USA > Illinois > Jefferson County > History of Jefferson County, Illinois > Part 3
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tion partly defaced. It bears date August 16, 1749, and a copy of the inscription with particular account of the discovery of the plate, was sent by DeWitt Clinton to the American Antiquarian Society, among whose journals it may now be found .* These measures did not, however, deter the English from going on with their explora- tions, and though neither party resorted to arms, yet the conflict was gathering, and it was only a question of time when the storm would burst upon the frontier settlements. In 1750, Christopher Gist was sent by the Ohio Company to examine its lands. He went to a village of the Twigtwees, on the Miami, about one hundred and fifty miles above its mouth. He afterward spoke of it as very populous. From there he went down the Ohio River nearly to the falls at the present City of Louisville, and in November he commenced a survey of the company's lands. During the winter, General Andrew Lewis performed a similar work for the Greenbriar Company. Mean- while the French were busy in preparing their forts for defense, and in opening roads, and also sent a small party of soldiers to keep the Ohio clear. This party, having heard of the English post on the Miami
* The following is a translation of the inscription on the plate: " In the year 1749, reign of Louis XV., King of France, we, Celeron, commandant of a de- tachment by Monsieur the Marquis of Gallisoniere, commander-in-chief of New France, to establish tran- quility in certain Indian villages of these cantons, have buried this plate at the confluence of the Toradakoin, this twenty-ninth of July, near the river Ohio, otherwise Beautiful River, as a monument of renewal of possession which we have taken of the said river, and all its tributaries; inasmuch as the preceding Kings of France have enjoyed it, and maintained it by their arms and treaties; esp cially by those of Ryswick, Utrecht, and Aix La Chapelle."
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River, early in 1652, assisted by the Ottawas and Chippewas, attacked it, and, after a severe battle, in which fourteen of the natives were killed and others wounded, captured the garrison. (They were prob- ably garrisoned in a block house). The traders were carried away to Canada, and one account says several were burned. This fort or post was called by the English Pickawillany. A memorial of the king's ministers refers to it as " Pickawillanes, in the center of the territory between the Ohio and the Wabash. The name is probably some variation of Pickaway or Picqua, in 1773, written by Rev. David Jones, Pick- aweke."
This was the first blood shed between the French and English, and occurred near the present City of Piqua, Ohio, or at least at a point abont forty-seven miles north of Dayton. Each nation became now more interested in the progress of events in the Northwest. The English determined to purchase from the Indians a title to thic lands they wished to occupy, and Messrs. Fry (afterward Commander-in-chief over Washington at the commencement of the French War of 1775-1763), Lomax and Patton were sent in the spring of 1752 to hold a conference with the natives at Logs- town to learn what they objected to in the treaty of Lancaster already noticed and to settle all difficulties. On the 9th of June, these Commissioners met the red men at Logstown, a little village on the north bank of the Ohio, about seventeen miles below the site of Pittsburgh. Here had been a trading point for many years, but it was abandoned by the Indians in 1750. At first the Indians declined to recognize the treaty of Lancaster, but, the Commission-
ers taking aside Montour, the interpreter, who was a son of the famous Catharine Mon- tour, and a chief among the Six Nations, induced him to nse his influence in their favor. This he did, and upon the 13th of June they all united in signing a deed, con- firming the Lancaster treaty in its full ex- tent, consenting to asettlement of the south. east of the Ohio, and guaranteeing that it should not be disturbed by them. These were the means used to obtain the first treaty with the Indians in the Ohio Valley.
Meanwhile the powers beyond the sea were trying to out-maneuver each other, and were professing to be at peace. The English generally outwitted the Indians, and failed in many instances to fulfill their contracts. They thereby gained the ill- will of the red inen, and further increased the feeling by failing to provide them with arms and ammunition. Said an old chief, at Easton, in 1758: "The Indians on thic Ohio left you because of your own fault. When we heard the French were coming, we asked you for help and arms, but we did not get them. The French came, they treated us kindly, and gained our affections. The Governor of Virginia settled on our lands for his own benefit, and, when we wanted help, forsook us."
