USA > Illinois > Champaign County > A Standard history of Champaign County Illinois : an authentic narrative of the past, with particular attention to the modern era in the commercial, industrial, civic and social development : a chronicle of the people, with family lineage and memoirs, Volume I > Part 11
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In the session of 1851 the Legislature passed a law founded on the New York system, and it was ratified at the general election in Novem- ber. Under it, also, no bank could be organized with a smaller issue of bills than $50,000. It was also provided that if any bank refused to redeem its issue, it was liable to a fine of 121/2 per cent on the amount presented for redemption.
On the face of it, the law seemed fairly to protect both the bank- note holder and the State; but various schemes were worked to keep the people from presenting their bills for redemption. One of the most ingenious was the interchanging of bills between banks in widely sepa- rated sections of the country. A bank, say, in Springfield, Illinois, would send $25,000 of its own issue to a bank in Massachusetts, say, in Boston; the Boston bank returning a like amount to the Springfield bank. Each bank would then pay out this money over its counter in small quantities and in this way the Springfield bank issue would become scattered all over New England and no person holding but a few dollars would think of coming to Springfield to get his bills redeemed. The issue of the Boston bank would be scattered through the West. In this way, and in other ways, the money of Illinois became scattered in other states, while in the ordinary business transaction in this State one would handle a large number of bills daily which had been issued in other states.
REAL WILD-CAT BANKS
No doubt many corporations went into the banking business under this law with clean hands and carried on a properly conducted banking business, but there were ways by which irresponsible and dishonest men might go into the banking business and make large sums of money without very much capital invested.
These banks were known as wild-cat banks. The name is said to have originated from the picture of a wild cat engraved on the bills of one of these irresponsible banks in Michigan. However, they may have been named from the fact that the words "wild cat" were often applied to any irresponsible venture or scheme.
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There were, in Illinois, organized under this law, 115 banks of issue. Up to 1860 the "ultimate security" was sufficient at any time to redeem all outstanding bills, but when the Civil War came on the securities of the Southern States, on deposit in the auditor's office, depreciated greatly in value. The banks were going into liquidation rapidly. They redeemed their bills at all prices from par down to forty-nine cents on the dollar. It is estimated that the bill-holders lost about $400,000, but that it came in such a way that it was not felt seriously. This systemn of banking was followed by the national banking system with which we are acquainted today.
The 115 banks of issue which were in operation in Illinois just prior to the Civil War issued nearly 1,000 different kinds of bank bills. Because of the large number of kinds of bills counterfeiting was easy, and it is said that much of the money in circulation was counterfeit. Banks received reports as to the condition of financial institutions over the State daily. One never knew when he presented a bill in payment of a debt whether it was of any value. Often the merchant would accept this paper money only when heavily discounted.
The agitation of the slavery question, which had centered around the debates on the Missouri Compromise and the efforts of the Free Soilers at least to restrict the spread of the institution, swept through Illinois and was violent in Champaign County, where both Lincoln and Douglas were not unfamiliar figures. In 1858 they also electioneered in their famous contest for the United States Senate.
THE NATIONAL BANKING SYSTEM
In February, 1863, Congress passed an act creating a national bank- ing system, and in that year several of the free banks of Illinois changed accordingly. All free banks which had their notes secured by bonds of the seceding states were obliged to furnish additional security, or redeem their notes and suspend. Thus the free banks began to disappear. In March, 1865, Congress passed a law which placed a tax on all bills issued by the State banks, which had the effect of forcing the remainder of the free banks out of business, or inducing them to join the ranks of the National banks. The National Banking Law of 1863 is the basis of the system of today. It has been greatly reinforced of late years by the statutes by which banks are chartered and regulated by the State, and by the National enactments of even later date by which the National banks cooperate and protect the entire financial system of the country and especially promote and conserve the vast agricultural interests of the nation.
