Combined history of Edwards, Lawrence and Wabash counties, Illinois. With illustrations and biographical sketches of some of their prominent men and pioneers, Part 5

Author:
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. L. McDonough & co.
Number of Pages: 490

USA > Illinois > Edwards County > Combined history of Edwards, Lawrence and Wabash counties, Illinois. With illustrations and biographical sketches of some of their prominent men and pioneers > Part 5
USA > Illinois > Wabash County > Combined history of Edwards, Lawrence and Wabash counties, Illinois. With illustrations and biographical sketches of some of their prominent men and pioneers > Part 5
USA > Illinois > Lawrence County > Combined history of Edwards, Lawrence and Wabash counties, Illinois. With illustrations and biographical sketches of some of their prominent men and pioneers > Part 5

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AMERICAN SETTLEMENTS.

The civil organization of the Northwest Territory was now complete, and notwithstanding the uncertainty of In-

dian affairs, settlers from the east began to come into the country rapidly. The New England Company sent their men during the winter of 1787-8, pressing on over the Alle- ghenics by the old Indian path which had been opened into Braddock's road, and which has since been made a national turnpike from Cumberland, westward. Through the weary winter days they toiled on, and by April were all gathered on the Youghiogheny, where boats had been built, and a once started for the Muskingum. Here they arrived on the 7th of that month, and unless the Moravian missionaries be regarded as the pioneers of Ohio, this little band can justly claim that honor.

General St. Clair, the appointed Governor of the North west not having yet arrived, a set of laws were passed, writ- ten out, and published by being nailed to a tree in the embryo town, and Jonathan Meigs appointed to administer them. Washington in writing of this, the first American settlement in the Northwest said : " No colony in America was ever settled under such favorable au spices as that which has just commenced at Muskingum. I know many of its sct- tlers personally, and there were never men better calculated to promote the welfare of such a community." On the 2d of July a meeting of the directors and agents was held on the banks of the Muskingum, " for the purpose of naming the new born city and its squares." As yet the settlement was known as the " Muskingum," but was afterwards changed to the name, Marietta, in honor. of Marie Antoinette. Two days after, an oration was delivered by James M. Var- num, who with S. H. Parsons and John Armstrong had been appointed to the judicial bench of the territory on the 16th of October 1787. On July 9, Governor St. Clair arrived, and the colony began to assume form. The act of 1787 pro- vided two distinct grades of government for the North west, under the first of which the whole power was invested in the hands of a governor and three district judges. This was immediately formed on the governor's arrival, and the first laws of the colony passed on the 25th of July : these provid- ed for the organization of the militia, and on the next day appeared the Governor's proclamation, erecting all that country that had been ceded by the Indians east of the Scioto River into the county of Washington. From that time forward, notwithstanding the doubts yet existing as to the Indians, all Marietta prospered, and on the second of September the first court was held with imposing ceremonies.

The emigration westward at this time was very great. The commander at Fort Harmer, at the mouth of the Musk- ingum reported four thousand five hundred persons as having passed that post between February and June 1788, many of whom would have purchased of the " Associates," as the New England Company was called, had they been ready to receive them. On the 26th of November 1787 Symmes issued a pamphlet stating the terms of his contract and the plan of sale he intended to adopt. In January 1788, Mat- thias Denman, of New Jersey, took an active interest in Symmes' purchase, and located among other tracts tlie sec- tions upon which Cincinnati has been built. Retaining one- third of this locality, he sold the other two-thirds to Robert Patterson and John Filson, and the three about August

HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS.

commenced to lay out a town on the spot, which was desig- nated as heing Licking River, to the mouth of which they proposed to have-a road cut from Lexington ; these settle- ments prospered but suffered greatly from the flood of 1789.

