Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Winnebago County, Volume I, Part 50

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913; Church, Charles A., 1857-
Publication date: 1916
Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 724

USA > Illinois > Winnebago County > Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Winnebago County, Volume I > Part 50

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Returning to Mackinaw, and again to Illinois, in the fall of 1682, Tonty set about carrying into effect La Salle's scheme of fortifying "The Rock," to which reference has been made under the name of "Starved Rock." The buildings are said to have included store-houses (it was intended as a trading post), dwellings and a block-house erected on the summit of the rock, and to which the name of "Fort St. Louis" was given, while a village of confederated Indian tribes gathered about its base on the south which bore the name of La Vantum. According to the historian, Parkman, the population of this colony, in the

LA SALLE.

HENRY DE TONTY.

FT. DEARBORN FROM THE WEST- 1808.

FT. DEARBORN. FROM THE WEST, 1SOS.

WAR EAGLE.

CHIEF CHICAGOU.

FORT DEARBORN 2D. IN 1853, FROM THE SOUTHWEST.

247

HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.

days of its greatest prosperity, was not less than 20,000. Tonty retained his headquarters at Fort St. Louis for eighteen years, during which he made extensive excursions throughout the West. The proprietorship of the fort was granted to him in 1690, but, in 1702, it was ordered by the Governor of Canada to be discontinued on the plea that the charter had been violated. It con- tinued to be used as a trading post, however, as late as 1718, when it was raided by the Indians and burned. (See La Salle; Tonty; Hennepin, and Starved Rock.)

Other explorers who were the contemporaries or early successors of Marquette, Joliet, La Salle, Tonty, Hennepin and their companions in the Northwest, and many of whom are known to have visited the "Illinois Country," and probably all of whom did so, were Daniel Greysolon du Lhut (called by La Salle, du Luth), a cousin of Tonty, who was the first to reach the Mississippi directly from Lake Superior, and from whom the city of Duluth has been named; Henry Joutel, a towns- man of La Salle, who was one of the survivors of the ill-fated Matagorda Bay colony; Pierre Le Sueur, the discoverer of the Minnesota River, and Baron la Hontan, who made a tour through Illinois in 1688-89, of which he published an account in 1703.

Chicago River early became a prominent point in the estimation of the French explorers and was a favorite line of travel in reaching the Illi- nois by way of the Des Plaines, though probably sometimes confounded with other streams about the head of the lake. The Calumet and Grand Calumet, allowing easy portage to the Des Plaines, were also used, while the St. Joseph, from which portage was had into the Kankakee, seems to have been a part of the route first used by La Salle.

ABORIGINES AND EARLY MISSIONS .- When the early French explorers arrived in the "Illinois Country" they found it occupied by a number of tribes of Indians, the most numerous being the "Illinois," which consisted of several families or bands that spread themselves over the country on both sides of the Illinois River, extending even west of the Mississippi; the Piankeshaws on the east, extending beyond the present western boundary of Indiana, and the Miamis in the northeast, with whom a weaker tribe called the Weas were allied. The Illinois confederation included the Kaskaskias, Peorias, Cahokias, Tamaroas and Mitchigamies-the last being the tribe from which Lake Michigan took its name. (See Illinois Indians.) There seems to have been

a general drift of some of the stronger tribes toward the south and east about this time, as Allouez represents that he found the Miamis and their neighbors, the Mascoutins, about Green Bay when he arrived there in 1670. At the same time, there is evidence that the Pottawatomies were located along the southern shore of Lake Superior and about the Sault Ste. Marie (now known as "The Soo"), though within the next fifty years they had advanced southward along the western shore of Lake Michigan until they reached where Chicago now stands. Other tribes from the north were the Kickapoos, Sacs and Foxes, and Winnebagoes, while the Shawnees were a branch of a stronger tribe from the south- east. Charlevoix, who wrote an account of his visit to the "Illinois Country" in 1721, says: "Fifty years ago the Miamis were settled on the southern extremity of Lake Michigan, in a place called Chicago from the name of a small river which runs into the lake, the source of which is not far distant from that of the River Illinois." It does not follow necessarily that this was the Chicago River of to-day, as the name appears to have been applied somewhat indefinitely, by the early explorers, both to a region of country between the head of the lake, and the Illinois River, and to more than one stream emptying into the lake in that vicinity. It has been con- jectured that the river meant by Charlevoix was the Calumet, as his description would apply as well to that as to the Chicago, and there is other evidence that the Miamis, who were found about the mouth of the St. Joseph River during the eighteenth century, occupied a portion of Southern Michigan and Northern Indiana, ex- tending as far east as the Scioto River in Ohio.

From the first, the Illinois seem to have con- ceived a strong liking for the French, and being pressed by the Iroquois on the east, the Sacs and Foxes, Pottawatomies and Kickapoos on the north and the Sioux on the west, by the begin- ning of the eighteenth century we find them, much reduced in numbers, gathered about the French settlements near the mouth of the Kas- kaskia (or Okaw) River, in the western part of the present counties of Randolph, Monroe and St. Clair. In spite of the zealous efforts of the mis- sionaries, the contact of these tribes with the whites was attended with the usual results- demoralization, degradation and gradual extermi- nation. The latter result was hastened by the frequent attacks to which they were exposed from their more warlike enemies, so that by the latter part of the eighteenth century, they were

248

HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.

reduced to a few hundred dissolute and depraved survivors of a once vigorous and warlike race.