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THE CONSTITUTION OF 1870
The coming and progress of the Civil War, and how Champaign County participated in it, is told in another chapter. Perhaps the next broad event affecting Champaign County at many points was the adoption of the State Constitution of 1870. It is divided into twenty sections. Briefly, it provides for minority representation and for free schools ; pro- hibits the paying of money by any civil corporate body in aid of any church or parochial school ; creates fifty-one senatorial districts, each of which is entitled to one senator and three representatives; declares the inviolability of the Illinois Central Railroad tax; lays the basis of the present railroad and warehouse laws; prohibits the sale or lease of the Illinois & Michigan Canal without a vote of the people; prohibits municipalities from subscribing for any stock in any railroad or private corporation ; limits the rate of taxation and amount of indebtedness that may be incurred; prohibits special legislation ; authorizes the creation of appellate courts, and fixes the salaries of State officers by legislative enactment.
BUILDING AND LOAN ASSOCIATIONS AUTHORIZED
A word as to the origin and workings of the building and loan asso- ciations of Illinois and Champaign County. They were authorized by the General Assembly of 1879. They are cooperative associations, hav- ing for their aim the creation of a fund through small monthly pay- ments by investors, which, when sufficiently large, may be loaned to borrowers. The borrower, in turn, becomes an investor, and when his investment amounts to a sum equal to the amount he borrowed, the interest having been paid monthly, the debt is cancelled. This plan enables those who have small savings each month to invest in building and loan stock. The earnings are usually better than other forms of investment, as the borrower pays his interest monthly. This interest is immediately loaned and is compounded several times by the end of the year. The borrower finds it easy to pay his interest monthly, and his investment also, and so, in a sense, profits much from this plan of paying for a home.
It will readily be understood that this chapter is presented as a background for the more detailed delineation of Champaign County. Much of it deals with events which transpired long before it had a name or a political existence, but they have all had a bearing on the history and development of this section of the State, and now and then direct reference has been made to such connection. When the white
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civilization of the region first commenced to develop, the red man still occupied many choice spots in eastern and central Illinois. Their habi- tats, as indistinctly defined, are noted in the following chapter, as well as the facts of their final departure from the territory now known as Champaign County.
CHAPTER III
FLEETING GLIMPSES OF THE RED MAN
THE ILLINOIS CONFEDERACY-THE KASKASKIAS-THE PEORIAS- MIAMIS AND POTTAWATTAMIES-THE KICKAPOOS-FAMOUS INDIAN CAMPS AT URBANA-FAVORITE RESORT NEAR SADORUS-SHEMAUGER, THE FRIENDLY POTTAWATTAMIE CHIEF-TOLD TO "GIT"-INDIAN SCARES-PLEASED WITH THE WHITE MAN'S COFFIN-INDIAN SEPULTURES-MIAMIS PASSING TO THE WEST-EN ROUTE FOR WASHINGTON-LAST OF THE CHAMPAIGN COUNTY INDIANS.
The Indians found in Illinois by Marquette and Joliet belonged to the Algonquin family; and there was undying hatred between the Iro- quois of the East and the Algonquins of the Northwest.
THE ILLINOIS CONFEDERACY
The Illinois Indians formed a loose confederacy of about half a dozen tribes, the chief of which were the Metchigamis, the Kaskaskias, the Peorias, the Cahokias and the Tamaroas. In addition, there were the Piankashaws, the Weas, the Kickapoos, the Shawnees and probably other tribes, or remnants, who occupied Illinois soil for longer or shorter periods. The first five tribes are probably all who should be included in the Illinois Confederacy.
The Metchigamis were found along the Mississippi River. Their principal settlement was near Fort Chartres. They also lived in the vicinity of Lake Michigan, to which they gave their name. They were allies of Pontiac in the war of 1764, and perished with other members of the Illinois Confederacy on Starved Rock, in 1769.
THE KASKASKIAS
The Kaskaskias were originally found along the upper courses of the Illinois River, and it was among the members of this tribe that Marquette planted the first mission in Illinois. They moved from the upper Illinois to the mouth of the Kaskaskia River in 1700, and founded there the old city of Kaskaskia, which eventually became the
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center of French life in the interior of the continent. During the fol- lowing century the Kaskaskias occupied the region at and about their city, but in 1802 were almost exterminated by the Shawnees at the battle near the Big Muddy, Saline County. The Kaskaskias afterward moved to a reservation on the lower Big Muddy, and eventually to the Indian Territory. The Cahokia and Tamaroa tribes were merged with the Kaskaskias under one chief.
