History of Chicago. From the earliest period to the present time, Part 16

Author: Andreas, Alfred Theodore
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago, A. T. Andreas
Number of Pages: 1340

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Tonty evidently knew Chicagon well. In his jour- neys to Canada, and, during the Iroquois war, to De- troit and Mackinac, he must have often passed the port- age, and descended the little river to embark on Lake Michigan. Durantaye, Dulhut . Duluth , and Tonty were conspicuous among the young Frenchmen engaged in the long struggle between the French and the Iro- quois, the latter being friendly to the English and ready to assist them in extending their jurisdiction to the upper lakes. During these years French forts were erected at various important points on Lake Michigan, command- ing the fur trade of the interior and rendering the French more secure against the attacks of the Iroquois or their western allies, the Foxes. Besides the fort of the Miamis at St. Joseph, there was one at Mackinac, where De La Durantaye, commanded, and one at Detroit, command- ed by " Sieur DuLhut " Duluth .

In the spring of 1684, Tonty was informed that the Iroquois were gathering to attack him at Fort St. Louis. He sent to Mackinac for assistance, and MI. de la 1)u- rantaye came with sixty Frenchmen to his relief. Father Allouez also accompanied the party. The following year T'onty went to Mackinac to obtain news, if pas- sible, of LaSalle. Hearing that he was at the mouth of the Mississippi he resolved to go in search of him, and says :*

" I embarked, therefore, for the Illinois, on St. Andrew's I lay (suth of October. 1685) ; hut being stopped by the ice. I was obliged to leave my canoe, and to proceed on by land. After gu- ing one hundred and twenty leagues, I arrived at the fort of ('hi- cagon, where M. de la Durantaye, commanded; and from thence 1 came to Fort St. Louis, where I arrived the middle of January

This fort at " Chicagou," where Tonty found Duran- taye in the early winter of 1685. had probably been erected by the latter since the spring of the preceding year, when he came to the relief of the beleaguered Fort St. Louis. Tonty had repulsed the Traquois before help arrived, but Durantaye would not remain in a coun- try constantly exposed to their attacks, without erecting

* ** Memoir of the Sieur de l'onty."

HISTORY OF EARLY CHICAGO.

some kind of a fort for the protection of his little band of sixty men, and to keep their return path to Mackinac safe. Durantaye did not long remain at Chicago. A year later he was fighting the savages, with Tonty and LaForest, in the vicinity of Detroit, and at the end of the campaign he returned to Mackinac, where he was stationed for several years after.

In a reprint, by Munsell, of a book entitled " Early Voyages up and down the Mississippi," it being letters and reports of French Catholic missionaries, may be found a letter from Rev. John Francis Buisson de St. Cosme, addressed to the Bishop of Quebec, giving an ac- count of the journey of himself and companions from Mackinac to the Illinois, in 1699, which shows that there was at that time a flourishing Jesuit mission at Chicago, and also a large village of the Miamis. The party left Mackinac in "light canoes," September 14, 1699. De Tonty, with the missionaries St. Cosme, DeMontigny, Davion and De La Source, were on their way to the lower Mississippi, by way of the Illinois, and DeVincennes, a French officer, with several companions, was to visit St. Joseph and the country of the Miamis. It was the original intention of St. Cosme and party to have gone to the Mississippi by way of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, hut hostile Indians prevented, and they were obliged to take the " Chicagou road." On the 7th day of October they arrived at " Melwarik" (Milwaukee), where they found a village " which has been consider- able," and where they remained two days on account of the fine " duck and teal shooting." On the roth they arrived at Kipikawi (Racine , intending to go up the Kipikawi River and crossing the portage to the Fox, descend that river to the Illinois ; but, "as there was no water in it," they were " again obliged to take the route to Chicagou." They left the river at Racine on the 17th, but were so long delayed by the roughness of the lake that on the 20th, they were still fifteen miles distant. On the 21st, when within half a league of the place, a sudden storm sprung up and they were com- pelled to land, and walk the remaining distance. St. Cosme says:

" We had considerable difficulty in getting ashore and saving our canoes. We had to throw everything into the water. This is a thing which you must take good care of along the lakes, and espe- cially on Missigan (the shores of which are very flat), to land soon when the water swells from the lake, for the breakers get so large in a short time that the canoes are in risk nf going to pieces and losing all on board, several travelers having been wrecked there. We went by land, M. DeMontigny, Davion and myself, to the house of the Rev. Jesuit Fathers, our people staying with the bag- gage. We found there Rev. Father Pinet and Rev. Father Bine- teau,* who had recently come in from the Illinois, and were slightly sick. I cannot explain to you, Monseigneur, with what cordiality and marks of esteem these Rev. Jesuit Fathers received and caressed us during the time that we had the consolation of staying with them. The house is built on the banks of the small lake. t having the lake on one side, and a fine large prairie on the other. The Indian village is of over one hundred and fifty cabins, and one lengene on the river there is another village almost as large. They are both of the Miami -. Kev. Father Pinet makes it his ordinary residence; except in winter, when the Indians all go hunting, and which he goes and spends at the Illinois. We saw no Indians there; they had already started for their hunt. * * * On the 24th of the ther, the wind having fallen, we made our canoes come with all our baggage: and, perceiving that the waters were ex- tremely low, we made a cache on the shore, and took only what was flerewary for our voyage, reserving till spring to send for the rest: and we left in charge of it Brother Alexander, who consented lo remain there with Father l'net's man; and we started from C'hi-

* The Illinois Meste at Started Kork was in charge of Father James Cira- Vier troms tre ; until hr way For afirst fo Mit hitsmac kinar, early in 1009. He left hrabriel Marist in espeed charge of tha puirent house and Fathers Bineteau and Piu't in visiter et the bath hrs.

ter,mint ed the Chodcon portder, some that lwy embarking im it in the spring shows af " campties " intesa brands of the Hiszen the Bestelment, the lesixth of thr fuoflage is rechtord tium this, frasur's to a quarter i a fragur.

cagou on the 29th, anil put up for the night about two leagues off, in the little river which is then lost in the prairies. The next day we began the portage, which is about three leagues long when the water is low, and only a quarter of a league in the spring, for you (then) embark on a little lake which empties into a branch of the river of the Illinois; but, when the waters are low, you have to make a portage to that branch. We made half our portage that day, and we should have made some progress further, when we perceived that a little boy whom we had received from M. De Muys, having started on alone-although he had been told to wait-had got lost without any one paying attention to it, all hands being en- gaged. We were obliged to stop and look for him. All set ont. We fired several guns, but could not find him. It was a very un- fortunate mishap; we were pressed by the season, and the waters being very low, we saw well that being obliged to carry our effects and our canoe, it would take us a great while to reach the Illinois. This made us part company. M. DeMontigny. DeTonty and Davion continued the portage next day; and 1, with four other men, returned to look for this little boy; and on my way back 1 met Fathers Pinet and Binetean, who were going with two French- men and one Indian to the Illinois. We looked for him again all that day without being able to find him. As the next day was the feast of All Saints, this obliged me to go and pass the night at Chi- cagou with our people, who having said mass and performed their devotions early, we spent all that day, tuo, in looking for that little boy, without being able to get the least trace. It was very difficult to find him in the tall grass, for the whole country is prairies-you meet only some clumps of woods. As the grass was high, we durst not set hre to it for fear of burning him. M. DeMontigny had told me not to stay over a day, because the cold was getting severe. Tbis obliged me to start, after giving Brother .Alexander directions to look for him and to take some of the French who were at Chica- gou, l set out the ed of November, in the afternoon; made the portage, and slept at the river of the Illinois."

MICHIGAN

PAYS DES

Checagou

MASCOUTENS

Portage les Chenes

H.S. Joseph

.des Ilinois

PAYS DES

R.da Teakıki

MIAMIS

R.des Inquois

R. Vuabache ou de S.Jerome

SECTION OF CHARLEVOIX'S MAP '1774.

Pierre Francois Charlevoix. the noted French historian and traveler, passed down the east shore of Lake Michigan, and to the Mississippi, by way of the Kankakee and Illinois rivers, in 1721. In 1744 he published his Histoire de la Nouvelle France, and with it his journal written while in America. The jour- nat was translated into Foiglish whom alter; the history srmined untranslateil until an edition was published in English by J. B. Shea at New York 11805-721. A map from which the alane vation is taken accompanied Charlevoix - History of New France.

