USA > Illinois > Ford County > History of Ford County, Illinois : from its earliest settlement to 1908, Vol. I > Part 2
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When disputes or dissensions arose, each Indian relied upon himself to adjust the difficulty. Blood for blood was the rule, and the relatives of the slain man were bound to obtain bloody revenge. The result of this was bit- ter feuds and wars of extermination.
War was the Indian's glory and delight; not war after the civilized rule, but war where individual skill, endurance, gallantry and cruelty were the prime requisites. During the intervals of his more exciting pursuits the Indian employed his time in decorating his person with all the refinement of paint and feathers, and in the manufacture of his arms and of canoes.
The main drudgery and labor of Indian communities fell upon the women. They planted, tended and gathered the erops, made mats and baskets esrried the burdens on the march-in fact they were but little better than slaves to the "braves."
The area of the country orginally claimed by the Illinois was reduced by wars with their neighbors. The Sioux forced them eastward, and the four tribes already named encroached upon them from the north, and war parties from the Iroquois on the east rapidly lessened their numbers.
The Illinois confederacy was in a decline when they first came in contact with the French, of which mention is hereafter made.
The misfortunes of the Illinois drew them so kindly to the priests, the coureurs des bois and soldiers, that the friendship between the two races never abated.
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HISTORY OF FORD COUNTY
The fatal dissolution of the Illinois rapidly proceeded, and their territory was largely appropriated by the Sacs, Foxes, Kickapoos and Pottawattamies.
By successive treaties, their remaining lands in this state were ceded to the United States, and they were removed west of the Mississippi. In 1872, there remained of them but forty souls-men, women and children all told.
Thus has disappeared the people who at one time occupied the larger part of Illinois and portions of Iowa and Missouri. In the year 1784 their single village at La Salle's colony could muster twelve hundred fighting men. When they were prosperous, at one time they nearly exterminated the Winnebagoes, and their war parties have penetrated the country of the Huron-Iroquois as far as the Mohawk and Genesee.
THE POTTAWATTAMIES.
The country of the Miamis, as has already been stated, extended west to the watershed between the Illinois and Wabash rivers, forming the eastern boundaries of the Illinois tribes. To the north of the Miamis were the Potta- wattamies. who were steadily encroaching upon the territory of the Miamis.
The Miamis held their own until they obtained possession of firearms, but the Illinois could not withstand their foes so long.
In regard to the Pottawattamies, it is stated in an official letter to the secretary of war, March 22, 1814: "So long ago as 1795, at the treaty of Greenville, the Pottawattamies notified the Miamis that they intended to settle upon the Wabash." They made no pretensions to the country, and the only excuse for the intended aggression was that they were tired of eating fish and wanted meat. And they did come. They established villages upon the north and west bank of the Wabash and its tributaries flowing in from that side of the stream above the Vermilion.
They, with the Sacs. Foxes and Kickapoos, drove the Illinois into the vil- lages about Kaskaskia and divided the conquered territory among themselves, the Sacs and Foxes choosing that part to the north and west of the Illinois river. It is said that by the other tribes they were called squatters, who justly claimed that the Pottawattamies never had any land of their own and were only intruders. £ They were, however, foremost at all treaties and were elamorous for the lion's share of presents and annuities, particularly where the price given was for other's lands rather than their own. They also had vil- lages upon the Illinois and Kankakee rivers.
After the Kickapoos and Pottawattamies had established themselves in the
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HISTORY OF FORD COUNTY
valley of the Wabash, it was mutually agreed between them and the Miamis that the river should be the dividing line, the two first-named tribes to occupy the west side of the stream.
The Pottawattamies and Kickapoos were among the last to leave their pos- sessions in Illinois and Indiana, and it was the people of these tribes with whom the settlers of this section of the country came. principally in contact. They ceased hostilities at the close of the war of 1812. The Pottawattamies owned extensive tracts of land on the Wabash, also on the Tippecanoe and other western tributaries of the Wabash, and elsewhere in northwestern Indi- ana, eastern Illinois and southern Michigan. The greater part of these reser- vations were retroceded to the United States, in exchange either for annuities or lands west of the Mississippi. As has already been noted, the Indians became greatly attached to the French. An Indian reservation on the Des Plaines river, in Cook county, was occupied by a band of Pottawattamies, whose chief was Alexander Robinson, the son of a Canadian voyageur and a Pottawattamie woman.
