The history of Carroll county, Illinois, containing a history of the county-its cities, towns, etc., a biographical directory war record statistics, portraits of early settlers and prominent men history of the Northwest Illinois miscellaneous matters, etc, Part 1

Author: Kett, H.F., & co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Chicago, H.F. Kett & Co.
Number of Pages: 508


USA > Illinois > Carroll County > The history of Carroll county, Illinois, containing a history of the county-its cities, towns, etc., a biographical directory war record statistics, portraits of early settlers and prominent men history of the Northwest Illinois miscellaneous matters, etc > Part 1


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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60


HISTORY


ARROLL COUNTY ILLINOIS 1878


Sauk Valley College


in Memory of


Oscar Lindquist 1975


PRINTED IN U.S.A.


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F 541 ·07 H62


THE HISTORY


OF


CARROLL 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, GENERAL AND LOCAL STATISTICS,


PORTRAITS OF EARLY SETTLERS AND PROMINENT MEN,


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


ILLUSTRATED.


CHICAGO: H. F. KETT & CO., TIMES BUILDING. 1 878.


SAUK VALLEY COLLEGE LRC 43598


PREFACE.


While the contents of this HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY were being prepared for the press, the writer had occasion to visit one of the public schools, and during that visit one of the teachers remarked that a few days before one of the scholars had asked the follow- ing questions :


" When and at what point was Carroll County first settled ?"


" Who was the first settler ? "


" When was the county organized ?


The teacher in question, a very thorough and competent one in all the branches usually taught in the common and graded schools of the country, and a lady of more than ordinary intelligence, admitted to the scholar, as she admitted to the writer, that she could not answer these questions until she had consulted her parents, and that even they could not answer all of them. This teacher, while conversant with the general history of the United States, with all the incidents of the late war, and familiar with the physical geography of the old world, humilia.ingly confessed her ignorance of the history of the county in which she was born and raised and educated-a subject that bears the same relation to the history of the state that the alphabet does to orthography and the higher branches of ordinary edu- cation. And this is not an isolated case. More than twenty men were asked, "When was Carroll County organized ?" and not one could tell. To supply such deficiencies in the historical literature of the county is the object of this volume.


That this volume will be perfect in all its details, the publishers do not expect, for per- fection is yet to be attained by the most experienced book-makers. But it has been the purpose to render it not only readable, but to make it a standard book of reference-to pre- serve to those who will come to succeed the present population in the not very distant by- and-by the annals and incidents pertinent to pioneer life.


In the absence of writ'en records recourse has been had to the memories of the " Old Settlers " as have survived the years that have died since 1828. Volumes of history have been made in these forty nine years, and strong, indeed, would be the mind that could retain it all and remit it intact to printed pages. The tooth of time leaves its impression upon every thing-upon the minds of men, as well as upon the prairies, the hillsides, the rocky bluffs, and the majestic forests. So names, dates, incidents, and happenings will pass from the minds of men as their physical vigor wastes beneath accumulating years. But without the aid of these patriarchal pioneers this offering would not be so complete. Among the many citizens to whom the publishers would tender their obligations are DR. ELIAS WOOD- RUFF and DANIEL H. BOWEN, of Savanna; NORMAN D. FRENCHI, of York; SAMUEL PRES- TON, NATHANIEL HALDERMAN, HON. J. F. CHAPMAN, MAJOR R. M. A. HAWK, VOLNEY ARMOUR, JAMES HALLETT and HON. JAMES SHAW, of Mount Carroll; LEVI WARNER, of Elkhorn Grove; HON. D. W. DAME, of Lanark; and many others whose names are none the less worthy of mention. To make personal mention of all these would be to make a preface of many pages. In the progress of the work proper credit is given to all them- and all of whom are an honor to the community in which they are honored and respected citizens.


To them must be ascribed a part of the merit that may be accorded to this grouping together the history of that County of the great State of the Illini,* which was named in honor of one of the boldest fathers of American Independence - CHARLES CARROLL, of Carrollton.


. Fully appreciating and acknowledging the uniform kindness and courtesy extended to our representatives and agents, by the newspaper press and the people, and thanking them for their very liberal patronage,


We remain, with sentiments of sincere regard,


. H. F. KETT & CO., Publishers.


CHICAGO, 1878.


*Tribe of men.


CONTENTS.


