Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of St. Clair County, Volume I, Part 50

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897. ed. cn; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913. jt. ed. cn; Wilderman, Alonzo St. Clair, 1839-1904, ed; Wilderman, Augusta A., jt. ed
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 698

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at Kaskaskia on the Mississippi, twenty-seven years later.

PERIOD OF FRENCH OCCUPATION .- As may be readily inferred from the methods of French colonization, the first permanent settlements gathered about the missions at Cahokia and Kas- kaskia, or rather were parts of them. At later periods, but during the French occupation of the country, other villages were established, the most important being St. Philip and Prairie du Rocher; all of these being located in the fertile valley now known as the "American Bottom," between the older towns of Cahokia and Kaskas- kia. There were several Indian villages in the vicinity of the French settlements, and this became, for a time, the most populous locality in the Mississippi Valley and the center of an active trade carried on with the settlements near the mouth of the Mississippi. Large quantities of the products of the country, such as flour, bacon, pork, tallow, lumber, lead, peltries, and even wine, were transported in keel-boats or batteaus to New Orleans; rice, manufactured tobacco, cotton goods and such other fabrics as the simple wants of the people required, being brought back in return. These boats went in convoys of seven to twelve in number for mutual protection, three months being required to make a trip, of which two were made annually-one in the spring and the other in the autumn.

The French possessions in North America went under the general name of "New France, " but their boundaries were never clearly defined, though an attempt was made to do so through Commission- ers who met at Paris, in 1752. They were under- stood by the French to include the valley of the St. Lawrence, with Labrador and Nova Scotia, to the northern boundaries of the British colonies; the region of the Great Lakes; and the Valley of the Mississippi from the headwaters of the Ohio westward to the Pacific Ocean and south to the Gulf of Mexico. While these claims were con- tested by England on the east and Spain on the southwest, they comprehended the very heart of the North American continent, a region unsur- passed in fertility and natural resources and now the home of more than half of the entire population of the American Republic. That the French should have reluctantly yielded up so magnificent a domain is natural. And yet they did this by the treaty of 1763, sur- rendering the region east of the Mississippi (except a comparatively small district near the mouth of that stream) to England, and the remainder to Spain-an evidence of the straits to

which they had been reduced by a long series of devastating wars. (See French and Indian Wars.)

In 1712 Antoine Crozat, under royal letters- patent, obtained from Louis XIV. of France a monopoly of the commerce, with control of the country, "from the edge of the sea (Gulf of Mexico) as far as the Illinois." This grant hav- ing been surrendered a few years later, was re- newed in 1717 to the "Company of the West," of which the celebrated John Law was the head, and under it jurisdiction was exercised over the trade of Illinois. On September 27 of the same year (1717), the "Illinois Country," which had been a dependency of Canada, was incorporated with Louisiana and became part of that province. Law's company received enlarged powers under the name of the "East Indies Company," and although it went out of existence in 1721 with the opprobrious title of the "South Sea Bubble," leaving in its wake hundreds of ruined private fortunes in France and England, it did much to stimulate the population and development of the Mississippi Valley. During its existence (in 1718) New Orleans was founded and Fort Chartres erected, being named after the Duc de Chartres, son of the Regent of France. Pierre Duque Bois- briant was the first commandant of Illinois and superintended the erection of the fort. (See Fort Chartres.)

One of the privileges granted to Law's com- pany was the importation of slaves; and under it, in 1721, Philip F. Renault brought to the country five hundred slaves, besides two hundred artisans, mechanics and laborers. Two years later he received a large grant of land, and founded the village of St. Philip, a few miles north of Fort Chartres. Thus Illinois became slave territory before a white settlement of any sort existed in what afterward became the slave State of Missouri.

During 1721 the country under control of the East Indies Company was divided into nine civil and military districts, each presided over by a commandant and a judge, with a superior coun- cil at New Orleans. Of these, Illinois, the largest and, next to New Orleans, the most populous, was the seventh. It embraced over one-half the present State, with the country west of the Mis- ssisippi, between the Arkansas and the 43d degree of latitude, to the Rocky Mountains, and included the present States of Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and parts of Arkansas and Colorado. In 1732, the Indies Company surrendered its charter, and Louisiana, including the District of Illinois,

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was afterwards governed by officers appointed directly by the crown. (See French Governors.)