His place was generally lively with Indians in the declining glories of their latter days. Groups of blanketed squaws, with their papooses slung on their backs, and an equal number of braves, bedanbed with paint and ornamented with feathers, hung around his home in listless dalliance. During the summer season their numbers were increased by visiting braves and their families from other reservations.
Being half Indian and having a wife of the same race, he was shut out from civilized society generally, but his character for integrity and his reputa- tion for excellence in those qualifications which make up the model eitizen were widely published. When his tribe was removed, after carefully weigh- ing the matter, he chose eivilized life, considering this for the children's best good. Ile continued to live on the reservation and became a farmer, esteemed by all who knew him.
The final emigration of the Pottawattamies from the Wabash took place in the summer of 1838, and in 1846, the various bands of this great tribe were united west of the Mississippi, except a few scattered bands like the one men- tioned, who remained long after the departure of their brethren.
In 1863, the tribe numbered two thousand two hundred and seventy-four men, women and children, which was an alarming decrease from the census of 1854, owing, no doubt, largely to two reasons-the return of many to their former home east of the Mississippi, and many of the younger men going west to the buffalo grounds.
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IHISTORY OF FORD COUNTY
The Pottawattamies attested their fidelity to the government by the vohin- teering of seventy-five of their young men to service in the war of 1861.
THE KICKAPOOS.
The Kiekapoos, when first met by the whites, inhabited the state of Wis- consin, but with the Sacs and Foxes gradually moved southward until they came in contact with the Illinois. Then uniting with the Pottawattamies in a warfare upon the Miamis and Illinois, they steadily drove these two tribes from a great portion of the territory occupied by them.
The Kiekapoos early incurred the displeasure of the French by committing depredations upon the missionaries and others. It is said of this tribe that they were not inclined to receive religious impressions from the early missionaries.
Prior to 1718, the Kickapoos had villages upon the banks of the Rock river and the Illinois. They are described as a clever people and brave warriors. Their language and manners strongly resembled those of the Foxes. "They eateh deer by chasing them, and even at this day (1718) make considerable use of bows and arrows."
Their progress south and west was no doubt largely owing to the fierce attaeks of the Sioux, who were pressing on them from the northwest. The Kickapoos and the Foxes, meditating a migration to the Wabash as a place of security from the Sioux, the French became alarmed lest their tribes should effeet a junetion with the Iroquois and English. The matter was adjusted by the French coneiliating the Sioux, and for a number of years the Foxes and Kiekapoos remained upon their old hunting grounds in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. The theory has been advanced that the Mascoutins and Kiekapoos were bands of one tribe, first known to the French by the for- mer name, and subsequently to the English by the latter, under which name alone they figure in our later annals. This theory has been adopted for the purposes of this sketch. Another noticeable fact is, that with one exception, the Mascoutins were never known as such in any treaty with the United States, while the Kickapoos were parties to many. In warfare, the Kickapoos were inferior to the other tribes in movements requiring large numbers of men, but in predatory warfare they were preeminent. Their war parties usually num- bered from five to twenty-five persons. The boldness and daring of these small parties were very great. They would sometimes push out hundreds of miles from their villages and attack a feeble settlement or an isolated cabin,
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HISTORY OF FORD COUNTY
burn the buildings, steal the live-stock, capture the women and children, and then eseape before a general alarm could be given.
The Kickapoos were noted for their fondness for horses. They exhibited great skill and daring in stealing them.
Their principal enemies seemed to be the Illinois, and after driving the latter into the southwestern part of the state, it is related that as late as 1789 to 1796, their war parties kept the white settlements and the Illinois tribes in the vicinity of Kaskaskia in a state of continual alarm. During the time stated, they killed and captured many of that tribe, as well as a number of the whites.