HISTORICAL.


PAGE.


History Northwest Territory .. 19


Geographical Position .... 19 Early Explorations 20


Discovery of the Ohio 33


English Explorations and Settlements 35


American Settlements ... .60


Division of the Northwest


Territory


66


Tecumseh and the War of


1812_


Black Hawk and the Black


Hawk War ..


74


Other Indian Troubles


79


Present Condition of the Northwest. 87


Illinois


99


Indiana


101


łowa


102


Michigan


103


PAGE.


Wisconsin


104


Minnesota.


106


Nebraska


107


Ilistory of Illinois


109


Coal.


125


Compact of 1787 117


Chicago


132


Early Discoveries


109


Early Settlements


115


Education


129


French Occupation


112


Genius of La Salle


113


Material Resources.


124


Massacre at Ft. Dearborn, 141


Physical Features


121


Progress of Development, 123


Religion and Morals


128


War Record


130


History of Carroll Co.


221


Physical Geography


230


History of Carroll Co.


Township Organization ... 260


Agricultural Society ...


.267


War Record


277


Old Settlers' Association_298


Swamp Lands


313


Criminal Mention


316


Educational


.320


Railroads


323


Miscellaneous


330


Vote of County


334


Property Statement


835


History of Towns:


Mt. Carroll


336


Savanna


359


Thomson


365


Lanark


367


Shannon


379


Milledgeville


383


Elkhorn Grove


381


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


Buffalo Hunt 27


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


Breaking Prairie ..


63


Tecumseh, the Shawnoe Chief-


Apple Harvest


94


tain


69


PAGE.


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


Captain Jack, the Modoe Chief- tain 83


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 Seene_ 91


Pioneers' First Winter.


92


Ruins of Chicago.


142


View of the City of Chicago __ 144


Shabbona


149


LITHOGRAPHIC PORTRAITS.


PAGE.


PAGE.


PAGE.


Dame, D. W.


183


Mc Dowell, F. IJ. 417


Sessions, F. J.


435


Dunn. S. S ...


291


Mackay, D. .237


Millard, J. E. 309


Shimer, Henry 345


Hollinger, J. V. 381


Melendey, G. S 273


Shaw, Jas.


147


Hughes, W. D. 399


Hunter, J. M. 201


Patch, B. L. 163


CARROLL COUNTY WAR RECORD.


PAGE.


PAGE.


PAGE.


Infantry


285


Infantry.


Cavalry


296


15th


285


92d


290


7th


296


34th


287


14ed


294


8th


296


45th


288


146th 295


65th


290


153d 295


Artillery 297


BIOGRAPHICAL TOWNSHIP DIRECTORY.


TAGE.


PAGE.


PAGE.


Carroll Township


403


Lima


498


Shannon


475


Cherry Grove


470


Mt. Carroll City. 385


Washington


493


Elkhorn


482


Rock Creek


449


Woodland 495


Freedom


479


Savanna


427


Wysox


433


Fair Haven


464


Salem 489


York 414


PAGE.


and P. R. R, Crossing the


Mississippi at Davenport,


łowa


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 Settlen ent.


116


Chicago in 1833


133


Old Fort Dearborn, 1830


136


Present Site Lake St. Bridge,


Chicago, 1833


136


12th 297


riet.


290


Miscellaneous Infantry .. 95


Shimer, Mrs. F. A. Wood. .327


French, N. D. 363


Moffett, G. 255


Thorp, L. S.


453


Great Iron Bridge of C, R. I.


PAGE.


iv


CONTENTS.


ABSTRACT OF ILLINOIS STATE LAWS.


PAGE.


Adoption of Children 160


Bills of Exchange and Prom- issory Notes 151


County Courts


155


Conveyances


164


Church Organization 189


Descent


151


Deeds and Mortgages


157


Drainage 163


Damages from Trespass 169


Definition of Comercial Terms173


Exemptions from Forced Sale, 156


Estrays


157


Fences


168


Forms :


Articles of Agreement 175


Bills of Purchase 174


Bills of Sale.


176


Forms: PAGE.


Bonds .176 Game. 158


Chatter Mortgages 177


Codicil


189


Lease of Farm and B'ld'gs, 179


Jurisdiction of Conrts 154


Limitation of Action 155


Landlord and Tenant. 169


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 Taxes 154


Wills and Estates


152


Weights and Measures


158


Wolf Scalps


164


MISCELLANEOUS.