THE PEORIAS
The Peorias made their home in the region of Lake Peoria and were always quiet and peaceable. The Piankashaws, a small tribe of the Miami confederation, first resided in southeastern Wisconsin, and after the misadventure at Starved Rock moved to the Wabash River, and eventually to a Kansas reservation and to the Indian Territory. They were always very friendly to the white settlers.
MIAMIS AND POTTAWATTAMIES
Although the Miamis and the Pottawattamies were familiar to the early settlers of central Illinois and Champaign County, they were not settled representatives of the red men in those sections of the State, but rather made their appearance as warriors or hunters.
THE KICKAPOOS
The Kickapoos seemed to have been intimately associated with the Miamis and Pottawattamies in the Indian campaigns against St. Clair, Wayne and Taylor. They were bold marauders and warriors, and were in special force at the battle of Tippecanoe. They were scattered throughout the Illinois country, but for fifty years before the Edwards- ville treaty of 1819 held strong sway over the eastern part of what is now the State, and in the late '20s and early '30s, when the first permanent white settlers were arriving in the present Champaign County, still occu- pied the soil of that region with undisputed title to its possession among the people of their own race.
The Kickapoos, as a tribe, first acknowledged the authority of the United States at the treaty mentioned, which was signed July 30, 1819. A month later, the Government concluded a treaty at Vincennes with a smaller division of the Kickapoos, known as the tribes of the Vermilion River, who claimed territory embracing the county by that name and the eastern part of Champaign. Thus relinquishing all title to their
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY
lands in Illinois, the Kickapoos honorably observed their contracts and moved as a body to their western lands, although weak remnants of the tribe lingered until the early '30s on several favorite camping grounds, near the scenes of their old centers of power in Champaign and McLean counties. The Pottawattamies of the Kankakee, in their annual hunts, also visited the region after the white pioneers had commenced to take up land for themselves and their children. As the timbered tracts of Champaign County and contiguous territory abounded in game, the climate was less rigorous than that of the more northern sections, and as the soil yielded plentifully of cereals and vegetables, the region was naturally a favorite to the Kickapoos and the more migratory Pottawat- tamies. The latter especially adopted as favorite camping places the immediate site of Urbana and wooded haunts along the Okaw, Sanga- mon and the Salt Fork.
FAMOUS INDIAN CAMPS AT URBANA
The late Judge Cunningham, writing more than a decade ago, says : "But a few years since, and plainly to be seen until the white man's plow had turned up the sod and effaced the evidences of their occupation, were many Indian trails across the prairies; and it is within the memory of many now living, as well as attested by the well remembered statements heard from the early settlers, that the corn-hills of the Indian occupants were found not far from the site of the Public Square in Urbana, as late as 1832. Many yet remember a fine spring of water which came from the bluff two or three rods south of the stone bridge on Main Street, which was obliterated by being covered with earth only a few years since. This spring afforded an abundance of water to the campers in the edge of the timber, as it did to the families of William Tompkins and Isaac Busey, who afterwards took possession of the site for their homes, though they frequently shared it with their returning Indian visitors. This was a point having great attractions for the latter. Indian trinkets and ornaments of hone and metal were often picked up in the neighborhood of this spring by the whites after settlements were established here, and the bones of game animals strewn over the ground showed a long and extensive occupancy of the locality for camping purposes before the white occupancy.
