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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 indicated by holding his ramrod horizontally above his head, and said that many wild beasts, elk, deer and buffalo, per- ished under the snow. To this fact within his
(1)This name is spelled "Shemagua" where signed to treaties made by this tribe, and in the language of the Pottawatomies, means "Old Soldier." by which name he was also known.
643
HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
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 company 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 am- bitious 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.
Shemauger was, in 1830, about seventy-five years of age, and had, in his time, participated in many of the Indian wars with the whites, and, with this 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. Follow- ing the Black Hawk War his tribe-or the remnant of them remaining east of the Missis- sippi River-went west and were seen here no more.
In the summer of 1832, before the organiza- tion 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 num- ber 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 a little apprehension among the few inhabitants around the Big Grove, al- though 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, consisting of Stephen Boyd, Jacob Smith, Gabe Rice and Elias Stamey, was appointed by the white settlers, charged with the duty of hav- ing a "talk" with the red men. The commit- tee went to the camp, and mustering their lit- tle 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 po- nies, papooses and squaws and left, greatly to the relief of the settlers. (1)
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, and made a general stam- pede from the country imminent. Like reports of threatened danger were rife among the San- gamon settlers; but in their case the supposed hostiles were camped 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 ap- prehended attack. (2)
It was soon ascertained in all the settlements that the reports were false, the supposed "hos- tiles" 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.
The Nox family settled near where the vil- lage of Sidney is situated, about 1828, and then and for some years thereafter, the Pottawato- mies in considerable numbers 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. The tribe was
(1)"During the spring and autumn, the Indi- ans (Delawares, Kickapoos and Pottawatomies), occupied themselves in hunting through the country, killing squirrels and wild turkeys in the groves, deer and grouse on the prairies and bear on the Little Wabash River. About the first of March they usually returned toward the Kankakee for the purpose of making maple su- gar."-Urbana (Ill.), Democrat, December 21, 1867.
(2) The story of this affair was told the writ- er by James W. Boyd, then a child at his fath- er's house.
644
HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
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 manufacture 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 cof- fin 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. (1)
It is safe to conjecture that many of -the visits of these people to this locality were the result of a sentimental love for the scenes of their early years, to which feeling the wild Indian is as greatly subject as his more im- pressible white brother.
"It is the spot I came to seek- My father's ancient burial-place, Ere from these vales, ashamed and weak, Withdrew our wasted race. It is the spot-I knew it well- Of which our old traditions tell."
About 1832 a large body of Indians (be- lieved to have been Miamis), nine hundred in number, in removing from their reserva- tion in Indiana to the Western Territo- ries, passed through Champaign County, crossing the Salt Fork at Prather's Ford, a mile or so above the village of St. Joseph, thence by the north side of the Big Grove to Newcomb's Ford, and by Cheney's Grove. It is said the caravan extended from Prath- er's Ford to Adkins' Point as the northern extremity of Big
Grove was then called. These Indians were entirely friendly to the whites and encamped two days at the Point for rest, where the settlers gathered around them for trade and to enjoy their sports.
In the winter of 1852-53 came a company of braves from the West through Urbana, on their way to Washington to have a "talk" with the President. While stopping here one of their number sickened and, died, and was buried in the old cemetery at Urbana. His comrades greatly mourned him, and planted at the head of his grave a board, upon which were divers cabalistic decorations. After
committing his body to the grave his com- rades blazed a road with their tomahawks to the Bone Yard branch, to guide the dead man's thirsty spirit to the water.
Early white settlers were attracted to ob- serve 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 their dead 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 thus seen 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.(1)
After the close of the Black Hawk War, about 1833, the Government insisted upon the removal from Illinois of all Indians, of what- ever name or nationality, to prevent a recur- - rence of Indian troubles east of the Mississippi, and they were seen here no more.
Nothing remains on the face of this coun- try now to remind us of the fact that, less than one century since, it was in the hands of a powerful and aggressive people who suc- cessfully bade defiance to the most powerful nations of Europe for two hundred years. They built no temples nor monuments as re-
minders of their presence. The few roads or trails over the prairies which marked their lines of travel, have either been obliterated by the plow of the white man or have been covered over by the grades of railroads or wagon roads, made for his convenience. Oc- casionally a stone arrow-head or axe is picked up in the haunts of the red man hereabouts; but, with these exceptions, the memory of him has well nigh perished. In the usual and looked-for course of events, the time is not far off when the last of the race will have passed to the "Happy Hunting Ground" of In-
(1)These facts were told the writer by Mr. Solomon Nox, who died some years since.
