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(1)The beginning point here referred to as "on the Wabash," was at the mouth of the Big Vermilion River .- H. W. Beckwith's "Illinois and Indiana Indians," page 121.
638
HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
It will thus be seen that, shortly following the treaty with the Indians which extinguished forever their claim upon the territory, came the United States surveyors, those pioneers of civilization whose work was to last through all time and be law to all future dwellers. The lines, as then fixed and marked by these surveyors, are the lines which now divide the townships, school districts and farms of the county, and which determine its boundaries and the locations of most of its public roads.
When the treaty already referred to was made, and when the work of the United States surveyors was performed, the terri- tory later organized into the County of Cham- paign, was within the bounds of the County of Crawford. The section corners, then marked by the throwing up of mounds of earth around stakes charred in their camp fires, were easily found by other surveyors many years after they were established.
In the office of the County Clerk may be found a book commonly called the "Original Survey Record," which contains transcripts of all these surveys, carefully copied from the reports and plats made to the General Land Office by these original surveyors. Upon the left hand pages of this very interesting and important record, may be found directions for locating every section corner, as marked and left by those men eighty years ago, while upon the opposite pages are found very care- fully prepared plats, in colors, showing every grove of timber and hazel brush; every stream or considerable branch, and every pond, as well as the courses and location with reference to section lines. The number of
and each line of them N. and S. is termed a range, and either numbered E. or W. from the meridian. The N. and S. lines bordering the townships are known as range lines, and the E. and W. as township lines. Each survey is des- ignated by the meridian upon which it is based. and of these principal meridians there are six designated by numbers, and eighteen by special names. The first meridian adopted for these surveys was the boundary line between Ohio and Indiana; the second through Indiana on the meridian of 86 degrees 28 minutes, west from Greenwich; the third through Illinois, beginning at the mouth of the river Ohio; the fourth north from the mouth of the river Illinois; the fifth north from the river Arkansas; the sixth on the 40th parallel of longtitude."-"Appleton's American Cyclopedia," Vol. 15, page 491.
The sections in any given township are num- bered beginning with Section 1 at the northeast corner of the township, running thence across and back until the 36th is reached at the south- east corner.
acres in each section is also marked thereon, and where the section is "fractional"-that is, the section contained more or less than one square mile, or 640 acres-the number of acres in each one-eighth of a section is also shown.
This record, besides being important as a factor in determining the lines and titles to the lands within the county, is of interest to one enquiring into the early history of the county. These plats and notes were made by the men of the white race who first minutely examined these landscapes. They show the country, with reference to the space occupied by timber and open prairie, just as they ap- peared to Runnel Fielder, Henry Sadorus and . William Tompkins, when they came here a few years thereafter.
CHAPTER IV.
ABORIGINAL OCCUPATION.
WRITTEN HISTORY EXTENDS NO FARTHER BACK THAN 1634-JEAN NICOLET-ILLINOIS OR "ILLINI" IN- DIANS-CONQUEST AND DESTRUCTION. BY THE IRO- QUOIS-TERRITORY OF COUNTY OCCUPIED BY KICK- APOOS - ILLINOIS INDIANS FOUGHT THE WHITES - AT ST. CLAIR'S DEFEAT, FALLEN TIMBERS, TIPPE- CANOE AND FORT HARRISON -THEY JOINED IN WAYNE'S TREATY - TREATY OF VINCENNES- AFTER TREATY INDIANS REMOVED- THEIR VISITS TO BIG GROVE-SADORUS GROVE - SHEMAUGER - INDIANS TOLD TO LEAVE-INDIAN SCARE DURING BLACKHAWK WAR-THE MIAMIS-INDIAN BU- RIALS HERE-PASSING OF THE INDIANS.
Written history of Illinois extends no farther back than the year 1634, when a Can- adian Frenchman, named Jean Nicolet, more adventurous than any of his countrymen to that date, having followed the great lakes to their western extremity, wandered southward a great distance and reached the immense prai- ries and the people which, from the descrip- tions in his written accounts of his adven- tures, are believed to have been the country since called Illinois and the people of that name-but the name, being unknown to Euro- peans, was differently spelled by different writers. Nicolet, who is conceded to have been the first white visitor to Illinois, found a people then in occupancy of the country who
639
HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
have since been known as "The Illinois," or. "Illini."(1)
These people are conceded by all writers upon Illinois history-their information being derived from accounts given by French mis- sionaries, traders and adventurers-to have been in the occupancy of all of the territory of what is now Illinois when white people first knew of the country. No Indian possess- sion in all history can be said to have been peaceable possession; for those people culti- vated the art of war alone, and each tribe or people held their country only until a stronger people invaded and overcame them.
