USA > Illinois > Logan County > History of Logan County, Illinois > Part 2
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507 Schick, Frank.
806 515 Traner, W. H.
Parker, Samuel. Parks, Robert. Paul, H. A. J.
543 Schott, Joseph
522
854 Schreiber, G. C.
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Turley, R. E.
Primm, James.
640 Shelhammer, David.
734 Tuttle, James
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643 524 525
803 Spellman, J. W
Strong, Sylvester
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HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.
FORMER OCCUPANTS.
MOUND-BUILDERS.
The numerous and well-authenticated accounts of antiquities found in various parts of our country, clearly demonstrate that a people civilized, and even highly cultivated, occupied the broad surface of our continent before its possession by the present In- dians; but the date of their rule of the Western World is so re- mote that all traces of their history, their progress and decay, lie buried in deepest obscurity. Nature, at the time the first Euro- peans came, had asserted her original dominion over the earth; the forests were all in their full luxuriance, the growth of many cen- turies; and naught existed to point out who and what they were who formerly lived, and loved, and labored, and died, on the conti- nent of America. This pre-historic race is known as the Mound- Builders, from the numerous large mounds of earth-works left by them. The remains of the works of this people form the most in- teresting class of antiquities discovered in the United States. Their character can be but partially gleaned from the internal evidences and the peculiarities of the only remains left,-the mounds. They consist of remains of what were apparently villages, altars, temples, idols, cemeteries, monuments, camps, fortifications, pleasure grounds, etc., etc. Their habitations must have been tents, struc- tures of wood, or other perishable material; otherwise their remains would be numerous. If the Mound-Builders were not the ancestors of the Indians, who were they? The oblivion which has closed over them is so complete that only conjecture can be given in answer to the question. Those who do not believe in the common parentage of mankind contend that they were an indigenous race of the West- ern hemisphere; others, with more plausibility, think they came from the East, and imagine they can see coincidences in the religion of the Hindoos and Southern Tartars and the supposed theology of
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the Mound-Builders. They were, no doubt, idolators, and it has been conjectured that the sun was the object of their adoration. The mounds were generally built in a situation affording a view of the rising sun: when enclosed in walls their gateways were toward the east; the caves in which their dead were occasionally buried always opened in the same direction; whenever a mound was partially en- closed by a semi-circular pavement, it was on the east side; when bodies were buried in graves, as was frequently the case, they were laid in a direction east and west; and, finally, medals have been found representing the sun and his rays of light.
At what period they came to this country, is likewise a matter of speculation. From the comparatively rude state of the arts among them, it has been inferred that the time was very remote. Their axes were of stone. Their raiment, judging from fragments which have been discovered, consisted of the bark of trees, interwoven with feathers; and their military works were such as a people would erect who had just passed to the pastoral state of society from that dependent alone upon hunting and fishing.
The mounds and other ancient earth-works constructed by this people are far more abundant than generally supposed, from the fact that while some are quite large, the greater part of them are small and inconspicuous. Along nearly all our water courses that are large enough to be navigated with a canoe, the mounds are almost invariably found, covering the- base points and headlands of the bluffs which border the narrower valleys; so that when one finds him- self in such positions as to command the grandest views for river scenery, he may almost always discover that he is standing upon, or in close proximity to, some one or more of these traces of the labors of an ancient people. .
GALENA MOUNDS.
On the top of the high bluffs that skirt the west bank of the Mis- sissippi, about two and a half miles from Galena, are a number of these silent monuments of a pre-historic age. The spot is one of surpassing beauty. From that point may be obtained a view of a portion of three States,-Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin. A hundred feet below, at the foot of the perpendicular cliffs, the trains of the Illinois Central Railroad thunder around the curve, the portage is in full view, and the " Father of Waters," with its numerous bayous
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and islands, sketches a grand pamorama for miles above and below. Here, probably thousands of years ago, a race of men now extinet, and unknown even in the traditions of the Indians who inhabited that section for centuries before the discovery of America by Colum- bus, built these strangely wonderful and enigmatical mounds. At this point these mounds are circular and conical in form. The larg. est one is at least forty feet in diameter at the base, and not less than fifteen feet high, even yet, after it has been beaten by the storms of many centuries. On its top stands the large stump of an oak tree that was cut down about fifty years ago, and its annual rings indicate a growth of at least 200 years.