(1) For this statement the writer is indebted to information received from Amos Johnson many years since.
V
645
HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
dian tradition, and the memory of them will live only in the written story now almost closed.
1
The Illinois Indians were all placed upon reservations in Eastern Kansas, where they remained until after the organization of the Territory and their lands were wanted for farms for white men, when all were remitted to the Indian Territory upon small allot- ments. (1)
CHAPTER V.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS.
SIZE OF COUNTY AND POSITION-TOPOGRAPHY-KAS-
KASKIA RIVER-SALT FORK-SANGAMON - GRAND PRAIRIE- GROVES OF TIMBER AND THEIR ORIGIN- GLACIERS-BOULDERS-DRAINAGE-SWAMP LANDS -THE PRAIRIE IN SUMMER AND IN WINTER- COAL DEPOSITS WANTING - ARTESIAN WELLS- SINK-HOLES-DELUSIONS OF FRENCH AS TO PRE- CIOUS METALS-BEAVER DAMS-EXTREMES OF HEAT AND COLD-THE "COLD MONDAY" OF 1836-THE DEEP SNOW-THE MORAINES OF THE COUNTY.
By section lines Champaign County is thirty-six miles from north to south, and twenty-eight from east to west; although a close survey would show these distances to vary somewhat, owing to the excess or diminu- tion in size of some sections.
The county lies almost wholly in the survey made from the Third Principal Meridian, and embraces Townships seventeen to twenty-two north of the Base Line, in Ranges seven, eight, nine, ten and eleven east of the meridian. It also embraces one-half of Range fourteen west of the Second Principal Meridian, for its en- tire length north and south.
The county is bisected by the fortieth par- allel of latitude north from the equator, which crosses the county about four miles south of the court house, and it lies wholly between the eleventh and twelfth degrees of longi- tude west from Washington.
The point of the greatest altitude in the
county, as ascertained by the surveys of the Illinois Central Railroad, is near the village of Ludlow, in the north part of the county, being 100 feet above the level of Lake Michi- gan, or 830 feet above the ocean level. A topographic survey, made under the direction of Prof. C. W. Rolfe, of the University of Illi- nois, in 1893, found the village of Gifford to occupy the highest point in the county of any railroad station, being 810 feet above sea level. The lowest point in the county, as ascertained by this survey, is where the Salt Fork(1) leaves the county about two miles northeast of the village of Homer, in Ogden Township, which is shown to be 600 feet above sea level, or 210 feet lower than at Gifford. (2) The aver- age altitude of the county above the ocean level is about 718 feet, as shown by the above mentioned surveys.
Within its territory the Kaskaskia River, which empties into the Mississippi, the Em- barras, which empties into the Wabash, the Salt Fork of the Vermilion and the Little Ver-
(1)So called because of the salt springs found upon it near its junction with the Vermilion, which were largely used by Indians and early white settlers for their supply of salt.
(2) The following table of altitudes of different points in this county is taken from a bulletin issued from Illinois State Laboratory of Natur- al History in 1895, and is the result of observa- tions made under the direction of Prof. C. W. Rolfe, of the University of Illinois. The fig- ures show the elevation of the point above the sea-level, as shown by observations taken, (if the point is a railroad station), from the level of the track; if not a railroad sta- tion, the location of the postoffice in the years 1891 and 1892 was the point of observation. For the sections named in the table, the eleva- tion of the highest point in the section is given:
Town. Altitude.
Town.
Altitude.
Bondville
. 718
Penfield
728
Broadlands
682
Pesotum
715
Champaign
737
Philo
727
Deers
688
Rantoul
756
Dillsburgh
744
Rising
731
Dewey
731
Sadorus
691
Dickerson
745
Savoy
737
Fisher
721
Seymour
700
Foosland
737
St. Joseph
671
Gifford
810
Staley
745
Homer
661
Sidney
649
Howard
741
Thomasboro
734
Tolono
733
Leverett
731
Tomlinson
727
Ludlow
770
Urbana
718
Longview
. 678
Flatville
710
Mayview . 687
Parkville
660
Mahomet
.709
Royal
725
Myra
684
Sellers
718
Ogden
.673
Shiloh Center
730
Sec. 17, T. 22 N., R. 10 E. 820
13,
R. 11 E. 750
29, T. 21 N.,
R. 14 W. 820
3, T. 18 N.,
R. 8 E. 755
R. 7 E. 690
36,
R.