During the early part of the French occupation, there arose a chief named Chicagou (from whom the city of Chicago received its name) who ap- pears, like Red Jacket, Tecumseh and Logan, to have been a man of unusual intelligence and vigor of character, and to have exercised great influence with his people. In 1725 he was sent to Paris, where he received the attentions due to a foreign potentate, and, on his return, was given a command in an expedition against the Chicka- saws, who had been making incursions from the south.

Such was the general distribution of the Indians in the northern and central portions of the State, within the first fifty years after the arrival of the French. At a later period the Kickapoos ad- vanced farther south and occupied a considerable share of the central portion of the State, and even extended to the mouth of the Wabash. The southern part was roamed over by bands from beyond the Ohio and the Mississippi, including the Cherokees and Chickasaws, and the Arkansas tribes, some of whom were very powerful and ranged over a vast extent of country.

The earliest civilized dwellings in Illinois, after the forts erected for purposes of defense, were undoubtedly the posts of the fur-traders and the missionary stations. Fort Miami, the first mili- tary post, established by La Salle in the winter of 1679-80, was at the mouth of the St. Joseph River within the boundaries of what is now the State of Michigan. Fort Creve-Cœur, partially erected a few months later on the east side of the Illinois a few miles below where the city of Peoria now stands, was never occupied. Mr. Charles Ballance, the historian of Peoria, locates this fort at the present village of Wesley, in Tazewell County, nearly opposite Lower Peoria. Fort St. Louis, built by Tonty on the summit of "Starved Rock," in the fall and winter of 1682, was the second erected in the "Illinois Country," but the first occupied. It has been claimed that Marquette established a mission among the Kas- kaskias, opposite "The Rock," on occasion of his first visit, in September, 1673, and that he re- newed it in the spring of 1675, when he visited it for the last time. It is doubtful if this mission was more than a season of preaching to the natives, celebrating mass, administering baptism, etc .; at least the story of an established mission has been denied. That this devoted and zealous propagandist regarded it as a mission, however, is evident from his own journal. He gave to it

the name of the "Mission of the Immaculate Conception," and, although he was compelled by failing health to abandon it almost immediately, it is claimed that it was renewed in 1677 by Father Allouez, who had been active in founding missions in the Lake Superior region, and that it was maintained until the arrival of La Salle in 1680. The hostility of La Salle to the Jesuits led to Allouez' withdrawal, but he subsequently returned and was succeeded in 1688 by Father Gravier, whose labors extended from Mackinaw to Biloxi on the Gulf of Mexico.

There is evidence that a mission had been established among the Miamis as early as 1698, under the name "Chicago," as it is mentioned by St. Cosme in the report of his visit in 1699-1700. This, for the reasons already given showing the indefinite use made of the name Chicago as applied to streams about the head of Lake Michi- gan, probably referred to some other locality in the vicinity, and not to the site of the present city of Chicago. Even at an earlier date there appears, from a statement in Tonty's Memoirs, to have been a fort at Chicago-probably about the same locality as the mission. Speaking of his return from Canada to the "Illinois Country" in 1685, he says: "I embarked for the Illinois Oct. 30, 1685, but being stopped by the ice, I was obliged to leave my canoe and proceed by land. After going 120 leagues, I arrived at Fort Chicagou, where M. de la Durantaye com- manded."

According to the best authorities it was during the year 1700 that a mission and permanent settle- ment was established by Father Jacques Pinet among the Tamaroas at a village called Cahokia (or "Sainte Famille de Caoquias"), a few miles south of the present site of the city of East St. Louis. This was the first permanent settlement by Europeans in Illinois, as that at Kaskaskia on the Illinois was broken up the same year.

A few months after the establishment of the mission at Cahokia (which received the name of "St. Sulpice"), but during the same year, the Kaskaskias, having abandoned their village on the upper Illinois, were induced to settle near the mouth of the river which bears their name, and the mission and village - the latter afterward becoming the first capital of the Territory and State of Illinois-came into being. This identity of names has led to some confusion in determin- ing the date and place of the first permanent settlement in Illinois, the date of Marquette's first arrival at Kaskaskia on the Illinois being given by some authors as that of the settlement

249

HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.

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,

250

HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.

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. Croghan 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 the 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

ARTHUR ST. CLAIR Governor of Northwest Territory 1789-1802

(1802-1809 see Indiana Territory)

NINIAN EDWARDS Governor of Illinois Territory 1809-1818 State Governor Dec. 6, 1826-Dec. 6, 1830

SHADRACH BOND Governor Oct. 6, 1818-Dec. 5, 1822

251

HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.

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 had 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.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Winnebago County, Volume I, Part 50

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913; Church, Charles A., 1857- Publication date: 1916 Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 724

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913; Church, Charles A., 1857-
Publication date: 1916
Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 724