One of the most singular earth-works in the State was found on the top of a ridge near the east bank of the Sinsinawa creek in the lead region. It resembled some huge animal, the head, ears, nose, legs and tail, and general outline of which being as perfect as if made by men versed in modern art. The ridge on which it war situated stands on the prairie, 300 yards wide, 100 feet in height, and rounded on the top by a deep deposit of clay. Centrally, along the line of its summit, and thrown up in the form of an embankment three feet high, extended the outline of a quadruped measuring 250 feet from the tip of the nose to the end of the tail, and having a width of 18 feet at the center of the body. The head was 35 feet in length, the ears 10 feet, legs 60 and tail 75. The curvature in both the fore and hind legs was natural to an animal lying on its side. The general ontline of the figure most nearly resembled the extinct animal known to geologists as the Megathe- rium. The question naturally arises, By whom and for what pur- pose was this earth figure raised? Some have conjectured that numbers of this now extinct animal lived and roamed over the prai- ries of Illinois when the Mound-Builders first made their appearance on the upper part of the Mississippi Valley, and that their wonder and admiration, excited by the colossal dimensions of these huge creatures, found some expression in the erection of this figure. The bones of some similar gigantic animals were exhumed on this stream about three miles from the same place.
LARGE CITIES.
Mr. Breckenridge, who examined the antiquities of the Western country in 1817, speaking of the mounds in the American Bottom, says: "The great number and extremely large size of some of
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them may be regarded as furnishing, with other circumstances, evidences of their antiquity. I have sometimes been induced to think that at the period when they were constructed there was a population here as numerous as that which once animated the borders of the Nile or Euphrates, or of Mexico. The most num- erous, as well as considerable, of these remains are found in pre- cisely those parts of the country where the traces of a numerous population might be looked for, namely, from the mouth of the Ohio on the east side of the Mississippi, to the Illinois river, and on the west from the St. Francis to the Missouri. I am perfectly satisfied that cities similar to those of ancient Mexico, of several hundred thousand souls, have existed in this country."
It must be admitted that whatever the uses of these mounds- whether as dwellings or burial places-these silent monuments were built, and the race who built them vanished from the face of the earth, ages before the Indians occupied the land, but their date must probably forever baffle human skill and ingenuity.
It is sometimes difficult to distinguish the places of sepulture raised by the Mound-Builders from the more modern graves of the Indians. The tombs of the former were in general larger than those of the latter, and were used as receptacles for a greater number of bodies, and contained relics of art, evincing a higher degree of civ- ilization than that attained by the Indians. The ancient earth- works of the Mound-Builders have occasionally been appropriated as burial places by the Indians, but the skeletons of the latter may be distinguished from the osteological remains of the former by their greater stature.
What finally became of the Mound-Builders is another query which has been extensively discussed. The fact that their works extend into Mexico and Peru has induced the belief that it was their posterity that dwelt in these countries when they were first visited by the Spaniards. The Mexican and Peruvian works, with the exception of their greater magnitude, are similar. Relics com- mon to all of them have been occasionally found, and it is believed that the religious uses which they subserved were the same. If, indeed, the Mexicans and Peruvians were the progeny of the more ancient Mound-Builders, Spanish rapacity for gold was the cause of their overthrow and final extermination.
A thousand other queries naturally arise respecting these nations
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which now repose under the ground, but the most searching investi- gation can give us only vague speculations for answers. No histo- rian has preserved the names of their mighty chieftains, or given an account of their exploits, and even tradition is silent respecting- them.
INDIANS.
Following the Mound-Builders as inhabitants of North America, were; as it is supposed, the people who reared the magnificent cities the ruins of which are found in Central America. This peo- ple was far more civilized and advanced in the arts than were the Mound-Builders. The cities built by them, judging from the ruins of broken columns, fallen arches and crumbling walls of temples, palaces and pyramids, which in some places for miles bestrew the ground, must have been of great extent, magnificent and very pop- ulous. When we consider the vast period of time necessary to erect such colossal structures, and, again, the time required to reduce them to their present ruined state, we can conceive something of their antiquity. These cities must have been old when many of the ancient cities of the Orient were being built.
The third race inhabiting North America, distinct from the former two in every particular, is the present Indians. They were, when visited by the early discoverers, without cultivation, refinement or literature, and far behind the Mound-Builders in the knowledge of the arts. The question of their origin has long interested archeologists, and is the most difficult they have been called upon to answer. Of their predecessors the Indian tribes knew nothing; they even had no traditions respecting them. It is quite certain that they were the successors of a race which had entirely passed away ages before the discovery of the New World. One hypothesis is that the American Indians are an original race indigenous to the Western hemisphere. Those who entertain this view think their peculiarities of physical structure preclude the possibility of a common parentage with the rest of mankind. Prominent among those distinctive traits is the hair, which in the red man is round, in the white man oval, and in the black man flat.