After the close of the Pontiac war, the Kickapoos and Pottawattamies almost annihilated the Kaskaskias, a band of the Illinois, at a place called Bat- tle Ground Creek, between Kaskaskia and Shawneetown. The principal towns of the Kickapoos were on the left bank of the Illinois, near Peoria, and on the Vermilion of the Wabash, and at several points on the west bank of the Wa- bash. On the prairie they also had villages west of Charleston, Illinois, and in many of the groves scattered over the prairies in the section of country bounded on the north by the Kankakee river, on the east by the Wabash, and on the west by the Illinois, extending south to the Kaskaskia. The most nota- ble were their towns at Elkhart Grove, twelve miles north of Bloomington, and at Oliver's Grove in Livingston county, Illinois. Consequently that tract of country of which Ford county is a part must have been the hunting grounds of the Kickapoos after the removal of the Illinois tribes.
These people became greatly attached to the country drained by the Ver- milion of the Wabash and its tributaries, and General Harrison had much difficulty in securing their consent to cede it to the general government.
The Kiekapoos were at the battle of Tippecanoe in considerable numbers, and fought with frenzied courage. During the war of 1812, they sided with the English, and sent out numerous war parties that kept the settlements in Illinois and Indiana territories in constant danger.
When the latter war closed, the Kiekapoos ceased active hostilities upon the whites, and within a few years afterward disposed of their lands in this state and Indiana, and with the exception of a few bands, removed west of the Mississippi.
Beckwith, an excellent authority, says of them: "As compared with other Indians, the Kiekapoos were industrious, intelligent, and cleanly in their habits, and were better armed and elothed than the other tribes. The men, as a rule, were tall, sinewy and active; the women were lithe, and many of them
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HISTORY OF FORD COUNTY
by no means lacking in beauty. Their dialect was soft and liquid, as com- pared with the rough and gutteral language of the Pottawattamies. They kept aloof from the white people as a rule, and in this way preserved their characteristics, and contracted fewer of the vices of the white man than other tribes. Their numbers were never great, as compared with the Miamis or Pot- tawattamies; however, they made up for the deficiency in this respect by the energy of their movements."
Thus we have attempted to briefly sketch the red man as he once lived upon these prairies and in the groves but the space for this subject in a work of this character is necessarily quite limited.
To summarize : We first find the Illinois and Miamis occupying this sec- tion of the country, with their dividing line running north and south, nearly identical with the range line of our county. Following them eame the Kicka- poos and Pottawattamies, the former taking the place of the Illinois tribes, except that the Kickapoo villages and hunting grounds extended further east, including the Vermilion of the Wabash and its tributaries.
The Indian came to this country, and now he has left it to return no more. He left the country no better as far as we can judge for having been here.
We find the arrowheads and spearheads, saws, flesh-scrapers, hammers and spades made from stone, and all demanding great patience in their manufae- ture, because of the lack of suitable implements or machinery to produce them.
It has been stated that the maize or Indian corn which they cultivated to a limited extent, and tobacco are the only contributions made by them to us in the way of products of the soil.
"A noble raee, but they are gone; And we have built our homes upon Fields where their generations slept."
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
As early as 1784, Thomas Jefferson, then a member of congress, submitted a plan of government for all the territory from the southern to the northern boundary of the United States, all of which was expected to be eeded by the states elaiming the same. By this plan seventeen states were to be formed from this territory.
One of its provisions was "that after the year 1800 there shall be neither
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HISTORY OF FORD COUNTY
slavery nor involuntary servitude in any of said states, other than in the pun- ishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted." This provision was rejected, not having seven states in its favor.
This rejected provision was again proposed by Rufus King the following year. The proposition again failed. The ordinance of 1787, embracing in part the plan submitted by Mr. Jefferson in 1874, was reported by Nathan Dane.
The legislative, executive and judicial powers were vested in a governor and three judges, who with the secretary were to be appointed by congress- the governor for three years, the judges during good behavior.
The laws of the territory were to be such laws of the original states as the governor and judges should think proper to adopt. These laws were to be in force until disapproved by congress. When the territory should contain five thousand free male inhabitants of full age, there was to be a legis- lature, to consist of two branches-a house of representatives, the members to be chosen from the several counties or townships, for the term of two years, and a legislative council of five persons, who were to hold their offices for five years and to be appointed by congress out of ten persons previously nominated by the house of representatives of the territory. All laws were required to be consistent with the ordinance, and to have the assent of the governor.