At the beginning of 1653, the English thought they had secured by title the lands in the West, but the French had quietly gathered cannon and military stores to be in readiness for the expected blow. The English made other attempts to ratify these existing treaties, but not until the summer could the Indians be gathered together to discuss the plans of the French. They had sent messages to the French, warning them away; but they replied that they intended
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to complete the chain of forts already be- gun, and would not abandon the field.
Soon after this, no satisfaction being ob- tained from the Ohio regarding the posi- tions and purposes of the French, Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia determined to send to them another messenger and learn from them, if possible, their intentions. For this purpose he selected a young man, a surveyor, who, at the early age of nineteen, had received the rank of major, and who was thoroughly posted regarding frontier life. This personage was no other than the illustrious George Washington, who then held considerable interest in Western lands. He was at this time just twenty-two years of age. Taking Gist as his guide, the two, accompanied by four servitors, set out on their perilous march. They left Will's Creek on the 10th of November, 1753, and on the 22d reached the Monongahela, about ten miles above the fork. From there they went to Logstown, where Washington had a long conference with the chiefs of the Six Nations. From them he learned the con- dition of the French, and also heard of their determination not to come down the river till the following spring. The Indi- ans were non-committal, as they were afraid to turn either way, and, as far as they could, desired to remain neutral. Wash- ington, finding nothing could be done with them, went on to Venango, an old Indian town at the mouth of French Creek. Here the French had a fort, called Fort Machault. Through the rum and flattery of the French, he nearly lost all his Indian followers. Finding nothing of importance here, he pursued his way amid great priva- tions, and on the 11th of December reached the fort at the head of French Creek. Here
he delivered Governor Dinwiddie's letter, received his answer, took his observations. and on the 16th set out upon his return journey with no one but Gist, his guide, and a few Indians who still remained true to him, notwithstanding the endeavors of the French to retain them. Their home- ward journey was one of great peril and suffering from the cold, yet they reached home in safety on the 6th of January, 1754.
From the letter of St. Pierre, commander of the French fort, sent by Washington to Governor Dinwiddie, it was learned that the French would not give np without a struggle. Active preparations were at once made in all the English colonies for the coming conflict, while the French fin- ished the fort at Venango and strengthened their lines of fortifications, and gathered their forces to be in readiness.
The Old Dominion was all alive. Vir- ginia was the center of great activities; vo'- unteers were called for, and from all the neighboring colonies men rallied to the conflict, and everywhere along the Potomac men were enlisting under the governor's proclamation-which promised two hun- dred thousand acres on the Ohio. Along this river they were gathering as far as Will's Creek, and far beyond this point, whithier Trent had come for assistance for his little band of forty-one men, who were working away in hunger and want, to for- tify that point at the fork of the Ohio, to which both parties were looking with deep interest.
"The first birds of spring filled the air with their song; the swift river rolled by the Allegheny hillsides, swollen by the melting snows of spring and the April
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showers. The leaves were appearing; a few Indian scouts were seen, but no enemy seemed near at hand; and all was so quiet, that Frazier, an old Indian scout and trader, who had been left by Trent in command, ventured to his home at the mouth of Turtle Creek, ten miles up the Monongahela. But, though all was so quiet in that wilder- ness, keen eyes had seen the low intrench- me it rising at the fork, and swift feet had borne the news of it up the river; and upon the morning of the 17th of April, Ensign Ward, who then had charge of it, saw upon the Allegheny a sight that made his heart sink -- sixty batteaux and three hundred canoes filled with men, and laden deep with cannon and stores. * *
* That evening he supped with his captor, Contreeœur, and the next day he was bowed off by the Frenchman, and with his men and tools, marehed up the Monongahela."
The French and Indian war had begun. The treaty of Aix la Chapelle, in 1748, had left the boundaries between the French and English possessions unsettled, and the events already narrated show the French were determined to hold the country wa- tered by the Mississippi and its tributaries; while the English laid elaims to the country by virtue of the discoveries of the Cabots, and elaimed all the country from New- foundland to Florida, extending from the Atlantie to the Pacific. The first decisive blow had now been strnek, and the first attempt of the English, through the Ohio Company, to oeeupy these lands, had re- sulted disastrously to them. The Frenen and Indians immediately completed the fortifieations begun at the Fork, which they had so easily captured, and when completed gave to the fort the name of Du Quesne.
