USA > Illinois > Winnebago County > Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Winnebago County, Volume I > Part 49
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From this it would appear that the country lying between the Illinois and the Mississippi Rivers to the west and northwest of the former, was not considered a part of the "Illinois Country," and
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this agrees generally with the records of the early French explorers, except that they regarded the region which comprehends the site of the present city of Chicago-the importance of which appears to have been appreciated from the first as a connecting link between the Lakes and the upper tributaries of the rivers falling into the Gulf of Mexico-as belonging thereto
ORIGIN OF THE NAME .- The "Country" appears to have derived its name from Inini, a word of Algonquin origin, signifying "the men," eu- phemized by the French into Illini with the suffix ois, signifying "tribe." The root of the term, applied both to the country and the Indians occupying it, has been still further defined as "a perfect man" (Haines on "Indian Names"), and the derivative has been used by the French chroniclers in various forms though always with the same signification-a signification of which the earliest claimants of the appellation, as well as their successors of a different race, have not failed to be duly proud.
BOUNDARIES AND AREA .- It is this region which gave the name to the State of which it constituted so large and important a part. Its boundaries, so far as the Wabash and the Ohio Rivers (as well as the Mississippi from the mouth of the Ohio to the mouth of the Illinois) are con- cerned, are identical with those given to the "Illinois Country" by Pittman. The State is bounded on the north by Wisconsin; on the east by Lake Michigan, the State of Indiana and the Wabash River; southeast by the Ohio, flowing between it and the State of Kentucky; and west and southwest by the Mississippi, which sepa- rates it from the States of Iowa and Missouri. A peculiarity of the Act of Congress defining the boundaries of the State, is the fact that, while the jurisdiction of Illinois extends to the middle of Lake Michigan and also of the channels of the Wabash and the Mississippi, it stops at the north bank of the Ohio River; this seems to have been a sort of concession on the part of the framers of the Act to our proud neighbors of the "Dark and Bloody Ground." Geographically, the State lies between the parallels of 36° 59' and 42° 30' north latitude, and the meridian of 10° 30' and 14° of longitude west from the city of Washington. From its extreme southern limit at the mouth of the Ohio to the Wisconsin boundary on the north, its estimated length is 385 miles, with an extreme breadth, from the Indiana State line to the Mis- sissippi River at a point between Quincy and Warsaw, of 218 miles. Owing to the tortuous course of its river and lake boundaries, which
comprise about three-fourths of the whole, its physical outline is extremely irregular. Between the limits described, it has an estimated area of 56,650 square miles, of which 650 square miles is water-the latter being chiefly in Lake Michigan. This area is more than one and one-half times that of all New England (Maine being excepted), and is greater than that of any other State east of the Mississippi, except Michigan, Georgia and Florida-Wisconsin lacking only a few hundred square miles of the same.
When these figures are taken into account some idea may be formed of the magnificence of the domain comprised within the limits of the State of Illinois-a domain larger in extent than that of England, more than one-fourth of that of all France and nearly half that of the British Islands, including Scotland and Ireland. The possibilities of such a country, possessing a soil unequaled in fertility, in proportion to its area, by any other State of the Union and with re- sources in agriculture, manufactures and com- merce unsurpassed in any country on the face of the globe, transcend all human conception.
STREAMS AND NAVIGATION .- Lying between the Mississippi and its chief eastern tributary, the Ohio, with the Wabash on the east, and inter- sected from northeast to southwest by the Illinois and its numerous affluents, and with no moun- tainous region within its limits, Illinois is at once one of the best watered, as well as one of the most level States in the Union. Besides the Sanga- mon, Kankakee, Fox and Des Plaines Rivers, chief tributaries of the Illinois, and the Kaskaskia draining the region between the Illinois and the Wabash, Rock River, in the northwestern portion of the State, is most important on account of its valuable water-power. All of these streams were regarded as navigable for some sort of craft, dur- ing at least a portion of the year, in the early history of the country, and with the magnificent Mississippi along the whole western border, gave to Illinois a larger extent of navigable waters than that of any other single State. Although practical navigation, apart from the lake and by natural water courses, is now limited to the Mis- sissippi, Illinois and Ohio-making an aggregate of about 1,000 miles-the importance of the smaller streams, when the people were dependent almost wholly upon some means of water com- munication for the transportation of heavy com- modities as well as for travel, could not be over-estimated, and it is not without its effect upon the productiveness of the soil, now that water transportation has given place to railroads.