PAGE.


Map of Carroll Co. Front.


Constitution ot United States 192


Electors of President and


Vice-President, 1876


206


Practical Rules for every day


use


207


U. S. Government Land Meas-


nre


210


TOO LATES AND ERRATA


PAGE.


PAGE.


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


Population of the U. S.


214


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


Illinois by Counties 1870 ... 218 501


-


OTTAWAV & COLBERT, PRINTERS, 147 & 149 Fifth Av., Chicago, III.


Lease of House


180


Landlord's Agreement. 180


Notes


174


Notice Tenant to Quit 181


Orders.


174


Quit Claim Deed 185


Receipt ...


174


Real Estate Mortgage to


secure paym't of Money, 181 Release 186


Tenant's Agreement. 180


Tenant's Notice to Quit .. .181


Warranty Deed


182


Will


1:7


PAGE.


Interest 151


THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.


GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION.


When the Northwestern Territory was ceded to the United States by Virginia in 1784, it embraced only the territory lying between the Ohio and the Mississippi Rivers, and north to the northern limits of the United States. It coincided with the area now embraced in the States of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and that portion of Minnesota lying on the east side of the Mississippi River. The United States itself at that period extended no farther west than the Mississippi River ; but by the purchase of Louisiana in 1803, the western boundary of the United States was extended to the Rocky Mountains and the Northern Pacific Ocean. The new territory thus added to the National domain, and subsequently opened to settlement, has been called the "New Northwest," in contradistinction from the old " Northwestern Territory."


In comparison with the old Northwest this is a territory of vast magnitude. It includes an area of 1,887,850 square miles ; being greater in extent than the united areas of all the Middle and Southern States, including Texas. Out of this magnificent territory have been erected eleven sovereign States and eight Territories, with an aggregate popula- tion, at the present time, of 13.000,000 inhabitants, or nearly one third of the entire population of the United States.


Its lakes are fresh-water seas, and the larger rivers of the continent flow for a thousand miles through its rich alluvial valleys and far- ` stretching prairies, more acres of which are arable and productive of the highest percentage of the cereals than of any other area of like extent on the globe.


For the last twenty years the increase of population in the North- vest has been about as three to one in any other portion of the United States.


(19)


-


20


THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.


EARLY EXPLORATIONS.


In the year 1541, DeSoto first saw the Great West in the New World. He, however, penetrated no farther north than the 35th parallel of latitude. The expedition resulted in his death and that of more than half his army, the remainder of whom found their way to Cuba, thence to Spain, in a famished and demoralized condition. DeSoto founded no settlements, produced no results, and left no traces, unless it were that he awakened the hostility of the red man against the white man, and disheartened such as might desire to follow up the career of discovery for better purposes. The French nation were eager and ready to seize upon any news from this extensive domain, and were the first to profit by DeSoto's defeat. Yet it was more than a century before any adventurer took advantage of these discoveries.


In 1616, four years before the pilgrims "moored their bark on the wild New England shore," Le Caron, a French Franciscan, had pene- trated through the Iroquois and Wyandots (Hurons) to the streams which run into Lake Huron ; and in 1634, two Jesuit missionaries founded the first mission among the lake tribes. It was just one hundred years from the discovery of the Mississippi by DeSoto (1541) until the Canadian envoys met the savage nations of the Northwest at the Falls of St. Mary, below the outlet of Lake Superior. This visit led to no permanent result ; yet it was not until 1659 that any of the adventurous fur traders attempted to spend a Winter in the frozen wilds about the great lakes, nor was it until 1660 that a station was established upon their borders by Mesnard, who perished in the woods a few months after. In 1665, Claude Allouez built the earliest lasting habitation of the white man among the Indians of the Northwest. In 1668, Claude Dablon and James Marquette founded the mission of Sault Ste. Marie at the Falls of St. Mary, and two years afterward, Nicholas Perrot, as agent for M. Talon, Governor Gen- eral of Canada, explored Lake Illinois (Michigan) as far south as the present City of Chicago, and invited the Indian nations to meet him at a grand council at Sault Ste. Marie the following Spring, where they were taken under the protection of the king, and formal possession was taken of the Northwest. This same year Marquette established a mission at Point St. Ignatius, where was founded the old town of Michillimackinac.