A more common supposition, however, is that they are a derivative race, and sprang from one or more of the ancient peoples of Asia. In the absence of all authentic history, and when even tradition is
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wanting; any attempt to point out the particular location of their origin must prove unsatisfactory. Though the exact place of origin may never be known, yet the striking coincidence of physical organization between the Oriental type of mankind and the Indians point unmistakably to some part of Asia as the place whence they emigrated, which was originally peopled to a great extent by the children of Shem. In this connection it has been claimed that the meeting of the Europeans, Indians and Africans on the continent of America, is the fulfillment of a prophecy as recorded in Gen- esis ix. 27: "God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant." Assuming the theory to be true that the Indian tribes are of Shemitic origin, they were met on this continent in the fifteenth century by the Japhetic race, after the two stocks had passed around the globe by directly different routes. A few years afterward the Hamitic branch of the human family were brought from the coast of Africa. During the occupancy of the continent by the three distinct races, the children of Japheth have grown and prospered, while the called and not voluntary sons of Ham have endured a servitude in the wider stretching valleys of the tents of Shem.
When Christopher Columbus had finally succeeded in demon- strating the truth of his theory that by sailing westward from Eu- rope land would be discovered, landing on the Island of Bermuda he supposed he had reached the East Indies. This was an error, but it led to the adoption of the name of " Indians " for the inhab- itants of the Island and the main land of America, by which name the red men of America have ever since been known.
Of the several great branches of North American Indians the only ones entitled to consideration in Illinois history are the Algon- quins and Iroquois. At the time of the discovery of America the former occupied the Atlantic seaboard, while the home of the Iroquois was as an island in this vast area of Algonquin popula- tion. The latter great nation spread over a vast territory, and various tribes of Algonquin lineage sprung up over the country, adopting, in time, distinct tribal customs and laws. An almost continuous warfare was carried on between tribes; but later, on the entrance of the white man into their beloved homes, every foot of territory was fiercely disputed by the confederacy of many neighboring tribes. The Algonquins formed the most extensive alliance to resist the encroachment of the whites, especially the English. Such was the
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nature of King Philip's war. This King, with his Algonquin braves, spread terror and desolation throughout New England. With the Algonquins as the controlling spirit, a confederacy of conti- nental proportions was the result, embracing in its alliance the tribes of every name and lineage from the Northern lakes to the gulf. Pontiac, having breathed into them his implacable hate of the English intruders, ordered the conflict to commence, and all the British colonies trembled before the desolating fury of Indian vengeance.
ILLINOIS CONFEDERACY.
The Illinois confederacy, the various tribes of which comprised most of the Indians of Illinois at one time, was composed of five tribes: the Tamaroas, Michigans, Kaskaskias, Cahokas, and Peorias. The Illinois, Miamis and Delawares were of the same stock. As early as 1670 the priest Father Marquette mentions frequent visits made by individuals of this confederacy to the missionary station at St. Esprit, near the western extremity of Lake Superior. At that time they lived west of the Mississippi, in eight villages, whither they had been driven from the shores of Lake Michigan by the Iroquois. Shortly afterward they began to return to their old hunting ground, and most of them finally settled in Illinois. Joliet and Marquette, in 1673, met with a band of them on their famous voyage of discovery down the Mississippi. They were treated with the greatest hospitality by the principal chief. On their return voyage up the Illinois river they stopped at the principal town of the confederacy, situated on the banks of the river seven miles below the present town of Ottawa. It was then called Kas- kaskia. Marquette returned to the village in 1675 and established the mission of the Immaculate Conception, the oldest in Illinois. When, in 1679, LaSalle visited the town, it had greatly increased numbering 460 lodges, and at the annual assembly of the different tribes, from 6,000 to 8,000 souls. In common with other western tribes, they became involved in the conspiracy of Pontiac, although displaying no very great warlike spirit. Pontiac lost his life by the hands of one of the braves of the Illinois tribe, which so enraged the nations that had followed him as their leader that they fell upon the Illinois to avenge his death, and almost annihilated them.
STARVED ROCK.
Tradition states that a band of this tribe, in order to escape the general slaughter, took refuge upon the high rock on the Illinois
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· river since known as Starved Rock. Nature has made this one of the most formidable military fortresses in the world. From the waters which wash its base it rises to an altitude of 125 feet. Three of its sides it is impossible to scale, while the one next to the land may be climbed with difficulty. From its summit, almost as inac- cessible as an eagle's nest, the valley of the Illinois is seen as a landscape of exquisite beauty. The river near by struggles between a number of wooded islands, while further below it quietly meanders through vast meadows till it disappears like a thread of light in the dim distance. On the summit of this rock the Illinois were besieged by a superior force of the Pottawatomies whom the great strength of their natural fortress enabled them to keep at bay. Hunger and thirst, however, soon accomplished what the enemy was unable to effect. Surrounded by a relentless foe, without food or water, they took a last look at their beautiful hunting grounds, and with true Indian fortitude lay down and died from starvation. Years afterward their bones were seen whitening in that place.
At the beginning of the present century the remnants of this once powerful confederacy were forced into a small compass around Kaskaskia. A few years later they emigrated to the Southwest, and in 1850 they were in Indian Territory, and numbered but 84 persons.