As early as September, 1699, an attempt was made by an expedition fitted out by the English Government, under command of Captains Barr and Clements, to take possession of the country about the mouth of the Mississippi on the ground of prior discovery; but they found the French under Bienville already in possession at Biloxi, and they sailed away without making any further effort to carry the scheme into effect. Mean- while, in the early part of the next century, the English were successful in attaching to their interests the Iroquois, who were the deadly foes of the French, and held possession of Western New York and the region around the headwaters of the Ohio River, extending their incursions against the Indian allies of the French as far west as Illinois. The real struggle for territory be- tween the English and French began with the formation of the Ohio Land Company in 1748-49, and the grant to it by the English Government of half a million acres of land along the Ohio River, with the exclusive right of trading with the Indian tribes in that region. Out of this grew the establishment, in the next two years, of trading posts and forts on the Miami and Maumee in Western Ohio, followed by the protracted French and Indian War, which was prosecuted with varied fortunes until the final defeat of the French at Quebec, on the thirteenth of Septem- ber, 1759, which broke their power on the Ameri- can continent. Among those who took part in this struggle, was a contingent from the French garrison of Fort Chartres. Neyon de Villiers, commandant of the fort, was one of these, being the only survivor of seven brothers who partici- pated in the defense of Canada. Still hopeful of saving Louisiana and Illinois, he departed with a few followers for New Orleans, but the treaty of Paris, Feb. 10, 1763, destroyed all hope, for by its terms Canada, and all other territory east of the Mississippi as far south as the northern boundary of Florida, was surrendered to Great Britain, while the remainder, including the vast territory between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains, was given up to Spain.

Thus. the "Illinois Country" fell into the hands of the British, although the actual transfer of Fort Chartres and the country dependent upon it did not take place until Oct. 10, 1765, when its veteran commandant, St. Ange-who had come from Vincennes to assume command on the retirement of Villiers, and who held it faithfully for the conqueror - surrendered it to Capt.

Thomas Stirling as the representative of the Eng- lish Government. It is worthy of note that this was the last place on the North American con- tinent to lower the French flag.

BRITISH OCCUPATION .- The delay of the British in taking possession of the "Illinois Country," after the defeat of the French at Quebec and the surrender of their possessions in America by the treaty of 1763, was due to its isolated position and the difficulty of reaching it with sufficient force to establish the British authority. The first attempt was made in the spring of 1764, when Maj. Arthur Loftus, starting from Pensa- cola, attempted to ascend the Mississippi with a force of four hundred regulars, but, being met by a superior Indian force, was compelled to retreat. In August of the same year, Capt. Thomas Morris was dispatched from Western Pennsylvania with a small force "to take posses- sion of the Illinois Country." This expedition got as far as Fort Miami on the Maumee, when its progress was arrested, and its commander nar- rowly escaped death. The next attempt was made in 1765, when Maj. George Croghan, a Dep- uty Superintendent of Indian affairs whose name has been made historical by the celebrated speech of the Indian Chief Logan, was detailed from Fort Pitt, to visit Illinois. Croglian being detained, Lieut. Alexander Frazer, who was to accompany him, proceeded alone. Frazer reached Kaskas- kia, but met with so rough a reception from both the French and Indians, that he thought it advisable to leave in disguise, and escaped by descending the Mississippi to New Orleans. Croghan started on his journey on tlie fifteenth of May, proceeding down the Ohio, accompanied by a party of friendly Indians, but having been captured near the mouth of the Wabash, he finally returned to Detroit without reaching his destination. The first British official to reach Fort Chartres was Capt. Thomas Stirling. De- scending the Ohio with a force of one hundred men, he reached Fort Chartres, Oct. 10, 1765, and received the surrender of the fort from the faith- ful and courteous St. Ange. It is estimated that at least one-third of the French citizens, includ- ing the more wealthy, left rather than become British subjects. Those about Fort Chartres left almost in a body. Some joined the French colonies on the lower Mississippi, while others, crossing the river, settled in St. Genevieve, then in Spanish territory. Much the larger number followed St. Ange to St. Louis, which had been established as a trading post by Pierre La Clede, during the previous year, and which now received

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what, in these later days, would be called a great "boom."