In this case the invaders and conquerors were the Iroquois, or Five Nations of New York, who about the year 1680 consummated a long and cruel war with these people by a decisive battle fought near the Illinois River in what is now La Salle County, in which they were nearly destroyed. Their final de- struction was accomplished fifty years after at Starved Rock, as the story goes. (2)
The destruction of the Illinois made room for others, who, in this case, were friends of the conquerors, and who came in from the north, where, for generations, they had made their homes about the lakes. From the de- struction of the Illinois, the Kickapoos, the Pottawatomies and the Miamis were the rec- ognized possessors of the territory or of some part of it. And in this condition did the Eng- lish and Americans find it, with the excep- tion of a few remnants of the Illinois living about the Kaskaskia. (3)
(1)"The Illinois Indians were composed of five subdivisions: Kaskaskias, Cahokias Tamaroas. Peorias, Mitchigamies, the last being a foreign tribe residing west of the Mississippi River, who. being reduced to small numbers by wars with their neighbors, abandoned their former hunting- grounds and became incorporated with the Illi- nois. The first historical mention of this tribe is found in the Jesuit Relations for the year 1670-1, prepared by Father Claude Dablon, from the letters of priests stationed at La Pointe on the southwest 'of Lake Superior."-Beckwith's "Illinois and Indiana Indians," page 99.
(2) Beckwith's "Illinois and Indiana Indians," page 104.
(3)The character of the Illinois Indians is well described by an Illinoisan who has given their history much attention.
"They enjoyed the wild, roving life of the prai- rie, and, in common with almost all other na- tive Americans, were vain of their prowess and manhood, both in war and in the chase. They did not settle down for any great length of time in a given place, but roamed across the broad prairies, from one grove or belt of tim- ber to another, either in single families or in small bands, packing their few effects, their children and infirm on their little Indian po-
These few representatives of a vanquished race of an almost unknown and vanished age tarried for a while upon their native soil of Illinois; but were all the while the victims of oppression and slaughter from any and all tribes of Indians who chanced to come along, and finally yielded to a cruel fate by betaking themselves to the Far West.
The territory now forming the County of Champaign, with all contiguous thereto for many miles in all directions, was, up to the year 1819, held and occupied after the fash- ion of Indian occupancy, by what was known as the Kickapoo tribe of Indians, and had been so held by them for more than fifty years, and their ownership was recognized by con- temporaneous tribes of Indians and military authorities, French, English and American.
In all the Indian wars with the oncoming whites, this Illinois country, so peopled, con- tributed its share of red warriors to stay the irresistible wave; and the Miamis, Pottawat- omies and Kickapoos formed part of the red host which, under Little Turtle, overcame St. Clair at Fort Recovery, and were, in turn, vanquished by Wayne three years later on the Maumee. These same warriors, with the Miamis, met Harrison in 1811 at the mouth of the Vermilion and were, later, under the Prophet, vanquished by him at Tippecanoe. The Twightwees and Pottawatomies attacked Captain Zachary Taylor at Fort Harrison, above Terre Haute, and were driven back.(1) It was to subdue these Indians that General Hopkins, in October, 1812, made his bootless campaign into this country, and that the Illinois Rang- ers, under Colonel Russell and Governor Ed- wards, in the same month, raided the Indian country as far as Peoria.
These same Indians met Wayne at Fort Greenville in 1795 and entered into a treaty of amity, only to violate every provision of it before 1812. It was only after they-re- inforced by British troops and under British
nies."-"The Last of the Illinois," by Judge Ca- ton, page 12.
(1)"Fort Harrison was erected by the forces under Governor Harrison, while on their way from Vincennes to the Prophet's Town, during the memorable Tippecanoe campaign; and, by unanimous request of all the officers, was chris- tened after the name of their commander. It was enclosed with palisades, and officers and soldiers' barracks, and defended at two angles with two block houses."-H. W. Beckwith's "Il- linois and Indiana Indians," page 134.
Sounds like EUROPE
640
HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
officers-had been repeatedly beaten around Lake Erie, that they became innocuous and tractable. (1)
General Harrison, as representative of the United States, December 30, 1805, held a treaty with the Piankeshaws, a branch of the Miamis, by which they ceded to the Govern- ment what is known as the "Vincennes Tract," embracing a large territory (2,600,000 acres), now mostly embraced within the counties of Edgar, Clark and Crowford. (2)
The boundaries of this tract, which were well known and respected by both parties to the treaty, were surveyed a few years thereafter, and may be seen upon many maps of Illinois to this date. Prior to 1819 settlements were made by the whites within it as far north as the apex of the tract, which is still shown projecting itself like a wedge into the south part of Vermilion County.
