MARSDEN, and others of Galena; AUGUSTUS SWITZER, Esq., Mayor THOMAS MA- GUIRE and C. S. BUSH, Dunleith ; HARVEY MANN, of Vinegar Hill; W. O. GEAR, of Oka- homa, Iowa; HIRAM B. HUNT and JAMES W. WHITE, of Hanover; Hon. H. S. TOWNSEND, of Warren; WILLIAM T. GEAR, of Guilford; Hon. E. B. WASHBURNE, Gen. A. L. CHIET. LAIN, Gen. JOHN C. SMITHI, of Chicago, this paragraph of acknowledgement is therefore respectfully dedicated.


To the venerable Mrs. FRENTRESS, widow of ELEAZER FRENTRESS, wife and mother of the first white family to settle in what is now Dunleith Township, we are also indebted for the early history of that part of the county.


To the press of Galena-Messrs. BROWN and PERRIGO, of the Gazette, and Messrs. CUMINGS and SCOTT, of the Industrial Press-to the county, city and various township authorities, to the ministers and official representatives of the various churches, and to the Principals and Teachers of the schools of the county we are also under obligations for sta- tistical and historical information, without which this volume would be incomplete. To the parties named above is due, in a large measure, whatever of merit may be ascribed to this undertaking.


To the people of the county in general, and the people of Galena in particular, our most grateful considerations are due for their universal kindness and courtesy to our rep- resentatives and agents, to whom was entrusted the labor of collecting and arranging the information herein preserved to that posterity that will come in the not far distant by-and- by to fill the places of the fathers and mothers, so many of whose names and honorable biographies are to be found in the pages of this book.


In conclusion, the publishers can but express the earnest desire that before another fifty years will have passed, other and abler minds will have taken up and recorded the his- torical events that will follow after the close of this offering to the people of Jo Daviess County, that the historical literature of the country may be fully preserved and maintained complete from county to nation.


March, 1878.


H. F. KETT & Co., Publishers.


This booth reaction 1 Thiết Party combles. The


593815


CONTENTS.


HISTORICAL.


PAGE.


History Northwest Territory __ 19


Geographical Position .... 19 Early Explorations 20


Discovery of the Ohio ..


33


Euglish Explorations and


Settlements


35


American Settlements


.60


Division of the Northwest


Territory


66


Tecumseh and the War of


1812.


70


Present Condition of the


Northwest.


87


Illinois


99


Indiana


101


Iowa


102


Michigan


103


Wisconsin.


104


Minnesota


106


Nebraska


107


History of Illinois


.109


Coal


125


Compact of 1787 117


Chicago


132


Early Discoveries


109


Early Settlements


115


Education


129


French Occupation


112


Bridges


487


Fire Department.


488


Genius of La Salle


113


Material Resources


124


City Officers


491


Warren


.567


Massacre at Ft. Dearborn,141


Physical Features


121


PAGE


History of Illinois.


Progress of Development,123


Religion and Morals


.128


War Record


.130


History of Jo Daviess Co.


._ 221


General History


221


Schools


52


Winnebago War


.274


Black Hawk War.


.278


Local History


295


Poor House.


341


Township Organization .344 Circuit Court. 348


Black Hawk and the Black


Hawk War.


74


Criminal Mention


352


Other Indian Troubles


79


Educational


358


Old Settlers' Association.364


War Record


-374


Agricultural Society .423


Horticultural Society .427


Press


.432


Official Record


437


Roll of Honor.


441


Property Statement. 443


Assessment.


444


Vote of County 446


Physical Geography. .817


Lead and Lead Mining


834


Ziuc and Zinc Mining.


.842


Ancient Mounds


843


Rice


60€


History of Galena


448


City


484


Stockton


.599


Thompson.


610


Vinegar Hill


60€


Galeua Bar


496


· Ward's Grove


601


Religious


498


ILLUSTRATIONS.


PAGE. -


Mouth of the Mississippi.


21


Source of the Mississippi. 21


Wild Prairie. 23


La Salle Landing on the Shore of Green Bay 25


Trapping 29


Hunting . 32


Iroquois Chief. 34


Pontiac, the Ottawa Chieftain. 43


Indians Attacking Frontiers- men 56


A Prairie Storm 59


A Pioneer Dwelling.


61


Pioneers' First Winter.


92


Breaking Prairie


63


Tecumseh, the Shawnoe Chief- tain 69


LITHOGRAPHIC PORTRAITS.


PAGE.


Allan, Jas.