FAVORITE RESORT NEAR SADORU'S
"A favorite resort of the Indians upon the Okaw was a place near that stream about half a mile north of the village of Sadorus, and
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY
upon the east bank of the stream. There they often encamped in the autumn and awaited the coming of deer and other game when driven by the prairie fires from the open country into the timher. To this day the plow upon that ground turns up stone-axes and arrow heads, left there by these long-ago tenants of the prairies. The cabinet of Capt. G. W. B. Sadorus contains many of these and other relics. Even after the settlement of the country, the Indians followed the practice of here awaiting the annual coming of their prey. Many were the inci- dents told by the settlers about the Big Grove-few of whom yet remain -in connection with the visits made here by the Pottawattamies, which continued for many years after the first occupancy by the whites. The prairies and groves of this county, as well as the neighboring counties of Illinois, were favorite hunting grounds of the people of this tribe, whose own country was along the shores of Lake Michigan, as they had been of the former occupants and claimants, the Kickapoos, who had relinquished their rights. Not only was this region esteemed by those people on account of the game with which it abounded, but it yielded to their cultivation abundant returns in cereals and vegetables. Its winters were not so long and much less rigorous than were those of the lake regions, so that the red visitors of the pioneers of Champaign and Vermilion counties were not rarities. No complaint has come down to the inquirers of later years of any hostile or unfriendly acts from these people, but on the contrary, from all accounts they avoided doing any harm and were frequently helpful to the new comers.
SHEMAUGER, THE FRIENDLY POTTAWATTAMIE CHIEF
"Our early settlers around and in these timber belts and groves well remember many of their Indian visitors by name, and the writer has listened with great interest to many enthusiastically told stories from them of personal contact with these people. Particular mention was made by many of a Pottawattamie chief named Shemauger, who was also known by the name of Old Soldier. Shemauger often visited the site of Urbana after the whites came, and for some years after 1824. He claimed it as his birthplace, and told the early settlers that the family home at the time of his birth was near a large hickory tree then growing upon a spot north of Main Street and a few rods west of Market Street. He professed great love for this location as his birth- place, and the camping ground of his people for many years. At the time of the later visits of Shemauger there was not only the hickory tree, but a large wild cherry tree standing about where the hall of the Knights of Pythias is now situated. Besides these trees there were
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY
others in the neighborhood of the creek, which made this a favorite and most convenient and comfortable camping place for the Indians; and, from what is known of the habits of these people, it is not improbable that the chief was correct in the claim made upon Urbana as his birth- place. It is remembered of Shemauger that he would sometimes come in company with a large retinue of his tribe and sometimes with his family only, when he would remain for months in camp at points along the creek. In the winter of 1831-32, these Indians to the number of fifteen or twenty remained in their camp near the big spring on what, of late years, has been known as the Stewart farm in the neighborhood of Henry Dobson's, about two miles north of Urbana.
A BIT OF THE SITE OF THE POTTAWATTAMIE VILLAGE
"Another favorite camping ground of Shemauger was at a point known as the Clay Bank on the northwest quarter of Section 2, Urbana Township, sometimes called Clement's Ford, towards the north end of the Big Grove. One early settler (Amos Johnson, who died twenty years since) related to the writer his observations of these people while there in camp. His father occupied a cabin not far away, and the family paid frequent visits to the camp out of curiosity, fearing nothing. Some of the braves amused themselves by cutting with their tomahawks mor- tices into contiguous trees, into which mortices they inserted poles cut the proper lengths. These poles, so placed horizontally at convenient distances from each other, made a huge living ladder reaching from the ground to a great height. Up this ladder the Indians would climb
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when the weather was warm and sultry to catch the breezes and to escape the annoyances of the mosquitoes. He saw the bucks thus com- fortably situated upon a scaffold in the tops of the trees, while their squaws were engaged in the domestic duties of the camp on the ground below. Thirty-five or more years ago, trees from near the Clay Bank were cut and sawed into lumber at the nearby mill of John Smith, when these mortices, overgrown by many years' growth of the trees, were uncovered, showing the work of these Indians forty years before, and corroborating the story as related to the writer.
"Shemauger told another early settler (James W. Boyd, who died many years since), or in his hearing, that many years before, there came in this country a heavy fall of snow, the depth of which he indi- cated by holding his ramrod horizontally above his head, and said that many wild beasts, elk, deer and buffalo perished under the snow. To this fact, within his knowledge, he attributed the presence of many bones of animals then seen on the prairies.
