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
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EST POINT LINOIS
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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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