Captain Stirling was relieved of his command at Fort Chartres, Dec. 4, by Maj. Robert Farmer. Other British Commandants at Fort Chartres were Col. Edward Cole, Col. John Reed, Colonel Wilkins, Capt. Hugh Lord and Francois de Ras- tel, Chevalier de Rocheblave. The last liad been an officer in the French army, and, having resided at Kaskaskia, transferred his allegiance on occu- pation of the country by the British. He was the last official representative of the British Govern- ment in Illinois.

The total population of the French villages in Illinois, at the time of their transfer to England, has been estimated at about 1,600, of which 700 were about Kaskaskia and 450 in the vicinity of Cahokia. Captain Pittman estimated the popu- lation of all the French villages in Illinois and on the Wabash, at the time of his visit in 1770, at about 2,000. Of St. Louis-or "Paincourt," as it was called-Captain Pittman said: "There are about forty private houses and as many families." Most of these, if not all, had emigrated from the French villages. In fact, although nominally in Spanish territory, it was essentially a French town, protected, as Pittman said, by "a French garrison" consisting of "a Captain-Commandant, two Lieutenants, a Fort Major, one Sergeant. one Corporal and twenty men."

ACTION OF CONTINENTAL CONGRESS .- The first official notice taken of the "Illinois Country" by the Continental Congress, was the adoption by that body, July 13, 1775, of an act creating three Indian Departments-a Northern, Middle and Southern. Illinois was assigned to the second, with Benjamin Franklin and James Wilson, of Pennsylvania, and Patrick Henry, of Virginia, as Commissioners. In April, 1776, Col. George Morgan, who had been a trader at Kaskaskia, was appointed agent and successor to these Commis- sioners, with headquarters at Fort Pitt. The promulgation of the Declaration of Independence, on the Fourth of July, 1776, and the events im- mediately preceding and following that event, directed attention to the colonies on the Atlantic coast; yet the frontiersmen of Virginia were watching an opportunity to deliver a blow to the Government of King George in a quarter where it was least expected, and where it was destined to have an immense influence upon the future of the new nation, as well as that of the American continent.

COL. GEORGE ROGERS CLARK'S EXPEDITION. -During the year 1777, Col. George Rogers Clark,

a native of Virginia, then scarcely twenty-five years of age, having conceived a plan of seizing the settlements in the Mississippi Valley, sent trusty spies to learn the sentiments of the people and the condition of affairs at Kaskaskia. The report brought to him gave him encouragement, and, in December of the same year, he laid before Gov. Patrick Henry, of Virginia, his plans for the reduction of the posts in Illinois. These were approved, and, on Jan. 2, 1778, Clark received authority to recruit seven companies of fifty men each for three months' service, and Governor Henry gave him $6,000 for expenses. Proceeding to Fort Pitt, he succeeded in recruiting three companies, who were directed to rendezvous at Corn Island, opposite the present city of Louis- ville. It has been claimed that, in order to deceive the British as to his real destination, Clark authorized the announcement that the object of the expedition was to protect the settle- ments in Kentucky from the Indians. At Corn Island another company was organized, making four in all, under the command of Captains Bow- man, Montgomery, Helm and Harrod, and having embarked on keel-boats, they passed the Falls of the Ohio, June 24. Reaching the island at the mouth of the Tennessee on the 28th, he was met by a party of eight American hunters, who had left Kaskaskia a few days before, and who, join- ing his command, rendered good service as guides. He disembarked his force at the mouth of a small creek one mile above Fort Massac, June 29, and, directing his course across the country, on the evening of the sixth day (July 4, 1778) arrived within three miles of Kaskaskia. The surprise of the unsuspecting citizens of Kas- kaskia and its small garrison was complete. His force having, under cover of darkness, been ferried across the Kaskaskia River, about a mile above the town, one detachment surrounded the town, while the other seized the fort, capturing Rocheblave and his little command without fir- ing a gun. The famous Indian fighter and hunter, Simon Kenton, led the way to the fort. This is supposed to have been what Captain Pitt- man called the "Jesuits' house," which had been sold by the French Government after the country was ceded to England, the Jesuit order having been suppressed. A wooden fort, erected in 1736, and known afterward by the British as Fort Gage, had stood on the bluff opposite the town, but, according to Pittman, this was burnt in 1766, and there is no evidence that it was ever rebuilt.