"Shemauger was remembered by those who knew him personally as a very large, bony man, always kind and helpful to the white settlers. It was also said that, upon being asked to do so, he would, with a com- pany of followers, attend the cabin raisings of the early settlers and assist them in the completion of their cabin homes. All accounts of Shemauger represent him as kind to the whites and ambitious for the elevation of his people. One early settler (Jesse B. Webber) at the Big Grove, who came here in 1830 and remained all of that winter before making himself a home, spent much of his time in the company of the chief and formed for him a high esteem. In 1830 Shemauger was about seventy-five years of age and had, in his time, participated in many of the Indian wars with the whites and, with his experience, would gladly remain at peace with them. The Kankakee Valley was the home of the chief during the last years of his stay in Illinois, and he was seen there by those who made trips to Chicago. Following the Black Hawk War his tribe-or the remnant of it remaining east of the Mississippi River-went West and its members were seen here no more.
TOLD TO "GIT"
"In the summer of 1832, before the organization of the county and the fixing of its county seat-when the site of Urbana was perhaps only what it had been for generations before, an Indian camping ground- a large number of Indians came and camped around the spring above alluded to as situated near the stone bridge. It happened to be at the time of the excitement caused by the Black Hawk War, and caused not
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a little apprehension among the few inhabitants around the Big Grove, although the presence in the company of many women and children of the Indians should have been an assurance of no hostile errand. A meeting of the white settlers was had, and the removal of the strange visitors determined upon as a measure of safety. A committee consist- ing of Stephen Boyd, Jacob Smith, Gabe Rice and Elias Stamey was appointed by the white settlers charged with the duty of having a talk with the red men. The committee went to the camp and, mustering their little knowledge of their language, announced to the Indians that they must 'puck-a-chee,' which they understood to be a command to them to leave the country. The order was at once obeyed. The Indians gathered up their ponies, pappooses and squaws and left, greatly to the relief of the settlers.
INDIAN SCARES
"During the Black Hawk War, and before the passage through the country of the volunteers from Indiana and the Wabash country, many wild reports of Indian depredations nearby, and the reports that hostiles were encamped as near as on the Sangamon River and at the Mink Grove, spread from cabin to cabin through the country, made a general stampede imminent. Like reports of threatened danger were rife among the Sangamon settlers, but in their case the supposed hostiles were encamped lower down the river near the Piatt settlement. So great was the alarm in the latter case that all gathered at the cabin of Jonathan Maxwell, where the men made defensive preparations against the appre- hended attack. It was soon ascertained in all the settlements that the reports were false, the supposed hostiles being, in fact, fugitive bands of friendly Indians who were running away from danger in the northern part of the State, as unwilling as the white inhabitants for the happening of hostilities. Men who were then children in the settlements have related to the writer how these wild reports, told from cabin to cabin, made their hair stand on end, and of the hasty preparations of the heads of families for flight to the eastern settlements, in view of the possible danger to their families.
PLEASED WITH THE WHITE MAN'S COFFIN
"The Nox family settled near where the village of Sidney is situated about 1828, and then, and for some years thereafter, the Pottawattamies frequently camped near their house and at other places along the Salt Fork. While thus encamped on one occasion, on the north side of the creek near the residence of William Peters, one of their chief men died.
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The tribe was about to emigrate to the West and, wishing to transport the body of their dead chief thither, they applied to William Nox and Mr. Hendricks, who were somewhat skilled in the use of tools, to manu- facture for the deceased a white man's coffin. This they did by splitting from a log some thin puncheons and working them into suitable shape. The finished coffin so well pleased the braves that they gave to each workman a nicely tanned buckskin. Upon their removal soon after to the West, the coffined body was taken with them.
INDIAN SEPULTURES
"Early white settlers were induced to observe the mode of sepulture practiced by some of the Indian sojourners here. In the timber at what was called Adkins Point, at the north extremity of the Big Grove, was a place of deposit for the bodies of their dead. Instead of burying the bodies in the ground, they first wrapped them in blankets around which bark stripped from a tree was placed, tying the whole tightly together with thongs cut from rawhide. The bodies were then bound with withes to horizontal limbs of large trees. Fifteen or twenty might have been seen thus suspended at one time. As the encasing blankets and bark coffins rotted away, the corpses would drop to the ground. It was the custom to deposit the ornaments of the dead Indian with him, and rings, bells and brooches of silver were sometimes found there.
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