.349


Bradley, W. H. .349


Brown, J. B ... .359


Brown, Richard. 339


Brown, J. D 579 %


Hoyne, Phil. A. 409


Stanton Elias


589


Small, E. A. 329


Switzer, A .. 539


Hunt, H. B. 299 Stahl, Frederick 239


Spare, J. C. 489


Soulard, Jas. G. 183


Stanchfield, G. B. 805


Jeffers, Stephen


379


Smith J. C ...


399


Mann, Harvey 429


Murphy, J. H.


739


Townsend, H. S 279


Miner, S. K. 559


Tear, Jno ... 529


Moore, Jno. 699 Thompson, C. C 797


Frentress, Diadamia 259 Napper. S. T. 549 Taylor, Jno. W. 709


Grant, U. S. Frontispiece


Packard, J. A. 269 Woodworth, L. P. 605


Gear, W. T. 249 Passmore, Wm 597


Gann, H. C


519


Puckett, T. C.


789


History of Galena.


Masons


51


Odd Fellows 51


Knights of Pythias


.52


Other Societies


52


Custom House


52


Post-office.


521


Banking and Insurance. .. 53


Gas


53:


Railroad


535


Turnpike


.53:


Hotels


53


Miscellaneous 53


History of Towns:


Apple River 56


Berreman


60:


Council Hill


59!


Dunleith


541


Derinda


59%


Elizabeth and Woodbine. 585


Guilford


60€


Hanover


.590


Menominee


.604


Nora


55


Pleasant Valley 60%


Rush


575


Scales Mound


555


PAGE.


and P. R. R., Crossing the


Mississippi at Davenport,


Iowa


96


A Western Dwelling


100


Hunting Prairie Wolves in an


Early Day


108


Starved Rock, on the Illinois


River, La Salle Co., Ill


110


An Early Settlement.


116


Chicago in 1833.


133


Old Fort Dearborn,1830


136


Present Site Lake St. Bridge,


Chicago, 1833.


136


Ruins of Chicago ..


142


View of the City of Chicago .. 144


Shabbona


149


Great Iron Bridge of C, R. I.


PAGE.


PAGE.


Girdon, Geo. W. 219


Rawlins, Jno. A


147


Hood, Jas .. 813


Rawlins, Jas. D. 419


Huntington, W. W.


449


Rogers, F. M.


679


Hempstead, Chas. S.


319


Rogers, Manley 669


Bennet, Chas. R 289


Baruer. C. 469


Bedford, Edward L. 459


Barton, Major 661


Burt, C. S .. 719


Burnett, Alex.


779


Jones, A. M.


Campbell, B. H. 499


Chetlain, A. L. 389


Deam, Andrew.


729


Dimmick L. L.


.309


Fowler, B. F ..


479


Hathaway S. W.


369


201


Jones, J. R.


569


Townsend, G. N 769


Washburne, E. B.


165


White, J. W ..


759


Green, H.


749


Pepoon, G. W.


509


Wing, Geo. S.


699


Indians Attacking a Stockade, 72 Black Hawk, the Sac Chieftain 75 Big Eagle. 80


Captain Jack, the Modoc Chief-


tain


83


Buffalo Hunt


27


Kinzie House


85


Village Residence


86


A Representative Pioneer


87


Lincoln Monument, Spring-


field, Ill.


88


A Pioneer School House. 89


Farm View in the Winter 90


Spring Scene __ 91


Apple Harvest


94


Harris, D. S .. 229


Hunkins, D. 439


PAGE.


CONTENTS.


vii


JO DAVIESS COUNTY WAR RECORD.


PAGE.


Infantry.


PAGE.


PAGE.


Infantry


.388


90th


398


12th


.388


96th .401


15th


.391


19th


142d


407


Miscellaneous Cavalry.


412


21st


٦٠


45th


.. 690 1


BIOGRAPHICAL TOWNSHIP DIRECTORY.


PAGE.


Chicago, etc. .613


Hanover .757


Scales Mound. .695


Apple River. 684


Berreman.


.795


Galena West.


625


Thompson.


790


Council Hill .786


Menominee


813


Dunlelth.


.717


Nora


671


Derinda


.737


Pleasant Valley .800


Woodbine


767


Elizabeth


743


Guilford


706


Rice 811


ABSTRACT OF ILLINOIS. STATE LAWS.


PAGE.


Adoption of Children 160


Bonds


.176


Chattel Mortgages


177


Codicil


189


Lease of Farm and B'ld'gs,179


Lease of House


180


Landlord and Tenant ..