Clark's expedition was thus far a complete suc- cess. Rocheblave, proving recalcitrant, was

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placed in irons and sent as a prisoner of war to Williamsburg, while his slaves were confiscated, the proceeds of their sale being divided among Clark's troops. The inhabitants were easily conciliated, and Cahokia having been captured without bloodshed, Clark turned his attention to Vincennes. Through the influence of Pierre Gibault-the Vicar-General in charge at Kaskas- kia-the people of Vincennes were induced to swear allegiance to the United States, and, although the place was afterward captured by a British force from Detroit, it was, on Feb. 24, 1779, recaptured by Colonel Clark, together with a body of prisoners but little smaller than the attacking force, and $50,000 worth of prop- erty. (See Clark, Col. George Rogers.)

UNDER GOVERNMENT OF VIRGINIA .- Seldom in the history of the world have such important results been achieved by such insignificant instru- mentalities and with so little sacrifice of life, as in this almost bloodless campaign of the youthful conqueror of Illinois. Having been won largely through Virginia enterprise and valor and by material aid furnished through Governor Henry, the Virginia House of Delegates, in October, 1778, proceeded to assert the jurisdiction of that commonwealth over the settlements of the North- west, by organizing all the country west and north of the Ohio River into a county to be called "Illinois," (see Illinois County), and empowering the Governor to appoint a "County-Lieutenant or Commandant-in-Chief" to exercise civil author- ity during the pleasure of the appointing power. Thus "Illinois County" was older than the States of Ohio or Indiana, while Patrick Henry, the elo- quent orator of the Revolution, became ex-officio its first Governor. Col. John Todd, a citizen of Kentucky, was appointed "County-Lieutenant," Dec. 12, 1778, entering upon his duties in May following. The militia was organized, Deputy-Commandants for Kaskaskia and Cahokia appointed, and the first election of civil officers ever had in Illinois, was held under Colonel Todd's direction. His record-book, now in posses- sion of the Chicago Historical Society, shows that he was accustomed to exercise powers scarcely inferior to those of a State Executive. (See Todd, Col. John.)

In 1782 one "Thimothe Demunbrunt" sub- scribed himself as "Lt. comd'g par interim, etc." --- but the origin of his authority is not clearly understood. He assumed to act as Commandant until the arrival of Gov. Arthur St. Clair, first Territorial Governor of the Northwest Territory, in 1790. After the close of the Revolution, courts

ceased to be held and civil affairs fell into great disorder. "In effect, there was neither law nor order in the 'Illinois Country' for the seven years from 1783 to 1790."

During the progress of the Revolution, there were the usual rumors and alarms in the "Illinois Country" peculiar to frontier life in time of war. The country, however, was singularly exempt from any serious calamity suclı as a general massacre. One reason for this was the friendly relations which had existed between the French and their Indian neighbors previous to the con- quest, and which the new masters, after the cap- ture of Kaskaskia, took pains to perpetuate. Several movements were projected by the British and their Indian allies about Detroit and in Can- ada, but they were kept so busy elsewhere that they had little time to put their plans into execu- tion. One of these was a proposed movement from Pensacola against the Spanish posts on the lower Mississippi, to punish Spain for having engaged in the war of 1779, but the promptness with which the Spanish Governor of New Orleans proceeded to capture Fort Manchac, Baton Rouge and Natchez from their British possessors, con- vinced the latter that this was a "game at which two could play." In ignorance of these results, an expedition, 750 strong, composed largely of Indians, fitted out at Mackinaw under command of Capt. Patrick St. Clair, started in the early part of May, 1780, to co-operate with the expedition on the lower Mississippi, but intending to deal a destructive blow to the Illinois villages and the Spanish towns of St. Louis and St. Genevieve on the way. This expedition reached St. Louis, May 26, but Col. George Rogers Clark, having arrived at Cahokia with a small force twenty-four hours earlier, prepared to co-operate with the Spaniards on the western shore of the Mississippi, and the invading force confined their depredations to kill- ing seven or eight villagers, and then beat a hasty retreat in the direction they had come. These were the last expeditions organized to regain the "Country of the Illinois" or capture Spanish posts on the Mississippi.