Washington was at Will's Creek when the news of the capture of the fort arrived. He at onee departed to recapture it. On his way he entrenched himself at a place called the " Meadows," where he erected a fort called by him Fort Necessity, From there he surprised and captured a foree of French and Indians marehing against him, but was soon after attacked in his fort by a much superior foree, and was obliged to yield on the morning of July 4th, He was allowed to return to Virginia.
The English Government immediately planned four campaigns; one against Fort Du Quesne; one against Nova Scotia; one against Fort Niagara, and one against Crown Point. These occurred during 1755-6, and were not successful in driving the French from their possessions. The expedition against Fort Du Quesne was led by the famous General Braddoek, who, re- fusing to listen to the advice of Washington and those acquainted with Indian warfare, suffered such an inglorious defeat. This occurred on the morning of July 9th, and is generally known as the battle of Monon- gahela, or " Braddock's Defeat." The war continued with various vicissitudes through the years 1756-7; when, at the commence- of 1758 in accordance with the plans of William Pitt, then Secretary of State, afterward Lord Chatham, active prepara- tions were made to carry on the war. Three expeditions were planned for this year: one, under General Amherst, against Louisburg; another, under Abercrombie, against Fort Ticonderoga; and a third, nn- der General Forbes, against Fort Du Quesne. On the 26th of July, Louisburg surrendered after a desperate resistance of more than forty days, and the eastern part
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of the Canadian possessions fell into the hands of the British. Abercrombie cap- tured Fort Frontenac, and when the ex- pedition against Fort Du Quesne, of which Washington had the active command, ar- rived there, it was found in flames and de- serted. The English at once took posses- sion, rebuilt the fort, and in honor of their illustrious statesman, changed the name to Fort Pitt.
The great object of the campaign of 1759, was the reduction of Canada. Gen- eral Wolfe was to lay siege to Quebec; Am- herst was to reduce Ticonderoga and Crown Point, and General Prideaux was to cap- ture Niagara. This latter place was taken in July, but the gallant Prideaux lost his life in the attempt. Amherst captured Ticonderoga and Crown Point without a blow; and Wolfe, after making the memor- able ascent to the plains of Abraham, on September 13th, defeated Montealın, and on the 18th, the city capitulated. In this engagement Montcalm and Wolfe both lost their lives. De Levi, Montcalm's suc- cessor, marched to Sillery, three miles above the city, with the purpose of defeat- ing the English, and there, on the 28th of the following April, was fought one of the bloodiest battles of the French and Indian war. It resulted in the defeat of the French, and the fall of the city of Montreal. The Governor signed a capitulation, by which the whole of Canada was surrendered to the English. This practically conclu- ded the war, but it was not until 1763 that the treaties of peace between France and England were signed. This was done on the 10th of February of that year, and un- der its provisions all the country east of the Mississippi and north of the Iberville
river, in Louisiana, were ceded to England. At the same time Spain ceded Florida to Great Britain.
On the 13th of September, 1760, Major Robert Rogers was sent from Montreal to take charge of Detroit, the only remaining French post in the territory. He arrived there on the 19th of November, and sum- moned the place to surrender. At first the commander of the post, Beletre, refused, but on the 29th, hearing of the continued defeat of the French arms, surrendered. Rogers remained there until December 23d, under the personal protection of the cele- brated chief, Pontiac, to whom, no doubt, he owed his safety. Pontiac had come here to inquire the purposes of the English in taking possession of the country. He was assured that they came simply to trade with the natives, and did not desire their country. This answer conciliated the sav- ages, and did much to insure the safety of Rogers and his party during their stay, and while on their journey home.
Rogers set out for Fort Pitt on Decem- ber 23d, and was just one month on the way. His route was from Detroit to Mau- mee, thence across the present State of Ohio directly to the fort. This was the common trail of the Indians in their jour- neys from Sandusky to the Fork of the Ohio. It went from Fort Sandusky, where Sandusky city now is, crossed the Huron river, then called Bald Eagle Creek, to "Mo- hickon John's Town" Creek, on Mohikon Creek, the northern branch of White Woman's river, and then crossed to Bea- ver's town, a Delaware town on what is now Sandy Creek. At Beaver's town were probably one hundred and fifty warriors, and not less than three thousand acres of
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cleared land. From there the track went up Sandy Creek to and across Big Beaver, and up the Ohio to Logstown, thence on to the fork.
