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 7
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY
of 1674, Joliet returned to Quebec to make his report to the governor. On his way down the St. Lawrence, his boat upset and he came near losing his life. He lost all his maps, papers, etc., and was obliged to make a verbal report to the governor.
DEATH OF MARQUETTE
Father Marquette remained in the mission of St. Francois Xavier through the summer of 1674, and late in the fall started on his journey back to Kaskaskia. The escort consisted of two Frenchmen and some Indians. They reached the Chicago portage in the midst of discouraging circumstances. The weather was severe and Father Marquette, sick unto death, was unable to proceed further. On the banks of the Chicago River they built some huts and here the party remained till spring. During the winter Father Marquette did not suffer for want of attention, for he was visited by a number of Indians and by at least two prominent Frenchmen.
By the last of March he was able to travel. He reached the Kaskaskia village Monday, April 8, 1675. Ile was received with great joy by the Indians. He established the mission of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin. Seeing he could not possibly live long, he returned to St. Ignace by way of the Kankakee portage. He never lived to reach Mackinaw. He died the 18th of May, 1675.
This expedition by Marquette and Joliet had carried the lilies of France nearly to the Gulf of Mexico. The Indians in the great plains between the Great Lakes and the Gulf had been visited and the resources of the country noted. There remained but a slight strip of territory over which the banner of France had not floated, from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico. If this short distance were explored, then the French government would have completely surrounded the English colonies in North America.
THE TRIUMPHS OF LA SALLE
Chevalier de La Salle came to America in the year 1667. Shortly after arriving in this country he established himself as a fur trader at a trading post called La Chine, on the Island of Montreal. Here he came in contact with the Indians from the far west. Within two years he had departed on an exploration. For the next two or three years he had probably visited the Ohio River and had become quite familiar with the country to the south and west of the Great Lakes.
Count Frontenac built a fort on the shore of Lake Ontario where
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the lake sends its waters into the St. Lawrence River. La Salle was put in charge of this fort. He named it Fort Frontenac. The purpose of this fort was to control the fur trade, especially that from up the Ottawa, and prevent it from going to New York. In 1674 La Salle went to France and while there was raised to the rank of a noble. The king was greatly pleased with the plans of La Salle and readily granted him the seigniory of Fort Frontenac, together with a large quantity of land. For all this La Salle promised to keep the fort in repair, to maintain a garrison equal to that of Montreal, to clear the land, put it in a state of cultivation, and continually to keep arms, ammunition, and artillery in the fort. He further agreed to pay Count Frontenac for the erection of the fort, to build a church, attract Indians, make grants of land to settlers, and to do all for the ultimate purpose of furthering the interest of the French government.
La Salle returned from France and was perhaps at Fort Frontenac when Joliet passed down the lakes in the summer of 1674. The next year he began the improvement of his fort. For two years he prosecuted a thriving trade with the Indians and also engaged in farming, ship- building, cattle-raising, and study.
The fall of 1678 found him in France with a request that the king grant him permission to explore the western part of New France and if possible find the mouth of the Mississippi River. La Salle had matured plans by which New France was to be connected with the western country by a line of strong fortifications. Fort Frontenac was the first step in this plan. He there explained how easy it would be to reach the region of the Great Lakes by the St. Lawrence route or by the Mississippi. There is no doubt that both Frontenac and La Salle wished to transfer the emphasis from the converting of the Indians to that of the conquest of territory for France. and to the more profitable business, as they saw it, of commerce. Frontenac had therefore strongly endorsed La Salle and his plans. Through Colbert and his son, La Salle succeeded in getting his patent from the king.
HIS BRAVE LIEUTENANT, TONTI
While in France La Salle met Henri de Tonti, an Italian who had just won distinction in the French army. His father had been engaged in an insurrection in Italy and had taken refuge in France where he became a great financier, having originated the Tontine system of life insurance. Henri de Tonti had lost a hand in one of the campaigns, but he was nevertheless a man of great energy, and destined to win for himself an honored name in the New World.
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La Salle returned to New France in 1678, bringing with him about thirty craftsmen and mariners, together with a large supply of military and naval stores. It can readily be seen that La Salle would be opposed by the merchants and politicians in the region of Quebec and Montreal. He had risen rapidly and was now ready to make one of the most preten- tious efforts at discovery and exploration that had been undertaken in New France.