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The whole number of streams shown upon the best maps exceeds 280.
TOPOGRAPHY .- In physical conformation the surface of the State presents the aspect of an inclined plane with a moderate descent in the general direction of the streams toward the south and southwest. Cairo, at the extreme southern end of the State and the point of lowest depres- sion, has an elevation above sea-level of about 300 feet, while the altitude of Lake Michigan at Chicago is 583 feet. The greatest elevation is reached near Scale's Mound in the northwestern part of the State-1,257 feet-while a spur from the Ozark Mountains of Missouri, projected across the southern part of the State, rises in Jackson and Union Counties to a height of over 900 feet. The eastern end of this spur, in the northeast corner of Pope County, reaches an elevation of 1,046 feet. South of this ridge, the surface of the country between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers was originally covered with dense forests. These included some of the most valuable species of timber for lumber manufacture, such as the different varieties of oak, walnut, poplar, ash, sugar-maple and cypress, besides elm, linden, hickory, honey-locust, pecan, hack-berry, cotton- wood, sycamore, sassafras, black-gum and beech. The native fruits included the persimmon, wild plum, grape and paw-paw, with various kinds of berries, such as blackberries, raspberries, straw- berries (in the prairie districts) and some others. Most of the native growths of woods common to the south were found along the streams farther north, except the cypress beech, pecan and a few others.
PRAIRIES .- A peculiar feature of the country, in the middle and northern portion of the State, which excited the amazement of early explorers, was the vast extent of the prairies or natural meadows. The origin of these has been attrib- uted to various causes, such as some peculiarity of the soil, absence or excess of moisture, recent upheaval of the surface from lakes or some other bodies of water, the action of fires, etc. In many sections there appears little to distinguish the soil of the prairies from that of the adjacent woodlands, that may not be accounted for by the character of their. vegetation and other causes, for the luxuriant growth of native grasses and other productions has demonstrated that they do not lack in fertility, and the readiness with which trees take root when artificially propa- gated and protected, has shown that there is nothing in the soil itself unfavorable to their growth. Whatever may have been the original
cause of the prairies, however, there is no doubt that annually recurring fires have had much to do in perpetuating their existence, and even extending their limits, as the absence of the same agent has tended to favor the encroachments of the forests. While originally regarded as an obstacle to the occupation of the country by a dense population, there is no doubt that their existence has contributed to its rapid develop- ment when it was discovered with what ease these apparent wastes could be subdued, and how productive they were capable of becoming when once brought under cultivation.
In spite of the uniformity in altitude of the State as a whole, many sections present a variety of surface and a mingling of plain and woodland of the most pleasing character. This is espe- cially the case in some of the prairie districts where the undulating landscape covered with rich herbage and brilliant flowers must have presented to the first explorers a scene of ravish- ing beauty, which has been enhanced rather than diminished in recent times by the hand of culti- vation. Along some of the streams also, espe- cially on the upper Mississippi and Illinois, and at some points on the Ohio, is found scenery of a most picturesque variety.
ANIMALS, ETC .- From this description of the country it will be easy to infer what must have been the varieties of the animal kingdom which here found a home. These included the buffalo, various kinds of deer, the bear, panther, fox, wolf, and wild-cat, while swans, geese and ducks covered the lakes and streams. It was a veritable paradise for game, both large and small, as well as for their native hunters. "One can scarcely travel," wrote one of the earliest priestly explor- ers, "without finding a prodigious multitude of turkeys, that keep together in flocks often to the number of ten hundred." Beaver, otter, and mink were found along the streams. Most of these, especially the larger species of game, have disappeared before the tide of civilization, but the smaller, such as quail, prairie chicken, duck and the different varieties of fish in the streams, pro- tected by law during certain seasons of the year, continue to exist in considerable numbers.