From a letter of De La Source, one of the mission- aries who accompanied St. Cosme to the Mississippi, it is learned that the boy who was lost in the tall grass of the prairie, after an absence of about two weeks, finally " made his way back to Chicagou, where Brother Alex- ander was." He was insane and utterly exhausted. The party returned to Chicago from the lower Missis- sippi early in 1700, and remained there until Easter, the letter of De La Source being written at " Chicagou." From the allusions made by St. Cosme to " our people"

LAC

EARLY EXPLORATIONS.

before whom he said mass on All Saints' Day, and with whom he " passed the night at Chicagou," and also from his direction to " Brother Alexander," who remained behind in charge of the cache on the shore of Lake Michigan, to " take some of the French who were at Chicagou," to aid him in his search for the lost boy, it must be inferred that the place had become of consid- erable importance, as the point of disembarkation from the lake, on the route from Canada to Louisiana ; that it had become the residence of several French traders, and, during a portion of the year, of the Jesuit fathers connected with the Miami mission.

Soon after the opening of the eighteenth century, this route to the Mississippi became so dangerous that it was gradually abandoned, and finally almost forgot- ten. The long war between the lllinois and the Iroquois had made the Kaskaskias fearful and timid. They were directly in the path of the enemy from the location of their village, which, lying far up the river, was first struck by their war parties on their raids into the coun- try of the Illinois.

D'Iberville had landed, and a French settlement at the mouth of the Mississippi wasto be established. The Kaskaskias were eager to leave the dangerous locality in which they lived, and still be able to enjoy the friend- ship and protection of their friends, the French. Father Gravier, who for several years had been in charge of the mission of the Immaculate Conception, at the Kas- kaskia village on the Illinois, weut to Michilimackinac early in 1669, leaving the parent house in the care of Father Marest, and its branches one of which was at Chicago, among the Miamis) in charge of Fathers Bine- teau and Pinet. He returned in the fall of 1700, leaving Chicago for the Illinois on the 8th of September. When he arrived at the old village of the Kaskaskias, near the. present site of Utica, in LaSalle County, he found that all that tribe, accompanied by Father Marest, had de- serted their village and the neighboring Peorias on the Illinois, and departed for the lower Mississippi. Gravier followed his flock, promising the Peorias to return to them at their village at Peoria Lake. Marest was taken violently ill on his arrival at the present site of Kaskas- kia, and with his Indians halted there, where he was joined by Gravier, and the new Kaskaskia mission was founded and named also the mission of the Immaculate Conception, in honor of Marquette and his old mission on the Illinois River.

LAKE

Xavier

ILINOIS

MASCOUTENS

The Great Riv.

Cherayouq !

KtCAPOU

ILinois R.

MIAMIS

iomisR

SECTION OF THE SENEX MAP OF 17IO.

In 1700, DeCourtemanche and two Jesnit priests were dispatched by the Governor-General of Canada, to

visit the various tribes in what is now Michigan and Illinois, and invite them to send deputies from their tribes to Montreal in order to arrange terms of peace with the Iroquois. DeCourtemanche reached the St. Joseph River December 21. 1700, and found the Miamis preparing to send war-parties against the Iroquois, as were also all the Illinois tribes, except the Kaskaskias. After visiting the latter tribe, he " returned to Chicago : there he found some Weas Ouyatanous), a Miami tribe. who had sung the war song against the Sioux and Iro- quois." He induced them to lay down their arms and send deputies to the council at Montreal, the deputies to

Baye des Puans

Kation Jes Renards

LAC DES

Opisconsinh Portage

S. Francois Xay

ILINOIS

R. urs Renards

Melleoki R.

O mine de plomp

Maskoutēs

R.uu Parisien

Checayou R.

R.u la Roche.

ou Nation du feuy' les Kicapou

R.des Ilinois

SECTION OF DE L'ISLE'S MAP OF 1703.

meet him at Michilimackinac. The chief of the Miamis at this time was Chickikatalo, "a noble looking and good old man," who made a speech at Montreal, in which he assured the French of his friendship for them. and desire to promote their interests by every means in his power. Before the council, the Kaskaskias had de- parted for the Mississippi, and great dissatisfaction was expressed by the other tribes at their taking this step.

Two years later, in 1702, Fort St. Louis was aban- doned as a military post .. Then followed long and bloody wars between the French of Louisiana and their Illinois allies, with various tribes of the Northwest, commencing with the Foxes of Wisconsin. Charlevoix says of the latter, during the early part of the eighteenth century. "The Outagamies Foxes' infested with their robberies and murders, oot only the neighborhood of the bay Green Bay ), but almost all the routes com- municating with the remote colonial posts, as well as those leading from Canada to Lonisiana." After the Foxes, came the Pottawatomies, who finally almost ex- terminated the old allies of the French, and the Chica- gou route, formerly so often traversed by French mis- sionaries and traders on their way to the llinois and Mississippi, was, as before stated, forsaken, if not for- gotten.