During M. Talon's explorations and Marquette's residence at St. Ignatius, they learned of a great river away to the west, and fancied -as all others did then-that upon its fertile banks whole tribes of God's children resided, to whom the sound of the Gospel had never come. Filled with a wish to go and preach to them, and in compliance with a


SOURCE OF THE MISSISSIPPI.


BRIGHAM


MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI.


THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.


21


22


THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.


request of M. Talon, who earnestly desired to extend the domain of his king, and to ascertain whether the river flowed into the Gulf of Mexico or the Pacific Ocean, Marquette with Joliet, as commander of the expe- dition, prepared for the undertaking.


On the 13th of May, 1673, the explorers, accompanied by five assist- ant French Canadians, set out from Mackinaw on their daring voyage of discovery. The Indians, who gathered to witness their departure, were astonished at the boldness of the undertaking, and endeavored to dissuade them from their purpose by representing the tribes on the Mississippi as exceedingly savage and cruel, and the river itself as full of all sorts of frightful monsters ready to swallow them and their canoes together. But, nothing daunted by these terrific descriptions, Marquette told them he was willing not only to encounter all the perils of the unknown region they were about to explore, but to lay down his life in a cause in which the salvation of souls was involved ; and having prayed together they separated. Coasting along the northern shore of Lake Michigan, the adventurers entered Green Bay, and passed thence up the Fox River and Lake Winnebago to a village of the Miamis and Kickapoos. Here Mar- quette was delighted to find a beautiful cross planted in the middle of the town ornamented with white skins, red girdles and bows and arrows, which these good people had offered to the Great Manitou, or God, to thank him for the pity he had bestowed on them during the Winter in giving them an abundant " chase." This was the farthest outpost to which Dablon and Allouez had extended their missionary labors the year previous. Here Marquette drank mineral waters and was instructed in the secret of a root which cures the bite of the venomous rattlesnake. He assembled the chiefs and old men of the village, and, pointing to Joliet, said : " My friend is an envoy of France, to discover new coun- tries, and I am an ambassador from God to enlighten them with the truths of the Gospel." Two Miami guides were here furnished to conduct them to the Wisconsin River, and they set out from the Indian village on the 10th of June, amidst a great crowd of natives who had assembled to witness their departure into a region where no white man had ever yet ventured. The guides, having conducted them across the portage, returned. The explorers launched their canoes upon the Wisconsin, which they descended to the Mississippi and proceeded down its unknown waters. What emotions must have swelled their breasts as they struck out into the broadening current and became conscious that they were now upon the bosom of the Father of Waters. The mystery was about to be lifted from the long-sought river. The scenery in that locality is beautiful, and on that delightful seventeenth of June must have been clad in all its primeval loveliness as it had been adorned by the hand of


23


THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.


Nature. Drifting rapidly, it is said that the bold bluffs on either hand "reminded them of the castled shores of their own beautiful rivers of France." By-and-by, as they drifted along, great herds of buffalo appeared on the banks. On going to the heads of the valley they could sec a country of the greatest beauty and fertility, apparently destitute of inhab. itants yet presenting the appearance of extensive manors, under the fas- tidious cultivation of lordly proprietors.


THE WILD PRAIRIE.


On June 25, they went ashore and found some fresh traces of men upon the sand, and a path which led to the prairie. The men remained in the boat, and Marquette and Joliet followed the path till they discovered a village on the banks of a river, and two other villages on a hill, within a half league of the first, inhabited by Indians. They were received most hospitably by these natives, who had never before seen a white person. After remaining a few days they re-embarked and descended the river to about latitude 33°, where they found a village of the Arkansas, and being satisfied that the river flowed into the Gulf of Mexico, turned their course


24


THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.


up the river, and ascending the stream to the mouth of the Illinois, rowed up that stream to its source, and procured guides from that point to the lakes. " Nowhere on this journey," says Marquette, " did we see such grounds, meadows, woods, stags, buffaloes, deer, wildcats, bustards, swans, ducks, parroquets, and even beavers, as on the Illinois River." The party, without loss or injury, reached Green Bay in September, and reported their discovery-one of the most important of the age, but of which no record was preserved save Marquette's, Joliet losing his by the upsetting of his canoe on his way to Quebec. Afterward Marquette returned to the Illinois Indians by their request, and ministered to them until 1675. On the 18th of May, in that year, as he was passing the mouth of a stream-going with his boatmen up Lake Michigan-he asked to land at its mouth and celebrate Mass. Leaving his men with the canoe, he retired a short distance and began his devotions. As much time passed and he did not return, his men went in search of him, and found him upon his knees, dead. He had peacefully passed away while at prayer. He was buried at this spot. Charlevoix, who visited the place fifty years after, found the waters had retreated from the grave, leaving the beloved missionary to repose in peace. The river has since been called Marquette.