On the 4th of March 1789, the Constitution of the United States went into operation, and on April 30th, George Washington was inaugurated President, and during the next summer an Indian war was commenced by the tribes north of the Ohio. The President at first used pacific means, but these failing, he sent General Harmer against the hostile tribes. He destroyed several villages, but was defeated in two battles, near the present city of Fort Wayne, Indiana. From this time till the close of 1795, the principal events were the wars with the various Indian tribes. In 1796, General St. Clair was appointed in command, and marched against the Indians ; but while he was encamped on a stream, the St Mary, a branch of the Maumee, he was attacked and defeated with a loss of six hundred men. General Wayne was then sent against the savages. In August, 1794, he met them near the rapids of the Maumee, and gained a complete victory. This success, followed by vigorous measures, com- pelled the Indians to sue for peace, and on the 30th of July, the following year, the treaty of Greenville was signed by the principal chiefs, by which a large tract of country was ceded to the United States. Before proceeding in our nar- rative, we will pause to notice Fort Washington, erected in the early part of this war. on the site of Cincinnati. Nearly all the great cities of the North-west, and indeed of the whole country, have had their nuclei in those rude pioneer struc- tures, known as forts or stockades. Thus Forts Dearborn, Washington, Ponchartrain, mark the original sites of the now proud cities of Chicago, Cincinnati and Detroit. So of most of the flourishing cities east and west of the Mississippi. Fort Washington, erected by Doughty in 1790, was a rude but highly interesting structure. It was composed of a num- ber of strong'y-built hewed log cabins. Those designed for soldiers' barracks were a story and a half high, while those composing the officers' quarters were more imposing and more conveniently arranged and furnished. The whole was so placed as to form a hollow square, enclosing about an acre of ground, with a block house at each of the four angles. Fort Washington was for some time the headquarters of both the Civil and Military governments of the North-western Territory. Following the consummation of the treaty vari- ous gigantic land speculations were entered into by different persons, who hoped to obtain from the Indians in Michigan and northern Indiana, large tracts of lands. These were generally discovered in time to prevent the schemes from being carried out, and from involving the settlers in war. On October 27, 1795, the treaty between the United States and Spain was signed, whereby the free navigation of the Mississippi was secured. No sooner had the treaty of 1795 been ratified than settlers began to pour rapidly into the west. The great event of the year 1796, was the occupation of that part of the North-west including Michigan, which was this year, under the provisions of the treaty, evacuated by the British forces. The United States owing to certain conditions, did not feel justified in addressing the authorities

in Canada in relation to Detroit and other frontier posts. When at last the British authorities were called upon to give them up, they at once complied, and General Wayne who had done so much to preserve the frontier settlements, and who before the year's close, sickened and died near Erie, transferred his headquarters to the neighborhood of the lakes, where a county named after him was formed, which included the north-west of Ohio, all of Michigan, and the north-east of Indiana. During this same year settlements were formed at the present city of Chillicothe, along the Miami from Middletown to Piqua, while in the more distant West, settlers and speculators began to appear in great numbers. In Sep- tember the city of Cleveland was laid out, and during the summer and autumn, Samuel Jackson and Jonathan Sharp- less, erected the first manufactory of paper-the " Redstone Paper Mills"-in the West. St. Louis contained some seventy houses, and Detroit over three hundred, and along the river, contiguous to it, were more than three thousand inhabitants, mostly French Canadians, Indians and half- hreeds, scarcely any Americans venturing yet into that part of the North-west. The election of representatives for the territory had taken place, and on the 4th of February, 1799, they convened at Losantiville-now known as Cincinnati, having been named so by Gov. St. Clair, and considered the capital of the territory,-to nominate persons from whom the' members of the Legislature were to he chosen in accordance with a previous ordinance. This nomination being made, the Assembly adjourned until the 16.h of the following Sep- tember. From those named the President selected as mem- bers of the council, Henry Vandenburg, of Vincennes, Robert Oliver, of Marietta, James Findley, and Jacob Burnett, of Cincinnati, and David Vance, of Vanceville. On the 16th of September, the Territorial Legislature met, and on the 24th, the two houses were duly organized, Henry Vanden- hurg being elected President of the Council. The message of Gov. St. Clair, was addressed to the Legislature Septem- ber 20th, and on October 13th, that hody elected as a dele -. gate to Congress, General Wm. Henry Harrison, who re- ceived eleven of the votes cast, being a majority of one over his opponent, Arthur St. Clair, son of General St. Clair. The whole number. of acts passed at this session and approved hy the Governor, were thirty-seven-eleven others wero passed but received his veto. The most important of those passed related to the militia, to the administration, and to taxation. On the 19th of December this protracted session of the first Legislature in the West closed, and on the 30th of December the President nominated Charles Willing Byrd, to the office of secretary of the Territory, vice Wm. Henry Harrison, elected to Congress. The Senate confirmed his nomination the next day.