Father Julian Bineteau, who preached to the Miami- at Chicago, died not long after the visit of St. Cosme. from sickness contracted while following the Indians on their summer hunt over the parched and burning prairie -. Father Francis Pinet, his companion, went to the great village of the Peorias, after the removal of the Kas- kaskias, and there founded the Cahokia mission-where he died soon after. Father Gravier, according to his promise, returned to the village of the Peorias, where he was dangerously wounded, and descending the Mis-

HISTORY OF EARLY CHICAGO

sissippi in search of medical treatment, died on the voyage in 1706. The labors of the French mission- aries, and the attempts at founding French colonies in Louisiana were no looger extended to the region north of the Illinois, and with the exception of a struggling

Melleki R.

Miskouakimina

MICHIGAN

les Mascoutens ou Nation du Feu.

Chicayou

les Quicapou

Chicagoa R

Ancien Village t Ilinois

R.de

Macopin

Riviere des Ilinois

SECTION OF DE L'ISLE.'S MAP OF 1718.

Guillaume de L'Isle was a noted French geographer, born in Paris, Febru- ary 28, 1675, died January 23, 1726. In 1700 he reconstructed the current European system of geography by the. publication of new and correct maps, comprising representations of all the known world. In 1702 he was admitted to the Royal Academy of Sciences, and was afterward appointed tutor in geogra- phy to Louis XV., with title of " First Gengrapher to the King." He is said (+ have made 134 maps, many of which were of rare value. Three uf these maps are in the library of the Chicago Historical Society-those of 1700, 1703. 1718. The maps of 170; and 1718. sections of which are given herewith, are en- titled " Carte Du Canada un de la France," and " Carte de la Louisiane et du Cours du Mississipi," respectively.

village at Starved Rock, even the once powerful Illinois had been driven by 1720, from all their villages above Peoria Lake. In that year Fort Chartres was built on the banks of the Mississippi, near the two French set- tlements of Kaskaskia and Cahokia-a protection to both. About the year 1718, the Miamis were driven from the vicinity of Chicago, and in 1722, the Illinois vil- lages at Starved Rock and at Peoria Lake were besieg- ed by the Foxes. Boisbriant, the commander at Fort Chartres, sent a force to their relief, which arrived after the contest had ended, leaving the Illinois victorious. So greatly had they suffered for years, however, from these constant attacks, that they returned with the French to the shelter of Fort Chartres, and with their abandonment of the river, the only protection to the route from Canada by way of the Illinois to the French settlements was taken away. Charlevoix says of their victory and subsequent removal to southern Illinois :

" This succes- did not, however, prevent the Illinois, although they had only twenty men, with some children, from leaving the rock and Fimitory ( Peoria Lake) where they were kept in constant alarm, and proceeding in unite with those of their brethren (the Kaskaskias) who had settled upon the Mississippi. This was a stroke of grace for most of them, the small number of mission- aries preventing their supplying so many towns scattered so far apart : hut, on the other side, as there was nothing to check the raids of the Foxes along the Ilinois River, communication be- 1ween Louisiana and New France became much less practicalde."

In 1725 Boisbriant, the commandant at Fort Char- tres, was made acting governor of Louisiana, and M. DeSiette, a captain in the royal army, took his place at the fort. Difficulties with the Foxes and their allies had been continually growing worse since the removal of the Illinois-the French being now more exposed to their attacks. The colonists were murdered almost under the guns of the fort, and the whole country of the upper Illinois was a battle-ground. DeLignerie was the French commandant at Green Bay, and labored assiduously to bring about a peace between the northern tribes and the Illinois. On the 7th of June, 1726, he assembled the Sauks, Winnebagoes and Foxes at his post, and "told them from the king, that they must not raise the war club against the Illinois, or they would have reason to repent it." He was fairly well satisfied with the answer of the chiefs, and hoped the peace would be stable ; but DeSiette, at Fort Chartres, had less con- fidence in the Foxes, or their word, and suggested to DeLignerie that the best method would be to extermin - aie them at one. DeLignerie, while believing with De- Siette that this would be the very best possible method. if it could be carried out, feared the plan would not be a success, and that the Foxes would " array all the upper nations against us," and "" the French of either colony be unable to pass from post to post, but at the risk of robbery and murder." This had been the case too long, and the commandant at Green Bay advised the impatient DeSeitte to " cause his people the Illinois ) if they have made any prisoners, to send them back to the Foxes," as he has " told the latter to do with theirs. if their young men bring in any from the country." He continues :

" If all goes well here for a year, I think it will be necessary to have an interview at " Chikagou," or at the Rock (Starved Rock1 with you and your Illinois, and the nations of the bay. We will indicate to them the time of the meeting, where it will probably be necessary to make a fort, and to fix the number of the French and Indians who are to be at the spot. These are my thoughts. 10 me the honor to give me yours. Ii'my health will allow I shall go there with pleasure, and if it shall thus happen, it will give me great joy to see you."