The ordinance concludes with six articles of compact between the original states and the people of the territory, to be unalterable except by common consent.
The first secured entire religious freedom; the second, trial by jury, the writ of habeas corpus, and the other fundamental rights usually inserted in bills of rights ; the third provided for the encouragement and support of schools and enjoined good faith toward the Indians; the fourth placed the new states to be formed out of the territory upon an equal footing with the old ones both in respect to their privileges and their burdens, and reserved to the United States the right to dispose of the soil; the fifth authorized the future division of the territory into not less than three nor more than five states. each state to be admitted into the Union, when it should contain sixty thousand inhabitants ; the sixth was the anti-slavery proviso introduced by Thomas Jefferson in 1784, so modified as to take effect immediately.
This ordinance, which left the territory south of the Ohio (then not yet ceded) subject to future regulation, received the unanimous vote of eight states present.
General Arthur St. Clair, who was president of congress, was appointed
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HISTORY OF FORD COUNTY
military governor, and in the following summer began his duties at Marietta. In the year 1800, a line was drawn through the northwestern territory from the mouth of the great Miami river to Fort Recovery, and thence to Canada.
Two years afterward, the country east of this line was erected in the state of Ohio and admitted into the Union.
The portion west of this line was organized under the name of the Indi- ana territory. Vincennes was made the capital, and General William Henry Harrison received the appointment of governor. Indiana was admitted into the Union in 1816, near the close of Madison's troubled administration.
The Illinois territory was established February 3, 1809, and it included "all that part of the Indiana territory which lies west of the Wabash river and Post Vincennes due north to the territorial line between the United States and Canada."
Kaskaskia was made the seat of government.
John Boyle was appointed governor, but declined to serve. Ninian Edwards was then appointed. He served from April 24, 1809, to December 6, 1818, when he was made United States senator for the new state of Illinois.
ILLINOIS.
Monroe's administration was noted for the great number of new members which were added to the Union. £ In 1818, Illinois, the twenty-first state, embracing an area of more than fifty-five thousand square miles, and extend- ing through more than five degrees of latitude, was organized and admitted. Two years later, when the general census was taken, Illinois ranked twenty- fourth as to population. From that time up to 1880, her advancement was rapid, and we now find only two states which outrank Illinois in population and wealth. Population of Illinois territory, 1810, twelve thousand two hun- dred and eighty-two; population of Illinois state, 1820, fifty-five thousand one hundred and sixty-two; population of Illinois state, 1880, three million seventy- eight thousand six hundred and thirty-six; population of Illinois state, 1900. four million and five hundred thousand. Under the Constitution of 1818, the elective officers were the governor and lieutenant governor, who held office for four years. The other state officers were appointed by the governor or chosen by the general assembly.
By the Constitution of 1848, all of the state officers were made elective.
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HISTORY OF FORD COUNTY
GOVERNORS OF ILLINOIS.
Shadrack Bond, October 6, 1818
Edward Coles
December 5, 1822
Ninian Edwards
December 6, 1826
John Reynolds
December 9, 1830
William L. D. Ewing
November 17, 1834
Joseph Dunean
December 3, 1834
Thomas Carlin
December 7, 1838
Thomas Ford
December 8, 1842
Augustus C. French
December 9, 1846
Augustus C. French
January 8, 1849
Joel A. Matteson
January 10, 1853
William H. Bissell
January 12, 1857
John Wood
March 21, 1860
Richard Yates
January 14, 1861
Richard J. Oglesby
January 16, 1865
John M. Palmer
January 11, 1869
Richard J. Oglesby
January 13, 1873
John L. Beveridge
January 23, 1873
Shelby M. Cullom
January 8, 1877
Shelby M. Cullom
January 10, 1881
John L. Hamilton
February 6, 1883
Richard J. Oglesby
1885-89
Joseph W. Fifer
1889-93
John P. Altgeld
1893-97
John R. Tanner
1897-01
Richard Yates, son of Richard Yates, the war governor
1901-05
Charles S. Deneen
1905-08
ILLINOIS.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION.