SOIL AND CLIMATE .- The capabilities of the soil in a region thus situated can be readily under- stood. In proportion to the extent of its surface, Illinois has a larger area of cultivable land than any other State in the Union, with a soil of supe- rior quality, much of it unsurpassed in natural fertility. This is especially true of the "American Bottom," a region extending a distance of ninety
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miles along the east bank of the Mississippi, from a few miles below Alton nearly to Chester, and of an average width of five to eight miles. This was the seat of the first permanent white settle- ment in the Mississippi Valley, and portions of it have been under cultivation from one hundred to one hundred and fifty years without exhaustion. Other smaller areas of scarcely less fertility are found both upon the bottom-lands and in the prairies in the central portions of the State.
Extending through five and one-half degrees of latitude, Illinois has a great variety of climate. Though subject at times to sudden alternations of temperature, these occasions have been rare since the country has been thoroughly settled. Its mean average for a series of years has been 48° in the northern part of the State and 56° in the southern, differing little from other States upon the same latitude. The mean winter temper- ature has ranged from 25° in the north to 34° in the south, and the summer mean from 67º in the north to 78° in the south. The extreme winter temperature has seldom fallen below 20° below zero in the northern portion, while the highest summer temperature ranges from 95° to 102°. The average difference in temperature between the northern and southern portions of the State is about 10°, and the difference in the progress of the seasons for the same sections, from four to six weeks. Such a wide variety of climate is favor- able to the production of nearly all the grains and fruits peculiar to the temperate zone.
CONTEST FOR OCCUPATION. - Three powers early became contestants for the supremacy on the North American Continent. The first of these was Spain, claiming possession on the ground of the discovery by Columbus; England, basing her claim upon the discoveries of the Cabots, and France, maintaining her right to a considerable part of the continent by virtue of the discovery and exploration by Jacques Cartier of the Gulf and River St. Lawrence, in 1534-35, and the settlement of Quebec by Champlain seventy-four years later. The claim of Spain was general, extending to both North and South America; and, while she early established her colonies in Mexico, the West Indies and Peru, the country was too vast and her agents too busy seeking for gold to interfere materially with her competitors. The Dutch, Swedes and Germans established small, though flourishing colonies, but they were not colonizers nor were they numeric- ally as strong as their neighbors, and their settle- ments were ultimately absorbed by the latter. Both the Spaniards and the French were zealous
in proselyting the aborigines, but while the former did not hesitate to torture their victims in order to extort their gold while claiming to save their souls, the latter were more gentle and beneficent in their policy, and, by their kindness, succeeded in winning and retaining the friend- ship of the Indians in a remarkable degree. They were traders as well as missionaries, and this fact and the readiness with which they adapted them- selves to the habits of those whom they found in possession of the soil, enabled them to make the most extensive explorations in small numbers and at little cost, and even to remain for un- limited periods among their aboriginal friends. On the other hand, the English were artisans and tillers of the soil with a due proportion engaged in commerce or upon the sea; and, while they were later in planting their colonies in Virginia and New England, and less aggressive in the work of exploration, they maintained a surer foothold on the soil when they had once estab- lished themselves. To this fact is due the per- manence and steady growth of the English colonies in the New World, and the virtual domi- nance of the Anglo-Saxon race over more than five-sevenths of the North American Continent- a result which has been illustrated in the history of every people that has made agriculture, manu- factures and legitimate commerce the basis of their prosperity.
EARLY EXPLORATIONS .- The French explorers were the first Europeans to visit the "Country of the Illinois," and, for nearly a century, they and their successors and descendants held undisputed possession of the country, as well as the greater part of the Mississippi Valley. It is true that Spain put in a feeble and indefinite claim to this whole region, but she was kept too busy else- where to make her claim good, and, in 1763, she relinquished it entirely as to the Mississippi Valley and west to the Pacific Ocean, in order to strengthen herself elsewhere.
There is a peculiar coincidence in the fact that, while the English colonists who settled about Massachusetts Bay named that region "New England," the French gave to their. possessions, from the St. Lawrence to the mouth of the Mis- sissippi, the name of "New France," and the Spaniards called all the region claimed by them, extending from Panama to Puget Sound, "New Spain." The boundaries of each were very indefi- nite and often conflicting, but were settled by tlie treaty of 1763.