The Northwest Territory was now en- tirely under the English rule. New settle- ments began to be rapidly made, and the promise of a large trade was speedily mani- fested. Had the British carried out their promises with the natives, none of those savage butcheries would have been perpe- trated, and the country would have been spared their recital.
The renowned chief, Pontiac, was one of the leading spirits in these atrocities. We will now pause in our narrative, and notice the leading events in his life. The earliest authentic information regarding this noted Indian chief, is learned from an account of an Indian trader named Alexander Henry, who, in the spring of 1761, penetrated his domains as far as Missillimacnac. Ponti- ac was then a great friend of the French, but a bitter foe of the English, whom he considered as encroaching on his hunting grounds. Henry was obliged to disguise himself as a Canadian to insure safety, but was discovered by Pontiac, who bitterly reproached him, and the English for their attempted subjugation of the West. He declared that no treaty had been made with them; no presents sent them, and that he would resent any possession of the West by that nation. He was at the time about fifty years of age, tall and dignified, and was civil and military ruler of the Ot- tawas, Ojibwas and Pottawatomies.
The Indians, from Lake Michigan to the borders of North Carolina, were united in this feeling, and at the time of the treaty of Paris, ratified February 10, 1763, a gen-
eral conspiracy was formed to fall suddenly upon the frontier British posts, and with one blow strike every man dead. Pontiac was the marked leader in all this, and was the commander of the Chippewas, Otta- was, Wyandots, Miamis, Shawancse, Dela- wares and Mingoes, who had, for the time, laid aside their local quarrels to unite in this enterprise.
The blow came, as near as can be ascer- tained, on May 7, 1763. Nine British posts fell, and the Indians drank, " scooped up in the hollow of joined hands," the blood of many a Briton.
Pontiac's immediate field of action, was the garrison at Detroit. Here, however, the plans were frustrated by an Indian woman disclosing the plot the evening pre. vious to his arrival. Everything was car- ried out, however, according to Pontiac's plans until the moment of action, when Major Gladwyn, the commander of the post, stepping to one of the Indian chiefs, suddenly drew aside his blanket and dis- closed the concealed musket. Pontiac thoughi a brave man, turned pale and trembled. He saw his plan was known and that the garrison were prepared. IIe endeavored to exculpate himself from any such intentions; but the guilt was evident. and he and his followers were dismissed with a severe reprimand, and warned never to again enter the walls of the post.
Pontiac at once laid siege to the fort, and until the treaty of peace between the British and the Western Indians, conelnd- ed in August, 1764, continued to harass and besiege the fortress. He organized a regular commissariat department, issued bills of credit written out on bark, which to his credit, it may be stated, were punctu-
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ally redeemed. At the conclusion of the treaty, in which it seems he took no part, he went farther south, living many years among the Illinois.
IIe had given up all hope of saving his country and race. After a time he endeav- ored to unite the Illinois tribe and those about St. Louis in a war with the whites. His efforts were fruitless, and only ended in a quarrel between himself and some Kaskaskia Indians, one of whom soon after- ward killed him. His death was, however, avenged by the northern Indians, who nearly exterminated the Illinois in the wars which followed.
Had it not been for the treachery of a few of his followers, his plan for the ex- termination of the whites, a masterly one, would undoubtedly have been carried ont.
It was in the spring of the year follow- ing Rogers' visit that Alexander Henry went to Missillimacnac, and every where found the strongest feelings against the English who had not carried out their promises, and were doing nothing to con- ciliate the natives. Here he met the chief, Pontiac, who after conveying to him in a speech the idea that their French father would awake soon and utterly destroy his enemies, said: "Englishman, although you have conquered the French, you have not yet conquered us ! We are not your slaves! These lakes, these woods, these mountains, were left us by our ancestors. They are our inheritance, and we will part with them to none. Your nation supposes that we, like the white people, can not live without bread and pork and beef. But yon ought to know that He, the Great Spirit and Master of Life, has provided food for us
npon these broad lakes and in these moun- tains."