Late in the fall of 1678, probably in December, he sent Captain La Motte and sixteen men to select a suitable site for the building of a vessel with which to navigate the upper lakes. Captain La Motte stopped at the rapids below Niagara Falls and seems to have been indifferent to his mission. La Salle and Tonti arrived the 8th of January, 1679. The next day La Salle went above the falls, probably at Tonawanda Creek, and selected a place to construct the vessel.
Tonti was charged with building the vessel. It was launched in May, 1679, and was christened the Griffin (Griffon). It was of forty- five to fifty tons burden and carried a complement of five cannon, and is supposed to have cost about $10,000.
An expedition of traders had been dispatched into the Illinois country for the purpose of traffic, in the fall of 1678. Tonti and a small party went up Lake Erie and were to await the coming of the Griffin at the head of the lake. The Griffin weighed anchor August 7, 1679, amid the booming of cannon and the chanting of the Te Deum. It arrived at what is now Detroit on the 10th, and there found Tonti and his party. The vessel reached Mackinaw on the 27th of Angust. Here La Salle found the men whom he had dispatched the year before to traffic with the Indians. He found they had been dissuaded from proceeding to the Illinois country by the report that La Salle was visionary and that his ship would never reach Mackinaw. Tonti was given the task of getting these men together, and while he was thus engaged, La Salle sailed in the Griffin for Green Bay.
Green Bay had been for several years a meeting place between white traders and explorers, and the Indians. When La Salle reached the point, he found some of the traders whom he had sent ahead the year before. These traders had collected from the Pottawattamies large quantities of furs. For these furs La Salle exchanged a large stock of European goods with which the Griffin was loaded. It is said that he made a large sum of money in this transaction. The Griffin was loaded with these furs and made ready to return to the warehouses at Niagara.
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LA SALLE STARTS FOR THE ILLINOIS COUNTRY
On September 18th, the Griffin, in charge of a trusted pilot, a super- cargo and five sailors, started on the return voyage. La Salle on the 19th of September, 1679, with a company of fourteen persons in four birch bark canoes, loaded with a blacksmith's forge, carpenter's tools, merchandise, arms, provisions, etc., started on his journey for the Illinois country. He coasted along the western shore of Lake Michigan. Their provisions were exhausted before they reached the present site of Mil- waukee. They had been forced ashore three times to save their boats and their lives. They now went in search of food and fortunately found a deserted Indian village with plenty of corn. They appropriated the corn, but left some articles as pay. The next day the Indians returned and followed the whites to their boats and it was only by presenting the calumet that La Salle was able to appease them.
From Milwaukee they coasted south past the mouth of the Chicago River and following the southerly bend of the lake reached the mouth of the St. Joseph River November 1, 1679. This had been appointed as the meeting place of the two expeditions-the one under La Salle and the one under Tonti. La Salle was anxious to get to the Illinois country, but he also desired the help of Tonti and as the latter had not yet arrived, La Salle occupied the time of his men in building a palisade fort which he named Fort Miami. Near by, he erected a bark chapel for the use of the priests, and also a storehouse for the goods which the Griffin was to bring from Niagara on its return.
TONTI JOINS LA SALLE AT FORT MIAMI
Tonti arrived at Fort Miami on the 12th of November with only a portion of his company, the rest remaining behind to bring word of the Griffin'. La Salle was now impatient to proceed, and dispatching Tonti for the rest of his crew waited for his return. The ice began to form and fearing the freezing over of the river, La Salle ascended the St. Joseph in search of the portage between the Kankakee and the St. Joseph. He went up the St. Joseph beyond the portage and while searching for it was overtaken by a courier who told him Tonti and his party were at the portage farther down the river. This point is supposed to have been near the present city of South Bend, Indiana. Here was now assembled the party which was to become a very historic one. There were in all twenty-nine Frenchmen and one Indian. Among them were La Salle, De Tonti, Fathers Louis Hennepin, Zenobe Membre, Gabriel de La Ribourde, La Metairie (a notary) and De Loup, the Indian guide.
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They crossed the portage of three or four miles under great difficulties, dragging their canoes and their burdens on sledges. The ice was getting thick and a heavy snow storm was raging.