KIKAPOUS 0

LAKE

MASKOUTENS

a Fort La Salle

Land Carriage of Chekakou

O MASKOUTENS

O AONIATINONIS

Fort /Crevecoeur

SECTION OF MOLL'S MAP OF 1720.

This interview at "Chikagou " was not destined " to thus happen," as things did not " go well " between the French and the Foxes during the coming year. and in August, 1727, M. DeBeauharnais, then commanding in Canada, informed M. DeSiette by letter at Fort Chartres. that he was determined to make war upon the Foxes the coming spring, and that the information was given " in order that he Siette might make preparations, and give assistance by disposing the Illinois and the French of the Mississippi to join the Canadians," finishing his let- ter by saying, " It is reasonable to suppose that the peo- ple of Louisiana will come to this war with more ardor than the Canadians, as they are much more exposed to

MASCOUTENS on Gens du Feu

R.Voire

Chicagou

Portage des Chênes!

R.S.Joseph

R. Galline

R.de Chicagou

SECTION OF D'ANVILLE'S MAP OF 1755.

the incursions of the Foxes, who aların and even kill them continually."

DeSiette joined the Canadian forces at Green Bay the following spring, and a battle ensued at Butte des Morts, Wis., in which the French and their allies, the Illinois, were successful : but hostilities did not cease, and communication between Canada and the Mississippi by way of the Illinois River was as dangerous as before. For nearly half a century the name of Chicago is not mentioned, and there is no record of any visit of a white man to the locality. DuPratz, an old French writer, and a resident of Louisiana from 1718 until 1734, says of the "Chicagou " and Illinois route in 1757 : " Such as come from Canada, and have business only on the Illinois, pass that way yet ; but such as want to go directly to the sea, go down the river of the Wabache to the Ohio, and from thence into the Mississippi." He predicts, also, that unless " some curious person shall go to the north of the Illinois River in search of mines," where they are said to be in great numbers and very rich, that region . will not woon come to the knowledge of the French."

In June, 1773. William Murray, a subject of Great Britain, residing in Kaskaskia, beld a council. in the presence of the British officers and authorities stationed . the place, with the chiefs of the several tribes of Illi- nous Indians, in which he proposed to them, that for a certain consideration, they should deed to him two tracts et land cast of the Mississippi ; one of which was north of the Hlinois River, and extended beyond the present str of t'Incago. Mr. Murray states* that the negotia-

* ** An ... ..... .. the I'rowreding, of the Minis and Quabache Companie >,"

tion was concluded in July, 1773, " to the entire satis- faction of the Indians," of whom the land was bought "in consideration of the sum of five shillings to them in hand paid," and certain goods and merchandise. The boundary, or rather the mention of certain points in this northern tract, was as follows :

"Beginning at a place or point in a direct line opposite to the mouth of the Mississippi River ; thence up the Mississippi by the several courses thereof to the mouth of the Illinois River, about six leagues, be the same more or less ; and then up the Illinois River, by the several courses thereof, to Chicagon or Garlick Creek, about ninety leagues or thereabouts, be the same more or less ; then nearly a northerly course, in a direct line to a certain place remark- able, being the ground ou which an engagement or battle was fought about forty or fifty years ago between the lewaria and Kenard Indians, about fifty leagues, be the same more or less : thence by the same course in a direct line to two remarkable hills close together in the middle of a large prairie or plain, about four- teen leagues, be the same more or less ; thence a north of east course, in a direct line to a remarkable spring known by the Indians by the name of Foggy Spring, about fourteen league-, be the same more or less ; thence the same course, in a direct line lo a great mountain to the northward of the White Buffaloe plain, about fif- teen leagues, be the same more or less ; thence nearly a southwest course in a direct line to the place of beginning, about forty leagues, be the same more or less.

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History of Chicago. From the earliest period to the present time, Part 16

Author: Andreas, Alfred Theodore Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Chicago, A. T. Andreas Number of Pages: 1340

Author: Andreas, Alfred Theodore
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago, A. T. Andreas
Number of Pages: 1340