DIVISION OF THE NORTH-WEST TERRITORY.

The increased emigration to the north-west, and extent of the domain, made it very difficult to conduct the ordinary operations of government, and rendered the efficient action of courts almost impossible ; to remedy this it was deemed advisable to divide the territory for civil purposes. Con- 23

HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS.

gress, in 1800, appointed a committee to examine the ques- tion and report some means for its solution.

This committee on the 3d of March reported : " In the western countries there had been but one court having cog- nizance of crimes, in five years, and the immunity which offenders experience attracts, as to an asylum, the most vile and abandoned criminals, and at the same time deters useful citizens from making scttlements in such society. The extreme necessity of judiciary attention and assistance is experienced in civil as well as in criminal cases. * To remedy this evil it is expedient to the committee that a division of said territory into two distinct and separate governments should be made, and that such division be made by beginning at the mouth of the Great Miami river, running directly north until it intersects the boundary between the United States and Canada."

The report was accepted by Congress, and, in accordance with its suggestions, that body passed an act extinguishing the north-west territory, which act was approved May 7th. Among its provisions were these :

" That from and after July 4 next all that part of the territory of the United States north-west of the Ohio river, which lies to the westward of a line beginning at a point opposite the mouth of the Kentucky river, and running thence to Fort Recovery, and thence North until it shall intersect the territorial line between the United States and Canada, shall for the purpose of temporary government, constitute a separate territory and be called the Indian Territory."

Gen. Harrison (afterwards President), was appointed governor of the Indiana Territory, and during his residence at Vincennes, he made several important treaties with the Indians, thereby gaining large tracts of land. The next year is memorable in the history of the west for the purchase of Louisiana from France by the United States for $15,000,- 000. Thus by a peaceful manner the domain of the United States was extended over a large tract of country west of the Mississippi, and was for a time under the jurisdiction of the north-western government. The next year Gen. Harri- son obtained additional grants of land from the various Indian nations iu Indiana and the present limits of Illinois, and on the 18th of August, 1804, completed a treaty at St. Louis, whereby over 51,000,000 acres of land were obtained.

During this year, Congress granted a township of land for the support of a college and began to offer inducements for settlers in these wilds, and the country now comprising the state of Michigan began to fill rapidly with settlers along its southern borders. This same year a law was passed organizing the south-west territory, dividing it into two portions,-the territory of New Orleans, which city was made the seat of government, and the district of Louisiana, which was annexed to the domain by General Harrison.

On the 11th of January, 1805, the territory of Michigan was formed, and Wm. Hull appointed governor, with head- quarters at Detroit, the change to take effect June 30th. On the 11th of that month, a fire occurred at Detroit, which destroyed most every building in the place. When the officers of the new territory reached the post, they found it 24

in ruins, and the inhabitants scattered throughout the coun- try. Rebuilding, however, was commenced at once. While this was being done, Indiana passed to the second grade of government. In 1809, Indiana territory was divided, and the territory of Illinois was formed, the seat of government being fixed at Kaskaskia, and through her General Assem- bly had obtained large tracts of land from the Indian tribes. To all this the celebrated Indian Tecumthe, or Tecumseh, vigorously protested,* and it was the main cause of his attempts to unite the various Indian tribes in a conflict with the settlers. He visited the principal tribes, and succeeded in forming an alliance with most of the tribes, and then joined the cause of the British in the memorable war of 1812. Tecumseh was killed at the battle of the Thames. Tecum- seh was, in many respects, a noble character,-frank and honest in his intercourse with General Harrison and the settlers ; in war, brave and chivalrous. His treatment of prisoners was humane. In the summer of 1812, Perry's vic- tory on Lake Erie occurred, and shortly after, active pre- parations were made to capture Fort Malden. On the 27th of September, the American army under command of General Harrison, set sail for the shores of Canada, and, in a few hours, stood around the ruins of Malden, from which the British army under Proctor had retreated to Sandwich, intending to make its way to the heart of Canada by the valley of the Thames. On the 29th, General Harrison was at Sandwich, and General McArthur took possession of Detroit and the territory of Michigan. On the 2d of Octo- ber following, the American army began their pursuit of Proctor, whom they overtook on the 5th, and the battle of the Thames followed. The victory was decisive, and practi- cally closed the war in the north-west. In 1806, occurred Burr's insurrection. He took possession of an island in the Ohio, and was charged with treasonable intentions against the Federal government. His capture was effected by General Wilkinson, acting under instruction of President Jefferson. Burr was brought to trial on a charge of treason, and, after a prolonged trial, during which he defended him- self with great ability, he was acquitted of the charge of treason. His subsequent career was obscure, and he died in 1836. Had his scheme succeeded, it would be interesting to know what effect it would have had on the north-western territory. The battle of the Thames was fought October 6th, 1813. It effectually closed hostilities in the north-west, although peace was not restored until July 22d, 1814, when a treaty was made at Greenville, by General Harrison, be- tween the United States and the Indian tribes. On the 24th of December, the treaty of Ghent was signed by the repre- sentatives of England and the United States. This treaty was followed the next year by treaties with various Indian tribes throughout the north-west, and quiet was again restored.