Geographieal Position-Illinois is bounded on the north by Wisconsin, on the east by Lake Michigan, Indiana and Kentucky, on the south by Kentucky and Missouri, and on the west by Missouri and Iowa by the Mississippi. It lies between 37 degrees and 3 minutes and 42 degrees and 30 minutes north latitude, and between 10 degrees and 30 minutes and 14 degrees and 25 min-
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HISTORY OF FORD COUNTY
ntes longitude west from Washington. The greatest breadth of the state from east to west is two hundred and ten miles, and its extreme length from north to south three hundred and seventy-eight miles. The general form of the state is that of an ellipsoid, truncated at its northern extremity. The superficial area is about fifty-five thousand five hundred and thirty-one square miles, or thirty-five million five hundred and thirty-nine thousand eight hundred and forty acres.
Face of the Country-The surface of the country is generally level or gently rolling, although in the southern part near the large rivers it is quite broken and hilly. Illinois is properly termed the prairie state; for, in no other part of the country are there to be found such vast expanses of level prairie as here. To the eye of the observer they mark the plane of the horizon in every direction, and seem limitless as the ocean. As a general rule they occupy the higher grounds. The timber is principally confined to the lower lands, along the breaks and valleys of the streams. The highest lands in the state are in the extreme northwestern part, and are known as the mounds, which are about eleven hundred feet above the level of the sea. From Free- port southward there is a gradual descent through the entire length of the state, except where it is broken by a ridge crossing from east to west through Union, Johnson and Pope counties. 6 This ridge attains an elevation of about nine hundred feet above the sea, while the elevation at Cairo is bnt three hun- dred and fifty feet.
Rivers-The general slope of the watershed is to the southwest, and nearly all the principal streams, after a general course in that direction, flow into the Mississippi. A few in the southeast portion of the state empty into the Wabash, while some small ones in the extreme south find their outlet in the Ohio. The largest river flowing through the state is the Illinois, which is formed by the junction of the Des Plaines and Kankakee, the former rising in Wisconsin and the latter in Indiana. The Rock and Kaskaskia rivers are streams of considerable importance, the first running through the northern and the latter through the southern portion of the state. More than three-fourths of the circumference of the state is bounded by navigable rivers, the Wabash on the east, the Ohio on the south, and the Mississippi on the west. The two last named are among the largest of the world, and afford transportation for all classes of steamers. The Mississippi, the great "Father of Waters," extends along the western boundary a distance of over five hundred miles.
Lakes-A remarkable feature of Illinois is the almost entire absence of nat-
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HISTORY OF FORD COUNTY
ural lakes or ponds. A few small ones only are found in the northeastern and southwestern parts of the state. There is, however, a coast line of about sixty miles, extending along Lake Michigan, one of the largest of the five great North American lakes.
Soil and Climate-As an agricultural state, Illinois stands without an equal. Possessing a soil of unsurpassed fertility, and a climatic range of five and a half degrees of latitude, it yields a greater amount and variety of botanical production than any other state in the Union. No large tracts of worthless lands, such as characterize the topography of all the other states, are to be found here, but the farmer in all portions of the commonwealth obtains a rich reward for his labor. In the northern and central portions of the state are raised in abundance nearly all those plants which are common in the north temperate zone, while in the vicinity of Cairo, both the animal and vege- table productions partake of a semi-tropical character. The amount of rain which falls each year is fully one-half greater at the southern extremity of the state than at the northern, and the average difference in temperature is about ten degrees Fahrenheit.
Minerals-No natural deposits of gold or silver are known to exist; yet the mineral productions of the state are not unimportant. Fire clay, potter's clay, and valuable quarries of building stone are found in various localities. Rich mines of lead exist in the vicinity of Galena, and iron ore in considerable quantities is obtained in the southeastern part of the state. Coal is the most valuable mineral in Illinois. The coal fields are destined to grow more and more important, as their resources are developed, and their value can hardly be overestimated. The coal-bearing strata covers more than two-thirds of the entire surface of the state, and the mines are believed to be inexhanstible.
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