SACS AND FOXES.
The Sacs and Foxes, who figured most conspicuously in the later history of Illinois, inhabited the northwestern portion of the State. By long residence together and intermarriage they had substan- tially become one people. Drake, in his "Life of Black Hawk," speaks of these tribes as follows: "The Sacs and Foxes fought their way from the waters of the St. Lawrence to Green Bay, and after reaching that place, not only sustained themselves against hostile tribes, but were the most active and courageous in the subjugation, or rather the extermination, of the numerous and powerful Illinois confederacy. They had many wars, offensive and defensive, with the Sioux, the Pawnees, the Osages, and other tribes, some of which are ranked among the most fierce and ferocious warriors of the whole continent; and it does not appear that in these conflicts, run- ning through a long period of years, they were found wanting in this, the greatest of all savage virtues. In the late war with Great Britain, a party of the Sacs and Foxes fought under the British
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standard as a matter of choice; and in the recent contest between a fragment of these tribes and the United States, although defeated and literally cut to pieces by an overwhelming force, it is very questionable whether their reputation as braves would suffer by a comparison with that of their victors. It is believed that a careful review of their history, from the period when they first established themselves on the waters of the Mississippi down to the present time, will lead the inquirer to the conclusion that the Sacs and Foxes were truly a courageous people, shrewd, politic, and enter- prising, with no more ferocity and treachery of character than is common among the tribes by whom they were surrounded." These tribes at the time of the Black Hawk War were divided into twenty families, twelve of which were Sacs and eight Foxes. The follow- ing were other prominent tribes occupying Illinois: the Kickapoos, Shawnees, Mascoulins, Piaukishaws, Pottawatomies, Chippewas, and Ottawas.
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.
The art of hunting not only supplied the Indian with food, but, · like that of war, was a means of gratifying his love of distinction. The male children, as soon as they acquired sufficient age and strength, were furnished with a bow and arrow and taught to shoot birds and other small game. Success in killing large quadrupeds required years of careful study and practice, and the art was as sedulously inculcated in the minds of the rising generation as are the elements of reading, writing and arithmetic in the common schools of civilized communities. The mazes of the forest and the dense, tall grass of the prairies were the best fields for the exercise of the hunter's skill. No feet could be impressed in the yielding soil but that the tracks were the objects of the most searching scrutiny, and revealed at a glance the animal that made them, the direction it was pursuing, and the time that had elapsed since it had passed. In a forest country he selected the valleys, because they were most frequently the resort of game. The most easily taken, perhaps, of all the animals of the chase was the deer. It is endowed with a curiosity which prompts it to stop in its flight and look back at the approaching hunter, who always avails himself of this opportunity to let fly the fatal arrow.
Their general councils were composed of the chiefs and old men. When in council, they usually sat in concentric circles around the
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speaker, and each individual, notwithstanding the fiery passions that rankled within, preserved an exterior as immovable as if cast in bronze. Before commencing business a person appeared with the sacred pipe, and another with fire to kindle it. After being lighted, it was first presented to heaven, secondly to the earth, thirdly to the presiding spirit, and lastly the several councilors, each of whom took a whiff. These formalities were observed with as close exactness as state etiquette in civilized courts.
The dwellings of the Indians were of the simplest and rudest character. On some pleasant spot by the bank of a river, or near an ever-running spring, they raised their groups of wigwams, con- structed of the bark of trees, and easily taken down and removed to another spot. The dwelling-places of the chiefs were sometimes more spacious, and constructed with greater care, but of the same materials. Skins taken in the chase served them for repose. Though principally dependent upon hunting and fishing, the uncertain supply from those sources led them to cultivate small patches of corn. Every family did everything necessary within itself, commerce, or an interchange of articles, being almost unknown . to them. In cases of dispute and dissension, each Indian relied upon himself for retaliation. Blood for blood was the rule, and the relatives of the slain man were bound to obtain bloody revenge for his death. This principle gave rise, as a matter of course, to innumerable and bitter feuds, and wars of extermination where such were possible. War, indeed, rather than peace, was the Indian's glory and delight,-war, not conducted as civilization, but war where individual skill, endurance, gallantry and cruelty were prime requisites. For such a purpose as revenge the Indian would make great sacrifices, and display a patience and perseverance truly heroic; but when the excitement was over, he sank back into a listless, un- occupied, well-nigh useless savage. 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. These were constructed of bark, and so light that they could easily be carried on the shoulder from stream to stream. His amusements were the war-dance, ath- letic games, the narration of his exploits, and listening to the ora- tory of the chiefs; but during long periods of such existence he remained in a state of torpor, gazing listlessly upon the trees of the forests and the clouds that sailed above them; and this vacancy
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imprinted an habitual gravity, and even melancholy, upon his gen- eral deportment.
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