PRESENT CONDITION OF THE NORTH-WEST.

In former chapters we have traced briefly the discoveries, settlements, wars, and most important events which have occurred in the large area of country denominated the

* American State Papers

HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS.

north-west, and we now turn to the contemplation of its growth and prosperity. Its people are among the most intelligent and enterprising in the Union. The population is steadily increasing, the arts and sciences are gaining a stronger foothold, the trade area of the region is becoming daily more extended, and we have been largely exempt from the financial calamities which have nearly wrecked com munities on the seaboard, dependent wholly on foreign com- merce or domestic manufacture. Agriculture is the leading feature in our industries. This vast domain has a sort of natural geographical border, save where it melts away to the southiward in the cattle-raising districts of the south- west. The leading interests will be the growth of the food of the world, in which branch it has already outstripped all competitors, and our great rival will be the fertile fields of Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Texas and New Mexico.

To attempt to give statistics of grain productions for 1880 would require more space than our work would permit of. Manufacturing has now attained in the chief cities a foot- hold that bids fair to render the north-west independent of the outside world. Nearly our whole region has a distribu- tion of coal measure which will in time support the manu- factures necessary to our comfort and prosperity. As to transportation, the chief factor in the production of all articles except food, no section is so magnificently endowed, and our facilities are yearly increasing beyond those of any other region.

The principal tradeand manufacturing centres of the great north-west are Chicago, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Detroit, Cleveland and Toledo, with any number of minor cities and towns doing a large and growing business. The intelligence and enterprise of its people; the great wealth of its soil and minerals; its vast inland seas and navigable rivers ; its magnificent railroad system ; its patriotism and love of country will render it ever loyal in the future as in the past. The people of the Mississippi Valley are the key- stone of the national union and national prosperity.

CHAPTER II.

BRIEF HISTORICAL SKETCHI OF ILLINOIS.

EGINNING the history of this great State we direct attention briefly to the discovery and exploration of the Mississippi. Hernando De Soto, cutting his way through the wilder- ness from Florida, had discovered the Missis- sippi in the year 1542. Wasted with disease and privation, he only reached the stream to die upon its banks, and the remains of the ambitious and iron-willed Spaniard found a fitting resting-place beneath the waters of the great river. The chief incitement to Spanish discoveries in America was a thirst for gold and treasure. The discovery and settle- meut of the Mississippi Valley on the part of the French

must, on the other hand, be ascribed to religious zeal. Jesuit missionaries, from the French settlements on the St. Lawrence, early penetrated to the region of Lake Huron. It was from the tribes of Indians living in the West, that intelligence came of a noble river flowing south. Marquette, who had visited the Chippewas in 1668, and established the mission of Sault Ste. Marie, now the oldest settlement within the present commonwealth of Michigan, formed the purpose of its exploration.