He then spoke of the fact that no treaty had been made with them, na presents sent them, and that he and his people were yet for war. Such were the feelings of the Northwestern Indians immediately after the English took posses- sion of their country. These feelings were no doubt encouraged by the Canadians and French, who hoped that yet the French arms might prevail. The treaty of Paris, however, gave to the English the right to this vast domain, aud active preparations were going on to occupy it and enjoy its trade and emoluments.
In 1762, France, by a secret treaty, ceded Louisiana to Spain, to prevent it falling into the hands of the English, who were becoming masters of the entire West. The next year the treaty of Paris, signed at Fontainbleau, gave to the English the do- main of the country in question. Twenty years after, by the treaty of peace between the United States and England, that part of Canada lying sonth and west of the Great Lakes, comprehending a large terri- tory which is the subject of these sketches, was acknowledged to be a portion of the United States; and twenty years still later, in 1803, Louisiana was ceded by Spain back to France, and by France sold to the United States.
In the half century, from the building of the Fort of Crevecœnr by La Salle, in 1680, up to the erection of Fort Chatres, many French settlements had been made in that quarter. These have already been noticed, being those at St. Vincent (Vin- cennes), Kohokia or Cahokia, Kaskaskia and Prairie du Rocher, on the American
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Bottom, a large traet of rich alluvial soil in Illinois, on the Mississippi, opposite the site of St. Louis.
By the treaty of Paris, the regions east of the Mississippi, including all these and other towns of the Northwest, were given over to England, but they do not appear to have been taken possession of until 1765, when Captain Stirling, in the name of the Majesty of England, established himself at Fort Chartres bearing with him the procla- mation of General Gage, dated December 30, 1764, which promised religious freedom to all Catholies who worshipped here, and a right to leave the country with their effects if they wished, or to remain with the privileges of Englishmen. It was shortly after the occupaney of the West by the British that the war with Pontiae opened. It is already notieed in the sketch of that chieftain. By it many a Briton lost his life, and many a frontier settlement in its infancy ceased to exist. This was not ended until the year 1764, when, failing to capture Detroit, Niagara and Fort Pitt, his confederacy became disheartened, and, receiving no aid from the French, Pontiac abandoned the enterprise and departed to the Illinois, among whom he afterward lost his life.
As soon as these difficulties were defi- nitely settled, settlers began rapidly to sur- vey the country, and prepare for occupa- tion. During the year 1770, a number of persons from Virginia and other British provinces explored and marked out nearly all the valuable lands on the Monongahela and along the banks of the Ohio, as far as the Little Kanawha. This was followed by another exploring expedition, in which George Washington was a party. The
latter, accompanied by Dr. Craik, Capt. Crawford and others, on the 20th of Oeto- ber, 1770, descended the Ohio from Pitts- burgh to the mouth of the Kanawha ; as- cended that stream about fourteen miles, marked ont several large tracts of land, shot several buffalo, which were then abun- dant in the Ohio valley, and returned to the fort.
Pittsburgh was at this time a trading post, about which was elustered a village of some twenty houses, inhabited by In- dian traders. This same year, Capt. Pitt- man visited Kaskaskia and its neighbor- ing villages. He found there about sixty - five resident families, and at Cahokia only forty-five dwellings. At Fort Chartres was another small settlement, and at Detroit. the garrison were quite prosperous and strong. For a year or two settlers eon- tinned to locate near some of these posts, generally Fort Pitt or Detroit, owing to the fears of the Indians, who still main- tained some feelings of hatred to the Eng- lish. The trade from the posts was quite good, and from those in Illinois large quan- tities of pork and flour found their way to the New Orleans market. At this time the policy of the British Government was strongly opposed to the extension of the colonies west. In 1763, the King of Eng- land forbade, by royal proclamation, his colonial subjects from making a settle- ment beyond the sources of the rivers which fall into the Atlantic Ocean. At the instance of the Board of Trade, measures were taken to prevent the settlement with- out the limits prescribed, and to retain the commeree within easy reach of Great Britain.
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