EXPEDITIONS AGAINST FORT ST. JOSEPH .- An expedition of a different sort is worthy of mention in this connection, as it originated in Illinois. This consisted of a company of seventeen men, led by one Thomas Brady, a citizen of Cahokia, who, marching across the country, in the month of October, 1780, after the retreat of Sinclair, from St. Louis, succeeded in surprising and cap- turing Fort St. Joseph about where La Salle liad erected Fort Miami, near the mouth of the St.

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Joseph River, a hundred years before. Brady and his party captured a few British prisoners, and a large quantity of goods. On their return, while encamped on the Calumet, they were attacked by a band of Pottawatomies, and all were killed, wounded or taken prisoners except Brady and two others, who escaped. Early in January, 1781, a party consisting of sixty-five whites, organized from St. Louis and Cahokia, with some 200 Indians, and headed by Don Eugenio Pourre, a Spaniard, started on a second expedition against Fort St. Joseph. By silencing the Indians, whom they met on their way, with promises of plunder, they were able to reach the fort without discovery, captured it and, raising the Spanish flag, formally took possession in the name of the King of Spain. After retaining pos- session for a few days, the party returned to St. Louis, but in negotiating the treaty of peace at Paris, in 1783, this incident was made the basis of a claim put forth by Spain to ownership of the "Illinois Country" "by right of conquest."

THE TERRITORIAL PERIOD .- At the very outset of its existence, the new Government of the United States was confronted with an embarrass- ing question which deeply affected the interests of the territory of which Illinois formed a part. This was the claim of certain States to lands lying between their western boundaries and the Mississippi River, then the western boundary of the Republic. These claims were based either upon the terms of their original charters or upon the cession of lands by the Indians, and it was under a claim of the former character, as well as by right of conquest, that Virginia assumed to ex- ercise authority over the "Illinois Country" after its capture by the Clark expedition. This con- struction was opposed by the States which, from their geographical position or other cause, had no claim to lands beyond their own boundaries, and the controversy was waged with considerable bitterness for several years, proving a formidable obstacle to the ratification of the Articles of Con- federation. As early as 1779 the subject received the attention of Congress in the adoption of a resolution requesting the States having such claims to "forbear settling or issuing warrants for unappropriated lands or granting the same during the continuance of the present (Revolu- tionary) War." In the following year, New York authorized her Delegates in Congress to limit its boundaries in such manner as they might think expedient, and to cede to the Government its claim to western lands. The case was further com- plicated by the claims of certain land companies

which had been previously organized. New York filed her cession to the General Government of lands claimed by her in October, 1782, followed by Virginia nearly a year later, and by Massa- chusetts and Connecticut in 1785 and 1786. Other States followed somewhat tardily, Georgia being the last, in 1802. The only claims of this charac- ter affecting lands in Illinois were those of Vir- ginia covering the southern part of the State, and Connecticut and Massachusetts applying to the northern portion. It was from the splendid domain north and west of the Ohio thus acquired from Virginia and other States, that the North- west Territory was finally organized.

ORDINANCE OF 1787 .- The first step was taken in the passage by Congress, in 1784, of a resolution providing for the temporary government of the Western Territory, and this was followed three years later by the enactment of the celebrated Ordinance of 1787. While this latter document contained numerous provisions which marked a new departure in the science of free government -as, for instance, that declaring that "religion, morality and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged"-its crowning feature was the sixth article, as follows: "There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said Territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted."

Although there has been considerable contro- versy as to the authorship of the above and other provisions of this immortal document, it is worthy of note that substantially the same lan- guage was introduced in the resolutions of 1784, by a Delegate from a slave State-Thomas Jeffer- son, of Virginia-though not, at that time, adopted. Jefferson was not a member of the Congress of 1787 (being then Minister to France), and could have had nothing directly to do with the later Ordinance; yet it is evident that the principle which he had advocated finally received the approval of eight out of the thirteen States,- all that were represented in that Congress-includ- ing the slave States of Virginia, Delaware, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. (See Ordinance of 1787.)

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Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of St. Clair County, Volume I, Part 50

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897. ed. cn; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913. jt. ed. cn; Wilderman, Alonzo St. Clair, 1839-1904, ed; Wilderman, Augusta A., jt. ed Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 698

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897. ed. cn; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913. jt. ed. cn; Wilderman, Alonzo St. Clair, 1839-1904, ed; Wilderman, Augusta A., jt. ed
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 698