The following year he moved to La Pointe, in Lake Superior, where he instructed a branch of the Hurons till 1670, when he removed south and founded the mission at St. Ignace, on the Straits of Mackinaw. In company with Joliet, a fur-trader of Quebec, who had been designated by M. Talon, Intendent of Canada, as chieftain of the explor- ing party, and five French voyageurs, Marquette, on the 10th of June, 1673, set out on the expedition. Crossing the water-shed dividing the Fox from the Wisconsin rivers, their two canoes were soon launched on the waters of the latter. Seven days after, on the 17th of June, they joy- fully entered the broad current of the Mississippi. Stopping six days on the western bank, near the mouth of the Des Moines River, to enjoy the hospitalities of the Illinois Indians, the voyage was resumed, and after passing the perpendicular rocks above Alton, on whose lofty limestone front were painted frightful representations of monsters, they suddenly came upon the mouth of the Missouri, known by its Algonquin name of Pekitanoni, whose swift and turbid current threatened to engulf their frail canoes. The site, of St. Louis was an unbroken forest, and further down the fertile plain bordering the river reposed in peaceful solitude, as, early in July, the adventurers glided past it. They continued their voyage to a point some distance below the mouth of the Arkansas, and then retraced their course up the river, arriving at their Jesuit Mission at the head of Green Bay, late in September.

Robert Cavalier de La Salle, whose illustrious name is more intimately connected with the exploration of the Mississippi than that of any other, was the next to descend the river, in the carly part of the year 1682. La Salle was a man of remarkable genius, possessing the power of originating the vastest schemes, and endowed with a will and a judgment capable of carrying them to successful results. Had ample facilities been placed by the king of France at his disposal, the result of the colonization of this continent might have been far different from what we now behold. He was born in Rouen, France, in 1643, of wealthy parentage, but he renounced his patrimony on entering a college of the Jesuits from which he separated and came to Canada a poor man in 1666. The priests of St. Sulpice, among whom he had a brother, were then the proprietors of Montreal, the nucleus of which was a seminary or convent founded by that order. The Superior granted to La Salle a large tract of land at La Chine, where he established himself in the fur trade. He was a man of daring genius, and outstripped all his competitors in exploits of travel and commerce with the Indians. In 1669 he visited the headquarters of the great Iroquois Confederacy, at Onondaga, in the heart of New 25

HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS.

York, and obtaining guides, explored the Ohio River to the falls at Louisville.

In order to understand the intrepid genius of La Salle, it must be remembered that for many years prior to his time the missionaries and traders were obliged to make their way to the North west by the Ottaway River (of Canada), on account of the fierce hostility of the Iroquois along the lower lakes and Niagara River, which entirely closed this latter route to the Upper Lakes. They carried on their commerce chiefly by canvas, paddling them through the Ottaway to Lake Nipissing, carrying them across the port- age to French River, and descending that to Lake Huron. This being the route by which they reached the North-west, accounts for the fact that all the earliest Jesuit missions were established in the neighborhood of the Upper Lakes. La Salle conceived the grand idea of opening the route by Niagara River and the Lower Lakes to Canadian commerce by sail vessels, connecting it with the navigation of the Mississippi, and thus opening a magnificent water communi- cation from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico. This . truly grand and comprehensive purpose seems to have animated him in all his wonderful achievements and the matchless difficulties and hardships he surmounted.

As the first step in the accomplishment of this object he established himself on Lake Ontario, and built and gar- risoned Fort Frontenac, the site of the present city of Kingston, Canada. Here he obtained a grant of land from the French crown and a body of troops by which he beat back the invading Iroquois and cleared the passage to, Niagara Falls. Having by this masterly stroke made it safe to attempt a hitherto untricd expedition, his next step as we have seen, was to advance to the falls with all his outfit for building a ship with which to sail the lakes. He was successful iu this undertaking, though his ultimate pur- pose was defeated by a strange combination of untoward circumstances. The Jesuits evidently hated La Salle and plotted against him, because he had abandoned them and co-operatcd with a rival order. The fur traders were also jealous of his superior success in opening new channels of commerce. At La Chine he had taken the trade of Lake Ontario, which but for his presence there would have gone to Quebec. While they were plodding with their bark canoes through the Ottaway he was constructing vessels to command the trade of the lakes and the Mississippi. These great plans excited the jealousy and. envy of the small traders, introduced treason and revolt into the ranks of his own companions, and finally led to the foul assassination by which his great achievements were prematurely ended. In 1682, La Salle, having completed his vessel at Peoria, descended the Mississippi to its confluence with the Gulf of Mexico. At its mouth he erected a column, and decorating it with the arms of France, placed upon it the following inscription :

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Combined history of Edwards, Lawrence and Wabash counties, Illinois. With illustrations and biographical sketches of some of their prominent men and pioneers, Part 5

Author: Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. L. McDonough & co. Number of Pages: 490

Author:
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. L. McDonough & co.
Number of Pages: 490