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
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org.
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.
٠٠
-
M
CAI
CO
Brinksburg R.2 E
R.3 E
R.4 E.
Rave
6
2
0
10
Polsorun
16
S
23
DLA
25
30
26
Plun
3
15-
15
Sabula
2:
24
10
RRO.
20
28
35'S
36
3.3
1
6
5
2
WESTERN
2
12
29
Johnson'sy
Flwmson 30
26
35
3.3
1.34
34
Apple &
1LA
OF ROLL NTY, ILL.
R.5 E.
R. 6 E.
R. 7E
6
G
9
9
ER
Ř
1% Ý
h. 16
15
14
16
REE
20
21
22
24
19
GR
0
29A
5
3
28
36
31
32
-33
3.5
3
Lanark
3
1
6
3
2
IT
UNION
11
WIND MILL PUMPY
9
10
11
1%
R 17
O 16
K 14
13
18
6
POOR
FARM
20
21
22
23
719
30
29
90
29
2.8
& RockCreek
B.O.
OTTER CREDO
36
31
33
HALT 34
35
86
Creek
2
Elkhorn&
Grove, P.
12/
S
15
18
13
18
T. 23 N.
Fair Haven PO, 205 21
26
20
2
2.5
.30
2.0
28
Milledgeville 27
33
34
35
Elk horn
36
32
33
35
31
3/Cc3%
.
70
15
14
18
15
T. 24 N.
19
33
33
35 A 36
31
10
T. 25 N.
19
28
8
9
34
3.5
5
MAP OF CARROLL COUNTY, ILL.
Brinksburg R.2 E
R.3 E
R.4 E. H
R.5 E.
R. 6 E.
R. TE
G
G
12
Polsgrove
16
18.
REED
10
2/
19
20
22
24
W
O
30
R
D
28
1
Plus
8.5
36
31
32
3
-
9UNION
WIND'MILL JUMPY
R
O
C
K 14
19
18-
17
15
17
16
15
Sabala
93
21
20
11
2x
R
K
20
29
RockCreek
P.O.
.
OTTEACAR
92
82.
9.5
31
8%
3.3
34
.95
80
32
UNIO
6
2
2
2 Elkhorn Grove, P.b.
11
12
-1-14
R
13
22
19
2
2
abnson's Geef
WILSON
27
Milledgeville 27
20
3.5
34
34
38~
38
31 -. 3%
L 3
34
36
LEIN 20
3yCd 39.
T. 25 N.
30
26
29
-
3m
31
9
3
2
1
.5
7
S
10
1%
15
11
T. 24 N.
T. 23 N.
Eufy HAVEDEO
27
1
28
2
25
30
1 28
S
(3
1.5
28
26
30
28
F
HALS I
.
33
90 1
.36
11
PETR
15
Shamwysy
15
15
NI
30
1
12
=
-
.
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.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.