As early as 1634, Jean Nicolet, coming by way of Canada, discovered Lake Michigan - then
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called by the French, "Lac des Illinois"-entered Green Bay and visited some of the tribes of Indians in that region. In 1641 zealous mission- aries had reached the Falls of St. Mary (called by the French "Sault Ste. Marie"), and, in 1658, two French fur-traders are alleged to have penetrated as far west as "La Pointe" on Lake Superior, where they opened up a trade with the Sioux Indians and wintered in the neighborhood of the Apostle Islands near where the towns of Ashland and Bayfield, Wis., now stand. A few years later (1665), Fathers Allouez and Dablon, French ınis- sionaries, visited the Chippewas on the southern shore of Lake Superior, and missions were estab- lished at Green Bay, Ste. Marie and La Pointe. About the same time the mission of St. Ignace was established on the north shore of the Straits of Mackinaw (spelled by the French "Michilli- macinac"). It is also claimed that the French traveler, Radisson, during the year of 1658-59, reached the upper Mississippi, antedating the claims of Joliet and Marquette as its discoverers by fourteen years. Nicholas Perrot, an intelli- gent chronicler who left a manuscript account of his travels, is said to have made extensive explor- ations about the head of the great lakes as far south as the Fox River of Wisconsin, between 1670 and 1690, and to have held an important conference with representatives of numerous tribes of Indians at Sault Ste. Marie in June, 1671. Perrot is also said to have made the first discovery of lead mines in the West.
Up to this time, however, no white man appears to have reached the "Illinois Country," though much had been heard of its beauty and its wealth in game. On May 17, 1673, Louis Joliet, an enter- prising explorer who had already visited the Lake Superior region in search of copper mines, under a commission from the Governor of Canada, in company with Father Jacques Marquette and five voyageurs, with a meager stock of provisions and a few trinkets for trading with the natives, set out in two birch-bark canoes from St. Ignace on a tour of exploration southward. Coasting along the west shore of Lake Michigan and Green Bay and through Lake Winnebago, they reached the country of the Mascoutins on Fox River, ascended that stream to the portage to the Wis- consin, then descended the latter to the Mis- sissippi, which they discovered on June 17. Descending the Mississippi, which they named "Rio de la Conception," they passed the mouth of the Des Moines, where they are supposed to have encountered the first Indians of the Illinois tribes, by whom they were hospitably enter-
tained. Later they discovered a rude painting upon the rocks on the east side of the river, which, from the description, is supposed to have been the famous "Piasa Bird," which was still to be seen, a short distance above Alton, within the present generation. (See Piasa Bird, The Legend of.) Passing the mouth of the Missouri River and the present site of the city of St. Louis, and continuing past the mouth of the Ohio, they finally reached what Marquette called the village of the Akanseas, which has been assumed to be identical with the mouth of the Arkansas, though it has been questioned whether they proceeded so far south. Convinced that the Mississippi "had its mouth in Florida or the Gulf of Mexico, " and fearing capture by the Spaniards, they started on their return. Reaching the mouth of the Illinois, they entered that stream and ascended past the village of the Peorias and the "Illinois town of the Kaskaskias" -the latter being about where the town of Utica, La Salle County, now stands-at each of which they made a brief stay. Escorted by guides from the Kaskaskias, they crossed the portage to Lake Michigan where Chicago now stands, and re- turned to Green Bay, which they reached in the latter part of September. (See Joliet and Mar- quette. )
The next and most important expedition to Illi- nois-important because it led to the first per- manent settlements-was undertaken by Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, in 1679. This eager and intelligent, but finally unfortunate, discov- erer had spent several years in exploration in the lake region and among the streams south of the lakes and west of the Alleghenies. It has been claimed that, during this tour, he descended the Ohio to its junction with the Mississippi; also that he reached the Illinois by way of the head of Lake Michigan and the Chicago portage, and even descended the Mississippi to the 36th parallel, antedating Marquette's first visit to that stream by two years. The chief authority for this claim is La Salle's biographer, Pierre Margry, who bases his statement on alleged con- versations with La Salle and letters of his friends. The absence of any allusion to these discoveries in La Salle's own papers, of a later date, addressed to the King, is regarded as fatal to this claim. However this may have been, there is conclusive evidence that, during this period, he met with Joliet while the latter was returning from one of his trips to the Lake Superior country. With an imagination fired by what he then learned, he made a visit to his native country, receiving a