At that date, all the territory of Illinois and Wisconsin, north of a line crossing the State from Paris to Fort Edwards on the Mississippi River, except the military posts, was undis- puted Indian territory forbidden to all others,
This swift and advancing white occupancy was suggestive to government agents of fur- ther purchases of Indian territory, and there followed the treaty already alluded to as the Edwardsville treaty, signed on July 30, 1819; and one, a month later, entered into at Vincennes by a smaller division of the Kickapoos, known as the tribes of the Ver- milion River, who claimed some exclusive
(1)"In the desperate plans of Tecumthe, the Kickapoos took an active part. The tribe caught the infection at an early day of those troubies; and in 1806 Governor Harrison sent Captain William Prince to the Vermilion towns with a speech addressed to all the warriors and chiefs of the Kickapoo tribe, giving Captain Prince further instructions to proceed to the viliages of the prairie bands, if, after having delivered the speech at the Vermilion towns. he discovered there would be no danger to himself in proceeding beyond. The speech, which was full of good words and precautionary advice, had littie effect; and shortly after the mission of Captain Prince, the Prophet found means to bring the whole of the Kickapoos entireiv un- der his influence."-H. W. Beckwith's "Iilinois and Indiana Indians," page 131.
(2)"The Kickanoos fought in great numbers and with frenzied courage at the battle of Tip- pecanoe. They early sided with the British in the war that was declared between that power and the United States, the following June, and sent out many war parties, that kept the settle- ments in Indiana and Illinois in constant perii. while other warriors of their tribe participated in almost every battle fought during this war along the western frontier."-H. W. Beckwith's "Illinois and Indiana Indians," page 133.
. use of this immediate section embracing the County of Vermilion and the east part of Champaign. (1)
By these treaties all claims to this part of Illinois, adverse to the claims of the aggres- sive and resolute Anglo-Saxon, represented in
(1)"Within the limits of the territory defined by the treaty at Edwardsville, in 1819, the Kick- apoos, for generations before that time, had many viiiages, The principal of these were Kicka- po-go-oui, on the west bank of the Wabash, near Hutsonville, Crawford County, Illinois, and known in the early days of the Northwest Ter- ritory, as Musquiton, (Mascoutine); another on both sides of the Vermilion River, at its confiu- ence with the Wabash. This last village was destroyed by Major Hamtramck, in October, 1790, whose military forces moved up the river
from Vincennes to create a diversion in favor of Gen. Harmer, then leading the main attack against the Miami town at Ft. Wayne, and other Indian villages in that vicinity. Higher up the Vermilion were other Kickapoo towns, particu- lariy the one some four miles west of Danville, and near the mouth of the Middle Fork. The remains of one of the most extensive burial grounds in the Wabash Valley, still attest the magnitude of this once populous city; and, al- though the village site has been in cultivation for over fifty years, every recurring year the plowshare turns up arrow-points, stone-axes. gun-flints, gun-locks, knives, silver brooches, or other mementoes of its former inhabitants. These people were greatly attached to the coun- try watered by the Vermilion and its tributa- ries; Governor Harrison found a difficult task to reconcile them to ceding it away. In his letter to the Secretary of War, of December, 10, 1809, referring to his efforts to induce the Kickapoos to part with it, the Governor says he 'was ex- tremeiy anxious that the extinguishment of the title should extend as high up as the Vermilion River, but it was objected to because it would include a Kickapoo village. This small tract of about twenty miles square is one of the most beautiful that can be conceived, and is, more- over, beiieved to contain a very rich copper mine. I have, myself, frequently seen very rich specimens of the copper, one of which I sent to Mr. Jefferson in 1802. The Indians were so ex- tremeiy jealous of any search being made for this mine, that traders were always cautioned not to approach the hills which were supposed to contain the mine.
"The Kickapoos had other villages on the Em- barras, some miles west of Charleston, and still other about the head-waters of the Kaskaskia. During the period when the territory west of the Mississippi belonged to Spain, her subjects residing at St. Louis carried on considerable trade among the Indians eastward of the Mis- sissippi. particularly the Kickapoos, near' the head-waters of the Kaskaskia. Further north- ward they had still other villages, among them one toward the head-waters of Sugar Creek, a tributary of the Sangamon River, near the southwest corner of McLean County. The Kick- apoos had, besides, villages west of Logansport and Lafayette, in the groves upon the prai- ries, and finally, a great capital village near what is well known as 'Old Town,' timber in West Township, McLean County, Iiiinois. These last were particularly obnoxious to the pioneer settlers, of Kentucky, because the Indians, living or finding a refuge in them, made frequent and exasperating raids across the Ohio, where they would murder men and women, and carry off captive children, to say nothing of the les- ser crimes of burning houses and stealing hors- es."-H. W. Beckwith's "Illinois and Indiana Indians," page 125.