IN THE ILLINOIS COUNTRY
By the 6th of December, 1679, the expedition was afloat on the Kankakee. For many miles the country was so marshy that scarcely a camping place could be found, but soon its members emerged into an open region of the country with tall grass and then they knew they were in the Illinois country. They suffered from lack of food, having killed only two deer, one buffalo, two geese, and a few swans. As they journeyed on they passed the mouths of the Iroquois, the Des Plaines, and the Fox. They passed the present site of Ottawa and a few miles below they came to the Kaskaskia village where Marquette had planted the mission of the Immaculate Conception in the summer of 1675. Father Allouez had succeeded Marquette and had spent some time at the Kaskaskia village in 1676, and in 1677 he returned. But on the approach of La Salle, Allonez had departed, for it was understood that almost all of the Jesuit priests were opposed to La Salle's plans of commercializing the interior of North America. The Kaskaskia Indians were themselves absent from the village on an expedition to the south- land, as was their winter custom.
DESERTED KASKASKIA VILLAGE WITH SUPPLIES
This Kaskaskia village of four hundred lodges was uninhabited. The huts were built by covering a long arbor-like frame work with mats of woven rushes. In each lodge there was room for as many as ten families. In their hiding places, the Indians had secreted large quantities of corn for the spring planting and for sustenance until another crop could be raised. La Salle's party was so sorely in need of this corn that he decided to appropriate as much as they needed. This he did, taking 30 minots. On January 1, 1680, after mass by Father Hennepin, they departed down the Illinois River. On the morning of the 5th they had arrived at the outlet of what we call Peoria Lake. Here they saw large numbers of boats and on the banks wigwams and large numbers of Indians. The Indians were much disconcerted upon seeing La Salle's party land, and many fled while a few held communication with the new comers. La Salle held a consultation with the chiefs and told them of his taking their corn. He offered to pay for the corn and said that if he were compelled to give up the corn he would take his blacksmith
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and his tools to the next tribe, the Osages, whereupon the Indians gladly accepted pay for the corn taken and offered more.
INTERVIEWS THE KASKASKIAS
La Salle told them he wished to be on friendly terms with them, but that they must not expect him to engage in conflicts with the Iroquois whom his king regarded as his children. But if they would allow him to build a fort near, that he would defend them, the Kas- kaskias, against the Iroquois if they were attacked. He also told them he wished to know whether he could navigate a large boat from that point to the mouth of the Mississippi River, since it was very difficult as well as dangerous to bring such European goods as the Indians would like to have from New France by way of the Great Lakes, and that it could not well be done by coming across the Iroquois country as they would object, since the Illinois Indians and the Iroquois were enemies.
The Kaskaskia chiefs told La Salle that the mouth of the Mississippi was only twenty days' travel away and that there were no obstructions to navigation. Certain Indian slaves taken in battle said that they had been at the mouth of the river and that they had seen ships at sea that made noises like thunder. This made La Salle the more anxious to reach the mouth of the river and take possession of the country. The chiefs gave consent to the construction of the fort and La Salle had a bright vision before him. This vision was sadly clouded on the morrow when an Indian revealed to him the visit to the chiefs, on the night before, of a Miami chief by the name of Monso who tried to undermine the influence of La Salle. He said La Salle was deceiving them. In a council that day he revealed his knowledge of the visit of Monso and by great diplomacy won the Kaskaskia chief to his cause the second time. It was supposed this chief Monso was sent at the suggestion of Father Allouez. Four of La Salle's men deserted him and returned to the region of Lake Michigan.
BUILDS FORT CREVECOEUR BELOW PEORIA
La Salle, fearing the influence of the stories among the Indians, upon his men, decided to separate from them and go further down the river where he could construct his fort and built his boat. On the evening of the 15th of January, 1680, La Salle moved to a point on the east side of the river three miles below the present site of Peoria. There on a projection from the bluffs he built with considerable labor a fort which received the name of Crevecoeur. This was the fourth of
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY
the great chain of forts which La Salle had constructed, namely: Fort Frontenac at the outlet of Lake Ontario; Fort Tonti on the Niagara River; Fort Miami at the mouth of St. Joseph River, and Crevecoeur below Lake Peoria on the Illinois River.