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liberal grant from the French Government which enabled him to carry out his plans. With the aid of Henry de Tonty, an Italian who afterward accompanied him in his most important expedi- tions, and who proved a most valuable and effi- cient co-laborer, under the auspices of Frontenac, then Governor of Canada, he constructed a small vessel at the foot of Lake Erie, in which, with a company of thirty-four persons, he set sail on the seventh of August, 1679, for the West. This vessel (named the "Griffon") is believed to have been the first sailing-vessel that ever navigated the lakes. His object was to reach the Illinois, and he carried with him material for a boat which he intended to put together on that stream. Arriving in Green Bay early in Septem- ber, by way of Lake Huron and the straits of Mackinaw, he disembarked his stores, and, load- ing the Griffon with furs, started it on its return with instructions, after discharging its cargo at the starting point, to join him at the head of Lake Michigan. With a force of seventeen men and three missionaries in four canoes, he started southward, following the western shore of Lake Michigan past the mouth of the Chicago River, on Nov. 1, 1679, and reached the mouth of the St. Joseph River, at the southeast corner of the lake, which had been selected as a rendez- vous. Here he was joined by Tonty, three weeks later, with a force of twenty Frenchmen who had come by the eastern shore, but the Griffon never was heard from again, and is supposed to have been lost on the return voyage. While waiting for Tonty he erected a fort, afterward called Fort Miami. The two parties here united, and, leaving four men in charge of the fort, with the remaining thirty-three, he resumed his journey on the third of December. Ascending the St. Joseph to about where South Bend, Ind., now stands, he made a portage with his canoes and stores across to the headwaters of the Kan- kakee, which he descended to the Illinois. On the first of January he arrived at the great Indian town of the Kaskaskias, which Marquette had left for the last time nearly five years before, but found it deserted, the Indians being absent on a hunting expedition. Proceeding down the Illi- nois, on Jan. 4, 1680, he passed through Peoria Lake and the next morning reached the Indian village of that name at the foot of the lake, and established friendly relations with its people. Having determined to set up his vessel here, he constructed a rude fort on the eastern bank of the river about four miles south of the village. With the exception of the cabin built for Mar-
quette on the South Branch of the Chicago River in the winter of 1674-75, this was probably the first structure erected by white men in Illinois. This received the name "Creve-Cœur -- "Broken Heart"-which, from its subsequent history, proved exceedingly appropriate. Having dis- patched Father Louis Hennepin with two com- panions to the Upper Mississippi, by way of the mouth of the Illinois, on an expedition which resulted in the discovery of the Falls of St. Anthony, La Salle started on his return to Canada for additional assistance and the stores which he had failed to receive in consequence of the loss of the Griffon. Soon after his depar- ture, a majority of the men left with Tonty at Fort Creve-Cœur mutinied, and, having plundered the fort, partially destroyed it. This compelled Tonty and five companions who had remained true, to retreat to the Indian village of the Illi- nois near "Starved Rock," between where the cities of Ottawa and La Salle now stand, where he spent the summer awaiting the return of La Salle. In September, Tonty's Indian allies hav- ing been attacked and defeated by the Iroquois, he and his companions were again compelled to flee, reaching Green Bay the next spring, after having spent the winter among the Pottawato- mies in the present State of Wisconsin.
During the next three years (1681-83) La Salle made two other visits to Illinois, encountering and partially overcoming formidable obstacles at each end of the journey. At the last visit, in company with the faithful Tonty, whom he had met at Mackinaw in the spring of 1681, after a separation of more than a year, he extended his exploration to the mouth of the Mississippi, of which he took formal possession on April 9, 1682, in the name of "Louis the Grand, King of France and Navarre." This was the first expedition of white men to pass down the river and determine the problem of its discharge into the Gulf of Mexico.
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