641
HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
this case by the sons of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Kentucky, whose fathers had fought out the claims of their race to any place upon the continent, with these same Indians at the Fallen Timbers, at Fort Meigs and at the Thames, were forever abandoned. So far as is known, these treaties were well observed on the part of the Indians, who soon there- after removed to the West, a small remnant remaining about the headwaters of the Sanga- mon and Mackinaw Rivers.
The removal of the former rightful owners did not, however, put an end to Indian visits nor to a partial occupancy, though it did re- move from the adventurous pioneer the fear of hostile encounters. He knew that the suc- cess of American arms had established in the savage breast a wholesome fear of the white man's resources, and that there was some prob- ability of the observance of treaties of peace.
Later the Pottawatomies of the Kankakee, in their annual hunts, regularly visited this country, as they had probably done for ages before. It was these latter Indians, with the addition of an occasional visitor from other tribes, who were known to the earlier settlers of this county, as hereinafter told.
That this county was often visited by these people, and that the immediate site of Ur- bana and other favorite camping places on the Okaw, the Sangamon and the Salt Fork, were the scenes of many a camp and bivouac, there is abundant proof in the traditions of the early settlers of this county, some of whom yet remain to verify, from their own recollections, the truth of this claim. (1)
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 occupancy-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
early settlers, that the corn-hills of the In- dian 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 af- forded an abundance of water to the camp- ers 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 home, though they frequently shared it with these returning Indian visitors. This was a point having great attractions for the latter.
Indian trinkets and ornaments of bone and metal were often picked up in the neighbor- hood of this spring by the whites, after settle- ments 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.
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 upon the east bank of the stream. There they often camped in the autumn and awaited the coming of deer and other game, when driven by the prairie fires from the open coun- try into the timber. To this day the plow upon that ground turns up stone-axes and ar- row-heads, left there by these long ago tenants of the prairies. The cabinet of Captain G. W. B. Sadorus contains many of these and other relics. Even after the settlement of the coun- try, the Indians followed the practice of here awaiting the annual coming of their prey.
Many were the incidents told by the earli- est settlers about the Big Grove-few of whom yet remain-in connection with the visits made ·here by the Pottawatomies, 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 relin- quished their rights.
(1)"They (the Pottawatomies) always trav- eled in indian file, upon well beaten trails, con- necting by the most direct routes, prominent points and trading posts. These native high- ways served as guides to early settlers, who followed them with as much confidence as we now do the roads laid out and worked by civi- lized man.
"I have the means of approximating the time when they (the Pottawatomies) came into ex- clusive possession here. That occurred upon the total extinction of the Illinois, which must have been somewhere between 1766 and 1770."- "Sketch of the Pottawatomies," by Judge Ca-
ton, page 12.
642
HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
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 enquirers of later years of any hostile or un- friendly acts from these people; but, on the contrary, from all accounts they avoided do- ing any harm and were frequently helpful to the newcomers.
Our early settlers around and in these tim- ber belts and groves well remembered many of their Indian visitors by name, and the writer has listened with great interest to many en- thusiastically told stories from them of per- sonal contact with these people. Particular mention was made by many of a Potta- watomie chief named "Shemauger," as pro- nounced by them, who was also known by the name of "Old Soldier."(1) Shemauger often vis- ited the site of Urbana after the whites came, and for some years after 1824. He claimed it as his birth-place, 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 Pyth- ias is now situated. Besides these trees, there were others in the neighborhood of the creek, which made this a favorite and most conven- ient 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. The win-
ter 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 neighbor- hood of Henry Dyson's, about two miles north of Urbana. In another chapter is told the story of the death of Isham Cook, and of the kindness to his family of a band of Indians who were encamped on the creek not far from the encampment of the next winter, above al- luded to.
Another favorite camping ground of She- mauger was at a point known as the "Clay Bank," on the northwest quarter of Section 3 of Urbana Township-sometimes called "Cle- ment'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 them- selves by cutting, with their tomahawks, mor- tices into two contiguous trees, into which mortices they inserted poles cut the proper length. 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, when the weather was warm and sultry, to catch the breezes and to escape the annoyance of the mosquitoes. He saw the bucks thus comfortably situated upon a scaf- fold in the tops of the trees, while their squaws were engaged in the domestic duties of the camp on the ground below. Thirty-five years or more ago trees from near the Clay Bank were cut and sawed into lumber at the nearby mill of John Smith, when these mortices, over- grown 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.
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