Fort Crevecoeur is currently believed to have been so named because of the disheartened frame of mind of La Salle, but this would not be complimentary to the character of the man. It is now rather believed to have been so named in honor of Tonti, since as a soldier in the Netherlands he took part in the destruction of Fort Crevecoeur near the village of Bois le Duc in the year 1672.
In addition to the building of the fort, La Salle began the con- struction of a vessel with which to complete his journey to the mouth of the river. The lumber was sawed from the timber and rapid progress was made. The keel was 42 feet long, and the beam was 12 feet. While this work was in progress and during the month of February, several representatives of tribes from up the Mississippi and down the Mississippi, as well as from the Miamis to the northeast, came to consult with La Salle. His presence in the Illinois country was known near and far. The Indians from the upper Mississippi brought tempting descrip- tions of routes to the western sea and also of the wealth of beaver with which their country abounded.
SENDS EXPEDITION TO UPPER MISSISSIPPI
La Salle desired to make a visit to Fort Frontenac for sails, cordage, iron, and other material for his boat, besides he was very anxious to hear something definite about the Griffin, and its valuable cargo. But before embarking on his long journey, he fitted out an expedition consisting of Michael Ako, Antony Auguel, and Father Hennepin, to explore the upper Mississippi. Michael Ako was the leader. They started February the 29th, passed down the Illinois River and thence up the Mississippi. They carried goods worth a thousand livres, which were to be exchanged for furs. Father Hennepin took St. Anthony for his patron saint and when near the falls which we know by that name, he set up a post upon which he engraved the cross and the coat of arms of France. He was shortly captured by the Indians and was later released by a French trader, De Lhut. He then returned to France.
DEPARTS FOR FORT FRONTENAC, LEAVING TONTI BEHIND
Before starting for Frontenac, La Salle commissioned Tonti to have charge of the Crevecoeur fort, and also to build a fort at Starved Rock.
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On March 1st, the day following the departure of Ako and Hennepin for the upper Mississippi, La Salle departed, with three companions, for Fort Frontenac. This was a long, dangerous, and discouraging journey. Every venture which he had engaged in seems to have failed. After finally getting together supplies such as were needed, he started on his return journey. He was continually hearing stories from the travelers of the desertion of Crevecoeur. When he came within a few miles of the Kaskaskia village he began to see signs of destruction. On arriving at the village nothing but a few blackened posts remained. The Iroquois Indians had made a campaign against the Illinois Indians and their trail could be traced by death and destruction.
IROQUOIS RAVAGES AT STARVED ROCK AND FORT CREVECOEUR
When La Salle left the locality of Starved Rock for Fort Crevecoeur, on his way from Canada, he passed the Iroquois on one side of the river and the Illinois on the other. He searched everywhere for Tonti but could find no trace of him. He came to Crevecoeur about the first of December, 1680, and found the fort deserted and the storehouse plundered; the boat, however, was without damage. La Salle went to the mouth of the Illinois River in search of Tonti but without success. He returned to Fort Miami in the spring of 1681. Here he began the organization of all the Indian tribes into a sort of confederation.
Upon the approach of the Iroquois shortly after the departure of La Salle from Fort Crevecoeur, in March, 1680, Tonti and his party were scattered far and near. Tonti and Father Membre made their way to Green Bay and from there to Mackinaw. La Salle heard of them here and went immediately to them. Another expedition was organ- ized. La Salle, Father Membre and Tonti visited Fort Frontenac, where supplies were procured, and late in December, 1681, the expedition had crossed the Chicago portage. There were in this company fifty-four people-twenty-three Frenchmen and thirty-one Indians.
They passed the Kaskaskia village near Starved Rock, but it was in ruins. On January 25, 1682, they reached Fort Crevecoeur. The fort was in fair condition. Here they halted six days, while the Indians made some elm bark canoes. They reached the Mississippi the 6th of February. After a little delay they proceeded down the river, passed the mouth of the Missouri, and shortly after that a village of the Tam- aroa Indians. The village contained one hundred and twenty cabins, but they were all deserted. La Salle left presents on the posts for the villagers when they returned. Grand Tower was passed, later the Ohio. The trip to the mouth of the Mississippi was without special interest.