While Marquette and his companions were pursuing their labors in the West, two men, differing widely from him and each other, were pre- paring to follow in his footsteps and perfect the discoveries so well begun by him. These were Robert de La Salle and Louis Hennepin.


After La Salle's return from the discovery of the Ohio River (see the narrative elsewhere), he established himself again among the French trading posts in Canada. Here he mused long upon the pet project of those ages-a short way to China and the East, and was busily planning an expedition up the great lakes, and so across the continent to the Pacific, when Marquette returned from the Mississippi. At once the vigorous mind of LaSalle received from his and his companions' stories the idea that by fol- lowing the Great River northward, or by turning up some of the numerous western tributaries, the object could easily be gained. He applied to Frontenac, Governor General of Canada, and laid before him the plan, dim but gigantic. Frontenac entered warmly into his plans, and saw that LaSalle's idea to connect the great lakes by a chain of forts with the Gulf of Mexico would bind the country so wonderfully together, give un- measured power to France, and glory to himself, under whose adminis- tration he earnestly hoped all would be realized.


LaSalle now repaired to France, laid his plans before the King, who warmly approved of them, and made him a Chevalier. He also received from all the noblemen the warmest wishes for his success. The Chev-


25


THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.


alier returned to Canada, and busily entered upon his work. He at once rebuilt Fort Frontenac and constructed the first ship to sail on these fresh-water seas. On the 7th of August, 1679, having been joined by Hennepin, he began his voyage in the Griffin up Lake Erie. He passed over this lake, through the straits beyond, up Lake St. Clair and into Huron. In this lake they encountered heavy storms. They were some time at Michillimackinac, where LaSalle founded a fort, and passed on to Green Bay, the " Baie des Puans" of the French, where he found a large quantity of furs collected for him. He loaded the Griffin with these, and placing her under the care of a pilot and fourteen sailors,


LA SALLE LANDING ON THE SHORE OF GREEN BAY.


started her on her return voyage. The vessel was never afterward heard of. He remained about these parts until early in the Winter, when, hear- ing nothing from the Griffin, he collected all his men-thirty working men and three monks-and started again upon his great undertaking.


By a short portage they passed to the Illinois or Kankakee, called by the Indians, " Theakeke," wolf, because of the tribes of Indians called by that name, commonly known as the Mahingans, dwelling there. The French pronounced it Kiakiki, which became corrupted to Kankakee. "Falling down the said river by easy journeys, the better to observe the country," about the last of December they reached a village of the Illinois Indians, containing some five hundred cabins, but at that moment


SAUK VALLEY COLLEGE LRC 43598


26


THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.


no inhabitants. The Seur de LaSalle being in want of some breadstuffs, took advantage of the absence of the Indians to help himself to a suffi- ciency of maize, large quantities of which he found concealed in holes under the wigwams. This village was situated near the present village of Utica in LaSalle County, Illinois. The corn being securely stored, the voyagers again betook themselves to the stream, and toward evening, on the 4th day of January, 1680, they came into a lake which must have been the lake of Peoria. This was called by the Indians Pim-i-te-wi, that is, a place where there are many fat beasts. Here the natives were met with in large numbers, but they were gentle and kind, and having spent some time with them, LaSalle determined to erect another fort in that place, for he had heard rumors that some of the adjoining tribes were trying to disturb the good feeling which existed, and some of his men were disposed to complain, owing to the hardships and perils of the travel. He called this fort " Crevecoeur " (broken-heart), a name expressive of the very natural sorrow and anxiety which the pretty certain loss of his ship, Griffin, and his consequent impoverishment, the danger of hostility on the part of the Indians, and of mutiny among his own men, might well cause him. His fears were not entirely groundless. At one time poison was placed in his food, but fortunately was discovered.




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