8, T. 17, N., R 14 W. 731
X
(1)"The Kickapoos of the Vermilion were the . last to emigrate. They lingered in Illinois on the waters of the Embarras, the Vermilion and its northwest tributaries, until 1832 and 1833, when they joined a body of their people upon a reservation set apart for their use west of Fort Leavenworth."-H. W. Beckwith's "Illinois and Indiana Indians," page 137.
3,
4 4
9 E. 770
Ivesdale
679
646
HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
-
milion River-also confluents of the Wabash- take their rise; while the Sangamon River, which discharges finally through the Illinois into the Mississippi, and the Middle Fork of the Vermilion, both take their rise upon con- tiguous lands in McLean and Ford Counties, and, passing through Champaign, drain con- siderable portions of it. It will thus be seen that the western third of the county drains into the Mississippi, while the remainder drains to the Wabash.
It will be inferred from this rehearsal of facts that, while the lands of the county are mostly level, they are higher than those of neighboring counties east, south and west of it. Only one point between Ludlow and Chi- cago-Loda-is higher than the former, and that by only ten feet.
The county is situated entirely within what is known as the "Grand Prairie of the West;" so called by the early French explorers, on account of its great expanse, extending as they found from the forests along the western side of the Wabash, on the east, to the Rocky Mountains on the west, with but limited tim- ber belts and isolated groves between. (1)
It has been estimated by early observers of the county that about one-fifth of the surface of Champaign County was originally covered with native forests, but this estimate was
-
(1)"Grand Prairie .- Under this general name is embraced the prairie country lying between the waters which fall into the Mississippi, and those which enter the Wabash River. It does not consist of one vast tract, boundless to the vision. and uninhabitable for want of timber, but is made up of continuous tracts. with points of timber projecting inward, and long arms of prairie extending between the creeks and smaller streams. The southern points of the Grand Prairie are found in the northeastern parts of Jackson County, and extend in a north- eastern course between the streams of various widths, from one to twelve miles, through Per- ry, Washington, Jefferson, Marion, the eastern part of Fayette, Effingham, through the western parts of Coles, into Champaign and Iroquois counties, where it becomes connected with the prairies that project eastward from the Illinois River and its tributaries. A large arm lies in Marion County, between the waters of Crooked Creek and the East fork of the Kaskaskia Riv- er, where the Vincennes road passes through in its longest direction.
"Much the largest part of the Grand Prairie is gently undulating; but of the southern por- tion considerable tracts are flat, and of rather inferior soil. No insurmountable obstacle ex- ists to its future population. No portion of it is more than six or eight miles distant from timber, and coal in abundance, is found in vari- ous parts. Those who have witnessed the changes produced upon a prairie surface within twenty or thirty years, consider these extensive prairies as offering no serious impediment to the future growth of the state."-Peck's "Gazetteer of Illinois" (1837), page 21.
.
probably too large. The areas of native for- ests were usually confined to the courses of streams, although some isolated groves were found upon high points of land, as at Linn Grove, in Sidney Township, and Mink Grove, in Rantoul Township. The largest bodies of native timber were those found along the San- gamon River, in the west part of the county, and upon the Salt Fork, including the Big Grove at the geographical center of the county, and the timber along that stream in the east- ern part. (1)
The presence here and there all over the State of isolated groves and belts of timber land, with the well known tendency of all lands to revert to a forest condition, is not hard to understand and explain. It will be seen by observation that, wherever such a grove or belt of timber is found, there will also be found a protector or proximate cause in the presence of water, either in the form of ponds or of a running stream, generally situated upon the south or west side of such bodies of timber. The explanation is found in the well-known fact that the au- tumnal winds of the country, which, before its settlement and subjection, drove before them the prairie fires, came from the south and west, and if no obstruction was met in the way of a stream or wet marsh, drove the fires widespread and destructive, in advance of them. Thus, consult any of the groves or belts of timber in Champaign County, as the Mink Grove at Rantoul; the Linn Grove in Sidney Township; the Lost Grove in Ayers Township; the Big Grove at Urbana; the Bur Oak Grove or Hickory Grove in St. Joseph and Ogden Townships; or the belts of timber known as Salt Fork timber or the Sangamon timber, as they were found by the first com- ers, and it will be seen that all of these bodies of timber are protected upon the south or west side-or both, in the case of the iso- lated groves-by ponds of water or wet prai- ries, or in case of the timber belts, by the running streams. In the case of the Salt Fork, both from the head waters of the west branch, in Somer Township, to the bend to the eastward at Urbana, and from the junc-
(1)"Where a tough sward of the prairie is once formed, timber will not take root. Destroy this by the plough, or by any other method, and it is soon converted into forest land."-Peck's "Ga- zetteer of Illinois" (1837), page 8.