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They reached the mouth of the river in April, and on the ninth of that month erected a post upon which they nailed the arms of France wrought from a copper kettle. A proclamation was prepared by the notary, Jacques de la Metairie, and read. It recited briefly their journey to the country drained by the Mississippi and its tributaries.
On the 10th of April the party began the return journey. La Salle was stricken with a severe illness and was obliged to remain at Fort Prudhomme, which had been erected on the Chickasaw bluffs just above Vicksburg. Tonti was sent forward to look after his leader's interests. He went by Fort Miami, but found everything in order. He reached Mackinaw the 22d of July.
La Salle reached Crevecoeur on his way north. He left eight Frenchmen here to hold this position. He reached Fort Miami, and thence passed on to Mackinaw. He then sent Father Membre to France to report his discovery to the king, while he himself set about the build- ing of Fort St. Louis, at Starved Rock, on the Illinois. The detachment left by La Salle at Crevecoeur was ordered north to Fort St. Louis, and he began to grant his followers small areas of land in recognition of their services with him in the past few years. The fort was completed and in March, 1683, the ensign of France floated to the breeze. The tribes for miles in circuit came to the valley about the fort and encamped. La Salle patiently looked for French settlers from New France but they did not come.
During the absence of La Salle at the mouth of the Mississippi, Count Frontenac had been superseded by Sieur de la Barre, who had assumed the duties of his office October 9, 1682. He was not friendly to La Salle's schemes of extending the possessions of France in the New World. La Salle suspected, in the summer of 1683, that the new governor was not in sympathy with him. After a great deal of fruitless correspondence with the new governor, La Salle repaired to France to lay before the king his new discoveries as well as plans for the future.
LA SALLE ASSASSINATED
Tonti was displaced as commander at Fort St. Louis and ordered to Quebec. La Salle not only secured a fleet for the trip to the mouth of the Mississippi, but also had Tonti restored to command at Fort St. Louis. La Salle sailed to the Gulf in the spring of 1685. He failed to find the mouth of the river and landed in what is now Texas. After hardships and discouragement almost beyond belief, he was murdered by some of his own men the latter part of March, 1687.
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY
La Salle went to France in the summer of 1683 and left Tonti in charge of his interests in the Illinois country. Tonti was active in the defense of his superior's interests. In this duty he was forced to defend the Illinois country against the Iroquois, and to struggle against La Salle's enemies in New France. He made expeditions of trade and exploration throughout all the western country, took part in a great campaign against the Iroquois, and was the life of a growing community around Fort St. Louis.
DEATH OF TONTI
The death of La Salle occurred in the spring of 1687. Just one year previous to this Tonti had made a trip to the Gulf in search of La Salle, but failing to find him returned sorrowfully to Fort St. Louis. In September, 1688, Tonti heard definitely of the death of La Salle. In December of that year he organized an expedition to rescue the colonists whom La Salle had left on the coast of the Gulf. This expedi- tion also proved a failure. For the next ten years Tonti remained in the region of the Lakes, but when Bienville began planting new settle- ments near the mouth of the Mississippi River, Tonti abandoned Fort St. Louis and joined the new settlements. He died near Mobile in 1704.
PERMANENT PIONEER SETTLEMENTS OF ILLINOIS
The death of La Salle in 1688 and of Tonti in 1704, concluded the most romantic chapter of the early French explorations which pre- pared the way for permanent settlement and the solid satisfaction of home-building. Without going into the rather intricate claims as to the priority of the pioneer settlements of Illinois which assumed permanence, it will be conceded that Kaskaskia was for several genera- tions the most notable. The mission of the Immaculate Conception founded there by Father Marquette, with the fertile lands in that region, eventuated in drawing thither not only the soldiers of the cross, but French traders and agriculturists. The Indians and Frenchmen who came to Kaskaskia in the eighteenth century built their huts by weaving grasses and reeds into frameworks of upright poles set in rectangular form. The roofs were thatched. The ground was very rich and a sort of rude agriculture was begun. In those days the French were just taking possession of the mouth of the Mississippi, and Kaskaskia became quite an important intermediate port of call for fresh supplies. The trading with the Indians was also a large factor in the building up of
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