169


Landlord's Agreement. .180


Liens ..:


172


Married Women


155


Millers


159


Marks and Brands


159


Paupers


164


Roads and Bridges.


161


Surveyors and Surveys


160


Suggestion toPersons purchas- ing Books by Subscription .190


'Tenant's Agreement.


180


Taxes


154


Tenant's Notice to Quit .. 181


Warranty Deed


.182


Wili


187


Wolf Scalps.


164


MISCELLANEOUS ..


PAGE.


PAGE.


Population of Fifty Principal


Cities of the U. S.


.214


Population and Area of the


United States ...


... 215 .


Population of the Principal


Countries in the World .... 215


Population Illinois .___ 216 & 217 Agricultural Productions of


Population of the U. S.


214


ure


210


Game ..


.158


Interest


151


Jurisdiction of Courts


154


Limitation of Action ..


155


Conveyances


164


Church Organization


189


Descent .


151


Notes.


174


Notice Tenant to Quit. .181


Drainage


163


Damages from Trespass


.169


Definition of Com'rcial Terms173


Exemptions from Forced Sale,156


Estrays


.157


Fences


:168


Forms :


Articles of Agreement .175 Bills of Purchase. 174


Bills of Sale


176


PAGE. Map of Jo Daviess Co ..... Front. Constitution ot United States192


Electors of President and


Vice-President, 1876


.206


Practical Rules for every day


.207


use


U. S. Government Land Meas-


Surveyors Measure.


211


How to keep accounts


211


Interest Table


212


Miscellaneous Table


212


Names of the States of the


Union and their Significa-


tions


213


Miscellaneous Infantry


408


Artillery. 408


140th


407


17th Cavalry


.411


1 1 153d


408


PAGE.


PAGE.


Galena East .655


Stockton


.777


Vinegar Hill


808


Warren


661


Rush


724


Ward's Grove


805


Forms:


PAGE.


PAGE.


Bills of Exchange and Prom- issory Notes. 151


County Courts


155


Deeds and Mortgages.


157


Orders


174


Quit Claim Deed.


185


Receipt.


174


Real Estate Mortgage to secure paym't of Money,181 Release 186


Wills and Estates


152


Weights and Measures


158


Illinois by Counties 1870 ... 218


.


STATE


SOVEREIGNTY


OTTAWAY & COLBERT, PRINTERS, 147 & 149 FIFTH AVE., CHICAGO, İLt:


·


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Council Hill


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Guilfor 20


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.


·


MAP OF


JO-DAVIESS COUNTY


R. 2 W.


R. I W.


MER


18


3A


Excelsior Mill's


MINEE


4TH PRINCIPAL! T


10


7


C


1. 79


/


ACLINTON & DUBUQUE R.R


1.2 E.


R3 E.


R.4 E


R.5 2.


77


16


1


19


20


1'20


S


Warren"


NOIS


AL


27


26


30


254


Scales


R


31


33


36


31


32


33


Sweet Home


+


3


2


1


5


.5 !


AKfile


10


9


18


17


15


12


18


15


13


16


T. 28 N.


20


2/


Greenvale P.O.


A


Schinmilk


fouchton


0


98


2.5


30


28


2.5


30


29


28


33 Rush P.G


34


3


36


3/


TPO


Priciervile


5


PONE


i3


13


18


17


Woodbine PoFT


S


OCARTON


"Cheest fart.


19


25


24


22 WildersPO.


24


Yestom


Elizabetfi


GRO


.


28


(2; Herh RiverPO :85


Morse ville


liver


"LEAD


36


.37


33


PerindaPO


.5


PleasantHilli


10


11


BERR


1.5


13


18


Ferinda CenterPO. + 16


10


1.5


16


and


13



A-P


96


30


30


29


30


Vatten


-


T. 27 N


20


19


28


33


36


3.5


-


6


Wilo PA


LEAD


3



Howardsville


351


36


3


93


19


20


22


24


1.9


23


9


1%


Applo


13


R


EST POINT LINOIS


MYMINIMA


24.


20


MAT


T. 29 N.


26


29


36


27.


23


20


2.3


T.26 N.


WARD'S


LEAD


30


31


Rivers?


R


80


Yankee Hollow P.O.


THE LONGARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS


716


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 that 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


-


1


SOURCE OF THE MISSISSIPPI.


PODDODODO


BRIGHAM


MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI.


THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.


21


22


THE NORTHWEST TERRITOKY.


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


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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.




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