1
647
HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
tion of the two principal branches near the village of St. Joseph, south to near Sidney, the timber line is close to the stream on the west, while upon the opposite side, in both instances, for a mile or more, the timber, in the greatest luxuriance, stretches out to the east. The Big Grove owes its existence as clearly to the protection given on its western border by a stream of living water, as it does its destruction to the coming of the white set- tler. So, the fine body of timber along the east and north sides of the Salt Fork, from St. Joseph to the junction of the creek with its fellows in the formation of the Vermilion River, owes its existence to the protection given against the attacks of the fire fiend driven from the south and west annually, since the growth of the prairie grass upon which it fed. These ponds and streams have said, to the Fiend, for all these ages, "Thus far shalt thou come and no farther." So the county owes the presence of these groves, which did so much for it by the invitation to early set- tlement, to the streams and ponds near their margins, which ponds, in the fullness of time, yielded to the early settler their quota of fever and ague.
Many locations in the county furnish abun- dant evidence of the work done by that great- est of transportation agencies, the glacier of the unknown past. Boulders from many dif- ferent ledges in the far north, and of every size, from the pebble found in the gravel-pit to the large boulder of many tons, are found scattered over the surface of the prairie or are dug from the ground where excavations are made. It is not uncommon to find boul- ders of considerable size upon the prairie, but the pebble is rarely found except in layers of gravel and sand, underlying some land swell, in the prairie or timber land, generally the latter, and near some stream, the position and form of the deposits showing unmistak- ably the agency of the floods of the past in shaping the deposit, as well as in preparing the material for it. The largest of these strange visitors seen by the writer are two immense boulders, one in the north part of the county, lying upon the lawn in front of the home of John Roughton in Ludlow Town- ship, and the other in the sugar camp of the late William Sadorus, near the Okaw River in Sadorus Township. Either of these rocks
would probably weigh not less than ten tons. Another stone, less in size but of immense proportions, was dug up and removed from the cellar of the Kerr residence, just beyond the northern limits of Urbana, in Section 8. Another stone, said to be larger than either of those above mentioned, is to be seen upon the northeast quarter of Section 28, in Philo Township, where Dr. Bartholow, who once owned the farm, dug deeply about the mon- ster, enough to learn that it was much larger below than above the surface, and altogether too large to be removed or sunk out of the way of the plow.(1)
Many ridges and knolls in the county are, by authorities upon geology, attributed to the agency of the glaciers, and are called "mo- raines," notably such elevations as the Blue Mound in Stanton Township. How the regu- lar layers of the sand and gravel found in these deposits are to be reconciled with the force and violence necessary to the creation, by glacial action, of moraines does not appear from this theory.
The limestone boulders found on the sur- face well served the purpose of early settlers in the manufacture of lime, for they were gathered up in early times and burned in extemporized kilns, for building purposes. One of these kilns existed in the bluff a few feet north of the Wabash depot in Urbana, fifty years since. No ledge of rock of any kind has ever fallen under the eye of the writer in Champaign County, and it is almost cer-
(1)"Scattered over the surface of our prai- ries, are large masses of rock, of granite for- mation, roundish in form, usually called by the people "lost rocks." They will weigh from one thousand to ten or twelve thousand pounds, and are entirely detached, and frequently are found several miles distant from any quarry. Nor has there ever been a quarry of granite discov- ered in the state. These stones are denominated bowlders, in mineralogy. That they exist in va- rious parts of Illinois is an undoubted truth; and that they are of a species of granite is equally true, as I have specimens to show, They usually lie on the surface, or are practically im- bedded in the soil of our prairies, which is un- questionably of diluvial formation. How they came here is a question of difficult solution." -Peck's "Gazetteer," (1857), page 17.
"The lost rocks," or bowlders scattered over the surface of an evident diluvial deposit, are a curiosity. They are in great numbers towards the heads of the Kaskaskia and San- gamon rivers, and become more numerous and are found at various depths in the soil, as the. traveller passes northward along the great prairies. Indeed the geological formation of the whole state, presents a rich field for inves- tigation in this science."-Id., page 34.
648
HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
tain that none exists except at great distances below the surface.
' The original forests, which have been greatly depleted, and in some cases nearly destroyed, by the demands made upon them for farm uses and railroad ties, consisted of the usual varieties of oak, walnut, hickory, sugar and soft maple, linden, elm (white and red), ash, hackberry, sycamore and ironwood, but neither poplar nor beach as found in the near-by for- ests of Indiana.
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